WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mick Mulvaney, White House budget chief and acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), said on Monday he has no intention of firing Leandra English, who had attempted to block him from taking control of the agency. Former CFPB head Richard Cordray had named English to lead the bureau following his resignation last month, but that appointment had been mired in turmoil after U.S. President Donald Trump had assigned Mulvaney to the same role. A U.S. District Court judge last week sided with Trump, saying the law gave Mulvaney the right to lead the consumer finance watchdog, but English is challenging the decision. During a news briefing at the CFPB on Monday, Mulvaney told reporters he would “absolutely not” consider firing English and that he would like her to continue to serve as deputy director but had not had any direct contact with her. English could not immediately be reached for comment through her lawyer, Deepak Gupta. Since arriving at the CFPB, Mulvaney has implemented a hiring freeze and suspended all new regulations for 30 days. On Monday, he said he was also reviewing more than 100 pending enforcement actions, including litigation as well as private settlement talks and investigations.  He declined to comment on specific cases, but said there were two litigation actions he has asked to delay and separately cited the CFPB’s case against mortgage company PHH Corp (PHH.N) as one that “has issues” without elaborating.  The budget chief said data security was also a top priority and that he had instructed the bureau to stop collecting personally identifiable information until data security problems highlighted by the bureau’s independent audit office had been addressed. Mulvaney this week brought in Republican congressional lawyer Brian Johnson as a senior adviser and plans to quickly bring on board more political hires to help him review the bureau’s existing and pending regulations, the budget chief said.   “Then I’m going to get down to the weeds of something I enjoy which is the budget, and how the agency ... is funded, how it’s structured, personnel, those types of things,” he added. Trump “wants to move expeditiously” on naming a permanent replacement but the Senate confirmation process is likely to take some time and Mulvaney expects to be in the interim role for up to seven months, he said in an interview Reuters. English is expected to formally file a preliminary injunction against Mulvaney and Trump this week, according to court filings.

Summary: मुलवेनी का कहना है कि अमेरिकी उपभोक्ता ब्यूरो की अंग्रेजी को हटाने की कोई योजना नहीं है


LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visited Las Vegas on Saturday stressing unity and offering solace as police appealed to the public for help in uncovering a wealthy retiree s motive for massacring 58 people at an outdoor concert this week.   We are united in our grief, in our support for those who have suffered and united in our resolve to end such evil in our time,  Pence said, joining Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman and other local leaders at a City Hall commemoration for victims of the shooting.  Participants trod seven miles (11 km) along four separate paths to the event amid tight security. President Donald Trump paid a visit to Las Vegas earlier in the week.   Las Vegas  Democratic Congresswoman Dina Titus was the only speaker who touched on the subject of gun violence and politics, saying,  Let us also pray for those who have power that they will have the wisdom, the courage, and the resolve to find ways to end the gun violence that plagues our nation.   The commemoration came as Clark County Undersheriff Kevin McMahill said investigators remain largely in the dark about what drove retired real estate investor and high-stakes gambler Stephen Paddock to carry out the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.  We have looked at everything, literally, to include the suspect s personal life, any political affiliation, his social behaviors, economic situation, any potential radicalization,  McMahill told reporters late on Friday.  We have been down each and every single one of these paths, trying to determine why, to determine who else may have known of these plans.  McMahill said investigators had uncovered  no nexus  between Islamic State and Paddock, even though the militant group had repeatedly claimed responsibility for the attack. A piece of paper found in Paddock s room at the Mandalay Bay hotel appeared to calculate the distance and height from his window to help target victims below, the CBS News show  60 Minutes  said in a news release on Saturday ahead of a broadcast on Sunday of interviews with Clark County Sheriff s officers, including one who said he saw the paper. The Sheriff s Office could not be immediately reached for comment. Investigators have stressed that no suicide note had been found. In an unusual bid to cast a wider net for tips, the FBI and police have arranged with communications company Clear Channel to post billboards around Las Vegas urging citizens to come forward with any information that might help investigators. The billboards will bear the slogan,  If you know something, say something,  and carry a toll-free number to an FBI hotline, said Aaron Rouse, special agent in charge of the Las Vegas FBI office.      Paddock, 64, unleashed a torrent of gunfire onto an outdoor music festival from the windows of his 32nd-floor hotel suite overlooking the concert on Sunday night, then shot himself to death before police stormed his room. In addition to the 58 people who died, nearly 500 were injured, some by gunfire and some trampled or otherwise hurt while running for cover. Unlike so many other perpetrators of deadly mass shootings before him, Paddock left behind no suicide note, no manifesto, no recordings and no messages on social media pointing to his intent, according to police. McMahill said investigators remained certain Paddock acted alone in the shooting. But police have said they suspect he had help before the killings, based on the large number of guns, ammunition and explosives found in the hotel suite, his home, his car and a second home searched in Reno.  Authorities have said that 12 of the weapons recovered from Paddock s hotel suite were equipped with so-called bump-stock devices that enable semi-automatic rifles to be operated as if they were fully automatic machine-guns. Paddock s ability to fire hundreds of rounds per minute over the course of his 10-minute shooting spree was a major factor in the high casualty count, police said. The bloodshed might have lasted longer, with greater loss of life, but for a hotel security officer who was sent to check an open-door alarm on the 32nd floor, and discovered the gunman s whereabouts after the shooting started, McMahill said. The security officer, Jesus Campos, was struck in the leg as the gunman strafed the hallway with gunfire from behind his door, apparently having detected Campos via surveillance cameras Paddock set up outside his hotel suite. Campos, though wounded, alerted the hotel s dispatch,  which was absolutely critical to us knowing the location as well as advising the responding officers as they arrived on that 32nd floor,  McMahill said.  He s an absolute hero.  In a new disclosure, authorities said two bullets Paddock fired struck a large jet fuel storage tank at the edge of the city s main airport, about a block from the concert grounds, indicating an apparent attempt by the gunman to create even greater havoc. There was no explosion or fire from the two rounds, one of which penetrated the tank, as jet fuel in storage is almost impossible to ignite with gunshots, airport officials said on Friday. Paddock s girlfriend, Marilou Danley, 62, was questioned by the FBI on Wednesday and said in a statement she never had any inkling of Paddock s plans. Danley, who returned late on Tuesday from a family visit to the Philippines, is regarded by investigators as a  person of interest.  The Australian citizen of Filipino heritage is cooperating fully with authorities, her lawyer said.

Summary: लास वेगास में शूटर के मकसद को लेकर पुलिस की पहेली के बीच पेंस ने सांत्वना दी


GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot dead four Palestinians and wounded 150 others with live fire on Friday, medical officials said, as protests over U.S. President Donald Trump s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital entered a second week. Most of the casualties were on the Gaza Strip border, where thousands of Palestinians gathered to hurl rocks at Israeli soldiers beyond the fortified fence. Medics said two protesters, one of them wheelchair-bound, were killed and 150 wounded. In the occupied West Bank, another area where Palestinians are seeking statehood along with adjacent East Jerusalem, medics said two protesters were killed and 10 wounded by Israeli gunfire. One of the dead was a man who Israeli police troopers said was shot after he stabbed a member of their unit. Reuters witnesses said the Palestinian held a knife and wore what looked like a bomb belt. A Palestinian medic who helped evacuate the man for treatment said the belt was fake.  Palestinians   and the wider Arab and Muslim world   were incensed at Trump s Dec. 6 announcement, which reversed decades of U.S. policy reticence on Jerusalem, a city where both Israel and the Palestinians want sovereignty.  Washington s European allies and Russia have also voiced worries about Trump s decision. Gaza s dominant Hamas Islamists, which reject coexistence with Israel, called last week for a new Palestinian uprising, but any such mass-mobilisation has yet to be seen in the West Bank or East Jerusalem.      There have been almost nightly Gazan rocket launches into Israel, so far without casualties. Israel has responded with air strikes on Hamas facilities, one of which killed two gunmen. The Israeli military said that, on Friday, about 3,500 Palestinians demonstrated near the Gaza border fence.  During the violent riots IDF (Israel Defence Force) soldiers fired selectively towards main instigators,  the military said in a statement. A military spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the wheelchair-bound protestor, Ibrahim Abu Thuraya. Abu Thuraya, 29, was a regular at such demonstrations. In media interviews, he said he had lost both his legs in a 2008 Israeli missile strike in Gaza. In the West Bank, the Israeli military said that about 2,500 Palestinians took part in riots, rolling flaming tires and throwing fire bombs and rocks at soldiers and border police. Israel captured East Jerusalem, an area laden with Jewish, Muslim and Christian shrines, from Jordan in the 1967 war and later annexed it in a move not recognized internationally. Palestinians hope that part of the city will be the capital of a future independent state and Palestinian leaders say Trump s move is a serious blow to a moribund peace process. Israel has welcomed Trump s announcement as recognizing political reality and biblical Jewish roots in Jerusalem. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to visit Israel, as well as Egypt, next week.

