(Reuters) - U.S. judges in at least five states blocked federal authorities from enforcing President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries. However, lawyers representing people covered by the order said some authorities were unwilling on Sunday to follow the judges’ rulings. Judges in California, Massachusetts, Virginia and Washington state, each home to international airports, issued their rulings after a similar order was issued on Saturday night by U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly in New York’s Brooklyn borough. Donnelly had ruled in a lawsuit by two men from Iraq being held at John F. Kennedy International Airport. While none of the rulings struck down Friday’s executive order by the new Republican president, the growing number of them could complicate the administration’s effort to enforce it. The rulings add to questions about the constitutionality of the order, said Andrew Pincus, a Mayer Brown partner representing two Yemeni men who were denied U.S. entry from an overseas flight despite being legal permanent residents. “People have gone through processes to obtain legal permanent resident status, or visas,” Pincus said. “There are serious questions about whether those rights, which were created by statute, can be unilaterally taken away without process.” Trump’s order halted travel by people with passports from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, and stopped the resettlement of refugees for 120 days. He said these actions were needed “to protect the American people from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals admitted to the United States.” The order sparked a global backlash, including from U.S. allies that view the actions as discriminatory and divisive. Attorneys general from California, New York, 13 other states and Washington, D.C., meanwhile, in a statement condemned and pledged to fight what they called Trump’s “dangerous” and “unconstitutional” order. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Sunday said it “will comply with judicial orders,” while enforcing Trump’s order in a manner that ensures those entering the United States “do not pose a threat to our country or the American people.” Striking that balance has caused confusion, according to lawyers who worked overnight and on Sunday to help travelers at JFK Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia, and elsewhere. Immigration lawyer Sharifa Abbasi said some Border Patrol agents at Dulles refused to let lawyers talk with detainees, even after being shown an order from U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema requiring such access. Abbasi said the agents instead told the lawyers to call their agency’s office, where no one was answering. “There is really no method to this madness,” Becca Heller, director of the New York-based International Refugee Assistance Project organization, told reporters on a conference call. Supporters of Trump’s order said authorities acted properly in swiftly taking steps to enforce it.  “It is better (to) be safe than sorry,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the conservative Center for Immigration Studies in Washington. Lawsuits on behalf of more than 100 individual travelers have been filed nationwide, activists and lawyers estimated. Some have come from large corporate firms including Mayer Brown, Kirkland & Ellis, and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. In Boston, U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs on Sunday temporarily blocked the removal of two Iranians who have taught at the University of Massachusetts, and had been detained at the city’s Logan International Airport. Burroughs’ ruling appeared to go further than Donnelly’s by barring the detention, as well as the removal, of approved refugees, visa holders and permanent U.S. residents entering from the seven countries. Donnelly’s order forbade only removal. Matthew Segal, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, in a statement called Burroughs’ ruling “a huge victory for justice” in the face of what he called Trump’s “unconstitutional ban on Muslims.” The U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment guarantees the free exercise of religion. Trump’s order sought to prioritize refugees fleeing religious persecution, which the president said was aimed at helping Christians in Syria. Burroughs’ ruling also prompted some Trump critics to urge holders of green cards, which allow foreign nationals to live and work permanently in the United States, to fly into Boston, to lessen the risk of detainment. White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said several times on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Trump’s order does not affect green card holders “moving forward” or “going forward.” In a ruling on Sunday, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles directed the return to the United States of Ali Khoshbakhti Vayeghan, who authorities had sent back to his native Iran following Trump’s order.  The ruling from Brinkema, in Alexandria, Virginia, barred the Homeland Security agency from removing an estimated 50 to 60 legal permanent residents who had been detained at Dulles. In Seattle, U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly barred the government from removing two people, who were not named in court papers. He scheduled a Feb. 3 hearing on whether to lift that stay.

Summary: अमेरिकी न्यायाधीशों ने ट्रम्प के आप्रवासन आदेश को सीमित किया; कुछ अधिकारियों ने फैसलों की अनदेखी की


MADRID (Reuters) - Spain s Supreme court has begun processing rebellion charges raised against Catalonia s parliament speaker Carme Forcadell as well as other senior lawmakers from the region, a court spokesman said on Tuesday. Spain s state prosecutor on Monday called for rebellion and sedition charges to be brought against Catalan leaders over their push to separate from Spain.

Summary: स्पेन के सर्वोच्च न्यायालय ने कैटलन के सांसदों के खिलाफ विद्रोह की कार्यवाही शुरू की


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico s Attorney General Raul Cervantes said on Monday that he presented President Enrique Pena Nieto with his resignation, as an intense political debate brews over the implementation of a new, autonomous anti-corruption system to replace his office.  In the coming days the Lower House (of Congress) will be discussing new initiatives related to the attorney general s office and in order to not further delay the laws that Mexico needs I ve decided to send Enrique Pena Nieto and the Senate my irrevocable resignation,  Cervantes tweeted. Opposition lawmakers have objected to allowing Cervantes to become the head of the new prosecutor general s office, a figure who will serve a nine-year term in a move away from the current system where the president nominates the attorney general.

Summary: नए शीर्ष अभियोजक पर बहस के बीच मेक्सिको के अटॉर्नी जनरल ने दिया इस्तीफा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The man believed to have set up and maintained Hillary Clinton’s private email server will assert his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refuse to answer questions as part of an open records lawsuit against the State Department, the Hill newspaper reported on Wednesday. Bryan Pagliano will decline to answer questions from Judicial Watch, the conservative legal watchdog group, during a deposition scheduled for Monday, his lawyers wrote in a court filing on Wednesday afternoon, according to The Hill.

Summary: ईमेल मुकदमे में पांचवें का पक्ष लेने के लिए क्लिंटन के आईटी सहायकः द हिल


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Senator Thad Cochran said he had returned to Washington on Tuesday and was looking forward to “continuing work on the 2018 appropriations bills and to taking part in the debate on the budget and tax cuts.” Cochran’s absence for a medical procedure threatened to complicate passage of a budget blueprint needed to push through the Republicans’ plan for tax reform. Cochran’s office said in a statement that the Mississippi senator “continues to be treated for urological issues and remains under medical supervision, which could affect his work schedule.”

Summary: रिपब्लिकन कोचरान ने सीनेट में वापसी की, कहा कर बहस के लिए तैयार


(Reuters) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday said he would invest in renewable energy projects and expand wind and solar use in an effort to create as many as 40,000 jobs by 2020, according to a press release. Cuomo and the governors of California and Washington state this week said they had formed a U.S. climate alliance to uphold the Paris Climate Agreement, after President Donald Trump said he would withdraw from the agreement.

Summary: न्यूयॉर्क के गवर्नर कुओमो का कहना है कि वे नौकरियों को जोड़ने के लिए नवीकरणीय ऊर्जा में अधिक निवेश करेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate panel on Wednesday unanimously gave the green light to a bill aimed at speeding the use of self-driving cars without human controls, a measure that also bars states from imposing regulatory road blocks. The bill still must clear a Senate vote, but it appears on track to passage. This should rev up profits for automakers, technology companies and ride service providers, hastening the day when their robot cars can carry passengers on the same U.S. roads as cars driven by people.  General Motors Co, Alphabet Inc, Ford Motor Co and others have lobbied for the landmark legislation, while auto safety groups urged more safeguards and have pledged to keep fighting for changes. However the measure will not speed the process for self-driving commercial trucks, which remain in a slower lane despite support from several Republican senators. The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approved the bill, and the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a similar measure last month. Automakers would be able to win exemptions from safety rules that require human controls. States could set rules on registration, licensing, liability, insurance and safety inspections, but not performance standards. Senator John Thune, the Republican who chairs the Commerce Committee, said the bill “underscores the bipartisan desire to move ahead with self-driving vehicle technology.... The safety and economic benefits of self-driving vehicles are too critical to delay.” Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, sought to amend the bill to require human controls in case of emergency, but dropped that proposal. Some senators argued it would be more dangerous to allow human drivers to seek to take over driverless cars. Even with the legislative victory, developers of self-driving technology face technical challenges. There are also the complications of driverless vehicles sharing the road with human drivers. GM told California its self-driving cars were involved in six crashes in September. The accidents were all minor, and the automaker has blamed them on human drivers and one bicyclist who hit its self-driving vehicles. Neither the House nor the Senate bill would speed approval of self-driving technology for vehicles over 10,000 pounds, a step pushed by trucking organizations. Labor unions raised safety and employment concerns, and Democrats resisted that part of the proposal. Teamsters President Jim Hoffa said the “safe development of advanced heavy trucking technology must encapsulate the life-and-death issues that are specific to that industry, not consider such consequences as an inconvenient after-thought.” He said Congress should also consider U.S. jobs. Tesla Inc, Alphabet, Uber Technologies Inc and others have said they are working on self-driving trucks. After lengthy negotiations, congressional aides added language to the bill aimed at preserving legal rights to sue over defective vehicles. This resolved a dispute that threatened to derail the bill. Within three years, the bill would allow automakers to each sell up to 80,000 self-driving vehicles annually if they could demonstrate they are as safe as current vehicles. Auto safety advocates complained it lacked sufficient safeguards. The phase-in schedule was revised to initially allow 15,000 per manufacturer in the first year and up to 80,000 after three years, down from 50,000 to start and up to 100,000 in three years. It would eliminate the cap after four years. The bill grants the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) authority to exempt vehicles from federal safety requirements and the agency would have to make a determination within six months of getting a request. The Self-Driving Coalition, a group of automakers, tech firms and advocates for the disabled, said the legislation “will help ensure that the United States leads the world in self-driving innovation.” Under the measure, NHTSA must write permanent rules on self-driving cars within a decade and regulators must study how to encourage U.S. production of self-driving equipment and also look at the impact of self-driving vehicles on infrastructure, traffic congestion and fuel consumption. Companies would need to disclose what information self-driving cars are collecting about individuals and how it is used. Companies would need to disclose if consumers could opt out of data collection.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेट पैनल ने सेल्फ-ड्राइविंग कारों को तेज लेन में रखा


