WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has decided to deny Egypt $95.7 million in aid and to delay a further $195 million because of its failure to make progress on respecting human rights and democratic norms, two sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The decision reflects a U.S. desire to continue security cooperation as well as frustration with Cairo s stance on civil liberties, notably a new law that regulates non-governmental organizations that is widely seen as part a growing crackdown on dissent, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. U.S. officials were especially unhappy that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in May allowed the NGO law to go into effect. Human rights groups and activists have said that it effectively bans their work and makes it harder for charities to operate. Egyptian officials had assured U.S. officials earlier this year that the law, which restricts NGO activity to developmental and social work and introduces jail terms of up to five years for non-compliance, would not go through, the sources said. Spokespeople for the White House and the State Department were not immediately available for comment. Egypt is an important Mideast partner for the United States because of its control of the Suez Canal and its border with Israel. The sources said the administration had decided to  reprogram  $65.7 million in fiscal year 2017 Foreign Military Financing funds (FMF) and $30 million in fiscal year 2016 Economic Support Fund (ESF) funds.  Reprogramming  means these funds would be used for other purposes and would not go to Egypt. The administration made a separate decision to withhold $195 million in fiscal year 2016 Foreign Military Financing funds which, had it not acted, would have expired and ceased to be available at the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30. The second decision also illustrated the administration s ambivalence toward Egypt. Under U.S. law, the administration is required to withhold 15 percent, or $195 million, of the $1.3 billion it gives Egypt annually in FMF funds unless it can certify that Cairo is making progress on advancing human rights and democracy. However, the administration can issue a national security waiver that allows the funds to go through. This year, the administration again decided it could not certify Egyptian progress on rights and it chose to issue the national security waiver but it is still going to withhold the $195 million. That money will now go into an account where it will be held pending Egyptian improvement on human rights and democracy. This means that Egypt could eventually get the money if its record on democracy and civil liberties improved.  Strengthened security cooperation with Egypt is important to U.S. national security,  said one source, adding that U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson felt  it was in the interests of the U.S. to exercise the waiver.   We remain concerned about Egypt s lack of progress in key areas, including human rights and the new NGO law,  the source said.  Egyptian rights activists have said they face the worst crackdown in their history under Sisi, accusing him of erasing freedoms won in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak s 30-year rule. Egyptian lawmakers have said the NGO law was needed to protect national security. The Egyptian government has long accused human rights groups of taking foreign funds to sow chaos, and several are facing investigation over their funding.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः यू. एस. मिस्र की सहायता में $290 मिलियन तक रोकेगा


TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Eight years after a coup sparked by a previous president s flirtation with a second term, voters in the poor Central American country of Honduras look poised on Sunday to re-elect their U.S.-friendly leader whose assault on gangs has slowed killings.  Juan Orlando Hernandez of the center-right National Party took office in 2014 vowing a militarized crackdown on endemic gang violence in one of the world s most violent countries. That effort has brought down the murder rate. The economy has also grown during his tenure. His victory would be cheered in Washington, according to two U.S. State Department officials, who noted the United States had few steadfast allies among Central America s current crop of leaders with whom it can reliably work to fight poverty, migration and gang violence. Honduras has long had close ties with the United States, which viewed the country as an ideological and military partner during the leftist guerrilla insurgencies that roiled the region throughout the Cold War era.  The U.S.-educated Hernandez has a close working relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump s chief of staff, John Kelly.  In 2009, the United States wrestled with how to respond to the removal of President Manuel Zelaya after he proposed a referendum on re-election. Nonetheless, U.S. officials now say they are not yet concerned that Hernandez is consolidating power, but want to see the passage of stalled legislation to impose a cap on presidential terms.   Open-ended re-election is not good for democracy,  said one U.S. diplomat.  We would very much like to see some sort of law that would regulate election.   Hernandez was among lawmakers who supported the ouster of Zelaya. But following a 2015 Supreme Court decision that overturned a constitutional ban on re-election, Hernandez, 49, looks likely to win a second four-year term. Opinion polls have shown him with a double-digit lead over television host Salvador Nasralla, who heads a left-right alliance of Honduran opposition groups called the Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship. The opposition argues Hernandez s presidential bid is illegal, and has refused to discuss term-limit legislation while coalescing to try to prevent him from clinching victory. Hernandez has won favor with the United States, working closely on U.S.-bound migration with Kelly when that official was head of U.S. Southern Command and the Department of Homeland Security. He has also led a purge of the police force and made it easier to extradite drug bosses. The United States has few ideological allies in the region. Two leftist former guerilla leaders govern El Salvador and Nicaragua, while Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales has sought to banish a U.S.-backed anti-corruption body probing his family.   There does seem to be more of a kinship in terms of how he sees governance,  one of the U.S. officials in Central America said of Hernandez. The president says he would keep soldiers on the streets to help the widely mistrusted police. He has also promised to lure foreign investment in textiles, call centers and auto manufacturing, creating 600,000 jobs and lifting growth to above 6 percent with infrastructure projects.    Hondurans applaud how Hernandez has lowered the murder rate to a projected 46 per 100,000 by the end of 2017 from 79 per 100,000 in 2013, while raising growth and lowering the deficit.  But he has not been immune to scandal.  The son of his political mentor, former President Porfirio Lobo, was recently sentenced to 24 years in prison for conspiring to import cocaine into the United States. During the trial, there were allegations that drug money was funneled to Hernandez s campaign, a charge his office denied. In 2015, Hernandez admitted his 2013 campaign took money from companies linked to one of the worst corruption scandals in the country s history, but said he and his National Party were unaware of where the money came from. Manuel Orozco, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue, said that despite the president s flaws, the United States had decided it could still do business with Hernandez, its  most important ally  in Central America.  Of all the people in that country, they realize they re best off sticking with him,  he said.

Summary: अमेरिकी सहयोगी ने तख्तापलट के आठ साल बाद होंडुरास में फिर से चुनाव जीता


BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) say they hope to find clarity soon on prospects for a new ruling coalition as they gear up for exploratory talks this week. The conservatives, meeting on Monday to map out their negotiating positions, believe compromises can be reached to renew the  grand coalition  that governed for the past four years. The two blocs must overcome differences over the future of Europe, pensions, health care and education. Merkel, whose CDU/CSU alliance last month failed to cut a coalition deal with two smaller parties after an inconclusive national election in September, is due to brief the media at 1 pm (1200 GMT). Senior conservatives on Saturday rejected the vision for a  United States of Europe  put forward by SPD leader Martin Schulz, weakened after his party posted its worst post-war election result in September. But Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the conservative premier of the Saarland region, told broadcaster ARD that she hoped some progress could emerge from this week s talks with the SPD.  Maybe we can take a first big step in this direction this week,  she said. SPD Secretary General Lars Klingbeil told ARD his party was open to all possibilities, including a renewed coalition with conservatives or a minority government.  The ball is now in Mrs. Merkel s court,  Klingbeil said, adding that the pace of negotiations depended to a large extent on the core demands of the Christian Democrats (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).  The SPD made its positions clear at its party conference. Now we ll listen to what the CDU leader wants, what the CSU wants, and it will be clear very quickly if further discussions are worth it,  he said. A poll published on Monday by broadcaster RTL and n-tv showed 71 percent of SPD members welcomed the party s decision to talk with conservatives about forming a new ruling coalition, while 81 percent wanted the party to conduct tough negotiations. Klingbeil said his party would seek clear commitments from the CDU to spend more on education and combat childhood poverty before entering coalition talks. Julia Kloeckner, deputy leader of the CDU, warned the SPD against making exaggerated demands and criticised comments Klingbeil made over the weekend suggesting that talks could stretch as long as May.  If the SPD thinks we have time forever, that is not our view,  she said. Monday s poll showed that 71 percent of German voters favored rapid negotiations on forming a new government. Kloeckner said it was clear that the two political blocs would have to revisit issues such as integration, digitalization and development of rural areas before agreeing to a new coalition.  A continuation of the previous grand coalition cannot happen,  she said.

Summary: मर्केल, सोशल डेमोक्रेट्स गठबंधन वार्ता पर स्पष्टता चाहते हैं


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgian police commissioner Catherine De Bolle has been nominated to become the next head of Europe s police agency, the European Union Council said on Wednesday. De Bolle, 47, will take over from British diplomat Rob Wainwright following a formal confirmation process when his term expires on May 1, 2018. The executive director of Europol is appointed for a four-year term, renewable once. Located in The Hague, Europol coordinates police operations between E.U. member states against organized crime, terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering and people smuggling.

Summary: बेल्जियम के पुलिस आयुक्त को यूरोपोल का नेतृत्व करने के लिए नामित किया गया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Bob Goodlatte, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said on Thursday he will not seek re-election next year. “This is a natural stepping-off point,” Goodlatte said in a statement. The announcement came on the heels of Tuesday’s elections in Virginia, where Democrats won the governor’s office and triumphed in local races in some Republican strongholds. Goodlatte has represented Virginia’s 6th congressional district for 25 years.  He joins a string of Republican lawmakers who have announced their retirements from Congress in recent weeks.  Two other House committee chairmen, Representatives Lamar Smith and Jeb Hensarling, both of Texas, said last week they would not seek re-election. Hensarling leads the House Financial Services Committee, while Smith leads the Science, Space and Technology panel.

Summary: वर्जीनिया रिपब्लिकन गुडलेट फिर से चुनाव नहीं लड़ेंगे


KABUL (Reuters) - As many as two rockets landed near the international military headquarters in downtown Kabul early on Saturday morning, Afghan security officials said. There were no reports of casualties. At around 6 a.m. (01:30 am GMT) alarms could be heard sounding at the headquarters of the NATO-led military mission, as well as at several foreign embassies in the area. The alarms were followed by several loud explosions.

