WASHINGTON/BETHESDA, Md. (Reuters) - Wealthy, well-educated voters helped carry Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump to victory in this week’s East Coast primaries, a demographic the famously blunt-spoken billionaire had struggled to attract in the past. His sweep of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island on Tuesday included wins in some of the richest and best-educated counties in the country - like Fairfield County, Connecticut, and Newport County, Rhode Island - and added to victories in his more traditional strongholds of white working-class neighborhoods. Exit polls from Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maryland showed Trump winning about half of Republican voters with college degrees, and over half of Republican voters making more than $100,000 a year. “On its face, it is hard to believe he’d be improving with a demographic group that has been so averse to his style, his denigrating language,” said Randall Miller, a professor of American politics at Saint Joseph’s University in Pennsylvania.  “But I think people may have gotten used to Trump, he’s not as outrageous as he used to be,” he said, adding that familiarity with the businessman’s brand in the Northeast may also have helped him. Still, the five states could be an uphill battle for Republicans in the Nov. 8 presidential election. The last Republican presidential nominee to win any of them was George H.W. Bush in 1988. The challenge for the New York billionaire could be to replicate Tuesday’s performance in other parts of the country as he seeks to lock down his party’s nomination, with 10 state contests remaining.     Nationally, likely voters with a college degree have become increasingly critical of Trump in recent months, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. He is also increasingly unpopular with those who make more than $100,000 a year. But with Trump far ahead of his rivals, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Governor John Kasich, in the race for the presidential nomination, Miller said Republican voters of all stripes may become more resigned to voting for Trump. “I think it is possible he replicates this.” ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT Trump has historically done well in areas where the collapse of important local industries has put stress on working families - propelling his popularity among poorer white voters drawn to his rhetoric about inept government and failed international trade deals. That narrative persisted in Tuesday’s contests. Trump took more than 63 percent of the vote in Forest County, Pennsylvania, where the median family income among whites, at $45,000, is the lowest in the state. But he also got more than 46 percent of the vote in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where median income for whites is the highest in the state, at $108,000.     A Franklin and Marshall College voter survey released last week showed Trump’s message of disaffection had sunk in across the state. Just under 40 percent of voters cited “government, politicians” as the most important problem facing Pennsylvania, with “unemployment, personal finances” ranked a distant second at 14 percent. In the affluent Maryland suburbs of Montgomery and Howard counties, where more than 60 percent of whites hold college degrees, Trump claimed a smaller 40 percent share of the Republican vote. It was still enough for a first-place finish over Cruz and Kasich. Fred Stubbs, 72, a retired accountant from Potomac, Maryland, said he voted for Trump on Tuesday because he believed the real estate mogul would improve the country’s standing in the world. He added that when he traveled to New York, he regularly dined in restaurants in buildings owned by Trump. “I’ve always admired him as a businessman,” Stubbs said.

Summary: अमीर, शिक्षित मतदाताओं ने ट्रम्प की पूर्वी तट की जीत को बढ़ावा दिया


BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose said on Monday that corruption allegations surrounding three ministers had created problems for the country and his Social Democrat government, adding he was considering a Cabinet reshuffle. Transparency International ranks Romania among the European Union s most corrupt states and Brussels is keeping its justice system under special monitoring.  There are three ministers with problems who are indeed causing difficulties in terms of public perception and in some situations with the European Commission,  Tudose told private television station Antena3. He said he was considering asking the ministers to resign in a  mini-reshuffle.   I will make the announcement this week, first to the party, obviously. I will take responsibility for my proposals and I will ask the (ruling) coalition s vote on them.  Anti-corruption prosecutors said in September they were investigating Deputy Prime Minister Sevil Shhaideh for suspected abuse of office in a land transfer case, and have asked parliament to approve an investigation into European Funds Minister Rovana Plumb linked to the same case. Shhaideh, also a minister for regional development, is a close ally of Social Democrat Party leader Liviu Dragnea, who has received a suspended sentence for vote rigging and is on trial in a separate abuse-of-office case. Prosecutors also asked parliament to approve an investigation into Viorel Ilie, minister in charge of the relationship between the Cabinet and lawmakers, in a case involving allegations of rigging a job contest for clerks at his ministry. Parliament rejected the request earlier this month. Under Romanian legislation, parliament must approve investigations against sitting lawmakers. All three ministers have denied wrongdoing. Tudose also said his relationship with Dragnea was not in a  happy moment . Dragnea holds a tight grip over the party and earlier this year pushed out former Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu in a non-confidence vote. At the start of the year, government attempts to weaken the crackdown on high-level graft triggered Romania s largest street protests in decades.

Summary: रोमानियाई प्रधानमंत्री ने कहा कि वह सरकार में फेरबदल पर विचार कर रहे हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign looked for ways to avoid damaging its relationship with the White House as she considered how to publicly announce her position on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, according to emails published this week by WikiLeaks. Clinton aides weighed having the Democratic candidate say she opposed the pipeline in a closed-door union meeting, leaking it to news media outlets or including it without fanfare in a policy fact sheet, the emails show. Clinton eventually announced that she opposed the pipeline on Sept. 22, 2015, at a town hall event in Des Moines, Iowa, early in the contest to win the Democratic presidential nomination. President Barack Obama, also a Democrat, announced that he too opposed the project on Nov. 6, 2015. The WikiLeaks group released its latest batch of apparently hacked personal emails of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta on Wednesday, just weeks before the Nov. 8 presidential election in which Clinton is facing Republican Donald Trump. Whether Clinton would oppose TransCanada Corp’s pipeline to bring Canadian crude tar sands oil to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico was a major issue in her Democratic primary race against chief rival U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who opposed the project. Clinton was walking a fine line on supporting or opposing the pipeline. The Keystone XL controversy put at odds labor unions, which thought the project would spur job creation, and environmentalists, who advocated moving away from tar sands-derived oil to cleaner forms of energy. Clinton’s decision was further complicated by the fact that the pipeline approval process began when she was Obama’s secretary of state from 2009-2013. She said repeatedly that she would wait to announce her position until after the State Department had repeated its review of the project, in deference to her former boss. Privately, aides were figuring out the best way to announce her opposition to the project. “We are trying to find a good way to leak her opposition to the pipeline without her having to actually say it and give up her principled stand about not second-guessing the President in public,” speechwriter Dan Schwerin wrote on Aug. 7, 2015, in one of the apparently hacked emails. Schwerin was responding to a suggestion by Clinton Campaign Manager Robby Mook that they could use the Keystone announcement to draw news media attention away from Clinton’s use of a private email system while she headed the State Department. The Clinton campaign has declined to verify the authenticity of the Podesta emails released by WikiLeaks. Podesta told reporters on Tuesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had notified him it was investigating the “criminal” hack of his emails as part of a broader probe. The White House last week formally accused Russia of hacking Democratic Party organizations in an effort to influence the presidential election, a charge Russia has denied. As a result, Clinton campaign officials and supporters have warned that such email releases could include fraudulent or misleading documents among genuine emails. There was no evidence to indicate that the Keystone emails - which provided insight into the campaign’s struggle to announce Clinton’s position on a major Democratic issue that could put her at odds with the White House - were not genuine. Clinton’s campaign considered having the former secretary of state address the Keystone issue in a private meeting with a building trades union, then immediately roll out a fact sheet on her infrastructure proposals and publish an opinion article on the topic, the leaked emails show. But Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon thought it might be easier to forgo including Keystone in the policy rollout, skip the opinion piece and have Clinton state her opposition in the union meeting. “I think we could seem consistent with our past statements about not wanting to get ahead of POTUS on Keystone if her position merely leaked out of the meeting,” Fallon wrote in a Sept. 8, 2015, email, using an acronym for the president. “That would seem like a private comment that she didn’t intend to become public.” “Perhaps we could just issue an infrastructure fact sheet” without mention of Keystone, “and rely on the (Clinton) Keystone (position) to leak, either organically or with an assist from us,” Fallon added. After Clinton warned at a New Hampshire campaign event on Sept. 17, 2015, that she could not “wait too much longer” and was “putting the White House on notice” that she would soon tell voters her position, Podesta checked in with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough. “Trying to calibrate whether we are threading the needle ok with you guys after Valerie getting her nose out of joint on Keystone,” Podesta wrote in a Sept. 20, 2015, email, in an apparent reference to Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama. Podesta said that Clinton’s “comments on being frustrated with the delay” were not a “frontal attack” on the president.

