WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican senators are leaning towards a plan to delay the effective date of an Obamacare repeal for three years, a senior Republican said on Wednesday. But some conservatives in the House of Representatives think that is too long to wait for the end of the Affordable Care Act, as President Barack Obama’s signature health insurance program is known. “In the Senate, there’s consensus for three years,” Senator Orrin Hatch, chairman of the chamber’s finance committee, told reporters, saying it could take that long to work out a replacement for Obamacare. “It takes time to do things around here.” Republicans in both the House and Senate say they want to repeal Obamacare early in 2017; it will be the first order of business in the Senate in January, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, said on Tuesday. Donald Trump’s election as U.S. president last month means Republicans will control the White House, Senate and House of Representatives in 2017. The new Congress goes to work on Jan. 3; Trump will be sworn in on Jan. 20. But Republicans have not agreed on how quickly the Obamacare repeal should go into effect. A delay would give them time to work on a replacement, instead of throwing millions of Americans out of their health insurance with no substitute. Some House conservatives favor phasing out Obamacare and getting a replacement within two years, because three years would not lapse until after the next congressional election, with the attendant uncertainty about who will be in the majority then. “We don’t think it’s very wise to leave a long-term plan like that up to a (future) Congress that you can’t necessarily control,” said Ben Williamson, spokesman for Representative Mark Meadows, the incoming leader of the Freedom Caucus, a group of about 40 House conservatives. “There is a potential that some members of the Freedom Caucus might vote against repeal, if the replacement was going beyond two years,” Williamson said. The Affordable Care Act has provided some 25 million previously uninsured Americans with health coverage. Republicans have repeatedly tried to dismantle the law, which they call a government overreach. Another senior senator said some Republicans are worried about whether they will have to raise taxes in three years to pay for an Obamacare replacement, which could for example involve tax credits to subsidize health insurance. “What Republicans could be faced with in three years, is voting for a tax increase ... and that’s not exactly a place that Republicans relish being,” said Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee.

Summary: अमेरिकी रिपब्लिकन ने ओबामाकेयर निरस्त करने की प्रभावी तारीख पर विवाद किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday that Democrats in Congress want to see Republican lawmakers’ plan for a replacement healthcare program before they repeal the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. “They want to repeal it and then try to hang it on us. Not going to happen. It’s their responsibility, plain and simple,” Schumer said at a news conference after President Barack Obama met with Democratic lawmakers to discuss preserving his signature health care plan.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन ओबामाकेयर को निरस्त करने पर शूमरः यह उनकी जिम्मेदारी है


ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - The White House said on Friday it will not oppose legislation approved by Congress to expand sanctions against North Korea after it recently conducted a rocket launch and a nuclear test. “Like many members of Congress, the administration is deeply concerned about North Korea’s recent actions and the serious setback that this test represents,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters in a briefing. “We’re philosophically and intellectually in the same place as the Congress on this,” Schultz said.

Summary: ओबामा उत्तर कोरिया प्रतिबंध विधेयक को नहीं रोकेंगेः व्हाइट हाउस


PARIS (Reuters) - France s foreign ministry said on Monday it was an important condition for the stability of the region that Iran not interfere in Lebanon s domestic affairs.   We wish that all those who exert an influence in Lebanon allow all the political actors in this country to exercise fully their responsibilities,  foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes Romatet-Espagne told reporters in a daily briefing.   Mr Saad al-Hariri called on Iran yesterday to not interfere in the affairs of Lebanon and its neighbors. We believe that this is an important condition for the stability of the region.

Summary: लेबनान में ईरान का हस्तक्षेप न करना क्षेत्रीय स्थिरता के लिए महत्वपूर्णः फ्रांस


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Officials from so-called sanctuary cities met in New York on Tuesday to discuss their response to threats from the Trump administration to cut off some funding to cities and states that fail to assist federal authorities in arresting illegal immigrants. Attorney General Jeff Sessions threatened on Monday to strip U.S. Justice Department grants from cities and other local governments that choose to shield illegal immigrants from  deportation efforts under President Donald Trump. His remarks were aimed at dozens of cities and other local governments, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, that have joined a growing “sanctuary” movement aimed at protecting immigrant communities. Tuesday’s meeting in New York marked the second straight day of brainstorming on the immigration issue by leaders of some of America’s biggest urban centers. Public officials, liberal activists and academics from around the country shared information on a host of issues. Topics discussed included when and how to challenge requests from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold illegal immigrants under arrest, for separate local offenses. Attendees came from California, Texas, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Washington State and elsewhere. Sanctuary cities in general offer safe harbor to illegal immigrants and often do not use municipal funds or resources to advance the enforcement of federal immigration laws. Sanctuary city is not an official designation. Federal records show the Justice Department doled out $1 billion to state governments and $430 million to nonprofits in 2016, but only $136 million directly to cities and counties. Crime is generally lower in sanctuary counties, according to a study presented by University of California San Diego assistant professor Tom Wong. He said the findings echoed those of law enforcement officials themselves, since they have found they are more effective when they can focus on day-to-day policing instead of immigration enforcement. Chicago City Council member Carlos Ramirez-Rosa said that although his city is a sanctuary jurisdiction, immigration agents raided a home there on Monday where eight people, including three children, were sleeping. The agents shot and wounded Felix Torres, though he was not the person agents were seeking, Ramirez-Rosa said.  “This guns blazing raid ... is exactly why my city should refuse to comply with ICE, under all circumstances,” he said.

Summary: अमेरिकी अभयारण्य शहरों ने धन पर अंकुश लगाने के लिए ट्रम्प की धमकी पर प्रतिक्रिया का वजन किया


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it had found that an operation likely based in Russia spent $100,000 on thousands of U.S. ads promoting divisive social and political messages in a two-year-period through May. Facebook, the dominant social media network, said 3,000 ads and 470 “inauthentic” accounts and pages spread polarizing views on topics including immigration, race and gay rights. Another $50,000 was spent on 2,200 “potentially politically related” ads, likely by Russians, Facebook said.  U.S. election law bars foreign nationals and foreign entities from spending money to expressly advocate the election or defeat of a candidate. Non-U.S. citizens may generally advertise on issues. Other ads, such as those that mention a candidate but do not call for the candidate’s election or defeat, fall into what lawyers have called a legal gray area.  Facebook announced the findings in a blog post by its chief security officer, Alex Stamos, and said that it was cooperating with federal inquiries into influence operations during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.  Facebook briefed members of both the Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees on Wednesday about the suspected Russia advertising, according to a congressional source familiar with the matter. Both committees are conducting probes into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, including potential collusion between the campaign of President Donald Trump and Moscow. Facebook also gave its findings to Robert Mueller, the special counsel in charge of investigating alleged Russian interference in last year’s presidential election, a source familiar with the matter said. The company produced copies of advertisements as well as data about the buyers, the source said. Mueller’s office declined to comment. Facebook said it found no link between the Russian-purchased advertising and any specific presidential campaign. The ads were mostly national in their focus and did not appear to reflect targeting of political swing-states, the company said. Even if no laws were violated, Facebook said the 470 accounts and pages associated with the ads ran afoul of the social network’s requirements for authenticity and have since been suspended.  Facebook did not print the names of any of the suspended pages, but some of them included such words as “refugee” and “patriot.”  More than $1 billion was spent on political ads during the 2016 presidential campaign, thousands of times more than the presumed Russian spending identified by Facebook’s security team. But the findings buttress U.S. intelligence agency conclusions that Russia was actively involved in shaping the election. Facebook previously published a white paper on influence operations, including what it said were fake “amplifier” accounts for propaganda, and said it was cracking down. As recently as June, Facebook told journalists that it had not found any evidence of Russian operatives buying election-related ads on its platform. Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called the Facebook report “deeply disturbing and yet fully consistent with the unclassified assessment of the intelligence community.” “We are keenly interested in Russia’s use of social media platforms, both the use of bots and trolls to spread disinformation and propaganda, including through the use of paid online advertising,” he said in a statement. A Facebook employee said Wednesday that there were unspecified connections between the divisive issue ads and a well-known Russian “troll factory” in St. Petersburg that publishes comments on social media. Ellen Weintraub, a member of the U.S. Federal Election Commission, said U.S. voters deserve to know where the ads are coming from and that the money behind them is legal. “It is unlawful for foreign nationals to be spending money in connection with any federal, state or local election, directly or indirectly,” Weintraub said in a phone interview.  She declined to comment on the Facebook ads, saying she could not discuss subjects that could come before the agency. Facebook declined to release the ads themselves, prompting a sharp rebuke on Twitter from Pierre Omidyar, the billionaire founder of First Look Media, a producer of feature and documentary films, television and podcasts. “Facebook keeps the targeted political ads it publishes secret, emboldening criminals,” wrote Omidyar, the eBay founder who also provided funding to launch media organization The Intercept. “I don’t see how that can possibly be legal.” Facebook’s disclosure may be the first time a private entity has pointed to receiving Russian money related to U.S. elections, said Brendan Fischer, a program director at the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington nonprofit that advocates for more transparency.  “Whoever may have provided assistance to Russia in buying these Facebook ads is very likely in violation of the law,” he said, adding that Facebook has a legal duty to act if it is aware of similar activity in the future.

Summary: फेसबुक का कहना है कि संभवतः रूस स्थित ऑपरेशन ने राजनीतिक संदेश के साथ अमेरिकी विज्ञापनों को वित्त पोषित किया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said on Monday he was impressed by the Chinese leadership’s calm reaction to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s call last week with the president of Taiwan. “At this moment I’ve been very impressed at the calm reaction of the Chinese leadership, which suggests a determination to see whether a calm dialogue can be developed,” Kissinger said at an event sponsored by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.

