NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump fired Corey Lewandowski, the campaign manager who helped him win Republican presidential nominating contests but clashed with other advisers on how to appeal to the broader general electorate, several people with knowledge of the decision said on Monday. The firing on Monday morning was another shakeup for a campaign already at odds with many senior Republican figures over the presumptive nominee’s policies, with the party’s nominating convention in Cleveland less than a month away.  But it may also prove a step toward calming concerns among party leaders about Trump, a wealthy businessman and political outsider, and the conflicting advice he was getting from senior aides, as he battles presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton ahead of the Nov. 8 election. Trump said Lewandowski did “a great job” but “it’s time now for a different kind of a campaign.” “We ran a small, beautiful, well-unified campaign. It worked very well in the primaries. I think I’m probably going to do some of that,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News, in which he did not say if Lewandowski had been fired. Three people close to the campaign said some of Trump’s staff viewed Lewandowski as opposing strategic changes and staff hires urged for the general election campaign by Paul Manafort, a strategist hired in April partly for his experience on presidential campaigns that Lewandowski lacked. The three, a campaign staffer and two people in regular contact with Trump advisers, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized by Trump to discuss the firing. Manafort will take over as campaign manager, said Carl Paladino, co-chairman of the campaign’s operations in New York state. “Paul’s in charge,” Sean Spicer, the Republican National Committee’s communications director, said in an interview. Trump’s decision to fire his manager came in part at the urging of his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, who have powerful advisory roles in the campaign, the two people in contact with Trump aides said.  Hope Hicks, who single-handedly fields Trump’s media inquiries, disputed reports she had complained about Lewandowski to Ivanka Trump. “That is entirely untrue,” she said. Lewandowski, 42, had been a near-constant presence at Trump’s side since the New York developer launched his campaign on June 2015.  In a brief statement read on CNN, Lewandowski said: “I stand by the fact that Mr. Trump is a great candidate and is better than Hillary Clinton ever will be.”  Lewandowski denied there were any tensions between him and Trump’s family in an interview with CNN. Later on Monday, a campaign adviser resigned after reveling in Lewandowski’s exit on his Twitter account, CNN reported. “Ding dong the witch is dead!” Michael Caputo, the adviser, wrote shortly after reports of the firing emerged. He later released a statement to CNN saying he had resigned. “In hindsight, that was too exuberant a reaction to this personnel move,” his statement said. The RNC spokesman did not think there would be a change in Trump’s tone. “It’s going to be more of a streamlined effort and more of an understanding of the difference that a general election has,” Spicer said. Clinton’s campaign has hundreds more staff than that of Trump. In contrast to her unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid, there has been no public sign this time of any significant infighting among her advisers. The former U.S. secretary of state has also spent millions of dollars on television commercials in recent weeks. Trump has not aired any paid advertisements since becoming the presumptive nominee, preferring to spread his message through his Twitter account and in media interviews. Trump has faced setbacks in the past two weeks. His renewed calls to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States have drawn heavy criticism from Republican politicians in Washington and prompted corporate sponsors like Apple and JPMorgan Chase to withhold funding from the party’s July 18-21 convention. Recent opinion polls show at least half of all voters approve of the Muslim ban. Lewandowski, a former New Hampshire field director for a conservative advocacy group, argued that Trump’s unconventional campaigning style did not need to be changed after it proved successful in the last few months of primary contests. Lewandowski repeatedly defended that strategy with a line that became his mantra: “Let Trump be Trump.”  Known for his brusque manner, Lewandowski was accused of manhandling a female reporter in Florida during the primary campaign, but the battery charge against him was later dropped. He is still scheduled to attend the Cleveland convention as chairman of New Hampshire’s delegation. The Democratic National Committee said Lewandowski’s exit was unlikely to change Trump. “It wasn’t Corey Lewandowski who called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States,” Mark Paustenbach, a party spokesman, said in a statement, “it was Donald Trump.”

Summary: चुनाव प्रचार के लिए ट्रंप ने अभियान प्रबंधक को किया बर्खास्त


SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Naser Oric, the Bosnian Muslim commander who led the defense of Srebrenica during the 1992-95 war, was cleared of war crimes against Serbs on Monday, a ruling greeted by both celebration and condemnation in the divided state. Bosnian Muslims, who largely see Oric as a hero, broke into applause as he and a fellow soldier left the courtroom free men. Cheering crowds massed around them outside.  Families of Bosnian Serbs killed in the war, who see Oric and his troops as criminals, walked out of the hearing in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo in protest.  This is horrific, this is a scandal. Everybody expected that he will be punished. Is this a justice? I am speechless,  said Radojka Filipovic from Bratunac, near Srebrenica. She said Oric s forces killed at least six of her relatives. Milorad Dodik, the president of Bosnia s autonomous Serb Republic, called on Serb lawyers to withdraw from the shared national legal system. The justice minister of neighboring Serbia, Nela Kuburovic, called the ruling  shameful . The case went to the heart of fractured Bosnia, haunted by ethnic divides and long-running grievances that have blocked its progress to joining the European Union and NATO. Bosnia was hit by a devastating war in the 1990s after the Bosnian Serbs, helped by Serbia, tried to carve out a separate statelet following the break up of Yugoslavia. Bosnian Serbs have accused Oric and his men of killing about 3,000 of their people in the Srebrenica area during the conflict.  Bosnian Muslims, or Bosniaks, hailed his role in defending Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb forces later killed more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys - widely seen as Europe s worst atrocity since World War Two. After the war, the country was divided into two autonomous regions, the Serb Republic and the Bosniak-Croat Federation, linked via a weak central government.  Serbs cannot accept this and this proves this country and its judiciary should not exist,  Serb Republic President Dodik said in the town of Banja Luka after the verdict.  I call on all Serbs in the court and prosecution to pull out from these institutions.   Dodik has long disputed the authority of the national legal system, which he says was established on the order of Bosnia s Western peace envoys, and has repeatedly threatened to secede if his region s autonomy is undermined.     Dodik said the verdict would likely  revive the idea of holding a referendum on the state court  - the last attempt to hold a referendum on the status of the state court, in 2015, was halted amid Western warnings. Bosnia s three-man presidency chairman Dragan Covic, a Bosnian Croat, said negative rhetoric over the case could be a setback for Bosnia s progress. Oric was acquitted of war crimes against Serbs by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2008, but was arrested again in June 2015 in Switzerland on a warrant from Serbia accusing him of killing three Bosnian Serb prisoners of war early in the conflict.  It was only just to acquit Oric of war crimes charges,  Hatidza Mehmedovic, a Bosnian Muslim who lost her husband and two sons in the Srebrenica massacre, told the Fena news agency.  It was a great injustice to drag him in courts from The Hague to here.  Oric did not speak to reporters outside the court. Dozens of Bosnian Serbs, including senior political and military leaders, have been sentenced by the ICTY and a Bosnian war crimes court over the Srebrenica massacre, which was declared genocide by two international courts. Millions of people were displaced and more than 100,000 died in the war.

Summary: स्रेब्रेनिचा के मुस्लिम रक्षक को अपराधों से मुक्त किया गया, सर्बों ने विरोध किया


(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump would be required to notify U.S. lawmakers before creating a joint U.S.-Russia cyber security unit - an idea that has drawn criticism across the political spectrum - under legislation advancing in Congress.  The proposal, if it became law, would be the latest in a series of maneuvers by Congress that either limit the president’s authority on Russia matters or rebuke his desire to warm relations with Moscow. A provision contained within the annual Intelligence Authorization Act and passed by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee 14-1 would require the Trump administration to provide Congress with a report describing what intelligence would be shared with Russia, any counterintelligence concerns and how those concerns would be addressed. The bill, which grants congressional approval for clandestine operations carried out by the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies, passed the Senate Intelligence Committee in July, but its text was only recently made public because it involves sensitive intelligence operations.     Trump last month said on Twitter that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had discussed establishing “an impenetrable Cyber Security unit” to address issues like the risk of cyber meddling in elections. Trump quickly backpedaled on the idea, which was criticized by Democrats, senior Republicans and the National Security Agency director. The White House and Senator Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the intelligence panel, were not immediately available for comment on the bill. Trump wants to improve relations with Russia, a desire that has been hamstrung by the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Republican Trump against Democrat Hillary Clinton.  U.S. congressional panels and a special counsel are investigating the interference and possible collusion between Russia and members of Trump’s campaign. Moscow has denied any meddling and Trump has denied any collusion. Previously, Congress tied the president’s hands on Russia by passing a bill that Trump cannot ease the sanctions against Russia unless he seeks congressional approval. In August, the Senate blocked Trump from being able to make recess appointments while lawmakers were on break, fearing the president would fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions over his handling of the Russian probe. Lawmakers have also introduced legislation to stop Trump from having the ability to fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel appointed to determine whether there was collusion between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Moscow. The annual Intelligence Authorization Act requires approval by the full Senate and House and the president’s signature before it can become law. No vote has been scheduled and the last act was passed by Congress in March.  The legislation’s provision requiring notification of any U.S.-Russia cybersecurity unit was pushed by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, his office said on Tuesday. Wyden also helped secure provisions in the bill that call for an intelligence report assessing the threat posed to the United States by Russian money laundering and another report examining whether cyber vulnerabilities in U.S. cell networks, including a known bug in the global mobile network Signaling System No. 7, or SS7, are being exploited by foreign governments to conduct surveillance on Americans. Wyden was the lone committee vote against the bill, however.  He said in a statement on Tuesday that he objected to language that identified the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks as a “non-state hostile intelligence service” because doing so could have implications for journalists. (This version of the story was refiled to correct “conclusion” to “collusion” in paragraph 9)

