AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan on Wednesday rejected the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, calling it legally  null  because it consolidated Israel s occupation of the eastern sector of the contested city. Government spokesman Mohammad al-Momani told state news agency Petra that the announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump violated long-standing U.N. Security Council resolutions that  stipulated the non-recognition of the Israeli occupation  of the city s eastern sector and the adjacent West Bank.  The staunch U.S. ally considered  all unilateral moves that seek to create new facts on the ground as null and void , the spokesman added. Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said later in a tweet that the move  frustrated  peace efforts, adding that the status of Jerusalem must be  determined in direct negotiations  between the Palestinians and Israelis.  Jordan rejects the decision and all its implications and will continue to work for an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital,  Safadi added. Jordan lost East Jerusalem and the West Bank to Israel during the 1967 war and says the city s fate should only be decided at the end of a final settlement. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem for the capital of a future state. Israel regards Jerusalem as its eternal and indivisible capital. Jordan s King Abdullah warned of the repercussions of Trump s expected move in talks last week in Washington with top administration officials and warned of a backlash across the Middle East.  The king s Hashemite dynasty is the custodian of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, making Jordan sensitive to any changes in the status of the city. A government source said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was due to hold talks with the monarch on Thursday in a  stepped-up diplomatic offensive to counter Trump s plan. Several protests broke out in areas of Jordan s capital, Amman, inhabited by Palestinian refugees in response to Trump s announcement. Youths chanted anti-American slogans in Amman, while in the Baqaa refugee camp on the city s outskirts, hundreds of youths roamed the streets denouncing Trump and calling on Jordan s government to scrap its 1994 peace treaty with Israel.  Down with America. America is the mother of terror,  they chanted. Jordanian deputies in a special parliamentary session on Wednesday condemned the move and urged the government to expel the U.S. ambassador and boycott U.S. goods. A dozen activists staged a sit-in near the gates of the U.S. embassy. Many people in Jordan are descendants of Palestinian refugees whose families left after the creation of Israel in 1948. Jordan s powerful mainstream Islamist movement, the country s largest political party and opposition group, said it would stage several major rallies across the country in the next few days and after Friday prayers.

Summary: जॉर्डन ने जेरूसलम पर ट्रम्प के कदम को कानूनी रूप से 'अमान्य' बताते हुए खारिज कर दिया


BUCHAREST (Reuters) - A fresh row over judicial changes in Romania broke out on Thursday with prosecutors and the political opposition warning that proposed amendments to the criminal code would weaken the fight against corruption and other crimes. A parliamentary commission will start next Monday to debate the changes which have been introduced by the ruling Social Democrats. Under the proposals, prosecutors will have to tell potential suspects they are about to be investigated and restrict the types of evidence prosecutors can use to prove cases. Temporary 30-day arrest warrants, much used by police and prosecutors in corruption cases, might be scrapped. Prosecutors may also be restricted from drawing on  wiretaps, street camera footage and digital evidence. They could also be forbidden from publicly disclosing the names of suspects until their cases effectively go to trial. Another proposed change would have witnesses give testimony in the presence of the accused - something which could prove to be an ordeal for a victim of human trafficking, for example. Romania s anti-corruption prosecution unit (DNA) has sent 72 deputies and senators to trial since 2006 alongside cabinet ministers, a sitting Prime Minister and hundreds of mayors and other public officials.  Transparency International ranks Romania among the European Union s most corrupt states though Brussels, which has Romania s justice system under special monitoring, has praised magistrates for their efforts to curb graft. Prosecutors said the changes, if they went through, would seriously hinder the fight for law and order.  Approving these changes will limit prosecutors  ability to  carry out their activities as well as exercising their constitutional role of representing society s general interest and defending the rule of law and citizens  rights,  the prosecutor general s office said in a statement.  These changes could have a devastating impact on criminal investigations because they eliminate the indispensable legal instruments needed to investigate,  the DNA said in a statement. While the Social Democrats have said the changes are needed to bring legislation in line with an EU directive, the Commission has criticized the proposed overhaul. The Social Democrats have already used their solid majority to approve a judicial overhaul in the lower house that threatens to put the justice system under political control. The senate, which has the final say, is expected to approve the bills next week. The proposed reforms have been criticized by the European Commission, the U.S. State Department, thousands of magistrates and centrist President Klaus Iohannis.  Thousands of Romanians staged protests against them in recent weeks but the coalition has so far shrugged them off.

Summary: रोमानिया में आपराधिक संहिता में नियोजित परिवर्तनों को भ्रष्टाचार विरोधी लड़ाई को कमजोर करने के रूप में देखा गया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Office of Special Counsel is investigating whether Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke broke the law when he gave a speech to a professional hockey team owned by a political donor in June, the agency said on Tuesday. Zinke is already being investigated by the Interior Department’s inspector general in connection with his travels and the use of private charter flights, amid heightened scrutiny into private plane use by administration officials. The Campaign for Accountability complained last week that a speech Zinke gave on June 26 to the Vegas Golden Knights, a National Hockey League team based in Las Vegas, violated the Hatch Act barring executive branch employees from engaging in political activity.  The team is owned by Bill Foley, chairman of Fidelity National Financial Inc and a donor to Zinke’s congressional campaigns.  The Office of Special Counsel’s Hatch Act unit, which is independent from the Justice Department, said in an email to Daniel Stevens, executive director of the Campaign for Accountability, that it received its Hatch Act complaint “and will open a case file to address this matter.”     A spokeswoman for the agency declined to comment on the case. Interior Department officials said the speech did not violate any laws, rules or regulations. Melinda Loftin, the Interior Department’s designated ethics official and Edward Keable, director of Interior’s departmental ethics office, said in a joint statement that Zinke’s use of chartered flights and engagements were cleared by ethics and legal departments.  “The trip - including the Secretary’s address to the hockey developmental squad - was completely compliant with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations,” they said. On Friday, former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned after an outcry over his use of costly private charter planes for government business.  The Campaign for Accountability questioned Zinke’s travel. “Contrary to the conclusion drawn by Interior officials, a trip to offer a motivational speech to a hockey team does not appear to fall within the mission of the Department of Interior - ‘protecting America’s Great Outdoors and Powering Our Future,’” the watchdog group wrote. In June, the Office of Special Counsel determined that Trump’s social media director Dan Scavino violated the Hatch Act in April in calling for Trump supporters to defeat a Republican congressman at the polls.

Summary: अमेरिकी आंतरिक सचिव ने दाता की हॉकी टीम को दिए गए भाषण की जांच की


LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) - The wife of ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Sunday captured his parliamentary seat with a reduced majority in a by-election seen as a test of support for the Sharif dynasty ahead of the 2018 general election. Sharif s daughter Maryam said her mother Kulsoom won despite Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party workers being threatened and kidnapped. Although she did not name anyone, PML-N sources said she was referring to alleged intimidation by parts of Pakistan s powerful military. The military could not be reached for comment.  This is not an ordinary victory,  Maryam said in a speech to jubilant PML-N supporters.  You have defeated not only people who were in the field but also those who are invisible.  The main opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party made gains but alleged voter irregularities in the eastern city of Lahore, the electoral heartlands of the Sharif family since 1980s. Official results are yet to be announced but party officials who also tallied the numbers say Kulsoom, who did not campaign as she is receiving treatment for cancer in London, scooped about 53.5 percent of the vote, with the party s majority reduced from about 61 percent in the 2013 general election.         The PML-N wanted to demonstrate that support for the Sharif family was undiminished despite the Supreme Court s removal of Nawaz, who has kept control of the party and installed long-term ally Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as prime minister. Maryam said dozens of PML-N activists were blindfolded and picked up from their homes at night, while others received threatening phone calls from unknown numbers during the campaign.  This victory is a message to the forces hatching conspiracies against Nawaz Sharif that there would be only rules of people and democracy,  added Maryam.  Maryam, who some PML-N leaders see as a future leader, spearheaded the PML-N campaign for her mother with fiery speeches denouncing the judiciary. In an interview with Reuters  before the vote, she hinted at military involvement in her father s ouster. Nawaz, who served two stints in power in 1990s until he was deposed in a military coup in 1999, had strained ties with the military during his third stint in power that ended in his ouster, when the Supreme Court disqualified him for failure to declare a monthly salary, equivalent to around $2,700, from a company owned by his son. Sharif denies receiving the salary. Tensions between civilian governments and the military have been a constant source of instability in Pakistan, with the military staging coups and running the country for nearly half the time since independence from British colonial rule in 1947. MILITANTS-LINKED PARTY Opposition leader Imran Khan - whose threats of street protests pushed the Supreme Court to launch a probe into Nawaz s wealth - had sought to build on the success of his anti-graft crusade by making inroads into Sharifs  power base in Punjab. Khan turned the by-election into a plebiscite about corruption and has accused the provincial Punjab government, which is run by Nawaz s brother Shahbaz, of abusing state resources to help the PML-N campaign. PTI candidate Yasmin Rashid, a local gynaecologist, saw her share of the vote rise from about 35 percent to 41 percent but she afterwards said about 29,000 voters did not have fingerprint identification with the national database. PML-N s lead was reduced in part by the strong showing of Yaqoob Sheikh, who the United States in 2012 designated a terrorist. Sheikh received 4,174 votes, or nearly 4 percent of the total vote after being backed by a new Milli Muslim League party led by an Islamist firebrand who is the subject of a $10 million bounty offered by the United States. Hafiz Saeed heads the Jammat-ud-Dawa (JuD) charity, having founded and formerly led the Lashkhar-e-Taiba (LeT) militant group that carried out the 2008 attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai that killed 166 people. The United States has placed Saeed, the charity and LeT on its terrorist list. The United States, in 2012, said Sheikh was a senior LeT leader.

