WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama proposed a $4.1 trillion spending plan for fiscal year 2017 on Tuesday in a final White House budget that met immediate Republican resistance for its cost and reliance on tax hikes to fund domestic priorities. Obama, a Democrat who leaves office next January, sought to outline his fiscal and political vision for the country with proposed investments in infrastructure, cyber security, education, and job growth. It also includes more than $11 billion for the Departments of Defense and State to fight Islamic State militants and stabilize Syria - one measure that could draw bipartisan support. But the plan is primarily a political document and is  unlikely to be embraced by the Republican-controlled Congress. Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, called it a “manual for growing the federal government at the expense of hardworking Americans.” The budget envisions a deficit of $503 billion in fiscal 2017 after a $616 billion budget gap in the current fiscal year ending on Sept. 30. It seeks to cut deficits by $2.9 trillion over 10 years  largely through smaller tax breaks for wealthy earners, new savings in Medicare healthcare, and assumptions that adoption of its policies on immigration reform and other areas would boost economic growth. “The budget that we’re releasing today reflects my priorities and the priorities that I believe will help advance security and prosperity in America for many years to come,” Obama told reporters at the White House after a meeting with national security advisers on cyber security. “It drives down the deficit. It includes smart savings on healthcare, immigration, tax reform,” he said. The budget seeks $19 billion for cyber security investments across the U.S. government. White House officials sought to play down the portrayal of the budget as dead on arrival in Congress. They noted bipartisan support for increases in funds for cancer research, opioid addiction programs and anti-poverty measures such as an expansion of the earned income tax credit (EITC), which helps low-income taxpayers. Other proposals were clear non-starters, though, including one to levy a $10.25 per barrel tax on imported and domestically produced oil to fund transportation infrastructure such as mass transit and high speed rail. “The president’s final budget continues his focus on new spending proposals instead of confronting our country’s massive overspending and skyrocketing $19 trillion in debt,” said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi. The budget forecasts that deficits would average 2.5 percent of U.S. economic output over 10 years compared to about 4.0 percent in the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate, which is based on existing tax and spending laws.  It stayed within the bounds of an agreement reached between the White House and Congress last year that lifted mandatory “sequestration” cuts on both defense and domestic spending. The budget proposes lifting the limits entirely from 2018. Obama and Ryan agree on some anti-poverty policies, but the general differences between the two men and their parties are vast, particularly in a presidential election year. Underscoring that divide and the fact that the budget is Obama’s last, Republican lawmakers took the unusual step of not inviting Obama’s budget director Shaun Donovan to brief about the proposal. White House spokesman Josh Earnest, who has likened the snub to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s decision to skip a debate with fellow candidates before the Iowa nominating contest, challenged Republicans to move on areas of compromise. “The question really for Republicans at this point is, are they going to do anything? Are they going to use their majority in Congress to strengthen our cyber security, to fight opioid addiction, to cure cancer, or are they not?” he said. Congress can advance elements of the budget without endorsing the entire proposal. Republicans are especially resistant to the White House’s tax proposals. The budget takes aim at tax breaks for the wealthy that have been perennial targets, including the “carried interest” loophole allowing investment fund managers to treat income as capital gains. It would also increase the top tax rate on capital gains and impose the “Buffett Rule” to ensure that millionaires pay a tax rate of no less than 30 percent of their income after charitable contributions.  In addition, it proposes a new fee on the liabilities of the largest banks that would raise $111 billion over 10 years and discourage excessive leverage in the financial system. The budget foresees $375 billion in new 10-year savings to federal healthcare programs, including several changes to the Medicare program for seniors. The budget calls for $152 billion in research and development, an increase of 4 percent over fiscal year 2016.

Summary: ओबामा ने व्हाइट हाउस के अंतिम बजट में 41 लाख करोड़ डॉलर खर्च करने का प्रस्ताव रखा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It will be a new day at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission after President-elect Donald Trump installs his choice to run the agency. With Trump’s transition team already in regulatory-relief mode and promising to revamp the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation, some rules already are marked for death or dialback. Expected on the chopping block soon after Trump takes the oath of office is a proposal that would require companies to disclose pay ratios between their CEOs and employees. Another would require companies to disclose whether their products contain conflict minerals — minerals that were mined in a war-torn region of Africa. Dead for now is any prospect of the SEC approving a tough fiduciary rule for financial advisers, say policy experts. Trump’s decision to tap former Republican SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins to help manage the Trump team’s transition efforts at the SEC and other financial agencies offers a window into some other changes that could be in store. Atkins, the founder of the regulatory consulting firm Patomak Global Partners, is viewed by some to be a top contender for the position of SEC chairman itself, though as the transition head he could also recommend someone else for that job.   Atkins’ well-known conservative views on everything from enforcement penalties to corporate governance are likely to be reflected in the SEC’s agenda. Here are five policy areas likely to change. Paul Atkins was a staunch critic of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), a body created after the Enron accounting scandal to police and write new rules for corporate auditors. Atkins raised concerns about the board’s budget and high salaries, and advocated against prescriptive accounting rules that he felt constrained auditors from making professional judgments. Recently, Republicans have criticized the PCAOB for taking on more progressive causes, such as proposing companies rotate auditors to reduce conflicts or requiring accounting firms to disclose the name of individual partners working on company audits. The PCAOB’s chairman Jim Doty, who advocated for the controversial reform measures, will almost certainly not be re-appointed by the incoming SEC chair. “I expect that a new Chair will refocus the Board’s standard-setting agenda on the core audit function,” said Hunton & Williams Partner Scott Kimpel. “I would expect a return to the basics.” The topic of whether to impose corporate penalties against a company would come under scrutiny. During his time at the SEC, Atkins advocated for an enforcement approach that he said did not unduly punish corporate shareholders that had already suffered from the misconduct. He called for the SEC to carefully weigh who had profited from the bad behavior, and urged the SEC to hold individuals accountable for their actions. Atkins has long opined that the SEC’s rules requiring “best price” execution of stock trades actually skews the market by causing fragmentation and harming price discovery by directing orders away from traditional stock exchanges into “dark pool” trading platforms. As a commissioner, Paul Atkins was critical of the rule called Regulation National Market System (NMS), saying it could impede true price discovery and encourage gaming of the system. In January 2016 he wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal calling for the SEC to do major surgery on the rule, allowing considerations beyond ‘best price’ and speed to determine order flow. The Dodd-Frank law gave the SEC newfound powers to reward whistleblowers who come forward with tips of corporate malfeasance. From August 2011 through fiscal year 2015, the SEC has received more than 14,000 tips, and by August of 2016, the program had given out more than $100 million in rewards. But corporate America has long disliked the part of the rule that protects whistleblowers from having to report wrongdoing to their own companies before they tip off the government. In 2011, Atkins urged the SEC to require whistleblowers to report internally first, saying a failure to do so could undermine compliance programs. Whether this will change remains to be seen, especially in the wake of the Wells Fargo & Co scandal, where employees who reported internally about the opening of unauthorized accounts were fired. Atkins “cares deeply about the commission and its enforcement program,” said Jordan Thomas, a whistleblower attorney at Labaton Sucharow who previously worked in the SEC’s enforcement division during Atkins’ tenure. “I find it very hard to believe that he would support undermining such a successful program.” Atkins was a strong proponent of the 2012 Jump Start Our Business Startups Act, which scaled back some SEC rules to help smaller companies raise capital. In testimony on Capitol Hill, Atkins advocated for additional steps to be taken to help smaller companies, including rules to help create venture exchanges for mid-cap stocks and broadening efforts to exempt private capital-raising rules from regulation by states.

Summary: ट्रम्प के बाद का एस. ई. सी. वर्तमान नीति को हिला सकता है।


OSLO (Reuters) - Norway s Christian Democratic party withdrew from coalition talks with the government on Wednesday, ending Conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg s hopes of broadening her minority right-wing cabinet into a center-right majority one. The move may make it more difficult for Solberg to secure backing for her fiscal spending plans and policy proposals, and could even jeopardize her cabinet s long-term survival. Solberg has ruled in a minority government since 2013 with the populist Progress Party. She had hoped to bring the two parties  other backers in parliament, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals, into her cabinet after the four parties combined won a renewed but smaller majority on Sept. 11. While Solberg had needed the support of just one of the two centrist parties previously to push through her policies, she now needs the backing of both in addition to that of her own Conservatives and the Progress Party. But the Christian Democrats, wary of supporting further tax cuts and the government s tough line on immigration, said it would stay out of government even though it preferred Solberg as prime minister over Labour leader Jonas Gahr Stoere. Solberg had previously rejected a proposal from the Liberals and the Christian Democrats to remove Progress from the government in favor of the centrists.  Our alternative for a government did not succeed, but we still wish for good, constructive cooperation,  party leader Knut Arild Hareide of the Christian Democrats told reporters after meeting the three other parties on Wednesday. The Liberals will continue to negotiate with the government, but their potential inclusion in the cabinet would not be sufficient to ensure a majority. The government is due to present its 2018 fiscal spending proposal on Oct. 12 and must negotiate a compromise in parliament by late November or early December.

