CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Thirteen months after launching an improbable bid for the White House, Donald Trump captured the 2016 Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday, having vanquished 16 party rivals, warred with much of its establishment and provoked controversy at every turn. His eldest child, Donald Trump Jr., announced the support of New York, their home state, during a roll-call vote at the Republican National Convention, ensuring Trump had the majority of delegates - 1,237 - needed to contest the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election against presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. With three of the candidate’s other children at his side, the younger Trump said: “It is my honor to be able to throw Donald Trump over the top in the delegate count tonight.” “Congratulations, Dad. We love you,” he said. Trump’s Democratic rival, Clinton, who has been the target of withering verbal attacks during the convention, was quick to respond to the vote, tweeting: “Donald Trump just became the Republican nominee. Chip in now to make sure he never steps foot in the Oval Office.” Trump won with 1,725 delegates, followed by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas with 475 delegates, Ohio Governor John Kasich with 120 and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida with 114. Three other candidates emerged with a total of 12 delegates. After the presidential nominating vote, the convention by voice vote nominated Indiana Governor Mike Pence, 57, Trump’s choice for his vice presidential running mate. Speaking to the convention for the first time since winning the nomination, Trump appeared on a video screen from New York promising to win the election in November, create jobs, strengthen the military, safeguard U.S. borders and “restore law and order” in the United States. The state-by-state vote to put Trump’s name in nomination took place a day after opponents staged a failed attempt to force a vote opposing his candidacy at the start of the four-day convention, and after a speech by his wife, Melania, drew accusations of plagiarism. A wealthy New York real estate developer best known to Americans for his starring role in a long-running TV show, “The Apprentice,” where his catchphrase was “You’re fired,” the 70-year-old Trump was a long shot when he entered the race for the Republican nomination more than a year ago, having never held elected office. On Tuesday, under the headline “Make America Work Again,” speakers at Cleveland’s Quicken Loans basketball arena were meant to assail Democratic President Barack Obama’s record on the economy during his nearly eight years in power. Instead, speaker after speaker took aim at Clinton, presenting her as out of touch with the concerns of ordinary Americans and the inheritor of Obama’s “oppressive” administration. A former secretary of state under Obama, Clinton, 68, was due to be formally nominated at the Democratic National Convention next week in Philadelphia. Trump trails Clinton in many opinion polls after a bruising Republican primary season. Trump narrowed his deficit against her to 7 percentage points from 15 points late last week, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.  Trump initially refused to rule out an independent run should he fail to win the Republican nomination.  Within weeks of announcing his candidacy at Trump Tower in New York on June 16, 2015, Trump had taken a commanding lead in the Republican race, defying pundits who were quick to write him off and eclipsing the man many had thought would be crowned on Tuesday night - former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, part of a Republican political dynasty. In a campaign marked by insults and inflammatory rhetoric, Trump tapped into a deep vein of unhappiness running through white Middle America, giving voice to millions who felt left behind in the rush to globalization and who eschewed traditional establishment Republicans like Bush in favor of a brash political outsider who promised to “Make America Great Again”. “We’ve lost the confidence in our leaders and the faith in our institutions,” Donald Trump Jr. said in a convention speech. “We’re still Americans. We’re still one country and we’re going to get it all back.” “I know we’ll get it back because I know my father,” Trump Jr. said. Opponents brand Trump a bigot with his calls to temporarily ban the entry of Muslims and to build a border wall with Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants. Underscoring the problems Trump has faced with U.S. allies abroad, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Trump threatened U.S. and world security with his “politics of fear and isolation.” Steinmeier told Reuters in a written interview that he was concerned about what he called Trump’s ambiguous vows to “make America strong again,” while simultaneously reducing its engagement overseas. Party officials hope to use the convention to smooth out some of Trump’s rough edges and present him as a job creator and a strong hand to combat security threats at home and abroad. U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, an early backer of Trump, placed his name in nomination, calling him “a warrior and a winner.” Two senior Republicans, U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, spoke in favor of Trump. Republicans need Trump to do well in the November election as they seek to preserve Republican majorities in Congress. Security forces were on high alert in Cleveland. But police said late on Tuesday there had been only five arrests since the convention began on Monday. Wright State University, a public university near Dayton, Ohio, said on Tuesday it had decided not to host the first U.S. presidential debate scheduled for Sept. 26, citing mounting costs and security concerns. The event will now be held at Hofstra University in New York. While in Cleveland, Trump ally Chris Christie said on Tuesday that should Trump win the presidency, he would seek to purge the federal government of officials appointed by Obama  and could ask Congress to pass legislation making it easier to dismiss public workers. Christie, who is governor of New Jersey and leads Trump’s White House transition team, told dozens of donors the campaign was drawing up a list of federal government employees to fire if Trump defeats Clinton.

Summary: प्रतिद्वंद्वियों और बाधाओं को हराकर, ट्रम्प ने रिपब्लिकन नामांकन पर कब्जा कर लिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s promise to use existing funds to begin immediate construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border has hit a financial roadblock, according to a document seen by Reuters.  The rapid start of construction, promised throughout Trump’s campaign and in an executive order issued in January on border security, was to be financed, according to the White House, with “existing funds and resources” of the Department of Homeland Security.  But so far, the DHS has identified only $20 million that can be re-directed to the multi-billion-dollar project, according to a document prepared by the agency and distributed to congressional budget staff last week.  The document said the funds would be enough to cover a handful of contracts for wall prototypes, but not enough to begin construction of an actual barrier. This means that for the wall to move forward, the White House will need to convince Congress to appropriate funds.  MORE FROM REUTERS  * Ivanka encouraged Trump’s change of tone * Pelosi calls on Sessions to quit  * Who is in the race to patent bitcoin tech? An internal report, previously reported by Reuters, estimated that fully walling off or fencing the entire southern border would cost $21.6 billion - $9.3 million per mile of fence and $17.8 million per mile of wall.  DHS officials did not respond to a request for comment on this story.  Trump has said he will ask Congress to pay for what existing funds cannot cover and that Mexico will be pressured to pay back U.S. taxpayers at a later date.  Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan has said he will include funding for a border wall in the budget for next fiscal year. He has estimated the cost to be between $12 billion and $15 billion.  Many Republican lawmakers have said they would vote against a plan that does not offset the cost of the wall with spending cuts.  In the document it submitted to Congress, the DHS said it would reallocate $5 million from a fence project in Naco, Arizona, that came in under budget and $15 million from a project to install cameras on top of trucks at the border.  The surveillance project was awarded to Virginia-based Tactical Micro, but was held up due to protests from other contractors, according to the DHS document. Tactical Micro could not be reached for comment.  The DHS only searched for extra funds within its $376 million budget for border security fencing, infrastructure and technology, so it would not have to ask for congressional approval to repurpose funding, according to the document.  Contractors cannot begin bidding to develop prototypes until March 6 but more than 265 businesses already have listed themselves as “interested parties” on a government web site.  Those interested range from small businesses to large government contractors such as Raytheon (RTN.N).

Summary: ट्रम्प प्रशासन को दीवार के लिए मौजूदा धन में केवल 20 मिलियन डॉलर मिले हैं।


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will propose a strategic dialogue among leaders of the United States, India and Australia, aiming at counteracting China s expansion under its  Belt and Road  policy, Foreign Minister Taro Kono told the Nikkei business daily. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to propose the idea to U.S. President Donald Trump on Nov. 6 when they plan to hold a summit meeting, said the Nikkei on Thursday.  The proposal is for the leaders of the four nations to promote free trade and defense cooperation across the land and sea to Southeast, South and Central Asia, and beyond to the Middle East and Africa, Kono said in the interview with the Nikkei conducted on Wednesday.  We are in an era when Japan has to exert itself diplomatically by drawing a big strategic picture,  Kono was quoted as saying.  To maintain free and open ocean, the economy and security will surely be on the table,  he said. Kono said the aim was to also promote high-quality infrastructure investment across Asia to Africa. Chinese President Xi Jinping s vast  Belt and Road  infrastructure project was included in the ruling Communist Party s constitution on Tuesday, giving it greater policy heft and added pressure to succeed. The  Belt and Road  plan, a  Silk Road -like initiative, is a vehicle for China to take a greater role on the international stage by funding and building global transport and trade links in more than 60 countries. Kono also said putting pressure on North Korea would  certainly be necessary  to make Pyongyang dismantle its missile and nuclear development, according to the Nikkei. He said if North Korea accepted a review by International Atomic Energy Agency it would be  the most trustworthy  option for conditions for talks between Pyongyang and the international community.

Summary: जापान अमेरिका, भारत और ऑस्ट्रेलिया के साथ रणनीतिक वार्ता का प्रस्ताव रखेगाः निक्केई


BERLIN (Reuters) - Politicians from four German parties seeking to form a first-of-its-kind coalition government agreed on Tuesday not to increase the country s debt load in order to fund sought-after tax cuts, subsidies and investments. Chancellor Angela Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU), their Christian Social Union (CSU) allies, the liberal Free Democrats and the Greens held a second round of talks after an election last month that saw the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) enter parliament for the first time. The four parties are under pressure to find common ground on contentious issues such as the future of the euro zone and immigration policy, as well as fiscal policy. A paper seen by Reuters that outlines their initial agreement on state spending showed the potential coalition partners want to cut taxes for families with children as well as lower- and middle-income people. They also want to abolish the  solidarity tax , introduced after reunification to support poorer states in eastern Germany, which is due to expire in 2019. The Greens, who before the talks said they opposed sticking to a balanced budget at any cost, appear to have conceded in exchange for a common pledge for subsidies to home owners who make their domiciles more energy efficient. Merkel s CDU and their Bavarian CSU allies lost support in the election to the anti-immigrant AfD, as the party stole many conservative voters angry at her 2015 decision to welcome more than one million migrants into Germany. Weakened after the Sept. 24 vote, Merkel is now seeking to form a four-way coalition untested at the national level that will secure her a fourth term as chancellor.  We are very satisfied with the (talks) this evening,  CDU General Secretary Peter Tauber told reporters after the talks.  It was a very good evening.  His positive assessment of the second round of exploratory talks was shared by counterparts from the CSU, FDP and Greens. A report by Merkel s CDU last week found that Germany s next government would have less fiscal room than expected. It also determined that the next government would have only 30 billion euros ($35.29 billion) free for new projects over the next four years if there is no new debt taken on - as has been the case since 2014.  The four parties  demands amount to over 100 billion euros in additional spending. The initial fiscal blueprint agreed on Tuesday did not say how the parties will fund their projects. It said they would explore fiscal flexibility measures at later rounds of talks.

