WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers reached an agreement on Wednesday paving the way for the U.S. Senate to pass a bill as soon as this week to impose new sanctions on Russia and bar President Donald Trump from easing sanctions on Moscow without Congress’ approval. Earlier on Wednesday, Russia warned it was edging closer to retaliation against Washington after the House of Representatives backed new U.S. sanctions on Moscow, while the European Union said the move  might affect its energy security and it stood ready to act too. “I am glad to announce that we have reached an agreement that will allow us to send sanctions legislation to the president’s desk,” Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement on Wednesday evening. He said the Senate would move to approve sanctions on Russia and Iran that it originally passed in mid-June, as well as sanctions on North Korea developed by the House of Representatives and included in a bill the House passed overwhelmingly on Wednesday. Before the latest agreement, some senators had objected to the North Korea measures and it had looked like the sanctions bill, already delayed since mid-June, could languish into September. If the bill passes the Senate as expected, it would be sent to the White House for Trump to sign into law or veto. It is, however, expected to garner enough support to override a Trump veto. The House voted 419-3 on Tuesday to impose new sanctions on Moscow and force Trump to obtain lawmakers’ approval before easing any punitive measures on Russia. “This is rather sad news from the point of view of Russia-U.S. ties,” said Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman. “We are talking about an extremely unfriendly act.” He said President Vladimir Putin would decide if and how Moscow would retaliate once the sanctions became law. Russia’s deputy foreign minister warned the move was taking bilateral relations into uncharted waters, killing off hopes of improving them in the near future. Trump, whose presidency has been embroiled in a distracting dispute over his associates’ alleged ties to Moscow, is on the defensive over accusations Russia helped elect him last year. He has said he wants to mend relations with Russia that are languishing at a post-Cold War low. Trump had denied that there was any collusion between his campaign and Russia. Most White House watchers believe Trump will reluctantly sign off on the new sanctions, given deep support for them among U.S. lawmakers and his desire to avoid being accused of being soft on Moscow. Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Trump would have little choice. The Senate passed a version of the legislation, without the North Korea sanctions, on June 15 by 98-2.  “I think the president will sign it,” Royce said on NBC’s Meet the Press Daily on Wednesday. The issue has rattled Russia, which fears that its economy, weakened by 2014 Western sanctions imposed over its role in the Ukraine crisis, will now find it harder to recover and grow. Foreign investors could be scared off. The European Union frets that new U.S. restrictions could pose obstacles to its companies doing business with Russia and threaten the bloc’s energy supply lines. The Kremlin’s alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election is one reason lawmakers have pushed for the new sanctions. Peskov said Moscow would wait until the sanctions became law before fully analyzing them and deciding how to respond.   Moscow had hoped that Trump, who made upbeat statements about Putin before winning the White House, would work to repair the U.S.-Russia relationship. But it has watched with frustration as the vote-meddling allegations killed off hopes of any detente. The Russian Foreign Ministry said this month that too many American spies were operating in Russia under diplomatic cover and it might expel some to retaliate for the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats last year by then-President Barack Obama’s administration. Many Russian politicians increasingly believe Trump’s political foes and Congress have left the U.S. president with little room for maneuver on Russia and they have nothing to lose by retaliating. In Brussels, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said the EU was ready to act “within a matter of days” if it felt the new U.S. sanctions undermined the bloc’s energy security. Brussels fears the new sanctions will damage European firms and oil and gas projects on which the EU is dependent. The Russia section of the bill includes sanctions on a range of industries. Several provisions target Russian energy, with new limits on U.S. investment in Russian companies. U.S. firms also would be barred from participating in energy exploration projects where Russian firms have a stake of 33 percent or higher. The bill includes sanctions on foreign firms investing in or helping Russian energy exploration, although the president could waive those sanctions. The bill would give the Trump administration the option of imposing sanctions on firms helping develop Russian export pipelines, such as the Nord Stream 2 pipeline carrying natural gas to Europe, in which German companies are involved. In a concession to allies, those sanctions are optional, not mandatory. The European Commission said a number of EU concerns had been taken into account in the most recent version of the bill, but said it could lead to sanctions on any company, including European, that worked on Russian energy export pipelines.

Summary: अमेरिकी सांसदों ने सीनेट रूस प्रतिबंध मतदान के लिए समझौता किया


BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary wants the European Union to speed up integration of the Western Balkans and for NATO to include those countries, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday.   Speeding up the accession process is a guarantee of security,  Szijjarto said at a news conference also attended by a dozen officials from Central European and Western Balkan countries.   An unstable and tension-riddled Western Balkans is a serious risk to all of Europe.  He said the EU should launch accession talks with Albania and Macedonia no later than the first quarter of 2018. The EU should also offer Bosnia and Kosovo  realistic and attainable integration goals and timetables  and at NATO s December meeting of foreign ministers the military organization should make a decision to start Macedonia s membership talks and activate a membership action plan for Bosnia. He said one important risk of an unstable south-eastern European region was its inability to withstand a new wave of migration.  If a new wave of migration were to come, only a stable and strong West Balkans can stop that,  Szijjarto said.  At the moment the EU has no strategy regarding the West Balkans.  Other foreign ministers and diplomatic leaders echoed that sentiment.  Our nation is geographically surrounded by EU member states but we have been on the periphery of the political attention of the EU,  Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov said.

Summary: हंगरी ने पश्चिम बाल्कन के तेजी से यूरोपीय संघ, नाटो एकीकरण की मांग की


LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will not revoke the  Article 50  legal process which started a two-year Brexit negotiating period, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday.  The government made clear that we have no intention of revoking that, we will be delivering on the vote of the British people,  May told parliament.  Asked if the government had taken legal advice on whether it was possible to reverse the process of Britain s departure from the European Union by revoking Article 50, May said it was government policy not to comment on the legal advice it receives.

Summary: हम अनुच्छेद 50 ई. यू. से बाहर निकलने की प्रक्रिया को रद्द नहीं करेंगेः ब्रिटेन के प्रधानमंत्री मे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz on Tuesday accused the Obama administration of under-emphasizing the “threat of radical Islam” as he presided over a Senate hearing for the second time since suspending his presidential campaign in early May. President Barack Obama and top Justice Department officials have come under fire from conservatives for avoiding the term “radical Islam” when denouncing attacks by violent extremists who claim inspiration from Islamic State, such as the Orlando nightclub shooter.  Administration officials have countered that focusing on the use of the phrase is a political distraction and gives fuel to Islamic State propagandists who say the United States has waged war against all of Islam. Absent from Tuesday’s hearing before a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee were the two top Justice Department counter-terrorism officials whom Cruz had invited to testify. “The Obama administration of course has declined to appear and explain its policies,” Cruz said at the hearing, noting that the officials had not provided any reason for staying away. Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi said in an emailed statement that the department is “focused on aggressively and successfully pursuing terrorist adversaries” and on denying them “unchallenged recruiting platforms to spread their messages of hate and intolerance.” Democratic members of the subcommittee said national security policies more targeted at Muslims, such as presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s call for a ban on Muslim immigrants, would be unconstitutional and counter-productive. “We cannot fight radicalization with further radicalization,” said Democratic Senator Christopher Coons of Delaware, adding at the end of the hearing that he did not think “arguing over semantics” for three hours had helped improve American national security. Experts from Muslim and Arab advocacy groups as well as former government national security officials testified at the hearing, representing both sides of the debate over whether the administration emphasizes Islam too much or too little in its counter-extremism policies. Protesters with Code Pink, an anti-war advocacy group, offered Cruz packs of gum labeled “Islamophobin” as he entered the hearing room, telling him it could cure Islamophobia.

Summary: क्रूज़ ने 'कट्टरपंथी इस्लाम' पर विवादास्पद अमेरिकी सीनेट सुनवाई की अध्यक्षता की


BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany s deputy foreign minister said on Monday that developments in Catalonia were  worrying  and separatism was not the answer after a violence-marred independence vote was held in the northeastern Spanish region on Sunday.  Separatism doesn t solve any problems,  said German Deputy Foreign Minister Michael Roth.  All EU members should respect and strictly adhere to the principles and rules of the rule of law and democracy.  Roth also said political conflicts in the European Union should be solved via dialogue rather than with violence on the streets.  Both sides need to say they are prepared to do this,  he said after a violent police crackdown on the independence vote. A German government spokesman on Monday denied Spanish media reports that Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had spoken to Chancellor Angela Merkel by telephone on Sunday.

Summary: कैटेलोनिया की स्वतंत्रता के लिए मतदान पर जर्मनीः अलगाववाद से समस्याओं का समाधान नहीं होता


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Baltimore library chief Carla Hayden, a defender of library users’ freedom from surveillance, was nominated by President Barack Obama on Wednesday to be Librarian of Congress, the first African-American and first woman in the post. Hayden, who since 1993 has served as chief executive of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore’s public library system, is renowned for modernizing libraries so that users can take part in the digital culture, Obama said in a statement. “She has the proven experience, dedication and deep knowledge of our nation’s libraries to serve our country well,” Obama said in a statement. Hayden would replace Acting Librarian David Mao, who stepped in after James Billington retired in October after 28 years running the world’s largest library. If confirmed by Congress, Hayden would be the 14th Librarian of Congress. American Library Association President Sari Felman praised the nomination, saying in a statement: “The president could not have made a better choice.” As president of the American Library Association in 2003 to 2004, Hayden publicly opposed part of the Patriot Act, controversial legislation aimed at fighting extremism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. She objected in particular to a section of the act that gave the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation the power to access library user records. When then-Attorney General John Ashcroft said that the library association had been misled into opposing that part of the law, Hayden said the group was “deeply concerned that the attorney general should be so openly contemptuous” of librarians, the Library Journal reported. After the criticism from Hayden, Ashcroft dropped his refusal to make public any information about the use of that section and said it had not been employed to get access to library records, the journal said. Hayden is the former chief librarian of the Chicago Public Library, and was an assistant professor for library science at the University of Pittsburgh. Obama named her to the National Museum and Library Services Board in 2010. The Library of Congress is the U.S.’ oldest federal institution and has more than 158 million items. They include 36 million books and other print materials in 460 languages. Congress established the library in 1800, but British troops burned the collection in 1814. President Thomas Jefferson offered his personal library of 6,500 books as a replacement and it is the foundation of the current collection.