Summary: क्लिंटन के सहयोगियों ने कीस्टोन पर व्हाइट हाउस के साथ मतभेद को कम करने की कोशिश कीः ईमेल


BEIJING (Reuters) - In his baseball cap and baggy yellow t-shirt, the rap star Li Yijie - better known by his stage name  Pissy  - is an unlikely face of China s strait-laced ruling Communist Party.  His group, Tianfu Shibian, has won fans and the support of the party s youth league with songs like  Force of Red  and  This is China  that chime with President Xi Jinping s nationalist vision of China and its place in the world.  Under Xi, set to begin a second five-year term at a key party congress next month, the once-hidebound Communist Party has sought to revitalise its role in society amid challenges to its traditional authority as the country gets richer, more mobile and more digitally connected.  The party's modernising push also comes as a significant number of educated Chinese millennials, faced with a tough job market and high housing costs in big cities, have grown disillusioned about their career and life prospects.  The party s effort extends increasingly to co-opting swathes of Chinese popular culture, such as Tianfu Shibian. At the same time, the government is cracking down on online content and entertainment that strays beyond the narrowing definitions of what is acceptable.  If the Party  sticks to the old ways, it will only be more and more rejected by young people,  said Li, 23, whose band s name means  Tianfu Incident . Tianfu refers to the region around Chengdu, the band s home city in western Sichuan province.   We need to stand up and say: Why can t younger folks be more patriotic?  he said during an interview in Beijing.   We need to step into this system,  he said.  If the post-1990 generations don t enter the system, what is our country going to do?  said Li.  Beijing has the same idea.  It has latched onto other acts like TFBOYS, a wholesome boy band whose three members each have nearly 30 million followers on the popular microblog Weibo, to help spread the Party message. The band often appears at Youth League events.   This kind of propaganda is a step forward that better suits the demands of its audience,  said Qiao Mu, a media researcher and former professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University.   Ordinary people are now rejecting the old preaching ways of the People s Daily newspaper and CCTV News,  he said, referring to the Party s official newspaper and China s state broadcaster.  On its Bilibili account - a video site popular with China s post 1990s generation - the Communist Youth League has posted hundreds of videos this year interspersing patriotic raps with more traditional fare such as defence ministry briefings.  One such  guichu    a fast-paced clip of repeated images, sounds and catchy music   calls on citizens to be on the lookout and report people they suspect are spies to the authorities.  Tianfu Shibian shot to prominence in 2016 voicing patriotic values in sometimes expletive-filled songs.   Force of Red  attacked Tsai Ing-Wen, the president of Taiwan, an independently governed island that Beijing considers a renegade province.   There s only one China, HK, Taipei, they are my fellas,  ran the lyrics of the song in English, along with expletives aimed at Tsai and her government:  Far away from us you forget how to act. Even dogs know to come home with a thankful bark.   The music video went viral, racking up more than 7 million views on the band s Twitter-like Sina Weibo feed and catching the attention of the Communist Youth League, a training ground for elite cadres within the 90-million-strong Communist Party.  The group s next outing -  This is China  - came with production support from a Youth League-backed music studio, though the band says there was no other financial backing.  The party connection deepened in September last year when Beijing sent the band to Woody Island, in a disputed area of the South China Sea, to film a music video rebuking an international tribunal ruling that rejected China s claims in the area.  Li said the group now has ties across China s propaganda related agencies, and frequently dines with officials to exchange ideas. In return they ve cleaned up their act to fit with Beijing s drive towards more wholesome content.  While their songs are unabashedly pro-China, Tianfu Shibian s lyrics also touch on problems in contemporary China, including tainted food, corruption, and pollution.   Critique with rationality has its place in our songs, but we despise those who keep complaining blindly,  Li told Reuters.  Not everyone is a fan.  A song by the band praising the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong was criticised online as glossing over China s Cultural Revolution, a period of chaos and violence between 1966-1976 in which some historians estimate as many as 1.5 million people died.  Others online have dismissed the band as a propaganda machine, calling it  wumao  - roughly  50-cents  - a reference to those paid by the government to post patriotic comments online.  While countercultural or subversive art has long been at the fringes in China, it has all-but been extinguished in the Xi era, with censors banning not only politically incorrect material but also clamping down on negativity.  China s most internationally recognised artist, Ai Weiwei, a fierce critic of Beijing, spent time under house arrest and finally left China in 2015. He had helped design Beijing s  Bird s Nest  stadium for the 2008 Olympics.  Erstwhile rock and roll rebels have cleaned up their acts to placate censors or been sidelined.  Zuoxiao Zuzhou - a music producer who was banned by the government from 2011-2014 for his connection to Ai Weiwei - is one who has chosen to toe the government line.   With great difficulty,  Zuoxiao Zuzhou  has now established an image that is relatively acceptable to society,  his agent, Qin Baogui, told Reuters, declining an interview with the artist because of the sensitivity of the topic.  Cui Jian, whose 1986  Nothing to My Name  became an unofficial anthem for students demonstrating during the deadly 1989 Tiananmen protests, pulled out of a show on Chinese state television in 2014 because he was told he would not be allowed to sing the song, his manager said at the time.  On the flip side, films and music that embrace the party have benefited from state support to tap China s huge fan bases.  The overtly patriotic  Wolf Warrior 2  became China s top grossing film after its July release, helped in part by strong state media support.  Last month, U.S. organizers aiming to bring Grammy Award artists to China said they would only  promote artists with a positive and healthy image.   As for Li, he is currently working on a song in the run-up to next month s Communist Party Congress, called  A Letter to President Xi Jinping.   However, Li has not joined the party himself - though it s some distance from youthful rebellion.   It s too troublesome and complicated to write an application letter,  he said.

Summary: अंतर्दृष्टिः रैप और पार्टीः चीन ने सहस्राब्दी कार्यकर्ताओं को आकर्षित करने के लिए युवा संस्कृति का उपयोग किया


PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said he deliberately laid out his vision for sweeping European Union reforms just after Germany s election and before coalition talks there are concluded in order for his proposals to have more influence.  Some had said I should wait for the coalition talks to be concluded,  Macron said, adding that had he done so, the reaction in Berlin would have been:  Your proposals are great but it s too late, the coalition deal already lays out what will we do on Europe for the next four years.

Summary: फ्रांस के मैक्रों ने यूरोपीय संघ के प्रस्तावों को जर्मनी के सामने रखने के लिए कुछ समय चुना


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former top adviser to President Barack Obama on Sunday labeled Donald Trump a “psychopath”, saying the Republican presidential nominee met the clinical definition of the personality disorder. With a little more than two months to go before the Nov. 8 U.S. election, the comments by David Plouffe, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama and manager of his 2008 presidential campaign, mark another escalation in a series of blows exchanged between Trump’s camp and that of his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton. “Basically, you have a psychopath running for president. I mean, he meets the clinical definition,” Plouffe said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press”. When challenged, Plouffe acknowledged he had no degree in psychology but rattled off what he said were the New York businessman’s symptoms: “grandiose notion of self-worth; pathological lying; lack of empathy and remorse.” The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Last week, Clinton accused Trump of fueling America’s “radical fringe” with racist rhetoric, while Trump said Clinton was letting down black Americans with failed policies and called her a “bigot who sees people of color only as votes, not as human beings.” Obama has also lambasted Trump, saying of him: “Somebody who makes those kinds of statements doesn’t have the judgment, the temperament, the understanding to occupy the most powerful position in the world.”

Summary: ओबामा के पूर्व सहयोगी ने ट्रंप को बताया 'मनोरोगी'


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday that there was no need to repair the relationship between President Donald Trump and Republican congressional leaders, despite some recent policy disputes. “I think the relationships are fine,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said during a White House briefing. “Certainly there are going to be some policy differences, but there are also a lot of shared goals and that’s what we’re focused on.”

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस ने रिपब्लिकन सांसदों के साथ ट्रम्प के संबंधों को 'ठीक' बताया


ASTANA (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday he hoped U.S. President Donald Trump would make a  balanced  decision on whether to remain engaged in the international deal to curb Iran s nuclear program.  It is very important to preserve it in its current form and of course the participation of the United States will be a very significant factor in this regard,  Lavrov told reporters on a visit to Kazakhstan. Under the deal, Iran agreed to restrict its nuclear program in return for lifting most international sanctions that had crippled its economy. Trump is expected to announce soon that he will decertify the deal, a senior White House official said on Thursday, in a step that potentially could cause the 2015 accord to unravel. Trump, who has called the pact an  embarrassment  and  the worst deal ever negotiated , has been weighing whether it serves U.S. security interests as he faces an Oct. 15 deadline for certifying that Iran is complying with its terms. If Trump declines to certify Iran s compliance, U.S. congressional leaders would have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on Tehran suspended under the agreement.

