LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday it was “inappropriate” for Donald Trump to brand German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policy “a catastrophic mistake”. “I thought frankly it was inappropriate for a president-elect of the United States to be stepping into the politics of other countries in a quite direct manner,” Kerry told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour during a one-day visit to London in the last week of the Obama administration. “He will have to speak to that. As of Friday, he is responsible for that relationship.” Trump, who will be sworn in as president on Friday, had said in a joint interview with Bild newspaper and the Times of London that he respected Merkel, but criticized her stance on refugees, which allowed a wave of more than 1 million refugees into Germany. Merkel faces a tough re-election battle in September. “I think we have to be very careful about suggesting that one’s strongest leaders in Europe, and most important players with respect to where we are heading, made one mistake or another. I don’t think it’s appropriate for us to be commenting on that,” Kerry said. He rejected Trump’s description of Merkel’s refugee policy as “catastrophic”. “I think she was extremely courageous. I don’t think it amounts to that characterization,” Kerry said. “It has had some problems, but everybody has had some problems with this challenge of how to respond as a big nation, a great nation, as the West, where our values, our principles are important with respect to caring for people who are in distress,” he added. The United States has admitted far fewer Syrian refugees than some allies, such as Germany. Trump has said violent militants could enter the country posing as refugees.    The CNN interview came a day after Kerry attended a one-day conference of 70 nations in Paris on Israeli-Palestinian peace. The conference reaffirmed that only a two-state solution could resolve the conflict and warned against unilateral steps by either side that could prejudge negotiations. Trump has said resolving the conflict will be a priority of his administration and suggested that his son-in-law Jared Kushner could help broker a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians. Kerry, who tried for nine months to forge an agreement between the two sides, welcomed Trump’s efforts but pushed back at a suggestion that the Obama administration was to blame for the failure to clinch a deal. “No, no, the leaders of the two countries involved ... have failed to come to the table to reach an agreement. You can lead a horse to water, you can’t make it drink, and we did a lot of leading to a lot of water.”

Summary: केरी का कहना है कि ट्रम्प का जर्मन राजनीति में कदम रखना अनुचित है


(Reuters) - Montana Republican congressman-elect Greg Gianforte is expected next week to enter a plea of no contest or a plea of guilty to misdemeanor assault after he was accused of attacking a reporter on the eve of his election, a prosecutor said on Thursday. Gianforte will appear in court in Bozeman on Monday and is scheduled to be sentenced the same day, after he enters his plea, Gallatin County Attorney Marty Lambert said by phone. The altercation has been portrayed as an illustration of the new toxicity of American politics. Critics of President Donald Trump say his strident criticism of the media has encouraged violence against journalists, while his supporters say many reporters are overly aggressive and disrespectful.   Under Montana law, a conviction for misdemeanor assault carries a maximum sentence of six months in jail. Lambert declined to say if his office would recommend jail time. An attorney for Gianforte declined comment. Gianforte, a technology executive, pledged in a letter on Wednesday to donate $50,000 to the Committee to Protect Journalists and apologized to reporter Ben Jacobs, who accused Gianforte of assaulting him on May 24. Gianforte won Montana’s lone seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in a special election the next day. Jacobs, a political correspondent for the U.S. edition of The Guardian newspaper, said Gianforte “body-slammed” him, breaking his eyeglasses, when the reporter posed a question about healthcare during a campaign event in Bozeman.  Gianforte was heard shouting: “Get the hell out of here” and “I’m sick and tired of you guys” in an audio recording of the incident played repeatedly on cable news television. Gianforte’s campaign initially suggested Jacobs instigated the incident by barging into the candidate’s office and shoving a recording device in his face as he was preparing for a TV interview. But in a letter of apology to Jacobs issued on Wednesday, Gianforte said his “physical response to your legitimate question was unprofessional, unacceptable and unlawful.” In return for Gianforte’s apology and his charitable donation, Jacobs agreed not to bring civil action against the congressman-elect. Jacobs, at Gianforte’s request, also sent an email to Lambert, saying he would not object to Gianforte pleading no contest to misdemeanor assault, according to a release of liability document signed by Jacobs. Lambert said his office could still insist that Gianforte plead guilty instead of pleading no contest. In either event, the plea would trigger Gianforte’s sentencing. Lambert previously said additional, more serious criminal charges could be brought in the case. But he said on Thursday that after reviewing the evidence and discussing the matter with Jacobs, the prosecutor decided the misdemeanor charge was appropriate. Gianforte defeated Democrat Rob Quist to fill the House seat vacated when Trump appointed Ryan Zinke as interior secretary. He is expected to be sworn in later this month.

Summary: मोंटाना के निर्वाचित सांसद को रिपोर्टर के साथ बहस के लिए सजा सुनाई जाएगी


AMMAN (Reuters) - The top adviser to Iran s supreme leader said he expects the Syrian army to soon recapture rebel-held Idlib province, as well as eastern Syria, an area where U.S.-backed militias hold swathes of territory. Iran is a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Iranian official, Ali Akbar Velayati, was speaking in Aleppo, from which the Syrian army drove rebels after a siege last year with help from Tehran.      The military alliance backing Assad, which also includes Russia and Shi ite Muslim militias, has this year focused on the war in central and eastern Syria against Islamic State (IS) militants.  But Damascus is now setting its sights on territory held by Kurdish-led forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition that has also been fighting the Sunni Muslim IS in northern and eastern Syria.   Soon we will see the eastern Syria cleared, and then the Idlib area in west,  said Velayati, the top aide to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in comments reported by Mehr news agency. He also hailed the success of Iranian allies across the region, including Lebanon s Hezbollah, in remarks likely to infuriate Tehran s main regional foe Saudi Arabia, lauding a  resistance line  from Tehran to Beirut.      Assad s forces have also made some advances into rebel-held areas in northwest Syria adjacent to Idlib, a region that represents the insurgents  biggest remaining stronghold.  Visiting Aleppo, Velayati was quoted by a military news outlet run by Hezbollah as saying Tehran s involvement in the Syrian civil war had averted wider violence.   The resistance line starts from Tehran and passes through Baghdad, Damascus and Beirut to reach Palestine,  he was quoted as telling a group of Shi ite militia volunteers by a military news outlet run by Hezbollah. Iran s role, first by providing military advisers and then by training and arming Shi ite militia in support of Assad, has not only helped shape the Syrian conflict, it has strengthened Tehran s own hand across the region. For the first time, Iran s revolutionary theocracy is exerting decisive authority in an arc of influence that Sunni Arab powers, particularly Saudi Arabia, have been warning about for years. The Hezbollah news outlet said the fighters Velayati was addressing had come to defend the Sayeda Zeinab shrine in Damascus, a magnet for thousands of Iraqi and Afghan Shi ite militia recruits who go there before being assigned to front lines to fight Sunni rebel groups opposed to Assad. Almost every Shi ite militiaman bears insignia on his combat fatigues with the words  For your sake, Sayeda Zeinab . Velayati s visit was the second by a senior Iranian official to the war-torn country in nearly two weeks, showing how Tehran is openly raising its support for the Syrian government. Iran s military chief of staff paid a rare visit to Syria last month in which he warned Israel against breaching Syrian air space and territory a day before he visited a frontline position near Aleppo. Saudi Arabia, its Arab allies and regional powerhouse Israel accuse Iran of seeking to expand its influence in the Arab world with the goal of carving out a land route through Iraq and Syria to the Mediterranean. The Syrian opposition also say Shi ite Iran s military presence in Syria stokes sectarian conflict and blames its militias for demographic changes that have uprooted Sunnis.

Summary: ईरान के वेलायती का कहना है कि पूर्वी सीरिया, इदलिब को 'जल्द' खाली कर दिया जाएगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence walked out of a National Football League game on Sunday after some players knelt during the national anthem, a form of demonstration that began last year in silent protest against police violence toward racial minorities. Pence was attending a game in his home state of Indiana between the Indianapolis Colts and the San Francisco 49ers.  When the national anthem was played before the start of the game, some 49ers knelt while some Colts, their arms locked, wore black T-shirts with the words “We Will” on the front and “Stand for equality, justice, unity, respect, dialogue, opportunity” on the back.  “I left today’s Colts game because President Trump and I will not dignify any event that disrespects our soldiers, our Flag, or our National Anthem,” Pence said in a statement issued by the White House. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said after his team’s game on Sunday that he would bench players who disrespect the U.S. flag. “If there is anything that is disrespectful to the flag then we will not play,” Jones told reporters. Asked about Pence’s departure, Jones said: “We cannot in the NFL in any way give the implication that we tolerate disrespecting the flag. “I know the vice president did leave, because in his opinion the teams were,” he said, adding: “There is no question in my mind that the National Football League and the Dallas Cowboys are going to stand up for the flag.” But the NFL Players Association in a statement defended players’ right to protest. “We should not stifle these discussions and cannot allow our rights to become subservient to the very opinions our Constitution protects,” the association said, adding, in words that borrowed from the national anthem, “that is what makes us the land of the free and the home of the brave.” After Pence’s departure, critics began to question whether he had only attended the game in order to make a production of leaving, pointing out he flew from Las Vegas on Saturday and was then going to fly to California on Sunday evening. Pence had planned for “several weeks” to attend Sunday’s Colts game, where former quarterback Peyton Manning was being honored, an official in his office said, asking not to be named. Additionally, he made a last-minute decision to travel to Las Vegas for a prayer service on Saturday, the official said. “As he had discussed with the president, when several 49ers players disrespected the flag and the national anthem, the vice president decided to leave the game,” the official said. President Donald Trump said in a tweet on Sunday that he had asked Pence to leave the stadium “if any player kneeled, disrespecting our country.” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy declined to comment. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution bars the government from limiting free speech, including prohibiting protests of the national anthem or punishing people who choose not to stand. The national anthem is played before every NFL football game and many other sporting events. Less than an hour after issuing Pence’s statement, the White House released a picture of him and his wife at the stadium where the game took place, standing with hands over their hearts during the performance of the national anthem. Trump’s criticism of the NFL players has played well with his conservative base while he grapples with controversies over Iran and North Korea, an investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and policy struggles in Congress. Pence’s team Indianapolis defeated San Francisco, 26-23, in overtime.

