WASHINGTON (Reuters) - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is expected to end his bid for the Republican presidential nomination on Wednesday, U.S. media reported, but a Christie spokesman said the candidate had not made up his mind. “No decision has been made,” spokeswoman Sam Smith said in an email to Reuters. Politico, citing an unidentified source, said Christie, who placed a disappointing sixth in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, would suspend his campaign on Wednesday. Fox Business Network, in a post on Twitter, earlier reported that Christie was dropping out but did not cite any sources. Separately, CBS reported the governor could take as long as 24 hours before deciding, citing sources.  After election results came in on Tuesday evening, the two-term governor said he was returning to New Jersey rather than moving on to South Carolina, the next primary contest, and would reassess his campaign.  His departure would leave eight Republicans vying to represent the party in the November presidential election.  Christie had poured much of his campaign’s resources into New Hampshire and had considered a good showing there critical. Known for his brash talk, Christie had been overshadowed by New Hampshire’s Republican winner, businessman and television personality Donald Trump, and failed to gain traction with voters.  (Reporting by Tim Ahmann and Ginger Gibson; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Doina Chiacu) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters’ editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन एन. जे. गवर्नर क्रिस्टी व्हाइट हाउस की बोली समाप्त करेंगेः मीडिया


ATHENS (Reuters) - Refugees and migrants in Greece receive little or no medical care for most health problems they face and fewer than half of those pregnant had access to maternal care, aid group Doctors of the World said on Tuesday. About 60,000 migrants and refugees are stranded in Greece, most in overcrowded camps with unsanitary conditions. More than half of this year s 20,000 arrivals were women and children, United Nations data shows.  Doctors of the World interviewed over 14,000 women treated at its clinics in Greece over three years and found fewer than 47 percent had access to antenatal care before it intervened. It also found as many as 72 percent of the health problems refugees faced were treated  inadequately  or not at all.   While most countries offer new arrivals some kind of medical screening, the quality was  questionable  and overlooked mental health problems, the charity said. Often, women did not seek medical care because they were unaware of their rights, they found the healthcare system too complex or they were afraid of being arrested or discriminated against. Limited resources and lack of access to services such as translators also posed practical obstacles.  Every mother deserves good care before, during and post pregnancy. Their residential status should not affect this basic right,  said Nikitas Kanakis, head of Doctors of the World Greece. The charity, together with healthcare company MSD, known in the United States as Merck, is implementing a two-year initiative aimed at providing maternal healthcare services to pregnant women and babies from vulnerable populations in Greece. Asylum seekers in Greece have free access to hospitals and medical care but the public health system, already battered by years of economic crisis, is struggling to cope with the numbers.  Adult migrants without documents only have access to emergency care unless they are considered  vulnerable .  Access to quality maternal healthcare can save lives, yet across Europe the most vulnerable pregnant women are still facing challenges in accessing this basic care,  said Mary-Ann Etiebet, director of MSD for Mothers.  A lack of antenatal care to prevent and identify conditions that may harm the fetus or mother increases the risk of complications during childbirth or passing on diseases such as HIV or Hepatitis B, the World Health Organisation says.  We must work together this address this issue before it escalates further,  Etiebet said. (The story is refiled to clarify MSD name in paragraph 8)

Summary: ग्रीस में शरणार्थियों की स्वास्थ्य समस्याएं ज्यादातर अधूरीः चिकित्सा दान


(Reuters) - The following people are mentioned as contenders for senior roles as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump assembles his administration before taking office on Jan. 20, according to Reuters sources and other media reports. Trump already has named a number of people for other top jobs in his administration. [nL1N1EE0X0] * Chuck Conner, a former acting secretary of the U.S. Agriculture Department and current head of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives * Tim Huelskamp, Republican U.S. representative from Kansas * Sid Miller, Texas agriculture commissioner  * Sonny Perdue, former Georgia governor * Navy Admiral Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency * Ronald Burgess, retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former Defense Intelligence Agency chief  * Robert Cardillo, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency * Pete Hoekstra, Republican former U.S. representative from Michigan     * John Allison, a former chief executive officer of regional bank BB&T Corp and former head of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank * Paul Atkins, former SEC commissioner  * Thomas Hoenig, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp vice chairman and former head of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank * Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a venture capitalist, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former Food and Drug Administration deputy commissioner * Jim O’Neill, a Silicon Valley investor who previously served in the Department of Health and Human Services * Debra Wong Yang, a former U.S. attorney who was appointed by former President George W. Bush * Ralph Ferrara, a securities attorney at Proskauer Rose LLP * Paul Atkins, a former SEC commissioner who heads Trump’s transition team for independent financial regulatory agencies * Daniel Gallagher, Republican former SEC commissioner The Trump transition team confirmed the president-elect would choose from a list of 21 names he drew up during his campaign, including Republican U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah and William Pryor, a federal judge with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. * Dan DiMicco, former CEO of steel producer Nucor Corp * Robert Lighthizer, former deputy U.S. trade representative during the Reagan administration * Wayne Berman, senior executive with private equity and financial services firm Blackstone Group LP  * David McCormick, president of investment manager Bridgewater Associates LP  * Pete Hegseth, CEO of Concerned Veterans for America and Fox News commentator  * Navy Admiral Michelle Howard  * Retired Admiral Thad Allen, former Coast Guard commandant appointed by President Barack Obama to lead government relief efforts after BP Gulf oil spill * Scott Brown, former Republican U.S. senator from Massachusetts * Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and Republican nominee for vice president in 2008. * Jeff Miller, former Republican U.S. representative from Florida who was chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee * Larry Kudlow, economist and media commentator

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ट्रम्प प्रशासन में वरिष्ठ पदों के लिए दावेदार


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama wants Congress to approve the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal this year to help write the rules on global trade while keeping a competitive edge, the White House said on Friday. “This will be something that Congress has to contend with. They can either cede that ground to China - the president believes that is the wrong approach, that we have the opportunity, we’re in the catbird seat to write the rules of the road for trade right now and we should absolutely do that,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said. “The president absolutely believes this deal should pass this year.”

Summary: ओबामा चाहते हैं कि प्रशांत व्यापार समझौता इस साल पारित हो जाएः व्हाइट हाउस


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia s defense ministry said on Thursday long-range bombers had carried out air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria s Deir al-Zor province, the RIA news agency reported.

Summary: रूसी बमवर्षकों ने सीरिया में इस्लामिक स्टेट के ठिकानों पर हमला कियाः आर. आई. ए.