Summary: अपदस्थ प्रधानमंत्री शरीफ की पत्नी ने सत्तारूढ़ पार्टी के समर्थन की परीक्षा में उपचुनाव जीता


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday and they agreed on the “convenience” of not scrapping the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), but instead renegotiating the treaty along with Canada.  Mexico’s peso gained more than 1 percent after the White House released a readout of calls Trump had with Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in which the U.S. leader, a long-time critic of the trade pact, agreed to “bring NAFTA up to date through renegotiation.”

Summary: मेक्सिको के राष्ट्रपति ने नाफ्टा को समाप्त नहीं करने की 'सुविधा' पर ट्रम्प से सहमति व्यक्त की


MADRID (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama has warned that attacks on police over racial bias would hurt the anti-racism Black Lives Matter movement, days after a sniper killed five police officers in Dallas in apparent revenge for police shootings of black people.  Obama said although most activists from the Black Lives Matter movement wanted to see better relations between communities and law enforcement, violence and overly broad criticism against police undermined the protest movement. “I want to say to say to everyone concerned about ... racial bias in the criminal justice system that maintaining a truthful, serious and respectful tone is going to help mobilize American society to bring about real change,” Obama said. “Whenever those of us who are concerned about failures of the criminal justice system attack police, you are doing a disservice to the cause,” he told a news conference in Madrid where he is on a one-day visit.  Micah Johnson, a black U.S. military veteran of the Afghan war, opened fire on police officers on Thursday during a protest in Dallas against the fatal shootings of two black men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota the previous day. Johnson wanted to “kill white people, especially white officers,” Dallas Police Chief David Brown said after the attack on Thursday night. The Black Lives Matter group said on Friday it advocated dignity, not murder, in response to the shooting that also left seven other police officers and two civilians wounded. Obama said there was legitimate criticism to be made of the criminal justice system and that citizens should continue to protest against it. “I would hope that police organizations are also respectful of the frustrations that people in these communities feel and not just dismiss these protests as political correctness or politics or attacks on police,” he said.

Summary: ओबामा ने कहा कि पुलिस पर हमलों से ब्लैक लाइव्स मैटर को नुकसान पहुंचा है


NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York jury on Thursday ended its second day of deliberations without a verdict in the trial of a Turkish banker accused of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions. The jury had begun deliberating on Wednesday following the three-week trial of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive at Turkey s majority state-owned Halkbank. The trial featured testimony from Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, who pleaded guilty to charges of violating sanctions and testified for U.S. prosecutors, and from Huseyin Korkmaz, a former Turkish police officer who said he investigated Zarrab in 2012 and 2013. Jurors on Thursday sent notes asking to review a part of Korkmaz s testimony. They have also asked for clarification of a part of U.S. District Judge Richard Berman s legal instructions. The jurors are expected to resume deliberations on Friday. Zarrab testified that Atilla helped design fraudulent transactions of gold and food that allowed Iran to spend its oil and gas revenues abroad, including through U.S. financial institutions, defying U.S. sanctions. Both Zarrab and Korkmaz implicated Turkish officials in their testimony, including President Tayyip Erdogan. Attempts to reach Erdogan s spokesman for comment on the allegations at the trial have been unsuccessful. Erdogan has publicly dismissed the case as a politically motivated attack on his government. Korkmaz testified that he was jailed in retaliation for his investigation and eventually fled Turkey last year. An Istanbul prosecutor has issued arrest warrants for Korkmaz s parents, the Hurriyet newspaper reported on Wednesday. Korkmaz testified that he left some evidence from his investigation with his mother. Atilla, testifying in his own defense at the trial, denied all the charges against him. Halkbank has denied taking part in any illegal transactions. U.S. prosecutors charged nine people in the criminal case, though only Zarrab, 34, and Atilla, 47, were arrested by U.S. authorities.

Summary: तुर्की के बैंकर के लिए जूरी विचार-विमर्श का दूसरा दिन बिना किसी फैसले के समाप्त हुआ


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump suggested challenging licenses for NBC and other broadcast news networks following reports by NBC News that his secretary of state had called him a “moron” after a discussion of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. “With all of the Fake News coming out of NBC and the Networks, at what point is it appropriate to challenge their License? Bad for country!” Trump, a Republican, wrote in a post on Twitter on Wednesday. Trump and his supporters have repeatedly used the term “fake news” to cast doubt on  media reports critical of his administration, often without providing any evidence to support their case that the reports were untrue. Trump kept up his criticism of the media in an appearance with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, saying: “It is frankly disgusting the press is able to write whatever it wants to write.” In a tweet late on Wednesday, Trump said: “Network news has become so partisan, distorted and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked. Not fair to public!” Any move to challenge media companies’ licenses, however, would likely face significant hurdles. The Federal Communications Commission, an independent federal agency, does not license broadcast networks, but issues them to individual broadcast stations that are renewed on a staggered basis for eight-year periods. Comcast Corp, which owns NBC Universal, also owns 11 broadcast stations, including outlets in New York, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Dallas and Chicago. A Comcast spokeswoman referred questions to NBC, which did not immediately respond. ABC, owned by Walt Disney Co, declined to comment. Shares in media companies fell, potentially reflecting concerns the war of words could worsen. Comcast was down 0.8 percent, while Disney shed 1.4 percent. CBS Corp fell 1.2 percent and Twenty-First Century Fox slid 2.8 percent. Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner called the market response a “short-term irrational knee-jerk reaction” and said Trump faced essentially insurmountable hurdles to getting licenses pulled.  A spokesman for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai did not immediately comment. Gordon Smith, the chief executive of the National Association of Broadcasters, defended the media’s free speech rights. “It is contrary to this fundamental right for any government official to threaten the revocation of an FCC license simply because of a disagreement with the reporting of a journalist,” Smith said in a statement.  ABC, owned by Walt Disney Co, declined to comment. Numerous Democrats criticized Trump and urged Pai to denounce Trump’s comments. Senator Ed Markey wrote Pai on Wednesday asking him to “withstand any urges from President Trump to harm the news media and infringe upon the First Amendment,” a reference to the U.S. Constitution’s free speech and press freedom guarantee.  Democratic U.S. Representative Frank Pallone said Trump “seemed to threaten broadcasters’ licenses only because he disagreed with their reporting. This threat alone could intimidate the press and lead to skewed and unfair reporting.” FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel responded to Trump by tweeting a link to an FCC fact sheet. “Not how it works,” she said on Twitter. When reviewing licenses the FCC must determine if a renewal is in the public interest, according to an agency fact sheet on its website. The FCC said in the fact sheet it expects “station licensees to be aware of the important problems and issues facing their local communities and to foster public understanding by presenting programming that relates to those local issues.” The agency does not issue similar licenses for cable networks such as CNN and MSNBC, or regulate internet news or other websites. The FCC has said the First Amendment “expressly prohibits the commission from censoring broadcast matter” and that its role “in overseeing program content is very limited.”  In the early 1970s, then-President Richard Nixon and his top aides discussed using the FCC’s license renewal process as a way of punishing the Washington Post for its coverage of the Watergate burglary that ultimately brought down his presidency. NBC News has reported on tensions between Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and has said Trump sought a dramatic increase in the U.S. nuclear arsenal during a meeting with national security advisers in July. NBC reported Tillerson made his “moron” comment after that meeting. Trump on Saturday also suggested he should get “equal time” because of what he described as late-night television hosts’ “anti-Trump” material.  The FCC’s equal time rules apply in limited cases to air time for political candidates and not to criticism of elected leaders. Trump may have been referring to the “Fairness Doctrine” that was designed to ensure broadcasters present opposing viewpoints about public issues. Republican President Ronald Reagan’s administration eliminated it in 1987.

Summary: ट्रंप ने 'फेक न्यूज' पर टीवी नेटवर्क के लाइसेंस को चुनौती देने का सुझाव दिया