Summary: ओबामा ने पहली अफ्रीकी-अमेरिकी महिला को कांग्रेस का लाइब्रेरियन नामित किया


ABIDJAN (Reuters) - A group of allies of Ivory Coast s former president Laurent Gbagbo, including at least one living in exile in neighboring Ghana, are behind a wave of attacks on security installations this year, the interior minister said on Thursday. Thirty-five people, a number of them soldiers, have been arrested for involvement in the violence, according to a statement released by Sidiki Diakite following a meeting of the National Security Council. Francophone West Africa s biggest economy has been shaken by army mutinies, violent protests by former rebels and a spate of attacks on prisons and police stations this year.  The attacks have raised fears over its long-term stability, more than six years after a prolonged crisis ended in a civil war that killed more than 3,000, when Gbagbo refused to cede a 2010 election to current President Alassane Ouattara.   Most of the people were already implicated in similar attacks around 2012 to 2014,  Diakite said.  Arrested and imprisoned, they were freed in the spirit of political dialogue and reconciliation.   Previously, much of this year s violence has been blamed on disgruntled former members of the rebel group that helped Ouattara dislodge Gbagbo, but former fighters loyal to Gbagbo have been blamed for attacks in the past, including several that killed 10 soldiers in the commercial capital Abidjan in 2012 and other deadly attacks near the Liberian border in 2014. Gbagbo was captured in April 2011 and is on trial at the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, but many of his allies have been pardoned.  It is clear that the clemency offered them with a view to peace and reconciliation was not understood by them, and so they continue to pose a threat,  the minister said. Ghanaian government officials were not immediately available to comment on the allegations. Ivory Coast has accused Accra in the past of not doing enough to track down Gbagbo supporters. Ouattara has won praise for helping Ivory Coast recover from a decade of crisis to become Africa s fastest growing economy, but thousands of weapons left over from the war are still in circulation and the army is crippled by internal divisions. If Gbagbo s allies are behind recent attacks, Ivory Coast faces the prospect of instability from both them and the rebels they fought as it approaches what is likely to be a hotly contested election to choose Ouattara s successor in 2020.

Summary: आइवरी कोस्ट में हमलों के पीछे बागबो के सहयोगीः गृह मंत्री


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama’s special envoy for the fight against Islamic State said on Tuesday that coalition forces were making progress and planning assaults on key cities in Iraq and Syria, but U.S. lawmakers criticized the progress as too slow. Brett McGurk testified at a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations hearing that morale is falling within the militant group as it loses territory. But he said efforts to find a political solution were making little progress and could not predict an end to fighting as long as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad remained in power. “So long as Assad is leading the government in Damascus there is no way this war will ever end,” McGurk said. The conflict between U.S.-backed armed groups and Assad’s government, supported by Russia and Iran, has complicated the fight against Islamic State amid a massive humanitarian crisis. Iraqi forces recently entered the Islamic State bastion of Falluja just west of Baghdad, and were pushing north toward Mosul, by far the biggest city that Islamic State controls. In Syria, U.S.-backed forces were closing in on the militant stronghold of Manbij, and Assad’s Russian-backed army has advanced into the province surrounding the de facto Islamic State capital Raqqa. McGurk said completion of the operation against Manbij would create conditions to move on Raqqa. And he said planning was under way for a campaign to liberate Mosul. “We’re beginning to totally isolate their presence in Raqqa and Mosul and I believe we are setting the conditions in place to get them out of both of these cities,” McGurk said. He offered no timeline for those operations. Lawmakers said they felt the campaign was moving too slowly, and worried that, without a political solution, defeating Islamic State would leave behind a power vacuum that could be filled by another militant group. “I don’t see how what’s left of the political process possibly leads to Assad’s departure,” said Republican Senator Bob Corker, the committee’s chairman. A massacre two weeks ago in Florida by a gunman inspired by Islamic State drew attention to its efforts to inspire attacks in the west.   McGurk said Raqqa was the center for the group’s social media operations, which have become more of a focus as its fortunes have faded on the battlefield. Discussing the region, McGurk said Washington would like more air resources from coalition allies United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. “Right now we want to end the war in Yemen in order to really focus efforts on the counter-ISIL campaign,” McGurk said, using an acronym for Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS.

Summary: अमेरिकी अधिकारी ने इस्लामिक स्टेट के खिलाफ प्रगति देखी, युद्ध जारी है


BEIJING (Reuters) - China has zero tolerance for corruption within the ruling Communist Party, President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday in a speech at the opening of a key party congress. Having warned that rampant graft threatened the legitimacy of the party, Xi has overseen a sweeping crackdown on corruption that has felled numerous high-ranking officials within the party, government and military.

Summary: शी ने कहा कि चीन में पार्टी के भीतर भ्रष्टाचार को कतई बर्दाश्त नहीं किया जा सकता


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are considering possible changes to the design of their controversial border adjustment tax proposal to accommodate industries worried about being harmed by the provision, a top lawmaker said on Friday. The measure, a centerpiece of the House Republican tax reform blueprint backed by Speaker Paul Ryan, is intended to encourage investment and manufacturing in the United States. But it faces mounting pressure from U.S. retailers, oil refiners and automakers who fear it could result in higher prices for consumer goods including gasoline.  Major U.S. exporters on Thursday threw their support behind a border tax, but President Donald Trump has sent mixed signals and some U.S. Senate Republicans question whether it would pass muster under international trade rules. “We are listening carefully and exploring a number of ideas on both design and the transition of this provision to accommodate some of the concerns, valid concerns,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady told a conference on tax issues. “I’m confident ... that the design of the border adjustability and the transition of it will allay those concerns,” he added without providing details. He previously said the committee would look at transition rules but has not suggested possible design changes until now.  The Texas Republican, whose panel is working on tax reform legislation, is not considering product or industry exemptions but said the committee is engaged in discussions with industries including import-dependent oil refiners.  The border adjustment proposal would exempt U.S. corporate export revenues from tax but impose a 20 percent levy on imports by preventing U.S. companies from deducting import costs from their taxable income. Import-dependent companies say the sweeping change could hurt their businesses and customers. “Their concerns about consumer impacts or tax impacts, we don’t want those either,” Brady said. Brady said the policy would tax all products sold in the United States equally while matching the export tax approach of U.S. trading partners. He acknowledged that the change could be phased in over time to help smooth the transition but denied that the proposal would violate international trade rules by penalizing imports or subsidizing exports. Business lobbyists have suggested a number of changes, from a nominal tax to compensate import-dependent businesses to an import tax rate that would vary by country of origin to match the taxes U.S. products face abroad.         “We know where we want to go and we’re going to listen to all ideas. But we’re going to end up with a tax code that taxes products at the same equal rate in the United States,” he said.

Summary: अमेरिकी हाउस रिपब्लिकन सीमा कर डिजाइन में बदलाव की तलाश कर रहे हैंः सांसद


BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a better impression on voters in a television debate on Sunday than her center-left challenger Martin Schulz, a flash survey by broadcaster ZDF showed. The poll, conducted by Forschungsgruppe Wahlen during the first half of the debate and published shortly after it had finished, showed that Merkel was viewed as more credible by 33 percent compared to 17 percent for Schulz. According to a separate poll by Infratest Dimap for ARD television, Merkel came across as more competent, credible and likeable than Schulz. The only category where Schulz scored higher was for being more combative.

Summary: टीवी बहस में जर्मनी की मर्केल एसपीडी प्रतिद्वंद्वी से आगेः सर्वेक्षण


TALLINN (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday the European Union would be weakened if it agreed to discuss its future trading relationship with Britain before Brexit divorce terms are settled.  If we accept speaking about life after (Brexit) we will open 27 debates on the future life that are profoundly weakening for the EU. That s why the chosen method is the good one,  Macron said when asked why the EU did not soften a negotiating approach that has frustrated London.

Summary: तलाक से पहले भविष्य के ईयू-यूके संबंधों पर बातचीत ईयू को कमजोर करेगीः मैक्रों


DUBAI (Reuters) - Qatar Airways advised passengers bound for the United States on Saturday from seven newly banned majority Muslim countries that they needed to have either a U.S. green card or diplomatic visa. “Nationals of the following countries: Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Yemen ... may travel to the U.S. only if they are in possession of a permanent resident card (Green card) or any of the below visas,” it said in a statement on its website. It listed foreign government, United Nations, international organization and NATO visas.