Summary: गठबंधन वार्ता में जर्मन दल कोई नया ऋण नहीं लेने पर सहमत हुए


LONDON (Reuters) - British defence minister Michael Fallon said his past conduct had fallen below the high standard required in his position on Wednesday in a resignation letter to Prime Minister Theresa May.  A number of allegations have surfaced about MPs (Members of Parliament) in recent days, including some about my previous conduct. Many of these have been false but I accept that in the past I have fallen below the high standard we require of the Armed Forces that I have the honor to represent,  Fallon said in the letter published by May s office.

Summary: इस्तीफा देने वाले ब्रिटेन के रक्षा मंत्री फॉलन का कहना है कि आचरण आवश्यक मानकों से नीचे चला गया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base last week damaged or destroyed 20 percent of Syria’s operational aircraft, as well as fuel and ammunition sites and air defense capabilities, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Monday. “The Syrian government has lost the ability to refuel or re-arm aircraft at Shayrat airfield and at this point, use of the runway is of idle military interest,” Mattis said in a statement. “The Syrian government would be ill-advised ever again to use chemical weapons.”

Summary: अमेरिका का कहना है कि हमले ने सीरिया के 20 प्रतिशत परिचालन विमानों को प्रभावित किया


HARARE (Reuters) - Ousted Zimbabwe finance minister Ignatius Chombo, charged with three counts of corruption for offences that allegedly took place two decades ago, was denied bail on Monday and will be detained in custody until his case is heard on Dec. 8. Zimbabwe s new president Emmerson Mnangagwa named Patrick Chinamasa as acting finance minister to replace him. Chombo, who faces charges including trying to defraud the central bank, was detained after the military seized power in  Operation Restore Legacy , which it said was meant to remove  criminals  around former president Robert Mugabe. His lawyer, Lovemore Madhuku, told reporters that he would appeal the magistrate s ruling in the High Court on Tuesday.  Their decision was always made up that bail would not be granted here ... We are hopeful that the High Court will show independence,  Madhuku said.  Earlier, he told a packed courtroom that Chombo, who sat impassively throughout the hearing, would deny the charges at his trial and had documentary evidence showing the allegations had no basis. The magistrate who detained Chombo said the former minister could abscond, influence state witnesses or be the target of a mob attack over the allegations that he abused his position when he was minister of local government over a decade ago. Chombo, who was appointed finance minister in October, was among members of the G40 political faction allied to Mugabe and his wife, Grace, who were also expelled from the ruling ZANU-PF party. Two ousted ZANU-PF Youth League leaders, Kudzanai Chipanga and Innocent Hamandishe, who were both allied to G-40, were also ordered to be detained until Dec. 8. Some Mnangagwa supporters have called for unspecified action against G40 but the president has urged citizens not to undertake any form of  vengeful retribution . Chombo told the court on Saturday how he was abducted from his home on Nov. 15 by armed men in  soldiers  uniform  and kept blindfolded for nine days. He was promoted to the finance portfolio from the interior ministry by Mugabe in an October reshuffle, replacing Chinamasa, who the chief secretary to the president and cabinet said will return to the role until a new cabinet has been appointed. Zimbabwe is struggling with a severe shortage of the U.S. dollars it uses instead of its own currency. In his main act as finance minister, Chombo told parliament on Nov. 9 that Zimbabwe s budget deficit would soar to $1.82 billion or 11.2 percent of gross domestic product this year from an initial target of $400 million. Mnangagwa, who served Mugabe loyally for decades, was sworn in as president last Friday after the 93-year-old former leader quit under pressure from the military. He is expected to form a new cabinet this week. Zimbabweans are watching to see Mnangagwa he breaks with the past and names a broad-based government or selects other figures from the Mugabe era s old guard.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे के पूर्व वित्त मंत्री चोंबो को मुकदमे तक हिरासत में रखा जाएगा


PARIS (Reuters) - Lebanon s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri and his family will travel to France in coming days, a French presidential source said on Wednesday, after Emmanuel Macron invited him as part of efforts to defuse tensions in the Middle East. Speaking in the German city of Bonn after a climate conference, Macron said his invitation was not an offer of exile for Hariri, who announced his abrupt resignation as premier 11 days ago from the Saudi capital Riyadh. Lebanese President Michel Aoun, who has refused to accept his prime minister s resignation, earlier on Wednesday accused the Saudis of holding Hariri hostage - and called this an act of aggression. Asked if he was offering Hariri exile, Macron said:  No, not at all. I hope that Lebanon will be stable, and that political choices should be in accordance with institutional rule.  We need a strong Lebanon with her territorial integrity respected. We need leaders who are free to make their own choices and speak freely.  France has close relations with Lebanon, which was under French control between the world wars, and with Hariri, who has a home in France and spent several years in the country. His father Rafik was a close friend of former French President Jacques Chirac.  Macron s invitation came after he spoke to both Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Hariri by telephone, the Elysee said in a statement.  Saudi Arabia has denied detaining Hariri or coercing him to quit. One source in the presidential Elysee Palace said Hariri was expected to arrive in France  in the coming days .  France s offer appeared to be a last-minute one, with no indication from French officials this morning that this was on the cards. A French government spokesman in a weekly briefing even called on Hariri to return to Beirut to offer his resignation. French diplomats in Paris appeared caught off-guard. They said Macron had found a way to get Hariri out of Saudi Arabia without any side losing face, but questioned how this would pan out in the longer term.   This has come out of the blue,  one diplomat said.   The president wants to ease tensions ... but we re also going round in circles. Are we just inheriting the problems?  Hariri on Wednesday reiterated on Twitter that he would soon return to Beirut. It was not clear whether he might stop in Beirut before coming to Paris.  France s foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, arrived in Riyadh on Wednesday evening to dine with Crown Prince Mohammed and will meet Hariri on Thursday afternoon.  Saudi Arabia has long been considered Hariri s main external supporter. Aoun is a political ally of Lebanon s Hezbollah, a powerful Shi ite Muslim group with close ties to Iran. Lebanon s coalition government was formed last year through a political deal that made Aoun president, Hariri prime minister, and included members of Hezbollah in the cabinet. Macron last week made a last-minute stopover in Riyadh on his way back from the Gulf to see Crown Prince Mohammed, and has since spoken to Aoun and hosted the Lebanese foreign minister in Paris on Tuesday.

Summary: फ्रांस के मैक्रों ने हरीरी और उनके परिवार को फ्रांस आने का न्योता दिया


MOSCOW (Reuters) - There are problems with cooperation between Russia and the United States in Syria, Interfax news agency cited Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying on Friday.  How we are cooperating on Syria - yes, not without problems of course, because not everyone takes things the same way,  Interfax quoted Lavrov as saying.  Nevertheless, it is an example of how you can set aside differences and concentrate on common interests.

Summary: लावरोवः सीरिया पर सहयोग 'बिना किसी समस्या के नहीं'


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican President-elect Donald Trump will hold more meetings on Friday and Saturday as he moves to select people for his cabinet and administration, his transition team told reporters on Friday.  He is scheduled to meet with the following people: *Former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate *Under consideration for U.S. homeland security secretary *Arrived alongside Tom Cotton, the freshman U.S. senator from Arkansas who, according to FOX News, is under consideration for U.S. Defense Secretary *Republican donor and former chair of the Michigan Republican Party  *Republican National Committee finance chairman *Retired four-star general and head of U.S. Central Command  *Visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative-leaning think tank at Stanford University *CKE Restaurants chief executive officer and director *Under consideration for U.S. labor secretary, according to Politico *2012 Republican presidential nominee *Former governor of Massachusetts and CEO of 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City *Under possible consideration for U.S. secretary of state *Former chancellor of Washington D.C., public school system *Founder of StudentsFirst, an education advocacy group *Under consideration for education secretary, according to media reports *Chicago Cubs board member *Director and CEO of Ending Spending, a political group that has said it wants to reduce “wasteful and excessive government spending” *Founder and president of Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, a community development advocacy group

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ट्रम्प इस सप्ताहांत में हक्काबी, रोमनी और अन्य लोगों से मिलेंगे


BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania has expelled a pro-Russian Serbian nationalist and banned him from entering the NATO member for 15 years after he showed an interest in obtaining classified information on  military installations, state security said on Tuesday. Bratislav Zivkovic, 42, is a commander of Serbia s Chetnik paramilitary and went to Crimea in 2014-15 to support the Russian intervention there. He told reporters there at the time that it was only natural to want to help Russians fighting the Ukrainians.  A spokesman for Romania s SRI secret service said it had identified Zivkovic  showing interest in obtaining classified documents on critical infrastructure and national and allied military objectives located in south-east Romania with the intention of affecting our strategic partnerships.  SRI s Ovidiu Marincea said Zivkovic had been caught while taking photos of military radars on the Black sea shore and  trying to transmit their GPS coordinates.   I want to stress this Serbian citizen did not succeed in gathering any documents or classified information,  Marincea said. He poses a risk to Romania s national security, he added. Russia is Serbia s traditional ally with the two nations sharing Slav origins, the Christian Orthodox faith and having similar languages. Serbia is heavily dependent on Russia s energy and the cash-strapped government in Belgrade has turned to Kremlin to underpin its budget. The Serbian Chetniks gained notoriety in the 1990s when their units committed atrocities against non-Serbs in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo, a former Serbian province dominated by ethnic Albanians.