RIYADH (Reuters) - All major Gulf stock markets slid on Tuesday on jitters about Saudi Arabia s sweeping anti-graft purge, a campaign seen by critics as a populist power grab but by ordinary Saudis as an overdue attack on the sleaze of a moneyed ultra-elite. U.S. President Donald Trump endorsed the crackdown, saying some of those arrested have been  milking  Saudi Arabia for years, but some Western officials expressed unease about the possible reaction in Riyadh s opaque tribal and royal politics. Authorities detained dozens of top Saudis including billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in a move widely seen as an attempt by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to neuter any opposition to his lightening ascent to the pinnacle of power. Admirers see it as an assault on the endemic theft of public funds in the world s top oil exporter, an absolute monarchy where the state and the ruling family are intertwined.  Corruption should have been fought a long time ago, because it s corruption that delays society s development,  Riyadh resident Hussein al-Dosari told Reuters.  God willing, everything that happened ... is only the beginning of what is planned,  said Faisal bin Ali, adding he wanted to see  correcting mistakes, correcting ministries and correcting any injustices against the general population.  But some analysts see the arrests as the latest in a string of moves shifting power from a consensus-based system dispersing authority among the ruling Al Saud to a governing structure centered around 32-year-old Prince Mohammed himself. Investors worry that his campaign against corruption - involving the arrests of the kingdom s most internationally known businessmen - could see the ownership of businesses and assets become vulnerable to unpredictable policy shifts. Saudi banks have frozen more than 1,200 accounts belonging to individuals and companies in the kingdom and the number keeps rising, bankers and lawyers said. The authorities sought to reassure the business community late on Tuesday, with the central bank saying it was freezing suspects  personal bank accounts at the request of the attorney general but not suspending operations of their companies.  In other words, corporate businesses remain unaffected. It is business as usual for both banks and corporates,  the bank said in a statement, adding there were no restrictions on money transfers through proper banking channels. A separate statement said Prince Mohammed had directed a powerful ministerial committee, the Council for Economic Affairs and Development, to ensure that national and multinational companies, including those wholly or partly owned by individuals under investigation, were not disrupted.  The Council recognized the importance of these companies for the national economy, and the importance of ensuring that investors could operate with confidence in Saudi Arabia,  the state news agency SPA said. In Washington, Heather Nauert, spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, said it had urged Saudi Arabia to undertake any prosecutions of corruption suspects in a  fair and transparent  manner. She said the United States had received assurances from the Saudi government that it would do so. But another U.S. official later told reporters she had misspoken and that they had no such assurances that they could discuss in public. The Saudi stock index .TASI sank 0.7 percent in heavy trade, led by shares in companies linked to people detained in the investigation.  The market, which was down 3.1 percent at one stage, would have finished much lower without apparent buying by government-linked funds seeking to prevent a panic, fund managers said. A mass pull-out of foreign funds was not apparent. Among the companies, Prince Alwaleed s Kingdom Holding 4280.SE plunged by its 10 percent daily limit, bringing its losses in the three days since the investigation was announced to 21 percent. The fall has wiped about $2 billion off his fortune, previously estimated by Forbes magazine at $17 billion. In Dubai, where Saudis have been significant investors, the index .DFMGI slipped 1.8 percent. The index in Abu Dhabi .ADI, less exposed to Saudi money, fell only 0.4 percent. But Kuwait continued to slide, its index .KWSE losing 2.8 percent.  The show of investor nerves coincided with sharply heightened strains between Riyadh and Tehran, reflected in a  fresh denunciation of adversary Iran by Prince Mohammed over its role in Yemen, and by continuing mutual acrimony over political turmoil in Lebanon, another cockpit of Iranian-Saudi rivalry. Displaying an apparently undimmed taste for navigating several challenges simultaneously, Prince Mohammed said Iran s supply of rockets to militias in Yemen is an act of  direct military aggression  that could be an act of war.  He was speaking in a phone call with the British foreign minister after Saudi forces intercepted a ballistic missile they said was fired toward Riyadh on Saturday by the Houthis. A Saudi-led coalition, which backs Yemen s internationally-recognized government, has been targeting the Houthis in a war which has killed more than 10,000 people and triggered a humanitarian disaster in one of the region s poorest countries. Iran has denied it was behind the missile launch, rejecting the Saudi and U.S. statements condemning Tehran as  destructive and provocative  and  slanders . The coincidence of heightened Saudi-Iranian tensions and Saudi domestic political upheaval has stirred unease among some Western governments and analysts about the emergence of an impromptu policy-making style under Prince Mohammed and turmoil in a region traditionally seen as a haven of stability.  He seems to be pushing the creation of a personalized system of rule without the checks and balances that have typically characterized the Saudi system of governance,  wrote Marc Lynch, professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University, in the Washington Post.  In both domestic and foreign affairs, he has consistently undertaken sudden and wide-ranging campaigns for unclear reasons which shatter prevailing norms.   Among those held in the anti-graft purge was Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, who was replaced as minister of the National Guard, a pivotal power base rooted in the kingdom s tribes. That recalled a palace coup in June that ousted Mohammed bin Nayef, known as MbN, as heir to the throne. MbN made his first confirmed public appearance since then at the funeral for Prince Mansour bin Muqrin, deputy governor of Asir province, who was killed in a helicopter crash on Sunday. No cause has been given for the crash. A photo shared online by a state media photographer showed MbN greeting another royal at the first major family gathering since the anti-corruption sweep began. The crackdown removed any remaining political counterweights to the crown prince, according to Steffen Hertog, a Saudi scholar at the London School of Economics.  This allows for fast decision-making and reduces costly involvement of princes in state contracts, but also potentially reduces internal criticism and review of new policy initiatives,  he said. A former senior U.S. intelligence official cautioned that given the National Guard s loyalties, Prince Mohammed could face a backlash.  I find it difficult to believe that it (National Guard) will simply roll over and accept the imposition of new leadership in such an arbitrary fashion,  he said. But the purge may go some way to soothing public disgust over financial abuses by the powerful, some Saudis say.  There is no doubt that it (the detentions) soothes the anger of the regular citizen who felt that such names and senior leaders who appeared in the list were immune from legal accountability,  said Saudi-based political analyst Mansour al-Ameer.  Its spread to the general population is evidence that no one is excluded from legal accountability, and this will eventually benefit the citizen and (national) development.

Summary: सउदी अरब में बड़े पैमाने पर गिरफ्तारियों से बाजारों को झटका लगा, लेकिन कई लोगों को लगता है कि समय से पहले भ्रष्टाचार पर नकेल कसी जा रही है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Sunday he will offer details on how he would like to overhaul President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law in a speech to the U.S. Congress on Tuesday. Since they now control the White House and Congress, Republicans are under pressure to fulfill their pledge to repeal and replace the Obamacare law although they have found no easy way to do it.  The law has proven popular in many states, even those controlled by Republicans, and it enabled millions of previously uninsured people to get affordable coverage, although steep premium increases angered some.   Trump is to talk about healthcare, among other topics, in a nationally televised address on Tuesday night to a joint session of Congress. Trump reiterated his pledge to repeal and replace the Obamacare law in remarks at a black-tie dinner for the National Governors Association. “We’re going to be speaking very specifically about a very complicated subject,” Trump said. “I think we have something that is really going to be excellent.” Republicans have yet to agree on a single detailed policy proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Some moderates want to revise the law and not abandon it entirely while conservatives want to repeal it completely. Still to be worked out are details including the future of Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor that was expanded in more than 30 states under Obamacare, and how a new healthcare law would be funded. Trump said he would be discuss healthcare on Monday when he meets some of the governors who are in Washington for the National Governors Association’s annual meeting. Trump cast his first weeks in office in a positive light despite stumbles including an executive order aimed at banning people from seven Muslim-majority nations that was immediately embroiled in a court challenge. “We’ve made a lot of promises over the last two years, and many of those promises already are kept so we’ve very honored by that,” he said. Trump turned the microphone over to Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat who chairs the governors association. McAuliffe is a long-time supporter of former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, whom Trump defeated in the Nov. 8 presidential election. McAuliffe told Trump, “We want to work with you” on creating jobs and strong healthcare system.

Summary: कांग्रेस को संबोधित करते हुए स्वास्थ्य सेवाओं में सुधार के बारे में जानकारी देंगे ट्रंप


TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan s government said on Wednesday that it was  absolutely  the right of Taiwan s 23 million people to decide their future, after Chinese President Xi Jinping said any attempt to separate the island from China would be thwarted. The perpetration of Taiwan s democratic system is a core value of Taiwan s, the Mainland Affairs Council said in reaction to Xi s speech. China considers democratic and self-ruled Taiwan to be a wayward province, to be brought under Beijing s control by force if necessary.

Summary: ताइवान का कहना है कि उसके 23 मिलियन लोग अपना भविष्य तय करेंगे


CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an explosion in Afghan capital Kabul on Tuesday which killed multiple people, the Sunni militant group s Amaq news agency said. The attack was  a (suicide) mission using an explosive vest in the diplomatic Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood in the city of Kabul,  it said.

Summary: अफगानिस्तान की राजधानी काबुल में हुए विस्फोट की इस्लामिक स्टेट ने ली जिम्मेदारी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump endorsed U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore on Monday, throwing his weight behind the embattled Alabama Republican before a special election next week that has been rocked by allegations of sexual misconduct against Moore. The White House said Trump endorsed the campaign in a call to Moore. In a post on Twitter, the president said Republicans needed the former Alabama Supreme Court justice to win to secure votes on key issues such as taxes and immigration. “Democrats refusal to give even one vote for massive Tax Cuts is why we need Republican Roy Moore to win in Alabama,” Trump wrote.  Moore thanked the president for his backing. “I look forward to fighting alongside the President to #MAGA!” Moore said on Twitter, using Trump’s hashtag for his slogan “Make America Great Again.” In his tweet, Moore quoted Trump as saying, “Go get ‘em, Roy!” Trump had supported Moore’s rival, U.S. Senator Luther Strange, in the Republican primary in September, in line with Senate Republicans.  He has slammed the Democratic candidate, former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones, as soft on crime and a potential puppet for Democratic leaders in Congress. On Monday, Trump said having a Democrat win the Dec. 12 election “would hurt our great Republican Agenda.”  The White House has said Trump would not campaign for Moore but he is scheduled to hold a rally on Friday in Pensacola, Florida, adjacent to Alabama.  The Alabama Republican Party also has backed Moore even as  some Republicans in Congress have remained distant given the sexual misconduct allegations that surfaced last month. Moore has denied the allegations.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last month said he believed Moore’s accusers and joined other senators in urging him to quit the race. But on Sunday McConnell said it was up to Alabama voters to decide whether to send Moore to Washington. “I’d have a real hard time voting for Roy Moore,” Republican U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz told CNN, calling the allegations against him very serious. But Alabama voters “very well may hold their nose and vote for” him rather than a Democrat.  Moore led Jones by six percentage points in a CBS News poll on Sunday, with most Alabama Republicans saying the allegations against him are false. A Washington Post poll last week showed Moore ahead by three percentage points, a lead within the survey’s 4.5 point margin of error.  Several women have accused Moore of sexual assault or misconduct when they were teenagers and Moore was in his early 30s. Reuters has not independently verified the reports. Moore, 70, returned to the campaign trail last week calling the allegations against him “dirty politics.”

Summary: ट्रम्प ने अलबामा रिपब्लिकन सीनेट उम्मीदवार मूर का समर्थन किया


MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines  Congress lower house agreed on Wednesday to restore the Commission on Human Rights  annual budget, which had been slashed to just $20 after lawmakers allied to President Rodrigo Duterte accused it of only investigating government abuses. The head of the house appropriations panel, Karlo Nograles, said the CHR has promised lawmakers to expand its role by looking into rights violations by criminals and rebel groups. The 294-member Congress will still have to confirm the restoration of CHR s 678 million pesos ($13 million) budget for 2018 in the third and final reading of the appropriations bill next week, Nograles said in a statement. Nograles, a close ally and relative of Duterte, said the decision to restore the budget and that of two other agencies was made after a  frank but cordial  meeting between House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and CHR head Chito Gascon.   The Duterte government is not the enemy. We are one with the CHR in the fight against all forms of human rights violation but they must start looking also at the violations committed by criminals and insurgents,  he added. Duterte has faced crticism from human rights groups for his war on drugs in which more than 3,800 people have been killed in police operations in the past 15 months. Police reject allegations that they are executing suspected users and dealers.