Summary: केंद्रवादियों द्वारा वार्ता छोड़ने के बाद नॉर्वे सरकार अल्पमत में शासन करेगी


PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo s newly-elected prime minister, ex-guerilla commander Ramush Haradinaj, pledged on Saturday to maintain dialogue with a former foe Serbia and put an end to endemic corruption. Haradinaj was chosen to form a new government on Thursday after his coalition struck an agreement with a smaller party, paving the way for them to take power.  Lawmakers endorsed his appointment on Saturday with 61 votes in the 120-seat parliament - ending a political deadlock that has persisted since elections on June 11.  There is no alternative to dialogue with Serbia,  Haradinaj told parliament.  Despite  a tragic history, we can not change the fact that we are neighbors,  he said.  Haradinaj s coalition comprises parties made up of former guerrillas who fought Serbian forces in 1998 and 1999. That campaign led to accusations of war crimes against him, but he was acquitted twice by a United Nations war crimes tribunal. His arrest in France in January on a Serbian arrest warrant for war crimes soured relations between Belgrade and Pristina. Haradinaj said his new government would fight corruption that has been deterring investors since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.    We have an endemic corruption in all institutions,  he said, ahead of an expected vote on his new cabinet in parliament where his party will command a slim majority. On Saturday, Belgrade officials gave support to 10 Serb deputies who have pledged to vote for Haradinaj s government in parliament in return for three ministerial posts.  But opposition lawmakers criticized Haradinaj for relying on votes of Serb deputies who they say would seek Belgrade s approval for any decisions they take.   It is unfortunate that after all these years the creation of Kosovo institutions is entirely in the hands of Belgrade. This is a catastrophic cabinet,  Avdullah Hoti of the opposition Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) said. Opposition MPs left the chamber as the vote took place. Central bank governor Bedri Hamza was appointed finance minister and Behgjet Pacolli, whom media refer to as the richest man in Kosovo, as foreign minister. The new government will have the difficult task of tackling 30 percent unemployment, and improving relations with Serbia, a precondition for the neighbors to move forward in their efforts to join the European Union. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, almost a decade after NATO air strikes drove out Serbian forces that had been accused of expelling and killing ethnic Albanian civilians in a two-year counter-insurgency.

Summary: कोसोवो के नए प्रधानमंत्री ने सर्बिया के साथ बातचीत और भ्रष्टाचार के खिलाफ लड़ाई का संकल्प लिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democrats’ liberal firebrand, Senator Elizabeth Warren, threw down the gauntlet to President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday, telling labor union members there are financial and social issues where her party will fight him and continuing to blast the Republican. Battling bigotry is the first job for Democrats after the election, said Warren, of Massachusetts, giving a sense of how her party will operate now that it no longer controls the White House and remains the minority in both chambers of Congress. “We will fight back against attacks on Latinos, African Americans, women, Muslims, immigrants, disabled Americans - on anyone,” said Warren, who sparred frequently over Twitter with Trump and criticized him on the campaign trail in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s election. “Whether Donald Trump sits in a glass tower or sits in the White House, we will not give an inch on this, not now, not ever.” She said Trump had “encouraged a toxic stew of hatred and fear” and during the campaign “regularly made statements that undermined core values of our democracy.”  In the speech to the AFL-CIO labor federation, Warren also said Democrats will resist attempts to loosen financial regulation, “gut” the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law and eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).  “If Trump and the Republican Party try to turn loose the big banks and financial institutions so they can once again gamble with our economy and bring it all crashing down, then we will fight them every step of the way,” she said. Warren did highlight areas of agreement. She said “count me in” on Trump’s support of a new Glass-Steagall law to separate investment and retail banking, reforming trade deals, maintaining Social Security benefits, helping on childcare and college costs and rebuilding infrastructure. Warren rose to lead the liberal wing of the party during the 2007-2009 financial crisis. After Republicans blocked President Barack Obama’s attempt to appoint her as the first director of the CFPB, she won a seat in Congress.  In 2015, progressive groups and a political action committee pressed her to run for president. Since Trump’s victory on Tuesday, many have already renewed their calls, for the 2020 presidential election.

Summary: लिबरल वारेन ने नवनिर्वाचित राष्ट्रपति ट्रम्प को झटका दिया


(Reuters) - The Trump administration s effort to combat violence and poverty in Central America will not mean greater militarization in Honduras, the country s president, Juan Orlando Hernandez, said in an interview. Under a plan formulated by U.S. President Donald Trump s chief of staff John Kelly when he was secretary of Homeland Security, the United States is seeking to shore up Central America by financing development projects and getting Mexico to do more to stem the flow of immigrants from the region. Non-governmental organizations and think tanks have voiced concern that the plan, pitched as an effort to boost Central American economic growth, could instead herald a greater militarization in a violent region where coups and gang killings have been commonplace. Central America is one of the most violent regions on earth, though the murder rate in Honduras fell to 59 killings per 100,000 people last year from 90.4 in 2012.  But the Trump administration has not provided any increase in military support aside from police training and a modest bump in support from USAID, Hernandez told Reuters during an interview in New York. Still, Honduras  president says the relationship between the United States and Honduras is  probably better than ever,  noting improved cooperation Hernandez believes will boost investment and security in the Central American region.  We are closer than before,  Hernandez said.  It is really important for them what s going on with Central America and we are working together on economic growth, which is very important, investment, creating jobs and we are working together on security.  Hernandez said the security of Honduras was of a primary interest to Americans, even if they were not completely aware of it.  We have a saying (in Honduras),  If the people in Washington realize that lack of security, lack of preparedness in Central America is dangerous, very dangerous for the U.S. they have to work together with us to create in Central America a region of prosperity, investment, opportunities,  he said.  That s going to be one of the best investments of the (American) people, in their best interest and in ours.  Additionally, Honduras will continue to work with the International Monetary Fund, Hernandez said, provided his government is victorious in this year s election. The IMF recently finished a review mission in the country.

Summary: ट्रम्प की मध्य अमेरिका योजना सैन्यीकरण को बढ़ावा नहीं देगीः होंडुरास के राष्ट्रपति


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A budget proposal to be released by President Donald Trump on Thursday will call for spending cuts of 28 percent for the State Department and 31 percent for the Environmental Protection Agency, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing congressional staff members familiar with the plan. The budget plan for fiscal 2018 will also propose a big reduction in the State Department’s Food for Peace program and elimination of a Transportation Department program that subsidizes flights to rural U.S. airports, the Times reported.

Summary: ट्रम्प की बजट योजना राज्य विभाग, ई. पी. ए. के लिए बड़ी कटौती का प्रस्ताव करेगीः न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स


BADEN BADEN, Germany (Reuters) - Wary of their first official encounter with U.S. President Donald Trump’s blustery trade agenda, the world’s top finance officials were relieved to find new Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin polite and business-like over the weekend. But they yielded ground to the newcomer’s push for the Group of 20 major economies to abandon a decade-old pledge to resist protectionism and to delete communique language on financing the fight against climate change. According to G20 officials who interacted with Mnuchin at the meeting in the spa and casino town of Baden-Baden, Germany, many opted not to challenge Mnuchin on protectionism language. Instead they chose to give some space to him and Trump’s new administration to refine their trade views in the hopes for moderation by the time Germany hosts a G20 leader’s summit in July. Five weeks into his new job, the former Goldman Sachs and commercial banker is currently the only Senate-confirmed Trump appointee working at Treasury. And the Trump administration has not yet decided on the specific policies it will use to make good on campaign pledges to shrink U.S. trade deficits and grow American manufacturing jobs. Options under consideration range from more aggressive anti-dumping enforcement efforts to renegotiating trade deals and enacting a proposed border tax levied on imports. During his campaign, Trump threatened unilateral tariffs on Mexican and Chinese goods and said he would quit the North American Free Trade agreement unless it is renegotiated to his liking.     “We have a new administration in Washington which still has to define precisely its narrative, especially in the context of what was said in the campaign,” said Pierre Moscovici, European Commission Economic Affairs Minister.  “I think Mnuchin is an articulate, constructive and pragmatic man,” Moscovici said. “More work needs to be done to find common ground. It was not ready here. It is not a total surprise.” Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso, who tangled with Mnuchin’s predecessor, Jack Lew, last year over dollar-yen exchange rate volatility, said he was impressed with Mnuchin’s understanding of economics and financial markets. “That’s why I think we can do good business together,” Aso told reporters.  In the G20 plenary sessions, Mnuchin took to the floor only once, reading from a prepared statement, according to a G20 official, while counterparts from China and France argued forcefully in favor of keeping the anti-protectionism pledge.   While Mnuchin concentrated on making good first impressions with his G20 counterparts, U.S. negotiators behind the scenes insisted that they could no longer accept previous language vowing “to resist all forms of protectionism.” This was replaced with a watered-down pledge to “strengthen the contribution of trade to our economies” - language viewed by some participants as preserving U.S. flexibility on trade policy. German Finance Minster Wolfgang Schaeuble, who met with Mnuchin in Berlin before the Baden Baden meeting, said consensus could not be reached on the meaning of protectionism.. He suggested at a news conference that Mnuchin may not have had a clear mandate to negotiate on trade issues. Asked about this, Mnuchin said he knows Trump’s desires on trade and negotiated them from Baden Baden, adding: “the new language makes sense.” The deletion of a “ritualistic phrase” in the G20’s core language could over time diminish U.S. influence, said Eswar Prasad, a former International Monetary Fund official and  trade policy professor at Cornell University. “The U.S. may have won this battle by forcefully imposing its will on the rest of the G20, but the outcome represents a step backward in U.S. global leadership on issues such as the promotion of free trade and tackling climate change,” said Prasad.  But the Baden Baden meeting established Mnuchin as a pragmatic operator in the Trump administration’s drive for a more level playing field on trade, said Domenico Lombardi, another former IMF official now with the Centre for International Governance Innovation, a Canadian think-tank.   “It’d be in the interest of Germany and Europe to establish a strong, bilateral relationship with the new Treasury secretary rather than questioning his authority,” Lombardi said. “The alternative for them would be to negotiate directly with Trump and that would be worse.”

