MANILA (Reuters) - The war in the Philippine city of Marawi saw Islamist insurgents execute civilians or use them as human shields, while military air strikes killed non-combatants and may have been used in excess, an Amnesty International report said on Friday. The investigation by the rights group on the bloody five-month battle was based on interviews with 48 witnesses from September until early November and called for an independent inquiry. The conflict in Marawi, the only predominantly Muslim city in the mainly Catholic Philippines, was the country s biggest and longest battle since World War Two. More than 1,100 people, mostly insurgents, were killed, including 166 soldiers and 47 civilians, according to the authorities. At least 350,000 people were displaced and large parts of Marawi have been decimated by air strikes.  Witnesses described at least 10 separate incidents where at least 25 people were executed by the Muslim extremists because they were Christians. Amnesty described those as war crimes.  It also said 10 hostages may have been killed in a single bombing run by the armed forces, and said an independent inquiry should include an assessment as to whether the air strikes were proportionate to the threat.   They must initiate a prompt, effective and impartial investigation into whether its bombings of civilian neighborhoods was proportional under international humanitarian law,  Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International s crisis response director, said in a statement.  The Philippine authorities must bring those responsible for torture and other violations to justice and ensure that the victims receive adequate reparations.  Major-General Restituto Padilla, armed forces spokesman, said the military was aware of the report and would respond in full later. He said troops were given strict instructions to observe and respect international humanitarian law and human rights.  We will not tolerate and condone these abuses and will act on them,  he told a regular news briefing on Friday. The 34-page report,  The Battle of Marawi: Death and destruction in the Philippines , quotes a survivor who said he was spared by rebels because he could recite the  shahada , a statement of Islamic faith, but a Christian ambulance driver was shot dead because he could not do the same.  Other survivors said hostages were executed or physically abused, forced into labor and used as human shields.  Some hostages who escaped alleged they were detained and tortured by security forces who suspected them to be militants. Amnesty said it talked to eight men, including seven Christians, who said they were badly treated by the authorities.  I was punched and kicked. They tied our hands and feet with electrical wire,  the report quoted one survivor as saying.  The military was angry because 13 of their men were killed.  Last month, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis praised the Philippine military for ending the war without a single credible human rights abuse allegation. Amnesty noted that the military was responding to concerns about looting by soldiers but  must follow through on promises of compensation .

Summary: एमनेस्टी ने फिलीपींस के मरावी शहर के लिए लड़ाई में अत्याचारों, बम विस्फोटों की स्वतंत्र जांच का आग्रह किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump plans meetings with at least eight people on Monday as he seeks to fill out his administration, including John Allison, a former chief executive of BB&T Corp, who has been mentioned as a possible pick to head the U.S. Treasury Department. During a call with reporters on Friday, his transition team said Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Monday will also meet with: * former Securities and Exchange Commissioner Paul Atkins, * Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, * Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt * General Growth Properties Chief Executive Sandeep Mathrani, * Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Kathleen White, * World Wide Technology CEO David Steward,  * and Republican U.S.  Representative Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania.

Summary: ट्रम्प, पेंस सोमवार को बी. बी. एंड. टी. के पूर्व सी. ई. ओ. एलिसन और अन्य लोगों से मिलेंगे


LONDON (Reuters) - BAE Systems and Qatar have entered into a contract  valued at around 5 billion pounds ($6.7 billion) for the country to buy 24 Typhoon combat aircraft, the British defense group said on Sunday. The company said delivery was expected in late 2022 and that the contract was subject  to financing conditions and receipt by the company of first payment, which are expected to be fulfilled no later than mid-2018 . At a ceremony in Doha British Defence Minister Gavin Williamson and Qatari Minister of State for Defence Affairs Khalid bin Mohammed al Attiyah, oversaw the signing of a deal which the British minister called a  massive vote of confidence, supporting thousands of British jobs and injecting billions into our economy .  We are delighted to begin a new chapter in the development of a long-term relationship with the State of Qatar and the Qatar Armed Forces, and we look forward to working alongside our customer as they continue to develop their military capability,  Charles Woodburn, BAE s chief executive, said in a statement. In September Qatar s defense minister was reported to have signed a letter of intent to buy the 24 Typhoon jets from BAE in a move that could anger other Gulf countries boycotting Doha. ($1 = 0.7472 pounds)

Summary: कतर ने ब्रिटेन के बी. ए. ई. सिस्टम के साथ 6 अरब 70 करोड़ डॉलर के टाइफून लड़ाकू विमानों का सौदा किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two senior U.S. senators asked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday to explain “questionable management practices” at his department that they believe are weakening the country’s diplomatic power, adding to a chorus of concern in Congress. Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen delivered a letter to Tillerson asking him to begin consulting with lawmakers on decisions that have an impact on recruiting, retaining and staffing the State Department, removing a hiring freeze and resuming promotions. McCain is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Shaheen is the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s subcommittee on State Department management. “While we support reasonable steps to improve the efficiency of the State Department, such efforts must be fully transparent, with the objective of enhancing, not diminishing, American diplomacy,” the senators wrote. They said declining morale, recruitment and retention of staff, a lack of experienced leadership and reports that diplomacy is becoming less effective “paint a disturbing picture.” Many members of Congress, Democrats as well as some of President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans, have rejected Trump’s proposal to cut the State Department budget by about 30 percent. Tillerson has embraced the plan, and imposed a hiring freeze while analyzing the agency’s operations and deciding how to reorganize them. On Tuesday, the Republican chairman and top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee both blasted the agency for cuts in staff and what they described as a failure to have a plan for a proposed organization. The panel’s top Democrat, Senator Ben Cardin, reiterated his concerns on Wednesday. “Our national security is being jeopardized by the employment and career decisions being made at the State Department,” he told reporters. It was not immediately clear how lawmakers could press the administration to change its policies, especially because Trump’s fellow Republicans, most of whom vote consistently with the president, hold majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. A State Department representative said the department had received the letter and would “appropriately respond.” Tillerson has said his reorganization plan aimed to increase efficiency and to cut costs, with a target of saving at least 10 percent, or about $5 billion, over the next five years from fiscal-year 2017 levels.  Cardin said the impact of disorganization at the State Department was being felt internationally. “I could mention almost every place in the world,” he said.

Summary: अमेरिकी विदेश विभाग में कटौती को लेकर कांग्रेस में चिंता बढ़ी


NEW YORK (Reuters) - With 11 days to go before the U.S. presidential election, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton leads Republican Donald Trump by 15 percentage points among early voters surveyed in the past two weeks, according to the Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project. Though data is not available for all early voting states, Clinton enjoys an edge in swing states such as Ohio and Arizona and in Republican Party strongholds such as Georgia and Texas. An estimated 19 million Americans have voted so far in the election, according to the University of Florida’s United States Election Project, accounting for as much as 20 percent of the electorate. Overall, Clinton remained on track to win a majority of votes in the Electoral College, the Reuters/Ipsos survey showed. Having so many ballots locked down before the Nov. 8 election is good news for the Clinton campaign. On Friday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that it is examining newly discovered emails belonging to Clinton’s close aide, Huma Abedin. Those emails were found on a computer belonging to Anthony Weiner, Abedin’s estranged husband, during an unrelated investigation into illicit messages he is alleged to have sent to a teenage girl. The Reuters/Ipsos survey was conducted before the news emerged Friday afternoon. It remains unclear whether the FBI inquiry will upset the balance in the race. The bureau disclosed nothing about the Abedin emails, including whether any of the messages were sent by or to Clinton. Over the summer, the FBI said it was closing its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email system while secretary of state. Until Friday, her campaign seemed to have weathered the initial FBI email probe. Clinton has held a lead averaging four to seven percentage points in polls in recent weeks as the Trump campaign wrestled with accusations by women of groping and other sexual advances. Trump has said none of the accusations are true. He also struggled in the recent presidential debates and faced questions about his taxes. As of Thursday, Clinton’s odds of receiving the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency remained at greater than 95 percent, according to State of the Nation polling results released Saturday. The project estimated she would win by 320 votes to 218, with 278 votes solidly for the Democrat. Clinton’s lead among early voters is similar to the lead enjoyed by President Barack Obama over Republican Mitt Romney at this point of the 2012 race, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll taken at the time. Obama won the election by 332 electoral votes to Romney’s 206. But even before the latest email news, it had been a difficult week for Clinton. News coverage of Trump’s accusers had diminished, while Clinton confronted the almost daily release by WikiLeaks of emails purportedly hacked from her campaign manager’s account. This week’s leaked messages raised questions about former President Bill Clinton’s finances. And her lead in the States of the Nation project fell slightly from last week. Though the projected Electoral College votes hardly moved, the number of states solidly for Clinton slid from 25 to 20 this week. Trump didn’t see any additional states tilt solidly to him, but he did see some gains: The swing states of Pennsylvania, Colorado, Iowa and Nevada all moved from leaning to Clinton to being too close to call. Still, Trump’s path to a victory is narrow, and any realistic chance rests on his winning Ohio, North Carolina and Florida. As of Thursday, Ohio remained a toss-up. Florida and North Carolina were still tilting toward Clinton, according to the States of the Nation results. Early voting data for Florida and North Carolina was not yet available this week. In Ohio, Clinton led Trump by double digits among early voters. The project’s broader polling suggests the state is deadlocked between the two candidates. In Arizona, Clinton also was solidly ahead among early voters. In the past month, Arizona has gradually moved from a solid Trump state to a marginal Clinton state, although it is still too close to call, according to the project results. In Georgia, she enjoyed a similar lead among early voters. Overall, Georgia leans to Trump, but his lead narrowed to five percentage points this week, down from eights points last week and 13 points a month ago. Even in Texas, where Trump enjoys a sizable lead, Clinton has a double-digit edge among early voters, according to project results. The States of the Nation project is a survey of about 15,000 people every week in all 50 states plus Washington D.C. State by state results are available by visiting here