Summary: काबुल में रॉकेटों का हमला, किसी के हताहत होने की सूचना नहीं


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The murder of a Belgian city mayor whose throat was cut in a cemetery on Monday has shocked the country, and the country s prime minister expressed  horror  at the death of the retired national lawmaker. Citing the public prosecutor, Belgian media said Alfred Gadenne, 71, the conservative mayor of Mouscron, an industrial town of 57,000 just across the border from the northern French city of Lille, was found dead in a graveyard close to his home where he acted as caretaker and locked the gates each night. Local news service SudInfo, citing unnamed sources, said a suspect had handed himself in to police and that the motive was unclear. The case was handed to a local prosecutor rather than to national counter-terrorism investigators.  I have learned with horror of the brutal death of Alfred Gadenne,  Prime Minister Charles Michel, a liberal, said on Twitter.  All my thoughts are with his family and friends.  Among the many others offering condolences was Martine Aubry, the former French Socialist party leader and long-time mayor of metropolitan Lille.  Philippe Courard, president of the parliament for Belgium s French-speaking south, tweeted:  Terrifying. What kind of world are we living in?

Summary: बेल्जियम के कब्रिस्तान में मेयर का गला काटा गया, देश को चौंका दिया


LONDON (Reuters) - Comments by British foreign minister Boris Johnson about the case of Iranian-British aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe can form no  justifiable basis  for further action against her, a spokesman said on Tuesday.  He reiterated his anxiety about the continued suffering of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and her family and hoped a solution would be reached soon,  the spokesman said about a phone call between Johnson and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif earlier on Tuesday.  The foreign secretary concluded by emphasizing that his remarks could form no justifiable basis for further action in this case and urged the Iranian authorities to release Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe on humanitarian grounds.

Summary: ब्रिटेन का कहना है कि मंत्री की टिप्पणी ईरान में जेल में बंद सहायता कार्यकर्ता के खिलाफ कार्रवाई का कोई आधार नहीं है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump declared China the “grand champions” of currency manipulation on Thursday, just hours after his new Treasury secretary pledged a more methodical approach to analyzing Beijing’s foreign exchange practices.   In an exclusive interview with Reuters, Trump said he has not “held back” in his assessment that China manipulates its yuan currency, despite not acting on a campaign promise to declare it a currency manipulator on his first day in office. “Well they, I think they’re grand champions at manipulation of currency. So I haven’t held back,” Trump said. “We’ll see what happens.” During his presidential campaign Trump frequently accused China of keeping its currency artificially low against the dollar to make Chinese exports cheaper, “stealing” American manufacturing jobs. But Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin told CNBC on Thursday he was not ready to pass judgment on China’s currency practices. Asked if the U.S. Treasury was planning to name China a currency manipulator any time soon, Mnuchin said he would follow its normal process of analyzing the currency practices of major U.S. trading partners. The Treasury is required to publish a report on these practices on April 15 and Oct. 15 each year.   “We have a process within Treasury where we go through and look at currency manipulation across the board. We’ll go through that process. We’ll do that as we have in the past,” Mnuchin said in his first televised interview since formally taking over the department last week. “We’re not making any judgments until we go continue that process.” A formal declaration that China or any other country manipulates its currency requires the U.S. Treasury to seek negotiations to resolve the situation, a process that could end in punitive tariffs on the offender’s goods. The U.S. Treasury designated Taiwan and South Korea as currency manipulators in 1988, the year that Congress enacted the currency review law. China was the last country to get the designation, in 1994.  The current situation is complicated because China’s central bank has spent billions of dollars in foreign exchange reserves in the past year to prop up the yuan to counter capital outflows. The International Monetary Fund said last year that the yuan’s value was broadly in line with its economic fundamentals. The U.S. Treasury also said in its last currency report in October that its view of China’s external imbalances had improved somewhat. Trump’s pronouncements about the yuan could also complicate matters for Mnuchin as he prepares for his first meeting next month with his Group of 20 finance minister counterparts in Baden Baden, Germany.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः ट्रंप ने चीन को मुद्रा हेरफेर का 'ग्रैंड चैंपियन' बताया


LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May is expecting a  constructive  meeting in Brussels on Monday with senior European Union officials as part of her attempt to achieve a smooth exit from the bloc, her spokesman said on Monday.  May will meet EU Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker and chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier at 1630 GMT for talks over dinner after deadlock in Brexit talks appeared to dash her hopes that an EU leaders  summit later this week could launch negotiations on future trade ties. The meeting comes after May attempted to revive talks last month in a speech in Florence, where she promised Britain would honor its EU commitments.  This is about reflecting upon Florence and the constructive way it s been received and that we want to continue to move forward in a constructive manner,  the spokesman told reporters. When asked if May would flesh out details of what Britain is prepared to offer in terms of a financial settlement, the spokesman said:  The PM set out her position in the Florence speech in relation to the settlement, and that s where we are.  May will also speak to French President Emmanuel Macron and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar on Monday, the spokesman said.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के प्रधानमंत्री 'रचनात्मक' बैठक की उम्मीद में ब्रसेल्स जा सकते हैंः प्रवक्ता


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The most consequential legal challenge to U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban will proceed on two tracks in the next few days: in a U.S. appeals court vote in San Francisco and the Seattle courtroom of a federal judge. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will vote on whether to reconsider an appeal in the case that was decided in the Seattle court last week. That vote could reveal which judges disagree with their colleagues on the bench and support the arguments behind the new president’s most controversial executive order. In Seattle, the state of Washington will attempt to probe Trump’s motive in drafting the Jan. 27 order. In another case, in Virginia, a federal judge on late Monday halted enforcement of portions of the order against Virginia visa holders or permanent residents, concluding that the travel ban likely violates the U.S. Constitution’s protections for freedom of religion.  The rulings put the order on hold until the courts can rule on the underlying merits. Ultimately, they will have to address questions about the extent of the president’s power on matters of immigration and national security. Traditionally, judges have been extremely cautious about stepping on the executive branch’s authority in such matters, legal experts say. Trump’s directive, which he said was necessary to protect the United States from attacks by Islamist militants, barred people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the country for 90 days. Refugees were banned for 120 days, except those from Syria, who were banned indefinitely. The ban was backed by around half of Americans, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, but triggered protests across the country and caused chaos at some U.S. and overseas airports.  U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle suspended the order nationwide after Washington state challenged its legality, eliciting a barrage of angry Twitter messages from Trump against the judge and the court system. A three-judge panel at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld the ruling last week, raising questions about Trump’s next step. In the Virginia case, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said there was a lack of evidence showing a national security purpose for the executive order and issued a preliminary injunction against parts of it.  While the ruling is not on the underlying merits of the case, Brinkema noted, “The ‘Muslim ban’ was a centerpiece of the president’s campaign for months.”  Legal experts said no other judge has so fully considered the question of whether the order amounted to a discriminatory ban on Muslims. According to Brinkema, “the evidence indicates the government’s purpose was based on religion,” said Nelson Tebbe, a professor at Brooklyn Law School, adding that the ruling could influence other judges’ views on the matter. At a Seattle court hearing on Monday, Robart said he would move forward with discovery in the case, meaning the request and exchange of information pertinent to the case between the opposing parties.  Meanwhile, an unidentified judge on the 9th Circuit last week requested that the court’s 25 full-time judges vote on whether the temporary restraining order Robart imposed on Trump’s travel ban should be reconsidered by an 11-judge panel, known as en banc review. The 9th Circuit asked both sides to file briefs by Thursday. Since judges appointed by Democrats hold an 18-7 edge on the 9th Circuit, legal experts say it is unlikely a majority will disagree with the court’s earlier ruling and want it reconsidered.  Arthur Hellman, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law who has studied the 9th Circuit, noted that one of the three judges who issued the original ruling was appointed by President George W. Bush.  Even if the en banc vote fails, however, judges on the 9th Circuit who disagree with last week’s ruling will be able to publicly express their disagreement in court filings, which could help create a record bolstering Trump’s position. Meanwhile, the government has signaled that it is considering issuing a new executive order to replace the original one. In that case, it could tell the 9th Circuit later this week that it does not want en banc review, because the case would be moot. “You would think Jeff Sessions would do whatever he had to do to get this case ended as soon as possible,” Hellman said, referring to the recently appointed U.S. attorney general.