Summary: किसिंजर ने कहा, ट्रम्प की ताइवान कॉल पर चीन की 'शांत प्रतिक्रिया' से प्रभावित हूं


BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Tuesday that it would take actions to defend its interests if the United States damages trade ties after U.S. President Donald Trump authorized an inquiry into China’s alleged theft of intellectual property. [nL2N1L01G0] The United States should respect objective facts, act prudently, and not destroy principles of multilateralism, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.

Summary: चीन का कहना है कि अगर अमेरिका व्यापार संबंधों को नुकसान पहुंचाता है तो वह अपने हितों की रक्षा करेगा


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Council President Donald Tusk said on Friday that strikes on a Syrian air base ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump showed the West’s resolve against chemical attacks. “U.S. strikes show needed resolve against barbaric chemical attacks. EU will work with the U.S. to end brutality in Syria,” Tusk said on Twitter.

Summary: सीरिया में अमेरिकी हमले रासायनिक हमलों के खिलाफ संकल्प दिखाते हैंः यूरोपीय संघ के टस्क


NEW YORK (Reuters) - More than half of American voters believe that the system U.S. political parties use to pick their candidates for the White House is “rigged” and more than two-thirds want to see the process changed, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll. The results echo complaints from Republican front-runner Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Bernie Sanders that the system is stacked against them in favor of candidates with close ties to their parties – a critique that has triggered a nationwide debate over whether the process is fair. The United States is one of just a handful of countries that gives regular voters any say in who should make it onto the presidential ballot. But the state-by-state system of primaries, caucuses and conventions is complex. The contests historically were always party events, and while the popular vote has grown in influence since the mid-20th century, the parties still have considerable sway.  One quirk of the U.S. system - and the area where the parties get to flex their muscle - is the use of delegates, party members who are assigned to support contenders at their respective conventions, usually based on voting results. The parties decide how delegates are awarded in each state, with the Republicans and Democrats having different rules. The delegates’ personal opinions can come into play at the party conventions if the race is too close to call - an issue that has become a lightning rod in the current political season. Another complication is that state governments have different rules about whether voters must be registered as party members to participate. In some states, parties further restrict delegate selection to small committees of party elites, as the Republican Party in Colorado did this year. “I’d prefer to see a one-man-one-vote system,” said Royce Young, 76, a resident of Society Hill, South Carolina, who supports Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. “The process is so flawed.”     Trump has repeatedly railed against the rules, at times calling them undemocratic. After the Colorado Republican Party awarded all its delegates to Ted Cruz, for example, Trump lashed out in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, charging “the system is being rigged by party operatives with ‘double-agent’ delegates who reject the decision of voters.” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has dismissed Trump’s complaints as “rhetoric” and said the rules would not be changed before the Republican convention in July. Trump swept the five Northeastern nominating contests on Tuesday in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island. The New York billionaire has 950 delegates to 560 for Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, and 153 for Kasich, the Ohio governor, according to the Associated Press. A total of 1,237 delegates are needed to secure the Republican nomination. On the Democratic side, Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, has taken issue with the party’s use of superdelegates, the hundreds of elite party members who can support whomever they like at the convention and who this year overwhelmingly back front-runner Hillary Clinton. Clinton has repeatedly emphasized that she is beating Sanders in both total votes cast and in pledged delegates, those who are bound by the voting results - rendering his complaints about superdelegates moot. On Tuesday, the former secretary of state won Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and Connecticut, while Sanders won in Rhode Island. Clinton leads Sanders by 2,141 delegates to 1,321, according to the AP, with 2,383 needed to win the nomination. Sanders has also criticized party bosses for not holding enough prime-time television debates and said before a string of primaries open only to registered Democrats this month that “independents have lost their right to vote,” referring to a voter block that has tended to favor him.  A Democratic National Committee official was not immediately available to comment. Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said the U.S. presidential nominating system could probably be improved in a number of areas, but noted that the control wielded by party leadership usually became an issue only during tight races. “The popular vote overwhelms the rules usually, but in these close elections, everyone pays attention to these arcane rules,” he said. Some 51 percent of likely voters who responded to the April 21-26 online survey said they believed the primary system was “rigged” against some candidates. Some 71 percent of respondents said they would prefer to pick their party’s nominee with a direct vote, cutting out the use of delegates as intermediaries.     The results also showed 27 percent of likely voters did not understand how the primary process works and 44 percent did not understand why delegates were involved in the first place. The responses were about the same for Republicans and Democrats.     Overall, nearly half said they would also prefer a single primary day in which all states held their nominating contests together - as opposed to the current system of spreading them out for months.     The poll included 1,582 Americans and had a credibility interval of 2.9 percentage points.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः आधे अमेरिकियों को लगता है कि राष्ट्रपति पद के लिए नामांकन प्रणाली में 'धांधली' की गई-सर्वेक्षण


VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin took a jab at Rex Tillerson on Thursday, joking that the U.S. Secretary of State had  fallen in with the wrong company  since he had awarded him a Russian state honor for his contribution to Russian-U.S. relations. Hopes of detente in Moscow s relations with Washington under   Donald Trump, who had praised President Putin before winning the White House, have faded as the countries have imposed sanctions and expelled diplomats in recent months.  Addressing a U.S. citizen at a plenary session of an economic forum in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, Putin said:  We awarded your compatriot Mr. Tillerson the Order of Friendship, but he seems to have fallen in with the wrong company and to be steering in the other direction.   I hope that the wind of cooperation, friendship and reciprocity will eventually put him on the right path,  Putin added, drawing cheers from the crowd. In 2013 Putin awarded Tillerson, then CEO of energy giant Exxon Mobil, the Order of Friendship, a Russian state honor, for his  significant contribution to strengthening cooperation in the energy sector . Russia s relations with the United States deteriorated over its annexation of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014 and support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, prompting Washington to impose economic sanctions against Moscow.  The Kremlin, which has denied U.S. allegations it meddled in the presidential vote, had heaped praise on Trump during his election campaign, saying it supported efforts to improve Russian-American relations.  But Trump, who was faced scrutiny over the alleged ties of his entourage with Russia, reluctantly signed into law fresh sanctions against Moscow, further straining relations.

Summary: पुतिन ने अमेरिकी शीर्ष राजनयिक टिलरसन को रूसी राज्य सम्मान देने पर नाराजगी जताई


SEATTLE/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump called on the U.S. Postal Service on Friday to charge “much more” to ship packages for Amazon (AMZN.O), picking another fight with an online retail giant he has criticized in the past.     “Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer? Should be charging MUCH MORE!” Trump wrote on Twitter.  The president’s tweet drew fresh attention to the fragile finances of the Postal Service at a time when tens of millions of parcels have just been shipped all over the country for the holiday season.  The U.S. Postal Service, which runs at a big loss, is an independent agency within the federal government and does not receive tax dollars for operating expenses, according to its website.  Package delivery has become an increasingly important part of its business as the Internet has led to a sharp decline in the amount of first-class letters. The president does not determine postal rates. They are set by the Postal Regulatory Commission, an independent government agency with commissioners selected by the president from both political parties. That panel raised prices on packages by almost 2 percent in November.  Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos, who remains the chief executive officer of the retail company and is the richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg News. Bezos also owns The Washington Post, a newspaper Trump has repeatedly railed against in his criticisms of the news media. In tweets over the past year, Trump has said the “Amazon Washington Post” fabricated stories. He has said Amazon does not pay sales tax, which is not true, and so hurts other retailers, part of a pattern by the former businessman and reality television host of periodically turning his ire on big American companies since he took office in January. Daniel Ives, a research analyst at GBH Insights, said Trump’s comment could be taken as a warning to the retail giant. However, he said he was not concerned for Amazon. “We do not see any price hikes in the future. However, that is a risk that Amazon is clearly aware of and (it) is building out its distribution (system) aggressively,” he said. Amazon has shown interest in the past in shifting into its own delivery service, including testing drones for deliveries. In 2015, the company spent $11.5 billion on shipping, 46 percent of its total operating expenses that year.  Amazon shares were down 0.86 percent to $1,175.90 by early afternoon. Overall, U.S. stock prices were down slightly on Friday.  Satish Jindel, president of ShipMatrix Inc, which analyzes shipping data, disputed the idea that the Postal Service charges less than United Parcel Service Inc (UPS.N) and FedEx Corp (FDX.N), the other biggest players in the parcel delivery business in the United States. Many customers get lower rates from UPS and FedEx than they would get from the post office for comparable services, he said. The Postal Service delivers about 62 percent of Amazon packages, for about 3.5 to 4 million a day during the current peak year-end holiday shipping season, Jindel said. The Seattle-based company and the post office have an agreement in which mail carriers take Amazon packages on the last leg of their journeys, from post offices to customers’ doorsteps. Amazon’s No. 2 carrier is UPS, at 21 percent, and FedEx is third, with 8 percent or so, according to Jindel. Trump’s comment tapped into a debate over whether Postal Service pricing has kept pace with the rise of e-commerce, which has flooded the mail with small packages.Private companies like UPS have long claimed the current system unfairly undercuts their business. Steve Gaut, a spokesman for UPS, noted that the company values its “productive relationship” with the postal service, but that it has filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission its concerns about the postal service’s methods for covering costs. Representatives for Amazon, the White House, the U.S. Postal Service and FedEx declined comment or were not immediately available for comment on Trump’s tweet. According to its annual report, the Postal Service lost $2.74 billion this year, and its deficit has ballooned to $61.86 billion.  While the Postal Service’s revenue for first class mail, marketing mail and periodicals is flat or declining, revenue from package delivery is up 44 percent since 2014 to $19.5 billion in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2017. But it also lost about $2 billion in revenue when a temporary surcharge expired in April 2016. According to a Government Accountability Office report in February, the service is facing growing personnel expenses, particularly $73.4 billion in unfunded pension and benefits liabilities. The Postal Service has not announced any plans to cut costs. By law, the Postal Service has to set prices for package delivery to cover the costs attributable to that service. But the postal service allocates only 5.5 percent of its total costs to its business of shipping packages even though that line of business is 28 percent of its total revenue.