Summary: रोमानिया ने सैन्य रडार की तस्वीर लेने के लिए रूस समर्थक सर्ब को निष्कासित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday filed an emergency motion to stop sanctions imposed by a federal judge in Texas that  included mandated ethics classes for federal prosecutors, as part of ongoing litigation over immigration policy. The sanctions were ordered on May 19 by District Judge Andrew Hanen, who ruled in February 2015 that President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration were outside the bounds of the president’s authority. Hanen also ordered the Department of Homeland Security to prepare a state-by-state review of immigrants who were given three years of safeguards from deportation under Obama’s previous immigration action instead of two.  The case has been brought before the U.S. Supreme Court.  The Justice Department asked Hanen to put a hold on the sanctions while it seeks a review from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Justice Department will ask the Fifth Circuit for an appeal of the decision, a mandamus order or both to block the sanction order.  In the court filing, in Houston, the Justice Department said it “takes with utmost seriousness the public trust committed to it to represent the interests of the American people in the courts of the United States, and insists that its attorneys adhere to the high standards of ethical conduct and professionalism required to carry out that critical mission.”     “The court’s order to turn over immigration records would undermine trust in the Department of Homeland Security’s ability to maintain the confidentiality of personal information, which is essential to its mission,” said Patrick Rodenbush, a spokesman for the Justice Department, in connection with the review ordered by Hanen.

Summary: न्याय विभाग ने आप्रवासन मामले में अदालती प्रतिबंधों पर रोक लगाने के लिए कहा


VIENNA (Reuters) - The OSCE media watchdog on Wednesday criticized a German law designed to fine social media networks for dragging their feet in removing hateful postings for being too broad and called on lawmakers to consider amending it. The German parliament in June approved legislation, in force since the beginning of the month, that allows authorities to punish groups such as Facebook or Twitter if they do not promptly delete hate postings.     Harlem Desire, the media freedom chief of the 57-state Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said he hoped the German law would encourage providers to speedily process users  complaints, but added its effects could be excessively restrictive.  I appeal to the German authorities to take steps to ensure the careful implementation of the law, evaluate its effects and be ready to amend it in parliament, if necessary, as in its current form, the law may have a chilling effect on freedom of expression,  Desire said in a statement.  According to the law s provisions, decisions to remove content considered unlawful or illegitimate from social networks rests with the operators of those networks, who may remove more than is necessary or proportionate, and the list of offences for which content may be deleted is very broad.  Germany has some of the world s toughest laws covering defamation, public incitement to commit crimes and threats of violence, with prison sentences for Holocaust denial or inciting hatred against minorities. However, few online cases are prosecuted. The new law gives social media networks 24 hours to delete or block obviously criminal content and seven days to deal with less clear-cut cases, with an obligation to report back to the person who filed the complaint about how they handled the case. Failure to comply could see a company fined up to 50 million euros ($59 million), and the company s chief representative in Germany fined up to 5 million euros. Critics of a new hate speech law in Germany are optimistic that it can be revised after its Social Democratic sponsors vowed to drop out of the ruling coalition following last month s national election and go into opposition.

Summary: ओ. एस. सी. ई. वॉचडॉग ने जर्मन सोशल मीडिया कानून की आलोचना करते हुए इसे बहुत व्यापक बताया


MOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for three hours of talks to lay the groundwork for a new push by Moscow to end Syria s conflict now that Islamic State s territory is overrun. Russia is trying to broker an international consensus around a peace deal for Syria, over two years after Moscow began a military intervention that turned the tide of the conflict in Assad s favor. Putin said he would follow up his meeting late on Monday with Assad by talking soon to international leaders with influence over the conflict, among them U.S. President Donald Trump, the Saudi king, and the leaders of Iran and Turkey.  In a more than hour long phone call on Tuesday, Trump and Putin stressed the importance of the U.N.-led peace process in resolving the Syrian civil war, the White House said.   According to the Kremlin, Putin told Trump that the  Syrian leader confirmed adherence to the political process, to run a constitutional reform  and presidential and parliamentary elections.  Previous attempts to end Syria s six years of war have foundered because of bitter disagreements, especially on whether Assad himself should stay in power. After the talks in Russia   Assad s first publicly-declared travel outside Syria since a trip to Moscow in October, 2015   a Kremlin spokesman declined to say if Assad s own future had come up in the discussions, saying only that was up to the Syrian people.  The White House statement made no mention of Assad s future. U.S. officials have said Assad has no future governing Syria. Putin meanwhile also spoke with Saudi King Salman, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.  The half-hour conversation with Netanyahu dealt with Iran s attempts to gain a foothold in Syria and Israel s opposition to such moves, according to a source in Netanyahu s office. The Israeli leader stressed his country s security concerns, the source said. In a sign that international attempts may be underway to bridge the differences between rival sides in the Syrian conflict, leading opposition figures, including former prime minister Riyad Hijab, resigned. Hijab headed the opposition High Negotiations Committee, formed with Saudi backing, and had insisted on Assad s removal from power at the start of a political transition. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking in Moscow, said the resignations would make the opposition more reasonable and realistic. On Wednesday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani   whose countries back opposing sides in the Syria conflict   will travel to Russia for a three-way meeting with Putin aimed at advancing the Syrian peace process. Assad s visit to Russia was brief and closely-guarded. He flew in on Monday evening, held talks, and flew out four hours after landing, according to the Kremlin. Officials did not release word of the meeting until Tuesday morning. Sitting either side of a small coffee table in a conference room at Putin s residence in Sochi, southern Russia, Putin told Assad it was time to pivot from a focus on military operations to a search for a peaceful solution. Syrian government forces and their allies at the weekend took control of Albu Kamal, the last major Syrian town held by Islamic State.  We still have a long way to go before we achieve a complete victory over terrorists. But as far as our joint work in fighting terrorism on the territory of Syria is concerned, this military operation is indeed wrapping up,  Putin told Assad, in comments broadcast by Russian television.  Now the most important thing, of course, is to move on to the political questions, and I note with satisfaction your readiness to work with all those who want peace and a solution (to the conflict),  Putin said. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, dressed in an olive-colored uniform, looked on as Putin and Assad spoke. Wearing a dark suit and sitting across from Putin, Assad told the Russian leader:  At this stage, especially after we achieved victory over terrorists, it is in our interests to move forward with the political process.  And we believe that the situation we now have on the ground and in the political sense permits us to expect progress in the political process. We count on the support of Russia to ensure the non-interference of outside players in the political process,  he said through an interpreter.  We don t want to look backwards. We welcome all those who truly want to see a political solution. We are ready to have a dialogue with them,  said Assad. Putin and Assad last met in Moscow on Oct. 20, 2015, a few weeks after Moscow launched its military operation in Syria, which has beaten back anti-Assad rebels and propped up struggling government forces. Underscoring the importance of the Russian military to Assad, Putin presented the Syrian leader to top military commanders assembled at his Sochi residence.  On behalf of the entire Syrian people, I express my gratitude for what you have done,  Assad told them.  We will not forget it.  Assad s opponents, and Western governments, have accused Russia of killing significant numbers of Syrian civilians with its air strikes, allegations Moscow denies. Some people familiar with the Kremlin s thinking say that, to reach a peace deal, Russia would not insist on Assad staying in power   as long as the institutions of the Syrian state remained intact. But while Russia is not wedded to Assad, Iran is committed to him. Iranian forces and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia have played a big role in the fighting on the ground, supporting Assad s forces.  Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah thanked and praised Shi ite militias including Afghans and Iraqis for their role in the Syria war in a speech on Monday night. He said the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Qods Force, Major General Qassem Soleimani, had led the battle for Albu Kamal from the frontlines.

Summary: सीरिया शांति समझौते के लिए नए अभियान में रूस के पुतिन ने असद की मेजबानी की


NMADRID (Reuters) - Catalonia s pro-independence parties were seen losing their parliamentary majority in the regional election on Dec. 21, an official poll showed on Monday. Pro-indepence party Junts per Catalunya was seen winning 25-26 seats, ERC another 32 seats and extreme-left party CUP 9 seats, according to the poll carried out by Sociological Research Centre (CIS). That would give the pro-independence camp just 67 seats in the 135-seat regional parliament, stripping them of the previous slim majority. The government s People s Party (PP) would win just 7 seats while the Socialists would take 21 and the market friendly Ciudadanos 31-32 seats, the poll showed. CatComu-Podem, the Catalan arm of the anti-austerity Podemos party, could win 9 seats, according to the survey.