Summary: ईरान परमाणु समझौते को बरकरार रखा जाना चाहिएः रूस


(Reuters) - As the White House race took off last summer, food giant Mondelez International found itself in an unusual position: Republican candidate Donald Trump began delivering broadsides against one of its iconic products, Oreo cookies. “Nabisco is closing a factory in Chicago, and they’re moving to Mexico. No more Oreos. I don’t like Oreos anymore,” Trump told a crowd in New Hampshire on Aug. 14, reacting to reports that Mondelez was shutting down some production lines at its Nabisco subsidiary in Chicago while boosting output in Mexico. Trump’s statement that Mondelez was closing a Chicago factory was erroneous, as the company quickly pointed out, but that didn’t stop him from repeating it. It’s unusual for a top presidential candidate, especially a representative of the business-friendly Republican Party, to attack major U.S. corporations by name.  But over the course of his unconventional campaign, Trump has aimed his fire at a range of companies, mostly for shifting jobs abroad (Ford Motor Co, United Technologies Corp unit Carrier Corp) but also for building products in foreign markets (Apple) and for what he said were violations of antitrust laws (Amazon).  Trump has threatened the companies with boycotts, tariffs, taxes and other punishments. The Trump campaign declined to comment for this story.  Some of the companies saw their share prices dip in the wake of Trump’s criticism while others experienced a small boost. But all of them were presented with a dilemma that’s familiar to the presumptive nominee’s many vanquished Republican rivals: Should they engage with a possible future president known for holding a grudge, possibly inviting more wrath, or should they lie low and risk allowing Trump to define them and to push policies they deem harmful? Most have sought to stay out of the fray even as Trump has kept up the drumbeat of criticism. “I am fighting hard to bring jobs back to the United States Many companies – like Ford, General Motors, Nabisco, Carrier – are moving production to Mexico,” Trump said this week. This was “bad for all Americans,” he said.    It was the first time Trump included GM in his roster of corporate wrongdoers, though the Trump campaign later removed GM from the statement and declined to say why. GM declined comment.      Mondelez, previously known as Kraft Foods, took a different tack. After Trump vowed to boycott Oreos, Mondelez fielded numerous media inquiries and contacted reporters when the company deemed press coverage of his remarks off base, said Laurie Guzzinati, who oversees governmental affairs in North America for Mondelez. The company didn’t engage in any Trump-bashing, though Guzzinati said Trump’s comments were “grounded in inaccuracies.”  She said she told reporters that Mondelez would continue to make Oreos in three locations in the United States, countering the impression Trump may have left that Oreos would no longer be made in the United States. Mondelez’s response tracks closely what crisis management experts recommend for Trump-targeted companies.   Hilary Rosen, a managing director for Washington, D.C., communications firm SKD Knickerbocker, said her firm was representing corporate clients who have been singled out by Trump, though she declined to name them.  Rosen’s advice to clients, she said, is “don’t depend on educating Donald Trump on the truth. People have tried and failed.” Rosen, a Democrat, recommends instead that companies make their case to the journalists who cover Trump, so “Donald Trump does not define you.” None of the companies targeted by Trump acknowledged hiring outside consultants to deal with his criticism. Many declined to comment for this story.  “You’re not going to win in a one-on-one confrontation with Donald Trump. You’re just going to get mired in the mud,” said Juda Engelmayer, senior vice president for crisis management at 5W Public Relations in New York.  Those who have been willing to engage, including Ford Chairman Bill Ford, have avoided getting too personal. Trump has railed against Ford for manufacturing vehicles in Mexico, threatening a tariff of up to 40 percent on “every car, bumper and part” entering the United States from Mexico.  Ford, the great-grandson of the automaker’s founder Henry Ford, called Trump’s critique “distorted” and said the company instead should be “held up as a real success story.”  “We didn’t take the (government) bailout,” during the 2007-2009 recession, Ford told reporters at a conference in Detroit on May 23, contrasting his company with GM and Chrysler. “We paid back our debts. We pulled ourselves up by our boot straps. We are investing in America.”  Crisis management experts said companies targeted by Trump need to be thinking more about the policy implications of his presidency. That means, for example, shoring up support in the U.S. Congress for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which Trump has said he wants to renegotiate.    A trade lobbyist who asked not to be named because he has worked with one of the companies Trump has called out said Trump’s attacks do not particularly hurt companies’ reputations in Washington, because policymakers understand presidential campaigns are the “political silly season.” But, he said, they can impact broader efforts on trade and other policies. “I think what this suggests,” he said, “is that there needs to be a concentrated effort by the business community to talk about the benefits of trade.”

Summary: ट्रम्प के कॉर्पोरेट लक्ष्यों को उनके हमलों को रोकने में मुश्किल काम का सामना करना पड़ता है


LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday he would not apologize to Donald Trump after he became the Republican party’s presumptive presidential candidate for calling his proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States stupid and wrong. Cameron made the comment about Trump after the reality TV star and real estate developer vowed last December to ban all Muslims from entering the United States if he succeeded in his bid to become the next U.S. president. “I won’t change that view and I don’t change that view and I’m very clear that the policy idea that was put forward was wrong, is wrong and will remain wrong, so I’m very clear about that,” Cameron told reporters when asked if he would now apologize.  However, Cameron did pay tribute to Trump for effectively clinching his party’s nomination this week after the departure of his two remaining rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich. “Knowing the grueling nature of the primaries and what you have to go through, anyone who makes it through that extraordinary contest to lead their party into a general election deserves our respect,” he said.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के प्रधानमंत्री कैमरन ने कहा, मुसलमानों पर ट्रंप की नीति गलत है, हम माफी नहीं मांगेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama’s White House set up one last fight with the Republican-controlled Congress over defense spending on Monday, threatening to veto a 2017 defense authorization bill over its use of special war funds for day-to-day military programs. The House of Representatives draft of the $602 billion National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, which sets spending policy for the Department of Defense, would shift $18 billion of wartime Overseas Contingency Operations, or OCO, funds to avoid automatic budget cuts to military programs. The Obama administration objects to the use of that money, saying it threatens U.S. security and unfairly spares the Pentagon from cuts faced by important civilian programs such as medical research and education. “By gambling with warfighting funds, the bill risks the safety of our men and women fighting to keep America safe, undercuts stable planning and efficient use of taxpayer dollars, dispirits troops and their families, baffles our allies, and emboldens our enemies,” the White House said in a statement. House Republicans say the spending plan is essential to ensure that the military has the resources it needs, as it wages wars in Afghanistan and against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. The Obama administration also objected to a long list of policy provisions in the bill, including measures making it more difficult to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and cuts in funding for programs to train and equip local fighters in Iraq and Syria. Obama vetoed one version of the 2016 NDAA over its use of OCO funding and the Guantanamo restrictions. He later signed a modified version that addressed his budget concerns but left the Guantanamo measures in place. It will be months before the legislation passes Congress and arrives on Obama’s desk. The House draft has passed the House Armed Services Committee, and Republican leaders would like a vote by the full House as soon as Wednesday. However, lawmakers have offered 375 amendments on a huge range of issues. The Rules Committee was meeting late on Monday to decide which of those amendments might come up for a vote. The Senate is also drafting its version of the NDAA, which must be reconciled with the House’s before being subject to vote in both chambers. If passed, that version would be sent to the White House for Obama’s signature, or veto.

Summary: हाउस 2017 रक्षा विधेयक को ओबामा के वीटो का सामना करना पड़ेगाः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson officially ended his bid for the White House on Friday after failing to win any of the early states in the race for the November election. “There are a lot of people who love me, they just won’t vote for me,” Carson said in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Carson had announced on Wednesday he did not see a “political path forward” in his campaign for the party’s nomination, and had not attended the Republican debate in Michigan on Thursday.  (Reporting by Megan Cassella and Emily Flitter; Editing by Mohammad Zargham) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन कार्सन ने आधिकारिक तौर पर व्हाइट हाउस की बोली समाप्त की


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Dozens of Illinois social service providers, starved of cash by the state’s long-running budget stalemate, sued Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner and six statewide agencies on Wednesday, seeking more than $100 million for unpaid work since July. The plaintiffs, who provide services for sex-abuse victims, the homeless, senior citizens and at-risk youth, are suffering “acute financial hardship” as a result of the unresolved budget fight, according to the lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court. It is the latest attempt at judicial relief by groups hurt by the state’s record-setting, 11-month budget impasse between the Republican governor and Democrats controlling the legislature. The coalition of 64 organizations, calling itself Pay Now Illinois, contended that Rauner’s June 2015 veto of appropriation bills amounted to an unlawful impairment of the their constitutional right to seek a legal remedy for non-payment by the state of their various contracts. “We’ve had to deal with this uncertainty now for the 11th month, over 300 days, without being paid,” said Andrea Durbin, chairwoman of Illinois Pay Now. “We’re seeking to be paid in full for the work we’ve done.” Rauner’s office expressed empathy but urged state lawmakers to approve a spending plan. “While we understand that frustration is driving many worthwhile organizations to seek solutions anywhere, including the courts, the only solution is for the General Assembly to pass a balanced, reform-oriented budget as soon as possible,” Rauner spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said. In another budget-related development, a plan to change how Illinois taxes its residents and businesses stalled in the House of Representatives after a successful lobbying push by Rauner. The proposed constitutional amendment would have stricken the state’s flat income-tax rates and allowed state lawmakers to impose new, multi-tiered tax rates tied to an individual or company’s level of income. Supporters said it would raise an additional $1.9 billion annually for the state. But facing a Wednesday deadline to pass the House, one of the measure’s sponsors, State Representative Christian Mitchell, said lobbying by the governor’s office convinced up to five Republicans whose backing was needed for passage to withdraw their tentative support. “It’s disappointing because this could have helped us with our budget crisis,” Mitchell, a Chicago Democrat, told Reuters. Rauner’s administration said the measure would cost the state 20,000 jobs in four years and lead to a migration of 43,000 high wage earners from Illinois.

Summary: समाज सेवा समूहों ने अवैतनिक काम के लिए इलिनोइस पर 10 करोड़ डॉलर का मुकदमा दायर किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Most Americans want the media to present facts in news stories without adding interpretation, a Pew Research Center survey said on Friday amid a debate in the media about its role in covering Donald Trump’s unconventional presidential campaign. Journalists face the issue of how much guidance they should provide to help their audiences make sense of the news. The question is especially keen after the 2016 election when the media grappled with challenging false statements made by Republican Trump in his campaign against Democrat Hillary Clinton. Fifty-nine percent of U.S. adults reject the idea of adding interpretation, saying that the news media should present the facts alone, the survey showed. Four in 10 favored adding some interpretation to the facts. “Although the public prefers the news media to present ‘just the facts,’ they may not even agree on what the facts are,” Pew said in a statement. In the same survey, 81 percent of registered voters said that most supporters of Clinton and Trump not only disagreed over plans and policies, but also disagreed on basic facts. Voters who supported Trump, now the president-elect, favored a “just the facts” approach by 71 percent to 29 percent. Clinton supporters were evenly split on the issue. The survey showed strong support for fact-checking by the media. The election campaign saw a proliferation of fake news sites and articles on social media competing with news published by traditional media, although this was not included in the survey. Eighty-one percent of those who prefer facts without interpretation believe fact-checking is a major or minor responsibility of the news media. Among those who prefer interpretation, 83 percent think fact-checking is a responsibility. The survey of 4,132 adults was conducted from Sept. 27 to Oct. 10, before Election Day. The margin of error is 2.8 percentage points.