Summary: ट्रम्प चाहते हैं कि डाक सेवा अमेज़न शिपमेंट के लिए 'बहुत अधिक' शुल्क ले


KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Organizers of pop concerts and some other big events are increasingly wary of including Malaysia on their itineraries, as the cancellation of a beer festival due to take place next month highlighted growing intolerance toward activities regarded as insulting to Islam by some Muslim groups. The promoters say that international music stars, especially those known for risqu  lyrics or revealing clothing, are unlikely to be brought to Malaysia as part of regional or global tours. The same goes for any gatherings that could in any way be deemed un-Islamic. While such concerns have been building for some time in this majority Sunni Muslim nation, the organizers say that the atmosphere has become particularly difficult in the past year.  The politicization of Islam has increased as Prime Minister Najib Razak s ruling party seeks to appease more-fundamentalist elements to secure its large, rural Malay vote bank ahead of an election expected in the coming months. A United Nations cultural rights expert warned in a report last week that there is growing pressure to adopt a more narrow interpretation of the Islamic religion and identity in Malaysia, which excludes the country s cross-cultural history, marginalizes religious minorities, and fails to take account of the diversity of Malay Muslims.  Of course it does affect the overall attractiveness of Malaysia being a venue for artists, events or festivals to be held. With artists  touring of Southeast Asia, Malaysia will not be the first choice for any act to tour,  said Darren Choy, the chairman of the Recording Industry Association of Malaysia who also heads the Malaysian unit of American entertainment and record label group Warner Music.  It may end up being the last to be considered, or not at all,  he added.   The Malaysian government did not respond to requests for  comment for this story.   The popular Better Beer Festival 2017, which has been held for the past five years, was unexpectedly called off last week after the Kuala Lumpur city council banned the October 6-7 event. The ban followed protests by the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), who said the event would turn the capital into  the largest vice center in Asia.  The beer festival s organizers said that authorities called it off  due to the political sensitivity surrounding the event .  Police said later that it was canceled because of the threat of a militant attack. PAS said on Thursday it has now also filed an objection over plans to host next month the annual Oktoberfest beer festival in the Petaling Jaya area of the capital. The party said in a statement that it was its  social responsibility  to oppose alcohol festivals. Also last week, after rumors that a gay party was being planned for Kuala Lumpur, the government issued a ban notice, and ordered immigration officers to deny entry to anyone planning to attend either that or the Better Beer Festival. The gay party organizers said they only ever intended to hold the party in Thailand, not Malaysia. Enforcement authorities last month launched a probe into the Kuala Lumpur chapter of Atheists Republic, a Canada-based organization. A minister in Najib s cabinet said later that Muslim apostates should be  hunted down vehemently . Malaysia has already made international headlines this year for barring the screening of the 2017 edition of Disney s  Beauty and the Beast  due to a  gay moment  in one scene. The film was eventually released after local distributors asked the censor board to review the decision. Shortly after, the catchy summer dance song  Despacito  was taken off state radio and television stations after complaints that the lyrics were obscene.   For some years it has been getting more difficult for international pop stars who wish to make appearances in Malaysia. In 2013, a concert set to be performed by musical artist, Kesha, was banned. In the past, artists such as Beyonce have canceled performances in Malaysia due to restrictions over costumes and dancing. A concert by American pop star Selena Gomez was only allowed in July 2016 after assurances that she would cover herself up. But fear of trouble at the concert - PAS youth leaders  protested outside the venue - kept many fans away and thousands of tickets were left unsold. There have been no big Western acts so far this year, though  British singer Ed Sheeran is expected to perform in Kuala Lumpur in November.   This weekend s Formula 1 Malaysian Grand Prix does not include major international pop stars as has usually been the case in recent years. Organizers denied this was due to recent controversies.  You have to be very careful about the type of acts you book and make sure you comply with all the rules and even then, there s no guarantee it will be approved by the authorities,  said Qisthina Razin, representative of Malaysian events organization, Freeform.   Rizal Kamal, vice president of the arts, live festivals and the arts association (ALIFE), a body representing event organizers, said Malaysian show producers have started moving out.    Malaysian producers are going to Singapore and Indonesia due to problems in Malaysia,  he said.   Choy said the bans are  denting the perception of Malaysia being a moderate and tolerant Islamic country.  The impact of religious fundamentalism isn t just about Malaysia s image to the outside world. It also gnaws away at the country s multicultural and pluralistic fabric. About 40 percent of Malaysia s population is non-Muslim, including Christians, Buddhists and Hindus. Najib s approach risks empowering and legitimizing  conservative parties and organizations once only classified as extreme fringe groups. Such religious organizations are also in an increasingly strong position to influence the government and its policies.  United Nations Special Rapporteur Karima Bennoune in her report last week expressed deep concern at the level of involvement of religious authorities in policy decisions. She said some Malaysians have expressed concern about a growing Islamisation, which represented a  significant break with the past . Bennoune expressed particular concern over bans regarding traditional Malay arts and restrictions on women performing in public in the northeastern state of Kelantan, which is governed by PAS. Prime Minister Najib has projected a global image of a moderate Muslim leader and has widely promoted himself as a key player in the fight against Islamic extremism. In a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump last month, Najib said Malaysia is a partner in America s fight against the Islamic State, and it will be a key player in promoting moderate Islam. He has been largely silent during a series of recent religion-related incidents in Malaysia. He did, though, comment this week after the owner of a laundromat in southern Malaysia apologized for barring non-Muslim users, a ban that had gone viral on social media and triggered condemnations by community leaders, including the Sultan of Johor.  The government will remain committed to upholding the true Islamic teachings while protecting the interests of the other communities as demanded of Islam,  Najib said in a statement late on Wednesday, state news agency Bernama reported. Cynthia Gabriel, executive director for a Kuala Lumpur based welfare group C4, said there is an urgent need to accept multi-culturalism again.  It is bad for society, so it is bad for business, when two sets of laws and policies operate in one country,  she said.

Summary: पॉप कॉन्सर्ट, अन्य कार्यक्रमों के प्रमोटर मलेशिया को छोड़ सकते हैं क्योंकि कट्टरपंथी इस्लाम को पकड़ मिल गई है


CAIRO (Reuters) - Arab foreign ministers late on Saturday urged the United States to abandon its decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital, saying the move would increase violence throughout the region. The announcement by President Donald Trump on Wednesday was a  dangerous violation of international law , had no legal impact and was  void , the Arab League said in a statement after a session attended by all its members in Cairo. Trump s endorsement of Israel s claim to all of Jerusalem as its capital would reverse long-standing U.S. policy that the city s status must be decided in negotiations with the Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.  The decision has no legal effect ... it deepens tension, ignites anger and threatens to plunge region into more violence and chaos,  the Arab League said at 3 a.m. local time after hours of meetings that began on Saturday evening. It said it would seek a U.N. Security Council resolution rejecting the U.S. move. Lebanon s Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said during the emergency meeting that Arab nations should consider imposing economic sanctions against the United States to prevent it moving its Israel embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.  Pre-emptive measures (must be) taken ... beginning with diplomatic measures, then political, then economic and financial sanctions,  he said, without giving specific details. The Arab League statement made no mention of economic sanctions. Arab criticism of Trump s plan contrasted sharply with the praise Washington s traditional Arab allies heaped on him at the beginning of his administration in January.