Summary: कैटेलोनिया की स्वतंत्रता समर्थक पार्टियों को चुनाव में बहुमत गंवाना पड़ाः सर्वेक्षण


BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany may need to change its constitution to allow it to strike back at hackers who target private computer networks and it hopes to complete any legal reforms next year, a top Interior Ministry official said on Monday. The plan could include disarming servers used in attacks and reflects growing concern about the frequency and intensity of such attacks. Industry is also raising pressure on government to respond to the barrage, which ultimately could hurt Europe s leading economy. State Secretary Klaus Vitt told Reuters the government believed  significant legal changes would be needed  to allow such  hack back  actions.  A constitutional change may be needed since this is such a critical issue,  Vitt said on the sidelines of a cyber conference organized by the Handelsblatt newspaper.  The goal is to get it done by the end of next year at the latest.  Vitt said much would depend on the outcome of coalition talks in Germany of which cyber capabilities formed a part. Experts say it may be easier to enact the legal changes under a right-center-left coalition, which has ruled for the past four years, than under a three-way coalition with smaller parties that Chancellor Angela Merkel initially tried to forge. Top German intelligence officials told parliament last month they needed greater legal authority to strike back in the event of cyber attacks from foreign powers. Vitt told the conference that changing threats and new modes of attack required different responses from government agencies including more  offensive  capabilities.  We must assume that purely preventative measures will not be sufficient to counter future attacks,  Vitt said. He said no one would question the need for police to enter a house and disarm a sniper shooting at innocent people.  But what about servers that are used to launch cyber attacks that paralyze the IT (information technology) of hospitals or utilities, affecting hundreds of thousands of people?  Andreas Jambor, chief information security officer for RWE Generation SE, a unit of German energy giant RWE (RWEG.DE), welcomed the moves.  There s a war underway on the internet .... We want things to be sorted out,  Jambor said.  Other countries are doing it and we should do it here as well.  Andreas Ebert, head of security for German carmaker Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) said any offensive action should be taken by the government. Arne Schoenbohm, president of Germany s BSI federal cyber protection agency, declined to give details about the legal concepts being developed. He said the need to target servers would likely make up just  0.01 percent of all cases.

Summary: जर्मनी को हैकर्स पर जवाबी हमला करने की अनुमति देने के लिए संवैधानिक परिवर्तन की आवश्यकता हो सकती है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A public interest group urged U.S. officials on Wednesday to free up Washington landmarks for thousands of people planning protests around the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. The Washington-based Partnership for Civil Justice Fund said the National Park Service had handed over control of sites such  as the Lincoln Memorial to the private committee overseeing Republican Trump’s inauguration. The move had left at least a dozen protest groups without prime venues, a violation of Americans’ constitutional rights, fund officials said. The National Park Service “has done a massive land grab inhibiting all those who want to exercise their right to free speech,” Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a co-founder of the fund, said at a news conference.  Trump’s inaugural committee did not respond to a request for comment.  Trump’s election on Nov. 8 led to days of sometimes-violent protests by people who said the New York businessman and former reality TV star encouraged racism, bigotry and misogyny in his campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton and was a threat to American values. National Park Service spokesman Mike Litterst said agency rules in place since 2008 give an inaugural committee preferential access to some public areas along Pennsylvania Avenue, the National Mall and surrounding land. A federal court has upheld the rules and most public sidewalks along the parade route down Pennsylvania Avenue, the boulevard running from the Capitol to the White House, are open to protesters. The NPS  is reviewing the pending applications, Litterst said in an email. The Partnership for Civil Justice said that it was the first time in recent memory that permits to the land had been extended to a private inauguration committee in the days around a president’s swearing-in. But it said that despite the decision, city law allowed peaceful street protests to go ahead without permits. The fund is prepared to sue to get the permits pulled so protesters may gather near the White House and the National Mall, Verheyden-Hilliard said.  District of Columbia officials are expecting around a million people for the inauguration and events surrounding it. Several groups have vowed to demonstrate. More than 135,000 people have said they would take part in a march for women’s rights the day after the ceremony. The committee has not said what it will do with the sites and the National Park Service has said it has no plans to use them, Verheyden-Hilliard said.

Summary: ट्रम्प उद्घाटन विरोध समूह वाशिंगटन स्थलों तक पहुंच की मांग करते हैं


(Reuters) - JetBlue Airways Corp is offering $99 direct flights from every Florida city where it operates, the airline said on Wednesday, as people hurry to leave before powerful Hurricane Irma hits the state. A price cap through Sept. 10 is also in place for all of JetBlue s Florida connecting flights, a maximum fare of $159 up to the last available seat, the company said.  We want those trying to leave ahead of the hurricane to focus on their safe evacuation rather than worry about the cost of flights,  JetBlue spokesman Doug McGraw said. Flights in the eastern Caribbean through Sept. 7 and in the western Caribbean through Sept. 8 are also under a fare ceiling. Florida remained under a state of emergency as Irma, packing winds of up to 185 miles per hour (295 km per hour), tracked across the northern Caribbean on a path expected to hit  landfall in the United States over the weekend. Airlines have been criticized for raising prices in the wake of deadly episodes such as a 2015 Amtrak derailment, but U.S. officials said last year they found no evidence of wrongdoing in that instance.  Irma s arrival marks the second time in as many weeks U.S. airline operations will be disrupted by a powerful storm.  Last week, Category 4 Hurricane Harvey landed in Texas and swallowed up much of Houston with powerful winds and deadly flooding. Airline operations were crippled for several days as airports closed, forcing thousands of flight cancellations.

Summary: जेटब्लू तूफान इरमा से पहले फ्लोरिडा से $99 की उड़ानों की पेशकश करता है


DENPASAR, Indonesia (Reuters) - Bali airport will reopen on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said, two days after a volcanic eruption spread ash across the island and forced the airport to close. The airport will reopen at 3 p.m. (0700 GMT)

Summary: इंडोनेशिया ज्वालामुखी के कारण बंद होने के बाद बाली हवाई अड्डे को फिर से खोलेगा


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump called on “Israel to be reasonable with respect to peace”, spelling out in his own words his administration’s stance that new settlements on Palestinian land may not be helpful in an interview with an Israeli newspaper.  Trump’s comments to Israel Today come as he tones down his pro-Israel bravado ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to the White House on Feb. 15. “I want Israel to be reasonable with respect to peace. I want to see peace happen,” Trump said in the interview published on Friday. “I would like to see a level of reasonableness of both parties, and I think we have a good chance of doing that.”  During his 2016 election campaign, Trump signaled his presidency would be a boon for Israel and tough on Palestinians. He talked of moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, naming an ambassador who backs Israel’s settlement program and exerting no pressure on Israel for peace talks. Now Trump is adopting a more measured stance. Even though the White House did not join the widespread criticism this week of a new Israeli law which retroactively legalizes about 4,000 existing settler homes, its pro-Israel approach shows signs of being more nuanced.  “They [settlements] don’t help the process. I can say that,” Trump told the Israeli daily owned by U.S. casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, a Netanyahu supporter and Republican Party donor. “Every time you take land for settlements, there is less land left,” Trump said. “I am not somebody that believes that going forward with these settlements is a good thing for peace.” The president said his administration was “looking at some other options” regarding the settlements.       He also said he was still studying the case for relocating the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, a move that could anger the Arab world.  “The embassy is not an easy decision. It has obviously been out there for many, many years, and nobody has wanted to make that decision. I’m thinking about it very seriously, and we will see what happens,” Trump said.

Summary: शांति प्रक्रिया में इजरायल को 'तर्कसंगत' होना चाहिएः ट्रंप


(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court in Washington on Tuesday upheld a lower court’s decision to allow President Donald Trump’s commission investigating voter fraud to request data on voter rolls from U.S. states. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) watchdog group, which filed the lawsuit, did not have legal standing to seek to force the presidential commission to review privacy concerns before collecting individuals’ voter data. EPIC had argued that under federal law, the commission was required to conduct a privacy-impact assessment before gathering personal data. But the three-judge appeals court panel ruled unanimously that the privacy law at issue was intended to protect individuals, not groups like EPIC. “EPIC is not a voter,” Judge Karen Henderson wrote in the ruling.  Washington-based U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly first denied EPIC’s injunction request in July, in part because the collection of data by the commission was not technically an action by a government agency so was not bound by laws that govern what such entities can do.  Kollar-Kotelly noted that the commission, headed by Vice President Mike Pence, was an advisory body that lacks legal authority to compel states to hand over the data. Most state officials who oversee elections and election law experts say that voter fraud is rare in the United States. Trump, a Republican, set up the commission in May after charging, without evidence, that millions of people voted unlawfully in the 2016 presidential election in which he defeated Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton despite losing the popular vote.  The commission’s vice chair, Kris Kobach, the Republican secretary of state for Kansas and an advocate of tougher laws on immigration and voter identification, asked states in June to turn over voter information. The data requested by Kobach included names, the last four digits of Social Security numbers, addresses, birth dates, political affiliation, felony convictions and voting histories.  More than 20 states refused outright and others said they needed to study whether they could provide the data. Civil rights groups and Democratic lawmakers have said the commission’s eventual findings could lead to new ID requirements and other measures making it harder for groups that tend to favor Democratic candidates to cast ballots. EPIC executive director Marc Rotenberg could not immediately be reached for comment.

