BRUSSELS (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May meets European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker for lunch in Brussels on Monday for what could be a breakthrough in Brexit talks. Here is a timeline of the following 10 days that will determine whether Britain avoids further costly delays in giving business assurances of a smooth exit from the European Union and of free trade with its biggest market in the future: May wants the EU to open the second phase of Brexit negotiations concerning relations after Britain s withdrawal on March 30, 2019. The EU will only do that if there is  sufficient progress  in agreeing  divorce  terms, notably on three key issues: a financial settlement, guaranteed rights for EU citizens in Britain and a  soft border  with Ireland. A deal on money is effectively done, EU officials said last week. There were indications of agreement on citizens  rights and of an understanding of how at least to move forward on the Irish issue to avoid holding up the rest of the package. As part of the  choreography  for a political deal, the EU set May an  absolute deadline  of Monday, Dec. 4, to provide new offers in time for the other EU leaders to approve a move to Phase 2 at a summit of the EU-27 on Friday, Dec. 15.  May is pushing for a simultaneous, reciprocal guarantee from the EU of a soft transition and future trade deal, which she may use to show Britons what her compromises have secured. The EU wants to have firm British offers which the 27 can discuss before leaders commit. The result is some complex dance steps: Monday, Dec. 4 11 a.m. (1000 GMT) - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and his Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier meet Guy Verhofstadt and his Brexit team from the European Parliament. The legislature, which must ratify any withdrawal treaty, insists EU judges must have the final say on enforcing citizens  rights. 1:15 p.m. (1215 GMT) - May joins Juncker and Barnier for lunch at the EU executive s Berlaymont headquarters. The plan is to sign a joint declaration on progress so far in the talks. Wednesday, Dec. 6 10 a.m. - Juncker chairs weekly European Commission meeting at which Barnier will update them on progress. The Commission could then say there is sufficient progress to move to Phase 2. 3 p.m. - EU-27 envoys meet to prepare formal decision on sufficient progress to be taken at EU-27 summit on Dec. 15 and to work on draft negotiating guidelines for future trade deal. Monday, Dec.  11 EU-27 sherpas meet to prepare the summit. Tuesday, Dec. 12 EU affairs ministers of EU-27 meet to prepare summit. Thursday, Dec. 14 4 p.m. - May attends routine EU summit in Brussels. Defence, social affairs, foreign affairs and migration are on the agenda. Friday, Dec. 15 After May has left, EU-27 leaders hold Brexit summit. They could take one comprehensive decision on Phase 2 or break it down into separate ones on the transition and future ties. January - Outline of EU transition offer may be ready, under which Britain retains all rights except voting in the bloc, and meets all its obligations until the end of 2020. February - After agreeing their negotiating terms, EU-27 may be ready to open talks with London on a free trade pact that Brussels likens to one it has with Canada. The EU estimated at some 60 billion euros ($71 billion) what Britain should pay to cover outstanding obligations on leaving. EU officials say there is now agreement after Britain offered to pay an agreed share of most of the items Brussels wanted, especially for committed spending that will go on after 2020. Both sides say there is no precise figure as much depends on future developments. British newspaper reports that it would cost up to 55 billion euros sparked only muted criticism from May s hardline pro-Brexit allies who once rejected big payments. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Saturday that London would be paying the EU 60 billion euros on Brexit. Barnier is still seeking a commitment that the rights of 3 million EU citizens who stay on in Britain after Brexit will be guaranteed by the European Court of Justice, not just by British judges. May has said the ECJ should play no more role in Britain. But the issue could be vital to ensure ratification of the withdrawal treaty by the European Parliament. A compromise might focus on making clear that the ECJ has a role only for the existing EU residents, whose numbers will shrink over time. Member states, some of which have taken a tougher line than the Brussels negotiators, are also insisting Britain make concessions on family reunion rules and social benefits. The EU wants more detail on a British pledge to avoid a  hard border  at the new land frontier on the island of Ireland that might disrupt peace in Northern Ireland. London says the detail depends on the future trade agreement. EU officials say a hard border can be avoided only if rules remain identical on either side. Northern Ireland could stay in a customs union with the EU. But Britain, and May s crucial Northern Irish parliamentary allies, insist there should be no new barriers between Northern Ireland and the British mainland. The EU says that means the whole of the United Kingdom would then have to follow EU rules, something Brexit campaigners do not want. Dublin says it may not be possible to reach a deal on sufficient progress by Monday but in the days after that. Ireland, with the blessing of the EU-27, says it will veto any move to Phase 2 if Britain s border offer is unsatisfactory.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ब्रेक्सिट की सफलता की उलटी गिनती?


WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump said on Saturday he has chosen U.S. Representative Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina to be his White House budget director, turning to a fiscal conservative to help pursue his policy agenda. The nomination to be director of the White House Office of Budget and Management will require Senate confirmation. The announcement was made as Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, began his holiday vacation at Mar-a-Lago, his oceanfront club in nearby Palm Beach, Florida. Mulvaney, 49, was an outspoken critic of former House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, who resigned in 2015 amid opposition from fellow Republicans who were members of the House Freedom Caucus. Mulvaney’s selection points to a strategy by Trump to cut government where he can. The president-elect in recent days has, for example, railed against what he has labeled a far too expensive new version of the Air Force One aircraft he will fly that Boeing is supposed to build. In a statement announcing his selection, Trump called Mulvaney a strong voice in Congress for “reining in out-of-control spending, fighting government waste and enacting tax policies that will allow working Americans to thrive.” “With Mick at the head of OMB, my administration is going to make smart choices about America’s budget, bring new accountability to our federal government, and renew the American taxpayer’s trust in how their money is spent,” Trump said. Mulvaney said the Trump administration “will restore budgetary and fiscal sanity back in Washington”. “Each day, families across our nation make disciplined choices about how to spend their hard-earned money, and the federal government should exercise the same discretion that hard-working Americans do every day,” Mulvaney said. Trump on Friday night vowed to seek approval from Congress to spend $1 trillion in new spending to rebuild America’s crumbling network of roads, bridges, airports and other infrastructure as a way to create jobs and make some needed repairs. “We are going to fix our country. It’s time. We have no choice. It’s time,” Trump said in Orlando, Florida. Democratic President Barack Obama had sought infrastructure spending but was thwarted by Republicans in Congress.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने व्हाइट हाउस के बजट निदेशक के रूप में मुलवेनी को चुना


SALERNO, Italy (Reuters) - Italy held a mass funeral on Friday for 26 young Nigerian women who drowned while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea. A Roman Catholic bishop and a Muslim imam both said prayers at the simple ceremony in the southern city of Salerno, with 26 wooden coffins laid out on a stone dais. A single white rose was placed on the lid of each. Just two of the women were identified.  It is very likely that these girls were victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation,  said Federico Soda, director UN migration agency IOM for the Mediterranean. A recent IOM report had estimated that 80 percent of Nigerian girls arriving in Italy by sea might be trafficking victims. The 26 bodies were retrieved from the sea on Nov. 3 by a Spanish rescue ship, while some 64 people were unaccounted for and feared lost, bringing the total dead to around 90, said Flavio Di Giacomo, an IOM spokesman. Survivors found on nearby rubber boats said the women were all Nigerian and had left Libya hoping to make it to Italy. The only two identified were named as Marian Shaka, who was married, and Osato Osaro. Both were pregnant. Some of those who died were believed to have been as young as 14. Almost 115,000 migrants, mainly African men, have reached Italy so far this year, according to government data released on Friday, against just over 167,000 in the same period last year. IOM said at least 2,925 people died trying to cross the Mediterranean from Jan 1.-Nov. 5 against 4,302 last year. The Italian government has worked with Libyan authorities to block migrants from leaving the north African state, leading to a sharp fall in new arrivals since the summer. The government says its policy has cut the number of sea deaths, while critics say it has left thousands of refugees and migrants trapped in appalling conditions in Libya.

Summary: इटली ने भूमध्य सागर में डूबने वाली 26 नाइजीरियाई महिलाओं का अंतिम संस्कार किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. first lady Michelle Obama will join her husband, President Barack Obama, for his trip to Britain later this week, the White House said on Monday. The Obamas will attend a private lunch with Queen Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip at Windsor Castle on Friday.  That evening they will have diner with Prince William, his wife Kate, and Prince Harry at Kensington Palace, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. The president’s trip comes as the British weigh whether or not to remain in the European Union in an upcoming referendum and as Obama completes his final year in office as president.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउसः मिशेल ओबामा अपने पति के साथ ब्रिटेन की यात्रा पर जाएंगी