Summary: शुरुआती मतदान में क्लिंटन को ठोस बढ़त हासिल हैः रॉयटर्स/इप्सोस पोल


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The draft bill introduced in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday to steer Puerto Rico through its economic crisis represents a constructive, good-faith effort but could be improved, the White House said on Wednesday. At a daily briefing, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters the bill would benefit from improvements to a mechanism to boost oversight of Puerto Rico’s government and by expanding the earned income tax credit. (This story corrects to say improvements to pre-existing mechanism needed, not the bill, in paragraph 2)

Summary: प्यूर्टो रिको कानून के मसौदे में सुधार किया जा सकता हैः व्हाइट हाउस


(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday heard arguments in a challenge by 26 states to President Barack Obama’s executive action to defer deportation of certain immigrant children and parents who are in the country illegally. Here is a chronology of the case, United States v. Texas: June 15, 2012 - The Obama administration, through the Department of Homeland Security, initiates the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which suspends deportation for two years for people who entered the country illegally at least five years earlier, before they were age 16, and who were under age 31 as of June 15, 2012. Nov. 20, 2014 - Obama, through unilateral executive action, initiates a new deferred-deportation and work-authorization policy for immigrants whose children are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents and who have been living illegally in the United States since Jan. 1, 2010. These people must pass certain background checks for possible past criminal convictions. The program is called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA). The Obama administration also expands the earlier DACA program by eliminating the age-31 cap and increasing deferred deportation from two to three years. Dec. 3, 2014 - Texas and other Republican-governed states sue the Democratic Obama administration in U.S. district court in Texas. They assert that Obama’s Nov. 20 executive actions, which bypassed the Republican-led Congress, violated the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) notice-and-comment requirements for new federal agency rules and violated the U.S. Constitution’s dictate that a president “take care” that laws are “faithfully executed.” In all, 26 of the 50 U.S. states eventually sign on to the lawsuit: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Feb. 16, 2015 - U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Hanen in the border city of Brownsville, Texas issues an injunction blocking enforcement of the programs nationwide. The judge says the Obama administration had failed to offer notice and seek comments under the Administrative Procedure Act. Administration lawyers counter that the actions did not arise from official rule-making but rather from Homeland Security Department discretion on deportation priorities. May 26, 2015 - After the administration appeals the judge’s decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, based in New Orleans, upholds Hanen’s injunction, pending an appeal on the merits of the case. Nov. 9, 2015 - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit rules for Texas and the other states, throwing out Obama’s DAPA and expanded DACA actions because, the court says, they were subject to notice-and-comment requirements under the Administrative Procedure Act. Jan. 19, 2016 - The Supreme Court agrees to hear the  administration’s appeal. The justices say they will review the Administrative Procedure Act issue as well as whether the program violates the “take care” mandate. A key question before the justices is whether Texas and the other states even have legal standing to bring the case based on a claim that Obama’s action would cost the states financially in certain public services such as the cost of issuing driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants. Feb. 13, 2016 - Justice Antonin Scalia dies, leaving the Supreme Court with only eight members - four liberals and four conservatives - and the possibility of a 4-4 deadlock. Such a split ruling would be a defeat for Obama because it would leave in place the 5th Circuit decision disallowing his executive action. April 18, 2016 - The Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the case United States v. Texas. The justices seem divided along ideological grounds, with liberal justices sounding supportive of Obama’s action and the conservatives sounding skeptical, underscoring the possibility of a 4-4 split. A ruling is expected by the end of June.

Summary: उच्चतम न्यायालय के आप्रवासन मामले में मील के पत्थर


VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has remained within the main limits on its nuclear activity set by its 2015 deal with six world powers, the U.N. atomic watchdog said in its first report since U.S. President Donald Trump decertified Iranian compliance with the terms. Iran undertook to curb its uranium enrichment program in return for relief from international sanctions that crippled its economy, and U.N. nuclear inspectors have repeatedly verified Tehran s adherence to the key aspects of the accord. Trump has called the agreement between Iran, the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and the European Union  the worst deal ever  and he disavowed Iran s compliance last month. His decision did not constitute a U.S. exit from the accord but raised concern about its staying power. Trump s move, at odds with the commitment of the other parties to the deal, meant the U.S. Congress must decide by mid-December whether to reimpose economic sanctions lifted under the accord, reached under his predecessor Barack Obama. If Congress reimposes the sanctions, the United States would in effect be in violation of the deal and it would likely fall apart. If lawmakers do nothing, the deal remains in place. In response, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Tehran will stick to the nuclear accord as long as the other signatories respected it, but would  shred  the deal if Washington pulled out. If the deal unravels, it would strengthen hardline opponents of Hassan Rouhani, Iran s pragmatist president who opened up diplomatic channels to Western powers to enable nuclear diplomacy after years of worsening confrontation. Iran s stock of low-enriched uranium as of Nov. 5 was 96.7 kg (213.2 pounds), well below a 202.8-kg limit set by the deal, and the level of enrichment did not exceed a maximum 3.67 percent cap, said the confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report sent to IAEA member states and seen by Reuters. Iran s stock of so-called heavy water, a moderator used in a type of reactor that can produce plutonium, a potential nuclear bomb fuel, stood at 114.4 metric tonnes, below a 130-tonne limit agreed by the parties to the deal. The 3.67 percent enrichment and 202-kg stockpile limit on uranium, and the 130-tonne cap on heavy water, aim to ensure that Iran does not amass enough material of sufficient fissile purity to produce a nuclear bomb. Such a device requires uranium to be refined to around 90 percent purity. IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano told Reuters in September he would welcome clarification from the powers on how the agency should monitor Iran s implementation of the so-called Section T of the nuclear pact that deals with certain technologies that could be used to develop an atom bomb. Russia had been critical of the agency s monitoring of Section T provisions, but Monday s report said the IAEA had verified Iran s commitment to the section.

Summary: ईरान परमाणु समझौते की प्रमुख सीमाओं पर कायम हैः संयुक्त राष्ट्र निगरानी रिपोर्ट


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration will announce as soon as Friday an overhaul of how the United States manages coal development on federal land, according to government and conservationist sources, in a further move to confront climate change. In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, Democratic President Barack Obama said he would “change the way we manage our oil and coal resources, so that they better reflect the costs they impose on taxpayers and our planet.” The new plan will require federal officials, when weighing land use decisions, to consider how mining and burning coal adds to greenhouse gas pollution, said environmental group sources familiar with the plans. The overhaul also will aim to maximize returns for taxpayers by updating royalty rates when mining companies pull coal from federal land, said the sources. “We’re working to have this tomorrow,” said a Bureau of Land Management official who declined to give details on the administration’s plans. Environmentalists have urged the White House to freeze new coal leases on federal land until it accounts for how that fossil fuel development contributes to climate change. A moratorium on coal leases could be part of the reform, said environmental sources familiar with the effort. Coal leases are often awarded without a competitive bidding process, frequently going to a single bidder, and officials can undervalue the fuel heading to market, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has concluded. “Public lands should be developed in the public interest but taxpayers have been shortchanged for decades,” said Theo Spencer of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. The Energy Information Administration says roughly 41 percent of U.S. coal production occurs on federal land. The coal industry had been battered in recent years by competition from cheap natural gas and clean-air regulations that have raised costs for burning the black rock. This week, Arch Coal, one of the nation’s largest coal companies, filed for bankruptcy - the latest mining company to seek protection from creditors in the current downturn. The National Mining Association was not immediately available for comment.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस शुक्रवार को जल्द से जल्द अमेरिकी कोयला कार्यक्रम में सुधार करेगाः सूत्र


TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili on Monday vetoed a draft new constitution and sent it back to parliament with his objections which included opposing its call for an end to direct elections for president. Parliament, which is dominated by the Georgian Dream Party, adopted the new draft last week over objections from Margvelashvili and the opposition. Under this new proposed new constitution, direct elections for president would be abolished from 2024, the country would transfer to full proportional parliamentary representation and the system of electoral blocs would be scrapped. In a televised statement, Margvelashvili, who was elected in 2013 for a five-year term, said he remained in favor of direct presidential elections rather than a system in which the president would be appointed by parliament. He said he had proposed to the parliamentary majority to allow parties to form electoral blocs for the next parliamentary elections in 2020. He said he also supported scrapping the voting  bonus  system under which votes of parties that failed to muster enough support to enter parliament would be transferred to the winner of the election. He also supported a switch to a proportional electoral system in 2020.   I will send my justified objection to the parliament today,  Margvelashvili said. The next presidential election in Georgia is to be held in 2018 and it is not clear whether Margvelashvili, who is at odds with the ruling party on several issues, will stand again. MPs from the Georgian Dream said after adopting the new constitution that they would give ground on only two of the president s objections   allowing the parties to form electoral blocs and scrapping the voting bonus system. The ruling party has a constitutional majority at the parliament, allowing it to overcome the president s veto.

Summary: जॉर्जियाई राष्ट्रपति ने नए संविधान के मसौदे पर वीटो कर दिया


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow stands ready to cooperate with the United States on Afghanistan, Russia s Foreign Ministry official said in an interview with RIA state news agency published on Saturday. Russia maintains contacts with U.S. acting Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells, said Zamir Kabulov, special representative to the Russian president on Afghanistan and the head of Asian region department at the Foreign Ministry.

