WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Monday rejected a barrage of criticism from his own party over his allegations of bias against a Hispanic judge, insisting his concerns were valid. “All I want to do is figure out why I’m being treated unfairly by a judge. And a lot of people agree with it,” Trump said on Fox News. Trump has been on the defensive since his comments last week about Mexican-American U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is overseeing fraud lawsuits against Trump University, the New York businessman’s defunct real estate school. He has also been castigated by Democrats, including the party’s likely presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. “I don’t know what else you could call these attacks other than racist, other than prejudiced, other than bigoted,” Clinton said in an interview with MSNBC on Monday. “It’s just plain wrong, and certainly wrong coming from someone who is vying to become President of the United States.” Trump told campaign supporters in a conference call they should stand by him in his attacks on the judge, Bloomberg Politics reported. It said during the call Trump distanced himself from a memo his campaign sent supporters on Sunday that urged them to avoid the issue. Asked for comment, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said: “It was a very positive call to discuss overall messaging.” Two Trump supporters, Tana Goertz and Scottie Nell Hughes, told CNN that former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer had said on the call that she wanted the campaign to go on the offense against expected Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Goertz said Trump told his suppporters not to be afraid to “call out the media” when TV reporters suggest that Trump is racist.  Trump has suggested that Curiel’s heritage is influencing the judge’s opinion about the case because of Trump’s campaign rhetoric about illegal immigration. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the Nov. 8 presidential election, has pledged to seal the U.S.-Mexico border with a wall, and has said Mexico is sending rapists and drug dealers to the United States. Former Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida, joined the chorus of criticism. In an interview with Orlando’s WFTV, Rubio called Trump’s comments wrong and said he had to stop. “I ran for president and I warned this was going to happen,” Rubio said. Trump has regularly stirred up controversy on the campaign trail and has frequently dismayed Republican establishment leaders. His view of an ethnically biased judiciary has drawn a fresh wave of criticism, including concern in his own party. On Sunday he was asked if - by the same token - he believed a Muslim judge would be biased against him based on Trump’s call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country. “It’s possible. Yes,” Trump said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Republican leaders including House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell have distanced themselves from Trump’s comments, saying they are worried the tone of his presidential campaign could enrage Latinos, who are a growing U.S. voting bloc. “If this doesn’t change we’re in for big trouble,” Senator Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, said on MSNBC on Monday. “I hope to be able to support the nominee. I certainly can’t now,” said Flake, whose state has a large percentage of Hispanics. A former rival for the Republican presidential nomination, Ohio Governor John Kasich, called on Trump to apologize to Curiel, who was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrant parents.  “Attacking judges based on their race (and/or) religion is another tactic that divides our country,” Kasich wrote on Twitter. “More importantly, it is flat out wrong.” It was unclear what, if any, effect the latest furor would have on Trump’s unorthodox candidacy. States with significant Hispanic populations including California, New Mexico and New Jersey hold nominating contests on Tuesday. Trump fought back against his Republican critics on Monday, with especially sharp words for Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker. Gingrich, mentioned as a possible running mate to Trump, on Sunday called Trump’s comments inexcusable. “I was surprised at Newt,” Trump told the “Fox & Friends” program. “I thought it was inappropriate what he said.”

Summary: हिस्पैनिक न्यायाधीश के हंगामे पर ट्रम्प अडिग


BENGALURU, India (Reuters) - Indian journalists and rights activists protested on Wednesday against the murder of an outspoken publisher of a weekly tabloid amid growing concerns about freedom of the press at a time of rising nationalism and intolerance of dissent. Gauri Lankesh, 55, the editor and publisher of the Kannada-language  Gauri Lankesh Patrike  newspaper, was shot dead on Tuesday by unidentified assailants near her home in the southern city of Bengaluru.  She had parked her car outside her gate and was walking to the main entrance of her home when the attackers fired at least seven rounds, killing her, police said. The motive was not known. Lankesh was a fierce advocate of secularism and opposed hardline Hindu groups associated with Prime Narendra Modi s right-wing, nationalist ruling party. Her weekly, with a circulation of more than 5,000, is regarded as influential in the state, read by policy makers and politicians.  Lankesh spent decades with various media outlets before taking over the newspaper started by her father. Several journalist groups, including the Editors  Guild, Press Club of India and Press Association, held protests in cities across India, calling her murder a  brutal assault on the freedom of the press .  They said she was a critical, secular voice at a time when the country was being swept by a wave of right-wing, Hindu nationalism.   She was an idealist and would take on the right-wing forces on several controversial issues,  said Y.P. Rajesh, an executive editor at the news website The Print and a long-time friend of Lankesh. The U.S. embassy in New Delhi also condemned the killing. The murder is a new low in India s recent record of protecting journalists.  The Committee to Protect Journalists has said that there have been no convictions in any of the 27 cases of journalists murdered in India because of their work since 1992. This year, the country of 1.3 billion people slipped three places to 136th in the World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders. The group said Hindu nationalists, on the rise since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power in 2014, were  trying to purge all manifestations of anti-national thought . Journalists seen to be critical of Hindu nationalists are often insulted on social media, and some women reporters have been threatened with assault.  People, including BJP members, have also openly insulted journalists, using terms like  presstitute  - a combination press and prostitute - to berate them. In recent weeks, Lankesh had posted videos on her Facebook page that were critical of Modi s economic policies and the rise of hardline Hindu groups since he came to power. Last year, she was sentenced to six months in jail after a defamation case was filed by a BJP member. She was released on bail. Ananth Kumar, a federal minister in the Modi government, said the state government must arrest those behind the killing. The state government in Karnataka, run by the Congress party, said it had set up a special investigations team to investigate  and police were examining CCTV footage. M.N. Anucheth, a senior police official investigating the case, said Lankesh was shot in the head, neck and chest.  This is an attempt to silence all of us   all of those who believe in democracy and decency,  Ramchandra Guha, a historian told the Indian Express newspaper.   (This story has been refiled to fix spellng in paragraph 22)

Summary: भारतीय पत्रकारों, कार्यकर्ताओं ने समाचार पत्र प्रकाशक की हत्या का विरोध किया


LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would visit Britain for the opening of his Scottish golf resort on June 24, his first trip to the UK since a spat with Prime Minister David Cameron over comments he made about Muslims. Relations between Cameron and Trump, whose visit comes the day after Britain holds a referendum on its membership of the European Union, have been tense since the British leader called his proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States dangerous and stupid. Trump’s idea for a boycott of Muslims, mooted last December, also led to calls from some lawmakers for him to be banned from Britain, with almost 600,000 people signing an online petition to keep him out. While Cameron and his ministers rejected that call, the prime minister did suggest that Trump would unite the nation against him if he visited Britain.  Trump responded by saying he was unlikely to have a good relationship with Cameron, although both men have since tempered their language after Trump effectively became the presumptive Republican Party nominee. Cameron has said he would be happy to meet him, although no date had been fixed, and Trump said they could have a good relationship after all. A spokesman for Cameron said there were no firm plans for a meeting, although it was a long-standing practice for a prime minister to meet presidential nominees if they visited Britain. Trump’s visit will coincide with the result of Britain’s EU referendum, and while Cameron is leading the campaign for Britain to stay in the bloc, Trump has said he thinks Britons would be better off outside. In a statement, Trump made no mention of any potential Cameron meeting, saying only that his visit to Britain was for the official opening of his golf resort at Turnberry following a 200 million pound ($290 million) refurbishment. A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization said the date of the opening had been planned long in advance and that it was just a coincidence it came the day after the EU vote. The date would not be changed, she added. The golf course has itself pitted Trump against British politicians after Scotland’s devolved government approved plans for an offshore wind farm nearby which led Trump to denounce Scottish ministers as “foolish, small minded and parochial”.