Summary: फिलीपीन कांग्रेस अधिकार आयोग के बजट को 20 डॉलर से बहाल करने के लिए सहमत है


SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva should be cleared of any wrongdoing in one of several corruption cases pending against him in federal court due to a lack of evidence, prosecutors said on Friday. The federal prosecutors said in a statement that former Senator Delcidio Amaral had lied about Lula, as one of the country s most popular politicians is known, as part of a plea-bargain agreement. His testimony was key to Lula s legal entanglements, the statement added, saying Amaral himself should be put on trial for perjury. Amaral has accused Lula of working with billionaire financier Andre Esteves to buy the silence of a top executive at Petroleo Brasileiro, the state-controlled oil company, about alleged corrupt acts committed by Lula. The obstruction of justice case is one of five for which Lula is still expected to go on trial in federal court.   The prosecutors also recommended that charges against Esteves, the founder, former chief executive officer and largest shareholder in investment bank Grupo BTG Pactual SA, be dropped. Lula s legal team, in a written statement, welcomed the prosecutors  statement as  just  and said it proved he never acted to obstruct justice. Amaral s lawyer Eduardo Marzagao denied that his client had lied, however. The former president was convicted in July in a separate case and sentenced to 9-1/2 years in prison for accepting 3.7 million reais ($1.18 million) worth of bribes from engineering firm OAS SA [OAS.UL]. That ruling marked a stunning fall for Lula, a founder of the Workers Party, and a serious blow to his chances of a political comeback. The former union leader, who remains free pending an appeal, won global praise for policies to reduce inequality in Brazil.  The verdict represented the highest-profile conviction yet in a sweeping corruption investigation that has rattled Brazil for more than three years, revealing a sprawling system of graft at top levels of business and government. More than 100 powerful business and political figures have been found guilty since the anti-graft push began in early 2014. Brazil s lower house of Congress voted last month to reject a corruption charge against current President Michel Temer for allegedly taking bribes, sparing him from facing a possible Supreme Court trial that could have ousted him from office. More corruption charges are expected to filed in the coming weeks against Temer, Rodrigo Janot, Brazil s prosecutor general, has said.

Summary: ब्राजील के अभियोजकों ने भ्रष्टाचार के मामले में लूला को बरी करने की मांग की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama cut short the prison terms of 214 convicts on Wednesday, the largest number of commutations a U.S. leader has granted in single day since at least 1900, the White House said. Obama has now granted a total of 562 commutations during his presidency, more than the number by the past nine presidents combined, it said. In Wednesday’s batch, 67 convicts were serving life sentences. The convicts were serving time for crimes including possession of crack cocaine and methamphetamine, with intent to distribute. Some were imprisoned on charges of gun possession.  One of the convicts, James Wright of Baltimore, Maryland, was serving a 20 year sentence that began in 2006 for possession of crack with intent to distribute. He will be released in December. Obama has worked to reform the U.S. criminal justice system and reduce the number of people serving long sentences for nonviolent drug offences. It is a rare issue on which Obama gets support from Republican lawmakers. For years crack offenders faced stiffer penalties than powder cocaine offenders, even though the substances are similar at the molecular level. Critics have said the disparity has unfairly harmed minority and poor communities.   In 2014, Obama announced the most ambitious clemency program in 40 years, inviting thousands of drug offenders and other convicts to seek early release. But the program has struggled under a flood of unprocessed cases.  “Our work is far from finished,” White House counsel Neil Eggleston said about the commutations. Eggleston urged Congress to take action. “While we continue to work to act on as many clemency applications as possible, only legislation can bring about lasting change to the federal system,” he said. The program automatically expires when Obama leaves office next January and it is uncertain whether the next president would continue with a similar plan. Donald Trump, the Republican candidate in the Nov. 8 election, has championed “law and order” in his campaign. Democrat Hillary Clinton has called for criminal justice reform.

Summary: ओबामा ने 214 दोषियों की जेल की सजा में कटौती की


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey has asked a federal judge to throw out his indictment for corruption, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling narrowing the definition of conduct that can lead to such prosecutions. Lawyers for the senator in a court filing on Tuesday pointed to the June 2016 Supreme Court decision that overturned the corruption conviction of former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell. The court found that political activities such as arranging meetings or making calls to officials do not qualify as “official acts” as defined by bribery statutes. The high court’s decision prompted the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week to vacate the conviction of Sheldon Silver, the former speaker of the New York State Assembly and one of the state’s most powerful politicians for decades. U.S. prosecutors have said they will retry him. Other convicted politicians, including former New York State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, have also relied on the McDonnell decision in mounting post-trial appeals. Menendez, who will seek a third six-year term in 2018 despite the indictment, is accused of accepting campaign donations, luxury travel and gifts from a wealthy friend, Florida ophthalmologist Salomon Melgen, in exchange for using his office to lobby on the doctor’s behalf. Melgen was convicted in April of an unrelated Medicare scheme in Florida that authorities said robbed the health care program of as much as $105 million. He and Menendez have pleaded not guilty in New Jersey. Menendez lost a previous bid to dismiss the charges, but his argument in that challenge came before the Supreme Court decision on the McDonnell case. Menendez’s lawyers argued on Tuesday that the allegations against the senator must be dismissed in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling. “Placing calls and having meetings to discuss these issues, even if to encourage others to take a particular action –something any citizen can do – are not ‘official acts’ by Senator Menendez under McDonnell,” they wrote. The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately comment on the motion on Wednesday.

Summary: एन. जे. सीनेटर मेनेंडेज़ ने भ्रष्टाचार के मामले को खारिज करने की मांग की


CARACAS (Reuters) - Members of Venezuela s government and opposition coalition failed to reach a deal in a new round of talks in the Dominican Republic on Saturday aimed at resolving the OPEC nation s protracted political crisis, but planned to meet in two weeks to try again. Various mediation efforts have failed in recent years. Foes accuse President Nicolas Maduro of exploiting dialogue to buy time, while he says the opposition prefers violence. Few Venezuelans expect further talks to yield a breakthrough, with Maduro s foes demoralized at seeing him consolidate power ahead of a likely re-election campaign in 2018. The disparate Democratic Unity coalition, which failed to dislodge Maduro in months of street protests earlier this year and then succumbed to infighting, is pressing primarily for a guarantee of free and fair voting next year.  It also wants a foreign humanitarian aid corridor to alleviate one of the worst economic crises in modern history, as well as freedom for several hundred jailed activists and respect for the opposition-led congress.   This process is difficult, heavy, hard and full of debate and confrontation,  said Julio Borges, president of the opposition-led congress, adding he hoped the two sides could come closer on Dec. 15. The government and the opposition did not compromise on any key points, according to one participant in the talks who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to media.  The opposition s bargaining power has been weakened by a surprising defeat in October gubernatorial elections. Furthermore, the multi-party group is divided, with more militant sectors opposing the talks they say simply buy the government more time.  However, debilitating U.S. sanctions against Maduro s government have given his administration more impetus for the talks. Maduro wants any potential deal with the opposition to include joint pressure on Washington to back off.  We said the true aid should come from putting an end to the attacks on Venezuela s economy,  said information minister and government negotiator Jorge Rodriguez, who struck a more positive tone than Borges and said his side was  deeply satisfied  with the two-day talks. There is no indication that U.S. President Donald Trump would be prepared to ease pressure on Maduro, whom he has called  a bad leader who dreams of becoming a dictator.   U.S. officials say Washington could strengthen sanctions unless Maduro enacts democratic changes. Foreign ministers from Chile, Mexico, Bolivia, Nicaragua and host Dominican Republic acted as guarantors at the talks held at the Foreign Ministry building in Santo Domingo.

Summary: वेनेजुएला की राजनीतिक वार्ता बिना किसी समझौते के समाप्त, 15 दिसंबर को नई बैठक की योजना बनाई गई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump offered a message of ethnic harmony on Friday at a Christian evangelical conference as he sought to calm concern about his criticism of a Mexican-American judge. In a departure from his usual freewheeling style, Trump read a carefully scripted speech from a teleprompter as part of a new push by his campaign to tone down the outspoken New Yorker’s harsh rhetoric. Trump’s remarks included a wide-ranging attack on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, and he said money aimed at resettling Syrian refugees in the United States should instead be spent on tackling poverty in U.S. cities. Speaking to the annual conference of the conservative Faith & Freedom Coalition, Trump did not mention the controversy over his charge that U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel cannot treat him fairly because of his Mexican heritage. But Trump did make a point of saying he would represent all Americans if elected president on Nov. 8. “Freedom of any kind means no one should be judged by their race or their color and the tone of his hue,” Trump said. “Right now, we have a very divided nation. We’re going to bring our nation together.” Paul Ryan, the top elected U.S. Republican, had criticized Trump for what he called a “textbook definition of a racist comment” for his remarks about the judge. Other Republican leaders warned Trump to change his tone or risk losing their support. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee who  led a movement to derail Trump’s nomination, told CNN he would not consider running for the White House. Romney blasted Trump for comments that he said denigrated Mexicans, women and religion. “Presidents have an impact on the nature of our nation, and trickle-down racism, trickle-down bigotry and trickle-down misogyny - all these things are extraordinarily dangerous to the heart and character of America,” he said. Romney said he expects Trump to get the Republican nomination, but said that he will not vote for either Trump or Clinton. He left open the possibility of casting a ballot for the Libertarian Party candidate, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. As Trump sought to rally more Republicans behind him, Clinton met with U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to try and shore up support from the left wing of the Democratic Party. Clinton later addressed the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the nonpartisan arm of the women’s health group, and had Trump trained in her sights. “This is a man who has called women pigs, dogs and disgusting animals, it’s kind of hard to imagine counting on him to respect our fundamental rights,” said Clinton, the first woman to become the presumptive presidential nominee of a major party.   Clinton leads Trump by 11 percentage points, nearly the same  as a week ago, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday.       Trump on Friday criticized Clinton’s willingness to accept thousands of Syrian refugees into the United States and challenged her to “replace her support for increased refugee admission” in favor of a new jobs program for inner cities.     He stopped short of repeating his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States, a proposal that has drawn heavy fire from Republicans and Democrats. “We have to temporarily stop this whole thing with what’s going on with refugees where we don’t know where they’re coming from,” Trump said. “We have to use the money to take care of our poorest Americans so they can come out of this horrible situation that they’re in.” At the funeral on Friday of boxing champion Muhammad Ali, a convert to Islam, one speaker, a rabbi, inveighed against politicians promoting intolerance of Muslims.  “We will not tolerate politicians or anyone else putting down Muslims and blaming Muslims for a few people,” said Rabbi Michael Lerner, the editor of Tikkun magazine, who said he attended the ceremony in Louisville, Kentucky, as a representative of American Jews. Trump said Clinton’s refusal to use the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism” - favored by Republicans to describe violent Islamist militants - makes her unfit to be president. The real estate mogul’s struggle to unify Republicans behind his insurgent candidacy was apparent at the evangelical Faith & Freedom conference, where several speakers studiously avoided speaking his name. Former campaign rival Carly Fiorina steered clear of Trump, speaking instead of the need to prevent liberal policies taking hold.  U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican, said a Republican president is needed, without mentioning Trump. “We don’t want this contest this fall to just be a contest of personalities,” she said. But conference organizer Ralph Reed was adamant in his support for Trump, saying the New Yorker has energized the evangelical vote in a way that past Republican presidential nominees failed to do. “We understand that perfection is not the measure that should be applied,” Reed told the crowd.