Summary: कतर एयरवेज ने प्रतिबंधित देशों के U.S.-bound यात्रियों के लिए परामर्श जारी किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Huma Abedin, one of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s top aides, said on Monday that she was separating from her husband, Anthony Weiner, after a sex scandal similar to an earlier incident that led him to resign from the U.S. Congress. “After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband,” Huma Abedin said in a statement.   “Anthony and I remain devoted to doing what is best for our son, who is the light of our life. During this difficult time, I ask for respect for our privacy,” Abedin added. Abedin’s announcement follows a New York Post report late Sunday that Weiner recently sent photos of his boxer-brief-clad genitals – one while he was in bed with their toddler son – via Twitter to another woman. The photos were part of a months-long exchange between Weiner and the woman and many of the messages were sexual in nature, according to the Post report. Weiner resigned in June 2011 from Congress, where he represented a New York City district, followed a sexting scandal in which he accidentally posted an explicit photo of himself on his public Twitter timeline instead of via a direct message to a woman, as he had intended. When Weiner made a second unsuccessful run for New York City mayor, explicit photos surfaced in July 2013 that he had recently sent under the pseudonym “Carlos Danger” to a young woman in Indiana. Weiner said he had undergone therapy after the first sexting scandal, according to media reports. In recent months, he has taken care of the couple’s toddler son. Abedin often travels with the Clinton campaign. Clinton’s Republican rival, Donald Trump, said in a statement, “Huma is making a very wise decision. I know Anthony Weiner well, and she will be far better off without him.” Abedin first worked for Clinton in the 1990s as an intern when Clinton was first lady. She was a personal aide to Clinton during her successful 2000 campaign for U.S. Senate. Abedin worked on Clinton’s first, unsuccessful White House bid in 2008 and served as her deputy chief of staff at the U.S. State Department. She is now the vice chair of Clinton’s presidential campaign.  Weiner served in Congress, representing his district in New York City from 1999 to 2011. His first unsuccessful run for New York mayor was in 2005.

Summary: क्लिंटन के सहयोगी आबेदीन ने सेक्सटिंग रिपोर्ट के बाद पति वेनर को छोड़ दिया


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia may decide to designate any media as  foreign agents  if they are financed by a foreign state or citizen, or by a Russian  organization that gets foreign financing, the Interfax news agency reported on Thursday. Interfax cited a draft regulation from the justice ministry. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law last month that allowed the authorities to designate foreign media outlets as  foreign agents  in response to what Moscow said was unacceptable U.S. pressure on Russian media. So far, it has been exclusively used to label media sponsored by the U.S. authorities as foreign agents, but the new regulation would appear to go further.   Under the existing law media branded  foreign agents  must provide any news they provide to Russians as the work of foreign agents and disclose their funding sources.

Summary: रूस मीडिया आउटलेट्स के लिए पदनाम बढ़ा सकता है जिसे वह 'विदेशी एजेंट' मानता हैः इफैक्स


TUNIS/TRIPOLI (Reuters) - U.N. agencies said on Monday they were trying to provide urgent help to large numbers of migrants held and then stranded in the smuggling hub of Sabratha as rival factions battled for control of the city. At least 4,000 migrants, including pregnant women, newborn babies and unaccompanied children, have been transferred from informal camps and housing to a hangar in the city since the clashes ended on Friday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, said some 6,000 had been held at the informal sites. Hundreds of migrants who had left Sabratha arrived in Zuwara, about 25 km (15 miles) to the west, on foot along the beach, said Sadeeq Al-Jayash, head of Zuwara s emergency committee.  They come walking in groups ... for example there were various groups that came on Sunday   50, then 100 and 200 at night,  said Jayash. There were about 1,700 migrants currently in Zuwara  in desperate need of help , he said.  Sabratha has been the most common point of departure for mostly sub-Saharan African migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean by boat from Libya.  But the number of crossings dropped sharply in July after an armed group struck a deal with officials from the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli to block departures, under pressure from Italy and other European Union member states. That set off three weeks of fighting among rival factions that left at least 43 dead and 340 wounded, according to a new health ministry toll, and ended with the withdrawal of the armed group. The migrants who have since been rounded up were being held at sites that the group had controlled, local officials said.   We are seriously concerned by the large number of migrants caught up in recent developments in Sabratha,  Othman Belbeisi, IOM Libya chief of mission, said in a statement.    Some migrants are being sent on to detention centers elsewhere in western Libya that are nominally under the control of the Tripoli government. IOM officials say those centers, which were housing some 5,000 migrants, risk being overwhelmed by the new arrivals. Conditions in the centers are often dire and abuse widespread.     Alternatives to detention must be found for migrants in Libya. In the meantime, IOM continues to provide direct humanitarian, health and psychosocial assistance to meet the urgent needs of the thousands of migrants being affected,  Belbeisi said.  Local sources have previously said that an estimated 10,000 migrants were being held in the Sabratha area. The head of Sabratha s department for countering illegal migration told Reuters on Saturday that help was badly needed as some migrants had received no food or water for six days. The UNHCR said it had approached Libyan authorities to ensure that refugees among the migrants were freed from detention.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र लीबिया के तस्करी केंद्र में हजारों प्रवासियों की सहायता कर रहा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Senator Thad Cochran has delayed his return to Washington following a medical procedure, his office said on Monday, possibly complicating passage of a budget blueprint that is needed to push through the Republicans’ plan for tax reform. “After a day of monitoring his condition, and on the advice of his physicians and other health care professionals, Senator Cochran has postponed his return to Washington,” said Brad White, chief of staff for the Mississippi legislator. “The senator has expressed his intention to return to the Senate when his health permits, and to fulfill his commitment and duties to the people of his state,” White said in a statement. The Senate is trying this week to pass a partisan budget blueprint that would help guide federal spending. Republicans hold a 52-48 majority in the Senate. If Cochran is not present for votes, Republicans could afford to lose no more than one other vote, assuming all 46 Democrats and two independents oppose the budget measure. In addition to sketching out overall spending levels for this year and beyond, Republicans want to use the “budget resolution” to pave the way for the party later this year or next year to pass a major tax-cut bill without any Democratic support. Cochran, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, helps oversee the legislation that funds most government programs and activities. In early December, Congress must extend those funds or risk partial government shutdowns.  (In 4th paragraph, corrects to show that Republicans could afford to lose no more than one other vote, not two votes)

Summary: रिपब्लिकन अमेरिकी सीनेटर कोचरान ने वाशिंगटन में वापसी स्थगित की


SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia has discovered the wreck of its first submarine off the coast of Papua New Guinea, authorities said on Thursday, resolving one of the country s oldest naval mysteries after more than a century. The submarine, AE-1, was the first Allied vessel to sink during World War One, while patrolling for German warships in 1914, in circumstances that have never been established. The Australian Navy and several private bodies found the final resting place of the vessel s 35 crew on their 13th attempt, Defence Minister Marise Payne told media.  The submarine s disappearance  was a tragedy for our then fledgling nation,  Payne said, adding that a small commemorative service was held aboard the survey ship that found the wreck and authorities were trying to contact the crew s descendants.  It is my hope that what we have done in the last couple of days will now provide relief to the family and descendants of all of those members,  said navy chief Vice Admiral Timmy Barrett, adding that the crew had come from Australia, Britain and New Zealand.      The authorities did not disclose the wreck s location, except to say it was found off the Duke of York Islands. The governments of Australia and Papua New Guinea said they planned to preserve the site.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रेलिया को प्रथम विश्व युद्ध में डूबने वाली पहली सहयोगी पनडुब्बी का मलबा मिला


SEOUL (Reuters) - A group of South Korean businessmen who own factories in the Kaesong industrial complex inside North Korea said on Wednesday they want to visit to verify the North s claim that it had restarted some operations there on its own. South Korea pulled out of the joint venture last year in response to the North s nuclear and missile tests, ending more than a decade of cooperation at the factory park, on the North s side of the demilitarized zone (DMZ), that was the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.  North Korea s state-run web sites said on Friday North Korean workers were operating in the district, adding that it was  nobody s business what we do in an industrial complex where our nation s sovereignty is exercised . The South Koreans said they would ask the Ministry of Unification for permission to visit.  South Koreans have to obtain approval to contact North Koreans or travel in the country. The two sides are technically still at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a treaty.   We urge the North to immediately halt the operation of any of our corporate assets,  said Shin Han-yong, the leader of the group, who used to operate a plant making fishing nets in Kaesong. In recent weeks, North Korea has launched two missiles over Japan and conducted its sixth nuclear test, a sign that it may be fast advancing toward its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said last weekend that Washington was directly communicating with the North on its weapons programs but that it had shown no interest in dialogue. When the South suspended the operations at the industrial park, it said the North had diverted wages paid to its workers by South Korean firms to fund its nuclear and missile programs. But in July, two months after liberal President Moon Jae-in was elected in the South, a government official said there was no hard evidence to back up the assertion. Moon had initially sought to engage North Korea in talks and cooperation, but current political tensions have tied the president s hands. Despite military tension, the businessmen s visit, if it comes off, may provide a chance to restart talks with the North, Shin said.  We don t know if the North will accept our trip at a time when it only sees the U.S. as its dialogue partner, but we are pinning our hopes on a one in ten chance that may exist,  he said.

