WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Sunday denied that he is preparing for a presidential election run in 2020, saying the suggestion is “disgraceful and offensive.”  Pence was responding to a New York Times report that some Republicans were moving to form a “shadow campaign” as though President Donald Trump were not involved. It said multiple advisers to Pence “have already intimated to party donors that he would plan to run if Mr. Trump did not.” The report said Pence had not only kept a full political calendar but also had created his own independent power base, including a political fund-raising group called the “Great America Committee.” But Pence called the article “fake news” and said his entire team was focused on advancing Trump’s agenda and seeing him re-elected in 2020.  “The allegations in this article are categorically false and represent just the latest attempt by the media to divide this Administration,” Pence said in a statement. The Times stood by its coverage. “We are confident in the accuracy of our reporting and will let the story speak for itself,” New York Times spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha said in an email. Pence has good relations with conservative political groups and some of the Republican Party’s big donors, including billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.  He is also a Trump loyalist, and there is typically little distinction between his public statements and the policies of the president. But as investigations deepen into Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. election and possible ties to members of Trump’s campaign, Pence has put some distance between himself and the president on the best way to approach Moscow.  On a trip to Eastern Europe last week, Pence condemned Russia’s presence in the former Soviet republic of Georgia, with which Moscow fought a brief war in 2008. He also said ties with Russia would not improve until Moscow changed its stance on Ukraine and withdrew support for countries like Iran, Syria and North Korea. The U.S. Congress recently passed a bill imposing new sanctions on Russia with overwhelming bipartisan support, but Trump signed it into law last week with reluctance. “Our relationship with Russia is at an all-time & very dangerous low,” Trump wrote on Twitter after signing the bill. “You can thank Congress.”  Trump has described probes into his campaign’s ties to Russia, including those under way in Congress and a Justice Department investigation headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, as a “witch hunt.” The president has also sent mixed messages on whether he agrees with U.S. intelligence agencies’ conclusions that Russia tried to intervene in the 2016 election to boost his chances of beating Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway on Sunday also dismissed the idea that Pence was looking at running for president in 2020.       “It is absolutely true that the vice president is getting ready for 2020 - for re-election as vice president,” Conway told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “Vice President Pence is a very loyal, very dutiful, but also incredibly effective vice president, and active vice president,” said Conway, adding that she had worked for Pence for a decade as his pollster and senior adviser.

Summary: रूस को लेकर ट्रंप से दूरी के बीच पेंस ने राष्ट्रपति पद की दावेदारी पर नजर रखने से किया इनकार


BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States has created  sensational hype  over China s military modernization, the defense ministry has said in reaction to a White House report branding China a competitor seeking to challenge U.S. power. U.S. President Donald Trump s administration on Monday laid out a national security strategy based on Trump s  America First  vision, singling out of China and Russia as  revisionist powers  seeking not only to challenge U.S. power but to erode its security and prosperity. China s foreign ministry said on Tuesday cooperation between China and the United States was the only correct choice. The spokesman for its defense ministry, Ren Guoqiang, said in a statement posted on the ministry website late on Wednesday that the U.S. strategy had  without regard for the facts, created sensational hype over the modernization of China s defenses . Ren also said the strategy had  called into question the intentions of China s military development plan  and that it ran counter to peace worldwide and the development of China s relations with the United States. China s contribution to world peace was plain for all to see, he said.  Attempts by any country or any document to distort the facts or cast aspersions will be in vain,  Ren said. China s armed forces, the world s largest, are in the midst of an ambitious modernization program, which includes investment in technology and new equipment such as stealth fighters and aircraft carriers, as well as cuts to troop numbers. The tough U.S. national security strategy comes after   Trump has sought to build strong relations with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump has called upon Xi to ensure China does more to help the United States rein in North Korea s nuclear and missile programs. The U.S. administration cited China s growing military might and its efforts to build military bases on manmade islands in the contested South China Sea as evidence of Chinese attempts to alter the status quo. China says its expansion of islets in the South China Sea is for peaceful purposes only and that, as it has irrefutable sovereignty there, no other country has the right to question its actions.

Summary: चीन के सैन्य आधुनिकीकरण पर अमेरिका 'सनसनीखेज प्रचार' कर रहा हैः मंत्रालय


NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Saturday the country had a problem with its judiciary, which annulled his election win of last month,  and we must fix it . The Law Society of Kenya said in a strongly worded statement  that Kenyatta, as  the head of state who under the constitution is a symbol of national unity , should refrain from derogatory comments about the judiciary.  Kenyatta, speaking a day after the Supreme Court canceled his victory and ordered new polls within 60 days, repeated his message from Friday that he would respect its ruling. But, speaking on live television at the State House in Nairobi after meeting elected officials from his Jubilee party, he added  Who even elected you?...We have a problem and we must fix it.  He did not elaborate.  The decision to annul the election was unexpected and unprecedented in Africa where governments often hold sway over judges. The president s latest comments mark the second time since Friday s ruling that he has criticized the judiciary in public. On Friday, during an impromptu rally in Nairobi, he accused the court of ignoring the will of the people and dismissed the chief justice s colleagues as  wakora , or crooks. The lawyers  association condemned Kenyatta s use of the Kiswahili word, saying that the judges serving in the highest court had acted  professionally, with honor and dignity .  They...do not deserve the disrespectful treatment they are being shown , the statement read. The president s appearances since the ruling suggest he intends to campaign rigorously for the re-run of the Aug.8 poll.  He said via Twitter on Saturday:  For now let us meet at the ballot.  Attention now turns back to the election board. The court ruled that it had  failed, neglected or refused to conduct the presidential election in a manner consistent with the dictates of the constitution . Raila Odinga, the veteran opposition leader whose coalition brought the petition against the election board to the Supreme Court, said on Friday that some officials from the commission should face criminal prosecution. The chairman of the election board said there would be personnel changes, but it was not clear if that would be enough for the opposition. Sweeping out the whole board would complicate efforts to hold a new poll within two months. Last month s election   which included the presidential poll in addition to races at other levels of government   was one of the most expensive ever held in Africa. Ahead of the vote Kenya s treasury said preparation and conduct of polling would cost the equivalent of around $480 million. Analysts saw the president s latest comments on the judiciary as a worrisome development.  It s extremely unfortunate that Kenyatta seems to be issuing veiled threats at the judiciary,  said Murithi Mutiga, a Nairobi-based senior Africa analyst at the International Crisis Group.   This was a tremendous moment for Kenyan democracy, where the court upheld the rule of law. Politicians should be careful not to incite the public against the judiciary.  On Friday, Chief Justice David Maraga said the Supreme Court s verdict was backed by four of the six judges and declared Kenyatta s victory  invalid, null and void . Details of the ruling will be released within 21 days. Prior to last month s election Maraga spoke out to emphasize the judiciary s independence. In a statement he read out on behalf of the Judicial Service Commission less than a week before the election, he listed instances in which politicians   from the ruling party and the opposition   had tried to intervene in the judiciary s work.   The emerging culture of public lynching of judges and judicial officers by the political class is a vile affront to the rule of law and must be fiercely resisted,  the statement read.  We wish to state that ... the judiciary will not cower to these intimidating tactics.  Kenya s judiciary went through sweeping changes in a bid to restore confidence in the legal system after the bloodshed following the 2007 election. Experts say the constitution adopted in 2010 enshrines protections for the judiciary against interference by the executive.

Summary: केन्या के राष्ट्रपति का चुनाव अदालत ने पलट दिया, न्यायपालिका पर हमला


PARIS (Reuters) - France, still on alert against militant Islamist attacks, paid tribute on Monday to 130 people killed when gunmen and suicide bombers attacked Paris two years ago. Flowers were laid and victims names read out at otherwise silent homage ceremonies in the presence of President Emmanuel Macron at the six sites struck on Nov. 13 2015 in attacks for which the Islamist State group claimed responsibility. Macron, whose government has implemented legislation giving police and intelligence agents wider wiretap, search and arrest powers in an attempt to avert more attacks, was accompanied by other politicians including Francois Hollande, president at the time of the Paris attacks. More than 240 people have died in the past three years in attacks commissioned or inspired by Islamic State, which has urged followers to attack France and other countries involved in military efforts to oust it from swathes of Syria and Iraq. Dozens more have been killed in similar attacks in Europe, primarily in Belgium, Britain, and also in Spain more recently.  The threat level remains high,  Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told public radio station France Inter. The government says 30 planned attacks have been thwarted in the past two years. Police and intelligence services are working flat-out to cope with the challenge of religious radicalization and further attacks. Hundreds of French citizens have left France, a traditionally Roman Catholic country where about one in six people are Muslims, to fight as jihadists for the Islamist State, which declared a caliphate .