Summary: अमेरिकी अपील अदालत ने ट्रम्प मतदाता धोखाधड़ी पैनल को चुनौती देने से इनकार कर दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will announce new U.S. responses to Iran s missile tests, support for  terrorism  and cyber operations as part of his new Iran strategy, the White House said on Friday.  The president isn t looking at one piece of this. He s looking at all of the bad behavior of Iran,  Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, told reporters.  Not just the nuclear deal as bad behavior, but the ballistic missile testing, destabilizing of the region, Number One state sponsor of terrorism, cyber attacks, illicit nuclear program,  Sanders continued. Trump  wants to look for a broad strategy that addresses all of those problems, not just one-offing those,  she said.  That s what his team is focused on and that s what he ll be rolling out to address that as a whole in the coming days.  A senior administration official told Reuters on Thursday that Trump was expected to announce he will decertify the landmark international deal curbing Iran s nuclear program, in a step that could cause the accord to unravel. Trump on Friday declined to explain what he meant when he described a gathering of military leaders the evening before as  the calm before the storm,  but the White House said his remarks were not meant to be mischievous. The administration was considering Oct. 12 for Trump to give a speech on Iran, but no final decision had been made, an official said previously. It was not clear to what illicit nuclear program Sanders was referring as the International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran is complying with the 2015 nuclear deal reached with the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France, Germany and the European Union. The Trump administration also has acknowledged that Iran has not breached the accord s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, which is designed to prevent Iran developing a nuclear weapon. The administration, however, contends that Tehran has violated the  spirit  of the deal. The issue came up during a telephone call on Friday between Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron. The pair discussed  ways to continue working together to deny Iran all paths to a nuclear weapon,  according to a White House statement. Macron has been a fierce defender of the JCPOA, denounced by Trump as  the worst deal ever negotiated.  But the French leader also has suggested that restraints on Iran s nuclear program that expire in 2025 could be bolstered, a senior French official said last month. A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Friday that steps Trump is reviewing as part of a broader strategy also include imposing targeted sanctions in response to Iran s ballistic missile tests, cyber espionage and backing of Lebanese Hezbollah and other groups on the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations. The administration earlier this year considered, but then put on hold, adding the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran s most powerful internal and external security force, to the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations. The Quds Force, the IRGC s foreign espionage and paramilitary wing, and individuals and entities associated with the IRGC are on the list, but the organization as a whole is not.  Last month, current and former U.S. officials told Reuters the broader strategy Trump is weighing is expected to allow more aggressive U.S. actions to counter what the administration views as Iran s efforts to boost its military muscle and expand its regional influence through proxy forces. Under a 2015 U.S. law, Trump has until Oct. 15 to certify to Congress that Iran is complying with the JCPOA. If he decides to decertify, lawmakers would have 60 days in which to consider reimposing U.S. sanctions on Iran lifted under the deal, an action that many experts warn could unhinge the accord. Knowledgeable sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said the administration is looking for ways to fix what it views as serious flaws without necessarily killing the deal. Critics say the flaws include the so-called sunset clauses, under which some of the restrictions on Iran s nuclear program expire over time. Trump s national security adviser, General H.R. McMaster, met with Republican and Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday in an effort to win their support for the strategy.

Summary: ईरान के 'बुरे व्यवहार' पर नई प्रतिक्रियाओं का खुलासा करेंगे ट्रंपः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former FBI Director James Comey had requested additional funding and personnel for the agency’s probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election just days before he was fired, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. Comey, fired by President Donald Trump on Tuesday, had asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein last week for a significant boost in resources and later briefed U.S. lawmakers on the request, the New York Times said, citing three unnamed officials.

Summary: एफ. बी. आई. प्रमुख ने बर्खास्त होने से कुछ दिन पहले रूस की जांच के लिए और धन मांगा थाः न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स


NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former aide to Chris Christie said in a text message that the New Jersey governor “flat out lied” when he said senior staff members were not involved in the “Bridgegate” scandal in 2013, according to a court filing on Wednesday. The details were revealed in a document filed in New Jersey federal court by Bill Baroni, former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who is one of two former Christie allies facing trial next month on Bridgegate-related criminal charges. Speculation has persisted for years about whether Christie or members of his staff were aware of an alleged plot to close two New York City-bound lanes at the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee as retribution against Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat who had refused to back the Republican governor’s re-election campaign. Christie addressed the controversy at a Dec. 13, 2013, news conference, a day after the state legislature issued several subpoenas in its investigation of the lane closures. “I’ve made it very clear to everybody on my senior staff that if anyone had any knowledge about this that they needed to come forward to me and tell me about it, and they’ve all assured me that they don’t,” Christie said at the time. Christina Renna, former director of Christie’s intergovernmental affairs office, immediately sent a text message to Peter Sheridan, a member of Christie’s re-election campaign, according to the filing. “Are you listening? He just flat out lied about senior staff and Stepien not being involved,” her first text said, referring to Bill Stepien, who managed Christie’s two gubernatorial campaigns. In a subsequent text, Renna said “it could be bad” if emails were later uncovered through a subpoena or court discovery. Christie would apologize weeks later at another news conference, when he said he was firing his deputy chief of staff, Bridget Kelly, and that he had been “lied to” when he told reporters no one on his staff was involved. He also cut ties with Stepien, saying at the news conference that he had lost confidence in Stepien’s judgment. Stepien has not been charged in the case. “The governor’s statements have been clear,” a Christie spokesman, Brian Murray, said on Wednesday. “Nothing contained in this text message changes that in any way.” A lawyer for Renna, now vice president of the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey, said she would not address the issue until she testifies at the upcoming criminal trial for Baroni and Kelly. Kevin Marino, a lawyer for Stepien, called the suggestion he might have been involved in Bridgegate “categorically false and irresponsible.” Sheridan, who works for the state Republican party, did not respond to a request for comment. Jury selection will begin Sept. 12 for Baroni and Kelly, who face charges including conspiracy and fraud. Another former Port Authority official, David Wildstein, has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with federal prosecutors.

Summary: पूर्व सहायकः क्रिस्टी ने न्यू जर्सी 'ब्रिजगेट' के बारे में 'झूठ' बोला-फाइलिंग


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump will not revive his predecessor’s stalled Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal in any form, but will quickly pursue bilateral trade agreements, a Trump transition policy adviser said. “TPP is dead. I cannot stress that more strongly,” said the adviser, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly for the administration that takes office on Jan. 20.  “TPP, or a multilateral agreement that looks like TPP but is called something else, is emphatically dead.” On Wednesday, Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, said he was not opposed to President Barack Obama’s 12-country Pacific Rim trade deal but shared some of Trump’s views “on whether the agreement that was negotiated serves all of America’s interests at best.” Speaking by phone late on Thursday, the Trump adviser said Tillerson was expressing some personal views on free trade theory. The adviser said the administration was not going to pursue multilateral trade deals. “You will be shocked by the speed at which bilateral agreements begin to materialize,” the adviser said. Britain has expressed strong interest in a bilateral trade deal with the United States once it exits the European Union.  Official spokespeople for the Trump transition team did not respond to Reuters’ requests for further comment.  The adviser said he would not rule out declaring China a currency manipulator or levying tariffs on Chinese goods as a means of reducing massive U.S. trade deficits with China. He declined to speculate how quickly a currency designation could come, adding that the issue needed further review. The Trump policy adviser said the new administration is determined to reverse years of Chinese trade practices that have “hollowed out” the U.S. manufacturing base.   “You have to understand the view of this administration that China is essentially perpetrating an economic war, they’re already engaged in a trade war against us,” the adviser said.

Summary: ट्रम्प सलाहकारः टी. पी. पी. 'मर चुका है', दोनों देशों के बीच व्यापार समझौतों पर तेजी से आगे बढ़ेगा


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that the question of who hacked the U.S. Democratic party was not important, but that the hacks revealed that public opinion in the United States was being manipulated. Russia has repeatedly denied accusations Moscow was involved in cyber attacks against the United States.

Summary: डेमोक्रेटिक पार्टी को किसने हैक किया, यह सवाल महत्वपूर्ण नहीं हैः पुतिन


BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romanian anti-corruption prosecutors opened an investigation on  Monday into the leader of the ruling Social Democrat Party, Liviu Dragnea, on suspicion of forming a  criminal group  to siphon off cash from state projects, some of them EU-funded.     Dragnea, currently on trial in a separate abuse-of-office case, told reporters he rejected the new charges. Opposition parties called on him to resign as parliament speaker pending the criminal inquiry. Prosecutors said Dragnea was suspected of forming  an organized criminal group  that included public servants and businesspeople in 2001. They said there were suspicions the group was still active.  The investigation focused on road construction firm Tel Drum SA, formerly controlled by the county council of the southern Teleorman region, a body that Dragnea headed until 2012, prosecutors said. Dragnea and eight other people conspired to privatize the company through intermediaries, so that it came under  the influence and control of the suspect Liviu Dragnea,  the prosecutors added. The company won many public contracts, at times without tenders or benefiting from confidential information that helped it beat other bidders, the prosecutors  statement said. Dragnea and people close to him received cash and other assets from it, the statement added. Tel Drum director Petre Pitis, also under investigation, declined to comment as he left a closed-door hearing at the office of anti-corruption prosecuting agency DNA. A company representative told Reuters that an official reaction was not expected on Monday.  The group of nine people was suspected of seeking to  fraudulently obtain important sums from public works contracts funded with domestic and European funds, by committing abuse of office, EU funds fraud, tax evasion, money laundering and accessing confidential information,  the DNA statement read. The case was based on a notice sent by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) in 2016 regarding suspicions that Dragnea and other regional officials had used forged papers to secure EU funds for road rehabilitations, prosecutors said.  I categorically do not feel guilty, I never formed a criminal group,  Dragnea told reporters. The 55-year-old, who got a suspended prison sentence last year for illegally using his influence within the party to sway a 2012 referendum, has dismissed past investigations as politically motivated. Opposition liberal Ioan Cupsa said Dragnea should resign.  Once more, he is making parliament and the image it has with public opinion vulnerable,  he was quoted saying by state news agency Agerpres. Dragnea said he had no intention of stepping aside. Transparency International ranks Romania among the European Union s most corrupt states. Brussels, which keeps Romania s justice system under special monitoring, has praised magistrates for their efforts to curb graft. The ruling Social Democrats are currently preparing a judicial overhaul the European Commission, foreign diplomats and Romania s own president have all said could place the justice system under political control. Thousands of Romanians protested against the overhaul earlier this month. At the start of 2017, attempts by the ruling coalition to weaken anti-corruption legislation triggered the country s biggest protests in decades.

Summary: रोमानियाई सत्तारूढ़ दल के नेता ने 'आपराधिक समूह' पर जांच की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The list of people, including dissidents, President Barack Obama plans to invite to meet with him during his trip to Cuba will not be negotiated with the Cuban government, the White House said on Friday. In a daily press briefing with reporters, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Obama would be meeting with people who had previously been victimized by the government and encourage them to continue advocating for universal human rights. “The list of people invited to meet with the president in Cuba in non-negotiable,” Earnest said. “I would not be surprised if there are people on that list that the Cuban government prefer we not meet with ... but I can tell you the president is going to move forward in those meetings and have a conversation about human rights.” Obama is set to leave for Cuba on Sunday.