Summary: येरुशलम में विरोध प्रदर्शन में इजरायली सैनिकों ने चार फिलिस्तीनियों की हत्या की, 160 घायल


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new package of U.S. disaster assistance sailed through the House of Representatives on Thursday, despite President Donald Trump expressing impatience with having to devote federal resources for hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico’s recovery.  The Republican-controlled House voted 353-69 to approve $36.5 billion in emergency relief for Puerto Rico and other areas hit by recent disasters. Senate approval is expected in coming weeks. Trump and his aides on Thursday suggested that there would be a limit to how much help Puerto Rico could expect from Washington to solve some of its longer-term problems, although Trump is expected to sign the latest emergency package. The White House on Thursday evening issued a statement saying the Trump administration was “pleased” that the House had approved the relief funds and pledged to work with Congress going forward to provide resources to recover and rebuild. Puerto Rico has been grappling with a bankruptcy crisis and owes $72 billion to creditors. Devastation from hurricanes Irma and Maria was exacerbated by dilapidated infrastructure, including a power grid largely destroyed by the storms. In a morning tweet, Trump warned that the United States “cannot keep FEMA, the Military & the First Responders, who have been amazing (under the most difficult circumstances) in P.R. forever!” FEMA is the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees disaster response in the United States. Presidential aides later on Thursday provided assurances that Washington will not abandon Puerto Rico, a Caribbean U.S. territory with a population of 3.4 million. All 69 votes against the aid package came from Trump’s fellow Republicans. Congress is expected to consider additional aid in the coming weeks but the debate could grow more contentious. House Speaker Paul Ryan is scheduled to lead a bipartisan congressional delegation to Puerto Rico on Friday. Some conservatives displayed early signs of spending fatigue. Republican Representative Tom Cole, a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, said some lawmakers have urged him to find ways to offset the costs of disaster relief.  Besides the latest aid package, Congress last month approved $15.25 billion to help with earlier storm damages, including Hurricane Harvey’s impact in Texas, and wildfires. “There is some concern about can we couple some of this (disaster aid) with reform measures,” Cole told Reuters on Wednesday. That could include savings to a national flood insurance program or other steps, he added. Besides helping Puerto Rico recover from Maria, the bill would also provide funds for storm-struck areas of Florida, Texas and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and fire-ravaged California. Cole said the price tag could rise as relief efforts transition from emergency response to rebuilding. Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, which has a sizeable Puerto Rican community, told Reuters he had urged Trump to create a high-level task force to provide advice for rebuilding Puerto Rico, and that the president was receptive to the idea. Much of Puerto Rico remains without electricity or running water three weeks after Maria’s landfall.  “They’re basically three weeks now living in the 19th century,” Rubio said. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told reporters the Trump administration would “stand with those American citizens in Puerto Rico until the job is done.” But Trump’s top legislative aide warned against expecting Washington’s help for long-term infrastructure problems. “The president is committed to helping to make sure that we do what is necessary to help to rebuild the island, but there are some elements that pre-existed the hurricane,” Marc Short said on CNN. The House bill includes $18.7 billion for FEMA’s disaster relief fund. Of that, $4.9 billion is earmarked for loans to local governments to ensure Puerto Rico can keep government programs operating beyond Oct. 31. Other funds include $576.5 million for wildfire control. Some $16 billion would go to help the National Flood Insurance Program cover claims after reaching its borrowing limit. In its statement, the White House said it urged Congress to adopt reforms to the program to ensure its “long-term financial viability.” Democratic Representative Nydia Velazquez of New York, which has a large Puerto Rican community, chastised Trump. “The president of the United States is tweeting out threats to withdraw assistance, that is an outrage, that is an insult,” Velazquez said.

Summary: अमेरिकी सदन ने आपदा कोष को मंजूरी दी क्योंकि ट्रम्प ने प्यूर्टो रिको की आलोचना की


(Reuters) - Senator John Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate Republican, is trying to win support from the Midwest corn lobby for a broad legislative overhaul of the nation’s biofuels policy, according to sources familiar with the matter. The effort comes as President Donald Trump’s White House mediates talks between the rival oil and corn industries over the Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires oil refiners to blend increasing amounts of corn-based ethanol and other biofuels in the nation’s fuel supply every year. Oil refiners say the regulation costs them hundreds of millions of dollars a year and is threatening to put a handful of the nation’s refineries out of business. Ethanol interests have so far refused to budge on proposals to change it. Cornyn “is working hard to unify all stakeholders in a consensus effort to reform the Renewable Fuel Standard,” an aide to the senator told Reuters. The aide, who asked not to be named, did not provide details. Cornyn, of Texas, the U.S. state that is home to the most oil refineries, is part of the Senate’s leadership team, responsible for securing the votes needed to pass the Republican party’s legislative agenda. Two lobbyists for the oil refining industry said Cornyn was having some success cobbling together a coalition of lawmakers and stakeholders around a potential RFS reform bill that could be dropped early next year. However, similar efforts to unify these rival factions have fallen flat in the past. Any such effort would need the buy-in of legislative backers of the ethanol industry, like Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa, the top-producing state for corn. Officials for the senators did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Both Grassley and Ernst have previously repeatedly expressed their intention to defend the RFS in its current form. The White House has been hosting negotiations between both sides of the issue over short-term remedies that can provide relief to refiners struggling with the existing regulation. The refining industry says compliance now costs it hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and threatens to put some refineries out of business. Refineries that do not have adequate facilities to blend ethanol into their gasoline must purchase blending credits, called RINS, from rivals that do. RIN prices have risen in recent years as the amount of biofuels required under the RFS has increased. Refineries that buy RINs include Philadelphia Energy Solutions and Monroe Energy, both of Pennsylvania, and Valero Energy Corp of Texas. Valero said RINs cost it around $750 million last year, though there are competing arguments over whether refiners pass along those costs. Senator Ted Cruz, also of Texas, last week sent a proposal to the White House to cap the price of RINs at 10 cents each, a fraction of the current price. The proposal was widely rejected by the ethanol industry. The ethanol industry has said in the past that placing caps on the credits was a non-starter, and has instead argued for policies to increase volumes of ethanol in the U.S gasoline supply. The industry claims this would boost supplies of the credits, lowering their prices. Prices of renewable fuel credits have fallen in recent weeks on reports of the discussions in Washington. The price hit 68 cents on Wednesday, nearing a seven-month low, according to traders and Oil Price Information Services. The White House has not yet commented on Cruz’s proposal. The RFS was introduced by former President George W. Bush as a way to boost U.S. agriculture, slash energy imports and cut emissions. It has since fostered a market for ethanol amounting to 15 billion gallons a year. The refining industry has pressed the Trump administration repeatedly to adopt reforms that would lower the credit costs or otherwise ease the burden on refineries, but the ethanol industry has successfully defeated those efforts so far.

Summary: सीनेटर कॉर्निन अमेरिकी जैव ईंधन सुधार के पीछे बिग कॉर्न को लाने की कोशिश कर रहे हैं


OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada’s answer to Donald Trump is a pediatric surgeon and former cabinet minister who, like the U.S. president-elect, is railing against immigration and political elites. Kellie Leitch, 46, has vaulted to the front of the race to lead the opposition Conservative Party by pushing a hard-right “Canadian values” platform that taps into discontent over the sluggish economy and Canada’s acceptance of 37,000 Syrian refugees.  Leitch is ahead of about a dozen candidates in the most recent opinion polls on the Conservative leadership election, scheduled to be held on May 27, 2017. The candidate chosen by party members will be their flag bearer for the October 2019 general election, against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals. “Elites pretend this isn’t an issue, but Canadians want to talk about it (immigration),” Leitch said in an interview last week from her farmhouse in rural Ontario. She has professed admiration for Trump’s embrace of the ordinary voter, and acknowledged similarities in their agendas. “I am talking about screening immigrants, I am talking about building pipelines, I am talking about making sure Canadians have jobs, so yeah, some of the ideas and language are the same,” said Leitch, an energetic and plain-spoken former labor and women’s affairs minister. Just as Trump did not initially have the backing of mainstream Republicans, Leitch has alienated many in her party establishment who fear that she will struggle to win Canada’s urban, mainly immigrant, voter base in the general election.     One of the reasons why the Conservatives had managed to hold power for almost a decade was their successful push into immigrant communities under former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who had convinced the party that rising immigration made newcomers a must-win constituency. Canada takes in about 300,000 immigrants every year. “She may believe that swimming away from the broad center of the Conservative electoral coalition, the one that wins elections, may make sense. History and demographics argue otherwise,” said Hugh Segal, who has known Leitch for more than 25 years. Segal is a former senator and chief of staff to former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.  Still, a November poll by Mainstreet/Postmedia showed Leitch led a 12-candidate Conservative race with 19 percent support, and separate data showed she led fundraising as well. The pool of candidates running has since swelled to 14, and more may join, including businessman and reality TV star Kevin O’Leary, who has also drawn comparisons to Trump.     “There is absolutely room for a populist surprise in Canada,” said pollster Frank Graves of EKOS Research. “The type of forces driving Brexit and Trump are very much at work in Canada, albeit somewhat more muted.” In a year marked by ultra-conservative movements in Europe and the United States, Leitch’s vault from relative obscurity to Conservative front-runner is in part boosted by media fascination with the parallels between her “Canadian values” and Trump’s “Make America great again.”     Like Trump, Leitch has been accused of being racist and targeting Muslims with her proposal to make every immigrant go through a face-to-face interview before letting them in. She denies those charges, and says her screening plan is aimed at ensuring each immigrant is a good fit for Canada.      “Even if my colleagues are concerned about the backlash of the media or other elites, that’s okay with me because I’m quite comfortable ... I don’t view it as racist in any way,” said Leitch, a practicing Catholic from the traditionally conservative, oil-rich province of Alberta. Trudeau was elected in October 2015 and promised to accept more Syrian refugees more quickly than the Conservatives, who had been in power for nearly 10 years. But his timeline proved too ambitious, and sparked public criticism that the government was too rushed to adequately screen refugees for security concerns. Amid dissatisfaction with the economy and other issues, Trudeau’s approval rating has fallen 10 percentage points to 55 percent in the last three months, according to a December Angus Reid poll, though he remained more popular than any recent prime minister. While much can change in the next three years before the general election, Graves, the pollster, said a Conservative victory is possible in part because Canada’s economic malaise has sparked the same kind of working class resentment that helped propel Trump to victory. Canada’s economy has been hurt by a two-year slump in oil prices, weak business investment and disappointing non-energy exports. The economy contracted in October and the manufacturing sector logged its biggest decline in nearly three years.     “The reason Trump got his momentum is he was the only candidate who was prepared to talk about immigration,” said Martin Collacott, a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, a Conservative think-tank, and a former ambassador. “If Kellie Leitch plays it right, and refines her message, she could probably get quite a bit of support.”