Summary: 24 जून को गोल्फ रिसॉर्ट खोलने के लिए ब्रिटेन जाएंगे ट्रंप


SITTWE, Myanmar (Reuters) - Around 120,000 displaced people - mostly Rohingya Muslims - in camps in Myanmar s Rakhine state are not receiving food supplies or healthcare after the U.N. and aid groups suspended operations following government accusations of supporting insurgents. Nearly 400 people have died in fighting in the far north of the state after Rohingya militants attacked police posts and an army base a week ago, provoking a major army counteroffensive. The impact from the conflict has now spread, including to the state capital Sittwe further south, where some 90,000 Rohingya have lived in camps since an outbreak of communal violence rocked the city in 2012, killing nearly 200 people. A further 30,000 Rohingya are housed in camps elsewhere in the state, while a small number of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists displaced in the 2012 violence also live in separate camps.  As a result of the disruption of activities in central Rakhine state, many people are currently not receiving their normal food assistance and primary healthcare services have been severely disrupted,  said Pierre Peron, a spokesman for the United Nations  Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The U.N. and international aid groups had already evacuated all  non-critical  staff from the north of the state amid intensifying fighting and after the office of national leader Aung San Suu Kyi repeatedly published pictures of World Food Programme (WFP) energy biscuits allegedly found at an insurgent camp. Suu Kyi s office also said it was investigating aid groups support for the insurgents in one incident. Now contractors working for the WFP, a U.N. agency, have refused to carry food to the camps in Sittwe and elsewhere. Staff with international aid groups who run clinics inside the large, densely populated camps have also been afraid to show up for work, leading to the closure of facilities, U.N. sources and aid workers told Reuters. Local staff were afraid of being intimidated by Rakhine Buddhist hardliners, and some worried about being attacked by Muslims, the sources said. Sanitation is also a major problem - contractors cleaning latrines in the camps have also refused to work and the latrines are overflowing in the monsoon rains, increasing the risk of cholera and other waterborne diseases, they said.   The treatment of Myanmar s roughly 1.1 million Rohingya, who have long complained of persecution in Buddhist majority Myanmar, is the biggest challenge facing Suu Kyi. The top U.N. human rights official, Zeid Ra ad al-Hussein, has criticized Suu Kyi s office for  irresponsible  suggestions that aid agencies may have assisted Rohingya militants calling themselves the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).      #WFP Aid & #ARSA terrorists : #Myanmar Govt asking #WFP, Aid for civilian or terrorists? #Rakhine #Myanmar,  said Suu Kyi s spokesman, Zaw Htay, in a tweet on Thursday. Tin Maung Swe, secretary of the Rakhine state government, confirmed that workers have refused to work for the WFP.    Laborers who carry the WFP food bags don t want to contract with them any more. People who have made contract with WFP refused to work for them,  he said. He added that residents were  disgusted  with the organization following the government s accusations.      Tin Maung Swe also said that the government was trying to find  a different way to support the organization . Rakhine Buddhist leaders have long bemoaned the presence of international agencies, who they accuse of favoring the Rohingya. Aid offices in Sittwe were sacked during 2014 riots. The discovery at a suspected militant camp on July 30 of WFP-branded biscuits intended for malnourished children had further stoked tensions even before last week s attacks. Accusations against the U.N. have been spread on social media by nationalist hardliners, stoking fears of another outbreak of communal violence in a state that has long been divided along religious and ethnic lines. International aid agencies operating in Myanmar issued a statement on Thursday condemning the insurgent attacks and subsequent violence, and urging  all stakeholders to cease the spread of misinformation . The OCHA s Peron said the disruption was already being felt.  Humanitarian aid normally goes to these vulnerable people for a very good reason, because they depend on it,  he said.    In addition to the closure of camp clinics, Rohingya who have been referred to the main hospital in Sittwe for more serious complaints were finding it hard to travel there, said the hospital s chief doctor Kyaw Naing Win.  There have been some constraints for them to come to the hospital because of the tighter security control after recent clashes,  he said, but added the hospital did not discriminate against them. Kyaw Naing Win said he arranged for the state government to provide security for 17 Muslim patients who were discharged from the hospital on Thursday. Even before the recent violence Rohingya camp residents faced severe restrictions on their movements around Sittwe. Talks between government and relief agencies are scheduled for next week, aid group sources told Reuters. Possible solutions might include the government providing security escorts for food convoys, they added. (This story has been refiled to remove extraneous words in paragraph 6)

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः म्यांमार हिंसा के बाद शिविरों में विस्थापित रोहिंग्याओं को सहायता संकट का सामना करना पड़ रहा है


MADRID (Reuters) - A Spanish audit office has demanded the former leader of Catalonia and other politicians from the region pay 5 million euros ($5.96 million) for holding a consultative independence ballot in 2014, El Pais newspaper said on Tuesday. The report, which cited judicial sources, came a day before Catalonia is expected to approve plans to hold an Oct. 1 referendum on a split from Spain. The 2014 vote was non-binding, a symbolic ballot by pro-independence campaigners that was declared illegal by Spain s Constitutional Court. Catalonia, along with Britain s Scotland and Belgium s Flanders, has one of the most active independence movements in the European Union.  El Pais said the former head of the Catalan government, Artur Mas and other regional leaders, were being told by the audit body in charge of overseeing the financing of political parties and the public sector to pay out of their own pocket for organizing the consultation vote. The money was due by Sept 25, it said. The audit office was not immediately available for comment. The current head of the Catalan government, Carles Puigdemont, said the move was the Spanish state  spreading fear . Catalan lawmakers are due to vote on Wednesday on laws approving the referendum and the legal framework to set up an independent state. The laws are expected to be approved because pro-independence parties have a majority in the regional parliament. The populous, north-eastern region, with its capital Barcelona, has a strong national identity with its own language and traditions, although polls show support for self-rule waning as Spain s economy improves.

Summary: स्पेन के लेखा परीक्षकों ने कैटलन नेताओं से पिछले स्वतंत्रता मतदान के लिए भुगतान करने की मांग कीः एल पाइस


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - McDonald’s Corp quickly deleted a tweet sent from the company’s handle slamming President Donald Trump on Thursday and said its official Twitter account had been compromised.  The tweet, which was copied and shared widely before being deleted, came a day after the Twitter accounts of a number of major news organizations, chief executives, government agencies and other high-profile users were hijacked. “Based on our investigation, we have determined that our Twitter account was hacked by an external source. We took swift action to secure it, and we apologize this tweet was sent through our corporate McDonald’s account,” McDonald’s spokeswoman Terri Hickey said in a statement.      Corporate accounts are attractive targets due to their large followings and the media attention that errant tweets can attract. Twitter Inc allows for two-factor authentication, a security feature that would deter many attempts to seize an account.  Twitter declined comment on Thursday citing “privacy and security reasons”. The tweet sent from @McDonaldsCorp on Thursday morning read: “@realdonaldtrump You are actually a disgusting excuse of a President and we would love to have @BarackObama back, also you have tiny hands.” Trump did not respond to the incident on Twitter.  High-profile Twitter accounts were hijacked on Wednesday to send anti-Nazi messages in Turkish in the midst of a diplomatic spat between Turkey, the Netherlands and Germany. Twitter said on Wednesday that the source of that attack was a third-party app, whose permissions have since been removed.  Trump, one of the more fast-food friendly presidents in recent years, had tweeted pictures of himself eating food from McDonald’s and other chains during the U.S. election campaign. A 2002 ad campaign featured Trump and the chain’s Grimace mascot promoting an “amazing” $1 deal for McDonald’s since-discontinued Big N’ Tasty burger. The incident came as McDonald’s is bolstering its digital capabilities with mobile and kiosk ordering to help modernize the 60-year-old chain.   Analysts said the hack raised questions about security at Twitter, but was unlikely to do much damage to the restaurant chain’s brand.  “As long as Trump doesn’t tweet at them directly, which could be pretty disastrous, this will be a short-term thing for them,” said Mike Froggatt, director of intelligence at L2, which monitors the digital performance of brands. “Twitter trending topics last for maybe 6 hours, a backlash for 10 to 12 hours and then it goes and the herd moves on,” said Froggatt. The message from the account of the world’s largest restaurant chain caused a sensation on Twitter, where users shared copies of the deleted tweet and offered jokes and comments.  Vanessa Veasley and other users speculated that Trump supporters could attempt to launch a boycott of the chain, as they threatened to do when Starbucks Corp Chief Executive Howard Schultz vowed to hire 10,000 refugees after Trump’s first executive order temporarily banning refugees from certain countries. “McDonald’s already deleted the tweet? lol Well at least Trump supporters can finally boycott something they can actually afford,” Veasley (@VanessaVeasley) wrote. Other users praised the fast-food chain, which has been fighting to reverse two straight years of customer traffic declines. “Suddenly I want a Big Mac, well done @McDonalds,” tweeted Shay Steward Bouley (@blackgirlinmain). Some Trump supporters said McDonald’s had not done enough to atone for the tweet and advocated for a boycott. “Hey @McDonaldsCorp YOU can’t just undo a tweet!!!  Since you don’t support America, Americans will not support YOU!!! #BoycottMcDonalds,” wrote Deborah Brewer (@Debbie92083).   McDonald’s is not the only high-profile company to be compromised with fake tweets over the years. Brands including Burger King, Jeep and Sony Music also have been hit.

Summary: मैकडॉनल्ड्स ने हटाया ट्रंप का ट्वीट, कहा-ट्विटर अकाउंट हैक किया गया


ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey called on its citizens to leave northern Iraq before flights are suspended on Friday in response to the Iraqi Kurdish independence referendum, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday. Turkey will suspend flights to the northern Iraqi cities of Erbil and Sulaimaniya from 1500 GMT on Friday. The decision will impact Turkish Airlines, Pegasus, and Atlas Global flights.

Summary: तुर्की ने शुक्रवार को उड़ानें निलंबित करने से पहले नागरिकों से उत्तरी इराक छोड़ने का आह्वान किया


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia on Friday rejected a United Nations report blaming a Saudi-led military coalition for killing or injuring 683 children in Yemen and attacking dozens of schools and hospitals as  inaccurate and misleading.    We exercise the maximum degree of care and precaution to avoid civilian harm,  Saudi U.N. Ambassador Abdallah Al-Mouallimi told reporters at the United Nations.  In a report submitted to the U.N. Security Council on Thursday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres blacklisted the Saudi-led coalition for its 2016 actions - even as he said it had taken action to improve child protection.  The kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the coalition reaffirm that it is taking important measures to protect civilians during all military operations to end the suffering of the Yemeni people and minimize the humanitarian cost,  Mouallimi said.   We reject the inaccurate and misleading information and figures contained in the report and we express our strong reservation with respect to this information,  he said.  The coalition had been briefly added to the U.N. blacklist last year and removed by then-Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pending review. At the time, Ban accused Saudi Arabia of exerting  unacceptable  undue pressure after sources told Reuters that Riyadh threatened to cut some U.N. funding. Saudi Arabia denied this. In an effort to dampen controversy surrounding the report, the blacklist this year is split into two categories. One lists parties that have put in place measures to protect children,  which includes the Saudi-led military coalition, and the other includes parties that have not. The report does not subject those listed to U.N. action but rather shames parties to conflicts in the hope of pushing them to implement measures to protect children. Yemen has been devastated by more than two years of civil war in which President Abd-Rabu Mansour Hadi s government, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, is fighting to drive the Houthis out of cities they seized in 2014 and 2015. More than 10,000 people have been killed and the conflict has ruined the economy and pushed millions to the brink of famine.  Mouallimi blamed the Iran-allied Houthi rebels and forces loyal to Yemen s ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh for putting civilians at risk, including using children as human shields. The U.N. blacklist also named the Houthi rebel group, Yemen government forces, pro-government militia and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula for violations against children in 2016.

