WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Thursday he will work with the U.S. Congress to approve grants and loans to help rebuild Puerto Rico after it was devastated by Hurricane Maria a month ago. Already mired in debt after years of recession, the U.S. territory faces storm-related damages that some estimates have pegged as high as $95 billion, and has asked the federal government to make exceptions to rules that typically require states and local governments to shoulder part of the cost of recovery. Trump did not give any specifics about how much money the government may give or loan to the cash-strapped territory, home to 3.4 million U.S. citizens. “I have given my blessing to Congress, and Congress is working with you and your representatives on coming up with a plan and a payment plan and how it’s all going to be funded. Because you are talking about some substantial numbers,” Trump said to Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello at the beginning of an Oval Office meeting. Trump and some of his top aides suggested last week that there would be limits to how much help Puerto Rico could expect from Washington. But on Thursday, the president’s remarks were broadly supportive. The hurricane laid waste to the island’s power grid, destroying homes, roads and other vital infrastructure. The bankrupt territory is still struggling to provide basic services like running water. An oversight board charged with resolving Puerto Rico’s debt crisis has said the island’s government would run out of money by the end of the month without help. Trump emphasized that repayment of federal loans and other storm-related debt owed by Puerto Rico would come before repayment of the island’s existing $72 billion in debt. “Any money that’s put in by people - whether it’s public or private - they’re going to want to come in first position,” Trump said. “We’re going to coming before - far before - any existing debt that’s on the island,” he said. Trump declined to opine on whether the process would be easier if Puerto Rico were a state rather than a territory - a hot-button political issue on the island. “You’ll get me into trouble with that question,” he told a reporter. While in Washington, Rossello also met with Senate leaders. The Senate is expected to vote in coming days on an aid package that includes $18.7 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has been helping Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands recover from three massive hurricanes. Some senators would like to see more funds added to that package, Senator John Thune, a member of the Republican leadership, told reporters.  Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida who has been deeply involved in discussions over the aid, said earlier on Thursday that he wants to tweak the bill so the island could more quickly access funds. Congress is expected to consider another aid package by the end of December, but that could be too late for the island, which currently has no tax revenue, Rubio said. “I know from experience the further away we get from these hurricanes, the less of a sense of urgency there is,” Rubio said. Rossello has asked the federal government for approval to use disaster aid to cover a broad range of costs. He has also asked the White House and Congress for at least $4.6 billion in block grants and other types of funding. “The reality is that we still need to do a lot more for the people of Puerto Rico and that’s why we’re meeting,” Rossello said. “This is not over, not over by a long shot.”

Summary: ट्रम्प ने कहा कि वह प्यूर्टो रिको के लिए और अधिक सहायता पर कांग्रेस के साथ काम करेंगे


(Reuters) - In the more than four decades since President Richard Nixon’s historic trip to China, the United States has become China’s largest export and China is one of the largest markets for U.S. exporters and a source of supply for everything from smartphones to spark plugs.  The following are some examples of the deep economic ties between China and U.S. corporations: * General Motors Co   -  More than one-third of the 9.96 million vehicles GM sold globally in 2015 were delivered to Chinese customers. Profits from Chinese operations, including joint ventures, accounted for about 20 percent of GM’s global net income of $9.7 billion in 2015. * Caterpillar Inc - Asia, including China, accounts for 20 percent of the heavy equipment maker’s revenue. * Wal-Mart Stores Inc – The retail giant has 432 stores in China, and has invested in online properties there. CEO Doug McMillon calls China “clearly a strategic market for us.” * Starbucks  – The coffee chain has 2,500 stores in China, and outgoing CEO Howard Schultz told investors China will one day be a bigger market for Starbucks than the United States. * Boeing – The Chicago aircraft maker plans to build a “completion” factory in China, anticipating that the country will need 6,800 new jetliners worth $1 trillion over the next 20 years. * Macy’s - It said last year that it expects sales of about $50 million from China in 2016, and holds a 65 percent stake in an online retailing venture with Hong Kong’s Fung Retailing Limited.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः अमेरिकी कंपनियाँ चीन के स्थिर संबंधों पर दांव लगाती हैं


ERBIL/KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - The United States and Western allies pressed Iraqi Kurdish leaders to ditch a  very risky  independence vote on Thursday, presenting an alternative plan in an attempt to avoid conflict between the oil rich region and central government in Baghdad. The referendum, slated for Sept. 25, has become a potential flashpoint in the region, with Western powers concerned it could ignite conflict with Baghdad and divert attention from the war against Islamic State militants.  Heading into a referendum for Sept. 25, there is no prospect for international legitimacy,  Brett McGurk, a U.S. special envoy, told reporters after a delegation also including the U.N. and Britain met Kurdish President Massoud Barzani.  This is a very risky process.  McGurk said he was encouraged that Kurdish leaders could embrace an alternative plan focusing on dialogue between the Kurdistan region and Baghdad and a delay in the referendum. He refused to give details.  The Kurdish presidency said the autonomous region s political leaders would study the proposal, without giving details. But Barzani himself was later quoted by local media as telling a pro-independence rally the vote would go ahead on Sept. 25 as planned. The move came after Iraq s parliament voted to remove the governor of Kirkuk, a staunch supporter of Kurdish independence. Kirkuk Governor Najmaddin Kareem said he had no intention of following Baghdad s dismissal order, issued at the behest of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.  I will stay in office,  he told Reuters.  The referendum will go on as planned...The prime minister does not have the power to ask parliament to remove me.  Iraqi lawmakers authorized Abadi this week to  take all measures  to preserve national unity before the independence referendum.   Baghdad and Iraq s neighbors are opposed to the vote.      Iraqi lawmakers say it will consolidate Kurdish control over several disputed areas, including oil-rich Kirkuk. Turkey has the region s largest Kurdish population and fears a  Yes  vote could fuel separatism in its southeast where Kurdish militants have waged an insurgency for three decades in which more than 40,000 people have been killed. Iran and Syria also oppose the vote, fearing it could fan separatism among their own Kurdish populations. Iraqi lawmakers say the referendum will consolidate Kurdish control over several disputed areas, including oil-rich Kirkuk. Kirkuk province is claimed by both the central government in Baghdad and Barzani s semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Kareem is a vocal supporter of the referendum and campaigned for the vote also to be held in Kirkuk. Kurds have long claimed Kirkuk and its huge oil reserves. They regard the city, just outside their Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, as their historical capital.  But the ethnically mixed city also has Arab and Turkmen populations. Kareem has long riled the federal government. Last spring, Kirkuk s governorate voted to raise the Kurdish flag over state buildings, despite Baghdad s insistence that only Iraq s national flag should fly in the multi-ethnic city.    He (Kareem) is an elected governor of the council of Kirkuk,  said Hoshyar Zebari, a close adviser to President Barzani.  That is the only body that can remove him.   The escalating tactics this week by the Iraqis are causing a large public backlash, and will strengthen the Kurdish referendum enormously,  Zebari said.  Kurdish MPs in Iraq s parliament boycotted Thursday s vote, which produced a majority for the governor s removal, lawmaker Husham al-Suhail told Reuters. Asked whether parliament had the right to dismiss Kareem, Suhail referred to an article of Iraq s provincial law, which  parliament used as the legal basis for the vote and which stipulates the prime minister s authority to remove a regional governor. Suhail gave no details about what Kareem was accused of and Kareem himself said he had not been informed.  This is unlawful ... I have the support of the government council, I have the support of the people, we are here and we will continue,  he said.

Summary: पश्चिमी शक्तियों ने इराक के कुर्द नेताओं पर 'बहुत जोखिम भरे' स्वतंत्रता मतदान को स्थगित करने के लिए दबाव डाला


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Details of potential Obamacare replacements by U.S. House Republicans emerged in news reports on Friday, as Republican lawmakers have vowed to introduce new legislation in the coming weeks. Republicans have yet to agree on a single detailed policy proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the signature domestic policy of former Democratic President Barack Obama.  Still to be worked out are details including the future of Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor that was expanded in more than 30 states under Obamacare, and how a new healthcare law would be funded.  One emerging scenario among Republicans is that the millions of people who received health coverage through the expansion of Medicaid would be “grandfathered in,” according to the Washington Post. States that did not expand Medicaid could receive more money through increased federal “disproportionate share” payments used to help hospitals that serve a large number of uninsured patients.  And a draft Republican replacement plan for Obamacare, which news outlet Politico uploaded to its website, would cap the amount of money given to states for Medicaid and end tax subsidies based on income for the purchase of individual plans in 2020.  House staffers would not comment on the authenticity of the document, which was dated Feb. 10. President Donald Trump and Republicans have said they would present a plan for repealing and replacing Obamacare in the coming weeks.   It is not clear whether there is sufficiently broad support among Republican lawmakers for all of the measures in the draft proposal, or how the plans might change as they move through congressional committees.  The draft “addresses the major issues and is a serious proposal for transitioning out of Obamacare,” said Ed Haislmaier, a senior research fellow and healthcare policy expert at the Heritage Foundation who was on Trump’s transition team.  “Clearly the details will continue to evolve and we’ll be watching as they do,” he said in an emailed statement to Reuters. U.S. health insurance executives, many of whom have lost hundreds of millions of dollars on the Obamacare individual insurance markets, are due to meet with Trump on Monday, according to a Bloomberg report. A Blue Cross Blue Shield Association spokeswoman confirmed it was invited to the meeting and will attend. Republicans have repeatedly pledged not to “pull the rug out” from millions of Americans who gained access to healthcare under the law, and recent polls show more respondents favoring Obamacare than opposing it.  The Kaiser Family Foundation found broad bipartisan support for maintaining federal funding for the Medicaid expansion, with 84 percent of respondents saying it was important to do so, according to a survey released on Friday. The poll also found the law has record levels of support, with more Americans now viewing it favorably than unfavorably.  “Obamacare has failed. We welcome any and all efforts to repeal and replace it that put patients first,” said Caitlin Oakley, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Democrats decried the draft proposal on Friday and said it would cause millions of Americans to lose their health insurance.  “The deeply harmful path House Republicans have laid out would spell disaster for families nationwide,” U.S. Senator Patty Murray, a Washington state Democrat, said in a statement. “President Trump, who promised families he would provide insurance for everyone, should be the first to oppose it.”