Summary: बिल में कहा गया है कि ट्रम्प द्वारा कांग्रेस को सूचित किए बिना कोई U.S.-Russia साइबर इकाई नहीं


PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - It should have been a triumphant night for Hillary Clinton when her rival Bernie Sanders gave a rousing speech urging his supporters to vote for her in the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential election. Instead it turned into a sign of potential trouble for her White House bid. His speech on Monday to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia urging the party to unite against Republican Donald Trump was met with some jeers when he endorsed Clinton – a sign he had lost control of his own movement. “I’m beyond disappointed,” California delegate Aleece Depuey, 49, said after Sanders sought to rally support for his one-time rival.   Hundreds of Sanders supporters marched through the streets on Day One of the four-day convention, chanting: “We want Bernie!” Delegates wore “Bernie or Bust” buttons. Others donned Robin Hood-style hats, a call to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor.  When he spoke, a scuffle broke out between a Sanders supporter and a Clinton supporter in the hall.  The backlash raised questions over whether - and how - Clinton could ever win over Sanders supporters.  With opinion polls showing the Clinton-Trump race tightening, Clinton needs Sanders’ voters more than ever. Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, arrived in Philadelphia with 1,894 of 4,763 delegates after winning 13 million votes in the Democratic nominating contest. To many of Sanders’ backers, Clinton is a bridge too far. They see her as the kind of political insider, backed by reams of corporate money, that drove them to Sanders and his fight to rein in Wall Street and remove income inequality. Others simply do not trust her, opinion polls show.  In a Reuters/Ipsos poll released at the end of June, some 15 percent of Sanders’ backers said they would vote for Trump, and 19 percent would support neither Clinton nor Trump. Sanders won the states of Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, and New Hampshire in the run-up to the convention, and nearly won Iowa - all states that could be closely contested by Trump in the general election. Clinton likely will need some portion of Sanders’ support to stay competitive in those states.  Clinton’s campaign had hoped in Philadelphia to put the bare-knuckle primary fight behind it, but Sanders’ voters were enraged by Friday’s embarrassing release of internal party emails by the activist group WikiLeaks showing party officials clearly favored Clinton over their candidate.  Sanders supporters seemed to be everywhere, often with a bigger presence than Clinton supporters, a jarring sight at an event where she is due to be formally nominated as the party’s presidential candidate.   At a delegate welcoming event on Sunday night, shouts of “Bernie!” filled the air as his supporters circulated a petition to force convention organizers to hold an extended roll-call vote on the floor this week that would require each delegate to declare his or her support. Others pledged to contest Clinton’s choice of Democrat Tim Kaine, a U.S. senator from Virginia, as her running mate.  When at mid-day Sanders addressed more than a thousand of his delegates at the city’s convention center, the crowd erupted in fury when he asked them to switch their allegiance to Clinton. “Brothers and sisters,” he said over their jeers, “this is the real world that we live in. Trump is a bully and a demagogue.” People started shouting back: “So is Hillary!” Sanders did not mention Clinton again. But he already had lost the attention of some of his most fervent fans. “As soon as he said back Clinton, everyone stopped listening,” said Cindy Melchert, a protester who listened to the appeal over a loudspeaker at a local park. A Michigan native, Melchert said she would not vote for Clinton in November under any circumstances. For her, the movement now was less about Sanders and more about showing the Democratic National Committee “they had us and absolutely lost us.” Another protester, Michael Arnold of Atlanta, would not have been out of place at a Trump rally, sporting a T-shirt that read “Hillary for prison.”  Fearing a similar scene on the convention floor would embarrass Clinton, Sanders’ campaign emailed delegates before Monday night’s program, urging them to restrain themselves. “Our credibility as a movement will be damaged by booing, turning of backs, walking out or other similar displays,” it read. Some Sanders supporters appeared willing to set aside their qualms about Clinton, largely out of a desire to see Trump defeated in the election. Diana Hatsis-Neuhoff, a delegate from Florida adorned with buttons backing Sanders, said she planned to vote for Clinton in the general election. “Yes,” she said, “we’ll hold our nose and vote.” Others felt their fellow Sanders supporters had taken the movement too far. “We are surrounded by people who are so selfish and so self-absorbed,” said Melissa Robbins, who worked for the Sanders campaign in Philadelphia. “Not voting for Hillary is a sure win for Donald Trump.” But that may not be enough to sway Sue Spicer from Indiana, who said she had trouble imagining voting for either Clinton or Trump. “It’s hard to feel they have our best interests in mind,” she said.

Summary: सैंडर्स की सेना में कुछ लोग उनके बिना आगे बढ़ने के लिए दृढ़ प्रतीत होते हैं।


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia’s foreign minister said on Friday the leaders of North Korea and the United States should tone down their bellicose rhetoric and warned that a collapse of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers would only embolden Pyongyang. “The exchange of threats is quite bad, unacceptable,” Sergei Lavrov told reporters at a news conference.” We have to calm down the hot heads,” Lavrov said, adding that he was convinced a Russian-Chinese proposal could still pave the way for a diplomatic solution to the North Korea crisis. Lavrov added that a collapse of the Iran nuclear deal would give North Korea little incentive to drop its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.

Summary: रूस ने उत्तर कोरिया, अमेरिका को शांत होने के लिए कहा


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that it will keep its Israeli embassy in Tel Aviv, following U.S. President Donald Trump s decision to move the nation s embassy to Jerusalem.  Mexico will continue to adhere to United Nations resolutions recognizing the status of Jerusalem, the foreign ministry said in a statement.   Mexico will continue to maintain a close and friendly bilateral relationship with the state of Israel, as evidenced by the recent visit of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to our country, and will also continue supporting the historical claims of the Palestinian people,  the statement read.

Summary: मेक्सिको का कहना है कि वह इजरायल में अपना दूतावास तेल अवीव में रखेगा


TOKYO (Reuters) - Almost two-thirds of Japanese voters are opposed to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe calling a snap election, a Kyodo news agency survey showed on Sunday, a day before the Japanese leader is expected to announce an October vote. According to the survey, 27 percent of the respondents plan to vote for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in proportional representation districts in the expected lower house election, versus 8 percent who favor the struggling main opposition Democratic Party. The poll also showed that 6.2 percent will vote for a new party aligned with popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, which is expected to be launched this week. Another 42.2 percent remain undecided. Abe is expected on Monday to announce plans to call a general election for Oct. 22 to take advantage of a rebound in his damaged approval ratings and an opposition in political disarray, ruling party and government sources said.

Summary: जापान के दो-तिहाई मतदाताओं ने प्रधानमंत्री आबे के मध्यावधि चुनाव कराने का विरोध कियाः क्योडो सर्वेक्षण


KISUMU, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenyan opposition supporters skirmished with police and threw up burning barricades in pockets of the country on Thursday, seeking to derail President Uhuru Kenyatta s likely re-election with a low voter turnout. The election commission said that more than one in 10 polling stations failed to open. Voting was delayed until Oct. 28 in four of Kenya s 47 counties - all in the opposition-supporting west - due to  security challenges . The repeat election is being closely watched across East Africa, which relies on Kenya as a trade and logistics hub, and in the West, which considers Nairobi a bulwark against Islamist militancy in Somalia and civil conflict in South Sudan and Burundi. In the western city of Kisumu, police used tear gas and fired live rounds over the heads of stone-throwing youths heeding opposition leader Raila Odinga s call for a voter boycott. Gunfire killed one protester and wounded three, a nurse said.  In Homa Bay county next door, police said they shot dead one protester and injured another.  Riot police fired tear gas in Kibera and Mathare, two volatile Nairobi slums. Protesters set fires and threw stones in Kibera, and in Mathare a church was firebombed.  Around 50 people have been killed, mostly by security forces, since the original Aug. 8 vote. The Supreme Court annulled Kenyatta s win in that poll on procedural grounds and ordered fresh elections, but Odinga pulled out of the rerun and urged a boycott because, he said, the poll would not be fair.  In the capital, polling stations saw a sprinkling of voters instead of the hours-long queues that waited in August.   With Kenyatta all but ensured a victory, eyes are on the turnout, which was nearly 80 percent in the August vote. The election commission said Thursday s estimated turnout was 48 percent, excluding the counties where voting did not take place.   We are requesting them (voters) humbly that they should turn out in large numbers,  Kenyatta, the U.S.-educated son of Kenya s founding father, Jomo Kenyatta, said after voting.  We re tired as a country of electioneering and I think it s time to move forward.  A decade after 1,200 people were killed over another disputed election, many Kenyans feared violence could spread. As well as delayed voting, the poll is likely to trigger legal challenges to the result, stirring longer-term instability and ethnic divisions. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court was due to hear a case seeking to push back the polls. But it was unable to sit after five out of the seven judges failed to show up.  The lack of a quorum is highly unusual for a Supreme Court hearing,  a statement from the European Union said.  Not hearing this case has de facto cut off the legal path for remedy.  In  Kisumu, the scene of major ethnic violence after the  disputed election in 2007, many schools designated as polling stations were padlocked. Young men milled about outside.  In Kisumu Central, constituency returning officer John Ngutai said no voting materials had been distributed and only three of 400 staff had turned up. One nervous official said his election work was a  suicide mission . Reuters found no polling stations open.  Wafula Chebukati, head of the election commission, said counties where voting would be delayed included Homa Bay, Kisumu, Migori and Siaya. But residents were skeptical.  Today, not a single polling station opened. People have been throwing stones all day at the police. So I don t think people will accept that elections take place. Unless Raila says  OK , it won t happen,  said social worker Christine Onyango. Kisumu businessman Joshua Nyamori, 42, was one of the few  brave enough to defy Odinga s stay-away call, but could not cast his ballot.  Residents fear reprisal from political gangs organized by politicians. This is wrong,  he said.  In the coastal city of Mombasa, protesters lit tyres and timber along the main highway. Reuters contacted a dozen polling stations there after voting closed. The highest turnout was 89 voters out of 793.        We have seen you, we know you and we have marked you,  a group of opposition supporters shouted at voters outside a polling station. Four armed police were on guard at each station - double the number on duty last time. Yvonne Mwenesi, 21, was beaten outside another polling station before police rescued her.  I had just voted and as I walked out, a group of men who I know attacked me saying I had betrayed them by voting,  she said, her nose bleeding. On the eve of the vote, Odinga backed off previous calls for protests and, speaking in English, urged supporters to stay home and hold vigils instead. Some politicians who preceded him urged in the KiSwahili language that supporters should ensure the vote did not take place.  Odinga s National Super Alliance coalition, whose supporters attacked polling staff in the run-up to the vote, could argue in court that the lack of open polling stations showed the re-run was invalid. The Supreme Court said it would annul this election too if it did not meet legal standards.  The head of the election commission said last week he could not guarantee a free and fair vote, citing political interference and threats of violence. One election commissioner quit and fled the country. Another official was tortured and murdered days before the Aug. 8 vote.