WASHINGTON/HAGERSTOWN, Md. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Friday fired his chief strategist Steve Bannon in the latest White House shake-up, removing a far-right architect of his 2016 election victory and a driving force behind his nationalist and anti-globalization agenda. Bannon’s firing, a year and a day after Trump hired him as his campaign chief, put an abrupt end to the rabble-rousing political provocateur’s tumultuous tenure in a White House riven with rivalries and back-stabbing during which he clashed with more-moderate factions. He was instrumental in some of Trump’s most contentious policy moves including the ban on people from several Muslim-majority countries, abandoning the Paris climate accord, tearing up international trade agreements and cracking down on illegal immigration. He was no friend of the Republican political establishment and was loathed by liberals but was a darling of some of the president’s hard-line conservative supporters. White House officials said Trump had told new Chief of Staff John Kelly to crack down on the bickering and infighting, and that Bannon’s fate was sealed by comments published on  Wednesday in the American Prospect liberal magazine in which he spoke of targeting his adversaries within the administration. Trump, seven months into his presidency, has become increasingly isolated over his comments following white supremacist violence in the Virginia college town of Charlottesville last Saturday and his attacks on fellow Republicans. Some Republicans had even begun questioning Trump’s capacity to govern. As Trump came under fire from Republicans including two former presidents, and from business leaders and U.S. allies abroad, he faced mounting calls for Bannon’s ouster. Critics had accused Bannon of harboring anti-Semitic and white nationalist sentiments. “White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Steve Bannon have mutually agreed today would be Steve’s last day,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement. Bannon returned to his post as executive chairman of right-wing Breitbart News on Friday afternoon, the website said. Prior to joining the Trump campaign, he had spearheaded Breitbart’s shift into a forum for the “alt-right,” a loose online confederation of neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anti-Semites. Bannon said his departure from the White House signals a major shift for the Trump agenda. “The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over,” Bannon told the conservative Weekly Standard.  “I just think his ability to get anything done - particularly the bigger things, like the wall, the bigger, broader things that we fought for, it’s just gonna be that much harder,” Bannon said. He said he would use Breitbart to attack opponents of the  populist and nationalist agenda he championed, including establishment Republicans. “I am definitely going to crush the opposition,” Bannon said. He became the latest key figure to abruptly depart a Trump White House that has been chaotic from its first days and already has lost a chief of staff, a national security adviser, two communications directors and a chief spokesman. Trump’s presidency also has been dogged by ongoing investigations in Congress and a special counsel named by the Justice Department into potential collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia, something both Trump and Moscow deny. Bannon, 63, is a former U.S. Navy officer, Goldman Sachs investment banker and Hollywood movie producer. He had been in a precarious position before but Trump opted to keep him, in part because he had played a major role in Trump’s November 2016 election victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton and was backed by many of the president’s most loyal rank-and-file supporters. Democrats cheered Bannon’s departure. “Steve Bannon’s firing is welcome news,” said Nancy Pelosi, the top House of Representatives Democrat. “The Trump Administration must not only purge itself of the remaining white supremacists on staff, but abandon the bigoted ideology that clearly governs its decisions.” Wall Street indexes and the U.S. dollar ended a volatile session lower after a week of drama in Washington intensified doubts about Trump’s ability to deliver on policy objectives such as tax cuts. After a late-morning boost following reports of Bannon’s ouster, the dollar and U.S. equities lost ground. Bannon felt a close ideological connection to Trump’s populist tendencies and “America First” message. Like Trump, he has also expressed deep skepticism concerning ongoing American military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. The decision to fire Bannon could undermine Trump’s support among far-right voters but might ease tensions within the White House and with party leaders. Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress but have been unable to pass major legislative goals including a healthcare overhaul. Trump ran into trouble after saying anti-racism demonstrators in Charlottesville were as responsible for the violence as the neo-Nazis and white supremacists who instigated the protests, and that there were “very fine people” among both groups. Those remarks sparked rebukes from fellow Republicans, top corporate executives and some close allies. Bannon’s departure removes a large source of friction on the White House staff, but does not herald a significant shift by Trump toward the center on major policy issues, three administration officials said. “A good deal of what was attributed to Bannon, for example on China trade and restricting immigration, and the border wall, all came before Bannon joined the campaign and would have happened without him,” said one White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Bannon has been a hawk on China, urging a tougher line on trade to correct a huge trade imbalance and dismissive of recent efforts to try to elicit Beijing’s help to rein in North Korea. In his comments to American Prospect, Bannon said the United States was in an economic war with China.     A second official said the biggest winners from Bannon’s departure are national security adviser H.R. McMaster; Gary Cohn, Trump’s chief economic adviser; and Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner. Bannon’s departure cast a cloud over the future of the group of allies he had brought into the White House, such as Sebastian Gorka. Some conservative activists expressed disappointment in Bannon’s ouster. Republicans were largely quiet, though moderate Republican congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said she was glad Bannon was out but that the administration “must work to build bridges, not destroy them.” By the time Trump had hired Bannon as campaign manager, the real estate magnate had already vanquished his Republican opponents for the party’s presidential nomination. Asked about Bannon on Tuesday, Trump called him “a friend of mine” but downplayed his contribution to his election victory. “Mr. Bannon came on very late. You know that. I went through 17 senators, governors and I won all the primaries. Mr. Bannon came on very much later than that. And I like him. He is a good man. He is not a racist,” Trump said.

Summary: नवीनतम उथल-पुथल में ट्रम्प ने विवादास्पद मुख्य रणनीतिकार बैनन को हटा दिया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - A 26-year-old former campaign staffer for Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has accused the campaign of sex discrimination, the New York Times reported on Sunday. Elizabeth Mae Davidson, who worked as an organizer in Iowa for the New York businessman, filed a complaint with the Davenport, Iowa, Civil Rights Commission, claiming female staffers were paid less than male staffers, according to the report. She claimed her requests to plan and speak at Trump’s campaign rallies were ignored while her male peers were allowed to do so, it said. Davidson also claimed that Trump had addressed her and a young female volunteer with a remark that referred to the women’s appearances, saying “you guys could do a lot of damage,” the Times report said. According to the Times, Trump, in an interview on Sunday, denied having made the remark to the two women. He did not address the other two allegations, the Times said, and he said he did not remember Davidson but had been told she had done “a terrible job” while working on the campaign. Davidson, who was fired on Jan. 14, and her lawyer Dorothy O’Brien did not respond to requests for comment.  Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for Trump, said the campaign had not been notified that a complaint had been filed.  “These claims from a disgruntled former part-time employee are without merit,” Hicks said. “She is in violation of her contract and continues to disparage the campaign with falsehoods, which, in addition to doing a terrible job, is why she was terminated weeks ago.”  (Reporting By Emily Flitter; Editing by Dan Grebler) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.

Summary: ट्रम्प अभियान के पूर्व कर्मचारी ने भेदभाव की शिकायत दर्ज कराईः न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Iran and Saudi Arabia will exchange diplomatic visits soon, Tehran said on Wednesday, indicating a possible thaw in relations between the regional rivals since they severed diplomatic ties last year. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told the Iranian Students  News Agency (ISNA) that the visits could take place after the haj pilgrimage ends in the first week of September.  The visas have been issued for both sides to make this trip,  Zarif said, according to ISNA.  We are waiting for the final steps to be completed so diplomats from the two countries can inspect their embassies and consulates.  Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia are at their worst in years, with each accusing the other of subverting regional security and supporting opposite sides in conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran in Jan. 2016 after a prominent Saudi Shi ite cleric was executed, prompting Riyadh to close the embassy. Saudi Arabia and several other Arab governments have severed ties with Qatar, citing its support of Iran as one of the main reasons. Iran has blamed Saudi Arabia for being behind deadly twin attacks on June 7 in Tehran claimed by Islamic State. At least 18 people were killed and more than 40 wounded in the attacks, in which Riyadh has denied any involvement. Thousands of Iranian pilgrims are currently undertaking the haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

Summary: ईरान और सऊदी अरब राजनयिक यात्राओं का आदान-प्रदान करेंगेः ईरानी विदेश मंत्री


CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. farm groups criticized President Donald Trump’s decision to retreat from his predecessor’s opening toward Cuba, saying it could derail huge increases in farm exports that totaled $221 million last year. A trade delegation from Minnesota, one of the largest U.S. agriculture states, vowed to carry on with its planned visit to Cuba next week. “We’re going to continue to beat the drum and let them (the Trump administration) know that trade is good for agriculture,” said Kevin Paap, a farmer in the delegation. Trump signed a presidential directive on Friday rolling back parts of former President Barack Obama’s opening to the Communist-ruled country after a 2014 diplomatic breakthrough between the two former Cold War foes. Farm groups saw the move as a step backward in what had been an improving trade relationship between the two countries which are just 90 miles (145 kms) apart, even though agriculture is not directly targeted. U.S. law exempts food from a decades-old embargo on U.S. trade with Cuba, but cumbersome rules on how transactions were executed have made deals difficult and costly. Since Obama’s detente, substantial headway has been made, however, with shipments of U.S. corn and soybeans to Cuba soaring 420 percent in 2016 from a year earlier to 268,360 tonnes, U.S. Department of Agriculture data shows. Through the first four months of 2017, total shipments of U.S. grain and soy were 142,860 tonnes, up from 49,090 tonnes during the same period of 2016. While the quantities are dwarfed by total U.S. exports — nearly 56 million tonnes of corn alone last year — the added volumes were welcome as farmers face a fourth year of languishing grain prices and crimped incomes. “At a time when the farm economy is struggling, we ask our leaders in Washington not to close doors on market opportunities for American agriculture,” Wesley Spurlock, president of the National Corn Growers Association, said in a statement. The group sees an opportunity for $125 million more a year in trade to Cuba. Trump’s move could cut off near-term sales and stymie economic development that would drive longer-term demand growth, said Tom Sleight, president of the U.S. Grains Council, a grain trade development organization, in a statement. “Neither of those outcomes is favorable for the U.S. ag sector or the Cuban people,” he added. Paap said the United States should be doing more to encourage exports. “It’s frustrating because we’ve made some advances and built those relationships,” he said.

