NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. arrests of suspected illegal immigrants rose by nearly 40 percent in the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency, following executive orders that broadened the scope of who could be targeted for immigration violations, according to government data released on Wednesday. The acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Thomas Homan said that arrests by his agency jumped to 41,318 between January 22 of this year and the end of April, up from 30,028 arrests in roughly the same period last year.  Of those arrested almost two-thirds had criminal convictions. But there was also a significant jump - of more than 150 percent - in the number of immigrants not convicted of further crimes arrested by ICE: 10,800 since the beginning of the year compared to 4,200 non-criminal arrests in the same period in 2016. That increase is a result of recent guidance given by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to implement Trump’s executive orders on interior immigration enforcement and border security signed on Jan. 25, just days after the Republican president took office.  “Those that enter the country illegally, they do violate the law, that is a criminal act,” Homan said on the call, while emphasizing that immigrants who pose a threat to national security or have criminal records are still a priority for the agency. He said ICE will continue to target people who have been issued a final order of removal by an immigration judge even if they have not committed another crime. “When a federal judge makes a decision and issues an order that order needs to mean something,” Homan said. “If we don’t take action on those orders, then we are just spinning our wheels.”  While President Barack Obama was also criticized for deporting a large number of immigrants, most of them were recent border crossers apprehended entering the country illegally.  Deportations under Trump have actually fallen by 12 percent compared to the same period under Obama, Homan said, as more people arrested in the interior typically have more complicated cases that can get slowed down in the backlogged immigration court system.   The number of people caught crossing the border with Mexico is down significantly since the begin of the year, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Immigration advocates and some cities with large immigrant populations have raised concerns about the stepped up enforcement in the interior of the country.  On Wednesday, state attorneys general from New York, California, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington state and Washington D.C., issued a report laying out why they have chosen to limit local law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration agents.  A section of one of the president’s executive orders aimed to cut off federal funding to so-called “sanctuary cities,” was been blocked by a federal judge in California.

Summary: ट्रम्प के शासनकाल में अमेरिकी आप्रवासन गिरफ्तारियों में लगभग 40 प्रतिशत की वृद्धि हुई


LUSAKA (Reuters) - The emergency powers invoked by Zambian President Edgar Lungu three months ago will expire with effect from midnight on Wednesday, the nation s justice minister said. Lungu on July 5 invoked emergency powers to deal with  acts of sabotage  by his political opponents.   The declaration will duly expire at midnight tonight. I wish to state, however, that the expiration should not be misconstrued as an invitation to break the law, as other laws stay in place,  Justice Minister Given Lubinda told parliament. Lubinda said the police were still investigating some cases of suspected sabotage but did not give further details. Under state of emergency laws, police can prohibit public meetings, detain suspects longer than usual, search without a warrant, close roads, impose curfews and restrict movements. Zambia s main opposition party, the United Party for National Development (UPND), said the decision to invoke emergency powers had dented Zambia s image. UPND spokesman Charles Kakoma said the government only used the decree to intimidate opposition supporters who were detained and later released without any charges.  There was no need to for the state of emergency and that is why the government has not given us any serious update on people arrested for sabotage,  Kakoma told Reuters.

Summary: जाम्बिया की आपातकालीन शक्तियों का आदेश बुधवार की आधी रात को समाप्त हो जाएगा


NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York state judge on Wednesday ordered ExxonMobil Corp to work with New York’s attorney general to recover lost emails from an account once used by U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson when he was the oil company’s chief executive. Justice Barry Ostrager of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan also ordered Exxon by March 31 to turn over documents from its management committee that had been subpoenaed by Eric Schneiderman, the attorney general. Schneiderman had issued the subpoena in November, in connection with his probe into whether Exxon misled investors and the public about climate change. At a court hearing on Wednesday, a lawyer for the attorney general said Exxon had just made a “bombshell” revelation that it had lost a year of emails from an account that Tillerson had used, but under the alias “Wayne Tracker.”     Tillerson used the alias account to send and receive information about climate change and other matters, Schneiderman said in a March 13 letter to the court. Schneiderman said Exxon failed to disclose the “Wayne Tracker” account, and that it had been uncovered during the review of other materials. The letter also said Exxon had produced 60 documents bearing the “Wayne Tracker” email, but had not said the account was Tillerson’s. Exxon responded that the account was proper, enabling Tillerson to communicate easily with other Exxon officials, and set up because of the flood of email that Tillerson already received. It has also said it does not consider the lost emails significant, and that copies of many would already have been turned over to the attorney general. In December, Tillerson left Exxon, where he had also been chairman, and stepped down as chairman of the American Petroleum Institute trade group. The discovery of Tillerson’s account came after disclosures that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and current Vice President Mike Pence, when he was Indiana’s governor, had used previously undisclosed accounts to send and receive mail electronically.

Summary: टिलरसन के ईमेल पर एक्सॉन को न्यूयॉर्क एजी से बात करनी चाहिएः न्यायाधीश


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Nine civilians including four children were killed in the U.S. missile attack on a Syrian airbase near the city of Homs on Friday, the Syrian state news agency said. The SANA report said the civilians died in villages near the airbase. It said seven more people had been wounded and homes in the area had been badly damaged. Earlier, Homs governor Talal Barazi said seven people had been killed in the attack. It was not immediately clear if these were separate casualty tolls.

Summary: अमेरिकी हमले में नौ नागरिक मारे गएः सीरियाई राज्य समाचार एजेंसी


KIGALI (Reuters) - The U.N. subcommittee on torture prevention has suspended a  visit to Rwanda, citing obstructions imposed by the government that compromised its fact-finding mission. Rwandan authorities barred the U.N. delegation from accessing some detention sites and made it impossible for them to conduct  private and confidential interviews , a statement from the U.N. body published on Friday said.  The body said it was only the third time in 10 years it had suspended a mission. It called on Rwanda to cooperate with the body and  abide by its international obligations . The incident further mars the human rights record of the government led by President Paul Kagame, which faces mounting criticism for what human rights groups say are widespread abuses, a muzzling of independent media, and suppression of political opposition. The U.N. body said the people the group interviewed before suspending its seven-day mission said they feared reprisals.  We must not place the persons that have cooperated with us in danger,  it said. The Rwandan authorities were not immediately available for a comment, but it has denied accusations of unlawful detention and torture documented most recently by Human Rights Watch in a report published this month. The report said the government routinely tortured detainees with beatings, asphyxiations, mock executions and electric shocks. A prominent critic of Rwandan president who was barred from running for presidency, Diane Shima Rwigara, was detained in Kigali in September and faces charges of forgery of electoral documents and inciting insurrection.  She said in court last week said that her family and supporters were subjected to torture. Judges have said they will rule on her bail request on Monday.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र यातना प्रहरी ने बाधा का हवाला देते हुए रवांडा की यात्रा समाप्त की


BEIJING (Reuters) - Li Qiang, an ally of Chinese President Xi Jinping, has been named the top Communist Party official in Shanghai, replacing Han Zheng who last week joined the elite Politburo Standing Committee, the official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.  Xi on Wednesday unveiled a new senior leadership at the end of the twice-a-decade congress, with new members appointed to the three elite party bodies that run China.   Over the next few weeks and months, a series of other reshuffles will take place as the party moves people into new party and government positions and as others retire. Xinhua said in a brief notice that Li, 58, would take up the party secretary post in Shanghai and no longer serve in the top spot in Jiangsu province, according to a  decision of the Central Committee , which at 204 members is the largest of the party s ruling bodies.  The move puts Xi allies in China s four major municipalities - Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing - power centers on par administratively to provinces.  A native of the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, Li was secretary general of the provincial party committee under Xi when the latter was Zhejiang party boss from 2002 to 2007. Li was appointed to the 25-member Politburo, which is under the Standing Committee, on Wednesday, and Reuters  sources had tipped him to take on the Shanghai job. [nL4N1N3052]  He is seen as a strong contender to be further promoted to the Standing Committee at the next congress in 2022. Xinhua also said that another known Xi ally, Lou Qinjian, replaced Li as Jiangsu party secretary, stepping down as party boss in Xi s home province of Shaanxi, a post in turn filled by Hu Heping.

Summary: शी के सहयोगी ली कियांग शंघाई पार्टी के प्रमुख नियुक्तः सिन्हुआ


ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will convene a meeting of his National Security Council next week at the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters to review the fight against Islamic State militants, the White House said on Friday. The meeting, to be held on Wednesday, comes as the administration weighs a plan to increase the number of U.S. special operations forces deployed to Syria to try to advance recent gains against Islamic State. The top U.S. general, Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said he is working on options to present to Obama to increase U.S. forces in Iraq to bolster Iraqi forces preparing for a major offensive against the militant group in Mosul. Obama has held similar meetings, at the Pentagon and at the State Department, on fighting Islamic State, which holds areas of Syria and Iraq. “There’s no particular operational reason for him having it there,” White House spokeswoman Jen Friedman told reporters. “It’s just the next in a series of these meetings.”