Summary: केन्या में चुनाव का बहिष्कार, गोलीबारी और आँसू गैस के झोंके


GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations condemned air raids on five hospitals and two humanitarian warehouses in Idlib, Syria, this week and called for setting up a system so warring sides would protect civilians and medical facilities near  terrorist  groups. Jan Egeland, U.N. humanitarian adviser on Syria, said it was not clear who had carried out the attacks, but said it was part of an escalating trend to attack  humanitarian lifelines  including hospitals, ambulances and health workers.  We urgently need a workable and respected system of notification for these protected localities that armed actors will respect,  he told reporters, although he conceded that some aid agencies were reluctant to share their GPS coordinates with the warring sides.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र ने इदलिब के अस्पतालों पर हवाई हमलों की निंदा की, सुरक्षा प्रणाली की मांग की


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad discussed a forthcoming round of peace talks in the Kazakh capital, Astana, at a meeting with the Russian president s special envoy on Syria, Sergei Lavrentyev, RIA news agency said on Thursday.

Summary: सीरिया के असद ने पुतिन के राजदूत के साथ शांति प्रक्रिया पर चर्चा कीः आर. आई. ए.


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Representative Trent Franks said on Thursday he would resign after two female staffers complained that he had discussed surrogacy with them. Franks, 60, who has been a member of Congress from Arizona since 2003, said in a statement that he would step down on Jan. 31. The House of Representatives Ethics Committee said on Thursday it had opened an investigation into accusations of sexual harassment against Franks. The congressman said he was resigning because coverage of the committee’s investigation in the “current cultural and media climate” would “damage those things I love most.” Franks said he and his wife had struggled with infertility and sought a surrogate in order to have another child after they had twins with a surrogate. “I have recently learned that the Ethics Committee is reviewing an inquiry regarding my discussion of surrogacy with two previous female subordinates, making each feel uncomfortable,” Franks said. “I deeply regret that my discussion of this option and process in the workplace caused distress,” he said. Franks denied he ever “physically intimidated, coerced, or had, or attempted to have, any sexual contact with any member of my congressional staff.” U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan was briefed on the allegations on Nov. 29 and urged Franks to resign in a conversation the following day, Ryan’s office said in a statement. “The speaker takes seriously his obligation to ensure a safe workplace in the House,” the statement said. Franks, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, represents Arizona’s 8th Congressional District, a mainly suburban area of Phoenix. He won re-election in 2016 with 68.5 percent of the vote. Republican President Donald Trump carried the district by 21 points last year.  Republican Arizona Governor Doug Ducey will call a special election to fill the seat. The nominating primary must be held between 80 and 90 days after the vacancy and the general election must be conducted 50 to 60 days after the primary, according to state law. Numerous prominent men in U.S. politics, media and entertainment have been accused in recent months of sexual harassment and misconduct.  Earlier on Thursday, Democratic Senator Al Franken of Minnesota said he would resign in a few weeks following allegations of sexual misconduct. U.S. Democratic Representative John Conyers of Michigan resigned on Tuesday after accusations of sexual harassment were leveled against him. Conyers denied the allegations, while Franken said some of the accusations against him were untrue and he remembered other incidents differently from his accusers. Reuters has not verified the allegations against either man.

Summary: कर्मचारियों के उत्पीड़न की शिकायतों के बाद प्रतिनिधि फ्रैंक्स इस्तीफा देंगे


AMMAN (Reuters) - Russian and Syrian jets escalated strikes on rebel-held Idlib and Hama provinces, several days after jihadist rebels opened an offensive against government-held parts of northwestern Syria, rebels and witnesses said on Sunday. The bombing campaign in heavily populated civilian areas shattered six months of relative calm. Russian-inspired ceasefires had given a temporary reprieve to tens of thousands of people living in rebel-held northwestern Syria. But now thousands of civilians who had been returning to their homes have headed back to the relative safety of refugee camps along the Turkish border, which are protected under Russian-Turkish understandings, residents said.  People are very afraid things have gone back to what they were and returned back to camps - there is no longer any hope,  Ahmad Thaib, a resident of Jabal al Zawya. The strikes were retaliation for last Tuesday s assault against Hama province, which were spearheaded by Tahrir al-Sham, the jihadist Turkistan Islamic Party and rebels fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). The bombing campaign also comes shortly after a tripartite deal struck by Moscow, Ankara and Tehran to deploy an observer force in Idlib, a province where the former al Qaeda s Syrian offshoot has cemented its control after it crushed opponents. Western-vetted rebels said the Russian strikes targeted FSA groups who had signed the ceasefire agreements Russia had promoted, casting doubt on whether Moscow had any intention of shoring up the ceasefire. Civil defense workers and residents said dozens of strikes struck the major towns of Khan Sheikhoun, Jisr al-Shaqour, Saraqeb and scores of villages. At least five hospitals and several civil defense centers have been knocked out of action since the start of the counter offensive. Rebel sources said over fifty fighters were killed on Saturday after jets believed to be Russian targeted a training camp run by Failaq al Sham, an FSA rebel group, which is at odds with jihadist groups. Russia s defense ministry says it is attacking hard-line Islamist militants. It denies accusations it has targeted infrastructure and medical centers to force rebels into local truces that effectively restore President Bashar al Assad s  grip on the country. On Friday, Russia s defense ministry said a submarine fired Kalibr cruise missiles at Islamist militants, who it said had tried to trap a group of Russian military policemen. In the city of Khan Sheikhoun in southern Idlib, jets believed to be Russian destroyed the town s major power plant on Friday, one witness said. The plant feeds northern Hama and southern Idlib. On the outskirts of Jarjanaz, a strike barely missed a camp where hundreds of displaced people were sheltering, a resident said. At least several people were killed near the town of Kafr Sajna, one of the sites where the Russian missiles landed, witnesses said. A video downloaded by activists showed a rescue worker trying to extinguish the flames on a young body charred by an incendiary bomb.

Summary: रूस, सीरिया ने विद्रोहियों के कब्जे वाले इदलिब पर बमबारी तेज की, प्रत्यक्षदर्शियों का कहना है


RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - In a case that could have an impact on the November presidential election, the Virginia Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday over a Republican lawsuit challenging the blanket restoration of voting rights for 206,000 felons by Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe. If upheld, McAuliffe’s order could help tip Virginia, a swing state where the vote is traditionally close in presidential elections, in favor of presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Lawyers for leaders in the Republican-controlled state legislature argued that McAuliffe exceeded his authority by restoring voting rights en masse, rather than on a case-by-case basis. “Never in Virginia’s 240-year history has a governor exercised clemency power en masse,” Charles Cooper, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told the court. Cooper said history and the language of the state constitution clearly indicate that the restoration of a felon’s rights must be done individually. But Stuart Raphael, Virginia’s solicitor general, said nothing in the constitution restricts McAuliffe’s authority to restore such rights across the board, even though no governor has done so in the past. “If he has the power,” Raphael said, “he has the power.” The plaintiffs have asked the court to block McAuliffe’s action, which also allows felons to serve on juries and hold public office. The court did not say on Tuesday when it may issue a decision in the case. Almost 12,000 felons have registered to vote since McAuliffe’s April 22 executive action, the state elections board said. Many of the convicts benefiting from the order are African-Americans or Latinos, two groups that have voted overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates in the past. Democrat Barack Obama won Virginia in 2012 by about 150,000 votes and in 2008 by about 235,000 votes.  Before the order, felons had to petition the governor individually to restore their voting rights. Virginia is one of four states whose constitutions permanently disenfranchise felons but allow the governor to restore voting rights, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, a non-partisan civil liberties group. McAuliffe and other Democrats have said the restoration of rights to felons who have served their sentences and completed probation is long overdue. The McAuliffe administration has refused to release the names of felons whose rights have been restored, a decision that drew criticism on Tuesday from Justice William Mims. “I cannot understand why a document of such importance has been shielded from litigants and the citizens of Virginia,” he said.