(Reuters) - Mylan NV said on Thursday it would reduce the out-of-pocket costs of its emergency EpiPen allergy injection for some patients amid a wave of criticism from lawmakers and the public over the product’s rapidly escalating price. The list price of the drug will remain the same, but the company said it would increase the maximum copay assistance program to $300 from $100 for patients who pay for the 2-pak in cash or who are covered by a commercial health insurer. The price of EpiPen has skyrocketed to $600 from $100 since it was acquired by Mylan in 2007.  Mylan also said it is doubling the eligibility for its patient assistance program, which will eliminate out-of-pocket costs for uninsured and under-insured patients and families. Government paid programs are not eligible for the copay assistance program. Ronny Gal, an analyst with Bernstein, said when all is said and done he estimates a total price reduction for EpiPen of 32 percent. The price rose 27 percent in the second quarter of 2016 versus the same quarter a year ago. “Thus we are basically rolling back the increase of the past year,” he said. “In all, we estimate that today’s news results in a 20-25 percent hit on EpiPen revenues.” He expects that to translate into a 3-4 percent hit to Mylan’s earnings per share over the next few years. He estimates the company will earn $4.77 a share in 2016 and $5.58 in 2017. Mylan is the latest company to be caught up in the growing outrage at apparently egregious drug price increases. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc and Turing Pharmaceuticals have both been publicly excoriated for similar price increases. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who has spoken out against escalating drug prices, “welcomes the fact that Mylan is now apparently open to taking steps to lower some of the cost sharing burdens imposed on families,” Tyrone Gayle, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement. However, he added, “discounts for selected customers without lowering the overall price of EpiPens are insufficient, because the excessive price will likely be passed on through higher insurance premiums.” Clinton’s view was echoed by Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Elijah Cummings, who said Mylan’s move is nothing but a public relations stunt that does nothing to help the majority of patients who need the drug. “Offering a meager discount only after widespread bipartisan criticism is exactly the same tactic used by drug companies across the industry to distract from their exorbitant price increases,” he said in a statement. “Nobody is buying this PR move any more.” Mylan Chief Executive Heather Bresch, defending the price in an interview on Thursday on CNBC, said her company had spent hundreds of millions of dollars improving EpiPen, including making its needle invisible, since acquiring the device from German generic drugmaker Merck KGaA.  “When we picked up this product, they (Merck) weren’t spending a dollar on it,” said Bresch,  Bresch said Mylan recoups less than half of EpiPen’s list price because pharmacy benefit managers, which often require discounted prices or rebates from drugmakers, are involved, along with insurers and others. Democratic U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar said Mylan’s action was a “welcome relief” to many who are struggling to afford the medication, but said it does not address the root of the problem of rising drug costs. Earlier this year, Clinton chastised drug companies for exorbitant pricing and unveiled a plan that she said would cut costs, making the issue not only a hot election discussion topic but potentially an issue that could have policy implications if she is elected. On Wednesday, Clinton pressed Mylan to voluntarily cut the EpiPen price, sending the company’s share price lower and pushing down biotech stocks. Mylan shares fell more than 10 percent this week before rising 3.2 percent on Thursday after announcement of the discount program. EpiPens are preloaded injections of epinephrine (adrenaline) used in case of a dangerous allergic reaction known as anaphylaxis that could cause death if untreated. Anaphylaxis can occur in as little as a couple of minutes of exposure to the allergen, which can come in the form of food such as peanuts or insects such as bees. Certain medications or latex can also cause a severe reaction. Symptoms include itching, swelling of the lips, tongue and roof of the mouth, tight chestedness and difficulty breathing. People who are susceptible to such reactions are frequently advised to carry an EpiPen, which can deliver an immediate emergency jolt of adrenaline to reverse the symptoms.      A group of lawmakers said on Wednesday they had written the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asking about its approval process for alternatives to the EpiPen. FDA spokeswoman Theresa Eisenman said in a statement the agency is reviewing the questions posed in the letter “and will respond directly to the Congressional members.” She noted that the FDA does not have the authority to review or approve drug prices. Bresch, daughter of Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, said she contacted members of Congress over the past two days and asked to meet with them to discuss what she called an “unsustainable” drug pricing system. She said one of the calls was to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who recently wrote a letter to Mylan asking for an explanation of big EpiPen price increases.

Summary: आलोचनाओं की लहर के बीच माइलान ने एपिपेन पर छूट की पेशकश की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A visa program aimed at diversifying the U.S. immigrant population came under attack from President Donald Trump on Wednesday after he learned that the man accused of killing eight people in New York City on Tuesday used it to enter the country.        Sayfullo Saipov, who was charged in Tuesday’s truck attack, immigrated to the United States from Uzbekistan in 2010 after winning a lottery enabling him to obtain a so-called “diversity visa,” two government officials confirmed to Reuters.  The program, established by Congress and coordinated by the State Department, has its roots in efforts to bring more Irish and Italian immigrants into the United States. Citizens of countries that send relatively few immigrants to the United States can enter a lottery that grants winners permanent U.S. residency. Applicants must have at least a high school education or its equivalent, or relevant work experience. Just under 11.4 million applicants entered the 2016 lottery for 50,000 slots available to winners and their close family members, according to State Department figures. The visa program has succeeded in diversifying the mix of immigrants that come into the United States each year, but has also drawn criticism for being vulnerable to fraud and for posing national security risks. Trump said on Wednesday he would ask Congress to “immediately” initiate efforts to kill the program, and Republican House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, who has long called for an end to diversity visas, said in a statement that they pose “a threat to the safety of our citizens.” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer helped create the program in 1990 when he was a member of the House of Representatives. But he was also part of a group of lawmakers in 2013 who crafted a bipartisan immigration bill that would have done away with the program. That bill was passed by the Senate but was killed by the Republican-led House. Top congressional Democrats on Wednesday defended the program, saying it subjects all visa recipients “to the same stringent vetting as all other immigrant visa programs.” The only other known instance of a diversity visa beneficiary carrying out a deadly terrorist attack in the United States occurred in 2002. That year, an Egyptian man who had received a diversity visa through his wife years earlier shot and killed two people in a Los Angeles airport. The man had earlier sought asylum in the United States but was rejected. Ultimately, he was allowed to stay in the country after his wife won the lottery. As early as 2004, the State Department’s then-deputy inspector general, Anne Patterson, told Congress her office believed the diversity program “contains significant vulnerabilities to national security” and that terrorists could “attempt to use it to enter the United States as permanent residents.” The agency watchdog recommended barring citizens of countries that sponsor terrorism from the program. Over the years, government audits have exposed sophisticated fraud schemes targeting the program, including extortion rackets, sham marriages and the use of fake identification documents.  In 2007, Congress’s Government Accountability Office issued a report noting that federal law enforcers “believe that some individuals, including terrorists and criminals, could use fraudulent means to enter or remain in the United States.”  The report found, however, “no documented evidence” that diversity visa immigrants “posed a terrorist or other threat.”  A September 2013 State Department inspector general report found that “organized fraud rings masquerading as travel agencies” had hijacked the diversity visa program in Ukraine. Under the scheme, Ukrainians were entered in the lottery without their consent, and then held up for money in exchange for the chance to claim a visa or encouraged to enter into sham marriages if they won.

Summary: न्यूयॉर्क हमले के बाद अमेरिका का 'विविधता वीजा' कार्यक्रम सुर्खियों में


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton fought on two fronts in California on Saturday as she sought to wrap up her battle with Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination, taking aim at him and at Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, with attacks on their immigration stances. Both Clinton and Sanders campaigned across California, stopping in immigrant communities, big cities and the agricultural heartland on the final weekend before Tuesday’s primary in the nation’s biggest state. Clinton used a stop at a Los Angeles-area college to criticize Trump for making “hateful, very prejudicial” statements about immigrants and Sanders for voting against a 2007 comprehensive immigration reform bill. “I was in the Senate then, so was President Obama and so was Senator Sanders. President Obama and I voted for it, Senator Sanders voted against it. And that ended it,” Clinton said. “It was heartbreaking,” she added. Latinos comprise almost 40 percent of California’s population of roughly 39 million. Clinton, also a former secretary of state, is expected to sew up the party nomination on Tuesday, when California is one of six state holding nominating contests. Except for Washington, D.C., those states are holding the last Democratic nominating contests before the party’s July convention. Clinton needs a win in heavily Democratic California to begin unifying her party. Though Sanders, a U.S. senator of Vermont, faces nearly insurmountable odds to become the Democratic nominee, he has invested heavily in California, where a win could pressure the party to adopt some of the populist policies that have driven his campaign. Polls show Sanders has chipped away at Clinton’s lead in the state, where Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have built a vast network of supporters, including increasingly powerful Hispanic voters. Recent tracking polls showed Clinton having a 2 to 10 percentage point lead over Sanders in California. At a town hall in Los Angeles, Sanders promised to fight for comprehensive immigration reform and said that trade deals, over which he and Clinton have frequently sparred, funnel “cheap corn” into Mexico and “drive small family farmers off their land.” California is home to one-fourth of the immigrant population in the United States, at around 10 million people, and also home to one-fourth of the 11.3 million illegal immigrants in the country. Clinton, with 2,312 delegates, needs 71 more to reach the required 2,383 for the Democratic nomination. Sanders has 1,545. California, the most populous U.S. state, has 548 delegates who are awarded proportionately to the popular vote. The other states holding nominating contests on June 7 are Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota. Clinton also slammed Trump on immigration at a rally in Oxnard, a city of about 200,000 located northwest of Los Angeles that is almost 75 percent Hispanic. Trump on Friday escalated his attacks on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is presiding over a lawsuit involving fraud at a failed Trump business, Trump University. Trump suggested that Curiel’s Mexican-American heritage was influencing his opinion on the lawsuit. Curiel was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants. “This is not just another outlandish insulting comment from Donald Trump and it is not normal politics, this is something much, much more dangerous,” Clinton said. “Judge Curiel is just as much of an American as I am and just as much of an American as Donald Trump is,” Clinton said. The New York billionaire businessman has vowed to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and deport millions of undocumented immigrants.

Summary: क्लिंटन ने कैलिफोर्निया अभियान में आप्रवासन पर प्रतिद्वंद्वियों को मारा


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Brazilian President Michel Temer criticized a rise in nationalism around the world and said in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that protectionism was not the solution to economic difficulties faced by countries.    Temer also expressed concern about the deterioration of human rights in Venezuela, where the socialist government has been accused by opponents of becoming a dictatorship.  We are on the side of the Venezuelan people. In South America there is no more room for alternatives to democracy,  Temer said. Brazil, Latin America s largest economy, was emerging from its worst recession and the government was making progress in controlling its budget deficit and restoring credibility to  economic policies, Temer said in the speech. With food exports driving the recovery of the agribusiness powerhouse, Temer called for improved market access for farm goods and the elimination of agricultural subsidies that distort trade. International cooperation on climate change cannot wait, Temer said. Brazil has been criticized for not protecting the Amazon rainforest, an important area for global environmental balance, but Temer said data showed that deforestation fell 20 percent last year. On Monday, Temer, other Latin American leaders and U.S. President Donald Trump discussed oil-producing Venezuela s economic and political crisis and ways to encourage a return to democracy. Trump said in his speech to the annual U.N. gathering on Tuesday that the situation in Venezuela was unacceptable and the United States would step up pressure on the government of President Nicolas Maduro. Temer said Brazil and its partners of the South American Mercosul bloc would continue to support a democratic transition in Venezuela. Conservative Temer, who replaced leftist President Dilma Rousseff last year after a controversial impeachment, faces strong opposition himself amid corruption charges. His government s approval has plummeted according to a public opinion poll published on Tuesday. Polling firm MDA said that just 3.4 percent of those surveyed thought the Temer government was doing a  great or good  job - down from 10.3 percent in February.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र में ब्राजील के टेमर ने राष्ट्रवाद, संरक्षणवाद में वृद्धि की निंदा की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said it received a signed memorandum of understanding from Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Tuesday evening, an initial step in being able to provide more detailed briefing materials to the incoming administration. “The next step is for the President-elect’s transition team to provide us with the names of the individuals they have authorized to represent their transition effort across the government,” said Brandi Hoffine a White House spokeswoman.