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook Inc are among more than 60 technology companies that appear to have backed away from the legal fight against U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban, deciding not to put their weight behind a lawsuit seeking to block the second version of his executive order. A legal brief filed in federal court in Hawaii on Tuesday on behalf of Silicon Valley companies listed the support of 58 companies, less than half the 127 signatories to a similar brief filed in an appeals court last month after Trump’s first executive order banning travel from a number of countries the administration said posed a security risk. Airbnb Inc, Dropbox Inc and Kickstarter are among the companies that did sign the brief.  Major tech companies that signed on to the earlier effort but not this week included Microsoft Corp, eBay Inc, Intel Corp, Netflix Inc and Twitter Inc. The lawsuit may succeed despite losing the overt support of such big names. U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson in Honolulu on Wednesday ordered an emergency halt to Trump’s executive order that aimed to temporarily bar entry to the United States of most refugees as well as travelers from six Muslim-majority countries. The halt is temporary.  Trump says the ban is necessary for U.S. national security, and called Watson’s order “unprecedented judicial overreach.” Tech companies, which generally rely on skilled workers from overseas more than other industries, played a large part in the legal effort to halt the first version of Trump’s executive order, which was put on hold by a Seattle judge in early February.  It was not immediately clear why fewer of them signed on to the “friend-of-the-court” brief this time around.  Companies will have an opportunity to join the effort as it moves through the court system, said Robert Atkins, a New York lawyer and co-author of the brief. “We do expect the group to expand.”  Ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc was in the process of adding its name, a spokesman said.  Box Inc, a file-sharing service, said that although it did not sign the brief, there had been no change to its position. A Twitter spokeswoman pointed to past company statements opposing Trump’s initial travel ban in January but declined to comment further. A spokeswoman for Facebook declined to comment.  Representatives of Apple, Google, eBay, Intel, Microsoft and Netflix did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Summary: एप्पल, गूगल, फेसबुक ने नए यात्रा प्रतिबंध को कानूनी चुनौती नहीं दी


SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China must win its battle against corruption or face being erased by history, its new top graft buster said in an editorial on Saturday, underscoring the ruling Communist Party s focus on eliminating corrupt behaviour. Zhao Leji, appointed to the new seven-member Politburo Standing Committee last month and tasked to lead President Xi Jinping s signature war on corruption, wrote in the state-run People s Daily that failure would lead to the party s downfall.  If our control of the party is not strong and party governance is not strict, then the party won t be able to avoid being erased by history and the historic task the party carries will not be able to be fulfilled,  Zhao wrote. Xi, like others before him, has warned that corruption is so serious it could lead to the end of the party s grip on power. Xi s corruption fight has ensnared more than 1.3 million officials. At last month s five-yearly party congress he said it would continue to target both  tigers  and  flies , a reference to elite officials and ordinary bureaucrats. Zhao, formerly a low-profile official, replaced Wang Qishan, whose sweeping anti-graft campaign had made him China s second most-powerful politician.  The facts tell us and warn us that the party s position as the top political leader and power is the foundation of our political stability, economic development, national unity and social stability,  Zhao wrote. Zhao leads the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), having previously been in charge of the party s powerful organisation department, which is in charge of personnel decisions. He added that there would be no tolerance of people who  just do what they want to do  and ignore orders or carry on with banned behaviours like trying to get around policy decisions. Promotions also needed to be rigorously scrutinised, he said, a reference to numerous previous scandals where corrupt officials had abused their power or taken bribes to promote friends and family members.  Officials  personal files must be examined, and individuals  reports on their personal matters must be verified,  Zhao wrote. Above all, the leadership of the Communist Party had to be maintained, as the last 100 years of history had shown that without the party s leadership  there is no way out , he added. China has plans for a national supervision law and a new commission next year to oversee the expansion of Xi s graft fight.

Summary: चीन ऐतिहासिक भ्रष्टाचार की लड़ाई का सामना कर रहा हैः सत्तारूढ़ दल का नया भ्रष्टाचार रोधी


LONDON (Reuters) - Damian Green, number two in the British government, has denied an allegation that he made an inappropriate sexual advance on a young woman as discussion about an unhealthy culture of abuse by powerful men in British politics continues to swirl. Green, Prime Minister Theresa May s deputy, said it was not true that he had touched the woman s knee and told her that his  wife was very understanding  during a meeting in a pub in which the pair discussed her career aspirations and gossiped about sexual affairs in parliament. As the shockwaves from the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal reverberate around the world, the Westminster parliament is among institutions now facing allegations of improper behavior by men in powerful positions. The allegation against Green came from Kate Maltby, an academic and critic three decades younger than him. She first met him as an acquaintance of her parents, and both are involved in a liberal Conservative group called Bright Blue.  He offered me career advice and in the same breath made it clear he was sexually interested,  Maltby wrote in an article in the Times newspaper describing the meeting in the pub in early 2015.  It was not acceptable to me at the time and it should not be acceptable behavior in Westminster in the future,  she said. A spokesman for May s Downing Street office said Green strongly denied the allegation made against him.  The prime minister has referred the matter to the cabinet secretary to establish the facts and report back as soon as possible,  the spokesman said. Maltby wrote that she had no contact with Green for a year after the meeting in the pub because she  wanted nothing to do with him . A year later, Maltby wrote an article for the Times about the history of corsets, which was published with a picture of her wearing one. After the article appeared, she received a text message from Green that said:  Long time no see. But having admired you in a corset in my favorite tabloid I feel impelled to ask if you are free for a drink anytime?  The Times quoted Green as saying:  It is absolutely and completely untrue that I ve ever made any sexual advance on Ms Maltby.  He said the allegation of the advance in the pub was deeply hurtful from someone he considered a personal friend, and that the text he sent her referring to the corset picture was sent in the spirit of friends agreeing to meet for a regular catch-up.

Summary: ब्रिटिश पीएम मे के डिप्टी ने अनुचित यौन अग्रिम से इनकार किया


SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. and South Korean defense chiefs have agreed to deploy a U.S. missile defense system in South Korea this year to counter the threat from North Korea, South Korea’s defense ministry said on Friday.     U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is on his two-day visit to Seoul, meeting South Korean top officials including Defense Minister Han Min-koo. “The two agreed to deploy and operate Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system within this year as planned, which is a defense system solely against North Korea’s missile threat,” the South Korean defense ministry said in a statement, referring to the meeting between Han and Mattis.

Summary: अमेरिका, दक्षिण कोरिया इस साल थाड को तैनात करने के लिए सहमत हुए, दक्षिण ने कहा


CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush are locked in a bare-knuckled fight for third place in a South Carolina primary vote on Saturday, afraid that anything less could blunt their White House hopes. With front-runner Donald Trump fighting to hold off U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and win his second straight early nominating contest, Rubio and Bush are battling to become the main anti-Trump alternative from among establishment Republicans seeking the party’s nomination for the Nov. 8 election. An NBC News-Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released on Friday showed Trump in the lead with support from 28 percent of likely Republican primary voters, followed by Cruz at 23 percent. Rubio led Bush narrowly, 15 percent to 13 percent. The Bush-Rubio competition is layered with home-state drama: Bush, 63, is the elder statesman of Florida politics having served as governor. Rubio, 44, is the upstart understudy, a first-term U.S. senator who served in Florida’s legislature. Rubio supporters were offended by the millions of dollars in attack ads spent by Bush’s Super PAC, Right to Rise, believing that the money would have been better spent attacking Trump rather than trying to undermine a like-minded Republican. “People are going to do whatever they think they need to do to win. But it’s notable they spent far more money attacking Marco than they have the front-runner Donald Trump,” said Rubio spokesman Alex Conant. The Bush team dismissed the complaints. “I don’t think there’s anything personal about it from Jeb’s side,” said Jim Dyke, Bush’s campaign chief in South Carolina. “Jeb for good reason feels like he’s much more qualified to be president of the United States. That’s what this is all about.” Bush has a key backer in South Carolina’s Republican U.S. senator, Lindsey Graham, but Rubio upped the ante by winning the support of popular Governor Nikki Haley. Her endorsement gave Rubio momentum at just the right time and the two have campaigned together around the state. Rubio is treading carefully around whether Bush should exit the race if he performs poorly in South Carolina, saying Bush has worked hard and “has a right to be in this race as long as he wants to be.” “I mean, he’s spent $50 million attacking me. If there are differences in policy we’ll talk about it. What I’ve said about Governor Bush is he doesn’t have any foreign policy experience, which is true. But I don’t view that as an attack. I view that as a fact,” Rubio told reporters on Wednesday. Bush has bristled at the charge, telling supporters he has visited 89 countries and seen his brother and father develop foreign policy as U.S. presidents. His team has made much of Rubio’s having missed many  hearings and votes as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “It’s hard for me to be lectured to by a gifted young guy who thinks going to committee hearings means you know something about the world,” Bush said. Rubio forces had wanted to knock Bush out of the race in New Hampshire, the last nominating contest held on Feb. 9, but a bad Rubio debate performance and a strong campaign trail performance by Bush thwarted those hopes with Bush edging his rival for a fourth-place finish.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन व्हाइट हाउस के उम्मीदवार रूबियो, बुश दक्षिण कैरोलिना में चुनाव लड़ेंगे


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that North Korea wants direct talks with the United States to seek guarantees on its security from Washington, Russian news agencies reported. Lavrov said he had passed on Pyongyang s desire for direct talks to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson when the two men met on the sidelines of a conference in Vienna on Thursday, the agencies reported.  We know that North Korea wants above all to talk to the United States about guarantees for its security. We are ready to support that, we are ready to take part in facilitating such negotiations,  Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying.  Our American colleagues, (including) Rex Tillerson, have heard this.