Summary: ओबामाकेयर को बदलने की रिपब्लिकन की योजनाओं का विवरण सामने आया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged Southeast Asian foreign ministers on Thursday to do more to help cut funding streams for North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs and to minimize diplomatic relations with Pyongyang. In his first ministerial meeting with all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Tillerson also called on nations with competing claims in the South China Sea to cease all island building and militarization while talks aimed at creating a maritime code of conduct were under way. Patrick Murphy, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said Tillerson stressed Washington’s security and economic commitment to the region, amid doubts raised by President Donald Trump’s “America First” platform and withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact. Tillerson called on ASEAN countries to fully implement U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang, which is working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of reaching the United States, and to show a united front on the issue, Murphy said. “We think that more can be done, not just in Southeast Asia,” he told reporters. “We are encouraging continued and further steps across all of ASEAN.”  Last week, Tillerson called on all countries to suspend or downgrade diplomatic ties with Pyongyang, saying that North Korea abuses diplomatic privileges to help fund its arms programs. Tillerson also warned that Washington would sanction foreign firms and people conducting business with North Korea if countries did not act themselves. All ASEAN members have diplomatic relations with North Korea and five have embassies there. Murphy said Washington was not encouraging ASEAN states to formally cut ties, but to examine the North Korean presence “where it clearly exceeds diplomatic needs.” He said some countries were already doing this and also looking at the presence of North Korean workers, another significant revenue earner for Pyongyang. Some officials of ASEAN members, speaking to reporters, acknowledged concerns about North Korea, but also cited concerns about trade relations with the United States. Philippine acting Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, whose country currently chairs ASEAN, said of the U.S. call to minimize relations with Pyongyahng, “We haven’t really discussed that among the ASEAN countries, so that’s probably something we will look at. “Our immediate concern is to try and ensure the tension on the peninsula doesn’t increase. ... The last thing we would like to see is to have a conflict break out due to some miscalculation,” Manalo said. Singapore’s foreign minister, Vivian Balakrishnan, said sanctions would have to be fully implemented, but North Korea’s presence in his country is already minimal.Asked if that could be further reduced, he said: “I won’t say never, but at this point in time that’s not the issue - we will stick with the U.N. Security Council’s resolutions.” Balakrishnan, whose country signed the TPP, stressed the importance of U.S.-ASEAN business ties - annual trade of $100 billion supporting half a million U.S. jobs and $274 billion of U.S. investment. “Southeast Asia is replete with economic opportunities and it’s too big to miss out on,” he said. His remark highlighted growing concern in Asia that Trump has ditched former President Barack Obama’s economic “pivot” to the region by abandoning the TPP, something analysts say has led to more countries being pulled into China’s orbit. Murphy said Tillerson stressed that ASEAN remained a “very important ... strategic partner,” which is shown by Trump’s commitment to attend regional summits in the Philippines and Vietnam in November. Manalo called the meeting with Tillerson and Trump’s travel plans “encouraging” signs. Washington wants ASEAN countries to crack down on money laundering and smuggling involving North Korea and to look at restricting legal business too. It has been working to persuade China, North Korea’s neighbor and only major ally, to increase pressure on Pyongyang. U.S. officials are also asking China to urge more China-friendly ASEAN members, such as Laos and Cambodia, to do the same. U.S. efforts have included a flurry of calls by Trump to the leaders of the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore. Diplomats say U.S. pressure has caused some irritation in  ASEAN, including Malaysia, which has maintained relations with Pyongyang in spite of the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s estranged half brother at Kuala Lumpur International airport in February/         On the issue of the South China Sea, ASEAN has adopted a cautious approach recently, with a weekend summit avoiding references to China’s building and arming of artificial islands there. This stance coincided with moves by China and ASEAN to draft a framework to negotiate a code of conduct. Murphy said Tillerson had stressed that this process needed “room and space” through avoiding fortifying existing claims. The United States has conducted freedom of navigation operations to challenge South China Sea claims, angering China, but not yet under Trump. Murphy said such operations would continue, but declined to say when the next might occur.

Summary: टिलरसन ने उत्तर कोरिया के वित्तपोषण में कटौती करने और संबंधों को कम करने के लिए आसियन से आग्रह किया


PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia s Supreme Court on Thursday began its final session to decide whether to dissolve the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), thus ensuring victory for Prime Minister Hun Sen s ruling party in next year s general election. A verdict is expected later in the day, amid an increasingly tense political situation and a campaign by the ruling Cambodian People s Party (CPP) to crush the opposition ahead of the vote. If the court rules for dissolution, 118 members of the opposition party will also be banned from politics. More than half its members of parliament have already fled Cambodia, fearing a crackdown by Hun Sen.  Such a ruling would leave  no credible political opposition in Cambodia  for the first time since 1993, one senior diplomat based in the Cambodian capital told Reuters. In that year a U.N.-run election produced a shaky coalition between Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge guerrilla installed as prime minister in the mid-1980s by the Vietnamese.   The processes in the early  nineties left Cambodia with a lively civil society and the freest press in Southeast Asia and there is a possibility of a lot of that going,  said the diplomat, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to comment. Dozens of police guarded the court, its exterior painted yellow with gold accents, along with some officers from Hun Sen s personal bodyguard unit, although there has been no indication of any planned protest. Traffic flow was normal. On Wednesday, Cambodia s opposition said it did not think it could escape dissolution. The judge who heads the Supreme Court, Dith Munty, is a member of the permanent committee of the ruling party  and a longtime Hun Sen loyalist. The 2018 election had been shaping as possibly the biggest challenge to Hun Sen s leadership, after his opponents unified behind the CNRP. Hun Sen has stepped up measures against the opposition. In September, CNRP leader Kem Sokha was arrested in Phnom Penh and charged with treason.

Summary: कंबोडिया का विपक्ष सुप्रीम कोर्ट के फैसले के लिए तैयार


BERLIN (Reuters) - A female German politician has triggered a fierce debate by accusing a former ambassador of sexism after he failed to recognize her at a conference and then said he was not expecting such a young and beautiful woman as a speaker. Sawsan Chebli, a 39-year-old state secretary in the Berlin city government, said she was sitting in the front row waiting to speak at a meeting of the Indo-German Society but was not recognized by the head of the group, Hans-Joachim Kiderlen. When he realized his mistake, the retired former German ambassador to India reportedly said:  I wasn t expecting such a young woman. And you are also so beautiful.  Chebli, a member of the centre-left Social Democrats, went ahead with her speech but posted on her Facebook page afterwards that she was in shock.  Of course, I m always experiencing sexism, but I have never experienced anything like what happened today,  she said. Her comments prompted an outpouring in German newspapers and social media, already abuzz as million of women across the world have been sharing their experiences of sexual harassment and abuse in an online campaign using the hashtag #MeToo. Chebli, a former spokeswoman for the German foreign ministry born to Palestinian refugee parents, was swamped with insults on her Facebook page, including suggestions that she wear a Muslim headscarf if she does not want to receive compliments. She also received messages of support, including from women who had similar experiences, including Teresa Buecker, editor-in-chief of the feminist magazine Edition F.  I have also been called up to the stage as the  beautiful speaker  - it is degrading and disrespectful,  Buecker wrote on Twitter. Kiderlen wrote to Chebli to apologize for his  inappropriate address and greeting , the Tagesspiegel daily reported on Thursday.

Summary: लिंगवाद या प्रशंसा? जर्मन राजनेता ने बहस छेड़ दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his concerns about the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) deal on Thursday and said he would like to speed up talks to either renegotiate or replace the deal. “I would like to speed it up if possible. You’re the folks who can do it,” Trump said in the Oval Office where he met with bipartisan lawmakers from the Senate and House of Representatives. Trump said Wilbur Ross, his pick for Commerce Secretary, would lead the negotiations.  “We are working very, very hard and will be very soon, as soon as we get the go-ahead - we have the 90-day period that we have to think about,” Trump said. Under U.S. law, Congress has 90 days to review trade deals before they are signed.

Summary: ट्रंप ने कहा कि वह नाफ्टा वार्ताओं में तेजी लाना चाहेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump met on Wednesday with Stanford University economist John Taylor in his search for a new chair of the Federal Reserve, a White House official said. Trump was joined for the meeting by Vice President Mike Pence and members of his team helping in his search for a Fed chair, including Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, the official told Reuters. Trump is working from a short list that includes Jerome Powell, a Fed governor, Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor, his top economic adviser Gary Cohn, and current Fed Chair Janet Yellen, whose term expires in February, sources have said.

Summary: फेड चेयर सर्च में ट्रम्प ने स्टैनफोर्ड के जॉन टेलर से मुलाकात कीः अधिकारी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States, Canada and Mexico have a powerful shared interest in reaching a deal to modernizes the NAFTA trade pact, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Wednesday. “Strong economic fundamentals are a compelling argument for bolstering what works, and improving what can be made better,” she said at the start of talks to update the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.