Summary: सऊदी अरब ने यमन पर संयुक्त राष्ट्र की रिपोर्ट को 'गलत और भ्रामक' बताया


(Reuters) - Mount Agung, a rumbling volcano towering over the east of the Indonesian island of Bali, has forced more than 140,000 people to evacuate as authorities warn it could erupt at any time. Holidaymakers are avoiding the island after scientists issued the highest alert level for the volcano, which killed more than 1,000 people when it last erupted in 1963. Rising more than 3,000 meters (yards), Mount Agung is the island s highest and most sacred volcano, home to the Pura Besakih temple complex that narrowly escaped the previous eruption.    Bali is better prepared this time, imposing a 12-km (7-mile) exclusion zone around the volcano and stocking up on food and emergency supplies at temporary shelters. This interactive graphic shows the potential areas of risk from hot gases, ash and molten rock  bombs  spewing from the volcano. It explains how scientists assess the rate and type of volcanic tremors to determine when a volcano could erupt. The Reuters graphics team also takes a look at the potential impact on an economy that relies on nearly 5 million tourists a year visiting its beaches and temples. See the graphic "Mount Agung awakens" here: tmsnrt.rs/2ymKRSY

Summary: रॉयटर्स ग्राफिकः बाली के क्रोधित ज्वालामुखी से खतरा


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States cannot unilaterally cancel the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Friday in reaction to President Donald Trump s decision not to certify the accord.  We cannot afford as the international community to dismantle a nuclear agreement that is working,  said Mogherini, who chaired the final stages of the landmark talks.  This deal is not a bilateral agreement ... The international community, and the European Union with it, has clearly indicated that the deal is, and will, continue to be in place,  Mogherini told reporters. Mogherini said she spoke to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson immediately after Trump s speech on Friday.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ के शीर्ष राजनयिक ने ट्रम्प के भाषण के बाद ईरान समझौते का बचाव किया


YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar s military has launched an internal probe into the conduct of soldiers during a counteroffensive that has sent more than half a million Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh, many saying they witnessed killings, rape and arson by troops. Coordinated Rohingya insurgent attacks on 30 security posts on Aug. 25 sparked a ferocious military response in the Muslim-majority northern part of Rakhine state that the United Nations has said was ethnic cleansing. A committee led by military Lieutenant-General Aye Win has begun an investigation into the behavior of military personnel, the office of the commander in chief said on Friday, insisting the operation was justified under Buddhist-majority Myanmar s constitution. According to a statement posted on Senior General Min Aung Hlaing s Facebook page, the panel will ask,  Did they follow the military code of conduct? Did they exactly follow the command during the operation? After that (the committee) will release full information.  Myanmar is refusing entry to a U.N. panel that was tasked with investigating allegations of abuses after a smaller military counteroffensive launched in October 2016.  But domestic investigations, including a previous internal military probe, have largely dismissed refugees  claims of abuses committed during security forces   clearance operations . Thousands of refugees have continued to arrived cross the Naf river separating Myanmar s Rakhine state and Bangladesh in recent days, even though Myanmar insists military operations ceased on Sept. 5. Aid agencies estimate that 536,000 people have arrived in the Cox s Bazar district, straining scarce resources of aid groups and local communities. About 200,000 Rohingya were already in Bangladesh after fleeing persecution in Myanmar, where they have long been denied citizenship and faced restrictions on their movements and access to basic services.  Myanmar s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has pledged accountability for human rights abuses and says Myanmar will accept back refugees who can prove they were residents of Myanmar. The powerful army chief has taken a harder stance, however, telling the U.S. ambassador in Myanmar this week that the exodus of Rohingya, who he said were non-native  Bengalis,  was exaggerated. In comments to Japan s ambassador carried in state media on Friday, Min Aung Hlaing denied ethnic cleansing was taking place on the grounds that photos showed Muslims  departing calmly rather than fleeing in terror . Former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, who led a commission set up by Suu Kyi to find solutions for the ethnically and religiously divided Rakhine, briefed the U.N. Security Council and other key states in an informal closed-door meeting on Friday. Some council members are exploring if the 15-member body could agree a formal statement or even a resolution to call for an end to the violence, for full aid access, the safe return of refugees, access for a U.N. fact-finding mission to ensure accountability and implementation of Annan s recommendations. Annan said he hoped any possible Security Council resolution  urges the government to really press ahead and create conditions that will allow the refugees to return in dignity and with a sense of security, they should not be returned to camps.

Summary: रोहिंग्या मुसलमानों की हत्याओं और दुर्व्यवहार की खबरों के बीच म्यांमार की सेना ने शुरू की जांच


PHOENIX (Reuters) - An Arizona man filed a lawsuit on Friday challenging the results of the state’s March presidential primary election, alleging misconduct by officials during a nominating contest that is already mired in controversy. The lawsuit filed by Tucson resident John Brakey alleges that officials improperly handled voter registration requests and permitted illegal votes to be cast in the election, which was marred by long lines at polling stations and allegations of discrimination against minority voters. The three-count complaint, filed late on Friday afternoon against Arizona’s secretary of state and 15 counties, also claims that erroneous ballots were counted by officials on election day. It seeks to enjoin the state from certifying the results “until such election is properly conducted and in compliance with every requirement of Arizona law,” according to the lawsuit. The legal action comes amid an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into the election’s handling by Maricopa County officials that saw outraged votes wait up to five hours to cast their ballots at polls. Some county residents waited long after the polls had officially closed and projected results announced to vote at one of 60 election sites, a reduced number of locations made in cost-cutting efforts by officials. Two hundred polls were set up for the same election in 2012. Officials immediately took the blame for misjudging the number of people who would show up at the polls to cast ballots, saying that their decision were based on turnout history and an increase in mail-in voters. U.S. Justice Department officials are investigating whether federal voting laws were violated after complaints of long lines at polling stations and allegations that there was disproportionate waiting times in areas with high numbers of minority people. Maricopa County officials have until April 22 to respond to the questions from the head of the voting section of the department’s civil rights division. Such an investigation was requested by Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, who called the March 22 election won by Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump “a fiasco” that was unacceptable. A hearing on the lawsuit has been set for April 19. (Corrects headline and first two paragraphs to show lawsuit alleges official misconduct over voter registration requests, not lines at polling stations or possible discrimination against minority voters)

Summary: एरिजोना के व्यक्ति ने दुराचार का आरोप लगाते हुए प्राथमिक परिणामों को चुनौती दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Armed Forces Committee Chairman John McCain on Wednesday said President Donald Trump’s announcement barring transgender individuals from the U.S. military was “unclear” and inappropriate given an ongoing Pentagon study on the issue. “I do not believe that any new policy decision is appropriate until that study is complete and thoroughly reviewed by the Secretary of Defense, our military leadership, and the Congress,” McCain said in a statement, adding that U.S. defense officials had already decided that currently serving transgender troops could remain in the military.

Summary: सीनेट आर्म्ड सर्विसेज के अध्यक्ष मैक्केनः ट्रम्प ट्रांसजेंडर निर्णय अनुचित


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted narrowly to repeal regulations requiring internet service providers to do more to protect customers’ privacy than websites like Alphabet Inc’s Google (GOOGL.O) or Facebook Inc (FB.O). The vote was along party lines, with 50 Republicans approving the measure and 48 Democrats rejecting it. The two remaining Republicans in the Senate were absent and did not cast a vote. According to the rules approved by the Federal Communications Commission in October under then-President Barack Obama, internet providers would need to obtain consumer consent before using precise geolocation, financial information, health information, children’s information and web browsing history for advertising and internal marketing. The vote was a victory for internet providers such as AT&T Inc (T.N), Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) and Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N), which had strongly opposed the rules. The bill next goes to the U.S. House of Representatives, but it was not clear when they would take up the measure. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the Senate was overturning a regulation that “makes the internet an uneven playing field, increases complexity, discourages competition, innovation, and infrastructure investment.” But Democratic Senator Ed Markey said, “Republicans have just made it easier for American’s sensitive information about their health, finances and families to be used, shared, and sold to the highest bidder without their permission.” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said consumers would have privacy protections even without the Obama administration internet provider rules. In a joint statement, Democratic members of the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission said the Senate vote “creates a massive gap in consumer protection law as broadband and cable companies now have no discernible privacy requirements.” Republican commissioners, including Pai, said in October that the rules would unfairly give websites like Facebook, Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) or Google the ability to harvest more data than internet service providers and thus dominate digital advertising. The FCC earlier this month delayed the data rules from taking effect. The Internet and Television Association, a trade group, in a statement praised the vote as a “critical step towards re-establishing a balanced framework that is grounded in the long-standing and successful FTC privacy framework that applies equally to all parties operating online.” Websites are governed by a less restrictive set of privacy rules overseen by the Federal Trade Commission. Jonathan Schwantes, senior policy counsel for advocacy group Consumers Union, said the vote “is a huge step in the wrong direction, and it completely ignores the needs and concerns of consumers.”