Summary: रूस का कहना है कि प्योंगयांग वाशिंगटन के साथ सीधी बातचीत चाहता हैः एजेंसियां


DHAKA (Reuters) - A senior United Nations official said on Sunday she would raise the issue of persecution of Myanmar s Rohingya minority, especially sexual violence and torture, with the International Criminal Court (ICC). Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary- General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, also said around $10 million is needed immediately to deliver specialist services for survivors of gender-based violence. Patten was speaking in the Bangladeshi capital after a three-day visit to the Cox s Bazar region, near the border with Myanmar. There she met women and girls who are among hundreds of thousands of Rohingya that have sought refuge in Bangladesh following a crackdown by Myanmar s military on the predominantly Muslim minority.   When I return to New York I will brief and raise the issue with the prosecutor and president of the ICC whether they (Myanmar s military) can be held responsible for these atrocities,  Patten said after visiting several camps.  Sexual violence is being commanded, orchestrated and perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Myanmar, otherwise known as the Tatmadaw.   Rape is an act and a weapon of genocide.  She said she would brief the U.N. secretary-general on the situation in Cox s Bazar and that her office s annual report, to be presented to the Security Council in March, would include a dedicated section on Myanmar. Patten said brutal acts of sexual violence had occurred in the context of collective persecution that included the killing of adults and children, torture, mutilation and the burning and looting of villages.  The widespread threat and use of sexual violence was a driver and  push factor  for forced displacement on a massive scale, and a calculated tool of terror aimed at the extermination and removal of the Rohingya as a group,  she said.  The forms of sexual violence we consistently heard about from survivors include gang-rape by multiple soldiers, forced public nudity and humiliation, and sexual slavery in military captivity. One survivor was in captivity for 45 days by the Myanmar army.  Patten said that since the first mass influx of refugees into Bangladesh in August, gender-based violence specialists had delivered services to 1,644 survivors of sexual and gender-based violence,  although this is only the tip of the iceberg .  We need full funding for this humanitarian crisis from the international donor community. The burden is too heavy to be borne by the government of Bangladesh alone,  she added, calling for about $10 million of international funding.  Patten said she had been denied access to Myanmar itself.  Myanmar warned on Wednesday that a scolding delivered by the U.N. Security Council could  seriously harm  its talks with Bangladesh over repatriating more than 600,000 Rohingya who have fled Myanmar s Rakhine state since Aug. 25.  The United Nations has denounced the violence during the past 10 weeks as a classic example of ethnic cleansing to drive the Rohingya Muslims out of Buddhist majority Myanmar, an accusation Myanmar rejects.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र अधिकारी ने कहा कि वह रोहिंग्याओं के खिलाफ यौन हिंसा का मुद्दा आईसीसी के समक्ष उठाएगा


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations  political affairs chief will visit North Korea this week, making the highest-level visit by a U.N. official in more than six years as tensions grip the region over Pyongyang s nuclear and weapons programs. Jeffrey Feltman, a former senior official of the U.S. State Department, will visit from Tuesday to Friday and meet with officials to discuss  issues of mutual interest and concern,  the United Nations said. He will meet with North Korea Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and Vice Minister Pak Myong Guk, said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric, adding that the visit was in response to  a long-standing invitation from the authorities in Pyongyang for a policy dialogue with the U.N.   He will also meet with the United Nations Country Team and members of the diplomatic corps, as well as visit U.N. project sites,  Dujarric told reporters, adding that Feltman was also visiting China. Feltman will be the first senior U.N. official to travel to North Korea since his predecessor Lynn Pascoe visited in February 2010 and former U.N. aid chief Valerie Amos visited in October 2011, the United Nations said. The visit comes at a time of high tension over North Korea s program to develop nuclear tipped missiles capable of hitting the United States, including the test of Pyongyang s largest intercontinental ballistic missile last week. An official of the U.S. State Department said it was  aware  of the planned trip, when asked in Washington backed the initiative.  The United States will continue to work with other countries, including the members of the U.N. Security Council, to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on (North Korea) to convince the regime to abandon its illegal nuclear weapons and missile development programs,  the official added.  It is imperative that the countries of the world present North Korea with a unified, unambiguous response to its unlawful provocations.  The official said the U.S. focus remained on finding a peaceful diplomatic solution to the crisis, but  the reality is that the regime has shown no interest in credible negotiations.  While stressing that it favors a diplomatic solution, President Donald Trump s administration has said it will never accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state and has warned that all options, including military ones, are on the table. On Monday, the United States and South Korea went ahead with large-scale joint aerial drills, a move North Korea had said would push the Korean peninsula to  the brink of nuclear war.   Russia and China wanted the drills called off.  North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its missile and nuclear programs. At a U.N. Security Council meeting last week to discuss the missile test, U.N. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said that while Washington does not seek war with Pyongyang,  if war comes, make no mistake, the North Korean regime will be utterly destroyed.  Dujarric said North Korea issued the invitation for Feltman to visit on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations in New York in September, but the visit was confirmed only late last week.     When asked if Feltman was paving the way for a visit by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Dujarric said:  We hope to have more afterwards.  There are about 50 international staff working for six U.N. agencies in North Korea - the U.N. Development Programme, the U.N. children s agency UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the U.N. Population Fund.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र के राजनीतिक मामलों के प्रमुख इस सप्ताह उत्तर कोरिया का दौरा करेंगे


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two groups that support far-reaching curbs on legal immigration to the United States and ideological screening of would-be immigrants to test their beliefs say Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has consulted them on his immigration policy. NumbersUSA and the Center for Immigration Studies, which for years have denied accusations they harbor radical views on immigration, told Reuters they had met or had telephone calls with either Trump or senior members of his campaign over the past year. Trump’s campaign declined to confirm the meetings. Trump, the Republican nominee, has won over millions of supporters with his calls for a wall on the Mexican border and a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country. But the calls have also drawn an outcry from immigrant rights groups and condemnation from abroad.  While Trump’s immigration proposals push the Republican Party sharply to the right, NumbersUSA and CIS also want to slash legal immigration, going beyond the New York businessman’s call to keep it “within historical norms.” NumbersUSA says on its website that immigrants are the main driver of population growth, take jobs that should go to U.S. workers, and fuel urban sprawl that threatens farmland and wildlife habitats.  “The aim should be to halt all immigration possible,” NumbersUSA head Roy Beck wrote in a blog in March. NumbersUSA wants to cut legal immigration to 500,000 a year immediately, said Chris Chmielenski, the group’s director of content and activism. About a million immigrants obtain legal permanent residence status in the United States every year, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Around 11 million undocumented immigrants were living in the United States in 2014, down from a peak of 12 million in 2007, according to the Pew Research Center. The head of CIS, Mark Krikorian, has argued against legal immigration extensively. Last year he wrote in the National Review that mass legal immigration would end U.S. conservatism, because immigrants tend to have more liberal views on issues like gun rights. Beck told Reuters he had met with Trump in New York and had also spoken with people “at the top” of his campaign repeatedly since last autumn, when NumbersUSA accepted invitations to meet several Republican presidential hopefuls. Much of the contact was by phone and email. Beck would not provide details of what was discussed or say who took part in the discussions. In early August, NumbersUSA shared a 10-point immigration plan with the Trump campaign. Of the 10 points, six were echoed by Trump in a major immigration speech on Aug. 31. Those points included calls for the immediate deportation of undocumented immigrants with criminal records and the mandatory use of the “E-verify” system to check a job applicant’s legal status.  The Trump campaign declined to comment on the apparent overlap. The policy was written with input from Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents. Beck said the overlap showed the “convergence” of ideas between his group and the campaign but he acknowledged he had “no indication that they sat down and looked at our 10 steps and said let’s take six of them.”     Based in Arlington, Virginia, NumbersUSA describes itself as the “the nation’s largest grassroots immigration-reduction organization with more than 5 million participants.” It is credited with helping block immigration bills in 2007 and 2013 that aimed to make it easier for undocumented immigrants to become citizens. Krikorian, of CIS, whose slogan is “Low-immigration, pro-immigrant,” said his group had also received requests for research and studies from the Trump campaign for months.  In an Aug. 15 speech, Trump outlined his plan for “extreme vetting” of immigrants, calling for an ideological test to gauge their views on things like religious freedom, gender equality and gay rights to ensure the country only admits people “who share our values and respect our people.”  CIS was an early proponent of ideological screening - widely criticized as discriminatory and a violation of freedom of thought - to protect U.S. culture and national security following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but it was unclear if Trump consulted CIS on the idea. The Department of Homeland Security already requires people seeking legal status in the United States to show they adhere to the principles of the Constitution. Krikorian took part in a roundtable of national security advisers at Trump’s New York headquarters in August, after which he said he was asked by Trump’s campaign to be a “surrogate.” A surrogate can act on behalf of a campaign, by speaking at rallies and other events. Krikorian said he turned down the Trump campaign’s request.  Hate watchdog groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have accused NumbersUSA and CIS of attempting to use mainstream arguments to sell proposals aligned with white nationalism. “These are the organizations that are the leading edge of the nativist movement in this country,” said Frank Sharry, executive director of immigrants’ rights group America’s Voice.  Both organizations reject the claims. “We’re absolutely opposed to nativism,” said Beck, adding that NumbersUSA’s recommendations come from a desire to protect American workers. His group stresses that it blames bad immigration policy and not immigrants themselves. Krikorian said CIS wants “an ethnically neutral policy that lets in fewer people in the future and does a better job of welcoming those people we do legally admit to our country.” (Adds dropped word, “plan,” in paragraph 14.)