Summary: नाफ्टा देशों की नए सौदे में मजबूत साझा रुचि हैः कनाडा


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian discussed the situation in Syria and other issues during a phone conversation on Dec. 14, the Russian ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

Summary: रूस और फ्रांस के विदेश मंत्रियों ने सीरिया की स्थिति पर चर्चा की


BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Social Democrat challenger, Martin Schulz are still fighting hard for every vote as Sunday s national election nears, but they do have one thing common: neither is a gambler. Merkel, asked by the mass circulation newspaper Bild what she would do if she won millions of euros in the Lotto lottery, said,  I personally don t play Lotto.  The conservative leader, a trained physicist and daughter of a pastor who grew up in the former Communist east, Merkel told the paper she donated any money that she won in awards and prizes to charitable groups. Schulz, the former European Parliament president who never went to college, said he also didn t gamble.  I ve never played Lotto in my life,  he told Bild.  I never wanted to leave the question of my success in life up to chance or a lottery drum.  The two politicians also share similar views on prayer. Merkel, asked if she prayed to win the election, said she didn t pray for such concrete political results, adding:  Prayers are a very personal matter.  Schulz, whose party is trailing Merkel s conservatives by double digits, echoed that view.  Politicians always have to know that there s something greater than their own success.

Summary: जर्मन राजनीतिक प्रतिद्वंद्वी सहमत हैंः मेरे लिए कोई लॉटरी नहीं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers said on Monday they did not know when legislation to impose new sanctions on Russia might come up for a vote in the House of Representatives, and the White House said it had concerns about the measure. The legislation passed the Senate by a nearly unanimous margin two weeks ago, looking like it might complicate President Donald Trump’s desire for warmer relations with Moscow, where officials have denounced new sanctions. A White House official said the Trump administration felt some provisions in the bill would interfere with its ability to use sanctions to try to influence Russia. “There are some provisions in the Senate bill that would unprecedentedly impair Treasury’s ability to wield its sanctions tools, risk endangering the transatlantic sanctions coalition, and weaken the State Department’s ability to credibly signal that we would calibrate our sanctions in response to Russian behavior,” the official said in an emailed statement, requesting anonymity. Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a co-author of the legislation, said he hoped for progress within the next day or two on a procedural issue that has kept the House from taking up the Countering Iran’s Destabilizing Activities Act, which also includes the new sanctions against Russia. The measure must pass the House, where Trump’s fellow Republicans control a larger majority than in the Senate, before it can be sent for Trump to sign into law or veto. House Republican leaders said last week that the Senate bill violated a constitutional requirement that any bill affecting government revenues must originate in the House, something known as a “blue slip” violation. House aides also said leadership had not yet decided whether to vote on the Senate bill once the “blue slip” issue was resolved, or first refer it to House committees, which could further delay or change it. Democrats said they were skeptical about the “blue slip” explanation, noting that the issue had resolved very quickly in recent years for other bills. Corker said Senate Republicans remained solidly behind the legislation. “I’ve heard no one here have second thoughts, by the way” he told Reuters. “If you find one, please tell me.” White House spokesman Sean Spicer declined comment during a news briefing on Monday on whether the administration would support the sanctions bill.

Summary: रूस प्रतिबंध विधेयक अमेरिकी कांग्रेस में रुका हुआ है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump has offered Republican Senator Jeff Sessions the job of U.S. Attorney General, CBS News and Bloomberg reported on Friday. Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer, who is involved in the Trump presidential transition, would not confirm the reports on CNN. “Until Donald Trump says it, it’s not official,” Spicer said.

Summary: ट्रंप ने सत्र महाधिवक्ता पद की पेशकश कीः सीबीएस न्यूज


CHICAGO (Reuters) - An Illinois voter’s lawsuit challenging Ted Cruz’s eligibility to run for president of the United States because he was born in Canada was dismissed on a technicality on Tuesday by a state judge. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Maureen Ward Kirby in Chicago ruled that she did not have jurisdiction in the lawsuit - which had sought to have Cruz removed from the state’s primary election ballot - because it had not been properly served on the state Board of Elections. She found that the plaintiff, Lawrence Joyce, had not properly filed his petition for judicial review. Joyce, a lawyer and a pharmacist from the Chicago suburb of Poplar Grove who supports Cruz rival Ben Carson, initially filed a complaint in January with the elections board. When the board rejected the complaint, he filed the lawsuit seeking judicial review in Cook County.  Kirby’s ruling came as voters in 12 other states were taking part in the Super Tuesday Republican and Democratic nominating contests, a milestone in the selection of candidates for the Nov. 8 election. Illinois’ primary is on March 15, but early voting has already begun. Republican front-runner Donald Trump has repeatedly questioned Cruz’s eligibility because of his Canadian birth. Joyce’s lawsuit argued that Cruz cannot run for president under the U.S. Constitution because the U.S. senator from Texas is not a “natural-born” citizen. Cruz gained citizenship at birth because his mother was an American citizen, but Joyce contends that was a form of naturalization. Cruz’s father is from Cuba. Cruz, himself an attorney, has maintained he is a natural-born American due to his mother’s citizenship.  Kirby ruled that Joyce should have served the complaint directly to Cruz and the election board members, not to their lawyers, citing requirements in the Illinois election code. “I recognize that election decisions are of great importance to the public,” the judge said. “But it’s a matter of strict compliance.” She said she could not look at the issues presented in the case because it was not properly before her. Joyce said he has not yet decided whether he will appeal the ruling. He said it depended on whether Trump, as expected, dominates in the Super Tuesday contests and becomes the most likely Republican nominee. “My main concern all along has been keeping Senator Cruz from being the nominee of the party. Depending on what happens today on Super Tuesday, that whole point might become a moot point,” Joyce told reporters. Joyce said he did not want Cruz to win the nomination because he believes Democrats would then seek to have the Texan disqualified because he was born abroad. An attorney who represented Cruz in court, Sharee Langenstein, called the lawsuit “a misguided attempt to distract the voters away from the most qualified candidate we have for president, and that’s Senator Ted Cruz.”  “There’s no issue here,” she said. “It’s very clear that Senator Cruz is a natural-born citizen.” Voters in New York, Alabama, Pennsylvania and Texas have also filed legal challenges to Cruz’s eligibility. Some legal experts do not expect any court to invalidate a presidential candidate on the issue.  (Reporting by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Mary Wisniewski) 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: इलिनोइस के न्यायाधीश ने क्रूज़ की पात्रता शिकायत को खारिज कर दिया


GAZA (Reuters) - Two Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants riding on a motorcycle in Gaza were killed in an explosion on Tuesday which the group implied was caused by an accidental detonation during preparations for an attack. Israel s military denied accounts by local residents that the militants were killed in an air strike. Violence along the Israel-Gaza border has flared since U.S. President Donald Trump s recognition last week of Jerusalem as Israel s capital and the Israeli military s demolition on Sunday of a cross-border tunnel it said was dug by Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the small coastal enclave. On Monday, Israel s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted a rocket fired by militants in Gaza. Shortly afterward, Israel responded with tank fire and air strikes targeting positions of Hamas. In a statement after Tuesday s explosion, Islamic Jihad said:  We mourn the men -  martyrs of preparation . The group usually employs the term to refer to casualties caused by the accidental detonation of weapons or explosives used in attacks against Israel.

Summary: गाजा में विस्फोट में दो की मौत, इजरायली सेना ने हमले से इनकार किया


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO is set to agree on Thursday to increase its Afghanistan training mission by some 3,000 troops, alliance officials said, after the United States switched tack in long-running efforts to defeat Taliban militants and end the conflict. Fresh NATO personnel will not have a combat role but the alliance hopes more soldiers can train the Afghan army and air force to complement U.S. President Donald Trump s strategy to send more American counter-terrorism troops to the country.  We have decided to increase the number of troops ... to help the Afghans break the stalemate, to send a message to the Taliban, to the insurgents that they will not win on the battleground,  NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference on Tuesday. NATO defense ministers are expected to approve the deployment in the latter part of a two-day meeting that starts on Wednesday. The troops would be deployed from the start of 2018, a NATO official said. The West says it is determined to stabilize a country facing resurgent rebels 16 years after the United States sought to topple the Taliban rulers who had harbored the al Qaeda militants behind attacks on New York and Washington. Stoltenberg said an attack on Tuesday on a television station in Kabul underlined the importance of fighting militants and supporting Afghan security forces. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the assault, without giving evidence. Trump s envoy to NATO, Ambassador Kay Bailey Hutchinson, said the U.S. goal was to show Taliban militants they could not win in military combat.  Trump s strategy in Afghanistan, unveiled in August, rests on providing more troops, a stronger Afghan army, support from regional allies such as India and a harder line with Pakistan. U.S. officials say Pakistan provides refuge and support to the Taliban and other extremist groups, which Pakistan denies.  We d like to see Pakistan come in, in a positive effort to help stabilize Afghanistan,  Hutchinson said. There have been several attempts in recent years to broker a settlement between the Western-backed government in Kabul and the Taliban, but all have failed. Without the militants at the table, experts say it is hard to envisage a peace settlement. NATO allies have already promised almost $3 billion to help the United States fund the Afghan military until 2020, which is developing an air force to complement its ground forces.  Troop contributions had rested on NATO allies seeing more details about Trump s strategy, diplomats said. The NATO contribution would boost the training mission, called Resolute Support, to around 16,000 troops, Stoltenberg said. About half the additional troops would come from the United States and the rest from NATO allies and partner countries. U.S. Army General John Nicholson, the commander of the Resolute Support mission and of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said in February that a few thousand more troops would make a difference. About 11,000 U.S. troops are serving in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said in August, including almost 7,000 in Resolute Support, according to NATO data. Under Trump s new strategy, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in September that more than 3,000 additional U.S. troops would be deployed to Afghanistan. Taken together, the new deployments could take the total number of Western troops in the country to above 20,000, according to current and projected troop numbers   well below a 2011 peak of more than 100,000.