Summary: जी20 मंत्रियों ने ट्रम्प के व्यापार एजेंडे को परिभाषित करने के लिए म्नुचिन को जगह दी


BEDMINSTER, N.J./BEIJING (Reuters) - China’s President Xi Jinping said there needs to be a peaceful resolution to the North Korean nuclear issue, and in a telephone call with U.S. President Donald Trump he urged all sides to avoid words or action that raise tensions. Xi’s comments came hours after Trump warned North Korea that the U.S. military was “locked and loaded” as Pyongyang accused the U.S. leader of driving the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war. The Pentagon said the United States and South Korea would proceed as planned with a joint military exercise in 10 days, an action sure to further antagonize North Korea. China’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Xi told Trump a peaceful resolution to the North Korean nuclear issue was essential, and urged calm. “Concerned parties must exercise restraint and avoid remarks and actions that escalate tensions on the Korean peninsula,” it cited Xi as saying. In their phone call, Trump and Xi “agreed North Korea must stop its provocative and escalatory behavior,” the White House said in a statement, and reiterated their mutual commitment to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. It added the relationship between Trump and Xi was “extremely close” and “will hopefully lead to a peaceful resolution of the North Korea problem.” Trump, vacationing at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf resort, earlier took to Twitter to warn North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that U.S. “military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely”. Again referring to Kim, Trump added, “If he utters one threat ... or if he does anything with respect to Guam or any place else that’s an American territory or an American ally, he will truly regret it, and he will regret it fast.” In remarks to reporters on Friday after a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Trump said the situation with North Korea was “very dangerous and it will not continue”. He added, “We will see what happens. We think that lots of good things could happen, and we could also have a bad solution.” Despite the tough rhetoric, Trump insisted that “nobody loves a peaceful solution better than President Trump.” South Korea’s presidential Blue House said in a statement on Saturday the United States and China were working to resolve the North Korea crisis, and it hoped the two leaders’ phone call “will be able to resolve the peak of tension and act as a catalyst for the situation to move on to a new dimension.” Guam, the Pacific island that is a U.S. territory and home to a U.S. air base, a Navy installation, a Coast Guard group and around 6,000 U.S. military personnel, posted emergency guidelines on Friday to help residents prepare for any potential nuclear attack. North Korean state news agency KCNA said on Thursday the North Korean army would complete plans in mid-August to fire four intermediate-range missiles over Japan to land in the sea 18 to 25 miles (30 to 40 km) from Guam. Japan’s government decided to deploy its Patriot missile defense system to four locations in the west of the country, media reported. No one at Japan’s defense ministry was available to comment on Saturday. The governor of Guam, Eddie Baza Calvo, posted a video on Facebook of himself speaking with Trump. “We are with you a thousand percent. You are safe,” Trump told Calvo. Washington wants to stop Pyongyang from developing nuclear missiles that could hit the United States. North Korea sees its nuclear arsenal as protection against the United States and its partners in Asia. Trump said he was considering additional sanctions on North Korea, adding these would be “very strong.” He gave no details and did not make clear whether he meant unilateral or multilateral sanctions. U.S. officials have said new U.S. steps targeting Chinese banks and firms doing business with Pyongyang are in the works, but these have appeared to be put on hold to give Beijing time to show it is serious about enforcing new U.N. sanctions. Trump said he did not want to talk about diplomatic “back channels” with North Korea after U.S. media reports that Joseph Yun, the U.S. envoy for North Korea policy, had engaged in diplomacy for several months with Pak Song Il, a senior diplomat at Pyongyang’s U.N. mission, on the deteriorating ties and the issue of Americans imprisoned in North Korea. But Daniel Russel, until April the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, said this so-called New York channel had been a relatively commonplace means of communication with North Korea over the years, and was not a forum for negotiation. “It’s never been a vehicle for negotiations and this doesn’t constitute substantive U.S.-DPRK dialogue,” he said, using the acronym for North Korea’s formal name, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Both Moscow and Berlin expressed alarm over the rise in rhetoric over North Korea, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Pyongyang and Washington to sign up to a joint Russian-Chinese plan by which North Korea would freeze missile tests and the United States and South Korea would impose a moratorium on large-scale military exercises. Neither the United States nor North Korea has embraced the plan. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there is no military solution, adding that “an escalation of the rhetoric is the wrong answer.” The French presidency said North Korea was engaged in a “dangerous escalation” of tensions.  President Emmanuel Macron “calls for all parties to act responsibly and prevent any further escalation in tensions,” the Elysee palace said in a statement. Trump and Macron spoke on Saturday. The White House said Trump reiterated the U.S. commitment to stop the “North Korean nuclear menace” and said Washington was ready with diplomatic, economic and military measures. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said blame for problems lay with North Korea, and that the international community was “shoulder to shoulder” in efforts to stop North Korean aggression. “We are working with the US and our partners in the region to bring this crisis to a diplomatic end,” he tweeted. As the rhetoric has ratcheted up, South Koreans are buying more ready-to-eat meals for emergency use, and the government aims to expand nationwide civil defense drills planned for Aug. 23. Hundreds of thousands of troops and huge arsenals are arrayed on both sides of the tense demilitarized zone between the two Koreas.

Summary: चीन के राष्ट्रपति शी जिनपिंग ने उत्तर कोरिया पर संयम बरतने की अपील की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. senators on Tuesday pressed Facebook Inc’s chief lawyer on why the company did not catch 2016 election ads bought using Russian rubles, why its investigation of them took so long and how much it knows about its 5 million advertisers. Democrats and Republicans at the Senate crime subcommittee hearing fired questions for much of two hours at Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch, who said that in retrospect the company should have done more.  “In hindsight, we should have had a broader lens. There are signals we missed,” Stretch said under questioning from Democratic Senator Al Franken about how the company missed political ads bought with Russian money. Stretch called the Russia-based ads “reprehensible” for their political divisiveness. The hearing marked the first time tech executives have appeared publicly before U.S. lawmakers on the Russia matter, and the tone represented a dramatic shift in fortunes for Silicon Valley, which for years has grown accustomed to favorable regulatory treatment in the United States.  Lawyers for Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google also faced questions at the hearing about how Russians used their services, but Facebook drew the bulk of senators’ ire because of its unique role in targeted marketing on the internet.  Facebook has broader reach than the smaller Twitter network, and it offers more powerful targeting capabilities than Google.  “I suspect that your advertising department has watched the profits go up,” Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy told Stretch, who responded that Facebook was committed to rooting out accounts that use fake names.  Lawyers for the three companies were scheduled to return to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for two more hearings on Russia ad spending.  The Russian government has denied it intended to influence  the 2016 presidential election, in which Republican Donald Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.   Facebook, in a series of disclosures over two months, has said that people in Russia bought at least 3,000 U.S. political ads and published another 80,000 Facebook posts that were seen by as many as 126 million Americans over two years.  Senators said they could not understand the timing of Facebook’s disclosures.  “Why has it taken Facebook 11 months to come forward and help us understand the scope of this problem?” Democratic Senator Chris Coons asked.  Stretch responded that, when U.S. spy agencies alleged in January that Russians meddled in last year’s election, “we weren’t sitting around.” The company over the following months launched an investigation and reported the results, he said.  Facebook has also announced steps to change how it treats political ads. It said it is hiring 1,000 more people to review ads, compiling a publicly searchable archive of political ads beginning next year and requiring more information about the identity of election advertisers. Coons said he wished the tech companies had sent their top executives on Tuesday rather than in-house lawyers.  Republican Senator John Kennedy told Stretch that he doubted Facebook’s ability to stop people overseas from buying U.S. election ads. U.S. law bars election spending by non-Americans. “You’ve got 5 million advertisers and you’re going to tell me that you’re able to trace the origin of all those advertisements?” Kennedy asked Stretch.  The Facebook lawyer responded that there was little the company could do if a foreign advertiser used a U.S. shell corporation.  Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, chairman of the crime subcommittee, said he wanted to help the tech companies, but he also pressed Stretch on whether Iran and North Korea could try to do what Russia did in the United States.  Stretch responded: “Certainly potentially. The internet is borderless.”   Hanging over Facebook, Google and Twitter is the threat of legislation that would extend rules governing political advertising on television, radio and satellite to also cover social media.  The companies have responded with proposals for self-regulation, saying they would create their own public archives of election-related ads.  Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar told witnesses on Tuesday that self-regulation would lead to a “patchwork” of databases and that a uniform system would be better for voters.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेटरों ने चुनावों पर सत्ता के लिए फेसबुक को झटका दिया


MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines has assured Vietnam of a fair and thorough  investigation into the deaths of two of its fishermen during a sea chase incident at the weekend, during which warning shots were fired by a navy ship.  Two crew died and five were arrested on Saturday about 30 miles (48 km) off Pangasinan, northwest of Manila, after the navy corvette encountered Vietnamese vessels deep in the Philippines  200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone, according to its foreign ministry. Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano made the assurance to his Vietnamese counterpart in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.  We would like to offer our sympathies over the unfortunate loss of life and give you our assurance that we will conduct a fair and thorough investigation into this matter,  Philippine Foreign Ministry spokesman Robespierre Bolivar told reporters on Monday, quoting Cayetano. The Philippines and Vietnam have been close diplomatic allies when it comes to the South China Sea, most of which is claimed by China. Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims. On Monday, Vietnam s foreign ministry said it had received information from the Philippines and was investigating. Vietnam protested violence against fishermen of any kind, it added, asking the Philippines to notify it soon of the official results and to take serious measures if there were violations by Philippine authorities, the statement said. The Philippines assured Vietnam the detained fishermen would be well treated. According to the initial Philippine investigation, the navy ship spotted the six Vietnamese vessels by their bright fishing lights. The boats sped away and the navy gave chase, but the corvette was then rammed by one fishing boat, the navy said, prompting sailors to fire warning shots. When the Vietnamese boat was caught, the crew surrendered and two fishermen were found dead. Investigators noticed bullet holes in the boat s stockroom, but did not say if they were from the navy s guns.