Summary: ट्रंप के सत्ता हस्तांतरण ने कागजी कार्रवाई की पहली बाधा दूर कीः व्हाइट हाउस


AKRON, Ohio (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump urged the Justice Department on Monday to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate if donors to the Clinton Foundation got special treatment from the State Department when it was run by his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Trump made the appeal at a rally before thousands of cheering supporters in Akron, Ohio, as he tries to rebound from a slide in national opinion polls with little more than two months to go until the Nov. 8 election. Trump accused former President Bill Clinton and his wife of turning the Clinton Foundation charity into a “pay-for-play” scheme in which wealthy donors, foreign and domestic, got favors from the State Department during Hillary Clinton’s 2009-2013 tenure as the country’s top diplomat. Trump faulted both the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation for not indicting Clinton over her use of a private email server as secretary of state. FBI Director James Comey cited her careless handling of classified emails but opted not to prosecutor her. “The Justice Department is required to appoint a special prosecutor because it has proved to be, sadly, a political arm of the White House,” Trump said. “Nobody has ever seen anything like it before.” Trump’s appeal came the same day a conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch, released 725 pages of State Department documents, including some it said were examples of preferential treatment provided to donors at the request of former Clinton Foundation executive Douglas Band. Trump’s call for an independent investigation followed an announcement by the Clinton Foundation that it would no longer accept foreign donations should Clinton be elected president. The Clinton campaign fired back at Trump, saying the foundation had already laid out “the unprecedented steps the charity will take if Hillary Clinton becomes president.” Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta said in a statement that Trump “needs to come clean with voters about his complex network” of businesses that are in debt to big banks, including the state-owned Bank of China, after a New York Times report on the subject. “Donald Trump should stop hiding behind fake excuses and release his tax returns and immediately disclose the full extent of his business interests,” Podesta said. While keeping up the attack on Clinton, Trump in his speech also outlined some agenda items, as Republicans have been urging him to do for months. The more disciplined Trump followed a campaign shake-up last week that brought in veteran pollster Kellyanne Conway as campaign manager. But in a sign that organizational challenges remain, Trump canceled a rally planned for later this week in Las Vegas and postponed an immigration speech in Denver. Earlier on Monday, Trump insisted he was not “flip-flopping” on immigration, despite a comment by Conway on Sunday that his plan to deport 11 million illegal immigrants was still under review. In his Akron remarks, Trump, struggling to broaden his support beyond the white working-class voters who have been his base of support, again urged blacks and Hispanics to give him a chance, saying: “What the hell do you have to lose?” repeating a line he delivered on Friday that was criticized by Clinton as “ignorant.” Trump said Democratic politicians had not been able to stem crime and poverty in inner cities despite pledges to do every election year. “I say it and I’m going to keep saying it and some people say: ‘Wow that makes sense’ and some people say: ‘That’s not very nice,’” Trump said. “And I say it with such a deep-felt feeling, what do you have to lose? We’ll bring jobs back. We’ll bring spirit back. We’ll get rid of the crime.”

Summary: ट्रंप ने क्लिंटन फाउंडेशन की जांच के लिए विशेष अभियोजक का आह्वान किया


(Reuters) - The Department of Labor on Wednesday released a long-awaited rule requiring companies to disclose when they seek advice about countering union campaigns, which several business groups vowed to challenge in court. The so-called persuader rule, first proposed in 2011, amends the federal Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act to require detailed reports from employers and their advisers, including the types of consulting or legal services rendered and any fees paid.  For more than 50 years, the reporting law required such disclosure from employers only when their lawyers or consultants interacted directly with workers.  The Department of Labor said in a memo accompanying the rule that workers would be better prepared to make decisions about unionizing if they knew who was behind their employers’ arguments. The rule is backed by major unions, including the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO. Activities covered by the rule include hiring consultants or lawyers to create materials and policies for organizing anti-union campaigns or script managers’ communications with employees. The proposal has come under attack from groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, which say it would stifle employers’ free speech rights to counter union organizing, and the American Bar Association, which says it could interfere with attorney-client privilege. The rule is the latest salvo in the business community’s battle with the Obama administration over labor policy. Business groups compared the proposal with rules adopted last year by the National Labor Relations Board to speed up the union election process, saying both provide little benefit to workers while burdening employers.  Several business groups on Wednesday said they would probably sue over the persuader rule. They said it could discourage some companies from consulting lawyers at all, potentially leading them to commit inadvertent labor violations during union campaigns.  “The DOL must have created this rule with the real intent of assisting organized labor because they are the only ones who stand to gain anything from this,” said Robert Cresanti, president and chief executive officer of the International Franchise Association, one of the groups that says it is considering a court challenge. Pushback was also expected from Republicans in Congress. Representative John Kline of Minnesota, who chairs the House Education and the Workforce Committee, said in a statement on Wednesday that the rule was unfair because it did not impose the same disclosure requirements on unions.

Summary: श्रम विभाग ने विवादास्पद यूनियन 'अनुनय' नियम का अनावरण किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said he had a “very good” phone call with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Friday and agreed to work to improve ties after a meeting between the two leaders was scrapped amid a dispute over funding Trump’s planned border wall. “We had a very good call. I have been very strong on Mexico. I have great respect for Mexico ... but, as you know, Mexico with the United States has out-negotiated us and beat us to a pulp through our past leaders. They’ve made us look foolish,” Trump told a news conference at the White House. Trump said the call was friendly and he looked forward to renegotiating the U.S. trade relationship with Mexico in the future.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने कहा कि मेक्सिको के पेना नीटो के साथ उनकी 'बहुत अच्छी' बातचीत हुई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department urged Venezuela on Thursday to immediately release Josh Holt, a U.S. citizen who has been detained without charges for nearly a year and a half and is in deteriorating health.  We remain extremely concerned for his health and his well-being,  State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a news briefing.  The decline in his health has been further exacerbated by the Venezuelan authorities  delays in providing necessary medical treatment. Sometimes they have blocked his care altogether.

Summary: अमेरिका ने वेनेजुएला से 17 महीने से हिरासत में रखे गए अमेरिकी नागरिक को रिहा करने का आग्रह किया


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin is currently discussing the North Korea crisis with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in by phone, the Kremlin said on Monday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also told reporters on a conference call that it was easy for countries outside the region to talk of the possibility of a war with North Korea, but suggested other countries should be more cautious in their language.    It is very easy to say the word  war  for countries outside the region, but those in the region need to be smarter and more balanced,  Peskov told reporters. He was answering questions about the position of the United States, which has called for a tough response against Pyongyang and its latest missile test.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया के बारे में दक्षिण कोरिया के राष्ट्रपति से फोन पर बात कर रहे हैं पुतिनः क्रेमलिन


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In response to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s accusation that Democrat President Barack Obama and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton were “co-founders” of Islamic State, Clinton’s campaign called the remarks a “false claim.”  “This is another example of Donald Trump trash-talking the United States,” senior policy advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement. “What’s remarkable about Trump’s comments is that once again, he’s echoing the talking points of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and our adversaries to attack American leaders and American interests, while failing to offer any serious plans to confront terrorism or make this country more secure.”

Summary: क्लिंटन के प्रचार अभियान ने ट्रंप के आईएसआईएस हमले को 'झूठा दावा' बताया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump will meet this weekend with Indiana Governor Mike Pence, a Pence spokesman said on Friday, after a report the governor was being vetted as a potential running mate for the Republican presidential candidate. As the Republican candidate for vice president, Pence, a social conservative from a Midwestern state, could help the real estate mogul reassure wary Republicans. The governor, who faces a tight race for re-election to a second term in Indiana, has praised Trump in the past but did not back him in the Republican Party’s nominating race. “Governor Pence has accepted an invitation to spend a little time with Mr. Trump this weekend,” said Marc Lotter, deputy campaign manager of Pence’s re-election effort. “This meeting is very consistent with meetings Mr. Trump is holding with many key party leaders.” Earlier, MSNBC, citing unnamed sources, said Trump is considering Pence, 57, as a potential running mate. The network, which first reported the upcoming meeting, said it was part of the vetting process. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich are also under consideration to be Trump’s running mate, sources told Reuters.  “Trump is meeting with a number of Republican leaders in the run-up to the convention in Cleveland, and he has a good relationship with Gov. Pence,” Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller said in an email. Republicans will hold their party convention July 18-21 in Cleveland to formally pick their nominee ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential election. Trump, 70, a real estate mogul and former television reality star, was scheduled to speak at rally in Colorado on Friday. He has said he has narrowed down his potential running mates to five or six contenders, according to media reports. On Thursday, Pence told reporters he had not spoken with Trump since before Indiana’s May 3 primary contest, MSNBC said. The governor had earlier pledged to back former Trump rival Ted Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas and Tea Party favorite.