Summary: अमेरिकी स्थानांतरण के बाद नाटो अफगानिस्तान में और सैनिक भेजेगा


DUBAI (Reuters) - A Bahrain court sentenced three family members of a prominent activist to jail terms on weapons charges on Monday, rights group the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD) said and accused authorities of using torture to extract confessions. In a separate case, Bahrain s Public Prosecutor announced on Monday that it had sentenced 19 unnamed defendants to prison terms for contacts with a banned party it says is backed by Iran and involved in militant attacks. The cases underscore how authorities in the kingdom is cracking down on perceived threats nearly six years after pro-democracy protests inspired by the  Arab Spring  were quashed with help from Gulf Arab neighbors. Bahrain hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet. Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, BIRD s head of advocacy, said his relatives were convicted based on confessions gained by torture and said the court was persecuting the family for his activism. Alwadaei s mother-in-law Hajer Mansoor and brother-in-law Sayed Nizar Alwadaei were each sentenced to three years in jail for planting a  fake bomb,  BIRD said, while his cousin Mahmood Marzooq was sentenced to a month and half for obtaining a knife. Representatives of the Bahraini government did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Alwadaei, who is based in Britain, said he believed the case against his relatives was motivated by his human rights work and especially a protest last year in which he took part against the attendance of Bahrain s king at a royal horse show in Britain.  I was distraught to see my family suffer torture, persecution and interrogations about my activities ... I will not rest until they are freed,  Alwadaei said in a statement. Bahrain, which has a Shi ite Muslim majority population and is ruled by a Sunni royal family, denies clamping down on dissent. The government, citing years of deadly bombing and shooting attacks against its security forces, says it faces a militant threat backed by arch-foe Iran. According to the prosecutor, a court sentenced eight defendants to life terms, nine to 15 years and two for ten years for  conspiring with a foreign state and terrorist organisation working for its interests and receiving funds from it to carry out hostile acts and in order to harm national interests.  Fifteen of the defendants had their citizenship revoked. The group it cited was the Islamic Wafa Movement, a political party that is banned in Bahrain and which authorities accuse of receiving money and support from Iran. A leader in Wafa, Murtada al-Sanadi, an exiled Bahraini cleric who was named by the United States this year as a  specially designated global terrorist  and appears to be based in the Iranian city of Qom.

Summary: बहरीन ने कार्यकर्ता के परिवार के सदस्यों, आतंकवादी संदिग्धों को दोषी ठहराया


BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-wha on Wednesday that Beijing hopes Seoul continues to appropriately handle their dispute over the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system in South Korea, state media said. The installation of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system had angered China, which fears its powerful radar could look deep into China and threaten its own security.

Summary: चीन को उम्मीद है कि दक्षिण कोरिया थाड मुद्दे को उचित तरीके से संभालना जारी रखेगा


GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala s attorney general and a United Nations-backed commission against impunity in Guatemala searched the offices of Millicom International Cellular s local unit on Thursday as part of a corruption investigation. The raid comes four months after Ivan Velasquez, head of the commission, known as CICIG, said in July it would investigate Tigo, the Guatemalan affiliate of emerging markets mobile and media group Millicom, over alleged illegal campaign financing and corruption.     Tigo declined to comment on the raid. Guatemalan police arrested 17 people in July on suspicion of involvement in a corruption racket allegedly directed by the country s former communications minister, Alejandro Sinibaldi, who has been on the run since June 2016. During the probe, investigators found evidence of payments from Telecomunicaciones de Guatemala S.A. (Telgua), a subsidiary of billionaire Carlos Slim s America Movil, in Sinibaldi s account. CICIG said that the payments were made to secure the company favorable treatment in a dispute with Tigo.  America Movil said at the time it would audit the unit. In October 2015, Millicom said it had reported to U.S. and Swedish authorities  potential improper payments  on behalf of its joint-venture in Guatemala, sending its shares down.  It was not immediately clear if this was related to the current investigation.

Summary: ग्वाटेमाला के अभियोजकों ने भ्रष्टाचार की जांच में मिलीकॉम के कार्यालयों पर छापा मारा


BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian government rejects the independence referendum organized by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, Syria s foreign minister has said. Voting started on Monday in northern Iraq despite intense international and regional pressure to call the vote off.  We in Syria only recognize a united Iraq and reject any procedure that leads to the fragmentation of Iraq,  Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem was cited as saying by Syrian state news agency SANA.   This step is rejected and we do not recognize it and yesterday I informed the Iraqi foreign minister of this stance.  An assistant to the Syrian foreign minister told the pro-government Syrian newspaper al-Watan that what is happening in Iraq  is a product of American policies that aim to fragment the region s countries and create conflict between its parts.  The referendum  harms Iraq and harms our Kurdish brothers,  Ayman Soussan added in the comments published on Monday. The Shi ite-led government in Baghdad has maintained relations with Damascus throughout the country s war, even as other Arab states cut ties with President Bashar al-Assad s administration. Iraqi Shi ite militias have fought on Assad s side against Syrian rebels and Islamic State. The Syrian government, which is regaining territory with Iranian and Russian military backing, also opposes steps taken by Syrian Kurds towards autonomy in northern Syria since the start of the country s civil war in 2011. Kurdish-led regions in Syria held elections for community leaders on Friday, the first in a three-phase vote that will culminate in the election of a parliament and the establishment of a federal system of government. Syrian Kurds insist independence is not their aim and they want to remain part of a decentralized Syria.

Summary: दमिश्क ने इराकी कुर्द स्वतंत्रता जनमत संग्रह को खारिज किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyers said in television interviews on Sunday that the president was not under investigation for obstruction of justice, but when pressed on the assertion, said he was not certain. “The fact of the matter is the president has not been and is not under investigation,” Jay Sekulow, a new member of Trump’s legal team, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” in one of four interviews he gave on Sunday. There have been multiple news reports and a tweet from Trump himself on Friday that began with: “I am being investigated.” Challenged on “Fox News Sunday” about the issue, Sekulow said he could not be certain Trump was not under investigation but that no one had notified the legal team if that was the case.  It is common for subjects of federal investigations not to know they are under scrutiny, especially in the initial phases.  A source familiar with the Mueller probe said on Thursday that investigators would have to gather a large amount of evidence before an interview with the president would be warranted.  Trump, who has denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia, has frequently lashed out about the allegations, which have overshadowed his administration’s efforts to overhaul the healthcare system, cut taxes and boost jobs. Mueller, the special counsel named by the Justice Department to probe the Russia matter, is investigating whether anyone associated with Trump or his campaign had any illegal dealings with Russian officials or others with ties to the Kremlin. Russian officials have denied meddling in the U.S. election. The source familiar with the Mueller probe told Reuters that Mueller was also examining whether Trump or others tried to interfere with the investigation. Sekulow said that Trump, in his tweet, was reacting to a story in the Washington Post, which was the first to report  Mueller was examining whether Trump had tried to obstruct the probe by firing FBI Director James Comey in May. Sekulow acknowledged that he could not be certain that the report was false. “I cannot read the mind of the special prosecutor,” he said.  Peter Carr, a spokesman for the Mueller team, declined to comment. Sekulow, a conservative activist and radio talk-show host, earlier this month joined Trump’s legal team, which is led by Marc Kasowitz.  Sekulow has publicly criticized Comey, whom Trump fired.  In addition to being the author of several books such as “Undemocratic: How unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats are stealing your liberty and freedom,” Sekulow is the chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, a politically conservative Christian organization. Barak Cohen, a former Justice Department lawyer and now a defense attorney specializing in white-collar crime and investigations, said there was no requirement that the special counsel notify Trump he was under investigation, so the lack of such notice meant nothing. He said, however, that Sekulow’s comments could mean the White House was taking the position that no investigation exists until Mueller’s team officially confirms it, disregarding media reports based on anonymous sourcing. Cohen said the first official communication that a target is under investigation typically comes when prosecutors begin requesting documents and other evidence. At that time, defense lawyers often will ask about their clients’ status. Prosecutors will often answer then to avoid misleading the target. They may not answer if they are trying to build a case and develop further evidence. “No answer is probably the most troubling answer in criminal defense,” Cohen said.

Summary: ट्रम्प के वकील का कहना है कि राष्ट्रपति को सूचित नहीं किया गया है कि वह जांच के दायरे में हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s military has told regional leaders its move to seize power from President Robert Mugabe was not a coup, the head of the African Union commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, said on Wednesday. Faki, on a visit to Washington for talks with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, said he had not spoken to Mugabe but added:  The military have reassured us this is not a coup d etat. The African Union is against any unconstitutional change of government.  Zimbabwe s military seized power early on Wednesday saying it was targeting  criminals  around Mugabe, 93, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे की सेना ने क्षेत्र को बताया कि यह तख्तापलट नहीं हैः अफ्रीकी संघ के अध्यक्ष