Summary: ट्रम्प के यात्रा प्रतिबंध को चुनौती दो अदालतों में आगे बढ़ी


VIENNA (Reuters) - Same-sex couples will be allowed to marry in Austria from 2019, the country s supreme court ruled on Tuesday and said a law to the contrary violated the principle of non-discrimination.  The move brings Austria into line with many other European nations including Germany, France, Britain and Spain. It also comes at a time when stories of sexual harassment under the #MeToo hashtag have flooded social media, sparking a  rethink of attitudes towards sexual discrimination.   Today is a truly historic day,  said lawyer Helmut Graupner, who represented the two female plaintiffs in court.   Austria is the first European country to recognize marriage equality for same-gender couples as a fundamental human right. All the other European states with marriage equality introduced it (just) the political way,  he said in a Facebook post.  Austria s constitutional court examined a 2009 law that allows registered partnerships for same-sex couples but prevents them from getting married. It acted at the request of two women who were rejected by two lower authorities. The distinction between marriage and registered partnership can no longer be upheld without discriminating against same-sex couples, the court said in a statement.   The resulting discriminatory effect is seen in the fact that ... people living in same-sex partnerships have to disclose their sexual orientation even in situations, in which it is not and must not be relevant, and ... are highly likely to be discriminated against,  the court said in its ruling.  The conservative People s Party (OVP), who s leader Sebastian Kurz is expected to be sworn in as chancellor next month, said it will accept the ruling. The far-right Freedom Party (FPO), Kurz s chosen government coalition partner criticized the ruling.  Now there is equal treatment for something that s not equal,  said Herbert Kickl, FPO General Secretary, in a statement. A marriage between women and men needs protection as only these partnerships can create children, he said. The OVP and the FPO voted against same-sex marriage in parliament a few months ago.  The court decision comes days after French President Emmanuel Macron unveiled a plan to curb violence against women and weeks after Scotland apologized to gay men for historical convictions. The Homosexual Initiative Vienna (HOSI) welcomed the court s decision.  We are very happy,  said HOSI chairman Christian Hoegl.  We want to use the opportunity for a renewed call for a fundamental reform of marriage.  Same-sex marriage is legal in 25 countries. Australia aims to pass a law to this effect early next month after 62 percent of voters favored marriage equality in a national survey.  In Germany, women and men are allowed to wed to a same sex partner since October. The first country to legalize same-sex marriage was the Netherlands in 2001.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रिया की सर्वोच्च अदालत ने 2019 से समलैंगिक विवाह का मार्ग प्रशस्त किया


YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar warned on Wednesday that a scolding delivered by the U.N. Security Council could  seriously harm  its talks with Bangladesh over returning home more than 600,000 people who  fled to escape a Myanmar military crackdown. In a statement on Monday, the Security Council had urged Myanmar to  ensure no further excessive use of military force  and expressed  grave concern over reports of human rights violations and abuses in Rakhine State . Responding, Myanmar s de facto leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi, whose less than two-year-old civilian administration shares power with the military, said the issues facing Myanmar and Bangladesh could only be resolved bilaterally, a point she says was ignored in the Security Council statement.  Furthermore, the (Security Council) Presidential Statement could potentially and seriously harm the bilateral negotiations between the two countries which have been proceeding smoothly and expeditiously,  Suu Kyi s office said in a statement. In contrast, Bangladesh issued a statement saying Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali  appreciated the recent statement of the U.N. Security Council  during a meeting with a new resident coordinator of the United Nations in Bangladesh.  The Myanmar statement said Ali had been invited to Myanmar on Nov. 16 and Nov. 17, but Bangladeshi officials told Reuters that the earliest the talks were likely to take place was during the minister s visit for a regional meeting in the Myanmar capital of Naypyidaw on Nov. 20 and Nov. 21. The two sides have to agree a process for repatriation of Rohingya, with Bangladesh reluctant to fall back on the drill used for the return of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar in the 1990s, as it wants a more lasting solution.   A senior Bangladesh foreign ministry official said the United Nations should be involved in the process this time.  For years, we tried to resolve this issue bilaterally with Myanmar, but it was in vain,  the official told Reuters.  This problem is not going to be resolved anytime soon. The UN s involvement in the process is a must.  A sour note was struck over the talks last week, as Bangladesh officials voiced outrage over Suu Kyi s spokesman casting suspicion that Bangladesh might drag its feet over the repatriation process in order to first secure hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid money. Speaking at a conference for Commonwealth countries  parliamentarians in Dhaka on Sunday, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina called for more international pressure on Myanmar.  I would request all of you to discuss Rohingya issue with utmost priority and exert pressure on the Myanmar government to stop the persecution of its citizens and take them back at the earliest,  she said. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due to visit Myanmar on Nov. 15, with moves afoot in Washington to table a bill calling for sanctions on Myanmar that specifically target the military and related business interests. In a nod to China, the Myanmar statement said it appreciated the stand taken by some members of the Security Council who upheld the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries. To appease council veto powers Russia and China, Britain and France dropped a push for the Security Council to adopt a resolution on the situation and the 15-member body instead unanimously agreed on a formal statement. The United Nations has denounced the violence during the past 10 weeks as a classic example of ethnic cleansing to drive the Rohingya Muslims out of Buddhist majority Myanmar. Rejecting that accusation, the military says its counter-insurgency clearance operation was provoked by Rohingya militants  synchronized attacks on 30 security posts in the northern part of Rakhine State on Aug. 25. Rohingya refugees say the military torched their villages, but the military say the arsonists were Rohingya militants. The refugees  have given harrowing accounts of rape and murder. Myanmar says those accusations will have to be investigated. Meantime, the exodus from Rakhine continues. Several thousand Rohingya reached Bangladesh last week, many wading through shallows on the Naf river on the boundary between the two countries, and some making a short, but perilous sea crossing in small boats. On Wednesday, 52 Rohingya came ashore in Bangladesh on a raft lashed together from bamboo and plastic jerrycans, having been unable to find a boat to take them, Shariful Islam, a Bangladesh border guard official, told Reuters.  On Tuesday, border guards told Reuters of at least two other boats with 68 Rohingya reaching Cox s Bazar, where they would join the multitude sheltering in refugee camps. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who defied the junta that ruled Myanmar for decades, has been pilloried abroad for not speaking out more forcefully to rein in the military. Last week she visited Rakhine for the first time since the crisis erupted, meeting community leaders and seeing the efforts to deliver aid and return the region to some semblance of normality. She has spoken of plans for repatriation centers at which refugees will have to prove they once lived in Rakhine, before being allowed to return. But having been classed as stateless by former junta rulers, Rohingya could struggle to pass the test.

Summary: म्यांमार ने चेतावनी दी कि संयुक्त राष्ट्र की डांट से रोहिंग्या संकट पर बांग्लादेश के साथ बातचीत को नुकसान हो सकता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Friday sided with employers in a Supreme Court case over the rights of workers to bring class action lawsuits against companies, court documents showed.  Reversing a position staked out earlier by the Obama administration, which backed employees, the administration said in a court filing it would no longer defend the position of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that employment agreements requiring workers to waive their rights to bring class action claims are invalid. The waivers compel workers to individually arbitrate disputes with their employers rather than bring collective lawsuits with their co-workers.  The NLRB, an independent agency in the federal government, said in letter to the court on Thursday that its own lawyer would represent the board in the employees’ class action rights case. It is unusual for the government to change positions in a case already pending at the Supreme Court, and marks a sharp break from the administration of former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, which had originally pursued the case on behalf of the NLRB. The NLRB currently has a Democratic majority, isolating it politically from the Republican Trump administration.  In January the Supreme Court agreed to review three lower court rulings, including one involving global professional services firm Ernst & Young, over the legality of the waivers. Employers have increasingly required workers to sign them as part of their arbitration agreements to guard against the rising tide of worker lawsuits seeking unpaid wages. In Friday’s court filing, acting U.S. Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall said the Supreme Court should find that class action waivers are legal and enforceable under federal law. Workers that waive the right to collective litigation cannot “escape the consequences of that choice,” he said.  Companies say the waivers allow for speedier and more cost-effective resolution of workplace disputes. Class action litigation, on the other hand, is harder to fight and can lead to large damages awards.  Workers argue that pursuing their cases individually is prohibitively expensive and, without the prospect of large damages awards that class action litigation can lead to, lawyers will be deterred from taking their cases. The nine Supreme Court justices are expected to issue a ruling on the issue in the court’s next term, which starts in October and ends in June 2018.

Summary: सुप्रीम कोर्ट के श्रम मामले में ट्रंप प्रशासन ने नियोक्ताओं का पक्ष लिया


OSLO (Reuters) - The leader of the group that won this year s Nobel Peace Prize on Sunday urged nuclear nations to adopt a United Nations treaty banning atomic weapons in order to prevent  the end of us . The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was awarded this year s Nobel Peace Prize by a Nobel committee that cited the spread of nuclear weapons and the growing risk of an atomic war.   ICAN is a coalition of 468 grassroots non-governmental groups that campaigned for a U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, adopted by 122 nations in July. The treaty is not signed by - and would not apply to - any of the states that already have nuclear arms. Beatrice Fihn, ICAN s Executive Director, urged them to sign the agreement.   It provides a choice. A choice between the two endings: the end of nuclear weapons or the end of us,  she said in her speech at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo.  The United States, choose freedom over fear. Russia, choose disarmament over destruction. Britain, choose the rule of law over oppression,  she added, before urging France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel to do the same. Israel is widely assumed to have nuclear weapons, although it neither confirms nor denies it.  A moment of panic or carelessness, a misconstrued comment or bruised ego, could easily lead us unavoidably to the destruction of entire cities,  she added.   A calculated military escalation could lead to the indiscriminate mass murder of civilians.   Fihn delivered the Nobel lecture together with Setsuko Thurlow, an 85-year-old survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing and now an ICAN campaigner. Thurlow recalled on stage on Sunday some of her memories of the attack on Aug. 6, 1945.  She was rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building about 1.8 kilometers (1.1 mile) from Ground Zero, she said. Most of her classmates, who were in the same room, were burned alive.   Processions of ghostly figures shuffled by. Grotesquely wounded people, they were bleeding, burnt, blackened and swollen,  she said.   Parts of their bodies were missing. Flesh and skin hung from their bones. Some with their eyeballs hanging in their hands. Some with their bellies burst open, their intestines hanging out. The foul stench of burnt human flesh filled the air.   The United States, Britain and France sent second-rank diplomats to the Nobel ceremony, which Fihn earlier told Reuters was  some kind of protest . Japan, which is the only country to suffer atomic bombings and now relies on the U.S. nuclear umbrella, has also not signed the treaty. In a statement late on Sunday, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono expressed respect for the efforts of atomic bombings survivors toward a nuclear-weapons free world. But he added:  It is essential to steadily seek ways to advance nuclear disarmament realistically, while responding appropriately to real threats, including North Korea s nuclear and missile development programs.  Graphic of Nobel laureates - tmsnrt.rs/2y6ATVW