Summary: फिलीपींस ने वियतनामी मछुआरों की हत्या के बाद निष्पक्ष जांच का वादा किया


CLEVELAND (Reuters) - East 4th Street, emblematic of the new Cleveland as a once-downtrodden area turned trendy, is bustling ahead of the Republican National Convention. Outdoor diners on the cobblestone restaurant row enjoy a glorious summer afternoon while cable network MSNBC shoots its politically themed shows on the street.  Just ahead of the four-day convention that starts on Monday, a festival of commerce and smiling faces takes place a few steps from the so-called hard zone, delineated by a literal iron curtain that surrounds the sports arena where Donald Trump will be crowned the Republican presidential candidate. “Ten years ago, this place was a dump. A wasteland,” said John Lusk, 70, a semiretired publisher of a newsletter. “A group of young, hardworking entrepreneurs came in and look what they did.”    The sunny celebration butts uncomfortably against a massive security operation that shows the other side of Cleveland’s big moment. City and U.S. officials are preparing for the worst, aware that tensions over race relations and police use of force, as well as reaction to Trump’s polarizing campaign, could result in violence on the streets. Clevelanders are also aware of the backdrop for their convention: the mass shooting in Orlando that killed 50 people in June, the sniper attack that killed five Dallas police this month, and the truck assault that killed 84 this week in Nice. On this same idyllic block just over a year ago, police in riot gear clashed with demonstrators reacting to the acquittal of police officer charged with manslaughter for firing 15 rounds into the car of an unarmed black man and woman, killing them both. More than 70 people were arrested, disturbing the al fresco dining experience on East 4th Street. Unrest also followed the fatal police shooting in 2014 of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, an African-American who had a toy gun, and the officer who shot him was not charged with a crime. Cleveland, a city of 390,000, has been revitalized in part by billions of dollars in infrastructure spending in recent years, but the black majority still lags behind. Black Lives Matter, the protest group formed after a series of police killings of African-Americans raised questions about justice in America, held a protest on Saturday in Public Square. It was entirely peaceful, with about 100 activists clapping to speeches. In between the civic protest and festival atmosphere, there are pockets of emptiness. Street closing and security cordons seem to have scared off customers at the Arcade, a late 1800s shopping mall that has been modernized. The ornate interior, illuminated by a skylight, is full of boutiques like Prosperity, which sells handcrafted art glass jewelry. Business is slow on a Saturday afternoon. “A lot of people are afraid to come downtown,” said Cat Zurchin, one of the artist/storeowners, from an empty shop.   “Some of these stores opened up just for the convention. Retail people have been excited, but we also have some anxiety. The Secret Service is everywhere.” Black SUVs have invaded the city center as the U.S. Secret Service has taken charge of security. Concrete median barriers and the tall, anti-scaling fence circumscribe the city into impenetrable sectors. A column of police ride through the city center on bicycles, a dozen more on horseback. Helicopters clatter overhead.  Cleveland police are trying to stay restrained, avoiding the militarized presence that has become common thanks to free war surplus equipment from the Pentagon. Even so, the city’s courts are preparing to process up to 1,000 arrestees per day, ready to stay open 20 hours a day.  Hospitals are bracing for the worst. The Cleveland Clinic, one of the largest hospitals in the country, will have 50 doctors, nurses and other medical personnel at the convention site and its entire staff on standby. If needed the hospital can take over an adjoining hotel and conference center, enabling it to handle 1,000 general trauma cases. The hospital is prepared to operate without reinforcements for 96 hours. “All boots on the ground,” said Dr. Robert Willie, chief of medical operations.     Likewise, the Secret Service says it can handle the spotlight. “We are prepared,” said Ronald Rowe, the agent in charge of the convention, “and ready to welcome the world to Cleveland.”

Summary: एक उत्सव की हवा, और बेचैनी, पूर्व-सम्मेलन क्लीवलैंड पर लटकी हुई है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump will propose $200 billion in infrastructure spending over 10 years in his first budget on Tuesday - funding the administration believes will boost private, state and local spending on projects, a White House official said on Friday. The infrastructure plan, first reported by Bloomberg News, is likely to include funding to encourage state and local governments to lease assets to the private sector to generate funding for other projects. Trump has long pledged a $1 trillion, 10-year plan to modernize U.S. roads, bridges, airports, the electrical grid and water systems, but has so far been vague on how much of the spending would come from the federal government. Trump, who leaves on Friday for his first foreign trip, will miss the roll-out of his full budget. He was to meet with his budget director, Mick Mulvaney, on Friday before departing. The budget will also include details about Trump’s proposals to cut foreign aid and boost military spending. It could provide clues on his plan to cut taxes. The Washington Post reported that the budget will include funds for a program to give parents six weeks of paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child, expected to cost about $25 billion a year. While Trump can propose programs, Congress ultimately controls spending and rarely approves White House budget plans as proposed. Republicans control both the Senate and House of Representatives, but were lukewarm to Trump’s initial “skinny budget” plan for fiscal 2018, released in March.

Summary: बुनियादी ढांचे की योजना पर पहली नज़र डालेंगे ट्रम्प बजट


ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on worshippers at the entrance of a Shi ite Muslim mosque in Pakistan s capital Islamabad on Wednesday, killing an intelligence officer at the scene, police said. Three or four attackers on two bikes shot at members of the minority Shi ite community who were leaving evening prayers in a residential neighborhood, police official Ghulam Qasim said. A member of Pakistan s domestic Intelligence Bureau among the worshippers got hit several times and died later in hospital, Qasim said.  We re not sure yet whether it is a sectarian incident,  Qasim added.  The man who died got five or six bullets. That seems to make him a target.   No group immediately claimed responsibility. Attacks are rare in the capital, but Al-Qaeda and Islamic State-affiliated Sunni Muslim sectarian groups are active in the country. Four other people were being treated for bullet wounds, police said.

Summary: इस्लामाबाद की शिया मस्जिद में बंदूकधारियों ने खुफिया अधिकारी की हत्या कर दी


BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan security forces said on Tuesday that the bodies of 16 migrants had been found in the desert near the country s border with Egypt.   The bodies were found about 310 km (190 miles) southwest of the coastal city of Tobruk, said Ahmed al-Mismari, spokesman for the eastern-based Libyan National Army. He said the area was still being searched and no more details were available about the migrants  identities. In the past, patrols and rescuers have recovered the bodies of Egyptian migrants who have perished after being stranded or abandoned by smugglers in Libya s eastern desert.  Some migrate to Libya to search for work, and some try to reach Europe by boat.

Summary: लीबिया के पूर्वी रेगिस्तान में 16 प्रवासियों के शव मिलेः अधिकारी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, who dropped his bid last week, plans to endorse front-runner Donald Trump on Friday morning, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing two people familiar with his thinking. The retired neurosurgeon agreed to the endorsement at a meeting with Trump at the billionaire’s Mar-a-Lago luxury club in Florida, the people said on condition of anonymity, according to the newspaper.  (Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Chris Reese) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.

Summary: पूर्व रिपब्लिकन राष्ट्रपति पद के उम्मीदवार कार्सन ट्रम्प का समर्थन करेंगेः वाशिंगटन पोस्ट


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday dismissed company executives who have resigned from one of his presidential advisory committees in reaction to his response following weekend violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. “For every CEO that drops out of the Manufacturing Council, I have many to take their place. Grandstanders should not have gone on. JOBS!” Trump wrote on Twitter after the chief executives of Merck & Co Inc, Under Armour Inc and Intel Corp left his Presidential Manufacturing Council.