Summary: दक्षिण कोरियाई लोग उत्तर में एक बार संयुक्त रूप से संचालित कारखाने क्षेत्र का दौरा करना चाहते हैं


(Reuters) - A Kansas state senator on Monday declined to back down from comments comparing Planned Parenthood to Nazi concentration camps, which he made after finding out that a donation had been sent to the organization in his name. “Killing people equals killing people,” Republican state Senator Steve Fitzgerald said in a phone interview when asked about the comparison on Monday, referring to abortion.  “Planned Parenthood is killing more people than they did in Nazi Germany,” he said.  The Nazis were responsible for the systematic killing of 6 million Jews, as well as others such as homosexuals, Roma people and political opponents during World War Two. Planned Parenthood provides abortions as well as other women’s health services, including birth control and cancer screenings. It has long been a target of conservative Republicans. Fitzgerald has been in the spotlight since Planned Parenthood on Friday made public a letter from the senator in which he wrote that finding out that a donation had been made to the group in his name was “as bad - or worse - as having one’s name associated with Dachau.” Dachau was a Nazi concentration camp estimated to have been the site of nearly 32,000 killings.  In his letter, Fitzgerald castigated the organization and the donor, Kansas City, Missouri, resident Ali Weinel, calling the move an attempt to “blacken” his name by associating him with a “heinous” group. Weinel said Monday that she made the donation in the senator’s name about a month ago after a contentious email exchange with Fitzgerald, in which he expressed disgust over her views on abortion. “I was so frustrated by the email exchange that the only thing I could think to do was to donate to Planned Parenthood in his honor,” Weinel said. Making donations to the organization in the name of conservative elected officials has become a tactic among some on the left as a way to make a political statement. Planned Parenthood Great Plains spokeswoman Bonyen Lee-Gilmore called Fitzgerald’s concentration camp comparison inflammatory. “We obviously condemn this extreme ideology,” Lee-Gilmore said in a telephone interview on Monday. Lee-Gilmore said that after receiving Weinel’s donation, the organization had last month sent Fitzgerald a form letter, which his Friday letter was apparently a response to. Fitzgerald called the events political theater on the part of Planned Parenthood.  “The letter they sent me was strictly a poke in the eye,” Fitzgerald said. “And I responded to it.”

Summary: कान्सास के सीनेटर ने नियोजित पितृत्व की तुलना नाजियों से की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate panel tasked with vetting labor secretary nominee and fast-food executive Andrew Puzder will hold his confirmation hearing on Feb.16, now that his ethics paperwork has been submitted to Congress, a committee spokesman said Wednesday. Puzder’s certification from the Office of Government Ethics arrived at the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions exactly two months after Puzder was nominated to the job by President Donald Trump. A spokesman for Puzder, George Thompson, said he expects that Puzder will turn in a separate questionnaire to the committee by Thursday morning. Puzder is the chief executive officer of CKE Restaurants Inc, which owns primarily franchised restaurants including Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s. Tentative plans for Puzder’s hearing have been repeatedly postponed amid delays with a review by the Office of Government Ethics. Those stem from the complexities surrounding how Puzder will divest himself from CKE Restaurants, which is owned by private equity firm Roark Capital Group. Other companies in Roark Capital’s portfolio include Corner Bakery, Cinnabon, Arby’s, Carvel and Auntie Anne’s. Senate Democrats have been highly critical of Puzder, a staunch critic of an overtime rule championed by the former Obama administration. His nomination has sparked protests around the country by some CKE fast-food workers and the union-backed “Fight for $15” movement to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Workers from a number of CKE’s franchised locations have also complained of wage and hour concerns and other labor conditions in recent weeks. In a letter to Puzder sent on Wednesday before the ethics paperwork was sent to the Senate, the committee’s ranking Democrat, Patty Murray, said she wanted to receive a “detailed account” of his plans for recusals, divestments and resignations in order to avoid potential conflicts of interest stemming from his business relationship with Roark Capital Group. “The franchise model’s pervasive presence in the fast food industry, the frequency of serious labor violations connected with franchising and your past or present financial interest in Roark raise questions regarding your ability to faithfully carry out the Department of Labor’s mandate,” Murray wrote.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेट पैनल ने लेबर उम्मीदवार पुजडर के लिए नैतिकता फाइलिंग प्राप्त की


PARIS (Reuters) - French cement group Lafarge paid close to 13 million euros ($15.2 million) to armed groups including Islamic State militants to keep operating in Syria from 2011-2015, human rights lawyers said on Tuesday. They were speaking at a news conference on the course of French prosecutors  preliminary inquiry into Lafarge s operations launched in June on suspicion of  financing of a terrorist enterprise . The lawyers for rights group Sherpa said a large part of the money went directly or indirectly into the pockets of Islamic State and that payments lasted until well after the closure of Lafarge s Jalabiya plant in September 2014. They were citing a figure pinpointed by prosecutors examining Lafarge s activities in Syria, in the throes of civil war since 2011, and drawn from an internal report by U.S. law firm Baker and McKenzie for Lafarge.  As part of the inquiry, the precise figure retained is 12,946,000 euros paid by Lafarge between 2011 and 2015 to terrorist organizations, including the Islamic State,  Sherpa lawyer Marie Dose said. Lafarge became LafargeHolcim, the world s largest cement maker, in 2015 after a takeover by Swiss Holcim.  Former LafargeHolcim CEO Eric Olsen resigned in April after the company admitted it had paid armed groups to keep a factory operating in Syria. His lawyer has said Olsen will appeal against being put under investigation. Sherpa and other human rights groups in France as well as the French Finance Ministry have filed suit against Lafarge. Sherpa wants the company to be placed under formal criminal investigation, like Olsen, and also accuses Lafarge of not cooperating with authorities and trying to hide important elements from the investigation. A LafargeHolcim spokeswoman on Tuesday rejected these accusations but would not comment on the 13-million-euro figure.  LafargeHolcim fully cooperates with the justice (authorities). Thousands of documents have been given by the group to magistrates or seized during a search,  she said.  We strongly contest that the company is trying in any way  to limit the right of its employees or former employees to defend themselves...or (limit) their capacity to cooperate in a judicial inquiry,  she added. Being placed under formal investigation in France means that prosecutors believe they have  serious or consistent evidence  that could result in prosecution. It is a step toward a possible trial, though the investigation can still be dropped. Last Friday the Paris prosecutor also placed Olsen s predecessor as CEO, Bruno Lafont, and his ex-deputy for operations under formal investigation as part of the inquiry into Lafarge activities in Syria, the two men s lawyers said.

Summary: लाफार्ज ने सीरिया में काम जारी रखने के लिए सशस्त्र समूहों को 13 लाख यूरो का भुगतान कियाः मानवाधिकार समूह


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Federal agents have arrested illegal immigrants at California courthouses because local authorities have made such apprehensions at jails difficult, the Trump administration’s top two law enforcement officials told the state’s chief justice, who had requested a halt to the practice. In a letter to Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye made public on Friday, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly gave no indication that agents would stop the arrests. Sessions and Kelly criticized California officials for limiting the cooperation of state and local law enforcement officers with U.S. agents, preventing them from going to jails to pick up illegal immigrants arrested for other crimes.   “As a result, ICE officers and agents are required to locate and arrest these aliens in public places, rather than in secure jail facilities,” Sessions and Kelly wrote in the letter dated on Wednesday, using the acronym for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Kelly, whose Department of Homeland Security includes ICE, and Sessions, who as attorney general heads the Justice Department, are members of Republican President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. Since taking office in January, Trump has widened the net for illegal immigrants to be detained and removed from the country, in keeping with his White House campaign promise. Immigrant rights groups say federal agents have entered courthouses with increased frequency this year, including in California, Massachusetts, Maryland and Texas. California law enforcement officers, including in Los Angeles and San Francisco, decline requests from ICE agents to hold illegal immigrants past their release dates in local jails so they can be transferred to federal custody. The stance of these law enforcement officials conforms with advice from the state’s two most recent attorneys general. These and other “sanctuary” jurisdictions that opt not to cooperate with federal immigration agents have drawn fire from conservative Republicans. On Monday, Sessions threatened to withhold millions of dollars in U.S. funding for cities that fail to assist immigration authorities. In their letter, Kelly and Sessions said agents make arrests at courthouses rather than other public places in part because visitors are screened for weapons before entering, as they are at jails. They were responding to a letter sent two weeks ago by Cantil-Sakauye, who asked the two Cabinet officials to stop immigration agents from arresting undocumented immigrants inside California courthouses. “Courthouses should not be used as bait in the necessary enforcement of our country’s immigration law,” she wrote.  The presence of immigration agents in courthouses in the nation’s most populous state could undermine public trust in its judicial system, she said.  Her letter went on to say that immigration agents were “stalking undocumented immigrants” at courthouses, language that drew a sharp rebuke from Sessions and Kelly.  They said the use of the word “stalking” suggested criminal conduct. They said that was unwarranted because agents have full authority to arrest illegal immigrants.

Summary: ट्रम्प के अधिकारियों ने कैलिफोर्निया के अदालतों में आप्रवासन गिरफ्तारी का बचाव किया


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s combative style has buffeted Mexico’s president for months, but deeply unpopular Enrique Pena Nieto may end up thanking the new U.S. president for prompting offended Mexicans to rally behind their leader.  From billionaire business magnate Carlos Slim to political opponents, there has been a groundswell of support for Pena Nieto, who has cut a lonely figure in months of bruising encounters with Trump. Often referred to by his initials EPN, Pena Nieto is laboring under the worst approval ratings of any Mexican president in decades due to discontent over corruption, gang violence, sluggish growth and a jump in fuel prices.     Trump’s threats to scrap the NAFTA trade deal with Mexico and build a border wall have caused anger and left Mexicans feeling fearful for the future. His challenge to Pena Nieto on Thursday - saying he should skip a planned summit between the two leaders if Mexico wasn’t willing to pay for the wall - was the final straw. Pena Nieto replied a couple of hours later that he had canceled his meeting with Trump, one of the president’s biggest ever hits on Twitter, getting more “likes” than when he personally broke news of the capture of notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in January of last year. “Bravo EPN!,” cheered former President Vicente Fox, who had initially condemned Pena Nieto for inviting Trump to Mexico for talks last August, and who has waged a colorful and expletive-ridden campaign against the Republican on Twitter. Pena Nieto and Trump talked for about an hour by phone on Friday, pledging to work out their differences and agreeing not to speak about the wall in public for now. Meanwhile, calls for unity grew in Mexico, led by Slim, a normally media-shy 76-year-old who gave a 90-minute news conference in support of the government on Friday. “This is the most surprising example of national unity I’ve seen in my life,” said Slim, who spent several years in the past decade as the world’s richest man. “We have to back the president of Mexico so he can defend our national interests.” Senior opposition leaders also urged a common front. “It’s time to show unity and our commitment to Mexico,” Alejandra Barrales, head of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), said on Twitter. Pena Nieto’s credibility has been battered by a widespread public perception that he has failed to battle corruption and indeed even encouraged it since a conflict-of-interest row embroiled him, his wife and a top minister in late 2014. Some opposition critics fear the government will try to use Trump as a screen to distract from its failings. However, two senior officials told Reuters they hoped Pena Nieto would seize the moment to act quickly and decisively to improve his image. Expressions of dismay at Trump’s behavior towards Mexico have almost become a national pastime, and talk of boycotts against U.S. companies is gathering steam on social media. Slim, when asked about boycotting at his news conference, said it wasn’t a good idea to turn on U.S. companies, which are creating jobs in Mexico. Some foreign companies voiced support for Mexico too. “I feel Mexico is being subjected to terror at the moment,” said Andreas Schindler, co-owner of German fruit wholesaler Don Limon’s parent Pilz Schindler, by phone from Hamburg. “We’re right behind Mexico.”