Summary: नोबेल शांति पुरस्कार विजेता समूह ने परमाणु शक्तियों से प्रतिबंध-द-बम संधि अपनाने का आग्रह किया


SEOUL (Reuters) - The man who called Donald Trump  President Evil  last week at the U.N. General Assembly is actually a genteel intellectual who studies the memoirs of former U.S. presidents and has taste for fine whisky, according to ten people who know him. North Korea s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho made headlines in the Sept. 23 speech to the 193-member General Assembly, and also two days earlier when he revealed to reporters outside his hotel  that North Korea s next move might be to detonate a hydrogen bomb above the Pacific Ocean, in response to U.S. President Trump s threat to  totally destroy  his country of 26 million people.  While bellicose rhetoric often spouts from militaristic North Korea, it did seem out of character coming from what friends and colleagues described as a polite and softly-spoken career diplomat with a self-deprecating sense of humor and sharp debating skills.  As a negotiation partner, Ri was a good one, whose status seemed quite secure and who had relatively greater leeway to exercise during the talks,  said Wi Sung-lac, South Korea s former envoy at the now suspended six-party talks aimed at dismantling Pyongyang s nuclear program.  He was flexible and fundamentally rational,  said Wi, who met with Ri twice in 2011 in an effort to re-start the talks hosted by China, after they collapsed in 2008. Ri has a reputation for translating North Korean propaganda into measured diplomatic language when interacting with Western diplomats, and has studied the works of former U.S. presidents in his spare time.  He s not just (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un s mouthpiece,  said one source who knows Ri personally.  He likes to read the memoirs of former U.S. presidents like Nixon and Bush. He also reads Kissinger. He tries to understand American thinking,  the source, who requested anonymity, told Reuters.   If there are any debates about U.S. policy in North Korea, he s usually the one who puts forwards new ideas and new tactics,  the source said.  He s a strategist.  The North Korean government does not provide foreign media with a contact point in Pyongyang for comment by email, fax or phone. Ri declined Reuters request for an interview while he was in New York for the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.  Born in 1956, Ri is the son of Ri Myong Je, former deputy director of the Organization and Guidance Department (OGD), a shadowy body within the ruling Workers  Party that oversees the appointment of key management positions within the state, according to South Korea s unification ministry. His father was also an editor at the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the state media body that publishes Pyongyang s bombastic propaganda statements.  A fluent English speaker who studied at Pyongyang s prestigious University of Foreign Languages, Ri has for years held a number of high-level posts dealing with the West. From 2003 to 2007, he was North Korea s ambassador in London, where he lived with his wife and daughter while his son stayed at home in Pyongyang.  He had a good command of English and always struck me as pretty polished,  said James Hoare, the U.K. s former charges des affaires in Pyongyang, who met Ri frequently during his time in London and hosted him for dinner at his house.  He was willing to appear publicly and could cope with questions.    I last saw him in Pyongyang in 2011, when he gave a lunch for (my wife) and me,  Hoare said. By then, Ri had become vice foreign minister.  Although much grander, he was still the same polite and friendly person.   A keen debater, Ri spent time engaging with British intellectuals during his time in London. At the private members Reform Club on London s glitzy Pall Mall street, he charmed British academics over wine and lunch.   He clearly had a good sense of humor and was never belligerent or combative when it came to articulating his government s perspective,  said John Nilsson-Wright, a professor at the University of Cambridge and senior fellow at the Chatham House international affairs think tank. Journalists caught a sample of that humor in Ri s most recent off-the-cuff marks, when they asked the foreign minister in New York what he thought of the nickname  Rocket Man  that Trump s has dubbed the North s leader.  I feel sorry for his aides,  Ri quipped.  In his U.N. speech he described Trump as  a mentally deranged person ... who is chastised even by American people as  Commander in Grief ,  Lyin King ,  President Evil ...  Evans Revere, a former senior diplomat who dealt with North Korea under President George W. Bush and met Ri on a few occasions, recalled that he exuded self-confidence and was at ease in any setting, likely reflecting his pedigree as the offspring of one of Pyongyang s elite families. While affable and approachable, Ri could be also  tough as nails , and in meetings with Americans, he leaves no doubt that North Korea is determined to remain a nuclear-weapons state, Revere said.  Behind the smile and the humor is a man who seems to believe strongly in the regime s line.  But the gregarious diplomat with an impressive rolodex of contacts has also faced increasing isolation, with the international community seeking to punish North Korea for its rapidly advancing missile and nuclear weapons programs. He was spotted dining alone at a gala dinner during a gathering of foreign ministers at the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) security forum in Laos in July 2016, while other ministers greeted one another and clinked wine glasses. The delegate of one participating Western country switched seats to avoid sitting next to Ri, saying he  can t be seen in photos having dinner side by side with him,  a South Korean diplomat said, declining to identify the nation. This year s ASEAN forum in Manila in August came after the U.N. Security Council imposed fresh sanctions on North Korea for conducting two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July. Ri was often observed silent and stone-faced, as he held meetings with only four of the 27 foreign ministers attending the forum. Not talking to Ri at the U.N. General Assembly was a  missed opportunity  for Washington, given his close ties to the Kim family, said Joel Wit, director of the 38 North website and a former State Department official who first met Ri more than 20 years ago. Following a rare ruling Workers Party congress in May 2016, Ri was appointed foreign minister and given a position in the party s powerful State Affairs Commission, a central decision-making body headed by Kim Jong Un. It was the first time a career diplomat had been promoted to  the politburo since 1998, said Cheong Seong-chang, a research fellow at the Sejong Institute south of Seoul. In 2011, South Korea s former nuclear negotiator Wi met Ri in Beijing and took the North Korean delegation out to a Chinese dinner. Hearing that Ri had grown fond of whisky during his time in London, Wi s staff brought some Scotch for him   which was then leaked to the press.   So he came in and said  Why do you have to tell every detail of our event to the media? ,  said Wi, who told Ri  not to pay attention  and have  just one drink  with him.  We ended up drinking quite a lot.  (This story has been refiled to correct second paragraph to make clear that Ri s reference to a hydrogen bomb test was made to reporters at not in the UN speech; edits for style.)

Summary: बमबारी के पीछेः उत्तर कोरिया के सौम्य विदेश मंत्री


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Hillary Clinton told federal investigators that former Secretary of State Colin Powell suggested she use a personal email account, the New York Times reported late on Thursday. Clinton has for over a year been dogged by questions about her use of a private email account while she was the nation’s top diplomat. The newspaper said the information came from notes the Federal Bureau of Investigation delivered to Congress on Tuesday, which contained details from a more than three hour interview the agency conducted with Clinton over her private email use. The Times also cited an upcoming book that described a dinner conversation where Powell told Clinton to use her own email except for classified information. The newspaper also reported that Clinton asked Powell in a 2009 email exchange about his use of email while serving under former president George W. Bush. Reuters could not independently verify the report. Representatives for Clinton could not be immediately reached late on Thursday. Colin Powell’s office in a statement said he could not recall the dinner conversation. He did recall describing the system he used to her, but the statement did not say he suggested Clinton do the same.  “He did write former Secretary Clinton an email memo describing his use of his personal AOL email account for unclassified messages and how it vastly improved communications within the State Department,” the statement said. “At the time there was no equivalent system within the department.”  He used a secure department computer to manage classified information, the statement said.  Powell has said he had no choice besides using his private account as the department did not have a fully functioning email system of its own when he joined in 2001. Republicans have repeatedly hammered Clinton over the issue, helping to drive opinion poll results showing that many U.S. voters doubt her trustworthiness. FBI Director James Comey announced last month that no criminal charges would be filed over Clinton’s use of private email servers while secretary of state, but rebuked her for “extremely careless” handling of classified information.

Summary: क्लिंटन ने एफबीआई कॉलिन पॉवेल को बताया कि उन्होंने निजी ईमेल का उपयोग करने का सुझाव दियाः एनवाईटी