Summary: रूसी विदेश मंत्रालयः मास्को अफगानिस्तान पर अमेरिका के साथ सहयोग करने के लिए तैयार है-आर. आई. ए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Legislation with bipartisan support that would revamp U.S. chemical safety law for the first time in decades is advancing in Congress, winning overwhelming passage in the House of Representatives as backers sought quick Senate action. Senate leadership aides said the timing was still being worked out for a Senate vote on the first update of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in about 40 years. The House’s 403-12 vote to pass the measure updating the regulation of toxic chemicals aided the bill’s chances, with the Senate also expected to strongly embrace the bill, according to leadership aides. “By removing 40-year-old barriers and modernizing procedures, we reduce the risk to consumers. This means the chemicals and products we use every day will be safer for Americans,” Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said. Lawmakers have complained that under current law, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been unable to effectively regulate chemicals, including those that can be found in hardware stores for home improvements. “Under current law, it’s become harder for the EPA to ban even substances that are known to cause cancer, such as asbestos,” said Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 House Democrat, in calling for passage of the bill on Tuesday. According to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, “Absent EPA action under TSCA, some states, litigants and even consumer product retailers have been increasingly taking steps to restrict certain chemicals, not always relying on objective scientific analysis to make these decisions.” Under the bill, the government would evaluate risks posed by chemicals without considering the cost of taking action. If there are indications that a chemical’s use presents an unreasonable risk, the EPA would attempt to manage the risk, under the bill. Steps could range from labeling the product to banning it. Under the compromise bill hammered out by Republicans and Democrats, the EPA would have to consider the impact of a chemical on health and the environment, the chemical’s benefits and the economic impact of regulation.

Summary: कांग्रेस ने विषाक्त रासायनिक कानून में सुधार के लिए कदम उठाए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers are making progress toward legislation to address Puerto Rico’s financial crisis and could produce a bill as early as Thursday, the top House Democrat said. “It was supposed to be filed yesterday; (they) put it off to today. It could be filed today. I don’t mean right this minute, but the day is young,” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters.   “We are making progress. We’re having very constructive conversations,” she added. “It’s an issue of what will work in terms of restructuring, how the make-up and the scope of the board is in furtherance of having the restructuring work. Issues that relate to language about pensions and minimum wage, etc., are also part of that discussion.”

Summary: शीर्ष डेमोक्रेट का कहना है कि प्यूर्टो रिको बिल गुरुवार को जल्दी आ सकता है


DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held talks with Lebanon s Maronite Christian Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai in Riyadh on Tuesday, al-Arabiya television reported, as a political crisis in Lebanon drags on. Al-Rai met earlier with Saudi King Salman on the second day of his first visit to Saudi Arabia. He also held talks with Saad al-Hariri, who announced his resignation as prime minister of Lebanon from Riyadh on Nov. 4.

Summary: सऊदी क्राउन प्रिंस ने लेबनान के मारोनाइट पैट्रिआर्क से मुलाकात कीः अल-अरबिया


AMMAN/ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - When Syria s civil war came to the industrial city of Aleppo in 2012, two textile makers had to choose whether to stay or move their businesses away.  Nine months after fighting in Aleppo ended, the struggle of the one who stayed in the city to reopen his factory shows why the other will not return yet from the security of neighboring Jordan. Restoring the Aleppo industries that have for decades underpinned Syria s economy is vital if President Bashar al-Assad is to turn battlefield success into a fuller return of state power. Moustafa Kawai, who remained in Aleppo, moved his cotton-weaving machines to a temporary site but now has workers clearing his battered factory of debris to reopen it.   Our biggest problem is electricity. There are also very few workers because everyone s in the army. Sanctions affect the work. Customers can t come here. Transferring money is difficult. It s hard to buy spare parts,  he said. Mahmoud Akkad, a carpet manufacturer who like many Aleppo industrialists left Syria during the war, faces no such problems in Jordan where he has rebuilt his plant and kept up exports to old customers around the world.  What do I benefit if I want to set up a factory and there is no safety,  he said, explaining the benefits of moving to an industrial zone in a country unaffected by Middle East turmoil.  The International Monetary Fund estimated last year that Syria s economy had shrunk by 57 percent during the conflict and its manufacturing sector by 77 percent.  The war has since gone better for Assad as his army and its allies pushed rebels from Aleppo and other enclaves near important cities, and Islamic State from energy fields.  Growing confidence is evident in a new banknote bearing Assad s face for the first time and in Damascus holding its once-annual trade fair after a long hiatus.     But the war still dominates Syria s economy, even where the fighting has stopped. Most Aleppo factories were destroyed, badly damaged or looted.  Their workers fled as refugees or became combatants. Despite a new power line to the city, there is little electricity, leaving people reliant on expensive diesel generators. Water must be pumped electrically.   Fighting continues outside Aleppo. The army and allied militias who control the city operate checkpoints that some Syrians say demand bribes to let goods or workers pass, a charge the military denies. Travel outside the city means using narrow roads to bypass rebel territory and more checkpoints.  Western sanctions make foreign trade much harder, hindering the purchase of new equipment and payments for commercial deals. Although the government urges industry to return to areas where it has regained control, some businessmen say it is not doing enough to bring them back.  Fares Shehabi, the head of Aleppo s chamber of industry,  said that since the fighting ended, the number of factories and workshops had risen sharply.  Before the war there were 65,000, he said. When the rebels left in December there were 4,000. There are now 6,000, he said, attributing the rise to returning industrialists who are restarting their businesses.  But Shehabi, a supporter of Assad who has been sanctioned by the European Union for backing the government, is also critical of its reconstruction policy.   There are some incentives but not enough,  he said during an interview, citing tax deductions and reduced customs tariffs for industrial imports for all Syrian customers as things the government has done.  There were no specific incentives offered for Aleppo.  They should treat us like a devastated area... we don t have the level of administration that is needed to really save this industry, to make it run again,  he added.  In Jordan, Akkad said the Syrian government had encouraged him to return and he said he hopes to do so eventually.  It all depends on the circumstances improving,  he said.  He has built one factory that produces most of the same range of rugs and carpets he once made in Aleppo and is also investing in a new $5 million plant to make yarn.  Some of his most skilled weavers followed him to Jordan and few others remain in Aleppo.  Only five percent of my workforce have remained... Most headed to Germany, to Turkey,  he said.  In 2010, Aleppo had about a third of Syria s industrial companies and industry workers, Central Bureau of Statistics figures show. There were about a million people employed in its factories, Shehabi said.  During the decade before the war Assad s economic reforms helped Aleppo s businesses to grow more quickly.  Akkad was among the first to leave the small inner city workshops and move his operations into Sheikh Najjar, north of Aleppo, the biggest industrial zone in the city.  His family owned three factories there and was one of the biggest exporters of Syrian textiles. Sheikh Najjar became a battlefield in 2013, occupied by successive forces whose warfare caused massive damage and who stripped plants of equipment. Akkad risked losing business relationships built over 50 years.   Today you have customers all over the world. This is very costly to get a new network of customers. It s more expensive than the plant itself,  he said.  He considered starting again in Turkey, Lebanon, or Egypt. Some city industrialists have moved to each of the three countries and others went elsewhere in Syria, but Akkad chose Jordan, untouched by the 2011 Arab uprisings.  His business is now located in a well-policed industrial zone there, the machine guns of Jordan s anti-terrorist force guarding the entrance.   What brought us here was the security,  he said.      When rebels took over Moustafa Kawai s factory in 2013, he bought new machines and started producing on a temporary site in a government-held district of Aleppo instead of moving away. That site - which still represents his entire output - is in a ramshackle building near Aleppo stadium. Across the corridor is a sweat shop owned by a different business where small children make sports shoes in a fug of glue fumes, showing how far the city s once-advanced industry has regressed. Kawai produces about two tonnes of baled cotton a day now, compared to 18 tonnes a day before the war. When Reuters visited Kawai s operations, cotton spinning machines whirred and rattled in a cramped room. Plastic-wrapped bales of white cotton lay to one side.       Electricity is provided by a diesel generator and costs 250,000 Syrian pounds ($480) a week to power five machines. It often stops working. By comparison, in his large purpose-built factory before the war, he paid 100,000 pounds a week to power 30 machines in the Belleramoun industrial zone in west Aleppo. The pound was worth about 10 times more against the dollar than it is now.  He also had spacious loading bays and other facilities there that he lacks in the temporary site.  Like much of Sheikh Najjar, Belleramoun is now a wasteland of shellpocked buildings, mostly empty but for army checkpoints.  Still Kawai has started work to move back. Outside his factory, six hands were shifting rubble with spades on a street that abruptly ended a hundred yards away with an abandoned canon and an earthen mound. Beyond it lay no-man s land. Fighters  graffiti covered factory walls. Salvaged metal flanges were soaking in oil to strip rust, because Syria s weak pound makes importing new ones too expensive.  We started working here about six months ago. We want another year to return completely,  said Bashar Aissa, the supervisor.