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate’s top Democrat on Tuesday accused President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick of avoiding answering questions “like the plague” and dodging efforts to gauge his judicial independence during a meeting that deepened his concerns about the nominee. Neil Gorsuch, the federal appeals court judge from Colorado who the Republican president nominated last week to a lifetime job on the high court, met privately with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York as he continues to try to build support for his confirmation by the Senate. “I thought there was a deliberate strategy to duck the hard questions. And he has an obligation to answer them, not simply to the Senate but to the American people,” Schumer told reporters afterward, referring to Gorsuch. Schumer said Gorsuch declined to answer questions such as whether a ban on Muslim immigration would be constitutional or comment on what is known as the Emoluments Clause in the U.S. Constitution that bars officeholders from accepting money from foreign powers. Supreme Court nominees routinely avoid weighing in on pending legal disputes they could end up casting a vote on if confirmed to the job. But Schumer said he was seeking Gorsuch’s views on broader principles, rather than specific cases, that he believed a nominee should be able to answer. “The judge today avoided answers like the plague,” Schumer told reporters. Schumer said Trump is testing the fundamental underpinnings of U.S. democracy and its institutions. “These times deserve answers, and Judge Gorsuch did not provide them. I have serious concerns about this nominee,” said Schumer, who added that he had not yet made up his mind on whether or not to support Gorsuch. The shorthanded Supreme Court currently has four liberals and four conservatives, meaning Gorsuch’s confirmation would reinstate a conservative majority.  Trump’s fellow Republicans control the Senate 52-48 but Schumer insisted that Gorsuch would need to win 60 votes, rather than a simple majority, to move toward confirmation. Democrats can seek to use a procedural maneuver to block a confirmation vote if Gorsuch’s supporters cannot muster 60 votes, although Republicans could change the Senate rules. Schumer’s questions to Gorsuch followed Trump’s directive to temporarily ban people from seven Muslim-majority countries and any refugees from entering the United States. The ban, which Trump said was needed to protect the United States from Islamist militants, was suspended by a federal judge, pending an appeal by the Trump administration. His questions about the Emoluments Clause come in light of a lawsuit filed by ethics lawyers accusing Trump of allowing his businesses to accept payments from foreign governments, which is prohibited under that constitutional provision. Democrats argued that it is more important than ever for a Supreme Court nominee to demonstrate judicial independence, citing Trump’s harsh criticism of federal judges who have issued rulings against him. But Republicans belittled Democratic efforts to discredit Gorsuch. “If they keep working to paint Judge Gorsuch as a mouth-breathing bald eagle hunter, they’ll embarrass themselves,” said Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who also met with Gorsuch on Tuesday.  Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah told Reuters the Democratic questioning of the nominee’s potential independence “flies in the face of everything I know about Judge Gorsuch.” Lee described Gorsuch is “fair, decent, impartial.”

Summary: शीर्ष सीनेट डेमोक्रेट ने कहा कि अदालत के उम्मीदवार गोरसच के बारे में उन्हें 'गंभीर चिंता' है


GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian secular and Islamist factions on Wednesday called a general strike and midday rallies to protest U.S. President Donald Trump s announcement that he has recognized Jerusalem as Israel s capital, they said in a joint statement. Answering the call for strike on Thursday, the Palestinian education ministry declared a day off and urged teachers as well as high school and university students to take part in the planned rallies in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Palestinian areas in Jerusalem. In a speech in Washington, Trump said he had decided to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital and move the U.S. embassy to the city. Arabs and Muslims across the Middle East condemned the U.S. decision, calling it an incendiary move.

Summary: फिलिस्तीनियों ने ट्रम्प के जेरूसलम कदम के विरोध में आम हड़ताल, रैलियों का आह्वान किया


MADRID (Reuters) - Spain on Friday sacked Catalonia s regional government, dissolved the Catalan parliament and called a snap election in the region for Dec. 21, in a bid to draw a line under Spain s worst political crisis in 40 years.  We believe it is urgent to listen to Catalan citizens, to all of them, so that they can decide their future and nobody can act outside the law on their behalf,  Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said in a televised speech.

Summary: स्पेन के राजोय ने कैटलन सरकार को बर्खास्त किया, मध्यावधि चुनाव का आह्वान किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to slap new sanctions on Russia and force President Donald Trump to obtain lawmakers’ permission before easing any sanctions on Moscow, in a rare rebuke of the Republican president. It was unclear how quickly the bill would make its way to the White House for Trump to sign into law or veto. The bill still must be passed by the Senate, which is mired in debate over efforts to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system as lawmakers try to clear the decks to leave Washington for their summer recess. The sanctions bill comes as lawmakers investigate possible meddling by Russia in the 2016 presidential election and potential collusion by Republican Trump’s campaign. Moscow has denied it worked to influence the election in Trump’s favor, and he has denied his campaign colluded. The White House said the president had not yet decided whether he would sign the measure. Rejecting the bill - which would potentially hamper his hopes of pursuing improved relations with Moscow - would carry a risk that his veto could be overridden by lawmakers. “While the president supports tough sanctions on North Korea, Iran and Russia, the White House is reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the president’s desk,” said spokeswoman Sarah Sanders. House members backed the bill, which also imposes sanctions on Iran and North Korea, by a near-unanimous margin of 419-3, with strong support from Trump’s fellow Republicans as well as Democrats, despite objections from Trump, who wanted more control over the ability to impose sanctions. The Republican-controlled Senate passed an earlier version of the bill with near-unanimous support. The House added the North Korea measures after becoming frustrated with the Senate’s failure to advance a bill it passed in May. Representative Ed Royce, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the three countries “are threatening vital U.S. interests and destabilizing their neighbors. It is well past time that we forcefully respond.” But the combined bill has run into objections from some senators, who are unhappy that the House added the North Korea sanctions after holding up the measure for more than a month. Senate leaders have not said when they might consider the House bill. Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he was not sure the bill would “fly through” his chamber. “The only language we agreed to was Iran and Russia. So adding North Korea on, I just don’t know how we’re going to deal with it yet,” Corker told reporters. “The better route would have been to send over what had been agreed to.” The bill had raised concerns in the European Union, where U.S. allies depend on supplies of Russian gas. But House members said the bill was tweaked to try to alleviate the worries of Europeans and the energy sector. The intense focus on Russia, involving several congressional probes and a separate investigation by a Justice Department-appointed special counsel, Robert Mueller, has overshadowed Trump’s agenda. The scrutiny has angered and frustrated the president, who calls the investigations a politically motivated witch hunt fueled by Democrats who cannot accept his upset win in last November’s election against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, a former U.S. secretary of state. Without offering evidence, Trump lashed out on Twitter on Tuesday about “Ukrainian efforts to sabotage” his presidential campaign in order to aid Clinton. The Ukrainian embassy in Washington denied the accusations. The Senate Judiciary Committee had been set to compel Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, to testify at a hearing on Wednesday, but rescinded the subpoena late on Tuesday as negotiations over his participation continued. Manafort has started turning over documents to the committee and is negotiating a date to be interviewed, the panel said in a statement. The committee is looking at a June 2016 meeting in New York with a Russian lawyer organized by Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. Trump Jr. released emails this month that showed he welcomed the prospect of receiving damaging information at the meeting about Clinton. On Friday, the panel had asked that Manafort and Trump Jr. appear at the Wednesday hearing, but a witness list released on Tuesday evening included neither of their names.  Manafort met with Senate Intelligence Committee staff on Tuesday morning, his spokesman said. On Tuesday, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, spent three hours with the House of Representatives intelligence panel, his second straight day on Capitol Hill answering questions about his contacts with Russians during the campaign. Kushner had a “very productive session” with the House Intelligence Committee, Democratic Representative Adam Schiff said after the meeting. Republican Representative Michael Conaway said Kushner was “straightforward and forthcoming. He wanted to answer every question that we had.” Kushner, who is now a top aide in Trump’s White House, told reporters on Monday he had no part in any Kremlin plot.. U.S. House Republicans on Tuesday rejected a legislative effort by Democrats to obtain Treasury Department documents that could show any ties between the finances of Trump, his inner circle and the Russian government.

Summary: हाउस ने रूस के नए प्रतिबंधों को मंजूरी दी, ट्रम्प की अवहेलना की


(Reuters) - President Donald Trump will follow through on a campaign pledge to pull the United States out of a global pact to fight climate change, a source briefed on the decision told Reuters on Wednesday. U.S. carbon emissions fell last year to a 24-year-low and are expected to continue declining over the next decade as power companies keep shutting old coal plants to generate more electricity from natural gas and renewables. The U.S. Energy Information Administration projected total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from energy consumption would fall to 5,135 million metric tons in 2017, down from 5,171 million metric tons in 2016, lowest since 1992.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः अगले दशक में अमेरिकी कार्बन उत्सर्जन में गिरावट देखी गई


PARIS (Reuters) - The United States has  disqualified  itself from the Middle East peace process due to its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital, said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday.  The United States are no longer an honest mediator in the peace process, we will not accept any plan put forward by the United States,  said Abbas, speaking through a translator at a joint news briefing in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron. Abbas also condemned a threat by U.S. President Donald Trump to cut off financial aid to countries that voted at the United Nations against the United States  decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital. On Thursday, more than 120 countries defied Trump and voted in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for the United States to drop its recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital. Macron reiterated on Friday that France remained committed to a  two-state  solution, namely one in which Israel and Palestine peacefully co-exist side-by-side with one another. Macron added that France would recognize a Palestinian state  at the right time , and not under pressure.

Summary: अमेरिका ने मध्य पूर्व शांति प्रक्रिया से खुद को अयोग्य करार दिया हैः अब्बास


ROME (Reuters) - An Italian man was sentenced on Friday to 24 years in prison for infecting more than 30 women with the HIV virus, after having unprotected sex with them despite knowing that he was HIV positive, a court ruled. Valentino Talluto, a 33-year-old accountant, seduced dozens of women via social networks for a decade before his arrest in November 2015. Police believe he had sex with at least 53 women during that time, passing on the virus to 32 of them. The male partners of three of the women subsequently contracted the potentially fatal illness, as did an eight-month-old infant of a fourth woman. Talluto often found an excuse not to wear a condom, telling his partners that he was allergic to them, or had just had an HIV test, the court in Rome heard.  He expressed regret for what had happened, but said he did not realize the consequences of his actions.  Prosecutors had urged the court to give him life in jail, saying he had provoked an HIV epidemic. The court rejected this, convicting him instead of  grievous and incurable bodily harm . Many of the women only discovered they had HIV after they heard of Talluto s arrest and had a test. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has killed around 35 million people worldwide since it began in the 1980s.