Summary: राष्ट्रगान के दौरान खिलाड़ियों के घुटने टेकने के बाद पेंस एन. एफ. एल. खेल से बाहर हो गए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration asked on Monday that a major federal court case weighing the fate of the Obamacare cost-sharing subsidies be put on hold again, leaving billions of dollars in payments to insurers up in the air for 2017 and 2018.  In a joint filing with the U.S. House of Representatives submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the administration and Republican lawmakers asked for a second 90-day extension. The subsidies are available to low-income Americans who buy individual health insurance on the exchanges created under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, popularly known as Obamacare. President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers want to repeal and replace the law and are working on legislation to overhaul it that would also secure the subsidy funding during a transition period. But it is not clear if or when they will pass it. The two sides said they wanted more time because they were discussing measures that would no longer require a judicial decision, including the new healthcare legislation. Insurers that are trying to set premium rates for insurance plans to be sold in 2018 are running up against deadlines and have repeatedly asked Congress to fund the subsidies during the transition. One Republican senator said on Monday that he believed the money for the subsidies should be appropriated by Congress. “I think we have to,” Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana told reporters outside the Senate. “We need to stabilize premiums, or we’re not going to have a market.” He said he was speaking for himself and not Republican leaders. The legal case was filed by the Republican-led House against the Obama administration to cut off the subsidy payments. A lower court had ruled in favor of the lawmakers, saying that Congress must appropriate the money for the subsidies and that the government could not simply pay for them in the way it does now.  Insurers and medical groups reiterated their view on Monday after the court filing about continuing the payments, which amount to about $7 billion this year and help low-income consumers pay for out-of-pocket medical costs.  “Uncertainty is destabilizing the market and leading health plans to raise their rates for 2018 to account for the political risk brought on by Congress and the administration through a protracted debate over the fate of these reimbursements,” Margaret Murray, chief executive officer of the Association for Community Affiliated Plans, said in a statement. While the proposed legislation from the House would keep the payments through 2019, Trump has said he could stop paying the subsidies at any time. That has insurers concerned that the monthly government payments could end and leave them exposed financially.         Several insurers, including Aetna Inc and Humana Inc, have already exited the Obamacare marketplace for 2018. Credit Suisse analyst Scott Fidel said insurers such as Centene Corp and Molina Healthcare Inc that focus on the low-income families that qualify for the subsidies have the most at risk. Centene shares closed down 1.4 percent at $74.02 and Molina fell 0.8 percent to $66.84.

Summary: ट्रम्प प्रशासन ओबामाकेयर सब्सिडी मामले को फिर से रोकना चाहता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Contractors likely breached security and handed over documents describing the Central Intelligence Agency’s use of hacking tools to anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials told Reuters on Wednesday. Two officials speaking on condition of anonymity said intelligence agencies have been aware since the end of last year of the breach, which led to WikiLeaks releasing thousands of pages of information on its website on Tuesday. According to the documents, CIA hackers could get into Apple Inc (AAPL.O) iPhones, devices running Google’s Android software and other gadgets in order to capture text and voice messages before they were encrypted with sophisticated software. The White House said on Wednesday that President Donald Trump was “extremely concerned” about the CIA security breach that led to the WikiLeaks release. “Anybody who leaks classified information will be held to the highest degree of law,” spokesman Sean Spicer said. The two officials told Reuters they believed the published documents about CIA hacking techniques used between 2013 and 2016 were authentic. One of the officials with knowledge of the investigation said companies that are contractors for the CIA have been checking to see which of their employees had access to the material that WikiLeaks published, and then going over their computer logs, emails and other communications for any evidence of who might be responsible. On Tuesday in a press release, WikiLeaks itself said the CIA had “lost control” of an archive of hacking methods and it  appeared to have been circulated “among former U.S. government hackers and contractors in an unauthorized manner, one of whom has provided WikiLeaks with portions of the archive.” The CIA, which is the United States’ civilian foreign intelligence service, declined to comment on the authenticity of purported intelligence documents.  The agency said in a statement that its mission was to collect foreign intelligence abroad “to protect America from terrorists, hostile nation states and other adversaries” and to be “innovative, cutting-edge, and the first line of defense in protecting this country from enemies abroad.” The CIA is legally prohibited from surveillance inside the United States and “does not do so”, the statement added. A U.S. government source familiar with the matter said it would be normal for the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the CIA both to open investigations into such leaks. U.S. officials previously have confirmed that prosecutors in Alexandria, Virginia for years have been conducting a federal grand jury investigation of WikiLeaks and its personnel.  A spokesman for the prosecutors declined to comment on the possibility of that probe being expanded. It is not clear if the investigation of the latest CIA leaks is part of the probe. Contractors have been revealed as the source of sensitive government information leaks in recent years, most notably Edward Snowden and Harold Thomas Martin, both employed by consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH.N) while working for the National Security Agency.  U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and a Democrat on the intelligence committee, said the government needed to stop the breaches.   “I think we really need to take a look at the contractor portion of the employee workforce, because you have to be loyal to America to work for an intelligence agency, otherwise don’t do it,” Feinstein said. Both U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committees have either opened or are expected to open inquiries into the CIA breach, congressional officials said. Some cyber security experts and technology companies have criticized the government for opting to exploit rather than disclose software vulnerabilities, though an interagency review process set up under former President Barack Obama was intended to err on the side of disclosure. Those concerns would grow if U.S. authorities did not notify companies that CIA documents describing various hacking techniques had been compromised. Apple, Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google, Cisco Systems Inc (CSCO.O) and Oracle Corp (ORCL.N) did not immediately respond when asked if they were notified of a CIA breach before WikiLeaks made its files public. At Apple, none of the vulnerabilities described in the documents provoked a panic, though analysis was continuing, according to a person who spoke with engineers there. Google’s director of information security and privacy,  Heather Adkins, said in a statement: “As we’ve reviewed the documents, we’re confident that security updates and protections in both Chrome and Android (operating systems) already shield users from many of these alleged vulnerabilities. Our analysis is ongoing and we will implement any further necessary protections.” One reason the investigation is focused on a potential leak by contractors rather than for example a hack by Russian intelligence, another official said, is that so far there is no evidence that Russian intelligence agencies tried to exploit any of the leaked material before it was published. One European official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the WikiLeaks material could in fact lead to closer cooperation between European intelligence agencies and U.S. counterparts, which share concerns about Russian intelligence operations. U.S. intelligence agencies have accused Russia of seeking to tilt last year’s U.S. presidential election in Trump’s favor,  including by hacking into Democratic Party emails. Moscow has denied the allegation. One major security problem was that the number of contractors with access to information with the highest secrecy classification has “exploded” because of federal budget constraints, the first U.S. official said. U.S. intelligence agencies have been unable to hire additional permanent staff needed to keep pace with technological advances such as the “internet of things” that connects cars, home security and heating systems and other devices to computer networks, or to pay salaries competitive with the private sector, the official said. Reuters could not immediately verify the contents of the published documents.  A person familiar with WikiLeaks’ activities said the group has had the CIA hacking material for months, and that the release of the material was in the works “for a long time.” In Germany on Wednesday, the chief federal prosecutor’s office said that it would review the WikiLeaks documents because some suggested that the CIA ran a hacking hub from the U.S. consulate in Frankfurt. “We will initiate an investigation if we see evidence of concrete criminal acts or specific perpetrators,” a spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office told Reuters. Chancellor Angela Merkel is scheduled to visit Washington on March 14 for her first meeting with Trump, who has sharply criticized Berlin for everything from its trade policy to what he considers inadequate levels of military spending.

Summary: सी. आई. ए. ठेकेदार नवीनतम विकीलीक्स विज्ञप्ति के स्रोत हो सकते हैंः अमेरिकी अधिकारी


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese police said on Wednesday they have arrested a couple whose 33-year-old daughter froze to death in a tiny room where they had confined her for years because they believed she had a form of mental illness that made her violent. Western Japan s Osaka Prefectural Police Department said Airi Kakimoto s body was found in a state of extreme malnutrition after her parents reported the death on Saturday. She was 145 cm (4.76 ft) tall and weighed just 19 kg (42 lb). Police said Yasutaka Kakimoto, 55, and Yukari Kakimoto, 53, had confessed that they fed their daughter only once a day and kept her in a 3-square-metre room for some 15 years.  Our daughter was mentally ill and, from age 16 or 17, she became violent, so we kept her inside the room,  police quoted her parents as saying. People with mental and physical disabilities and their families can still suffer stigma and shame in Japan despite some changes in public attitudes. Police said the parents added the small room - fitted with a camera and a double door that could only be unlocked from the outside - to their house and equipped it with a makeshift toilet and tube to a water tank outside. About 10 surveillance cameras were installed outside the single-storey home, which was surrounded by a 2-metre high fence, police said. The parents found their daughter dead on Dec. 18 but they reported the death Saturday.  We wanted to be together with our daughter,  police quoted them as saying. Police said the couple were arrested on suspicion of illegally disposing of a body, a step that often precedes more serious charges.