Summary: अलेप्पो के खंडहरों में सीरियाई उद्योगपतियों के लिए कठिन विकल्प


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. Senator Jon Tester said on Sunday that he would vote against Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s nominee to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court. The Montana lawmaker said in a statement that Gorsuch was “a smart man,” but added: “That doesn’t make him right for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Summary: डेमोक्रेट सीनेटर जॉन टेस्टर सुप्रीम कोर्ट के उम्मीदवार गोरसच के खिलाफ मतदान करेंगे।


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials are aggressively investigating what caused symptoms ranging from hearing loss to mild brain injury in 21 people linked to the U.S. Embassy in Cuba, a State Department official said on Thursday. Spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a briefing that no new incidents had been reported since late August but testing continued, with 21 people saying they had been injured in what some media accounts have called an  acoustic attack.   We are, at the State Department, very deeply concerned about what has taken place and what has happened to our American personnel who have been serving at our embassy in Cuba,  Nauert said.  This has certainly turned out to be a difficult situation for some of our people.  The incidents, which began in late 2016, were first confirmed by a U.S. official in August. Nauert said at that time 16 people had been injured. Some of those had returned home for testing and treatment, Nauert said, while others had been tested in Cuba, where the embassy has a fulltime medical officer. News media have reported that Americans and Canadians working in Cuba have been diagnosed with hearing loss, nausea, headaches, balance disorders and conditions as serious as mild traumatic brain injury and damage to the central nervous system.  The investigation into all of this is still underway. It is an aggressive investigation that continues and we will continue doing this until we find out who or what is responsible for this,  Nauert said. She said U.S. diplomatic security personnel had been able to look through the rooms of some of those injured and conducted searches but still had not determined the cause of the injuries. Nauert said people were still being tested and it was possible the number of injured personnel would rise.

Summary: क्यूबा की रहस्यमय घटनाओं में घायल अमेरिकी कर्मचारियों की संख्या अब 21 हुईः अधिकारी


VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Leading figures in the Catholic Church and international politics have advised Pope Francis not to use the term Rohingya during a trip to Myanmar due to political sensitivities but human rights groups want him to uphold international law on self-identity. Hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya have fled Myanmar following a military crackdown that the United Nations has described as ethnic cleansing. Majority Buddhist Myanmar rejects the term Rohingya and does not recognize them as citizens nor as an ethnic group in its own right. In the run-up to the his Nov. 27-Dec. 2 trip to Myanmar and Bangladesh, several high-profile figures including former U.S. Secretary General Kofi Annan and Myanmar Cardinal Charles Maung Bo have indicated he should not use the term Rohingya. The pope, a less predictable figure than his predecessor who has overruled advisors in the past, has used the term Rohingya before, and it is widely employed by international institutions such as the United Nations and governments including the United States. The Vatican, which does not make comments on papal speeches ahead of trips, would not say if Francis might heed the advice and use a term like  Muslims in Rakhine State . Roman Catholics make up a tiny minority in Myanmar. Francis, a strong defender of human rights and migrants,  has spoken earlier this year of  the persecution of our Rohingya brothers and sisters  and has defended their right to  live their culture and Muslim faith . This month Annan met the pope along with three other members of  The Elders  group of veteran statesmen and women and later hinted strongly that he believed the pope should not say Rohingya. Annan, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and author of an advisory commission report on Rakhine State given to the Yangon government in August, met the pope on the evening of November 6. The Vatican gave no details of the meeting but at a breakfast with a few reporters the next day, Annan was asked if he agreed with those who say the pope s use of the word Rohingya while he is in Myanmar could be  incendiary .  They are right,  Annan said. Annan gave the pope a copy of his 63-page report, which does not use Rohingya but refers only to  Muslims in Rakhine State .  (The word) is so emotional,  he said. Asked if he believed that message had been conveyed to the Vatican, Annan nodded. Lakhdar Brahimi, a former Algerian foreign minister and U.N. conflict mediator called the report  quite substantial . Human rights groups hope the pope does not pull his punches in Myanmar.  The Rohingya have little left besides their group name after years of statelessness, discriminatory restrictions on movement and access to life-sustaining services, and being targeted by a military subjecting them to ethnic cleansing and atrocities,  said Phil Robertson, deputy director for Human Rights Watch in Asia.  The Pope absolutely should stand up for the Rohingya by using the name Rohingya,  he said in an email. Myanmar has denied U.N. accusations of ethnic cleansing. The government says the clearance operation in Rakhine State was necessary for national security after Rohingya militants attacked 30 security posts and an army base in August. Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi assumed power in 2016 in a  landslide election win after former military leaders initiated a political transition. Asked if the pope should say Rohingya, Laura Haigh, London-based Myanmar expert for Amnesty International, said:  International law recognizes the right of a group to self-identify. It comes down to a principled stand.  Father Bernardo Cervelera, head of the Catholic news agency AsiaNews, said the pope should follow the local Church s advice in the country, which has some 700,000 Catholics in a population of more than 51 million that is mostly Buddhist.  Both the Church there and Aung San Suu Kyi are in a delicate position and I think the pope knows that,  he said. In 2015, Pope Francis angered Turkey when he used the word  genocide  to describe the World War One mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks. The Turkish government, which denies that the deaths constituted a genocide, recalled its ambassador to the Vatican in protest.

Summary: पोप ने म्यांमार में 'रोहिंग्या' शब्द का उपयोग नहीं करने की सलाह दी लेकिन मानवाधिकार समूह असहमत हैं


NEW YORK (Reuters) - The technician who helped manage Hillary Clinton’s private email server for her work as secretary of state has given security logs to investigators that he said show no signs of foreign hacking, the New York Times reported on Thursday. Bryan Pagliano is cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s criminal inquiry into the email setup in exchange for limited immunity by the U.S. Department of Justice, according to the Times, citing unnamed people who know about the investigation. With limited immunity, his testimony cannot be used in a prosecution against him, the Times said. The investigation has overshadowed Hillary Clinton’s campaign to become the Democratic Party’s candidate in the November presidential election. Clinton has apologized for the arrangement but says she did nothing wrong and that she believes the government will vindicate her. Pagliano, who helped set up and run the email system in Clinton’s New York home, told investigators that the logs he handed over indicated that no intrusion occurred, the Times said. The security logs show who accessed the server and when, though they may not capture more sophisticated hacking, the Times said. Pagliano was still working at the State Department’s Bureau of Information Resource Management as recently as last September, but has since left, a department spokesman said on Monday. The spokesman declined to say when he left or why. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is doing its own analysis of whether the server was attacked, according to media reports. FBI agents plan to seek interviews with Clinton’s aides in coming weeks and would like to interview Clinton herself as their investigation enters a new phase, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing two people familiar with the inquiry. The interviews would look into how the server was set up and used and what precautions were taken to protect sensitive data, according to the people, who described the matter on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing, Bloomberg News said. Investigators were almost finished examining computers and other physical evidence as part of the inquiry, which is focused on whether Clinton’s use of private email while serving as the nation’s top diplomat led to the improper handling of classified information, according to the people. Pagliano previously worked on Clinton’s failed 2008 presidential campaign, and ended up joining her at the State Department in 2009 as a political appointee, working as a technology specialist and maintaining Clinton’s email server. His employment ended with Clinton in February 2013, but he stayed on as a contractor. More than 2,000 of Clinton’s emails contain classified information that could harm national security if leaked, according to the State Department. The government forbids sending or storing such information outside secure, government-controlled channels, and has prosecuted people for breaches. The FBI and the Justice Department have declined to comment on their investigation, including who might be its target, beyond confirming its existence. Pagliano’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment. A Clinton spokesman said the campaign is pleased that Pagliano is cooperating, but declined to respond to questions. For more on the 2016 presidential race, see the Reuters blog, “Tales from the Trail” (here).  (Reporting by Jonathan Allen, additional reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by David Gregorio and Andrew Hay) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.

Summary: क्लिंटन के पूर्व कर्मचारी ने एफ. बी. आई. को बताया कि कोई संकेत ईमेल सर्वर हैक नहीं किया गया थाः न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will nominate veteran appeals court judge Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, several sources familiar with the selection process told Reuters. Earlier a source told Reuters that appeals court judge Sri Srinivasan was most likely to be picked, then later said Garland was a stronger possibility.

Summary: ओबामा गारलैंड को सुप्रीम कोर्ट के लिए नामित करेंगेः सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s tweeted attack on Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was “nasty,” but Schumer did not join Gillibrand’s call for Trump to resign the presidency over sexual misconduct accusations. “That tweet was nasty, unbecoming of a president,” Schumer told reporters. Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, on Monday called for Trump to resign over sexual misconduct allegations. More than a dozen women have accused Trump of unwanted sexual advances, which he has denied. Trump lambasted Gillibrand on Twitter on Tuesday writing, “Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck Schumer and someone who would come to my office ‘begging’ for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump.”

Summary: सीनेटर गिलिब्रैंड पर ट्रम्प का हमला 'बुरा' हैः सीनेटर शूमर


MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish lender Sabadell decided on Thursday to transfer its legal base from Catalonia to Alicante, a bank spokeswoman said. The decision by Banco Sabadell, Spain s fifth biggest lender, comes as businesses in the wealthy northeastern region are growing increasingly worried about political upheaval there as the Catalan parliament considers whether to press ahead with a plan to unilaterally declare independence from Spain.

Summary: स्पेनिश ऋणदाता सबाडेल एलिकांटे को कानूनी आधार हस्तांतरित करेगा-प्रवक्ता


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A quest by Republicans to open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Reserve was slowed after a nonpartisan Senate official ruled late on Wednesday that the exploration was subject to environmental assessments by the Interior Department. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska and the head of the Senate energy panel, has been pushing a measure in the U.S. tax bill that would open a portion of the refuge on the coastal plain to two lease sales in 10 years for drilling. But the nonpartisan senate official took issue with the energy committee measure as it did not fully consider requirements under a national environmental law. The official ruled that oil exploration in the refuge is not exempt to an environmental law requiring the Interior Department to commission an assessment, a Democratic aide said. Such environmental assessments can take months or years to complete.   “This is good news for us because it could slow down or prevent drilling,” the Democratic aide said.   Republicans offered new language to the bill after the move and said that the drilling would still advance if the tax bill passes.  “There was a little hiccup, but they fixed it in the amendment they just filed tonight, so full steam ahead,” a Republican Senate aide said.    Murkowski said she was not concerned about procedural questions and that the issues would be fully resolved.   The Arctic reserve, protected by the federal government since 1960, is home to wildlife populations including caribou, polar bears and millions of birds that migrate to six of the seven continents. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the area Republicans want to drill in has up to 12 billion barrels of recoverable crude.