Summary: ओबामा अगले सप्ताह सी. आई. ए. में इस्लामिक स्टेट पर चर्चा करेंगे


ROME (Reuters) - The Italian government won all five confidence votes it had called in the upper house of parliament on Wednesday on a new electoral law that looks unlikely to produce a clear-cut result at national elections due by next May. Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni called the five confidence motions to get the package approved quickly despite furious opposition from the anti-system 5-Star Movement and small leftist groups. All five of the motions, on different articles of the law, garnered comfortable majorities, even though many leftist allies had deserted coalition ranks. The bill has already passed through the lower house. A sixth vote on another article, but which was not the subject of a confidence motion, also passed. A final vote on the law is scheduled for Thursday morning. The proposed voting system favors parties that form pre-election coalitions and is backed by the largest parties within Italy s main centre-left and centre-right blocs. It will penalize groups that want to go it alone, such as 5-Star. However, opinion polls indicate that the system, which is a mix of proportional representation and first-past-the-post, will not throw up an obvious winner, with the vote split three ways between the left, right and 5-Star. A YouTrend survey for AGI newsagency said on Wednesday that none of the three main groups would get  anywhere near an absolute majority of seats .  It said the only way for this to happen would be for one bloc to win more than 40 percent of the vote, adding this would trigger a landslide. At present, none of the three political groups are seen winning support of more than 33 percent.   Five-Star has denounced the reform as  an institutional coup d etat  and senators from the group closed their eyes, or put on a blindfold as they voted  no  in the Senate. Hundreds of their supporters filled a central Rome square to denounce the bill, chanting  honesty  and waving party flags.  This is a fraudulent law for people here. It ignores voting rights and instead favors amalgamations and hookups,  said Rossano Cioccolini, 56, a worker from the northern city of Milan who took a day of holiday to join the Rome rally.  The largest party in Italy, 5-Star, will not get a look in because it doesn t accept alliances,  he added. The use of multiple confidence motions first in the lower house and now in the Senate has allowed the ruling centre-left coalition to truncate discussion on the bill and sidestep dozens of secret votes that could have allowed disillusioned lawmakers to betray their camp and ambush the bill. The government says the new law is needed to harmonize the electoral system for the upper and lower houses and reduce the risk of different majorities materializing in the two chambers. Previous attempts at reform this past year have all failed. Critics say the proposed law will enable political leaders to pack electoral lists across the country with their most avid supporters, stifling internal party debate.

Summary: इतालवी सरकार ने चुनावी कानून पर सभी पाँच विश्वास मत जीते


COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Reuters) - The billionaire industrialist Koch brothers rejected pressure over the weekend from dozens of big donors in their sprawling political network to back U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, saying that their money was better spent trying to influence congressional races. The rejection deprives Trump, a New York businessman who has never previously run for elected office, of a major source of fundraising and reflects how his unorthodox White House bid has sparked some disarray among fundraisers who would normally be squarely behind a Republican nominee. The Kochs, with a nearly $300 million political warchest,  have earned a reputation as powerful allies in Republican politics.  Charles Koch, the dominant player in his political partnership with brother David Koch, told attendees at a bi-annual donor retreat at a luxury resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado: “At this point, I can’t support either candidate” for the White House.  He said network’s mandate was to shore up “the country’s financial future and eliminate corporate welfare,” a reference to government subsidies provided to some industries. “But since it appears that neither presidential candidate is likely to support us in these efforts, we are focused on maximizing the number of principled leaders in the House and Senate who will,” he said.  Trump’s protectionist stances and pledges to review free trade agreements and to get tough on immigration have clashed with the Kochs’ free-market political philosophy. Charles Koch has described as a “a blood libel” the idea he would instead support Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee for the Nov. 8 election. A group of wealthy Republican donors, who paid the minimum $100,000 per year to be members of the 700-strong Koch network, had been urging the brothers to step off the sidelines of the election and back Trump. The donors argued that if Trump is elected, the Koch network would want to have influence on his emerging policies and cabinet picks, and to have access to a Trump administration. Over cocktails on the patio overlooking the Rocky Mountains, in private meetings and on text message threads, some donors voiced their concern that if the Kochs alienate Trump, “it could hurt us down the road.”   Some suggested that some donors could leave the Koch network over the decision not to back Trump. Oil magnate Harold Hamm, a leading candidate to serve as Trump’s energy secretary, did not attend the weekend gathering. Other donors who had been at the forefront of a movement to urge the Kochs to get on board with Trump, like billionaire broadcasting magnate Stanley Hubbard, said that in a private meeting with Charles, they had now been convinced that the Kochs were “doing the right thing.”   Trump has shown no hesitation in spurning the Kochs. On Friday, he tweeted that he had turned down an invitation to meet with the brothers. Koch insiders quickly disputed that characterization, saying an invite was never extended.       Nonetheless, the Koch brothers also did not act to stop Trump from beating 16 presidential rivals and winning the party nomination. During the primary contests, many Koch donors were urging the brothers to perform a “Trump Intervention,” whereby the brothers would leverage their political operation to support Trump’s rivals. The Kochs refused. Trump officially accepted the Republican nomination in Cleveland last month, with a speech that painted a bleak picture of rising crime at home and increasing threats from overseas. The top Koch official on criminal justice reform, Mark Holden, said the speech was inaccurate. “We are safer (now),” he said.

Summary: शक्तिशाली कोच भाइयों ने व्हाइट हाउस के लिए ट्रम्प का समर्थन करने के लिए बड़े दानदाताओं के आह्वान को अस्वीकार कर दिया


AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The International Criminal Court approved a prosecution request on Thursday to investigate war crimes allegedly committed in Burundi by the government and government-linked groups against political foes from April 2015 to October 2017. The decision follows Burundi s decision to withdraw from the court as of Oct. 26, 2017. However, the court will still have jurisdiction over crimes committed while Burundi was a member. A court statement said the country s government  launched a widespread and systematic attack against the Burundian civilian population... targeting those who opposed or were perceived to oppose the ruling party.  In a statement, the court said the prosecutor had presented enough evidence of crimes against humanity to merit a formal investigation, including murder, torture, rape and persecution, that led to more than 1,000 deaths. Unrest has gripped Burundi since the announcement, in April 2015, that President Pierre Nkurunziza would seek a third term in office. He won in July of that year, despite protests that the vote was rigged and that his seeking a third term violated both the constitution and the terms of an agreement that had ended a previous rebellion.  UN rights investigators and independent activists have accused government forces of widespread violations, including forced disappearances, and of orchestrating a campaign of terror. Around 400,000 people have fled to neighboring countries amid the unrest, which has crippled Burundi s economy. Reacting to the court decision, top Nkurunziza adviser Willy Nyamitwe tweeted:  The corrupt ICC just shot itself in the foot.   This is obviously cheating, but no doubt Burundi will be the winner in this battle. This is the last card of the Western powers,  he said.

Summary: युद्ध अपराध अदालत ने बुरुंडी जांच का समर्थन किया


BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand s junta has removed the head of the national Buddhism office, the prime minister said on Tuesday, after religious groups called on the government to sack him over his plans to clean up scandal-hit monasteries.  But Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said it wasn t a punishment. Pongporn Pramsaneh, who joined the National Office of Buddhism in February, had vowed to reform Thailand s more than 40,000 temples by forcing them to open their finances to the public. They take billions of dollars in donations every year. The former policeman was appointed amid a standoff between security forces and the influential Dhammakaya temple in February. Authorities wanted to question the temple s chief abbot on money-laundering charges. Pongporn will now move to a lower profile post of inspector-general in Prayuth s office.  He has got some of the jobs done. He came in to solve temple issues,  Prayuth told reporters.  I ll now bring him close to me, to help me work on religious reform... This is not a punishment.  Pongporn told Reuters:  I have done my duties to the best of my ability.  Buddhism is one of the three traditional pillars of Thai society alongside the nation and monarchy. It has largely eluded the junta s control as it has stamped its authority on other aspects of Thai life since a 2014 coup. The National Office of Buddhism is responsible for state administration of the religion followed by 90 percent of Thailand s 67 million people, but religious affairs are handled by a Sangha Supreme Council of elderly monks. Despite high-profile temple scandals over murder, drugs and sex as well as improper financial dealings, Pongporn s call for change had jarred on some monks. A group called the Thailand Buddhists Federation submitted a petition to the prime minister s office this month, calling for Pongporn to be removed to  prevent further damage to monks .   He painted monks as villains in Thai people s eyes,  the group s secretary-general, Korn Meedee, said in a statement on Facebook.  In July, another Buddhist group had called for Pongporn s removal, saying he had damaged the Buddhist institution.  Phra Buddha Issara, a firebrand monk who called for reform of Buddhism, said the junta gave in to pressure too easily given government promises to fight corruption.   Are they still serious about tackling corruption or are they only moving against certain people and groups?  he said, adding that when it came to monks:  No one can touch them.       Reuters reported exclusively in March that the junta was drafting a law which would significantly weaken the Sangha Council. The draft is expected to be brought to parliament this year. Thai security forces besieged the Dhammakaya Temple in February to try to catch its former abbot, wanted for questioning on money laundering. But police failed to catch him and he is still on the run.

Summary: धार्मिक समूहों के दबाव के बाद थाईलैंड के बौद्ध धर्म प्रमुख को हटाया गया


JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia s disaster mitigation agency said 40,000 people had been evacuated from near Bali s erupting Mount Agung volcano, but tens of thousands still needed to move with an imminent large eruption warning issued on Monday.  We really ask people in the danger zone to evacuate immediately because there s a potential for a bigger eruption,  said Sutopo, a spokesman for Indonesia s disaster mitigation agency (BNPB).  He told a briefing that 40,000 people had evacuated out of around 90,000-100,000 residents estimated in the 8-10 km (5-6 miles) exclusion zone around Agung.  Not all residents have evacuated yet. There are those (who haven t evacuated) because their farm animals haven t been evacuated yet. There are those who feel they are safe,  he said, adding that security personnel were trying to persuade people to leave but they could be evacuated by force.

Summary: इंडोनेशिया का कहना है कि बाली ज्वालामुखी से 40,000 लोगों को निकाला गया, और लोगों को स्थानांतरित करने की आवश्यकता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s administration would like to see a Westinghouse nuclear reactor deal with India move forward, a senior White House official said on Friday ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meetings with Trump on Monday. The deal, years in the making, has been slow to complete due to concerns about liability in the event of a nuclear accident. “We’re still very much interested in seeing this deal move forward,” the official told reporters. “Westinghouse stands by the viability of the project ... We very much support continued negotiations between Westinghouse and its Indian partners.”

