BERLIN (Reuters) - German parties exploring a coalition government agreed on Tuesday to set up a mandatory registry of lobbyists and may require private firms to disclose breaches of cyber defenses, according to a draft paper on security seen by Reuters. The 3-page document, a blueprint for a new German government s stance on security, showed growing consensus on some issues among Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives, the pro-business Free Democrats and the environmental Greens. But several issues remained unresolved, including the number of police jobs to be added, rules on storage of private data, and the future of a controversial hate speech law. Merkel is pressing party leaders to resolve their differences by Thursday, with an eye to completing a detailed coalition agreement by Christmas. Party negotiators made progress on boosting aid to families with children on Tuesday, but remained at odds over transport and climate and put off discussing immigration until Wednesday. Top party leaders will likely have to tackle the most difficult issues on Thursday, sources said. Transportation Minister Alexander Dobrindt, a member of the CSU Bavarian sister party to Merkel s conservatives, said negotiators had been unable to bridge gaps on transportation issues despite four hours of intense discussions.  The Greens have a package of demands on the table that cannot be fulfilled,  he told reporters, citing a push by the Greens for higher taxes on diesel. He said his party would not agree to measures that would limit individual mobility or that could jeopardize the German auto industry. Negotiators did agree to create a mandatory registry of individuals lobbying government and parliament on behalf of interest groups to ensure greater transparency. They also said government agencies should be required to report cyber security gaps that affected relevant systems or a large number of people to the BSI federal cyber security agency.  The parties said they also planned to address dangers posed by cyber breaches of private companies.  This could include a reporting requirement,  the paper said, without elaborating. The paper showed the parties had agreed to create 2,000 new jobs in the federal and state justice systems, and pledged to add jobs federal law enforcement as quickly as possible. But they remained at odds about the exact number of jobs. The parties also agreed to expand control of the intelligence agencies via a special parliamentary board, according to the paper. It said the intelligence agencies and the federal government should be required to keep parliament informed about their work. The parties also agreed to dodge a dispute over the future of the European Stability Mechanism and would not include that specific issue in a paper outlining the parties  stance on Europe, negotiators said.

Summary: जर्मन पार्टियां लॉबिस्ट रजिस्ट्री चाहती हैं, हैक रिपोर्ट अनिवार्य कर सकती हैं


BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Wednesday that the United States had violated its sovereignty and security, after a U.S. Navy destroyer sailed near islands that Beijing claims in the South China Sea. China firmly opposes the U.S. move, the Defense Ministry said in a statement on its microblog.

Summary: चीन का कहना है कि अमेरिका ने दक्षिण चीन सागर में उसकी संप्रभुता का उल्लंघन किया है


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s President Jacob Zuma has filed an appeal against a court ruling that his appointment of a state prosecutor to decide whether to reinstate corruption charges against him was not valid, local media reported on Thursday. The High Court ruled last week that Zuma s appointment of head prosecutor Shaun Abrahams should be set aside immediately and that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa should appoint a new public prosecutor within 60 days. The ruling was among a series of judicial blows to his administration, which has been hit by a series of scandals. Zuma filed papers saying that people exercise presidential powers at the same time, according to television station eNCA.  Zuma s spokesman could not immediately comment. The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has also said it will appeal the ruling. In October the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld an earlier decision by a lower court that the nearly 800 corruption charges filed against Zuma before he became president be reinstated.  It then fell to Abrahams, appointed by Zuma, to decide whether or not the NPA would pursue a case against him. The charges against Zuma relate to a 30 billion rand  ($2.22 billion) government arms deal arranged in the late 1990s and have amplified calls for Zuma to step down before his term as president ends in 2019.

Summary: दक्षिण अफ्रीका के जुमा ने राज्य अभियोजक की नियुक्ति पर अदालत के फैसले की अपील कीः स्थानीय मीडिया