Summary: अरब देशों ने अमेरिका से जेरूसलम छोड़ने का आग्रह किया


YANGON (Reuters) - Rohingya Muslims are not native to Myanmar, the army chief told the U.S. ambassador in a meeting in which he apparently did not address accusations of abuses by his men and said media was complicit in exaggerating the number of refugees fleeing. The U.N. human rights office said on Wednesday Myanmar forces had brutally driven out half a million Rohingya from northern Rakhine state to Bangladesh in recent weeks, torching homes, crops and villages to prevent them from returning. Thousands of Rohingya were leaving the state on Thursday, aiming to reach Bangladesh by boat, citing a shortage of food and fear of repression, residents said. A Myanmar official said people were leaving but he dismissed the suggestion hunger and intimidation were factors. The army chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, gave his most extensive account of the Rohingya refugee crisis aimed at an international audience in the meeting with Ambassador Scot Marciel, according to a report posted on his Facebook page. The general is the most powerful person in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and his apparently uncompromising stance would indicate little sensitivity about the military s image over a crisis that has drawn international condemnation and raised questions about a transition to democracy under Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The military campaign is popular in Myanmar, where there is little sympathy for the mostly stateless Rohingya, and where Buddhist nationalism has surged. Min Aung Hlaing, referring to Rohingya by the term  Bengali , which they regard as derogatory, said British colonialists were responsible for the problem.  The Bengalis were not taken into the country by Myanmar, but by the colonialists,  he told Marciel, according to the account of the meeting posted on Thursday.  They are not the natives.  Coordinated Rohingya insurgent attacks on some 30 security posts on Aug. 25 sparked a ferocious military response. The U.N. rights office said in its report, based on 65 interviews with Rohingya who had arrived in Bangladesh, that abuses had begun before the Aug. 25 attacks and included killings, torture and rape of children. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley last month denounced a  brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority  and called on countries to suspend providing weapons to Myanmar until its military put sufficient accountability measures in place. The European Union and the United States are considering targeted sanctions against Myanmar s military leaders, officials familiar with the discussions said this week. Suu Kyi was swept into office last year after winning an election, but the military holds immense power, including exclusive say over security. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra ad al-Hussein has described the government operations as  a textbook example of ethnic cleansing  and said the action appeared to be  a cynical ploy to forcibly transfer large numbers of people without possibility of return . Min Aung Hlaing did not refer to such accusations, according to the published account, but said the insurgents had killed 90 Hindus and 30 Rohingya linked to the government. Insurgent opposition to a citizenship verification campaign, which used the term Bengali, was behind the Aug. 25 attacks that sparked the violence, he said.  Local Bengalis were involved in the attacks under the leadership of ARSA. That is why they might have fled as they feel insecure,  he said, referring to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army insurgents.  The native place of Bengalis is really Bengal,  he said. He said it was an exaggeration to say a  very large  number were fleeing to Bangladesh and there had been  instigation and propaganda by using the media from behind the scene . He did not elaborate but said the  real situation  had to be relayed to the international community. U.N. political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman is due to visit on Friday. Rohingya residents of Rakhine said up to 10,000 people had left on Wednesday and Thursday. One resident, a teacher, said there had been no military offensive recently but people were going.  There s no work, nowhere to get food and the government isn t helping,  said the teacher, who, like the first resident, declined to be identified. Rakhine state s secretary, Tin Maung Swe, said people were leaving  every day  to join relatives already in Bangladesh.  Nobody is starving in death in Myanmar. The government is trying to support those in need,  he said.  They can fish or catch shrimps in the creeks near their villages.  No one s killing them or intimidating them.  Suu Kyi, in a televised address, spoke about the importance of humanitarian assistance for all people in Rakhine and said the government would accept refugees back. She said aid groups, international organizations and Myanmar expatriates would help with the long-term development of the state. She did not refer to accusations of rights abuses by the army.

Summary: म्यांमार के सेना प्रमुख ने कहा, रोहिंग्या मुसलमान मूल निवासी नहीं हैं, पलायन करने वालों की संख्या अतिशयोक्तिपूर्ण


NAIROBI (Reuters) - Burundi s main opposition grouping said it is boycotting peace talks that resumed on Tuesday in Tanzania, leaving little chance that the negotiations will end simmering political violence that has claimed hundreds of lives.  Burundi has been gripped by unrest since April 2015, when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced he would stand for a third term, which the opposition said violated the constitution as well as a 2005 peace deal that ended the civil war.  He won a vote largely boycotted by the opposition, but protests sparked a government crackdown that has killed more than 700 people, displaced over 400,000 to neighboring countries and left the economy moribund. The International Criminal Court is investigating whether pro-government forces committed war crimes including murder, torture and rape. Burundi, which has withdrawn from the court, is refusing to recognize the investigation.  Exiled opposition grouping CNARED said former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa, who is facilitating the Nov. 28-Dec. 8 round of talks in Arusha, had not invited them.   We have always asked the facilitator to invite CNARED as an opposition bloc, but he has refused and rather decided to select some of our members who will take part to the dialogue without our consent,  said CNARED spokesman Pancrace Cimpaye. At the end of October, Burundi s cabinet adopted draft legislation seeking to change the current constitution to allow Nkurunziza to run for a fourth term in the 2020 election. The proposed amendments, likely to go to a referendum by next year, seek to abolish the two-term limit and lengthen the presidential terms to seven years.  CNARED says amending the constitution will worsen the crisis.

Summary: बुरुंडी विपक्षी मंच ने तंजानिया में शांति वार्ता के नए दौर का बहिष्कार किया


DENPASAR, Indonesia (Reuters) - Airlines canceled more flights departing the Indonesian holiday island of Bali on Saturday, citing forecasts of deteriorating flying conditions due to a risk of volcanic ash from the erupting Mount Agung volcano. A Bali airport spokesman said the airport was still operating normally, but airlines such as Jetstar and Virgin Australia had opted to cancel some flights   Bali flying conditions expected to be clear throughout the day, but forecast for tonight has deteriorated so several flights have been canceled,  Australian budget airline Jetstar said on its Twitter account. The erupting volcano had closed the airport for much of this week, stranding thousands of visitors from Australia, China and other countries, before the winds changed and flights resumed Twenty flights were canceled on Friday evening due to concerns over ash. Some airlines including Malaysia s AirAsia Bhd have said they would only operate out of Bali during the day, as the ash could impair visibility at night and wind conditions in the area were unpredictable. Airlines avoid flying through volcanic ash as it can damage aircraft engines, clogging fuel and cooling systems, hampering pilot visibility and even causing engine failure. There are also concerns over changing weather conditions with a tropical cyclone south of Java island impacting weather and wind in the area, including for Bali, the Indonesian Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysics agency said  With some airlines continuing to fly normally on Saturday, there was frustration among passengers.  Australian couple Justine and Greg Hill were on holiday with their two teenage children and had been due to fly out today but their flight later this evening was canceled.   It s more an inconvenience than anything. Don t understand why if other airlines are flying, some others aren t. Obviously there must be safety protocols but there s no detailed explanation,  said Greg Hill, 46, who was waiting at the airport.  Several foreign consulates have set up booths in the international departures area to assist stranded passengers.  Subrata Sarkar, India s vice consul in Bali, told Reuters at the airport s international departure area that they had helped around 500 passengers so far this week.   We have advised citizens the volcano may erupt. We never say  please don t come . But we have issued travel advisories. If it s urgent business, then ok, but if it s only tourism, then plans should be reconsidered,  said Sarkar. For an interactive graphic on Mount Agung volcano, click - tmsnrt.rs/2hYdHiq For a graphic on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," click - tmsnrt.rs/2BjtH6l

Summary: ज्वालामुखीय राख के पूर्वानुमान पर बाली की और उड़ानें रद्द


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s transition team is examining proposals for new non-nuclear sanctions on Iran, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing congressional sources who have been in contact with the president-elect’s team. Officials with Trump’s team have been in touch with fellow Republicans in Congress, where they hold the majority, to discuss possible sanctions separate from last year’s Iran nuclear deal that could focus on its ballistic missile program or human rights, the sources told the FT. “They (Trump team members) are already looking closely at their options — and that very much includes non-nuclear sanctions,” a congressional official told the media outlet. The deal that was reached last year between Iran, the United States and five other world powers lifted some sanctions against Tehran in return for restrictions on its nuclear program. On the campaign trail, Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, vowed to tear up the agreement with Iran and negotiate a better one. He also criticized sanctions that blocked U.S. companies from Iran and noted the difficulty of discarding a deal with U.N. backing. The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed a 10-year extension of sanctions against Iran that lawmakers and the Obama administration have said would not violate the nuclear agreement reached last year with Iran. On Friday, Iran threatened retaliation, saying the vote breached the deal. The measure, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives last month, now goes to the White House for President Barack Obama to sign into law. That would delay potentially tougher actions until next year. Several Republican U.S. lawmakers already have introduced proposals for additional sanctions on Iran separate from the nuclear pact or plan to do so. “The big difference next year is that we will go from a White House that did everything it could to block these bills to a White House that will be in favor and maybe even sponsor some of these proposals,” a congressional source told the Financial Times.

Summary: ट्रंप की टीम ईरान पर नए गैर-परमाणु प्रतिबंधों पर विचार कर रही हैः एफटी


(Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump held meetings in New York on Thursday as he prepared to take over the White House from President Barack Obama on Jan. 20. The following is a list of confirmed meetings from Thursday,according to Trump’s transition team:           * Chairman and CEO of AT&T Inc (T.N), which is planning to merge with Time Warner Inc (TWX.N) * Former U.S. ambassador to Uruguay * Under consideration for U.S. Agency for International Development post * Former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania * Under consideration for U.S. Agency for International Development post * Chief executive officer of 21.co and a partner in Andreessen Horowitz * Under consideration for U.S. Food and Drug Administration post * Managing director at Mithril Capital Management * Under consideration for U.S. Food and Drug Administration post * President of Portugal

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ट्रम्प ने ए. टी. एंड. टी. के सी. ई. ओ. और अन्य लोगों से मुलाकात की


BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans will vote on Sunday in a parliamentary election in which center-right Chancellor Angela Merkel is running for a fourth term. Here is an explanation of how the voting system works: Germany has a mixed-member proportional voting system under which voters cast two ballots: one directly for a candidate in his or her constituency and the second for a party. This second vote determines the distribution of seats in parliament. Merkel s name, for instance, does not appear on the national ballot but only in her constituency in the Stralsund/Ruegen district. She is running there as a direct candidate for her Christian Democrats (CDU) after winning the district seven times in a row since reunification in 1990. German voters sometimes split their ballots to give their preferred coalition extra support: They give their first vote to a direct candidate from one of the two main parties - the CDU and its Bavarian sister party CSU or the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) - and the second vote to a corresponding smaller partner such as the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP), the left-leaning Greens, the far-left Die Linke or the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). The smaller parties have little interest in the first ballot because Germany s 299 constituencies are won on a first past- the-post basis, which normally favors the larger ones. Supporters of smaller parties often give their first vote to one of the two bigger parties, while some CDU/CSU and SPD backers give their second vote to a preferred coalition partner. If the CDU/CSU or SPD wins more direct seats in a state than they would get based on their share of second votes, the Bundestag creates extra  overhang  seats. There are 299 seats in parliament for winners of the direct seats and another 299 seats based on parties  relative strength via the second ballot. The number of overhang seats rose in recent elections because the two main parties, CDU/CSU and the SPD, won all but a handful of the 299 direct seats but had been receiving smaller shares of the second ballots. A new law compensates other parties for overhang seats, thus making it less interesting for the big parties to share support with smaller partners for second votes. In the 2013 election, the CDU/CSU won four extra overhang seats. Through the effect of balance seats, the size of parliament ballooned from 598 to 631 seats. Parties that fail to get more than 5 percent of the nationwide vote or win fewer than three seats by direct election are excluded from parliament. The shares of the other parties are recalculated accordingly. This effect can have major consequences for the process of coalition building. In 2013, the FDP and the AfD came in just below the 5-percent threshold. Since their share of the vote was attributed to the others parties, Merkel s conservatives were nearly able to govern alone with their unadjusted result of only 41.5 percent. In this year s election, six parties are forecast to enter parliament, up from four now. That would leave Germany marked by a more fractured political landscape. The next government will probably need a combined share of at least 47 percent or maybe 48 percent for a stable majority, depending on the voting share of those parties that fail to enter parliament.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः जर्मनों के पास जटिल चुनाव प्रणाली में दो मतपत्र हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said it was reviewing a bill passed on Tuesday by the U.S. House of Representatives imposing new sanctions on Russia, North Korea and Iran. “While the President supports tough sanctions on North Korea, Iran and Russia, the White House is reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the President’s desk,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस ने कहा कि वह रूस के प्रतिबंधों पर हाउस बिल की समीक्षा कर रहा है


BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Sunday that Islamic State fighters had captured a town in Homs province from government forces, part of a wider counter-attack by the jihadists as they come under intense pressure in eastern Syria. There was no comment from the Syrian army on the report that the town of al-Qaryatayn had fallen. The town is located some 300 km (190 miles) from Deir al-Zor city, the current focus of the Syrian government s campaign against Islamic State.  Syrian government forces and allied militia recovered Qaryatayn from Islamic State some six months ago. The Observatory said the jihadists had captured it in a surprise attack launched after their fighters had infiltrated the town. Islamic State has lost swathes of territory to the Russian-backed Syrian government and to U.S.-backed Syrian militias that are waging separate campaigns against the group s last major strongholds in Deir al-Zor province in eastern Syria. Islamic State fighters last week counter-attacked government forces and allied Iran-backed militias along the highway connecting Deir al-Zor city to Palmyra in central Syria, temporarily rendering the road impassable. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whose group is fighting in support of the Syrian government, said on Saturday that Islamic State counter-attacks were to be expected as the jihadists were besieged and incapable of recovering ground. The Syrian air force conducted intensive air strikes on Islamic State positions and fortifications in several locations, a Syrian military source said in a report circulated by state media on Sunday. It did not mention Qaryatayn. The source said dozens of Islamic State militants had been killed in the air strikes to the east of the town of al-Salamiya; to the east of the town of al-Sukhna, which is on a main road to Deir al-Zor; and in Deir al-Zor province itself.

Summary: सीरियाई वेधशालाः इस्लामिक स्टेट ने सरकार से शहर पर कब्जा किया


YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar said on Friday a visiting U.S. official would not be allowed to go to a region where violence has triggered an exodus of nearly 400,000 Rohingya Muslims that the United Nations has branded a  textbook example of ethnic cleansing . The Rohingya have fled from western Rakhine state to neighboring Bangladesh to escape a military offensive that has raised questions about Myanmar s transition to civilian rule under the leadership of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Patrick Murphy will voice Washington s concerns about the Rohingya and press for greater access to the conflict area for humanitarian workers, the State Department said. Myanmar officials said he would meet government leaders in the capital, Naypyitaw, and attend an address to the nation by Suu Kyi on Tuesday. He would also visit Sittwe, the state capital, and meet the governor of Rakhine, the state government secretary, Tin Maung Swe, told Reuters, but the north of the state, where the conflict erupted on Aug. 25 would be off limits.  Not allowed,  Tin Maung Swe said, when asked if Murphy would be going to Maungdaw district, at the heart of the strife that began when Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts and an army camp, killing a dozen people. While nearly 400,000 refugees have poured across the border into Bangladesh, fears have also been growing of a humanitarian crisis on the Myanmar side, but access for aid workers and reporters has been severely restricted. Myanmar insisted on Friday it was not barring aid workers but a government spokesman said authorities on the ground might have concerns over security. Rights monitors and fleeing Rohingya say the army and Rakhine Buddhist vigilantes have mounted a campaign of arson aimed at driving out the Muslim population. A Reuters photographer on the Bangladesh side of the border said he could see huge banks of dark smoke billowing up over Myanmar territory on Friday, while international aid organizations said the refugees kept coming.  There s really no sign that this flow of people is going to dry up,  Chris Lom of the International Organisation for Migration, said from the Bangladeshi border district of Cox s Bazar.  There are still, we believe, thousands of people waiting to take boats across to Cox s Bazar.  U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the U.N. Security Council have urged Myanmar to end the violence, which he said was best described as ethnic cleansing.       Myanmar rejects the accusations, saying its security forces are carrying out clearance operations to defend against the insurgents of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which claimed responsibility for the Aug. 25 attacks and similar, though smaller, attacks in October. Russia s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said on Friday that while Moscow was concerned  we cannot discard the fact that it was triggered by terrorist activities.   We re talking to the Myanmar government, of course,  he told reporters.  We are concerned with what is happening. ... We are looking forward to an early cessation of the violence and to elevating the humanitarian situation of the population.  The government has declared Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army a terrorist organization and accused it of setting the fires and attacking civilians. Ethnic cleansing is not recognized as a separate crime under international law but allegations of ethnic cleansing as part of wider, systematic human rights violations have been heard in international courts. Rights group Amnesty International said evidence pointed to a  mass-scale scorched-earth campaign  across the north of Rakhine that was unmistakably ethnic cleansing.  The evidence is irrefutable   the Myanmar security forces are setting northern Rakhine state ablaze in a targeted campaign to push the Rohingya people out of Myanmar,  said Tirana Hassan, the group s crisis response director. The group said it had detected 80 big fires in Rohingya areas since Aug. 25. While the extent of damage could not be verified, due to access restrictions by the government,  they are likely to have burned down whole villages . It said it also had credible reports of Rohingya militants burning the homes of ethnic Rakhine and other minorities. About 30,000 non-Muslims have also been displaced. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Thursday he had spoken with Suu Kyi and that she said she was working to get aid to areas in Myanmar affected by violence. The generals still control national security policy but nevertheless, Suu Kyi has been widely criticized abroad for not stopping or condemning the violence. The campaign against the Muslim insurgents is popular at home. The U.N. refugee agency said the Rohingya arriving in Bangladesh were suffering  real hardship, and some of the most difficult conditions seen in any current refugee situation .  With the influx increasing daily, UNHCR is appealing for an initial amount of $30 million for the emergency humanitarian response in Bangladesh until the end of year,  an agency spokesman said in Geneva.     Bangladesh says all refugees must go home and has called for safe areas in Myanmar. Myanmar has ruled that out and says it will accept anyone who can verify their citizenship. Most Rohingya are stateless. Thousands of people demonstrated after Friday prayers in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, to denounce the treatment of the Rohingya.  One protest leader said they were demanding a U.N. peacekeeping force and that Myanmar face charges in an international court.

Summary: म्यांमार का कहना है कि अमेरिकी अधिकारी को रोहिंग्या संघर्ष क्षेत्र से प्रतिबंधित किया गया है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Utah Republican Governor Jon Huntsman has accepted President Donald Trump’s offer to be ambassador to Russia, an administration official said on Wednesday. The job, which requires Senate confirmation, would put Huntsman in Moscow at a time when U.S.-Russian ties have sunk to a post-Cold War low. Huntsman served as ambassador to China under Democratic President Barack Obama before launching an unsuccessful bid for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Trump has said he wants to improve relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which deteriorated under Obama over issues including Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and the two countries’ backing of opposing sides in the Syrian civil war. The tensions peaked in December when Obama expelled 35 Russian suspected spies after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia hacked and leaked Democratic emails during the 2016 election campaign as part of an effort to tilt the vote in Trump’s favor. The Kremlin has denied the allegations.