Summary: दो उग्र आप्रवासन विरोधी समूहों का कहना है कि ट्रम्प ने उनसे परामर्श किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives’ special Benghazi committee approved its report on Friday on the attack in Libya that killed four Americans in 2012, but the Republican-led panel set no date for ending its work after a two-year-long investigation. The committee’s chairman, Republican Representative Trey Gowdy, said the panel voted to approve the 800-page report, with seven Republicans in favor and four Democrats opposed, in a closed-door meeting. Republicans had issued the report on June 28. It included no major new revelations about the assault in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. But it criticized presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the violence, saying both she and her staff showed a “shameful” lack of response to congressional investigators looking into the attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound.  It also accused Clinton’s State Department of failing to protect the Americans killed. Last October, Clinton, already a Democratic presidential candidate, calmly deflected harsh Republican criticism of her handling of the attack during a testy 11-hour hearing before Gowdy’s committee. Democrats have derided the report as a political vendetta against the former secretary of state. Republicans said the committee’s work would not wrap up until materials related to the report are reviewed for classified information and potential perjury claims, which would be referred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. “If you thought a vote today would be the end of this partisan chapter of our history, you would be wrong,” Representative Elijah Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the panel, said in a statement. “The Select Committee is poised to last for months - perhaps until right before the presidential election - and that appears to be the Republican plan,” Cummings said. Republicans plan more interviews, including one next week with Stephen Hedger, the head of legislative affairs at the Department of Defense, Cummings said. Panel Republicans issued a joint statement calling the investigation “a great privilege and honor.” They urged President Barack Obama’s administration to clear for public release all of the supporting evidence and documents referenced in the report.

Summary: अमेरिकी हाउस पैनल ने दो साल की जांच के बाद बेनगाज़ी रिपोर्ट को मंजूरी दी


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Monday that Ramzan Kadyrov, the outspoken leader of Russia s republic of Chechnya, would remain in his post despite comments he made about the possibility of standing down. Kadyrov, 41, said in a state interview broadcast late on Sunday that it was  his dream  to one day leave office and that, if asked, he could suggest several candidates capable of taking over his role.  Ramzan continues to remain the current head of the republic,  Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, told reporters on a conference call when asked about Kadyrov s statement.

Summary: क्रेमलिन का कहना है कि चेचन्या के प्रमुख पद छोड़ने की बात के बावजूद बने रहेंगे


ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland released a national plan on Monday to prevent violent extremism, including training teachers and coaches to recognize warning signs and re-integrating people who have already been radicalized. The Swiss so far have avoided the kind of attacks that have hit neighboring Germany and France, but the Swiss Intelligence Service said last month it was tracking 550 people deemed a potential risk to Switzerland as part of its  jihad monitoring program,  up from 497 people at the end of 2016. Last month, Swiss and French police combined in a cross-border anti-terrorism swoop in which 10 people were arrested. Several high-profile criminal prosecutions have been carried out against people accused of supporting banned groups, including al Qaeda or Islamic State. Over the past 14 months, Switzerland developed the new action plan, which includes 26 measures to better counter such threats.  The government is setting aside 5 million Swiss francs ($5.08 million) to support the program over five years, although officials said the main responsibility for implementing programs lies at the local rather than federal level.  If you want to stop terrorism, you cannot wait until it is at your door and the police have to take action, you have to tackle it much earlier,  Justice Minister Simonetta Sommaruga told a news conference.   If we want to accomplish something, we have to prevent people from being radicalized in such a way that they resort to violence and turn themselves into terrorists.  Neutral Switzerland has not participated in wars in the Middle East, but some fear domestic policies could put the country in the crosshairs of extremists. Voters in 2009 banned the construction of new minarets, and the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino has banned facial coverings.  A national referendum to ban burqas is also in the works. The action plan comes on top of a separate effort by Bern to tighten anti-terrorism laws, a push that could toughen sentences for people who support violent extremism and boost cooperation with other countries  intelligence services.  ($1 = 0.9837 Swiss francs)

Summary: नई योजना के साथ, स्विस पिन चरमपंथ-रोधी रोकथाम की उम्मीद करता है


HARARE (Reuters) - Incoming Zimbabwe leader Emmerson Mnangagwa assured former president Robert Mugabe he and his family would be safe in the country when the two men spoke for the first time since Mnangagwa returned home this week, state media said on Friday. The State-owned The Herald newspaper said Mugabe and Mnangagwa, who is set to be sworn in as president later on Friday, had agreed that the former leader may not attend the swearing-in ceremony because he was tired.

Summary: मनांगाग्वा ने मुगाबे से कहा कि वह जिम्बाब्वे में सुरक्षित रहेंगेः सरकारी मीडिया


AMMAN (Reuters) - Jets believed to be Syrian and Russian struck heavily crowded residential areas in a besieged rebel enclave near Damascus, killing at least 27 people and injuring dozens in the third week of a stepped-up assault, residents, aid workers and a war monitor said on Monday. Civil defense workers said at least 17 were killed in the town of Hamoriya in an aerial strike on a marketplace and nearby residential area after over nearly 30 strikes in the past 24 hours that struck several towns in the densely populated rural area east of Damascus known as the Eastern Ghouta. Four other civilians were killed in the town of Arbin,  while the rest came from strikes on Misraba and Harasta, the civil defense workers said.  The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict, said the casualties on Sunday were the biggest daily death toll since the stepped-up strikes began 20 days ago. The monitor said nearly 200 civilians were killed in strikes and shelling, including many women and children, during that period. The Eastern Ghouta has been besieged by army troops since 2013 in an attempt to force the rebel enclave to submission.  The government has in recent months tightened the siege in what residents and aid workers have said is a deliberate use of starvation as a weapon of war, a charge the government denies. The United Nations says about 400,00 civilians besieged in the region face  complete catastrophe  because aid deliveries by the Syrian government were blocked and hundreds of people who need urgent medical evacuation have not been allowed outside the enclave.  Eastern Ghouta is the last remaining large swathe of rebel-held area around Damascus that has not reached an evacuation deal to surrender weapons in return for allowing fighters to go to other rebel-held areas farther north.  They are targeting civilians ... a jet hit us there, no rebels or checkpoints,  Sadeq Ibrahim, a trader, said by phone in Hamoriya.  May God take his revenge on the regime and Russia,  said Abdullah Khalil, another resident, who said he lost members of his family in the air strike on Arbin and was searching for survivors among the rubble. The intensified bombardment of Eastern Ghouta follows a rebel attack last month on an army complex in the heart of the region that the army had used to bomb nearby rebel-held areas. Residents said, however, that the failure of the army to dislodge rebels from the complex had prompted what they believe were retaliatory indiscriminate attacks on civilians in the Eastern Ghouta. Government advances since last year have forced people to flee deeper into its increasingly overcrowded towns. The loss of farmland is increasing pressure on scarce food supplies. The Eastern Ghouta is part of several de-escalation zones that Russia has brokered with rebels across Syria that has freed the army to redeploy in areas where it can regain ground. Rebels accuse the Syrian government and Russia of violating the zones and say they were meant as a charade to divert attention from the heavy daily bombing of civilian areas. The Syrian government and Russia deny their jets bomb civilians and insist they only strike militant hideouts.

Summary: सीरियाई, रूसी विमानों ने पूर्वी घौता में आवासीय क्षेत्रों में बमबारी कीः गवाह, निगरानी


BEIJING/SEOUL (Reuters) - Traditional friendship between China and North Korea represents  valuable wealth  for their people, China said after its special envoy met a high-ranking North Korean official, but there was no mention of the crisis over North Korea s weapons. Song Tao, who heads the ruling Chinese Communist Party s international department, is visiting Pyongyang to discuss the outcome of the recently concluded Communist Party Congress in China, at which President Xi Jinping cemented his power. In a brief statement dated Friday but reported by Chinese media on Saturday, the international department said Song, who is there representing Xi, reported to North Korean official Choe Ryong Hae the outcome of the congress. Song and Choe also talked about relations between their parties and countries, the department said.  They said that the traditional friendship between China and North Korea was founded and cultivated by both countries former old leaders, and is valuable wealth for the two peoples,  it said.  Both sides must work hard together to promote the further development of relations between the two parties and two countries to benefit their two peoples.  The department made no mention of North Korea s nuclear or missile programs, which are strongly opposed by China. The North s official KCNA news agency said Song informed Choe about China s 19th National Congress  in detail , and stressed China s stance to steadily develop the traditionally friendly relations between the two parties and countries. Song arrived on Friday but it is not clear how long he will be in North Korea. China has repeatedly pushed for a diplomatic solution to the crisis over North Korea s development of nuclear weapons and missiles to carry them, but in recent months it has had only limited high-level exchanges with North Korea.  The last time China s special envoy for North Korea visited the country was in February last year. Song s trip comes just a week after U.S. President Donald Trump visited Beijing as part of an Asia tour, where he pressed for greater action to rein in North Korea, especially from China, with which North Korea does 90 percent of its trade. The influential state-run Chinese tabloid the Global Times said in an editorial that it was unwise to expect too much from his trip, saying his key mission was to inform North Korea about the party congress in Beijing.  Song is not a magician,  the newspaper said.   The key to easing the situation on the peninsula lies in the hands of Washington and Pyongyang. If both sides insist on their own logic and refuse to move in the same direction, even if Song opens a door for talks, the door could be closed any time.  It is not clear whether Song will meet North Korea s youthful leader Kim Jong Un. Kim and President Xi exchanged messages of congratulations and thanks over the Chinese party congress, but neither leader has visited the other s country since assuming power. Song s department is in charge of the party s relations with foreign political parties, and has traditionally served as a conduit for Chinese diplomacy with North Korea. China s new special envoy for North Korea, Kong Xuanyou, who took up his position in August, is not believed to have visited the country since assuming the job.