Summary: अमेरिका चाहेगा कि भारत के साथ परमाणु समझौता आगे बढ़ेः अधिकारी


ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he would visit Japan, South Korea and China in November, a trip he added would possibly include Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference. Trump, who has been focused on working with China to try to curb North Korea s nuclear program, noted he had been invited to the U.S-ASEAN summit in the Philippines, but he was not definitive about his attendance.  We ll probably all be going over (to Asia) in a group in November. And we ll be doing Japan, South Korea, possibly Vietnam with the conference,  Trump said. When asked about the ASEAN summit in the Philippines, Trump acknowledged he had been invited, but said:  We re going to see.  U.S. Vice President Mike Pence announced in April during a visit to Jakarta that Trump would attend the summits in the Philippines and Vietnam.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने कहा कि वह नवंबर में जापान, दक्षिण कोरिया, चीन की यात्रा करेंगे


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The chief of the Russian General Staff has accused the United States of training former Islamic State fighters in Syria to try to destabilize the country. General Valery Gerasimov s allegations, made in a newspaper interview, center on a U.S. military base at Tanf, a strategic Syrian highway border crossing with Iraq in the south of the country. Russia says the U.S. base is illegal and that it and the area around it have become  a black hole  where militants operate unhindered. Islamic State has this year lost almost all the territory it held in Syria and Iraq. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday the main part of the battle with Islamic State in Syria was over, according to the state-run RIA news agency. The United States says the Tanf facility is a temporary base used to train partner forces to fight Islamic State. It has rejected similar Russian allegations in the past, saying Washington remains committed to killing off Islamic State and denying it safe havens. But Gerasimov told the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper on Wednesday that the United States was training up fighters who were former Islamic State militants but who now call themselves the New Syrian Army or use other names. He said Russia satellites and drones had spotted militant  brigades at the U.S. base.  They are in reality being trained there,  Gerasimov said, saying there were also a large number of militants and former Islamic State fighters at Shadadi, where he said there was also a U.S. base.  They are practically Islamic State,  he said.  But after they are worked with, they change their spots and take on another name. Their task is to destabilize the situation.   Russia has partially withdrawn from Syria, but Gerasimov said the fact that Moscow was keeping an air base and naval facility there meant it was well placed to deal with pockets of instability if and when they arose.

Summary: रूस ने अमेरिका पर सीरिया में इस्लामिक स्टेट के पूर्व लड़ाकों को प्रशिक्षण देने का आरोप लगाया


GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - The bodies of 26 people believed killed after an ambush last week in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been discovered, most of them with their hands tied and their necks broken, a local chief said on Sunday. The victims disappeared a week ago after they were ambushed by militants on a main road in North Kivu s restive Beni territory, where more than 800 people were killed in dozens of massacres between 2014 and 2016. The attack, which followed a lull this year, has revived questions about the state s ability to impose order over eastern borderlands wracked by ethnic tensions and competition for mineral resources. Congolese authorities and U.N. officials initially believed that about 20 civilians had disappeared after being attacked by armed assailants and were likely to have been killed. They were unable to locate the bodies for days, however, due to intense fighting. A group including officials from Congo s U.N. mission MONUSCO, the army, the Congolese Red Cross, and Congolese authorities traveled to the scene of the killings on Sunday.  In total, 26 people   three women, 22 civilian men and one Congolese soldier   were tied up and killed by breaking their necks,  Saambili Bamukoka, chief of Beni s Watalinga chiefdom, told Reuters. A Congolese military spokesman had earlier confirmed that the bodies had been discovered near the road, but did not know how many there were.  Bodies were found in a state of decomposition,  said local army spokesman Mak Hazukay, adding that the road remained closed to civilian traffic.  We must first have the time to secure the surrounding area.   The day after the attack on the travelers, militants assaulted two nearby military bases, killing two U.N. peacekeepers and injuring 18 others. The army and U.N. peacekeeping mission blamed the raids on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan Islamist group active near the border. Authorities have also accused the ADF of carrying out nearly all the massacres of the past three years. But independent and separate U.N. experts say several armed groups as well as national army commanders have been involved in the killings as they vie for influence in Congo s lawless eastern borderlands.  Millions died in regional wars that ravaged eastern Congo between 1996-2003 and spawned dozens of armed groups that continue to prey on local populations.

Summary: पूर्वी कांगो में घात लगाकर किए गए यात्रियों के शव मिलेः प्रमुख


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Belgium took steps to expel a Saudi imam who preaches at the country s biggest mosque for spreading extremist ideology, the immigration minister said on Tuesday. The imam s residence permit was withdrawn as a prelude to expelling him. He had lodged an appeal against that decision which, if it failed, would oblige him to leave the country, Minister Theo Francken told radio station BelRTL. Brussels  Grand Mosque, which was leased to Saudi Arabia for 99 years in the 1960s as part of an energy deal, has faced repeated accusations from local politicians of propagating ultra-conservative forms of Islam.  There is a problem with the Grand Mosque... I have taken the decision to withdraw the residence permit of the imam of that mosque,  Francken said.  We have had some very clear indications that he was very radicalized, Salafist and conservative. He was dangerous for our society and national security.  Francken did not name of the imam, who the ministry also declined to name when contacted by Reuters. Authorities at the mosque were not immediately available for comment. The Salafist movement - which is strongly influenced by Saudi Arabia s Wahhabi school of Islam - sees many other branches of the faith as heretical has been linked to militant groups such as Islamic State. A judge will decide in the coming weeks on the imam s appeal.

Summary: बेल्जियम ने 'सलाफी' सऊदी इमाम का निवास परमिट वापस लिया


TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A Libyan force that acts as an anti-crime unit in Tripoli said it had arrested the organisers of a comic festival for  acts of indecency and against public morals . The arrests were carried out by the Special Deterrence Force (Rada), a Salafist-led armed group that has expanded its power under Libya s U.N.-backed Government of National Accord. Salafists are ultra-conservatives whose influence has grown across Libya in recent years. The arrests cut short the second three-day annual Comic Con festival of arts, comics, anime and gaming to be held in the capital. The arrests were made on Friday, the second day of the event. Some Libyans had attacked Comic Con organisers on social media for holding the event, saying it was un-Islamic and resembled a Halloween party. The organisers said on their Facebook page that the festival had nothing to do with Halloween. They posted no immediate comment on the arrests. Rada said in its statement that festivals like Comic Con were  derived from abroad and exploit weakness of religious faith and fascination with foreign cultures .  The organisers and supervisors of the event were arrested and will be presented for public prosecution for acts of indecency and against public morals,  it said in a statement.  It is necessary to address these destructive phenomena and fight them, which drive the dissemination of pornography and feed the minds of teenagers and motivate them to kill and  mutilate through well-known cartoons.

Summary: लीबिया के सलाफी नेतृत्व वाले बल ने 'अभद्रता' के लिए कॉमिक फेस्टिवल को तोड़ा


MADRID (Reuters) - Spain s constitutional court on Friday said it had started a review of the vote held in Catalonia s parliament to declare independence from Spain. The state prosecutor and other parties have three days to make allegations, the court said.

Summary: स्पेन की संवैधानिक अदालत ने कैटलन स्वतंत्रता मतदान की समीक्षा शुरू की


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mexican and Canadian stocks and currencies fell on Wednesday after reports that the White House was considering withdrawing from the North American Free Trade Agreement, a long-standing trade deal between both countries and the United states. The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index .GSPTSE was down 0.11 percent and Mexico's IPC fell 1.17 percent after earlier touching a record high. The Canadian dollar CAD=D4 weakened 0.29 percent versus the U.S. currency while the Mexican peso MXN= touched its weakest in 6 weeks versus the greenback. The peso was last at 19.2397 per dollar, down 2.07 percent on the day. The iShares MSCI Mexico ETF (EWW.P) fell 2.8 percent to $50.59 and the iShares MSCI Canada ETF (EWW.P) was last down 0.4 percent at $26.66. A senior Trump administration official said and executive order on withdrawing the United States from NAFTA is under consideration. The story was first reported by Politico.

Summary: कनाडा, मैक्सिको के शेयरों, मुद्राओं में गिरावट आई क्योंकि अमेरिका नाफ्टा छोड़ने पर विचार कर रहा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The No. 2 Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives said on Tuesday the House would likely need to vote again on tax legislation on Wednesday morning given that Democrats in the Senate were likely to prevail on a procedural objection. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy advised House lawmakers that Senate Democrats were likely to object that the legislation fails to comply with the so-called Byrd rule and were likely to be upheld, necessitating a second House vote. “As such, members are further advised that an additional procedural vote on the Motion to Concur is expected tomorrow morning, which will clear the bill for President Trump’s signature,” McCarthy said in a notice to House lawmakers.

Summary: कर विधेयक पर सदन को फिर से मतदान करने की आवश्यकता होगीः रिपब्लिकन नेता


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has gathered enough evidence to charge six members of the Russian government in the hacking of Democratic National Committee computers before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the investigation. Federal agents and prosecutors in Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and San Francisco have been cooperating on the DNC investigation and prosecutors could bring the case to court next year, it said. By identifying individual Russian military and intelligence hackers with charges, U.S. authorities could make it difficult for them to travel, but arrests and jailing would be unlikely, according to the Journal report. The hacking investigation, conducted by cybersecurity experts, predates the appointment in May of federal special counsel Robert Mueller to oversee the probe of alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with President Donald Trump’s campaign. Mueller and the Justice Department agreed to allow the technical cyber investigation to continue under the original team of agents and prosecutors, the Journal said. U.S. intelligence agencies have said Russian intelligence agencies were behind those cyber attacks, which resulted in thousands of emails and other documents being made public by WikiLeaks last year. The intelligence community concluded in January that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the campaign to sway the election in Trump’s favor. Russia has denied it meddled in the election and Trump has denied that his campaign colluded with the Russian government. If the case is brought by federal prosecutors, it would pinpoint the specific Russian military and intelligence hackers behind the attack on the DNC and the emails of John Podesta, who was campaign chairman for Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. It would be the second time the United States charged Russians with cyber crimes. In March, the Justice Department  charged two Russian intelligence agents and two hackers with masterminding the 2014 theft of 500 million Yahoo accounts. (Corrects last paragraph to say ‘It would be the second time the United States charged Russians with cyber crimes,” instead of “It would not be the second time ...”)