Summary: अमेरिकी किसानों ने ट्रम्प के क्यूबा प्रतिबंध की निंदा की, व्यापार यात्रा के साथ आगे बढ़े


VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria s far-right Freedom Party (FPO) on Wednesday named control of the interior ministry as its price for joining a future coalition government following its strong showing in a parliamentary election. The anti-immigrant, anti-Islam FPO won around 26 percent of votes cast in Sunday s election. The conservative People s Party (OVP) won most votes by also taking a hard line on immigration, while the centre-left Social Democrats took second place. Asked if the FPO would stick by its pre-election insistence that it would only join a future coalition if its candidate became interior minister, party leader Heinz-Christian Strache told reporters:  Yes.   We won t go down on our knees for anyone. At 26 percent we naturally aim to implement our (FPO) policies in government,  Strache added. The interior ministry in Austria oversees asylum claims and the fight against terrorism, among other responsibilities. Austria s president will on Friday formally ask Sebastian Kurz, leader of the OVP, the largest party at around 32 percent, to start negotiations on forming a new coalition government. The OVP and the FPO overlap in their plans to curb immigration, cut social benefits for refugees, reduce the tax burden on companies and work towards repatriating powers to national governments from Brussels while strengthening external border security. (Click tmsnrt.rs/2yVUDsq for Election graphic) All parties have kept their coalition options open, but the Social Democrats (SPO) are technically still bound by a party conference decision from 2014 that bans it from entering into a coalition government with the Freedom Party.  Under Austria s outgoing Social Democrat chancellor, Christian Kern, the SPO has opened up significantly to the Freedom Party by introducing a so-called  value compass  for potential partners which does not specifically rule out working with the Freedom Party. But Strache said on Wednesday that as long as there was no fresh vote among the Social Democrats  base to formally annul the 2014 decision, talk of his party teaming up with the SPO was  theoretical . Influential FPO official Manfred Haimbuchner told newspaper Der Standard that he definitely preferred his party to form a government with the conservatives. The FPO was founded by ex-Nazis in the 1950s and first became a major political force in the 1990s under the charismatic Joerg Haider, who praised Hitler s employment policies. Today the party says it has put its Nazi past behind it and purged its ranks of anti-Semitism but still frequently has to expel members for anti-Semitic comments. It has, however, stopped calling for Austria to leave the European Union. For more stories on Austria s election, please see

Summary: गठबंधन वार्ता से पहले ऑस्ट्रिया के दूर-दराज़ हितधारकों ने आंतरिक मंत्रालय पर दावा किया


PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - The United States stopped election support for Cambodia with a promise of more  concrete steps  and the European Union threatened vital trade preferences after the main opposition party to Prime Minister Hun Sen was banned. But China said it supported Cambodia in following its own path, making no criticism of the government led by the former Khmer Rouge commander who is one of Beijing s most important allies in Southeast Asia after more than three decades in power. The ban on the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), decreed by the Supreme Court at the government s request, followed the arrest of its leader for treason. Kem Sokha is accused of plotting to take power with American help. Hun Sen s critics called the CNRP dissolution an attempt to steal the election and the death knell for democracy. Western donors have spent billions of dollars since 1993 trying to build a multiparty system following decades of war.  On current course, next year s election will not be legitimate, free or fair,  a White House statement said, promising to take  concrete steps . The first of those was to end support for the Cambodian National Election Committee ahead of the 2018 election, it said. In April, the U.S. embassy announced a $1.8 million grant to assist local elections in 2017 and next year s general election. In Brussels, an EU spokesman said the election could not be legitimate without the opposition and noted that respect for human rights was a prerequisite for Cambodia s access to EU trade preferences under its  Everything But Arms scheme.  That scheme, giving tariff-free access, and similar trade preferences in the United States have helped Cambodia build a garment industry on low-cost labor. Between them, EU and U.S. markets take some 60 percent of Cambodia s exports.  I am very worried after the dissolution of the party,  factory sewer Heng Kheang, 35, said as other colleagues nodded in agreement at their lunch break.  Workers will be most affected, more than the rich.   In a symbolic step, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution calling on the Treasury and State departments to consider placing Cambodian officials implicated in abuses on a watch list for asset freezes and travel bans. Huy Vannak, undersecretary of state at Cambodia s Interior Ministry who is close to Hun Sen, said the U.S. position was  made without consideration to the evidence and court hearing .  We hope that the U.S. will consider the overall bilateral relations with Cambodia and continue to collaborate with common interests of both countries,  he said. In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a news briefing that China supported Cambodia in pursuing its own development path. China is by far the biggest single donor to Cambodia and its biggest investor. Hun Sen has been in a deepening war of words with the U.S. embassy and State Department over a crackdown on his critics, but at the weekend posed with U.S. President Donald Trump at a regional summit and praised his policies of non-interference. The fact that the threat of action came from the White House gave it greater weight than previous statements from the State Department calling for the release of Kem Sokha. So far, Western countries have shown little appetite for sanctions and the opposition itself has shied away from calling for steps to restrict garment exports because of the hundreds of thousands of workers who depend on them. But leaders of the CNRP now say they support some sanctions.  Sanctions are the best leverage for negotiation for free, fair and inclusive elections,  said Mu Sochua, a deputy to CNRP leader Kem Sokha, who fled Cambodia fearing arrest. There have been no protests over the opposition party ban and many people in the capital, Phnom Penh, said they were afraid to speak out. There were no party members at the CNRP headquarters on Friday, only security guards.  They are worried about their safety,  said guard Chin Savy. The central market was full of its usual bustle and one man told Reuters he was glad to see the back of the opposition.  Hun Sen has a lot of help from China. If he just depended on the U.S., we wouldn t be anywhere,  said Khen Kong, 69, a businessman. In a televised address on Thursday, Hun Sen told Cambodians the election would go ahead  as normal  and appealed to politicians from the CNRP who had not been banned to join his Cambodian People s Party. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra ad Al Hussein expressed grave concern about the conduct of credible elections next year as well as a clampdown on civil rights groups and independent media.

Summary: विपक्ष पर प्रतिबंध लगाने के बाद कंबोडिया को अमेरिका, यूरोपीय संघ की कार्रवाई का सामना करना पड़ा


KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia has identified all 23 people who died in a horrific fire at an Islamic boarding school, an official said on Friday, as calls mounted for tougher regulation after the worst such tragedy in two decades. The fire killed 21 teenage boys and two teachers after it broke out early on Thursday at a  tahfiz  school, where students learned to memorize the Koran.   We hope and pray this will be the last such incident and preventive actions must be in place and be the order of the day,  said Noor Hisham Abdullah, Malaysia s director general of health, adding that DNA tests were used to identify the bodies.    There have been 31 similar fire incidents in the past, Malaysian officials said, but media put the figure higher. Among 1,034 fires in religious schools during the two years to August 2017, 211 schools burned to the ground, the Star daily said, quoting fire department figures. Family members of Mohamad Haikal Abdullah, a 12-year-old who died in the blaze, were furious over reports that the only door to the school s dormitory had caught fire while metal bars on the windows trapped the boys, leaving them unable to escape.  From what we understand, there was only one way out, but they couldn t get through because it was on fire,  said his brother, Faizal Abdullah, as he waited outside a hospital morgue for his sibling s remains to be identified.   How could they have escaped? How could something like this have happened? We want to know.  Fire officials said they found no damage to the electrical wiring of the dormitory, ruling out their earlier suggestion that a short circuit probably caused the blaze. The incident is being investigated as negligence, the fire chief, Wan Mohd Nor Ibrahim, told state news agency Bernama. The school denied a statement by authorities that it had made structural changes without approval from fire officials. Muslim-majority Malaysia offers a secular education system, but growing conservatism has led to a boom in the number of Islamic religious schools, most privately-run and not overseen by education authorities.  Some offer a curriculum similar to secular schools, but with a greater emphasis on Islamic knowledge, while others provide more specialized education. Inadequate regulation and training has led to a slew of safety issues at such schools, including reports of fires, abuse, and student deaths, religious leader Mohamad Asri Zainul Abidin said on social media site Facebook. Some owners had set up schools simply as money-making enterprises or to satisfy their own interests, said Mohamad Asri, the mufti of the northern state of Perlis.  Some low quality schools, in order to save costs, also take in anyone ready to teach, even when they have nothing to do with the subjects they re teaching,  he added. Some religious schools were reluctant to follow government regulations for fear of interference in their administration, said Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.    Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, whose tenure lasted 22 years, said no lessons had been learned in nearly three decades, citing a 1989 tragedy that killed 27 girls at a religious school.   I m sad that this kind of incident happened again,  news portal the Malaysian Insight quoted him as saying after visiting victims  families.  Safety measures are very important. I hope after this, all schools will review (safety measures).

Summary: मलेशिया ने सुरक्षा को लेकर आक्रोश के बीच धार्मिक स्कूल में आग लगने के पीड़ितों की पहचान की


ANKARA (Reuters) - A Turkish court on Friday sentenced 25 people, including a former coastguard commander, to life in prison for trying to overthrow the government during a failed coup last year, state news agency Anadolu reported. Prosecutors had charged 28 people over incidents at a naval base in the northwestern province of Kocaeli on July 15, the night of the coup attempt. Three suspects were acquitted. The Ankara court named the coastguard commander as Hakan Ustem. The trial was one of the first in a series of cases against people accused of involvement in the failed putsch, in which more than 240 people were killed when rogue soldiers commandeered tanks, warplanes and helicopters and attacked state institutions including parliament. Earlier this month, a court found 42 former soldiers guilty of trying to kill President Tayyip Erdogan during the coup, handing most of them life sentences. The government blames the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of Erdogan, for orchestrating the failed coup.  Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, has denied involvement and condemned the coup.