Summary: चीन ने कहा, राजदूत की यात्राओं के दौरान संबंधों को बढ़ावा देने के लिए उत्तर कोरिया के साथ काम करेगा


LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday hailed the return of Britain s classic blue passport as a benefit of leaving the EU, pleasing Brexit campaigners for whom it is a symbol of national sovereignty but attracting derision from many remainers. The government said a version of the old passport, issued to Britons from 1920 to 1988, when it was replaced by the burgundy jacket of the European Union, will be reintroduced after the country leaves the bloc in March 2019.    The UK passport is an expression of our independence and sovereignty - symbolizing our citizenship of a proud, great nation,  May said on Twitter.  That s why we have announced that the iconic blue passport will return after we leave the European Union in 2019.    During often bitter campaigning for the June 2016 referendum on whether to leave the EU, which Britain joined in 1973, some Brexit supporters seized on the color of the passport as a symbol of the country s lost independence.  Opponents meanwhile mocked their attachment to something superficial while arguing that Brexit would diminish Britain s real standing in the world. Former United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, a leading supporter of Brexit, responded to Friday s news by tweeting:  Happy Brexmas!   A return to British passports means we are becoming a proper country again,  he wrote.  We are getting our individuality and national identity back.  But Anna Soubry, a lawmaker from May s Conservative party who opposes Brexit, tweeted:  Stand by for street parties as blue passports return. Not sure they ll make up for broken #Leave promise of extra  350m a week for (British public health service) NHS.   A Brexit campaign slogan suggesting that Britain s financial contributions to the EU could be diverted to the National Health Service has been credited with swinging voters toward  Leave .  The new document, which will be issued from October 2019, will come with enhanced security features, immigration minister Brandon Lewis said, and will be introduced as old passports expire and at no extra cost to the taxpayer. Speaking to the BBC, Lewis said even people who voted remain still had an attachment to the dark blue passport. Responses to May s tweet were overwhelmingly negative, however, with many Twitter users pointing out that Britain could have kept the old color under EU rules.  Others bemoaned the fact that Britons would lose the right to live and work in 27 other EU countries as a result of Brexit.  Wow this passport s fancy. Must have some kickass features,  read one tweet accompanied by a picture of a smiling family collecting their new passports.  How many countries do you have the right to work in on this bad boy?   One   Huh. Still, blue though...

Summary: नियंत्रण वापस लेनाः ब्रिटेन का क्लासिक नीला और सुनहरा पासपोर्ट वापस आएगा


HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Chinese official admonished Hong Kong on Thursday for failing to introduce a national security law, ramping up pressure on the former British colony to enact the contentious Article 23 that critics say will further choke its freedoms. The global financial hub has been ruled under a  one country, two systems  principle since it returned to China in 1997, guaranteeing freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland, including an independent judiciary and freedom of expression. Those freedoms are outlined in its mini-constitution, the  Basic Law , a document that also demands the city pass its own laws preventing treason, secession and subversion against Communist Party rulers in Beijing. Hong Kong leaders have in the past decade put off passing Article 23, possibly their most sensitive political task, especially as tensions ran high after the months-long pro-democracy demonstrations in 2014. But Beijing officials have not forgotten, and on Thursday Li Fei, who chairs the Basic Law Committee under the Chinese parliament s standing committee, said it was  a duty that cannot be shirked .  I believe we can all see the harmful effects from this legal vacuum,  he said in a speech in Hong Kong.  I d like to emphasize, (Hong Kong should) safeguard national sovereignty and security through legislation and strict implementation of the law.  An earlier planned national security law for Hong Kong was shelved in 2003 after an estimated 500,000 people marched against it. In his hour-long speech, live-streamed in some schools and at times directed at students, Li also lashed out at a nascent independence movement, which has gone largely underground after most of its figureheads were charged for what the government called a  riot  in 2016.  Their behavior is absurd, the nature of it is illegal, and emotionally speaking it s absolutely impermissible,  he said.  We must resist and oppose them without any hesitation.      Li s remarks came after Chinese President Xi Jinping took what some saw as a harder line on Hong Kong s future during his visit in July to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1997 handover. Xi warned then that any attempt to endanger Chinese sovereignty and security, challenge China s power, or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration or sabotage would be acts that cross  the red line  and were  absolutely impermissible . The city s new leader, Carrie Lam, bent on mending the damaged trust between Beijing and the Hong Kong public, has repeatedly said the timing is not right to introduce security laws, just three years after the youth-led demonstrations directly challenged Beijing s authority.  Even without any new local laws, some Hong Kong lawyers, diplomats and activists believe Beijing may make its own attempt to outlaw independence debates through a formal interpretation of the Basic Law, or extending national laws to cover Hong Kong. Such moves would have to be followed by Hong Kong s courts, deepening fears over the strength of Hong Kong s vaunted rule of law and freedom of speech. Some experts note that Beijing has lowered the threshold for such action after its preemptive interpretation of the Basic Law last year, which effectively disqualified lawmakers who did not take their oaths properly. It also ruled last month to outlaw mockery of the national anthem and decided the law would be extended to Hong Kong, which will take effect after it s been put to the city s legislature.

Summary: चीन ने विवादित सुरक्षा कानून बनाने के लिए हांगकांग को 'कर्तव्य से न हटने' के लिए प्रेरित किया


BERLIN (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Thursday he had a “friendly and constructive” discussion with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in Berlin and they agreed to work together to promote sustainable global growth and prosperity. “We found a good basis” to work together, Schaeuble said at a joint news conference with Mnuchin but added that they would not solve all of their problems at an upcoming meeting of G20 finance ministers.

Summary: शेयबल का कहना है कि मेनुचिन के साथ 'मैत्रीपूर्ण और रचनात्मक' बातचीत हुई


NAIROBI (Reuters) - The U.N. World Food Programme is cutting food rations by 30 percent for more than 400,000 refugees living in camps in Kenya due to insufficient funding, it said on Monday. Dadaab and Kakuma camps in Kenya are primarily home to refugees from neighboring Somalia and South Sudan, both ravaged by wars that have forced millions of people to flee.  The World Food Programme said it needed $28.5 million to cover the food assistance needs of the 420,000 refugees living in the camps for the next six months.   An abrupt halt to food assistance would be devastating for the refugees, most of whom rely fully on WFP for their daily meals,  said Annalisa Conte, the top WFP official in Kenya.  The funding shortfall comes six months after the United Nations warned that the world was facing its greatest humanitarian disaster since World War Two because of the threat of famine in South Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria and Yemen. It said in March that 20 million people risked starvation in what it called largely man-made hunger crises in addition to drought.   The Famine Early Warning Systems Network said in a report last month that risk of famine persists in parts of Somalia due to the extended drought and disease outbreaks.

Summary: विश्व खाद्य कार्यक्रम ने केन्या में शरणार्थियों के राशन में कटौती की


VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria said on Wednesday it had some evidence that nine foreign oilfield workers abducted by Islamist militants in Libya in 2015 were killed the same year, though it was still trying to verify the information. The four Filipinos, two Bangladeshis, one Austrian, one Czech and one Ghanaian worked at the al-Ghani oilfield for equipment firm VAOS, which specializes in Libya and has offices in Austria and Malta. An Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman said a crisis team was trying to verify information from a militant Islamist website suggesting that all or some of the hostages may have been killed in 2015. They were seized in March of that year.  We have some evidence that the worst is to be feared. We are working on verifying the information. It is still unclear what happened exactly to whom,  the spokesman said. Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz had contacted the family of the Austrian man.  Even if it turns out that the evidence is correct it will be extremely difficult to retrieve bodies from the area where fighting continues,  the spokesman said. The Derna Mujahideen Shura Council, a group based in the eastern Libyan city of Derna, said this week that it had recovered the bodies of five of the workers in May 2015 during clashes with rival militants from Islamic State. It said it had handed the bodies over to Libya s Red Crescent. In a statement, the Council said it later found a laptop containing a photo of one of the employees, and a video of the killing of four Filipino workers, and was able to match them to images of the kidnapped employees. The bodies were buried in marked graves and  special procedures are under way to return them to their families , the group said. The Red Crescent declined to comment.  At the time of the attack, Islamic State militants made no financial or political demands as armed factions in Libya often do, but IS beheaded 11 Libyan security guards it had captured. VAOS said it had received no warning from Libya s state oil company advising it to evacuate personnel before the attack. The firm said it began operating in Libya in the 1980s, when the country was under Muammar Gaddafi s iron rule. Libya fell into widespread factional violence, hampering oil production, after rebels overthrew Gaddafi in 2011. VAOS has relied on its own security arrangements in the North African state. Its clients have included BP, Repsol and Austria s OMV.