Summary: ज्यादातर अमेरिकी 'सिर्फ तथ्यों' की खबरों का समर्थन करते हैंः प्यू सर्वेक्षण


KABUL (Reuters) - A rocket attack on an Afghan religious school killed about 20 Taliban insurgents exchanging fire with security forces, officials said on Friday, adding that no children were among the victims. The insurgents had taken shelter at the school compound in the central eastern province of Wardak, 35 km (20 miles) southwest of the capital, Kabul, when the air strike hit late on Wednesday, the officials said. International forces that conduct most of the air strikes across the country were not immediately available for comment. Abdul Rahman Mangal, a spokesman for the governor of Wardak, said there were no civilian casualties, adding that all the pupils had gone home before the air strike. Foreign troops have stepped up air strikes in Afghanistan in recent months as Afghan forces struggle against a resilient Taliban insurgency. The Taliban are seeking to reimpose strict Islamic law after their 2001 ouster by U.S.-led troops.

Summary: अफगान हवाई हमले में धार्मिक स्कूल में लगभग 20 तालिबान मारे गए-अधिकारी


BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said after talks with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Saturday that there had to be a commitment to using diplomatic means to peacefully settle the North Korea issue. Tillerson said Wang had agreed they would work together to try to get North Korea’s government to change its current course of pursuing nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The two were speaking to reporters after meeting in Beijing.

Summary: अमेरिका के साथ बातचीत में चीन ने उत्तर कोरिया पर कूटनीति का आह्वान किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some prominent Republicans are urging Donald Trump to quit as the party’s presidential nominee after video surfaced of him making vulgar comments about women but any attempt to replace Trump on the ballot would face huge legal and logistical hurdles. The real estate magnate has insisted he would never give up the White House race and wrote on Twitter on Sunday that Republicans who are attacking him are “self-righteous hypocrites.”     With only a month to go before the Nov. 8 election against Democrat Hillary Clinton, it would be a massive stretch to substitute Trump for his running mate Mike Pence or anyone else, Republican strategists and U.S. election experts said.     It is “virtually impossible to replace somebody in August, let alone October,” Republican strategist Karl Rove said on “Fox News Sunday.”  After a video of Trump making vulgar comments about women surfaced Friday, Republicans such as U.S. Senator Mike Lee of Utah and Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois urged Trump to remove himself from the race. The 2005 video showed Trump, then a reality TV star speaking on an open microphone about groping women and trying to seduce a married woman. The video was taped only months after Trump married his third wife, Melania.  Making a change at the top of the ticket for one of the two major parties this close to Election Day would be without precedent in the history of modern U.S. presidential elections. In 1972, Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern’s running mate, Thomas Eagleton, was replaced after it was revealed that the vice presidential hopeful had been hospitalized for depression. Eagleton withdrew from the race in August of that year and was replaced by Sargent Shriver. In 2000, Missouri voters faced a last-minute candidate change in the state’s U.S. Senate race after the Democratic challenger Mel Carnahan died in a plane crash, a month before the election. Carnahan’s name remained on the ballot, however, and the dead man won the election. His widow, Jean Carnahan was appointed to fill the seat.   Republican party rules do not include a mechanism to involuntarily remove from the ticket a presidential candidate who has already been nominated.  The party does have procedure, known as Rule 9, that outlines the process for filling a vacancy if a nominee were to die or quit. Republican leaders could try to pressure Trump into resigning by withdrawing financial support for his campaign and withholding logistical help. But as of Sunday, Trump showed no sign of backing down and went on the attack against party figures who have suggested he leave the race. But if Trump were to decide to quit, the process would involve convening a 160-member committee of the Republican convention to select a new nominee, said Thomas Schwartz, a presidential historian at Vanderbilt University. Experts say such a step would lead to electoral chaos with Republican attorneys fighting state-by-state legal battles to make the last-minute candidate swaps on paper ballots, long after many state deadlines have already passed. Even more daunting, would be how to deal with early or overseas votes already cast. About 411,000 Americans already have voted in person or through the mail, according to Michael P. McDonald, a Florida State University political science professor who tracks early voting. The figure is sure to grow dramatically over the coming days. Early voting has already begun in six states and this week it will start in eight more. Another problem for Republicans is the risk of legal challenges to the election result. Concern about such challenges could deter some Republicans from voting. The Republican Party might argue that those ballots already cast for Trump should count toward electoral votes for the replacement candidate, said Matthew Dallek, an expert on presidential politics at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management. Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile said the party would likely challenge any effort by Republicans to replace Trump as their candidate on the ballot, adding that it would be “very confusing” for voters with early ballots already being cast. “It would be political suicide for Donald Trump to step down right now,” she told ABC News. “I’m sure my legal team is already looking at efforts underway, if there are any efforts underway,” she said when asked if Democrats would oppose any effort by Republicans in the states to switch candidates on ballots. Dallek said an effort to substitute a new candidate at this point would lead to “utter chaos.” “We would be operating in uncharted territory. You would be in this legal netherworld,” he said.

Summary: मतपत्र पर ट्रम्प को बदलने के प्रयास को भारी बाधाओं का सामना करना पड़ेगा


REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Icelanders, angry over a string of political scandals, ousted their center-right government in an election that could pave the way for a charismatic young opposition leader to form a left-leaning coalition, final vote counts showed on Sunday. With the defeat of incumbent Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson s coalition government, his main opponent, the Left-Green Movement s Katrin Jakobsdottir, is likely to get a chance to form a narrow majority in parliament. Still, the composition of any coalition government remained uncertain, as the president had not yet mandated a party to form one. The Nordic island of 340,000 people, one of the countries hit hardest by the 2008 financial crisis, has staged a remarkable economic rebound spurred by a tourism boom. Benediktsson called the snap election in September, after less than a year in government, as a scandal involving his father prompted the Bright Future party to drop out of his ruling coalition, citing a breach of trust. The previous government was defeated last year following revelations in the Panama Papers about then-Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson s use of offshore tax havens. In addition to the political scandals, a growing sense of inequality and unease about immigration in one of the world s most ethnically homogeneous nations have rattled a democracy known for its political and social stability. After the final vote count, Jakobsdottir, 41, of the Left-Greens stood to gain a narrow majority in parliament with three other opposition parties. The result showed a Left-Green-led coalition was possible if they joined forces with the Social Democrats, the Progressive Party and the Pirate Party. Together, they would hold 32 of parliament s 63 seats.   The opposition has a majority, so that s a message. But we ve also talked about that maybe things should be done differently and create a broader government,  Jakobsdottir said in a TV debate on Sunday. The Left-Greens want to reduce inequality and fund an increase in public health care, education and infrastructure spending by raising taxes for the wealthy and introducing a property tax.  The parliament will be split among eight parties. There are two new parties, and one of the parties in the current tri-party government failed to get enough votes to remain in parliament. The Independence Party, the main partner in the current government coalition, lost 4 percentage points from last year s election to take 25 percent of the vote. It remains the biggest party, but the election was the worst since 2009 for a party that has dominated Iceland s politics for decades, getting support of as much as 40 percent of voters. Asked during the TV debate if the Independence Party would get the chance to form a new government, Benediktsson said:  I think so. We are the biggest party, and I think it s normal that we should be a part of a future government.  We are attacked as a party that bears responsibility for certain things,  he said.  We are in a new environment, and considering that I am happy with the result.  His party wants to reduce the national debt and cut taxes on individuals and businesses.  The Left-Greens came in second with 17 percent, up 1 percentage point from last year s election, and its probable ally the Social Democrats in third with 12 percent, almost doubling its share.  I think that the opposition with one extra party can create a really strong government,  said Social Democrat leader Logi Einarsson, hinting at the possibility of a five-party government. The new Centre Party, which was formed in September by former Prime Minister Gunnlaugsson, won 11 percent of the votes. The Pirate Party, which last year rode a wave of anger against the establishment to become the third biggest party in parliament, stood to get 9 percent of votes in Saturday s election down from 14 percent last year.