Summary: कंजर्वेटिव नेता की तलाश में, कनाडा में आया ट्रम्प का लोकलुभावनवाद


(Reuters) - The Kansas Secretary of State and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have reached a temporary agreement over the state’s voter registration laws, keeping Kansas’ chief elections officer from a contempt of court hearing, according to court documents filed on Thursday. The deal between Secretary of State Kris Kobach and the ACLU comes six weeks before the U.S. presidential election. The two sides have been at odds over a Kansas law requiring people to prove American citizenship if they want to register to vote while applying for a driver’s license. Critics say this requirement disenfranchises voters, especially minorities. The deal will allow people who registered at motor vehicle offices or with a federal form without providing citizenship documents to vote in the Nov. 8 election with a standard ballot, rather than be forced to use a provisional one, the ACLU and Kobach said in a status report filed on Thursday. Kobach will also clarify his office’s website to help voters find information more easily, according to the report filed to U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson.  Robinson had ordered Kobach, a Republican, to explain by Thursday why he should not be held in contempt for failing to obey a federal order issued in May.  That order required him to register people who applied to vote at motor vehicle offices or with a federal form without proof of citizenship. Robinson canceled the contempt hearing scheduled for Friday, according to her own court filing, citing the ACLU and Kobach’s agreement.  “Our case is ongoing, but this interim agreement is a critical victory for Kansans who want to vote in the November election. It is a shame that voters had to fight so hard to get Kris Kobach to do his job,” ACLU attorney Orion Danjuma said in a statement. Kobach said he was pleased an agreement had been reached, but criticized the ACLU.  “The ACLU’s argument was weak at best. However, at this point the preparations for the November 8, 2016, general election must proceed with rules established to ensure the efficient administration of the election,” he said in a statement.  Kansas’ law, among the strictest voter identification statutes in the country, is defended by Republicans who say the rules are meant to prevent voter fraud.  On Tuesday, a Kansas state judge issued a separate ruling extending voting rights through the Nov. 8 election of about 17,500 people who registered to vote at motor vehicle offices.

Summary: कैनसस, एसीएलयू ने मतदाता पहचान पत्र पर अस्थायी समझौता किया


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is set to impose an arms embargo on Venezuela and will consider further sanctions in response to the political crisis in the South American country, two EU diplomats said. The measures will bring the EU more into line with the United States, which imposed sanctions earlier this year, and they signal a change of tone in Brussels, which had previously  resisted taking a tougher approach toward Caracas.  The steps were approved today, paving the way for approval (by the bloc s foreign ministers) next Monday,  an EU diplomat said, adding that the ministers  backing was a formality. Spain has long pushed for sanctions on those close to President Nicolas Maduro, whom Washington accuses of installing a dictatorship, but the EU has been divided over whom to target, while Britain is a significant arms supplier to Venezuela. Diplomats said the turning point for EU governments was regional elections that appeared to favor Maduro s ruling Socialists last month. Polls had suggested the opposition would easily win a majority but in the end it won only a handful of governorships, according to the pro-government electoral board. However, the decisions taken by EU ambassadors at a meeting on Wednesday only prepare the legal basis for sanctions, without any names. Travel bans and asset freezes would only be imposed on Venezuelan officials  should the evolution of the situation require it , a second EU diplomat said. Once approved, the arms embargo will be accompanied by a ban on exports of equipment that could be used for internal repression and of surveillance equipment, the diplomats said. Critics said it was hypocritical for the bloc to target Venezuela while European countries sold weapons to Saudi Arabia.   The idea of imposing an arms embargo on Venezuela while refusing to impose one on Saudi Arabia is beyond parody, not least because of Saudi Arabia s murderous assault on Yemen, which has created one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in the world,  said U.S. philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky.  But it is easily understandable on the assumption that principles and values are intended for oratorical flourishes, while what matters is tens of billions of dollars in arms sales,  Chomsky said in an email to Reuters. Saudi Arabia intervened militarily in Yemen s civil war starting in 2015, attacking Houthi militia and loyalists of a former president said to be supported by Iran. The war has killed more than 10,000 people.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ वेनेजुएला पर हथियार प्रतिबंध लगाएगाः राजनयिक


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Twelve people were killed in shootings in the central Mexican state of Puebla in violence linked to warring gangs of fuel thieves, the state attorney general s office said on Tuesday, adding to a mounting death toll from the lucrative trade. Illegal fuel taps and gasoline thefts cost Mexico hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Fighting between the fuel thieves, known as huachicoleros, has this year helped push violence in Mexico to its highest levels since President Enrique Pena Nieto took office at the end of 2012. Authorities found the bodies of four men and a woman in the state capital, also named Puebla, after they were attacked by unidentified gunmen, state prosecutors said in a statement. The bodies of two men were also found in the municipality of Amozoc de Mota just east of the capital, prosecutors said. In addition, five others were killed in a shootout between suspected fuel thieves in Tlaltenango on the northwestern fringe of the city of Puebla, state prosecutors said. All twelve deaths are believed to be the product of disputes between gangs of fuel thieves, and all occurred on Monday, a spokesman for the attorney general s office said.

Summary: मेक्सिको में संदिग्ध ईंधन चोरों के बीच हिंसा में 12 लोगों की मौत


SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - Two of the most powerful politicians in California are advancing the same basic gun control agenda – yet they are at loggerheads in a political duel that could preview an ugly race to replace the state’s popular Democratic governor, Jerry Brown. The spat among ambitious Democrats took a serious turn this week, as Senate leader Kevin de Leon aggressively moved to push a package of gun control bills through the legislature that, if passed, would largely render irrelevant a firearms referendum by Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom aimed at the November ballot. “They both want tougher gun laws in California and they both want credit for it,” said Dan Schnur, a former Republican strategist who now heads the Jesse Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. Both efforts would prohibit possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines, require greater scrutiny of ammunition purchasers and seek to better keep guns out of the hands of violent felons. The legislative package, which passed the Senate Appropriations Committee on Monday and will go before the full body on Thursday, also seeks to eliminate a loophole in an existing law prohibiting weapons with detachable ammunition magazines. Newsom, who is running to replace Brown in the 2018 gubernatorial election, is expected to make the gun control measure a centerpiece of his campaign, along with a proposed ballot initiative to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.   But de Leon has not endorsed him. Last year, shortly after Newsom announced his gun control referendum, de Leon reduced the number of legislative staff working in the lieutenant governor’s office. De Leon, who represents Los Angeles, is close to possible Newsom rivals in the governor’s race, including former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.  He has asked Newsom to agree to withdraw his ballot measure if the Senate package passes, but Newsom has refused. “The initiative process is a blunt instrument and should always be the last resort - not the first,” de Leon said in an email on Monday. “It would be preferable to achieve policymaking on such a complex issue as gun control through the legislative process.” De Leon is also concerned that the ballot campaign would be expensive, drawing political contributions from pro-gun groups like the National Rifle Association and potentially causing Democrats in moderate and conservative districts to lose elections, a source close to him said. But Newsom said in a letter to de Leon shared with Reuters that his initiative was more comprehensive than the Senate package, tackling topics that had stalled repeatedly in the legislature. Dan Newman, Newsom’s campaign strategist, said concerns about gun violence, not politics, motivated the lieutenant governor. “He will get plenty of exposure this fall via his support for the marijuana initiative and Hillary for President,” Newman said. “Being relentlessly attacked by the NRA isn’t something he needs for his personal ambition.” Backing a ballot initiative on a controversial topic like gun control will likely raise Newsom’s profile with voters, Schnur said. But it could also backfire and alienate de Leon. “It doesn’t do his campaign for governor a lot of good to be going up against the most powerful Democrat in the legislature,” Schnur said. Gun rights supporters say both men are being opportunistic. “Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom is no stranger to trying to hijack high-profile issues in order to get his name out there,” said Craig Deluz, a lobbyist for the Calgun Foundation. “And Senate Pro Tem de Leon doesn’t want the Lieutenant Governor to steal his thunder.”

Summary: बंदूक नियंत्रण योजनाओं पर कैलिफोर्निया के डेमोक्रेट लड़ रहे हैं


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia s Defence Ministry on Tuesday denied a report that two Russian soldiers had been captured in Syria, Russia s Interfax news agency reported. Islamic State released a video earlier on Tuesday that it said showed two Russian soldiers that is says it captured in fighting in the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor. In the video, released on the group s AMAQ s news agency, two men appeared wearing gray tunics, one wearing handcuffs and the other with what appeared to be bruises on his face. One of them spoke in Russian, with Arabic subtitles in the video.  There have been no incidents involving the capture or losses among military servicemen of Russia s armed forces in the province of Deir al-Zor or in other areas in Syria,  Interfax cited a defense ministry official as saying.