Summary: 2015 में लीबिया में अपहृत नौ विदेशियों के मारे जाने के संकेतों की जाँच कर रहा ऑस्ट्रिया


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on Monday he was concerned at the slow progress of Brexit talks, while his British counterpart David Davis called for  imagination and flexibility  to move on.  British officials arrived in Brussels on Monday hoping to push the EU toward talks about their post-Brexit ties, which the bloc refuses to launch until there is agreement on London s exit bill and other pressing  divorce  matters, including the rights of EU citizens in Britain after March 2019.  To be honest, I am concerned. Time passes quickly,  Barnier told reporters as he welcomed Davis back for a new round of talks. The third formal session since the process began in June, it is due to wind up on Thursday.  We must start negotiating seriously,  Barnier said.  The sooner we remove the ambiguity, the sooner we will be in a position to discuss the future relationship.  He welcomed a series of proposals London made over the summer break, but made clear they fell short of what EU leaders want to see before they will agree to open negotiations on the future free trade agreement the British government wants. Impatient with the structure of talks agreed among the 27 other states and now binding Barnier s negotiators, the British position papers made frequent reference to a future relationship with the EU rather than just the immediate task of bringing legal clarity for people and business when Britain leaves.  The UK government has published a large number of papers covering important issues related to our withdrawal and our vision for a deep and special partnership,  Davis said.  We want to lock in the points where we agree, unpick the areas where we disagree and make further progress on the whole range of issues,  he added. To do that would require  flexibility and imagination from both sides , he said. But the EU wants to settle the major separation issues of ensuring expatriate rights, agreeing a divorce bill and squaring the circle of the future Irish border before jumping into talks about post-Brexit ties with London.  The EU 27 and the European Parliament are united. They will not accept that separation issues are not addressed properly,  Barnier said.  I am ready to intensify negotiations over the coming weeks in order to advance.  British officials took a relaxed view of Barnier s implied criticisms, noting it was a familiar line from the former French minister, and dismissed a suggestion talks were going badly. The EU has already signaled that the slow progress so far has made talks about a new accord with Britain less likely to start after an EU summit in October, as had been hoped. The EU and Britain seem far apart on agreeing how much London should pay the bloc on departure to account for previous commitments.  The Irish issue is extremely delicate because of the history of political violence there, as well as the complex economic consequences of Brexit.  Dublin said on Monday much of the future border arrangements between Northern Ireland and Ireland could be solved before Brexit talks enter the next phase. Neither side expects major breakthroughs this week in talks aimed at unraveling more than 40 years of union. Neither seems ready for major political concessions at this stage. An EU official said it was  clearly worrying that we have major differences of core issues ... with very little time to land all this, even if Britain moves . Britain s opposition Labour Party on Sunday offered an alternative to the policy pursued by Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May by saying it would stay in the European single market for a transitional period after Brexit. The British and German chambers of commerce together urged negotiators on Monday to start talks about future trading relations, and particularly customs arrangements, swiftly. Writing in Le Monde in his native France, Barnier said the EU and Britain must remain allies for their common defense:  The Union of 27 and the United Kingdom will have to join forces to stand up to common threats,  he said.   The security of our citizens cannot be haggled over.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ ने ब्रेक्सिट वार्ता को तेज करने का आग्रह किया क्योंकि लंदन 'लचीलापन' चाहता है


RIMINI, Italy (Reuters) - Italy s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, riding high in opinion polls, has named 31-year-old Luigi Di Maio to lead it into parliamentary elections next year that could see it win national power. Di Maio, deputy speaker of the lower house, is the party s most prominent and popular politician and had been groomed for the leadership in recent years by 5-Star s founder, the 69-year-old comedian Beppe Grillo. Boyish-looking and usually immaculately turned out in suit and tie, Di Maio presents a moderate image in striking contrast to Grillo, who is famous for his raucous tirades against Italy s ruling elite.  You have given me an enormous responsibility ... I assure you I ll carry it out with discipline and honor,  Di Maio told supporters on Saturday at the party s annual gathering in the Adriatic coastal town of Rimini.  I promise I will form a government team to be proud of for the first time in our history.     Grillo, who has so far acted as 5-Star s de facto chief, is now expected to gradually withdraw from the limelight.  I will always be like a dad for all of you, but I am old,  he told the gathering on Friday.     Di Maio, who has taken tough stances on law-and-order and immigration and is widely seen as on the right of the party which says traditional left-right labels have no meaning. He won by a huge margin over seven rivals in an online member ballot, held on Thursday and Friday, that reflected the movement s credo of internet-based direct democracy. His election was considered a formality because the other candidates were all little-known figures, mostly local councillors.  However, participation was much lower than the party had hoped, with just over 37,400 people casting a ballot, compared with more than 140,000 eligible.  Di Maio won 83 percent of the vote. The only people seen as having any chance against him decided not to run, opening the party up to accusations of failing to run a proper contest. Di Maio will now try to put that criticism behind him in the run-up to elections due by May next year. Most opinion polls, give 5-Star around 28 percent of the vote, just ahead of the ruling Democratic Party. However, that would not be enough to give it a majority in parliament unless it allies itself with another party, something it has so far always refused to do. The right-wing Northern League and Silvio Berlusconi s conservative Forza Italia (Go Italy) each have around 14 to 15 percent. 5-Star, founded by Grillo nine years ago as a protest movement, bases its appeal mainly on a campaign against corruption and vested interests. Its policies include the introduction of universal income support for the poor, boosting green energy and increasing the budget deficit to fund investments in infrastructure. Di Maio will need to broaden the movement s appeal and soothe barely disguised resentment among some 5-Star lawmakers over his dominant role in the party. His first challenge will be a vote in Sicily in November, which offers 5-Star the chance to win control of its first ever region. Victory could be a springboard to national success while defeat would be a major setback after the party spent months campaigning intensely on the island. (This version of the story has been refiled to add dropped words in paragraph 8)

Summary: चुनाव नजदीक आते ही इटली के 5-स्टार ने युवा नेता को नामित किया


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey s President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday he was pressing world leaders to do more to help Myanmar s Rohingya Muslims, who face what he has described as genocide. Nearly 400 people have been killed in northwest Myanmar over the past week in insurgent attacks on security posts and an army crackdown. Aid agencies estimate that 73,000 Rohingya have fled to neighboring Bangladesh from Myanmar since violence erupted.  You watched the situation that Myanmar and Muslims are in,  Erdogan said in Istanbul, where he was attending the funeral of a Turkish soldier.  You saw how villages have been burnt... Humanity remained silent to the massacre in Myanmar . He said Turkey would raise the issue at the United Nations General Assembly in New York later this month. As current head of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation, Erdogan had discussed the violence with around 20 world leaders.  There are some leaders we can achieve results with and some that we cannot. Not everyone has the same sensitivity,  he said.  We will do our duty,  Erdogan said, adding that Turkey was continuing to deliver aid to the region. Myanmar has urged Muslims in the northwest to cooperate in the search for insurgents, whose coordinated attacks on security posts and an army crackdown have led to one of the deadliest bouts of violence to engulf the Rohingya community in decades. The treatment of Buddhist-majority Myanmar s roughly 1.1 million Muslim Rohingya is the biggest challenge facing leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accused by Western critics of not speaking out for a religious minority that has long complained of persecution. Erdogan said on Friday that the death of hundreds of Rohingya in Myanmar over the past week constituted a genocide aimed at Muslim communities in the region. Hundreds more refugees on Sunday walked through rice paddies from the Naf river separating the two countries into Bangladesh, straining scarce resources of aid groups and local communities already helping tens of thousands.

Summary: तुर्की के एर्दोगन ने म्यांमार के रोहिंग्याओं की मदद के लिए विश्व नेताओं पर दबाव डाला


CAIRO (Reuters) - Armed militants killed at least 30 policemen in a shootout during a raid on a suspected militant hideout in Egypt s Western desert, security sources said on Friday. A number of suspected militants were also killed and security forces are combing the area, a statement by the Interior Ministry said. Egypt is facing an Islamist insurgency concentrated in the Sinai peninsula from two main groups, including an Islamic State affiliate, that has killed hundreds of security forces since 2013. Islamist militants have launched several major attacks, most recently targeting churches in Cairo and other cities with the loss of dozens of lives. The security sources said authorities were following a lead to a hideout deep in the desert thought to house eight suspected members of Hasm, a group which has claimed several attacks around the capital targeting judges and police since last year. A convoy of four SUVs and one interior ministry vehicle was ambushed from higher ground by militants firing rocket-propelled grenades and detonating explosive devices, a senior source in the Giza Security Office said. The number of dead was expected to rise, two security sources said. Two security sources said eight security personnel were injured in the clashes, while another source said that four of the injured were police and four others suspected militants. Egypt accuses Hasm of being the militant wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group it outlawed in 2013. The Muslim Brotherhood denies this. The Islamist insurgency in the Sinai peninsula has grown since the military overthrew President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in mid-2013 following mass protests against his rule. The militant group staging the insurgency pledged allegiance to Islamic State in 2014. It is blamed for the killing of hundreds of soldiers and policemen and has started to target other areas, including Egypt s Christian Copts. (This version of the story was refiled to say  policemen  in first paragraph from  police officers  as the rank of the dead was not immediately known)

Summary: मिस्र के पश्चिमी रेगिस्तान में झड़प में कम से कम 30 पुलिसकर्मियों की मौतः सुरक्षा सूत्र


SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia s world-famous Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, will be closed to climbers from 2019, its management board said on Wednesday, ending a decades-long campaign by Aborigines to protect their sacred monolith in the Northern Territory. A board of eight traditional owners and four government officials voted unanimously to close the rock to climbers, a spokesperson told Reuters.  The climb is a men s sacred area, the men have closed it,  chairman Sammy Wilson added in a statement.  It has cultural significance that includes certain restrictions.   The UNESCO World Heritage-listed 348-metre (1,142 ft) rock, known for its shifting red-ochre colors, is a top tourist drawcard, attracting around 300,000 visitors each year, despite its remote desert location near Alice Springs. The traditional owners of Uluru, the Anangu people, have called for the climb to be closed since 1985, when the park was placed in indigenous hands.  The rock s board said in a report in 2010 that they would close the attraction to climbers if the proportion of visitors who tried to climb it dropped below 20 percent. They took the matter to a vote on Wednesday after data showed the number of climbers had fallen below that threshold, from about three quarters throughout the 1990s to just 16.2 per cent between 2011 and 2015. The ban will take effect on Oct. 26, 2019, exactly 34 years after Uluru was handed back to its traditional owners. Australians are still the most common visitors to climb the rock, followed by the Japanese, according to Parks Australia. The climb is closed about 77 percent of the time due to dangerous weather or cultural reasons.  There have been 36 confirmed fatalities at Uluru since records were first kept in the 1950s, with the most recent in 2010. (This story has been refiled to fix typo in first paragraph)