Summary: उटाह के पूर्व गवर्नर हंट्समैन ने रूस में राजदूत बनने के ट्रंप के प्रस्ताव को स्वीकार कियाः अधिकारी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday avoided direct mention of a pipeline that has provoked high-profile protests from Native Americans but urged tribal leaders to use the spotlight to continue pushing for recognition even after he leaves office. Obama spoke at his eighth and final Tribal Nations Conference, which he created during his first year in office. Leaders of more than 560 Native American tribes gathered for the Washington event as one of the largest Native American protests in decades continues in North Dakota. In his remarks, Obama acknowledged that Native American tribes have unified around the demonstrations led by the Standing Rock Sioux, a tribe that he visited in 2014.   “I know that many of you have come together across tribes and across the country to support the community at Standing Rock and together you are making your voices heard,” he said. “This moment highlights why it’s so important that we redouble our efforts to make sure that every federal agency truly consults and listens and works with you, sovereign to sovereign.” In recent weeks, protests against the Dakota Access pipeline have drawn international attention, prompting the U.S. government to temporarily block its construction on federal land. Tribal leaders say the pipeline will desecrate sacred land and pollute water. When fully connected to existing lines, the 1,100-mile (1,770 km) pipeline would be the first to carry crude oil from the Bakken shale directly to the U.S. Gulf. The $3.7 billion project is being built by the Dakota Access subsidiary of Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners LP. Obama discussed the progress made by his administration over the last eight years to improve relations with tribal nations, and urged leaders to keep fighting for more visibility and input regardless of who succeeds him in the White House next year. “Our progress depends in part on who sits the in Oval Office, and whether they’re setting the right priorities, but lasting progress depends on all of us, not just who the president is.” Various Obama administration officials unveiled initiatives aimed at upholding Native American sovereignty at the conference. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell announced a forthcoming memorandum from Obama that would require federal agencies to consider Native American treaty rights in decision-making on natural resource projects, hoping to avoid future conflicts with tribes such as the current Dakota Access dispute. The Justice and Interior Departments also announced  settlements with 17 tribes that had sued the U.S. government, accusing them of mismanaging monetary assets and natural resources that the government held in trust for the tribes.  The “vast majority” of all such disputes have been settled, according to the government, which has paid $1.9 billion to resolve the cases since April 2012. Those settlements characterize the Obama administration’s effort to mend ties “where we have failed in the past in our trust responsibilities,” said Lawrence Roberts, assistant secretary for Indian Affairs at the Interior Department, on the sidelines of Monday’s conference. Regan Dunn, 15, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, delivered opening remarks at the conference.  Dunn said afterward she had never imagined a company might try to build a pipeline through her homeland, but that the wide opposition among various tribes - including some she had not previously heard of - has been “heartwarming.” Brian Cladoosby, president of the National Congress of American Indians, which represents more than 500 tribes, praised Obama’s legacy on Native American issues and warned the assembly that “there is no guarantee going forward there will be the same commitment from the next administration.” When the Justice Department, Interior Department and the U.S. Army temporarily blocked the pipeline’s construction on Sept. 9, the administration called for “a serious discussion” about how tribes are consulted by the government on decisions over major infrastructure projects.  The Army, Interior and Justice departments will hold hearings on the shortcomings of the present process on Oct. 11, and formal discussions with tribes in six U.S. regions from Oct. 25 through Nov. 21.  The deadline for written comments will be Nov. 30, the agencies announced. On Thursday, the chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, Dave Archambault, told a House of Representatives panel there was no “meaningful consultation” before permits were issued to bring the pipeline through his tribe’s territory. Archambault is scheduled to speak on Monday evening at a rally of pipeline opponents.

Summary: ओबामा पाइपलाइन टिप्पणी से बचते हैं लेकिन आदिवासी संप्रभुता का आग्रह करते हैं


MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman has been forced to cancel a planned trip to Russia s Far East next week because senior regional officials could not find time to meet him, the U.S. Embassy to Russia said in a statement on Friday. The United States has a consulate in Vladivostok in the Russian Far East and the embassy said his planned visit was part of a series of trips to places where the U.S. hoped to resume consular operations which were suspended earlier this year amid a diplomatic dispute.

Summary: अमेरिकी रूसी राजदूत ने यात्रा रद्द करते हुए कहा कि रूसी अधिकारी उनसे नहीं मिलेंगे


PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen told his cabinet on Friday he had no fear of Western sanctions after some U.S. senators threatened to push for travel restrictions over his arrest of the main opposition leader, the government spokesman said. Hun Sen s critics accuse him of destroying democracy in Cambodia to ensure that he wins re-election next year to extend more than 32 years in power. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz said he would push for a travel ban on top officials if opposition leader Kem Sokha is not freed by Nov. 9. Senators John McCain and Dick Durbin have also called for travel restrictions if the crackdown continues. Hun Sen told a weekly cabinet meeting that sanctions by Western donors don t worry him, the government spokesman said.  Samdech said he doesn t have wealth abroad and there is no necessity for him to step on U.S. soil,  Phay Siphan told Reuters, using Hun Sen s official title.  Kem Sokha was arrested on Sept. 3 and charged with treason. He is accused of plotting to take power with the help of unspecified Americans - an accusation he denies. The government has also asked the courts to dissolve Kem Sokha s Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) and Hun Sen has called on its members of parliament and other elected officials to defect to his Cambodian People s Party (CPP). Pro-government media said one parliamentarian and some local councillors had defected. Kem Sokha s daughter Monovithya Kem said that if he were not released and the pressure ended on the CNRP, it would mean that next year s election would lack legitimacy.  Hun Sen s government cannot survive without that legitimacy,  she told Reuters.  Cambodia would become a pariah state if the government doesn t reverse course soon.  Western countries have called for the release of Kem Sokha and have intensified lobbying. In an unusually direct statement from Japan, visiting vice minister for foreign affairs Iwao Horii called on Thursday for a free and fair election next year. Japan is Cambodia s biggest aid donor after China.  He expressed the expectation that Cambodia s next national election will be conducted in a free and fair manner,  Hironori Suzuki, Counsellor at the Japanese Embassy, said in an email to Reuters.  He expected that the general election would be held in a way that the international community will welcome.  Hun Sen has been increasingly isolated from Western donor pressure by his strong relationship with China, which has become by far the biggest giver of foreign aid as well as the biggest investor in Cambodia.

Summary: कंबोडिया के प्रधानमंत्री का कहना है कि प्रतिबंधों से उन्हें कोई नुकसान नहीं होगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican lawmakers on Monday began revising their proposed overhaul of the U.S. tax code, as Democrats pointed to the loss of popular deductions as proof the legislation was an assault on the middle class. A draft bill unveiled last week by Republicans in the House of Representatives, if enacted, would be the biggest restructuring of the tax system since the 1980s and the first major legislative victory of the Trump presidency. One of the first changes agreed to on Monday, related to carried interest, would go toward fulfilling one of President Donald Trump’s campaign promises.  Republican Representative Kevin Brady, chairman of the House tax-writing panel, offered to make smaller portions of Wall Street financiers’ income eligible for a lower capital gains tax rate.  It was one of many revisions that are expected as the House Ways and Means Committee amends the tax bill. Brady pledged to lawmakers that they would have a chance to propose their own changes. “Let me assure you this is the beginning of the tax reform process,” he told the committee. Although Republicans generally support the bill’s broader themes, including a sharp cut in the corporate income tax, there are rumblings of dissent over other elements, including repeal of the deduction for state and local income tax (SALT) payments. New York, California and other high-tax states would be hard hit by the removal of that deduction, a fact seized upon by Democrats to bolster their argument that Trump’s plan is a gift to the wealthiest Americans and the corporate sector. “There are a lot of people expecting a tax cut who will be big losers under this bill,” Representative Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, a Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said as the tax-writing panel convened to consider the bill. An analysis of how taxpayers would be impacted by the bill from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center issued on Monday was later withdrawn due to an error. TPC said that its analysis contained an error related to a proposed child tax credit and that it would release a revised version as soon as possible. The White House argues that tax cuts are needed to boost economic growth and create jobs.   The linchpin of the plan is the reduction of the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent and establishment of a 25 percent tax rate for “pass through” businesses, which currently pay income tax rates as high as 39.6 percent. With Democrats united in opposition to the plan, Republican defections from a few traditionally Democratic-leaning states could be enough to torpedo it in the House.   Brady has already agreed to retain the deduction for property tax payments up to a cap of $10,000 as part of a SALT compromise and has said he would be open to raising it. Brady’s carried interest provision would lengthen to more than three years from one the amount of time Wall Street financiers must hold assets in order to be eligible for a lower tax rate. Carried interest is a share of an investment fund’s profits – typically about 20 percent beyond the return guaranteed to investors – that goes to the general partners of private equity, venture capital and hedge funds. Under current law, high-income fund partners pay the long-term capital gains rate of 20 percent on their carried interest income, instead of the 39.6 percent individual tax rate that applies to the ordinary wage income of high earners.   Securing congressional passage of the tax plan is critically important to Trump, who has yet to get major legislation through Congress since taking office in January, including a healthcare overhaul he promised as a candidate last year. Investors are adding to the pressure. The expectation of deep tax cuts has helped fuel a stock market rally during Trump's time as president, with the broad S&P 500 index .SPX up about 14 percent. The Senate, where Republicans have a 52-48 majority, is developing its own version of the tax legislation, which would have to eventually be reconciled with the House version before it is sent to Trump for signing. Several Republican senators have said they would have a problem voting for any tax bill that significantly increased the deficit. The House bill is projected to add $1.5 trillion over 10 years to the $20 trillion national debt. Fitch Ratings said on Monday that the House bill could add to the fiscal strain in some states and local jurisdictions by limiting their tax-raising flexibility. Republican leaders are pushing for the House to vote on a revised tax bill before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on Nov. 23. They have said a draft Senate bill could be ready at the end of this week. The Republican tax plan was devised without Democratic input. The last major tax restructuring, Republican former President Ronald Reagan’s 1986 overhaul, received significant input and support from Democrats.