Summary: अमेरिकी अधिकारियों ने डीएनसी हैकिंग में छह रूसी अधिकारियों की पहचान कीः डब्ल्यूएसजे


RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian authorities were serving 127 arrest warrants in six states on Monday as part of a year-long investigation into international drug traffickers who have shipped at least six tonnes of cocaine to European cities, federal police said. Operating out of the Brazilian ports of Santos, Salvador and Itaja , the drug gangs sent the cocaine to Antwerp in Belgium, Gioia Tauro in Italy and Valencia in Spain, police said. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) collaborated in the investigation, Brazilian police said in a statement. The warrants were being served in the states of S o Paulo, Minas Gerais, Santa Catarina, Paran , Rio Grande do Sul and the Federal District.

Summary: ब्राजील की पुलिस ने यूरोप को कोकीन भेजने वाले गिरोहों को निशाना बनाया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI said on Sunday it stood by its earlier finding that no criminal charges were warranted against Democrat Hillary Clinton for using a private email server for government work, lifting a cloud over her presidential campaign two days before the U.S. election. FBI Director James Comey made the announcement in a letter to Congress, saying the agency had worked “around the clock” to complete its review of newly discovered emails and found no reason to change its July finding. “During that process, we reviewed all of the communications that were to or from Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state,” Comey said. “Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July.” A law enforcement source told Reuters the decision closed the FBI probe of Clinton’s email practices.  Comey informed Congress of the newly discovered emails more than a week ago, throwing the race for the White House into turmoil and helping to erode Clinton’s lead over Republican candidate Donald Trump in the final stretch before Tuesday’s vote. “We’re glad this issue is resolved but for the record, this could easily have been learned before 1st letter was sent,” Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon wrote on Twitter. At a rally in Michigan, Trump questioned the thoroughness of the FBI review and said he was confident the issue would not go away. “The investigation will go on, the rank-and-file special agents won’t let her get away with her terrible crimes,” he told supporters in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Clinton did not mention the FBI email decision during campaign appearances in Ohio and New Hampshire. U.S. stock index futures rose more than 1 percent after the FBI announcement, suggesting Wall Street was poised to end its longest skid in more than three decades. The U.S. dollar also jumped in Asian trading against the yen, euro and Swiss franc. U.S. Treasury futures dropped and Tokyo’s Nikkei share average opened up 1.31 percent. Global financial markets slipped last week as opinion polls showed the presidential race tightening. The latest emails were discovered as part of a separate probe of former Democratic U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Weiner is the target of an FBI investigation into illicit text messages he allegedly sent to a 15-year-old girl in North Carolina. Federal investigators got a warrant to examine the emails to see if they were related to the probe into Clinton’s private server. Democrats reacted angrily to Comey’s intrusion into the race and demanded quick action in examining the emails. “I am very grateful to the professionals at the FBI for doing an extraordinary amount of high-quality work in a short period of time,” Comey said on Sunday. But Democrats did not let Comey and the FBI off the hook. U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California said Sunday’s announcement made Comey’s earlier letter “even more troubling” and called for the Justice Department to review its procedures to prevent similar actions to influence future elections. “By confirming that the new emails were meaningless, today’s letter underscores the irresponsibility of Director Comey’s original letter,” Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said. Republicans kept up their criticism of Clinton despite Comey’s announcement. “She simply believes she’s above the law and always plays by her own rules,” House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement, arguing that Clinton’s use of a private email server “compromised our national security.” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus said that while the probe had not led to criminal charges, it produced evidence that Clinton broke the law and “repeatedly lied to the American people about her reckless conduct.” News of the renewed probe had appeared to fuel a recent slide in Clinton’s poll numbers. The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Clinton with a 5 percentage point lead over the New York businessman nationally - 44 percent to 39 percent support - while races in the swing states of Florida and North Carolina shifted from favoring Clinton to being too close to call. The Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project estimates that Clinton has a 90 percent chance of winning the election.

Summary: एफ. बी. आई. ने चुनाव से दो दिन पहले ईमेल समीक्षा में क्लिंटन को मंजूरी दी


(Reuters) - A drone hit an airplane landing at a Quebec City airport this week, the first time an unmanned flying object has collided with commercial aircraft in Canada, Transport Minister Marc Garneau said on Sunday. No injuries were reported in the incident, which happened on Thursday at Jean Lesage International Airport and involved a plane belonging to Quebec-based Skyjet Aviation.  I am extremely relieved that the aircraft only sustained minor damage and was able to land safely,  Garneau said in a statement. There were six passengers and two crew members on board the airplane at the time of the collision, according to local news media reports. Drones are not allowed within 5.5 km (3.4 miles) of Canadian airports, helipads and seaplane bases. Operators who put aircraft at risk face steep fines and jail time under Canadian law. Drone usage has soared in North America, Europe and China, raising privacy concerns and fears of collisions with commercial jets, and prompting the United Nations  aviation agency to back the creation of a single global drone registry. There have been 1,596 drone incidents reported to Transport Canada so far this year, with 131 of them deemed to be aviation safety concerns. In November 2016, a Canadian airliner with 54 passengers on board had to swerve to avoid an unmanned flying object near Toronto, slightly injuring two cabin crew.

Summary: कनाडा में वाणिज्यिक विमान पर ड्रोन से हमला, कोई हताहत नहीं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Ralph Northam was elected on Tuesday as Virginia’s next governor, U.S. media projected, handing his party a sorely needed victory and beating back a challenge from a Republican opponent who embraced President Donald Trump’s combative campaign style. Northam, the state’s lieutenant governor, had seen his lead in the opinion polls diminish late in the race in the face of hard-edged ads by Republican Ed Gillespie touching on divisive issues such as immigration, gang crime and Confederate statues.

Summary: डेमोक्रेट राल्फ नॉर्थम ने वर्जीनिया के गवर्नर की दौड़ जीतीः मीडिया


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is a fierce campaigner against racial inequality whose hostility to big business has rattled investors in South Africa. She is also one of two front runners to be the country s next president. The 68-year-old is vying to succeed her ex-husband, President Jacob Zuma, as leader of the ruling African National Congress at a party vote this weekend, an outcome that would make her favorite for the presidency after a parliamentary election due in 2019. A medical doctor and former chair of the Commission of the African Union, a pan-continental grouping, Dlamini-Zuma has pledged during her campaign to  radically  tackle the racial inequality that persists in South Africa 23 years after the end of white minority rule. Backers of her main rival, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, say she is peddling populist rhetoric and would rule in the mould of her former husband, whose decade in power has been plagued by corruption scandals. Dlamini-Zuma declined to be interviewed for this story. The choice between Dlamini-Zuma and Ramaphosa will influence South Africa s economic policy trajectory, as well the country s role in Africa and beyond. Graphic: ANC election in South Africa - here Graphic: South African economy - here Investors are worried by Dlamini-Zuma s hostility toward international companies, which she says form part of a  white monopoly capital  cabal dominating South Africa s wealth.  A Dlamini-Zuma victory would signal a sharp rhetorical shift toward more leftist economic policy,  said John Ashbourne, an Africa-focused economist at Capital Economics.  A further credit ratings downgrade would be almost inevitable.  Yet Dlamini-Zuma s supporters point to a commitment to changing the lives of South Africa s black majority. Lynne Jones, a psychiatrist and author who lived with Dlamini-Zuma when they were students together in the English city of Bristol in the 1970s, says her determination to fight injustice is rooted in her own personal story. Jones remembers a day four decades ago when Dlamini-Zuma lay on her bed and wept after being forced to miss her brother s funeral because the apartheid-era security services had hounded her out of South Africa.  She was fiercely intelligent and determined,  said Jones.  Here was someone who had put their whole life on the line and given up home and family for what they believed. It was eye-opening.  The race between Ramaphosa, a unionist-turned-millionaire businessman, and Dlamini-Zuma is too close to call, political analysts say. Her campaign team told Reuters in written comments it was confident she would be elected ANC leader. Ramaphosa, who is popular among swathes of the ANC disillusioned with Zuma, is promising to end corruption, boost a flatlining economy and deliver jobs to the poor in a country where more than a quarter of the population is unemployed. Dlamini-Zuma, by contrast, is an African nationalist and has the support of the influential ANC youth and women s leagues, which both tend to support socialist policies. Known for her fierce temper and hostility toward the West, she was described in one 2001 U.S. diplomatic cable on WikiLeaks as a  truculent and petulant foreign minister . Another cable to Washington suggested she could be charming.  Belying her reputation as fierce and formidable, the Minister was soft spoken and smiling in this meeting - articulate but gentle, candid but warm,  Donald Gips, then U.S. ambassador to South Africa, wrote in 2010.     The most common criticism of Dlamini-Zuma is that she is beholden to Zuma and his powerful patronage network. Zuma has publicly endorsed her.  She is bold and you can t fool her. She is someone you can trust,  Zuma told a rally recently.     The couple met in Swaziland in the 1980s, when they were both in the ANC underground. They were married for more than a decade and have four children together. In a rare interview last month, Dlamini-Zuma challenged her opponents to find any evidence of corruption in her long political career.  I don t loot government coffers. I ve never done so, and I will not do so,  she told ANN7 television. But for some senior figures in the ANC, she has not done enough to distance herself from the corruption scandals that have dogged President Zuma.  She has not said anything on  state capture ,  ANC chief whip Jackson Mthembu told Reuters, using a South African term to describe private interests unduly controlling government funds. Dlamini-Zuma says accusations that she is piggy-backing off Zuma are  insulting  given her career, first as a doctor to ANC leaders fighting apartheid and then as a cabinet minister under every South African president since 1994. As health minister in Nelson Mandela s cabinet, she laid the foundations for free public healthcare for the poor, took a hard line on smoking and made medicines more accessible. As foreign minister she fostered friendships with African countries and emerging economies like China, even when this angered the West. But she also made errors of judgment. In 1996, Dlamini-Zuma awarded a contract for more than $3 million to a friend for a play, Sarafina II, to raise awareness about AIDS and was later found to have ignored tender rules.  Political analyst Ralph Mathekga said that paled in comparison to recent government malpractice. He said:  14 million rand in the Sarafina scandal now seems like peanuts when compared with the looting under Zuma.