Summary: आइसलैंड का मध्यावधि चुनाव में वामपंथी सरकार की ओर झुकाव


NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Texas-based chain of strip clubs would go on a buying spree. A growing technology company would move fewer jobs overseas. And a regional bank would boost its spending on cybersecurity.  These are some of the uses of the tax savings that small and medium-sized U.S. companies say they would pursue if the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress slashed corporate taxes as promised.  Small companies pay the highest taxes and they would be the main beneficiaries of such a Trump windfall. Reuters contacted the 100 largest companies by market value in the benchmark Russell 2000 index of U.S. small and mid-cap stocks as well as another 50 in the Russell 2000 with no analyst coverage. None of the 17 companies that responded to Reuters queries mentioned boosting their headcount.  The administration has said the tax cuts would largely pay for themselves by spurring more investment and creating jobs.  But companies say they look to spend on technology that will allow them to improve productivity or make acquisitions rather than hire more workers.  “We want to be a company of the future, and technology is one of the key ingredients,” said Keith Cargill, chief executive at Dallas-based Texas Capital Bankshares Inc (TCBI.O), a bank with a market value of $4.2 billion. The tax cut would be a “huge plus” for earnings, Cargill said, but with little impact on the bank’s workforce.  The Russell 2000 companies tend to pay the highest effective tax rates now - an average of 31.9 percent, according to Thomson Reuters data - and would stand to gain the most if corporate taxes are cut to 20 percent from 35 percent as the Trump administration has proposed.   For large companies in the S&P 500, the average effective tax rate is 28 percent, a reflection of a greater share of overseas business and more leeway in reducing their tax rates.  While few companies would discuss any details in public before outlining them to their shareholders, executives, chief financial officers and treasures say they are already starting to formulate plans for a tax windfall even if they are not certain whether and in what form it will pass.  Neil Hennessy, the chief executive of Novato, California-based Hennessy Advisors Inc (HNNA.O), a mutual fund company, told Reuters he was in “acquisition mode” and would keep looking for targets in the event of a tax cut passing.  One of the first firms to publicly discuss a potential tax windfall is RCI Hospitality Holdings Inc (RICK.O), a chain of 40 strip clubs headquartered in Houston, Texas. Its chief executive Eric Scott Langan told analysts on Aug. 9 that a tax cut would allow him to buy more clubs and boost the share price, which he complained failed to reflect the firm’s organic growth.  "I think that's going to change and I think that's when you're going to see the multiple expansion come into play," he said during an earnings call.  The tax cut would also affect companies which do not pay taxes now either because they are not yet profitable or are using past losses to offset their tax bills.  Paul Auvil, the chief financial officer at cybersecurity company Proofpoint Inc (PFPT.O), said that the $4 billion market-cap company expects to start paying taxes in 2021 when it no longer be able to offset past losses.  By then the corporate tax rate would need to sink at least below 27 percent, Auvil told Reuters. Otherwise Proofpoint would move its intellectual property to an offshore company in Europe, where corporate taxes are lower, which would mean hiring up to 100 back office staff there, said.  “These are jobs that have every reason to be in the U.S. but it will require tax reform.”  The prospects of a tax cut have helped push the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (IWM.P) up about 10 percent over the last six weeks, compared with a 3.7 percent gain in the fund which tracks S&P 500 .SPX.  If the tax package does pass, large companies will be more likely to buy back their own stock, while smaller firms will probably reinvest in their businesses, said Tom Forte, an analyst at New York based D.A. Davidson.  “These companies are going to take every incremental cost savings from a tax cut and invest it to keep up with the Amazons (AMZN.O) and Ubers,” Forte said.  For instance, Forte expects EBay Inc (EBAY.O) to spend most of the possible windfall on increasing its stock buyback program. A smaller company like Yelp Inc (YELP.N) would probably invest in artificial intelligence technology to better harness its website’s advertising potential, he said.  GrubHub Inc (GRUB.N), meanwhile, would spend more on its service that delivers from restaurants that do not have their own delivery staff, Forte said, while Groupon Inc (GRPN.O) would invest more in marketing and advertising.  Some smaller companies are also considering share buybacks rather any significant changes to their capital allocation.  Thomas Castellano, treasurer at drug delivery company Catalent Inc (CTLT.N), told Reuters that the $5.2 billion company would keep spending on maintaining its 35 locations around the globe and look for possible acquisitions. Any extra money would go to share buybacks and Catalent was unlikely to increase its hiring rate if a tax cut passes, Castellano said.  “We wouldn’t be adding to our headcount because that would affect our margins at a time when we would otherwise see them improving.”

Summary: अमेरिकी स्मॉल-कैप कंपनियां कर बचत तकनीक पर खर्च करती हैं, नौकरियों पर नहीं


TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - Florida lawmakers on Wednesday gave the thumbs-up to living together without being married, sending to the governor a bill repealing the state’s Reconstruction-era ban on cohabitation by unmarried couples.  The old law made it illegal to “lewdly and lasciviously” live together without being married to each other - language that presumably differentiated between romantic couples sharing a bed and non-romantic roommates splitting the rent. In either case, sponsors said, it is a law that is impossible to enforce but dangerous to have on the books. “You shouldn’t have statutes that are not being enforced,” said state Representative Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda, a Tallahassee Democrat and bill sponsor. “You’d have to arrest a half-million people, if we enforced this.” The repeal statute leaves in place a section of the 1868 law making it a misdemeanor to engage “in open and gross lewdness and lascivious behavior,” regardless of marital status. It is difficult to determine if anyone gets arrested for cohabitation, since the offense is combined in the state with public lewdness, said Rehwinkel Vasilinda, a law school instructor.  But the law “could be used in a discriminatory manner” if a jealous ex-spouse or prosecutor wanted to harass a person or unmarried couple, she said. The cohabitation ban is the latest in a string of antiquated and rarely-if-ever-enforced sex laws being repealed across the country - either by new laws, referendum, or court action, the most notable being bans on same-sex intercourse struck down by the courts in recent years.  If Florida’s repeal passes the governor’s muster, only Mississippi and Michigan will be the holdouts on laws requiring couples to marry before sharing roof and bed, according to a staff analysis of the Florida bill.  The bill was also sponsored by state Senator Eleanor Sobel, a Hollywood Democrat.  The repeal earned the overwhelming support of the Florida lawmakers, with a unanimous vote in the state Senate and five dissenters in the House.  Among them was Representative Jennifer Sullivan, a Republican from Mount Dora, who said she “ran on a pro-family platform” and could not vote to legalize cohabitation. “Based on my own faith and what I believe, I voted accordingly,” she said. “My faith affects everything I do and who I am, so I’m just being consistent with who I said I was as a candidate.”

Summary: फ्लोरिडा के कानून निर्माताः जोड़े 'मैं करता हूँ' कहे बिना घर जा सकते हैं


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order that sought to withhold federal funds from so-called sanctuary cities, dealing another legal blow to the administration’s efforts to toughen immigration enforcement. The ruling from U.S. District Judge William Orrick III in San Francisco said Trump’s Jan. 25 order targeted broad categories of federal funding for sanctuary governments and that plaintiffs challenging the order were likely to succeed in proving it unconstitutional. The Republican president’s moves on immigration have galvanized legal advocacy groups, along with Democratic city and state governments, to oppose them in court. The administration suffered an earlier defeat when two federal judges suspended executive orders restricting travel from several Muslim-majority countries. The government has appealed those decisions. Reince Priebus, Trump’s White House chief of staff, told reporters the administration was taking action to appeal the ruling, adding: “The idea that an agency can’t put in some reasonable restrictions on how some of these monies are spent is something that will be overturned eventually.” “It’s the 9th Circuit going bananas,” Priebus said, referring to the West Coast judicial district where the judge ruled. “We’ll win at the Supreme Court level at some point.” A formal White House statement on the ruling was withering in its criticism of Orrick, saying “an unelected judge unilaterally rewrote immigration policy for our nation” and handed “a gift to the criminal gang and cartel element in our country.” “This case is yet one more example of egregious overreach by a single, unelected district judge,” the White House said. The U.S. Justice Department said in a statement it would  follow existing federal law with respect to sanctuary jurisdictions, as well as enforce conditions tied to federal grants. Sanctuary cities generally offer safe harbor to illegal immigrants and often do not use municipal funds or resources to advance the enforcement of federal immigration laws. Dozens of local governments and cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, have joined the growing “sanctuary” movement. Supporters of the sanctuary policy argue that enlisting police cooperation in rounding up immigrants for removal undermines communities’ trust in local police, particularly among Latinos. The Trump administration contends that local authorities endanger public safety when they decline to hand over for deportation illegal immigrants arrested for crimes. The executive order by Trump, who made cracking down on illegal immigration a cornerstone of his 2016 presidential campaign, directed such funding to be restricted once the Homeland Security Department determines what constitutes a sanctuary city. Santa Clara County, which includes the city of San Jose and several smaller Silicon Valley communities, sued in February, saying Trump’s order was unconstitutional. San Francisco filed a similar lawsuit. The Justice Department threatened last week to cut some funding to California as well as eight cities and counties across the United States. The department singled out Chicago and New York as two cities “crumbling under the weight of illegal immigration and violent crime,” even though New York City is experiencing its lowest crime levels in decades and experts say Chicago’s recent spike in violent crime has little to do with illegal immigration. Santa Clara County receives about $1.7 billion in federal and federally dependent funds annually, about 35 percent of its total revenues. The county argued it was owed millions of dollars of federal funding every day and that its budgetary planning process had been thrown into disarray by the order. The Justice Department said the counties had taken an overly broad interpretation of the president’s order, which it said would affect only Justice Department and Homeland Security funds, a fraction of the grant money received by the counties. In his ruling, Orrick said the language of the order made it clear it sought to withhold funds beyond law enforcement.  “And if there was doubt about the scope of the Order, the President and Attorney General have erased it with their public comments,” Orrick wrote. The judge cited comments from Trump calling the order “a weapon” to use against jurisdictions that disagree with his immigration policies. “Federal funding that bears no meaningful relationship to immigration enforcement cannot be threatened merely because a jurisdiction chooses an immigration enforcement strategy of which the President disapproves,” Orrick wrote. Dave Cortese, president of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, said in a statement: “The politics of fear emanating from the Trump White House has just suffered a major setback.”

Summary: अमेरिकी न्यायाधीश ने 'अभयारण्य शहरों' के लिए धन को प्रतिबंधित करने के ट्रम्प के आदेश को अवरुद्ध कर दिया


STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Sweden will raise the minimum age at which workers can take their state pension over the coming years, a move designed to match an increase in average life spans, the major political parties said on Thursday. Workers can currently choose to take their state pension from the age of 61. This will be raised successively to 64 by 2026. The current pension system was designed around 20 years ago and Swedes now live around 2.5 years longer on average.  That is positive but it means that pensions ... have to last a longer time,  the parties said in a statement.  In order to maintain a good and sustainable pension level, therefore, people need to work longer.  The reforms will also make it harder for companies to get rid of people who want to continue to work after the mandatory pension age and tighten requirements for funds providers in the pension system after a number of scandals. [L8N1CU16Y]       The deal, which will not affect state finances either positively or negatively, was agreed between the minority coalition of the Social Democrats and Greens, the Moderates - the biggest opposition party - and the Center, Liberal and Christian Democrat parties.