Summary: आर्कटिक ड्रिलिंग ने अमेरिकी कर बिल में गति बाधाओं को मारा


MANILA (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump raised North Korea s missile tests during talks on Monday with the prime ministers of Japan and Australia, and said  a lot  of progress had been made in negotiations on trade. On the sidelines of a summit of East and Southeast Asian leaders in Manila, Trump met with Japan s Shinzo Abe and Australia s Malcolm Turnbull, and said discussions at the meeting would include tensions on the Korean Peninsula and trade. In brief remarks prior to news media being ushered out of the meeting, Turnbull said North Korea s  recklessness  needed to be stopped, while Abe said the most immediate challenge was to ensure regional peace and stability. Following the meeting, the White House said  the three leaders reaffirmed their commitment to maintaining maximum pressure on North Korea in the effort to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.   They also discussed expanded security cooperation for enhanced deterrence and defense against North Korean aggression,  the White House said in a statement.   The three men also discussed the need for  free and open  trade in the Indo-Pacific region and  the need to pursue fair and reciprocal trade,  the White House added. Trump, who campaigned heavily on U.S. trade issues, made pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Asian trade deal one of his first acts in office. His administration has instead pledged to reach bilateral pacts with individual nations.  Countries remaining in the pact have said the deal is advancing without the United States.

Summary: व्यापार, उत्तर कोरिया के खतरे को लेकर ट्रंप ने जापान, ऑस्ट्रेलिया के नेताओं से की मुलाकात


LONDON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday that Iran s talk of a possible rapprochement with the kingdom was laughable. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told reporters in London that Iran would have to change its policies for any rapprochement. Iran s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, last month said the Islamic Republic would soon exchange diplomatic visits after the regional rivals severed diplomatic ties last year.  The comments of the foreign minister are laughable,  al-Jubeir said.  If Iran wants to have good relations with Saudi Arabia, it has to change its policies. It has to respect international law.   At this time, we do not see... that they re serious about wanting to be a good neighbor,  al-Jubeir said Iran s Zarif was quoted by the Iranian Students  News Agency (ISNA) that diplomatic visits could take place after the haj pilgrimage ends in the first week of September. But al-Jubeir said that diplomatic exchanges with Iran over arrangements for the haj did not represent a normalization of relations and that such contacts had nothing to do with politics.  We had the haj season, and when we have the haj, we try not to politicize it... But this is not normalization,  he said.  The meetings around the haj, have nothing to do with the politics. It s a religious issue.  Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia are at their worst in years, with each accusing the other of subverting regional security and supporting opposite sides in conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Al-Jubeir also said that if the rift with Qatar continued for two years then  so be it.   Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) severed ties with Qatar in June over Doha s alleged support for militants.

Summary: सऊदी ने कहा कि ईरानी मेल-मिलाप की बात हास्यास्पद है


(Reuters) - Republican candidates in tight races across the country have tied themselves in knots trying to decide whether to disavow or support their party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, especially since multiple sexual assault allegations against him have surfaced. But U.S. Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who is in a virtual tie with his Democratic challenger in a race that could tip control of the Senate, has chosen a third option: say nothing. Toomey appears to be the only vulnerable Republican senator to have avoided answering the question of whether he will vote for Trump, even as he has denounced the billionaire real estate developer’s lewd comments about women and allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior. His Democratic challenger, Katie McGinty, has spent days hammering Toomey for his reticence, coining the term “Fraidy-Pat” and tying his candidacy to that of Trump’s at every turn. But Pennsylvania political analysts say Toomey may have taken the safest path given his need to stitch together a coalition of working-class, white voters who support Trump and moderate, college-educated suburbanites who find his rhetoric distasteful. Polling averages show Trump losing the state to Hillary Clinton by a margin of 6 to 7 percentage points, while McGinty held a lead of less than 1 point in the Senate race, in polls before the Senate candidates debated on Monday. Pennsylvania has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since George H.W. Bush in 1988. Toomey won his seat in 2010 by just 2 percentage points. “I think for him he’s making the right choice, because I think he has to have it both ways,” said G. Terry Madonna, the director of the Franklin & Marshall College Poll in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “He’s between a rock and a hard place, and he’s chosen to stay in the middle.” The question of whether to back their party’s presidential nominee - a non-issue in virtually any other election year - has bedeviled Republicans facing competitive races across the country, with control of the Senate hanging in the balance. Some, like Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, have rescinded their support, angering Trump’s core supporters. Others, like Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, have stuck with Trump and risked losing moderate voters. A handful of Republicans, including Ayotte before she recently changed her mind, have tried to straddle the issue by withholding a formal endorsement while saying they still planned to vote for Trump. The Pennsylvania campaign, one of half a dozen close contests with the Senate up for grabs, has been the most expensive Senate race in the country, with more than $100 million from the parties and outside groups pouring into the state as of August. McGinty, who served as an environmental adviser in former President Bill Clinton’s administration, has spent months trying to link Toomey to Trump. She has redoubled her efforts over the last 10 days, as multiple women have come forward to accuse Trump of sexually assaulting them following the release of a video recording from 2005 in which he bragged in lewd terms about such behavior.  On Thursday, for the second time since the tape became public, McGinty held a conference call for reporters to assail Toomey for what she described as his tacit support for Trump. “Senator Pat Toomey now has the distinction of being the only Senate candidate in the entire United States of America to refuse to come clean about whether or not he supports Donald Trump,” she said. “So, there’s only one way to interpret that: Pat Toomey is still standing by Donald Trump.” Toomey has criticized Trump’s “outrageous comments” but has declined to say whether he will vote for him, a position he reiterated on Monday at the first of two debates with McGinty. He did, however, say he “probably” will announce a decision before the Nov. 8 elections, after previously suggesting he might not. In a statement, a Toomey spokesman turned the criticism around, calling McGinty a “rubber stamp” for the Democratic establishment in Washington. “Pat Toomey has proven he will stand up to his own party for Pennsylvania families, like on gun safety, fighting corporate welfare, or ending the Wall Street bailouts once and for all,” the spokesman, Ted Kwong, said in an email. “Katie McGinty can’t name a single disagreement with her party, whether it’s the reckless Iran deal or thousands in new middle-class tax hikes.” Charlie Gerow, a veteran Republican political consultant in Pennsylvania who is not involved in the race, said Toomey’s middle-of-the-road strategy was necessary given the deficit Trump is facing in the state. Toomey, Gerow said, cannot afford to alienate Trump backers in places like southwestern Pennsylvania, even as he tries to appeal to voters in the Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley suburbs. “I think it is the best strategy among several unpalatable options,” Gerow said. “I don’t think there was any better way to approach that dilemma.”

Summary: ट्रम्प के लिए मतदान? पेनसिल्वेनिया रिपब्लिकन सीनेटर नहीं कहेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. air strikes killed several Islamic State militants in Libya earlier this week, the U.S. military said on Thursday, the second series of strikes in the country in recent days. In a statement, U.S. Africa Command said the strike took place 100 miles (161 km) southeast of Sirte on Tuesday in coordination with Libya s Government of National Accord. Islamic State militants in Libya set up a desert army composed of at least three brigades after they lost their stronghold of Sirte last year, a senior prosecutor said on Thursday.

Summary: लीबिया में अमेरिकी हवाई हमले में इस्लामिक स्टेट के कई आतंकवादी मारे गए


CAIRO (Reuters) - Five militants and two soldiers were killed on Wednesday in clashes that followed a failed attack on a security checkpoint in Egypt s strife-torn North Sinai province, a military spokesman said. Troops were seeking some of the militants who fled the scene during the clashes, the spokesman said in a statement.   One of the militants, wearing an explosive vest, attempted to raid one of the security checkpoints and due to the vigilance of the security forces the terrorist was killed while the rest of the militants were dealt with,  he said.  Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, with its news agency Amaq saying one of its militants had set off a suicide vest at a security checkpoint. An Islamist insurgency in North Sinai has gathered pace since mid-2013 when the military ousted Islamist president Mohamed Mursi after mass protests against his rule and the group leading it pledged allegiance to Islamic State a year later. Hundreds of soldiers and police have been killed since and in recent months the attacks extended to Coptic Christians, who make up 10 percent of Egypt s 90 million population.

Summary: मिस्र के सिनाई में पांच आतंकवादी, दो सैनिक मारे गए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Friday he would spend an extra day in the Philippines during his trip to Asia, which the White House confirmed would be to attend the East Asia Summit taking place there. “We’re actually staying an extra day in the Philippines. We have a big conference, the second conference, and I think we’re going to have great success,” Trump told reporters at the White House before leaving for his trip.

Summary: एशिया यात्रा के दौरान फिलीपींस में अतिरिक्त दिन बिताने के लिए बोले ट्रंप


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon s foreign minister said on Thursday that the Lebanese people choose whether to remove their representatives, after the prime minister quit in a weekend broadcast from Saudi Arabia.   We are the ones who decided who represents us, and we are the ones who decide to remove them or not,  Gebran Bassil said in a tweet.  Lebanon believes Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri is being held by Riyadh and plans to work with foreign states to secure his return, a top Lebanese government official said earlier.