Summary: फ्रांस ने दो साल बाद पेरिस में मारे गए लोगों को श्रद्धांजलि दी


LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump s revised hardline policy towards Iran will have little impact on Tehran s ambition to develop its vital oil industry and attract foreign investment, a senior Iranian official said on Tuesday. The Islamic Republic hopes to signs 10 new deals with foreign companies to develop oil and gas fields by March 2018, Amir Zamaninia, Iran s deputy oil minister for trade and international affairs, told the Oil & Money conference in London. Trump s decision last Friday not to certify that Iran was complying with last year s international deal on its nuclear power development program will not detract from Tehran s plans, he said.  I don t think any of us, or any of our partners have been surprised by this statement. Our expectations of policy formulation from Washington have been very measured,  he said.  The (U.S.) statement and policy ... has little or no effect and implication on our future plan in the oil industry,  Zamaninia said. Iran is negotiating 28 contracts with foreign companies, including many of Europe s top oil companies, under a new development contract, he added. France s Total (TOTF.PA) became in July the first Western oil major to re-enter Iran following the lifting of international sanctions with an agreement to develop the giant South Pars offshore gas field. Total s chief executive officer said in an interview with International Oil Daily the company will wait to see the impact of Trump s decision and that it will try to continue with it if the United States imposes unilateral sanctions.  We have signed a contract in Iran. If we can move forward, we ll move forward. If we cannot, we will have to stop,  Patrick Pouyanne said. Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) has also signed an agreement with Iran for the possible development of oil and gas fields. Iran, which holds the world s largest gas reserves, plans to boost its gas production to 1.1 billion cubic meters per day by 2021 from the current 800 million bcm per day, Zamaninia said.  The OPEC member also aims to raise its oil production capacity to 4.7 million barrels per day by 2021 from the current 3.8 million bpd, he said. He said that the major oilfields - Azadegan, Yadavaran, Abteymour and Mansouri - have potential to increase output by 2 million bpd combined.

Summary: ईरान पर अमेरिकी नीति उसके तेल उद्योग को नुकसान नहीं पहुंचाएगीः मंत्री


((This December 4 story has been corrected to change “last year” to 2015 in sixth paragraph, June to July in 11th paragraph)) By Marc Frank HAVANA (Reuters) - The Trump administration has named career diplomat Philip Goldberg to head the all-but-abandoned U.S. embassy in Havana, according to three sources familiar with the matter, at a time of heightened tensions between the United States and Cuba. Goldberg has lengthy experience in a number of countries, and was described by a U.S. congressional aide on Monday as “career and the best of the best”. But his appointment may ruffle feathers in Havana. He was expelled from Cuba’s socialist ally Bolivia in 2008 for what President Evo Morales claimed was fomenting social unrest. The appointment has not been publicly announced. If approved by Cuba, Goldberg will arrive at a low moment in bilateral relations. The embassy was reopened in 2015 for the first time since 1961, as part of a fragile detente by former Democratic U.S. president Barack Obama. But the administration of Republican President Donald Trump has returned to Cold War characterizations of the Cuban government and imposed new restrictions on doing business in Cuba and travel. It has charged Cuba with responsibility for health problems affecting some two dozen diplomats or their family members, which it has termed attacks. Cuba denies the charges.  The U.S. embassy has been reduced to a skeleton staff and has suspended almost all visa processing after the Trump administration in October pulled 60 percent of embassy personnel and ordered a similar reduction at the Cuban embassy in Washington, expelling 15 diplomats. The position is not an ambassador role and does not need to be approved by the U.S. Congress. There has been no ambassador since the embassy re-opened, after the Republican-controlled Senate opposed Obama’s pick. Instead, Goldberg will take over from Jeffrey DeLaurentis, who left in July, as Charge d’Affaires. Goldberg’s other previous posts include the chief of mission in Kosovo. Most recently he has been the U.S. ambassador to the Philippines. “Appointing Ambassador Goldberg to head the U.S. Embassy in Cuba is rather provocative since he was expelled from Bolivia,”  American University professor of government William LeoGrande, a Cuba expert, said. “But Ambassador Goldberg is a Foreign Service professional and will ably represent the policies of Trump’s administration. Time will tell if he has been instructed to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor ... or carry out a more hostile policy,” he said. The embassy was closed in 1961 when the United States broke diplomatic relations. The countries maintained lower level interests sections in each other’s capitals from 1977 to 2015, under the auspices of Switzerland.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः ट्रंप ने क्यूबा के दूतावास का नेतृत्व करने के लिए राजनयिक को नियुक्त किया-सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions equated the opioid epidemic to a personal failing by many Americans who cannot “say no” to drugs on Thursday, and he said that marijuana could be serving as a gateway to the problem. “People should say no to drug use. They have got to protect themselves first,” he said during a question-and-answer session at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington. Sessions made his comments ahead of President Donald Trump’s declaration that the opioid crisis a public health emergency, a move that will redirect federal resources to help combat the problem. Sessions said he was extremely troubled by the epidemic, saying it has led to more overdose deaths than the height of the AIDS public health crisis in the 1980s. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioids were responsible for more than 33,000 U.S. deaths in 2015. The Justice Department has stepped up enforcement efforts to combat the problem.  Earlier on Thursday, the Justice Department announced it had secured an indictment against a Pittsburgh-based doctor for unlawfully distributing opioids, in the first case of its kind to be brought since Sessions launched an Opioid Abuse and Detection unit.    But in response to a question about how best to combat the epidemic, Sessions cast the problem in a moral light. “I do think that this whole country needs to not be so lackadaisical about drugs,” he said. In urging people to say no to drugs, his comments channeled former First Lady Nancy Reagan, who famously launched a “Just Say No” anti-drug campaign when the crack cocaine epidemic was ravaging communities in the 1980s.  Her husband, President Ronald Reagan, during his tenure signed into law a sweeping criminal justice bill that established mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, including marijuana. Sessions said on Thursday that “fentanyl people are really killers,” but did not clarify to whom he was specifically referring. He also said that he has heard from many police chiefs that drug addiction “starts with marijuana.” Fentanyl is a synthetic opiate that is up to 50 times more lethal than heroin. Michael Correia, the government relations director for the National Cannabis Industry Association, said Sessions is ill-informed and pointed to data showing many of the overdoses involve prescription painkillers. According to the CDC, nearly half of all the opioid overdose deaths in the United States in 2015 involved prescription medications. Correia said Sessions “is still repeating the old, tired  argument that marijuana is a gateway when there is a lot of evidence that proves otherwise.”

Summary: अमेरिकी अटॉर्नी जनरल का कहना है कि लोगों को ओपिओइड के लिए सिर्फ 'ना कहना' चाहिए


TOKYO (Reuters) - Even as a new party under a populist female leader scrambles the outlook for Japan s general election next month, one thing is clear: the winner will loosen a grip on the government s runaway debt as lawmakers forego higher taxes or boost spending. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to use the revenue from a planned sales-tax hike not to pay down debt but to spend more on education and other popular programmers. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, whose  Party of Hope  is challenging Abe s ruling coalition by effectively absorbing Japan s largest opposition party, wants to put off the tax hike altogether.  Japan has yet to emerge from deflation as consumption, which makes up a large portion of the economy, remains weak,  she told a briefing on Thursday, criticizing Abe for doing little to prop up household income. The debate is shifting to how much more to spend and in what areas, rather than on what is acceptable within the limits set by Japan s public debt, which at well over twice the size of its economy is the biggest among industrialized nations.  Regardless of who wins, there will be increased spending because that s how you win votes,  said Koichi Haji, chief economist at NLI Research Institute.  Very few lawmakers call for fiscal reform,  Haji added.  That may be fine now, but there s no telling when loss of market trust in Japan s finances could trigger a spike in bond yields.  Japan s ballooning public debt has not bothered the bond market much so far, as investors trust the country can repay public debt with its huge current account surplus and abundant domestic savings. But the long-term risk is that snowballing social security spending for a fast-ageing population will strain government finances, making it more vulnerable to a sudden spike in borrowing costs that would hurt the economy. Japanese government bond (JGB) prices tumbled on Thursday, with the benchmark futures posting their biggest fall in three months, as investors braced for bigger spending. Abe came into office in 2012 vowing to eradicate two decades of economic stagnation with  Abenomics    his three policy arrows of fiscal spending, monetary stimulus and structural reforms. While the fiscal and monetary support reflated the economy, critics say Abe has made little progress on structural reforms. In announcing a snap election for Oct. 22, Abe said he will proceed with the sales tax hike in 2019 but divert more proceeds to education and child care, and less on debt payment. He acknowledged it was now  impossible  to fulfill his promise to balance the budget   excluding debt service and new bond sales   by March 2021 as planned. Finance Minister Taro Aso said Japan will delay the timing for meeting the target by several years, with a new deadline to be set by the middle of next year.  What s worrying is that the delay (in achieving the fiscal target) would make it impossible for the government to put the brakes on spiraling fiscal spending,  said Hideo Kumano, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.  The government may resort to bigger fiscal stimulus if a pull-back in demand after the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games pushes the economy into a downturn.  Finance ministry officials charged with drafting the state budget are relieved Abe will proceed with the tax hike, but stress the need to set a new deadline to keep spending in check.  It s a good thing that the premier has stuck with a primary balance goal, even with a delay,  a senior ministry official said.  Japan s fiscal discipline will remain intact as long as we set a new timeframe.  Koike s new party, on the other hand, calls for freezing the sales tax hike, makes no mention of balancing the budget and proposes boosting  wise spending  - without giving details.  An opposition win would mean even bigger spending and a collapse of Japan s fiscal discipline,  said a ruling party lawmaker close to Abe.  Critics say the Bank of Japan s ultra-easy policy is partly to blame for a lack of discipline in Japan s fiscal spending. Politicians so far are paying no price for being lax about spending because the BOJ pins the 10-year bond yield at zero, essentially letting the government borrow for free. BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda says his bank isn t printing money to bankroll public debt. But some policymakers worry that the central bank could be forced to maintain its ultra-easy policy for longer than it wants, for fear that slowing its bond buying could trigger a spike in bond yields and push up government borrowing costs.  Once the economy slumps, there will be demands for more fiscal spending. Lawmakers may pressure the BOJ to keep its monetary spigot open,  said a former BOJ executive who retains close contact with incumbent policymakers. Rating agency S&P says Abe s decision to ditch the fiscal target timeframe won t affect Japan s sovereign debt ratings. But Kim Eng Tan, senior director of sovereign ratings at S&P in Singapore, warns against complacency.  I have no real concern right now about delaying the primary budget target,  he said.  However, it does prolong the period in which finances are at risk to a sudden increase in interest rates.