Summary: सप्ताहांत में इंडियाना के गवर्नर माइक पेंस से मिलेंगे ट्रंप


BEIJING (Reuters) - China aims to pass a national supervision law and set up a new commission next year to oversee an expansion of President Xi Jinping s campaign to fight corruption in the ruling Communist Party and government, the party said on Sunday.  The moves will be made during China s annual meeting of parliament early next year, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the party s anti-graft watchdog, said in its report to a five-yearly party congress last week. The report, issued by the official Xinhua news agency, had not been previously released and gave few other details on the new commission.  All provinces, regions and cities must closely connect regional practices, integrate reform pilot scheme experience, implement the overall plan according to the decision of the party s Central Committee, and promote organizational integration,  the report said. The report also said former Chongqing Party boss Sun Zhengcai and a group of other top officials ousted for graft, including former security tsar Zhou Yongkang, were  schemers  and  plotters  out to further their own careers. The official line on Sun and Zhou had been that graft, not politics, was the primary reason for their downfall.  Zhao Leji, the newly appointed head of the CCDI, told the commission that they must secure a  sweeping victory  in the fight against corruption, and set up an institutionalized legal framework to make it impossible for officials to be corrupt, Xinhua reported. Zhao took over from Wang Qishan as part of a leadership reshuffle announced at the close of the 19th National Party Congress of the Communist Party, which ended last Tuesday.  Wang had been widely credited with the success and vigor of the graft fight. Analysts say Zhao is likely to take a more institutional approach. The new National Supervision Commission will work alongside the CCDI, sharing much of its power and resources, and will merge multiple additional anti-graft units, according to an announcement last year. It will also expand the purview of Xi s anti-graft campaign to include employees at state-backed institutions who are not necessarily party members. Since coming to power in 2012, Xi s signature anti-corruption drive has jailed or otherwise punished nearly 1.4 million party members and he has emphasized the importance of improving China s rule of law architecture. In his congress address, Xi said China would keep up with the  irreversible  momentum of the anti-corruption campaign, and announced a central leading group responsible for overseeing China s law-based governance. Xi also said the party would scrap the practice of secretive interrogations known as  shuanggui , in which cadres accused of graft and other disciplinary violations are routinely subjected to extrajudicial detention, isolation and interrogation by the CCDI. The CCDI only hands cases over to police and the judiciary for prosecution. International rights groups have raised concerns about torture, including sleep deprivation, being used to obtain confessions.

Summary: चीन का लक्ष्य अगले साल राज्य भ्रष्टाचार-रोधी इकाई स्थापित करना है


LONDON (Reuters) - Iranian state television broadcast on Sunday what it described as the confessions of an Iranian academic with Swedish residency who it said had provided information to Israel to help it assassinate several senior nuclear scientists.  His wife, speaking by telephone from Stockholm, said he had been forced by his interrogators to read the confession. Iran s Supreme Court upheld last week a death sentence against Ahmadreza Djalali, a doctor and lecturer at the Karolinska Institute, a Stockholm medical university. Djalali was arrested in Iran in April 2016 and later convicted of espionage. He denied the charges. In the television report, Djalali was linked to the assassination of four Iranian scientists between 2010 and 2012 that Tehran said was an Israeli attempt to sabotage its nuclear energy program.  Djalali said in the report that he had given the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad information about key nuclear scientists.  They were showing me pictures of some people or satellite photos of nuclear facilities and were asking me to give them information about that,  Djalali said in the television report. Vida Mehrannia, Djalali s wife, said her husband had been forced to read a pre-agreed confession in front of the camera.  After three months in solitary confinement, his interrogators told him that he would be released only if he reads from a text in front of the camera,  she told Reuters by telephone from Stockholm.  My husband told me that they shouted at him each time he was saying something different from the text and stopped the filming,  Mehrannia added. The film said Djalali had agreed to cooperate with Israel in return for money and residency of a European country.  We have not received money from anyone and our lifestyle shows that. We don t have a house or a car. We got our Swedish residency after finishing our studies here,  Mehrannia said. The film also contained interviews with Majid Jamali Fashi, an Iranian athlete who was hanged in 2012 over the killings of the nuclear scientists. Djalali is the second person found guilty in the same case.  Djalali did not have any sensitive information about Iran s nuclear program. If he had, he would have been barred from leaving the country,  Mehrannia said. Sweden has condemned the death verdict against Djalali and said it had raised the matter with Iranian envoys in Stockholm and Tehran. Seventy-five Nobel prize laureates petitioned Iranian authorities last month to release Djalali so he could  continue his scholarly work for the benefit of mankind . They said Djalali has suggested it was his refusal to work for Iranian intelligence services that led to this  unfair, flawed trial . The United Nations and international human rights organizations regularly list Iran as a country with one of the world s highest execution rates.  Iran s Revolutionary Guards have arrested at least 30 dual nationals during the past two years, mostly on spying charges.

Summary: ईरान ने जासूसी के आरोप में मौत का सामना कर रहे शोधकर्ता का 'इकबालिया बयान' दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has postponed a trip planned for Sunday to Charlotte, North Carolina, which has seen sometimes violent protests after a black man was killed by police earlier this week. “Hillary is grateful for, and intends to honor, the invitation from faith leaders to visit with the Charlotte community,” her campaign said in a statement on Friday. “After further discussion with community leaders, we have decided to postpone Sunday’s trip as to not impact the city’s resources,” it said, adding that Clinton will visit the city on the following Sunday.

Summary: हिलेरी क्लिंटन ने शार्लोट की यात्रा स्थगित की-अभियान बयान


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has given President Jacob Zuma until Nov. 30 to make submissions before it  decides whether to reinstate 783 corruption charges filed against him before he became president, it said on Friday. The Supreme Court of Appeal last Friday upheld a High Court ruling to reinstate the charges against Zuma. They were set aside in April 2009 by the then-head of the NPA, paving the way for Zuma to run for president later that year. The ruling by the appeals court amplified calls for Zuma, 75, to step down before his term as president ends in 2019. A spokesman for Zuma was not immediately available.  Zuma has faced a series of corruption allegations, most recently over leaked emails that suggest his friends the influential Gupta family may have used their influence to secure state contracts for their companies. Zuma and the Guptas deny wrongdoing. Following last Friday s ruling, the NPA was required to make a decision on the charges, which relate to a 30 billion rand ($2 billion) government arms deal arranged in the 1990s. Zuma requested the NPA to give him a chance to make representations before deciding whether to proceed against him. On Friday, the NPA accepted that request but said any further submissions by Zuma should be on issues not previously considered by authorities. The NPA also asked anti-corruption officials to report on the availability of the witnesses in the case by Nov. 30. Mmusi Maimane, leader of the main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, welcomed the NPA s action but said in a statement:  We are of the belief that Jacob Zuma is being afforded special treatment .... Any other person would be hauled before a court and charged. It was unclear how long the NPA would take to decide on whether to charge Zuma after receiving his submissions. It was also unclear what would happen to the charges if the NPA decides not to proceed.

Summary: जुमा को भ्रष्टाचार के आरोपों पर दक्षिण अफ्रीका के फैसले से पहले 30 नवंबर की समय सीमा दी गई


PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (Reuters) - Set to host the Winter Olympics in February, South Korea conducted a series of security drills on Tuesday to prepare against terror attacks ranging from a hostage situation, a vehicle ramming a stadium and a bomb-attached to a drone. Police and firemen were among around 420 personnel participating in the exercise, held in front of the Olympic Stadium at Pyeongchang, just 80 km (50 miles) from the heavily fortified border with North Korea. During the simulated drills, members of a SWAT team shot down a drone with a bomb attached that was flying toward a bus carrying athletes.  In another part of the mock exercise a terrorist took hostage athletes on a bus, and tried to ram the vehicle into the stadium before being gunned down by police. Officers in gas masks also removed a chemical bomb. Anxiety on the Korean Peninsula has been rising in recent months due to a series of missile tests by North Korea as it continues its pursuit of nuclear weapons in defiance of U.N. sanctions and warnings from the United States.  Please keep in mind that accidents always happen where no one has expected,  South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said.   Please check until the last minute whether there are any security loopholes.  Lee did not mention North Korea, but South Korea s Defense Ministry on Friday flagged risks that North Korea could resort to terrorist or cyber attacks to spoil international events. Some 5,000 armed forces personnel will be deployed at the Winter Games, according to South Korean government officials and documents reviewed by Reuters. Pyeongchang s organizing committee for the 2018 Games (POCOG) has also hired a private cyber security company to guard against a hacking attack from the North, tender documents show.  To minimize the risk of provoking an aggressive North Korean reaction during the games, South Korea has asked Washington to delay regular joint military exercises until after the Olympics, the Financial Times reported. A spokesman for South Korea s defense ministry said on Tuesday that nothing has been decided.

Summary: शीतकालीन खेलों से पहले दक्षिण कोरिया ने आतंकवाद विरोधी अभ्यास किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee Chairman Diane Black said on Thursday Republican had enough votes to pass a fiscal 2018 budget resolution which is needed to move tax reform legislation forward, adding that she expects the House to vote on Thursday, Oct. 5. “I think we’re going to absolutely have the votes,” the Tennessee Republican told Reuters. “People are excited about tax reform.” By passing a budget resolution, Congress would unlock a legislative tool known as reconciliation, which Republicans need to move tax legislation through the Senate with a simple majority of 51 votes. They control the chamber by a 52-48 margin and would need 60 votes for passage without reconciliation.