Summary: ट्रम्प संघर्ष ने अलोकप्रिय मैक्सिकन नेता को हाथ में बहुत आवश्यक शॉट दिया


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday it was time to exert maximum pressure on North Korea and he had agreed with U.S. President Donald Trump that China should play a bigger role in getting Pyongyang to give up its weapons programs. Speaking to reporters, he also said Japan supported Trump s position that all options are on the table when it comes to dealing with North Korea. Trump is in Tokyo on the second-day of an Asian swing during which North Korea and trade are expected to top the agenda.

Summary: जापान के आबे ने कहा, उत्तर कोरिया पर अधिकतम दबाव बनाने का समय आ गया है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Saturday to end government payments to health insurers if Congress does not pass a new healthcare bill and goaded them to not abandon their seven-year quest to replace the Obamacare law. In a Twitter message on Saturday, Trump said “if a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!”  The tweet came a day after Senate Republicans failed to muster enough votes to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare bill commonly known as Obamacare. The first part of Trump’s tweet appeared to be referring to the approximately $8 billion in cost-sharing reduction subsidies the federal government pays to insurers to lower the price of health coverage for low-income Americans.  The second part appeared to be a threat to end the employer contribution for Congress members and their staffs, who were moved from the normal federal employee healthcare benefits program onto the Obamacare insurance exchanges as part of the 2010 healthcare law.  Trump has previously threatened to suspend the payments to insurers, which are determined by the Department of Health and Human Services. In April, he threatened to end the payments if Democrats refused to negotiate over the healthcare bill. Responding to Saturday’s tweet, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said that if the president carried out that threat, “every expert agrees that (insurance) premiums will go up and health care will be more expensive for millions of Americans.” “The president ought to stop playing politics with people’s lives and health care, start leading and finally begin acting presidential,” Schumer said in a statement. Trump later urged Senate Republicans to try again on a healthcare vote. The Senate is in session for another week before it is scheduled to begin an August recess. “Unless the Republican Senators are total quitters, Repeal & Replace is not dead! Demand another vote before voting on any other bill!” Trump said in a subsequent tweet. Many insurers have been waiting for an answer from Trump or lawmakers on whether they will continue to fund the annual government subsidies. Without assurances, many plan to raise rates an additional 20 percent by an Aug. 16 deadline for premium prices. With Republican efforts to dismantle Obamacare in disarray, hundreds of U.S. counties are at risk of losing access to private health coverage in 2018 as insurers consider pulling out of those markets.     In response, Trump on Friday again suggested his administration would let the Obamacare program “implode.” He has weakened enforcement of the law’s requirement for individuals to buy insurance, threatened to cut off funding and sought to change plan benefits through regulations. Meanwhile, some congressional Republicans were still trying to find a way forward on healthcare.  Senator Lindsey Graham said in a statement issued late on Friday that he and two other Republican senators, Dean Heller and Bill Cassidy, had met with Trump after the defeat to discuss Graham’s proposal to take tax money raised by Obamacare and send it back to the states in the form of healthcare block grants. Graham said the move would end Democrats’ drive for a national single-payer healthcare system by putting states in charge. “President Trump was optimistic about the Graham-Cassidy-Heller proposal,” Graham added. “I will continue to work with President Trump and his team to move the idea forward.” However, a majority of Americans are ready to move on from healthcare at this point. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Saturday, 64 percent of 1,136 people surveyed on Friday and Saturday said they wanted to keep Obamacare, either “entirely as is” or after fixing “problem areas. When asked what they think Congress should do next, most picked other priorities such as tax reform, foreign relations and infrastructure. Only 29 percent said they wanted Republicans in Congress to “continue working on a new healthcare bill.”  Asked what they think Congress should do next, most respondents picked other priorities such as tax reform, foreign relations and infrastructure. Only 29 percent said they wanted Republicans in Congress to “continue working on a new healthcare bill.”

Summary: ट्रम्प ने स्वास्थ्य देखभाल बिल नहीं देने पर बीमा भुगतान बंद करने की धमकी दी


HAVANA (Reuters) - Lucila Morales stared in amazement at the flickering image of U.S. President Barack Obama on her old TV set on Tuesday, as he extolled democracy and political freedoms in a live speech capping his historic visit to the Communist-led island. Delivered from Havana’s Grand Theater, the home of Cuban ballet, Obama’s speech drew people to their televisions and radios across the city, impressing an audience not used to open political debate and surprised by his touches of humility.  “Now he’s thrown a grenade,” Morales gasped when Obama spoke of the importance of the free and open exchange of ideas, long a taboo subject in a country where dissent is stifled, access to the Internet remains limited and the media is state-controlled. In his most pointed comments from the restored theater, where President Raul Castro was seated on a balcony with his top aides, Obama said Cubans should be able to choose their governments in free, democratic elections.  “I’m with you Obama, in choosing our next president,” shouted computer student Roberto Iglesias, 28, popping his head round the door of Morales’ airy 1940s-era apartment near Havana University.  Obama’s two-day trip to Cuba was the first by a sitting U.S. president since Calvin Coolidge sailed to Havana on a warship in 1928. Following a 2014 detente announced by Obama and Castro, the trip was a major step toward ending half a century of cold War animosity. Obama politely praised his hosts and accepted that before the revolution some Americans exploited Cuba. He acknowledged U.S. problems with racism but was frank about his belief in democracy’s superiority over Cuba’s one-party system. His acceptance of errors at home and in Cuba contrasted with past presidents who harangued their neighbor for decades after Fidel Castro overthrew a pro-American government in 1959. Obama vowed not to impose a different political or economic system on Cuba and instead urged Cubans to build on their own achievements, a resonant message for many young people proud of Cuba’s health, education and low crime, but hungry for change. “He is calling on the young, on the Cuban people to build, not to destroy,” said Amed Chincle, 31, watching the speech with his Afro-Cuban neighbors and family in a windowless apartment lit by a single strip bulb. Wearing a T-shirt with the logo of Hard Rock Cafe Boston, Chincle said he hoped Cuban authorities would heed Obama’s advice by not assuming that every young person complaining about small injustices was trying to bring down the government. “Lots of young people love their country and have no need to leave in search of a better system, but we should be able to speak and express ourselves without the government being uncomfortable,” said Chincle, a self-employed cycle taxi rider angry at what he saw as abuse of power by the police.  “They think that every protest by young people is a threat to the government - and that’s not true,” he said. More than anything though, it was the personal flourishes during Obama’s three-day visit that won sympathy from Cubans. Obama spent hours on Monday listening to small business owners in a meeting at a state-run brewery, and his speech on Tuesday was littered with references to Cuban entrepreneurs such as a barber whose business was growing fast. Cutting hair was mostly a state activity until Raul Castro took power in 2008 and began cautious market-style reforms. A graphic designer who identified himself only by his first name Elicer said that changes allowing more free enterprise had been positive but the leadership was out of touch with the day to day lives of the people. “With this meeting with entrepreneurs alone, Obama did what no president of this country has done in so many years - sit with ordinary people and ask what problems they have,” he said.