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Convincing big U.S. dairy owners to buy robots to milk their cows - and reduce the farmhands they employ - used to be a tough sell for Steve Fried. Recently, his job has gotten easier, he says, in part because of President Donald Trump.  “I get calls on a daily basis and it typically starts with, ‘I don’t want to deal with this labor headache any more’,” said Fried, sales manager for Lely North America, which makes robotic dairy milking and feeding systems.  Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration through stepped-up arrests and border enforcement has shaken the U.S. agricultural sector, where as many as 7 in 10 farm workers are undocumented, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.  In addition, Republican lawmakers in Congress have introduced legislation that would require all employers to check social security numbers against federal databases to ensure their workers are in the country legally, something that is now voluntary in all but a handful of states.  The get-tough approach "has created a great deal of anxiety," said Tom Vilsack, chief executive of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, who was U.S. Agriculture Secretary for eight years under President Barack Obama.    The shift comes as the industry was already struggling to cope with a shrinking, aging workforce. That is ratcheting up pressure on the sector to embrace new technology.  Farmers and food companies increasingly are moving to automate dairy operations, chicken processing, crop production and harvesting. Even delicate crops such as strawberries and peaches are being considered for mechanization.  “You’d be a fool to not have a plan that moves you that way,” said Duff Bevill, who owns a vineyard management company in Sonoma County, California.  Pilgrim’s Pride Corp, (PPC.O) the second largest U.S. chicken producer, this year cited a tightening migrant labor market as key to its decision to invest in robots and X-ray technology for its slaughterhouses. The goal: to swap human hands for machines that can debone the front half of chickens and perform other chores.  “We’re investing heavily in automating our processes, taking labor out and making jobs easier,” Pilgrim’s CEO William Lovette said in an earnings call. He said the company also decided to increases wages.  In Gilroy, California, Christopher Ranch is likewise embracing new machinery. The largest North American producer of fresh garlic, Christopher Ranch will spend about $1 million this year for a new Spanish-made robot in its packing plant that inserts garlic heads into sleeves, according to Ken Christopher, vice president of the family-owned business.  A 2014 report by WinterGreen Research forecast significant growth in the use of robotics in “every aspect of farming, milking, food production” and other agricultural enterprises. The report put the market for agricultural robots at $817 million in 2013 and projected that it would reach $16.3 billion by 2020.  Sensing opportunity, investors are stepping up to address agriculture’s labor squeeze with new automation, helped by falling electronics costs and advancements in software, robotics and artificial intelligence.  Google Ventures, the venture capital arm of Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), this year spearheaded a $10 million investment in Abundant Robotics, which is working on an apple-picking robot. It also participated in a $20 million funding round for Bowery Farming, which uses robotics to grow leafy greens indoors.  Elsewhere, farm machinery maker Deere & Co (DE.N) announced that it spent $305 million to buy precision weed-killing robot maker Blue River Technology. INCENTIVES TO AUTOMATE  While little official data exists to illustrate the impact of Trump’s immigration policies on farm laborers, there is no question that illegal migration is down sharply since he took office in late January.  The number of people caught trying to enter the United States illegally from Mexico dropped almost 60 percent between February and May compared the same period last year, according to government figures. Between late January to early September, the number of individuals arrested in the interior of the country by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) rose almost 43 percent over the same period in 2016.  Gary Wishnatzki, a third-generation strawberry farmer in Florida, says scarce labor convinced him to raise $5 million so far to build a robotic strawberry picker that he hopes someday will reduce his industry’s need for field hands.  Bruce Taylor, CEO of Taylor Farms, a Salinas, California producer of salads and chopped vegetables for stores and restaurants, says his company has automated 20 percent of its packing plant.  The company has also teamed with an equipment maker to build a mechanized romaine harvester that is currently in use, and it is exploring automation for iceberg lettuce, broccoli and other field crops, Taylor said.  In the meantime, farmers are raising wages. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s most recent farm labor report shows average wages during the week of April 9 to 15 were $13.23 per hour, up 4 percent from the same week a year ago.  “The mantra in agriculture right now is automate what you can and pay well for the labor you absolutely have to have,” said Paul Pittman, CEO of Farmland Partners Inc, (FPI.N) a real estate investment trust that invests in North American farm land.  To win the loyalty of its full-time production workers, garlic grower Christopher Ranch decided to raise pay by 50 percent between 2016 and 2018, getting a four-year jump on California’s mandated $15 minimum wage that will take effect in 2022.  “Companies need to find ways of adapting and adjusting,” Christopher, the executive, said. “We’re going to take a small financial hit, but we’re going to be ready.”  Follow Trump’s impact on energy, environment, healthcare, immigration and the economy at The Trump Effect  www.reuters.com/trump-effect

Summary: जैसे ही ट्रम्प प्रवासियों को लक्षित करते हैं, अमेरिकी कृषि क्षेत्र स्वचालित होता दिख रहा है


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico s Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray will travel to the United States this week to meet with local leaders and beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the ministry said on Monday.  Videgaray will travel to Sacramento and Los Angeles on Sept. 11-12 and then to Washington D.C. on Sept. 13, the ministry said in a statement. Videgaray will meet with California Gov. Jerry Brown as well as other officials, the statement said.

Summary: मेक्सिको के विदेश मंत्री सपने देखने वालों से मिलने के लिए अमेरिका जा रहे हैं