Summary: तुर्की के पूर्व तटरक्षक कमांडर, 24 अन्य को तख्तापलट के मुकदमे में आजीवन कारावास की सजा


GENEVA (Reuters) - Aung San Suu Kyi has set out plans for a new humanitarian project to enable Myanmar s Rakhine State to emerge as a peaceful and developed region, which a close adviser said showed her determination to fix the country s refugee crisis. Suu Kyi said in a televised address on Thursday evening that she would invite aid organizations, business leaders and civil society to take part in the initiative, which aims to defuse the violence that has caused 536,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee from Rakhine State to Bangladesh in the past two months.  What she s interested in is how to fix this, how to... give the civilian government, as opposed to the military, the power to deliver aid, reconciliation and rebuilding,  said the adviser, who briefed reporters, by telephone, on condition of anonymity.   That s the task she has set herself.  In her speech, Suu Kyi said that although the government may not be strong, she hoped the strength and generosity of the people would turn the initiative, to be launched on Sunday, into a  milestone  in Myanmar s history.  Representatives of Suu Kyi in Myanmar could not be reached to confirm the adviser s comments. But two leading Myanmar experts confirmed to Reuters that the adviser was close to her. The United Nations has called the violence in Myanmar a  textbook example of ethnic cleansing , and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi has been widely criticized for failing to take action to stop it.  She is appalled by what she has seen. She does care deeply about this. I know that does not always come across. But she really does,  Suu Kyi s adviser told reporters.  But she had to tread carefully in order not to inflame things further, he said, saying Myanmar s transition to democracy was in a  perilous position .

Summary: म्यांमार की सू की ने रोहिंग्या संकट को समाप्त करने के लिए सहायता योजना तैयार की


DETROIT (Reuters) - A federal judge halted late on Monday the deportation of all Iraqi nationals detained during immigration sweeps across the United States this month until at least July 10, expanding a stay he imposed last week. The stay had initially only protected 114 detainees from the Detroit area. U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith sided with lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union who filed an amended complaint on Saturday seeking to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from deporting Iraqis from anywhere in the United States.  The ACLU argued those being deported could face persecution, torture, or death because many were Chaldean Catholics, Sunni Muslims, or Iraqi Kurds and that the groups were recognized as targets of ill-treatment in Iraq. Goldsmith agreed with the ACLU on the grave consequences deportees may face, writing in his seven-page opinion and order that: “Such harm far outweighs any interest the Government may have in proceeding with the removals immediately.” On Thursday, Goldsmith ordered a stay in the Michigan Iraqis’ deportation for at least two weeks while he decided whether he had jurisdiction over the merits of deporting immigrants who could face physical danger in their countries of origin. He expanded his stay on Monday to the broader class of Iraqi nationals nationwide, saying it applies to the removal of all Iraqi nationals in the United States with final orders of removal who have been or will be detained by ICE. There are 1,444 Iraqi nationals who have final deportation orders against them, although only 199 of them were detained as part of a nationwide sweep by immigration authorities, federal prosecutors said in court on Monday. Those detained had convictions for serious crimes, including rape and kidnapping, ICE said. Goldsmith also said his stays were designed to give detainees time to find legal representation to appeal against their deportation orders, and to give him time to weigh the question of his jurisdiction. Daniel Lemisch, acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, called the opinion “highly extraordinary.” “But it’s a very extraordinary circumstance because of the on-the-ground situation in Iraq,” Lemisch said by phone, referring to the danger faced by possible deportees.  ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt praised the ruling for saying that “the lives of these individuals should not depend on what part of the United States they reside and whether they could find a lawyer to file a federal court action.” Goldsmith’s order came the same day the U.S. Supreme Court handed a victory to President Donald Trump by reviving parts of a travel ban on people from six Muslim-majority countries. The roundup in Michigan followed Iraq’s agreement to accept deportees as part of a deal that removed the country from Trump’s revised temporary travel ban. Some of those affected came to the United States as children and committed their crimes decades ago, but they had been allowed to stay because Iraq previously declined to issue travel documents for them. That changed after the two governments came to the agreement in March.

Summary: अमेरिकी न्यायाधीश ने देश भर में इराकियों के निर्वासन पर रोक लगाई


NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya s election commission on Friday postponed plans to hold delayed elections in some constituencies in western Kenya where voting has not taken place yet, saying persistent insecurity made it too dangerous for staff. Wafula Chebukati, chairman of the election commission, said the postponement would affect dozens of constituencies in Kisumu, Migori, Siaya and Homa Bay counties. Voting was due to take place on Saturday after polls failed to open on Thursday due to protests by opposition supporters.

Summary: केन्या में देरी से मतदान कराने की योजना कुछ देशों में स्थगित कर दी गई


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel proposed a fiscal 2018 budget on Wednesday that he said eschews “fiscal smoke and mirrors,” but critics said vestiges of those practices remain. In his annual budget speech to the city council, Emanuel said the spending plan is free of what he called any “budget gimmick” like so-called scoop and toss, which extends maturities on existing bonds to provide budget relief, for the first time since he took office. “Every single bad financial practice we inherited in 2011 has now been eliminated from the budget,” he said. The $10 billion budget, which includes $3.77 billion for operations, relies on $94 million in savings from a future bond refinancing under a new debt structure.  A chronic structural budget deficit and an unfunded pension liability that totaled $35.76 billion at the end of 2016 have led to low credit ratings and increased borrowing costs for the nation’s third-largest city. The mayor’s budget accelerates savings from a plan approved by the city council this month to refinance up to $3 billion of sales tax revenue and general obligation bonds through a new entity at lower interest rates. The new Sales Tax Securitization Corp will be assigned Chicago’s state-collected sales tax revenue and will pledge that money to pay off the refinanced bonds. Bond investors will have a statutory lien shielding the debt from municipal bankruptcy, which is not allowed under Illinois law. Carole Brown, Chicago’s chief financial officer, said the city will realize more savings from the debt refinancing in fiscal 2018, which begins on Jan. 1, than in 2019. “But we’ll expect to show savings annually until we’ve amortized all the debt,” she added. One critic, Alderman John Arena, said the new debt structure - which he opposed - could end up extending the life of some bonds by as much as 40 years.  “Our fear is that (Emanuel is) making the claim of moving scoop and toss out of the way we do business but really moving it over to that special entity,” he said.   Brown acknowledged that to achieve level debt service on the corporation’s bonds, maturities on existing bonds may change.  “It is possible we won’t 100 percent match maturity for maturity,” she said. The budget counts on $50.3 million in revenue growth, $19.35 million in spending cuts, as well as other measures to address a $114.2 million structural gap and more than $87 million in new spending for additional police hires and reforms.

Summary: शिकागो के महापौर ने वित्त वर्ष 2018 के लिए 'नौटंकी-मुक्त' बजट पेश किया


VIENNA (Reuters) - A coalition deal between Austria s conservatives and far right will give the anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPO) control of the foreign, interior and defence ministries, among others, a conservative spokesman said. FPO Chairman Herbert Kickl will become interior minister while Mario Kunasek will run the defence ministry and international law expert Karin Kneissl, though not an FPO member, will become foreign minister on an FPO ticket, the spokesman said on Saturday. The People s Party of Sebastian Kurz, expected to become the next Austrian chancellor, will run ministries including finance, justice and agriculture, the spokesman added. Kurz confirmed earlier on Saturday that insurance executive Hartwig Loeger would become finance minister.

Summary: विदेश, आंतरिक मंत्रालयों को नियंत्रित करने का ऑस्ट्रियाई अधिकार-प्रवक्ता


MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Tuesday a call by opposition leader Alexei Navalny to boycott next year s presidential election must be checked to see if it complies with the law, paving the way for possible police action against him and his supporters. Navalny called on Monday for a boycott of the March 18 election after Russia s central election commission ruled he was not eligible to run for president due to a suspended prison sentence hanging over him.  The calls for a boycott will require scrupulous study, to see whether or not they comply with the law,  Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.  Declining to comment on the election commission s decision,  Peskov shrugged off allegations that the presidential poll would be a farce without Navalny.   The fact that one of the would-be candidates is not taking part has no bearing on the election s legitimacy,  said Peskov. Navalny, a 41-year-old lawyer, has repeatedly said the suspended sentence handed to him in an embezzlement case was politically motivated. On Monday Navalny said millions of voters would be disenfranchised without his participation in the election, which opinion polls show incumbent Vladimir Putin winning comfortably. The European Union also questioned the Russian election commission s decision to bar Navalny.  (It) casts a serious doubt on political pluralism in Russia and the prospect of democratic elections next year,  the EU s External Action Service said in a statement on Tuesday.  Politically motivated charges should not be used against political participation,  it said, urging Moscow to ensure a  level playing field  for all Russian elections. Putin, 65, has dominated Russia s political landscape for the last 17 years and if, as expected, he wins next year s election would be eligible to serve another six years until 2024, when he turns 72. Allies laud Putin as a father-of-the-nation figure who has restored national pride and expanded Moscow s global clout with interventions in Syria and Ukraine. Navalny says Putin s support is exaggerated and artificially maintained by a biased state media and an unfair system which excludes genuine opponents. He says he could defeat him in a fair election, an assertion Putin s supporters have laughed off. Navalny has been jailed three times this year and charged with breaking the law for organizing public meetings and rallies designed to bolster his presidential campaign.