Summary: आलोचनाओं से परेशान ट्रम्प ने जातीय सद्भाव के लिए काम करने का संकल्प लिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said that while he does not think he will be the party’s nominee for the Nov. 8 election, he will likely speak at the Democratic National Convention in July, according to an interview with C-SPAN.  “It doesn’t appear that I’m going to be the nominee,” Sanders, a U.S. Senator from Vermont, said in the interview, which is set to air on Wednesday. “If for whatever reason they don’t want me to speak, then whatever. But I do think I’ll speak at the convention.”

Summary: सैंडर्सः ऐसा नहीं लगता कि मैं नामांकित होने जा रहा हूँ


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - At least 13 people were killed in battles between rival gangs in two states in central and western Mexico, officials said on Wednesday, as murders climb to record levels this year. Five people were gunned down in a bar on Tuesday night in the capital of central Guanajuato state while seven people were found dead in two different places in the western state of Michoacan, according to officials at state prosecutors offices. Three dismembered bodies, including a woman s, were found in the community of Angahuan near the drug-gang hotbed of Uruapan, the Michoacan prosecutors  office said. Michoacan has been one of the bloodiest states in Mexico because of battles between rival gangs involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion of local businesses as well as mineral theft and illegal logging. Neighboring Guanajuato state has seen a spike in violence. Murders were up 37 percent in Guanajuato in the first seven months of the year compared to the same period last year. The murder rate has already risen above levels seen in 2011, which was the deadliest year under former president Felipe Calderon who sent the army out to battle drug gangs. Nationally, there were 14,190 murder investigations in the first seven months of the year, the highest total through July for any year in records going back to 1997. The increase in violence has hit the popularity of President Enrique Pena Nieto and his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) ahead of next year s presidential election.

Summary: मेक्सिको के दो राज्यों में गिरोह की लड़ाई में 13 लोगों की मौत


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Even after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, the case for a U.S. free trade deal with the EU remains strong, the top U.S. trade official said on Friday. “The economic and strategic rationale for T-TIP remains strong,” U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said in a statement, referring to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership being negotiated by Washington and the EU. “We are evaluating the impact of the United Kingdom’s decision on T-TIP and look forward to continuing our engagement with the European Union and our relations with the United Kingdom,” Froman said.

Summary: ब्रेक्सिट मतदान के बाद भी आईडी1 व्यापार सौदे के लिए तर्क मजबूतः यूएसटीआर


GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations appealed on Monday to countries worldwide to take in 1,300 mainly African refugees stranded in Libya, many of them mistreated while kept in appalling conditions in detention. Niger has agreed to temporarily host the most vulnerable being evacuated, including unaccompanied children and single mothers, pending their processing and departure for resettlement, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement.  In order to address the immediate protection needs and extreme vulnerabilities of the persons of concern who will be evacuated to Niger, UNHCR urgently requests 1,300 places for resettlement for this situation,  the agency said. The UNHCR intends to evacuate between 700 and 1,300 people from Libya to Niger by the end of January 2018, it said, calling for the resettlement places to be made available by the end of March. A first group of 25 refugees from Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan were evacuated from Libya to Niger last month, it added.  This is a desperate call for solidarity and humanity. We need to get extremely vulnerable refugees out of Libya as soon as possible,  said Volker Turk, UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection. Images broadcast by CNN earlier this month appeared to show migrants being auctioned off as slaves by Libyan traffickers, sparking outrage in Europe and anger in Africa.  Numbers of detainees swelled after boat departures for Italy from the smuggling hub of Sabratha were largely blocked this year. On Friday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), called on social media giants to make it harder for people smugglers to use their platforms to lure West African migrants to Libya where they can face detention, torture, slavery or death. Facebook and WhatsApp did not reply to requests by Reuters for comment.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र ने लीबिया के शरणार्थियों के लिए 1,300 स्थान मांगे


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Kurdish Peshmerga fighters rejected a warning from an Iraqi paramilitary force to withdraw from a strategic junction south of Kirkuk, which controls access to some of the region s main oilfields, a Kurdish security official said on Sunday. Iran meanwhile shut its border crossings with Iraq s Kurdistan in support of measures taken by the Iraqi government to isolate the Kurdish region, the Iraqi foreign ministry said. The border closing came as an Iranian military official arrived in Iraq s Kurdistan for talks on the growing crisis between the Kurdish authorities and the Iraqi government following last month s Kurdish independence referendum. The Baghdad central government has taken a series of steps to isolate the autonomous Kurdish region since its vote for independence, including banning international flights. Baghdad s tough line, ruling out talks sought by the Kurds unless they renounce the breakaway move, is backed by neighbors Turkey and Iran - both with their own sizeable Kurdish minorities, and in Turkey s case, a long-running Kurdish insurgency. The top Kurdish leadership met on Sunday to discuss the crisis and rejected the Iraqi government s demand that it cancels the outcome of the independence referendum as a precondition for talks to resolve the dispute. The vote delivered an overwhelming  Yes  for independence. The Iraqi government in a statement accused the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of bringing fighters from Turkey s separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to Kirkuk, describing the move as a  declaration of war . In the statement, published after a meeting in Baghdad, chaired by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and attended by top military and security commanders, the government said it would seek to impose its authority over Kirkuk and other disputed areas. A spokesman for KRG President Masoud Barzani, Vahal Ali, denied the Iraqi government claims about the PKK.  This is false, there are no PKK in Kirkuk, only Peshmerga,  he told Reuters, referring to KRG military forces. The Kurdish leadership meeting, attended by Barzani, rejected the Iraqi  military threats  and pledged to defend Kurdish-held territory in case of an attack.  Iraqi paramilitary groups backing the Shi ite-led government in Baghdad had warned the Peshmerga to leave a position north of the Maktab Khalid junction by midnight Saturday, a KRG security official said.  The Kurdish position north of the junction controls the access to an important airbase and Bai Hassan, one of the region s main oil fields, the KRG official said.  Ali al-Hussaini, a spokesman for the paramilitary groups known as Popular Mobilisation, did not give indications about their next move following the Kurds rejection of the warning .  We are waiting for new orders,  he told Reuters.  There were no clashes reported 21 hours after the deadline but tension remained high with both sides mobilized. Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani arrived on Saturday in the Kurdistan region to hold talks about the crisis. He is the commander of foreign operations for Iran s elite Revolutionary Guards who provide training and guns to Popular Mobilisation The city of Kirkuk, the airbase and their immediate surroundings, including the oilfields, are under Kurdish control. Kurdish authorities said on Friday they had sent thousands more troops to Kirkuk to confront Iraqi  threats.   Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has repeatedly denied any plans to attack the Kurds.  Popular Mobilisation is a separate force from the regular army and officially reports to Abadi. It is deployed alongside the army south and west of Kirkuk. Kirkuk, a city of more than one million people, lies just outside KRG territory but Peshmerga forces were stationed there in 2014 when Iraqi security forces collapsed in the face of an Islamic State onslaught. The Peshmerga deployment prevented Kirkuk s oilfields from falling into jihadist hands. In Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday the situation had the full attention of the United States, which was working to ensure it does not escalate. The United States has taken the side of the Iraqi government in refusing to recognize the validity of the referendum.