Summary: 'भयंकर और दुर्जेय' डलामिनी-जुमा की नजर दक्षिण अफ्रीका के राष्ट्रपति पद पर


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s attorneys asked a U.S. judge to bar accusations about his personal conduct that have arisen during the presidential election campaign, which would include allegations of sexual misconduct, from the upcoming civil trial over Trump University. Students at Trump University claim they were defrauded by its real estate seminars. Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has faced allegations from women that he inappropriately touched them. Trump denied those accusations. In a court filing late on Thursday, attorneys for Trump said evidence and statements from the election campaign should be barred from trial because they could unfairly prejudice the jury. The trial is set to begin on Nov. 28. Evidence including Trump’s campaign speeches, tweets, his tax issues and controversy over his personal charity should not be considered by jurors, the filing said. All audio and video recordings publicized during the campaign should also be barred, the filing said, along with evidence about Trump’s beauty pageants, casinos and corporate bankruptcies. “Before trial begins in this case, prospective members of the jury will have the opportunity to cast their vote for president,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “It is in the ballot box where they are free to judge Mr. Trump based on all this and more.” A spokeswoman for the plaintiffs declined to comment.  Trump’s lawyers had argued that the lawsuit, filed in 2013 in a San Diego federal court, should be dismissed because the New York real estate mogul, while personally involved in developing the concept and curriculum, relied on others to manage Trump University by the time the plaintiffs purchased seminars.  Trump set off an uproar earlier this year when he accused the judge overseeing the case, U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, of being biased against him because of the Trump’s pledge to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico. Curiel was born in Indiana and is of Mexican descent. Trump is trailing in the polls to Democrat Hillary Clinton with less than three weeks until Election Day.  Trump’s lawyers also asked Curiel to exclude evidence about students’ finances from the trial, saying the affordability of Trump University was not relevant to the trial. Lawyers for the students asked in separate court filings to bar other evidence, including testimonials attesting to the value of the seminars, partly because they are irrelevant to whether Trump University misrepresented the qualifications of its instructors.

Summary: ट्रम्प विश्वविद्यालय के मुकदमे में व्यक्तिगत आचरण के दावों पर रोक लगाना चाहते हैं ट्रम्प


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two former associates of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie were convicted on Friday for their roles in the “Bridgegate” lane closure scandal, following a six-week trial that served to further tarnish the Republican’s damaged reputation. Bridget Kelly, the governor’s former deputy chief of staff, and Bill Baroni, former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, were found guilty in Newark federal court on all counts. They were convicted of fraud, conspiracy and depriving the residents of Fort Lee, New Jersey, of their civil rights. Christie, who is in charge of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s transition team, has not been criminally charged, but the scandal has torpedoed what was once seen as a promising political career. Christie on Friday again denied having had any advance knowledge of the scheme to choke traffic heading for the busy George Washington Bridge, which links New Jersey and Manhattan.  “I had no knowledge prior to or during these lane realignments, and had no role in authorizing them,” Christie said in a statement following the verdict. “Anything said to the contrary over the past six weeks in court is simply untrue.” The scandal has dogged Christie, once seen as a potential presidential nominee before his campaign for the White House failed this year. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta said on Friday Trump should ask Christie to resign as head of his transition team. Legal experts have said it is unlikely Christie would face any criminal consequences based on the trial testimony.  Baroni and Kelly were accused of shutting down access lanes to the bridge in September 2013 in Fort Lee, New Jersey, creating a massive days-long traffic jam to punish the town’s mayor, Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, for declining to endorse Christie’s reelection campaign. The Port Authority, which runs the bridge, says it is the world’s busiest, carrying 102 million vehicles a year on the I-95 interstate highway, a major east coast traffic artery. Lawyers for Kelly and Baroni vowed to appeal. “This is not over,” Kelly’s lawyer Michael Critchley said outside the courthouse, with his arm around his weeping client. He said the judge had erred during jury instructions. Defense lawyers were furious when U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton told jurors in response to a question they could convict Kelly and Baroni on conspiracy even if the act itself was not “intentionally punitive toward Mayor Sokolich.” Wigenton said prosecutors did not have to prove motive, even though their case had revolved around the political retribution. “By answering the way you’re answering, you’re directing a verdict of guilty,” an angry Critchley told Wigenton on Tuesday. Baroni’s lawyer, Michael Baldassare, told reporters the case was a “disgrace” and said the conviction would be overturned. “I am innocent of these charges,” a smiling Baroni said. Kelly and Baroni’s co-conspirator, former Port Authority official and confessed mastermind David Wildstein, had earlier pleaded guilty and appeared as the government’s star witness, detailing how the three schemed to pay back Sokolich. But Wildstein also implicated Christie, saying he and Baroni discussed the lane closures with the governor while they were ongoing. Christie, Wildstein testified, laughed at the notion that Sokolich was frustrated by the traffic. At the time, Christie believed that securing the backing of Democratic officials would burnish his national reputation, according to trial testimony. Kelly, who took the stand in her defense, testified she had discussed the lane closures with Christie a month beforehand, though she said she thought at the time they were part of a legitimate traffic study. “I take no pleasure in this verdict,” said U.S. Attorney of New Jersey Paul Fishman, a successor of Christie in that position. Fishman, whose office prosecuted the case, said he was saddened by the conduct of top government officials. Kelly and Baroni’s lawyers argued that Wildstein had orchestrated the plot himself and told them he was conducting a traffic study. Wildstein said on the stand the three of them knew all along that the study was a bogus cover story. Prosecutors showed jurors numerous exchanges that Kelly and Baroni each had with Wildstein, who operated as liaison between Baroni at the Port Authority and Kelly in the governor’s office. Those included Kelly’s now-infamous email to Wildstein that prosecutors said launched the scheme, in which she wrote, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.” Kelly and Baroni are scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 21. Each faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on the most serious charge of fraud, though it is unlikely they would receive such a lengthy term.

Summary: न्यू जर्सी 'ब्रिजगेट' घोटाले में क्रिस्टी के पूर्व सहयोगी दोषी ठहराए गए


CAIRO (Reuters) - The Arab League is to hold an emergency meeting on Saturday on U.S. plans to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the head of the Palestinian delegation to the body said on Wednesday. The Palestinians and Jordan had requested the meeting which will take place at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT), Ambassador Diab al-Louh told Reuters by phone.

Summary: अरब लीग शनिवार को येरुशलम पर आपातकालीन बैठक करेगी


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The FBI has opened an investigation into U.S. links to South Africa s Guptas, escalating a scandal over the family s alleged use of a friendship with President Jacob Zuma to control state businesses, the Financial Times said on Thursday. Separately, Britain s banking regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said it was in contact with two UK banks over any possible links to the Gupta family. The Guptas and Zuma have denied any wrongdoing. Gupta family spokesman Gary Naidoo could not be reached for comment and the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria had no immediate comment. The family, founders of a business empire spanning media, mining and consulting, have been named in a trove of leaked emails alleging graft in dealing with South Africa s state-owned companies, which also named several global firms. The Financial Times, which cited  people familiar with the matter , said U.S. investigators had been looking at individuals, bank accounts and companies in the U.S. for ties to alleged graft involving the family. It gave no further details. Britain s FCA said it was in contact with HSBC and Standard Chartered banks following reports in British newspapers that the finance minister had asked regulators to investigate the lenders  possible ties to the Gupta family and Zuma.  The FCA is already in contact with both banks named and will consider carefully further responses received,  the regulator said. Standard Chartered in London said they were not able to comment on details of client transactions but added that  after an internal investigation, accounts were closed by us by early 2014 . HSBC said it had no comment on the matter. Britain s parliament is expected to discuss British banks  possible involvement in the Gupta case on Thursday. Zweli Mkhize, one of several potential candidates to replace Zuma as head of the African National Congress in December, said the United States and Britain were within their rights to investigate.  If there is any information suggesting corruption or irregularities, it needs to be investigated across the borders. It should not be restricted to South Africa,  he told reporters. The Guptas and their companies have not been charged with any crime in South Africa, but the scandal is one of many that have dogged the Zuma presidency. Local media have reported extensively on the so-called  Gupta-leaks  - thousands of emails between the Guptas and their lieutenants and state-owned companies, politically connected individuals and private sector firms.

Summary: एफ. बी. आई. ने दक्षिण अफ्रीका के गुप्तों की जांच शुरू कीः एफ. टी.