Summary: ऑस्ट्रेलिया के प्रसिद्ध उलुरु आउटबैक मोनोलिथ को पर्वतारोहियों के लिए बंद कर दिया जाएगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will expand its program helping the thousands of people fleeing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday. The announcement follows backlash from Democrats in the U.S. Congress who called on the Obama administration to halt its deportations of families who fled the three crime-infested Central American countries and entered the United States without documentation. The expanded Refugee Admissions Program would offer “a safe and legal alternative to the dangerous journey many are currently tempted to begin, making them easy prey for human smugglers who have no interest but their own profits,” Kerry said in a speech at the National Defense University. President Barack Obama previously said the United States would take in 3,000 refugees from Latin America by October this year. A State Department spokesperson said the administration does not have plans to take in more than 3,000 refugees from the region, but it may adjust the number “should conditions require.” He said the U.S. government would work with the United Nations and non-governmental organizations to identify people  in need of refugee protection. He specifically mentioned those targeted by criminal gangs, including human rights activists. “We also continue to explore additional options, including for those who may be at imminent risk of harm,” Kerry said. Once the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights refers a potential refugee to the United States for resettlement, the case is reviewed at a Resettlement Support Center, according to the State Department.    The United States operates nine centers globally, but only one is in the Western hemisphere - in Quito, Ecuador. The State Department spokesperson said the Quito center operates a branch office in San Salvador, El Salvador.  Kerry did not say whether the United States would deploy any federal workers to the region or had plans to open additional centers.  The Department of Homeland Security has received more than 6,000 applications from minors in Central America, some of whom have begun to arrive in the United States as refugees, Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said on Jan. 4. He said he expected the pace of child refugee arrivals to increase.

Summary: अमेरिका हिंसा से भाग रहे मध्य अमेरिकियों के लिए शरणार्थी कार्यक्रम का विस्तार करेगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump warned of Hurricane Irma s destructive potential on Friday as the Category 4 storm headed toward Florida and urged residents in its path to heed government recommendations.  This is a storm of absolutely historic destructive potential. I ask everyone in the storm s path to be vigilant and to heed all recommendations from government officials and law enforcement,  Trump said in a videotaped statement. (This story corrects first paragraph to say Irma is now Category 4)

Summary: तूफान इरमा में "पूरी तरह से ऐतिहासिक विनाशकारी क्षमता" हैः ट्रम्प


DHAKA (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday urged Bangladesh and Myanmar resolve the Rohingya crisis through bilateral negotiations instead of an international initiative.  The international community should not complicate the situation,  Wang said in a press briefing at the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka.   Actions in the United Nations Security Council must help Bangladesh-Myanmar bilateral cooperation to resolve the problem peacefully , the minister told reporters. Wang arrived in Bangladesh on Saturday for a two-day visit and from there he will go to Myanmar to attend the Asia-Europe  Meeting. (ASEM)  China supports resolving the crisis peacefully, bilaterally with mutual consultation between Bangladesh and Myanmar,  he said. More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since late August driven out by a military clearance operation in Buddhist majority Myanmar s Rakhine State.  It is a complex situation and needs a comprehensive solution. Economic development of Rakhine State is needed. China is ready to help,  Wang said. Earlier in the day Wang also met with Bangladesh s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence in Dhaka and assured her of China s support in solving the crisis.  Myanmar will have to take back their nationals ensuring their safety, security and dignity for a durable solution to the crisis,  Hasina s private secretary Ihsanul Karim quoted the prime minister as saying.  We will not allow the land of Bangladesh to be used by any terrorist group to commit any act of insurgency in neighboring countries,  Hasina added, according to Karim. Bangladesh s Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali told Wang that Bangladesh is trying to resolve the issue both bilaterally and internationally as it could not afford the huge burden of the refugees. A statement from Bangladesh foreign ministry said that when the issue of displaced Myanmar nationals was raised, Wang stated that China would help resolve the issue and will not be partial to any side. He acknowledged that Bangladesh is facing the brunt of continuing influx of Rohingya refugees, the Bangladeshi foreign ministry statement said. A delegation of U.S. Congressmen is visiting Bangladesh to study the Rohingya crisis on Saturday. Sweden s foreign minister Margot Wallstrom, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, Germany s foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel and  Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kona will also visit Bangladesh this week.

Summary: चीन चाहता है कि बांग्लादेश और म्यांमार रोहिंग्या संकट को द्विपक्षीय रूप से हल करें


DUBLIN (Reuters) - The Irish government was on the verge of collapse on Thursday after the party whose votes Prime Minister Leo Varadkar depends on to pass legislation appeared set to break the terms of a  confidence and supply  deal. The opposition Fianna Fail party said it would put a motion of no confidence in Deputy Prime Minister Frances Fitzgerald on Tuesday, a move that would breach the deal it agreed to support Varadkar s Fine Gael government in key votes for three years.  Fianna Fail indicated it might withdraw the motion if Fitzgerald resigned, but Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told state broadcaster RTE that Fitzgerald would not resign. The crisis comes weeks ahead of a European Union summit in which the Irish government has an effective veto on whether Britain s talks on leaving the bloc progress as it determines if EU concerns about the future of the Irish border have been met.

Summary: उप प्रधानमंत्री को लेकर विवाद में आयरिश सरकार गिरने के कगार पर


VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria s new conservative-far right ruling coalition is likely to be sworn in on Dec. 20, an informed source said on Friday, marking a victory for nationalists so far shut out of government elsewhere in western Europe. Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, whose mainstream conservative People s Party (OVP) won a parliamentary election on Oct. 15 but not a majority, has been in coalition talks with Heinz-Christian Strache s Freedom Party (FPO). Both sides have described the discussions as friendly and constructive but so far failed to disclose the kind of sweeping tax, immigration and administrative reforms they had called for in their campaigns. Kurz, 31, who has taken a tough stance on immigration and Muslim  parallel societies , tilting towards the FPO line as the far right surged in popularity, is tipped to become chancellor and the youngest head of government in the European Union. There has been no confirmation on who might get which portfolio in the new cabinet, but the anti-immigration FPO has said it would aim for about half of the ministries. The OVP gained 31.5 percent and the FPO 26 percent of votes in the Alpine republic s October election.  (Dec. 20) is certainly a possible date (for the swearing-in),  OVP Chairwoman Elisabeth Koestinger said on Oe1 radio, adding they would put quality before speed even if that meant a deal only after Christmas. FPO deputy leader Norbert Hofer told Oe1 that no deal had been sealed yet, repeating previous statements that both parties aimed to finish before Christmas. The Austrian national news agency APA also cited Dec. 20 as the most likely date for the swearing-in of the new government by President Alexander Van der Bellen, but listed Jan. 8 as an alternative date. The FPO, which came within a whisker of winning the 2015 presidential election, is allied with France s National Front and Germany s AfD, which in a September election became the third strongest party in Germany s parliament. The populist far right last entered an Austrian federal government in 2000 and currently rules in coalition with centrists in two of the country s provinces.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रिया के रूढ़िवादी-सुदूर दक्षिणपंथी मंत्रिमंडल ने 20 दिसंबर को शपथ लीः स्रोत


ABU DHABI (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s defense secretary said bad weather had forced him to scrap a visit to Afghanistan on Sunday but added that he was reviewing the next steps in the war after discussions with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the top U.S. commander. “We’re putting our thoughts together now,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters in Abu Dhabi during his debut trip to the Middle East. U.S. General John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan, said this month the NATO-led force in Afghanistan had enough troops to carry out counterterrorism missions but had “a shortfall of a few thousand” for its major role of advising Afghan security forces. Mattis said he spoke for several hours on Sunday via video-link with Nicholson, but did not disclose whether he was in favor of sending more U.S. forces there. Mattis also said he spoke with Ghani “at length” before leaving Munich, Germany, on Saturday. So far, Trump has offered little clarity about whether he will approve more forces for Afghanistan, where some 8,400 U.S. troops remain more than 15 years after the Islamist Taliban government was toppled.  “He’s waiting for my assessment and the assessment from the intelligence community and he’s open to my advice on it,” Mattis said. “But first of all I’ve got to formulate where I stand.” Afghan government forces control no more than two-thirds of national territory, and have struggled to contain the Taliban insurgency since the bulk of NATO soldiers withdrew at the end of 2014. The government is also struggling with other militants, particularly from Islamic State’s Afghanistan branch. Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide attack that killed at least 22 people on Feb. 7 outside Afghanistan’s Supreme Court. A number of provincial capitals have been under pressure from the Taliban and Afghan government forces have been suffering high casualty rates, with more than 5,500 killed in the first eight months of 2016. “The Afghan security forces paid a very heavy price to keep the Taliban on their back foot. But they paid it, they held,” Mattis said. “And the Taliban’s in a worse position today, even though I do not equate that to success on our side.”