Summary: क्रेमलिन चाहता है कि चुनाव बहिष्कार के विपक्ष के आह्वान की जांच हो


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Senate committee suspended rules on Thursday to approve U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, amid a boycott of his nomination by the panel’s Democratic members. John Barrasso, chair of the Senate’s environment and public works committee, said the panel would “suspend several rules” temporarily to approve the nomination of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as EPA administrator. Democrats on the committee boycotted Wednesday’s meeting to approve Pruitt, saying that he doubts the science of climate change and has too many conflicts of interest with the companies he would be charged with regulating. The full Senate will now vote on Pruitt’s nomination. The date for that has not yet been confirmed, but with Republicans holding a majority in the Senate, the nomination will likely be approved. Barrasso justified the move by saying that Pruitt, who sued the EPA 14 times as Oklahoma’s top attorney, reflects the agenda of the president who won the 2016 election. “Elections have consequences and a new president is entitled to put in place people who advance his agenda,” he said. Environmental groups, which have strongly criticized the choice of Pruitt, raised concerns that the nomination was pushed through to the full Senate. “If he is approved by the full Senate, he will start on day one as the worst EPA administrator in history,” said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group.

Summary: सीनेट पैनल ने डेमोक्रेट्स के बहिष्कार पर ट्रम्प ई. पी. ए. प्रमुख की पसंद को आगे बढ़ाया


(This October 11 story has been refiled to add Puigdemont s first name, title in paragraph three.) By Blanca Rodr guez and Sonya Dowsett MADRID/BARCELONA (Reuters) - Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Wednesday gave the Catalan government eight days to drop an independence bid, failing which he would suspend Catalonia s political autonomy and rule the region directly. His move could deepen the confrontation between Madrid and the northeastern region but also signals a way out of Spain s biggest political crisis since a failed military coup in 1981.    Rajoy would probably call a snap regional election after activating Article 155 of the constitution that would allow him to sack the Catalan regional government. Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont issued a symbolic declaration of independence from Spain on Tuesday night but then immediately suspended it and called for negotiations with the Madrid government.  The cabinet has agreed this morning to formally request the Catalan government to confirm whether it has declared the  independence of Catalonia, regardless of the deliberate confusion created over its implementation,  Rajoy said in a televised address after a cabinet meeting called to consider the government s response. He later told Spain s parliament the Catalan government had until Monday, Oct. 16 at 0800 GMT to answer. If Puigdemont was to confirm he did declare independence, he would be given an additional three days to rectify it, until Thursday, Oct. 19 at 0800 GMT. Failing this, Article 155 would be triggered. It is not yet clear if the Catalan government will answer the requirement but it now faces a conundrum, analysts say. If Puigdemont says he did proclaim independence, the central government will step in. If he says he did not declare it, then far-left party CUP would probably withdraw its support for his minority government.  Rajoy has two objectives: if Puigdemont remains ambiguous, the pro-independence movement will get more fragmented; if Puigdemont insists on defending independence then Rajoy will be able to apply Article 155,  said Antonio Barroso, deputy director of the London-based research firm Teneo Intelligence.  Either way, Rajoy s aim would be to first restore the rule of law in Catalonia and this could at some point lead to early elections in the region.  The stakes are high - losing Catalonia, which has its own language and culture, would deprive Spain of a fifth of its economic output and more than a quarter of exports.     Puigdemont had been widely expected to unilaterally declare Catalonia s independence on Tuesday after the Catalan government said 90 percent of Catalans had voted for a breakaway in an Oct. 1 referendum. Central authorities in Madrid had declared the referendum illegal and most opponents of independence boycotted it, reducing turnout to around 43 percent.  Madrid responded angrily to Puigdemont s speech to Catalonia s parliament, saying his government could not act on the results of the referendum.  Neither Mr. Puigdemont nor anyone else can claim, without returning to legality and democracy, to impose mediation... Dialogue between democrats takes place within the law,  Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said. Invoking Article 155 to ease Spain s worst political crisis in four decades would make prospects of a negotiated solution even more remote. A spokesman for the Catalan government in Barcelona said earlier on Wednesday that if Madrid went down this road, it would press ahead with steps towards statehood.  We have given up absolutely nothing...We have taken a time out...which doesn t mean a step backwards, or a renunciation or anything like that,  Catalan government spokesman Jordi Turull told Catalunya Radio. Spanish Socialist opposition leader Pedro Sanchez said he would back Rajoy if he had to activate Article 155 and that he  agreed with the premier to launch constitutional reform within six months to address how Catalonia could fit better in Spain. It was not clear how the Catalan government would respond to that offer.      Puigdemont s speech also disappointed supporters of independence, thousands of whom watched proceedings on giant screens outside parliament before sadly leaving for home. Financial markets, however, were encouraged that an immediate declaration of independence had been avoided. After Puigdemont s speech, Spain s benchmark IBEX share index rose as much as 1.6 percent, outperforming the pan-European STOXX 600 index. The rally propelled the main world stocks index, the MSCI s 47-country  All-World  index, to a record high. Spain s 10-year government bond yield - which moves inversely to the price - dropped 5 basis points to 1.65 percent in early trade, according to Tradeweb data. At European Union headquarters in Brussels, there was relief that Spain, the euro zone s fourth-largest economy, now had at least bought some time to deal with a crisis that was still far from over.  One EU official said Puigdemont  seems to have listened to advice not to do something irreversible . The EU has been cool to Puigdemont s calls for European mediation. The Catalan crisis has deeply divided the region itself as well as the Spanish nation. Opinion polls conducted before the vote suggested a minority of about 40 percent of residents in Catalonia backed independence. Some of Catalonia s largest companies have moved their head offices out of the region and others were set to follow if Puigdemont had declared independence.

Summary: स्पेन ने कैटलन नेता को स्वतंत्रता छोड़ने के लिए 8 दिन का समय दिया


ROME (Reuters) - More than 250 migrants were rescued in the central Mediterranean during the night between Monday and Tuesday, Italy s Coast Guard said. A statement said the migrants, in one large rubber dinghy and two small boats, were rescued in three missions by two ships, one from a non-governmental organization. Migrant arrivals to Italy have fallen by two-thirds year on year since July after officials working for the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli put pressure on people smugglers in the Libyan city of Sabratha to stop boats leaving. Italy is also bolstering the Libyan coast guard s ability to turn back boats. Last week, the United Nations began bringing African refugees to Italy from Libya, evacuating them from detention centers whose conditions have been condemned by rights groups as inhumane.

Summary: इटली ने भूमध्य सागर में 250 से अधिक प्रवासियों को बचाया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Thursday said that it sees no reason to wait until after the Nov. 8 presidential election for Congress to take up discussions on the Trans-Pacific Partnership “There’s no reason we need to wait that long, particularly when you consider that ratifying the Trans-Pacific Partnership would hasten the end to 18,000 taxes that other countries impose on American goods,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters at the daily briefing.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस का कहना है कि कांग्रेस के पास टी. पी. पी. लेने के लिए नवंबर चुनाव के बाद तक इंतजार करने का कोई कारण नहीं है


DEARBORN, Mich. (Reuters) - Syrian-Americans on Friday hailed the U.S. missile attack on a Syrian air base as a blow for human rights, but said they were wary of both President Donald Trump’s motives and what comes next. Many who had been angered by Trump’s efforts to ban Syrians, along with visitors from several other Muslim-majority nations, welcomed what they saw as his new role as the avenger of civilians killed in this week’s chemical weapons attack. “We needed to take some action, show some backbone,” said Judy Asghar, 35, an American born to Syrian immigrants who lives in Dearborn, Michigan, epicenter of one of the largest Arab-American communities in the United States.   Some called Thursday night’s military action overdue, voicing disappointment with then-President Barack Obama’s refusal to attack the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad following a 2013 chemical weapons attack. “I was very glad that it finally happened, something that should have happened years ago,” Ali Homsi, 59, a civil engineer who moved to the United States from Syria as a student in 1978, said in a telephone interview. Homsi lives in Tempe, Arizona, but still has family in Syria. Many highlighted the human rights abuses that have characterized the six-year civil war and what they see as the impunity of Assad’s government and pro-Assad forces. “No one’s been enforcing that up until yesterday,” Shireen Jasser, a Houston social worker whose father immigrated to the United States from Syria, said by phone. “We’re just thankful to President Trump for making this swift decision,” said Jasser, president of her city’s chapter of the Syrian American Council. The Washington-based group advocates “a free, democratic, and pluralistic Syria through American support.”  U.S. officials said the air base targeted on Thursday was the launching point for Tuesday’s poison gas attack, which killed at least 70 people, many of them children. Some Syrian-Americans and Syrians in the United States said Trump’s response to the chemical attack transformed him in their eyes. “A lot of Syrian-Americans are now cheering the president, are elated,” said Dr. Mohammad Kabbesh, 45, a physician who grew up in Damascus but now lives in Sacramento, California, said by phone. Syrian refugee Motaz al Afandi, 49, of Texas said that if Trump pursues aggressive action toward Assad, he could end up solving the refugee problem.  “If we get rid of Al-Assad, we won’t need to be refugees anymore,” said al Afandi, who runs a tow truck business in the Dallas area and sought asylum in the United States with his wife and three children after fleeing his country’s conflict. Still, some who cheered the military action said the travel ban first launched in January had left them with mixed feelings about Trump, and they reserved judgment as they awaited his next steps. “We’re partway there,” said Youmun Alhlou, 23, of San Jose, California, who works as a legal specialist at Google and whose parents immigrated to the United States from Syria. Others questioned whether the White House was using the humanitarian crisis as an excuse for more overseas wars. “It’s part of the plan to invade more countries for various reasons, whether its oil or power,” said Amir Alshakarna, 31, of Southfield, Michigan, who became an American citizen last year and works for his family’s construction company. “The Trump who did the travel ban, that’s the real Trump.” Asghar of Dearborn said Trump could be using military might to distract from the stumbles seen during his first months in office. Those include the failure to persuade Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare, legal challenges to Trump’s travel ban and continuing investigations into alleged Russian meddling in the election, which Russia has denied, and into potential Trump associates’ ties to Russia. “If this is all we do, it will mean very little except good politics for Trump,” Asghar said.  “Americans seem to love presidents who bomb people.”