Summary: रूसी सेना ने सीरिया में आईएस द्वारा रूसी सैनिकों को पकड़े जाने की खबर का खंडन कियाः इफैक्स


BERLIN (Reuters) - Turkey s decision to release a German human rights activist is a sign of improving relations between the two NATO allies, Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Thursday, adding that Germany wanted all its citizens detained in Turkish prisons freed. Peter Steudtner, who was released on Wednesday night, was one of about a dozen German or Turkish-German citizens arrested in Turkey in recent months, souring relations that had deteriorated over German criticism of mass arrests in Turkey after a failed coup last year. Steudtner arrived back in Berlin on Thursday evening and was escorted off the plane by German police, fellow passengers told Reuters.  This is the first sign of a thaw, as Turkey has fulfilled all its commitments (in the case of Steudtner),  Gabriel told Der Spiegel magazine, adding that former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had mediated to secure his release. Spiegel had reported that Schroeder flew to Turkey on Sept. 25 to discuss the issue of German detainees with President Tayyip Erdogan.   Now we have to work on the release of the other detainees,  Gabriel added. Eleven German citizens are still in detention in Turkey, including four with Turkish-German dual citizenship. Relations between the two allies deteriorated after Erdogan launched a crackdown on political opponents after a failed coup last year. Germany has criticized mass arrests and refused to extradite people Turkey says were involved in the plot. Relations with Turkey are a contentious issue in talks on forming a coalition government that Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservative bloc is holding with two other parties after she lost support in an election last month. In a televised debate with her main opponent before the election, Merkel said she would seek an end to Turkey s accession talks with the European Union. This hard position is backed by the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of her Christian Democrats (CDU), but opposed by the Greens, who along with liberal Free Democrats are seeking a coalition with the conservatives.

Summary: तुर्की द्वारा जर्मन नागरिक की रिहाई संबंधों के पिघलने का संकेत हैः गैब्रियल


CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders released details on Sunday evening about his “Medicare-for-all” universal healthcare funding plan and how he would pay for it. The plan was released hours before Sanders was to square off in a Democratic presidential debate in Charleston, South Carolina, against Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state and front-runner for the Democratic nomination, and former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley.  Clinton’s campaign had taken aim at Sanders in recent days, saying the U.S. senator from Vermont had not said how he plans to pay for his healthcare plan and that he needed to before the first party-nominating contest in Iowa on Feb. 1. Sanders said that expanding Medicare, a government-run program that insures the elderly, would save $6 trillion over the next 10 years when compared with the current system, which was established by President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Individuals would pay a 2.2 percent “premium” and employers would pay a 6.2 percent payroll tax to fund the healthcare plan. Individuals making $250,000 to $500,000 a year would pay a tax rate of 37 percent and those making more than $10 million would pay a 52 percent tax rate, according to details provided about the plan. The average annual healthcare costs for a working U.S. family are nearly $5,000 in insurance premiums and another $1,300 on deductibles for care that is not covered, Sanders’ campaign said. Under Sanders’ plan, a family of four earning $50,000 would pay $466 to the Medicare program, saving roughly $6,000 per year, the campaign said. Clinton favors building on the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, and has said Sanders’ state-administered plan would jeopardize the healthcare of those with Republican governors. Sanders has said the federal government would intervene in such a scenario. “It would be a mistake to really thrust our country into another contentious national debate about how we’re going to provide quality, affordable healthcare to everybody,” Clinton told CNN’s “State of the Union” program on Sunday. Sanders defended his forthcoming proposal on the same CNN program. “I believe healthcare is a right for all people; it will be politically difficult to achieve, but I will maintain that vision and fight for it,” Sanders said. Sanders last week tweeted a 1993 photo of himself and Clinton signed by the then-first lady, who was waging her own fight for universal healthcare, which thanked him for his commitment to “real access to healthcare for all Americans.”  (Reporting by Amanda Becker; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.

Summary: सैंडर्स ने लोकतांत्रिक बहस से पहले सार्वभौमिक स्वास्थ्य सेवा योजना जारी की


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is ready to resume cooperation with the United States on security issues such as the fight against terrorism and cyber crime, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin said, days before the inauguration of Donald Trump as president. Trump, who has praised Putin as “very smart”, has signaled he wants to improve strained ties with Russia, despite U.S. intelligence agencies alleging the Kremlin chief ordered a cyber campaign to discredit rival Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential race.  Russia denies it tried to sway the U.S. election by hacking or other means and Trump has played down the allegations. Last week, he also dismissed accusations that Moscow had collected compromising information about him as “fake news” and “phone stuff”. In an interview published on Monday, Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, struck a cautiously positive tone on the prospects for collaboration with Washington after a period of icy relations under Barack Obama. “If Donald Trump’s administration is interested we will be ready to resume full-format consultations with our American partners through the Russian Federation’s Security Council,” Patrushev told the government-controlled daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta. However, Patrushev added that he did not expect rapid improvements or a swift lifting of sanctions he said the West had deliberately imposed to “hold Russia back” because the two sides were starting from such a low base. Patrushev made his comments before Trump told Britain’s Sunday Times in a weekend interview that he would propose offering to end sanctions imposed on Russia over its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region in return for a nuclear arms reduction deal with Moscow. On Monday the Kremlin said it would wait until Trump takes office on Friday before commenting on any proposals.  Any agreements to resume cooperation would have to be guided by the principles of mutual respect and equality, said Patrushev. Putin himself chairs Russia’s Security Council. Trump has said Russia can be an important ally against militant Islamist groups such as Islamic State.  Patrushev said he believed the Obama administration had deliberately tried to discredit Russia because it was unwilling to accept that Washington’s position of global leadership was slipping. Obama has been strongly critical of Russian policy in Ukraine and in Syria.  In excerpts from Patrushev’s interview released on Sunday, he told Rossiiskaya Gazeta that Russia was facing increased cyber attacks from abroad - turning against Western countries their own charges of Russian meddling in their affairs.

Summary: रूस ट्रम्प के नेतृत्व में अमेरिका के साथ सुरक्षा संबंधों को फिर से बनाने के लिए तैयार हैः पुतिन सहयोगी


(Reuters) - Vermont’s governor on Wednesday halted, at least temporarily, efforts to become the ninth state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, but offered to work with state legislators to resolve what he cited as the bill’s shortcomings.  In vetoing the measure to decriminalize possession of small amounts of the drug for adults and to pave the way for a regulated market in the state, Republican Governor Phil Scott stressed he was not philosophically opposed to the concept, which he said he views “through a libertarian lens.” But in an effort to “get it right,” he said the bill needs to improve protections for children and motorists. “I want to reiterate that we can all work together on this issue in a thoughtful and responsible way,” the governor said at his weekly news conference in Montpelier. Scott said the bill should “make clear” that there will be no change in current penalties for giving or selling the drug to minors under 21 or near schools, and it should have stiffer penalties for smoking marijuana while driving or in front of children. The Marijuana Regulatory Commission the bill would create needs to include police, health and tax collecting representatives, and should be responsible for coming up with impairment limits for drivers, testing mechanisms, and education and prevention programs for minors, he added. “If the legislature agrees to make the changes I am seeking, we can move this discussion forward in a way that ensures the public health and safety of our communities and our children continues to come first,” said Scott. The Marijuana Policy Project, a pro-legalization group, said it was disappointed, but held out hope that the governor and legislators would reach a compromise. “Most Vermonters want to end marijuana prohibition, and it is critical that the legislature respond by passing a revised legalization bill this summer,” said Matt Simon, the group’s New England political director.      The bill, which won the approval of the state’s House of Representatives 79-66 and the state Senate 20-9, both of which are controlled by Democrats, would have made Vermont the first state to legalize recreational marijuana legislatively, instead of by popular referendum. Of the eight states and the District of Columbia that have legalized recreational marijuana, two - Massachusetts and Maine - are nearby, while Canada, to Vermont’s north, is considering legalization. Marijuana remains illegal under U.S. federal law.

Summary: वरमोंट के गवर्नर ने कानूनी अधिकार छीन लिए, सांसदों से 'इसे ठीक करने' के लिए कहा


DUBLIN (Reuters) - The continuing failure of Irish nationalists and pro-British Unionists to form a government in Northern Ireland is  deeply concerning,  Ireland s Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said after Britain moved to directly set a budget for the region. Britain s minister for Northern Ireland James Brokenshire on Wednesday said he had no choice but to begin the process of setting a budget directly for the first time in a decade due to the failure of talks to form a devolved executive. [L8N1N73RN]  Both Governments share the view that it is regrettable and deeply concerning that, eight months after the last Assembly election, a power-sharing Executive is not in place,  Coveney said in a statement.    The non-functioning of the devolved institutions is not something which the Irish Government wants to contemplate.