Summary: अमेरिकी रक्षा सचिव ने मौसम के कारण अफगान यात्रा रद्द की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Tuesday that North Korea s launch of a missile over Japan was  absolutely unacceptable and irresponsible  and that the Security Council now needed to take serious action.  No country should have missiles flying over them like those 130 million people in Japan. It s unacceptable,  Haley told reporters. North Korea has  violated every single U.N. Security Council resolution that we ve had and so I think something serious has to happen,  she added. Saying  enough is enough,  Haley said she hoped China and Russia would continue to work with the rest of the U.N. Security Council when it meets on Tuesday afternoon to discuss what more can be done about North Korea s nuclear and missile programs.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र को मिसाइल को लेकर उत्तर कोरिया के खिलाफ 'गंभीर' कार्रवाई करनी चाहिएः निक्की हेली


VIENNA (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech on Cuba was a “grotesque spectacle,” but the island’s government will continue working towards better relations with the majority of Americans who back detente, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said on Monday. Trump announced a partial rollback of the normalization of relations with Cuba on Friday in Miami, the heartland of Cuban exiles, in a theater named after the leader of the failed U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion of the island in 1961. “It was a grotesque spectacle straight from the Cold War,” Rodriguez said in Vienna, during a tour of European countries, in a news conference broadcast live in Cuba. Trump’s speech before an audience that included people Cuba considers terrorists, included dramatic flourishes like a Cuban- American exile playing the U.S. national anthem on his violin. The U.S. president stopped short of breaking diplomatic relations with Cuba, restored in 2015 after more than five decades of hostility and leaves many recent agreements between the two countries intact. However, it will tighten restrictions on Americans traveling to the Caribbean island, hurting the booming Cuban tourism industry and clamp down on U.S. business dealings with Cuba’s military. “It is necessary to wait for the U.S. government to announce regulations that implement these measures before opining on their reach and depth,” Rodriguez said. He added, however, that they would inevitably hit U.S. companies and citizens by restricting their ability to invest in or travel to Cuba, while also hurting the Cuban people. “It will wreak economic damage not just on Cuba’s state companies but also on the cooperatives and private sector workers,” he said.  Moody’s Investor Service released a report on Monday saying the U.S. revision of its Cuban policy was “credit negative” for the island, coming at a time when the country was already suffering liquidity problems due to weakening economic support from its crisis-wracked ally Venezuela. The Cuban foreign minister said Trump’s hope of separating the people from the military, who were simply “the people in uniform,” was “infantile.”    ‘On the contrary, these measures reinforce our patriotism, our dignity and our decision to defend national independence by all means,” he said. Meanwhile, the partial rollback of the detente would fall flat with the majority of Americans, who supported the normalization of relations with Cuba, and with whom the country would continue working, Rodriguez added. In response to Trump’s demand to return fugitives sought by the United States, Rodriguez said Cuba considered them fighters for civil liberties.  “These persons will not be returned to the United States,” he said.

Summary: क्यूबा ने द्वीप पर ट्रम्प के भाषण को 'विचित्र तमाशा' बताया


BAGHDAD/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iraqi forces launched an attack to drive Islamic State from the last territory it holds in Iraq on Thursday and the Syrian army and its allies said they planned to march on the jihadist s last Syrian stronghold. The separate assaults across the Iraqi-Syrian frontier aim to deal a final blow to the Islamic State  caliphate  that has crumbled this year in Syria and Iraq, with the group losing the cities of Mosul, Raqqa and swathes of other territory. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Islamic State fighters would have  to choose between death and surrender  as he announced the offensive on the region of Rawa and al-Qaim, which is located at the Syrian border. The Iraqi air force dropped thousands of leaflets on the border area calling on militants to surrender and urging the population to stay away from their positions, according to a statement from the Joint Operations Command in Baghdad.  Tell those among your children and relatives who took up a weapon against the state to throw it aside immediately, and to go to any house on top of which a white flag has been raised when the liberation forces enter al-Qaim,  said the text. Regular Iraqi army units, Sunni tribal forces and Iranian-backed paramilitaries known as Popular Mobilisation are taking part in the offensive toward the Syrian border, the Joint Operations Command said. In a statement welcoming the offensive, the U.S.-led international military coalition which has run an air campaign against Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq since 2014, said approximately 1,500 Islamic State fighters were estimated to be still in the immediate vicinity of al-Qaim. In Syria, Islamic State has been driven back into a strip of territory along the Euphrates River by separate offensives waged by the Syrian government and its allies on the one hand, and by Syrian militias backed by the U.S.-led coalition on the other. A report issued by a military news service run by Hezbollah, which is fighting in support of Damascus, said on Thursday that the army and its allies had captured the  T2  pumping station from Islamic State. This was  a launch pad for the army and its allies to advance towards the town of Albu Kamal ... which is considered the last remaining stronghold of the Daesh organization in Syria , it said. Around 70 km (40 miles) from T2, Albu Kamal is located on the west bank of the Euphrates at the Iraqi border in the Syrian province of Deir al-Zor, just over the frontier from al-Qaim on the Iraqi side. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said the Syrian army had advanced from T2 to reach 45km from the outskirts of Albu Kamal. Syrian government forces and their allies have made rapid gains against Islamic State in Deir al-Zor in recent weeks.  They have advanced mostly in areas to the west of the Euphrates River where they have captured the town of al-Mayadin and besieged the last Islamic State-held pockets of Deir al-Zor city. The U.S.-led coalition is waging a separate campaign against the group in Deir al-Zor, focused on areas to the east of the Euphrates River.

Summary: इराक और सीरिया इस्लामिक स्टेट के अंतिम गढ़ों पर एकत्र हुए


HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - A sweeping corruption case against a former mayor of Pennsylvania’s capital city Harrisburg ended on Monday when he pleaded guilty to 20 counts of receiving stolen artifacts bought with public funds for a proposed museum that was never built in the city. Former Mayor Stephen R. Reed, 67, made the plea on the morning when jury selection in his trial was scheduled to begin in Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors dropped 94 other counts. Reed, who was originally charged in 2015 with nearly 500 criminal counts, could receive up to nine months in prison under state sentencing guidelines when Judge Kevin Hess sentences him on Friday, although he may only get probation. Many of the more serious charges, including bribery and siphoning money from bond issues, were dismissed last year on statute of limitations grounds.  “Today’s guilty plea marks the final chapter in a case that has gone on for several years,” said Deputy Attorney General Rebecca Frantz. “This will help the city of Harrisburg to move on.” Reed, known as an avid private collector of Civil War and American West memorabilia during his 28 years in office, pleaded guilty to illegal possession of 20 historical documents and photographs with a total value of more than $18,000.  The artifacts were among thousands acquired by Reed with public funds for a proposed Museum of the American West that he had hoped to build in financially strapped Harrisburg. After his plea, Reed told reporters he experienced “gut-wrenching humiliation and embarrassment” over his arrest, after serving as Harrisburg’s mayor for decades. He said many of the artifacts seized from his home and warehouse during a raid in 2015 were legally owned by him, but similar to ones acquired with public funds for the museum. He believes the 20 items in the plea were accidentally placed in boxes of his own papers after he hastily left office following his defeat in 2010, but acknowledged the packing was done under his supervision. “The precepts of my faith require that I take responsibility for this error, and that was my ultimate deciding factor in doing this plea,” Reed said. A hearing is scheduled in March on Reed’s petition for the return of artifacts he believes belong to him. Frantz said prosecutors would oppose that request. Harrisburg has been under state financial supervision since 2011, primarily because of cost overruns on an incinerator retrofit project.

Summary: पेंसिल्वेनिया की राजधानी के पूर्व महापौर ने चोरी के मामले में दोषी ठहराया


BEIJING (Reuters) - China s top newspaper warned Communist Party officials on Thursday not to  pray to God and worship Buddha , because communism is about atheism and superstition is at the root of many corrupt officials who fall from grace. China officially guarantees freedom of religion for major belief systems like Christianity, Buddhism and Islam, but party members are meant to be atheists and are especially banned from participating in what China calls superstitious practices like visiting soothsayers. The party s official People s Daily said in a commentary it had not been uncommon over the past few years to see officials taken down for corruption to have also participated in  feudalistic superstitious activities .  In fact, some officials often go to monasteries, pray to God and worship Buddha,  it said.  Some officials are obsessed with rubbing shoulders with masters, fraternizing with them as brothers and becoming their lackeys and their money-trees.  Chinese people, especially the country s leaders, have a long tradition of putting their faith in soothsaying and geomancy, looking for answers in times of doubt, need and chaos. The practice has grown more risky amid a sweeping crackdown on deep-seated corruption launched by President Xi Jinping upon assuming power in late 2012, in which dozens of senior officials have been imprisoned. The People s Daily pointed to the example of Li Chuncheng, a former deputy party chief in Sichuan who was jailed for 13 years in 2015 for bribery and abuse of power, who it said was an enthusiastic user of the traditional Chinese geomancy practice of fengshui. Another much more junior official, in the southern province of Jiangxi, wore charms to ward off bad luck, it said.  As an official, if you spend all your time fixating on crooked ways, sooner or later you ll come to grief,  it said. The founder of modern China, Mao Zedong, banned fortune telling and superstition in puritan, communist China after the 1949 revolution, but the occult has made a comeback since the still officially atheist country embraced economic reforms and began opening up in the late 1970s. In one of the most famous recent cases, China s powerful former security chief Zhou Yongkang was jailed for life in part due to accusations he leaked undisclosed state secrets to a fortune teller and healer called Cao Yongzheng, known as the  Xinjiang sage  after the far western region where he grew up. The People s Daily said officials must remember Marx s guiding words that  Communism begins from the outset with atheism .  Superstition is thought pollution and spiritual anesthesia that cannot be underestimated and must be thoroughly purged,  it said.

Summary: चीन के शीर्ष अखबार ने पार्टी के अधिकारियों को 'आध्यात्मिक संज्ञाहरण' के खिलाफ चेतावनी दी


SYDNEY (Reuters) - Around 12.6 million Australians, or 78.5 percent of eligible voters, have voted so far in a postal ballot on whether same-sex marriage should be legalized, the Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday. The poll, which closes later on Tuesday, is non-binding, but the government has said it will put a proposal to parliament to make Australia the 25th nation to permit same-sex marriage, if a majority of voters are in favor of it. The final results will be announced on Nov. 15.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रेलिया में समान लिंग विवाह सर्वेक्षण में 78.5 प्रतिशत प्रतिक्रिया दर प्राप्त हुई