Summary: ओबामा ने सीधी बात और विनम्रता के साथ क्यूबा के लोगों पर जीत हासिल की


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations Security Council ministers will meet on Dec. 15 to discuss North Korea s nuclear and missiles programs and the body will also meet separately this month to discuss human rights abuses in the North Asian country, an annual meeting that its ally China has tried to prevent for the past three years.  Japan s U.N. Ambassador Koro Bessho, president of the 15-member council for December, said several ministers were confirmed to attend the Dec. 15 meeting. He also said the meeting on human rights in North Korea could be held on Dec. 11.  China has unsuccessfully tried to stop three previous human rights meetings by calling a procedural vote. A minimum of nine votes are needed to win such a vote and China, Russia, the United States, Britain and France cannot wield their vetoes. This year s meeting has the backing of nine members - the United States, France, Britain, Italy, Japan, Senegal, Sweden, Ukraine and Uruguay.  Last year, the United States angered North Korea by blacklisting its leader Kim Jong Un for human rights abuses. A landmark 2014 U.N. report on North Korean human rights concluded that North Korean security chiefs - and possibly Kim himself - should face justice for overseeing a state-controlled system of Nazi-style atrocities. Michael Kirby, chairman of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry that drew up the report, said at the time that the crimes the team had cataloged were reminiscent of those committed by the Nazis during World War Two.  Some of them are strikingly similar,  he told Reuters. North Korea has repeatedly rejected accusations of human rights abuses and blames sanctions for a dire humanitarian situation. Pyongyang has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missiles and nuclear programs.   Despite persistent sanctions and pressure by the U.S. and other hostile forces, my government concentrates all its efforts on improving people s livelihood and providing them with a better future,  the North Korean Permanent Mission to the United Nations said in a statement on Nov. 14.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया के अधिकारों के हनन, परमाणु कार्यक्रम पर दिसंबर में होगी संयुक्त राष्ट्र परिषद की बैठक


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Monday took the political battle over his pick for a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court to the home states of seven Republican senators up for re-election in November. Obama conducted interviews with local television anchors where he argued that Republican senators should hold confirmation hearings and vote on his nomination of appellate Judge Merrick Garland to the top court. “What my argument is: Let the American people see Judge Garland, let him answer questions, let them hear his responses,” the Democratic president told WDAF-TV FOX 4 in Kansas City, Missouri, a market that straddles states where Senators Roy Blunt of Missouri and Jerry Moran of Kansas are up for re-election. Republican leaders have been resolute that Obama’s successor, who will be elected on Nov. 8 and take office on Jan. 20, should fill the vacancy left by February’s death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. Republicans are hoping their party’s candidate wins the presidency and can make the appointment. The court is now split 4-4 between conservatives and liberals, meaning Scalia’s successor could influence its ideological direction for years to come.     Obama has argued the Senate has a responsibility to formally consider Garland’s nomination, telling ABC affiliate WMUR in Manchester, New Hampshire, that the judge was “maybe the most qualified nominee that we’ve seen before the Senate for a Supreme Court seat.” New Hampshire’s Kelly Ayotte is viewed as one of the most vulnerable Senate Republican incumbents. She met with Garland but wants the Senate to wait until after the election to act on the nomination. “I know that folks like Senator Ayotte met with him and the fact that they’re not calling a hearing or vote means they’re not doing their job,” Obama said in the interview. In a separate interview with WMUR, Ayotte defended her position. “In my view waiting for the election, we are in the midst of a presidential nomination process, to have the people weigh in the election in November is important considering we have a 4-4 court,” she said. Obama also talked with a television anchor from Iowa, home to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, who has helped lead efforts to block Garland. The president spoke as well with anchors from Ohio, where Senator Rob Portman faces a competitive re-election race; Wisconsin, where Senator Ron Johnson is running again; and Phoenix, home to Senator John McCain of Arizona.

Summary: ओबामा ने सुप्रीम कोर्ट की लड़ाई को रिपब्लिकन सीनेटरों के गृह क्षेत्र में ले जाया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator John McCain told supporters in Arizona last month that having Donald Trump on the Republican presidential ticket would hurt his own re-election bid in Arizona, a state with a large Hispanic population, Politico reported on Thursday. “If Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket, here in Arizona, with over 30 percent of the vote being the Hispanic vote, no doubt that this may be the race of my life,” McCain said, according to a recording of the event obtained by the news outlet.  Trump has alienated many Hispanics with his harsh rhetoric on immigration, including vowing to build a wall at the U.S. border with Mexico and calling some immigrants rapists. McCain was the Republican Party’s 2008 presidential nominee.

Summary: सीनेटर मैक्केन का कहना है कि ट्रम्प खुद को फिर से चुनाव लड़ने के लिए नुकसान पहुंचाएंगेः पोलिटिको


GAZA (Reuters) - The Islamist group Hamas began ceding control of the Gaza Strip s border crossings with Israel and Egypt to U.S.-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday under an agreement brokered by Cairo to end a decade of internal schism. The move marked the most concrete implementation of the Oct. 11 reconciliation deal that Palestinians hope will ease economic restrictions on Gaza and enable more fruitful negotiations on their goal of setting up an independent state. Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Al-Hamdallah said in a statement that taking charge of the crossings would help Abbas s Palestinian Authority (PA) fulfill its duty  to improve the living conditions of our people . Israel and the United States have reservations about the intra-Palestinian pact, however, given refusals by Hamas - which has fought three wars with Israel since seizing control of Gaza in 2007 from forces loyal to Abbas - to relinquish its rockets and other arms. Witnesses said PA employees moved into Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings on the Israeli border and Rafah crossing on the Egyptian border, as Hamas counterparts packed up equipment and departed on trucks.  We have handed over the crossings with honesty and responsibility, without bargaining and unconditionally,  Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a video address. Citing security concerns, Israel maintains tight restrictions on the movement of people and goods at its crossings with the Gaza Strip, including an almost blanket ban on exports from the territory. COGAT, the Israeli military-run authority that supervises Erez and Kerem Shalom, said a meeting would be held with a PA representative to define joint working protocols and Israeli security conditions, including  the complete absence of any Hamas member or representative  at or near the crossings. Egypt, which in the past has accused Hamas of aiding an Islamist insurgency in its Sinai peninsula bordering Gaza, has kept Rafah largely closed. Hamas denies the allegations and has stepped up security along the frontier. Nickolay Mladenov, U.N. special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said transfer of the crossings was a  landmark development  in the reconciliation process, and he called in a statement for  the positive momentum to be maintained . PA ministers have begun gradually to assume their duties in Gaza in past weeks and on Tuesday took over the revenue accounts of the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings, officials said.  Hamas had used those revenues - taxes and fees collected from merchants and passengers - as part of its Gaza budget, to pay salaries of the 40,000 to 50,000 employees it has hired since 2007. Those wages will now be paid by the PA, under the Cairo agreement. Hamas also maintains an armed wing, which analysts say has at least 25,000 well-equipped fighters. It remains the dominant force in Gaza, an enclave of two million people. The Palestinian Authority will begin operating the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings immediately, officials said, while in Rafah the operation will await further security arrangements such as deploying a force from Abbas s presidential guards and Cairo completing innovations on its side of the facility.

Summary: हमास ने गाजा सीमा को फिलिस्तीनी प्राधिकरण के नियंत्रण में सौंप दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Long-frustrated backers of statehood for the District of Columbia are pinning their hopes on a first-ever referendum on Tuesday in a long-shot bid to become the 51st U.S. state. Invoking the colonial-era demand of “no taxation without representation,” supporters say becoming a state would end Washingtonians’ status as second-class citizens because they lack representation in Congress. But opponents dismiss the referendum as a “fool’s errand”  destined to fail because of partisan political hurdles and the need to amend the U.S. Constitution, a procedure accomplished only 17 times since 1789. The District of Columbia was carved out to serve as the nation’s capital, but it is not a state. Its 672,000 residents have no voting representative in the Senate or House of Representatives although they pay federal taxes, though they do have a delegate in the House.   A “yes” vote could help pressure the new Congress and president - either Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump - to admit the District of Columbia as a new state, though even advocates admit that is unlikely anytime soon. A “yes” vote would simply be an expression of public support for statehood, a non-binding measure without any legal force. “Statehood’s the only way that we can have the same rights and responsibilities as all the other citizens of the United States,” District of Columbia Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said. The overwhelmingly Democratic capital city was fed up with Republican lawmakers espousing the rights of states and cities to self-governance and then interfering with local issues such as abortion and marijuana legalization, Mendelson said. “That’s so antithetical to democratic principles, but that doesn’t seem to bother some of these folks,” he said. The referendum seeks to upend the Constitution’s provision giving Congress legislative control over the District of Columbia. Voters will cast a single “yes” or “no” vote on the referendum’s four parts: admission as a state, its boundaries, approval of a constitution, and guarantees of a representative form of government. The new state would embrace the current 68-square-mile (176-square-km) district except for a core of federal property around the White House, Capitol and monument-rich National Mall.  The District Council approved the referendum unanimously, and a Washington Post poll in November 2015 showed 67 percent of residents backed statehood. The Democratic Party’s national platform also supports the idea. “If you’re not part of a state, large parts of the constitution don’t apply to you,” said statehood advocate Ann Loikow. Mayor Muriel Bowser and other statehood backers took the vote’s design from the successful bid in the 1790s by Tennessee, then a federal territory, to become a state through a referendum and petition to Congress. Supporters and skeptics say that even if the referendum passes it would face a dead end in Congress, where Republicans would oppose statehood since it would add Democratic senators and a representative to Congress. Besides the political obstacles, Roger Pilon, a constitutional scholar at the libertarian Cato Institute, called the statehood quest a “fool’s errand” because of constitutional obstacles. For the District to become a state, Congress would have to propose an amendment to the Constitution, which would then have to win a two-thirds majority vote in both the Senate and the House.  Even if an amendment could win approval in both houses of Congress, it would face another big hurdle: approval by the legislatures of at least three-fourths of the 50 states. Washingtonians have tried to achieve statehood before, but never by an up-or-down referendum. Congress ignored a statehood petition that included a constitution voters ratified in the 1980s. The House of Representatives rejected a statehood bill in 1993, and it failed to reach a Senate vote. A constitutional amendment for voting rights in Congress fizzled in the 1980s.