Summary: स्वीडन न्यूनतम पेंशन की आयु बढ़ाएगा क्योंकि सेवानिवृत्त लोग लंबे समय तक जीवित रहते हैं


PARIS/SEOUL (Reuters) - France’s Winter Olympics team will not travel to the 2018 Games in South Korea if its security cannot be guaranteed, France’s sports minister said on Thursday, the first major doubts by a participating nation about growing North Korean tensions. The games organizer said on Friday that it is closely monitoring the current geopolitical situation with the South Korean government, adding that safety is the top priority. Tensions in the region have escalated since North Korea conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3, prompting global condemnation. North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un said on Friday the North will consider the “highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history” against the United States in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to destroy the North. France’s Sports Minister Laura Flessel told RTL radio that if the crisis deepened and “our security cannot be assured, the French Olympics team will stay at home.”  But she added: “We’re not there yet.” Participants in the Games - the first Winter Olympics hosted by an Asian nation outside Japan - had not previously raised safety concerns publicly. The games are scheduled for Feb 9-25 next year in Pyeongchang, just 80 km (50 miles) from the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, the world’s most heavily armed border. The two countries remain technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict ended with a truce and not a peace treaty. “Safety and security is one of the most important aspects of Games preparations,” Sung Baik-you, a spokesman for the organizing committee, said in a statement to Reuters on Friday. South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in said on Wednesday the country is pushing to ensure security at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. In a meeting with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, Moon said South Korea is well aware of the concerns. The Japanese Olympic Committee said on Friday it is not considering the cancellation of its plans. “We will continue to prepare in the same way as with other international competitions that we take part in,” a spokeswoman for the committee said. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) said it was working with all the relevant authorities to ensure its athletes would be safe. “Each host city presents a unique challenge from a security perspective, and, as is always the case, we are working with the organizers, the U.S. State Department and the relevant law enforcement agencies to ensure that our athletes, and our entire delegation, are safe,” USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky said. The Chinese Olympic Committee said it had no immediate comment. The Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), which has representatives in South Korea, said the safety of its team was always its main priority. “The safety of our entire Canadian Olympic Team is always our main priority, no matter where the Games are held,” the COC said in a statement emailed to Reuters. “The Government of Canada does not currently have travel advisories in place for South Korea and recommends that Canadians exercise normal security precautions, which is the lowest of four risk levels.” Australia, one of Asia’s largest participants at recent Winter Games, is monitoring the situation. “The safety of our team is of the highest priority but we are comfortable with the priority that the (International Olympic Committee) and the Org Comm are placing on security and safety of the Games and its participants,” the Australian Olympic Committee said in a statement emailed to Reuters. “We are relying on advice from DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) and working with the Korean Ambassador and if their advice changes, we will advise our team accordingly but for the moment there is no suggestion that the Games will not go ahead or their safety is compromised.” The chief of the International Ski Federation, Gian-Franco Kasper, dismissed any fears among athletes, saying the Pyeongchang Olympics would be the “safest in the world”. He conceded, however, that ticket sales among overseas visitors could be affected. The IOC has said it is not contemplating any ‘Plan B’ for the Games.  IOC President Thomas Bach said last week that considering any scenario other than holding the Olympics in South Korea could hamper diplomatic efforts.

Summary: सुरक्षा सुनिश्चित नहीं होने पर 2018 शीतकालीन खेलों से बाहर रहेगा फ्रांस


YANGON (Reuters) - If there s one thing that unites Aung San Suu Kyi s party, the army that once tried to crush her, and the majority of people in mostly Buddhist Myanmar, it is their vehement dislike of the Rohingya Muslims, seen as a threat to national security.  We don t love the military, but we are together on this one,  said Nyan Win, a top official of Suu Kyi s National League for Democracy (NLD), who the country s former junta had detained for nearly three years.  Our sovereignty can t be violated and that is why we are united.    These people are illegal immigrants, that s for sure. But the international community never mentions that,  said Nyan Win, 75, who chairs the ruling NLD s media team and is one of the most influential members of the party. But even as the United Nations has called the army crackdown on the Rohingya  ethnic cleansing , western diplomats - from countries competing with China for influence in the Southeast Asian nation - say abandoning Suu Kyi or reimposing sanctions could risk Myanmar s democratic transition. Though Rohingya families have lived in Myanmar for generations, they are denied citizenship and access to basic civil rights such as freedom of movement, decent education and healthcare. Attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts last month triggered an army operation that has killed more than 400 people, destroyed over 6,800 houses and sent nearly 400,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh. Rohingya refugees and rights groups say the army has launched a campaign aimed at driving them out. Suu Kyi, who holds the title of  State Counsellor  and is de facto head of government, has said the militant Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) is responsible for the burning of homes, civilian deaths as well as  a huge iceberg of misinformation  on the strife in Rakhine. Revered when she was under house arrest for some 15 years, the Nobel peace winner has been criticized by fellow Nobel laureates and some leaders across the world. A petition drive is under way to revoke her Nobel prize. Malala Yousafzai, a fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, called on her to condemn the  shameful  treatment of the Rohingya, saying  the world is waiting  for her to speak out.  Shame on you Malala! You know nothing about real situation in our country,  Myanmar Internet user Nann Wint War wrote in a tweet.  There is no Rohingya, only Bengali terrorists in Rakhine,  said the tweet, a reference to Rohingya that suggests they come from Bangladesh.     Suu Kyi s government launched a media campaign aimed at shoring up public support for the operation.  In Facebook and Twitter posts, it has shown off support for non-Muslims displaced by the violence and blamed the international community for distributing  fake news  about alleged rights abuses.  Hard Evidence Please! , Suu Kyi s spokesman, Zaw Htay, said in a tweet last week reacting to a BBC News report that Rakhine Buddhist villagers set Muslim houses on fire.  You wrote you just saw it, share your #Evidence.  Aung Shin, an NLD spokesman, said only Myanmar citizens understand the situation in Rakhine as  foreign countries made their assumption based on questionable facts they obtained.  Many in Myanmar fear the Rohingya present a threat to the Buddhist Rakhine majority in Rakhine State. Sixteen non-Muslims were killed and nearly 30,000 have also been displaced, fleeing to larger towns. The conflict in Rakhine has stoked communal tensions across the country. A mob armed with sticks and swords, threatening to attack a mosque in central Myanmar, was only dispersed on Sunday after police with riot shields fired rubber bullets. Muslims have voiced fear that other mosques will come under attack and have asked for tighter security.   Thiri Thant Mon, managing director at Yangon-based investment advisory firm Sandanila, said many in Myanmar think the international community has wrongly directed its attention to the Rohingya fleeing Myanmar, instead of the suffering of Rakhine Buddhists in one of its poorest states.  The entire population here just feel misunderstood. They feel like we are not bad people. It s not us, it s them who are killing us and why aren t you talking about it?  said Thiri Thant Mon, who herself does not identify with such views.  The Rohingya issue has put Suu Kyi in an awkward position politically, the diplomats said. The military still controls much of the state apparatus even after the 2011 transition to democracy. It portrays itself as the true guardians of nationalism and Buddhism. They say that could be a reason for Suu Kyi s reticence.  If she speaks out on such a sensitive issue, the situation will explode, making it harder for her to solve the problem in Rakhine,  said Nyan Win, the NLD executive.   We can accept them as humans but we cannot let them move around freely, which violates our sovereignty,  he said, adding the Rohingya belong in camps for displaced people in Rakhine due to security reasons.     We can t give them freedom of movement because they are not our citizens.

Summary: पहली बार, म्यांमार की 'जातीय सफाई' सू की की पार्टी, सेना और जनता को एकजुट करती है


(Reuters) - The Organization of American States (OAS) on Wednesday called for an immediate return of constitutional rights in Honduras and said it may call for new elections if irregularities mean it is impossible to be sure of the results of a disputed Nov. 26 vote. The Honduran government suspended some rights to free movement by imposing a curfew last week when protests erupted over irregularities in the way results were released from the presidential election.

Summary: ओ. ए. एस. नए होंडुरास चुनाव की सिफारिश कर सकता है जब तक कि अनियमितताओं को ठीक नहीं किया जाता है।


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Youths who were brought to the United States illegally and gained protection under the Obama administration should not worry about their immigration status during the next six months before the program ends, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday. “For all of those (DACA) that are concerned about your status during the 6 month period, you have nothing to worry about - No action!” Trump said in a post on Twitter, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Summary: डी. ए. सी. ए. प्राप्तकर्ताओं को स्थिति के बारे में चिंता नहीं करनी चाहिएः ट्रम्प


BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany called for all sides to show restraint in Zimbabwe after the military seized power there early on Wednesday, saying it is targeting  criminals  around President Robert Mugabe.  We see developments there with concern ... The situation there is confusing and unclear,  a Foreign Ministry spokesman told a regular government news conference in Berlin.  Together with our European partners, we urge the actors to show restraint and above all not to exercise any violence,  the spokesman added.  A dialogue of the actors is needed to avoid a confrontation and to come to a peaceful solution.