Summary: माता-पिता द्वारा वर्षों तक कैद में रखी गई जापानी महिला मृत अवस्था में मिलीः पुलिस


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican candidate Donald Trump’s odds at becoming the next president of the United States took a hit following his loss to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas in the Iowa caucuses, two online betting sites said on Tuesday.  On Tuesday morning, both Ladbrokes PLC and Paddy Power Betfair PLC said the real estate tycoon’s odds of winning the November election were now 7/1, compared to 3/1 on Monday. That reduced his chances for victory to 13 percent from 25 percent on Monday. Cruz won Monday’s Republican Iowa caucuses with 28 percent of the vote compared with 24 percent for Trump, whose aggressive and unorthodox campaign has been marked by unorthodox and controversial stances such as calls to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States or build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida has taken over as the favorite to become the Republican nominee after a stronger-than-expected third place finish in the caucuses, Ladbrokes said. His odds for the nomination were 4/5 on Tuesday, giving him a 56 percent chance. Trump’s odds were 11/4, giving him a 27 percent chance. “This could be the first sign that the Trump bubble is about to burst,” said Matthew Shaddick, head of political odds at  Ladbrokes, said in a statement. “The betting is now firmly pointing toward a Clinton-Rubio showdown in November.” Trump’s odds have improved since he declared his candidacy in June, when they were 100/1, giving him a 1 percent chance, Ladbrokes said.  (Reporting by Anjali Athavaley; Editing by David Gregorio) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.

Summary: सट्टेबाजी साइटों का कहना है कि आयोवा के बाद ट्रम्प के राष्ट्रपति पद को लंबी बाधाओं का सामना करना पड़ रहा है


PARIS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It was stupid, clumsy and inappropriate for someone to edit the video of a State Department briefing in 2013, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday as two U.S. lawmakers demanded information about the incident.  A Republican congressman asked the State Department inspector general to investigate why part of a public briefing that dealt with Iran nuclear talks was cut before it was posted online while another demanded documents about the incident. The excised portion of the Dec. 2, 2013, briefing included a question about whether an earlier spokeswoman for the department had misled reporters about whether the United States was holding secret direct nuclear talks with Iran. The spokeswoman had denied there were such talks, which were later made public. The State Department this week said she did not know about the secret talks when she denied their existence. Speaking to reporters in Paris, Kerry sounded chagrined about the episode, which has drawn Republican criticism. “Whatever happened was both clumsy and stupid and inappropriate,” Kerry said. Asked if he wanted people who tampered with the historical record working for him, he replied: “Of course not. I just said, it’s inappropriate.” The State Department initially said it believed a “glitch” caused the gap but on Wednesday said an internal inquiry found it was a deliberate omission. However, it said no rules were broken because none existed governing the integrity of the briefing video. Rules are now being put in place. U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said the technician who excised part of the video told investigators she got a call asking her to do so, discussed the request with her supervisor and concluded it came from a “level of credibility and authority” high enough that they should act on the request. The State Department has said the technician does not remember who called her. On Friday the department said it cannot use internal phone records to trace who requested the cut to the briefing video because it keeps such data for only 24 hours. Top officials in the Bureau of Public Affairs in late 2013, including former Assistant Secretary Doug Frantz, former spokeswoman Jen Psaki, former deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf, and deputy assistant secretaries Dana Smith, Valerie Fowler and Moira Whelan have all denied asking for the video to be excised. “In tampering with this video, the Bureau of Public Affairs has undermined its mission to ‘communicate timely and accurate information with the goal of furthering U.S. foreign policy’,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce said in a letter released by his office that asked the department’s inspector general, Steve Linick, to investigate the matter. Separately, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, also a Republican, on Tuesday wrote to Secretary of State John Kerry asking for documents related to the edited video to be turned over to his panel by Wednesday.

Summary: वीडियो कट 'अनाड़ी और मूर्खतापूर्ण और अनुचित': केरी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Banking Committee said on Wednesday it would vote next week on the nomination of Jay Clayton, President Donald Trump’s choice to lead the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. After the panel votes on April 4, Clayton would still need to be confirmed by the full U.S. Senate before he could be sworn in as SEC chairman.

Summary: एस. ई. सी. उम्मीदवार क्लेटन को 4 अप्रैल को सीनेट पैनल का वोट मिलेगा


(Reuters) - A Virginia federal judge on Monday issued a preliminary injunction against President Donald Trump’s travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority nations, the latest legal setback for the administration.  The ruling from U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema came in response to a request from the Commonwealth of Virginia. Brinkema said the Justice Department had responded to Virginia’s injunction request with “no evidence.”

Summary: वर्जीनिया के न्यायाधीश ने ट्रम्प के यात्रा प्रतिबंध के खिलाफ नया आदेश जारी किया


ERBIL (Reuters) - The Kurdish independence vote championed by their leader Masoud Barzani was a gamble that may have made his quest for a homeland more elusive than ever.  The Sept 25 vote won overwhelming backing for secession but has raised the possibility of a new civil war in Iraq that could draw in regional powers. Baghdad says the vote is illegal.  Just a few months ago, the Iraqi army, Kurdish fighters, known as the Peshmerga, and Iranian-backed Shi ite paramilitary forces worked together to defeat Islamic State in Mosul. But that cooperation was short-lived and on Monday Iraqi forces seized Kirkuk   an important oil town for the OPEC producer that is also considered by the Kurds to be the heart of their homeland. Iran and Turkey oppose Kurdish independence and Shi ite militias funded by Tehran are gaining influence across Iraq. Meanwhile divisions between the two parties in the ruling Kurdish coalition have deepened.  Kurds have been managing these areas since the fall of (Iraqi President) Saddam (Hussein) in 2003 and to change the situation in an instant will make the whole situation as if it is sinking into quicksand,  said Baghdad-based analyst Jasim al-Bahadli, an expert on Shi ite armed groups. He said the Shi ite paramilitary groups  presence in areas that used to be controlled by Kurds will help create tensions that could lead to a long-term conflict.  Sensitivities could develop into hostilities that could spark a civil war,  he said.  Barzani and his Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) have defended the referendum.   It was the right move. No one will stop us from achieving independence,  his spokesman Vahal Ali said.  But not all of Iraq s Kurds, who fought a bloody civil war amongst themselves in the 1990s, supported the idea, raising doubts over the management of any independent state.     The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) said the KDP, who make up the coalition, were putting Kurds at risk because of strong opposition to the vote, including from key ally the United States.    The Peshmerga General Command in the KDP stronghold of Erbil accused Iran, a historical ally of the PUK, of helping Iraqi forces launch the offensive in the Kirkuk area.  Unfortunately some of the PUK officials betrayed Kurdistan by being part of the plan by abandoning key fronts and leaving ,  said the Peshmerga statement.  This plot will fail and the will of our people will prevail.  Ali Akbar Velayati - a top adviser to Iran s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - was quoted in a report by Tasnim news agency as saying Iran had no role in the Kirkuk operations. A senior Western diplomat also denied that Iran had played a role.   This is mythology. Barzani has in the past blamed others for his mistakes including the PUK. But this is mythology designed to get support from the Americans,  he said. PUK leader Jalal Talabani died barely a week after the vote, adding more uncertainty for the Kurds. Shuras Sherko Jdy, an official in the main opposition Kurdish Gorran Movement, said the Kurds, who gradually built an autonomous region in the north after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, were facing a leadership crisis.  Civil war could take place over Kirkuk. I hope it does not. If it does it will encourage the intervention of Iran and Turkey,  he said. But Iran, like Turkey, worries the vote will encourage their own Kurdish populations to push for homelands and has made no secret of its growing ambitions in Iraq. The most prominent Iranian figure in Iraq is Major General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of foreign operations for Iran s elite Revolutionary Guards, a military corp providing training and weapons to Iraqi paramilitary groups backing the Shi ite-led government in Baghdad. Ali said Soleimani appeared in Kirkuk two nights before Iraqi security forces attacked. That account was confirmed by an Iranian source in Iraq who said he appeared for  a couple of hours there to give military guidance.   Tehran s military help is not a secret anymore. You can find General Soleimani s pictures in Iraq everywhere,  said an official close to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.   Now, beside political issues, Kirkuk s oil is a very key element for Iran, which is an OPEC member. Control of those oil fields by Iran s enemies, would be disastrous for us. Why should we let them enter the oil market?.  Kurds have sought an independent state since at least the end of World War One, when colonial powers divided up the Middle East after the collapse of the multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire and left Kurdish-populated territory split between Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. They have often accused the West of not helping them during times of trouble. President Donald Trump has said the United States would not take sides in the clash. Some fear the referendum, which gave Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi a chance to assert his authority, has put independence further out of reach.  Baghdad has also banned international flights to Kurdish airports and imposed punitive financial measures.  We used to control our own airports. We used to control our own borders. We were running our own autonomous region...Now we have nothing. Barzani is responsible for this,  said Jdy.