Summary: वर्जीनिया उच्च न्यायालय ने रिपब्लिकन मतदान-अधिकार मुकदमे की सुनवाई की


MADRID/BARCELONA (Reuters) - The Catalan regional leader on Thursday said he would press on with an Oct. 1 referendum on a split from Spain, flouting a court ban, as tens of thousands gathered for a second day on the streets of Barcelona demanding the right to vote. Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont said he had contingency plans in place to ensure the vote would go ahead, directly defying Madrid and pushing the country closer to political crisis.  Spain s Constitutional Court banned the vote earlier this month after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said it violated Spain s 1978 constitution, which states the country is indivisible. Most opposition parties are also against the vote.  All the power of the Spanish state is set up to prevent Catalans voting,  Puigdemont said in a televised address.   We will do it because we have contingency plans in place to ensure it happens, but above all because it has the support of the immense majority of the population, who are sick of the arrogance and abuse of the People s Party government.  On Thursday, tens of thousands gathered outside the seat of Catalonia s top court in Barcelona, singing and banging drums, to protest the arrests of senior officials in police raids on regional government offices on Wednesday.   This is a step back for democracy,  said one of them, 62-year-old pensioner Enric Farro.  This is the kind of thing that happened years ago - it shouldn t be happening now.  State police arrested Catalonia s junior economy minister, Josep Maria Jove, on Wednesday in an unprecedented raid of regional government offices. Acting on court orders, police have also raided printers, newspaper offices and private delivery companies in a search for campaign literature, instruction manuals for manning voting stations and ballot boxes. Polls show about 40 percent of Catalans support independence for the wealthy northeastern region and a majority want a referendum on the issue. Puigdemont has said there is no minimum turnout for the vote and he will declare independence within 48 hours of a  yes  result. A central government s spokesman said protests in Catalonia were organized by a small group and did not represent the general feeling of the people.  In those demonstrations, you see the people who go, but you don t see the people who don t go, who are way more and are at home because they don t like what s happening,  Inigo Mendez de Vigo said.  Mendez de Vigo also said an offer for dialogue from Madrid  remained on the table. Repeated attempts to open negotiations between the two camps over issues such as taxes and infrastructure investment have failed over the past five years. Rajoy said on Wednesday the government s actions in Catalonia were the result of legal rulings and were to ensure the rule of law. The prime minister called on Catalan leaders to cancel the vote. Hundreds of National Police and Guardia Civil reinforcements have been brought into Barcelona and are being billeted in two ferries rented by the Spanish government and moored in the harbor. But the central government must tread a fine line in enforcing the law in the region without seeming heavy-handed. The stand-off between Catalonia and the central government resonates beyond Spain. The country s EU partners publicly support Rajoy but worry that his hardline tactics might backfire . In Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, who heads the pro-independence devolved government, said she hoped the Catalan and Spanish governments could hold talks to resolve the situation.  In a referendum in 2014, Scots voted to remain within the United Kingdom.

Summary: कैटेलोनिया के नेता ने स्पेन से अलग होने पर मतदान पर प्रतिबंध लगा दिया


DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland s foreign minister on Friday welcomed Theresa May s speech in Florence calling for a Brexit transition deal, but said a lot of work was still required before the EU could move on to the next phase of talks with Britain. The EU has said that talks on the future relationship can only start after the other 27 EU governments are satisfied that  sufficient progress  has been made on the terms of Britain s departure, including on Britain s border with Ireland.  It is clear that there are still many outstanding issues and a lot of work is still required before European leaders can make a decision that parallel discussions on the EU s future relationship with the UK can begin,  Simon Coveney said in a statement.  The key thing now is that today s comments by Prime Minister May are translated into deliverables across the negotiating table in Brussels.

Summary: आयरलैंड का कहना है कि ब्रेक्सिट वार्ता के अगले चरण में जाने के लिए 'बहुत काम' करने की आवश्यकता है


BEIJING (Reuters) - China has no problem overcoming the middle-income trap, a senior economic official said on Thursday, referring to the situation in which economies risk stagnation at middle-income levels and fail to graduate into the ranks of advanced economies. Lou Jiwei, the chairman of the national council for the social security fund, was speaking on the sidelines of the 19th China Communist Party Congress. He previously served as the Minister of Finance until being replaced and named to head the social security fund last November.

Summary: चीन को मध्यम आय के जाल से बाहर निकलने में कोई समस्या नहीं हैः सामाजिक सुरक्षा कोष प्रमुख


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao will unveil on Tuesday streamlined safety guidelines for automakers that want to deploy self-driving vehicles, a person briefed on the matter said Monday, as members of Congress push their own proposals to remove regulatory barriers to the technology. The new Transportation Department policy is expected to offer the lighter regulatory touch that automakers have pushed for. For example, the Transportation Department is expected to state that automakers do not have to seek approval from regulators before putting self-driving vehicles on the road.  Separately, the National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday is expected to release findings that Tesla Inc’s semi-autonomous Autopilot mode was a contributing factor in the May 2016 death of a motorist. That case has highlighted concerns about the design of systems that automate some, but not all, driving tasks. The new document is titled “A Vision for Safety” and will be less than half the length of the Obama administration guidelines released in September 2016 and will be less “burdensome,” the  person briefed on the announcement said. Chao is expected to make the announcement in Ann Arbor at a self-driving testing facility.  The Transportation Department is releasing its voluntary safety standards at the same time a bipartisan coalition in Congress is moving forward on legislation also designed to speed commercialization of self-driving cars without human controls and bar states from blocking their deployment.   On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously on a measure to clear legal obstacles that could discourage automakers and technology companies from putting self-driving cars into broader use. The House measure would allow automakers to field up to 25,000 vehicles without meeting existing auto safety standards in the first year. Over three years, the cap would rise to 100,000 vehicles annually. Automakers would be required to provide regulators with safety assessments of their systems, but would not have to get federal approval to put autonomous cars on the road. A group of senators introduced a similar draft bill on Friday. In September 2016, the Obama administration proposed that automakers voluntarily submit details of self-driving vehicle systems in a 15-point “safety assessment” and urged states to defer to the federal government on most vehicle regulations. An auto trade group representing General Motors Co, Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE), Toyota Motor Corp and others, objected to the Obama administration proposal.

Summary: अमेरिका मंगलवार को सुव्यवस्थित स्वायत्त वाहन दिशानिर्देशों का अनावरण करेगा


LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Reuters) - Republican lawmakers in Kentucky passed a bill on Saturday making it the 27th U.S. state to allow workers the right to work in union-represented shops and receive union-negotiated benefits without paying dues to the representing body.  Republican lawmakers in a handful of states have passed similar so called “right-to-work” and anti-union laws in recent years. Supporters say the measures spur economic growth while opponents cast the laws as assaults on organized labor and blue-collar workers that limit union revenues. The effort to pass the legislation in Kentucky came two months after Republicans won control of the state’s General Assembly for the first time since 1921. Republicans now control both chambers in the state’s legislature and the governor’s office.  A Kentucky Senate committee on Friday passed the “right-to-work” bill, sending it to the full Senate, which passed it during a rare Saturday session.  “I personally have no problem with an individual opting to be part of a labor union ... but government shouldn’t stand in the way of someone who opts not to join a union,” said Speaker of the House Jeff Hoover in a statement earlier this week. It is widely expected that Republican Governor Matt Bevin will sign the bill into law in the coming days. If so, Kentucky will immediately become the 27th state and last Southern state to enact “right-to-work” legislation. The state Senate also passed an ultrasound abortion bill that was approved by the House on Thursday. Supporters of the “right-to-work” measure say it will make Kentucky more competitive with neighboring states with similar laws in attracting new business. Kentucky has been unable to pass “right-to-work” legislation in the past because of its strong union ties across the state, labor leaders said. The Republican-led state Senate had passed similar bills in recent years, but House Democrats refused to hear the bills. “The future of the fight is in, as best we can, trying to stop the erosion of wages, benefits and safety,” said Caitlin Lally, a spokeswoman for the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 227 in Louisville and vice president of the Greater Louisville Central Labor Council. Hundreds of Democrats heeded their party leaders’ call for a protest and packed the Capitol rotunda in Frankfort on Saturday.  “Politicians didn’t create the labor movement, and politicians won’t destroy the labor movement,” said DeLane Adams, spokesman for the AFL-CIO Southern regional office.

Summary: केंटकी के सांसदों ने 'काम करने का अधिकार' कानून पारित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday called Hurricane Irma  a big monster  and said the storm would cost a lot of money but that the federal government was focused on saving lives.   The bad news is that this is some big monster,  Trump said on arriving at the White House after a weekend at the Camp David retreat in Maryland. He praised federal agencies  handling of the storm and said:  We re going to Florida very soon.

Summary: ट्रम्प कहते हैं 'हम बहुत जल्द फ़्लोरिडा जा रहे हैं'


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump honored military veterans in Washington on Saturday at a Kennedy Center event that resembled both a political rally and an evangelical Christian religious service ahead of the July 4 Independence Day holiday. Using the podium again to lash out at the news media, Trump worked to energize evangelicals in his political base, noting that the U.S. currency was inscribed with the words: “In God We Trust.” “Since the signing of the Declaration of Independence 241 years ago, America always affirmed that liberty comes from our creator. Our rights are given to us by God, and no earthly force can ever take those rights away,” he said. Attendees at the event for veterans waved miniature American flags from their seats in the theater and raised their hands as a sign of praise while a large choir sang ahead of Trump’s remarks. The president praised veterans from each of the U.S. military branches and highlighted his administration’s work to reform veterans’ services. Trump, who is spending a long weekend at his property in Bedminster, New Jersey, flew back to Washington for the rally but did not spend the night at the White House, preferring to return to Bedminster. Later, in a rare late-night post on Twitter, which he uses prolifically and sometimes controversially, Trump wrote: “We will always take care of our GREAT VETERANS. You have shed your blood, poured your love, and bared your soul, in defense of our country.” Trump has held campaign-like rallies regularly during his first few months in the White House and kicked off his own re-election campaign far earlier than other incumbents in recent history. Part of his strategy to connect with his supporters has included criticizing the media, and he included harsh words for the press again in his remarks. “The fake media is trying to silence us, but we will not let them,” he said. “The fake media tried to stop us from going to the White House. But I’m president, and they’re not.”