Summary: जर्मनी ने जिम्बाब्वे में संयम और बातचीत का आह्वान किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some big American coal companies have advised President Donald Trump’s administration to break his promise to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Agreement – arguing that the accord could provide their best forum for protecting their global interests. Remaining in the global deal to combat climate change will give U.S. negotiators a chance to advocate for coal in the future of the global energy mix, coal companies like Cloud Peak Energy Inc and Peabody Energy Corp told White House officials over the past few weeks, according to executives and a U.S. official familiar with the discussions. “The future is foreign markets, so the last thing you want to do if you are a coal company is to give up a U.S. seat in the international climate discussions and let the Europeans control the agenda,” said the official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue. “They can’t afford for the most powerful advocate for fossil fuels to be away from the table,” the official said. Cloud Peak and Peabody officials confirmed the discussions. In Cloud Peak’s view, staying in the agreement and trying to encourage “a more balanced, reasonable and appropriate path forward” on fossil fuel technologies among signatories to the accord seems like a reasonable stance, said Cloud Peak’s vice president of government affairs, Richard Reavey. The coal industry was interested in ensuring that the Paris deal provides a role for low-emission coal-fired power plants and financial support for carbon capture and storage technology, the officials said. They also want the pact to protect multilateral funding for international coal projects through bodies like the World Bank. The Paris accord, agreed by nearly 200 countries in 2015, would seek to limit global warming by slashing carbon dioxide and other emissions from burning fossil fuels. As part of the deal, the United States committed to reducing its emissions by between 26 percent and 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump vowed to pull the United States out of the pact, tapping into a well of concern among his fellow Republicans that the United States’ energy habits would be policed by the United Nations. But since being elected, he has been mostly quiet on the issue, and administration officials have recently been asking energy companies for advice. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said last week that the administration expected to make a decision on whether to remain a party to the deal by the time leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy nations meet in late May. The prospect of the United States remaining in the Paris deal has irritated some smaller miners, including Murray Energy Corp, whose chief executive, Robert Murray helped fund Trump’s presidential bid. Staying in the Paris accord could also face resistance from within Trump’s party. Republican Congressman Kevin Cramer of North Dakota has been circulating a letter among Republican lawmakers calling on the president to stay in the deal but has gathered only seven signatures so far.

Summary: अमेरिकी कोयला कंपनियों ने ट्रम्प से पेरिस जलवायु समझौते पर कायम रहने को कहा


NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan police fired teargas and shots in the air to scatter a small number of demonstrators in Nairobi two days before elections, as the main opposition leader appeared to pull back from a call for protests during the vote. In the western city of Kisumu, around 2,000 demonstrators marched on the election board offices, witnesses said, heeding Raila Odinga s appeal for protests against Thursday s repeat presidential ballot, before dispersing peacefully. Odinga is boycotting the contest against incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta. He says it will not be free and fair as the election board had made insufficient progress towards reforms he demanded after the original election held in August was annulled. Odinga had urged his supporters to ensure the new vote did not take place, repeatedly saying there would be  no elections . But on Tuesday he told the BBC he was not calling for protests on election day itself.  We have not told people to protest on polling day. We have not said that at all. We have told people to stay away,  he said in a radio interview. When called for clarification, Odinga s spokesman said he was saying  peaceful protests  would still take place and that the opposition would fully explain their plans on Wednesday.  At least 49 people have died in political violence since the August ballot, evoking unwelcome memories of the aftermath of a disputed 2007 vote, when more than 1,200 people were killed.  On Tuesday evening, the bodyguard of the deputy chief justice was shot and wounded as he bought flowers by the side of the road, police said.  The motive for the shooting was unclear, but it is likely to add to the tense atmosphere surrounding the vote. Judges have received threats since they nullified the August result.  The political stand-off has blunted growth in East Africa s richest economy, a nation which values its stability and relative freedom in a region plagued by conflict.  Kenya s Supreme Court is still hearing several cases challenging the legality of Thursday s election.  One, brought by human rights activist Khelef Khalifa and two others, seeks to delay the vote on grounds that the election board is not sufficiently prepared. The Supreme Court, the only body that can now legally postpone the poll beyond the end of the month, will hear the case on Wednesday.  On Tuesday, the election board canceled a planned briefing with journalists on preparations for the polls.  Last week, the head of the election board said it was not clear a free and fair vote could take place due to intimidation and political interference. He spoke after the resignation of an election commissioner, who then fled the country and released a statement saying she had been threatened, although she did not say by whom.  A day before the Aug. 8 vote, another member of the election board was found tortured and murdered. On Monday, the International Crisis Group, a global think-tank, called for a delay in the election.  Proceeding under current conditions would deepen Kenya s ethnic cleavages and prolong a stalemate that has already claimed dozens of lives and come at a high economic cost,  it said.  Both the election board and the government have said the vote will go ahead, irrespective of whether Odinga contests it, and only a court ruling could legally delay the re-run ballot beyond the end of October.  On Tuesday, police fired teargas and bullets into the air to break up protesters in the capital Nairobi. In Kisumu, an Odinga stronghold, demonstrators said that the polls should not take place, but were unclear on how they should be stopped.   All we know is that there will be no elections. As to how this will be done, we are waiting for the big announcement by Baba (Odinga) tomorrow,  said one demonstrator, market trader James Ouma.  Around him, marchers waved branches and blew whistles. Last week Odinga supporters disrupted at least three official pre-polling events. Police said some election board staff were seriously injured.  Kenyatta won the first election on Aug. 8, by 1.4 million votes, but the Supreme Court annulled that outcome on Sept. 1 over procedural irregularities. Odinga s team then presented a list of demands to the election board.  Some have been met - opposition monitors will now have access to the board s computers as results come in, a key official has gone on an extended holiday, and numerical results vulnerable to typographical errors will not be transmitted, rather only scanned copies of paper forms from tallying centers.  The board said it was impossible to meet other demands - such as changing the technology provider - in the short time frame allotted for new elections.  Under Kenya s constitution, fresh elections must be held within 60 days of nullified ones.

Summary: केन्या पुलिस ने प्रदर्शनकारियों को तितर-बितर किया क्योंकि ओडिंगा के गुस्साए लोगों ने मतदान के विरोध का आह्वान किया


MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Republican Senator John McCain broke with the reassuring message that U.S. officials visiting Germany have sought to convey on their debut trip to Europe, saying on Friday that the administration of President Donald Trump was in “disarray”. McCain, a known Trump critic, told the Munich Security Conference that the resignation of the new president’s security adviser Michael Flynn over his contacts with Russia reflected deep problems in Washington. “I think that the Flynn issue obviously is something that shows that in many respects this administration is in disarray and they’ve got a lot of work to do,” said McCain, even as he praised Trump’s defense secretary. “The president, I think, makes statements (and) on other occasions contradicts himself. So we’ve learned to watch what the president does as opposed to what he says,” he said. European governments have been unsettled by the signals sent by Trump on a range of foreign policy issues ranging from NATO and Russia to Iran, Israel and European integration. The debut trip to Europe of Trump’s Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, to a meeting of G20 counterparts in Bonn, went some way to assuaging concerns as they both took a more traditional U.S. position. But Trump is wrestling with a growing controversy at home about potential ties between his aides and Russia, which he dismissed on Thursday as a “ruse” and “scam” perpetrated by a hostile news media. Mattis made clear to allies, both at NATO in Brussels and in Munich, that the United States would not retreat from leadership as the European continent grapples with an assertive Russia, wars in eastern and southern Mediterranean countries and attacks by Islamist militants. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence will address the Munich conference on Saturday with a similar message of reassurance.  Pence will say that Europe is an “indispensable partner” for the United States, a senior White House foreign policy adviser told reporters.  Mattis told a crowd that included heads of state and more than 70 defense ministers that Trump backed NATO. “President Trump came into office and has thrown now his full support to NATO. He too espouses NATO’s need to adapt to today’s strategic situation for it to remain credible, capable and relevant,” Mattis said. Mattis said the United States and its European allies had a shared understanding of the challenges ahead. Trump has alarmed allies by expressing admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin.  Mattis, however, has spoken out strongly against Russia while in Europe. After talks with NATO allies in Brussels on Thursday, he said that he did not believe it would be possible to collaborate militarily with Moscow, at least for now. The Europeans may need more convincing that Washington stands with it on a range of security issues. “There is still a lot of uncertainty,” Sebastian Kurz, Austria’s foreign minister, told reporters. “The big topic in Munich is looking to the USA to see which developments to expect next.” European intelligence agencies have warned that Russia is also seeking to destabilize governments and influence elections across Europe with cyber attacks, fake news and propaganda and by funding far-right political parties. “We should be under no illusions about the step-change in Russian behavior over the last couple of years, even after Crimea,” British Defence Minister Michael Fallon said, referring to Moscow’s 2014 annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula. “We have seen a step-change in Russian military aggression, but also in propaganda, in misinformation and a succession of persistent attacks on Western democracies, interference in a whole series of elections including ... the United States.” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Munich, seeing progress on encouraging Moscow to be more open about its military exercises that the alliance says are unpredictable. Russia says it is the Western alliance, not Moscow, that is destabilizing Europe by sending troops to its western borders. “We have different views,” Stoltenberg said of the crisis in Ukraine, where the West accuses the Kremlin of arming separatist rebels in a conflict that has killed 10,000 people since April 2014. Russia says the conflict is a civil war. In the latest incident, Lithuanian prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into a false report of rape by German soldiers stationed there on a NATO mission to deter Russia. Mattis, without explicitly citing the case, rallied to the defense of German forces as he spoke in the German city of Munich. “I have great respect for Germany’s leadership in Europe – and for the ethical performance of your troops on the battlefield,” he said. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded last year that Russia hacked and leaked Democratic emails during the election campaign as part of an effort to tilt the vote in Trump’s favor. McCain acknowledged concern in Europe and beyond that America was “laying down the mantle of global leadership” and cited global trends he found disturbing, including hardening resentment toward immigrants and an unwillingness to separate truth from lies.    McCain urged the forum not to give up on the United States.  “Make no mistake, my friends: These are dangerous times, but you should not count America out, and we should not count each other out,” McCain said.