Summary: ओबामा की क्यूबा बैठकों पर क्यूबा सरकार के साथ बातचीत नहीं होगीः व्हाइट हाउस


MALE (Reuters) - Two Maldivians suspected of having links to Islamic State (IS)militants were planning to carry out a suicide attack in the country s capital, government officials said on Wednesday. The two, in their 20s, have been in detention since September but officials are now asking for them to be charged in criminal court.      The police investigation found out that they are affiliated with IS and they had planned to carry out an attack in Male,  Adam Thaufeeq, a spokesman at the Prosecutor General s office told Reuters. He declined to elaborate on specific location or the time of the planned attack. Male City, a two square mile island with a population of 150,000, is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. Maldives authorities made several arrests in September, after the United Kingdom updated its Maldives travel advisory, saying militants were  very likely  to carry out an attack in the country. Officials have also told Reuters that the authorities detained two Maldivians in Turkey en route to Syria to join IS fighters in September.  Significant numbers of radicalised Maldives youths have enlisted to fight for Islamic State in the Middle East and President Abdulla Yameen s government has brought some new laws to arrest Maldivians joining the group.

Summary: मालदीव की जांच में आरोप लगाया गया है कि दो संदिग्ध राजधानी में आत्मघाती हमले की योजना बना रहे थे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s proposal to defund programs to clean up the Chesapeake Bay and the Great Lakes, two of the country’s largest water systems, brought scorn on Thursday from a bipartisan array of lawmakers who vowed to fight the cuts. Members of Congress said the proposal to wipe out Environmental Protection Agency funds to clean up the Great Lakes and the fragile Chesapeake Bay ecosystem threatened the environment as well as tens of billions of dollars in economic benefits. Senator Rob Portman, a Republican of Ohio, rejected the  proposed spending cut for the Great Lakes program. “I have long championed this program, and I’m committed to continuing to do everything I can to protect and preserve Lake Erie,” he said in a statement, referring to the Great Lake that forms his state’s northern border. Without specifically addressing the clean-up program cuts, White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said the administration’s proposed 31 percent reduction in EPA spending reflected the president’s view that a big shift was needed in government policies on the environment.  “You can expect reductions in the EPA that don’t line up with the president’s view on things like global warming and alternative energies,” Mulvaney told reporters during a briefing on the budget plan, which would slash the EPA budget by $2.6 billion. Trump has called climate change “a hoax.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about lawmakers’ criticism of the programs’ elimination.  Trump’s proposal would eliminate $73 million a year that six states and the District of Columbia receive to clean up the Chesapeake, the largest U.S. estuary. The bay is slowly recovering under a federal-state plan to reduce inflows of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediments from farms and urban development. Also on the block is the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which has disbursed about $300 million a year to help eight states in the region recover industrial sites in harbors, block invasive species like the Asian carp and stem fertilizer run-off from farmland. Trump’s budget proposal, released on Thursday, says states and local governments should shoulder the funding burden for such projects, while the EPA focuses on top national priorities. Senator Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat whose state of Michigan borders four of the five Great Lakes, in a statement called the proposed cuts “outrageous.” The clean-up program, she said, “has always received bipartisan support and continues to be absolutely critical to protecting our Great Lakes.” A Brookings Institution study last year found that carrying out the Great Lakes clean-up plan would generate $80 billion to $100 billion in economic benefits, including tourism, increased property values and reduced costs to local governments. Portman and Stabenow were among 11 senators who sent a letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt before the proposed budget came out. The lawmakers urged him to keep Great Lakes spending intact. Another 17 lawmakers sent a similar letter to Trump about the Chesapeake Bay program. Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, called the planned cuts short-sighted because the Chesapeake Bay generated millions of dollars in revenue each year and supported thousands of fishery and tourism jobs. “I will be working with all my colleagues from the region to urge congressional appropriators to reject the President’s request and ensure we don’t endanger the years of progress that have been made in restoring the health of the Chesapeake Bay,” he said in a statement. Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat of Maryland, also said the spending cuts would damage the environment and threaten jobs that depend on a healthy Chesapeake Bay ecosystem. Representative Andy Harris, the sole Republican in Maryland’s congressional delegation, defended the budget proposal. He said he would work with the Trump administration to prioritize EPA programs that would preserve the bay clean-up, but increases in defense and national spending were needed to keep Americans safe. Amelia Chasse, a spokeswoman for Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan, said in an email that if the proposed Chesapeake Bay cuts program went through, Hogan’s administration would try to deal with them in the state budget next year. “He will always fight to protect our state’s most important natural asset,” she said. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a conservation group, called on supporters to urge Congress to fight the proposed cuts. Bob Irvin, president of American Rivers, an environmental group, said the cuts threatened the success that had been made with the Chesapeake Bay. “I can’t imagine that any people of the people in the Chesapeake Bay region, when they voted in the last election, that they were voting to stop the clean-up of the Chesapeake Bay,” he said in a telephone interview.

Summary: सांसदों ने चेसापीक, ग्रेट लेक्स की सफाई में प्रस्तावित कटौती के खिलाफ लड़ने का संकल्प लिया


LONDON (Reuters) - A London court on Thursday rejected a legal challenge against the deal between Britain s ruling Conservatives and a Northern Ireland party that allowed the government to cobble together a parliamentary majority in June. After losing their majority in a disastrous snap election on June 8, Prime Minister Theresa May s Conservatives secured support from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in return for a pledge to spend an extra 1 billion pounds in Northern Ireland. In a crowdfunded legal challenge brought by a Northern Irish citizen, lawyers argued that the deal, known as a confidence-and-supply agreement, was corrupt because it amounted to using public money to buy votes. But after a one-day hearing, the High Court rejected their arguments and denied permission for judicial review of the deal. The judges said neither of the grounds put forward against the deal was legally arguable. The challenge was launched by Ciaran McClean, a mental health worker and Green Party member living in Northern Ireland, who raised 92,000 pounds ($121,600) on a crowdfunding website and was present in court on Thursday. Lawyers acting for him told the court that  the Conservative Party purchased the political support of the DUP for the sum of 1 billion pounds  and that the deal was an offence under the Bribery Act 2010. Government lawyers responded that the public expenditure contemplated by the deal would be authorized by parliament, and that the criminal law of bribery did not apply to a confidence-and-supply agreement between political parties. On his fundraising page, McClean had written that the Conservative-DUP deal violated Northern Ireland s 1998 Good Friday peace agreement which ended decades of armed sectarian conflict in the province. Under the peace deal, the UK government is required to be impartial between unionists who want the province to remain part of the UK and republicans who aspire to become part of Ireland.  The government is threatening hard-won peace with their pact with the reactionary DUP,  McClean wrote. However, for technical legal reasons, that line of argument did not form part of the case heard by the High Court. May, who replaced David Cameron as prime minister after the Brexit referendum in June 2016, inherited a narrow parliamentary majority from him.  In April 2017, with opinion polls suggesting she had a double-digit lead over the opposition Labour Party, she called a snap election, hoping to increase her majority. But after an uninspiring campaign, they lost their majority. Support from the DUP s 10 members of parliament has enabled May to cling to power as Britain moves closer to the challenge of leaving the European Union.

Summary: ब्रिटेन की सत्तारूढ़ पार्टी के उत्तरी आयरिश गठबंधन को कानूनी चुनौती विफल रही


GENEVA (Reuters) - Warring sides must let more aid get through to 8.4 million people who are  a step away from famine  in Yemen, a senior U.N. official said on Monday. A Saudi-led military coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen s civil war blockaded ports last month after a missile was fired toward Riyadh. Jamie McGoldrick, the humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, said the blockade has since been eased, but the situation remained dire.  The continuing blockade of ports is limiting supplies of fuel, food and medicines; dramatically increasing the number of vulnerable people who need help,  McGoldrick said in a statement.  The lives of millions of people, including 8.4 million Yemenis who are a step away from famine, hinge on our ability to continue our operations and to provide health, safe water, food, shelter and nutrition support,  he added. That marked an increase from past U.N. estimates of around 8 million people on the brink of famine. The coalition accuses Iran of sending weapons to its Houthi allies, including missile parts, through Yemen s main Hodeidah port, were most food supplies enter. Saudi state television said on Monday a U.N delegation of experts has arrived in Riyadh to meet the coalition and the Yemeni government the coalition supports  to prevent the transfer of weapons and rockets to Houthis . Iran has denied supplying the Houthis with weapons, saying the U.S. and Saudi allegations are  baseless and unfounded . The United Nations says food shortages caused by the warring parties blocking supplies has created the world s worst humanitarian crisis.  The Saudis intervened in neighboring Yemen in 2015 after the Houthis advanced on the southern port city of Aden and forced President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government into exile. The conflict has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than 2 million and triggered a cholera epidemic that has infected about 1 million people.  The U.S. government on Friday called on the Saudi-led military coalition to facilitate the free flow of humanitarian aid to all of Yemen s ports and through Sana a airport. A senior State Department official told reporters in Geneva on Monday that the United States had provided nearly $638 million in humanitarian assistance to Yemen in the U.S. fiscal year 2017 that ended on Sept 30.   We have called on both sides to stop the fighting and seek a political solution to the problem,  the official said. He said the United States had made its position clear to its allies to end the blockade and called on the Houthis to allow access for humanitarian supplies as  there are shocking shortage of food, fuel and medicines that are causing great suffering .