Summary: एफ. एम. बासिल कहते हैं कि लेबनानी 'तय करें कि हमारा प्रतिनिधित्व कौन करता है'


TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is expected to join Vice President Mike Pence for a bilateral economic dialogue in Tokyo next month, a Japanese government official with direct knowledge of preparations said on Thursday, dashing Tokyo’s hope of leaving thorny issues on trade off the negotiating table. Participants of the dialogue, led by Pence and Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso, will hold their first round of talks in Tokyo on April 18 to discuss issues ranging from macroeconomic policy, infrastructure investment and trade. The dialogue will be a major test of U.S. President Donald Trump’s confrontational approach to trade. Senior administration officials, including Ross, have signaled they would press Japan to remove non-tarrif trade barriers and buy more U.S. products. Japan, which proposed the dialogue, had hoped to keep contentious issues like auto and agriculture trade out of the talks by proposing an agenda focused on infrastructure investment and energy. One of Tokyo’s strategy was to keep the bilateral dialogue as informal as possible so Aso can deal directly with Pence, who is regarded as having a less confrontational view on trade compared with others in the Trump administration, Japanese government officials said. “The agenda is vague now, but if friction comes up in the future, our plan is to say let’s discuss that in the Aso-Pence dialogue and then use the dialogue to diffuse any problems,” one of the officials said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly. The participation of Ross heightens the chance the dialogue would serve as a venue to discuss a bilateral trade deal, which could put Japan under U.S. pressure to open up heavily-protected areas like agriculture and pharmaceuticals, the officials said. Hiroshige Seko, Japan’s ministry of economy, trade and industry, and Foreign Minister Fumiko Kishida will also join the dialogue, the government officials said. Ross has been known to have close ties with Japan, having led a firm investing in the country since 1997 and serving as chairman of the Japan Society - a non-profit organization promoting bilateral relations, since 2010.

Summary: अमेरिकी वाणिज्य सचिव रॉस जापान के साथ आर्थिक वार्ता में शामिल होंगेः सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department said on Tuesday that municipal elections in Cuba over the weekend were flawed because authorities used  intimidation, arcane technicalities and false charges  to keep independent candidates off of the ballot.  The elections that took place further demonstrate how the Cuban regime maintains an authoritarian state while attempting to sell the myth of a democracy around the world,  State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a briefing.  Despite courageous efforts by an unprecedented number of independent candidates this year, none were allowed on the ballot.

Summary: अमेरिकी विदेश विभाग ने क्यूबा के नगरपालिका मतदान की 'त्रुटिपूर्ण' के रूप में आलोचना की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Sunday it would be “ridiculous” for a fight with Democrats over immigration issues to result in a standoff over a year-end spending bill and prompt a shutdown of the federal government. “There’s not going to be a government shutdown,” McConnell told ABC’s “This Week” program. “It’s just not going to happen.” As tensions rise between the two parties over the spending bill, McConnell called the Democrats’ position “untenable,” saying Congress has until March to address the status of so-called Dreamers, young immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children. With funding for the federal government due to run out on Friday, Republican leaders need to put together the votes for a spending bill. But Democrats have said they will insist on protections for Dreamers as the price of their support for a spending bill, setting the stage for a potential showdown. “That’s a ridiculous position,” McConnell told ABC. Although Republicans control both chambers of the U.S. Congress, at least some Democratic votes will be needed to pass the spending bill. In September, Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which shields young illegal immigrants from deportation. He gave Congress six months to find a solution. “I don’t think that Democrats would be very smart to say they want to shut down the government over a non-emergency that we can address anytime between now and March,” McConnell said. “That’s a very untenable position.” Trump and Republican leaders want measures strengthening border enforcement to accompany any relief for the Dreamers, a stance Democrats reject. McConnell said he was also optimistic that House and Senate Republicans could agree on unified tax legislation to send to President Donald Trump after the Senate approved its own bill on Saturday.

Summary: मैककॉनेल ने कहा कि डी. ए. सी. ए. पर अमेरिकी सरकार का बंद 'हास्यास्पद' है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump, in a speech across town from a closely watched congressional hearing on his dealings with the FBI amid its Russia probe, told supporters on Thursday their movement was “under siege” and vowed to fight on. “We’re under siege...but we will come out bigger and better and stronger than ever,” he said during a separate speech in Washington. “We will not back down from doing what is right ...we know how to fight and we will never give up.”

Summary: कोमी के निशाने पर आए ट्रंप ने मजबूत बने रहने और लड़ने का संकल्प लिया


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A prominent Iraqi militia backed by Iran, Harakat Hezbollah al- Nujaba, said on Thursday U.S. President Donald Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital could become a  legitimate reason  to attack U.S. forces in Iraq.  Trump s stupid decision ... will be the big spark for removing this entity (Israel) from the body of the Islamic nation, and a legitimate reason to target American forces,  the group s leader Akram al-Kaabi said in a statement.

Summary: ईरान समर्थक इराकी मिलिशिया का कहना है कि जेरूसलम का निर्णय अमेरिकी सैनिकों को निशाना बना सकता है


(Reuters) - President Barack Obama is set on Tuesday to unveil his budget proposal for fiscal year 2017, his final year in office.  But since the Republican-controlled Congress controls the purse strings, much of Obama’s plan likely will be shelved. The following are some of the proposals that will be included: The Pentagon will ask for more than $7 billion for the fight against Islamic State, up about 35 percent from the previous year’s budget request to Congress, and wants a fourfold increase for military training and exercises in Europe to support NATO allies. In a long-shot bid to raise $20 billion to expand transit systems and research self-driving cars, Obama will propose a $10-a-barrel tax on crude oil.  The budget will propose boosting spending on cybersecurity by 35 percent to $19 billion and creating a $3.1 billion fund to modernize the government’s creaky information technology systems. Obama will seek a 20 percent boost for renewable energy research funding to a total of $7.7 billion. Obama will propose a $2.5 billion tax credit over five years for businesses that invest in community college programs and 05:00:then hire their graduates. The White House will ask for $1.8 billion in emergency funding to prepare for the Zika virus, work on tests and vaccines, and assist Puerto Rico and countries grappling with the outbreak. Obama will seek an 11 percent hike in funding for the Securities and Exchange Commission to $1.8 billion and 32 percent increase for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to $330 million. The budget will propose a 1.6 percent pay increase for military and civilian federal personnel. Obama will ask for $1.1 billion in new funding to expand treatment for people addicted to heroin and prescription painkillers, a growing epidemic. Obama pledged more than $450 million in aid to Colombia to help with security and integrating rebel combatants into society under a pending peace deal to end Latin America’s longest war. Obama will propose $12 billion over 10 years to supplement food stamps for poor families when school meal programs are closed in the summer, $2 billion in emergency aid for families in crisis, a combined $328 million in education and housing grants to poor neighborhoods, and a $15 million pilot program to help poor families move to better neighborhoods. The budget will include three years of federal funding to 19 state governments that passed up an earlier offer to expand Medicaid coverage for more than 4 million low-income people. Obama will ask for tweaks to a tax on certain health insurance plans that is unpopular with labor unions. The White House will ask for $5.5 billion in incentives for businesses that hire young people and $200 million for apprenticeship programs. Obama will propose $4 billion for states and $100 million for school districts to expand computer science in schools. The budget will include $1 billion over five years to help coal-mining regions with economic development. The White House will ask for $755 million for Vice President Joe Biden’s “moonshot” effort to find new cancer treatments. The budget will include $700 million in agricultural research grants, double the spending level in 2016. Obama has proposed $500 million to boost access to mental healthcare as part of his push to address gun violence. Obama will propose $95 million for a new office responsible for background checks for federal employees. As part of reforms to the criminal justice system, Obama will ask for $24 million for better housing for inmates with serious mental illnesses. Obama will propose tax credits for small businesses offering 401(k) plans or expanding access to retirement savings programs. Obama will seek to expand unemployment insurance to more types of workers, provide wage insurance for workers moving to lower-paid positions, and provide incentives to states for retraining or relocating workers. Obama will ask for funding to hire 200 new ATF staff to enforce gun laws.

Summary: ओबामा के अंतिम बजट प्रस्ताव में क्या होगा?


MADRID (Reuters) - Catalan secessionist parties on Tuesday failed to agree on a united ticket to contest a December snap regional election, making it more difficult to rule the region after the vote and press ahead with their collective bid to split from Spain. Catalonia s secessionist push has plunged Spain into its worst political crisis in four decades, triggered a business exodus, forced Madrid to cut its economic forecast and reopened old wounds from Spain s civil war in the 1930s. Pro-independence groups have called for a general strike in the restive region on Wednesday. Catalan political parties had until midnight on Tuesday to register coalitions ahead of the Dec. 21 vote, but the two main forces which formed an alliance to rule the region for the last two years did not manage to agree on a new pact in time. While they could still find an agreement after the vote, political analysts say the lack of a deal on a joint campaign may also trigger a leadership fight at the top of the movement. This is because center-right PdeCat (Catalan Democratic Party) of sacked Catalan president Carles Puigdemont is expected to be overtaken by leftist Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) of former regional vice president Oriol Junqueras. Puigdemont and Junqueras are the two main leaders behind the current secession bid that last month led to a unilateral declaration of independence which Spain thwarted by imposing direct rule on the region. Junqueras is currently in custody pending a potential trial on charges of sedition, rebellion and misuse of public funds. Puigdemont, who faces the same charges, is currently in self-imposed exile in Belgium and has said he would oppose extradition. An opinion poll released on Sunday by Barcelona-based newspaper La Vanguardia showed Junqueras  ERC could garner between 45 and 46 seats in the 135-strong regional assembly while Puigdemont s PdeCat would win between 14 and 15 seats. In order to reach the 68-seat threshold for a majority, they would then have to form a parliamentary alliance with anti-capitalist CUP, which is expected to get seven or eight seats. Such an alliance previously existed between 2015 and 2017. By standing together, ERC and PdeCat could have held more seats, separate polls and projections based on the results of the 2015 regional election showed. According to a comprehensive official survey released last week, a coalition between ERC and PdeCat would have won between 60 and 63 seats, while CUP would have won eight or nine seats under such a scenario, virtually guaranteeing a secessionist majority.  It has been impossible to form a joint list and we will therefore have to create a joint front from various candidacies,  said ERC lawmaker Sergi Sabria in a statement. Sabria said on Monday that each party could stand under its own brand though parts of their manifestos relating to independence would likely be jointly agreed upon.