CAIRO (Reuters) - Former Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Shafik, who returned home from the United Arab Emirates after announcing his bid for Egypt s presidency, appeared in Cairo on Sunday to say he was still considering his run in next year s election. Shafik s comments on a private Cairo television station came a day after his family said he had been taken from their home in the Emirates and deported back to Egypt, where they said they had lost contact with him until late on Sunday. Shafik, a former air force chief and government minister, has been seen by critics of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as the strongest potential challenger to the president, who is expected to run for a second term next year. Details about what happened to Shafik between his leaving the UAE on Saturday and his declaration on Sunday were unclear. He made a surprise announcement from the UAE last week that he planned to run in the 2018 election.  Today, I am here in the country, so I think I am free to deliberate further on the issue, to explore and go down and talk to people in the street,  he said on Sunday.  There s a chance now to investigate more and see exactly what is needed ... to feel out if this is the logical choice.  The interview on Dream TV was Shafik s first public appearance since leaving the UAE on Saturday. His family said earlier they feared he had been  kidnapped . Sources said he had been picked up by Egyptian authorities at Cairo airport.  Shafik dismissed reports he had been kidnapped. His lawyer, Dina Adly, wrote on her Facebook page that she had been able to see him at a Cairo hotel and said he was not subject to any investigations. She did not confirm whether he was able to leave the hotel or country.  I had a meeting with Shafik an hour ago at one of the hotels in New Cairo and confirmed his health,  Adly wrote on Facebook, referring to a suburban area of Cairo.  He confirmed that his health was good and that he was not subjected to any investigations,  she wrote. Shafik s family said earlier he had been taken from their home on Saturday by UAE authorities and flown by private plane back to Cairo.  We know nothing about him since he left home yesterday,  Shafik s daughter May told Reuters on Sunday before his reappearance.  If he was deported he should have been able to go home by now, not just disappear. We consider him kidnapped.  UAE authorities confirmed he left the Emirates but gave no details. A source at the Egyptian interior ministry said:  We do not know anything about Shafik. We did not arrest him and we did not receive any requests from the prosecution to arrest him or bring him back.  Shafik s abrupt departure from UAE came weeks after Lebanese officials accused Saudi Arabia of meddling by forcing Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri to resign by holding him against his will.  Saudi Arabia denied those charges but the case prompted a crisis and pushed Lebanon back into the center of a regional struggle between Riyadh with its Sunni Gulf allies and Iran. Sisi is an ally of UAE and Saudi Arabia and his supporters say he is key to Egypt s stability. Critics say he has eroded freedoms gained after a 2011 uprising that ousted former leader Hosni Mubarak and jailed hundreds of dissidents. Sisi has won backing from Gulf states and has presented himself as a bulwark against Islamist militants since, as army commander, he led the overthrow in 2013 of former president Mohamed Mursi of the now banned Muslim Brotherhood. After four decades in the military, Shafik touted his military experience as one of his strengths in the 2012 vote. But he fled to the UAE to escape corruption charges in June 2012. He dismissed the charges as politically motivated and was taken off airport watchlists last year. In UAE, his family said he had round-the-clock security at home and informed authorities about his whereabouts. Soon after his announcement on Wednesday, he claimed he had been blocked from traveling, but his family later said he had been given assurances he could travel. Sisi has yet to announce his own intentions for the election. His supporters dismiss criticism over rights abuses and say any measures are needed for security in the face of an Islamist insurgency that has killed hundreds of police and soldiers. His government is struggling to crush the insurgency in the North Sinai region and has enacted painful austerity reforms over the last year which critics say have eroded his popularity.

Summary: घर लौटने के बाद मिस्र के पूर्व प्रधानमंत्री ने कहा कि अभी भी चुनाव लड़ने पर विचार किया जा रहा है


REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Iceland s prime minister called a snap parliamentary election on Friday following the decision of one of the three coalition parties to quit the government formed less than nine months ago.  We have lost the majority and I don t see anything that indicates we can regain that... I am calling an election,  Bjarni Benediktsson told reporters, adding that he would prefer the vote to take place in November. The outgoing government party Bright Future made its decision to quit due to a  breach of trust  after the prime minister s party purportedly tried to cover up a scandal involving his father.

Summary: आइसलैंड के प्रधानमंत्री ने गठबंधन पार्टी के इस्तीफे के बाद मध्यावधि चुनाव कराने की घोषणा की


SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia faces a series of by-elections that could topple the government, which trails in opinion polls and has lost its slender majority, in a bizarre citizenship crisis that has engulfed both sides of parliament. Senator Katy Gallagher and lower-house member David Feeney, both from the opposition Labor party, were referred to the High Court on Wednesday to determine whether they hold British, as well as Australian, citizenship. Neither is a member of the government, but the outcome of Gallagher s case in particular, which rests on whether she made  reasonable steps  to renounce her British citizenship, will set a precedent that could later unseat government members. Dual citizens are ineligible for elected office under Australia s 116-year-old constitution. In a nation in which half the population were either born overseas or have parents who were, the rule has disqualified nine lawmakers, and left Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull s Liberal-National coalition clinging to a minority government. Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce briefly lost his seat  when it was found he also held New Zealand citizenship. But he won it back in a by-election last weekend. A by-election in former tennis star John Alexander s theoretically safe Sydney seat on Dec. 19 will determine whether the government regains its one-seat majority. However, a victory may not be lasting, since the citizenship status of another four lower-house government lawmakers was called into question after a deadline for politicians to disclose the birthplace of their parents and grandparents passed on Tuesday.  There are many inadequate disclosures that ask more questions than provide answers,  Labor leader Bill Shorten told reporters in Canberra. The government, behind in opinion polls and keen to avoid any more by-elections, voted down a Labor proposal to refer those lawmakers  cases to the High Court and said it would not revisit the matter until after the Gallagher case was heard. Gallagher filed paperwork, and paid processing fees, to renounce her British citizenship more than two months before being elected in July 2016. But she did not get confirmation from the British Home Office that her renunciation had been processed until after she was voted in, her disclosure documents show.  Several other lawmakers are in a similar bind.  It will be a test case,  constitutional law expert George Williams, dean of law at the University of New South Wales, told Reuters by telephone.  But it leaves open the possibility that now this will go on for quite some time. There s large question marks over quite a number of people.  Turnbull s government would have to rely on the support of a handful of independent MPs to retain power if Alexander loses his Dec. 19 by-election, or if the High Court ousts another coalition lawmaker from the lower house.  It s uncertain territory, we still don t know for sure who is eligible and who s not,  University of Queensland politics lecturer Chris Salisbury told Reuters. (Refiles to add dropped word  loses  in paragraph 17)