Summary: 80 लाख से अधिक यमनी 'अकाल से एक कदम दूर' हैंः संयुक्त राष्ट्र


SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - California Governor Jerry Brown on Friday signed a sweeping package of gun control bills, banning high-capacity ammunition magazines and expanding the definition of prohibited assault weapons in the wake of mass shootings in San Bernardino and Orlando. Democrats in the legislature rushed the measures through in hopes of passing them before their summer break, in part to try to forestall a competing gun control proposal headed for the November ballot.  California already has some of the toughest gun control laws in the nation, but after the shooting spree in the Southern California city of San Bernardino last December, lawmakers began work on measures they said would close unintended loopholes. “My goal in signing these bills is to enhance public safety by tightening our existing laws in a responsible and focused manner, while protecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners,” Brown said in a signing measure. It was a rare success for advocates of greater gun control.      U.S. lawmakers have fallen short in attempts to tighten gun laws after the killing of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando last month.  Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a measure on Friday that would give authorities three days to prove that someone on a terrorism watch list should not be allowed to obtain a firearm. But Democrats rejected it as “toothless.” The bills signed by Brown ban so-called bullet buttons, which allow quick changes in the magazine of a military-style weapon, and require background checks for purchasers of ammunition. Ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 bullets at a time will also be banned, and background checks will be needed for people borrowing guns from non-family members. Brown also vetoed several bills, including one that would have allowed co-workers, educators and mental health professionals to request restraining orders forbidding people deemed dangerous from owning guns.  Gun rights advocates called bills a “Gunpocalypse.”  “The California Legislature showed their true faces today,” said Craig DeLuz, spokesman for the Firearms Policy Coalition. “They abused the legislative process to enact their depraved anti-civil rights agenda.” Their efforts spilled into intra-party politics as well, after Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, who is expected to run for governor in 2018, gathered enough signatures to place his own gun control referendum on the November ballot.  The move angered the state Senate’s top Democrat, Kevin de Leon, who had been working to pass many of the same measures through the legislature.  Worried in part that Newsom’s initiative would boost turnout in November among Republicans who oppose gun control, legislative Democrats rushed to pass their bills in time for Newsom to withdraw his measure. But the lieutenant governor refused. “Today’s steps in the right direction will grow into a giant leap forward for public safety if voters pass the Safety for All initiative to keep guns and ammo out of the wrong hands,” he said.

Summary: कैलिफोर्निया ने बंदूक नियंत्रण कानूनों को कड़ा किया, हमला करने वाले हथियारों पर प्रतिबंध का विस्तार किया


KAMPALA (Reuters) - Foreign victims of an attack on aid workers in South Sudan began giving testimony via video link from the United States on Wednesday in the trial of government soldiers accused of murder and gang rape. The assault on the Terrain Hotel in the South Sudan capital Juba in July 2016, at the end of a battle between government and rebel forces, left a South Sudanese aid worker dead and at least five foreign women raped.  We had testimony from one of the victims through a video conference,  prosecution lawyer Philips Anyang told Reuters, without giving details. He added that a second victim was scheduled to testify on Thursday. Six witnesses are to testify from the United States, with the assistance of the FBI. The military trial in Juba is not open to the media. U.N. investigators and rights groups have frequently accused both the South Sudanese army and rebels of murder, torture and rape, and say such crimes almost always go unpunished.  The civil war, which has killed tens of thousands, broke out in 2013 between the army of President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and rebels of former vice president Riek Machar, a Nuer. The trial of 12 suspects in the hotel attack is the first prosecution in South Sudan of soldiers accused of committing atrocities. It had been stalled due to a lack of witness evidence. Previously, the court in Juba demanded witnesses travel to South Sudan to testify, but most were unwilling to do so out of safety and confidentiality concerns. The court has now dropped that requirement.  For [the court] to concede that point was a sign that they were willing to accept victims  concerns and victims  wishes to be a lot more sensitive,  one woman who was raped in the attack told Reuters before the trial began. Another woman told Reuters before the trial that she had been gang-raped by 15 men in the hotel incident. She said she wanted to testify because most victims of such crimes in South Sudan did not get justice.  To stand up and put it on the record that these atrocities are being committed by forces ... is an amazing opportunity that I had to take,  she said. Also testifying will be at least one eyewitness to the murder of the South Sudanese aid worker, John Gatluak, a Nuer who had worked for U.S.-funded organization Internews, Anyang told Reuters.

Summary: सहायता कर्मियों पर दक्षिण सूडान हमले के पीड़ितों ने अमेरिका से गवाही देना शुरू कर दिया


REAL, Philippines (Reuters) - The Philippines  coast guard said on Friday it had rescued 252 passengers and crew, including an Australian and his Filipino wife, and recovered five dead people from a ferry that capsized east of the capital Manila. A Philippine vessel capsized on Thursday because of bad weather, highlighting frequent boat accidents in the Southeast Asian nation that is composed of more than 7,000 islands. The Philippine Coast Guard has confirmed five deaths while 252 passengers including an Australian and his Filipino wife, were rescued, said spokesman Captain Arm and Balilo.  All the passengers and crew are accounted for but as I have said we will re-evaluate based on the claims of the families of the missing passengers,  Balilo told Reuters. The vessel was carrying 257 passengers and crew. The boat left the port around 9 a.m. and capsized an hour later due to strong winds and giant waves. A survivor said the passengers panicked when the boat started to take in water and went to one side, causing the ferry to tilt and capsize.  The others waited on top of the ship while it was sinking, but I didn t do that because I know the ship will break down and I want to avoid getting hurt by that,  Rene Ebuenga, a rescued passenger told Reuters.  That s dangerous and the big waves can slam debris to your body.  The ferry capsized and sank about 5 miles off Quezon province, east of the capital on the main northern island of Luzon. The Philippine Coast Guard said it will conduct an inquiry to determine the cause of the incident and to verify possible oil spills. In 1987, nearly 5,000 people died in the world s worst peacetime shipping disaster when an overloaded passenger ferry Dona Paz collided with an oil tanker off Mindoro island in the central Philippines. Tropical storm Tembin, packing center winds of 80 kmh (49 mph), made landfall on the southern island of Mindanao early Friday. It weakened after hitting the land mass, the weather bureau said on Friday. But, the weather agency warned of extensive flooding and landslides until the storm exits the Philippines on Sunday.

Summary: फिलीपींस के तटरक्षक बल ने नौका पलटने से 252 यात्रियों को बचाया


THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders said Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election was a sign that the West was living through a “patriotic spring” that would boost support for populist parties in Europe like his own. Wilders, whose anti-immigration, anti-Muslim Freedom Party tops polls ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections, said mainstream politicians had lost the trust of voters in the West by ignoring the issues they cared most about. “Trump winning proved to me that people are fed up with politically correct politicians who are concerned and involved with issues that regard themselves but not those that are important to the public,” he said.

Summary: डच दक्षिणपंथी वाइल्डर्स को उम्मीद है कि ट्रम्प यूरोप के लोकलुभावन लोगों को बढ़ावा देंगे


MONROVIA (Reuters) - Liberia s ruling party, whose candidate finished runner-up in the first round of this month s presidential election, said on Sunday it would back a legal challenge to the result, accusing President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of interfering in the vote.     The extraordinary charge by Unity Party against Johnson Sirleaf, one of its own members, throws into question a second round run-off scheduled for Nov. 7 between its candidate Vice President Joseph Boakai and front-runner George Weah. Unity Party said in a statement that the Oct. 10 poll, meant to usher in Liberia s first democratic transition of power since 1944, was  characterised by massive systematic irregularities and fraud .  The statement, read to reporters by Unity Party Chairman Wilmont Paye, said Johnson Sirleaf had acted inappropriately by meeting privately with elections magistrates before the vote.  Greed has resurfaced in its most callous form, sowing seeds of discord yet again with the intent of disrupting the fragile peace of Liberia,  the party said in its statement.     Unity Party officials said they were supporting a legal challenge by Liberty Party of the third-place candidate Charles Brumskine, which has petitioned the elections commission for a re-run of the first round. The All Liberian Party of businessman Benoni Urey also said on Sunday it was backing the complaint.  It doesn t mean we will not take part in the (run-off),  Augustine Ngafuan, Unity Party s national campaign chairman, told Reuters.  We hope the court can rule before the run-off. If not, we will decide what next to do.  An official from the elections commission said it expected to hear the formal complaint on Monday. The commission s findings can be appealed in the Supreme Court. At Johnson Sirleaf s residence, where she was celebrating her 79th birthday, her spokesman Jerolinmek Piah told reporters that he would comment on the accusations later as he did not want to overshadow the festivities. International observers from the European Union, the Carter Center and the National Democratic Institute have said they saw no major problems with the vote. Unity Party s statement cements a falling out between Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and her party s leadership after 12 years in power that saw the country consolidate a post-war peace but it also drew sharp criticism over alleged corruption and underdevelopment. Boakai has served as Johnson Sirleaf s vice president since the president s inauguration in 2006. However, Johnson Sirleaf declined to endorse him and he distanced himself from the last administration. Weah, a former soccer star in Europe, won the first round with 38.4 percent of the vote to Boakai s 28.8 percent and has momentum heading into the run-off. On Thursday he picked up the endorsement of former warlord Prince Johnson, who won 8 percent of the vote in the first round.  Morluba Morlu, a senior official from Weah s CDC party, said those challenging the result were  opting to stage trouble .  But no matter what they do ... they cannot stop the election of Ambassador Weah,  he added. Weah has been a UNICEF goodwill ambassador.

Summary: लाइबेरिया की सत्तारूढ़ पार्टी ने राष्ट्रपति चुनाव के परिणाम को चुनौती देने का समर्थन किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Marco Rubio said during a Senate intelligence hearing on Thursday that unsuccessful cyber attacks from Russia targeted former members of his presidential campaign staff in July 2016 and within the past 24 hours. Rubio said he would not comment on a remark earlier in the hearing by Clinton Watts, a cybersecurity expert, that Rubio may have been victimized by Russian activity during his unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 Republican nomination against President Donald Trump. The cyber attacks Rubio mentioned took place after the end of his campaign for the nomination.