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेट ने ओबामा ब्रॉडबैंड गोपनीयता नियमों को पलटने के लिए मतदान किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican efforts to unite the White House, Senate and House of Representatives behind a single tax reform plan appeared to be unraveling on Thursday, when one of the “Big Six” negotiators said the group would not dictate tax policy in the Senate.    At the outset of a congressional hearing on tax reform, Senator Orrin Hatch said the Senate Finance Committee he chairs would not be a rubber stamp for the other congressional Republican leaders and senior aides to President Donald Trump who make up the select group that has been working on a tax reform framework for months. The Big Six is preparing to release its framework on Sept. 25, a release that will sound the starting gun for Hatch’s panel and the House Ways and Means Committee to produce tax reform legislation that is now expected in October. Overhauling the U.S. tax code is a top priority of Trump and congressional Republicans, who campaigned on it last year. They have made little progress since taking power in Washington in January via a closed-door process that has excluded Democrats. “The group – some have deemed us the Big Six – will not dictate the direction we take in this committee,” Hatch said. “The Finance Committee will not be bound by any previous tax reform proposal or framework when we start putting our bill together.” Some analysts viewed the Utah Republican’s comments as the beginning of what could be a widening rift among Republicans in the Senate, House and White House that could jeopardize hopes of completing the first overhaul of the tax code in 31 years before January. “Disagreements over both substance and process are driving a wedge between senior House Republicans involved in the tax-writing process and their Senate counterparts,” Henrietta Treyz of investment advisory firm Veda Partners said in a report.  But House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, Hatch’s congressional counterpart, described potential divergence as a natural and even healthy development that would be kept in check by common ground on major tax issues. “We’ll work this out by the end of the year,” Brady told reporters. “At the end of the day, we just have to sit down and find common ground.” Hatch and Brady are among the Big Six, which also includes Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and White House economic adviser Gary Cohn. There have already been two statements of general tax principles from Republicans: a one-page document from the Trump administration in April and a joint statement from the Big Six negotiators in July. Democrats have criticized Republican plans as too favorable to the wealthiest Americans and corporations. With the latest blueprint due in less than two weeks, Brady and Mnuchin appeared to differ on Thursday over how much detail the document would contain. Brady told a policy forum that he did not expect the document to offer specifics on tax rates, while Mnuchin said the plan would contain extensive details including a specific corporate rate. Brady later told reporters that talks continued over what the document would contain.     “It is still clearly possible that tax reform could be enacted over the next near. However, the signs are not particularly positive at the moment,” analyst Jan Hatzius of investment bank Goldman Sachs said in a research note on Thursday. After months of talks, basic questions on the Republican tax plan remain unanswered, such as whether or not the tax cuts they want will expand the U.S. budget deficit. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Thursday that the tax reform plan would be revenue neutral, if economic growth spurred by the legislation is taken into account. Revenue neutrality is fast emerging as a divisive issue in Congress, where deficit hawks have expressed misgivings about adding to the deficit.  In White House meetings with top Democrats in recent days, Trump has shown a new willingness to deal with the opposition.  Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi talked about tax reform with Trump after their Wednesday discussion on immigration, according to Representative Richard Neal, the top Ways and Means Democrat. Neal said the White House appeared to be “in synch” with Democrats for now on tax relief for the middle class. “I think that there could be some room there for conversation,” he told the same policy forum where Brady spoke.

Summary: अमेरिकी कर सुधार पर रिपब्लिकन एकता लड़खड़ाने के संकेत दिखाती है


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is running for re-election in March, has proposed writing off some of the tax debts accumulated by Russian individuals and small businesses. A total of about 80 billion roubles ($1.4 billion) would be written off under Putin s proposal, a high-ranking official told Reuters. Speaking at his annual news conference, Putin said that some of the debt accumulated because of flaws in Russia s tax system.  I think that people should be freed from these payments, and it should be done in the most de-bureaucratic way, without the need to apply to a tax inspection,  he added. He estimated that debts of 42 million people worth 41 billion roubles should be written off. The high-ranking official told Reuters that Putin was speaking about debts for property tax and penalties accrued before 2015 that the tax service recognizes as uncollectible. The debts of 2.9 million self-employed entrepreneurs worth more than 15 billion roubles should also be written off, Putin said. He also proposed writing off profit tax, accumulated by some Russian citizens on their so-called waived debts. According to the high-ranking official, the latter would mean writing off 22 billion roubles. ($1 = 58.8600 roubles)

Summary: चुनाव से पहले, पुतिन ने रूसियों के ऋणों के कुछ हिस्से को बट्टे खाते में डालने का प्रस्ताव रखा


CARLSBAD CAVERNS NATIONAL PARK, N.M. (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and his family escaped the blistering heat of the Chihuahuan Desert on Friday when they went through a maze of ancient caverns where the only sound was the drip-dripping from stalactites. The subterranean adventure was the first stop on a working vacation during which Obama will spend some time with his teenaged daughters while making the case for more spending on conservation and curbing climate change. It was just like any other family holiday, except the entourage of Secret Service agents, aides and press who follow Obama wherever he goes had to descend the 754 feet (230 m) on elevators in eight shifts. “How cool is this?” he said to the press in the dark, damp alien landscape of the “Big Room,” the best known of the labyrinth of limestone caves that actor Will Rogers once called the “Grand Canyon with a roof on it.”  The president is helping celebrate the centennial of the National Park Service while highlighting his plan to reduce climate-changing carbon emissions, which he sees as part of the legacy of his time in office. The White House has said the changing climate evidenced by  droughts, increased flooding and wildfires and stronger storms has put national parks at risk. The Obamas were due to fly west later on Friday to the Sierra Nevada mountains and Yosemite, the country’s oldest national park and one of its most popular landmarks. Visits to national parks have surged due in part to lower gasoline prices. Still, roads, sewer systems and visitor centers in national parks are aging, and the government is grappling with a $11.5 billion backlog of maintenance projects. At Carlsbad, elevators broke down in 2015, though they seemed in good shape for the Obamas’ descent. During his time in office, which will end on Jan. 20, 2017, Obama has added 20 sites to the national park system, protecting more than 265 million acres of public land and water and historic sites with new parks, monuments and restrictions for development, more than any other president. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said national park visits in 2016 were on pace to beat last year’s record of 307 million. Tourists contributed an estimated $300 billion to the economy, supporting about 2 million jobs, she told reporters. She wants Congress to remember those numbers as it considers investments in public lands. Republicans have slammed Obama for adding sites at a time when the government does not have enough funding to look after existing ones. “To me, there is little point in conserving lands or allowing the federal government to acquire even more land if we are not going to take proper care of them,” Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska who is the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said last year.

Summary: ओबामा परिवार ने राष्ट्रीय उद्यानों के दौरे पर 'बिग रूम' गुफा की खोज की


OSAN, South Korea (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump landed in South Korea on Tuesday, the second leg of his 12-day Asia trip dominated by the North Korean nuclear standoff. South Koreans are bracing for the possibility that Trump s state visit could risk further inflaming tensions with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has stepped up his pursuit of nuclear weapons that could soon be capable of striking the mainland United States.  Trump will visit with U.S troops and is also expected to raise criticisms of a U.S-South Korean trade pact when he meets with President Moon Jae-in in Seoul.

Summary: परमाणु हथियार, व्यापार पर बातचीत के लिए दक्षिण कोरिया पहुंचे ट्रंप


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said he thinks the missile that North Korea fired on Friday was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), given its firing range, public broadcaster NHK reported. North Korea fired a missile on Friday that flew over Japan s northern Hokkaido far out into the Pacific Ocean, South Korean and Japanese officials said, further ratcheting up tensions after Pyongyang s recent test of a powerful nuclear bomb.

Summary: जापान के विदेश मंत्री को लगता है कि उत्तर कोरिया की मिसाइल आईसीबीएम थीः एनएचके


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will meet with Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday ahead of the chamber’s vote on tax reform legislation, the White House said on Monday. The Republican-controlled Congress is steaming ahead on its plan to overhaul the country’s tax code, in the hopes that it can finish the legislation before the end of the year.

Summary: करों के बारे में गुरुवार को अमेरिकी हाउस रिपब्लिकन से मिलेंगे ट्रम्पः व्हाइट हाउस


BALTIMORE (Reuters) - In the port city of Baltimore, where Europeans once streamed into America after crossing the Atlantic by ship, a 47-year-old immigrant named Rhonda is in a desperate position. She said she wants to provide for her teenage daughter but cannot get a work permit because she is in the United States illegally. “I’d like, as a parent, to provide for my daughter’s needs. Homelessness and moving around has been rough,” said Rhonda, a native of Trinidad and Tobago who has lived in the United States since 2001 and spoke on condition that her last name not be used to protect her daughter. In Houston, Daniel Castillo Garcia said he is apprehensive about his toddler son’s future because the 19-year-old Mexican native is in deportation proceedings after being picked up by U.S. federal agents near the border. “I’m very worried for my son because I need to provide for him,” said Garcia, who has lived in the United States since being brought into the country by his mother as a child in 2007. For these two and many others like them, perhaps their only realistic hope is that the U.S. Supreme Court revives President Barack Obama’s 2014 executive action on immigration, which was thrown out by a lower court. That plan was designed to let roughly 4 million people - those who have lived illegally in the United States at least since 2010, do not have a criminal record and have children who are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents - get into a program that shields them from deportation and supplies work permits. Rhonda’s 16-year-old daughter and Garcia’s 2-year-old son are citizens by virtue of being born in the United States. The court hears the case on Monday and is due to rule by the end of June. Rhonda said she cannot get a work permit because she overstayed her original 10-year visa. She and her daughter are staying in temporary housing provided by her church because she has no income. For a year, she was separated from her daughter, who plays the violin and hopes to attend college, because they could find nowhere to live together. Rhonda, who said her Christian faith keeps her positive, believes work authorization would make the difference because employers increasingly demand such documentation. “That’s why I’m in such hardship. I’m very anxious for something to happen,” she said. In Baltimore’s heavily Latino Fell’s Point neighborhood, South Broadway is lined with store fronts advertising services in Spanish, ranging from tax preparation to cellphone providers. Catholic Charities runs an immigrant resource center offering legal advice as well as education and health services. Its managing attorney, Adonia Simpson, said about half the roughly 600 people she counsels annually have no option beyond Obama’s program, known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA), if they want to legalize their status and get work permits. Initial enthusiasm about Obama’s plan waned when a federal judge put it on hold in February 2015, just before it was due to begin. All Simpson can do for now is ask clients to gather documentation to be ready to apply. “The community is getting very discouraged,” Simpson said. In Maryland alone, about 56,000 people could be eligible for the DAPA program, according to the Migration Policy Institute think tank. Obama’s plan was challenged by Texas and 25 other states that argued he exceeded his authority in bypassing Congress to take the actions. “The president has violated the Constitution, and we are trying to prevent the president from implementing executive action that we believe is lawless,” Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said. The Supreme Court is hearing the case at a time when immigration has become a hot issue in the U.S. presidential campaign, with top Republican contenders calling for all illegal immigrants to be deported. An estimated 11 million immigrants are in the country illegally. In Houston, Garcia has pinned his hopes on the court reinstating Obama’s program. “DAPA will help me get that freedom and help me to keep going and have a good future for myself and my son,” Garcia said in an interview translated from Spanish by his attorney.