Summary: स्वतंत्रता या 'मूर्खों का काम'? डी. सी. राज्य के जनमत संग्रह पर मतदान करने के लिए


(Reuters) - U.S. Republican President-elect Donald Trump holds more meetings on Tuesday as he forms his administration before taking over from Democratic President Barack Obama on Jan. 20.  Trump’s transition team said he was scheduled to meet with the following people: * Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) president and chief operating officer * Republican U.S. representative from Tennessee * Veterans advocate who was formerly executive director of the group Vets for Freedom and a counterinsurgency instructor in Afghanistan * President and CEO of Rolls-Royce North America (RR.L) and former CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association, a defense industry trade group * Former Federal Aviation Administration administrator under President George W. Bush * Republican Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Tennessee Republican  * House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security chairman, Texas Republican * Republican U.S. representative from Pennsylvania, member of the House Committee on Homeland Security * Republican presidential nominee in 2012 who was highly critical of Trump during this year’s election * Republican former mayor of New York City

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ट्रम्प कोहन, रोमनी, कॉर्कर, गिउलिआनी और अन्य लोगों से मिलेंगे


SEOUL (Reuters) - A series of tremors and landslides near North Korea s nuclear test base likely mean the country s sixth and largest blast has destabilized the region, and the Punggye-ri nuclear site may not be used for much longer to test nuclear weapons, experts say. A small quake was detected early on Friday near the North s nuclear test site, South Korea s weather agency said, but unlike quakes associated with nuclear tests, it did not appear to be manmade. The tremor was the latest in a string of at least three shocks to be observed since Pyongyang s Sept. 3 nuclear test, which caused a 6.3 magnitude earthquake. Friday s quake was a magnitude 2.7 with a depth of 3 km in North Hamgyong Province in North Korea, the Korea Meteorological Administration said. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) measured the quake at 2.9 magnitude at a depth of 5 km. The series of quakes has prompted experts and observers to suspect the last test - which the North claimed to be of a hydrogen bomb - may have damaged the mountainous location in the northwest tip of the country, where all of North Korea s six nuclear tests were conducted.  The explosion from the Sept. 3 test had such power that the existing tunnels within the underground testing site might have caved in,  said Kim So-gu, head researcher at the Korea Seismological Institute.  I think the Punggye-ri region is now pretty saturated. If it goes ahead with another test in this area, it could risk radioactive pollution.   According to 38 North, a Washington-based project which monitors North Korea, numerous landslides throughout the nuclear test site have been detected via satellite images after the sixth test. These disturbances are more numerous and widespread than seen after any of the North s previous tests, 38 North said. The explosion from the sixth test was large enough for residents of the Chinese border city of Yanji, 200 km (125 miles) north of North Korea s nuclear test site, to feel the ground shake beneath their feet.  The reason why Punggye-ri has become North Korea s nuclear testing field is because this area was considered stable and rarely saw tremors in the past,  said Hong Tae-kyung, a professor of earth system science at Yonsei University in Seoul.  The recent small quakes suggest that the test might have triggered crust deformation.   South Korea s spy agency said recently the North was readying possibly two more tunnels following its latest test, according to ruling Democratic Party lawmakers who had been briefed on the issue. The tunnel used for Pyongyang s first nuclear test had been shut down after that test, while a second tunnel had been used for the following five, the National Intelligence Service was cited as saying last month. This second tunnel may have caved in after the sixth test, the intelligence officials said. North Korea has hinted its next test could be above the ground. Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said last month the North could test  an unprecedented scale hydrogen bomb  over the Pacific Ocean, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump s threat to  totally destroy  the country. Arms experts say detonating a nuclear-tipped missile over the Pacific Ocean, while seen as the logical final step to prove the success of its weapons program, would be extremely provocative and carry huge risks. Another issue that could keep North Korea from using Punggye-ri for nuclear tests the nearby active volcano of Mt. Paektu, Yonsei University s Hong said. The 2,744 meter (9,003 ft) mountain, straddling the northwestern border between China and North Korea, last erupted in 1903. Since North Korea began testing its nuclear capabilities, experts have debated whether explosions at Punggye-ri could trigger another volcanic eruption.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया में ताजा भूकंप परमाणु परीक्षण स्थल पर अस्थिरता का संकेत-विशेषज्ञ


BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Monday it hopes the Iran nuclear deal will stay intact, playing an important role in keeping the peace, after a senior U.S. official said President Donald Trump is expected to decertify the agreement. The official, speaking last week on condition of anonymity, said Trump was also expected to roll out a broader U.S. strategy on Iran that would be more confrontational. The Trump administration has frequently criticized Iran’s conduct in the Middle East. Trump, who has called the pact an “embarrassment” and “the worst deal ever negotiated”, has been weighing whether it serves U.S. security interests as he faces an Oct. 15 deadline for certifying that Iran is complying with its terms. Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the Iran nuclear deal was a good example of how to solve something peacefully through talks.  The agreement had played a positive and important role in ensuring nuclear non-proliferation and protecting peace and stability in the Middle East, she added.  “We hope that the comprehensive Iran nuclear agreement can continue to be earnestly implemented,” Hua told a daily news briefing. Iranian authorities have repeatedly said Tehran would not be the first to violate the accord, under which Iran agreed to restrict its nuclear program in return for the lifting of most international sanctions that had crippled its economy. If Trump declines to certify Iran’s compliance, U.S. congressional leaders would have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on Tehran suspended under the agreement. The prospect that Washington could renege on the pact, which was signed by the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, the European Union and Iran, has worried some U.S. allies. China has close economic and diplomatic ties with Tehran, and was also instrumental in pushing through the landmark 2015 deal.

Summary: ट्रंप की आलोचना के बीच चीन ने ईरान परमाणु समझौते के बरकरार रहने की उम्मीद जताई


(Reuters) - South Carolina lawmakers have introduced a measure that would require transgender people to use public bathrooms matching their sex at birth, disregarding a growing outcry for a repeal of a similar provision enacted last month in North Carolina. Legislation such as the bill proposed in the Republican-controlled state Senate on Wednesday has fueled a national debate, with states entrenched on either side of the issue and major companies calling for a rollback on measures restricting transgender rights. The South Carolina measure would prohibit local governments from requiring private businesses to provide restroom access based on gender identity rather than birth gender. “Men should use the men’s room, and women should use the women’s room - that’s just common sense,” Republican Senator Lee Bright, a sponsor of the bill, told The State newspaper. “North Carolina is getting so much flak over what is common sense.” The South Carolina measure is narrower than North Carolina’s law, which precludes local governments from adopting anti-discrimination ordinances with protections based on gender identity and sexual orientation. But opponents warned the new proposal could spark the economic backlash seen this week in North Carolina, where   PayPal Holdings Inc cited the discriminatory nature of the law in canceling a new operations center that was to employ 400 workers in Charlotte. More than 130 business leaders, including the chief executives of Bank of America, Herbalife and American Airlines, have signed a letter with the Human Rights Campaign calling for a repeal. “Government simply has no place in our bathrooms,” said Jeff Ayers, executive director of South Carolina Equality, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights group. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed two executive orders on Thursday aimed at safeguarding the rights of transgender people. One of them bans the state from discriminating against any employee or job applicant based on a host of criteria including “gender expression or identity.”  “This is the right thing to do. ... This is also the smart thing to do,” Wolf said, citing PayPal’s decision in North Carolina.  Last year, the Democratic governor named a transgender woman as the state’s physician general, a Cabinet-level post.   More than a dozen states have considered bathroom provisions this year that would restrict access for transgender people, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.    The measures come amid a wave of legislation pushed by social conservatives after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage last year. Mississippi’s Republican governor on Tuesday signed a law allowing people with religious objections to deny wedding services to same-sex couples and permitting employers to cite religion in determining workplace policies on dress code, grooming and bathroom and locker access. In response, a number of governors and mayors have banned non-essential government travel to Mississippi or North Carolina. Last week, the governors of Georgia and Virginia vetoed “religious liberty” bills, which critics said discriminated against same-sex couples.

Summary: दक्षिण कैरोलिना विधेयक का उद्देश्य शौचालयों में ट्रांसजेंडरों की पहुंच को सीमित करना है


CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - Former President George W. Bush came to the aid of his brother Jeb Bush’s Republican presidential campaign in South Carolina on Monday with a rousing endorsement of his character and a call for voters to reject the angry bluster of Donald Trump. The appearance of the elder Bush on the campaign trail may help Jeb Bush with South Carolina Republicans who hold the former president in high regard. But it also carries some risks, given his launching of the Iraq war in 2003, which ended up being unpopular with many Americans and which Republican front-runner Trump has seized on to criticize him. George W. Bush, who has stayed out of politics for the most part since leaving office in early 2009, showed he remains an engaging speaker, generating cheers repeatedly over 20 minutes from the biggest crowd Jeb Bush has enjoyed in his campaign. Without mentioning Trump by name, the 69-year-old George W. Bush left no doubt he was talking about the New York billionaire who uses incendiary rhetoric at his campaign events. “These are tough times and I know that Americans are angry, but we do not need someone in the Oval Office who mirrors and inflames our anger and our frustrations,” the former president said.  Real strength, he said, means facing challenges and prevailing. “Strength is not empty rhetoric. It is not bluster. It is not theatrics. Real strength comes from integrity and character. And in my experience, the strongest person isn’t usually the loudest person in the room,” George W. Bush said. Whether the elder Bush’s presence will help his 63-year-old brother in the South Carolina Republican primary on Saturday remains to be seen. Jeb is running fourth in polls in South Carolina, behind Trump, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Trump, at a news conference in Charleston earlier in the day, continued a stream of insults directed at the Bush family, insisting that the former president bore responsibility for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that took place on his watch. “Excuse me, the World Trade Center came down during the reign of George Bush, right? It came down. That was the greatest attack in the history of the United States – worse than Pearl Harbor.... We weren’t safe,” Trump said. George W. Bush offered some vivid imagery of what took place on Sept. 11 without addressing Trump’s criticism and saluted U.S. military personnel, a key constituency in South Carolina.  In his first public campaign appearance of the year for his brother, George W. Bush also met privately with South Carolina’s Republican governor, Nikki Haley, who has yet to endorse a candidate for the primary vote.  George W. Bush’s standing has risen among all Americans since he left power in 2009 and he has stayed on the sidelines of his brother’s presidential bid, headlining private fundraisers but otherwise staying off the campaign trail. That he is getting out in public now shows the urgency Jeb Bush sees in a good performance in South Carolina. Bush finished in sixth place in the Iowa caucuses and in fourth place in the New Hampshire primary - the first contests in the state-by-state battles to pick a party nominee for the Nov. 8 presidential election. Jeb Bush predicted a good showing on Saturday, telling the crowd that “Saturday is going to be a surprise.” Trump is also keeping an eye on Cruz and trying to prevent him from gaining ground on him. He issued a statement accusing Cruz of dirty politics for running a negative ad against him. Trump also threatened to sue Cruz to determine whether he can legally serve as president since he was born in Canada and therefore might not meet the requirements set out in the U.S. Constitution. “One of the ways I can fight back is to bring a lawsuit against him,” Trump said.  (Additional reporting Andrea Shalal in Washington; Editing by Frances Kerry and Dan Grebler) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters’ editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage.