HARARE (Reuters) - President Robert Mugabe stunned Zimbabwe on Sunday by making no mention of resignation in a television address, defying his own ZANU-PF party, which had sacked him hours earlier, and hundreds of thousands of protesters who had already hailed his downfall. Two sources - one a senior member of the government, the other familiar with talks with leaders of the military - had told Reuters Mugabe would announce his resignation to the nation after ZANU-PF dismissed him as its leader in a move precipitated by an army takeover four days earlier. But in the speech from his State House office, sitting alongside a row of generals, Mugabe acknowledged criticisms from ZANU-PF, the military and the public but made no mention of his own position. Instead, he said the events of the week were not  a challenge to my authority as head of state and government , and pledged to preside over the congress scheduled for next month. Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was dumbstruck.  I am baffled. It s not just me, it s the whole nation. He s playing a game,  he told Reuters.  He is trying to manipulate everyone. He has let the whole nation down.  ZANU-PF had given the 93-year-old, who has led his country since independence in 1980, less than 24 hours to quit as head of state or face impeachment, an attempt to secure a peaceful end to his tenure after a de facto military coup. Chris Mutsvangwa, the leader of the liberation war veterans who have been spearheading an 18-month campaign to oust Mugabe, said plans to impeach him in parliament, which next sits on Tuesday, would now go ahead, and that there would be mass protests on Wednesday. He also implied that Mugabe, who spoke with a firm voice but occasionally lost his way in his script during the 20-minute address, was not aware of what had happened just hours earlier.  Either somebody within ZANU-PF didn t tell him what had happened within his own party, so he went and addressed that meeting oblivious, or (he was) blind or deaf to what his party has told him,  Mutsvangwa said. ZANU-PF s central committee had earlier named Emmerson Mnangagwa as its new leader. It was Mugabe s sacking of Mnangagwa as his vice-president - to pave the way for his wife Grace to succeed him - that triggered the army s intervention. On Saturday, hundreds of thousands had taken to the streets of the capital Harare to celebrate Mugabe s expected downfall and hail a new era for their country. In jubilant scenes, men, women and children ran alongside armoured cars and the troops who stepped in to target what the army called  criminals  in Mugabe s inner circle. Many heralded a  second liberation  and spoke of their dreams for political and economic change after two decades of deepening repression and hardship. They, like the more than 3 million Zimbabweans who have emigrated to neighbouring South Africa in search of a better life, are likely to be bitterly disappointed by Mugabe s defiance. Speaking from a secret location in South Africa, his nephew, Patrick Zhuwao, had told Reuters that Mugabe and his wife were  ready to die for what is correct  rather than step down in order to legitimise what he described as a coup. Zhuwao, who was also sanctioned by ZANU-PF, did not answer his phone on Sunday. However, Mugabe s son Chatunga railed against those who had pushed out his father.  You can t fire a Revolutionary leader!  he wrote on this Facebook page.  ZANU-PF is nothing without President Mugabe.  The huge crowds in Harare have given a quasi-democratic veneer to the army s intervention, backing its assertion that it is merely effecting a constitutional transfer of power, rather than a plain coup, which would risk a diplomatic backlash. But some of Mugabe s opponents are uneasy about the prominent role played by the military, and fear Zimbabwe might be swapping one army-backed autocrat for another, rather than allowing the people to choose their next leader.  The real danger of the current situation is that, having got their new preferred candidate into State House, the military will want to keep him or her there, no matter what the electorate wills,  former education minister David Coltart said. The United States, a longtime Mugabe critic, said it was looking forward to a new era in Zimbabwe, while President Ian Khama of neighbouring Botswana said Mugabe had no diplomatic support in the region and should resign at once. Besides changing its leadership, ZANU-PF said it wanted to change the constitution to reduce the power of the president, a possible sign of a desire to move towards a more pluralistic and inclusive political system. However, Mnangagwa s history as state security chief during the so-called Gukurahundi crackdown, when an estimated 20,000 people were killed by the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade in Matabeleland in the early 1980s, suggested that quick, sweeping change was unlikely.  The deep state that engineered this change of leadership will remain, thwarting any real democratic reform,  said Miles Tendi, a Zimbabwean academic at Oxford University.

Summary: राष्ट्रपति मुगाबे ने इस्तीफे के दबाव को दरकिनार कर जिम्बाब्वे को चौंका दिया


ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece began debating on Monday a bill allowing people to change their gender identity without medical treatment, a move that was welcomed by human rights groups but exposed political divisions and church opposition. Greece currently requires persons who wish to have their desired gender legally recognized to be diagnosed with  gender identity disorder  and have their reproductive organs removed. This practice has been widely condemned as a violation of human rights though is common in many European countries. The bill, tabled by the leftist Syriza party and to be put to a vote on Tuesday, says that changing legal gender is a matter of personal choice and should not be contingent on medical tests, therapies or surgeries that are all optional.  It has been condemned as  immoral  by Greece s influential Orthodox Church and as a  monstrosity  by far-right wing politicians. The draft legislation says persons have the right to change legal gender twice, and applicants must not be married. A court will decide on their application.  A group of supporters rallied outside parliament holding a banner reading:  Transgender rights are human rights .  I can t wait! The moment the bill passes, I m changing my identity,  said Raffaela, 40, adding that she has lived in waiting for 27 years.  The ironic stares, the mocking when people see that my identity doesn t correspond to my looks, will finally end,  she told Reuters, covered in a rainbow flag.   An article setting the minimum age for the change to 15 years has bared cracks in Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras coalition. His ally, the right-wing Independent Greeks, said it would vote against it unless the age was amended to 17 years. Campaigners say the bill is a step in the right direction but falls short of fully recognizing the rights of transgender people. Denmark was the first European country to allow legal gender changes without any medical intervention in 2014.  The government has 153 deputies in the 300-seat parliament.  The bill is expected to be approved in principle by ruling lawmakers and center-left parties. The main conservative opposition, New Democracy, tabled its own proposals.   To have access to the labor market, to travel and deal with daily life under a name that they want, and which corresponds to how they feel, should not be negotiable,  said ruling Syriza lawmaker Anneta Kavadia.  The Holy Synod, the ruling body of the Greek Orthodox Church, thinks differently. The proposal, it said, was an  affront to society , and a threat to  the sanctity of family .

Summary: ग्रीस ने कानूनी लिंग परिवर्तन पर विधेयक पर बहस की, विभाजन उजागर हुए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will propose allowing parents to deduct spending on childcare from their income taxes in a speech on Monday meant to challenge the economic policies of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, a campaign aide said. The aide, who asked not to be identified, said on Sunday in outlining the plan: “We don’t want it to be an economic disadvantage to have children.” The aide said the campaign would have a more detailed childcare plan in the future. A wealthy businessman seeking his first public office, Trump seeks to counter Clinton’s argument he is out of touch with the problems of working families. He will also say that, unlike Clinton, his business policies would encourage companies to remain in the United States, a concern of blue-collar workers he has tried to court, the aide said. In his speech, to business leaders of the Detroit Economic Club, Trump will also propose stronger protections for American intellectual property and a temporary moratorium on new regulations, the aide said. Seeking to move beyond a week of discord, Trump will outline  plans for trade, taxes, regulation and energy policy. His plans include proposing a 15 percent corporate tax rate, an idea that is on his website. The current federal rate is 35 percent. Senior aides and supporters said in television appearances on Sunday that Trump wanted to put behind him his disputes of last week with Republican Party leaders and the parents of a Muslim American soldier killed in Iraq. With the economy a major issue, Clinton on Thursday lays out a plan of her own for the “biggest investment in good-paying jobs since World War Two,” her campaign said. A Democrat like President Barack Obama, Clinton will be buoyed by figures released on Friday showing U.S. employment rose more than expected for a second month in a row in July and wages picked up, bolstering expectations of faster economic growth. Clinton has pledged that no family should pay more than 10 percent of its income on childcare. She has called for a tax cut to help middle-class parents cope with rising childcare costs and an expansion of a federally funded program that provides education and health services to low-income families with young children. In a phone call lasting little more than an hour on Sunday and run by some of Trump’s most senior aides, members of his newly announced economic advisory group shared their views on policy, said banker Stephen Calk, one of the members who took part. The Clinton campaign has criticized Trump over the advisory group, announced on Friday, for including no women and relying on members who come from hedge funds and investment banking, a make-up at odds somewhat with Trump’s populist message. Calk, chief executive of Federal Savings Bank and National Bancorp Holdings, said Trump had asked advisory group members to nominate women and minorities who could be added to the group. He said there were some “big, recognizable” names on the call who would be announced soon as joining the team but did not elaborate. A new Washington Post-ABC News opinion poll on Sunday showed Trump trailing Clinton by 8 percentage points after her party’s convention in Philadelphia. A Reuters/Ipsos poll out on Friday showed the race closer three months ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election.

Summary: बच्चों की देखभाल पर खर्च में कटौती का प्रस्ताव रखेंगे ट्रंपः सहायक


RIYADH (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama aired his human rights concerns with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman on Wednesday, but his talking points on that subject are expected to be get less attention when he meets Gulf Arab monarchs on Thursday. Activists have urged the American leader to push Saudi Arabia over its human rights record, but the region’s many geopolitical crises are likely to dominate a summit already overshadowed by strained ties between Washington and the Gulf. The president, who arrived on Wednesday, hopes to allay Gulf countries’ fears over Iranian influence and encourage them to try to douse sectarian tensions in the region in an effort to confront the threat posed by Islamic State.      Most of the Gulf Arab monarchies have in private been sorely disappointed by Obama’s presidency, regarding it as a period in which the United States has pulled back from the region, leaving space for their archrival Iran to expand its influence.  Human rights have not figured high on the list of issues straining the relationship. But Saudi Arabia has increasingly chafed at what it sees as a campaign of vilification by Western media, think tanks and rights groups.  Rob Malley, Obama’s adviser on the Middle East, said rights issues would be raised, and deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes met human rights advocates at the White House just before the Riyadh visit to hear their concerns. During a two-hour meeting on Wednesday with the Saudi king and a group of top princes, Obama expressed his broad concerns about human rights issues, the White House said, without listing specific cases. But early signs were that disagreements over human rights would be relegated to the margins of Thursday’s talks.  Obama has spoken of his desire to persuade Gulf states to arrive at a “cold peace” with Iran to ease sectarian tensions and allow all sides to focus on what he sees as a greater threat emanating from Islamic State. On Thursday, he will attend a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which groups the monarchical states of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Apart from Oman, they are ruled by Sunni Muslim dynasties that see revolutionary, Shi’ite Iran as a threat to their security and say its involvement in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen has fueled conflict and deepened sectarian divisions.  The White House shares the view of Gulf Arab states that Tehran plays a destabilizing role. But its willingness to enter a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers last year caused fears in Riyadh that Washington was not listening to Gulf Arab concerns.  Riyadh has come under fire in Western countries for its restrictions on women, suppression of freedom of expression,  strict blasphemy rules and a judicial system that applies Islamic law and frequently beheads convicts.  Rights groups are also pushing for Obama to press Saudi Arabia to end the war in Yemen, for which peace talks are due to take place in Kuwait this week, and where air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition have killed many civilians.  “I urge you to take this final opportunity to speak out publicly on human rights issues inside the (Saudi) Kingdom,”  Elisa Massimino, president of Human Rights First, a U.S. monitoring and activist group, wrote in an open letter.  Saudi Arabia has said other countries should not interfere in its domestic affairs by criticizing its human rights record. It insists its Islamic legal system is its own business and that its courts are fair and independent.  It says the war in Yemen was in support of its internationally recognized government and aimed at restoring stability. It says it has taken great care to avoid civilian casualties.