Summary: अमेरिका में कुछ सीरियाई लोगों के लिए, हमलों ने ट्रम्प को खलनायक से नायक में बदल दिया


CARACAS (Reuters) - Jesus Ibarra, a 19-year-old engineering student, has been barely able to walk or talk since a tear gas canister crushed part of his skull during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro and he fell unconscious into a river that carries sewage.  Chronic shortages of medicine in Venezuela forced his family to ask for drug donations so Ibarra could undergo five surgeries on his skull and treatment for infections from the Guaire river.  Ibarra, who cannot return to his studies any time soon, needs to a sixth operation and therapy. It is unclear if he will fully recover.   I speak to my son a lot, and sometimes he makes me understand it was not worth suffering this, that he regrets it, that it was a mistake,  said Ibarra s father Jose at their small home in the sprawling hilltop slum of Petare in Caracas.   But other times he s clearly telling me that it was worth fighting for a change he believes in.       Ibarra is one of nearly 2,000 people injured during four months of fierce anti-Maduro street protests, according to the public prosecutor s office. Rights groups think the number is probably higher.  Venezuela has been torn by political and economic crises that have led to extreme shortages of food and medicine, crushing inflation and the collapse of the local currency. Its    new government structure has been criticized as a dictatorship. Rubber bullets fired at close range, rocks, and tear gas canisters have caused most of the injuries, doctors and rights groups say. Most of those who have been hurt appear to be opposition protesters, but Maduro supporters, security forces and bystanders have also been harmed.     More than 125 people have died in the unrest since April.  Thousands have been arrested.  The unpopular leftist president has said he was facing an armed insurgency intent on overthrowing him.  Opposition politicians have said they were forced to take to the streets after authorities curtailed democratic means for change. They have also accused security forces of using excessive force against protesters. Culinary student Brian Dalati, 22, said he was passing an opposition-manned street barricade on his way to classes in July when police mistook him for a protester. They hit him and fired buckshot at his legs, fracturing both of Dalati s shinbones.  I depend on my siblings to go to the bathroom, shower, brush my teeth, eat, anything. It s infuriating,  he said.  They didn t have to do this. It was pure hate. Thank goodness I will be able to walk again soon.  The government says right-wing media are too focused on injuries to protesters.  Maduro has pointed to a case in which a 21-year-old man was set afire during an opposition protest and died two weeks later. A Reuters witness said the crowd had accused the man of being a thief, but the government said he was targeted for being a Maduro supporter. Protests have subsided since Maduro s government established a controversial legislative superbody three weeks ago, but hundreds of Venezuelans are still struggling to nurse their wounds without medicine and state support.   (Click on reut.rs/2xt4eoS for related photo essay)

Summary: वेनेजुएला के घायल कार्यकर्ताओं को ठीक होने के लिए संघर्ष करना पड़ रहा है


(Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions unveiled on Wednesday a plan to go after doctors and pharmacies suspected of healthcare fraud by over-prescribing and unbridled distribution of addictive pain medications known as opioids. In a speech at a Columbus, Ohio, police academy, Sessions said a new Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit pilot program would also study death rates of patients with opioid prescriptions. “With these new resources, we will be better positioned to identify, prosecute and convict some of the individuals contributing to these tens of thousands of deaths a year,” Sessions said in prepared remarks. He said the new program would pay for 12 assistant U.S. attorneys serving three-year terms to investigate and prosecute fraud in the prescribing of opioids. Deaths from opioids have surged in the United States.  In 2015, prescription painkillers and heroin killed more than 33,000 people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly half of those overdoses involved prescription pain medications. Sessions has made a priority of fighting drug-related crimes since taking over the U.S. Justice Department in February. It shut down AlphaBay, a dark web marketplace accused of facilitating a global trade in drugs as well as firearms and computer hacking tools.

Summary: अमेरिका ने ओपिओइड धोखाधड़ी और पहचान इकाई शुरू की


SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The United States stepped up pressure on China on Saturday to rein in its actions in the South China Sea, with top defense officials underlining Washington’s military superiority and vowing to remain the main guarantor of Asian security for decades to come. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the U.S. approach to the Asia-Pacific remained “one of commitment, strength and inclusion”, but he also warned China against provocative behavior in the South China Sea. Any action by China to reclaim land in the Scarborough Shoal, an outcrop in the disputed sea, would have consequences, Carter said. “I hope that this development doesn’t occur, because it will result in actions being taken by the both United States and ... by others in the region which would have the effect of not only increasing tensions but isolating China,” Carter told the Shangri-La Dialogue, a regional security forum in Singapore. “The United States will remain the most powerful military and main underwriter of security in the region for decades to come – and there should be no doubt about that.” The South China Sea has become a flashpoint between the United States, which increased its focus on the Asia-Pacific under President Barack Obama’s “pivot”, and China, which is projecting ever greater economic, political and military power in the region. Carter however said he would welcome China’s participation in a “principled security network” for Asia. “Forward thinking statesmen and leaders must ... come together to ensure a positive principled future,” he said, adding that the network he envisaged could also help protect against “Russia’s worrying actions” and the growing strategic impact of climate change. The deputy head of China’s delegation to the forum said the United States should reduce its provocative exercises and patrols in the region and said any attempts to isolate China would fail. “This is a time of cooperation and common security,” Rear Admiral Guan Youfei told reporters. “The U.S. action to take sides is not agreed by many countries. We hope the U.S. will also listen to the other countries.” Other Asian leaders said the situation in the South China Sea was viewed with concern across the region. “All countries in the region need to recognize that our shared prosperities and the enviable rate of growth that this region enjoys over past decades will be put at risk by aggressive behavior or actions by any one of us,” Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar told the forum.  Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said his country would help Southeast Asian nations build their security capabilities to deal with what he called unilateral, dangerous and coercive actions in the South China Sea. “In the South China Sea, we have been witnessing large-scale and rapid land reclamation, building of outposts and utilization of them for military purposes,” Nakatani said. “No country can be an outsider of this issue.” A Chinese official responded by saying Japan should be careful “not to interfere and stir up problems” in the waterway, while China’s foreign ministry also weighed in regarding the U.S. and Japanese comments. “Counties outside the region should stick to their promises and not make thoughtless remarks about issues of territorial sovereignty,” the ministry said in a statement. Trillions of dollars of trade a year passes through the South China Sea, which is home to rich oil, gas and fishing resources. Besides China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have claims in the area, and rising tensions have been fuelling increasing security spending in the region. “The uncertainty of China’s future trajectory is arguably the main driving concern about possible military competition now and in the future,” Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said. Carter said that for decades some critics had been predicting an impending U.S. withdrawal from the region, but this would not happen. “That’s because this region, which is home to nearly half the world’s population and nearly half the global economy,  remains the most consequential for America’s own security and prosperity.” In an apparent counter to “America-first” policies expounded by prospective Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, including suggestions that U.S. troops should be withdrawn from Asia, Carter stressed bipartisan support for continued engagement. The Shangri-La Dialogue is being held ahead of a significant ruling expected in coming weeks on a case filed by the Philippines in the International Court of Arbitration challenging China’s South China Sea claims, which Beijing has vowed to ignore. The United States has been lobbying Asian and other countries to back the judges’ statement that their ruling must be binding, a call echoed by Japan on Saturday. China has lobbied on the other side for support for its position that the court lacks jurisdiction in the case.

Summary: दक्षिण चीन सागर विवाद को लेकर एशिया की चिंताओं के बीच अमेरिका ने कमर कसी


MANCHESTER, England (Reuters) - Gibraltar is very concerned by violence in Catalonia after Spanish riot police burst into polling stations and seized ballot papers to prevent a banned referendum on a split from Spain, the chief minister of  the Rock  said. Police hit people with batons, fired rubber bullets into crowds and forcibly removed would-be voters from polling stations in actions that were condemned internationally but  were described by the government as  proportionate . The referendum, declared illegal by Spain s central government, has thrown the country into its worst constitutional crisis in decades and deepened a centuries-old rift between Madrid and Barcelona. Catalan officials said over 460 people had been injured in the police crackdown and the Spanish Interior Ministry said 12 police had been hurt.   I am very concerned to see violence in the streets of our neighbouring nation,  Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told Reuters in an interview at the Conservative Party conference in the northern English city of Manchester. Gibraltar, a tiny British enclave on Spain s southern tip, is dubbed  the Rock  because of its famous cliff-faced mountain. Spain claims sovereignty over the territory it ceded to Britain in 1713.  Spain s Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis last month said Gibraltar was an anachronistic colony that had no place in the modern world.  The claim by Spain to the land that I call my home is anachronistic and remnant of a bygone era,  Picardo said.  But anyone who visits Gibraltar realizes it is far from anachronistic - it is modern, it is digital, it is thrusting and it is prosperous.  Residents of the territory voted overwhelmingly to remain part of the EU in last year s Brexit referendum. Gibraltar  wants London to negotiate a  special status  with the EU for it after the British exit.