Summary: अमेरिका की शीर्ष अदालत ने ओबामा की कार्रवाई को तूल देते हुए प्रवासियों को अनिश्चित स्थिति में डाला


(Reuters) - Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer said he is not ready to endorse Hillary Clinton, and he would be open to supporting her main rival, Bernie Sanders, if he becomes the Democratic nominee for president. One of the biggest Democratic donors, Steyer could help Clinton boost her standing among environmentalist activists who are a key constituency within the Democratic Party. Clinton is locked in tight races with Sanders in Iowa and New Hampshire, which both have early nominating contests.  “Our real goal has been not to support any one candidate, but to emphasize and highlight the issue (of climate change) so that the candidates can lay out their solutions and so the American people can have a chance to make a decision,” Steyer said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. After the Democratic Party picks its presidential nominee, that will change. “We have always come out and supported the climate champion,” Steyer said. “The idea that for some reason we wouldn’t do that, I’d have to understand why in hell we didn’t. Because that has been our practice always.” Steyer has been a longtime ally of Clinton’s. He held a fundraiser for her presidential campaign at his home in San Francisco in May. He was also an early supporter of Clinton’s during her 2008 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. There was no immediate reaction from the Clinton campaign to Steyer’s comments. Steyer, 58, made his fortune through investments, some in fossil fuel energy, at Farallon Capital Management, the San Francisco-based hedge fund he founded in 1986. He stepped down as co-managing partner of Farallon in 2012 to devote himself to full-time activism because, as he later wrote, he “no longer felt comfortable being at a firm that was invested in every single sector of the global economy, including tar sands and oil.” He spent heavily in the 2014 congressional elections to back candidates who could help further his anti-fossil fuel agenda. He paid out over $70 million, more than any other single donor in both parties. Of the seven candidates he supported, three won. Steyer said Clinton's position on energy and climate - which calls for increased use of solar and wind power, lower oil use, and a revamping of the aging U.S. oil and gas pipeline network - was good but needed some work. (here) “I don’t think she’s fully fleshed out everything she has to say about energy and climate,” Steyer said. “I think that as the campaign goes on I would imagine she will put out more detailed plans of exactly what she thinks. I don’t find what she’s said inadequate, but I don’t think it’s complete yet.” Sanders has a climate agenda that on its face appears to resonate more closely with Steyer's - an aggressive move away from fossil fuels, including a ban on hydraulic fracturing. But he has also railed against billionaire influence in politics and has pledged not to accept cash from big donors. (here)  Steyer said Sanders’ views on big money “certainly wouldn’t disqualify him for us, I can tell you that.” “What Bernie Sanders is talking about, which is trying to get back to a more perfect democracy, is something that we support too. We just think that the idea of ... wishing the rules were different and then pretending they were, is something which, unfortunately, probably would be disastrous from the standpoint of energy and climate,” Steyer said. Steyer says he has learned the lessons of the 2014 campaign, when he spent a lot of money in return for relatively little. “When you look at 2014, it was a question of turnout. Americans turned out, and specifically Democrats, turned out in the lowest level they’ve done for 70 years. You’d have to go back to 1942 to see turnout that low. And in young people, the numbers are incredibly low. So the question is, how are we going to motivate those voters to show up?” he said. His environmental organization NextGen Climate is running information campaigns on college campuses in Iowa and New Hampshire and elsewhere in an effort to raise awareness about climate change and the positions of all the presidential candidates. Steyer hopes the effort will reach people of 35 and under, a group he says represents about a third of the country’s electorate and who generally agree that climate change is a problem, but who often pass up the chance to vote.  “We’ve been pushing really hard to get them involved to make them aware of what’s at stake,” he said. Steyer said he was not sure yet how much money the 2016 effort would cost, but acknowledged the project would likely be larger than the one NextGen undertook in 2014. “We never have a budget. We know this stuff changes. What we do will depend on what happens.” Steyer said the 2016 election was critical to consolidating gains for the climate movement in 2015 - a year in which the Obama administration signed onto a global climate pact, blocked the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline from Canada, and ushered in new curbs on oil drilling and air pollution. “If you look at the Republicans, there are a whole bunch of serious Republican candidates who are diametrically opposed to everything the president has spoken about in terms of progressive energy and climate policies. So when you think about what is at stake: almost everything,” he said.   (Editing by Ross Colvin) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः बिलियनेयर ग्रीन एक्टिविस्ट स्टेयर क्लिंटन का समर्थन करने के लिए तैयार नहीं हैं, सैंडर्स के लिए खुले हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is considering 11 people to replace fired FBI Director James Comey, according to a White House official, and the Department of Justice will begin interviewing people on Friday or during the weekend. White House spokesman Sean Spicer told a briefing that Trump would fill the job “as soon as he finds a candidate that fits the qualities that he feels are necessary to lead the FBI.” The pick will be under intense scrutiny since Comey was fired while leading the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s probe of possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. Here are the 11 people under consideration:  Kelly was New York City’s police commissioner longer than any other person. Although the city saw historic drops in crime under his leadership, there is some controversy over his use of stop-and-frisk, an anti-crime tactic in which police stop, question and search pedestrians for weapons or contraband. Trump has praised that method. The former FBI agent was a congressman from Michigan until 2015 and served as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Rogers also briefly advised Trump’s transition team on national security issues. Fisher was an assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice under former President George W. Bush. She currently works at the law firm Latham & Watkins. Gowdy is a House representative from South Carolina and a former federal prosecutor. He led a two-year special congressional committee investigation that accused former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s State Department of failing to protect four Americans killed in a 2012 attack in Libya.  The Republican senator from Texas is the Senate’s second-ranking member. He previously was Texas attorney general.  Abbate has long worked in the FBI and currently serves as the executive assistant director for the Criminal, Cyber, Response and Services Branch. Before that, he was the assistant director in charge of the Washington Field Office.  The former New York prosecutor currently serves as an associate judge on the New York Court of Appeals.  Suthers is the former Colorado attorney general and the current mayor of Colorado Springs, Colorado. He also was the executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections. Luttig, a former Justice Department lawyer and appellate court judge, has served as executive vice president and general counsel of Boeing since 2006. Thompson was U.S. deputy attorney general from 2001 to 2003 under Bush. He also served as senior vice president for government affairs and general counsel for PepsiCo.  McCabe became acting director of the FBI this week following Trump’s abrupt firing of Comey. Until Tuesday, he was the bureau’s deputy director.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः एफ. बी. आई. निदेशक के लिए 11 उम्मीदवारों पर विचार किया जा रहा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be ambassador to Russia, said on Tuesday there was “no question” Moscow meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, and pledged to bring up the matter with the Russian government. “There is no question, underline no question, that the Russian government interfered in the U.S. election last year, Huntsman, a former ambassador to China, said at his Senate confirmation hearing. “Moscow continues to meddle in the democratic processes of our friends and allies,” he said, taking a tough line welcomed by several members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Many members of Congress, including several of Trump’s fellow Republicans, are concerned the president will not take a hard enough line in dealings with Russia to combat Russian expansionism in eastern Europe or its support for Syria’s government in that country’s civil war. Despite Trump’s objections, lawmakers in late July passed a tough package of sanctions on Russia that included barring him from easing them without congressional approval. Huntsman said he thought any action on sanctions should be tied to whether Russia ends its aggression in Ukraine. Russia has denied interfering in the election, but U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusion that it did so to boost Trump’s chances of being elected have shadowed his presidency. Congressional committees and a special counsel are investigating whether Trump associates colluded with Russia. The White House has denied any collusion and Russia has denied any involvement. Huntsman said he would raise the issue with Russian authorities. “I will also not hesitate to remind government officials that they are accountable for their actions. Exhibit A is the fact that interference in the U.S. election has led directly to the current low level of trust in the relationship,” he said. He also said he would try to work with Moscow in areas where the two countries have common interests, such as international efforts to curb North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile development. Huntsman, 57, served as ambassador to Beijing under President Barack Obama, a Democrat, and to Singapore under former Republican President George H.W. Bush. The committee will likely vote to support Huntsman in the coming weeks, paving the way for what is expected to be an easy confirmation by the full Senate. Senator Chris Coons, a Democratic committee member, called Huntsman “one of the very highest quality nominees for an ambassadorial post I have seen.”