Summary: दर्जनों महिलाओं को एच. आई. वी. संक्रमित करने के आरोप में इतालवी व्यक्ति को 24 साल की सजा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican lawmakers are considering indirect paths to meeting President Donald Trump’s goal of slashing the corporate tax rate to 20 percent, one of the toughest challenges they face in trying to overhaul the U.S. tax code. Tax writers in the House of Representatives may opt to phase in the 20 percent corporate rate over three to five years by lowering it in stages from the current 35 percent, said two sources close to the tax discussions. A phase-in surfaced as an option among Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee as it closed in on completion of actual tax legislation, working off of a nine-page “framework” unveiled by Trump on Sept. 27. The House was expected to be inactive on Friday and all of next week. “We’ll come back in a week and be able to put together the bill that will move through committee,” Republican Representative Kristi Noem told reporters. One of the biggest problems confronting the Republican tax reform push is the federal budget deficit, which would be hugely expanded by Trump’s proposals, according to independent analyses. Cutting the corporate rate immediately to 20 percent would reduce U.S. tax revenues by nearly $2 trillion over a decade, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center think tank. Sources said House Republicans believed they could halve the projected revenue loss if the rate cut were phased in. Details of such an option were unavailable. The administration contends the cuts would pay for themselves through stronger economic growth generating new tax revenues, although most economists say that is unlikely. A different approach may emerge from the Senate, where Republicans are writing their own tax legislation. Sources with knowledge of the discussions said senators might settle on a corporate tax rate above 20 percent, but use an unorthodox “corporate integration” strategy to achieve an effective rate of 20 percent or less. Corporate integration, a brainchild of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, would help lower corporations’ tax bill by giving them a deduction for shareholder dividends, analysts said. The idea has faced opposition in the past.  Both the House and Senate alternatives surfaced this week as top Republicans and Trump administration officials confronted skepticism that the Republican-controlled Congress could cut the corporate rate to 20 percent without ballooning the deficit.  Trump, who earlier in the year called for a 15 percent corporate tax rate and only reluctantly agreed to 20 percent, is now insisting that it go no higher.   “The president has made it clear. He wants 20 percent. That’s the one part of this bill that’s not negotiable,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady told reporters on Thursday: “We continue to drive toward the framework ... ensuring that our businesses don’t have anything higher than 20 percent on the corporate side.” Asked if that meant a 20 percent rate in the first year, he said: “We’re moving toward that whole design.”

Summary: रिपब्लिकन 20 प्रतिशत कॉर्पोरेट कर दर प्राप्त करने के लिए विकल्पों पर नजर रखते हैं


JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia said on Monday it had made urgent requests for an explanation why its military chief was barred from traveling to the United States, as anger simmered in the world s largest Muslim-majority country over the diplomatic incident. Armed forces commander General Gatot Nurmantyo was stopped on Saturday from boarding an Emirates flight to the United States, despite having a visa and an official invitation to a conference from his counterpart, the chairman of the U.S joint chiefs of staff, General Joseph Dunford. Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said she had accepted an official apology from the deputy U.S. ambassador in Jakarta but awaited a detailed explanation.  We conveyed that we still await clarification, an explanation why this happened,  Marsudi told reporters after meeting the U.S. envoy.  There is a sense of urgency to this that we have conveyed to them,  she said, adding that U.S. officials were  trying to coordinate with relevant authorities in the U.S. to find out what really happened.  U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis apologized for the incident to his Indonesian counterpart, Ryamizard Ryacudu, on the sidelines of an ASEAN meeting in the Philippines, and the two were photographed shaking hands.  I can confirm that he did a pull-aside with the Indonesian minister and expressed regret and apologized for the inconvenience,  Captain Jeff Davis, a spokesman for Mattis, told Reuters.  In a statement, the U.S. embassy in Jakarta said:  This issue has been resolved. There is no restriction on General Gatot s travel and we look forward to welcoming (him) to the United States.       Indonesia generally enjoys good ties with the United States. But relations have sometimes been strained over U.S. resource companies operating in Indonesia or alleged rights abuses involving Indonesia s military. It was not immediately clear whether Nurmantyo, who has made official visits to the United States before, would attend the conference as scheduled on Monday and Tuesday. In Washington, U.S. Homeland Security Department spokesman Dave Lapan said the U.S. embassy in Jakarta had told Nurmantyo s office that he might be delayed in boarding his flight because of unspecified  U.S. security protocols.  Lapan said the U.S. government was unable to resolve the problem before Nurmantyo arrived at the airport and he was denied boarding. The general was eventually cleared and booked on another flight but  he chose not to travel,  Lapan added.  The U.S. government is dedicated to ensuring that all persons traveling to the United States are screened and properly vetted. We regret that the passenger and his wife were inconvenienced,  Lapan said in an emailed statement. The spokesman declined to respond to a question about the security protocols that led to Nurmantyo being denied boarding, saying:  We re not able to discuss the specifics of individual cases.  Some Indonesians reacted indignantly to the incident, putting up banners around the capital calling for the U.S. ambassador to be expelled and for Americans to be  sent home .  Former Indonesian Ambassador to the United States Dino Patti Djalal called for a stronger government reaction.   The government should not be asking for a clarification, but rather conveying a protest to the U.S. side,  he said on Twitter. Nurmantyo has frequently courted controversy in Indonesia over what analysts perceive to be his political ambitions. He has been accused of whipping up nationalist sentiment by promoting the notion that Indonesia is besieged by  proxy wars  waged by foreign states looking to undermine the country.  This month, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said the armed forces should stay out of politics and ensure their loyalty was only to the state and the government - a statement many believed referred to Nurmantyo s actions. Nurmantyo is due to retire next March and many expect him to run for vice president or even president in 2019.

Summary: माफी मांगने के बावजूद, इंडोनेशिया ने पूछा कि अमेरिका ने सैन्य प्रमुख की यात्रा क्यों रोक दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 40 lawmakers urged the Trump administration on Wednesday to reimpose U.S. travel bans on Myanmar’s military leaders and prepare targeted sanctions against those responsible for a crackdown on the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority. In a letter sent to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, a group of Republican and Democratic members of the House of Representatives called for “meaningful steps” against Myanmar’s military and others who have committed human rights abuses in an offensive that has driven more than 500,000 Rohingya Muslims out of the Southeast Asian nation. “Burma’s authorities appear to be in denial of what has happened,” stated the letter. “We urge you to do everything possible to ensure protection and security for those trapped inside Burma or willing to return, as well as oppose forcible returns from neighboring countries.”

Summary: सांसदों ने अमेरिका से म्यांमार की सेना पर लक्षित प्रतिबंध लगाने का आग्रह किया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian government welcomes the formation of a committee that will discuss the current constitution and is expected to be formed at a congress to be convened by Russia in Sochi, Syrian state media said. The congress marks a Russian effort to advance a political solution towards ending Syria s six-year-long war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions to flee in the worst refugee crisis since World War Two. U.N.-backed talks towards ending the conflict are due to resume in Geneva this week with the participation of the Syrian opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, who is militarily dominant in the conflict thanks to Russia and Iran.  A pro-Damascus newspaper, al-Watan, reported on Monday that the government delegation had postponed its travel to Geneva, saying Damascus was annoyed by the opposition s insistence on its demand that Assad leave power at the start of a transition. In a statement from the Syrian foreign ministry, the Syrian government said it would attend the  national dialogue congress  at the Sochi talks, whose date has yet to be confirmed. Syria welcomed  U.N. participation  in legislative elections to be held after the discussion of the constitution, state media cited a foreign ministry statement as saying. Russian President Vladimir Putin last week won the backing of Turkey and Iran - another ally of Assad - last week to host the congress.

Summary: सीरियाई सरकार ने संविधान पर चर्चा करने के लिए समिति का स्वागत किया


TOKYO (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy transport plane carrying 11 people crashed in the Philippine Sea south of Japan on Wednesday as it flew to the  aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan and three people were missing, in the latest Navy accident in the region. Eight other people were rescued and transferred to the carrier where they were in good condition, the U.S. Seventh Fleet said.   Search and rescue efforts for three personnel continue with U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) ships and aircraft on scene,  the U.S. Seventh Fleet said in a news  release.  The incident will be investigated,  it added. The plane was conducting a routine transport flight carrying passengers and cargo from Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni to the carrier, which was operating in the Philippine Sea as part of an exercise with Japanese forces, it said. U.S. President Donald Trump was briefed on the crash at his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida, where he is spending the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, said White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters.  The @USNavy is conducting search and rescue following aircraft crash. We are monitoring the situation. Prayers for all involved,  Trump wrote in a Twitter post. Japanese Minister of Defence Itsunori Onodera told reporters the U.S. Navy informed him that the crash may have been a result of engine trouble.  The propeller-powered transport plane, a C-2 Greyhound, carries personnel, mail and other cargo from mainland bases to carriers operating at sea.  C-2 aircraft have been in operation for more than five decades and are due to be replaced by the long-range tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft. Two crashes in the Asia Pacific region involving U.S. Navy warships and commercial vessels this year have raised questions about Navy training and the pace of operations in the region, prompted a Congressional hearing and the removal of a number of officers. The guided missile destroyer Fitzgerald almost sank off the coast of Japan after colliding with a Philippine container ship on June 17. The bodies of seven U.S. sailors were found in a flooded berthing area after that collision. In a separate incident in August, 10 sailors were killed when the guided missile destroyer John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker. The Navy has dismissed a number of officers, including the commander of the Seventh Fleet, as a result of the collisions involving its warships in Asia.

Summary: फिलीपीन सागर में अमेरिकी नौसेना का विमान दुर्घटनाग्रस्त, तीन लापता


(Reuters) - Regular tourism to Cuba by U.S. citizens could happen “very soon,” President Barack Obama said on Monday in an interview in Havana. “Inevitably it’s going to happen,” he told ABC News during his historic visit to the Communist-led island, noting that direct flights and visits by cruise ships from the United States were to begin soon. Current U.S. regulations limit most visits by U.S. citizens to Cuba to educational or cultural exchanges.