Summary: आयरलैंड का कहना है कि उत्तरी आयरलैंड की बातचीत की चल रही विफलता 'गहराई से चिंताजनक' है


LANY, Czech Republic (Reuters) - Czech billionaire Andrej Babis, the runaway winner of last weekend s parliamentary election, said on Monday he wanted to form a governing coalition with a stable partner, and a minority government was an unrealistic plan. Babis s search for government partners is running into trouble. He faces fraud charges - which he denies - that have led other parties to rule out working with him, even though his ANO party got 29.6 percent of the vote, nearly triple its closest competitor. The anti-establishment party scored at polls with pledges to clean up corruption and bring a businessman s touch to governance, winning over voters who shunned mainstream parties. Babis s popularity has grown during his time in the current center-left government, which has been marked by fast economic growth, a balanced budget, falling unemployment and rising wages. Babis said after talks with President Milos Zeman at a presidential chateau on Monday that the president would ask him next week to begin leading talks on forming a new cabinet. Traditionally, the president asks the leader of the winning party to lead talks before formally appointing a prime minister. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker sent a congratulatory letter to Babis, saying that the new government should keep in mind the European Union s common values.  I wish you all the best for the challenge ahead in terms of forming a stable government that will be able to position the Czech Republic as an important participant in the efforts to make the European Union more united, stronger and more democratic on the basis of our common values,  he said. Babis told reporters he preferred having as few parties as possible in the next government.  A single-color government is not realistic ... We want to negotiate a coalition government,  Babis told reporters.  We of course prefer a stable partner in government for the whole term.  ANO will control 78 seats in the 200-member lower house. Babis said a link with the election runner-up, the center-right Civic Democrat party, made sense based on seats in the lower house - together, the two would have a majority. The party, though, has so far refused to cooperate.  In other options, more partners would be needed. Babis s current partners, the leftist Social Democrats of Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and the centrist Christian Democrats, have rejected a government with ANO unless it pledges Babis will not be part of it. Babis said he did not want a government that would include Communists and the anti-EU, anti-immigration SPD party, which made surprisingly a strong showing in the election. His position against a minority government also seemed to rule out seeking their support in a less formal arrangement.     Police are looking at whether Babis, the country s second richest person, hid ownership of a convention center to receive a 2 million-euro EU subsidy in 2008. He has said the investigation was part of efforts to kick him out of politics. Opponents see Babis, worth an estimated $4 billion, as a danger to democracy, fearing his business and media power could pose conflicts of interest.

Summary: चेक चुनाव विजेता बाबिस ने अल्पसंख्यक सरकार को 'अवास्तविक' कहा


PRAGUE (Reuters) - Andrej Babis, the frontrunner to become Czech prime minister after this month s election, said on Monday he had been formally charged with fraud in a case involving a 2 million euro EU subsidy a decade ago. Babis has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, saying the investigation was a plot by adversaries who want to prevent him from taking power and cutting corruption links between the EU member country s incumbent politicians and business.   I have received a decision on the commencement of criminal prosecution in the pseudo-case ... I immediately appealed this decision,  Babis said in a text message through his spokeswoman. Spokesmen for the Prague prosecutor and police were not immediately available for comment. The charges were expected after police asked parliament in August to lift parliamentary immunity of the billionaire businessman Babis, leader of the ANO movement, and ANO deputy chief Jaroslav Faltynek. Parliament voted to allow prosecution on Sept 6. The ANO spokeswoman said Faltynek, former executive at companies owned by Babis, had also been charged with fraud. He also denies wrongdoing. Babis is almost certain to win a new parliamentary mandate in the Oct 20-21 vote, which would renew his immunity. Parliament would have to vote again to lift it to allow the prosecution to go ahead.  ANO is expected to win the most votes in the election but fall short of an overall majority in parliament. Several potential coalition parties have said they would not join a government led by Babis personally due to the investigation.  The case involves an allegation that Babis hid ownership a decade ago of the farm and conference center, Capi hnizdo (Stork Nest), so it would qualify for a European Union subsidy that was meant for small businesses. It would not qualify as part of Babis s Agrofert group of companies which is the largest private employer in the central European country. Babis said it was owned by his family members when the subsidy was awarded. It was folded into Agrofert later. Babis and Faltynek, a former executive at Agrofert companies, face potential prison sentences if the case is brought to court and if they are found guilty. The Slovak-born Babis moved Agrofert and other assets into trust funds earlier this year to meet new conflict of interest legislation. He remains beneficiary of the funds. Apart from police, the European Union s anti-fraud unit OLAF has also been looking into the case.

Summary: चेक गणराज्य के प्रधानमंत्री पद के उम्मीदवार बाबिस पर पुलिस ने सब्सिडी धोखाधड़ी का आरोप लगाया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army and its allies recaptured an oilfield from Islamic State near the eastern city of Deir al-Zor on Saturday in further advances against the militants, state TV reported. Government forces also seized part of a main highway running from Deir al-Zor down to the city of al-Mayadeen, to which many Islamic State militants have retreated, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said. The Syrian army this week broke through Islamic State lines to reach a government-held enclave of Deir al-Zor besieged for years by the jihadists, and is fighting to reach a nearby air base which IS still surrounds. On Saturday, the army and militias fighting alongside it seized the Teym oilfield in desert south of Deir al-Zor, state TV said. Deir al-Zor is in an oil-rich area of Syria. To the east of Teym and south of the air base, government forces also recaptured part of the main road running from Deir al-Zor to al-Mayadeen, downstream along the Euphrates river and closer to the Iraq border, the Observatory reported. The British-based monitoring group said that advance would block potential Islamic State reinforcements from al-Mayadeen. The advances put yet more pressure on Islamic State s shrinking caliphate, which once stretched across northern and eastern Syria, and northwestern Iraq. In Syria, the group holds much of Deir al-Zor province and half the city, as well as a pocket of territory near Hama and Homs in the west of the country.

Summary: सीरियाई सेना ने पूर्व में इस्लामिक स्टेट के तेल क्षेत्र को जब्त कियाः सरकारी टीवी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will host Singapore s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the White House on Oct. 23, the White House said in a statement on Tuesday. The visit is scheduled just ahead of Trump s scheduled trip to Asia in early November with stops in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Summary: ट्रम्प 23 अक्टूबर को सिंगापुर के प्रधान मंत्री की मेजबानी करेंगे-व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said it was necessary to do everything possible to make progress on the nuclear deal with Iran and that he did not see any indications during a visit to the United States that Washington would terminate it. U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier on Thursday that “nothing is off the table” in dealing with Iran following its test launch of a ballistic missile.

Summary: अमेरिका ईरान के साथ परमाणु समझौते को रद्द करना चाहता हैः जर्मन मंत्री


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump stands by his belief that millions of people voted illegally in the U.S. election, the White House said on Tuesday, despite widespread evidence to the contrary.  “The president does believe that,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters.  State officials in charge of the Nov. 8 election have said they found no evidence of widespread voter fraud and there is no history of it in U.S. elections. Even House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, the most senior Republican in Congress, said he had seen no evidence to back up Trump’s claims.    Republican Trump won the Electoral College that decides the presidency and gives smaller states more clout in the outcome, but he lost the popular vote to Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by about 2.9 million. Trump has repeatedly said he would have won the popular vote, too, but for voter fraud. He has never substantiated his claim. The comments were the latest in a series of distractions in the opening days of the Trump administration that run the risk of overshadowing his legislative goals and efforts to advance policy proposals. On Saturday, the day after his inauguration as the 45th president of the United States, Trump complained about media coverage of the crowds that attended his swearing-in ceremony and described journalists as “among the most dishonest people on Earth.”

Summary: कोई सबूत नहीं होने के बावजूद, व्हाइट हाउस ने कहा कि ट्रम्प मतदाता धोखाधड़ी के विश्वास पर कायम हैं


HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba on Tuesday slammed U.S. President Donald Trump s latest comments about the island as  disrespectful, unacceptable and meddling,  while reiterating it was not involved in the alleged incidents that had harmed U.S. diplomats in Havana. The sharply worded Foreign Ministry statement came after U.S. and Cuban delegations met in Washington to discuss bilateral relations, the first such high-level meeting between the Cold War foes since Trump took office in January. Their meeting took place on the same day Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York, calling Cuba  corrupt and destabilizing.  He also said he would not lift the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba until it made  fundamental reforms.  Cuba said it had voiced  strong protest  against his comments, as well against his new policy toward the Communist-run nation. The Republican president announced in June a partial rollback of the U.S.-Cuban detente forged by his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.  In the wake of the disrespectful, unacceptable and meddling statements made by President Donald Trump in his address to the U.N. General Assembly at a time when the U.S.-Cuba Bilateral Commission was sitting in session, the Cuban delegation voiced a strong protest,  the Foreign Ministry statement said. U.S.-Cuban relations have become especially strained since the State Department said last month its personnel in Havana had experienced physical symptoms from what it could only describe as  incidents.  The symptoms ranged from hearing loss to mild brain injury, a State Department official said last week, adding that the toll of victims had risen to 21 people linked to the U.S. Embassy. Several Canadians were also affected. Cuba has denied any involvement and the United States has not blamed it, although Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Sunday it could close its embassy in response.  Cuba has never perpetrated or will ever perpetrate actions of this nature, and has never permitted or will ever permit any third-party use of its territory for this purpose,  Cuba s Foreign Ministry said.  The Cuban authorities have shown keen interest in both clarifying this matter.

Summary: क्यूबा ने ट्रम्प के संयुक्त राष्ट्र संबोधन को 'अस्वीकार्य और हस्तक्षेप' बताया


LONDON (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he expected Britain and the European Union to progress soon into the next phase of Brexit negotiations, despite Prime Minister Theresa May s problems in getting the political backing at home to move ahead.      I am absolutely convinced that, as soon as possible, we will get into the second phase of Brexit negotiations,  Rajoy said in a meeting with May in London on Tuesday. May failed to clinch a deal on Monday to open talks on post-Brexit free trade with the EU after a tentative agreement with Dublin to keep the bloc s rules in Northern Ireland angered her allies in Belfast, the Democratic Unionist Party.