Summary: लूमिंग चुनाव जापान के राजकोषीय सुधार के लिए ताबूत में कील हो सकता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates said he and U.S. President-elect Donald Trump had a good conversation about “the power of innovation” on a variety of issues, including health and education. “We had a good conversation about innovation, how it can help in health, education, impact of foreign aide and energy,” Gates, who runs one of the largest private charities in the world, told reporters as he left Trump Tower in New York City after their talk.

Summary: माइक्रोसॉफ्ट के सह-संस्थापक गेट्स और ट्रम्प ने नवाचार पर चर्चा की


LONDON (Reuters) - Queen Elizabeth and husband Prince Philip mark their platinum wedding anniversary with a small family get-together on Monday, a far cry from the pomp and celebration which greeted their marriage 70 years ago. The couple married at London s Westminster Abbey on Nov. 20, 1947, just two years after the end of World War Two, in a glittering ceremony which attracted statesmen and royalty from around the world and huge crowds of cheering well-wishers. Seventy years on, no public events are planned, although the 91-year-old queen did acknowledge the occasion by appointing Philip a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order for his services to the sovereign. Elizabeth and her 96-year-old husband, who retired from active public life in August, will celebrate their milestone with a private party at Windsor Castle, the monarch s home to the west of London. That contrasts with their silver, golden and diamond wedding anniversaries when they attended thanksgiving services at the thousand-year-old Abbey, where the queen was crowned and where her grandson and his wife, William and Kate, were married in 2011. However, the Abbey itself will mark the occasion with a full peal of its bells involving 5,070 change of sequences, with the 70 reflecting the anniversary, which will last more than three hours.  Congratulations to The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh as they celebrate their Platinum Wedding anniversary,  Prime Minister Theresa May said on Twitter.  They have devoted their lives to the service of the UK and the Commonwealth - my best wishes to them both on this special occasion.  The wedding of Princess Elizabeth, as she then was, to the dashing naval officer Philip Mountbatten was seen as raising the nation s spirits amid an austere background of rationing and shortages that followed the war.   Millions will welcome this joyous event as a flash of colour on the hard road we have to travel,  said former Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Five years later, Elizabeth succeeded her father George VI on the throne and has ruled for the following 65 years, more than any other monarch in British history, with Philip by her side throughout.  The support he gives to my grandmother is phenomenal,  Prince Harry said in a documentary to mark her 60th year on the throne.  Regardless of whether my grandfather seems to be doing his own thing, sort of wandering off like a fish down the river, the fact that he s there - I personally don t think that she could do it without him.  While the couple s marriage has remained strong, three of their four children have seen their unions end in divorce, most notably heir Prince Charles s ill-fated union with his late first wife Princess Diana.  He has, quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years,  Elizabeth said in a speech to mark the couple s 50th wedding anniversary in 1997. Royal historian Hugo Vickers said the secret of their long marriage was their mutual support and devotion to duty.  They don t waste a jot of time wondering whether we like them or not - they just get on with the job,  he told Reuters.   On the occasions when I have been lucky enough to see them together, they always look incredibly comfortable in each other s company.

Summary: ब्रिटेन की महारानी और पति फिलिप ने चुपचाप शादी के 70 साल पूरे होने का जश्न मनाया


MOSCOW (Reuters) - A meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. counterpart Donald Trump at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam this week is  highly likely,  Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. Peskov added that the two sides were still trying to agree on the best time and format for the meeting.

Summary: क्रेमलिन ने कहा कि ए. पी. ई. सी. में ट्रम्प के साथ पुतिन की बैठक की 'अत्यधिक संभावना' है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States hopes its determination that ethnic cleansing  occurred against the Rohingya will raise pressure on Myanmar s military and civilian leadership to respond to the crisis and allow displaced people to return home, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.  The determination does indicate we feel it was ... organized planned and systematic,  a senior U.S. official told reporters on a conference call.  It does not point the finger at any specific group, but there is a limited number of groups that can be involved in that planning and organization.

Summary: अमेरिका को रोहिंग्याओं के प्रत्यावर्तन की अनुमति देने के लिए म्यांमार पर दबाव बनाने की उम्मीद


LONDON (Reuters) - Britain s main opposition Labour Party must commit to staying in the European Union s single market after Brexit and put an end to Prime Minister Theresa May s  destructive Brexit , several of its lawmakers said on Sunday. At the beginning of the party s annual conference, Labour lawmakers and trade union leaders wrote an open letter to their leader, calling on Jeremy Corbyn to  go further  than his current position to press for being part of the single market during any transition after Britain leaves in March 2019. After months of sticking to a position little different from the governing Conservative Party s pursuit of a clean break with the EU, Labour changed tack last month by saying, if in power, the party would press for full access to the single market during a transition - something that could continue beyond.  We have watched with dismay as the government has used a narrow referendum result to justify an extreme approach to Brexit,  the lawmakers said in a letter published in Britain s Observer newspaper.  So at our conference this week, Labour should commit to staying in the Single Market and Customs Union   ruling out no options for how to achieve this.  Labour s earlier move was aimed at increasing pressure on May, weakened after losing her party s majority in parliament in a June election she did not need to call and struggling to unite her own party over Brexit. But Labour is also keenly aware that many of its supporters, especially in northern and central England, voted for Brexit and want controls on immigration which many blame for stretching public services, such as hospitals and schools. Corbyn, who says he is preparing for government, told the BBC he was listening to those members of the Labour Party who want to keep the closest possible ties with the EU, but he did not say whether he would change the party s policy. Instead, he said he believed a transitional period with full single market access should last for as long as is necessary and offered some support for continued migration. In the letter, Labour lawmakers attacked the Conservative Party s  damaging promise to cut net migration to the tens of thousands .  Labour must be clear: migrants are not to blame for falling wages, job insecurity, bad housing and overstretched public services,  the letter said.

Summary: ब्रेक्सिट के बाद ब्रिटेन को यूरोपीय संघ के एकल बाजार में बने रहना चाहिएः श्रम सांसद


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump declared a $916 million loss on his 1995 income tax returns and the large tax deduction may have allowed him to avoid paying federal income taxes for up to 18 years, the New York Times reported on Saturday. The Trump campaign, in a statement responding to the Times report, said that the tax document was obtained illegally and that the New York Times is operating as an extension of the presidential campaign of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. The Times said it had obtained Trump’s 1995 tax records and that they showed he received the large tax benefits from financial deals that went bad in the early 1990s. The newspaper said that tax experts it hired to analyze Trump’s records said tax rules which are especially advantageous to wealthy filers would have let Trump use his $916 million loss to cancel out an equivalent amount of taxable income over an 18-year period. The Times said that although Trump’s taxable income in subsequent years is as yet unknown, a $916 million loss in 1995 would have been large enough to wipe out more than $50 million a year in taxable income over 18 years. Trump has declined to release his tax records, unlike previous presidential nominees in modern history, saying his taxes are under a federal audit. Experts say he could still release them publicly if he wished. “Mr. Trump is a highly-skilled businessman who has a fiduciary responsibility to his business, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required,” the Trump campaign statement said. “That being said, Mr. Trump has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, real estate taxes, city taxes, state taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes, along with very substantial charitable contributions,” it said.

Summary: ट्रम्प के 1995 के कर रिकॉर्ड बताते हैं कि वर्षों से कोई संघीय कर नहीं थाः न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स


KABUL (Reuters) - The United Nations mission in Afghanistan said at least 10 civilians may have been killed by an air strike in the northern city of Kunduz last week, despite a U.S. military investigation that found no civilian deaths. In a series of messages on Twitter, the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said interviews with multiple survivors, medics, elders and others gave it strong reason to believe that civilians were among the victims of Saturday s attack.  Credible reports that at least 10 civilians killed in Kunduz Afghanistan air strike 4 Nov, UNAMA initial findings show,  it said. The statement contradicts comments from some local and Afghan military officials as well as a U.S. statement on Tuesday which said that an investigation had found no evidence of civilian deaths. The episode underlines the lack of clarity over reports of civilian casualties, an issue which is likely to become increasingly prominent as the United States steps up air strikes against the Taliban and other insurgent groups. Captain Tom Gresback, a spokesman for the U.S. military, said the Pentagon still stood by its previous statement that found no civilian deaths. But he added:  U.S. Forces Afghanistan will examine and consider any credible evidence when allegations of civilian casualties are presented. We take all allegations of civilian casualties very seriously and take necessary steps to ensure that we mitigate the loss of civilian life.    On a visit to Kabul in September, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said that commanders would be given greater freedom to use American firepower against the Taliban but that  everything humanly possible  would be done to avoid civilian casualties. Former President Hamid Karzai, who clashed bitterly with the United States over the issue in past years, condemned the air strikes but the government of President Ashraf Ghani has so far made no public comment.  Accounts from some local officials and residents indicated that as many as 13 people were killed in air strikes in Chahardara district outside Kunduz city. Some Afghan media have reported much higher figures, without independent confirmation. Afghan special forces and the local provincial governor say 48 militants were killed but deny any civilians were killed. In its most recent report, the United Nations said there had been a 52 percent increase in civilian casualties from air strikes in the first nine months of the year to 205 killed and 261 wounded. The issue has particular resonance in Kunduz because it was there that 42 civilians were killed in a U.S. air strike on a hospital run by medical aid group Medecins sans Frontieres during fighting to regain the city from the Taliban in 2015.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र का मानना है कि अफगानिस्तान के हवाई हमले में नागरिक मारे गए


NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday charged an executive at a Turkish state-owned bank with participating in a multi-year scheme to violate U.S. sanctions against Iran, escalating a case that has added to tensions between the United States and Turkey. Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a deputy general manager of Halkbank, is accused of conspiring with wealthy Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab to conduct hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal transactions through U.S. banks on behalf of Iran’s government and other entities in that country. Atilla, a 47-year-old Turkish citizen, looked somber as he appeared at a brief hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge James Francis in Manhattan, a day after being arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport. It was unclear whether Atilla has hired a lawyer or made any bail application. He will remain in federal custody for now.  The charges expand a case that has drawn criticism from Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who has said he believed U.S. authorities had “ulterior motives” in prosecuting Zarrab. Atilla was arrested on the same day it was revealed that Zarrab, the gold trader, had added former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a confidante of President Donald Trump, to his legal team. Turkey’s relations with the United States deteriorated under former President Barack Obama, and officials in Ankara had been hoping for improvement under Trump. Turkish officials contacted by Reuters on Tuesday said they had no information on the arrest. According to a criminal complaint, Atilla worked with Zarrab and others from 2010 to 2015 to conceal Zarrab’s ability to supply currency and gold to Iran through a Turkish bank, without subjecting the bank to U.S. sanctions. As part of that scheme, Atilla and Zarrab used front companies and fake invoices to trick U.S. banks into processing transactions disguised to appear as though they involved food, and thus were exempt from U.S. sanctions, prosecutors said. “United States sanctions are not mere requests or suggestions; they are the law,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim in Manhattan said in a statement. Atilla was charged with conspiring to commit bank fraud, which carries a maximum 30-year prison term, and violating U.S. sanctions, which carries a maximum 20-year term. Atilla had been in New York for the latest in a series of investor meetings ahead of a planned Halkbank dollar-denominated subordinated bond issue, Turkish bankers said. Zarrab, a dual national of Iran and Turkey, had been arrested in 2013 in a corruption probe of people with close ties to Erdogan, who was then Turkey’s prime minister. In questioning that case, Erdogan said in September that prosecutors were trying to implicate him by referring in the indictment to Zarrab’s donations to an educational charity with which Erdogan and his wife were affiliated. Zarrab has denied the charges in his case, and faces an Aug. 21 trial. He was arrested on March 21, 2016 in Miami while en route to Disney World with his wife and daughter. Ties between the United States and Turkey have been strained by U.S. support for Kurdish militia fighters in Syria, and the presence in the United States of Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for last July’s failed military coup. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is scheduled this week to make a one-day visit to Ankara, where talks with Erdogan will focus on Syria, senior U.S. officials said on Monday. In a court filing on Monday, Kim questioned whether Zarrab’s legal team could include Giuliani and former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, who work for law firms that also represent some of the alleged U.S. bank victims. Another lawyer for Zarrab said Giuliani’s and Mukasey’s roles would not require them to appear in court. Kim later said his understanding was that both will remain “involved in efforts to explore a potential disposition of the criminal charges in this matter.” The case is U.S. v. Atilla, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 17-mag-02197.

Summary: अमेरिका ने ईरान प्रतिबंधों की जांच में तुर्की के बैंकर पर आरोप लगाया


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has sold its advanced S-400 air defense missile system to Turkey for over $2 billion, Sergei Chemezov, the head of state conglomerate Rostec, said on Thursday, the TASS news agency reported. The deal with Turkey, a NATO member, has caused some disquiet in the United States. Turkey originally awarded a $3.4 billion contract for a defense system to China in 2013, but canceled that two years later, saying it would concentrate on developing a system domestically.

Summary: रूस एस-400 वायु रक्षा मिसाइलों के लिए तुर्की से 2 अरब डॉलर चाहता हैः टीएएसएस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leaders of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said on Wednesday they do not believe Trump Tower was tapped during the 2016 presidential campaign and that FBI and NSA directors will testify at a hearing next week about that claim and any Russian meddling in the U.S. election.  Republican Chairman Devin Nunes and the committee’s top Democrat, Adam Schiff, told reporters they do not believe President Donald Trump’s phones were tapped, as he asserted without proof, but they want the FBI to provide any evidence at next Monday’s hearing.

Summary: एफ. बी. आई., एन. एस. ए. प्रमुख ट्रंप के वायरटैप दावों पर गवाही देंगे, रूसः सांसद


HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was sacked by President Robert Mugabe this week, has been expelled from the ruling Zanu-PF, a party spokesman said on Wednesday. Mnangagwa, a liberation war veteran and a long-time ally of Mugabe, was until this week seen as a favorite to succeed the 93-year-old leader. But Mnangagwa s relationship with Mugabe s wife, Grace, has become increasingly strained as their two factions within Zanu-PF fight for dominance. Mnangagwa s removal on Monday came two days after Grace publicly called him a  coup plotter .

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे की सत्तारूढ़ पार्टी ने पूर्व उपराष्ट्रपति मनांगाग्वा को निष्कासित कर दिया


STRASBOURG (Reuters) - The European Parliament urged EU leaders on Wednesday to allow the next phase of Brexit negotiations to start, backing a motion that recognised the talks had advanced sufficiently as a well a line criticising Britain s lead negotiator David Davis. European Union leaders are almost certain to judge on Friday that  sufficient progress  has been made on the rights of citizens, the Brexit divorce bill and the Irish border to allow negotiations to move to the next phase. The EU executive recommended last week that leaders approve the start of trade talks. The European Parliament will have to approve any Brexit deal, although its motion on Wednesday, backed by 556 votes for to 62 against, was not binding.  The EU s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told lawmakers the next phase of talks would focus on a  short and defined  transition period and initial discussions on a future relationship. Future talks, he said, would be no less difficult.  They are tough, very tough because the issues are extremely complicated and because the consequences of Brexit are very serious,  he said, adding that British Prime Minister Theresa May was  courageous  and deserved respect. Nigel Farage of the anti-EU UKIP party called her  Theresa the appeaser  and said she had yielded on virtually everything. Barnier stressed that Britain could not renege on commitments made to ensure the talks moved on.  The agreement presented in a joint report last Friday was, in the view of some in Brussels, undermined by Davis s comment that it was more  a statement of intent  than legally binding. Davis has subsequently said he wants the accord swiftly translated into a legal text.   We will not accept any going back on this joint report. This progress has been agreed and will be rapidly translated into a withdrawal accord that is legally binding in all three areas and on some others that remain to be negotiated,  Barnier said. A lot more steps were required to secure an orderly withdrawal, he added.  We are not at the end of the road, neither regarding citizens  rights nor for the other subjects of the orderly withdrawal. We remain vigilant,  Barnier told the parliament.

Summary: यूरोपीय संसद ने ब्रेक्सिट वार्ता के अगले चरण को शुरू करने का समर्थन किया


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A withdrawal by the United States from the Paris climate deal would be disappointing but the European Union stood ready to take global leadership on this issue, the European Commission said on Wednesday. U.S. President Trump is expected to make an announcement on whether he will stay in the agreement this week, with media reports on Wednesday suggesting he had made up his mind to withdraw. “If they decide to pull out it would be disappointing but I really do not think this would change the course of mankind,” said European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic. “There is a much stronger expectation from our partners across the world from Africa, Asia and China that Europe should assume leadership in this effort and we are ready to do that,” Sefcovic added.

Summary: पेरिस समझौते से अमेरिका के हटने की स्थिति में यूरोपीय संघ जलवायु नेतृत्व के लिए तैयार


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in on Wednesday to discuss the crisis around North Korea, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.  The two leaders will meet on the sidelines of an economic forum in the Russian far eastern city of Vladivostok as international concerns grow over Pyongyang s recent nuclear tests that shook the Korean Peninsula.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया पर चर्चा के लिए 6 सितंबर को दक्षिण कोरिया के राष्ट्रपति से मिलेंगे पुतिनः क्रेमलिन