Summary: कैटलन अलगाववादी दल दिसंबर के चुनाव के लिए एकता टिकट पर सहमत होने में विफल रहे


ALMATY (Reuters) - United States Energy Secretary Rick Perry has canceled a planned visit to Kazakhstan on Monday, the U.S. embassy in Kazakhstan said, due to Hurricane Harvey. “Due to Hurricane Harvey and the Department of Energy’s duty to react to emergencies related to power supply and energy infrastructure, the planned visit by Energy Secretary Rick Perry to Astana is canceled,” the embassy said in a Russian-language statement. Deputy Secretary Dan Brouillette would lead the U.S. delegation instead of Perry, it said. Perry was due to meet Kazakh Energy Minister Kanat Bozumbayev later on Monday. U.S. companies are among the biggest investors in the oil-rich Central Asian nation. Harvey, which wreaked havoc along the U.S. Gulf coast over the weekend, is the most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in more than 50 years, killing at least two people, causing large-scale flooding, and forcing the closure of Houston port as well as several refineries.

Summary: ऊर्जा सचिव पेरी ने तूफान के कारण कजाकिस्तान की यात्रा रद्द की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Winning over Bernie Sanders supporters who flocked to his insurgent presidential campaign will be the first and possibly toughest order of business for Hillary Clinton after she became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee this week. Every time the Vermont senator mentioned Clinton’s name at a rally in California on Thursday night, his supporters booed as if she was Donald Trump, the Republican businessman who will face off against Clinton in the Nov. 8 election. But Clinton is wasting no time in launching her charm offensive. She called Sanders on Tuesday night, and during a celebratory rally in Brooklyn she praised his candidacy, saying their “vigorous debate” during the nominating contest had been good for the Democratic Party.  Democrats in both camps said they expect to see more specific olive branches offered to Sanders in the weeks ahead, including compromises on the issues platform to be adopted at the party’s July nominating convention and reforms in a Democratic primary process that Sanders criticized as rigged to favor the establishment. It may not be an easy sell for all of Sander’s supporters, who have helped catapult him from political obscurity into the national spotlight, cheering his message on income inequality, campaign finance reform and Wall Street excesses. Given little chance a year ago, Sanders earned nearly 10 million votes and won more than 20 states during the nominating process. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in May found Sanders supporters have become increasingly resistant to Clinton in the past few months, with less than half saying they will vote for her if she becomes the party’s nominee. Last month, 41 percent of Sanders’ supporters said they would vote for Clinton over Trump in the general election. But that was down from 50 percent in April, and 52 percent in March. And some groups supporting Sanders plan to ramp up the pressure on superdelegates, prominent party officials who can vote for any candidate, in the last few weeks before Clinton’s nomination becomes official at the party convention in Philadelphia.  The people behind the Occupy DNC Convention Facebook group, with around 25,000 members, are creating their own web-based app to contact superdelegates, planning daily emails to urge them to switch to Sanders. Clinton moved to the left to fend off Sanders during the primary battle, opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an Asian trade pact, and the Keystone oil pipeline from Canada, voicing support for a higher minimum wage and backing Sanders’ general goals of reining in Wall Street and reducing income inequality. Her best move now to win over progressive voters who backed Sanders would be showing she will stand behind those positions. “One of the biggest points of skepticism that we hear from Sanders supporters and even lukewarm Clinton supporters is the question of whether she really meant the stuff she said in the primary,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “The next two weeks are a golden opportunity to make the answer apparent,” he said, citing her pledges to seek criminal sentences for financial fraud, break up banks that pose economic risks and expand Social Security benefits. Several Democrats said Trump may prove to be the chief motivator for Sanders supporters to switch to Clinton. “Trump has done more than anyone to push the Sanders people toward Clinton for the general election,” said Brad Anderson, an Iowa-based Democratic strategist who supported Clinton in the primary and said he has seen signs of a shift in the last few weeks. Clinton could make specific concessions or overtures to assuage Sanders, particularly by eliminating the superdelegates from the primary process. Sanders has complained about the involvement of superdelegates, who have heavily backed Clinton. Another easy way to get Sanders’ most passionate supporters on board is to simply hire them, says Democratic strategist Steve Schale. That’s what Schale, a Florida-based staffer for President Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, did once the bitter primary fight between Obama and Clinton ended that year. Florida was crucial to Obama’s prospects — and his campaign need a large operation to work on voter registration, persuasion, and turnout. Clinton could offer Sanders diehards a similar opportunity to stay involved. “For a lot of these folks, the campaign is as much as social calling as it is a movement,” he said. While there were concerns in 2008 that Clinton’s supporters would be too disaffected to support Obama, Clinton endorsed him less than a month after the primary ended and unified the party. Democratic party leaders may also help ease tensions. Sanders will meet on Thursday with Obama and Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Summary: सैंडर्स के समर्थकों को वोट देना क्लिंटन के लिए कठिन काम होगा


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey must be present in Syria s Idlib province until the threat from there toward Turkey is over, Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli was reported as saying by CNN Turk and other broadcasters on Tuesday. Turkey has said it will provide assistance to rebels it has long backed as it implements a de-escalation agreement to reduce fighting in Idlib. A Turkish army reconnaissance team scouted the region on Sunday before an expected military operation.

Summary: खतरा खत्म होने तक तुर्की को सीरिया के इदलिब में होना चाहिएः रक्षा मंत्री


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Wednesday that the government shutdown threatened by President Donald Trump is unnecessary and not wanted by lawmakers in Congress. “I don’t think anyone is interested in having a shutdown. I don’t think it is in our interests to do so,” Ryan told a news conference in Oregon.

Summary: हाउस स्पीकर रयान ने कहा कि अमेरिकी सरकार का बंद अनावश्यक है


ALBANY, N.Y. (Reuters) - New York is poised to join the rest of the country in legalizing mixed martial arts (MMA) fights, as the state Assembly prepares to pass a bill to end a ban on the full-contact sport, a measure the Senate has approved on multiple occasions over the years. The lower house of the New York State Assembly is expected to vote on Tuesday afternoon on the legislation, long stymied by the refusal of Assembly leaders to allow the measure to come to the floor despite broad support from lawmakers. Its passage will clear the way for Governor Andrew Cuomo to enact the bill into law. Cuomo, a Democrat who needs revenue generated by the sport for his proposed budget, has already said he would sign the measure. New York is the only state prohibiting MMA, a controversial sport that features kicking, punching, wrestling and other maneuvers that can leave the combatants with bloodied and sometimes unconscious.  The move to bring the bill up for a vote in the Assembly comes a year after Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver resigned in a corruption scandal. He was replaced by a former co-sponsor of the bill, Assemblyman Carl E. Heastie, a Bronx Democrat. Michael Whyland, a spokesman for Heastie, said in an email that the floor vote is expected to take place on Tuesday. MMA fights are expected to generate $135 million a year for the state’s coffers, according to a 2013 study by the sport’s promoters, Ultimate Fighting Championship.  Arenas throughout New York would benefit and Madison Square Garden in New York City is particularly well-suited to stage the competitions, the bill’s sponsors say. Cuomo has already penciled in $3 million in revenue from ticket sales and cable fees in his proposed budget for the next fiscal year. The New York State Athletic Commission would have to set regulations after the governor signs the bill. Fans would have to wait until at least the fourth quarter of 2016 before seeing any bouts in the state, according to supporters. The legislation would effectively spell an end to pending lawsuits against the state for banning mixed martial arts, its backers say. UFC is owned by brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertita of Station Casinos, a Las Vegas-based hotel-casino chain, through parent company Zuffa LLC.

Summary: न्यूयॉर्क के सांसदों से मिश्रित युद्ध कला लड़ाइयों के लिए रास्ता साफ करने की उम्मीद है


The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS.  The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy.  @realDonaldTrump : -The FBI is totally unable to stop the national security “leakers” that have permeated our government for a long time. They can’t even...... [0731 EST] -find the leakers within the FBI itself. Classified information is being given to media that could have a devastating effect on U.S. FIND NOW [0736 EST] -The FBI is totally unable to stop the national security "leakers" that have permeated our government for a long.... (here) [0812 EST] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR)

Summary: ट्विटर पर ट्रम्प (24 फरवरी)-एफ. बी. आई. लीक


(Reuters) - At least five animal rights activists on Monday rushed the stage as presidential candidate Bernie Sanders spoke at a rally in Oakland, video posted online showed. The protesters were led away by several Secret Service agents before they were able to reach the Democrat, whose speech was briefly interrupted by the disturbance, a video posted by CNN showed. A Secret Service agent rushed to Sanders’ side, grabbed him and wrapped his arms around the presidential candidate during the ruckus.    “We don’t get intimidated easily,” said Sanders, as he resumed his speech. Animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere claimed responsibility for the protest, saying in a statement that it hoped to persuade Sanders to take a tough stance against factory farms.  “Bernie Sanders claims to support the ‘good’ farms,” activist Rachel Ziegler said in the statement. “But as our repeated investigations have shown, even the ‘good’ farms are horrific.”  The organization posted a video online showing at least five protesters being led away by security personnel after they climbed onto the stage.   Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, is running far behind Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic nomination for the Nov. 8 presidential election.  In March, a man stormed the stage as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump spoke in Vandalia, Ohio before being held by several agents.