Summary: ट्रम्प ने पूर्व सैनिकों की प्रशंसा की, कैनेडी सेंटर कार्यक्रम में मीडिया पर हमला किया


LONDON (Reuters) - British defense minister Michael Fallon quit on Wednesday, the first resignation in a growing sexual harassment scandal that  prompted calls for a wholesale change in the  locker room  culture in parliament. Members of Prime Minister Theresa May s Conservative Party said the first high-profile resignation in the scandal showed it was time for reform at the 800-year-old parliament, where power is concentrated in lawmakers  hands and wielded, often unchecked, over junior aides. The loss of Fallon, described by Conservative sources as a political  Rottweiler , leaves May with a hole in her cabinet, already at odds on everything from Britain s departure from the European Union to the government s austerity agenda. Weakened after losing her party s majority in a June election, May will want to move swiftly to appoint a replacement with as little disruption as possible. In his letter of resignation to May, Fallon, who had apologized earlier this week for repeatedly touching a radio presenter s knee in 2002, said there had been many allegations about lawmakers, including  some about my previous conduct .  Many of these have been false but I accept that in the past I have fallen below the high standards that we require of the armed forces that I have the honor to represent,  he said, offering no detail on the nature of any other allegations.  I have reflected on my position and I am therefore resigning as defense secretary.  May replied in a letter saying she appreciated  the characteristically serious manner  in which Fallon had considered his position and  the particular example you wish to set to servicemen and women and others . The prime minister was expected to announce a new defense minister on Thursday and is unlikely to launch a major reshuffle of her cabinet at a time when she is trying to push forward Brexit talks. Dependent on the support of a small Northern Irish party for a majority in parliament, May will be keen to try to limit the fallout of the scandal, which has prompted allegations of sexual abuse or misconduct against lawmakers across parliament. Sexual abuse allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein have prompted hundreds of thousands of women and men to share stories about improper behavior and Britain s parliament - a bastion of tradition - has been no exception. Ruth Davidson, leader of the Conservatives in Scotland, said it was time to break with a culture in politics when powerful people  use positions of power to demand things from others .  The dam has broken on this now, and these male-dominated professions where the boys-own locker room culture has prevailed and it s all been a bit of a laugh, has got to stop,  she told the BBC. Allegations of sexual abuse have ranged from a charge of rape by an activist in the opposition Labour Party by a senior party member, to unconfirmed details of serial  sex pests  on a list reportedly drafted by aides and researchers in parliament. On Monday, May sat beside the leader of the House of Commons Andrea Leadsom as she set out the government s plans to tackle sexual harassment, including measures to enforce a code of conduct and to set up an independent grievance procedure. May has ordered investigations into a report that one of her ministers asked a female secretary to buy sex toys and an allegation her deputy, Damian Green, made an inappropriate sexual advance on a young woman - something he denies. The prime minister, who has long championed the careers of female lawmakers, said on Wednesday that action would be taken when there were allegations and evidence of sexual misconduct.  I am very clear that we will take action against those where there are allegations that we see, and the evidence is there, that there has been misconduct,  May told lawmakers.

Summary: उत्पीड़न मामले में ब्रिटेन के रक्षा मंत्री ने दिया इस्तीफा


JORDAN RIVER, West Bank (Reuters) - Thousands of Israeli and Palestinian women trekked through a biblical desert landscape on Sunday, converging on the shores of the Jordan River in a march for peace. The women, many of them dressed in white, descended through  the arid hills leading to the river, where they erected a  peace tent  named for Hagar and Sarah, scriptural mothers of Ishmael and Isaac, the half-brother patriarchs of Muslims and Jews.  We are women from the right, the left, Jews and Arabs, from the cities and the periphery and we have decided that we will stop the next war,  said Marilyn Smadja, one of the founders of the organizing group, Women Wage Peace. The organization was established after the 50-day Gaza war of 2014 when more than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed. Israel put the number of its dead at 67 soldiers and six civilians. Some 5,000 women participated in Sunday s march, organizers said. It began last month at several locations across Israel and will culminate in a rally later in the day outside the Jerusalem residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Summary: इजरायल-फिलिस्तीनी शांति के लिए महिलाओं ने रेगिस्तान में मार्च किया


WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland s president and its ruling party have reached a compromise on judicial reform, a parliamentary deputy said on Friday, bringing them closer to resolving an issue that has kept them at odds for more than three months. The government and President Andrzej Duda have been negotiating since July, when Duda unexpectedly vetoed legislation backed by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party to overhaul the Polish court system.  We ve reached a preliminary agreement ... I hope that in late November we could discuss the project in  parliament,  PiS parliamentary deputy and negotiator Stanislaw Piotrowicz said on Friday. The proposals vetoed by Duda would have immediately removed all current Supreme Court judges unless they had the approval of the justice minister. Parliament would have gained the right to name most of the National Council of the Judiciary, which would nominate future candidates to preside over the Supreme Court. By giving parliament effective control over appointing - and sacking - senior judges, the proposals raised alarms in the rest of the European Union, of which Poland is a member. The EU said they undermined the independence of the courts and threatened the rule of law. The proposed compromise would still give parliament the right to name members of the National Council of the Judiciary, but that would require a three-fifths majority in the lower house of parliament, Piotrowicz said. Opposition parties would gain the right to propose judges, too. If candidates failed to gain approval, they could be chosen by a simple majority, he said. The PiS says the judicial system needs to be reformed because the courts are slow, inefficient and steeped in a communist-era mentality.  Duda s veto of parts of the reforms and his proposed limits on its authority over the court system created a stalemate that could have stalled the party s plans to reform not just the courts but the media and the electorate system as well. The compromise announced today still needs to be approved by the president and the leadership of PiS.

Summary: पोलैंड के राष्ट्रपति और सत्तारूढ़ दल ने अदालती सुधारों पर समझौता किया


The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS.  The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy.  @realDonaldTrump : - Tonight, @FLOTUS Melania and I were thrilled to welcome so many wonderful friends to the @WhiteHouse – and wish them all a very #HappyHanukkah bit.ly/2B1EO7q [0036 EST] - I fulfilled my campaign promise - others didn’t! [0041 EST] - Big crowd expected today in Pensacola, Florida, for a Make America Great Again speech. We have done so much in so short a period of time...and yet are planning to do so much more! See you there! [0811 EST] - LAST thing the Make America Great Again Agenda needs is a Liberal Democrat in Senate where we have so little margin for victory already. The Pelosi/Schumer Puppet Jones would vote against us 100% of the time. He’s bad on Crime, Life, Border, Vets, Guns & Military. VOTE ROY MOORE! [1006 EST] - Fines and penalties against Wells Fargo Bank for their bad acts against their customers and others will not be dropped, as has incorrectly been reported, but will be pursued and, if anything, substantially increased. I will cut Regs but make penalties severe when caught cheating! [1018 EST] - MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! [1246 EST] - “The unemployment rate remains at a 17-year low of 4.1%. The unemployment rate in manufacturing dropped to 2.6%, the lowest ever recorded. The unemployment rate among Hispanics dropped to 4.7%, the lowest ever recorded...” @SecretaryAcosta @USDOL [1402 EST] - On my way to Pensacola, Florida. See everyone soon! #MAGA [1825 EST] - Just arrived at the Pensacola Bay Center. Join me LIVE on @FoxNews in 10 minutes! #MAGA [2004 EST] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR)

Summary: ट्विटर पर ट्रम्प (8 दिसंबर)-हनुक्का, रॉय मूर, वेल्स फार्गो


STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - The man expected to become the leader of France s center-right set out his vision for a multi-speed Europe on Thursday, rejecting the deeper integration sought by President Emmanuel Macron. Speaking in Strasbourg, home to the European Parliament, Laurent Wauquiez said some European Union countries should be allowed to limit their commitment to the bloc to free trade, something that theoretically could allow Britain to re-engage. If the 42-year-old is elected next month to lead The Republicans, his challenge will be to rebuild a once-powerful party that was blown apart by Macron s presidential and parliamentary election triumphs. With Macron s fledgling Republic on the Move party dominating the center, Wauquiez is likely to take The Republicans to the right, fishing for support among eurosceptic National Front sympathizers. The Republicans have only 100 lawmakers in the 577-seat National Assembly, after others split to work more closely with Macron, but are the largest opposition group.  With 27 members, Europe isn t working. We have to do something,  Wauquiez told reporters. The EU should have a core of between six and 12 members states that would pursue closer cooperation on matters including tax harmonization and employment rights, he said.  Other members of the euro zone would form a second tier. Countries wanting only free trade would form a third tier, including Britain if it wanted.  I cannot accept that everyone seems to be congratulating themselves that Britain is leaving,  Wauquiez said. In September, Macron painted a sweeping vision for European renewal, calling for the EU to work more closely on defense and immigration and for the euro zone to have its own budget. Describing himself as a  committed European , Wauquiez rejected that as well as any plan to further enlarge the EU further.  Macron s big mistake is to pit French sovereignty against the European project ... to think we need more federalism. I on the other hand believe in a union of nation states,  Wauquiez told Le Figaro. Wauquiez served as the party s interim leader last year after former president Nicolas Sarkozy quit the post to contest the party primary for a second crack at the presidency. One Paris-based senior EU diplomat described him as a  tough politician  whose leadership of The Republicans would squeeze the political space open to the National Front. The National Front suffered its own bruising in the elections, with its leader Marine Le Pen trounced by Macron in the second round of the presidential vote and the party performing weakly in the parliamentary election. Le Pen has softened her anti-EU stance in past weeks as her far-right party, split by deep internal divisions over its view on Europe, seeks to reinvent itself.