Summary: सलाहकार समिति छोड़ने वाले सी. ई. ओ. को ट्रंप ने 'ग्रैंडस्टैंडर' बताया


LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan/KABUL (Reuters) - As U.S. and Afghan forces pound Taliban drug factories this week, farmers in the country s largest opium producing-province and narcotics experts say the strategy just repeats previous failed efforts to stamp out the trade. U.S. Army General John Nicholson, who heads NATO-led forces in Afghanistan, announced on Monday a new strategy of attacking opium factories, saying he wanted to hit the Taliban  where it hurts, in their narcotics financing . Critics say the policy risks further civilian casualties and turning large swathes of the population dependent on poppy cultivation against the Afghan government.  The Taliban will not be affected by this as much as ordinary people,  said Mohammad Nabi, a poppy farmer in Nad Ali district in the southern province of Helmand, the heartland of opium production.  Farmers are not growing poppies for fun. If factories are closed and businesses are gone, then how will they provide food for their families?  Opium production in Afghanistan reached record highs this year, up 87 percent, according to the United Nations. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said last week that output of opium from poppy seeds in Afghanistan, the world s main source of heroin, stood at around 9,000 metric tons in 2017, worth an estimated $1.4 billion on leaving the farms. In Helmand, cultivation area increased 79 percent. Publicizing the new strategy, which he said was open-ended, Nicholson showed one video of an F-22 fighter jet dropping 250-pound bombs on two buildings, emphasizing that a nearby third building was left unscathed. U.S. troops have long been accused of causing unnecessary collateral damage and civilian deaths. The United States says it takes every precaution to avoid civilian casualties. The four-star general emphasized that farmers were not the targets.  They are largely compelled to grow the poppy and this is kind of a tragic part of the story,  said Nicholson.  WHACK-A-MOLE  Experts, however, question whether the new strategy will have an impact on Taliban financing.  All these things have been tried before and not produced effective results. If they had, we wouldn t be where we are now,  said Orzala Nemat, director of the Kabul-based Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit, which has been researching the country s drug trade for a decade and a half.     Another analyst said it was simply a futile game of  whack-a-mole.  Those familiar with the drug industry in Afghanistan said it would only take three or four days to replace a lab, which generally has a low sunk-cost. They also say it was not just the Taliban involved in Afghanistan s drug trade.  Drugs are elemental to the political economy of Afghanistan, to those who rule and to those who oppose that rule,  said one analyst, asking not to be named. Prior to being ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2001, the Taliban virtually eliminated the trade, saying it was forbidden by Islam. The United States and its Western allies, the Afghan government and United Nations have made repeated efforts since to eradicate poppy cultivation, including encouraging farmers to cultivate alternatives such as saffron, spraying poppy fields with herbicide, and destroying labs. However, they have not made any serious headway in stemming the rise in drug production.     The issue underlines problems faced by the Afghan government and its allies, as they seek to cut off a major source of financing for the Taliban and stem the flow of drugs to Europe. The Taliban said that U.S. forces were mistaken in their targeting and were hitting civilians.  There are no drug producing factories in these areas. Invading Americans are carrying out these attacks based on false information and to make propaganda, which most of its victims are civilians,  said Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi on Wednesday. Although World Bank projections show Afghanistan s economy picking up modestly, the improvement is more than offset by population growth, leaving many in rural areas saying they have no alternative to growing poppies.  The government must provide jobs so people can feed their families and survive,  said poppy farmer Haji Daoud in Sangin, Helmand.  It should provide security and infrastructure.

Summary: तालिबान की अफीम प्रयोगशालाओं पर अमेरिकी हमले काम नहीं करेंगे, अफगान किसानों का कहना है


SANAA (Reuters) - Fighters from Yemen s armed Houthi movement blew up house the house of ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh in the center of the capital Sanaa on Monday, residents reported, as his whereabouts remain unknown. His loyalists have lost ground on the sixth day of heavy urban combat with the Iran-aligned Houthis, his former allies in nearly three years of war with a Saudi-led military coalition.

Summary: यमन के हौथियों ने पूर्व राष्ट्रपति सालेह के घर को उड़ा दिया


PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Protesters in Haiti damaged commercial buildings in the capital city and set cars on fire on Tuesday, angered by government tax hikes that come at a time when foreign aid is declining. The Port-au-Prince protest, called by former presidential candidate Jean-Charles Moise, took many by surprise and represents the biggest outcry against the administration of President Jovenel Moise since he took office earlier this year.  The revolution has just started. Jovenel Moise will have to retract his taxes or he will have to leave immediately,  said Jacques Menard, a 31-year-old protester.  And this is a warning because the next phase can be very violent.  Protesters took to the streets in separate groups in several districts in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince, erecting flaming barricades, blocking traffic, and confronting riot police, who fired tear gas and warning shots in the air. Several people were arrested, the police said, but there were no reports of any deaths or serious injuries. Lawmakers last weekend approved an unpopular budget that raises taxes on products including cigarettes, alcohol and passports. At the same time, foreign aid to Haiti is slowing. The country is one of the poorest in the Americas and suffered a devastating earthquake in 2010 and the worst of hurricane Matthew last year.   If Jovenel Moise is intelligent, he should refrain from publishing the budget, otherwise he will have to face a series of street demonstrations that will further complicate the situation,  Jean-Charles Moise said on local radio.  Government officials were not immediately available for comment, but Economy and Finance Minister Jude Alix Patrick Salomon defended the budget over the weekend.  There are people who are blaming many things on the budget that are not true,  Salomon told reporters shortly after the spending plan was approved.  There are people manipulating the public opinion.

Summary: कर वृद्धि को लेकर हैती में हिंसक सड़क विरोध प्रदर्शन हुए


RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday that Jerusalem was the  eternal capital of the State of Palestine  in response to U.S. President Donald Trump s announcement that he was recognizing the city as Israel s capital.  In a pre-recorded speech played on Palestine TV, Abbas rejected Trump s announcement which included a decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, a move he said was  tantamount to the United States abdicating its role as a peace mediator.

Summary: अब्बास का कहना है कि जेरूसलम शाश्वत फिलिस्तीनी राजधानी है, अमेरिकी शांति भूमिका को खारिज करता है


(Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, has hired a prominent trial lawyer to help represent him in inquiries linked to Russia, the New York Times reported on Monday citing another member of his legal team. Kushner took on Abbe D. Lowell, the newspaper said, joining other senior administration figures including U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Vice President Mike Pence and Trump himself in hiring private attorneys. The White House has come under increased scrutiny since Department of Justice Special Counsel Robert Mueller and a number of congressional committees launched investigations into whether there were ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 election campaign team.  Trump and his key aides have repeatedly denied any collusion with Moscow. Mueller is examining Kushner’s meetings with the Russian ambassador and a Russian banker as part of a broad enquiry, the New York Times said. But there are no signs that Kushner is the target of an investigation and Kushner has promised to cooperate, the newspaper added. The 36-year-old Kushner, a real estate developer with no previous government experience, had at least three previously undisclosed contacts with the Russian ambassador to the United States during and after the 2016 presidential campaign, seven current and former U.S. officials told Reuters in May. When Mueller became special counsel in May, he left a job at WilmerHale, a legal firm that also employs another lawyer for Kushner, Jamie Gorelick.    “When Bob Mueller left WilmerHale to become special counsel and three of our colleagues joined him, we asked Mr. Kushner to get independent legal advice on whether to continue with us as his counsel,” Gorelick said in a statement to the Times.  “He engaged Abbe Lowell to advise him and then decided to add Mr. Lowell to the team representing him in the various inquiries into the Russia matter,” she said.  Trump on Monday demanded that investigators apologize for looking into Russian interference and possible collusion with his election campaign, accusing predecessor President Barack Obama of having “colluded or obstructed,” but he did not provide evidence. Russia has said it did not interfere in the vote.

Summary: ट्रंप के दामाद कुशनर ने मुकदमे के प्रमुख वकील को नियुक्त कियाः न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स


MADRID (Reuters) - Catalan pro-independence party PdeCat (Catalan Democratic Party)said on Monday it will take part in a snap regional elections on Dec.21, a tacit admission that Catalonia s previous ruling party had been fired and parliament dissolved. Earlier, another Catalan pro-independence party, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), also said it would participate in the elections. Spain s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy sacked the regional government, dissolved parliament and called a snap election on Friday after Catalonia leaders made a unilateral declaration of independence.

Summary: कैटलन की स्वतंत्रता समर्थक पार्टी पी. डी. ई. सी. ए. टी. का कहना है कि वह 21 दिसंबर को होने वाले चुनाव में भाग लेगी।


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - WikiLeaks released files on Wednesday of what it said were audio recordings pulled from the emails of the Democratic National Committee that were obtained by hacking its servers.  The latest release, which came in the middle of the Democratic National Convention where Hillary Clinton was officially named the party’s presidential nominee, is the second batch in a series that has deeply rattled the party and prompted the organization’s chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, to step down.

Summary: विकिलीक्स ने हैक की गई डेमोक्रेटिक नेशनल कमेटी की ऑडियो फाइलें जारी कीं


HODEIDAH, Yemen (Reuters) - One of the latest victims of the cholera epidemic that has killed more than 2,000 people in Yemen had yet to even take her first breath. Her mother Safaa Issa Kaheel, then nine months pregnant, was brought into a crowded clinic in the Western port city of Hodeidah by her husband, who had to borrow the travel fare from a neighbor.  My stomach started hurting more and more,  said Kaheel, 37, a hydrating drip hooked into her arm. Once there, she was referred by nurse Hayam al-Shamaa for an ultrasound scan which showed her baby had died of dehydration - one of 15 to perish in the womb due to cholera in September and October, according to doctors at the city s Thawra hospital.   I felt like death,  Kaheel said, her voice strained.  Thank god I survived the (delivery), but my diarrhea hasn t stopped.    The Red Cross has warned that cholera, a diarrheal disease that has been eradicated in most developed countries, could infect a million people in Yemen by the end of the year.  Two and a half years of war have sapped Yemen of the money and medical facilities it needs to battle the contagion, to which aid agencies and medics say the poor, the starving, the pregnant and the young are most vulnerable. The cholera ward is full of children - some writhing in agony, others eerily still. The blanket over one boy too weak to move rises and falls with his shallow breathing. Save the Children said in August that children under 15 represent nearly half of new cases and a third of deaths, with  malnourished children more than six times more likely to die of cholera than well-fed ones.  Millions of Yemenis are struggling to find food and the baking desert plains around Hodeidah are hotspots both of hunger and sickness. Yemen s war pits the armed Houthi movement against the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition that has launched thousands of air strikes to restore him to power.  At least 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict. The country s health sector has been badly battered while a struggle over the central bank has left public sector salaries for doctors and sanitation workers unpaid. Soumaya Beltifa, spokesperson for the Red Cross in Sanaa, warned that a lack of funds and health personnel were blunting efforts to eradicate the disease, making it unlikely Yemen would be healthy again soon.  The cholera epidemic has become a norm, leading to complacency in dealing with the disease, not only by civilians but also from the various (aid) organizations,  she warned.