Summary: पशु अधिकार कार्यकर्ताओं ने कैलिफोर्निया में सैंडर्स की रैली को कुछ समय के लिए बाधित किया


(Reuters) - Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello on Friday criticized a set of recommendations by the federal board in charge of managing the U.S. territory’s finances, signaling a potential power struggle between the government and the board on how to pull the island out of economic crisis. In a letter to the board on Friday, Rossello said that while he supports reducing government spending, he would not focus on layoffs as a primary means of saving money. He also took a more moderate stance on reducing repayments to holders of the island’s $70 billion in debt, saying his administration had a “fundamental willingness to pay based upon available resources.”  The board, in a letter to the governor on Wednesday, said the island may have only $800 million available annually for debt service, just 21 percent of what it owes. The board’s letter had called for Puerto Rico to save more than $4.5 billion a year through a mix of savings and new revenues, including by “right-sizing government” through a 30 percent reduction in payroll and other means.  The board also said it favored extending some key deadlines that could give Rossello’s administration more time to negotiate consensual restructuring deals with creditors. [L1N1F82HL] In addition to its debt from a myriad of public issuers, Puerto Rico is struggling with a 45 percent poverty rate and unemployment that is more than twice the mainland U.S. average.  The bipartisan, seven-member oversight board was created under the federal Puerto Rico rescue law known as PROMESA, passed by the U.S. Congress last year. It is charged with helping the island manage its finances and negotiate restructuring deals with creditors. Rossello’s adversarial tone could score him political points on an island where many locals view the oversight board as an extension of U.S. imperialism. However, his policies and the board’s vision may be more aligned than not. For instance, both stress the need for the island to reduce spending and create new revenue sources. That is a departure from Rossello’s predecessor, former Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla, who called for dramatic repayment cuts in favor of maintaining government services.  Rossello and the board may clash on healthcare spending, with the board calling for $1 billion a year in savings. Puerto Rico’s Medicare and Medicaid insurance programs are in financial trouble, due in part to federal government reimbursement levels that are disproportionately smaller than what is given to U.S. states.  Rossello said he felt “highly confident” his administration would convince Congress to increase that funding. “There is no single political leader in the world that would want to be responsible for ... endangering the health and wellbeing of 3.5 million of its citizens,” the governor said. The board also called on Puerto Rico to annually save $300 million in higher education spending and $200 million in pension costs. Rossello said he would implement means-testing for tuition rates at the University of Puerto Rico, move pension benefits into private accounts, and implement rules to treat some pension benefits as taxable ordinary income.

Summary: प्यूर्टो रिको के गवर्नर ने द्वीप के पर्यवेक्षकों के साथ 'तीखे विरोधाभास' का हवाला दिया


BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany should be more assertive in setting foreign policy according to its own interests rather than to those of the United States, the German foreign minister said on Tuesday.  Traditionally close ties between Berlin and Washington have soured since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January.   Trump is at odds with Germany over Iran and North Korea, has denounced Germany s trade surplus with the United States, accused Berlin and others of owing vast sums to NATO and worried partners by deciding to ditch the Paris climate accord. The traditional view of the United States as having a protecting role was beginning to  crumble , Sigmar Gabriel told an audience of politicians and government representatives at the Koerber Foundation.   The U.S. s retreat (from its international role) is not due to the policies of only one president. It will not change fundamentally after the next elections,  he said. Germany should continue to invest in its partnership with the United States as a trading partner but must be more assertive in representing its own interests when the two countries are at odds. Gabriel gave the example of sanctions against Russia that the U.S. Congress agreed on in the summer and which could ultimately affect Germany s energy supply as they affect Russian pipelines. Gabriel also warned against ending the nuclear deal with Iran, saying this would increase the risk of war and affect national security, and against any move by the United Stales to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.  Germany cannot afford to wait for decisions from Washington, or to merely react to them. We must lay out our own position and make clear to our allies where the limits of our solidarity are reached,  Gabriel said in the speech, excerpts of which had been published by Sueddeutsche Zeitung ahead of time. Germans see U.S. President Donald Trump as a bigger challenge for German foreign policy than authoritarian leaders in North Korea, Russia or Turkey, a survey published by the Koerber Foundation showed. Post-war Germany has pursued a cautious foreign policy embedded in the principles and institutions of the European Union, due to the legacy of World War Two but has gradually taken on a more active global role in the last decade or so. Gabriel s Social Democrats (SPD) have said they will launch talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives on forming a government next week if members of his center-left party gave him the green light at a congress this weekend.

Summary: जर्मनी को विदेश नीति के लिए अमेरिका पर निर्भर रहना बंद करना चाहिएः विदेश मंत्री


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson visited the State Department on Tuesday for briefings, a spokesman said, a day after the former oil executive narrowly won approval from a Senate committee. “Secretary-designate Tillerson visited the State Department today for briefings,” the State Department spokesman said without elaborating. It was Tillerson’s first meetings at the State Department since U.S. President Donald Trump named him as his choice for secretary of state. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 11-10 on Monday to approve Tillerson, a former Exxon Mobil Corp chairman.

Summary: टिलरसन को विदेश मंत्रालय में पहली ब्रीफिंग मिलीः प्रवक्ता


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A closely divided Supreme Court struggled with its biggest abortion case in years on Wednesday, with pivotal Justice Anthony Kennedy voicing concerns about a restrictive Texas law yet stopping short of signaling he would strike it down. The court’s four liberal justices indicated they believed the law, which imposes strict regulations on abortion doctors and clinic buildings, intrudes on a woman’s constitutional right to end a pregnancy established in a 1973 ruling. Conservative justices including Kennedy expressed doubt during the 85-minute oral argument about claims by abortion providers who asserted that the Republican-backed 2013 law forced numerous clinics to shut down. Kennedy at one point suggested sending the case back to a lower court to get further evidence on the law’s impact, including an assessment of the ability of existing Texas clinics to meet the demand for abortions.  If there is evidence new clinics that meet the state’s regulations have increased capacity to perform abortions, it would show the law has provided a “beneficial effect,” Kennedy said. The outcome appeared to be in the hands of Kennedy, who often casts the deciding vote in close rulings. In past abortion cases, he has backed a fundamental right to abortion while supporting some restrictions. The court was shorthanded with only eight justices following the Feb. 13 death of conservative Antonin Scalia, leaving the liberals and conservatives evenly divided. The best that supporters of the law could hope for would be a 4-4 split that would let stand a lower-court ruling that affirmed the Texas regulations but set no nationwide legal precedent on whether other states could enact similar measures. However, a such ruling leaving the Texas law intact could encourage other states with anti-abortion legislatures to pass similar laws. Kennedy gave little indication he would be willing to uphold the law in full, as his three conservative colleagues would be expected to do. If Kennedy sides with the court’s four liberals, the court could either send the case back to the lower court or strike it down. A ruling is due by the end of June. A decision sending the case to a lower court could mean the dispute might not be resolved for years.  Some justices questioned the lack of evidence on why specific clinics closed after the law was passed, which could be addressed if new legal proceedings take place. Abortion providers assert that the law caused 22 of 41 clinics to close, but the state contests those numbers. “What is the evidence in the record that the closures are related to the legislation?” conservative Chief Justice John Roberts asked. Texas contends the law, passed by a Republican-controlled legislature and signed by a Republican governor, protects women’s health. The abortion providers who have challenged it assert that the regulations are aimed at shutting down their clinics. In a sign that he was not comfortable with aspects of the law, Kennedy sounded concerned about a possible increase in surgical abortions prompted in part by the state’s separate new restrictions on medically induced abortions, in which women take pills to terminate a pregnancy. Kennedy said that “this law has really increased the number of surgical procedures as opposed to medical procedures, and that this may not be medically wise.” Abortion rights advocates say surgical abortions increased because of the delays women seeking an abortion faced as a result of the 2013 law. Liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg questioned the need for a provision of the law requiring clinics to have costly, hospital-grade facilities, when abortions almost always are low-risk procedures for the woman. “What was the problem the legislature was responding to that it needed to improve the facilities for women’s health?” Ginsburg asked. The Texas law requires abortion doctors to have “admitting privileges,” a type of formal affiliation, at a hospital within 30 miles (48 km) of the clinic. Abortion providers say the provision already has forced clinics to close because such an affiliation is hard to obtain. The abortion providers also challenged a provision, not yet in effect, requiring clinics to have hospital-grade facilities with standards for corridor width, plumbing, parking spaces, room size, the spacing of beds and many other attributes. Conservative Justice Samuel Alito indicated support for the regulations and referred to evidence that abortion facilities in Texas “have been cited for really appalling violations when they were inspected: holes in the floor where rats could come in, the lack of any equipment to adequately sterilize instruments.” The Supreme Court’s last major abortion ruling came in 2007 when it upheld a federal law banning a late-term abortion procedure. The Supreme Court legalized abortion in the 1973 Roe v. Wade case. But abortion remains a disputed issue in the United States, as it does in many countries, and some states have passed laws aiming to place a variety of restrictions on a woman’s ability to terminate a pregnancy. The court is considering the Texas case in the midst of the heated campaign ahead of the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election.

Summary: मुख्य न्यायाधीश कैनेडी ने गर्भपात का सामना करते हुए सुप्रीम कोर्ट से माफी मांगी