CLEVELAND (Reuters) - On the floor and corridors of the basketball arena hosting the Republican National Convention, in restaurants and bars, hotel lobbies and conference rooms across Cleveland, the talk was of the rise of Donald Trump, whose unlikely presidential candidacy has caused seismic fractures in the Republican Party. While the venues changed, the question didn’t: Where do we go from here? This was the week that Trump was officially nominated as the Republicans’ 2016 presidential candidate and was effectively given control of a party whose leaders have criticized him for his incendiary rhetoric, personal attacks on fellow Republicans, and tendency to stray from decades-old party orthodoxy.  He packed the convention hall with his grassroots army of supporters, who seemed almost completely disinterested in his policy positions, even though they could reshape the party for years to come on core issues like trade, immigration and foreign policy. Those who were interested - party veterans, lawmakers, donors and lobbyists - found little clarity in any of the speeches delivered from the convention stage or in conversations with members of the Trump campaign. Are we still a party that embraces free trade and free markets, they asked. Are we still committed to ending abortion rights? Do we want to create a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants or ship all of them out of the country? Paul Ryan, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and the most powerful elected Republican, acknowledged that Trump has transformed his party. But he hedged on whether he believes Trump’s impact will be lasting or simply a temporary phenomenon that will dissipate if he loses on Nov. 8.  “I don’t know the answer to that question. I really have no idea,” Ryan said at an event in Cleveland. Trump had changed the party, he said, but “how specifically and in what direction, I don’t know.”  Even after two days of speeches, Utah delegate Matt Throckmorton was still trying to figure out what a Trump presidency would mean for the Republican Party. “What happens next?” asked Throckmorton. In many way the uncertainty about Trump reflects the conflict within the Republican electorate. The party has struggled to find consensus on a number of key issues, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling during the 2016 campaign season. For example, when asked in March about international trade, the same number of Republicans said it “creates jobs” as said it “causes job losses.” When asked about abortion in June, the number of Republicans who wanted it to be illegal “in all cases” was matched by those who wanted it to be legal “in most cases.”  Trump had his biggest stage on Thursday night, when he officially accepted the party’s nomination, to spell out his vision of where he would take the Republican Party if he won the presidency. But his speech, rich in rhetoric, offered scant detail beyond sweeping promises to put “America first.” “If this Trump speech - and this GOP platform -  defines what a Republican is today, then it’s hard to say I’m one. Hard for a lot of us,” tweeted Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman under President George W Bush.  A week earlier, Republican activists were celebrating the adoption of a deeply conservative political platform that condemned gay marriage and opposed abortion with no exceptions, among other things. Trump’s lineup of speakers at the convention this week barely referenced it.  “It’s a little bit frightening,” said Chris Herrod, another Utah delegate, explaining that the platform was one of the main ways delegates could help shape party policy. “And he seems to have an attitude of just completely disregarding it.”  Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said Trump was “the future of the Republican Party.” Away from the floor, some anti-Trump Republicans were quietly debating whether it would be better in the long-term interests of the party to lose the White House in November. “This week we’re having some real anguished discussions,” said Vin Weber, a former congressman from Minnesota. “People are falling in line” with Trump, Weber said, “but what does this party believe?” Take trade, for example. Republicans have long been the party of free trade, but Trump has said current trade deals have impoverished American workers and wants to renegotiate them or in some cases block them altogether, like President Barack Obama’s signature Trans-Pacific Partnership. Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker and a close Trump ally, worked to ease fears that a Trump administration would derail the U.S. economy by scrapping trade alliances. “He has no interest in breaking up the world market,” Gingrich told a group of diplomats, adding that Trump was, in fact, committed to free trade with some added protections for American companies.  “Now how Trump will work this out, I have no idea,” Gingrich added. Some attendees at the convention expressed the hope that Trump would align himself with many of their cherished conservative values but admitted they just didn’t know what he would do once he was in office. They would have found little solace in Gingrich’s remarks to the diplomats. “You will not know what he’s doing every morning, because he will not know what he’s doing every morning,” Gingrich told them, suggesting a Trump presidency would be similar to his candidacy - reactive, spontaneous and centered almost entirely around Trump’s instincts. But Trump’s instincts are sometimes at odds with key elements of the party. For example, he has been more accepting of gay rights and has see-sawed on abortion rights, first defending them and then saying he opposes abortion.  “Conservatives are prepared to believe Trump might be wrong 20, 25, maybe 30 percent of the time,” Richard Viguerie, a veteran Republican activist, told Reuters at an anti-abortion event. But, Trump’s opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton, “will be wrong 100 percent of the time.” Asked if Trump supported the conservative social values espoused in the platform, he laughed. “Well, I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll have to wait and see.” Some lawmakers at the convention dismissed some of Trump’s most provocative proposals, like his vow to deport an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, as unlikely to be implemented.  “Full-blown deportation is not going to sell politically and I don’t think a Republican Congress, or any Congress, would stand by and watch it happen,” Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma told a group of convention attendees.   Some Republicans believe should Trump lose, the party will simply return to its more traditional conservative principles.  “The Republican Party is bigger than any one candidate, even a presidential candidate,” said Frank Luntz, a Republican pollster. But Trump supporters said those Republicans were in denial and that Trump had permanently wrested control of the party away from the establishment elites.  “Where’s Mitt Romney, where are the Bushes?” said Mary Lou McCoy, who had traveled to Cleveland from Buffalo, New York, referring to the 2012 Republican nominee and the Bush political dynasty. “The people have spoken.”

Summary: रिपब्लिकन द्वारा ट्रम्प का अभिषेक किए जाने के बाद, पार्टी पहचान के संकट से जूझ रही है


XIAMEN, China (Reuters) - BRICS countries should deepen coordination on important global matters and quicken global economic governance reform, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday.  Speaking at the BRICS summit in the southeastern Chinese city Xiamen, Xi also said BRICS countries have made smooth progress on anti-terrorism and internet security cooperation.

Summary: चीन के शी ने कहा कि ब्रिकस देशों को समन्वय को गहरा करना चाहिए, वैश्विक आर्थिक शासन में सुधार को तेज करना चाहिए


BERLIN (Reuters) - Europe must make clear to the United States that quitting the Paris climate agreement is not a straightforward process, and that fully leaving the deal will take years, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Wednesday. “Europe’s duty is to say: it’s not like that,” Juncker told a student conference on the future of Europe organized by the German employers’ association BDA. “The Americans can’t just leave the climate protection agreement. Mr. Trump believes that because he doesn’t know the details.” In reality, it would take several years for the U.S. to extricate itself from the obligations that flow from having signed the agreement, the head of the European Union’s executive arm added.

Summary: पेरिस जलवायु समझौते को छोड़ने में अमेरिका को कई साल लगेंगेः जंकर


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s defense secretary on Thursday said he did not see possible military collaboration with Russia now, in a blow to Moscow’s hopes to mend ties with Washington after Trump’s election. The remarks are perhaps the strongest indication yet from the Trump administration that prospects for any significant cooperation between the U.S. and Russian militaries against  Islamic State in Syria is unlikely anytime soon. They came despite repeated suggestions by Trump during his election campaign of the possibility of joint action against Islamic State militants.     “We are not in a position right now to collaborate on a military level. But our political leaders will engage and try to find common ground,” Jim Mattis told reporters after talks at NATO headquarters in Brussels, also mentioning U.S. concerns about Russian interference in democratic elections. Just hours before Mattis spoke, Russian President Vladimir Putin said it was in the interests of both nations to restore communications between their intelligence agencies. “It’s absolutely clear that in the area of counter-terrorism all relevant governments and international groups should work together,” he told Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). U.S. intelligence agencies, however, are among the most powerful voice of caution in Washington on Russia, concluding that Moscow hacked and leaked Democratic Party emails during the presidential campaign as part of efforts to tilt the vote in the Nov. 8 election in Trump’s favor. Monday’s resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was seen in Moscow as a leading advocate of warmer ties with Russia, has underscored for the Kremlin the difficulties of reaching a settlement. Flynn resigned after disclosures he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office, and that he later misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations.  Asked whether he believed that Russia interfered in U.S. presidential elections, Mattis said: “Right now, I would just say there’s very little doubt that they have either interfered or they have attempted to interfere in a number of elections in the democracies.” He did not explicitly cite the U.S. election. A Kremlin aide said there had been no progress on a potential meeting between Trump and Putin. “There is no agreement on a meeting nor a clear understanding yet,” Interfax news agency quoted Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov as saying. BACK-AND-FORTH Mattis, who has previously accused Russia of trying to break the NATO alliance, told a closed-door session of NATO on Wednesday that it needed to be realistic about the chances of restoring a cooperative relationship with Moscow.  He cited Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, which plunged U.S.-Russia relations to a post-Cold War low. Mattis said NATO needed “negotiate from a position of strength” as he called for stepped up military spending. That prompted a terse reply from Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. “Attempts to build a dialogue with Russia from a position of strength would be futile,” he was quoted as saying by TASS news agency. Mattis shot back: “I have no need to respond to the Russian statement at all. NATO has always stood for military strength and protection of the democracies and the freedoms we intend to pass on to our children.” The back-and-forth came even as U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Germany, and U.S. Marine General Joseph Dunford, the top U.S. military officer, met Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov in Azerbaijan. Lavrov dismissed the uproar over the U.S. election. “You should know we do not interfere in the domestic matters of other countries,” he said.  Congressional inquiries into alleged Russian interference in the U.S. elections are gaining momentum as Capitol Hill investigators press intelligence and law enforcement agencies for access to classified documents. The FBI and several U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating Russian espionage operations in the United States. They are also looking at contacts in Russia between Russian intelligence officers or others with ties to Putin’s government and people connected to Trump or his campaign.