Summary: कुर्दों ने इराकी बलों की किर्कुक तेल क्षेत्रों तक पहुंच को अवरुद्ध किया; ईरान ने सीमा पार करना बंद कर दिया


DUBAI (Reuters) - A spokesman for Yemen s Houthi group on Thursday dismissed U.S. accusations that Iran had supplied a missile fired at Saudi Arabia last month, saying it was an attempt to divert attention from the United States  decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital.  After three years of war, America suddenly finds evidence that Iran supports the Houthis,  Abdel-Malek al-Ejri said in a message on his Twitter account.   America did not find any evidence in all the missiles fired from Yemen until now. The story is clear. They want to give Arabs a story to divert their attention from Jerusalem. Instead being angry at Israel, they wave the Iranian bogey,  he added. The United States on Thursday presented for the first time pieces of what it said were Iranian weapons supplied to the Iran-aligned Houthis, describing it as conclusive evidence that Tehran was violating U.N. resolutions. Iran has denied supplying the Houthis with such weaponry and on Thursday described the arms displayed as   fabricated.  President Donald Trump on Dec. 6 announced U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital, stirring anger across the Arab and Muslim world and concern among Washington s European allies as well as Russia.

Summary: यमन के हौथियों का कहना है कि ईरानी मिसाइल हमले येरुशलम के फैसले से विचलित करने वाले हैं


DETROIT (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said the move by Ford Motor Co (F.N) to build a manufacturing plant in Mexico “is an absolute disgrace” and shows the need to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Earlier on Tuesday, Ford confirmed plans to build a plant in San Luis Potosi and an investment of $1.6 billion. “This transaction is an absolute disgrace,” said Trump’s statement, sent to Reuters by email. “Our dishonest politicians and the special interests that control them are laughing in the face of all American citizens.” Trump said deals like the one Michigan-based Ford made to build a plant in Mexico “will continue until we can renegotiate NAFTA to create a fair deal for American workers.” Ford did not have an immediate comment on Trump’s statement, but two weeks ago its chief executive, Mark Fields, said Ford would not back away from foreign investments if they made sense. “We are a global, multinational company and we will invest to keep us competitive and we will do what makes sense for the business,” Fields said. Ford currently has more workers and makes more vehicles at its U.S. plants than do Detroit rivals General Motors Co (GM.N) or Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCAU.N) (FCHA.MI), and has fewer workers and makes fewer vehicles in Mexico than the other automakers. GM has about 12,000 hourly paid workers in Mexico, while FCA has 9,547 and Ford has 6,191, the companies said on Tuesday. In the United States, Ford has 55,300 hourly paid plant workers, GM has 54,000 and FCA has 36,600, the companies said. In 2015, 80 percent of Ford’s North American production came from its U.S. plants while 63 percent of GM’s North American production came from its U.S. plants and for FCA 64 percent of its North American production came from its U.S. plants.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने मेक्सिको में फोर्ड निर्माण संयंत्र को 'पूरी तरह से शर्मनाक' बताया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. senators on Wednesday issued a formal draft of a controversial bill that would give courts the power to order technology companies like Apple to help authorities break into encrypted devices or communications for law enforcement or intelligence purposes. The proposal arrives just days after an earlier draft leaked online and drew fire from security researchers and civil liberties advocates who warned it would undermine Internet security and expose personal data to hackers. Those same groups on Wednesday said the new draft is little different from the leaked version. The bill comes as the U.S. Justice Department has redoubled its efforts to use the courts to force Apple (AAPL.O) to unlock encrypted iPhones. Senators Richard Burr and Dianne Feinstein, the Senate intelligence committee’s Republican chair and top Democrat, said in a statement they intended now to “solicit input from the public and key stakeholders before formally introducing the bill.” “I am hopeful that this draft will start a meaningful and inclusive debate on the role of encryption and its place within the rule of law,” Burr said. “Based on initial feedback, I am confident that the discussion has begun.” The new discussion draft does not require manufacturers or communications companies to process, transmit or store data in any particular format.  Rather, it requires companies, upon receipt of a court order, to turn over to the government “data in an intelligible format” even if encryption has rendered that data inaccessible to anyone other than the owner. Companies must ensure their products “be capable of complying,” the bill states. Critics say that amounts to a ban on strong encryption. The latest version of the bill narrows the scope of cases where a court can issue an order. Those include crimes that caused or could cause death or serious injury or that involve drug offenses or child victims, in addition to foreign intelligence operations, according to the text. Andrew Crocker, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, said changes in the new discussion draft were minimal and the bill still threatened Internet security because companies would only be able to comply by weakening encryption in all their products. The proposed legislation, which is expected to continue facing strong opposition from the technology sector and privacy advocates, faces an uphill battle in a gridlocked Congress. “This flawed bill would leave Americans more vulnerable to stalkers, identity thieves, foreign hackers and criminals,” said Democratic Senator Ron Wyden in a statement.

Summary: सीनेट पैनल ने विवादास्पद कूटलेखन विधेयक का मसौदा जारी किया


HAVANA (Reuters) - Ostracized by the government and mistrusted by much of the public, Cuba’s dissidents are hoping to receive a clear message of support from U.S. President Barack Obama when he visits the  island next month. Obama plans to meet dissidents during his March 21-22 visit, the first by a sitting U.S. president since 1928. It follows the rapprochement of December 2014, when Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro ended more than five decades of Cold War-era animosity. Cuba’s Communist government has long considered the dissidents a tiny and illegitimate minority funded by U.S. interests, while anti-Castro groups hold them up as champions of democracy.  Political opponents say a public blessing from Obama might improve their standing and the cause of human rights in Cuba. “It’s possible the visit will help raise the hopes of the Cuban people, which is important because Cuba is short on many things, most of all hope,” said Elizardo Sanchez, leader of the Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation, which monitors arrests of political opponents. Sanchez said Cuba is holding about 90 political prisoners, including some convicted hijackers and spies and 11 former prisoners out on parole. Cuba says it has no political prisoners.     In addition Cuban officials briefly detain an average of more than 700 dissidents a month, the commission says. Obama’s Republican critics have called the visit a capitulation, while Cuban dissidents are mostly supportive. “Any gesture of solidarity, any words or gestures, any contact with the peaceful opposition would be well received by the majority of the population,” said Jose Daniel Ferrer, leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba, which says it has about 3,000 members, making it the largest opposition group in Cuba. Cuban Foreign Ministry official Josefina Vidal said Cuba hoped Obama would meet with “the real Cuban civil society,” a term making a distinction between most Cubans and anti-government activists. Some Cuban dissidents prefer the previous U.S. policy of isolating Cuba and say Obama has failed them. The Ladies in White, who march each Sunday in Havana, say Obama is unwelcome unless he responds to their request that he denounce the repression of activists and calls for amnesty for political prisoners. “If he makes a strong statement repudiating these human rights violations, then we will consider it an advance in human rights,” said Berta Soler, leader of the group. “In practice, we have not seen a thing.”

Summary: असंतुष्टों को क्यूबा यात्रा पर ओबामा से सार्वजनिक मान्यता की उम्मीद


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Monday praised the Supreme Court ruling striking down Texas abortion restrictions as “a victory for women in Texas and across America.” “This fight isn’t over: The next president has to protect women’s health. Women won’t be ‘punished’ for exercising their basic rights,” she said in a tweet, a dig at Republican candidate Donald Trump, who once suggested women who get illegal abortions should face “some sort of punishment.”

Summary: गर्भपात पर सुप्रीम कोर्ट का फैसला महिलाओं की जीत हैः हिलेरी क्लिंटन


LONDON (Reuters) - British lawmakers defeated Prime Minister Theresa May s government on Wednesday, voting to change her Brexit blueprint in a move which could complicate her efforts to sever ties with the European Union. The parliament voted 309 to 305 in favor of an amendment to demand parliament pass a separate bill to approve any final deal with the EU.

Summary: ब्रिटिश सांसदों ने ब्रेक्सिट कानून पर मे की सरकार को हराया


CARACAS (Reuters) - Three of Venezuela s largest opposition parties vowed on Monday to boycott mayoral polls later this year in protest at an election system they say is biased in favor of President Nicolas Maduro s ruling socialists. The multi-party Democratic Unity coalition has had a tough 2017, first failing to bring down Maduro in four months of protests that led to 125 deaths, then losing surprisingly to the Socialist Party in a gubernatorial election earlier this month.  That has left the opposition weakened and divided, and Maduro strengthened, despite growing foreign pressure on his government over alleged rights abuses and corruption, and an unprecedented economic crisis that has millions skipping food. Three heavyweight movements in the opposition - Justice First, Popular Will and Democratic Action - announced on Monday they did not trust the government-leaning election board sufficiently to participate in the municipal polls in December.  Justice First leader Julio Borges, who also heads the opposition-led congress, said authorities cheated in the 2013 presidential election, denied Venezuelans a recall referendum last year, and rigged the Oct. 15 gubernatorial vote.  So instead of going into another  manipulated  vote, the opposition should focus on demanding reforms to the election board in anticipation of next year s presidential poll, he said.  The objective remains getting Nicolas Maduro out of power, and in this struggle, the world is with us,  he told reporters.  To the surprise of some, the Democratic Action party also joined the boycott. Its candidates won four governorships in October s vote and then infuriated many opposition supporters by swearing loyalty to a pro-Maduro legislative superbody.  Opposition supporters have been split over participating in elections this year. Some say it is the only way to show they are a majority and undermine Maduro, while a growing number argue there is no point in fighting a  dictator  via a system rigged in his favor.  They are pinning their hopes on international action, including U.S. sanctions against Maduro s government.  Maduro, whose personal popularity has plunged since his 2013 election due to food shortages and runaway inflation, said  sabotage  and  insurrection  were being planned against the mayoral votes.  I declare myself in battle,  the 54-year-old successor to Hugo Chavez said in a meeting with governors on Monday.   Those who attack the election system must pay.  Opposition leaders say the government has long been rigging elections by gross abuse of state funds in favor of socialist candidates, and dirty tricks such the last-minute moving of vote centers in opposition areas for the October ballot.  They have also presented some allegations of ballot-rigging. However, Maduro insists Venezuela s system is entirely trustworthy and impossible to hack. It has received international praise in the past, although it was slammed over July s vote for the Constituent Assembly superbody.  Maduro says the street protests earlier this year were a mask for a U.S.-backed coup plot, and accuses opponents of wanting to oust him by undemocratic means.   Venezuelans want ballots, not bullets,  said Maduro.