Summary: ऑस्ट्रेलिया का उच्च न्यायालय नए नागरिकता परीक्षण मामले में फैसला सुनाएगा


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European governments are complicit in grave human rights violations in Libya through their support for authorities there who often work with people smugglers and torture refugees and migrants, Amnesty International said on Tuesday. Amnesty said up to 20,000 people are now held in Libyan detention centers for migrants and are subject to  torture, forced labor, extortion, and unlawful killings . Other human rights organizations have said similar things in recent months. The European support for Libyan authorities is part of a plan to cut African immigration across the Mediterranean. It aims to lower the number of people who drown during the crossing and curb the scale of a political problem high arrivals cause to EU governments. Italy has spearheaded the plan, in particular by training and equipping the coastguard and by spending millions to back U.N. agencies working on relief efforts in Libya.  European governments have not just been fully aware of these abuses; by actively supporting the Libyan authorities in stopping sea crossings and containing people in Libya, they are complicit in these crimes,  said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International s head for Europe. On Tuesday, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni defended the EU s policy in a speech to parliament ahead of this week s meeting of the bloc s leaders in Brussels and said sea arrivals had dropped by two-thirds since last July.  It s thanks to us that a light is being shone on human rights in Libya,  he said, referring to million of euros Italy and the EU spent on improving conditions for people stuck there. A spokesperson for the bloc s executive European Commission said:  We are aware of the inhumane and terrible conditions some face. We share the same objective as Amnesty: saving lives.  It said the bloc s funding helped the U.N. agency for migration, the IOM, send more than 15,000 people in Libya to their home countries in Africa. At the same time, it said the bloc has also been slowly taking in  genuine refugees . Libya is the main gateway for migrants trying to cross to Europe by sea, though numbers have dropped sharply since July as Libyan factions and authorities have begun to block departures under pressure from Italy, the main landing point. More than 600,000 have made the journey over the past four years.   The EU backs Libya s coastguards in its efforts to intercept people heading to Europe but they work closely with people smugglers who torture people for money, Amnesty said.  By supporting Libyan authorities in trapping people in Libya ... European governments have shown where their true priorities lie: namely the closure of the central Mediterranean route, with scant regard to the suffering caused,  said Dalhuisen. Some EU officials and diplomats chafe at the bloc s reliance on militias that have emerged since the fall of Libya s leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.      But EU leaders will recommit at their meeting in Brussels on Dec. 14-15 to a strategy they say is bearing fruit in the form of fewer sea crossings.  The presidency of Libya s U.N.-backed government said last month it was a victim of illegal migration, not a source of it, and appealed to foreign powers to help stop flows from migrants  countries of origin.

Summary: एमनेस्टी का कहना है कि यूरोपीय संघ लीबिया में प्रवासी अधिकारों के उल्लंघन में शामिल है


ADEN (Reuters) - Three fighters from forces loyal to the former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh were killed in a second day of clashes with their own allies from the Houthi movement in the capital Sanaa, Saleh s party said on Thursday. The two groups are fighting a Saudi-led coalition that has intervened in a 2-1/2 year Yemeni civil war with a view to restoring the internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. A statement from Saleh s General People s Congress Party said three guards were killed when Houthi forces attacked the house of Tarek Saleh, Ali Abdullah Saleh s nephew, adding that they also besieged the residence of Ibrahim Sharaf, a party member and foreign minister of the Sanaa-based government.  The Houthis violated the truce agreement and attacked the residence of colonel Tarek and killed three guards and wounded three others,  the statement said. The clashes underscore the complex situation in Yemen, as Hadi s alliance has also seen similar internal fighting between his contingents and pro-independence southern forces backed by the United Arab Emirates, a key member of the Saudi-led coalition Local sources told Reuters some residents fled areas where the fighting, which involved heavy artillery and rocket launchers, raged for several hours for a second day. Four supporters of Ali Abdullah Saleh were killed when a gunfight erupted on Wednesday in the center of Sanaa, after the Houthis broke into the city s main mosque complex and fired RPGs and grenades.  Houthi fighters and battalions loyal to Saleh made common cause to fan out through Yemen in 2015 and have weathered thousands of air strikes launched by neighboring Saudi Arabia and its allies. Hadi s government is nominally based in the port city of Aden.

Summary: यमन के सऊदी विरोधी गठबंधन के सदस्यों के बीच दूसरे दिन भी झड़प, तीन की मौत