Summary: ट्रम्प के रक्षा प्रमुख रूस के साथ कोई सैन्य सहयोग नहीं देखते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump dug deeper in his efforts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the U.S. election, saying on Twitter on Sunday that he believed the results were being “rigged” at many polling places.  His tweet came hours after his vice presidential running mate, Mike Pence, said Republicans would accept the outcome of the Nov. 8 contest between Trump and his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. “The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary - but also at many polling places - SAD,” Trump wrote on Twitter, in the latest of a series of comments he has made over the past several days calling into question the fairness of the election. Trump, who is trailing Clinton in opinion polls, did not provide any evidence to back his allegations of impropriety at the voting booth. Early voting and voting by mail have begun in many states. In another tweet later on Sunday, Trump blamed “animals representing Hillary Clinton” and Democrats in North Carolina for an overnight attack on a local Republican Party headquarters in that state. Local authorities said the building in Hillsborough, North Carolina, had been struck through a front window with flammable material and an adjacent building wall was spray-painted with a swastika and the words “Nazi Republicans leave town or else.” “Animals representing Hillary Clinton and Dems in North Carolina just firebombed our office in Orange County because we are winning,” Trump tweeted. Clinton denounced the attack as “horrific and unacceptable” in her own tweet, adding: “Very grateful that everyone is safe. Trump, a New York businessman, who has never held elective office, has often said the electoral process is skewed against him, including during the Republican nominating contests, when he disputed the method for winning delegates to the Republican National Convention. His latest complaint of media bias stems from allegations by women that he groped them or made other unwanted sexual advances, after a 2005 video became public in which Trump was recorded bragging about such behavior. He apologized for the video but has denied each of the accusations. “Election is being rigged by the media, in a coordinated effort with the Clinton campaign, by putting stories that never happened into news!” Trump tweeted on Sunday, a sentiment he also expressed in posts and during rallies in Maine and New Hampshire on Saturday. The comments raised questions both from  Republicans and Democrats about whether he would accept the outcome should he lose to Clinton. Trump said after the first presidential debate in September that he would “absolutely” accept the election outcome. But a few days afterward, he told the New York Times: “We’re going to see what happens.”  He has also urged his supporters to keep an eye on voting locations to prevent a “stolen” election, which some critics interpreted as encouraging them to intimidate voters. Pence said on Sunday he and Trump would respect the will of the voters. “We’ll respect the outcome of this election,” said Pence, the Indiana governor. “Donald Trump said in the first debate that we’ll respect the will of the American people in this election. The peaceful transfer of power is a hallmark of American history.” In a weekend statement quoted by media, a spokeswoman for U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, the top U.S. elected Republican, said: “Our democracy relies on confidence in election results, and the speaker is fully confident the states will carry out this election with integrity.”  On Sunday, Pence for the second time in recent weeks broke from Trump on Russia, this time on that country’s possible involvement in email hacks tied to the U.S. election, saying Moscow should face “severe consequences” if it has compromised U.S. email security.  “I think there’s no question that the evidence continues to point in that direction,” Pence said. “There should be severe consequences to Russia or any sovereign nation that is compromising the privacy or the security of the United States of America,” Pence said on “Fox News Sunday.” Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week his country was not involved in trying to influence the U.S. election. Trump, who has been criticized for appearing too close to Russia after he publicly praised Putin’s governing style, has questioned the reports of Moscow’s involvement. “Maybe there is no hacking,” he said during last week’s second debate with Clinton. Trump also contradicted Pence on Russia during that debate. Pence had said the United States should use military force in Syria if Russia continued air strikes to prop up President Bashar al-Assad, but Trump said he disagreed. The third and final debate between Trump and Clinton will be on Wednesday in Las Vegas.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने आरोप लगाया कि अमेरिकी चुनाव परिणामों में 'कई मतदान स्थलों पर' धांधली की जा रही है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday welcomed a  first step  by Saudi Arabia to allow humanitarian aid to reach Yemen and called for negotiations on the country s conflict. The coalition fighting the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen said on Wednesday it would allow aid in through the Red Sea ports of Hodeidah and Salif, as well as U.N. flights to Sanaa, more than two weeks after blockading the country. About 7 million people face famine in Yemen and their survival is dependent on international assistance.  Full and immediate implementation of the announced measures is a first step in ensuring that food, medicine, and fuel reach the Yemeni people and that the aid organizations on the frontlines of mitigating this humanitarian crisis are able to do their essential work,  the White House said in a statement.  We look forward to additional steps that will facilitate the unfettered flow of humanitarian and commercial goods from all ports of entry to the points of need,  it added. A U.N. spokesman said the Saudi-led coalition had given the United Nations permission to resume flights of aid workers to the Houthi-controlled capital on Saturday, but not to dock ships loaded with wheat and medical supplies.  Reuters reported on Wednesday that U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asked Saudi Arabia to ease the blockade. The U.S.-backed coalition closed air, land and sea access on Nov. 6, in a move it said was to stop the flow of arms to the Houthis from Iran. The action came after Saudi Arabia intercepted a missile fired toward Riyadh. Iran has denied supplying weapons. The White House said it was committed to supporting Saudi Arabia and its Gulf partners  against the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps  aggression and blatant violations of international law . The Saudi-led coalition has been targeting the Houthis since they seized parts of Yemen in 2015, including the capital Sanaa, forcing President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee. The Houthis, drawn mainly from Yemen s Zaidi Shi ite minority and allied with long-serving former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, control much of the country. The United Nations has been mediating in the conflict without much success.  The United States continues to believe that this devastating conflict, and the suffering it causes, must be brought to an end through political negotiations,  the White House said.

Summary: अमेरिका ने यमन संकट से निपटने के लिए सऊदी अरब के 'पहले कदम' का समर्थन किया


HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnamese police have arrested a dissident accused of attempting to overthrow the government, the communist state s official website said on Wednesday, bringing to at least 17 the number of dissidents arrested this year. Tran Thi Xuan, 41, was arrested in the northern province of Ha Tinh on Tuesday. The website did not give details of the alleged crime. Reuters was unable to contact her and it was not clear whether she had a lawyer. Despite sweeping economic reforms and growing openness to social change, the Communist Party tolerates little criticism.     The crackdown on dissent follows changes in the ruling party hierarchy early last year which gave greater influence to the security establishment.

Summary: वियतनाम ने सरकार को उखाड़ फेंकने के प्रयास के लिए असंतुष्ट को गिरफ्तार किया


SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - California will move its presidential primary from June to March under a bill signed on Wednesday by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown, a change aimed at giving the liberal-leaning state more influence in choosing candidates from either national party. The most populous U.S. state, which voted heavily for Democrat Hillary Clinton in November’s presidential election, has traditionally held its primary so late that Democratic and Republican voters in other states had essentially already chosen their parties’ candidates. “The Golden State will no longer be relegated to last place in the presidential nominating process,” said Secretary of State Alex Padilla, a Democrat who backed the change, in a statement. “Candidates will not be able to ignore the largest, most diverse state in the nation as they seek our country’s highest office.” The bill was passed mostly along party lines in the majority-Democrat legislature. The new date will leave the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary in place as the first and second contests of the presidential election cycle, during which voters in each state choose the candidate they would like their party to nominate for president. Because California’s primary has been in June while others were held earlier, candidates have largely ignored the state, spending less on outreach than elsewhere, making fewer visits, and failing to prioritize California voters’ concerns in their campaigns, supporters said. In 2016, California Democrats chose Clinton and Republicans opted for Donald Trump, the populist businessman who ultimately won the presidency. Backers in the legislature said the early primary would lead to less divisive choices by members of both major parties in the 2020 election cycle, and establish California as a leading voice in the choice of candidates. Progressive Democrats also believe that moving the primary up could result in their party’s selection of more liberal candidates. “California is the beating heart of the national resistance to Trump, and California Democrats are defining the progressive agenda for America,” state Democratic Party Chairman Eric Bauman said in a press release. “When it comes to deciding the Democratic nominee, our voices need to be heard early in the process.”

Summary: कैलिफोर्निया ने उम्मीदवार की पसंद में बड़ी बात के लिए राष्ट्रपति पद के लिए प्राथमिक चुनाव को आगे बढ़ाया