Summary: वेनेजुएला के प्रमुख विपक्षी दल स्थानीय चुनावों का बहिष्कार करेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Repealing Obamacare will be the first order of business in the U.S. Senate in January, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, said on Tuesday. Republicans will replace President Barack Obama’s signature  health insurance program that provides coverage to millions of Americans “step by step,” said Senator John Thune, another member of the Republican leadership. McConnell did not say when the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, as it is officially known, would go into effect. Senator John Barrasso said it might be effective in two or three years, and that the timeframe was still being debated. Democrats scoffed at the Republican plans, saying they do not even know what they want to replace Obamacare with.     “Bring it on,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, who will be the Democrats’ leader in the Senate next year. Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president last month means Republicans will control the White House, Senate and House of Representatives in 2017. The new Congress opens on Jan. 3; Trump will be sworn in on Jan. 20. The Affordable Care Act has provided 25 million previously uninsured Americans with health coverage by expanding Medicaid and through online exchanges where consumers can receive income-based subsidies. Republicans have launched repeated legal and legislative efforts to dismantle the law, which they call a government overreach.     The average Obamacare premium is set to rise 25 percent in 2017.     Large national insurers including Aetna Inc, UnitedHealth Group Inc and Anthem Inc have said they are losing money on the exchanges because patient costs are higher than anticipated and enrollment is lower than forecast. Both UnitedHealth and Aetna have pulled out of the exchanges for 2017. To repeal Obamacare, congressional Republicans are expected to resort to a special procedure known as budget reconciliation to get around Democrats in the Senate, where rules protect the rights of the minority party. Thune said Republicans hoped Democrats would work with them to replace Obamacare in a way that will give states, rather than the federal government, more control over healthcare issues and create more flexibility for small businesses in the way they offer healthcare benefits. But Senator Harry Reid, the outgoing Senate Democratic leader, dismissed the idea that Democrats would join in. “I think that any hope that we’re going to buy into ruining healthcare in America, there’s not a chance of it,” he said.

Summary: ओबामाकेयर को निरस्त करना 2017 में सीनेट के एजेंडे में सबसे पहले होगा


WITTENBERG, Germany (Reuters) - Invoking the spirit of the Reformation, Chancellor Angela Merkel called for religious freedom and tolerance on Tuesday and said Germany should lend extra support to the children of refugees  who have experienced awful things.   We have learned that tolerance is the soul of Europe,  she said at a ceremony on the 500th anniversary of the reformation in Wittenberg, where Martin Luther is said to have nailed his theses challenging Catholicism to a church door. Luther argued against what he saw as abusive practices by Catholic preachers, though the reformation divided western Christianity and resulted in violence, persecution and discrimination. Merkel, the daughter of a protestant pastor, praised Luther s translation of the Bible into a standard form of written German, which she said made its teachings accessible to the population at large.  Religious education was a fundamental concern of the reformation,  she said, stressing the importance of education for everyone.  To learn and develop skills, some children need to be given more support than others - for example when parental support is lacking. This applies too to integrating children from refugee families who have experienced and undergone awful things.  Merkel has come under fire for allowing more than one million migrants to enter Germany over the past two years - a decision that saw her conservatives bleed support to the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in a national election last month. People from different backgrounds often knew too little about each other, she said, stressing the importance of dialogue between religions.  Just as the freedom of belief always has to be protected from religious fanaticism, so freedom of worship, on the other hand, requires that religion be protected from contempt,  Merkel added. To honor the 500th anniversary, Reformation Day was a public holiday in Germany this year.

Summary: मर्केल ने सुधार समारोह में सहिष्णुता, धार्मिक स्वतंत्रता का उपदेश दिया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump staged a harsh attack on his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, accusing her of corruption and dangerous incompetence as he tried to put his campaign back on track after recent setbacks. In a speech in New York that Clinton’s campaign called “nutty” and that was criticized by some Republicans, Trump argued that the former secretary of state is part of a political establishment that has cheated American workers through bad trade deals and endangered U.S. national security. Both candidates are seeking to overcome their high unfavorable ratings among voters at the Nov. 8 election by painting the other as a villain who puts personal gain over the interests of less powerful Americans.  Even by the standards of modern presidential races, the sparring between Clinton, a former secretary of state and U.S. senator, and brash businessman Trump has made for unusually acidic rhetoric. “Hillary Clinton may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency of the United States,” Trump told a small crowd of supporters at a hotel he owns in Manhattan, accusing her of having run the State Department “like her own personal hedge fund.”  Clinton’s staff quickly dismissed that attack and others as “lies.” Trump read his speech from a teleprompter to curb his off-the-cuff comments but he pulled no punches. He said Clinton “has perfected the politics of personal profit and theft” and described her as “a world-class liar.” Republican Lindsey Graham, a U.S. senator from South Carolina who has so far declined to support Trump, said he disagreed that Clinton may be the most corrupt person to have run for the White House, and challenged Trump to become more presidential. “My advice to Mr. Trump would be to make the case that you have the temperament, knowledge and judgment to be president,” he said on CNN. “That’s the mountain you’ve got to climb.” Trump’s campaign has been distracted in recent weeks by racially-charged comments he made about a Mexican-American judge and the Republican’s firing of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski this week.     The New York real estate mogul is trailing Clinton in most opinion polls, and campaign finance figures released on Monday show he has raised only a fraction of the amount Clinton has brought in, although Trump has said he is willing to loan his campaign more money.     In his speech, Trump repeated accusations that Clinton’s decisions as America’s top diplomat were influenced by donations to the Clinton Foundation and associated charities.  Clinton and her staff have denied this and similar allegations, dismissing them as politically motivated smears. “The only thing Donald Trump offered today was more hypocritical lies and nutty conspiracy theories,” Clinton spokesman Glen Caplin said. The State Department has said it is not aware of any evidence of improper influence, although it has acknowledged that new donations from foreign governments should have been submitted to the department’s ethics advisers for prior review but were not, in breach of an ethics agreement Clinton signed before taking office. Trump attacked the Clinton Foundation for accepting millions of dollars from Saudi Arabia and other countries criticized by the United States for not protecting the rights of women and gay people. Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, has said that accepting such funding is not an endorsement of everything a foreign government does. Clinton added a pointed defense of the Clinton Foundation in a speech later on Wednesday. “The Clinton Foundation helps poor people around the world get access to lifesaving AIDS medicine,” she told cheering supporters in Raleigh, North Carolina. “Donald Trump uses poor people around the world to produce his line of suits and ties.” Trump also said Clinton had used bad political judgment in her four years as secretary of state, failing to stop the rise of Islamic State, keep strong sanctions on Iran or avoid chaos in Libya. “Her decisions spread death, destruction and terrorism everywhere she touched,” Trump said.          On Tuesday, Clinton delivered her own blistering attack on Trump, saying that putting him in the White House would be a disaster for the U.S. economy.  On Wednesday, Clinton won the endorsement of former U.S. National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, a Republican who served under Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush. A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week showed that 44.5 percent of likely voters backed Clinton, while 35.5 percent supported Trump. Some of the accusations made by Trump on Wednesday appeared to contradict the public record. He said Clinton would admit hundreds of thousands of refugees to the United States without any prior screening. But under the current process, refugees must wait months or years in foreign camps while U.S. security agencies review their backgrounds, a system Clinton supports. Trump said Clinton was sleeping “soundly” in her bed as a deadly attack unfolded in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012 in which four Americans were killed. State Department records show Clinton was in her State Department office when news of the opening assaults came through. She has said she later worked through the night on the U.S. response.

Summary: फिर से जमीन हासिल करने की कोशिश में, ट्रम्प ने क्लिंटन को भ्रष्ट और झूठा बताया


KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. and Afghan forces have launched joint attacks on Taliban opium factories to try to curb the insurgent group s economic lifeline, officials from both countries said on Monday. U.S. Army General John Nicholson showed videos at a press conference of targeted aerial strikes against what he described as Taliban drug factories.  Last night we conducted strikes in northern Helmand to hit the Taliban where it hurts, in their narcotics financing,  said Nicholson, flanked by Afghan Army Lieutenant General Mohammad Sharif Yaftali. The southern province of Helmand suffers heavy fighting and is the single-largest producer of opium. Opium production in Afghanistan reached record highs this year, up 87 percent on last year, the United Nations said last week. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said output of opium made from poppy seeds in Afghanistan, the world s main source of heroin, stands at around 9,000 metric tons this year. UNODC has warned in the past that Kabul s weakening grip on security was contributing to a collapse in eradication efforts. Nearly half of Afghan opium is processed, or refined into morphine or heroin, before it is trafficked out of the country, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.  We re determined to tackle criminal economy and narcotics trafficking with full force,  said Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Twitter. Nicholson said the attacks were part of U.S. President Donald Trump s new policy toward Afghanistan as he boosts troop numbers. The four-star general showed one video of an F-22 fighter jet dropping 250-pound bombs on two buildings, emphasizing that a nearby third building was left unscathed. U.S. troops have long been accused of causing unnecessary collateral damage and civilian deaths. The United States says it takes every precaution to avoid civilian casualties. The United Nations said at least 10 civilians may have been killed by a strike in Kunduz earlier this month, contradicting a U.S. investigation that found no civilian deaths.