Summary: डेमोक्रेट के हमलों के बीच रिपब्लिकन कर विधेयक के साथ आगे बढ़ रहे हैं


PARIS (Reuters) - Europe s  big four  continental powers and three African states agreed a plan on Monday to tackle illegal human trafficking and support nations struggling to contain the flow of people across the desert and Mediterranean sea.    The 28-nation European Union has long struggled to reach a coherent answer to the influx of migrants fleeing war, poverty and political upheaval in the Middle East and Africa, and the crisis is testing cooperation between member states. After hosting the leaders of Germany, Italy, Spain, Chad, Niger and Libya, French President Emmanuel Macron said it was time for greater coordination.    We must all act together - from the source countries to Europe and passing by the transit countries, especially Libya - to be efficient,  he told reporters.  It s a challenge as much for the EU as for the African Union.  While the meeting was sparse on concrete details, the leaders agreed on the principle of setting up a mechanism to identify legitimate migrants who are fleeing war and persecution, and to use the United Nations to register them in Niger and Chad so as to prevent them being exploited by traffickers.  At the core of it, it s all about fighting illegal migration,  German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a news conference.  She said that Berlin was willing to increase its efforts.  If we want to stop human traffickers, then this can only be achieved through development aid,  she said. The migrant crisis has put Paris and Rome at odds. Italy has accused France and other EU states of not sharing the migrant burden and has also asked the EU Commission for more budget flexibility to help it tackle the crisis.  Nearly 120,000 migrants, including refugees, have entered Europe by sea so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration. More than 2,400 have drowned while making the dangerous journey, often without enough food or water in overcrowded dinghies run by people smugglers.  We are all committed to reducing the damage, the death of Africans in the desert, the death of Africans crossing the Mediterranean,  Chad President Idriss Deby said.   The fundamental problem will always remain development. We need resources,  he said. The informal meeting did not outline any new specific financing and the leaders repeated that stabilizing chaotic Libya, where thousands of migrants end up before embarking on a perilous Mediterranean sea journey to Europe, would be key to any long-term solution.

Summary: यूरोपीय और अफ्रीकी प्रवासी संकट से निपटने के लिए नए सिरे से प्रयास करने पर सहमत हुए


(Reuters) - Officials in Florida and Virginia filed voter fraud charges against three people in apparently unrelated cases on Friday, just 11 days before American voters cast ballots in the hotly contested presidential race. The charges targeted a Florida woman and a Virginia man accused of filing bogus voter registration forms and a Florida woman 	alleged to have tampered with absentee ballots she was opening at the Miami-Dade Elections Department. In the Iowa capital of Des Moines, county election officials referred three cases of suspected voter fraud to police earlier this week, leading to one arrest on Thursday, police said. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has charged in recent weeks that the election will be rigged in favor of Democrat Hillary Clinton, though he has shown no proof for these claims and many Republicans have called them unfounded. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle in Florida said that 74-year-old Gladys Coego had been working as an absentee ballot opener when a supervisor allegedly saw her changing ballots that had been left blank to support a mayoral candidate. Prosecutors said that Coego admitted to marking the ballots and was charged with two felony counts of marking or designating the ballot of another. “The integrity of the electoral process is intact because our procedures work,” said Christina White, the county’s election supervisor, in a statement. Tomika Curgil, 33, was charged with five felony counts of submitting false voter registration information for allegedly handing in forms filled out by fictitious voters while working on a voter-registration drive for a medical marijuana advocacy group. A Virginia man was also charged with submitting falsified forms while working for a voter-registration campaign, state prosecutors said. Vafalay Massaquoi, 30, was arraigned on two felony counts of forging a public record and two counts of voter registration fraud. “There is no allegation that any illegal vote was actually cast in this case,” said Virginia Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter. “Furthermore, since the fraudulent applications involved fictitious people, had the fraud not been uncovered, the risk of actual fraudulent votes being cast was low.” Neither Coego, Curgil nor Massaquoi could be reached for immediate comment. Police in Des Moines on Thursday arrested a woman who was accused of voting twice - casting early-voting ballots at two locations - in one of three cases of suspected voter fraud reported by the Polk County Auditor’s Office. Police did not disclose the political affiliation of the woman, identified as Terri Lynn Rote, 55, but the Des Moines Register newspaper reported she was a registered Republican. A man in Texas, where early voting started on Monday, was arrested on Monday on charges of electioneering and loitering near a polling place, public records show.  The man, Brett Mauthe, had been charged for showing up to vote in a Trump hat and T-shirt with the phrase “basket of deplorables,” a reference to a comment Clinton made disparaging her rivals’ supporters, election officials told media.

Summary: फ्लोरिडा, वर्जीनिया में तीन पर मतदाता धोखाधड़ी का आरोप लगाया गया


MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday ruled out the possibility of allowing Islamic State-linked militants to flee a southern city in exchange for the release of dozens of hostages. The militants seized large parts of Marawi City on the island of Mindanao in May, and a hardcore of fighters has held out through more than 100 days of air strikes and ground attacks  by troops.  No way,  Duterte told reporters when asked about a rumor that one rebel leader, Omarkhayam Maute, had proposed releasing hostages in exchange for the safe exit of the militants. Pockets of fighters remain in the ruins of the heart of a city devastated by artillery and bombings, in an occupation that has alarmed the region about the possibility of Islamic State, on the back foot in Iraq and Syria, making a new home in the southern Philippines.  The military has launched its final push to retake Marawi, and is coming under heavy fire from gunmen as troops try to secure buildings and navigate through mines and booby-traps. The military estimates about 20 to 30 hostages are being held, some of whom it says were forced to take up arms against government troops.  If I can save one life there, I am willing to wait one year (to retake the city)  Duterte said of the hostages, after visiting wounded soldiers in Cagayan de Oro, a few hours away from Marawi. Martial law has been imposed in Mindanao, an island of 22 million people, until the end of the year, to allow the military to break up an alliance of pro-Islamic State militant groups. On another front, the military is also fighting communist rebels of the New People s Army following a breakdown in peace talks with the government. Duterte on Saturday threatened to expand martial law to other areas of the Philippines to crack down on the insurgents. Some 655 militants, 45 civilians and 145 soldiers and policemen have been killed in Marawi, according to the military, which says it has rescued 1,728 civilians. At least 400,000 have been displaced. Army spokesman Colonal Edgard Arevalo said saving hostages was the priority of the military s mission.  We are still very mindful of the presence of civilians -guns against their heads - who were made human shields or ordered to wield firearms and ammunition, were converted to become fighters and shoot at our troops,  he said in a statement. The United States has provided technical support to the Philippines military in Marawi. Visiting Manila on Friday, Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne offered a small  detachment of soldiers to provide training to Philippine forces.

Summary: फिलीपींस के नेता का कहना है कि 'कोई रास्ता नहीं' वह इस्लामी विद्रोहियों से निपटेंगे


BATON ROUGE, La./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said he was considering imposing a lifetime ban on U.S. military procurement officials going to work for defense contractors, a move that could dramatically reshape the defense industry. Three days after publicly rebuking Boeing Co over the cost of the next-generation Air Force One presidential aircraft, Trump floated the idea of such a ban at a rally for Republican supporters in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “I think anybody that gives out these big contracts should never ever, during their lifetime, be allowed to work for a defense company, for a company that makes that product,” Trump said. “I don’t know, it makes sense to me.” He added that he “got the idea yesterday” as he thought about “massive” cost overruns for military equipment but needed to “check this out” first before making any decisions. Trump said such a ban would make “a big, big difference because the purchasing in this country is out of control, for everything, not only military.” The president-elect’s idea was met with deep skepticism within the U.S. defense establishment Procurement and weapons program management jobs have long been a good alternative career path within the Pentagon for military officers who did not win coveted command jobs. A U.S. defense official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said such a ban would likely discourage people from taking procurement jobs in the Pentagon and cause more attrition. “The reason a lot of people go in and stay in is because it makes for a nice transition later to a civilian job. It could make people want to avoid that,” the official said after being asked about Trump’s announcement. Current rules prohibit Pentagon employees from working on the same acquisition matter in the private sector, said Andrew Hunter, a former Pentagon official now at the Center of Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. But an industry-wide ban on hiring former Pentagon officials could backfire badly, he said. “No one is going to want to take those jobs. You’re going to have the worst of the worst, because no one with any particular talent is going to want a career where they are going to be banned for life for doing what they were trained to do,” said Hunter, who is director of the center’s Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group. Congressional aides also told Reuters they were skeptical that such a ban could be enacted. Trump singled out Lockheed Martin’s F-35 stealth fighter jet program for criticism at the Louisiana rally, saying it was “totally, totally, like, uncontrollably over budget.” The F-35 is the Pentagon’s costliest arms program. The Defense Department expects to spend $391 billion to develop the plane and buy 2,443 of the supersonic, stealthy new warplanes in the coming decades. Costs per plane are expected to fall below $100 million as production ramps up.