ORENBURG, Russia (Reuters) - When Vladimir Kabunin signed up as a private military contractor, he saw a chance to make a wage much higher than any he could earn in his provincial Russian hometown. Happy to be able to support his wife and son, the ex-police officer left Orenburg, nearly 1,500 km (940 miles) southeast of Moscow, and joined pro-Russian rebels fighting government forces in east Ukraine, a family friend and a relative told Reuters.  When fighting subsided there, he went to Syria to serve as a field medic with troops under Russian command, they said. Kabunin was killed in Syria this year and his body was sent home, they said. But the government does not recognize he was in Syria, so he was buried without military honors and nothing on his grave shows he was killed in action. Kabunin, who was 38, was one of hundreds of military contractors secretly recruited by Moscow for combat operations in Syria since Russia s military operation began there in 2015, according to people familiar with the deployment. According to a Reuters tally based on accounts from people who knew the deceased and local officials, at least 28 private contractors have been killed in Syria this year, and Russian consular documents seen by Reuters suggest the figure may be much higher.   The government denies recruiting and sending private military contractors to fight abroad. The defense ministry did not respond when asked about Kabunin s case and the role of contractors in Syria, and has said previous Reuters reports on the contractors are an attempt to discredit Russia s mission to restore peace to Syria.     But over two years, Reuters has spoken to dozens of family members, colleagues and friends of military contractors who have been killed in Syria. Those familiar with the deployment say the contractors are under government command and have helped turn the tide of war in favor of Russia s ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while hiding the scale of its military involvement and losses. The fact that Kabunin and others like him are willing to sign up for such missions shows the Kremlin can draw on a large reserve of fighters who, as long as they are well remunerated, are willing to risk dying in the shadows. WELL-TRODDEN PATH Kabunin followed a path taken by many contractors: service in the military or security forces, a return to civilian life, a struggle to make a living, then a chance to make decent money fighting secretly for Russia, in Ukraine and then Syria. Family members of Russian contractors say that in Syria they were paid up to $6,500 per month, which exceeds Russia s average monthly wage more than 12 times.  If you quit law enforcement bodies, you have only one way (choice) - to become a mercenary,  Vasily Karkan, a classmate of Kabunin at school, told Reuters.   Kabunin was shy as a child until he started kickboxing classes, Karkan recalled. The sport became a life-long hobby. Kabunin obtained a degree in medicine and also studied law, but followed in the family footsteps by joining the police.  In 2010, he found a new job in a prison, where his wife also worked in a tuberculosis hospital. Kabunin s role was to work with prisoners to obtain information and gather intelligence on planned escape attempts or potential unrest, but he left that job in 2012.  A spokesman for Orenburg prisons service said he had left of his own volition. A family friend spoke of job cuts and said he looked for a new job for about two years.  There is no place to work,  the family friend said.  You can t earn more than 10,000 rubles ($170)(a month) here.  When fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014, Kabunin saw a job opportunity. Moscow denies deploying active service troops in Ukraine or providing direct military help to the separatists. But Kabunin signed up with Dmitry Utkin, the leader of a group of Russian ex-servicemen fighting there who uses the nom de guerre  Vagner , and, drawing on his medical degree, served as a military medic, his relative said. When Utkin and his comrades deployed to Syria in support of Russia s regular forces, Kabunin went with them, people familiar with the deployment said. As of April 2016, he was a field medic in a medical evacuation unit under Utkin s command in Syria, according to an official in a Ukrainian law enforcement agency. The agency says it has obtained the personnel records of 1,700 Russian contractors deployed in Syria, most of whom were earlier in Ukraine.  Kabunin left home for his last trip to Syria on Jan. 4 and was put in command of a medical company, but was wounded on Jan. 31 and died on Feb. 7 in Homs province, a relative said. The relative knew this from former police colleagues of Kabunin, some of whom also served in Syria, and from his death certificate, which was handed to his wife Natalya. It was not clear how she was informed and who gave her the death certificate. She declined to speak to Reuters.  Relatives of other killed contractors say the news has come via friends or acquaintances, or by phone from people who say they represent a private company. Kabunin was buried next to other family members  graves in Orenburg, his portrait displayed on a cross showing a man with a shaved head in civilian clothes. His wife received a compensation payment, according to the relative, who gave no further details. According to accounts from relatives of other contractors killed in Syria, the employer typically pays out 3 million rubles ($51,227) in compensation to the next of kin when a contractor is killed. Relatives of another dead contractor told Reuters that, in his case, the money was handed over to his widow in cash in a hotel in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. On a visit to Syria on Dec. 11, President Vladimir Putin declared mission accomplished for the Syrian operation and paid tribute to Russian servicemen who have been killed there. There was no mention of the contractors  losses. The government is under no obligation to disclose the deaths of non-regular forces fighting under its command and Russian military losses in Syria are a state secret. Kabunin s death did not dissuade his friend Valery Dzyuba, also a former police officer and kickboxer from Orenburg, from heading to Syria to fight as a military contractor. Dzyuba s family received a phone call from an unidentified man saying he had died on Aug. 20 but not specifying the circumstances. Dzyuba was killed in Syria, according to one of his classmates, Kabunin s relative and an official in the village where Dzyuba was buried.

Summary: तनख्वाह के लिए मृत्युः सीरिया में लड़ रहे रूसी नागरिक


HANOI (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that it was possible he could be friends with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un one day and that it would be  very, very nice  but he was not sure that it would happen. Asked at a news conference in Vietnam if he could see himself being friends with Kim, Trump said:  That might be a strange thing to happen but it s a possibility.   If it did happen it could be a good thing I can tell you for North Korea, but it could also be good for a lot of other places and be good for the rest the world,  Trump said.   It could be something that could happen. I don t know if it will but it would be very, very nice.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया के किम जोंग उन के साथ दोस्ती संभवः ट्रम्प


(Reuters) - President Donald Trump told Congress on Tuesday that more needs to be done to bring down “artificially high” prices for prescription drugs, while at the same time praising a drug that turns out to cost $300,000 per year. During the televised address, Trump acknowledged in the audience Megan Crowley, a college student who has Pompe disease - a rare muscle disorder that can be treated with an expensive enzyme replacement therapy.  “But our slow and burdensome approval process at the Food and Drug Administration keeps too many advances, like the one that saved Megan’s life, from reaching those in need,” the president said. “If we slash the restraints, not just at the FDA but across our Government, then we will be blessed with far more miracles like Megan.” Trump has in the past excoriated drugmakers for charging “astronomical” prices, while acknowledging how “complicated” the nation’s healthcare system is. Representatives of the Trump administration could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday on whether the president believes the treatment price for Pompe disease is fair.  Trump’s comments on Tuesday night highlight an issue central to the industry and investors - the potential for deregulation of the FDA, the agency charged with approving pharmaceutical products. “I think Trump used this example somewhat cynically as a way of trying to advance the deregulatory agenda,” said Dr. Aaron Kesselheim, a researcher at Harvard Medical School. “The FDA’s standards actually promote innovation because patients don’t want just any old drug - they want drugs that work.” Megan’s father, John Crowley, now chief executive at Amicus Therapeutics Inc, started a biotech company in 1998 to seek a treatment for Pompe disease.  In 2006, the FDA - after a nine-month review - approved infused enzyme replacement therapy Myozyme for patients born with the condition. A similar drug, Lumizyme, was approved in 2010 for late-onset Pompe disease and is now used regardless of a patient’s age.  The average annual cost of treatment is $298,000, according to Paris-based Sanofi SA, which now owns the drugs. Under the Orphan Drug Act of 1983, drugs for rare diseases - defined as those that treat fewer than 200,000 patients - are given a range of incentives including seven years of marketing exclusivity.    “Pharmaceutical companies know they get a free pass for very expensive drugs for orphan diseases, whereas they don’t for mainstream diseases,” said Joel Hay, professor of pharmaceutical economics and policy at the University of Southern California. The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) applauded Trump’s recognition, but disagreed with the idea that the regulatory process needs an overhaul.     “Our patients deserve the same quality therapies as everyone else, and to weaken the standards will only threaten our population with unsafe, ineffective therapies,” NORD said in a statement on Wednesday.      Pompe disease, affecting 5,000 to 10,000 people worldwide, prevents the body from making enough of an enzyme used by heart and muscle cells to convert a form of sugar called glycogen into energy. When glycogen builds up in these cells it can lead to disability and death. NORD estimates that around 30 million Americans suffer from 7,000 rare diseases.

Summary: ट्रम्प द्वारा प्रशंसित पोम्पे दवा की कीमत $300,000 प्रति वर्ष है


CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday slammed his Spanish counterpart Mariano Rajoy for trying to halt a banned independence referendum in Catalonia, saying the conservative leader was a hypocrite for supporting Venezuela s opposition while cracking down on dissent at home.    Spain has been a vocal critic of leftist Maduro, accusing him of undermining Venezuela s democracy and plunging the country s 30 million people into suffering due to food and medicine shortages.    Maduro seized on the images of Spanish riot police bursting into polling stations across Catalonia on Sunday, confiscating ballot boxes and voting papers, as evidence that it is Rajoy who lacks democratic credentials.  Spanish riot police burst into polling stations across Catalonia on Sunday, seizing ballot boxes and voting papers to prevent a banned referendum on a split from Spain. Some 761 people were injured in clashes with riot police, the regional government said.         Who is the dictator?  said Maduro at the start of his hours-long Sunday television show.     Mariano Rajoy has chosen blood, sticks, blows, and repression against a noble people. Our hand goes out to the people of Catalonia. Resist, Catalonia! Latin America admires you,  added Maduro. Venezuela s opposition, in turn, accused Maduro of hypocrisy in attacking Rajoy, saying the Venezuelan leader violently clamped down on four months of protests demanding humanitarian aid, early elections, and respect for the opposition-led Congress.