Summary: रूस के राजदूत के लिए ट्रम्प की पसंदः 'कोई सवाल नहीं' रूस ने हस्तक्षेप किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday called the Russia sanctions legislation he signed into law “significantly flawed” and urged Congress to not use the measure to hinder U.S. efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict with its European allies. “While I favor tough measures to punish and deter aggressive and destabilizing behavior by Iran, North Korea, and Russia, this legislation is significantly flawed,” the Republican president said in a statement. “In its haste to pass this legislation, the Congress included a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions.”

Summary: ट्रंप ने रूस पर प्रतिबंध लगाने वाले कानून को बताया 'काफी त्रुटिपूर्ण'


RICHMOND, Va. (Reuters) - The Virginia state Senate on Monday approved a bill making the  electric chair the default method of execution if lethal injection drugs are unavailable. The bill passed the Republican-controlled Senate by a 22-17 vote. The Republican-dominated House has already approved the measure. After a lower chamber vote on a minor amendment, the measure will go to Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe for approval. A spokesman for the governor said the measure would be reviewed when it arrived. Virginia is one of eight states that allows electrocution as a method of execution, letting condemned inmates choose between it and lethal injection. If they do not choose, lethal injection is used. Virginia, along with other states, has struggled to get lethal injection drugs because pharmaceutical companies have protested their use in executions. The last death row inmate in Virginia to choose the electric chair for execution was in 2013. Inmate Ricky Gray, who killed six people in Richmond in 2006, had been scheduled for execution on March 16, adding urgency to the legislative debate. Gray’s execution has been postponed by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court about whether to hear the case. Gray has not indicated which method of execution he preferred. The legislation has fueled debate in Virginia over whether capital punishment, especially the electric chair, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. “The electric chair is outdated and barbaric,” Senator Scott Surovell, a Democrat from northern Virginia, said during a floor debate. He lost an effort to amend the bill by requiring the Virginia Department of Corrections to explain in detail why it was not able to obtain lethal drugs before opting for electrocution. State Senator Mark Obenshain, a Republican from the Shenandoah Valley, argued that if the amendment passed it would have further delayed execution of death row inmates. “Some (people) just have black hearts. They’re beyond redemption,” said Obenshain, an unsuccessful Republican  candidate for state attorney general in 2013.

Summary: वर्जीनिया सीनेट ने दवाओं की कमी के बीच बिजली की कुर्सी को मंजूरी दी


ATHENS (Reuters) - Self-proclaimed anarchists burst into the Spanish embassy in Athens on Wednesday and threw leaflets in favor of Catalonian independence, an embassy official said. The embassy staff evacuated the premises leaving only a few diplomats inside, the official said. There were no reports of damage or injuries.   About 15 to 20 entered the embassy and threw leaflets. They did not break anything. The leaflet said  solidarity is the weapon of the people ,  the embassy official told Reuters. The demonstrators unfurled a banner from the roof of the building reading  No Pasaran!  (They Shall Not Pass), a leftist slogan from the Spanish Civil War.    Greek police later detained 19 people, a police official said. Another police official said the group, known as Rouvikonas, had been demonstrating in favor of Catalonian independence.  We are now back inside, the demonstrators have left,  the embassy official said. Small scale attacks against police, businesses, embassies and state buildings are frequent in Greece, which has a long history of political violence and is struggling to emerge from crisis despite three international bailouts. Rouvikonas has stepped up its activities in recent months.

Summary: कैटेलोनिया समर्थक अराजकतावादी एथेंस में स्पेनिश दूतावास में घुसे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for ordering the United States to slash its diplomatic staff in Russia, remarks likely to rekindle criticism of Trump’s kid-gloves handling of Putin.  Breaking nearly two weeks of silence on Putin’s July 30 order cutting U.S. embassy and consulate staff by nearly two thirds, Trump said: “I’m very thankful that he let go of a large number of people because now we have a smaller payroll.” Trump said “there’s no real reason for them to go back” and “we’re going to save a lot of money,” in response to Putin’s Cold War-style move, differing from the reactions of other presidents in similar circumstances in the past. It also clashes with a State Department official having called Moscow’s order “a regrettable and uncalled-for act.” On Thursday, the State Department had no immediate reaction to the comments Trump made to reporters while on vacation at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. Congressional committees and a special counsel are investigating the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election campaign by hacking and other methods to help Trump, a Republican. They are also looking into possible collusion between the campaign and Russian officials. Moscow has repeatedly denied meddling in the election and Trump denies any campaign collusion. Putin, reacting to new sanctions imposed by the U.S. Congress and reluctantly signed into law by Trump, ordered Washington to cut 755 of its 1,200 embassy and consulate staff by September. Many of those affected likely will be local Russian staffers. It was also a tit-for-tat reaction to former President Barack Obama expelling 35 Russian diplomats from the United States last December over the intelligence agency reports. During his campaign and since becoming president, Trump has consistently called for better ties with Russia, declined to criticize Putin and refused to unequivocally embrace the conclusions of the intelligence agencies.  Intended to be flippant or not, Trump’s remarks on Thursday were immediately denounced by current and former U.S. officials who have served both Republican and Democratic administrations. Nicholas Burns, the State Department’s third-ranking official under Republican President George W. Bush, called Trump’s comments “grotesque.” “If he was joking, he should know better,” said Burns, now a professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. “If he wasn’t, it’s unprecedented. A president has never defended the expulsion of our diplomats.”  The State Department has “horrified and rattled” by Trump’s remarks, said a veteran U.S. diplomat who has served in Russia, speaking on condition of anonymity. And Heather Conley, formerly a top State Department official dealing with European affairs, said the expulsions of hundreds of people from an important U.S. embassy is extraordinary and “it is very difficult to see how the president could view these expulsions as a ‘positive’ development in any form.” In additional remarks on Thursday, Trump said he was surprised by the FBI raid last month on the home of his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, adding that it sent a “strong signal.” Trump said he has not given any thought to the possibility of firing special counsel Robert Mueller. In May, Trump dismissed James Comey, who was Director of the FBI when Trump went into office seven months ago. As presidential candidate, Trump invited Russia to dig up thousands of “missing” emails from Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s time as secretary of state, vexing intelligence experts and prompting Democrats to accuse him of urging a foreign country to spy on Americans. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said on the campaign. Clinton kept a private server from 2009 to 2013. She handed over thousands of emails in 2015 to investigators, but did not release about 30,000 she said were personal and not work-related.

Summary: अमेरिकी राजनयिक कर्मचारियों में कटौती के लिए ट्रम्प ने पुतिन को धन्यवाद दिया


TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Across Libya s capital residents have started drilling through pavements to access wells in a desperate search for water after the taps ran dry in a new low for living conditions.  After years of neglect, workers turned off the water to do urgent maintenance earlier this month, cutting supplies to many Tripoli households. Then an armed group sabotaged the system, prolonging the misery.  The water crisis is a powerful symbol of state failure in a country that was once one of the wealthiest in the Middle East but has been gripped by turmoil since a 2011 uprising unseated Muammar Gaddafi. For Libyans the chaos has meant power cuts and crippling cash shortages. These are often made worse by battles between armed groups vying for control of the fractured oil-rich state and its poorly-maintained infrastructure.  We haven t had water for ten days. The state does nothing,  said Nasser Said, a landlord in Tripoli s upmarket Ben Ashour district. Already equipped with a generator to keep the power running during outages that sometimes last more than a day, he hired drillers to dig some 31 meters to extract groundwater for the six apartments in the residential block he owns.  No water, no electricity. You become a state in a state,  he said, standing next to his building on a leafy sidestreet.  We last had to do this maybe 20 years ago.  Like many Libyans, Said is skeptical about the chances of U.N.-led peace talks unifying rival factions that have been fighting for control. The talks were adjourned last week with little sign of progress in creating a government that could stabilize Libya and stand up to armed groups that have repeatedly seized oil facilities and other state assets to make demands. The U.N.-supported Government of National Accord (GNA) has struggled to impose its authority since its leaders arrived in Tripoli in March last year.  Early last week an armed faction in the south said it had turned off water supplies from Gaddafi s Great Man Made River, a pipeline system that pumps water from underneath Libya s vast southern desert to coastal areas such as Tripoli.  The group is seeking the release of a leader imprisoned by a rival faction in the capital, said Tawfiq Shwehaidi, a manager at the Great Man Made River based in the eastern city of Benghazi.  We had started maintenance work on the 16th (of October) and cut supplies to Tripoli,  he said.  Afterwards an armed group... set one power plant on fire which closed three other plants and shut down 24 wells.   That has deprived residents of water while boosting the business of drillers who for 4,000-6,000 Libyan dinars ($2,940-$4,410 at the official exchange rate) access groundwater unused in some neighborhoods since the Great Man Made River started pumping water to Tripoli in 1996.   We drill about three wells in two weeks   it takes about three to four days to drill a well,  said Abdulsalam Forganea, a 23-year-old worker helping to operate an ageing drilling rig. Parts of Tripoli offer a semblance of normality and power cuts have eased since the summer. The city has seen fewer big clashes since a handful of armed groups aligned with the GNA earlier this year. But security is still fragile. A former prime minister was abducted in August for nine days by one of the two most powerful armed groups, while the other engaged in a battle this month that shut down the airport. A Reuters reporter recently saw a traffic clogged commercial street suddenly empty as a man was fatally shot by militiamen. Kidnapping for ransom is rife. A conflict that escalated in 2014 has put extra pressure on a Tripoli population that swelled to an estimated three million with the arrival of displaced families from other Libyan cities. Public health services are failing, inflation has spiraled, and the start of the school year has been delayed by several weeks because teachers are striking over salaries.  Shutdowns crippled oil revenues so little has been spent on repairs and maintenance, and the water network and other infrastructure have been corroded. Most government spending goes on public salaries, including for former rebel groups that forced their way onto the state payroll after Gaddafi s overthrow.  No budget has been transferred... since 2011 except the emergency budget, which is the result of the financial difficulties experienced by the Libyan state,  said Naji Assaed, head of the Libyan Water Authority. Production at desalination plants has fallen sharply, with output at a plant in the western town of Zuwara dropping from 80,000 cubic liters to 16,000 cl annually. Assaed said officials were working hard to resolve the crisis, but it was not clear when supplies would be restored. As he spoke a tanker arrived up to deliver water for his tattered ministry building.  In the absence of adequate spare parts, lack of budgets, lack of stability in the security situation, security chaos, people do not comply with the law and all this has affected the performance of the system,  he said. ($1 = 1.3607 Libyan dinars)