Summary: कैटेलोनिया में हिंसा से जिब्राल्टर बहुत चिंतित हैः मुख्यमंत्री


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with political dissidents when he visits Cuba next month, a senior White House official said on Thursday. The remarks from Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes came after the White House confirmed the trip earlier on Thursday.

Summary: ओबामा की क्यूबा यात्रा क्यूबा के लोगों को महत्वपूर्ण संकेत देगीः व्हाइट हाउस


PARIS (Reuters) - Europe must make clear how it will react if the United States pulls out of the multinational nuclear deal with Iran and do more to encourage international banks to return to the country, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday. Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump broke ranks with European allies, Russia and China by refusing to re-certify Iran s compliance with its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, reached during Barack Obama s tenure. The Republican president gave Congress 60 days to decide whether to re-impose economic sanctions on Iran, lifted under the pact in exchange for scaling down a program the West fears was aimed at building a nuclear bomb, something Tehran denies. European leaders say they are determined to keep alive the accord which offered Iran an economic lifeline and opened new investment opportunities for European businesses. But the official, who declined to be identified, said Tehran expected Europe to be more proactive in explaining its stance should the United States pull out.  If they want to wait until Trump decides to make a decision it will be too late,  the official said, speaking in English.  For the time being we are hearing from Europe that they want to stick to (the nuclear deal), but if Trump decides otherwise they have no other ammunition.    It is important for European countries to work with Iran,  the officials said, adding that European capitals needed to stick to their commitments  not just in words but in practice .  The official described the lack of big multinational banks returning to Iran as a  deficiency  saying that Europe had committed as part of the deal to normalize business ties with Iran, which he said was still not the case.   When Total comes to Iran to sign an agreement with Iranian entities they do not use French banks. They use others. Why?  The official reiterated that Iran would not be first to leave the deal and accused the Trump White House of deliberately creating uncertainty for foreign firms eyeing new investments in Iran.   We consider the American approach to the JCPOA (nuclear agreement) as dishonest,  the official said in Paris.

Summary: ईरान ने यूरोप से व्यापारिक संबंधों को आगे बढ़ाने का आग्रह किया क्योंकि अमेरिका ने परमाणु समझौते को संदेह में डाल दिया है


TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan s new premier, William Lai, vowed on Friday to work towards luring greater investment to the self-ruled island, while sticking to the policies of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party. Lai, formerly the mayor of the southwestern city of Tainan, made the remarks at a cabinet transition ceremony following the resignation this week of his predecessor, Lin Chuan..  The cabinet reshuffle, at a time of low public approval ratings for President Tsai Ing-wen, will give the government an opportunity to push through legislation with less resistance.  Ratings for Tsai shrank to below 30 percent by August, a survey by a private foundation showed, down from nearly 70 percent soon after her landslide election victory in 2016.  My main responsibility is to build the country, expand the economy and look after the people,  said Lai, adding that his cabinet would press on with reforms in areas ranging from the energy industry to labor, pensions and tax, while  eliminating obstacles for investment . He added,  these will have a pragmatic strategy and will be solved in a steadfast way.  Dissatisfaction with labor and pension reforms are seen to have weighed on Tsai s ratings, sparking occasional protests. The reshuffle brought several new key appointments, though most of the other ministry-level positions stayed unchanged.  The financial supervisory commission gets a new chief, Wellington Koo, while acting economics minister Shen Jong-chin was confirmed in the role. A new vice premier and secretary-general were also appointed to the cabinet, or executive yuan.   Lai, a member of Tsai s independence-leaning party, won a landslide reelection in 2014 in Tainan, home to the plants of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) and other technology firms.  The Harvard-educated Lai is expected to take a cautious stance in the transition, as shown by his modest personnel changes, analysts say.    Lai brings an effective administrative style, and will seek to keep the agenda on track,  said Edward Yang, an associate professor at National Taiwan Normal University.  His popular style also contrasts with that of Lin, who was seen as a less effective communicator, Yang added. The DPP is striving to shore up its popularity ahead of local elections next year in which it faces off against its main rival, the China-friendly Kuomintang (KMT) party.  Local election results are seen as a harbinger for the presidential election in 2020.

Summary: ताइवान के नए प्रधानमंत्री ने 'देश का निर्माण' करने, निवेश की बाधाओं को दूर करने का संकल्प लिया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a speech on Wednesday in Phoenix, Arizona, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump outlined his plan for reforming the U.S. immigration system. The New York businessman has made immigration a central issue of his bid for the White House, taking a harder line than his Democratic rival, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, ahead of the Nov. 8 election. Trump’s plan includes: 1. Building a wall along the border between the United States and Mexico. Trump emphasized that this would be a physical wall, albeit bolstered by technology. 2. Ending “catch and release,” a term often broadly used to refer to practices under which not everyone apprehended by immigration agents is necessarily deported. 3. Immediate deportation of undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes. Trump has promised to begin these deportations on his first day in office. Going forward, undocumented immigrants arrested for committing a crime would be placed into immediate deportation proceedings. 4. Blocking funding for “sanctuary cities,” places that limit, to differing extents and through different methods, how much they help immigration officials in the apprehension and deportation of undocumented immigrants. 5. Cancellation of executive orders and enforcement of immigration laws. This point would particularly hit two of President Barack Obama’s executive actions, known by their abbreviations: DACA and DAPA. The actions gave a certain legal status to certain undocumented immigrants, such as those brought to the United States as children or those who now have American children.  6. Suspending visas to immigrants from parts of the world where screening procedures are deemed inadequate. Trump singled out Syria and Libya as two countries from which immigration would be suspended. 7. Ensuring that other countries take back their citizens when the United States moves to deport those immigrants. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that these people cannot be detained indefinitely, but without a country to which to return they often are simply released from detention. Trump said he would force the immigrants’ home countries to take them back. 8. Completing a biometric entry-exit visa tracking system. Many undocumented immigrants enter the country legally, and then overstay their visas. In those cases, this kind of system would be more effective than a border wall. While such a system has been discussed for years, the logistics remain a major challenge. Putting in such a system would likely require major overhauls of U.S. points of entry, such as airports and ports.  9. Making it harder for undocumented immigrants to get jobs and benefits. Trump specifically cited the E-verify system as part of this. That system allows employers to check whether their employees are legally eligible to work in the United States. Trump also mentioned ending access to benefit programs such as public housing or food stamps. 10. Serving the best interests of American workers. Trump’s final point serves as something of a catch-all for his immigration proposal. But he also mentioned a few specific goals here, such as limiting immigration. He also talked about being more selective about who gets to enter the country, for example limiting immigration to people who can be financially self-sufficient.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ट्रम्प की 10 सूत्री आप्रवासन योजना


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Pentagon-led preliminary plan to defeat Islamic State was delivered to the White House on Monday and U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was expected to brief senior administration officials, a Defense Department spokesman told reporters. Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told reporters that it was the framework for a broader plan and looked at Islamic State around the world, not just Iraq and Syria. Davis said the plan would define what defeating Islamic State meant and was one that would “rapidly” defeat the militant group.  He added that Mattis would discuss the plan, which is primarily a written one with accompanying graphics, with members of the Cabinet-level Principals Committee. The review of U.S. strategy comes at a decisive moment in the U.S.-led coalition effort against Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria, and could lead to relaxing some of the former Obama administration’s policy restrictions, like limits on troop numbers. The Trump administration has said defeating “radical Islamic terror groups” is among its top foreign policy goals. The Baghdad-based U.S. commander on the ground, Army Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, has said he believes U.S.-backed forces would recapture both of Islamic State’s major strongholds - the cities of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria - within the next six months. Iraqi forces expect a fierce battle against Islamic State to retake Mosul. In Syria, the United States must soon decide whether to arm Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters, despite objections from NATO ally Turkey, which brands the militia group as terrorists. The U.S. military-led review includes input from Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, as well as from the Treasury Department and the U.S. intelligence community. Davis said that in addition to diplomacy, the plan would include a military framework that builds on capabilities and goals on the battlefield. Experts have said the Pentagon could request additional forces, beyond the less than 6,000 American troops now deployed to both Iraq and Syria, helping the U.S. military go farther and do more in the fight. They also said the Pentagon may focus on smaller-scale options like increasing the number of attack helicopters and air strikes as well as bringing in more artillery. The military may also seek more authority to make battlefield decisions.

Summary: पेंटागन ने इस्लामिक स्टेट को हराने की योजना का मसौदा व्हाइट हाउस को सौंपा


TOKYO (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy carrier Ronald Reagan is conducting drills with Japanese warships in seas south of the Korean peninsula, Japan’s military said on Friday, in a show of naval power as Pyongyang threatens further nuclear and missile tests. The Reagan strike group will conduct a separate drill with the South Korean Navy in October, the defense ministry said in a statement distributed to South Korean lawmakers on Monday.  The 100,000-ton Reagan, which is based in Japan, and its escort ships have been holding drills with Japanese navy vessels since Sept 11 in waters south and west of Japan’s main islands, the Japan Maritime Self Defence Force said in a statement.  That exercise with the three Japanese warships, including two destroyers and one of the country’s two biggest helicopter carriers, the Ise, will run until Sept 28, it added.  The U.S. and regional allies are responding with military drills, including bomber and jet fighter flights near the Korean peninsula, as Pyongyang pursues its nuclear and missile programs, with an apparent hydrogen bomb test and two ballistic missile firings over Japan in recent weeks.  North Korea on Friday said it might test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to destroy the country.

Summary: उत्तर कोरियाई तनाव के बीच जापानी नौसेना के साथ अमेरिकी नौसेना वाहक अभ्यास


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said on Thursday that she feels “pretty good” about the prospect for passage of a bill to address Puerto Rico’s financial crisis.