Summary: वोट ने इराकी कुर्दों की स्वतंत्रता को पहुंच से बाहर कर दिया होगा


ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan s electoral commission on Wednesday barred from contesting elections a new political party that is backed by an Islamist with a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head, a government official said. Haroon Khan, a spokesman for the commission, said a four-man panel rejected the registration of Milli Muslim League (MML) as an official political party. Khan said Muhammad Raza Khan, chief of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), told MML s lawyer at the final hearing of the registration that the new party has links with militant groups and as such  We can t enlist you.  The ECP spokesman said the commission cited an interior ministry recommendation that the MML was  affiliated  with Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), a militant group blamed for the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people, and that such groups could breed violence and extremism in politics.   The United States has designated LeT founder Hafiz Saeed a terrorist and offers a $10 million reward for information leading to his conviction.  Saeed, currently under house arrest, heads the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) Islamict charity, which Washington says is a front for LeT. Pakistan s reluctance to press charges against him has been a sore point in relations with Washington and India over the past decade.  Saifullah Khalid, the head of MML, said his party would challenge the decision.  An attempt is being made to keep patriotic forces away from politics,  he said. The party is likely to continue operating unofficially, as it did last month when one of its leaders contested a by-election in the eastern city of Lahore as an independent candidate. The candidate, Yaqoob Sheikh, won several thousand votes, though officials from MML and JuD ran his campaign. Saeed s portraits adorned posters promoting Sheikh. The move to bar the party appears at odds with what political and former military sources told Reuters was a plan by the military s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency to integrate militant-linked organizations by bringing them into politics as part of a de-radicalization drive. Pakistani army spokesman Major-General Asif Ghafoor also said last week the integration of militants into the country s politics would be based on seeking a constructive role for the militant-linked groups, although he did not comment on the military s role in any such strategy.   It is in my knowledge that the government has started some discussion over it, that is, how do we mainstream them,  Ghafoor said.  Neighbors India and Afghanistan accuse Pakistan s military of backing and using militant groups such as LeT as proxies, a charge the army denies. The MML is actively running a campaign for its candidate contesting another by-election on Oct 26., to be held in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Summary: पाकिस्तान ने आतंकवादियों से जुड़े समूह को नई राजनीतिक पार्टी बनाने से रोका


LONDON (Reuters) - British foreign minister Boris Johnson will oppose any move to adopt European Union regulations made after Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported, risking reigniting divisions over Brexit. Johnson, who campaigned to leave the EU in last year s referendum, is one of Britain s highest-profile politicians and seen as a possible replacement for Prime Minister Theresa May. On Friday, he praised a speech by May in which she set out her plan for a roughly two-year transition period after Brexit.  But the Telegraph reported that Johnson had set out a new set of demands, reviving talk of a split among May s senior ministers which has the potential to destabilize her minority government.  Boris will be one of those Cabinet ministers pushing to make sure we don t have any new EU rules and regulations during the transition,  a cabinet source was quoted as saying by the newspaper. Johnson had fueled talk of a leadership challenge ahead of May s speech by publishing his own 4,000-word plan for Brexit which was seen as a criticism of May s more cautious approach.  May s transition plan, set out in the Italian city of Florence in a speech that sought to break an impasse in negotiations with the EU, underlined the importance of regulation to the future economic relationship with the bloc. She highlighted the fact that Britain and the EU start with identical regulatory standards and said she wanted  a practical approach to regulation that enables us to continue to work together in bringing shared prosperity to our peoples . She did not say whether she thought EU regulations passed during the transition period would be matched by Britain but said, on EU law, that British courts would be able to take European Courts of Justice rulings into account. May s Brexit minister David Davis said he did expect British and EU regulations to diverge over time after Brexit.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के जॉनसन ने ब्रेक्सिट संक्रमण के दौरान किसी भी नए यूरोपीय संघ के नियमों को अपनाने का विरोध किया


BOSTON (Reuters) - Many opinion polls show Democrat Hillary Clinton leading Republican Donald Trump in a tight race for the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election, but any one of four factors may make the outcome harder to predict. Among the challenges for pollsters: The historic unpopularity of both candidates, the potential Election Day voter response to the polls themselves, the growing abandonment of landlines for cellphones, and the rise of online polling. Some high-profile stumbles worldwide - including opinion polls that missed Colombia’s Oct. 2 rejection of a peace deal - underscore how technological, social and cultural shifts have made polling more difficult than ever. An average of polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.com shows former Secretary of State Clinton beating Trump, a businessman, by 5.4 percentage points. Highlighting the difficulties, the range varies from plus-13 for Clinton to a straight tie. Trump has said the election is rigged against him and this week, in a Reuters interview, he accused media organizations of tilting the polls deliberately, but he has yet to offer any widely accepted evidence to back up these claims. Voter turnout in the last few presidential elections has been about 60 percent. But given both candidates’ low overall popularity, turnout this year may fall to as low as 52 percent, said Cliff Zukin, a professor emeritus of political science at New Jersey’s Rutgers University and a former president of the American Association for Public Opinion Research.  That makes it hard to guess who might stay home. “It’s always been difficult to simulate a likely electorate and I think that’s harder to do in 2016,” Zukin said. A second pitfall is the effect of the polling itself on voters. Sociologists believe polls can weaken projected winners by making their supporters more confident of the outcome and, therefore, less likely to vote.  The percentage of Trump supporters who expect him to win has dropped to 49 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from Oct. 20-24, down from 74 percent from Sept. 16-20. Clinton supporters’ confidence rose at the same time. If that leads to a higher turnout of Trump supporters than of Clinton supporters, it might affect the election outcome. Pollsters caution, however, that the effect of polls on the electorate can only go so far.     “If it were showing Clinton up by 2 points, then it’s certainly possible that it would be within the margin of error that Trump might win,” said Douglas Schwartz, director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. “But if you’re finding that all of these high-quality polls are showing Clinton consistently ahead, then I think you can trust them,” he said. One of the biggest factors in polling today is the prevalence of cellphones. About half of Americans have only a cellphone and no landline, according to Federal Communications Commission data, more than double the number who were wireless-only in 2010.  This makes it harder and more expensive for pollsters to gather a truly random sample of opinions because U.S. law prohibits computerized auto-dialing (also known as robocalls) to cellphones and there is no central directory for cellphones.  Polling cellphones can costs 30 to 50 percent more than polling land lines due to requirements that the numbers be dialed manually, according to Pew Research Center estimates. This has led polling outfits to generally rely on lower sample sizes to come up with results. Calls to cellphones are also more easily screened by their users, and as a result pollsters say they connect with just 10 percent of people they try to contact, down from 80 percent a few decades ago.  But Courtney Kennedy, director of survey research at Pew said, “In terms of data, the quality is better.” Many respondents on cellphones are young and racially diverse, she said. Others, such as Reuters/Ipsos, conduct surveys online. This allows them to reach large numbers of people at lower cost. But because participants are volunteers in many cases, rather than selected at random, segments of the electorate may be left out.     The lower or skewed response in both cellphone and online polls can pose a challenge with pollsters having to adjust results to match the real world. To accomplish this, they weight more heavily the opinions of types of voters under-represented in their surveys. Pollsters use population statistics, experience and intuition to do this. For instance, if the proportion of men who respond to a survey is lower than their proportion of the overall population, the pollster will adjust the finding to try to even that out. “Then you’ve built in an assumption that the males that didn’t respond are like the males that responded. And that’s an unknowable fact,” said Robert Groves, provost of Georgetown University, a social statistician and author of seven books on polling who served as director of the U.S. Census Bureau from 2009 through 2012. But such modeling can work well in some cases. A study by Columbia University statisticians, published in 2014 in the International Journal of Forecasting, showed that a poll of users of Microsoft Corp’s Xbox gaming system could be used to accurately predict the election’s outcome. The gamers were far younger, whiter and more male than the U.S. electorate and predicted a sweeping victory for Republican Mitt Romney in 2012. But when the results were weighted according to voters who turned out in 2008, they predicted President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election. Getting the weightings right this time could be a tougher job because Trump has attracted many supporters who historically have voted erratically, or not at all. “We can’t apply 2008 and 2012 models to 2016,” said Ashley Koning, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University.

Summary: क्लिंटन बढ़त बनाए हुए हैं, लेकिन सर्वेक्षणकर्ताओं का कहना है कि उनका काम कठिन है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The longest-serving U.S. diplomat warned against isolationism, protectionism and Russian aggression on Friday in a retirement speech implicitly criticizing some of U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies even as he urged officials to serve the White House loyally. Ambassador Dan Fried argued that since becoming a world power over a century ago, the United States had largely pursued an open, rules-based world, rejected “spheres of influence” where great powers bully their neighbors and contributed to “the longest period of general peace in the West since Roman times.” “This track record suggests that an open, rules-based world, with a united West at its core, is an asset and great achievement, and a foundation for more,” the former assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs said as he wrapped up a nearly 40-year career at the U.S. State Department. “Yet, some argue that this is actually a liability, that values are a luxury, that in a Hobbesian or Darwinian world we should simply take our share, the largest possible,” he added. The comment was an implicit rebuke to the “America First” approach in which Trump has pledged to end what he sees as decades of other nations freeloading on U.S. security and exploiting trade agreements harmful to U.S. workers. In his speech, Fried noted “how improbable victory in the Cold War appeared” in the 1980s and he hailed the freeing of swathes of Europe, including Poland, where he served as U.S. ambassador, from Soviet domination. “This great achievement is now under assault by Russia,” he said. “It is for the present generation to defend and, when the time comes again, extend freedom in Europe.” While Fried is a skeptic of Russian intentions, colleagues described him as a pragmatist who led efforts to work with Russia as a White House aide under Bill Clinton after the fall of the Berlin Wall and later when serving George W. Bush. He is the latest member of a generation of experienced hands who have left U.S. diplomatic ranks in recent months. Some, like Fried, have retired voluntarily, while others Trump chose not to retain. Many current and former U.S. officials are troubled by Trump’s openness to closer ties with Russia, fearing this could lead to acquiescence in its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and, more broadly, in Russian domination of its other neighbors. Free trade advocates are also worried by Trump’s decision to abandon the 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, his desire to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and his suggestion he could impose punitive tariffs. Fried argued against a winner-take-all attitude in which the great powers each try to carve up the world to their advantage. “Spheres of influence ... would mean our acquiescence when great powers – starting with Russia and China – dominated their neighbors through force and fear, while creating closed economic empires,” he said.  “America would essentially retreat from whole areas of East Asia, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.” In what appeared another implicit criticism of the current  administration, whose efforts to clamp down on immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations and on refugee admissions have been stymied by the courts, Fried said:  “We are not an ethno-state, with identity rooted in shared blood.” The retiring diplomat also urged current officials to serve Trump and new Secretary of State Rex Tillerson “with loyalty, dedication and courage.” “Help Secretary Tillerson. He deserves it. And he needs it. And help the president as well, putting your backs into it.” Among those who spoke at the event were former Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who took a dig at how long it has taken Trump to fill State Department jobs, including his own. “When Secretary (of State John) Kerry used to say to me as deputy, ‘you are truly irreplaceable,’ I thought it was just flattery,” Blinken said. “Who knew?” he added, to loud laughter.