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Trade Representative, a critical position ahead of renegotiations of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico. Delays in Senate confirmation of veteran trade lawyer Robert Lighthizer more than 100 days after his nomination have set back Trump’s trade agenda, including the start of talks about revamping one of the world’s biggest trading blocs. Lighthizer won support from both Republicans and Democrats in the Republican-led Senate on Thursday, with an 82-14 vote to confirm his nomination.   The administration has had to wait for Lighthizer to be in place before triggering the formal process to begin renegotiating NAFTA.  It was not immediately clear when the White House would begin that process. To do so, the Trump administration must send a letter to Congress declaring its intention to launch  negotiations in 90 days. The Republican president has said the 23-year-old trade pact devastated U.S. workers and has vowed to tear it up if he fails to get a better deal.  Some Democrats, while critical of Trump’s views on trade, said they were confident Lighthizer would work to help U.S. workers. “He’s a real pro,” Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, said before voting in favor. Lighthizer’s approval came despite the objections of two Republican senators, John McCain of Arizona and Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who said they were worried he did not appreciate NAFTA’s benefits. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, in charge of trade ties with the United States, said she did not expect the administration would move immediately on NAFTA. “I imagine that Ambassador Lighthizer may need to spend a bit of time in consultations prior to formally triggering that 90-day period,” she said on a conference call on Thursday night.      While the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico has ballooned since NAFTA was enacted in 1994, U.S. farmers have profited from exports to America’s southern neighbor, while automakers have cut costs by building cross-border supply chains that benefit from lower Mexican wages.  Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican who chairs the Senate Finance Committee and voted in favor of Lighthizer’s nomination, also urged the incoming trade representative not to put at risk the gains NAFTA had brought.  “There are definitely opportunities to update and improve NAFTA,” Hatch said. “But it is important that the administration follow the spirit of the Hippocratic oath: First do no harm.”

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेट ने नाफ्टा वार्ता से पहले ट्रम्प व्यापार प्रतिनिधि की पुष्टि की


GOTHENBURG, Sweden (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May and European Council President Donald Tusk agreed on Friday there was more work to be done to advance Brexit talks and discussed ways to take further steps before December, a spokesman for May said. The two had  positive discussions  at a meeting on the sidelines of a summit in Gothenburg, Sweden, the spokesman said in a statement. May also met French President Emmanuel Macron.  Prime Minister May and President Tusk agreed that there is more work to be done and discussed how to take further steps forward together in advance of the European Council in December,  he added.

Summary: ब्रेक्सिट वार्ता शुरू करने के लिए और काम किया जाना चाहिएः ब्रिटेन के मे, यूरोपीय संघ के टस्क


TALLINN (Reuters) - A physical border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland after Brexit would risk decades of peace negotiations, and Britain s solutions so far are not sufficient, Ireland s Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said on Friday.   We cannot have a physical border on the island of Ireland again that creates barriers between communities, that will create tension, that will undermine the peace process that has taken 30 years to build,  Coveney told Reuters.  The problem is that the solutions to get us there so far haven t been convincing,  he said in the margins of an EU foreign ministers  meeting in Tallinn, referring to Britain s proposals.  The issue of how the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland will fare after Britain leaves the European Union is sensitive given the decades of violence over whether the province should be part of Britain or Ireland.

Summary: ब्रेक्सिट के बाद कठिन आयरिश सीमा शांति के लिए खतरा होगीः कोवेनी


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Workers on Friday cut out part of a new monument to Mikhail Kalashnikov, inventor of the Soviet Union s legendary AK-47 assault rifle, after eagle-eyed Russians noticed that it mistakenly depicted a German weapon of World War Two. Just three days ago, the monument to the creator of one of Russia s best known export brands was unveiled with much fanfare in central Moscow. A metal bas-relief behind a statue of Kalashnikov depicts the AK-47 and other weapons all supposedly designed by the engineer, who died in 2013. But on Friday, embarrassed sculptor Salavat Shcherbakov had to admit that among them was the Sturmgewehr 44 (StG 44) assault rifle used by Nazi troops at the end of World War II.  We will rectify this,  Shcherbakov said in comments broadcast by state-run Rossiya 24 channel.  It looks like this (mistake) sneaked in from the Internet.   By Friday evening a square hole gaped where the German rifle had been depicted in the bas-relief. Kalashnikov s weapon, created in 1947, does have a striking resemblance to German arms designer Hugo Schmeissers s StG 44 rifle, created in 1942, although they have major design differences. Kalashnikov was known to have said he had heard speculation that he had copied the German rifle.  Vladislav Kononov, executive director of the Russian Military and Historical Society, was cited by Russian media as saying that the fact that angry Russians had spotted the error in the relief disproved that. Many had earlier vented their disapproval on social media.  Every cloud has its silver lining - thanks to this mistake ... a myth has been destroyed that Kalashnikov borrowed some elements of his invention from his foreign colleagues,   he said. The AK-47, the small-arms mainstay of Russia s armed forces for over 60 years, is called by some experts the most effective weapon ever made. Every fifth firearm in the world is a Kalashnikov, with more than 70 million of the assault rifles produced over the past 60 years, the Kalashnikov Concern manufacturer said on its website. Kalashnikovs are in service in 50 foreign armies, it added.