Summary: अमेरिका, अफगान बलों ने तालिबान के धन पर अंकुश लगाने के लिए अफीम कारखानों पर हमला किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will hold her election night rally in New York City, the campaign said on Wednesday. The Clinton campaign is headquartered in New York’s Brooklyn borough, and Clinton served two terms as a U.S. senator for the state, from 2001 to 2009. She lives in the New York City suburb of Chappaqua.  Her opponent in the Nov. 8 election, Republican Donald Trump, is also from New York.

Summary: क्लिंटन न्यूयॉर्क शहर में चुनावी रात रैली करेंगेः अभियान


PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - Republican front-runner Donald Trump warned on Wednesday of riots if he is denied the party’s presidential nomination and  pulled the plug on a scheduled debate among candidates, raising the temperature even more in a heated White House race.     The outspoken New York businessman scored big wins in primaries in Florida, Illinois and North Carolina on Tuesday, bringing him closer to the 1,237 convention delegates he needs to win the nomination.  Trump also claimed victory in Missouri but lost the crucial state of Ohio, and left the door open for those in the party trying to stop him from becoming the Republican nominee for the Nov. 8 election.  Trump might fall short of the majority of delegates required, enabling the party’s establishment to put forward another name at the July convention in Cleveland to formally pick its candidate. In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Trump said the party could not deny him the nomination should he fail to win enough delegates. “I don’t think you can say that we don’t get it automatically. I think you’d have riots. I think you’d have riots. I’m representing many, many millions of people.”      While the Republicans were mired deeper in turmoil, Hillary Clinton won victories in at least four states on Tuesday that put her in good shape to defeat Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and win the Democratic Party’s nomination. Republican Party leaders are appalled at Trump’s incendiary rhetoric and reject policies such as his vow to deport 11 million illegal immigrants, temporarily ban Muslims from the United States and build a wall along the Mexican border.     The party tried to play down his riot comments, only days after Trump supporters and protesters clashed at a rally  for the Republican in Chicago that was later scrapped. “First of all, I assume he is speaking figuratively,” Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer told CNN.     Recent outbreaks of violence during protests at Trump rallies have prompted President Barack Obama, a Democrat, and mainstream Republican figures to speak out against the billionaire.     David Farber, a professor of modern American history at Temple University in Philadelphia, said that, though there have been many episodes of violent unrest at American political events, not least the 1968 Democratic convention, Trump’s warning of a riot is unprecedented. The nearest modern comparison would be former Alabama Governor George Wallace, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 1968 as a third-party candidate, Farber said “We’re in a situation somewhat like the 1960s in the United States, a period of great polarization,” Farber said, “and there just isn’t a lot of common ground, and Trump supporters feel a lot of quiet desperation that Trump is helping to fan the flames of.”    In comments likely to raise more concern in the Republican establishment about Trump’s lack of experience and temperament,  the former reality TV show host said he was for the most part his own foreign affairs adviser. “I’m speaking with myself, number one, because I have a very good brain,” he told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show. “I know what I’m doing. ... My primary consultant is myself.”          Trump’s closest national challenger is first-term U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who prides himself in being a grassroots conservative often at odds with Republican leaders.     He too warned of severe reactions against an attempt to stage a so-called brokered convention or contested convention to install a Republican candidate supported by party leaders. “I think that would be an absolute disaster. I think the people would quite rightly revolt,” Cruz told CNN.  A brokered convention is a complicated process of sequential votes that opens the way for horse trading.    The Republican establishment’s bid to stop Trump may have come too late as the field of candidates has dwindled to only three, with Trump, 69, in command ahead of Cruz, 45, and Ohio Governor John Kasich, 63, who won his state’s Republican primary on Tuesday and is the last moderate Republican presidential candidate standing. Growing in confidence, Trump pulled out of a Republican debate scheduled for Monday in Utah, saying it clashed with a speech he plan to give to a pro-Israel group. Debate hosts Fox News then canceled the event.    Senator Marco Rubio quit the White House race after defeat in his home state of Florida. Trump now needs to win about 55 percent of the roughly 1,100 delegates still up for grabs in state-by-state nominating contests to guarantee the nomination. It is not an insurmountable challenge.        Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said it might be tough for the party to block Trump at the convention. “A contested convention would be justified if Trump only had around 35 or 40 percent of the delegates locked up. However, if he is very close to getting the majority of delegates, it would be politically difficult for the establishment to try stop him by backroom wheeling and dealing without risking a serious backlash from voters,” said Bonjean. The strategist is not affiliated with any of the candidates. Party figures are divided about whether to throw their weight behind Trump despite his downsides or to go on trying to halt him. Florida Governor Rick Scott endorsed Trump on Wednesday but another influential Southern governor, South Carolina’s Nikki Haley, declared her support for Cruz, the state’s Post and Courier newspaper said. The election season is likely to become more politicized after Obama nominated judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, setting up a showdown with Senate Republicans who have vowed to block any Obama nominee.     On the Democratic side, wins on Tuesday for former Secretary of State Clinton, 68, gave her an almost insurmountable edge over Sanders, 74. His campaign said it was not ruling out asking for a recount in Tuesday’s tight Missouri race. Seeking to become the United States’ first woman president, Clinton needs to win only around a third of the Democratic delegates remaining to become her party’s nominee.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने दंगों की चेतावनी दी, रिपब्लिकन राष्ट्रपति पद की बहस को रोका


PARIS (Reuters) - France won t let the official base of the European Union s parliament be moved from Strasbourg to Brussels, the country s European affairs minister Nathalie Loiseau said on Sunday.  Strasbourg must remain the seat of European democracy. It s also the symbol of Franco-German reconciliation,  she said on France 3 television.  It is often said that Europe comes down to the Brussels bubble. Europe needs to be closer to its regions,  she added. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) convene in Strasbourg for one week every month and in Brussels for the remainder. The monthly upheaval costs the bloc 114 million euros ($124 million) a year, EU auditors say. Critics have long called for the arrangement to be scrapped, but it has stayed in place largely because France would have vetoed any attempt to make the required amendment to the EU treaty. Some lawmakers had hoped the election victory of pro-EU President Emmanuel Macron could help plans to close the base in the French city. On Brexit negotiations, Loiseau said there were  positive noises  ahead of a summit in Brussels set to decide whether enough progress has been made on the first phase of negotiations to move on to talks about a post-Brexit trade relationship. But she said France remained vigilant on the issue of the land border with Ireland.  It s a red line which was drawn by the 27 member states and by the United Kingdom, accepted by them,  she said. Loiseau also said France was waiting for conclusions from the Eurostat statistics agency on whether the reimbursements it is due to make to companies after a dividend tax was canceled by courts should be all included in its 2017 accounts. That would scupper the French government s plans to bring its budget deficit below the EU-mandated 3 percent in 2017.  In all logic, there is no reason to attribute the whole 10 billion euros to 2017. That s what we explained, we are waiting for Eurostat answers,  she said. Loiseau, a career diplomat, also said she was disappointed by Germany s decision to vote in favor of clearing the use of weedkiller glyphosate for the next five years earlier this week.

Summary: यूरोपीय संसद स्ट्रासबर्ग, फ्रांस से आगे नहीं बढ़ रही हैः


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he would not attend the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, a high-profile event that draws celebrities, politicians and journalists. “I will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!”, Trump wrote on Twitter. On the campaign trail and in the White House, Trump has had a strained relationship with the press, calling journalists “the enemy of the people” and frequently criticizing outlets and individual reporters whose coverage he does not like.  The reporters’ group said it would go ahead with its April 29 dinner despite Trump’s absence. The Washington event typically draws movie stars, politicians and business leaders to hear a humorous speech by the sitting president. The dinner “has been and will continue to be a celebration of the First Amendment and the important role played by an independent news media in a healthy republic,” said Jeff Mason, a Reuters White House correspondent who heads the association this year. Ronald Reagan was the last president to sit out the event after he was shot in 1981. Some news outlets such as Bloomberg News and the New Yorker have said they will not host the lavish after-parties that have been a fixture of past events. On Friday, the White House excluded several major U.S. news organizations, including some it has criticized, from an off-camera briefing held by the White House press secretary. Reporters for CNN, The New York Times, Politico, The Los Angeles Times and BuzzFeed were not allowed into the session in the office of press secretary Sean Spicer, a decision that drew strong protests. The event occasionally makes news: in 2011, President Barack Obama delivered a scathing evisceration of Trump, joking that the mogul, who sat stone-faced in the audience, would move on from questioning Obama’s citizenship to figuring out “did we fake the moon landing.” Critics say the event encourages journalists to cozy up to politicians they should cover aggressively.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने व्हाइट हाउस के प्रेस डिनर को छोड़ने का फैसला किया