Summary: लीबिया के लोगों ने राजधानी के निवासियों के लिए नवीनतम परीक्षण में पानी के लिए खुदाई की


(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump addressed business and trade issues on Monday. Highlights of the day follow: Trump formally withdraws the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, distancing America from Asian allies as China’s influence in the region rises. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto says his country will aim to keep tariff-free commerce with North American Free Trade Agreement partners Canada and the United States in its talks with the Trump administration. Canada has a “very special status” and is unlikely to be hit hard by changes the United States wants to make to the NAFTA trade accord, the head of a business advisory council to Trump says. Trump meets with a dozen prominent U.S. manufacturers, promising to cut regulations and corporate taxes but warning them of penalties if they move production outside the country. Trump meets at the White House with leaders of construction, carpenters, plumbers and sheet metal unions, the administration says. Trump will have breakfast on Tuesday with the chief executives of General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV as he pressures automakers to boost American employment. The U.S. Senate confirms Representative Mike Pompeo as Trump’s CIA director.   Trump’s choice for secretary of state, former Exxon Mobil Corp Chairman Rex Tillerson, narrowly wins approval from a Senate committee and is expected to be confirmed by the full Senate.    The White House says national security adviser Michael Flynn held just two phone calls with Russia’s ambassador to Washington, amid reports that Flynn’s communications are being scrutinized by U.S. counterintelligence agents. The Trump administration vows to prevent China from taking territory in international waters in the South China Sea, something Chinese media has said would require Washington to “wage war.” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi discussed terrorism and extremism in a call with Trump, and Trump applauded Egypt’s efforts on those fronts, Sisi’s office says. A White House spokesman says Trump will announce a nominee in the next couple of weeks to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court. Two Republican senators say U.S. states should be allowed to stay in the Obamacare medical insurance program if they like.  Trump dismisses allegations in a new lawsuit accusing him of violating the U.S. Constitution by letting his hotels and other businesses accept payments from foreign governments.

Summary: अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति के रूप में पहले पूर्ण सप्ताह में डोनाल्ड ट्रम्प


MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin has discussed North Korea s latest missile launch with Russia s security council, Russian news agencies reported on Friday.  Participants exchanged their views about the situation on the Korean Peninsula with regard to the new missile launch,  agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. Pyongyang fired a missile that flew over Japan s northern Hokkaido far out into the Pacific Ocean on Friday, deepening tension after its recent test of its most powerful nuclear bomb.

Summary: पुतिन ने अपनी सुरक्षा परिषद के साथ उत्तर कोरियाई मिसाइल परीक्षण पर चर्चा कीः एजेंसियां


HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland should remain militarily neutral because it helps ensure security in the Baltic Sea region, Prime Minister Juha Sipila said in an interview ahead of celebrations of the country s 100 years of independence. The EU member state was part of the Russian Empire and won independence during the 1917 Russian revolution but it nearly lost it fighting the Soviet Union in World War Two. The center-right government retains the option of seeking NATO membership but remaining non-aligned and increasing defense cooperation with Sweden and the EU was Finland s way, Sipila said.  At the moment, to have Finland and Sweden forming this militarily non-aligned zone, I think that increases the security and stability in the Baltic Sea region ... I see no reason to change this,  Sipila told Reuters by phone. Finland has stepped up military cooperation with Sweden and forged closer ties with NATO because it is concerned about Russia s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and heightened East-West tensions in the Baltic Sea.  However, the government has opted to stay out of NATO in line with its tradition of avoiding confrontation with Russia. A report commissioned by the government said last year that if Finland joined NATO it would lead to a crisis with Russia, which is also a major trade partner for Finland. Moscow has hinted that it could move troops closer to the Finnish-Russian border if Finland joins NATO.  It is clear that Finland is part of the West and the western community. That is our place,  Sipila said.  We want to be ... at the core of the European Union, influencing EU s future. But the main difference between us and the majority of EU states is our military non-alignment.  Polls show that only 22 percent of Finns support NATO membership, while 62 percent are opposed. Sipila, who leads Finland s Centre party, said any move to join would need public approval via a referendum. Finance Minister Petteri Orpo from Finland s poll-leading National Coalition party told Reuters last week he believed that joining NATO would improve Finland s security.

Summary: फिनलैंड को सैन्य रूप से गुटनिरपेक्ष रहना चाहिएः प्रधानमंत्री


ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish authorities issued detention warrants for 115 people across 15 provinces over alleged links to last year s failed coup attempt, the state-run Anadolu news agency said on Friday. The operations were aimed at breaking up the  financial structuring  of the network of U.S.-based Fethullah Gulen, Anadolu said. Ankara blames Gulen for orchestrating the July 15 coup attempt last year and has repeatedly demanded the United States extradite him, so far in vain. Gulen denies involvement. In the aftermath of the coup, more than 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial and some 150,000 have been sacked or suspended from their jobs in the military, public and private sector. The extent of the purges has unnerved rights groups and Turkey s Western allies, who fear President Tayyip Erdogan is using the abortive putsch as a pretext to stifle dissent. The government, however, says the measures are necessary due to the gravity of the threats it is facing following the military coup attempt, in which 240 people were killed.

Summary: तुर्की ने तख्तापलट के बाद की जांच में 115 लोगों के लिए हिरासत वारंट जारी कियाः अनादोलु


GENEVA (Reuters) - In a thinly veiled reference to U.S. President Donald Trump, the top U.N. human rights official on Thursday condemned  “populists” who spread “hatred through tweets”. Britain criticised Trump on Wednesday after he retweeted anti-Islam videos originally posted by a leader of a far-right British fringe party who was convicted this month of abusing a Muslim woman. “There are the populists — political hooligans who through their incitement — which is the equivalent of hurling racist insults, throwing bottles onto the field, attacking the referee and, as we saw yesterday, spreading hatred through tweets — seek to scramble our order, our laws,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in a speech in Geneva. A U.N. official, who declined to be identified, said that Zeid’s remarks were “clearly a reference to Trump tweets but also others using social media in this way”. (Refiles to add dropped full name of official)

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र मानवाधिकार प्रमुख ने "ट्वीट के माध्यम से नफरत फैलाने" की निंदा की


LIMA (Reuters) - A congresswoman in Peru said embattled President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski survived a vote in Congress to oust him by promising some opposition lawmakers that he would pardon the country s jailed former authoritarian leader, Alberto Fujimori. Cecilia Chacon, a lawmaker with the opposition party Popular Force, said the 10 abstentions by a faction in her party had helped defeat its bid to oust Kuczynski in the wake of a graft scandal, and that some of them had mentioned the promise.  That s what they told us,  Chacon said in broadcast comments. Earlier on Thursday, Kuczynski s government denied it was negotiating a possible pardon for Fujimori in exchange for votes to save him. Kuczynski pulled off a surprise victory after the motion in Congress to oust him fell eight votes short of the 87 needed to pass. Fujimori is serving a 25-year prison sentence for graft and human rights crimes during his 1990-2000 government.

Summary: पेरू के राष्ट्रपति ने समर्थन जीतने के लिए फुजीमोरी को मुक्त करने की कसम खाईः सांसद


BERLIN (Reuters) - German police have launched an investigation into the theft of at least 12 inscribed metal memorial stones embedded in the pavement in Berlin to commemorate Nazi victims. The stones, called  Stolpersteine , bear the names of the victims and are set in the ground in front of the last address where they lived before being murdered or detained by the wartime regime.  It s upsetting and it hurts,  Cologne artist Guenter Demnig said on Tuesday, the day after the thefts were made public. Demnig said some 600 stones had been stolen out of the total 63,000 laid across Europe since he launched the project in 1996. Police said it was not clear who was behind the thefts, though a local politician blamed members of the far right linking the action to the approaching anniversary of the 1938 Kristallnacht pogrom of Jews in Germany and Austria. A similar theft in the eastern city of Greifswald four years ago also took place on the eve of the anniversary of the attacks when government-backed mobs looted Jewish property, set fires and killed dozens of Jews.  If someone makes the effort to remove them, systematically picking out each stone, then they have political motives,  said a spokesman for Berlin politician Fritz Felgentreu, pointing to what he said was a strong far-right presence in the neighborhood where the thefts took place.