Summary: फ्रांसीसी विपक्ष का नेतृत्व करने के लिए तैयार वौक्वीज़ ने यूरोप की युद्ध रेखाएँ खींची


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump opposes a long-planned transition of oversight of the internet’s technical management from the U.S. government to a global community of stakeholders, his campaign said in a statement on Wednesday. Congress should block the handover, scheduled to occur on Oct. 1, “or internet freedom will be lost for good, since there will be no way to make it great again once it is lost,” Stephen Miller, national policy director for the Trump campaign, said in a statement. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a former presidential primary foe of Trump’s who has refused to endorse the real estate developer, has led a movement in Congress to block the transition, arguing it could cede control of the internet itself to authoritarian regimes like Russia and China and threaten online freedom. Technical experts have said those claims are baseless, and that a delay will backfire by undermining U.S. credibility in future international negotiations over internet standards and security. Publicly proposed in March 2014, the transfer of oversight of the nonprofit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, is expected to go forward unless Congress votes to block the move.  A vote to delay the transition may come as an amendment to a temporary spending bill that Congress must pass by Sept. 30 to prevent much of the federal government from shutting down. Congressional negotiators on Wednesday were working to finalize an agreement on the spending package. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton supports the Obama administration’s planned transition to a global community of technologists, civil society groups and internet users, according to policy positions available on her campaign website.

Summary: अमेरिका द्वारा इंटरनेट निगरानी छोड़ने की योजना का ट्रम्प ने किया विरोध


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov said Moscow had not had high-level contacts with the new North Korean leadership but they were possible, the Interfax news agency reported on Friday.  In theory they (contacts) are possible,  Interfax quoted Morgulov as saying. Morgulov said Russia had many communication channels with North Korea, which  in one way or another are bearing fruit .

Summary: रूस का कहना है कि उत्तर कोरिया के साथ उच्च स्तरीय संपर्क संभवः इफैक्स


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort met with Senate Intelligence Committee staff on Tuesday, a spokesman said, as another Senate panel issued a subpoena to force him to appear at a hearing. “Paul Manafort met this morning, by previous agreement, with the bipartisan staff of the Senate Intelligence Committee and answered their questions fully,” Jason Maloni, Manafort’s spokesman, said in an email. Earlier, the Senate Judiciary Committee said it had issued a subpoena on Monday night to force Manafort to appear at a hearing on Wednesday.

Summary: मैनफोर्ट ने सीनेट की खुफिया समिति से मुलाकात कीः प्रवक्ता


MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) - Marawi resident Baimona Amintao hopes her turn comes quickly once authorities begin raffling off the first batch of temporary shelters for those who lost their homes to the five-month battle to retake the southern Philippine city from Islamist militants.  Amintao and her five children were among the thousands of families displaced since fighting erupted in Marawi on May 23, when security forces tried to arrest Isnilon Hapilon,  Islamic State s  emir  in Southeast Asia.  The Philippines on Monday announced the end of military operations in Marawi after a fierce and unfamiliar urban war in the country s biggest security crisis in years, paving the way for rebuilding and rehabilitation efforts to begin. More than 1,000 transitional houses, with basic bathroom and cooking facilities, could be completed within two months on the outskirts of Marawi, the Philippine housing agency has said. Residents whose homes were devastated will get first priority in allotment raffles that could be held either before or after construction.   I hope I can be included in the raffle and be able to stay there for my children s well-being,  Amintao, 26, who formerly owned a small grocery store, told Reuters.  Many people here prioritize their children since many of the kids cannot stand living inside the tents and are getting sick.  The government estimates the rebuilding of Marawi could cost at least 50 billion pesos ($971 million). Authorities said 920 militants, 165 troops and police and at least 45 civilians were killed in the conflict, which displaced more than 300,000 people. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has placed the southern island of Mindanao, where Marawi is located, under martial rule to help security forces in crushing the rebel movement.     The rebel occupation stunned a military inexperienced in urban combat and stoked wider concerns that Islamic State loyalists have gained influence among local Muslims and have ambitions to use the island as a base for Southeast Asia operations. Those fears are compounded by the organization of the militant alliance and its ability to recruit young fighters, lure foreign radicals, stockpile huge amounts of arms and endure 154 days of ground offensive and air strikes. The social welfare department said more than 5,000 families still live in covered gymnasiums and tent cities.  I could not fathom what happened to our village and I hope this does not happen again,  said Alniah Magoyag, a village official.  No more terrorists in Marawi City.

Summary: फिलीपींस के मरावी के निवासियों ने युद्ध समाप्त होने के बाद सामान्य स्थिति में लौटने के लिए लंबा सफर शुरू किया


PARIS (Reuters) - Malian soldiers killed by a French military strike in northern Mali last month were deserters who had joined an Islamist militant group, a French source close to the matter said on Tuesday. That contradicted comments from the Malian Defense Ministry, which said on Monday that the soldiers killed in the Oct. 23 strike, a raid on a camp of the Ansar Dine militant group, had been its hostages. The French source said the raid was carried out  on the basis of detailed intelligence against a camp that included Malians who had joined the Islamist ranks. They were hit, amongst others.   They were not prisoners,  the source told Reuters, declining to say how many were killed or captured in the raid. The source accused Malian authorities of spreading propaganda in the run-up to a presidential election scheduled for November 2018. A French defense ministry source added:  We have a real trust problem with the Malians.  Malian officials were not immediately available for comment. The French army said in a later statement that the head of its Barkhane operation, General Bruno Guibert, had spoken with his Malian counterpart on Tuesday to update him on information it said showed the stricken camp was  unmistakably  used as a training camp for terrorists.  This research has at no point shown the presence on this site of Malian soldiers, whether captured or hired by the terrorist group,  the statement said, adding that the French army was ready to help Mali if it wanted to send to the site a mission to gather information. The French army previously said that 15 members of Ansar Dine, which is loosely affiliated to other militant groups operating in northern Mali, were taken  out of action  in the raid. The Malian government is struggling to contain Tuareg and Islamist violence in northern Mali, some of which is spreading south. Attempts to place officials in northern towns have sometimes failed, raising questions about the government s ability to maintain stability ahead of the election.  Islamist militants seized northern Mali in 2012 and French forces intervened a year later.  Around 4,000 of its troops remain in West Africa s Sahel region as part of Operation Barkhane, a cross-border anti-terrorism operation. France has also been at the forefront of organizing a regional force as part of efforts to find a long-term strategy to exit the region.

Summary: फ्रांसीसी हमले में मारे गए माली के सैनिक इस्लामवादियों में शामिल हो गए थेः सूत्र


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel s president on Sunday turned down a pardon request by an ex-conscript who is serving an serving a 14-month jail term for killing an incapacitated Palestinian assailant. In September, Israel s military reduced by four months the 18-month jail term of Elor Azaria who was caught on videotape shooting dead a Palestinian who was lying wounded after taking part in a stabbing attack on other Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron in March 2015. A statement issued by President Reuven Rivlin s office said that he had reviewed the plea and after Azaria had already received reductions to his sentence, it would not be right to grant a pardon.  The president believes ... that an additional reduction in punishment would undermine the strength of the military, its values, and of the state of Israel,  part of the statement read. It added that the president understood that Azaria was due to face a parole board shortly and could be released in three months  time.   Azaria became a right-wing cause celebre in Israel, where most Jewish men and women are drafted at 18 for military service. One poll found that nearly half of Israeli Jews believe any Palestinian attacker should be killed on the spot. Azaria said he shot Abd Elfatah Ashareef because he feared the Palestinian could carry out another attack, but a court-martial found contradictions in the testimony and convicted him of manslaughter. The verdict was upheld on appeal. Right-wing ministers and lawmakers, including Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, criticized Rivlin s decision, saying he should have pardoned Azaria.  President Rivlin had an opportunity to end an affair that has rocked Israeli society,  Lieberman wrote.   Beyond the price that the soldier and his family have paid ... I believe ... that (there is a need) to heal the rifts in society ... we must not forget that this was a case of (Azaria), an exemplary soldier (facing) a terrorist who came to kill.  After being discharged from the military, Azaria went to prison in August and appealed to the armed forces chief, Lieutenant-General Gadi Eizenkot, to reconsider his sentence, citing the cost to his family of the acrimonious trial. In a response letter, the military informed Azaria that Eizenkot had decided to cut the jail term  on grounds of compassion and mercy ... taking into account your past as a combat soldier in an operational theater . But the letter also faulted the former soldier over  grave actions for which you did not take responsibility and for which you did not express regret,  adding that  the important messages in the court rulings should be heeded . The Palestinian government said Azaria s jail term had given Israeli soldiers a  green light  to kill with impunity. Under Israeli law, manslaughter can carry a maximum 20 years behind bars. Military prosecutors had asked the appeals court to impose a three- to five-year sentence on Azaria, but were turned down.