Summary: ओबामा को लगता है कि क्यूबा में नियमित अमेरिकी पर्यटन 'बहुत जल्द' हो सकता हैः एबीसी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Representative John Delaney became the first Democrat to formally enter the 2020 presidential campaign to challenge Republican President Donald Trump - more than 1,100 days before the election. “The current administration is making us less prosperous and less secure, the healthcare debacle being the most recent example of their brand of destructive partisanship,” Delaney said in a statement announcing his candidacy. Delaney represents a Maryland district that includes some  Washington suburbs.  Traditionally, candidates begin formally announcing their intentions to run for president after the midterm elections, which take place in the middle of the incumbent president’s term. The next midterm election will be in November 2018.    Trump formally filed to run for re-election the day after he took office in January.

Summary: कांग्रेस सदस्य 2020 की राष्ट्रपति पद की दौड़ की घोषणा करने वाले पहले डेमोक्रेट बने


PRAGUE (Reuters) - Andrej Babis, whose ANO movement is heavily tipped to win this weekend s Czech national election, is his country s second-richest man with an empire of chemicals, food processing, farming and media firms.  He also owns a restaurant on the French Riviera with two Michelin stars.  Forbes magazine puts his worth at $4 billion, behind only Petr Kellner at $14.2 billion. Babis said in an interview with Blesk daily this week he had valued his main asset Agrofert at $4.6 billion. Babis set up fertilizer trader Agrofert in 1993 as the Czech unit of Slovakia-based and formerly state-owned trading firm Petrimex that had Babis worked for since the 1970s. He took control of Agrofert in 1995 and has since expanded it, often through acquisitions. Babis moved ownership of Agrofert and his other main firm SynBiol to two trust funds at the beginning of this year. The step was required by new conflict-of-interest legislation that applied to him as finance minister at the time. The two trust funds   AB private trust I and AB private trust II   are managed by long-term collaborators of Babis, Agrofert Chairman Zbynek Prusa and board member Alexej Bilek. Babis s firms receive national and EU subsidies, both regular farming payments and investment aid, have numerous business deals with the public sector, and also depend on government regulation in sectors such as biofuels. Babis, finance minister from 2014 until May this year, has admitted being at some points in conflict of interest but has denied abusing the position. Police charged Babis earlier this month over a 2 million euro EU subsidy awarded in 2008 to one of his projects, Stork Nest, and have also been looking into his past tax strategies which cost him the finance ministry in May. He denies any wrongdoing. A group of over 250 firms and 34,000 employees, it has activities in 18 countries, notably the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany and Hungary, focusing on chemicals, farming, food processing, forestry and media.  Agrofert had sales of 155.3 billion crowns ($7.16 billion) and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of 14.7 billion crowns in 2016. It reported receiving subsidies, mostly EU farming funding, of 1.5 billion crowns last year.  - About 9,000 people work for a host of firms including Deza, Lovochemie, Precheza, Synthesia, Fatra, Slovakia s Duslo and Germany s Stickstoffwerke Piesteritz. - Products include fertilisers, sulfur, aromatic reactants, phenols, tar oils, pigments, acids, salts, PVC, polymers, pesticides, urea. - 103,000 farmed hectares - grains trade, storage, seeds, feed, crop growing and livestock.  - forestry and timber - 16,500 employees  - meat, poultry, dairy, bakeries  - operations in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany - includes a large new bakery plant in Germany - The largest Czech producer of rapeseed-based biofuels, which are by law mixed into motor fuels. - Major supplier to state-owned fuels distribution firm Cepro. - Babis s most criticized acquisition, including 23 newspapers and magazines, 3 small TV stations and a national radio.  The main asset is MAFRA, the publisher of two national broadsheet daily newspapers, Mlada fronta Dnes and Lidove Noviny as well as free newspapers, magazines and a number of news and entertainment websites, which Babis acquired when he was running in the 2013 election.  MAFRA says it reaches 2.5 million print and 2.8 million internet readers. The purchase sparked an exodus of staff who said they would not work for an owner who was a politician.  Babis has denied ever influencing content although a leaked tape earlier this year suggested he discussed coverage of opponents with a journalist. The journalist was fired.  Media holdings also include Radio Impuls, the largest private radio station by number of listeners.  Firm controlling other main investments. Assets include FutureLife, a network of fertility clinics valued at over 100 million euros; smaller biotech, food and real estate investments. An arm looking after real estate, some farming and other projects, including the conference center and mini-Zoo Capi Hnizdo (Stork Nest), the source of Babis s biggest legal trouble. Police charged Babis with hiding ownership of the project a decade ago so it qualified for a 2 million euro European Union development subsidy which was meant for small business. He denies any wrongdoing. He faces possibly years in jail if convicted.  A restaurant near Cannes, France, that has received two Michelin stars. It features dinner tasting menus costing 98 to 185 euros per head. ($1 = 21.6940 Czech crowns)

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः चेक चुनाव में सबसे आगे रहने वाले बाबिस का व्यापारिक साम्राज्य


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The premier of Belgium s Flanders region, which has itself seen separatist frictions in the past, denounced Spanish authorities on Friday for arresting sacked separatist Catalan officials and urged the EU to mediate in the dispute. Carles Puigdemont, dismissed by Madrid as Catalan leader after the region s unilateral declaration of independence, traveled to Belgium and failed to appear in a Spanish court on Thursday to answer charges of rebellion. But nine associates were remanded in custody in Madrid pending possible trial.  Locking up democratically elected leaders is more than a bridge too far,  Flanders premier Geert Bourgeois said in a statement.   I m perplexed that something like that is possible in today s Europe.   Flanders, home to more than half of Belgium s inhabitants, has also seen separatist campaigning in past decades but a series of constitutional reviews has given broad autonomy to the regions and kept a lid on tensions. Bourgeois, of Flemish nationalist party N-VA which is also part of Belgium s federal government, called on European institutions to mediate; a proposal it has already rejected.   Once again I m urgently calling on all European entities to finally take action and look for democratic solutions with both Spain and Catalonia,  he added. The European Commission reiterated on Friday it fully respected Spain s internal political and judicial order.

Summary: फ़्लैंडर्स के प्रधानमंत्री ने यूरोपीय संघ से कैटेलोनिया पर कार्रवाई करने का आह्वान किया


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey s parliament voted on Saturday to extend by a year a mandate authorizing the deployment of Turkish troops in Iraq and Syria, two days before a planned independence referendum in northern Iraq s Kurdish region. Turkey said earlier it would take security, political and economic steps in response to the referendum, which President Tayyip Erdogan s spokesman said was a  terrible mistake that will trigger new crises in the region .

Summary: तुर्की की संसद ने इराक, सीरिया में सैनिकों की तैनाती पर जनादेश बढ़ाया


ANKARA (Reuters) - Courts in the United States cannot put Turkey on trial, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday, in reference to the case of a Turkish bank executive who has been charged with evading U.S. sanctions on Iran. Already strained ties between NATO allies Ankara and Washington have deteriorated in recent weeks as Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, who is cooperating with U.S. prosecutors, detailed in court a scheme to evade U.S. sanctions. Over three days of testimony, Zarrab has implicated top Turkish politicians, including Erdogan. Zarrab said on Thursday that Erdogan personally authorized two Turkish banks to join the scheme when he was prime minister. Ankara has cast the testimony as an attempt to undermine Turkey and its economy, and has previously said it was a  clear plot  by the network of U.S.-based Fethullah Gulen, who it alleges engineered last year s coup attempt. Reuters was not immediately able to reach representatives for the ministers implicated by Zarrab in the trial.  Turkey has repeatedly requested Gulen s extradition, but U.S. officials have said the courts require sufficient evidence before they can extradite the elderly cleric, who has denied any involvement in the coup. Erdogan, who has governed Turkey for almost 15 years, told members of his ruling AK Party in the northeastern province of Kars on Saturday that U.S. courts  can never try my country . Although he has not yet responded to the courtroom claims, he has dismissed the case as a politically motivated attempt to bring down the Turkish government and on Friday the state-run Anadolu news agency said Turkish prosecutors are set to seize the assets of Zarrab and his acquaintances. Turkey has stepped up its pressure on the U.S. and on Saturday Anadolu quoted Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as saying that Gulen s followers had infiltrated the U.S. judiciary, Congress, and other state institutions. The United States says its judiciary is independent of any political or other interference. Some 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from their jobs over alleged links to Gulen since the attempted coup, while close to 50,000 people from the military, public and private sector have been jailed. And in a further blow to Turkish-U.S. ties, Turkish authorities on Friday issued an arrest warrant for former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer Graham Fuller over suspected links to the abortive putsch. Rights groups and Turkey s Western allies have voiced concerns that Erdogan is using the crackdown to muzzle dissent, but the government says the purges are necessary due to the gravity of the threat it faces.