Summary: सीनेटर रूबियोः हैकर्स ने राष्ट्रपति अभियान के पूर्व कर्मचारियों को निशाना बनाया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has met with Wall Street credit rating agencies this week, telling them Michigan’s economy is doing “very well” in the face of a lowered credit outlook, Snyder said on Thursday.  “We had a good, healthy discussion,” Snyder told Reuters after speaking at a CUNY Graduate School of Journalism event in New York City. “Michigan economically is doing very well.” Two weeks ago, just before Michigan’s most recent bond offering, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services lowered the outlook on Michigan’s credit rating to stable from positive. It cited burgeoning costs associated with a lead-tainted water crisis in the city of Flint and with the cash-strapped Detroit Public Schools (DPS).  Those rising expenses “will limit the state’s ability to build reserves over the nest two fiscal years,” S&P analyst Carol Spain said on March 17. Despite the outlook change, Michigan was able to sell about $82 billion of general obligation bonds with a true interest cost of 1.54 percent, showing little sign that the U.S. municipal bond market wanted to punish the state with exorbitantly high interest rates. One encouraging economic sign in Michigan is the 4.8 percent unemployment rate reported in February versus the national jobless rate of 4.9 percent. Snyder said it was a good time to meet with credit rating agencies because the state is not currently in the market. He tries to do it at least once a year.

Summary: मिशिगन के गवर्नर ने क्रेडिट रेटिंग एजेंसियों से कहा कि राज्य 'बहुत अच्छा' कर रहे हैं


WELLINGTON/SYDNEY (Reuters) - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she would offer to take 150 refugees held by Australia when she meets counterpart Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday, promising Canberra a breather from a stand-off at a Papua New Guinea detention site. For more than three days, about 600 men have barricaded themselves inside in a camp on Manus Island, defying efforts by Australia and Papua New Guinea to shut it, despite having no food or running water.  New Zealand on Friday became the first country to publicly offer to intercede, when Arden said she would offer to take 150 refugees from Australia s two remote Pacific detention centers at the meeting with Turnbull in Sydney.  I expect the situation on Manus Island will be discussed in my meeting with Prime Minister Turnbull on Sunday,  Arden said in an emailed statement.  I intend to reaffirm our offer when we meet.  The offer could present Turnbull with a partial solution to the Manus Island stand-off, which the United Nations this week described as an  unfolding humanitarian emergency . Australia has previously rejected a similar offer by former New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, citing the ability of asylum seekers to freely move to Australia after relocation. New Zealand residents are allowed to live in Australia without visas. But Australia s center-right government is pushing for tough new rules to ban any asylum seekers who arrived by boat after 2013 from ever being allowed into Australia, even as tourists. Mounting criticism has not deterred Australia from its plan to close the Manus Island center, where it detains asylum seekers arriving by boat, as part of its controversial immigration policy, along with another in Nauru. Heavy rains across Papua New Guinea on Thursday helped replenish water storage bins on Manus, but food shortages worry the detainees, many of them from war-torn nations such as Afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Syria. They vowed not to leave, even though many are beginning to feel the ill-effects of going several days without food.  We will never move to another prison,  said one, Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish journalist from Iran.  We will never settle for anything less than freedom. Only freedom.

Summary: 150 शरणार्थियों को लेने की न्यूजीलैंड की पेशकश से ऑस्ट्रेलिया को पी. एन. जी. गतिरोध को कम करने में मदद मिल सकती है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Monday said he opposes a proposed natural gas pipeline between Pennsylvania and New York and called on New York officials to reject the project. “The possibility of methane leaks from the proposed Constitution Pipeline would be catastrophic to our air and our climate — and if this pipeline were approved, eminent domain would be used to seize land from farmers and homeowners,” he said in a statement. U.S. pipeline company Williams has delayed the start up of the pipeline to the second half of 2017 from the fourth quarter of 2016.

Summary: सैंडर्स ने पेंसिल्वेनिया, न्यूयॉर्क के बीच संविधान पाइपलाइन का विरोध किया


SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Conservative Sebastian Pinera won Chile s presidential election by a wider-than-forecast margin on Sunday, pledging to jump-start economic growth in the world s top copper exporter and opt for more business-friendly policies than his center-left predecessor. Chile s electoral authority called the election for former president Pinera, who won 54.58 percent of votes compared with 45.42 percent for the center-left Alejandro Guillier, in a race that had been considered a toss-up. In the end, the 68-year-old Pinera, who governed from 2010 to 2014, won more votes than any president since Chile s return to democracy in 1990. It was also the biggest ever loss for the center-left coalition that has dominated Chile s politics since the end of Augusto Pinochet s dictatorship.  Neither Pinera nor Guillier marked a dramatic shift from Chile s long-standing free-market economic model, but Pinera s victory underscores an increasing tilt to the right in South America following the rise of conservative leaders in Peru, Argentina and Brazil. He is due to be sworn in on March 11.  Despite our great differences, there are large points of agreement,  Pinera said of Guillier as his supporters waved Chilean flags in downtown Santiago. In the streets of Santiago s wealthy neighborhoods, where Pinera took some 90 percent of votes, residents blared their horns in support.   In his concession speech, Guillier called his nine-point loss a  harsh defeat  and urged his supporters to defend the progressive reforms of outgoing President Michelle Bachelet s second term. Pinera defeated Guillier, a former TV anchorman and current senator, by painting his policies as extreme in a country known for its moderation, and likening him to Venezuela s socialist President Nicolas Maduro. Guillier had championed Bachelet s agenda of reducing inequality by making education more affordable and overhauling the tax code. The investor favorite in the $250 billion economy, Pinera s proposals are seen as pro mining in a country where copper is king. He has pledged support and stable funding for Chile s state-run miner Codelco [COBRE.UL], and has promised to slash red tape which had bogged down projects under Bachelet. The campaign exposed deepening rifts among Chile s once bedrock center-left, an opening Pinera leveraged to rally more centrist voters around his proposals to cut corporate taxes and double economic growth.  After a far leftist party made unexpected gains in November s first round, Pinera seized on the division, campaigning on a platform of scaling back and  perfecting  Bachelet s tax and labor laws.  Bachelet s policies were seen by many in the business community as crimping investment at a time slumping copper prices were weighing on the economy.  I voted for him for the economy,  said Jose Oyaneder, a 54-year-old salesman at campaign headquarters.  When he was president my (business) was quite good and I hope this time it s the same.  The results were tabulated in just over two hours after nearly 7 million Chileans cast ballots in a country of 17 million people where voting is not mandatory.  The son of a prominent centrist politician, Pinera is a Harvard-trained economist who made his fortune introducing credit cards to Chile in the 1980s. As of 2017, he was ranked #745 on Forbes  global rich list, with a $2.7 billion fortune.  Over months of aggressive campaigning, the former president brandished his business success and first term in office as proof of competence, contrasting himself with Guillier s relative lack of political and executive experience. Pinera s first administration was marked by a vibrant economy lifted by booming copper prices, but is perhaps best remembered for the spectacular rescue in 2010 of 33 miners who were trapped underneath the Atacama desert. His time in power was also marred by incessant street protests by thousands of students seeking an education overhaul, while his government s responses were often seen as out of touch.  Pinera has promised to make Chile the first country in Latin America to achieve  developed nation  status in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based club of wealthy nations.  Some things have to be fixed - health, pensions, a lot of discrimination in Chile,  said Laura Garcia, 64, who works in a cleaning company.  I have faith in Pinera.

Summary: अरबपति पिनेरा ने शानदार जीत के साथ चिली के राष्ट्रपति पद को फिर से हासिल किया


BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel warned German voters on Wednesday not to risk allowing an untested left-wing alliance to take power after this month s national election, urging them to stick with her in  turbulent times . Less than three weeks before the Sept. 24 vote, politicians and media in Germany are turning their attention to the possible coalitions that could form after the election, from which no single party is expected to emerge with a clear majority. Merkel, 63, leads a  grand coalition  of her conservatives and the left-leaning Social Democrats (SPD) - a tie-up neither wants to repeat after the vote. Seeking a fourth term, Merkel is stressing her credentials as a global stateswoman.  Our country can t afford experiments - especially in these turbulent times,  she told a rally in Torgau, some 70 miles (120 km) south of Berlin in the state of Saxony. Merkel spoke above a cacophony of jeers and whistles from some protesters - a feature at many of her rallies as resentment persists at her decision in 2015 to open Germany s borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing war in Syria and Iraq. That decision helped the rise of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which punished her conservatives in regional votes last year. She has since bounced back, but the national election is likely to return a more fractured parliament due to the rise of the AfD - set to enter the Bundestag for the first time - and the expected return of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP). This could make coalitions harder to form. Merkel wants to avoid being outflanked by a coalition of the SPD, the far-left Linke and the environmentalist Greens, who have held exploratory talks about the possibility of joining forces in a so-called  Red-Red-Green , or  R2G , coalition.  I say Red-Red-Green would be bad for our country,  she told the rally.  In the future too, we will need stability and security.  In a televised debate with SPD leader Martin Schulz on Sunday, Merkel challenged him to rule out a coalition with the Linke party, which he refused to do. A Red-Red-Green combination is untested at federal level, though the three parties have teamed up to take control of Berlin s city government. An opinion poll released on Wednesday put support for Merkel s conservatives at 38.5 percent, ahead of the SPD on 24 percent. The Greens were on 7.5 percent, the Free Democrats on 10 percent and the Linke and the AfD each on 8 percent. Resentment at Merkel s open-door policy runs particularly high in eastern Germany, but she has also been booed at rallies in the west - such as in Ludwigshafen, 45 miles (70 km) south of Frankfurt, last week.  We are Germans. She needs to be taking care of us,  Vincent Raap, an 18-year-old starting an apprenticeship as a machine operator, said at the Ludwigshafen rally.   Three times, an apprenticeship for which I had applied was given to foreigners instead,  he said, holding a sign saying  Merkel must go .

Summary: मर्केल ने मतदाताओं से कहाः वामपंथियों के साथ 'प्रयोग न करें'