Summary: सदन के बजट प्रमुख को 5 अक्टूबर को बजट प्रस्ताव को मंजूरी मिलने की उम्मीद है।


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives panel will debate legislation on Thursday intended to block Boeing Co’s planned sale of dozens of commercial aircraft to Iran, which could also affect other planemakers, including Airbus if they became law. A Financial Services subcommittee will debate three measures, including one that would prohibit the U.S. Treasury from licensing the sale announced last month. Another would bar the Treasury secretary for authorizing transactions by U.S. financial institutions connected to the export of aircraft. A third measure would bar the Export-Import Bank from financing involving any entity that does business with Iran or provides financing to another entity to facilitate transactions with Iran. “I am extremely concerned that by relaxing the rules, the Obama administration has allowed U.S. companies to be complicit in weaponizing the Iranian regime,” Representative Bill Huizenga, chairman of the Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee, said in a statement on Wednesday. If the bills became law, they would affect other firms’ sales to Iran because virtually all modern jets have more than 10 percent U.S. content, the threshold for requiring export licenses. A House committee aide said the full financial services committee was likely to approve the bills, but a vote had not yet been scheduled. However, the measures showed the extent of concern by Republicans, who control majorities in both the House and Senate, about the Iran deal and the potential Boeing sale. Democrats, including President Barack Obama, are expected to oppose the legislation. While most congressional Democrats backed the Iran deal announced a year ago, every Republican U.S. lawmaker opposed the pact in which the United States and international partners agreed to ease crippling economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran curtailing its nuclear program. When news of the Boeing deal emerged, several Republicans in Congress worried that it could threaten U.S. national security. Asked about those concerns last month, a Boeing executive noted last month that the Obama administration considered implementation of the nuclear pact “critical” to national security. A “memorandum of agreement” (MOA) calls for IranAir to buy a total of 80 aircraft from Boeing and lease a further 29 with Boeing’s support. Deliveries of the purchased jets are scheduled to start in 2017 and run through 2025. An Iranian official told Reuters some officials in Tehran are concerned about the legislation, arguing that if such measures become law they could endanger implementation of the nuclear deal by intensifying pressure on Iran President Hassan Rouhani to take a harder line in his dealings with the United States and its allies.

Summary: ईरान को बोइंग विमानों की बिक्री रोकने के उपायों पर बहस करेंगे अमेरिकी सांसद


BELGRADE (Reuters) - Four Serbian men got suspended prison terms on Tuesday for taking parts in riots at the U.S. embassy in 2008 - a long-delayed case that has soured relations between Belgrade and Washington. The four were convicted of hurling stones at the embassy during protests over perceived U.S. support for Kosovan independence. They were not charged over a fire that broke out at the peak of the riots and destroyed part of the building. Washington has pressed for prosecutions for almost a decade, but no one has so far been convicted over the blaze which killed one protester.     The four - Dejan Vucckovic, Dragan Marinkov, Marko Novitovic and Milan Tomas - pleaded not guilty but were convicted of endangering public safety and given two-year suspended sentences.  The court ruling said the men s rocks broke windows in the embassy and other protesters later threw in flares that started the fire. Another three defendants were acquitted due to lack of evidence. Serbia s government and the protesters reacted with fury after Kosovo s declaration of independence on Feb 21, 2008. Serbia considers Kosovo its historic heartland and has waged a diplomatic campaign against the secession of the predominantly ethnic Albanian region. Belgrade lost control of Kosovo in 1999 after NATO bombing ended Serbia s brutal counterinsurgency against Albanians there. Defense lawyer Zelimir Cabrilo said the court s verdict had not addressed the political factors behind the riot.  It was a political decision to stage the rally ... to remove (police) security from the embassy,  Cabrilo told reporters.    Instead, we have light, modest sentences against four persons ... for hurling stones, they were not sentenced for torching it (the embassy).  The case was delayed last year when the Serbian Court of Appeals annulled a lower court s sentencing, citing deficiencies in the ruling, and ordered a retrial.

Summary: 2008 में अमेरिकी दूतावास पर हमले के लिए चार सर्बों को निलंबित सजा मिली


DANANG, Vietnam (Reuters) - It is not clear if countries in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) can reach an agreement this week at a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders to carry forward the trade pact, New Zealand s trade minister said on Thursday.     Ministers from the 11 countries are meeting in Vietnam s central resort of Danang on the sidelines of a summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping to discuss how to proceed with the deal after the United States withdrew.  The negotiation is proceeding but it has not yet been finalised,  New Zealand Trade Minister David Parker told Reuters.  There are many countries that want to achieve finality this week, but it s not yet clear whether consensus can be achieved.   Parker added that the 11 countries were discussing suspension of certain provisions of TPP in order to proceed with the trade deal, but no consensus had been reached.

Summary: न्यूजीलैंड का कहना है कि यह स्पष्ट नहीं है कि इस सप्ताह टी. पी. पी. समझौता हो सकता है या नहीं।


ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - An ban on international flights to Iraqi Kurdistan, imposed by Iraq s central government in retaliation for the region s vote for independence, went into effect at 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) on Friday, Iraqi state TV said. Baghdad had given the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) until 6:00 p.m. to hand over control of its international airports in Erbil and Sulaimaniya to avoid the ban. The KRG said it would not comply. The last international flight from Erbil, the seat of the KRG, took off at about 5:00 pm (1400 GMT), an airport official said. The Zagrosjet flight was heading to Istanbul. Only passengers traveling domestically were still trickling into Erbil airport after 4 p.m. as the flight ban does not affect flights between Iraq and the Kurdish region. One of the last planes to arrive on Friday before the international flight ban took effect came from Turkey, carrying the bodies of Kurdish migrants who drowned last week off Turkey s Black Sea coast while trying to reach Europe.  Dozens of men and women dressed in black showed up to receive the bodies of their relatives.  Hassan Mohammad, from Rania province near Sulaimaniya, came for his 19-year-old nephew, Alan Ahmed.   He wanted to get to Europe to have a better life,  Mohammad said, adding that despite the flight ban the Iraqi federal government had helped to repatriate his nephew s body.  A group of about 200 young people gathered nearby with Kurdish flags and colorful balloons which read  Yes for Kurdistan  in both English and Arabic. Rally organizers said they had come to show support for Kurdistan in the face of Iraq s measures. A small group of travelers complained that they had not been notified early enough of the cancellation of a Pegasus flight to Ankara that had been due to take off 10 minutes before the ban took effect.  I called the airline office in Ankara, and they swore that the flight was taking off,  said Salma, who had planned to travel to the Turkish capital with her three sisters and three children.  Now what are we supposed to do?  The family were given the option of flying to Ankara from Baghdad on Saturday, but it would cost $1,000 per ticket which Salma, who declined to give her last name, said the family could not afford.   I guess this is independence,  she said.

Summary: इराकी कुर्दिस्तान पर अंतर्राष्ट्रीय हवाई प्रतिबंध लागू हुआ


TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, a U.S. ally from the center-right National Party, on Sunday cited exit polls to declare himself winner of the poor Central American nation s election, despite the opposition saying it too had won.

Summary: होंडुरास के नेता हर्नांडेज ने राष्ट्रपति चुनाव में खुद को विजेता घोषित किया


MIAMI (Reuters) - When Senator Ted Cruz took the stage on Tuesday after winning the Republican nominating contest in his home state of Texas, he issued a call for the party to rally behind his presidential candidacy. That seems a long shot. Republican Party leaders came away from Super Tuesday - the 2016 presidential campaign’s biggest day of state-by-state nominating contests for the Nov. 8 election - without any clearer consensus about how to slow front-runner Donald Trump’s march to the nomination. They fear Trump’s divisive rhetoric - which includes calls to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, deport 11 million illegal immigrants and temporarily bar Muslims from entering the country - will tarnish the party’s image and ensure Democrats hold on to the White House and possibly retake the Senate. The billionaire businessman won the largest number of Super Tuesday contests, taking seven states, but fell short of the 10 states some polls had predicted. Cruz won two, and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida notched his first win, in Minnesota. That made Cruz and Rubio unlikely to withdraw from the race before the next big nominating contest in two weeks. The same goes for Ohio Governor John Kasich, who has said he will continue his candidacy through his state’s primary on March 15. “So long as the field remains divided, Donald Trump’s path to the nomination remains more likely, and that would be a disaster for Republicans, for conservatives and for the nation,” Cruz said. Trump’s failure to win a clean sweep of the primary contests on Tuesday buys the establishment wing of the party time to intensify its counterattacks against the New York real estate mogul and political outsider. While they have yet to coalesce around a single strategy, anti-Trump Republicans have begun taking action.   Club for Growth, a conservative advocacy group, claimed credit for slowing Trump in some primary states by running attack ads. “Donald Trump can be stopped,” said the group’s president, David McIntosh, in a statement. “And he must be, before he costs conservatives the White House, the Senate, and the Supreme Court.” The New York Times reported that several financial backers of the Republican Party organized a phone call on Tuesday to get funding for an anti-Trump effort. Helping lead the call were the hedge-fund manager Paul Singer, Chicago Cubs co-owner Todd Ricketts, and Meg Whitman, the Hewlett-Packard Enterprise chief executive. The newspaper said it was unclear what kind of political offensive might emerge from those discussions. A recently launched political action committee dedicated to blasting Trump, Our Principles PAC, said it was ramping up fundraising and planned daily attacks against Trump before upcoming primaries in March. It said the campaign would focus on Trump’s business record and include a video where he declined in an interview to disavow former Ku Klux Klan official David Duke. Trump, who later rejected Duke’s support, said he had not clearly heard the interviewer’s question. On Capitol Hill, Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, who will preside over the party’s nominating convention in July, made clear he disapproved of Trump’s rhetoric in comments that suggested he was not ready to welcome Trump into the establishment fold. “If a person wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party, there must be no evasion and no games. They must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry,” Ryan, the party’s 2012 vice presidential nominee, told reporters. Trump ratcheted up the tension during a news conference in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday night, warning Ryan he would pay “a big price” if he stood in Trump’s way.  Despite the establishment’s distaste for Trump, there appears to be no consensus on the best way to stop him. “As long as both Cruz, Rubio and Kasich remain in the race, then Trump will continue to prevail in upcoming primary states and he will vacuum up the delegates while the vote splits among the remaining candidates,” said Ron Bonjean, a Republican operative in Washington. Rubio and Kasich have set their sights on delegate-rich contests in the heavily populated states of Michigan, Florida, Ohio and Illinois later this month. More than 1,200 delegates are required by the party to secure its nomination.  The goal for the remaining campaigns will be to keep Trump from amassing those delegates for as long as possible, with the hope that an increasing tide of criticism from the candidates, party leaders and political action committees will drain his support.  But Bonjean said the party would have to find a way to thwart Trump before he walked away with the nomination. “The odds of stopping Trump are getting much lower with every state put away into his corner,” he said.   (Editing by Peter Cooney) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.