Summary: ए. के.-47 राइफल के डिजाइनर के स्मारक पर मूर्तिकार की चूक के निशान


CHICAGO (Reuters) - A group of black pastors boycotted Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s annual Martin Luther King breakfast on Friday, over his handling of police killings, and one pastor attended the event but interrupted it with protest chants before being escorted out. A handful of religious leaders joined protesters who blocked one entrance to the Hyatt Hotel where the breakfast was being held, chanting demands that Emanuel step down. But hundreds of Chicago’s African-American leaders did attend the breakfast - started in the 1980s by the city’s first black mayor, Harold Washington - and the event to honor civil rights leader King. “This boycott is not in opposition to Harold Washington nor Martin Luther King Jr. This boycott stands for the very cause that they stood for, it was through protesting that achievement was made. To sit by and do nothing is to endorse what is going on,” said Bishop Edgar Mullins, pastor of Grace Family Worship Center church, one of the boycotters. Local media showed footage of Rev. Matthew Ross interrupting the breakfast and chanting “16 shots and a cover-up,” in reference to the 2014 fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, before security guards escorted him from the conference room. Police killings, mostly of men of color, have led to protests around the United States in the past year and a half.  A wave of protests over police killings in Chicago, mostly of young black men, has forced Emanuel to fire his police chief and accept a federal probe of the police department. The city has also reversed its previous policy not to release video footage of police killings. On Thursday officials made public the images from surveillance cameras that show police killing Cedric Chatman, 17, in January 2013. Lawyers for his family say the video contradicts police statements that Chatman, a carjacking suspect, had a dark object that he pointed at them. Alderman Anthony Beale of the city’s ninth ward was among black leaders who attended the breakfast on Friday. He said he was there to honor King’s legacy, which made protests possible. “Either you’re part of the problem or part of the solution. I choose to be part of the solution ... Now is a golden opportunity for us to put real change in this city,” he said.

Summary: शिकागो के अश्वेत पादरियों ने महापौर के वार्षिक राजा नाश्ते का त्याग किया


((This Sept. 12 story corrects name of sacked minister in paragraph 2)) BANGUI (Reuters) - Central African Republic president Faustin-Archange Touadera sacked his defense minister on Tuesday evening, according to a state radio broadcast, amid growing violence that threatens to spin the country out of control. The dismissal of Joseph Yakete was part of a wider Cabinet reshuffle. The statement did not say if his dismissal was related directly to growing violence.  Thousands have died and a fifth of Central Africans have fled a conflict that broke out after mainly Muslim Seleka rebels ousted President Francois Bozize in 2013, provoking a backlash from Christian anti-balaka militias. Although unrest has since subsided, fighting has spiked this year and the United Nations warned this month that ethnic fighting could descend again into a much larger conflict if combatants are not disarmed. National security forces are too weak to tackle armed groups and counter the spillover from conflicts in neighboring countries, said the United Nations. In a sign of the deteriorating security situation, six Red Cross volunteers were killed in an attack on a health center in southeastern Central African Republic on Aug. 3, the aid organization said last month.

Summary: बढ़ती हिंसा के बीच मध्य अफ्रीकी गणराज्य के रक्षा मंत्री बर्खास्त


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and House of Representatives leaders pushed on Wednesday for votes for their plan to overhaul Obamacare and said they were making progress in their efforts to win over conservative Republicans who have demanded changes to the legislation. With a vote on the bill possible as soon as Thursday, members of the House Freedom Caucus, a conservative Republican faction, said they had been negotiating alterations to the plan with the White House.  Much of the discussion hinged on conservatives’ desire to scrap what are labeled “essential health benefits” - services that insurance plans are required to cover under the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare, such as mental health help. “I can tell you that we’re making great progress,” Mark Meadows, chairman of the hardline conservative House Freedom Caucus, told reporters. “We’re not there yet. But we’re hopeful.”  Trump was to meet at the White House with members of the Freedom Caucus on Thursday at 11:30 a.m, the White House said. But while the president courted conservatives, the bill appeared to be losing traction among Republican moderates, some of whom attended a meeting late Wednesday in House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office. Representative Charlie Dent, a leader of the “Tuesday Group” of House Republican moderates, issued a statement saying he could not back the bill. “I believe this bill, in its current form, will lead to the loss of coverage and make insurance unaffordable for too many Americans, particularly for low- to moderate-income and older individuals,” Dent said in the statement. The chairman of the House Rules Committee, which met all day Wednesday to set the rules for the bill’s consideration on the House floor, said late on Wednesday that the panel would resume its meeting on Thursday, having made no definite decision on the timing of the floor vote. Repealing and replacing Democratic former President Barack Obama’s 2010 Affordable Care Act is a first major test of Trump’s legislative ability and whether he can keep his big promises to business. Plans aired by Trump during his election campaign and his first two months in office lifted U.S. stock markets to new highs. But stocks fell back sharply on Tuesday as investors worried that a rough ride for the healthcare legislation could affect his ability to deliver on other big pieces of his agenda, from cutting taxes and regulation to boosting infrastructure. Major stock indexes wobbled on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending slightly down and the S&P 500 slightly higher. Investors are eagerly awaiting Thursday’s healthcare vote, which could be pivotal for Trump’s broader plans. The Freedom Caucus has objected to the bill because its members believe it is still too close to Obamacare. Representative Steve King, a conservative who was among lawmakers who met Trump on Wednesday morning at the White House,  said he would now vote for the bill because he got a commitment from Trump to publicly advocate a change to the legislation when it reaches the Senate, eliminating the essential benefits, which also include emergency room visits and maternity and newborn care. “I have a full and firm commitment with many witnesses from President Trump,” King said in a video statement on YouTube. Meadows said the members of the Freedom Caucus had also discussed the essential benefits with the administration. Conservatives say reducing or scrapping the mandates would bring down insurance premiums. On the other side, patient advocates say that not requiring the coverage would hurt both individuals and healthcare providers. “It could leave countless people with too little coverage to meet their health care needs and drive higher rates of uncompensated care at hospitals already struggling to cover their costs,” Bruce Siegel, president of America’s Essential Hospitals, said in a statement. Earlier on Wednesday, a Freedom Caucus aide said more than 25 of its members were opposed, enough to stop the bill from passing. Republicans cannot afford to lose more than 21 votes from their own party, since Democrats are united in opposition. Democrats, meanwhile, said amending the bill in the Senate would affect procedure, and increase the amount of votes Republicans would need in that chamber. Currently, Republicans intend to pass the plan through budget reconciliation, a process with little room for changes that only requires a simple majority to pass. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders also gave signs negotiations were making headway late on Wednesday. “We are continuing to move forward and adding new supporters constantly,” she said. “As we have indicated previously we are open to changes to the bill that make it better and grow its support.” The primary aim of Obama’s signature legislation, passed in 2010, was reducing the numbers of Americans with no health coverage. Twenty million people gained insurance under the law. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated 14 million people would lose coverage under the Republican plan by next year. It also said 24 million fewer people would be insured by 2026.     The Republican plan would also rescind taxes created by Obamacare, repeal penalties for not buying coverage, slash funding for the Medicaid program for the poor, and modify subsidies that help individuals buy plans. In the two weeks since it was unveiled, shares of some hospital operators and health insurers have fallen more than 10 percent. If the healthcare bill passes the House, the Senate could take it up next week. Republican leaders hope that if the Senate acts quickly, the bill could go back to the House for a final vote by mid-April, possibly allowing Trump to sign it into law by Easter, April 16.   Opponents of the overhaul have been fiercely vocal, and on Wednesday protesters, many in wheelchairs or with serious medical conditions, blocked the Capitol rotunda for about an hour. “Rather go to jail than die without Medicaid,” they chanted. Capitol police said they made 54 arrests and later released the protesters. ACA vs. AHCA: tmsnrt.rs/2n0ZMKf Where senators stand on the AHCA: tmsnrt.rs/2mUE4Xf How Americans feel about the AHCA: tmsnrt.rs/2n7f3e4