Summary: अमेरिकी राजनयिक ने निहित ट्रम्प फटकार में अलगाववाद के खिलाफ चेतावनी दी


LONDON (Reuters) - The divorce deal agreed by London and Brussels on Friday is a boost to the British economy, finance minister Philip Hammond said on Friday, as he urged both sides to now move on to a trade deal that supports jobs and prosperity.   Delighted a deal agreed in Brussels that paves way for further progress on talks about future UK/EU relationship,  he said on Twitter.  A positive step. Congratulations @theresa_may  Today s announcement in Brussels is a boost for Britain s economy. Now let s conclude a trade deal that supports Britain s jobs, businesses and prosperity.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के हैमंड का कहना है कि ब्रेक्सिट सौदा अर्थव्यवस्था के लिए एक बढ़ावा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump grudgingly signed into law new sanctions against Russia on Wednesday, a move Moscow said amounted to a full-scale trade war and an end to hopes for better ties with the Trump administration. Congress overwhelmingly approved the legislation last week, passing a measure that conflicts with the Republican president’s desire to improve relations with Moscow. Trump signed the bill behind closed doors, without the fanfare that has customarily accompanied his signing of executive orders. He criticized the measure as infringing on his powers to shape foreign policy, and said he could make “far better deals” with governments than Congress can. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called the sanctions tantamount to a “full-scale trade war,” adding in a Facebook post that they showed the Trump administration had demonstrated “utter powerlessness.” “The hope that our relations with the new American administration would improve is finished,” he wrote. Trump’s litany of concerns about the sanctions, which also affect Iran and North Korea, raised the question of how vigorously Trump will implement them regarding Russia. “While I favor tough measures to punish and deter aggressive and destabilizing behavior by Iran, North Korea, and Russia, this legislation is significantly flawed,” Trump said in a message to lawmakers known as a signing statement. He also issued a statement for the press about the bill. The new law allows Congress, which passed the measure to punish Russia over interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea, to halt any effort by Trump to ease sanctions on Russia.  His hands were tied after the Republican-controlled Congress approved the legislation by such a large margin last week that any presidential veto of the bill would have been overridden. The legislation provoked countermeasures by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said on Sunday that the U.S. diplomatic mission in Russia must reduce its staff by 755 people. Russia is also seizing two properties near Moscow used by American diplomats. Trump has repeatedly said he wants to improve relations with Russia. That desire has been stymied by U.S. intelligence agencies’ findings that Russia interfered to help the Republican against Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. U.S. congressional panels and a special counsel are investigating. Moscow denies any meddling and Trump denies any collusion by his campaign. Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan welcomed the signing, saying it would send “a powerful message to our adversaries that they will be held accountable.” In his statements on the sanctions law, Trump complained about what he said was congressional infringement on the president’s constitutional power to set foreign policy, saying the law reflected congressional “preferences” rather than a legal mandate. “It is flagging those areas where the administration sees itself as having wiggle room to underenforce the law by citing claimed constitutional concerns,” said Harold Koh, a Yale Law School professor who was a legal adviser to the State Department during the Obama administration. The House’s top Democrat, Nancy Pelosi, said the signing statement “raises serious questions about whether his administration intends to follow the law.” Trump said he was elected partly because of his successes in business, adding, “As President, I can make far better deals with foreign countries than Congress.” Trump’s signing statement was the latest in a series of mixed signals from the administration on Russia. “I feel like there’s several policies being implemented at once, and they’re not very compatible with one another. This is one more,” said Olga Oliker, a Russia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank based in Washington. Vice President Mike Pence, touring Baltic countries adjacent to Russia, has followed a hawkish line. Pence said Trump’s signing of the legislation would show that Congress and the president were “speaking with a unified voice” on Russia. However, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, like Trump, has been critical of the legislation. “The action by the Congress to put these sanctions in place and the way they did, neither the president nor I were very happy about that,” Tillerson said on Tuesday. The sanctions will affect a range of Russian industries and might further hurt Russia’s economy, already weakened by 2014 sanctions imposed after the annexation of Crimea. Besides angering Moscow, the legislation has upset the European Union, which has said the new sanctions might affect its energy security and prompt it to retaliate if needed. Several provisions of the law target the Russian energy sector, with new limits on U.S. investment in Russian companies. American companies also would be barred from participating in energy exploration projects where Russian firms have a stake of 33 percent or higher.  The legislation includes sanctions on foreign companies investing in or helping Russian energy exploration, although the president could waive those sanctions.  It would give the Trump administration the option of imposing sanctions on companies helping develop Russian export pipelines, such as the Nord Stream 2 pipeline carrying natural gas to Europe, in which German companies are involved.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने रूस प्रतिबंध विधेयक पर हस्ताक्षर किए, मास्को ने इसे 'व्यापार युद्ध' कहा


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran will react sharply to any U.S. move against the nuclear deal with global powers, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told the Iranian parliament Wednesday, according to a parliamentarian who attended the session quoted by state media. The comments were the latest in a series of tough remarks from Iran s leadership, showing a united front between its pragmatist and hardline factions as U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to harden policy towards Tehran this week.  In the closed session Zarif emphasized that if the Americans take any steps against the nuclear deal that the Islamic Republic of Iran will give them a more crushing response,  Shahbaz Hassanpour, a lawmaker representing the city of Sirjan, told the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). Another lawmaker, Behrouz Nemati, said the foreign minister discussed specific steps Trump and the U.S. Congress might take, and Iran s plans for reciprocal action to each anticipated U.S. move. Nemati did not say what actions Zarif had described. Trump is expected this week to  decertify  the landmark 2015 deal under which Iran agreed with global powers to accept curbs on its nuclear program in return for the lifting of international sanctions. Decertification would not by itself withdraw the United States from the agreement, but would pass that decision on to Congress, requiring lawmakers to decide within 60 days whether to re-impose sanctions. Trump is also expected to declare Iran s Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist organization. Since the Guards have a vast economic empire in Iran, such a declaration could make it more difficult for Iranian businesses to access the international financial system. Washington has already blacklisted other entities and individuals for supporting Guards  activities, but has not blacklisted the Guards themselves. The threat of increased U.S. pressure has been met by a united front of criticism from within Iran, with members of the pragmatic faction that seeks greater interaction with the West showing their support for the hardline Guards. Iranian newspapers ran photos on Tuesday of Zarif, the urbane, U.S.-educated foreign minister, laughing and hugging the head of the Guards, Mohammad Ali Jafari. During the meeting with Zarif, parliament members expressed their support for the Guards, Hassanpour said. Zarif also noted during the session that European countries will continue backing the nuclear deal regardless of what actions the U.S may take, Hassanpour told IRNA.

Summary: ईरान के विदेश मंत्री ने सांसदों से कहा कि वे ट्रम्प के कदमों का जवाब देने की योजना बना रहे हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Republicans on Monday released changes to their healthcare bill, including a six-month waiting period for people who have let their insurance coverage lapse for over 63 days - about two months - and want to get insured again. The change appeared aimed at deterring people from dropping health insurance to begin with, a concern that arose in part because the bill cancels the monetary penalty for being uninsured under the current law, known commonly as Obamacare. Senate leaders want to hold a vote on the bill before the July 4 recess that starts at the end of this week.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेट रिपब्लिकन ने स्वास्थ्य सेवा प्रस्ताव में बदलाव जारी किए


ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria s armed forces said on Friday a group campaigning for the secession of a part of southeastern Nigeria formerly known as Biafra had been categorized as a  terrorist organization . The move follows days of tension in which members of the group accused the army of laying siege to their leader s home, which the army denied. A curfew was imposed in Abia state where the residence is located.  The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group has stepped up calls for secession since its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, was released on bail in April after being detained nearly two years on charges of criminal conspiracy and belonging to an illegal society. Secessionist sentiment has simmered in the region since the Biafra separatist rebellion plunged Africa s most populous country into a civil war in 1967-70 that killed an estimated one million people. The military presence in southeastern Nigeria has increased in the last few weeks as part of an operation that the military said was part of efforts to crack down on crime.  The Armed Forces of Nigeria wishes to confirm to the general public that IPOB from all intent, plan and purpose as analyzed, is a militant terrorist organization,  said armed forces spokesman John Enenche in an emailed statement.  The statement said IPOB had formed a  Biafra secret service  a paramilitary division, extorted money from people on public roads and attacked members of the armed forces.  An IPOB spokesman was not immediately available for comment.  The tension is another security challenge for President Muhammadu Buhari in addition to the eight-year Boko Haram jihadist insurgency in the northeast and attempts to maintain a fragile ceasefire in the southern Niger Delta energy hub. Militant attacks on oil facilities in the Niger Delta last year cut crude production by more than a third. Renewed calls for Biafran secession prompted Buhari to use his first speech after returning from three months of medical leave in Britain in August to say Nigeria s unity was  not negotiable .  Amid mounting tensions in the region, the army on Thursday said it was investigating video footage circulating on social media that purportedly showed troops at a checkpoint in Abia  using sticks to flog men stripped to the waist and forcing them to drink muddy water. Amnesty International in 2016 accused Nigeria s security forces of killing at least 150 Biafra separatists at peaceful rallies. The military and police denied the allegations. (This version of the story corrects typo in headline)

Summary: नाइजीरियाई सेना ने बियाफ्रा अलगाववादी समूह को आतंकवादी संगठन करार दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representative Speaker Paul Ryan said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday that he expects to hear from the Trump administration about getting more relief to help Puerto Rico, Texas and Florida recover from Hurricanes Irma and Maria.  We re expecting to hear from the administration as early as tomorrow perhaps, maybe Thursday, for more relief for hurricanes for Puerto Rico, for Florida, for Texas,  Ryan said.  These hurricanes were exceptional and that means we re going to have to have more response to fill the FEMA accounts and some other accounts.