Summary: ट्रम्प को रोकने के लिए रिपब्लिकन प्रतिष्ठान के पास समय समाप्त हो रहा है


DUBAI/GENEVA (Reuters) - Yemen s cholera epidemic has reached one million suspected cases, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday, with war leaving more than 80 percent of the population short of food, fuel, clean water and access to healthcare. Yemen, one of the Arab world s poorest countries, is embroiled in a proxy war between the Houthi armed movement, allied with Iran, and a U.S.-backed military coalition headed by Saudi Arabia. The United Nations says Yemen is suffering the world s worst humanitarian crisis, and eight million people are on the brink of famine.  The cholera figure is almost certainly exaggerated, but that does not diminish the scale and complexity of the humanitarian crisis, said Marc Poncin, Yemen emergency coordinator for aid agency M decins Sans Fronti res. Cholera flared up in April and spread rapidly, killing 2,227 people. The death rate has fallen dramatically, and without laboratory confirmation, recent cases are probably diarrhea, Poncin said. A new wave of cholera is expected in March or April.  It s probably unavoidable. We need to be ready to face another big epidemic,  said Poncin, adding that cholera may become a long-term burden as it has in Haiti.  The places where the war is active are the ones most at risk for increase of disease.  The latest emergency is diphtheria, a disease not seen in Yemen for 25 years, which has affected 312 people and killed 35. It has not spread explosively, as cholera did, but diphtheria outbreaks can affect many thousands, and there is a global shortage of diphtheria anti-toxin. Yemen has enough for 200-500 patients, Poncin said.  An urgent diphtheria vaccination campaign early in 2018 will complicate the WHO s hope of doing mass cholera vaccination at the same time, especially given the problems with security and accessing remote areas, Poncin said. The Houthis, who control much of the country, are also suspicious of vaccination drives, he added.  Yemen s troubles have been aggravated by the Saudi-led coalition s blockade of its ports, which has caused a fuel shortage and a spike in food prices. The health system has virtually collapsed, with health workers unpaid for a year, although the WHO gives incentive payments for cholera work.  The ports were closed in retaliation for a missile fired from Yemen by the Houthis. On Wednesday, despite a fresh missile attack on Riyadh, Saudi Arabia said it would allow the Houthi-controled port of Hodeidah, vital for aid, to stay open for a month.

Summary: यमन में हैजा के संदिग्ध मामले दस लाख तक पहुंचेः आई. सी. आर. सी.


NEW YORK (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump’s early list of potential appointments to top positions appears to reward people who were loyal to him after a campaign in which many Republican Party leaders kept their distance. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama senator who was one of Trump’s most fervent supporters in the U.S. Congress, is said to be under consideration for a prominent role, perhaps defense secretary, sources familiar with transition planning said on Wednesday.     Retired General Michael Flynn emerged as a possible pick for Trump’s national security adviser, the sources said. Flynn, a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, played a prominent role during the campaign, often serving as an introductory speaker at campaign rallies and has provided private counsel on foreign affairs. “He has a calming influence on Trump,” said a source familiar with transition planning.     In addition, former House of Representatives Newt Gingrich and U.S. Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee were also considered potential selections for secretary of state, the sources said. Corker chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Both Corker and Gingrich had been under discussion as potential vice presidential picks for Trump, a position that eventually went to Indiana Governor Mike Pence. These same sources said Republican National Committee Reince Priebus, who has emerged as a trusted adviser to the New York businessman, was being talked about as a potential White House chief of staff. A Priebus deputy, RNC senior strategist Sean Spicer, was a possibility for White House press secretary. Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, who helped bring about a more disciplined approach to the candidate, was seen as potential White House senior adviser. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who endorsed Trump after dropping out of the 2016 Republican presidential nomination fight, was a possible education secretary. Richard Grenell, a former spokesman for the United States at the United Nations, was a potential U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as was New York Republican Representative Peter King. Mike Rogers, a former chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, was in the mix for CIA director, the sources said. Trump's transition team set up a website (www.greatagain.gov/) and Twitter account (@transition2017), promising to keep the country posted on plans, Politico reported. Trump was a prolific user of Twitter during the campaign, sometimes using it to deliver pithy put-downs of his critics and rivals.

Summary: शीर्ष नियुक्तियों के साथ वफादारी का पुरस्कार दे सकते हैं ट्रम्प


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump urged Russia to “rein in” Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a meeting with Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, the White House said on Wednesday. “Trump emphasized the need to work together to end the conflict in Syria, in particular, underscoring the need for Russia to rein in the Assad regime, Iran, and Iranian proxies,” the White House said in a statement.

Summary: मंत्री के साथ बैठक के दौरान ट्रंप ने रूस से सीरिया के असद पर लगाम लगाने को कहा


HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said the European Union and United States must move forward with a trade free trade accord still under negotiation which supporters say could boost each economy by some $100 billion. “It is indisputable” that free trade has strengthened the U.S. economy and also has brought enormous benefits to countries that engage in it, Obama said.  The U.S. president spoke at a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of his closest allies in dealing with a shaky global economy and security crises in the Middle East and Ukraine.

Summary: ओबामा ने कहा कि यूरोपीय संघ और अमेरिका को टी. टी. आई. पी. के साथ आगे बढ़ना चाहिए


MUMBAI (Reuters) - On a sunny morning last week in Mumbai after two days of incessant monsoon rain, Mohammad Altaf had come out of his home for a cigarette when he heard a terrifying crash, followed by a huge swirl of dust. The six-storey Husainee building where he had lived for the last month had collapsed, trapping nearly 50 people. Thirty-four of them were killed, including a newborn baby.  It was shocking. I had come down for a smoke, and within two minutes the building was no more,  said Altaf, who says he was unaware the apartment block was declared unsafe by housing authorities in India s financial hub six years ago. Across the teeming city of 20 million people, thousands of families live in crumbling buildings that have been officially declared uninhabitable - and most of them know it. Housing officials say they cannot be forced out because of lax laws. This year, the city s municipal corporation classified 791 buildings as beyond repair and too dangerous to live in, but close to 500 of these continue to be occupied, a municipal authority official said. Although regulations vary from country to country and also from state to state, authorities in most places have more powers to order evacuations. Altaf, in his mid-thirties, is a bachelor and was living with two co-workers in the apartment in the Bhendi Bazar locality, one of the oldest in the metropolis. His two flatmates survived, with minor knee and shoulder injuries, after jumping out of their apartment on the third floor. Police say they have yet to determine the cause of the collapse, which came after days of intense rain.  The 117-year-old apartment block in Bhendi Bazar, a packed neighborhood of narrow streets, shops and tenements, was declared unsafe in 2011 by the regulator, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA). Yet it continued to house Altaf and his flatmates, along with five other families, a sweet shop warehouse and even a nursery on the first floor.  The owner of the building, Hakimmudin Bootwala, said seven families moved out by 2014, but other tenants refused despite his urging. One of them had sub-let the apartment to Altaf and his colleagues.  The people were my friends and neighbors first, and tenants later,  said the 73-year-old.  I sincerely advised them to move out. The building had lots of problems, leakages. The roof was fine, but the walls had become really weak and porous.  An official at MHADA said there was a law to force residents to evacuate dangerous buildings but enforcing it was impossible because of loopholes and legal challenges. For instance, evicting children and senior citizens could cause trouble, said the housing official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the press.  We cut water and electricity supply of buildings that are identified as dangerous for living, but people manage to get water and electricity from nearby buildings,  said the  official. MHADA, which does a routine check of buildings that are older than 30 years, has identified more than 14,000 buildings in the city that need repair, according to its latest list.  Nine thousand of these, home to nearly 250,000 families, need to be redeveloped, the housing official said, adding that the other 5,000 were relatively safe due to regular maintenance work done by landowners in consultation with the housing body. Once regulators decide a building needs to redeveloped, they have to appoint a developer to renovate or rebuild the structure in the case of public housing, or order private owners to hire one. The developer, in turn, must offer residents alternative accommodation until the work is completed, according to state law in Mumbai.  But residents often complain the housing they are offered is too small, shabby or too far away.  Seventy percent of tenants of both privately- and publicly-owned buildings must agree to redevelop their building according to state rules, or no redevelopment work can commence. Building owners say residents are often unrealistic, refusing to leave even if the alternative housing is adequate. Some worry they could lose their tenancy if they move. The MHADA official said the agency does everything it can to get residents and developers to clinch an agreement, but that the process often gets mired in legal challenges.  The problems of the Husainee building were typical. A neighborhood body, the Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust, had been selected by its owner in 2009 to redevelop the building along with other buildings in the neighborhood, even before the Husainee had been declared unsafe by MHADA. A trust official told Reuters it offered alternative housing to the residents in a place around 2.5 km (1.5 miles) from the building. The official said the trust repeated the offer in 2011 after MHADA declared the building unsafe.  A Reuters team visited the complex where the Husainee families who had agreed to move had been relocated, a gated high-rise complex with guards and a playground for kids. Residents said they were happy with their new apartments, although they complained about the distance to work.  But other Husainee families refused to move. MHADA officials said the trust was in charge of ensuring relocation and redevelopment and MHADA could not force the Husainee families to leave.  The trust has said it has repeatedly tried to evict families from Husainee but some residents refused to move.      This incident should be a wake-up call for the city, and a policy needs to be actioned to evict non-cooperating tenants who continue to live in dilapidated buildings,  the trust said in a  written reply to Reuters queries. Building owner Bootwala says the residents who refused to leave argued they did not want to upend their lives by moving to a new neighborhood. Also, they did not know how long it would take to renovate the building. Reuters was unable to talk to other residents from Husainee, but neighbors in Bhendi Bazar told similar stories. Despite knowing their buildings were unsafe, many of them did not want to leave.  A man in his 50s in the neighborhood, who refused to give his name, said he was living in a more than 100-year old building that had been deemed unsafe. The developer offered him temporary housing 13 km (8 miles) away, but he said that was too far.  I spent my entire life here. I know every lane in this area,  the man said.  My children s college, my workplace, everything is closer from here.