Summary: शीर्ष सदन डेमोक्रेट ने कहा कि प्यूर्टो रिको बिल की संभावनाएं 'बहुत अच्छी' हैं


(This October 25 story has been corrected to change pronoun to  he  from  she  to correct gender of quoted delegate in final paragraph) By John Ruwitch BEIJING (Reuters) - Every time China s ruling Communist Party convenes a major gathering, like the congress that just ended in Beijing, the list of delegates is hand-crafted in part to burnish the party s image as  representative of the masses  - including giving some prominence to those in more menial jobs and ethnic minorities. Yet one group is chronically under-represented among the political elite: women. The founding father of communist China, Mao Zedong, may have once said that women  hold up half the sky  but when the twice-a-decade party congress selected a new batch of top leaders this week, females weren t holding up much at all. No women made it onto the elite Politburo Standing Committee, the group of seven men at the pinnacle of the party. None ever have. In the new Politburo, only one of its 25 members is a woman   Sun Chunlan, head of the party body charged with outreach to non-Communists. It is her second term and she is likely to retire in five years. On the previous Politburo, there were two women, Sun and Vice Premier Liu Yandong - who is past retirement age and has stepped down from the Politburo. One rung down, just 4.9 percent of the new Central Committee, a mere 10 of the body s 204 members, are women. That number was unchanged from the outgoing Central Committee, which presided for five years, but lower than in 2007-2012 when there were 13. The State Council Information Office, which doubles as the party s propaganda department, did not respond to faxed questions for comment on why there are so few women in senior party positions. By way of comparison, five members of U.S. President Donald Trump s 24-member cabinet are women, and about 20 percent of the U.S. Congress are female. In Japan, two out of 20 members of the cabinet are women as are about 10 percent of the lower house lawmakers newly elected on Sunday. At the Chinese party congress itself, the overall numbers were stronger: about a quarter of its 2,287 delegates were women - roughly commensurate with the proportion in the roughly 90 million-member party. But with most senior leadership posts in the hands of men, activist Xiong Jing, an NGO project manager who edits a feminist social media site, said many of the women delegates to the party congress were there merely as  decoration .  This problem is a clich ,  she said.  With the political system as it is now, I think even if more women were involved, whether as party congress delegates or in government, they may be very limited in what they can do.  The party takes the appearance of representativeness seriously when it comes to some groups. At party congresses and annual sessions of parliament, there are delegates from China s 56 different ethnic groups, every branch of the military and police, private businesses, the state sector and, of course, the government. The party congress this year featured delegates who were astronauts, athletes, actors, judges, farmers and more. There was even a delegate representing housekeepers, who showed up in her apron and maid s cap. For women in general in China, political empowerment is lacking. China ranked 74th in political empowerment of women out of 144 countries in the World Economic Forum s global Gender Gap Report last year. In 2006, it was no. 52 out of 115. Leta Hong Fincher, a New York-based sociologist and author of the forthcoming book  Betraying Big Brother: The Rise of China s Feminist Resistance , says women in China are losing ground amid a resurgence of traditional gender norms.  It s my impression that the Communist Party is fundamentally not interested in having women at the senior levels at all,  she said. In China s pre-reform command economy under Mao, women were drafted into the workforce and recruited into nation-building. The most powerful woman since the communist takeover in 1949 was Mao s third wife, Jiang Qing. She and members of her  Gang of Four  were arrested after Mao s death in 1976 and blamed for the excesses of the chaotic Cultural Revolution. More recently, Hong Fincher says, the party has been spooked by China s demographic challenges - an aging population, shrinking labor force and falling birth rates - and has aggressively promoted the idea that women should be getting married and having babies. To be sure, in Chinese business there are some prominent female chief executives, such as Zhang Xin at real estate developer Soho China and Zhou Qunfei, the billionaire founder of Lens Technology. And the party and government pay lip service to gender equality. The state constitution guarantees women the same rights as men.  The government ... wants to appear to be taking gender equality seriously, when in reality it is not. It is actually in full retreat with regard to gender equality,  Hong Fincher said. The election process for party congress delegates is tightly controlled, with candidates vetted for their loyalty to the party and leadership. But congress delegate Tang Jialing, who is a crew member on a deep-sea research submersible, suggested that the lack of women reflected the will of the people.  We are the party of the people. It s the people who voted in more men than women. It s the people s choice,  he said.

Summary: महिलाएं चीन की शीशे की छत को तोड़ने में विफल रहीं क्योंकि पार्टी ने नए नेताओं को चुना


HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday that she did not favor classical “safe zones” in Syria which would need to be protected by foreign forces but believed that peace talks in Geneva could agree areas where fleeing Syrians could feel safe from bombardment. “I believe that if you had followed what I said yesterday in Turkey, it is something that has to come out of the Geneva peace talks; it is not about classical safe zones,” she said during a news conference with U.S. President Barack Obama. “Can one, when one speaks about a ceasefire, identify regions in the talks between the negotiating partners in Geneva where people can feel particularly safe. It is not about some influence from the outside but rather from within the talks,” she added.

Summary: मर्केल ने कहा कि जिनेवा वार्ता का उद्देश्य सीरिया में सुरक्षित क्षेत्रों पर सहमति बनाना होना चाहिए


BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Beijing sought to play down tensions with the United States and put on a positive face on Friday as the U.S. administration slammed China on a range of business issues ahead of President Xi Jinping’s first meeting with President Donald Trump. Trump set the tone for what could be a tense meeting at his Mar-a-Lago retreat next week by tweeting on Thursday that the United States could no longer tolerate massive trade deficits and job losses. Trump said the highly anticipated meeting, which is also expected to cover differences over North Korea and China’s strategic ambitions in the South China Sea, “will be a very difficult one.” Ahead of the meeting, Trump signed executive orders on Friday aimed at identifying abuses that are causing massive U.S. trade deficits and clamping down on non-payment of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on imports, his top trade officials said. Separately, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, which is controlled by the White House, said Beijing’s industrial policies and financial support for industries such as steel and aluminum have resulted in over-production and a flood of exports that have distorted global markets and undermined competitive companies. Seeking to downplay the rift, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang reiterated a desire for cooperation on trade. “With regard to the problems existing between China and the United States in trade relations, both sides should in a mutual respectful and mutual beneficial way find appropriate resolutions, and ensure the stable development of Sino-U.S. trade relations,” he told a daily news briefing.  The leaders of the world’s two largest economies are scheduled to meet next Thursday and Friday for the first time since Trump assumed office on Jan. 20. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the United States has “serious concerns” on the U.S. trade relationship with China. “This isn’t a sit around and play patty-cake kind of conversation,” he told reporters. “They’re big issues.” Trump “wants to have a very good and respectful and healthy relationship, but he also wants to make sure that he tackles the challenges and the problems that are facing American workers,” Spicer said. Speaking earlier at a briefing on the Xi-Trump meeting, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zheng Zeguang acknowledged the trade imbalance, but said it was mostly due to differences in their two economic structures and noted that China had a trade deficit in services. “China does not deliberately seek a trade surplus. We also have no intention of carrying out competitive currency devaluation to stimulate exports. This is not our policy,” Zheng said. State news agency Xinhua also struck a conciliatory tone. “Of course, it would be naive to believe that the two sides can bridge their differences in a single diplomatic meeting,” it said in an English language commentary on Friday.  “Yet as long as the two nations can maintain their good faith, which they have shown recently, to talk and to make concessions based on mutual respect, then no difference would be too difficult to iron out.” Trump has frequently accused China of keeping its yuan currency artificially low against the dollar to make Chinese exports cheaper, and “stealing” American manufacturing jobs. The yuan fell 6.5 percent last year in its biggest annual loss against the dollar since 1994, knocked by pressure from sluggish economic growth and a broadly strong U.S. currency. Trump has resisted acting on a campaign promise to declare China a currency manipulator on his first day in office, but tensions have persisted over how his administration’s China policy would evolve. While apprehensive about a trade war, the American business community in China has grown more vocal. Fear of retaliation had once made business lobbies eschew more forceful U.S. trade policies toward China, but such groups have increasingly urged the Trump administration to take targeted action to address market access imbalances. Zheng said domestic consumption in China will increase as it pursues economic reforms, helping to raise demand for foreign goods and services, including those from the United States. “This also helps ameliorate the trade imbalance between China and the United States,” he said. The trade imbalance could be resolved by improved  cooperation, Zheng said, urging Washington to lift restrictions on civilian technology exports to China and create better conditions for Chinese investment in the United States.  The USTR report, however, accused China of using a range of measures to engineer the transfer of foreign technology to local firms. It said these include denying financial or regulatory approvals to companies using foreign-owned intellectual property or that do not conduct research or make products in China. The report also brought up longstanding complaints about online piracy of movies, books, music, video games and software in China as well as a ban on U.S. beef that has been in place since 2003.

Summary: चीन ने अमेरिका के साथ तनाव को कम किया क्योंकि शी ट्रम्प से मिलने की तैयारी कर रहे हैं


BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Friday it would stick to its commitment to fight climate change after President Donald Trump said he would withdraw the United States from the landmark 2015 Paris global agreement to curb climate change. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying made the comment at a daily news briefing in Beijing. Trump’s move fulfilled a major campaign pledge but drew condemnation from U.S. allies and business leaders.

Summary: चीन ने कहा कि वह जलवायु परिवर्तन से लड़ने की प्रतिबद्धता पर कायम रहेगा