Summary: वेनेजुएला ने कैटेलोनिया में 'दमन' को लेकर स्पेन के राजोय को लताड़ा


MADRID (Reuters) - Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont on Thursday said he had decided not to call a snap election because he had not obtained enough guarantees from the central government that the move would stop the imposition of direct rule in Catalonia.  I was ready to call an election if guarantees were given. There is no guarantee that justifies calling an election today,  Puigdemont said. He also said it was now up to the Catalan parliament to move forward with a mandate to split from Spain following an independence referendum that took place on Oct. 1.

Summary: कैटलन नेता का कहना है कि मैड्रिड से चुनाव कराने के लिए पर्याप्त गारंटी नहीं है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two White House officials played a role in providing House of Representatives Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes with documents showing President Donald Trump and his associates were swept up in surveillance by U.S. intelligence agencies, the New York Times reported on Thursday. Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the Times identified the White House officials as Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a lawyer who works on national security issues at the White House Counsel’s office. White House spokesman Sean Spicer declined to comment on the details of the report during a briefing on Thursday. The New York Times reported that Cohen-Watnick began reviewing “highly classified reports” about intercepted communications of foreign officials after Trump said on Twitter earlier this month that he was “wiretapped” by his predecessor, President Barack Obama. The reports reviewed by Cohen-Watnick consisted of mostly of ambassadors and other foreign officials talking about how to develop contacts with the Trump family and his inner circle ahead of inauguration, the paper reported. FBI Director James Comey told Congress he had seen no evidence to support the wiretapping claim. Obama has denied the accusation through a spokesman. Nunes, who was a member of Trump’s transition team, has faced criticism from Democrats and some prominent Republicans, for the way he handled the allegations about U.S. spy agency surveillance of Trump’s team. Many Democrats, including Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House intelligence panel, have called for Nunes to recuse himself from the investigation after he met last week with an unidentified source at the White House complex, accusing him of colluding with the White House.  The House Intelligence Committee, headed by Nunes, is also investigating possible Russian attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election in Trump’s favor. Russia has denied the allegations.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस के दो अधिकारियों ने नून्स को खुफिया रिपोर्ट देने में मदद कीः न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स


WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand could become the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to legalize cannabis for personal use after an unlikely alliance of populist, centrist and leftist parties put drug policy immediately on the agenda of the incoming government. Recreational marijuana use is legal in several U.S. states and European nations including the Netherlands and Spain, but countries in the Asia-Pacific tend to have strict prohibitions. Australia recently introduced laws freeing up access to cannabis for medicinal use, but does not allow recreational use. Labour s prime minister-designate Jacinda Ardern said on Tuesday she agreed with a Greens proposal for a referendum to legalize use of recreational cannabis.   We agreed that what we are doing now simply isn t working, so we have said yes to having that referendum,  Ardern told reporters in Wellington. There is no timeframe for possible legalization, which would represent the first major reform of drug laws since the 1970s, but would depend on the public first voting to back reforms.      Anything that helps shift New Zealand drug laws out of the dinosaur age is going to be a good thing,  Ross Bell, executive director of the charitable NZ Drug Foundation, told Reuters.   Arguably it is better for the sustainability of the reform to have a broad church like we ve got with this government, so that it is not just seen as some sort of fringe liberal policy,  Bell said in a telephone interview. Drug law reforms figured in talks to form New Zealand s new government after a Sept. 23 election failed to yield a majority for either the governing National Party or opposition Labour, although neither major party had such a campaign plank. The center-left Labour will govern with support from its new junior coalition member, the populist NZ First, which supports holding referendums on controversial issues. The Greens have offered  confidence and supply  and the diverse group of parties is already starting to deliver a melange of policies, from potential relaxation of drug laws to tighter immigration controls. New Zealand s drug use ranks among the world s highest, a study by the NZ Drug Foundation shows. Too much money is spent on enforcement and convictions, rather than on health policies, says the body, which gets government and private funding.

Summary: न्यूजीलैंड में भांग को वैध बनाने के लिए संभावित सहयोगियों की नजर मतदान पर


JERUSALEM/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and new U.S. President Donald Trump, seizing on an Iranian missile test, are nearing common ground on a tougher U.S. policy towards Tehran ahead of their first face-to-face talks at the White House. But people familiar with the Trump administration’s thinking say that its evolving strategy is likely to be aimed not at dismantling Iran’s July 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers, as presidential candidate Trump sometimes advocated, but tightening its enforcement and pressuring the Islamic Republic into renegotiating key provisions. Options under consideration, they say, would include wider scrutiny of Iran’s compliance by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, including access to Iranian military sites, and seeking to remove “sunset” terms that allow some curbs on Iranian nuclear activity to start expiring in 10 years and lift other limits after 15 years. In a shift of position for Netanyahu, all signs in Israel point to him being on board with the emerging U.S. plan, though it may prove impossible to get other world powers and Iran to consider revising the landmark nuclear deal. Two years ago, Netanyahu infuriated the Obama White House by addressing the U.S. Congress to rally hawkish opposition to a budding Iran pact he condemned as a “historic mistake” that should be torn up. As Trump and Netanyahu prepare for their Feb. 15 meeting, focus has shifted to Iran’s ballistic missile test last week. The White House said the missile launch was not a direct breach of the nuclear deal but “violates the spirit of that”.  Trump responded by slapping fresh sanctions on individuals and entities, some of them linked to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC). A U.N. Security Council resolution underpinning the nuclear pact urges Iran to refrain from testing missiles designed to be able to carry nuclear warheads, but imposes no obligation. However, Trump tweeted, “Iran is playing with fire” and “they don’t appreciate how ‘kind’ President Obama was to them. Not me!” Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, warned that Washington “would no longer tolerate Iran’s provocations.” Netanyahu “appreciated” the comments. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, on Tuesday dismissed the U.S. decision to put Iran “on notice” over its missile tests and called Trump the “real face” of American corruption. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was quoted as saying Iran would not renegotiate the nuclear deal. Beyond the rhetoric, the missile test gave the new Republican president and the conservative Israeli leader - who had an often acrimonious relationship with Trump’s Democratic predecessor Barack Obama - an early chance to show they are on the same page in seeking to restrain Iranian military ambitions. Netanyahu wrote on Facebook last week: “At my upcoming meeting with President Trump in Washington, I intend to raise the renewal of sanctions against Iran in this context and in other contexts. Iranian aggression must not go unanswered.” In London for talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday, Netanyahu said “responsible” nations should follow  Trump’s imposition of new sanctions as Iran remained a deadly menace to Israel and “threatens the world”. But he stopped short of any call to cancel the nuclear accord. Israeli officials privately acknowledged that he would not advocate ripping up a deal that has been emphatically  reaffirmed by the other big power signatories - Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China - since Trump’s election victory. Russia said on Monday it disagreed with Trump’s assessment of Iran as “the number one terrorist state” and a Russian diplomat said any move to rework the nuclear pact would inflame Middle East tensions. “Don’t try to fix what is not broken,” Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. Trump’s stance could weaken the hand of pragmatists in Tehran who have been willing to negotiate a detente with the West after decades of volatile confrontation, a former senior Iranian official said. Under the accord, Tehran received relief from global economic sanctions and in return committed to capping its uranium enrichment well below the level needed for bomb-grade material, cutting the number of its centrifuge enrichment machines by two-thirds, reducing its enriched uranium stockpile and submitting to a more intrusive IAEA inspections regime. Diplomats close to the IAEA consider the deal a success so far, voicing little concern with overall Iranian compliance - despite Netanyahu’s insistence that it will only pave the Islamic Republic’s path towards nuclear weapons once major restrictions expire 15 years after its signing. With German, French and British firms busy cultivating new business with Iran, Washington’s peers in the six-power group almost surely would rebuff any U.S. thrust to reopen the deal. Daniel Shapiro, who recently ended his tenure as U.S. ambassador to Israel under Obama, told Reuters he would be surprised if Trump and Netanyahu “determined so early in the time working together that they would rather scrap that agreement than try to enforce it in a tough manner and put other pressures unrelated to that deal on the Iranians”. Some foreign policy experts say U.S. efforts to tighten the screws on Iran could seek to goad it into ditching the nuclear accord in hopes that Tehran - and not Washington - would then have to shoulder international blame for its collapse. According to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, an Israeli intelligence assessment recently presented to Netanyahu said revoking the pact would be an error, causing a chasm between Washington and other signatories like Russia and China. Amos Yadlin, former head of Israeli military intelligence, said there were many areas outside the deal where pressure could be applied on Iran to change what he called its negative behavior of “subversiveness, supporting terrorism”. But beyond new sanctions and sharpened rhetoric, analysts say, it is unclear how far Trump could go. Arguments for restraint would include the risk of military escalation in the Gulf, out of which 40 percent of the world’s seaborne crude oil is shipped, and strong European support for the nuclear deal. Though the new U.S. strategy is in the early stages of development, the Trump administration, the sources say, is considering a range of measures, including seeking “zero tolerance” for any Iranian violations. Trump’s aides accused the Obama administration of turning a blind eye to some alleged Iranian infractions to avoid anything that would undermine confidence in the integrity of the deal. Obama administration officials denied being “soft” on Iran. Other U.S. strategy options, the sources say, include sanctioning Iranian industries that aid missile development and designating as a terrorist group the Revolutionary Guards, accused by U.S. officials of fuelling Middle East proxy wars. That designation could also dissuade foreign investment in Iran because the Guards oversee a sprawling business empire there.