Summary: हाउस स्पीकर रेयान को तूफानों के लिए और अधिक आपातकालीन राहत की उम्मीद हैः फॉक्स


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to bolster travel security in the wake of the Brussels attacks with measures that include doubling the number of transportation security teams with bomb-sniffing dogs at domestic airports and other transit hubs. Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to add security measures to a separate bill that calls for renewing the programs of the Federal Aviation Administration through September 2017. The FAA bill is expected to come up for a final vote later this month.    After Republicans and Democrats reached a deal on security measures earlier in the day, lawmakers voted to raise the number of Visible Intermodal Prevention Response, or VIPER, teams within the Transportation Security Administration from 31 to 60. VIPER teams, which are intended as a visible deterrent to attacks, can be deployed at airports and train or bus stations. Other measures would bolster the vetting of airport employees, add security to vulnerable check-in and baggage claim areas and authorize the TSA to donate security equipment to foreign airports with direct flights to the United States. The approved provisions would also order a new U.S. assessment of foreign cargo security programs and provide grant money to train state, local and foreign authorities in how to respond to mass-casualty and “active shooter” incidents. It is unclear what kind of reception the FAA bill, if passed by the Senate, might receive in the House of Representatives. House lawmakers have been considering their own FAA legislation. That bill also calls for the privatization of the U.S. air traffic control system, a measure that is not in the Senate’s legislation.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेटरों ने एफ. ए. ए. विधेयक में यात्रा सुरक्षा को मजबूत करने के लिए मतदान किया


BARCELONA (Reuters) - Moments before Catalonia s leader, Carles Puigdemont, baulked at declaring independence from Spain this week, cracks were already appearing in his secessionist ranks. Some members of his political alliance say they were waiting for him at Barcelona s 18th-century regional parliament building on Tuesday evening, fully expecting him to call for an independence vote in the chamber that night. Instead, after arriving late, to the cheers of thousands of supporters, the former journalist and lifetime advocate of independence told his allies an hour before entering the chamber that there had been a late change of plan, according to one of those present. There would be no vote. Instead, Puigdemont made a symbolic declaration of independence, then suspended it and called for negotiations with Madrid.  We are annoyed, we are hurt, we are angry because he came up with a strategic change one hour before the parliamentary session,  said Carles Riera, a member of the Catalan parliament from the far-left CUP party, which backs an unequivocal declaration of independence and whose support keeps Puigdemont s minority government alive.  A spokesman for Puigdemont s party denied he had surprised all of his own political allies, saying his core coalition had agreed the plan in the morning. The CUP was not included in that morning meeting but was informed afterwards, the spokesman said, without saying when. The CUP s claim of betrayal reveals the shaky political foundations upon which Catalonia s independence movement is built, a jumble of parties ranging from anti-capitalists to free marketeers whose only common cause is to split from Spain. There are now doubts over Puigdemont s ability to survive the worst confrontation between Catalonia, a former principality with its own language and culture, and Madrid in 40 years. Members of the CUP say Puigdemont lost his nerve at the crucial moment. One CUP lawmaker present at the meeting, Eulalia Reguant, quit the day after, citing his reversal. Instead of persuading Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to accept talks, his gesture was met with an ultimatum: renounce independence by Thursday or Madrid will use its constitutional power to take control of the region directly. Now Puigdemont, 54, finds himself in a struggle with not only Madrid, but also internally with the CUP, which may end up being the bigger danger for his political career and for his  prospects of winning another regional election on a pro-independence platform. The small CUP party had ousted Puigdemont s predecessor as Catalan president, Artur Mas, in 2015. It refused to back the mainstream independence coalition, Junts pel Si, unless Mas stepped down.  If Puigdemont backs down and says we tried but this is not working, unilateral secession isn t doable, I don t think CUP will support him again,  said Eurasia analyst Federico Santi. He said Puigdemont s party was already sliding in opinion polls. In the final hour before Puigdemont stood up in the regional parliament to announce that he was suspending the independence push, he also made it clear to those in his political circle that their voices were not the only ones that mattered.  I am talking to the world,  he told them when pressed for an explanation, according to two people who were present. Some in the room said they suspected he had taken a phone call from a senior EU figure in Brussels, though the heads of the two main EU political institutions, Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk, said it was not them. One EU official, however, said there was reason to believe that an emotional personal appeal Tusk had made publicly to Puigdemont a couple of hours before he was due to speak had weighed on the Catalan leader s decision. Puigdemont has always considered world opinion as crucial to Catalan independence: as a journalist in the 1990s, he traveled Europe to research media impressions of Catalonia and wrote a book,  Cata ... que?  (Cata ... what?). A supporter of the European Union, he switches easily from Catalan to Spanish, French or Romanian, the native language of his wife, whom he met at the Catalan News Agency he founded.  The president made a speech which was very much addressed to EU institutions and governments,  a Catalan government source said on condition of anonymity. Puigdemont also made clear that he considered it would be Spain s responsibility if it rejected his offer of dialogue. Several neighboring countries criticized Spain s use of force to disrupt Catalonia s Oct. 1 independence referendum, which had been banned by Madrid. Hundreds were injured when police used batons and rubber bullets on voters. The crackdown, though, fired up independence supporters and hardened expectations among Puigdemont s base that he would unilaterally declare independence in parliament. When he didn t, supporters watching his speech on large screens outside the assembly buried their heads in their hands, some wept, and they rolled up their Catalan flags and went home. Inside, the recriminations were well underway. Some lawmakers in Puigdemont s Junts pel Si coalition said they, too, had only been informed of his tactic at the 11th hour, though the spokesman for Puigdemont s party denied this. The government source said Catalan companies leaving the region in the days before his speech had also weighed on Puigdemont s mind. Several firms, including Catalonia s two major banks, moved their legal headquarters to other parts of Spain. Some anxious Catalan depositors traveled to neighboring regions to open bank accounts there. Jordi Alberich, director of Barcelona-based business association Cercle D Economia, met Puigdemont on Oct. 7.   He seemed to be very conscious of the consequences of a unilateral declaration of independence,  Alberich said.   He was very worried about companies fleeing.

Summary: कैटेलोनिया के स्वतंत्रता नेता ने एकता के लिए अपनी लड़ाई खुद लड़ी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The acting secretary of Homeland Security has notified President Donald Trump of countries that do not meet new U.S. vetting standards and has recommended “tailored” and “tough” restrictions on their citizens’ entry into the United States, U.S. officials said on Friday. Trump has not yet approved the restrictions, the officials said. It is unclear if he will do so before a temporary travel ban on citizens of six majority-Muslim countries expires on Sunday. The officials declined to say how many or which countries were included in DHS acting Secretary Elaine Duke’s report to Trump.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने अभी तक नए यात्रा प्रतिबंधों पर निर्णय नहीं लिया हैः अधिकारी


SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Saturday that he could not imagine United States ever accepting a nuclear North Korea, warning that its rapidly advancing nuclear and missile programs would undermine, not strengthen, its security. Mattis has been at pains during his week-long trip to Asia to stress that diplomacy is America s preferred course, a message he returned to after top-level military talks in Seoul on Saturday and at the tense border area with North Korea on Friday. Still, he warned Pyongyang that its military was no match for the U.S.-South Korean alliance, and that diplomacy was most effective  when backed by credible military force.   Make no mistake - any attack on the United States, or our allies, will be defeated. And any use of nuclear weapons by the North will be met with a massive military response that is both effective and overwhelming,  Mattis said. Mattis s South Korean counterpart, Defense Minister Song Young-moo, dismissed the idea of deploying tactical nuclear weapons to the peninsula as a response to the North s advances. But the U.S.-Korean alliance had the ability to respond, even in the event of a nuclear attack from the North, Song added. Tension between North Korea and the United States has been building after a series of nuclear and missile tests by Pyongyang and bellicose verbal exchanges between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump. The CIA has said North Korea could be only months away from developing the ability to hit the United States with nuclear weapons, a scenario Trump has vowed to prevent. Mattis, too, said Kim s behavior had left no room to imagine accepting Pyongyang s nuclear status.   I cannot imagine a condition under which the United States can accept North Korea as a nuclear power,  Mattis told a news conference. Trump - who has threatened to destroy the North if necessary - leaves on his first trip as president to Asia next week, including a stop in South Korea to meet President Moon Jae-in. Moon, after talks with Mattis on Friday, said the  aggressive deployment  of U.S. strategic assets in the region, which have included overflights by U.S. bombers, had been effective in deterring the North Korean threat.   U.S. intelligence experts say Pyongyang believes it needs the nuclear weapons to ensure its survival and have been skeptical about diplomatic efforts, focusing on sanctions, to get Pyongyang to denuclearize. Mattis suggested, however, that Pyongyang needed to understand that its weapons programs would not strengthen its defenses. The North says it wants a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the United States.   If it remains on its current path of ballistic missiles and atomic bombs, it will be counter-productive,  Mattis said, adding North Korea would be  reducing its security.  Still, any attempt to force the North to denuclearize could have devastating consequences, thanks in part to the large amount of artillery trained on Seoul. During Mattis  trip to the inter-Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on Friday, he was briefed on the posture of North Korean artillery.  Defense Minister Song suggested that U.S. and South Korean missile defenses simply could not stop all of the weapons trained on the South.  Defending against this many LRAs (long-range artillery) is infeasible in my opinion,  Song told Mattis at the DMZ, citing a need for strategies to  offensively neutralize  the artillery in the event of a conflict.   Mattis replied:  Understood.  Still, Mattis reaffirmed to reporters in South Korea that military options do exist to deal with the North Korean threat that spare the South s capital, Seoul. Mattis, who has made such assurances in the past, did not disclose what those options were.

Summary: सियोल में मैटिस ने कहा कि अमेरिका परमाणु उत्तर कोरिया को स्वीकार नहीं कर सकता


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration is exploring whether it can use an obscure ethics rule to undermine the special counsel investigation into ties between President Donald Trump’s campaign team and Russia, two people familiar with White House thinking said on Friday. Trump has said that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s hiring of former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to lead the investigation “hurts our country terribly.”  Within hours of Mueller’s appointment on Wednesday, the White House began reviewing the Code of Federal Regulations, which restricts newly hired government lawyers from investigating their prior law firm’s clients for one year after their hiring, the sources said.  An executive order signed by Trump in January extended that period to two years. Mueller’s former law firm, WilmerHale, represents Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who met with a Russian bank executive in December, and the president’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who is a subject of a federal investigation. Legal experts said the ethics rule can be waived by the Justice Department, which appointed Mueller. He did not represent Kushner or Manafort directly at his former law firm. If the department did not grant a waiver, Mueller would be barred from investigating Kushner or Manafort, and this could  greatly diminish the scope of the probe, experts said. The Justice Department is already reviewing Mueller’s background as well as any potential conflicts of interest, said department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores. Even if the Justice Department granted a waiver, the White House would consider using the ethics rule to create doubt about Mueller’s ability to do his job fairly, the sources said. Administration legal advisers have been asked to determine if there is a basis for this.  Under this strategy, the sources said the administration would raise the issue in press conferences and public statements. Moreover, the White House has not ruled out the possibility of using the rule to challenge Mueller’s findings in court, should the investigation lead to prosecution.  But the administration is now mainly focused on placing a cloud over his reputation for independence, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.      Kathleen Clark, a professor of legal ethics at Washington University School of Law, said the Justice Department can grant a waiver if concerns about bias are minimal.  She said subjects of the investigation could later argue that its results cannot be trusted, but she believes the argument would not stand up in court.   The White House did not respond to a request for comment on whether it is reviewing the ethics rule in order to undermine Mueller’s credibility.  Mueller’s former colleagues at WilmerHale, James Quarles and Aaron Zebley, are expected to join his investigation, according to a spokeswoman for the law firm. Neither Quarles nor Zebley represented Kushner or Manafort.  Mueller will now lead the ongoing Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into Trump’s associates and senior Russian officials.  Unlike Kenneth Starr, the independent counsel appointed by a three-judge panel to investigate Bill and Hillary Clinton’s real estate holdings in the 1990s, Mueller depends on the Justice Department for funding and he reports to Rosenstein, who was appointed by Trump.  When he announced Mueller’s appointment this week, Rosenstein said Mueller will have “all appropriate resources to conduct a thorough and complete investigation.”

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस विशेष जांच को कमजोर करने के लिए नैतिकता के नियम पर विचार कर रहा हैः सूत्र


FRANKFURT AN DER ODER, Germany (Reuters) - The first far-right party set to enter Germany s parliament for more than a half a century says it will press for Chancellor Angela Merkel to be  severely punished  for opening the door to refugees and migrants. The Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has also called for Germany s immigration minister to be  disposed of  in Turkey where her parents come from, could become the third largest party with up to 12 percent of the vote on Sept. 24, polls show. That is far less than similar movements in other European countries - in France far-right leader Marine Le Pen won 34 percent of the vote in May and in the Netherlands far-rightist Geert Wilders scored 13 percent in a March election. But the prospect of a party that the foreign minister has compared with the Nazis entering the heart of German democracy is unnerving the other parties. They all refuse to work with the AfD and no one wants to sit next to them in parliament. Leading AfD candidate Alexander Gauland denies they are Nazis, saying others only use the term because of the party s popularity. It has won support with calls for Germany to shut its borders immediately, introduce a minimum quota for deportations and stop refugees bringing their families here.  We re gradually becoming foreigners in our own country,   Gauland told an election rally in the Polish border city of Frankfurt an der Oder. A song with the lyrics  we ll bring happiness back to your homeland  blared out of a blue campaign bus and the 76-year-old lawyer said Germany belonged to the Germans, Islam had no place here and the migrant influx would make everyone worse off. Gauland provoked outrage for saying at another event that Germans should no longer be reproached with the Nazi past and they should take pride in what their soldiers achieved during World War One and Two. The Nazis ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945, during which time they killed 6 million Jews in the Holocaust and invaded countries across Europe. The AfD could end up as the biggest opposition force in the national assembly if there is a re-run of the current coalition of Merkel s conservatives and Social Democrats (SPD)   one of the most likely scenarios. That would mean it would chair the powerful budget committee and open the general debate during budget consultations, giving prominence to its alternatives to government policies. Georg Pazderski, a member of the AfD s executive board, told Reuters his party would use parliamentary speeches to draw attention to the cost of the migrant crisis, troubles in the euro zone - which the AfD wants Germany to leave - and problems related to the European Union.  We ll have a voice when we re in parliament,  he said.  We won t be an easy opposition.  He expects other parties will shun the AfD for a year or two but ultimately work with it, pointing to the regional assembly in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, where the AfD and Merkel s Christian Democrats voted to set up a committee to investigate left-wing extremism. Gauland told Reuters the AfD would call for a committee to investigate the chancellor after entering parliament:  We want Ms Merkel s policy of bringing 1 million people into this country to be investigated and we want her to be severely punished for that.  (For an interactive graphic on German elections, click tmsnrt.rs/2h0NqCT) MPs have already changed the qualification for the ceremonial post of doyen of parliament to the longest-serving MP rather than the oldest, likely to have been an AfD member. Sahra Wagenknecht, top candidate of the radical Left party, told Reuters it was important to look at individuals for committees but added:  I won t elect any AfD member who belongs to Bjoern Hoecke s wing and who really represents Nazi views into any position of responsibility.  Hoecke has denied that Adolf Hitler was  absolutely evil , described Berlin s Holocaust Memorial as a  monument of shame  and demanded a  180 degree turnaround  in the way Germany seeks to atone for Nazi crimes. The justice minister said some of the AfD s program like its demand to ban minarets is unconstitutional. Alexander Hensel, who studied the AfD s role in regional parliaments for the Otto Brenner Foundation, said debates in state assemblies had become more polarized since the AfD arrived and some other MPs would not shake hands with the newcomers.  The AfD s aggressive right-wing positions have intensified the debates while the tone and way people deal with each other in parliament has become noticeably rougher due to the AfD s tough rhetoric and targeted provocations,  he said.  Unlike previous right-wing movements in Germany the AfD - founded in 2013 by an anti-euro group of academics - has become socially acceptable so radicalized people from the middle class feel able to vote for it alongside classic radical right-wing voters, said Manfred Guellner, head of Forsa polling institute.  You don t vote for skinheads but you can vote for professors in suits,  said Guellner, referring to the likes of Gauland, who tends to wear tweed jackets. The AfD is unlikely to gain much more support though, said Jackson Janes, president of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, predicting worsening infighting over whether to aim for government or stay in opposition.  They ll add to the yelling and screaming in the Bundestag,  he said, but added:  I don t see them spreading like a cancer through society.