Summary: चेतावनियों की अवहेलना करते हुए, निवासियों ने मुंबई की ढहती इमारतों को छोड़ने से इनकार कर दिया


KABUL/BUCHAREST (Reuters) - A Romanian soldier from a NATO-led mission was killed and two others wounded in Afghanistan on Friday when a vehicle rigged with explosives crashed into their convoy, the Romanian defense ministry said. The soldiers were traveling in a convoy in the Kandahar region, the ministry said in a statement.  Romania, a NATO member since 2004, is contributing more than 620 troops to NATO s Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan which faces attacks from Taliban fighters. The European Union state has lost 29 soldiers on foreign missions, with 180 wounded, the ministry said.  The security situation in Afghanistan remains unstable, with the majority of incidents occurring in eastern and southern provinces,  the statement read.  NATO forces ... remain permanent targets of potential insurgent attacks.   The coalition maintains nearly 13,000 troops from 39 countries, as part of a mission to train, advise and assist Afghan troops. U.S. military commanders in Afghanistan have asked for several thousand additional troops, but the request is stalled in Washington, where Trump has expressed scepticism over extending the American commitment.

Summary: अफगानिस्तान में काफिले पर हमले में रोमानियाई सैनिक की मौत


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Samples taken from the site of a deadly toxic gas attack in Syria and analyzed by British scientists have tested positive for sarin or a sarin-like substance, Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday.  “The United Kingdom therefore shares the U.S. assessment that it is highly likely that the regime was responsible for a sarin attack on Khan Sheikhoun on 4 April,” Rycroft said.

Summary: ब्रिटिश वैज्ञानिकों को सीरिया में इस्तेमाल होने वाली सरीन मिलीः संयुक्त राष्ट्र दूत


BARCELONA (Reuters) - The first of hundreds of Catalan mayors summoned to answer questions on why they have backed a banned Oct. 1 referendum on independence from Spain appeared before the state prosecutor on Tuesday amid cheers and chants from supporters. The first three mayors to declare exercised their right to remain silent, the Association of Municipalities for Independence (AMI) said. Years of separatist feeling in the industrial northeastern region will come to a head in less than two weeks as the fiercely pro-independence regional government calls a referendum on splitting from Spain. Madrid has declared the referendum illegal and the Constitutional Court has suspended the vote that was approved by the regional government earlier this month. On Tuesday, police continued their search for ballot boxes, voting papers and campaign leaflets, raiding the offices of Spain s biggest private delivery company Unipost in several Catalan cities and clashing with protesters. So far, 745 of 948 municipal leaders have said they will provide venues for the referendum.  Voting is not a crime,  said Marc Solsona, mayor of the town of Mollerussa, one of nearly 750 mayors facing charges of civil disobedience, abuse of office and misuse of public funds, as he left the state prosecutor s office in Barcelona.  I m just the mayor and I have to serve my people. I am committed to the people being able to vote on Oct. 1 in accordance with the law passed by the Catalan parliament and what happens to me is not important,  he said. Solsona smiled, kissed and gripped hands with dozens of clapping supporters gathered outside the state prosecutor s office as he entered to chants of  You are not alone .  We consider ourselves privileged to have a mayor who represents the townspeople above any other interests - political or financial,  said 63-year-old pensioner Angel Tena, who had traveled to Barcelona to support the mayor. Spain s Civil Guard, a national police force, on Tuesday seized over 45,000 envelopes packed in cardboard boxes that the Catalan government was ready to send to notify people around the region about the referendum, the Spanish interior ministry said. While police raided the Unipost offices in Terrassa, dozens of people gathered outside chanting  Out with the occupying forces,  handing out voting papers, flying Catalan flags, and laying carnations on police cars. Later on protesters scuffled with Catalan police called in to move protesters preventing the Civil Guard from leaving the premises, according to Reuters footage. The police hit several protesters outside the offices with truncheons. Unipost confirmed the raid without giving further details. Although polls show less than half of Catalonia s 5.5 million voters want self-rule, most in the wealthy northeastern region want the chance to vote on the issue.

Summary: कैटलन के महापौरों ने जनमत संग्रह की पूछताछ में चुप रहने के अधिकार का प्रयोग किया


BERLIN (Reuters) - Plans under consideration in the U.S. Congress to impose tougher sanctions against Russia would hurt German companies, endanger Germany’s energy security and appear to be designed to favor American firms, a German industry association said on Wednesday. The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday for the plans and to force President Donald Trump to obtain lawmakers’ permission before easing any sanctions on Moscow. They must still be approved by the Senate and signed into law by Trump. The warning issued by the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce mirrors wider European concerns over potential fall-out from the U.S. moves to punish alleged Russian interference in last year’s presidential election. The U.S. proposals could hurt German efforts to make its energy supply more reliable by preventing German companies from working with Russia on pipeline projects, said Volker Treier, the head of the Chamber’s international committee. “One is left with the sense that the United States is looking to its own economic interests,” in particular with respect to U.S. oil and gas companies, he said.  Separately, a German Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday it would be unacceptable for the United States to use possible sanctions against Russia as a tool of industrial policy and called for close coordination of proposed sanctions between the European Union and Washington. Despite tensions with Moscow over its backing for separatists in Ukraine, most of central Europe relies on Russian gas to power its economy, delivered via a laticework of pipelines that require constant maintenance and expansion. Treier called on the European Commission, the EU’s executive, to seek clarification from the United States over the eventual scope of the sanctions. Earlier on Wednesday Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said the EU was ready to act “within a matter of days” if the proposed new U.S. sanctions undermined the bloc’s energy security. It is unclear how quickly the U.S. bill will make its way to the White House for Trump to sign into law or veto. Trump faces allegations that he benefited from alleged meddling by Moscow in the 2016 election.

Summary: जर्मन उद्योग का कहना है कि रूस के प्रतिबंधों के कारण नुकसान की आशंका है


NAIROBI (Reuters) - South Sudan s media regulator has suspended all press associations in the country while they register for licences to operate, journalists said, a move that raised concern about a possible crackdown on independent media. The directive, handed to South Sudan s three associations this week and seen by Reuters on Wednesday, gave them seven days until Nov. 7 to obtain operations licences or face permanent closure.  We have applied, but we do not know whether our application will be accepted or not,  said Mary Ajith, chairwoman of the Association of Media Development in South Sudan, a grouping of journalists.  This is ... harassment from the media authority that is being done to us.   Officials from both the government information and the National Communication Authority were not immediately available for comment.  Another journalist said the directive would give the National Communication Authority powers to  command every single activity with the support from the national security agency . The move is the latest example of what rights activists say is an increasingly hostile and restrictive approach by the government towards the press in the world s youngest country. In July, four news websites and blogs - including the Dutch-backed radio station and website Radio Tamazuj - were either blocked or had transmissions partially restricted. Foreign correspondents have also faced difficulties in reporting from South Sudan, with at least 20 reporters being denied entry by authorities early this year. Since its establishment in 2015, journalists in South Sudan say the body has made it extremely difficult to obtain permits to travel outside the capital Juba on reporting trips. It also requires prior permission for filming, at a hefty cost. South Sudan, which won independence from Sudan in 2011, plunged into civil conflict in December 2013.

Summary: दक्षिण सूडान के मीडिया नियामक ने प्रेस समूहों पर प्रतिबंध लगा दिया, जिससे सेंसरशिप की आशंका बढ़ गई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Monday responded to charges against former campaign manager Paul Manafort by saying the allegations predated his tenure on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, but the indictment states the activities continued into 2017. “Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren’t Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????” Trump wrote, referring to his former Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. The indictment says Manafort and associate Rick Gates conspired to defraud the United States “from in or about and between 2006 and 2017.”

Summary: मैनफोर्ट पर सालो पहले लगे थे आरोप, 2017 भी शामिल हैः ट्रंप