Summary: स्पेन के राजोय का कहना है कि उन्हें उम्मीद है कि अगले चरण की ब्रेक्सिट वार्ता जल्द ही होगी


AMMAN (Reuters) - Islamic State militants regained control of Albu Kamal, their last stronghold in Syria, after Iranian-backed militias who claimed to have captured the city a few days earlier were ambushed and forced to retreat, tribal leaders, residents and a war monitor said on Monday. Fighters from Lebanese Shi ite Hezbollah in Syria who joined forces with Iraqi Shi ite fighters crossing the border into Syria were taken by surprise by militants hiding inside tunnels in the heart of the city they said they had taken on Wednesday, they said. The Shi ite fighters had launched a ground offensive on the city, in Syria s eastern Deir al Zor province where the Euphrates river meets, after months of mainly heavy Russian bombardment against the city that killed dozens of civilians and caused widespread destruction.  Islamic State militants began surprise attacks with suicide bombers and rocket attacks after the Iranian militias were duped that Daesh (Islamic State) had left the city,  said Qahtan Ghanam al Ali, a tribal leader in touch with relatives. The Syrian army had on Thursday declared victory over Islamic State, claiming it had killed many militants while scores surrendered. It said the capture of Albu Kamal marked the collapse of the militants  three-year reign in the region.  The army made no mention of the loss of Albu Kamal but Hezbollah s media unit said intensive aerial strikes pounded Islamic State hideouts in the western countryside of the city. The offensive was spearheaded by elite forces from Hezbollah fighting inside Syria alongside an array of Iraqi and Afghan Shi ite militias that had entered from Iraq, a commander in that alliance told Reuters.  These militant attacks lead to big human losses in the ranks of fighters supporting the regime,  the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.       Albu Kamal, a major supply and communications hub for the ultra-hardline militants between Syria and Iraq, was a big prize for the Iranian-backed militias. The militants  control of the city and its sister border town of al Qaim on the Iraqi side had disrupted the strategic Baghdad-Damascus highway that had long been a major arms supply conduit by Iran to its Syrian ally. The Syrian opposition and some Western countries say Iran s strong military intervention on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, alongside its backing of other Shi ite militias, is fuelling the sectarian dimension of the Syrian civil war by radicalizing mainstream Sunni rebels. An overstretched Syrian army is now more than ever dependent on Shi ite militias on the ground and Russia s military fire power to recapture ground from Sunni insurgents. Islamic State, the jihadist group that once laid claim to a self-styled  caliphate  spanning swathes of Syria and Iraq, has seen its proto-state crumble in recent months under the pressure of multiple offensives. On Sunday, jets believed to be Russian intensified their third day of bombing of Albu Kamal and its outskirts, with at least 50 civilians, mostly women and children, killed since Friday, the monitor and residents said.  In retaliation for their losses, Iranian militias who were forced to withdraw shelled villages east of the city where hundreds of families who fled Albu Kamal had found temporary refuge, the U.K.-based war monitor said. In one air strike on the town of Sukariya, east of the city, at least thirty people were killed, mostly women and children from three families, two former residents of the city in contact with relatives said. Other aerial strikes hit villages of Marshada and Sousa near the river crossing where hundreds of civilians were targeted as they fled in small boats and dinghies, they added. Albu Kamal has been a target of intensive strikes believed to be conducted by Russia across Deir al Zor province which has killed hundreds of civilians in recent months, according to the monitor and local figures. Military experts and Syrian opposition figures say Russia has stepped up a  scorched earth  policy in the province with its aerial bombing in recent months to secure a rapid military victory at any price for its military and its allies.

Summary: सीरिया के अंतिम उग्रवादी गढ़ में ईरान समर्थित मिलिशिया का सफाया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a big victory for the Obama administration, a U.S. federal court on Thursday rejected a bid by 27 states to block its Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of its strategy to combat climate change by reducing carbon emissions from power plants. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued a brief order denying an application seeking to stay the rule while litigation continues. The states, led by West Virginia, and several major business groups in October launched the legal challenges seeking to block the Obama administration’s proposal to curb carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. More than a dozen other states and the National League of Cities, which represents more than 19,000 U.S. cities, filed court papers backing the Environmental Protection Agency’s rule. The rule aims to lower carbon emissions from the country’s power plants by 2030 to 32 percent below 2005 levels. It is the main tool for the United States to meet the emissions reduction target it pledged at U.N. climate talks in Paris last month. For President Barack Obama, executing his climate change strategy would be a legacy-defining accomplishment. “We are confident that the plan will reduce carbon pollution and deliver better air quality, improved public health, and jobs across the country,” the White House said in a statement on Thursday. The court action means the regulation remains in place but it is not the final word in the legal fight. The appeals court still has to hear oral arguments on June 2 and decide whether the regulation is lawful. The decision by the court to deny the stay is a “good sign” for the EPA when it argues the merits of its case this summer, said David Doniger of the climate and clean air program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.  “Most of the time it’s a pretty good hand, but I wouldn’t overplay it yet,” he told Reuters. “We will have to duke it out on the merits of the case now.”  West Virginia’s Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who led the multi-state challenge, said he is confident their challenge will succeed when the court decides the case on its merits. He said West Virginia and other states will consider asking the Supreme Court to take a “second look” at whether to freeze the regulation. Many states, even those that have sued the EPA over the Clean Power Plan, have started to work on plans to comply with the regulation. Their plans are due for EPA approval in September. Jonathan Adler, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, said states are “more likely to fall into line” and try to comply with the rule now that the stay has been denied. It would have been a “significant setback” for the government if the challengers’ request had been granted, he added.

Summary: अमेरिकी अपील अदालत ने ओबामा की कार्बन उत्सर्जन योजना को अवरुद्ध करने से इनकार कर दिया


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A senior member of Israel’s government welcomed on Wednesday White House spokesman Sean Spicer’s apology for saying Adolf Hitler did not use chemical weapons, comments that overlooked the killing of millions of Jews in Nazi gas chambers. “Since he apologized and retracted his remarks, as far as (I) am concerned, the matter is over,” Intelligence and Transport Minister Israel Katz said in a statement, citing the “tremendous importance of historical truth and remembrance” of the victims of the Holocaust. Spicer made the assertion at a daily news briefing, during a discussion about the April 4 chemical weapons attack in Syria that killed 87 people. Washington has blamed the attack on the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. “You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons,” Spicer said when asked about Russia’s alliance with the Syrian government. The Nazis murdered six million Jews during World War Two. Many Jews as well as others were killed in gas chambers in European concentration camps. When a reporter asked Spicer if he wanted to clarify his comments, he said: “I think when you come to sarin gas, there was no, he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing.” Later on Tuesday, Spicer apologized and said he should not have made that comparison. “It was a mistake. I shouldn’t have done it and I won’t do it again,” Spicer told CNN in an interview. “It was inappropriate and insensitive.” Spicer’s assertion, made during the Jewish holiday of Passover, sparked instant outrage on social media and from some Holocaust memorial groups who accused him of minimizing Hitler’s crimes. Katz, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party, had tweeted late on Tuesday that Spicer’s comments at the news briefing were “grave and outrageous”, and he said the White House spokesman should apologize or resign. There was no immediate comment from other Israeli leaders, during a Passover holiday period when government business is largely at a standstill and many in the country are on vacation. It was not the first time the White House has had to answer questions about the Holocaust. Critics in January noted the administration’s statement marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which omitted any mention of Jewish victims. At the time, Spicer defended that statement by saying it had been written in part by a Jewish staff member whose family members had survived the Holocaust. Despite these difficulties, relations between Trump administration and the Israeli government have been more cordial than under the Obama presidency, although differences remain over the scope of Israeli settlement-building.

Summary: इजरायल के कैबिनेट मंत्री ने हिटलर की टिप्पणी पर स्पाइसर की माफी का स्वागत किया


BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany on Monday said its continued support for Iraq and the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government was contingent on peaceful efforts by both sides to resolve their differences. The German government has provided more than 1 billion euros  ($1.2 billion) in humanitarian, development and stabilization aid to Iraq since 2014, making it one of the biggest international donors.  Our support is for Iraq as a unified state,  Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel told reporters after meeting with KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani in Berlin.   We want to continue that, but the precondition is that Iraq solves its internal conflicts peacefully and democratically, and that we find a way out of the tense situation we are in now.  Gabriel noted that Germany had warned the Kurdish region against holding the Sept. 25 referendum, in which Iraqi Kurds voted overwhelmingly to break away from Iraq, and said the goal was to restore dialogue between the two sides. The Kurdish vote was rejected by Baghdad and triggered an Iraqi military offensive that recaptured disputed areas of the north from Kurdish Peshmerga fighters. Gabriel said Berlin would push the government in Baghdad to respond to offers of dialogue by the KRG. Barzani urged Germany to  play a stronger role in bringing us together . Barzani also thanked Germany for supporting his region s fight against Islamic State, and training Peshmerga fighters. The German parliament voted last week to extend its military mission in northern Iraq, around 150 strong, to the end of March to allow a new government to weigh a longer extension. But the rise in tensions between Kurds and Baghdad has raised concern in Germany about the mission s future. After failing to agree on a new government with two smaller parties, Chancellor Angela Merkel is now trying to rebuild the  grand coalition  with the Social Democrats (SPD) that has ruled Germany for the past four years. It is unclear if Gabriel, a former SPD leader, would stay on as foreign minister if the two blocs reach a deal. ($1 = 0.8480 euros)

Summary: जर्मनी ने कुर्दों के साथ संघर्ष के शांतिपूर्ण समाधान के लिए इराक को सहायता प्रदान की


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin s diary does not at the moment feature a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at an APEC summit in Vietnam next month, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. However, Putin s timetable of bilateral meetings at the summit is still being finalised, Peskov told a regular conference call with reporters.