Summary: हैजा ने अजन्मे बच्चों का दावा किया क्योंकि महामारी ने यमन में दुख फैलाया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress inched toward a deal to fund the government through September but was preparing to possibly extend a midnight Friday deadline in order to wrap up negotiations and avoid an imminent government shutdown. The one-week extension would give leading Republicans and Democrats “a little breathing room” to finish negotiations and present their plan for spending around $1 trillion through the rest of the fiscal year to rank-and-file lawmakers, according to a House of Representatives source familiar with the talks. Negotiators were racing against the clock to clear away remaining disputes in the massive spending bill. The arduous talks have produced at least two major victories for Democrats so far, even though they are the minority party in Congress. President Donald Trump gave in to Democratic demands that the spending bill not include money to start building the wall he wants to erect on the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump has said the “big, beautiful, powerful” wall is needed to block illegal immigrants and drugs from coming into the country. Mexico has adamantly rejected Trump’s assertion that it would pay for the wall. Democrats have also gotten the administration to agree to continue funding, at least for now, for a major component of the Affordable Care Act, even though Trump campaigned on a vow to end the program, commonly known as Obamacare. Administration officials had threatened in recent days to pull the plug on subsidies for low-income people enrolled in the 2010 healthcare law, former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement. “While we agreed to go ahead and make the ... payments for now, we haven’t made a final decision about future commitments,” a White House official said. Anthem Inc, one of the largest insurers on the Obamacare exchanges, said on Wednesday that without the government payments, premiums would increase 20 percent next year and that it might have to withdraw from some regions and states. Both concessions robbed Trump from claiming some major legislative successes he had hoped to achieve in his first 100 days in office, which will be marked on Saturday. If Congress cannot agree to either a short stopgap funding bill or a longer-term one by midnight Friday, federal agencies will run out of money and likely have to abruptly lay off hundreds of thousands of federal government workers until an appropriations bill is enacted. Many policymakers are nervous about a repeat of 2013, when the government was shuttered for 17 days. It was unclear whether Republicans might prevail on their demand for a significant increase in defense spending without similar increases to other domestic programs. Trump has proposed a $30 billion spending boost for the Pentagon for the rest of this fiscal year. “Our major concerns in these negotiations have been about funding for the wall and uncertainty about ... payments crucial to the stability of the marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act. We’ve now made progress on both of these fronts,” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. She added that other disagreements must be ironed out. “We’re getting really close,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, told reporters earlier on Wednesday, adding that negotiators were “getting down to the last, final” areas of disagreement. Trump’s push for a border wall, a signature campaign proposal, is seen by most Democrats and many Republicans as an ineffective way of securing U.S. borders. The Trump administration likely will seek money for the wall in legislation funding the government for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, but lawmakers are likely to balk again. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from the coal-mining state of Kentucky, threw his weight behind a plan Democrats were insisting on to make a healthcare program for coal miners permanent. It was unclear if Ryan would go along. Even though Trump’s fellow Republicans control both chambers of Congress, they only have 52 seats in the Senate. To amass the 60 votes needed there to pass a spending bill, Republicans will have to win the support of at least some Democratic lawmakers. Democrats have been seeking immediate assistance for a funding gap in Puerto Rico’s Medicaid program, the federal health insurance program for the poor, saying it is in such bad shape that 1 million people are set to lose healthcare. Also unclear is what “riders” that set new policy might be tucked into the legislation. Past riders have touched on areas such as banning the Securities and Exchange Commission from requiring corporations to disclose political donations. Democrats said they were worried Republicans could try to attach language limiting family-planning funds or undo Wall Street reforms enacted after the 2007-09 financial crisis.

Summary: अमेरिकी कांग्रेस बंद को टालने के लिए एक सप्ताह के वित्तपोषण विस्तार की मांग कर सकती है


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Lawyers for Jacob Zuma have until midnight to file papers outlining why nearly 800 corruption charges shelved before he became South African president eight years ago but recently reinstated by the courts should not be brought against him. The revival of the charges could increase pressure on Zuma to step down before his term ends in 2019 and diminish his influence over who succeeds him when the ruling African National Congress (ANC) chooses a new leader in December.     The 75-year-old president has faced and denied numerous other corruption allegations since taking office in 2009.  The 783 charges, which relate to a 30 billion rand ($2.2 billion) government arms deal arranged in the late 1990s, were filed but then dropped by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) shortly before he ran for the presidency. South Africa s High Court reinstated the charges last year and the Supreme Court upheld that decision in October, rejecting an appeal by Zuma and describing the NPA s decision to set aside the charges as  irrational . The NPA said then that Zuma had until Nov. 30 to make submissions before it decided whether to pursue the charges. Spokesmen for the NPA and Zuma were not available for comment on Thursday. Last month s Supreme Court ruling lifted the rand currency against the dollar as investors bet that Zuma s removal may be inching closer. The president is unpopular with many investors after sacking respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan in March, a move that hit South African financial assets and helped tip the country s credit ratings into  junk  territory. Infighting within the ruling ANC ahead of next month s conference to elect a successor to Zuma as party chief has also sapped confidence among the investors upon whom South Africa relies to finance its hefty budget and current account deficits. One of South Africa s leading universities, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, said on Thursday that it had appointed Gordhan as a visiting professor.  He will join other ANC heavyweights who have ended up at the Wits after being sidelined by Zuma, among them another respected and ousted finance minister, Nhlanhla Nene, and former Reserve Bank Governor Tito Mboweni. Widely seen as a competent and honest technocrat, Gordhan has become an unlikely poster boy for public anger at the president, whose administration has been marred by missteps and allegations of corruption. Zuma denies any wrongdoing. ($1 = 13.6794 rand)

Summary: भ्रष्टाचार के आरोपों को लेकर दक्षिण अफ्रीका के राष्ट्रपति जुमा के लिए समय सीमा बढ़ी


(Reuters) - A federal judge in Alabama has issued a permanent injunction barring state officials from denying same-sex couples the right to marry in that state, according to court documents made public on Wednesday.  The order, filed on Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Callie Granade, came in response to a 2014 lawsuit challenging Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage, finalizing a decision Granade made in early 2015 that the state law was unconstitutional.  The legality of gay marriage was at the center of a national debate until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2015 that the U.S. Constitution provided same-sex couples the right to marry. Despite that order, Alabama officials continued to resist the change in the law.  Last month, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore was suspended for issuing an administrative order to state probate judges that they should not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. In March, the Alabama Supreme Court dismissed petitions by opponents of same-sex marriage asking to reinstate the ban on those unions but refused to vacate or withdraw its own March 2015 ruling in favor of the same-sex marriage ban, made just months before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. “This brings a finality by permanently prohibiting Alabama from enforcing its marriage laws which are discriminating against gay couples,” said Susan Watson, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama. “Given Alabama’s fierce resistance, this permanent relief was required to ensure marriage equality in the state.” Officials from the office of Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, who is named in the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.  Strange’s attorneys had asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed because the state was currently complying with the federal law.  But Granade said in her ruling that “promising to sin no more” did not render a permanent injunction unnecessary. The actions of the suspended chief justice and other officials suggested that other attempts may be made to undermine the constitutional right of same-sex couples to marry, she wrote. “It cannot be said with assurance that there is no reasonable expectation that Alabama’s unconstitutional marriage laws will not again be enforced,” the order said.