Summary: ट्रम्प की टीम अव्यवस्था में, अमेरिकी सीनेटर मैक्केन ने यूरोप को बताया


HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe arrived at a university graduation ceremony in the capital on Friday, his first public appearance since a military seizure of power that political sources say is aimed at ending his 37 years in office. Wearing a blue and yellow academic gown and mortar board hat, the 93-year-old sat in large wooden chair at the front the hall. He was greeted by ululations from the crowd as he declared the ceremony open.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे के मुगाबे तख्तापलट के बाद पहली बार सार्वजनिक रूप से दिखाई दिए


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Classical crossover singer Jackie Evancho, who charmed TV audiences as a child on “America’s Got Talent” six years ago, will sing the U.S. national anthem at the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump - the first performer to be announced for the ceremony. Trump’s inaugural committee made the announcement on Wednesday, saying Evancho, 16, “represents the best and the brightest of America.” “I’m so excited. It’s going to be awesome,” Evancho said on the “Today” show on Wednesday. Celebrity news website TMZ reported on Wednesday that Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli would also be singing at the Jan. 20 ceremony, but there was no official confirmation. As a tiny 10-year-old, Evancho wowed Americans with her soaring soprano on classical arias like Puccini’s “O mio babbino caro,” taking second place on “America’s Got Talent.” She will follow in the footsteps of Aretha Franklin and Beyonce, who performed the “The Star-Spangled Banner” at President Barack Obama’s two inaugurations. After her “America’s Got Talent” run, Evancho became the youngest solo artist to have a platinum-selling album in the United States. She met Trump at that time and has a photo on her Facebook page of the two of them standing together. The inaugural committee has said it has “world-class talent” offering their services for the ceremony, but Evancho is the first celebrity to be announced. The inaugural committee’s chairman, Tom Barrack, quashed speculation on Tuesday that rapper Kanye West, who had a surprise meeting that day with the Republican president-elect at Trump Tower in New York, would be performing. Country singer Garth Brooks is in discussions to perform, and, according to celebrity media, other names thought to be in talks include Kid Rock, rocker Ted Nugent and country star Lee Greenwood.  Beyonce, Katy Perry, Bruce Springsteen and many other leading music stars backed Democrat Hillary Clinton in the election, and Elton John last month denied a report that he would be playing for Trump.

Summary: किशोर जैकी इवांचो ने ट्रम्प के उद्घाटन के लिए पहली गायिका की पुष्टि की


BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday said that Hungary sees a strong Poland as a vital component of a central European caucus within the European Union, and so will block any action to suspend Poland s voting rights in the EU. Orban said Poland, under fire from Brussels for its transformation of the judiciary, was being criticized unfairly and unjustly. He spelled out that Hungary would not subscribe to an attempt to invoke the EU s Article 7 sanction process.  We need to make it clear to the EU that it is pointless even to start proceedings against Poland as there is no chance of seeing it through - because Hungary will be there and form an insurmountable road block,  Orban said.

Summary: प्रधानमंत्री ओरबानः पोलैंड पर यूरोपीय संघ की किसी भी दंडात्मक कार्रवाई को हंगरी रोकेगा


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi Yazidi group affiliated with a Shi ite-led armed faction took control on Tuesday of Sinjar, said residents of the northwestern city that is claimed by both Kurdish and central Iraqi authorities. The Yazidi group, called Lalesh, extended control over all of Sinjar after the withdrawal late on Monday of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters who were deployed there, the residents said.  There was no violence, the Lalesh group moved after the Peshmerga pulled out,  said a resident by phone. Responding to a Kurdish referendum on independence held last month, Iraqi government forces on Monday captured the Kurdish-held oil city of Kirkuk, transforming the country s balance of power. That was part of lightning strike ordered by Minister Haider al-Abadi to retake all disputed areas, including Sinjar, occupied by the Kurdistan Regional Government s Peshmerga force in the course of the war on Islamic State. Lalesh is affiliated with Popular Mobilisation, an armed group formed mainly of Iran-trained Shi ite paramilitaries, with the participation of smaller forces from other communities including Sunnis, Christians and Yazidis. It is officially under Abadi s authority.

Summary: कुर्दों की वापसी के बाद इराकी समर्थित यज़ीदी समूह ने सिंजर पर कब्जा कर लियाः निवासी


GENEVA (Reuters) - Syria s opposition wants Russia and other states to put pressure on President Bashar al-Assad to engage in peace talks in Geneva to produce a political solution within six months, the chief of its delegation said at the start of negotiations on Wednesday.  We want more pressure on the regime to engage in the negotiation and continue in the negotiation to reach a political solution in six months, as (U.N. Security Council Resolution) 2254 says,  Nasr Hariri told Reuters.  Just speaking about a political transition without any advancement, we will lose our trust in the process and our people will lose their trust in us and in the process itself.  Hariri said Syria and its ally Iran wanted the fighting to continue until they could declare a military victory, and they were not abiding by agreements to de-escalate the fighting in areas such as Eastern Ghouta, a besieged rebel-held enclave.  If the situation continues as it is now I think there is great danger in these agreements.   Russia had arranged a pause in the fighting for Eastern Ghouta for two or three days, which showed Moscow had the power to ensure de-escalation agreements were respected, he said.  A war monitor and a witness said on Wednesday that heavy shelling hit Eastern Ghouta in spite of the start of the Russian-backed truce there. Syria s civil war is now in its seventh year and previous rounds of negotiations made virtually no progress, with no direct contact between the opposing delegations, who took turns to meet U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura. The Syrian government delegation has always rejected the opposition s demand that Assad leave power, calling them  terrorists  who lacked the legitimacy to negotiate. The government s position on the battlefield has strengthened dramatically since Russia joined the war on Assad s behalf two years ago, raising speculation that the opposition could soften its negotiating stance. However, opposition delegates meeting last week issued a statement repeating their demand that Assad be excluded from any transitional government, a position which Damascus and its allies say is divorced from reality on the ground. De Mistura originally planned a round of 4-5 days but was now planning to continue until Dec. 15, Hariri said, adding that his team had come hoping for direct talks with the government delegation for the first time. Hariri said his opening words to government negotiator Bashar al-Ja afari would be:  I hope despite all of the crimes which have been done in Syria, I hope that the regime can come ready to put the people of Syria first.  De Mistura has asked both sides to come without preconditions. Hariri said the opposition had no preconditions, but planned to talk about Assad s future as part of the negotiations. The talks are meant to cover four major issues: elections, governance, the constitution and fighting terrorism. All four would be discussed, Hariri said, but it would not be possible to go straight into the core elements straightaway.   If we will speak about constitution or election under the current circumstances inside Syria with this kind of regime, I think it will be impossible,  he said. Among issues the opposition wanted to discuss at the outset were humanitarian aid and people detained by forces loyal to Assad. Hariri said detainees number more than 200,000. Syrian government negotiator Ja afari also met de Mistura on Wednesday but declined to speak to reporters afterwards.

Summary: विपक्ष चाहता है कि छह महीने के भीतर सीरिया समझौते के लिए रूस दबाव बनाए


MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte retained a high public approval rating in an opinion poll released on Friday, a stark contrast to a different survey earlier this week that showed a sharp decline in trust and satisfaction in the maverick leader. Eighty percent of 1,200 Filipinos surveyed by pollster Pulse Asia late last month said they trust and approve of Duterte slightly down from 81 percent and 82 percent respectively in its June survey.   Approval  rates the president s performance and  trust  relates to his personality in the Pulse survey, which did not ask respondents to give a reason. A poll by Social Weather Stations conducted at the same time and released on Sunday showed trust and satisfaction in Duterte - also ratings of personality and performance - fell to the lowest of his presidency. The falls by 15 points and 18 points respectively were significant, and came after a demonstration by thousands of Filipinos and unprecedented public scrutiny on his war on drugs, triggered by the Aug. 16 killing by police of a teenager. Thousands of Filipinos have been killed during the past 15 months. Police insist none were executed, as activists have alleged. Duterte this week ordered police to stand down from the campaign but has not said what motivated his decision. His office said that was to shift focus towards bigger targets. Analysts were unable to explain the big difference in the results of surveys by two well-respected pollsters. Academic Edmund Tayao said the Pulse poll showed the public still recognized the importance of the war on drugs, and Duterte would stick to his policy agenda.  The president s tone does not change, regardless of the numbers,  Tayao said.  Whether these surveys will result in major changes to his policy, I think not.  Ranjit Rye of the University of the Philippines said the latest poll showed that, despite recent setbacks and adverse headlines, Duterte had not lost his appeal.  Despite all the political noise, all the opposition against the president, he continues to be wildly popular and people approve of his leadership,  Rye said. Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said there was  an enormous amount of appreciation  for Duterte, and suggested the earlier poll may have been  some form of orchestrated information, disinformation .   It s not for us to speculate. But there seems to be that particular effort in order to the put the president and his administration in a particular light,  he told reporters.

Summary: नए सर्वेक्षण से पता चलता है कि फिलीपींस के राष्ट्रपति अभी भी बेहद लोकप्रिय हैं