Summary: एशिया शिखर सम्मेलन के लिए अभी तक पुतिन-ट्रम्प की बैठक की योजना नहीं बनाई गई हैः क्रेमलिन


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the U.S. Supreme Court navigated a difficult period in which it was short one member for more than a year, justices from across the ideological spectrum often managed to find common ground. That sense of unity promises to be soon put to the test. The nine-justice court ended its 2016-2017 term on Monday with a flurry of rulings. When it resumes work in October, its recently restored conservative majority could become more assertive as the justices tackle big cases on whether the U.S. Constitution lets businesses refuse to serve gay couples for religious reasons, presidential powers and manipulating electoral district boundaries for partisan gain. Neil Gorsuch, Republican President Donald Trump’s appointee, joined the court in April, giving conservatives a 5-4 majority. Gorsuch already has established himself as among the most conservative and outspoken justices even before beginning his first full term.  “We will certainly see more cases where they are sharply divided,” Chicago-Kent College of Law professor Carolyn Shapiro said. While partisan tensions in Washington have deepened since Trump took office in January, the Supreme Court largely remained above the fray. In the 14 months that the court operated with only eight justices following Justice Antonin Scalia’s death and was divided equally between liberals and conservative, it showed greater unanimity in its decisions than in recent years. During that time, the justices often sidestepped major rulings on divisive issues, resolving several cases narrowly and trying to avoid 4-4 votes that would leave legal questions unresolved.  The court even avoided a sharp ideological split in its decision on Monday on how to handle Trump’s contentious order banning people from six Muslim majority countries from entering the United States. The four liberal justices were silent as the court allowed parts of the order to go into effect and agreed to decide the legality of the policy in its next term. The court already has agreed to hear several major cases in which the justices are likely to be divided on ideological lines, including one on the conflict between gay rights and religious freedom concerning a Christian baker from Colorado who refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple, citing his religious beliefs. The justices will also weigh whether state legislative districts violate constitutional protections if they are drawn purely to gain partisan advantage in a case involving a Republican-configured electoral map in Wisconsin that could have major consequences for U.S. elections. The travel ban case, Trump’s first big Supreme Court battle, is a major test of presidential powers, with Trump’s administration arguing that the judiciary should show deference to the president on national security matters. In the term that just ended, the court was able to decide all but two of the cases it heard. On Monday, the justices ordered that those cases, both on immigration-related issues, be re-argued in its next term, when Gorsuch would be able to participate. The action suggests the court was divided 4-4 along ideological grounds on those cases. A review of rulings from the 2016-2017 term compared with previous years shows a higher rate of unanimity, likely prompted by the greater need for compromise without a decisive ninth vote. In 69 cases in which the court issued decisions on the merits, there were no dissenting votes in 41 of them, or 59 percent, according to Kedar Bhatia, who compiles court statistics for the SCOTUSblog website. That compares with 44 percent in the court’s previous term and 40 percent in the one prior to that.  “With only eight members, I think the court was trying harder to achieve as much agreement as possible, both in the close cases and in the not-so-close ones,” said Kannon Shanmugam, a lawyer who regularly argues before the court. While they were shorthanded, the justices took up fewer cases that were likely to divide them ideologically. For example, they took six cases on patent protections, a higher-than-normal number, on an issue in which they usually are unanimous.

Summary: उच्चतम न्यायालय की हालिया एकता को परीक्षा का सामना करना पड़ रहा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A large group of conservative lawmakers are close to approving proposed healthcare legislation, their leader said on Wednesday, after they were told to be hopeful that some changes they sought in the Medicaid program for the poor and disabled would be made in the bill. The Republican Study Committee (RSC), the biggest group of conservatives in Congress, is “very close to signing off” on the Republican healthcare bill that would repeal Obamacare, Representative Mark Walker told reporters after the RSC met with Vice President Mike Pence about the legislation. Walker said conservatives were told “to be hopeful” that changes adding a work requirement for some Medicaid enrollees, and accelerating the end of an expansion of the Medicaid program, would be incorporated into the bill.

Summary: रूढ़िवादियों को स्वास्थ्य सेवा बिल में मेडिकेड में बदलाव की उम्मीद है


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli cabinet minister said on Friday the phrasing of U.S. President Donald Trump s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital suggested an openness to eventual Palestinian control of part of the city, though he predicted Israel would oppose this.  Trump s announcement reversed decades of U.S. policy,  angering the Arab world and alarming Western allies. But he also said Washington was not laying down a position on  final-status   issues including boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, which the two parties would have to decide in negotiations. Israel has long deemed Jerusalem its eternal, indivisible capital. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a state they seek on land Israel took in a 1967 war. Its eastern sector is laden with Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites that inject deep religious sensitivities into the dispute over sovereignty. In his speech on Wednesday, Trump did not include words echoing Israel s traditional description of Jerusalem. Asked about this, minister Zeev Elkin said:  I think that his leaving this out of the speech was premeditated.  He even hinted that borders in Jerusalem will also be set as a result of negotiations, which presupposes an option of partition,  said Elkin, who holds the Jerusalem Affairs portfolio in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu s government. Elkin was referring to Trump s caveat that the new U.S. decision on Jerusalem did not constitute  taking a position of any final-status issues, including the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, or the resolution of contested borders .   Those questions are up to the parties involved,  added Trump, who said Washington still wanted Israelis and Palestinians to agree on a  two-state solution  for peace. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson echoed those remarks on Friday.  With respect to the rest of Jerusalem the president ... did not indicate any final status for Jerusalem. He was very clear that the final status, including the borders, would be left to the two parties to negotiate and decide,  Tillerson told reporters in Paris. Like other world powers, and in keeping with U.N. Security Council resolutions since the 1967 war, Washington had long held off on recognizing any sovereignty in Jerusalem, one of the most treacherous issues in the Middle East conflict. Elkin said he  would have been happy  had Trump described Jerusalem as Israel s united capital. But he played down any possibility of partition, saying Trump s administration would only pursue the idea if the Netanyahu government consented.  This is a very, very important factor, and I currently have no doubt that Israel would not agree. Ultimately, in actuality, this is what matters,  Elkin said in his remarks, carried by Tel Aviv 102 FM radio. Trump spoke of Jerusalem as  the capital the Jewish people established in ancient times (and) the seat of the modern Israeli government,  with freedom of worship for all faiths.   Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas responded angrily, saying Washington had abdicated its role as peace mediator and deeming Jerusalem  a Palestinian, Arab, Christian and Muslim city, the eternal capital of the state of Palestine .  Abbas used the Arabic term  Al Quds , which he has generally qualified to refer to East Jerusalem rather than the whole city. In three public statements welcoming the U.S. move, Netanyahu has not asserted Jerusalem s indivisibility under Israel - heretofore stock rubric for him, as for previous prime ministers. A Netanyahu spokesman did not immediately respond to a Reuters query about the seeming omission.   Israel s ambassador to the United States, speaking before the Trump announcement, appeared to acknowledge that - in the eyes of foreign mediators, at least - Jerusalem being the Israeli capital may not rule out Palestinian sovereignty there.  Every single peace plan that s ever been put down has Jerusalem be a capital of Israel,  Ron Dermer told Politico on Dec. 4.  There have been other peace plans that have suggested it be capital of two states, which is a separate issue.  Israel annexed East Jerusalem after capturing it. But world powers and the United Nations have not recognized Israeli sovereignty over the entire city, saying it must be negotiated by Israel and the Palestinians, whose last peace talks collapsed in 2014. No other country has its embassy in Jerusalem. Thousands of Palestinians protested in a  day of rage  on Friday in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and in East Jerusalem against Trump s move on the ancient city.

Summary: इजरायली मंत्री ने फिलिस्तीनियों के साथ जेरूसलम विभाजन पर ट्रम्प को 'संकेत' देखा


(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court is set to rule on Monday on a legal challenge by abortion providers to a Texas law requiring doctors performing the procedure to have “admitting privileges” at local hospitals and clinics to meet hospital-grade standards.  Following is a timeline of that challenge. July 2013 - The Republican-led Texas legislature passes and Republican Governor Rick Perry signs the law known as H.B. 2, putting new requirements on abortion providers. State officials say the law is intended to ensure the health and safety of women. September 2013 – Before the law is enforced, Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers challenge the measure. They assert that certain provisions, including one related to doctors’ “admitting privileges” - a type of formal affiliation - at a hospital within 30 miles (48 km) of an abortion clinic, are aimed at decreasing the abortion availability in the state. October 2013 – A U.S. district judge sides largely with the challengers, blocking the admitting privileges provision. March 2014 - The New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, a regional federal appeals court covering Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, reverses the lower court and permits much of the law to take effect.  April 2014 - Whole Woman’s Health and other abortion providers bring a new complaint against Texas, citing the effect of the law’s implementation and the number of clinics that have closed. The challengers focus on the admitting-privileges requirement and regulations governing clinic facility standards. August 2014 – A U.S. district court judge declares the admitting privileges and clinic requirements an unconstitutional burden on women’s access to abortion. October 2014 - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit intervenes to allow implementation of both new regulations, but the U.S. Supreme Court blocks part of the order so that the mandate that clinics meet hospital-grade standards does not go into effect. June 2015 - After considering the full merits of the challenge, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit reverses the district judge’s decision, finding the judge should have deferred to the legislature’s stated health and safety goals. The appeals court also says most of the lawsuit should have been barred because the legal issues it raises already were addressed in the case filed by Planned Parenthood. June 2015 - The U.S. Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote puts a temporary hold on the 5th Circuit’s ruling while the justices consider whether to hear the challengers’ appeal. That action blocks the provision regarding hospital-grade standards from taking effect. September 2015 - The abortion providers challenging the Texas restrictions ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their appeal of the 5th Circuit’s ruling. November 2015 - The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear the challenge by abortion providers to the Texas restrictions. February 2016 - Conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a supporter of abortion restrictions, dies at age 79, leaving the court shorthanded and evenly divided with four liberals and four conservatives. March 2016 - The U.S. Supreme Court hears 85 minutes of oral arguments in the case, known as Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. The court’s four liberal justices indicate they believe the law intrudes on a woman’s constitutional right to abortion. The four conservative justices express doubts about claims by abortion providers that the law forced numerous clinics to shut down. June 2016 - The U.S. Supreme Court is due to rule on Monday in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.