Summary: न्यायाधीश ने अलबामा में समलैंगिक विवाह को बरकरार रखते हुए अंतिम आदेश जारी किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was open to bilateral trade pacts with either Canada or Mexico if a three-way deal cannot be reached to substantially revise the North American Free Trade Agreement.  Asked by a reporter if he could envision maintaining free trade with Canada if NAFTA talks sour with Mexico, Trump said: “Oh sure, absolutely. It’s possible we won’t be able to reach a deal with one or the other, but in the meantime we’ll make a deal with one.” Trump added that a “very creative” deal was still possible to benefit all three countries. Trump’s comments came at a White House meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was in Washington to promote NAFTA’s benefits as a new round of renegotiations began near Washington. Asked about Trump’s comments at a news conference later, Trudeau said he was still optimistic about the chances of modernizing the 1994 trade pact. “I continue to believe in NAFTA ... so saying, we are ready for anything, and we will continue to work diligently to protect Canadian interests,” Trudeau said. Trudeau added that Canada was “very much aware of and very braced for” Trump’s unpredictability, but his government would work in a “thoughtful, meaningful way towards getting a good deal.” Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo, speaking on Mexican radio, praised Trump’s comments as “very balanced” to include the possibility of a deal with either country and hold out hope for a creative solution. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday accused Trump’s administration of trying to sabotage the talks with “poison pill proposals,” including demands for more favorable treatment for the U.S. side on car production, and a “sunset clause” to force regular negotiations. In his appearance with Trudeau, Trump said: “We’ll see what happens” when asked whether NAFTA was doomed. “It’s possible we won’t be able to make a deal, and it’s possible that we will,” he said. “We’ll see if we can do the kind of changes that we need. We have to protect our workers, and in all fairness, the prime minister wants to protect Canada and his people also.” U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, one of Trump’s top trade advisers, downplayed the chances that a NAFTA termination would become necessary. “We don’t hope it will, we don’t desire that it will, we don’t believe that it will, but it is at least a conceptual possibility as we go forward,” Ross said. But U.S. and Mexican corporate chief executives gathered in Mexico City said they would be better off with no NAFTA than be saddled with a “bad agreement.”    Trade experts said the NAFTA talks were likely to stall in the face of aggressive U.S. attempts to sharply increase content requirements for autos and auto parts.  People briefed on U.S. proposals to be presented this week said Washington was seeking to sharply lift North American content threshold in car manufacturing. The proposals call for North American content overall to rise to 85 percent from the current 62.5 percent. In addition, the United States wants to add a new 50 percent U.S.-specific content requirement, something that was not in the earlier agreements. “These will be met with widespread opposition from Canada and Mexico. I think it’s just a bridge too far,” said Wendy Cutler, the Asia Society’s Washington policy director and former chief U.S. negotiator for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal canceled by Trump.      The U.S. side sees strengthening the rules of origin for the auto industry as a way to bring back some auto parts production, including electronics, from Asia. But Mexico strongly opposes a U.S.-specific content requirement, which would limit the growth of its own car industry.   The difficult issue of rules of origin will be addressed mostly at the end of the current talks, according to a schedule obtained by Reuters. The negotiations were extended on Wednesday by two days to Oct 17.  Other U.S. proposals opposed by Canada, Mexico and U.S. business interests include the five-year sunset provision, radical changes to NAFTA’s dispute arbitration systems, changes to intellectual property provisions and new protections for U.S. seasonal produce growers. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said on Wednesday the three nations had completed their negotiations on company competition policy, reaching an agreement that goes beyond previous U.S. trade deals to ensure “certain rights and transparency under each nation’s competition laws.”

Summary: नाफ्टा वार्ता विफल होने पर कनाडा और मैक्सिको के बीच समझौते के लिए तैयारः ट्रम्प


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration has offered the job of White House national security adviser, vacated by former U.S. intelligence official Michael Flynn, to Vice Admiral Robert Harward, said two U.S. officials familiar with the matter on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear if Harward, a former deputy commander of U.S. Central Command who has Navy SEAL combat experience, had accepted the offer, according to sources. A White House spokesperson had no immediate comment. Flynn resigned on Monday after revelations that he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before President Donald Trump took office.  Losing his national security adviser so soon after taking office is an embarrassment for the new Republican president, who has made national security a top priority. Harward, a Rhode Island native who went to school in Tehran before the Shah was toppled in 1979, did a tour on the National Security Council under former Republican President George W. Bush, working on counterterrorism. He also has combat experience on SEAL teams and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Harward now works as an executive for defense contractor Lockheed Martin, with responsibility for its business in the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East.

Summary: ट्रंप ने वाइस एडमिरल हार्वर्ड को राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सलाहकार पद की पेशकश कीः सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama, keen to preserve his legacy on domestic health care and the Iran nuclear deal, is not expected to make major moves on Israeli-Palestinian peace before leaving office, U.S. officials said on Thursday. One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the last word on the president’s failed peace effort might come from Secretary of State John Kerry at an appearance on Sunday at an annual Middle East conference in Washington. Obama’s aides are wary of being seen picking a fight with Donald Trump at a time when he hopes to persuade the Republican President-elect to preserve parts of his legacy, including the Iran nuclear deal, Obamacare and the opening to Cuba. While Obama has yet to present his final decision, several officials said he had given no sign that he intended to go against the consensus of his top advisers, who have mostly urged him not to take dramatic steps, a second official said.  “There is no evidence that there is any muscle behind (doing) anything,” said a third official. Putting new pressure on Israel could be seen as a vindictive parting shot by Obama at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the first official said, noting they have had a testy relationship. There is concern that Trump, in response, might over-react in trying to demonstrate his own pro-Israel credentials, for example by moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, a step that would enrage Palestinians and create an international furor. Officials said Obama has weighed enshrining his own outline for a deal in a U.N. Security Council resolution that would live on after he gives way to Trump on Jan. 20. Another idea was to give a speech laying out such parameters. These options appear to have lost steam. Kerry, who led the last round of peace talks that collapsed in 2014, appears on Sunday at the Saban Forum conference of U.S., Israeli and Arab officials. Officials could not rule out that Obama might also talk about Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy before he leaves office. The White House and the Israeli embassy declined comment. The central issues to be resolved in the conflict include borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state, the fate of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which most nations regard as illegal, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem. Israeli officials remain concerned that Obama and his aides have not explicitly ruled out some kind of last-ditch U.S. action, either at the United Nations or in another public forum.     U.S. officials said Obama could also have his hand forced, notably if another nation like France put forward a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement activity as illegal or illegitimate, daring Washington to veto it as it did a similar French-proposed resolution in 2011. U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, asked if Washington would again veto a French proposal, told Israel’s Army Radio: “We will always oppose unilateral proposals.” He added: “If there is something more balanced, I cannot guess what the response will be.”

Summary: ओबामा, विरासत की रक्षा करने की कोशिश कर रहे हैं, मध्य पूर्व शांति पर कार्रवाई करने की संभावना नहीं है


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Saturday that Kurdish plans to hold a referendum on independence was like  playing with fire , according to a local media website.   Abadi s comment came after the parliament of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq approved on Friday the Kurdistan Regional Government s plan to hold the vote on Sept. 25. The vote could jeopardize gains achieved by the Kurds under the self-rule regime, Abadi said, according to the Iraqi Media News Agency news website. Abadi s media office didn t answer calls to confirm his comments.

Summary: इराकी प्रधानमंत्री ने कहा कि कुर्द स्वतंत्रता मतदान के साथ 'आग से खेल रहे हैं': रिपोर्ट


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican lawmakers will begin voiding dozens of new U.S. regulations at the end of the month to fulfill their promise to undo Democratic President Barack Obama’s legacy, focusing on environmental and labor rules, the House of Representatives’  second most powerful Republican said on Thursday.  House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the Republicans who will shortly control both Congress and the White House for the first time in 10 years have made reforming federal regulation a top priority alongside repealing the Obamacare healthcare program and rewriting the tax code. Republicans are on a blitz to radically reform the vast federal bureaucracy, where they say appointed officials create costly, burdensome red tape that stifles economic growth. Once Republican President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20, they will have a like-minded ally in the Oval Office to sign their measures into law. On the chopping block are dozens of new rules that the outgoing Obama administration has finalized since the end of May on energy, the environment, transportation, banking, finance, education and media ownership. Republicans will ax them using the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to void a single regulation for a brief window of time after it is issued.   Congress will begin a two-week marathon of voting to disapprove them on Jan. 30, according to McCarthy, who House aides say will lead the process. Disapproval resolutions can pass on simple majorities, giving Senate Democrats no power to block votes with filibusters. McCarthy told the conservative-leaning Hoover Institution that two of the first votes will be on new environmental regulations. Republicans will seek to kill a contentious rule intended to protect streams and forests from the impact of coal mining and a regulation curbing methane leaks on public lands. Congress will also take aim at new requirements for employers to report their workers’ gender, race and ethnicity that are intended to help root out pay discrimination. On Wednesday, the House approved a massive bill for creating accountability in rulemaking. The next day, it passed legislation largely along party lines requiring financial regulators to tally the costs of their rules. Democrats, though, have vowed to block any reform bills, saying the many extra procedures they require will stall agencies’ work, making it impossible to create needed regulations and properly oversee special interests.

Summary: कांग्रेस इस महीने ओबामा काल के नियमों को वापस लेना शुरू करेगीः नेता


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday urged international cooperation in reacting to a series of attacks in Brussels that have left 34 people dead and many injured. “As our countries have always done, we must confront this threat together. We must defend democracy, and defeat terror,” Ryan told reporters.

Summary: सदन के अध्यक्ष रेयान ने ब्रसेल्स हमले पर समन्वित प्रतिक्रिया का आग्रह किया