SEVARE, Mali (Reuters) - Snipers from a new West African force lie prone on a rooftop in central Mali, scanning the horizon for Islamist militants who have infiltrated this sparsely populated region south of the Sahara and made it a launchpad for deadly attacks. Thousands of U.N. peacekeepers, French troops and U.S. military trainers and drone operators have failed to stem a growing wave of jihadist violence, leading international powers to pin their hopes on a new regional force. But the so-called G5 Sahel initiative faces immense challenges if it is to do any better at bringing security to the arid Sahel region than its countries Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger have managed so far. Security sources and analysts say too strong an emphasis on military might over tackling the underlying causes of jihad, logistical shortfalls and a lack of cooperation from regional powerhouse Algeria all raise doubts over whether the G5 can succeed where years of Western intervention has not.  There is a long way to go to reach full operational capacity, even though the timeframe is relatively short,  G5 force commander General Didier Dacko told visiting U.N. Security Council envoys last month, citing a range of needs from aerial support to communications equipment to intelligence gathering.  The United Nations, France and the United States have poured billions of dollars into stabilizing the region over the past 15 years but have failed to meaningfully address the many local grievances driving conflict, analysts say. Political and social tensions, such as a stalled peace process between the government and armed groups in Mali, are pushing youths to jihad, as are growing rivalries between farmers and cattle herders and rights abuses by national armies. In northern Burkina Faso, for example, preacher Malam Ibrahim Dicko has gained adherents to his militant Ansarul Islam movement by railing against the privileges of traditional elites in a region scarred by widespread poverty. Some local groups have affiliated themselves with global franchises such as al Qaeda and Islamic State, whose dwindling presence in the Middle East has led Western governments to zero in on the vast lawless tracts of North and West Africa to prevent them finding new footholds. But the militant groups in the Sahel draw more on frustrations with central governments and the Western forces that back them than a global jihadist agenda, making security-heavy approaches risky, analysts say.  I think local communities in Mali and Niger feel alienated and confused by the actions of those entities,  said Alexander Thurston, an assistant professor at Georgetown University who specializes in Islam and politics in West Africa.   The problems require political solutions, ultimately, and the G5 is a small and underfunded force.  The G5 s backers say they recognize the need for longer-term economic development, not just a beefed-up security presence. In Mali last month, France s U.N. envoy Francois Delattre called the two  absolutely inseparable . But when it comes to coughing up, development often gets short-changed. A U.N. initiative to support regional security, governance and development has only received 30 percent of its budget since 2013, with the latter two areas worst hit. France is keenly backing the G5, hoping it will provide an eventual exit strategy for its own costly 4,000-strong counter-terrorism taskforce in the region, Operation Barkhane.   Terrorist groups in the Sahel now represent a global threat,  French Foreign Minster Jean-Yves Le Drian told the Security Council last week.  The G5 Sahel joint force is the right response to this challenge.  The threat Islamist militants pose was underscored by last month s attack in Niger that killed eight U.S. and Nigerien troops, prompting American officials to predict U.S. involvement in the region would intensify. Across the street from the snipers  perch in Sevare, Mali, inside the G5 headquarters, General Dacko told Security Council diplomats how he planned to take on the 1,000 or so  terrorists  he estimated operate in the area. Joint patrols, hot pursuit operations and intelligence sharing among the five countries contributing to the force, which should eventually boast nearly 5,000 soldiers, will chase out drug traffickers and militants, he said. Neither the U.N. mission in Mali, which cannot operate across borders, nor the French taskforce, which has concentrated on training local forces and going after high value targets, has made securing the region s porous borders a priority. Last week, the G5 deployed its first several hundred troops from Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso to their shared borderlands where jihadists have carried out dozens of attacks this year.     The G5 is a source of hope and we believe in it completely,  Dacko said. Initially skeptical of the force, the United States pledged up to $60 million last week. Even so, commitments from the G5 countries and donors stand at only a third of the estimated $490 million the force needs in its first year. Money, logistical support and local opposition aside, Dacko said he was concerned about the relationship with the continent s biggest country, Algeria, with which the G5 nations share a collective border roughly 2,500 km (1,500 miles) long. Islamist militant groups emerged in Algeria in the early 1990s and then spread beyond its borders. The country s constitution prohibits foreign military intervention but analysts say its collaboration is essential because of its intelligence networks  intimate knowledge of regional militants.   Dacko, however, said there was no process as yet to formalize security cooperation between the G5 and the North Africa country. Algerian officials were not immediately available to comment. A source familiar with the Algerian government s thinking said it already had channels of cooperation with G5 military officials and questioned the need for a new force.   You have MINUSMA (the U.N. peacekeeping mission) in Mali ... so why another regional group to fight terror in the Sahel?  the source said. Algeria also sees the G5 as effectively being controlled by its former colonial master France, with which it fought a bitter independence war and has since regarded with suspicion.  Algeria perceives the G5 Sahel as an extension of French influence in a region in which Algeria has traditionally been dominant, and in which France has historically played an essentially destabilizing role,  Hannah Armstrong, an Algeria expert at the International Crisis Group, said. Algeria mediated talks leading to the 2015 peace deal in Mali but it is sometimes suspected of not doing all it could to prevent militants using its desert spaces as a rear base.  It is essential to find ways to partner (with Algeria),  said Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga, Mali s former intelligence chief.  As long as there is not a shared evaluation, you cannot imagine a common course of action.   West Africa's Sahel initiative: tmsnrt.rs/2m3ScBv

Summary: बूट और समर्थन की कमी के कारण पश्चिम अफ्रीका की सेना को कठिन लड़ाई का सामना करना पड़ता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump was simply saying nice things to an ally when he called Australia’s universal healthcare system better than the U.S. system, and he does not think his country should adopt a similar approach, the White House said on Friday. “The president was complimenting a foreign leader on the operations of their healthcare system,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a news briefing. “It didn’t mean anything more than that.” Trump raised eyebrows when he told Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Thursday in New York, “You have better health care than we do.” Trump spoke shortly after he led a White House rally with Republicans from the House of Representatives, who had just passed legislation to overturn much of former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law and move further away from a guarantee of universal coverage. That measure, opposed by Democrats, must clear the Senate before Trump can sign it into law. “Of course the Australians have better healthcare than we do - everybody does,” Trump tweeted on Friday. “ObamaCare is dead! But our healthcare will soon be great.” Independent scorekeepers at the Congressional Budget Office have not yet analyzed the bill, but they estimated an earlier version would have led to 24 million fewer Americans with insurance coverage than under current law. Australia’s government plays a larger role in its health system. The country provides free hospital treatment and subsidized medical care for all residents through a publicly funded program. Roughly half of Australians choose to buy private coverage, which provides them with greater choices. Huckabee Sanders said Trump’s remarks do not mean he thinks the United States should adopt a similar system. “I think he believes that they have a good healthcare system for Australia,” she said. “What works in Australia may not work in the United States.” (This version of the story in third paragraph, corrects name of Australian prime minister)

Summary: ट्रम्प को नहीं लगता कि अमेरिका को ऑस्ट्रेलिया की स्वास्थ्य प्रणाली की नकल करनी चाहिएः व्हाइट हाउस


(Reuters) - The 2016 election cycle had been a ratings boon for U.S. cable news networks, and Tuesday’s stunning U.S. presidential election victory by Republican Donald Trump was no different. Time Warner Inc’s CNN led all U.S. TV networks in primetime coverage with 13.3 million viewers, the most-watched Election Night coverage in U.S. cable news history, according to Nielsen data. 21st Century Fox’s Fox News came in second with 12.1 million viewers, and Comcast Corp’s MSNBC was far behind with just under 6 million. Among adults aged 25 to 54, the demographic most important to advertisers who buy time on news programs, CNN was first as well with 6.7 million viewers. Fox News was second with 4.6 million and MSNBC drew 2.4 million in the demographic. All three posted gains from four years ago. With many states too close to call, the race was not called for Trump until around 3 a.m. (0800 GMT) on the East Coast. Fox News led cable news with 9.8 million viewers watching between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. (0700 and 0800 GMT), with CNN bringing in 6.5 million and 2.9 million watching on MSNBC.  Fox News also led all cable networks with their full coverage from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. (0000 to 0800), with 12.2 million, a network high for an election night. CNN pulled in 11.2 million for the whole night, but topped Fox News in the news demographic with 5.6 million to Fox News’ 4.8 million. MSNBC brought up the rear with 5.2 million and 2.1 million in the demographic. NBC led all the broadcast networks with 11.2 million viewers, with ABC finishing with 9.2 million and CBS pulling in 8.1 million. Fox averaged around 4 million for its two-hour coverage from 8-10 p.m.  Across 13 U.S. TV networks, election night coverage was watched by 71.42 million viewers, just behind the U.S. record of 71.47 million that watched in 2008.

Summary: अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति चुनाव ने केबल समाचारों के लिए रिकॉर्ड रेटिंग बनाई


NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. equity index futures dipped at the open on Sunday, as stock traders showed caution following news that North Korea had escalated diplomatic tensions by conducting what it said was a test of a hydrogen bomb. S&P 500 e-mini futures were down 0.36 percent, after electronic trading resumed on Sunday evening. The dip showed that traders were cautious but not overly spooked by news out of North Korea. Volumes were higher than normal, with 30,200 contracts changing hands.  Traders have been burned by overreacting to the news out of North Korea multiple times over the last month   most recently after missiles were shot over Japanese territory,  said Nicholas Young, a partner at Conventus Capital LLC in New York on Sunday.  Unless we get a real response from the U.S., the market seems desensitized to these items.   The 10-year Treasury futures were up 0.16 percent on Sunday. North Korea on Sunday conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test, which it said was of an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile, in a dramatic escalation of Pyongyang s stand-off with the United States and its allies.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया के परमाणु परीक्षण के बाद शेयर वायदा में गिरावट


(Reuters) - Voters in Chicago have ousted embattled Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, who has been harshly criticized for her handling of a police shooting investigation.  Preliminary Democratic primary results on Tuesday showed Alvarez, 56, was handily defeated by Kim Foxx, an African-American who capitalized on criticism the two-term prosecutor received for taking more than a year to charge Jason Van Dyke, a white officer, who fatally shot a black teenager in 2014.   “The stakes in this race were very high,” Foxx said during her victory speech. “I understand the excitement, but let us not get lost in the gravity of the work that is ahead of us.” Foxx, 43, will face Republican Christopher Pfannkuche, who ran an uncontested primary race, in the general election in November. Alvarez will remain in office until then. Killings of black men at the hands of mainly white law enforcement officials in U.S. cities over the past two years have prompted demonstrations across the country and stoked a national debate on race relations and police tactics. Alvarez charged Van Dyke on Nov. 24 with first-degree murder more than a year after he shot Laquan McDonald 16 times. The October 2014 shooting was captured on patrol car dashboard-camera videos that were released on the day Van Dyke was charged, setting off weeks of protests.      Politicians, pastors and civil rights advocates called for Alvarez to resign, saying she only filed the murder charges because she was under pressure after the videos were made public.  “We find ourselves in this country, not just here in Cook County, in a great climate of change and in reform in the criminal justice system,” Alvarez said during her concession speech.  After Van Dyke was charged, Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy was fired and the U.S. Justice Department launched an investigation into the Chicago Police Department.  “This is what justice looks like,” said organizers of Assata’s Daughters, a local black women’s advocacy group, on a Facebook video post.  Foxx served as assistant state’s attorney for Cook County for 12 years and then as chief of staff for the Cook County Board president. Born to a teenage mother, she spent part of her childhood in Chicago’s Cabrini Green public housing complex and in a homeless shelter.  “Kim’s life experience has given her a deep understanding of the impact of crime, violence and poverty on our communities,” her campaign website said.