Summary: ट्रम्प ने स्वास्थ्य सेवा विधेयक के लिए लड़ाई लड़ी, रूढ़िवादियों के साथ प्रगति की


ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey will retry a lawmaker from the main opposition party after a court annulled his 25-year prison sentence but he will remain in custody, broadcaster NTV and opposition lawmakers said on Monday. Enis Berberoglu became a symbol for more than 50,000 people detained in the wake of a failed coup in July 2016. The chairman of his secular Republican People s Party (CHP) started a 425 km (265 mile) protest march from the capital Ankara to Istanbul when he was convicted and sentenced in June for military espionage. The court had said Berberoglu gave an opposition newspaper a video purporting to show Turkey s intelligence agency trucking weapons into Syria. Monday s decision to cancel the sentence came from the regional court of appeals, broadcaster NTV said. Berberoglu was the first CHP lawmaker to be jailed in a crackdown by President Tayyip Erdogan s government that has raised concerns among Turkey s Western allies and rights groups. More than 150,000 people, including teachers, academics and lawyers, have also been suspended from their jobs. Around 150 media outlets have also been shut and some 160 journalists jailed, the Turkish Journalists Association says. A prosecutor has called for jail sentences of up to 15 years on terrorism charges for rights activists including the local head of Amnesty International, Amnesty said on Sunday. Critics say Turkey is sliding toward greater authoritarianism. The government says such measures are necessary, given the vast security threats it is facing.

Summary: जासूसी के आरोप में जेल में बंद विपक्षी सांसद पर फिर से मुकदमा चलाएगा तुर्कीः एनटीवी


SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said U.S. B-1B bombers flew over the Korean Peninsula on Thursday and carried out bombing drills simulating attacks on major targets in the country, the North s official KCNA news agency said on Friday. The strategic bombers, escorted by U.S. and South Korean fighter jets, flew from the Anderson Air Force Base in Guam, to conduct a  surprise  strike drill, the KCNA said. There was no immediate confirmation from the U.S. and South Korean militaries.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया का कहना है कि अमेरिकी बमवर्षकों ने गुरुवार को 'आकस्मिक' हमला अभ्यास कियाः केसीएनए


BERLIN (Reuters) - German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said on Friday she expected other countries would press ahead with the Paris global climate deal after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he would pull the United States out of the landmark pact. “Regrettable though the American decision is, I’m optimistic that overall we’ll manage to push ahead with it and fulfill it,” Hendricks said of the climate pact. “The rest of the world is closing its ranks even more tightly so I’m very optimistic,” she added.