Summary: जेब बुश को दक्षिण कैरोलिना में जॉर्ज डब्ल्यू. से भाई का हाथ मिलता है


(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump ramped up his fight with the National Football League on Tuesday, calling on the league to ban players from kneeling in protest at games while the national anthem is played. “The NFL has all sorts of rules and regulations. The only way out for them is to set a rule that you can’t kneel during our National Anthem!” Trump wrote on Twitter. For the fifth straight day the president denounced the symbolic gesture, which has been adopted by some black players in the last year to protest against racial disparities in the criminal justice system. An NFL spokesman did not respond to requests for comment. Trump praised two teams that played on Monday night and largely steered clear of the controversy. The Arizona Cardinals linked arms and stood for the “Star-Spangled Banner” along with the Dallas Cowboys, who knelt before the song. Last Friday, Trump told a political rally any protesting player was a “son of a bitch” who should be fired, and urged a boycott of NFL games, triggering protests by dozens of players, coaches and some owners before Sunday’s games.  Trump’s verbal assault may appeal to his conservative base as the Republican president grapples with critical issues including North Korea’s nuclear threats, a humanitarian crisis in hurricane-struck Puerto Rico, an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and the healthcare struggle in Congress. Paul Ryan, the most senior Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, said he also disapproved of the gesture.  “People are clearly within their rights to express themselves how they see fit,” he told reporters. “My own view though is that we shouldn’t do it on the anthem.”  U.S. Attorney General Jeff Session told an audience at Washington’s Georgetown Law School that the protesting athletes were wrong. “The players aren’t subject to any prosecution, but if they take a provocative act, they can expect to be condemned,” he said. Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival in the 2016 election, called Trump’s comments “a huge, loud dog whistle to his supporters” in an interview with CBS. Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick first kneeled during the anthem last year to protest police shootings of unarmed black men.  His former teammate Eric Reid wrote in a New York Times opinion article that he and Kaepernick chose to kneel as a “respectful” gesture, comparing it to “a flag flown at half-mast to mark a tragedy.”

Summary: ट्रंप ने एन. एफ. एल. से राष्ट्रगान के दौरान घुटने टेकने वाले खिलाड़ियों पर प्रतिबंध लगाने का आग्रह किया


(Story corrects to fix spelling in paragraph 10 to Jagdish not Jagdeep) By Suchitra Mohanty and Rahul Bhatia NEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) - India s top court unanimously ruled on Thursday that individual privacy is a fundamental right, a verdict that will impact  everything from the way companies handle personal data to the roll-out of the world s largest biometric ID card program. A nine-member bench of India s Supreme Court announced the ruling in a major setback for the Narendra Modi-led government, which argued that privacy was not a fundamental right protected by the constitution.     The court ordered that two earlier rulings by large benches that said privacy was not fundamental in 1954 and 1962 now stood overruled, and it declared privacy was  an intrinsic part of the right to life and liberty  and  part of the freedoms guaranteed  by the constitution.  This is a blow to the government because the government had argued that people don t have a right to privacy,  said Prashant Bhushan, a senior lawyer involved in the case. Constitutional experts believe the judgment has a bearing on broader civil rights, and a law that criminalizes homosexuality.     Lawyers say the judgment will also have an impact on a ban on the consumption of beef in many states and alcohol in some states. In his personal conclusion, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul wrote privacy is a fundamental right and it protects the inner sphere of an individual from interference from both state and non-state actors and lets individuals make autonomous life choices.  The privacy of the home must protect the family, marriage, procreation and sexual orientation,  Kaul wrote.  The ruling is the second landmark decision to come from the Supreme Court this week. On Tuesday it ruled that a law allowing Muslim men to divorce their wives instantly by uttering the word  talaq  three times was unconstitutional, in a major victory for Muslim women who have spent decades arguing it violated their right to equality. The privacy judgment was delivered at the end of the tenure of the chief justice of India, Jagdish Singh Khehar, who retires in a few days. It comes against the backdrop of a large multi-party case against the mandatory use of national identity cards, known as Aadhaar, as an infringement of privacy. There have also been concerns over data breaches.  India s Law Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad, said the ruling was an affirmation of the government s stand that privacy was a fundamental right, but subject to reasonable restrictions. He said it was not a setback to the government s plans for Aadhaar, and noted that the court is separately looking into the legality of the Aadhaar Act. Critics say the ID card links enough data to create a full profile of a person s spending habits, their friends, property they own and a trove of other information. Aadhaar, which over one billion Indians have already signed up for, was set up to be a secure form of digital identification for citizens, one that they could use for government services. But as it was rolled out, concerns arose about privacy, data security and recourse for citizens in the face of data leaks and other issues. Over time, Aadhaar has been made mandatory for the filing of tax returns and operating bank accounts. Companies have also pushed to gain access to Aadhaar details of customers. Those opposed to the growing demand for Aadhaar data cheered the ruling.   Truly a victorious week for India - upholding liberty, dignity and freedom for all,  Jyotiraditya Scindia, a member of parliament from the opposition Congress party, said in a tweet. Bhushan, the senior lawyer involved in the case, said while government demands for the use of Aadhaar for tax purposes could be considered reasonable, any demands for the use of Aadhaar for travel bookings and other purchases could now be questioned in the face of the ruling.  The fact that there was no dissent is an important thing,  said Raman Chima, policy director at Access Now, which defends digital rights.  They made it clear that the government has to protect privacy.

Summary: भारतीय अदालत का निजता संबंधी फैसला सरकार के लिए झटका है


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nearly a third of U.S. counties likely will be served by only one insurer that participates in an Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace in 2017, according to an analysis published on Sunday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The 31 percent of U.S. counties that will have just a single option of insurers within the ACA’s exchanges would represent an increase from 7 percent this year, the nonpartisan group found. Despite sharing a namesake, the Kaiser Family Foundation is not associated with healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente. UnitedHealth Group Inc (UNH.N) and Aetna Inc (AET.N) have decided to largely exit government-run online marketplaces in 2017 that sell subsidized plans created under President Barack Obama’s national healthcare reform law, citing low enrollment and high service costs. The bulk of the decrease in counties with a choice of insurers is due to UnitedHealth’s pullback, which was announced in April. The data underscores the degree to which industry retrenchment is curtailing individual’s options within the marketplaces. Insurer departures may lead to higher costs within that market, analysts have said. One county - Pinal County in Arizona - risks having no insurer options at all within the marketplace, the analysis found. The study’s authors said another plan offered elsewhere in the state could expand to serve the county. The foundation said it could take more months and more data for the full impact of the changes for 2017 to become clear. “A number of steps remain before the full picture of this year’s Marketplace competition is known but the ACA has greatly expanded the insurance options available to consumers in the individual marketplace,” said Marjorie Connolly, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in a statement.

Summary: ओबामाकेयर बाजार पर एकाधिकार देखने के लिए अधिक अमेरिकी काउंटीः विश्लेषण


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two months after signing it, President Donald Trump has not begun enforcing a law imposing new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, Senators John McCain and Ben Cardin said in a letter seen by Reuters on Friday. Also, with just two days to go, his administration has not provided information related to Russia’s defense and intelligence sectors required under the measure by Sunday, they said. White House officials did not respond to a request for comment on the letter from McCain, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. Later on Friday, the White House issued a presidential memorandum taking the first step toward implementation by designating different agencies to start the process putting the law into effect. Trump grudgingly signed the “Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act” on Aug. 2 after Congress overwhelmingly approved the measure despite Trump’s reservations about how it might affect his desire for improved relations with Moscow. The White House had hedged for weeks, as the legislation worked its way through Congress, over whether the president would sign it or use his veto power. Although his fellow Republicans control Congress, it passed both the Senate and House of Representatives by near-unanimous margins large enough to override a veto. Trump’s opposition to the law had raised questions about how enthusiastically his administration would enforce it. “Congress’ swift and united action, and your signature, sent a strong message to our allies and adversaries alike, and particularly to those such as Russia, who have sought to undermine our democracy,” said the letter, dated Thursday. “Now, as critical deadlines are approaching, it is imperative that your Administration implement the law to its fullest extent to uphold and protect American interests,” it said. The law imposed stiff new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea over issues including Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election, which Russia denies, as well as Iran’s ballistic missiles program and North Korea’s nuclear weapons development. The administration in particular opposed a provision that would not let Trump, or any president, ease or lift sanctions on Russia without Congress’ approval. The letter also noted the Oct. 1 deadline for the administration to issue “regulations or other guidance” to identify anyone who is operating on behalf of the Russian defense and intelligence sectors for potential sanctions.

Summary: रूस, ईरान, उत्तर कोरिया प्रतिबंध कानून को लागू करने में ट्रंप की धीमी गतिः सीनेटर