Summary: बर्लिन में नाजी पीड़ित स्मारक पत्थर चोरी, पुलिस जांच


KABUL (Reuters) - A U.S. service member was killed in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, the military said, without giving details of his identity or the circumstances of his death, which occurred as American forces have stepped up operations against the Taliban. A statement from U.S. Forces Afghanistan Command in Kabul said the service member had died of wounds sustained during operations in Logar, the eastern province where another service member was killed last week after a helicopter crash.  Despite this tragic event, we remain steadfast in our commitment to the Afghan people and to support them in our mutual fight against terrorism,  Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said in the statement. The latest death comes after President Donald Trump ordered a boost in the number of U.S. troops assisting Afghan forces against the Taliban as part of a new strategy to try to break the stalemate with the insurgents. Although most U.S. troops are not in combat, the new strategy will give them greater authority to engage the Taliban and will involve some acting as advisers at brigade and battalion level, bringing them much closer to the front line. Up to Aug 23, 10 U.S. service members had been killed in Afghanistan this year, according to figures published last week by the Congressional watchdog SIGAR, more than double the number killed in the same periods in 2015 and 2016. Separately, the U.S. military said it was investigating reports of civilian casualties caused during a combined operation in the northern city of Kunduz on Friday and was assessing the facts surrounding the incident.

Summary: अफगानिस्तान में अमेरिकी सेवा सदस्य की हत्याः अमेरिकी सेना


SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Some Kurdish leaders describe Monday s referendum on independence as a historic chance for the ethnic group to shape its own destiny after decades of oppression. Yet there was little enthusiasm for voting in the city of Sulaimaniya. No long queues snaked around buildings in early voting as one might expect of a people who have dreamed of their own nation all their lives. Only about 30 people were casting their ballots nearly two hours after polling stations opened, and much of Sulaimaniya was subdued. The sharp contrast with celebrations in the other major Kurdish city of Erbil highlighted divisions between the main political parties, suggesting problems ahead for the administration of any future state. Some officials in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), based in Sulaimaniya, have cautioned that the vote could invite trouble from Turkey and Iran and a referendum should be held at a more appropriate time. Those neighboring countries fear independence will encourage their own restive Kurdish populations to press for change. The Baghdad government says the vote is unconstitutional. Iran banned flights to and from Kurdistan on Sunday, while Baghdad asked foreign companies to stop oil trading with Kurdistan and demanded that the KRG hand over control of its international airports and border posts with Iran, Turkey and Syria. Tensions are high between Kurdish fighters and Iranian-backed Shi ite militias. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Erbil argues that it is time for the Kurds to run their own affairs after many years of persecution at the hands of Saddam Hussein and others. Polling stations opened at 8:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) and should close at 6:00 p.m. Final results are expected within 72 hours.  The vote, expected to deliver a comfortable  yes  for independence, is not binding and is meant to give Masoud Barzani s KDP a mandate to negotiate secession of the oil producing region with Baghdad and neighboring states. There were few referendum banners in Sulaimaniya urging people to vote. Those who did turn out said they would back an independence from Iraq.   I say yes, yes, yes to a Kurdish state. I am from now on the son of a Kurdish state,  said Dirshad Ahmed, a writer. Like others who voted, he preferred to enjoy the moment instead of asking tough questions about internal Kurdish divisions and hostility to the vote from regional powers and the Baghdad government. Kurdistan has long been plagued by political disunity between Barzani s KDP and decades-old rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), headed by Jalal Talabani. It was most recently exacerbated by the extension of Barzani s term. The two sides fought a civil war during the 1990s. Some Sulaimaniya residents kept their distance from the referendum, preferring caution.  I will not vote. The referendum is not good. It could be  dangerous because of the threat from Turkey and Iran,  said shop owner Ali Ahmed. The Kurds began moving toward semi-autonomy after a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, ending what some called genocide against the ethnic group. But friction with Baghdad over oil and other issues led the Kurds to press harder for independence in a region that has been relatively stable compared to other parts of the country where sectarian blood spilled between Sunnis and Shi ites. Iraq has been struggling to come up with a formula for stability since the fall of Saddam.  Some Iraqis have suggested the country should be split into Kurdish, Sunni and Shi ite regions as a way of managing sectarian and ethnic tensions. Kamran Ahmed, a university economics professor, said at a polling station:  We will never again surrender to any Arab leader in Iraq.  He had high hopes for a Kurdish state and said Iraq could be broken up, the kind of talk that infuriates regional powers and Baghdad.  If there is a Sunni region then that s fine and the same goes for Shi ites. If our experiment is successful it could benefit the Sunnis and Shi ites,  he said. At another polling station, Kurdish security guard Sarbast Saeed urged the Shi ite-led Baghdad government to rein in militias instead of complaining about a Kurdish state.  They have no right to attack us when they let the militias attack Sunnis. Give the Sunnis their own state,  he said. It s that kind of bitterness that all sides will face as the Kurds work toward a viable state.

Summary: दो शहरों की कहानीः कुर्द वोट ने राजनीतिक विभाजन को उजागर किया


(Reuters) - Two children, backed by the Clean Air Council environmental group, sued U.S. President Donald Trump and two of his Cabinet members on Monday to try to stop them from scrapping a package of pollution-reduction rules known as the Clean Power Plan. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, says the United States is “relying on junk science” and ignoring “clear and present dangers of climate change, knowingly increasing its resulting damages, death and destruction.”  It was the latest legal action that green advocates have taken to combat Trump administration efforts to roll back environmental regulations through rule changes at agencies like the U.S. Department of Interior and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The two young plaintiffs, aged 7 and 11, are identified only by their first and last initials in the court papers, which allege that both are suffering from the effects of a rapidly warming climate. Trump has called climate change a hoax and said in June he would withdraw the United States from a global pact to combat it - calling the deal’s demands for emissions cuts too costly for the U.S. economy. The lawsuit asks the court to prevent the EPA, Trump and the U.S. Department of Energy, along with Energy Secretary Rick Perry and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, from rolling back any rules that “increase the frequency and/or intensity of life-threatening effects of climate change.”  EPA and Energy Department representatives declined to comment. A White House spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  Pruitt said on Oct. 10 he wanted to scrap the Clean Power Plan, put in place under former Democratic President Barack Obama. On Sept. 29, Perry asked federal regulators to provide price incentives to help keep coal and nuclear power plants open, as a way to address “risks” to the resilience of the electrical grid. By including the children, the Clean Air Council seemed to model its case after Juliana v. U.S., a pending federal case in which a group of teenagers sued the U.S. government for violating their constitutional rights by causing climate change. “The Clean Air Council case is taking the legal theories pioneered in Juliana and applying them to a narrow set of facts related to specific rollbacks of the Trump administration,” said Meg Ward, a spokeswoman for Our Children’s Trust, a group leading the Juliana suit.

Summary: क्लीन पावर प्लान को वापस लेने के ट्रम्प के प्रयास पर दो बच्चों ने मुकदमा दायर किया


LONDON (Reuters) - Britons who have joined the Islamic State militant group in Syria and Iraq should be hunted down and killed, Britain s new defence minister said. Gavin Williamson said that Britons who had gone to Syria or Iraq to fight for Islamic State hated what Britain stands for, and that air strikes could be used against the estimated 270 British citizens who are still out there.  Quite simply my view is a dead terrorist can t cause any harm to Britain,  Williamson told the Daily Mail in an interview published late on Wednesday.  We should do everything we can do to destroy and eliminate that threat,  he said, adding that he believed any British fighters who joined Islamic State should never be allowed to return to the United Kingdom. Williamson, 41, has been defence minister for little over a month, replacing Michael Fallon after he quit in a sexual harassment scandal. Prominent British militants such as Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, and Sally Jones, have been reportedly killed by British or U.S. forces since travelling to fight for Islamic State. After the death of Jones, who was known as the  White Widow , Fallon said that British nationals who chose to leave the UK and fight for Islamic State were a  legitimate target .

Summary: इस्लामिक स्टेट में शामिल होने वाले ब्रिटिशों का शिकार किया जाना चाहिए और उन्हें मार दिया जाना चाहिएः रक्षा मंत्री


MADRID (Reuters) - The Spanish government will dismiss Catalonia s secessionist leadership and force the region into a new election, it decided on Saturday, unprecedented steps it said were needed to prevent the region breaking away. Below are details of the powers the Spanish government plans to assume for a maximum six months before regional elections are held as set out in a proposal to the upper house Senate.  The measures were formulated under a constitutional provision never before invoked in Spain s 40 years of democracy. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is asking for authorization to sack the regional government including president Carles Puigdemont and his deputy Oriol Junqueras, high-profile figures in the independence drive who organized a popular vote on secession on Oct. 1 in defiance of Madrid.  Central government ministries will take over the regional administration until calling fresh elections within six months of direct rule coming into force. On Saturday, Rajoy said he wanted to convene a vote  as soon as we get back to institutional normality . The Catalan parliament will retain a representative role, but the government will operate under the supervision of bodies chosen or created for the purpose by Madrid. The new administrators will take control of the Mossos d Esquadra regional police force, which has become embroiled in the controversy over the independence bid after allegedly failing to act to stop the referendum or protect national police who were drafted in to provide extra security. The Mossos, whose chief is under investigation on suspicion of sedition, will have to act on direct orders from their new bosses. If deemed necessary, Mossos officers may be replaced by national police. The Economy Ministry has already increased its control over regional finances, to block the use of state funds to organize the secession bid, and started paying directly for essential services. Under the new proposal, Madrid keeps financial control. Widely-watched Catalan public television TV3 will come under central control. Madrid s proposal to the Senate says this will ensure the information transmitted is  true, objective and balanced, in line with political, social and cultural pluralism, and territorial balance . The Senate, where Rajoy s People s Party has a majority, will vote on the proposal on Oct. 27. The opposition Socialist and Ciudadanos parties are backing Rajoy. After the measures are approved, they can be activated immediately or put on hold to be implemented in the future. Puigdemont could call an election himself before the government s plan comes into action, in which case direct rule would likely not be implemented.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः स्पेन की केंद्र सरकार कैटेलोनिया को कैसे अपने नियंत्रण में लेगी?