Summary: ट्रंप ने सैन्य खरीद अधिकारियों को नियुक्त करने वाली रक्षा कंपनियों पर प्रतिबंध लगाया


MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine security forces have arrested a mobile phone trader suspected of collecting funds to help finance pro-Islamic State militants who took over a southern city for five months, police said on Friday. Rasdi Malawani, 42, was paraded in front of the press a day after security forces raided his home in Manila s northern suburbs, where a rocket-propelled grenade and a pistol were seized, Manila police chief Oscar Albayalde said. Malawani was not allowed to speak to reporters and no defense lawyer was present. The military on Monday declared victory over the Maute group, which seized control in Marawi City on May 23, after killing the last 40 remaining militants. More than 1,100 people, including 165 soldiers, were killed in the conflict.  Malawani is the brother-in-law of Maddie Maute, one of the Maute brothers who planned and carried out the Marawi attacks, according to police. They said he had given about 300,000 pesos ($5,800) a month for four months to his sister, Lily. The funds were collected from dozens of tenants of Salaam Bazaar, a mobile phone, accessories and electronic market owned by Farhana Maute, the jailed family matriarch, in a shopping mall in Quezon City, police said. Malawani had been running the business for her.  He is facilitating terrorist financing,  Albayalde said.  He is based here in Manila and is not involved in the fighting. He is considered a supporter and sympathizer.  President Rodrigo Duterte, in a speech before an association of professionals late on Thursday, warned of possible retaliation from militants after the military s victory in Marawi.  Retaliation and vengeance are not far-fetched,  Duterte said.  May I just remind you to be vigilant and always be aware that extremism is the problem of the planet today.  Philippine military chief General Eduardo Ano said on Monday Islamist militants who attacked Marawi on May 23 had received some $1.5 million from Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in January. ($1 = 52 pesos)

Summary: फिलीपींस के मोबाइल फोन व्यापारी ने मरावी हमलावरों के लिए 'धन एकत्र किया'


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government will set up a new agency to do background checks on employees and contractors, the White House said on Friday, after a massive breach of U.S. government files exposed the personal data of millions of people last year. As a part of a sweeping overhaul, the Obama administration said it will establish a National Background Investigations Bureau. It will replace the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) Federal Investigative Services (FIS), which currently conducts each year more than 2 million background investigations for scores of federal agencies. The move, a stiff rebuke for FIS and OPM, comes after last year’s disclosure that a hack of OPM computers exposed the names, addresses, Social Security numbers and other sensitive information of roughly 22 million current and former federal employees and contractors, as well as applicants for federal jobs and individuals listed on background check forms. Unlike FIS, the new agency’s information systems will be handled by the Defense Department, making it even more central to Washington’s effort to bolster its cyber defenses against constant intrusion attempts by hackers and foreign nationals. The White House gave no timeline for implementing the changes, but said some would begin this year. It will seek $95 million more in its upcoming fiscal 2017 budget for information technology development, according to a White House fact sheet. A transition team will develop a plan to migrate existing functions from FIS while continuing to provide investigative services, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper wrote in a blog on the OPM website. Officials have privately blamed the OPM data breach on China, though security researchers and officials have said there is no evidence Beijing has maliciously used the data trove. The hack prompted several congressional committees to investigate whether OPM was negligent in its cyber security practices. OPM Director Katherine Archuleta resigned last July as the government intensified a broad push to improve cyber defenses and modernize systems. “Clearly we’re not there yet,” Admiral Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, said at a cyber security event in Washington this week when asked about U.S. preparedness against hacks. The damage done by cyber attacks, he added, “is going to get worse before it gets better.” OPM has had a large backlog of security clearance files. This has prompted it to rely on outside contractors for assistance. One of these is Keypoint Government Solutions, which took over the bulk of federal background checks after a competitor, USIS, was hacked. Keypoint, which is owned by Veritas Capital, later suffered a breach of its own networks. No comment was immediately available from Keypoint or CACI International Inc (CACI.N), another contractor involved in background checks. USIS filed for bankruptcy protection last year.  Brian Kaveney, who heads the security clearance practice at the Armstrong Teasdale law firm, said the new agency was expected to take over the 8,800 investigators who now work for FIS, including 2,300 government workers and 6,500 contractors. The Defense Department and OPM did not respond when asked if the government will still rely on support from contractors. Representative Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of a House of Representatives panel that has been looking into the issue, said Friday’s announcement fell short. “Protecting this information should be a core competency of OPM,” Chaffetz said in a statement. “Today’s announcement seems aimed only at solving a perception problem rather than tackling the reforms needed to fix a broken security clearance process.”

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस ने अमेरिकी पृष्ठभूमि की जांच में पेंटागन की ओर रुख किया


BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovakia s prime minister, president and parliament speaker pledged on Monday to keep to a pro-European path, a day after its Czech neighbors became the latest central European ex-Communists to elect a populist taking a hard line on the EU. Czech billionaire Andrej Babis s ANO party won the vote that punished traditional parties. Babis said on Saturday his party was pro-European but he is cool to adopting the euro single currency and resists deeper integration in the EU. With the election of Babis, the Czechs join the Poles and Hungarians in electing leaders who emphasize national interest and say they are skeptical of greater integration with Europe. Far right parties critical of Brussels have also scored successes in recent weeks in Austria and Germany, notably in Germany s former Communist east.  I never dared to comment on the domestic political situations in other countries, but I am glad that Slovakia has become a pro-European island in this region,  Slovakia s Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Monday. He said it was unintentional but apt timing that the pro-EU foreign policy declaration, which he backed along with President Andrej Kiska and parliament s Speaker Andrej Danko, appeared on the morning after the Czech vote. In power for nine of the past 11 years, Fico has clashed with Brussels himself on many occasions. But he also likes to boast that he increased Slovakia s clout by bringing it into the euro zone in 2009 when its richer Czech neighbors kept their own currency. In recent months, since the election of Emmanuel Macron in France gave a boost to pro-Europeans across the bloc, he has embraced the EU more ardently, saying he aims to steer into a  core  Europe, even if neighbors want to stay on the fringes. Fico, too, is battling a rise in anti-EU sentiment in his country of 5.4 million. But Slovakia, with a small economy driven by exports of cars and electronics to other EU states, has more to lose from alienating Brussels than its bigger and more self-sufficient neighbors.

Summary: स्लोवाकिया अपने क्षेत्र में एक यूरोपीय समर्थक द्वीप हैः प्रधानमंत्री


NAIROBI (Reuters) - Administrators closed Kenya s oldest university on Tuesday, citing fears for students  safety in a planned protest over police beatings at a campus demonstration last week. Kenyan police frequently face accusations of brutality and extrajudicial killings from civilians and rights groups, but officers are rarely charged and almost never convicted.  Despite this, Kenya, an economic and transport hub in East Africa and a key Western ally in a volatile region, receives substantial financial support for its security services from international donors, including the United States and Britain.   Rights groups say at least 28 people were killed, mostly by police, in unrest following the Aug. 8 election, whose results were later nullified by the Supreme Court due to irregularities.  A re-run of the presidential vote is scheduled for Oct. 26 and the conduct of the police will be closely watched.  On Sept. 28, University of Nairobi students protested against the arrest of an opposition lawmaker. Police responded by entering dormitories and classrooms, dragging out students, beating them with clubs and firing tear gas, according to a Reuters witness. The university said 27 students were injured.  A police spokesman did not respond to requests for comment but a presidential spokesman told local radio on Monday that robbers were hiding among the students.  On Tuesday, students had planned to demonstrate against the beatings but instead administrators shut down the university.   The (University of Nairobi) Senate has decided to send the students home for their (own) safety,  John Orindi, the university s corporate affairs director, told Reuters. On Tuesday morning, riot policemen stood near a truck with water cannon outside the campus gates.  A 20-year-old veterinary student who did not want to be named for fear of retribution said students wanted the vice chancellor to resign  for allowing anti-riot police to enter campus and seriously injure students . University officials had talks on Monday with the interior minister, police chief and the head of a Kenyan government watchdog that is charged with investigating complaints against the police.

Summary: पुलिस की बर्बरता पर गुस्सा बढ़ने पर नैरोबी विश्वविद्यालय बंद


BELFAST (Reuters) - A senior member of Northern Ireland s Democratic Unionist Party on Wednesday blamed rivals Sinn Fein for the collapse of talks on forming a power-sharing government and suggested the DUP would not compromise on the key issue of the Irish language.  In the first public statement from the DUP on the collapse of talks, member of parliament Gregory Campbell accused Sinn Fein of holding back government with  a narrow political agenda . Campbell suggested that the DUP would not accept Sinn Fein demands for additional rights and funding for Irish language speakers, the key sticking point in talks in recent weeks, saying it already receives ample public funding.   We cannot and will not be party to an agreement that elevates the Irish language not only above all others, but above health, education and other vital public services,  he said.

Summary: डीयूपी ने उत्तरी आयरलैंड में वार्ता टूटने के लिए सिन फेन को जिम्मेदार ठहराया


LONDON (Reuters) - British Brexit minister David Davis said on Tuesday that he and the European Parliament s negotiator Guy Verohfstadt agreed about the importance of last week s deal between Britain and the EU to move divorce talks to the next phase. Earlier Verhofstadt had said it will insist on quickly making the deal reached between the European Union and Britain on divorce terms legally binding, worried London may not honor a gentleman s agreement.  Pleasure, as ever, to speak to my friend @guyverhofstadt - we both agreed on the importance of the Joint Report. Let s work together to get it converted into legal text as soon as possible,  Davis said on Twitter.

Summary: ब्रेक्सिट मंत्री का कहना है कि यूरोपीय संघ के वार्ताकार वेरहोफस्टैड पिछले सप्ताह के सौदे पर सहमत हैं


Berlin (Reuters) - Five top German politicians received envelopes on Thursday that contained threatening letters and a white powder the letters said was anthrax, which turned out to be harmless, Berlin police said. Chancellor Angela Merkel reportedly received one of the letters, the broadcaster ARD said on its website, but the police spokesman did not confirm that. Special security forces were deployed to investigate the incident, a spokesman for the Berlin State Criminal Police office said, confirming news that was first reported ARD. Horst Seehofer, who heads the Bavarian sister party of Merkel s conservatives, told journalists he had received one of the letters. ARD said the other letters went to Katrin Goering-Eckardt and Hans-Christian Stroebele, members of the pro-environment Greens party, and Gregor Gysi, former chief of the left-wing Left party.  Stroebele confirmed the incident in a posting on Twitter. He told ARD that the letter was probably sent by right-wing extremists, even though it was written in Arabic. He gave no explanation. A photograph of the letter included the phrases  Salafist community, Germany  and  Lethal, Do not touch, Dangerous, Caution  - all in typewritten Arabic characters.

Summary: जर्मन अधिकारियों को धमकी भरे पत्र, नकली एंथ्रेक्स, पुलिस का कहना है