Summary: ओबामा-खाड़ी वार्ता में मानवाधिकार नहीं, बल्कि क्षेत्रीय संकट हावी होंगे


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Police searched eight houses in and around Brussels on Monday and detained one suspect in investigations into people who had joined militants in Syria in 2014, prosecutors said. The prosecutors said one person had been detained for questioning and a judge would decide on Tuesday whether he would be charged. They did not give any further details on the investigations. A series of attacks in European cities has raised fears that people who fought alongside jihadists in Syria and Iraq could return to launch more assaults at home.

Summary: ब्रसेल्स में आतंकवादियों के घरों की तलाशी ले रही पुलिस


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera urged caution on Friday because more provocation was possible from North Korea on Oct. 10, when the start of lower house election campaigns in Japan coincides with one of the North s main anniversaries. Tensions have risen on the Korean peninsula since reclusive North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3, leading to a new round of sanctions after a unanimous vote by the United Nations Security Council. U.S. President Donald Trump has since traded insults with North Korean leaders, raising the stakes even further. North Korea has often marked significant events on its calendar by conducting weapons tests, such as its fifth nuclear test last year on Sept. 9, its founding anniversary. Onodera said Oct. 10 marks an important anniversary for North Korea. It is the date the North celebrates the founding of the North Korean communist party.  I understand it is an important anniversary for North Korea. We would like to maintain a sense of urgency,  Onodera told reporters. Oct. 10 is also coincidentally the same day that campaigns will begin in Japan for parliament s lower house election 12 days later after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dissolved the chamber on Thursday. Onodera s warning echoed a comment by South Korean national security adviser Chung Eui-yong, who said during a meeting with President Moon Jae-in on Thursday that he expected Pyongyang to act around Oct. 10 and 18, but gave no details. [nL4N1M9191] Oct. 18 marks the start of China s all-important Communist Party Congress. North Korea has conducted a series of ballistic missile launches this year, including two launches over Japan in recent weeks, in defiance of international pressure. China, North Korea s main ally and trading partner, has urged that dialogue is the only way to resolve the crisis, although Japan has tended to support Washington s more robust approach. Abe has said now is the time to apply pressure on North Korea, rather than dialogue, in order to convince North Korea to end its nuclear and missile programs.

Summary: जापान के रक्षा प्रमुख ने 10 अक्टूबर को उत्तर कोरिया के संभावित उकसावे की चेतावनी दी


ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey remains a dependable member of the NATO alliance, President Tayyip Erdogan s spokesman said on Thursday, after Western allies expressed concern over Ankara s decision to procure a missile defence system from Russia. Turkey s good relations with Russia are not an alternative to its ties to the West, but rather complementary, Ibrahim Kalin told a news conference.

Summary: तुर्की नाटो में भरोसेमंद सहयोगी बना हुआ हैः एर्दोगन प्रवक्ता


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday that Syrian air defenses would be beefed up after U.S. cruise missiles struck an air base in western Syria, Russian news agencies reported.  The ministry was also cited as mocking the effectiveness of the U.S. strikes as “extremely low” saying that 23 missiles had hit their targets but it was unclear where 36 others had landed.  Four Syrian military personnel had been killed in the strikes, two were missing, and six wounded, it said. Six Syrian military jets had also been destroyed.   Militants launched an offensive on Syrian government positions immediately after the strikes, the ministry was quoted as saying.

Summary: रूस का कहना है कि अमेरिकी हमलों के बाद सीरियाई हवाई सुरक्षा को मजबूत किया जाएगाः एजेंसियां


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump and top aides have urged conservative Republicans in Congress to craft legislation protecting “Dreamers” brought illegally to the United States as children, a move that could jeopardize efforts to work with Democrats on the issue. Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and other officials have reached out to more than a dozen Republicans, including some of the loudest anti-immigration voices in Congress. The consultations followed a dinner Trump held earlier this month with the top two congressional Democrats, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi. The president discussed with the two Democrats legislation to shield from deportation roughly 800,000 young immigrants known as Dreamers. In comments that angered Trump’s conservative political base, White House officials said Trump would not necessarily insist on funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border as a condition for helping the Dreamers. Trump’s pledge to build a border wall was a central theme of his 2016 presidential campaign. Earlier this month, Trump rescinded an Obama-era program that shielded Dreamers from deportation, but gave the Republican-controlled Congress - long gridlocked over immigration - six months to come up with legislation to address the issue. The recent consultations with Republicans included a dinner that Pence hosted for a group of conservative lawmakers at his residence. Republican Representative Mark Walker, who attended the dinner with Pence, said the administration was delivering a stark warning: Trump wants conservatives to participate in offering ideas for a Dreamer bill. If they do not, they will be frozen out of the discussions. Walker, chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said White House officials had made clear that Trump was willing to work with Democrats and moderate Republicans on a Dreamer bill if that was the only option. The outreach to conservatives suggests the administration is trying to minimize the potential backlash from Trump’s base over the Dreamer issue. Many conservatives staunchly oppose protection from deportation for any illegal immigrants, viewing it as a form of amnesty. But any effort to bring conservatives on board with legislation could alienate Democrats. Among other Republicans who have been contacted by the administration are House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, Representative Steve King and Senator Tom Cotton, who have pushed hard for strict immigration limits and tougher law enforcement. The White House said administration officials had also reached out to other Republicans, like Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, who in the past participated in negotiations on immigration reform. A White House official told Reuters that in conversations with Republicans, the administration was offering “principles” for Dreamer legislation that included building the border wall and expanding the use by companies of the “E-verify” system to check the legal status of new hires. Both are initiatives Democrats strongly oppose. Republican Representative Mark Meadows, chairman of the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus, said there had been “ongoing conversations” between lawmakers and the administration. He added members of his caucus were looking at ideas for an immigration bill. A senior Democratic aide said Democratic leaders were awaiting an offer from the White House that would build on Trump’s mid-September agreement to collaborate on a Dreamer bill. The aide said Democrats “look forward” to engaging Trump on a border security package sketched out at the dinner with the president, which did not include most of the conservative ideas now being floated in Congress.

Summary: ट्रम्प 'ड्रीमर्स' को बचाने के लिए ड्राइव में बाएँ और दाएँ खेलते हैं


DUBAI (Reuters) - An Iranian vessel with 19 sailors on board has been seized near a Yemeni island by local fishermen, Yemen s prime minister said on Saturday. There was no immediate official Iranian reaction to the comments made by Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr on his Twitter account in which he said the ship was detained off the coast of Socotra, the largest island in an archipelago south of Yemen.  He thanked the fishermen of another island in the archipelago, Abd al-Kuri, which lies to the east of Somalia. Iran s semi-official Fars news agency said that the Yemeni government, which Tehran does not recognize, had  claimed  that an Iranian vessel with a crew of 19 had been seized on Friday. There were no further details on the ship or its cargo. Regional and Western sources have said that Iran is sending advanced weapons and military advisers to Yemen s rebel Houthi movement, stepping up support for its Shi ite ally in the country s civil war. Iran rejects accusations from Saudi Arabia that it is giving financial and military support to the Houthis, blaming the crisis on Riyadh.

Summary: यमन के प्रधानमंत्री का कहना है कि मछुआरों ने ईरानी जहाज और नाविकों को जब्त कर लिया है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Security researchers and civil liberties advocates on Friday condemned draft legislation leaked from the U.S. Senate that would let judges order technology companies to assist law enforcement agencies in breaking into encrypted data. The long-awaited bill is emerging just as the U.S. Justice Department redoubles its efforts to use the courts to force Apple to help unlock encrypted iPhones. The Senate proposal is an attempt to resolve long-standing disagreements between the technology community, which believes strong encryption is essential to keep hackers and others from disrupting the Internet, and law enforcement officials worried about being unable to pry open encrypted devices and communications of criminal suspects. But the draft bill, leaked online Thursday evening, was planned as an overly vague measure that added up to a ban on strong encryption.   Kevin Bankston, director of the Open Technology Institute, said in a statement it was the “most ludicrous, dangerous, technically illiterate tech policy proposal of the 21st century.” The leaked 9-page bill is the most current draft of the proposal, a source familiar with the language said.  It would give judges broad authority to order tech companies to hand over data in “an intelligible format” or provide “technical assistance” to access locked data. It does not spell out what form the data must take or under what circumstances a company would be forced to help. It also does not create specific penalties for noncompliance. In a joint statement, the authors of the bill, Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, said they were still working with stakeholders to finalize the bill, which has repeatedly been delayed.  “The underlying goal is simple: when there’s a court order to render technical assistance to law enforcement or provide decrypted information, that court order is carried out,” they said. “No individual or company is above the law.” President Obama is expected to be personally briefed by White House chief of staff Denis McDonough on the proposal on Monday, sources said.  But the administration remains deeply divided over encryption and views it as too controversial to offer public support or opposition for the bill as it is currently written, according to sources. A White House spokesman told reporters Thursday the administration had not decided whether to support the measure, as it is still in a draft stage. The fight over encryption has been at the center of a months long dispute between Apple and the FBI over a phone linked to one of the San Bernardino, Calif., shooters. Though the Justice Department withdrew its request in that case after a secret third party provided a way to unlock the phone, it announced Friday it would move ahead with an appeal of a court ruling blocking the government from forcing Apple to help unlock an iPhone in a separate New York drug case.  The bill from Burr and Feinstein would make it much more difficult if not impossible for Apple to refuse to comply in such cases. An Apple attorney declined to comment about the draft legislation on a call with reporters.  The proposal from Burr and Feinstein, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee respectively, is expected to face a steep climb in a gridlocked U.S. Congress during an election year. “For the first time in America, companies that want to protect their customers with stronger security will not have that choice,” Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat and vocal privacy advocate told reporters Friday. “They will be required by federal law per this statute to decide how to weaken their products to make Americans less safe.” Matt Blaze, a professor and computer security expert at the University of Pennsylvania, said on Twitter that the bill was worse than a failed effort by President Bill Clinton’s administration in the 1990s to require a special computer chip in phones to give the U.S. government a way to monitor encrypted conversations. The Clinton-era push crumbled amid stiff opposition from the technology sector that included a crucial security flaw in the proposal detected by Blaze.