ABUJA/DAKAR (Reuters) - Cameroonian troops this month crossed into Nigeria in pursuit of rebels without seeking authorization from Nigeria, causing a falling-out between the governments behind the scenes, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. At least one incursion was confirmed by a Nigerian government official, two Nigerian military officers and two foreign diplomats, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. Nigerian security forces were deployed to the border to stop any further crossings, said a military source. The Cameroonian and Nigerian governments said in separate statements there were no incursions. Relations between the two countries are good, Cameroon said. Cameroonian military officials and pro-government media accuse Nigeria of sheltering Anglophone insurgents. For the past year they have been based in the dense equatorial forests that straddle the border between the two countries, fighting for an independent state they call Ambazonia. At least 7,000 people have fled as refugees from Anglophone Cameroon to Nigeria following a crackdown ordered this year by President Paul Biya to quell the insurgency, which represents the gravest challenge yet to his 35-year rule. French is the official language for most of Cameroon but two regions speak English and these border Nigeria, which is also Anglophone.  Cameroonian troops were in Nigeria,  said a foreign diplomat.  Zero warning, zero authorization.  The troops crossed into Nigeria at least twice this month, the diplomat and a Nigerian military official told Reuters. The incidents have caused anger on both sides and could sour diplomatic relations further as Cameroon increases pressure on its Anglophone regions, according to the diplomat and a Nigerian government official.  Tensions are high and could escalate,  the government official said. Cameroon government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary denied that troops had crossed the border illegally.  Relations between the two countries are cohesive when it comes to fighting against terrorism. Cameroon and Nigeria are on the same wavelength.   Nigeria s foreign minister, speaking to Reuters after a cabinet meeting in Abuja, also denied the incursions.  The (Nigerian) government had investigated and discovered that it s not true,  said Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigeria s foreign minister. But the Nigerian government official and a diplomat said Cameroon had threatened to suspend senior Nigerian embassy officials in Yaounde after they lodged complaints. Tchiroma and Onyeama denied this. Governments in Africa often play down diplomatic disputes and present a show of harmony even during bitter rows. On Monday, rebels killed four gendarmes, Cameroon s government said, the latest raid on police and military positions in the country s southwest region. Nigeria has for decades been West Africa s powerhouse but  the militaries of the two countries have cooperated extensively to confront a threat posed by Islamist militant group Boko Haram. The group has staged attacks in Nigeria for years but more recently it has also conducted deadly assaults in Cameroon. Cameroon has repeatedly pressed Nigeria to allow it the right of hot pursuit for Boko Haram militants and the issue has left the countries at loggerheads. After Cameroon s military crossed the border this month in pursuit of separatist insurgents, Nigeria sent security forces to deter any future attempts, said one of the military sources.  We were not for war but keeping the peace and protecting our territorial integrity. They were asked to leave and they did and everything has been brought under control,  the source said.  Many refugees have crossed into Nigeria and many more are still crossing and the Cameroon authorities appear to be concerned that the situation may escalate if they keep coming into Nigeria.  Two Cameroonian military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters separatists had set up bases and launched attacks from Nigeria. One attack was on Dec. 14 and involved two groups of at least 100 separatists, one of the officials said.  How do you explain that these guys come to attack us and then leave without being troubled across the border? When we drive them back, these separatists withdraw toward Nigeria,  the official said. Julius Ayuk Tabe, the Nigeria-based chairman of the Ambazonian Governing Council, the political wing of the armed resistance, said he was not aware of any separatist military bases in Nigeria. Cameroon s linguistic divide harks back to the end of World War One, when the German colony of Kamerun was carved up between allied French and British victors. The English-speaking regions joined the French-speaking Republic of Cameroon the year after its independence in 1960. French speakers have dominated the country s politics since.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः कैमरून के सैनिकों ने प्राधिकरण की मांग किए बिना नाइजीरिया में प्रवेश किया, नाइजीरिया के सूत्रों का कहना है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday it is pleased that the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the immigration case. “We are confident that the policies will be upheld as lawful,” White House spokeswoman Brandi Hoffine said in a statement.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस को विश्वास है कि सुप्रीम कोर्ट आव्रजन कार्रवाई को बरकरार रखेगा


GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. independent investigator into human rights in Myanmar called on Wednesday for stronger international pressure to be exerted on Myanmar s military commanders after being barred from visiting the country for the rest of her tenure.  Yanghee Lee, U.N. special rapporteur, had been due to visit in January to assess human rights across Myanmar, including alleged abuses against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State. But Myanmar had told her she was no longer welcome, she said, adding in a statement that this suggested something  terribly awful  was happening in the country.   From what I see right now I m not sure if they are feeling pressured. I m not sure if there is the right kind of pressure placed on the military commanders and the generals,  she later told Reuters by telephone from Seoul. She said it was alarming that Myanmar was strongly supported by China, which has a veto at the U.N. s top table in New York. Other countries including the United States and human groups were advocating targeted sanctions on the military, she said.  It has to work. And I m sure the world has to find a way to make it work. And I think the United Nations and its member states should really try to persuade China to really act towards the protection of human rights,  she said. Surveys of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh by aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres have shown at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed in Rakhine state in the month after violence flared up on Aug 25, the aid group said last week. More than 650,000 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh since Aug. 25, when attacks by Muslim insurgents on the Myanmar security forces triggered a sweeping response by the army and Buddhist vigilantes. Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the situation in Rakhine State was an internal affair for Myanmar with its own complex history. Myanmar and Bangladesh resolving this issue was the only way to go, she told reporters. The international community should provide constructive help for Myanmar and Bangladesh to resolve the issue rather than complicating it, Hua added. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra ad al-Hussein has called the violence  a textbook example of ethnic cleansing  and said he would not be surprised if a court eventually ruled that genocide had taken place.     Lee had planned to use her visit to find out procedures for the return of Rohingya refugees, and to investigate increased fighting in Kachin State and Shan Sate in northern Myanmar, where the military is battling autonomy-seeking ethic minority guerrillas. Lee, in an earlier statement, said Myanmar s refusal to cooperate with her was a strong indication that there must be  something terribly awful happening  throughout the country, although the government had repeatedly denied any violations of human rights.  They have said that they have nothing to hide, but their lack of cooperation with my mandate and the fact-finding mission suggests otherwise,  she said. She was  puzzled and disappointed , since Myanmar s ambassador in Geneva, Htin Lynn, had told the U.N. Human Rights Council only two weeks ago that it would cooperate.  Now I am being told that this decision to no longer cooperate with me is based on the statement I made after I visited the country in July,  she said. Htin Lynn did not respond to a request for comment. Neither Zaw Htay, spokesman for Myanmar government leader Aung San Suu Kyi, nor Kyaw Moe Tun, a spokesman for the ministry of foreign affairs that Suu Kyi heads, were immediately available.

Summary: म्यांमार ने यात्रा से पहले संयुक्त राष्ट्र के अधिकार जांचकर्ता को प्रतिबंधित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration put new requirements in place on Friday for the 38 countries participating in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, including that they use U.S. counterterrorism data to screen travelers, officials said. The program allows citizens of mainly European countries to travel to the United States for up to 90 days without a visa. Citizens from the 38 countries are required to obtain a so-called travel authorization to enter the United States. President Donald Trump has sought to tighten the rules for those seeking to visit or live in the United States in several ways, saying restrictions are necessary for security reasons. The changes will apply to all countries in the program. One change is that they will be required to use U.S. information to screen travelers crossing their borders from third countries. Many countries in the program already do that, one administration official said. Countries whose citizens stay longer than authorized during visits to the United States at a relatively higher rate will be required to conduct public awareness campaigns on the consequences of overstays, the officials said. One existing penalty is that people who overstay a visit may not travel visa-free to the United States in the future. The threshold for the overstay rate triggering the public information campaign requirement is two percent, the officials said. In the 2016 fiscal year, of the VWP countries, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, and San Marino, a wealthy enclave landlocked inside central Italy, had total overstay rates higher than two percent, according to a report by the Department of Homeland Security. The overall overstay rate for VWP countries is 0.68 percent, lower than non-VWP countries excluding Canada and Mexico, which is at 2.07 percent, according to the DHS report. Members of Congress have expressed concern about the security risks of overstays. A May 2017 report by the DHS inspector general found the department lacked a comprehensive system to gather information on departing visitors, forcing it to rely on third-party data to confirm departures, which is sometimes faulty. The United States will also start assessing VWP countries on their safeguards against “insider threats” at their airports, especially those with direct flights to the United States, officials said. The goal is to ensure countries “make sure that airport employees, aviation workers et cetera, aren’t corrupted or are co-opted to pose a threat to aircraft, especially those that are U.S.-bound,” an official said.

Summary: ट्रम्प प्रशासन ने अमेरिकी वीजा छूट पर नए नियम जारी किए


KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine s prime minister, Voldoymyr Groysman, said on Saturday the government was reviewing the way it sets domestic gas bills to make sure market prices are taken into account - a bid to answer demands under a $17.5-billion IMF aid program. The long-delayed disbursement of a next tranche of IMF loans depends on Ukraine adjusting gas prices, and also on pension reform and the creation of an independent judicial body to tackle endemic graft. Speaking at the annual Yalta European Strategy conference, Groysman said the gas pricing formula was being reviewed but did not say how tariffs would be affected.  We believe that the gas price should be determined in accordance with the gas market and in accordance with a formula. The most important thing is for this formula to be fair,  news agency Interfax Ukraine quoted Groysman as saying at the annual Yalta European Strategy conference.  At the moment our technical division is working on verifying the formula that determines the gas price,  he said. The IMF wants gas prices to be set by external market dynamics through an automatic formula to stop tariffs being set unsustainably low as a populist measure. Ukraine has so far received $8.4 billion from the Fund, helping it recover from a two-year recession following the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014 and the outbreak of a Russian-backed insurgency in its industrial east. On Friday, the IMF s first deputy managing director, David Lipton, said Ukraine risked undoing progress made under the program and urged the authorities to push ahead with reforms needed for the next loan tranche. Earlier on Saturday Groysman said Ukraine needed to set up an independent anti-graft judicial body quickly - adding that it did not matter if it was a separate court, as envisaged by the IMF, or a chamber to existing courts.  We need to quickly establish an instrument that would allow  corruptioneers  to face justice and whether it s called an anti-corruption chamber or court doesn t matter,  he told the conference. On Friday President Petro Poroshenko said an anti-graft chamber within the existing court system would be more feasible in the short-term - a proposal that reform activists have said would limit the independence of the body. (This story corrects headline and second para to clarify Ukraine is reviewing the gas price formula, not gas prices, which the IMF wants under its reform program)

Summary: यूक्रेन के प्रधानमंत्री ने कहा कि गैस मूल्य फार्मूले की समीक्षा चल रही है