Summary: धुर दक्षिणपंथी पार्टी ने जर्मन संसद को हिलाने के लिए नाजियों की तुलना की


AMMAN/CAIRO (Reuters) - Leading Arab allies threatened with cuts in aid by Donald Trump said on Friday they had no choice but to defy the U.S. president over his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital, and did not believe he would follow through. More than 120 countries, including every Arab nation, voted at the U.N. General Assembly late on Thursday to urge the United States to withdraw its decision, announced earlier this month. Trump threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that voted in favor of the U.N. resolution, drafted by Egypt and supported by all members of the U.N. Security Council except Washington. He repeated his threat on Friday, writing on Twitter:  After having foolishly spent $7 trillion in the Middle East, it is time to start rebuilding our country!  In Egypt and Jordan, among the top recipients of U.S. aid but long the most heavily invested in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Trump s threats were not taken seriously enough to backtrack on firm opposition to the U.S. move.  The Americans know more than any one else that a stable Jordan is crucial for U.S. interests in the region,  a government minister who asked not to be named said. For its cooperation in defense and other fields, Jordan receives some $1.2 billion annually from Washington.  We do not expect the American administration to touch assistance but if it does this will only add to Jordan s economic woes,  the minister said. Former Jordanian prime minister Taher al-Masri said Jordan s role as an ally in a volatile region where unrest has led to attacks on U.S. soil would likely keep the aid safe.  Trump is not giving us aid as charity. Jordan performs a regional role in stability that we have not gone back on delivering,  he said. In a sign of concern over Trump s unpredictability, some Jordanian officials privately expressed worry, however. Masri said the U.N. resolution would have received many more votes from member states had Trump not made his threat. For Arab and Muslim states, anything less than total rejection of Trump s Jerusalem decision would have been impossible, he said. Nations around the world have criticized the move as damaging chances to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected any further U.S. role in the peace process. As home to major Muslim, Jewish and Christian holy sites, Jerusalem s status has long been fought over in rounds of failed negotiations, and ignited deadly conflict between Israeli and the Palestinians. Jordan s monarchy is custodian of Jerusalem s holy shrines, making Amman sensitive to any changes of status of the disputed city. Egypt, which led regional efforts to reject Trump s decision as having a  negative impact  on security in the region, has been a key broker of past peace deals. Egypt s foreign ministry and presidency could not be reached for comment after several attempts following the General Assembly vote. H.A. Hellyer, an Egypt expert at the Atlantic Council, said Egypt likely felt secure over its $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid despite Trump s threats.  I don t think Egypt will be worried ... certainly Trump s inner circle will not be too impressed - but I doubt that it will extend beyond that,  he said. Egypt is an important military partner for the United States and is fighting its own Islamist insurgency in part of the vast Sinai Peninsula. Arab countries are unanimous in their rejection of Trump s Jerusalem move. Key allies such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq reiterated their stance at the General Assembly vote. Iraq s foreign ministry described the result as a  triumph for international law . Saudi Arabia s delegation said their vote on the Palestinian cause reflected a  policy priority since the time of the founder (of Saudi Arabia), King Abdul Aziz.  It is unclear if U.N. votes and strong rhetoric alone will force Washington to reverse course, however. Israel, the closest U.S. ally in the Middle East, has heaped praise on Trump. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed his decision, which reversed decades of U.S. policy, as a  historic landmark . Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital and wants all embassies based there. Palestinians want the capital of an independent Palestinian state to be in the city s eastern sector, which Israel captured in a 1967 war and annexed in a move never recognized internationally.

Summary: अरब राज्यों का मानना है कि ट्रम्प के येरुशलम कदम की अवहेलना करने के बावजूद अमेरिकी सहायता सुरक्षित है


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Tuesday he approved of Austria s coalition agreement, saying he would judge the government of Christian Democrats and the far-right Freedom Party by its deeds.  As is the case with all governments, we will assess the Austrian government by its deeds,  Juncker told a news conference in Brussels, after meeting with Austria s new Chancellor Sebastian Kurz. Juncker said he believed the coalition agreement showed Austria was on a pro-European path.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ के जंकर ने ऑस्ट्रिया के यूरोपीय समर्थक गठबंधन समझौते को मंजूरी दी


HOUSTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday allowed some barge traffic to enter Port Arthur, Texas, home of the country’s largest oil refinery, and is considering allowing ships to enter on Tuesday, a spokesman said.  Ships are not yet allowed to enter the port along the Neches River because of extreme river currents from Hurricane Harvey, said Scott Whalen, director of the USCG’s Vessel Tracking Service at Port Arthur.  The largest crude oil processor in the United States, Motiva Enterprises’ Port Arthur Refinery, sits along the port. The 603,000 barrel per day refinery is one of the largest producers of gasoline in the United States.      Port Arthur, the Port of Beaumont and Port of Orange are deep water ports on the Sabine-Neches waterway near the Texas-Louisiana border and are the only three of 28 ports on the Texas coast still closed to ship traffic due to Harvey.       Survey results of the port are due Monday evening, and following an assessment the Coast Guard will determine if the port can reopen on Tuesday, Whalen said. Any reopening would entail restrictions such as daylight operations and on vessel draft, or depth.      “We are hoping to move it tomorrow,” he said. “We’ll try Port Arthur first and see how far we can get. Pilots do not feel it is safe to get ships into those areas.”      The Coast Guard currently has a two loaded barge limit for the Neches River, Whalen said.

Summary: पोर्ट आर्थर, टेक्सास में मंगलवार को जहाज यातायात फिर से शुरू हो सकता हैः अमेरिकी तटरक्षक बल


MADRID (Reuters) - Spain s state prosecutor has asked for a custodial sentence for the head of the Catalan police service Josep Lluis Trapero, who is facing charges of sedition, a spokesman for the High Court said on Monday. Trapero has been put under formal investigation for sedition after failing to order to rescue Civil Guard police who were trapped inside a Catalan government building in Barcelona by tens of thousands of pro-independence protesters in September. A Spanish judge will decide later on Monday whether Trapero will be held in custody without bail, the spokesman said.

Summary: स्पेन के राज्य अभियोजक ने कैटलन पुलिस प्रमुख के लिए हिरासत मांगीः उच्च न्यायालय


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that Moscow could not accept North Korea’s “reckless nuclear actions” but said he hoped the United States would not take any unilateral action against Pyongyang. Lavrov warned against anyone responding to North Korea’s behavior by “breaking international law.”  In televised comments, he also said that Russia was ready to restore relations with Washington and would judge U.S. President Donald Trump’s readiness to do the same by his statements.

Summary: रूस को उम्मीद है कि अमेरिका उत्तर कोरिया के खिलाफ एकतरफा कार्रवाई नहीं करेगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham said on Tuesday he agreed with Russian leader Vladimir Putin that more sanctions against North Korea are unlikely to work. Putin said after a summit in China that diplomacy is the only solution to tensions with Pyongyang, which appears to have escalated its nuclear program in recent months.  Can t believe I m agreeing with Vladimir Putin but I am   further sanctions on North Korea very unlikely to work,  Graham said on Twitter.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेटर ग्राहम पुतिन से सहमत हैं कि उत्तर कोरिया के और प्रतिबंध काम नहीं करेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers deadlocked over funding to fight the Zika virus on Tuesday, as Senate Democrats blocked a Republican proposal they said fell short of the challenge posed by the mosquito-borne virus and hurt other health priorities. Amid political recriminations by both parties, the Republican plan to provide $1.1 billion in funding to combat Zika, which had already passed the House of Representatives, failed to get the 60 votes needed in the Senate to clear a procedural hurdle. The vote was 52 in favor and 48 against on a mostly party-line vote.  It was unclear when Congress would revisit the issue. Democrats urged bipartisan talks, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, said lawmakers would address the matter again sometime after the July 4 national holiday next week. Both sides warned the other that there could be a political price to pay in an election year for stalling on Zika funding, with the summer mosquito season under way and with it the threat of the virus spreading. “Here we are, in an utterly absurd position, playing political games as this public health crisis mounts here in our country,” McConnell said. The Zika virus, which has swept through the Americas and Caribbean since last fall, has been linked to thousands of cases of microcephaly, a rare birth defect, in Brazil, as well as to neurological disorders. It has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization. There have not yet been any cases reported of local transmission of the Zika virus in the continental United States, but there have been 820 cases that were acquired from travel to areas with active Zika outbreaks, or through sexual transmission. There have been more than 1,800 cases of Zika infection reported in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory in the Caribbean. Health experts expect local transmission to occur in the continental United States with warmer weather. Democrats have been urging Republicans for months to agree to Zika funding. The Republican plan would have funded mosquito control efforts by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, as well as vaccine research by the National Institutes of Health, and money for community health centers in areas that are experiencing the highest rates of Zika transmission. But Democrats complained that Republicans locked them out of drafting the $1.1 billion funding plan, which would have made $750 million in budget cuts elsewhere. The Republican plan, rushed through the House last week, would have taken money from battling the Ebola virus as well as from funds set aside for implementing the Obamacare health insurance program in U.S. territories. The Senate last month agreed to a bipartisan bill allocating the same amount - $1.1 billion - to fight Zika, but without cutting any other programs. Democrats were especially angry that the Republican proposal that failed on Tuesday would not allow funding to go to private entities such as the women’s healthcare provider Planned Parenthood, although the Zika virus can be sexually transmitted. “I don’t know what universe (McConnell) is living in. What does he think, we’re all stupid, the American people are dumb? They’re not. They understand what’s going here,” Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid declared after the vote. President Barack Obama, a Democrat, had vowed to veto the plan, which falls short of his $1.9 billion request, if it ever arrived on his desk. Republicans charged that the Democrats were blocking the measure mainly because it included no funding for Planned Parenthood, a non-profit group that Democrats and Republicans have been skirmishing over for years. It provides health exams, screening and contraception services to women. Republicans have previously sought to cut off all federal funding to the group, which also provides abortions. Planned Parenthood says abortions make up just three percent of its work. Republican Senator John Thune, referring to Planned Parenthood, charged on Monday that Democrats were more interested in pleasing a what he called a special interest group than in acting on Zika. U.S. health officials have concluded that Zika infections in pregnant women can cause microcephaly, a birth defect marked by small head size that can lead to severe developmental problems in babies. The WHO has said there is strong scientific consensus that Zika can also cause Guillain-Barre, a rare neurological syndrome that causes temporary paralysis in adults.

Summary: जीका वायरस कोष पर अमेरिकी सांसदों का गतिरोध