Summary: सीनेट एन्क्रिप्शन बिल के लीक होने पर तेजी से प्रतिक्रिया हुई


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s support has surged and he is now running nearly even with Democrat Hillary Clinton among likely U.S. voters, a dramatic turnaround since he became the Republican party’s presumptive presidential nominee, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.  The results could signal a close fight between the two likely White House rivals as Americans make up their minds ahead of the Nov. 8 election to succeed Democratic President Barack Obama. As recently as last week, Clinton led Trump by around 13 points in the poll.  In the most recent survey, 41 percent of likely voters supported Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, and 40 percent backed Trump, with 19 percent not decided on either yet, according to the online poll of 1,289 people conducted from Friday to Tuesday. The poll had a credibility interval of about 3 percentage points.  The results reflect a big increase in support for Trump since he knocked out U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Governor John Kasich last week to become the last Republican in the White House race.  There was no immediate comment from the Clinton or Trump campaigns.  Clinton, who has all but clinched the Democratic nomination over rival Bernie Sanders, has mostly led Trump in the head-to-head poll this year. Trump briefly matched her support a few times in 2016, most recently in mid-March, after U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a favorite of the Republican establishment, dropped out.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः ट्रम्प समर्थन में आगे बढ़े, राष्ट्रीय अमेरिकी सर्वेक्षण में लगभग क्लिंटन के साथ भी


(Reuters) - Hillary Clinton “strongly opposes” a proposal unveiled by a Republican congressman on Tuesday to roll back Dodd-Frank financial reforms, an adviser to the Democratic presidential candidate said. In a statement, Clinton adviser Gary Gensler said the proposal from Representative Jeb Hensarling, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, was “ill-conceived.” “Hillary Clinton strongly opposes Chairman Hensarling and Donald Trump’s efforts to gut critical reforms put in place to protect the public after the financial crisis,” he said.

Summary: क्लिंटन ने डॉड-फ्रैंक को वापस लेने की हेंसरलिंग की योजना का 'कड़ा विरोध' कियाः सलाहकार


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday brushed off sharp criticism from President Donald Trump over his recusal from the Justice Department’s Russia investigation, saying he loved his job and planned to continue serving. “We love this job, we love this department, and I plan to continue to do so as long as that is appropriate,” Sessions said at a news conference announcing a cyber crime bust. Sessions was flanked by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Acting Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Andrew McCabe, who were both also criticized by the president in an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday. Trump took a broad swipe at his administration’s top law officers in the interview, saying he would not have appointed Sessions as attorney general if he had known he would recuse himself. The Republican president also noted Rosenstein’s connection to Democratic Baltimore and that McCabe’s wife took money from a leading Democrat during a political campaign. The public lashing came after a turbulent first six months in office during which Trump fired national security adviser Michael Flynn and FBI Director James Comey, then the top official leading the probe into whether Russian meddled in the 2016 presidential election and possible ties to the Trump campaign.  Sessions recused himself in March from the Russia criminal investigation. He did so after failing to disclose at his confirmation hearing that he had held meetings last year with Russia’s ambassador. “Sessions should have never recused himself and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” the Times quoted Trump as saying. White House spokesman Sarah Sanders said later on Thursday that, while Trump was disappointed in the recusal, “clearly he has confidence in him or he would not be the attorney general.” Sessions was Trump’s first supporter in the U.S. Senate and helped shape his political team throughout the campaign and into the transition after the Nov. 8 election. He declined on Thursday to acknowledge Trump’s criticism. “I have the honor of serving as attorney general. It’s something that goes beyond any thought I would have ever had for myself,” Sessions said. Similarly, Rosenstein declined to comment when asked about Trump’s remarks that there were very few Republicans in Baltimore, where he was a former federal prosecutor. “I was proud to be here yesterday, I’m proud to be here today, I’ll be proud to work here tomorrow,” he said. They took only a few questions before a spokesman asked if there were any questions about the department’s dismantlement of AlphaBay, a “dark web” market. Seeing no hands, Sessions left as reporters shouted questions about whether he would resign.   An aide to Sessions said the recent disparaging remarks from Trump are “nothing new,” given news media reports last month that the president was upset with the attorney general over the Russia recusal. A federal special counsel has been appointed to take over the Russia investigation, and several congressional committees are conducting probes. Next week, Trump’s son-in-law and White House adviser, Jared Kushner, and the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., are scheduled to testify before Senate panels, as well as former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. The Kremlin says it did not interfere in the election, and Trump has denied any collusion. In the Times interview, the president also took aim at the special counsel appointed to take over the Russia investigation, Robert Mueller, saying Mueller would be crossing a “red line” if he began investigating Trump’s personal finances.  “I think that’s a violation. Look, this is about Russia,” Trump told the Times.  At the White House, Sanders said Trump has no intention of firing Mueller at this time. The Times also reported on Wednesday that Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) has been in contact with federal investigators about Trump’s accounts, citing two people briefed on the matter. And the bank was expecting to eventually have to provide information to Mueller, they said. Deutsche Bank, which has loaned the Trump Organization family business millions of dollars for real-estate ventures, late last month rejected demands by Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives to provide details of Trump’s finances, citing privacy laws. On Capitol Hill, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved  Trump’s pick to replace Comey at the FBI, Christopher Wray. The full Senate was expected to confirm Wray before its August recess. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin said at the hearing that Trump’s latest comments raised troubling questions about the independence and credibility of the Justice Department. “Now what happens next as members close to the president, his own administration, and his family are being asked critical questions?” Durbin asked. “We have to make it clear that no one in this country, including the president of the United States, is above the law.”

Summary: अटॉर्नी जनरल सेशंस ने ट्रंप की आलोचना को खारिज किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump met on Tuesday with his top defense officials for a briefing and discussion on options to respond to any North Korean aggression or if necessary to prevent Pyongyang from threatening the United States and its allies with nuclear weapons, the White House said in a statement. Trump was briefed by Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford at a meeting of members of his national security team, the statement said.

Summary: ट्रंप और शीर्ष रक्षा अधिकारियों ने उत्तर कोरिया के विकल्पों पर की चर्चाः व्हाइट हाउस


(Reuters) - President Donald Trump opened the door to an overhaul of the U.S. immigration system and vowed to pursue massive tax relief for the middle class in a speech to Congress on Tuesday as he sought to rebound from a chaotic start to his presidency. Following are some of the main themes of Trump’s speech: Trump promised new steps shortly to “keep out those who would do us harm” and said his administration had been working on improved vetting procedures. He said the vast majority of people convicted for terrorism-related offenses since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, had come from outside the United States and vowed the country should not “become a sanctuary for extremists”.  He said the United States should switch away from lower-skilled immigration and adopt a merit-based system, adding that  Republicans and Democrats could work together to achieve immigration reform as long as it focused on improving jobs and wages and strengthening the country’s security.  Construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border will begin soon, Trump said. Throughout his election campaign and in the first weeks of his presidency, Trump said Mexico would pay for the wall, but he made no mention of that on Tuesday. Trump called on Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare. He said reforms should lower the cost of healthcare and ensure people with pre-existing conditions have access to coverage. He proposed tax credits and expanded health savings accounts for people to purchase health insurance. Legal reforms should also protect patients and doctors from unnecessary costs that drive up the price of insurance, he said. Trump vowed “historic” reform to reduce the corporate tax rate to make U.S. companies more globally competitive and promised “massive” tax relief for the middle class. He gave no new details on the tax reforms he would like to see and made no  mention of a border adjustment tax that lies at the heart of a Republican proposal in the House of Representatives. Trump said Congress will be asked to approve legislation for a $1 trillion investment in infrastructure, financed through both public and private channels. “Buy American” and “Hire American” will be the guiding principles, he said. Trump promised to send to Congress a budget to rebuild the military, billing it as one of the largest-ever increases in defense spending. He vowed to work with U.S. allies, including in the Muslim world, to destroy Islamic State, describing the radical militant group as a “network of lawless savages.” He vowed support for NATO but said U.S. partners must meet their financial obligations. He also reaffirmed “our unbreakable alliance” with Israel.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः कांग्रेस को दिए गए ट्रम्प के भाषण के मुख्य विषय