Summary: इजरायली राष्ट्रपति ने संभावित फिलिस्तीनी हमलावर की हत्या करने वाले सैनिक की माफी की अपील को खारिज कर दिया


(Reuters) - Kansas sought on Wednesday to avoid a court ruling that could force the cash-strapped state to increase school funding by more than $1 billion. Lawyers for the state and for public school districts faced off before the Kansas Supreme Court in the latest chapter of a decades-long battle over equitable and adequate funding. Stephen McAllister, the state’s solicitor general, argued that while Kansas may be spending less on education than some other states, student achievement is improving. “Kansas is making excellent use of resources to do pretty well compared to the nation,” he told the justices. The state spends about $4 billion on schools, but lawyers for the four districts suing the state claim another $430 million to $1.4 billion would be required to meet the state constitution’s requirement for adequate funding.  “We’re falling short and we’re leaving massive numbers of kids behind,” said Alan Rupe, an attorney for the districts. He asked the court to declare the system unconstitutional and give the state legislature some direction on achieving constitutionality and a full legislative session to come up with a new system. The justices did not indicate when they might rule. The adequacy question comes after the court ruled in June that Kansas had complied with its order to resolve inequities in educating students. Kansas’ budget is feeling the effects of actions taken by Republican Governor Sam Brownback and the legislature in recent years to cut corporate and other income taxes in hopes of helping the state compete with bordering Missouri and other states for business development and jobs. The state’s fiscal woes led Standard & Poor’s to downgrade Kansas’ credit rating by one notch to AA-minus in July.

Summary: कंसास ने स्कूल के वित्त पोषण में वृद्धि के खिलाफ तर्क दिया


OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - An Oklahoma bill that allows judges to take into consideration a diagnosis of PTSD for veterans unanimously passed the state Senate on Tuesday, adding to a series of U.S. laws seeking to address mental illness among military veterans. Oklahoma House Bill 2595 allows judges to take into account a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a mitigating factor when sentencing veterans who have been diagnosed with the illness. The bill, which now goes to the governor for a decision on approval, follows similar measures in states including Alaska and California.  “This is neither a Democratic or Republican issue, but just something we should have for veterans,” said state Representative Richard Morrissette, a sponsor of the legislation and a Democrat in the Republican-dominated Oklahoma legislature. “We train men and women to defend our nation in combat and then we expect, upon their return to civilian life, the trauma experienced by these individuals to be erased from their psyche. That is an unreasonable and unfair expectation,” he said. State data shows that compared to other states, Oklahoma has a higher percentage of veterans who have been deployed in danger areas overseas. More than 63 percent of the Oklahoma National Guard was deployed as of 2014 to Iraq or Afghanistan, and more than a third were deployed multiple times, the data showed. According to the National Institutes of Health, the United States had 161 bills that dealt with PTSD in 2014 and 43 traumatic stress, non-PTSD bills.  In 2014, California allowed courts to consider PTSD, sexual trauma, traumatic brain injury or mental health problems as a mitigating factor in granting probation and treatment instead of jail time, it said. In 2014, Alaska passed the first law allowing judges to consider PTSD as a mitigating factor during the sentencing of veterans, it said.

Summary: ओक्लाहोमा प्रस्तावित कानून के तहत पूर्व सैनिकों को सजा देने में पीटीएसडी पर विचार कर सकता है।


AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A punk rocker-turned-congressman from Texas announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Ted Cruz on Friday, making him the first prominent Democrat to challenge the former presidential candidate.  Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, a Spanish-speaking, Irish-American representing a predominantly Latino district that includes the border city of El Paso, is considered a long shot in the Republican-dominated state, analysts said.  MORE FROM REUTERS Connecticut may become first state to allow deadly police drones Wayward tabby returning to Denver home after 800-mile adventure British robot helps autistic children with social skills But O’Rourke’s outsider credentials are expected to add flair to the 2018 Senate race in Texas, where a Democrat has not won a state-wide election in more than 20 years. Beto is short for his name in Spanish, Roberto.  “This is Cruz’s to win. He has got a national fundraising network so he will have all the money in the world,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.  In a campaign launch from El Paso shown on Facebook Live, the Ivy-League educated O’Rourke, 44, pledged to fight for veterans, shun corporate money and serve only two terms in the Senate if elected, saying it was in the people’s best interest to have fresh blood in Congress.  O’Rourke, who played guitar and provided vocals for the punk band Foss in the 1990s, also took a shot at Republican President Donald Trump for his hard-line stance on immigration, vowing to “fight when necessary against a president who is focused on building walls, or conducting military immigrant round-ups.”  O’Rourke and Republican Congressman Will Hurd of Texas gained attention on social media earlier this month by live-streaming the journey they made together from Texas to Washington and billing it as 1,600-mile bipartisan road trip. They rented a car and took the trip due to a winter storm that shut East Coast airports.  Polls rate Cruz as the most popular politician in the state among Texans. O’Rourke does not have much political support outside his base of El Paso, a western Texas city closer to San Diego, California than to Houston.  Another possible challenger to Cruz is Democratic U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro, analysts said.  Just ahead of O’Rourke’s announcement, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott announced he was endorsing Cruz. Cruz backers later sent out a fundraising email, saying O’Rourke was out of touch with Texas values.  “Beto O’Rourke will have the full support of the mainstream media and a Washington establishment willing to do everything in their power to see Ted Cruz defeated,” the email said.  (This story has been refiled to add dropped word “the” in second paragraph)

Summary: पूर्व-पंक रॉकर ने सीनेट के लिए टेड क्रूज़ को चुनौती दी


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi forces launched a final assault on Wednesday to capture the town of Hawija, one of two pockets of territory in Iraq still under Islamic State control, the country s military said in a statement. Iraqi state TV broadcast live footage showing the area covered by thick black smoke, rising from oil wells torched by the militants as a tactic to prevent air detection. Hawija is located near the oil city of Kirkuk, in northern Iraq. The offensive on Hawija is being carried out by U.S.-backed Iraqi government troops and Iranian-trained and armed Shi ite paramilitary groups known as Popular Mobilisation.They began moving on the town of Hawija two days after capturing the Rashad air base, 30 km (20 miles) to the south and used by the militants as a training and logistics site. Iraq launched an offensive on Sept. 21 to dislodge Islamic State from Hawija and surrounding areas where up to 78,000 people could be trapped, according to the United Nations. Iraqi security officials say the militants are preventing some residents from leaving, while others are afraid of escaping towards government forces because of explosives that might have been laid by Islamic State around the town. The other area of the country still under the control of the militant group is a stretch of land along the Syrian border, in western Iraq, including the border town of al-Qaim. The militants also hold the Syrian side of the border at al-Qaim, but the area under their control is shrinking as they retreat in the face of two different sets of hostile forces   a U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led coalition, and Syrian government troops with foreign Shi ite militias backed by Iran and Russia.  Islamic State s cross-border  caliphate  effectively collapsed in July, when U.S.-backed Iraqi forces captured Mosul, the group s de facto capital in Iraq, in a grueling battle which lasted nine months.  The militants  leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who declared the caliphate from Mosul in mid-2014, released an audio recording last week that indicated he was still alive. He called on his followers to keep up the fight despite the setbacks.

Summary: इस्लामिक स्टेट से हवीजा को लेने के लिए अंतिम हमले में इराकी बल


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former CIA Director John Brennan said on Monday there was enough contact between Americans and Russian officials during the 2016 U.S. election that there was definitely grounds for an investigation into possible collusion with Moscow, and also concern about Russian efforts to recruit Americans. “I had unresolved questions in my mind about whether or not the Russians had been successful in getting U.S. persons, involved in the campaign or not, to work on their behalf,” Brennan testified to the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee. Brennan declined to provide any indication about the identity of those people.

Summary: पूर्व सी. आई. ए. निदेशक चिंतित हैं कि रूस ने अमेरिकियों की भर्ती करने की कोशिश की


ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - The White House on Wednesday slammed the Senate’s nearly unanimous vote to reject President Barack Obama’s veto of legislation allowing relatives of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to sue Saudi Arabia’s government. “This is the single most embarrassing thing this United States’ Senate has done possibly since 1983,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in a briefing, referring to the last time when the chamber so overwhelmingly overrode a president’s veto.  Earnest said some lawmakers had only recently been informed about potential drawbacks to approving the legislation. “For those senators to then move forward in overriding the president’s veto that would prevent those negative consequences is an abdication of their basic responsibilities as elected representatives of the American people,” he said.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस ने 11 सितंबर के विधेयक के वीटो पर सीनेट की ओवरराइड को 'शर्मनाक' बताया