Summary: इजरायली नेता की यात्रा से पहले ईरान पर सहमत हुए नेतन्याहू और ट्रम्प


PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Chelsea Clinton took the stage of the Democratic National Convention on Thursday to portray her mother Hillary Clinton as a loving, smart and playful woman qualified to be elected president of the United States.   In a 12-minute introduction received warmly in a packed Philadelphia arena, Chelsea Clinton countered criticism that her mother is an untrustworthy politician who struggles to show compassion in front of American voters. “She’s a woman driven by compassion, by faith, by a fierce sense of justice and a heart full of love,” the only child of presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and former U.S. President Bill Clinton told the crowd. Hillary Clinton took the stage minutes later to become the first woman to accept the presidential nomination of a major U.S. party.  Chelsea Clinton, a 36-year-old mother of two, was the last in a series of speakers at the four-day gathering who sought to cast Hillary Clinton in a familial light ahead of the Nov. 8 election against Republican Donald Trump. She called her mother a “wonderful, thoughtful, hilarious” person who made time during her childhood to attend dance and piano recitals, and to gaze at the sky with her to find “shapes in the clouds”. “That feeling of being valued and loved, that’s what my mom wants for every child. It is the calling of her life,” Chelsea Clinton said. President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden had also given speeches supporting Clinton, casting her as qualified for the Oval Office because of her experience as a former secretary of state, U.S. senator and first lady, but also because of her loyalty and passion. Chelsea Clinton, who has been in the public eye since her childhood in the White House, took a low profile after her father left office in 2001. She married investment banker Marc Mezvinsky and served as vice chair of the Clinton Foundation charity. After her mother’s presidential bid she re-entered public life to hit the campaign trail, endearing herself to supporters with stories of Clinton as a mother and grandmother to her children, Charlotte, aged 2 come September, and Aidan, born in June. Trump has also relied on his children to soften his image. His eldest daughter Ivanka spoke at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week, depicting the New York businessman as “color-blind and gender-neutral” to counter critics who have called his comments about immigrants and women bigoted and callous. Both candidates’ children say they are friends, a relationship they struck up before their parents launched campaigns for the White House.

Summary: बेटी चेल्सी ने क्लिंटन को महान माँ, संचालित लोक सेवक के रूप में कास्ट किया


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Council President Donald Tusk warned on Tuesday that completing a Brexit treaty and agreeing on future relations with Britain would be a  furious race against time  where EU states would have to stick together to avoid economic disruption. Writing to national leaders ahead of a summit he will chair in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, Tusk noted his plan to seek their approval to launch a second phase of negotiations, on transition and future ties, after achieving  sufficient progress  last week and agreeing an outline of the divorce.  The conclusion of the first phase of negotiations is moderate progress, since we only have 10 months left to determine the transition period and our future relations with the UK,  Tusk wrote.  This will be a furious race against time, where again our unity will be key. And the experience so far has shown that unity is a sine qua non of an orderly Brexit.

Summary: ब्रेक्सिट संधि को पूरा करने के लिए 'समय के खिलाफ उग्र दौड़': यूरोपीय संघ के टस्क


DUBAI (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump, departing from his predecessor’s practice, is expected to sidestep human rights questions when he meets Gulf Arab leaders at the weekend and focus, to the dismay of  beleaguered government critics, on business and security. Civil liberties monitors point to freedom of expression as a right increasingly constrained in Gulf Arab states including summit host Saudi Arabia, which is planning to buy tens of billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. arms.  Gulf Arab states began stepping up the muffling of political discussion in the dying months of former president Barack Obama’s term and have continued this under Trump, they say. “Given Trump’s tenuous relationship with freedom of the press and free expression in general, we have no expectation that Trump would raise these issues during his visit,” said Adam Coogle, Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch. In Washington, a senior Trump administration official said human rights would not take center stage in Riyadh, where Arab leaders are expected to discuss combating Islamist militancy and what they see as the growing influence of adversary Iran. The official said Trump preferred to keep such conversations private, much as he did with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi recently when he obtained the release of an Egyptian-American humanitarian worker. Trump’s visit is likely to contrast with one Obama paid to Egypt in 2009 when he made an appeal to the Muslim world promoting self-determination, democracy and individual rights.  The Saudis “don’t want any more talk about human rights, democracy, political reform or gender equality. They had enough of that from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton,” said Bruce Riedel of the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.  “They’re pretty confident they’re not going to hear it from Donald Trump.” While experts are not surprised, since the Gulf states’ monarchies abhor discord and dislike free-wheeling political debate as practised in the West, they are nevertheless dismayed. The output of several columnists, economists and clerics in regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia and some of its smaller neighbors has either dried up or grown circumspect since the second half of 2016 in what critics see as an unacknowledged state drive to stifle public criticism, rights monitors say. Among those who have fallen silent are critics, both liberal  and conservative, of the kingdom’s ambitious plan to diversify the economy and open up the country culturally under a plan known as Vision 2030. Until late last year Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi commented about issues including Trump’s rise to power on social media and a column in the pan-Arab al-Hayat daily. He also spoke in public appearances at think tanks. In December, news circulated on social media that Kashoggi, former editor of the Arabic-language al-Watan daily, one of the kingdom’s top newspapers, had been ordered to stop writing or Tweeting. His account has been silent since November last year. Khashoggi declined to comment on the reported ban. Since the 2011 Arab Spring, Gulf states have stepped up efforts to curb dissent with tough new cyber crime laws, sentencing offenders to prison terms for Web posts deemed insulting to rulers or threatening to public order. But in the past two years, unnerved by low oil prices and the slow progress of a war in Yemen targeting the influence of arch foe Iran, Gulf authorities became even less patient with dissenting voices in the media, analysts and rights groups say. Madawi Al-Rasheed, visiting professor at the Middle East Centre, London School of Economics, said Riyadh was engaged in an effort to muzzle intellectuals with “dissenting voices”. “There are so many of them, both men and women, who have left the kingdom,” she said. Activists say muzzled writers include economists, academics, columnists and Muslim clerics. There are no precise figures on how many have been affected, but estimates by activists put the number at more than 20 from Saudi Arabia alone. While some were merely advised not to air their views on social media, more vocal critics have found themselves behind bars, facing possible indictments on charges such as disobeying the ruler or incitement against the state, rights activists say. “The pursuit by security is increasing rapidly and ... it is killing the voice of moderation,” said Walid Sulais, a Saudi rights activist who fled abroad in late 2016 after authorities summoned him for questioning over his rights work. Gulf Arab officials did not respond to requests for comment on the issue of free expression. But asked about the expected absence of human rights from Trump’s agenda, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said the issue was one of definition. “We look at human rights as the right to safety, the right to a decent life, the right to a job, the right to food. We see it as the right to live your life without people imposing on you,” he told a news conference on Thursday. “Every Saudi has the right to petition his monarch or the governors. The doors of our leaders are open. We have built institutions. We have a thriving press corps. We have a consultative council that started with 60 members, today it has 150 members, and 30 of them are ladies, distinguished ladies.”  Gulf states have increasingly chafed at what they see as a campaign of vilification by Western media and rights groups. They insist they respect rights which do not violate Islamic Sharia laws and their societies’ conservative traditions. Political parties are banned in Saudi Arabia as are protests, unions are illegal, the press is controlled and criticism of the royal family can lead to prison. Riyadh says it does not have political prisoners, while top officials have said monitoring activists is needed to keep social stability.  In a statement on Jan. 15, Bahrain’s information minister scolded Gulf media, warning outlets to “shoulder their responsibilities” and counter foreign attempts to “spread sedition” in Gulf states - an apparent reference to Iran which Bahrain accuses of fomenting unrest among Bahraini Shi’ites. Iran denies interfering in the affairs of Gulf states.     Other Gulf countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman, have also been accused by rights groups of curbing free expression. In Qatar, activists noted that Faisal al-Marzoqi, a prominent commentator with more than 100,000 Twitter followers, had not tweeted since November 2016. The UAE said on March 21 it had arrested political activist Ahmed Mansoor, an electrical engineer and poet, on charges of spreading sectarianism and hatred on social media, a move criticized by Amnesty International. Defending the move, Mohammed al-Hammadi, editor of the pro-government al-Ittihad newspaper, wrote that Mansoor “either will be convicted or will be cleared through the rule of law and the justice of the judiciary, so what is the problem with this?” In February Saudi social media reported the arrest of prominent clerics Sheikh Essam al-Owayed and Saad al-Breik. In a Twitter post on Feb. 23, Owayed wrote in apparent reference to liberalizing reforms: “Any decision-maker who thinks he can change the faith and identity of this country by opening the doors to decadence would be calling for a war in which he would be the main loser, no matter who he is.” Owayed’s Twitter account has had no new postings since then, while the last Twitter message on Breik’s account dates to March 20. Neither Owayed nor Breik could be reached for a comment. On May 4 on a visit to Saudi Arabia, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism Ben Emmerson urged Riyadh to stop using a 2014 counter-terrorism law and security prohibitions against human rights defenders and writers.  “When he is meeting with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries there, he should be equally as clear that any counter-terrorism efforts must include safeguards to protect the rights of individuals to express their opinions and assemble peacefully,” Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s director for the Middle East and North Africa, told Reuters.

Summary: ट्रम्प की यात्राओं के दौरान, खाड़ी देशों को चुपचाप विपक्ष पर अंकुश लगाते हुए देखा गया


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations said on Friday it was too early to tell how the White House’s latest statement on Israel’s recent drive to build new homes in the occupied West Bank would affect future building. It was a first reaction by an Israeli official to the statement in Washington hours earlier by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump that Israel’s building of new settlements or expansion of existing ones in occupied territories may not be helpful in achieving peace with Palestinians. “It’s still too early to tell ... I would not categorize this as a U-turn by the U.S. administration but the issue is clearly on their agenda ... the issue will be discussed when the prime minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) meets the president in Washington,” Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Danny Danon told Israel Radio. “We will not always agree on everything.”

Summary: यह बताना जल्दबाजी होगी कि अमेरिकी बयान बस्तियों को कैसे प्रभावित करेगाः इजरायली अधिकारी