Summary: टेक्सास गर्भपात कानून पर कानूनी लड़ाई में मील के पत्थर


CAIRO (Reuters) - The former leader of Egypt s Muslim Brotherhood Islamist movement, Mohamed Akef, has died in a Cairo hospital after an illness, the group s lawyer said on Friday. Akef was  supreme guide  of the movement, as the leadership is known, until the end of 2009. He was among those detained in a crackdown after Egypt s elected president Mohamed Mursi, also of the Muslim Brotherhood, was ousted by the military in 2013. Akef s daughter announced his death on her Facebook page. The group s lawyer, Abdel Monem Abdel Maqsoud, told Reuters he had received a call from the prison service to report Akef s death in Cairo s Qasr El-Eyni hospital. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has engaged in the toughest crackdown on Islamists in Egypt s modern history since toppling Mursi when Sisi was still head of the armed forces. He was later elected president. Sisi presents himself as a bulwark against militant extremism as Egypt battles an Islamist insurgency in northern Sinai. But he has come under attack from rights groups, who say his time in power has seen the worst crackdown in their history.

Summary: मुस्लिम ब्रदरहुड के पूर्व प्रमुख का अस्पताल में निधनः वकील


YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar should respond to a crisis over its Muslim Rohingya community in a  calibrated  way without excessive force, a panel led by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan said on Thursday, adding that radicalization was a danger if problems were not addressed. The treatment of approximately 1.1 million Rohingya has emerged as majority Buddhist Myanmar s most contentious human rights issue as it makes a transition from decades of harsh military rule. Annan s commission - appointed last year by leader Aung San Suu Kyi to come up with long-term solutions for the violence-riven, ethnically and religiously divided Rakhine state - said perpetrators of rights abuses should be held accountable. Security deteriorated sharply in the western state on the border with Bangladesh last October when Rohingya militants killed nine policemen in attacks on border posts. In response, the Myanmar military sent troops fanning out into Rohingya villages in an offensive beset by allegations of arson, killings and rape by the security forces which sent 87,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh. The situation in the state deteriorated again this month when security forces began a new  clearance operation  with tension shifting to a township, Rathetaung, where Buddhist Rakhine and Rohingya communities live side-by-side.  While Myanmar has every right to defend its own territory, a highly militarized response is unlikely to bring peace to the area,  the nine-member commission said in its final report.  Whatever action is taken, we should make sure that the population do not suffer and (that) they have access to support and necessary humanitarian needs they require,  said Annan at a news conference in Yangon.  Annan added that he discussed the military operation in Rakhine s Mayu mountains with army chief Min Aung Hlaing, who told him that the risk of a negative impact on the civilian population was small due to the remoteness of the area. Nevertheless, the commission said that a nuanced and comprehensive response was needed to  ensure that violence does not escalate and inter-communal tensions are kept under control , it said. The commission warned that if human rights were not respected and  the population remain politically and economically marginalized   northern Rakhine State may provide fertile ground for radicalization, as local communities may become increasingly vulnerable to recruitment by extremists . The Rohingya are denied citizenship and classified as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, despite claiming roots in the region that go back centuries, with communities marginalized and occasionally subjected to communal violence. Annan has visited Myanmar three times since his appointment, including two trips to Rakhine. On Thursday, he presented his findings to Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing. The United Nations said in a report in February security forces had instigated a campaign that  very likely  amounted to crimes against humanity and possibly ethnic cleansing.  That led to the establishment of a U.N. fact-finding mission a month later. But Myanmar s domestic investigation team criticized the U.N. report this month and rejected allegations of abuses.  Myanmar declined to grant visas to experts appointed by the U.N. and instead the government said it would comply with recommendations by the Annan team. But Annan s panel - which has a broad mandate to look into, among other things, economic development, education and healthcare - said it was  not mandated to investigate specific cases of alleged human rights violations . It said that the government  should ensure   based on independent and impartial investigation   that perpetrators of serious human rights violations are held accountable . The commission made a host of other recommendations, ranging from a faster and more transparent citizenship verification process to equal access to healthcare.

Summary: अत्यधिक बल प्रयोग से म्यांमार के रोहिंग्या संकट का समाधान नहीं होगाः अन्नान पैनल


LONDON (Reuters) - China holds the key to resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis and must do more to use all its influence and levers to deal with its neighbor, British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said on Wednesday.  China holds the key, the oil to North Korea flows from China ... China has not just influence but has many of the levers that are needed to change behavior in North Korea,  Fallon told BBC radio.  (U.S. Defence) Secretary (Jim) Mattis and I and others across the administration are very clear that we have to absolutely exhaust every possible diplomatic avenue to get this situation under control now, that means working intensively in New York over the next few days to get a new (UN) resolution, it means looking at the existing sanctions and making sure they are properly enforced...  Above all it means putting more pressure on China to deal with its neighbor.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया के परमाणु मुद्दे को हल करने में चीन महत्वपूर्णः ब्रिटेन के रक्षा मंत्री


HARARE (Reuters) - A Zimbabwean judge freed ousted finance minister Ignatius Chombo on bail on Thursday in a ruling that underlined judicial independence just three weeks after the army helped depose Robert Mugabe. Chombo, a senior member of the  G40  faction of the ruling party that was targeted in the military s Nov. 15 intervention, was dragged from his home in the middle of the night and held incommunicado by soldiers at an undisclosed location for a week. During that time he was beaten, according to his lawyer. He was arrested by police on his release and charged with fraud and abuse of office relating to his time as a government minister over a decade ago. The Harare magistrate s court denied him bail. However, High Court judge Edith Mushore condemned that ruling as  littered with mis-directions  and  wading into the muddy court of public opinion  after the massive army-backed protests that helped topple Mugabe after 37 years in power. Chombo, 65, was ordered to be released on $5,000 bail, surrender his passport and the title deeds of his Harare mansion and report to a police station in the capital three times a day. The tone and substance of Mushore s ruling also sent a stern message to the army-backed administration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa about the independence of the courts and the primacy of the law, aspects of public life often ignored by Mugabe. During his detention by the military, Chombo had been denied basic rights enshrined in the constitution such as access to justice and presumption of innocence, Mushore said. In particular, she said Zimbabweans needed to know they  can sleep at night  without the fear of arbitrary detention in secret locations beyond the reach of lawyers or family - a common feature of the police state run by Mugabe.  The public in Zimbabwe needs to know that they have a right to access to justice,  she said. Chombo was one of several G40 figures detained during the military s  Operation Restore Legacy  that was officially launched to remove  criminals  around Mugabe. Most Zimbabweans interpreted this as meaning Mugabe s 52-year-old wife Grace, who was positioning herself as a successor to her 93-year-old husband at the expense of Mnangagwa, who was purged from the ruling party in early November. Chombo s lawyer says he will deny the charges when his trial starts. In a cursory analysis, Mushore characterized the state s case against him as  mere allegation .

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे के न्यायाधीश ने बर्खास्त वित्त मंत्री को जमानत पर रिहा किया


HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s Higher Education Minister Jonathan Moyo, one of a number of officials purged from the ruling ZANU-PF party along with President Robert Mugabe, said on Monday he and at least 50 other senior party officials were  outside of the country.  Moyo made the comments on his Twitter handle, but the tweet was subsequently deleted. Moyo is one of many ZANU-PF members targeted by the ruling party in the wake of a military coup.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे के मोयो ने ट्विटर पर कहा कि वह देश से बाहर हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump directed government agencies on Friday to freeze regulations and take steps to weaken Obamacare, using his first hours in the White House to make good on a campaign promise to start dismantling his predecessor’s healthcare law. Heading into the Oval Office shortly after the conclusion of his inaugural parade, Trump signed an order on the Affordable Care Act that urged government departments to “waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation” of provisions that imposed fiscal burdens on states, companies or individuals. It also called for efforts to give states greater flexibility in implementing healthcare programs while developing “a free and open market in interstate commerce for the offering of healthcare services and health insurance.” Health experts had speculated that Trump could expand exemptions from the so-called individual mandate, which requires Americans to carry insurance or face a penalty, or the requirement that employers offer coverage.  Experts also believe the administration could try to reduce the “essential benefits,” such as maternity care and mental health services, that insurance plans must cover. The White House did not provide further details about the executive order. Trump’s spokesman Sean Spicer said the White House also directed an immediate regulatory freeze for all government agencies in a memo from Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus. He did not offer details. Repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, one of former President Barack Obama’s signature laws, was a central pledge for Trump during the presidential election campaign. Republicans in the U.S. Congress have not yet laid out a plan to recast the insurance program. In a hastily arranged ceremony, surrounded by some of his aides, Trump sat behind the presidential Resolute Desk and signed the order. He also signed commissions for his newly confirmed defense secretary, James Mattis, and his homeland security secretary, John Kelly. Trump spoke briefly about his day with reporters. “It was busy, but good. It was a beautiful day,” he said. Vice President Mike Pence then swore in Mattis and Kelly in a separate ceremony. There were other signs of change in the Oval Office, which Obama vacated on Friday morning. Golden drapes hung where crimson ones had earlier in the day and new furniture dotted the room.

Summary: ओवल ऑफिस में ट्रम्प ने ओबामाकेयर पर पहले आदेश पर हस्ताक्षर किए