Summary: तुर्की के एर्दोगन का कहना है कि अमेरिकी अदालतें तुर्की पर मुकदमा नहीं चला सकतीं


UNITED NATIONS/SEOUL (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council unanimously imposed new sanctions on North Korea on Friday for its recent intercontinental ballistic missile test, seeking to limit its access to refined petroleum products and crude oil and its earnings from workers abroad. The U.N. resolution seeks to ban nearly 90 percent of refined petroleum exports to North Korea by capping them at 500,000 barrels a year and, in a last-minute change, demands the repatriation of North Koreans working abroad within 24 months, instead of 12 months as first proposed. The U.S.-drafted resolution also caps crude oil supplies to North Korea at 4 million barrels a year and commits the Council to further reductions if it were to conduct another nuclear test or launch another ICBM. North Korea on Nov. 29 said it successfully tested a new ICBM that put the U.S. mainland within range of its nuclear weapons. Tension has been rising over North Korea s nuclear and missile programs, which it pursues in defiance of years of U.N. Security Council resolutions, with bellicose rhetoric coming from both Pyongyang and the White House. In November, North Korea demanded a halt to what it called  brutal sanctions , saying a round imposed after its sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3 constituted genocide. U.S. diplomats have made clear they are seeking a diplomatic solution but proposed the new, tougher sanctions resolution to ratchet up pressure on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.  It sends the unambiguous message to Pyongyang that further defiance will invite further punishments and isolation,  Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said after the 15-0 vote. The North Korean mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Wu Haitao, China s deputy U.N. ambassador, said tensions on the Korean peninsula risk  spiraling out of control  and he  repeated Beijing s call for talks. China s foreign ministry said it hoped all parties would implement the resolution and urged all sides to exercise restraint. It also reiterated a call for what it calls a  dual suspension  proposal for the United States and South Korea to stop major military exercises in exchange for North Korea halting its weapons programs. South Korea welcomed the sanctions and called on the North to  immediately cease reckless provocations, and take the path of dialogue for denuclearization . North Korea regularly threatens to destroy South Korea, the United States and Japan, and says its weapons are necessary to counter U.S. aggression. The United States stations 28,500 troops in the South, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. On Friday, North Korea called U.S. President Donald Trump s recently released national security strategy the latest attempt to  stifle our country and turn the entire Korean peninsula  into an outpost of American hegemony. Speaking before the Security Council vote, analysts said the new sanctions could have a major effect on the North s economy.  The cap on oil would be devastating for North Korea s haulage industry, for North Koreans who use generators at home or for productive activities, and for (state-owned enterprises) that do the same,  said Peter Ward, a columnist for NK News, a website that tracks North Korea. The forced repatriation of its overseas workers would also cut off vital sources of foreign currency, he said. China, which supplies most of North Korea s oil, has backed successive rounds of U.N. sanctions but had resisted past U.S. calls to cut off fuel supplies to its neighbor. John Park, director of the Korea Working Group at the Harvard Kennedy School, said it was important to manage expectations about sanctions, which could take years to have a full impact while the North was making progress in its weapons programs at a pace measured in weeks and months.  If the game plan is to use sanctions as the last non-military policy tool to induce North Korea s return to the denuclearization table, we may quickly find Washington prioritizing military options,  Park said. The move to curb Chinese fuel exports to North Korea may have limited impact after China National Petroleum Corp CNPET.UL suspended diesel and gasoline sales to its northern neighbor in June over concerns it would not get paid. Business has slowed since then, with zero shipments of diesel, gasoline and other fuel from China in October.  Russia quietly boosted economic support for North Korea this year, and last week Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov said Moscow was not ready to sign up to sanctions that would strangle the country economically. In a bid to further choke North Korea s external sources of funding, the resolution also seeks to ban North Korean exports of food products, machinery, electrical equipment, earth and stone, wood and vessels. It also bans exports to North Korea of industrial equipment, machinery, transport vehicles, and industrial metals as well as subjecting 15 North Koreans and the Ministry of the People s Armed Forces to a global asset freeze and travel ban. The resolution seeks to allow countries to seize, inspect and freeze any vessel they believe was carrying banned cargo or involved in prohibited activities. Even if the sanctions have an economic effect, it is not clear whether that would push Pyongyang to negotiate or stop its weapons development, said Kim Sung-han, a former South Korean vice foreign minister.  We have had numerous ... sanctions against North Korea over the past 25 years,  he said.  Almost none have worked effectively to halt the regime s military and nuclear ambitions.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र सुरक्षा परिषद ने मिसाइल परीक्षण पर उत्तर कोरिया पर नए प्रतिबंध लगाए


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Thirty journalists and newspaper executives from a Turkish newspaper which was shut down last year went on trial on Monday, facing life sentences over charges that they had links to a failed coup attempt. The former employees of the Zaman newspaper are charged with  membership of an armed terror organization  and  attempting to overthrow  the government, parliament and the constitutional order through their links to cleric Fethullah Gulen. Zaman was affiliated with Gulen, the U.S.-based cleric and former ally of President Tayyip Erdogan. Gulen is blamed by Ankara for instigating the failed July 2016 coup, but denies any involvement. Zaman was first seized by the Turkish government in March 2016, months before the coup attempt, and then closed down by a government decree. Twenty-two of the suspects have been in pre-trial detention for months, including 73-year-old columnist Sahin Alpay.  If it had ever crossed my mind that the Gulenist movement would take a role in a coup attempt, I would never have written a column in the Zaman newspaper,  Dogan news agency quoted Alpay as saying. The indictment calls for three consecutive life sentences for the Zaman staff on charges of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, the Turkish parliament and the Turkish government, and says the newspaper had exceeded the limits of press freedom and freedom of expression.  I accept that this is an armed terrorist organization, but I was never a member of it,  columnist Ali Bulac told the court in Silivri, the site of a large prison about 60 km (40 miles) west of the city. He had not paid close attention to the Gulenist movement s activities, he said.   I missed the hole in the ground when I was watching the stars. But who did see it?,  Bulac said, adding the group s operations were perceived to be legal during the time he worked for Zaman. Turkey s Justice Ministry announced in July that more than 50,000 people had been arrested and 169,013 have been the subject of legal proceedings since the coup attempt.  The scale of the crackdown has drawn criticism from Turkey s Western allies and led German Chancellor Angela Merkel to call for Ankara s European Union accession talks to be called off. Turkey says the sweeping response to the coup reflects the deep security challenges the country has faced.  Rights groups say more than 160 journalists are detained in Turkey, making it the world s biggest jailer of journalists. The hearing will continue this week.

Summary: तुर्की ने तख्तापलट के प्रयास के संबंध में 30 समाचार पत्र कर्मचारियों पर मुकदमा शुरू किया


AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Texas Governor Greg Abbott joked about shooting journalists while visiting a gun range on Friday to sign a bill lowering the cost of a handgun license, drawing criticism from gun-safety and free-press advocates who called his remarks “dangerous.” Abbott signed the bill at an indoor gun range in Austin, the state capital, then demonstrated his own shooting skills at an upstairs firing gallery before holding up his bullet-pocked target and quipping, “I’m gonna carry this around in case I see any reporters.” A photo of the moment, published by the Texas Tribune, showed the grinning first-term Republican governor pointing to the center of the paper target, where three rounds had pierced the bull’s eye circle.  His comment drew sharp rebukes from Reporters Without Borders, headquartered in Paris, and the Washington-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Both said the incident was especially troubling as it came amid increasingly hostile rhetoric directed against the news media by Republican President Donald Trump and his supporters. “This joke was dangerous and out of line. Because it’s never just a joke to some,” Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said in a statement. “Words matter. In a state and country where dangerous people can still so easily buy guns without a background check, leaders of every political stripe should be careful not to green light violence on their behalf.” The two groups also cited the misdemeanor assault charge filed on Wednesday against Republican Congressman-elect Greg Gianforte of Montana, accused of body-slamming a reporter who asked him about healthcare on the eve of his election. “Politicians must condemn this dangerous rhetoric against reporters as it can quickly escalate to physical violence like we saw in Montana,” Reporters Without Borders said in a Tweet. The group’s latest annual World Press Freedom Index of 180 countries ranks the United States at No. 43, one rung below the tiny West African nation of Burkino Faso. “We’re really seeing just how much America deserves that ranking right now,” said Margaux Ewen, the organization’s U.S. advocacy director. Abbott’s office did not respond to requests by Reuters for comment. The bill he signed will cut fees for a first-time license to carry a handgun from $140 to $40, and lower the renewal fee from $70 to $40, starting in September. It also waives the fees for peace officers and members of the military. “No law-abiding Texan should be priced out of the ability to exercise their Second Amendment rights,” Abbott said in signing the measure.

Summary: टेक्सास के गवर्नर ने पत्रकारों को गोली मारने के बारे में मजाक के लिए आलोचना की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it would implement the Trump administration’s temporary travel ban in a professional and public manner after the Supreme Court’s earlier on Monday allowed its partial implementation of the ban on travelers from six Muslim-majority countries and all refugees.  “The implementation of the Executive Order will be done professionally, with clear and sufficient public notice, particularly to potentially affected travelers, and in coordination with partners in the travel industry,” the department said in a statement.

Summary: अमेरिका का कहना है कि वह यात्रा प्रतिबंध लागू करने के लिए यात्रा उद्योग के साथ काम करेगा


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The European Union on Thursday condemned the killing of a female Mexican prosecutor who specialized in violence against women, as the country grapples with its worst murder rate in two decades, including a spate of attacks on rights workers and reporters.   Yendi Guadalupe Torres Castellanos, a prosecutor in the state of Veracruz whose remit included violence against women as well as sexual and family-related crimes, was killed Monday in her car in the city of Panuco, according to the state government.       This murder demonstrates once more the troubling level of violence that devastates Mexico, including violence against human rights defenders,  the EU s Mexican delegation said in a joint statement with Swiss and Norwegian ambassadors.  Earlier this month, unknown gunmen shot dead Silvestre de la Toba, the head of the Baja California Sur state human rights commission.  And, after a spate of killings of reporters, a United Nations team of experts on freedom of expression is currently visiting Mexico to assess the safety of journalists. Torres  death was also denounced by the Veracruz government, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and the U.S. ambassador to Mexico.  October was the most violent since the Mexican government began tracking such crimes two decades ago. The 2,735 homicides of women last year was the second-highest figure of any year since 1990, and more than double the number recorded a decade ago, according to data published by Mexico s national statistics agency.

Summary: महिलाओं के खिलाफ अपराधों के मैक्सिकन अभियोजक की हत्या ने आक्रोश पैदा कर दिया