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is lobbying world powers to prevent further setbacks to Iraqi Kurds as they lose ground to Baghdad s army, Israeli officials say. Israel has been the only major power to endorse statehood for the Kurds, partly, say analysts, because it sees the ethnic group - whose population is split among Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran - as a buffer against shared adversaries. Iraqi armed forces retook the oil-rich Kirkuk region this week, following a Sept. 25 referendum on Kurdish independence that was rejected by Baghdad, delivering a blow to the Kurds  statehood quest.      Israeli officials said Netanyahu raised the Iraqi Kurds  plight in phone calls with German Chancellor Angela Merkel last week and with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.  It has also come up in his contacts with France and the Israeli national security adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat, has been discussing the matter with Trump administration officials in Washington this week, the officials said. A Netanyahu government official, who declined to be named, given the sensitivity of Israel-Kurdish ties, suggested Israel had security interests in Kurdistan, given its proximity to Israel s enemies in Tehran and Damascus.  This (territory) is a foothold. It s a strategic place,  the official said without providing further detail. He said Israel wanted to see Iraqi Kurds provided with the means to protect themselves, adding:   It would be best if someone gave them weaponry, and whatever else, which we cannot give, obviously.      Israel has maintained discreet military, intelligence and business ties with Kurds since the 1960s, in the absence of open ties between their autonomous region in northern Iraq and Israel.  Netanyahu s recent lobbying has focused on Kurdish ambitions in Iraq, where the central Baghdad government has grown closer to Israel s foe Iran.            The issue at present is ... to prevent an attack on the Kurds, extermination of the Kurds and any harm to them, their autonomy and region, something that Turkey and Iran and internal Shi ite and other powers in Iraq and part of the Iraqi government want,  Netanyahu s intelligence minister, Israel Katz, told Tel Aviv radio station 102 FM on Friday.   It was not clear to what extent Netanyahu s outreach may have been solicited by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, which shies away from public engagement with Israel, worried about further alienating Arab neighbours.    The United Nations has voiced concern at reports that civilians, mainly Kurds, were being driven out of parts of northern Iraq retaken by Iraqi forces and their houses and businesses looted and destroyed.  The prime minister is certainly engaging the United States, Russia, Germany and France to stop the Kurds from being harmed,  Katz said.   Another Israeli official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, framed Netanyahu s efforts as a moral imperative.   They (Kurds) are a deeply pro-Western people who deserve support,  he said.

Summary: नेतन्याहू ने इराकी कुर्दों की असफलताओं को रोकने के लिए विश्व शक्तियों की पैरवी की


JOHANNESBURG/NAIROBI (Reuters) - On June 29, Maman Sidikou, head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, received a cable from headquarters in New York in which his bosses laid out in no uncertain terms that the world s largest peacekeeping mission had to make cuts, and fast. Facing an eight percent, or $93 million, budget cut for 2017/18, Sidikou was told to revise staffing, slash fuel costs by 10 percent and streamline aircraft use - all without compromising the mission s mandate, according to the cable seen by Reuters. The mission in Democratic Republic of Congo, known as MONUSCO, must work out how to juggle those demands with the need to respond to a growing political and humanitarian crisis in the central African giant - and it is not alone.  Belt-tightening at MONUSCO, which has about 18,000 uniformed personnel, is part of a broader push by the United States, the biggest U.N. contributor, to cut costs. In June, the 193 U.N. member states agreed to a total $600 million in cuts to more than a dozen missions for the year ending June 30, 2018.  U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said at the time:  We re only getting started.  On Wednesday the 15-member U.N. Security Council will discuss peacekeeping reform during the annual gathering of world leaders.  Diplomats said the council was due to adopt a resolution pushing for improved accountability, transparency and effectiveness and to make peacekeepers more flexible. Critics worry that harsh cuts could harm operations in volatile African states.  My intention is to do everything to preserve the integrity of the peacekeeping missions, but, of course, to do also everything possible to make it in the most effective and cost-effective way,  U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters last week.  The United Nations, which has spent $18 billion on peacekeeping in Congo since the mission began in 1999, says reforms are bearing fruit. But analysts and some U.N. insiders say progress is hampered by administrators in New York dodging thorny issues like confusion over the mission s priorities and a culture that appears to protect senior, well-paid officials at all costs. In July, for example, Safia Boly became deputy head of the MONUSCO division administering the mission s downsizing, despite the fact that a year earlier, a U.N. tribunal ruled she had abused her authority and disregarded rules at an office in Uganda where she served as operations manager.  Put very simply, and in other words, who was protecting Ms. Boly and why?  the tribunal wrote in its judgment. Boly did not respond to an emailed request for comment. U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said the affair was closed and that it was not appropriate to comment on a confidential internal process.  This sends a signal that U.N. headquarters is not really interested in reform and cleaning up the system,  said a Western diplomat about Boly s case. In another case, members of an engineering unit in Goma allegedly demanded hundreds of dollars from locals in return for help to be recruited for temporary work, according to a U.N. document seen by Reuters. U.S. President Donald Trump wants to cap the U.S. share of the $7.3 billion peacekeeping bill at 25 percent, down from 28.5 percent, a level he says is  unfair . At a meeting on U.N. reform on Monday, Trump said the world body was hamstrung by  bureaucracy and mismanagement .  A peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast has closed and troop levels in Sudan s Darfur region are due to be halved, but U.N. officials say they need more, not fewer, blue helmets in hot spots like Mali, Central African Republic and South Sudan.  Peacekeeping reform is essential, and the U.S. should lead in demanding better performance and accountability. But that will not be achieved by crippling the ability of U.N. troops and civilian personnel to operate where they re needed most,  said Matt Wells, senior crisis adviser at Amnesty International. MONUSCO s military leaders want to replace underperforming units, long accused of passivity in protecting civilians, with more capable troops. But they are held back by long-standing reluctance among member states to risk soldiers  lives in distant conflicts. In a July 15 cable addressed to New York, Sidikou outlined his streamlining plans. They included reducing the force size by at least 750 troops, cutting official travel and reducing rations provided to Congolese soldiers.  In another cable three days later, Sidikou said he intended to ease restrictions on where units can operate, making them more flexible and able to respond to crises. Election delays and President Joseph Kabila s refusal to step down have fueled violence across Congo, where millions have died in conflicts over the past two decades. An agreement to hold an election by the end of this year is unlikely to hold.  After several years during which the focus had been largely on foreign armed groups, the U.N. mission is contending with increasingly dangerous local rebellions. One, in Kasai, on the border with Angola, has displaced 1.4 million people in a year.  In the near future, elections-related violence might erupt across the whole of the DRC. Consequently, the Force requires the freedom to deploy its troops in a timely manner, to wherever they may be required,  Sidikou s cable said.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र के शांति सैनिकों ने कम के साथ अधिक करने के लिए दबाव डाला क्योंकि आगे करघे में कटौती की जा रही है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump made his name with opulent hotels and a dramatic reality TV show, but his inauguration on Friday as the 45th U.S. president is shaping up as a more understated affair, with big names in entertainment staying away. Like those who came before him, Trump will take his oath on the steps of the U.S. Capitol building and lead a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, but there will be fewer official balls and  less glitz and celebrity talent to welcome in the new president. Inaugurations have been star-studded affairs since 1941, when President Franklin Roosevelt held a gala with actors Charlie Chaplin, Mickey Rooney and other stars of the era, said Jim Bendat, a historian who has written a book on U.S. inaugurations. But this year, several singers – including Elton John and Charlotte Church – declined invitations to perform at inaugural events. Trump, a New York businessman and former star of “The Apprentice” TV show, won with a populist platform that included promises to build a wall along the Mexican border, restrict immigration from Muslim countries and dismantle Obamacare. Broadway star Jennifer Holliday said yes to performing, but backed down after a backlash from fans.  “You can’t really find precedent for that,” Bendat said in an interview. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, singer Jackie Evancho and the Rockettes dancing troupe are among those slated to perform, although individual Rockettes will be allowed to opt out of performing if they so choose. Trump’s inaugural committee has said it is intentionally avoiding top entertainers. “We’re fortunate in that we have the greatest celebrity in the world, which is the president-elect,” Tom Barrack, inaugural committee chairman, told reporters at Trump Tower in New York last week. “So what we’ve done, instead of trying to surround him with what people consider A-listers, is we are going to surround him with the soft sensuality of the place,” Barrack said. Trump is slated to attend three official galas. Other modern inaugurations have had around 10 official balls, which the president and first lady would attend in rapid succession, typically dancing during each appearance.  Then-President Bill Clinton held a record 14 balls during his 1997 inauguration, Bendat said.  On Thursday, a series of choirs and marching bands will perform at the Lincoln Memorial, followed by a concert featuring country music star Toby Keith.  Trump, who is entering office with unusually low approval ratings, has repeatedly pushed back against reports that his inauguration may be lacking in star power or have low attendance. “People are pouring into Washington in record numbers,” Trump said on Twitter on Tuesday. “Bikers for Trump are on their way. It will be a great Thursday, Friday and Saturday!”  Officials expect about 800,000 spectators for the events – down from the estimated 1.8 million who flocked to Washington for Obama’s 2009 inauguration. Just 40 percent of Americans said they had a favorable view of Trump versus 55 percent who had an unfavorable view, according to a Gallup poll taken from Jan. 4 to Jan. 8.  At a similar point before he took office in 2009, Obama was viewed favorably by 78 percent of Americans. Before taking office in 2001, President George W. Bush had a 62 percent favorable rating, according to the Gallup data. “What is most likely to distinguish Trump’s inauguration is the number of protesters,” said Brian Balogh, co-host of American history radio show BackStory. The National Parks Service has granted permits to protest for 27 groups. On Saturday, the National Mall will draw what organizers estimate will be about 200,000 people to a Women’s March to protest Trump. The Women’s March, which is expected to be the largest protest, is aimed at bringing attention to human and civil rights issues. Honorary co-chairs of the protest include activist Gloria Steinem and actor Harry Belafonte.

Summary: शोमैन की प्रतिष्ठा के बावजूद, ट्रम्प का उद्घाटन कम महत्वपूर्ण के रूप में आकार ले रहा है