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Moscow-based antivirus software maker Kaspersky Lab said on Wednesday that its security software had taken source code for a secret American hacking tool from a personal computer in the United States.  In September, U.S. officials ordered Kaspersky’s products removed from government computers, saying the firm was vulnerable to Kremlin influence and that using the software could jeopardize national security.  After that announcement, the Wall Street Journal reported on Oct. 5 that hackers working for the Russian government appeared to have targeted a National Security Agency (NSA) worker by using Kaspersky software to identify classified files in 2015. The New York Times reported on Oct. 10 that Israeli officials reported the operation to the United States after they hacked into Kaspersky's network.  The Russian government has denied any involvement.  Kaspersky began an internal inquiry in a bid to restore trust. On Wednesday, it said it had stumbled on the code in 2014 when the consumer version of its popular software flagged a zip file as malicious on a U.S. computer.  While reviewing the file’s contents, a Kaspersky analyst discovered it contained the source code for a hacking tool later attributed to what Kaspersky calls the Equation Group. The software removed the file and the analyst reported the matter to Chief Executive Eugene Kaspersky, who ordered that the copy of the code be destroyed, the company said.  Kaspersky said it assumed the 2014 source code episode was connected to the NSA’s loss of files described in media reports.  “We deleted the archive because we don’t need the source code to improve our protection technologies and because of concerns regarding the handling of classified materials,” said Kaspersky spokeswoman Sarah Kitsos.  Source code, which is normally hidden and gives instructions to computers, would have posed no danger to the Kaspersky customer.  Former employees told Reuters in July that the company had on rare occasions removed uninfected files. Kaspersky spokeswoman Yuliya Shlychkova on Wednesday said removals of such uninfected material happen “extremely rarely.”  Kaspersky said no third parties saw the code, though the media reports said the spy tool had ended up in the hands of the Russian government.  Kaspersky denied the Journal’s report that its programs searched for keywords including “top secret.”  The company said it found no evidence that it had been hacked by Russian spies or anyone except the Israelis, though it suggested others could have obtained the tools by hacking into the American’s computer through a back door it later spotted there.  The NSA declined to comment on Kaspersky’s review.  The new 2014 date of the incident is of interest because Kaspersky only announced its discovery of an espionage campaign by the Equation Group in February 2015. At that time, Reuters cited former NSA employees who said that Equation Group was an NSA project.  Kaspersky’s Equation Group report was one of its most celebrated findings, since it indicated that the group could infect firmware on most computers. That gave the NSA almost undetectable presence.  Shlychkova said the American machine’s files were found before the big Equation Group announcement but after Kaspersky had discovered Equation software on a machine in the Middle East. She said that occurred in March 2014.  Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who led calls in the U.S. Congress to purge Kaspersky products from federal government networks, on Wednesday sent a letter to DHS acting Secretary Elaine Duke and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, urging the U.S. government to declassify information about Kaspersky products.  The step was necessary, Shaheen wrote, “to allow the American people to make informed decisions about risks to their privacy and security.”  Also on Tuesday, Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill sent a separate letter to DHS asking what was being done to ensure federal agencies were complying with the ban on Kaspersky products.  Kaspersky’s consumer anti-virus software has won high marks from reviewers.  The company said Monday it would submit the source code of its software and future updates for inspection by independent parties.

Summary: कैस्परस्की का कहना है कि उसने अमेरिकी कंप्यूटर से संदिग्ध एनएसए हैकिंग कोड प्राप्त किया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Kurdish-led regions of northern Syria will hold elections on Friday, a historic expression of free will and a message to President Bashar al-Assad as he seeks to reassert control over the whole country, a senior Syrian Kurdish politician said.  As Kurds in neighboring Iraq prepare to vote on secession from Baghdad, Hadiya Yousef told Reuters that Assad s aim to take back all of Syria could lead to its partition, though Syria s Kurds insist that independence is not their aim. The three-phase vote set to begin on Friday is part of a plan mapped out by Syrian Kurdish groups and their allies to set up a federal system of government that will shore up the autonomy they have enjoyed in the north since 2011, when Syria s civil war broke out. The political structures expected to emerge from the process are inspired by the ideas of Abdullah Ocalan, the head of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who is in jail in Turkey for leading a three-decade insurgency. Turkey views Kurdish autonomy in northern Syria as a threat to its national security. In Friday s election, voters will be picking leaders for some 3,700 communities, or  communes , spread across three regions of the north. The process will be followed in November by elections to local councils and culminate in January with the election of an assembly that will act as a parliament. The Syrian government, which is regaining swathes of territory with Russian and Iranian support, opposes the plan and has repeatedly insisted that it will recover all the territory that has slipped from its grip during six years of war.  The regime s insistence on renewing this authoritarian, centralized regime will lead to a deepening of the Syrian crisis,  said Yousef, who co-chairs a constituent assembly at the heart of the plans for the new system of government.  If (the government) insists on this position, the regime will steer Syria toward partition,  she said by phone. The people of northern Syria had the means to defend themselves, she noted, and urged Damascus to accept dialogue. The main Syrian Kurdish groups and their militia, the YPG, have emerged as a major force in Syria since the onset of the war, and now control approximately a quarter of the country. Damascus and its allies on the one hand and the YPG and its allies on the other have mostly stayed out of each other s way in the war. But tensions are surfacing as the sides race to grab territory from Islamic State in Deir al-Zor in eastern Syria. The YPG is the main component of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, and its area recaptured from Islamic State. Though it backs the YPG, the United States last year declared its opposition to creation of autonomous zones in Syria. It has also come out against the Iraqi Kurdish independence vote set for Monday.    Yousef said the decision to hold the elections while the people of northern Syria were simultaneously fighting Islamic State reflected their determination to press ahead.  At the same time, it is a message to the Syrian regime that we as the Syrian people have will and want our will to be represented in the election of our administration to run our regions and societies,  she said. The elections will not take place in all the areas controlled by the SDF. There will be no vote in the city of Manbij, captured from Islamic State last year, for example, or in recently captured areas near the city of Raqqa, she said. Critics say the governing structures set up so far in northern Syria are less democratic than they claim to be, and are dominated by officials committed to the PKK.     But senior Kurdish politician Al-Dar Khalil said a culture of democracy was being advanced in the region, after years of oppressive Baath Party rule.  In Syria, from  63 ... we were living in the shadow of the Baath Party - one party controlling all institutions and aspects of life,  he told Reuters.  We want to change this mindset.

Summary: सीरिया के कुर्द असद को 'संदेश' देते हुए ऐतिहासिक मतदान करेंगे


(Reuters) - Several countries, the United Nations and journalist groups are demanding the release of Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo from detention in Myanmar. The reporters were arrested on Dec. 12 after being invited to meet police officials on the outskirts of Yangon. They had worked on stories about a military crackdown in Rakhine state, scene of more than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh since late August. Myanmar s Ministry of Information has said the reporters  illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media,  and released a photo of them in handcuffs. It said the reporters and two policemen faced charges under the British colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years, though officials said they have not been charged. Their exact whereabouts is not known. Reuters  driver Myothant Tun dropped them off at a police compound and the two reporters and two police officers headed to a nearby restaurant. The journalists did not return to the car.  Reuters President and Editor-in-Chief Stephen J. Adler said  the arrests were a  blatant attack on press freedom  and called for the immediate release of the journalists.  Here are reactions to their detention from politicians and press freedom advocates around the world:   - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States was  demanding their immediate release or information as to the circumstances around their disappearance.   - British Minister for Asia and the Pacific Mark Field said,   I absolutely strongly disapprove of the idea of journalists, going about their everyday business, being arrested. We will make it clear in the strongest possible terms that we feel that they need to be released at the earliest possible opportunity.  - Swedish Foreign Minister Margot called the arrests a  threat to a democratic and peaceful development of Myanmar and that region.  She said,  We do not accept that journalists are attacked or simply kidnapped or that they disappear ... To be able to send journalists to this particular area is of crucial importance.   - U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said countries should do everything possible to secure the journalists  release and freedom of the press in Myanmar. Guterres said,  It is clearly a concern in relation to the erosion of press freedom in the country.  He added:  And probably the reason why these journalists were arrested is because they were reporting on what they have seen in relation to this massive human tragedy.   - Canada s Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland, the former managing director and editor, consumer news, at Thomson Reuters, tweeted that she was  deeply concerned  by the reports about the arrests.  Freedom of the press is essential for democracy and must be preserved,  she said. - President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani called on Myanmar to protect media freedoms and release the two reporters. - Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, information adviser to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said,  We strongly denounce arrests of Reuters journalists and feel that those reporters be free immediately so that they can depict the truth to the world by their reporting.   - Japan s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe s spokesman Motosada Matano said his government was closely watching the situation, and that Japan has been conducting a dialogue with the Myanmar government on human rights in Myanmar in general. - The Committee to Protect Journalists said,  We call on local authorities to immediately, unconditionally release Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. These arrests come amid a widening crackdown which is having a grave impact on the ability of journalists to cover a story of vital global importance.  - The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said there was no justification for the arrests. Daniel Bastard, the head of the group s Asia-Pacific desk, said the charges being considered were  completely spurious . - The Southeast Asian Press Alliance asked for the immediate release of the journalists.  These two journalists are only doing their jobs in trying to fill the void of information on the Rohingya conflict,  said SEAPA executive director Edgardo Legaspi.  With this arrest, the government seems to be sending the message that all military reports should be off limits to journalists.  - The Protection Committee for Myanmar Journalists, a group of local reporters who have demonstrated against past prosecutions of journalists, decried the  unfair arrests that affect media freedom .  A reporter must have the right to get information and write news ethically,  said video journalist A Hla Lay Thu Zar - a member of the group s executive committee. - The Foreign Correspondents  Club of Myanmar said it was  appalled  by the arrests and  gravely concerned  about the state of press freedom in Myanmar. It called on authorities to ensure the reporters  safety and allow their families to see them. - The Foreign Correspondents  Club in neighboring Thailand said it was  alarmed by the use of this draconian law with its heavy penalties against journalists simply doing their jobs.  The club called for the journalists to be released.  Wielding such a blunt legal instrument has an intimidating effect on other journalists, and poses a real threat to media freedom,  it said.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः म्यांमार में रॉयटर्स के संवाददाताओं की गिरफ्तारी पर अंतर्राष्ट्रीय प्रतिक्रिया