Summary: चुनाव प्राथमिक में शिकागो के अभियोजक की हार


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is voicing skepticism about Russian President Vladimir Putin s announcement of a major withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria and is arguing that his declaration of victory against Islamic State was premature. Putin, during a surprise visit on Monday to Russia s Hmeymim air base in Syria, declared that the work of Russian forces was largely done in backing the Syrian government against militants in the country s war following the defeat of  the most battle-hardened group of international terrorists.   Still, U.S. officials are challenging the Russian and Syrian portrayal of Syria as a country poised for peace once the final enclaves of the Islamic State militant group, known as ISIS, are recaptured.  Syrian government forces, U.S. officials said, are too few, too poor and too weak to secure the country. Islamic State, and other militants in Syria, have ample opportunity to regroup, especially if the political grievances that drove the conflict remain unresolved, the officials said.  We think the Russian declarations of ISIS  defeat are premature,  a White House National Security Council spokeswoman said.  We have repeatedly seen in recent history that a premature declaration of victory was followed by a failure to consolidate military gains, stabilize the situation, and create the conditions that prevent terrorists from reemerging .   The U.S. military in Syria, which unlike the Russians are operating there without the blessing of Damascus, has long been skeptical of Moscow s announced drawdowns. Marine Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway, a Pentagon spokesman, said the United States had not observed any significant withdrawal since Putin s announcement.  Although he did not predict future moves, he said:  There have been no meaningful reductions in combat troops following Russia s previous announcements planned departures from Syria.  The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said Moscow s past announcements of pullouts led to a recalibration of Russian forces.   Russia has previously used claims of partial withdrawals in order to rotate out select units for refit-and-repair, remove redundant capabilities, and reinsert alternative weapons systems better suited for the next phase of pro-regime operations,  it wrote in a research note on Tuesday. The U.S. military still has around 2,000 troops in Syria and has announced that any withdrawal will be conditions-based, arguing a longer-term presence of American forces would be needed to ensure Islamic State s lasting defeat.  Russia s announcement, however, suggested a different image of Syria in which foreign forces were becoming unnecessary. After turning the tide of the conflict in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad s favor, Putin wants to help broker a peace deal. A senior Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the United States believed Assad would fail if he attempts to impose  victor s peace.  The odds of Syria breaking into a civil war again would be high without meaningful political reconciliation, the official said. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday stressed the importance of a roadmap for peace, including elections that would allow voting by Syrians overseas who fled to the conflict.   And it is our belief that through that process, the Assad regime will no longer be part of that leadership,  Tillerson said.

Summary: सीरिया में पुतिन की सैन्य जीत की घोषणा से अमेरिका सावधान


GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations has verified 5,144 civilian deaths in the war in Yemen, mainly from air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition, and an international investigation is urgently needed, U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra ad al Hussein said on Monday.   The minimal efforts made toward accountability over the past year are insufficient to respond to the gravity of the continuing and daily violations involved in this conflict,  Zeid said in a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.  The devastation of Yemen and the horrific suffering of its people will have immense and enduring repercussions across the region.   It is the third time that he has appealed for an international inquiry into human rights violations in Yemen where a two-year conflict pits the Saudi-backed Yemen government against Iran-supported Houthi rebels. Last week Zeid s office said the 47 countries on the Human Rights Council were not taking their responsibilities seriously, and urged them to probe the  entirely man-made catastrophe . The U.N. says the civil war has created the world s biggest humanitarian crisis, with the conflict compounded by an economic collapse that has pushed millions to the brink of famine. The crippling of the health and sanitation systems has enabled cholera to take hold with unprecedented speed, with about 650,000 people infected since late April, five times the global cholera caseload in 2016. During the three-week U.N. Human Rights Council session, Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands are expected to propose rival resolutions, inviting the council to continue backing Yemen s national human rights probe or to set up its own inquiry. For the past two years, Saudi Arabia has prevailed, but the situation in the country has not improved, and Zeid s office has said Yemen s national investigation is not up to the job. The draft Dutch resolution backs Zeid s position, a Western diplomat said.   The common assessment is that the situation has deteriorated. The compromise that was put in place last year hasn t delivered,  the diplomat said.  One of the resolutions will need to be dismissed.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र मानवाधिकार प्रमुख ने न्याय के लिए 'न्यूनतम' प्रयास के बाद यमन जांच का आग्रह किया


TASHKENT (Reuters) - Some mosques in Uzbekistan are starting to broadcast the Muslim call to prayer from loudspeakers for the first time in a decade as they take advantage of a more tolerant official attitude toward Islam since President Islam Karimov died last year. The imams are amplifying the Adhan call to prayer without asking for government permission. Under Karimov, an imam who took such a liberty would have faced losing his job or possible imprisonment. The new boldness is a response to decisions by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to liberalize the ex-Soviet nation of 32 million people whose main religion is Islam. Mirziyoyev has overseen the release of several prominent political prisoners, relaxed some security measures and this week he pardoned 2,700 convicts, saying that in the past many sentences had been unjust. Western countries and human rights groups accused the government of repression under Karimov who ruled the Central Asian nation from 1989 until his death in September 2016. The leader cracked down on public displays of Islamic practice including hijabs and beards because he feared the country was vulnerable to Islamist militancy. His government blamed militants for bombings in the capital in 1999 and unrest in the city of Andijan in 2005. Around 200 people died in all, according to official figures, and the incidents were the bloodiest since Uzbekistan gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. After government troops clashed with armed protesters in Andijan, Uzbek mosques stopped using loudspeakers for the call to prayer though the practice was never formally banned. Over the last few months, however, some imams have begun to broadcast the Adhan from mosques again. A Reuters reporter heard it at three mosques in Tashkent, though it was only audible to people near the buildings. The call is part of the soundscape in many Muslim cities, blasting from speakers on minarets five times each day and extra loud on Friday, which is the day of prayer. Worshippers in Tashkent welcomed the change.  People should hear that it s prayer time. That s what Muslim life is about,  said a young man outside one of the mosques. He declined to give his identity. A cleric at one of Tashkent s main mosques said the matter was being discussed within the Muslim Board of Uzbekistan, which is close to the government. No ruling has been made.   Some imams took the initiative  and turned on their loudspeakers at their own risk once the talks with the Board had started, said the cleric who declined to give his name because he was not authorized to comment publicly. Another source close to the clergy said some imams had argued that without a formal ban there was no need for formal permission to restart. There have been no reports of clerics being prosecuted for breaking the informal ban. The government declined to comment on the matter. Nurulloh Muhammad Raufkhon, an Uzbek writer who recently returned to Tashkent after living in exile for more than a year, said he saw the cautious return of Adhan as a sign of a broader change in the state s attitude to religion under Mirziyoyev.  (Mirziyoyev s) decree on developing and introducing Halal standards was another important step,  he said. Mirziyoyev ordered the government last month to develop standards for food products that adhere to Islamic dietary laws, which prohibit the consumption of pork and alcohol among other things. The move could boost Uzbek sales of halal food both domestically and overseas.  Previously, we were banned from using the word  halal . I know because I used to work at ... a religious magazine .... Halal restaurants were closed down. The word  halal  was removed from product labels,  he said. In another break with Karimov-era policy, Mirziyoyev said in September Uzbekistan had removed about 16,000 people from a 17,000-strong security blacklist of potential Muslim religious extremists and dissidents. He said he wanted  to bring them (back) into our society and educate them.  The issue of Islamist militancy in Uzbekistan has spread beyond the country s borders. This year, at least 60 people have died in attacks abroad carried out by Uzbek nationals or ethnic Uzbeks. The most deadly was a shooting in an Istanbul nightclub in which 39 people died. In the late 1990s, the government fought the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, a militant group that sought to make Uzbekistan an Islamic state. It later moved to Afghanistan to join forces with the Taliban. Hundreds of Uzbeks have also joined Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Authorities fear radicalized youths may return home.  Nowadays they are talking about driving the terrorists out of Syria,  Mirziyoyev said in a public speech this month.  But the question is, where will they go now? We should think about it.  At the same time, he said many of Uzbekistan s convicted prisoners had been sentenced unjustly and he vowed to crack down on abuses such as torture and fabricated evidence.

Summary: परिवर्तन से उत्साहित, कुछ उज़्बेक इमाम प्रार्थना के लिए लाउडस्पीकर चालू करते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday called on Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc for more details on its relationship with Philidor RX services and chided the company for not providing Congress any documents or other requested information. “Your refusal to cooperate fully with Congress is extremely troubling and reflects a pattern of obstruction that impairs our ability to protect the American people against your company’s exorbitant price increases,” U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings wrote in a letter to Valeant Chief Executive Michael Pearson.

Summary: शीर्ष डेमोक्रेट ने पत्र में वेलेंट के सीईओ को सहयोग की कमी के लिए फटकार लगाई


LONDON (Reuters) - Britain s navy has fired nine sailors serving on a nuclear-armed submarine after they tested positive for using cocaine, the country s defense ministry said on Saturday. The crew were from HMS Vigilant, one of four Royal Navy submarines which operate the Trident nuclear missile system.  We do not tolerate drugs misuse by service personnel. Those found to have fallen short of our high standards face being discharged from service,  a Royal Navy spokesman said. The Daily Mail newspaper reported that the sailors had failed drugs tests while the submarine was docked in the United States to pick up nuclear warheads and undergo work, and the sailors had been accommodated in hotels on shore. A defense ministry spokesman declined to comment on the location of the incident but said:  There is no evidence to suggest any individual was under the influence while performing their duties.  The ministry also confirmed the submarine s commander had been relieved of his command pending investigation, but declined to give details. Previous reports said this was due to an earlier unrelated incident. Britain s four nuclear-armed submarines each carry eight operational missiles and 40 nuclear warheads, and have a crew of 135. Since 1969 Britain has had at least one nuclear-armed submarine on patrol at all times.

Summary: ब्रिटिश नौसेना ने कोकीन के इस्तेमाल पर परमाणु पनडुब्बियों को बर्खास्त किया