ANKARA (Reuters) - A Syrian opposition activist and her journalist daughter have been found murdered in their apartment in Istanbul, the Istanbul police department said on Friday. The bodies of 60-year-old Orouba Barakat and her 22-year-old daughter Halla were found overnight in their apartment in Istanbul s Uskudar neighborhood in the Asian side of the city. Turkish media reports said Orouba Barakat was investigating  alleged torture in prisons run by the Syrian government. It said she had initially lived in Britain, then the United Arab Emirates before coming to Istanbul.  The hand of tyranny and injustice assassinated my sister Doctor Orouba and her daughter Halla in their apartment in Istanbul,  Orouba s sister Shaza wrote on Facebook, adding that they were stabbed to death.  Orouba wrote headlines in the first page and she pursued criminals and exposed them. Her name and her daughter s name, Hala, now made first page headlines,  Shaza added. Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Turkey has become home to almost three million Syrian refugees, many of them opponents of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Summary: इस्तांबुल में सीरियाई कार्यकर्ता और बेटी की हत्याः तुर्की पुलिस


WARSAW (Reuters) - President Barack Obama pledged on Saturday to seek ways to calm racial tensions and reduce divisions between police and minorities during his final months in office, but he warned that easy access to guns nationwide exacerbated the problem. Obama spoke at the end of a week in which five policemen were killed by a sniper in Dallas and two black men were killed by police in Minnesota and Louisiana. He said he would bring together civil rights and law enforcement leaders for talks at the White House next week after returning from a trip to Europe. Obama, the first black U.S. president, has spoken out on racial issues throughout his time in the White House. He has also tried but failed to reform American gun laws, stymied by Republicans in Congress who have opposed any measures that they seen as impinging on the Constitutional right to bear arms, despite a series of mass shootings in recent years. Obama said the Dallas police force reduced murder rates and community complaints by taking the issue of race and police conduct seriously, and said he hoped that would inspire “constructive actions” in the coming weeks. “That’s the spirit that we all need to embrace. That’s the spirit that I want to build on,” he said during a press conference in Poland. But the divisive issue of gun control could not be separated from the tension between police and local citizens, he said.   Obama noted that Dallas police on Thursday had to protect themselves and citizens from sniper fire while deciphering who had guns among those taking part in a protest decrying police shootings of black men. The presence of a gun in the car where Philando Castile, 32, was killed by police in Minnesota on Wednesday contributed to that event, he said. “In Minneapolis, we don’t know yet what happened, but we do know that there was a gun in the car that apparently was licensed, but it caused, in some fashion, those tragic events,” Obama told reporters.  “We can’t just ignore that and pretend that that’s somehow political ... it is a contributing factor – not the sole factor – but a contributing factor to the broader tensions that arise between police and the communities where they serve.” Obama is very unlikely to succeed in reviving major gun control reform before he leaves office in January. Lawmakers in Congress have fought over three rival gun measures since the June 12 mass shootings at a gay nightclub in Orlando. Democrats promised to put pressure on Republicans next week to win votes for measures to expand background checks and allow the Justice Department to block gun sales to people on government watch lists. Obama said on Saturday he hoped his legacy on the issue of race would be one of urging Americans to listen to each other and understand the country’s difficult relationship with race. “The legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and discrimination didn’t suddenly vanish with the passage of the Civil Rights Act or the Voting Rights Act or the election of Barack Obama,” he said. He said he hoped his words as president had conveyed “that things have gotten better, substantially better, but that we’ve still got a lot more work to do.”

Summary: अमेरिकी बंदूक नियम पुलिस और नागरिकों के बीच तनाव बढ़ाते हैंः ओबामा


(Reuters) - It was an awkward coalition riven by political and sectarian differences, facing an elusive, fanatical enemy dug into an urban maze of narrow streets and alleyways. So, could Iraq s government really deliver on its vow to vanquish Islamic State? In the end, the army, Shi ite Muslim paramilitaries and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters mustered rare unity to end Islamic State s reign of terror in Iraq s second city Mosul, seat of the ultra-hardline Sunni insurgents   caliphate . Baghdad s victory in July 2017 after nine months of fighting was the coup de grace for the caliphate and came three years after a jihadist juggernaut seized one third of Iraq. But even with supportive U.S. air strikes, Baghdad s triumph came at a devastating cost for the once-vibrant, multicultural city in northern Iraq and the surrounding region. When Islamic State militants first arrived in Mosul in June 2014 after sweeping aside crumbling Iraqi army units, many Mosul residents initially welcomed them. The militants were Sunni Muslims, like many in Mosul who had accused the forces of then-Shi ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of widespread sectarian abuses. Islamic State consequently presented itself as Mosul s savior. But as jihadists brandishing AK-47 assault rifles began imposing an Islamist doctrine even more brutal and mediaeval than al Qaeda, its popularity soon faded. Maliki s successor, Haider al-Abadi, had long been seen as an ineffective leader who could not make tough decisions. However, a U.S.-backed campaign against IS in Mosul offered Abadi a chance to emerge as a steely statesman capable of taking on a group that had terrorized a sprawling city with beheadings in public squares while staging deadly attacks in the West. Just smoking one cigarette, an act IS saw as anti-Islamic, earned you dozens of lashes. Children were used as informers. Women in minority communities were turned into sex slaves. But taking back Mosul was never going to be easy. Long before the first shot was fired, Abadi and his advisers and military commanders had to tread cautiously, taking into account sectarian and ethnic sensitivities that could splinter the united front he urgently needed to establish. Iraqi and Kurdish intelligence agencies had recruited informers inside Mosul, from ex-soldiers and army officers to taxi drivers, who would face instant execution if caught. Even if an alliance of convenience was struck, glossing over sectarian splits, Mosul itself posed formidable physical obstacles. Key districts consisted of ancient little streets and alleyways inaccessible to tanks and armored vehicles, and they were so densely populated that U.S.-led coalition air strikes risked heavy civilian casualties. So, street by street, house by house, fighting was unavoidable. Such challenges first popped up in Mosul s hinterland as Kurdish forces slowly advanced against fierce IS resistance. In one village, a single IS sniper hunkered down in a house held up hundreds of Kurdish fighters, the U.S. special forces advising them and 40 of their vehicles. Eventually, his rifle went silent after three air strikes on the house. As pro-government forces inched forward, the United Nations warned of a possible humanitarian disaster and expressed fear that jihadists could seize civilians for use as human shields, and gun down anyone trying to escape. IS fighters   both Iraqis and foreigners - were experts at carrying out suicide bombings and assembling homemade bombs. Many houses were booby-trapped. Iraqi military commanders had to factor these lurking perils into their gameplan. In interviews, IS insurgents shed light on what Iraqi forces were up against. They were quite open about their ideology and what they were willing to do to transform the Middle East. One man said he had used rape as a weapon of war against more than 200 women from Iraqi minorities, and had killed 500 people. After months of grueling fighting, Iraqi forces finally attained the outskirts of Mosul, but any celebrations were premature. Bombs littered dusty roads. Car bombs were exploding. A Mosul resident explained that his child no longer flinched as explosions shook his street because many people, including the young, had grown numb to the daily bloodshed. Each side resorted to desperate measures to gain an edge. In north Mosul, people walked by fly-infested, bloated corpses of militants who had been left on roadsides for two weeks. Iraqi soldiers explained that the stinking bodies had been left there to send a clear message to residents - don t join IS or you will suffer the same fate. Caught in the middle were civilians who had suffered under the IS reign of terror for three years and were now wondering if they would survive a relentless battle to  liberate  them. Parents waited patiently after weeks of fighting for a largely unknowable right moment to make a dash for Iraqi government lines, clutching their children, risking a run-in with jihadists from places as far away as Chechnya. As much of east and west Mosul was pulverized by coalition air strikes or IS truck and car bombs, the city was reduced to row after row of collapsed or gutted housing. In the end, IS suffered its most decisive defeat and watched their self-proclaimed caliphate evaporate in Iraq, then in Syria as Kurdish-led forces retook Raqqa, IS s urban stronghold there. But those victories will be followed by tough questions about the future of both Iraq and Syria. Preserving the shaky understanding forged between the different communities in the run-up to the Mosul campaign will be essential to saving Iraq as a state in the future. It did not take long for the Mosul coalition to fray. In October, Iraqi forces dislodged Kurdish Peshmerga fighters from the oil city of Kirkuk and other disputed areas and Baghdad imposed curbed air travel to and from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in retaliation for a Kurdish independence referendum held in northern Iraq in September.   The battle for Raqqa, which became IS s operational base in Syria, had a different feel to it as U.S.-backed Kurds and Arabs in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) tightened their siege. The fighting seemed slower and more measured, step by step along abandoned streets where journalists were given access. In the weeks before Raqqa s fall in October, young female SDF fighters faced off against hardened militants and suffered losses. But that did not curb their enthusiasm and some said they would eventually like to join Kurdish PKK militants in Turkey and help advance their 33-year-old insurgency there. The victors in Iraq and Syria now face new challenges as they rebuild cities shattered by the showdown with IS. After IS s defeat in Raqqa, Raqqa residents formed a council to run the city but they had no budget when it was first set up, just residents streaming into their tin, run-down headquarters demanding everything from instant jobs to getting their damaged farmland back. Syrian Kurdish fighters were inspired by the ideas of Abdullah Ocalan, head of the PKK militants who has been imprisoned in Turkey for almost 20 years. Turkey views the political rise of Syria s Kurds as a threat to its national security and is fiercely opposed to the idea of Kurdish autonomy on its doorstep. The Kurdish groups who led the fight against Islamic State in its former capital Raqqa must now navigate a complex peace to avoid ethnic tension with the city s Arab majority and to secure critical U.S. aid.    So, life for Raqqa s victors will remain fraught with risk.

Summary: इस्लामिक स्टेट के खिलाफ लड़ाई