Summary: जर्मन मंत्री का कहना है कि वैश्विक जलवायु समझौता अमेरिका की वापसी से बच जाएगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Thursday night he would nominate retired Marine Corps General James Mattis, known as “Mad Dog” and renowned for his tough talk and battlefield experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, to lead the Pentagon. “We are going to appoint ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis as our secretary of defense,” Trump told a rally in Cincinnati. He said the formal announcement would be made on Monday. The choice of a seasoned military strategist would be another indication that Trump, a Republican, intends to steer U.S. foreign policy away from Democratic President Barack Obama’s increased reliance on U.S. allies to fight Islamist militants and to help deter Russian and Chinese aggression in Europe and Asia. Mattis is a revered figure in the Marine Corps and known for his distrust of Iran. The Washington Post and CNN reported earlier that Trump had chosen Mattis, but Trump spokesman Jason Miller said earlier on Twitter that “no decision has been made yet with regard to Secretary of Defense.” While the nomination of the 66-year-old Mattis would likely be popular among U.S. forces, it would have to clear a bureaucratic hurdle.   Because he retired only in 2013, Mattis would need the U.S. Congress to waive a requirement that a defense secretary be a civilian for at least seven years before taking the top job at the Pentagon. His impressive combat record, however, may deter some Senate Democrats from trying to block his nomination. Trump has described Mattis as “a true general’s general.”  The New York real estate magnate famously asserted last year: “I know more about ISIS than the generals do.” Mattis, whose past assignments include leading Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East and South Asia, is known for his colorful expressions that unashamedly embrace the job of the U.S. armed forces: fighting wars. In one famous line in 2003 attributed to Mattis, the general told Marines in Iraq: “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.” In a 2016 question-and-answer session, Mattis appeared to be moved by a Marine’s question about how far out he could inflict casualties with his knife hand, known as a “kill-casualty radius.” “Once you get to be a high-ranking officer, the kill-casualty radius is whatever your Marines make it, and by the time I got up to the senior ranks it was hundreds of miles,” he said in a video for the Marine Corps. Still, such tough talk has gotten him in hot water. He was once rebuked for saying in 2005 that “it’s fun to shoot some people.”  His talk, however, belies a more thoughtful side. Mattis once said the most important 6 inches in a combat zone was “between your ears.” Now a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Mattis is also a scholar who was praised by then-U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates in 2010 as one of the country’s great strategic thinkers.  Mattis reads avidly, frequently quotes history and is proud that he grew up with a large library and no television.  After meeting Mattis on Nov. 19, Trump described him as a strong, dignified man who persuasively argued against waterboarding, an interrogation tactic that involves pouring water over someone’s face to simulate drowning.  Trump had promised during the campaign he would not only revive use of waterboarding, which is widely regarded as torture and was banned under President Barack Obama, but bring back “a hell of a lot worse” if elected.  “(Mattis) said: ‘I’ve always found, give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers and I do better with that than I do with torture.’ And I was very impressed by that answer,” Trump told The New York Times. The Senate Armed Services Committee will consider Mattis’ nomination. In a statement on Thursday night, its chairman, Republican John McCain, called him “one of the finest military officers of his generation and an extraordinary leader.”  Mattis would be the first former U.S. general to become defense secretary since George C. Marshall took the job in 1950. The decision adds to Trump’s national security team another Pentagon veteran who served during the Obama administration but often had a testy relationship with it. Officials who knew him before he retired in 2013 said Mattis clashed with top administration officials when he headed Central Command over his desire to better prepare for potential threats from Iran and to win more resources for Afghanistan. Trump has given the job of national security adviser to Michael Flynn, a retired three-star Army general who was pushed out of the top job at the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014 by Obama’s administration.  Flynn was fiercely critical of Obama during the 2016 campaign, adopting much of Trump’s rhetoric. Along with Flynn and Trump’s choice for CIA director, U.S. Representative Mike Pompeo, Mattis has been critical of the deal to curb Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program, saying the threat from Tehran should outrank more immediate concerns about Islamic State or al Qaeda. “The Iranian regime, in my mind, is the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East,” Mattis said. Speaking about the Iranian nuclear deal, Mattis said: “Hoping that Iran is on the cusp of becoming a responsible, modern nation is a bridge too far.” If Mattis wins Senate confirmation, he will work side by side with another Marine - General Joseph Dunford, who is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Having two Marine generals in those top jobs would be highly unusual for a service that prides itself on being the most elite U.S. fighting force. It would also raise questions about how Mattis and Dunford might divide up tasks.  Both Dunford and Mattis share battlefield experience, including in Iraq. In 2003, Mattis led the 1st Marine Division during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. He has said one of the toughest things he had to do was oversee the retreat of his forces from the city of Falluja in 2004, something he feared would hurt morale, but did not. “We just don’t take refuge in self-pity or any of that kind of stuff. And so as a result, the Marine Corps remains a very feared organization in this world. As it should be,” he said.

Summary: पेंटागन के लिए सेवानिवृत्त जनरल मैटिस को नामित करेंगे ट्रंप


BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - An Argentine submarine with 44 crew on board was missing in the South Atlantic two days after its last communication, prompting the navy to step up its search efforts late on Friday in difficult, stormy conditions.  The ARA San Juan was in the southern Argentine sea 432 km (268 miles) from the Patagonian coast when it sent its last signal on Wednesday, naval spokesman Enrique Balbi said.  The emergency operation was formally upgraded to a search-and-rescue procedure on Friday evening after no visual or radar contact was made with the submarine, Balbi said.   Detection has been difficult despite the quantity of boats and aircraft  involved in the search, Balbi said, noting that heavy winds and high waves were complicating efforts.   Obviously, the number of hours that have passed - two days in which there has been no communication - is of note.  The navy believes the submarine, which left Ushuaia en route to the coastal city of Mar del Plata in Buenos Aires province, had communication difficulties that may have been caused by an electrical outage, Balbi said. Navy protocol would call for the submarine to come to the surface once communication was lost.   We expect that it is on the surface,  Balbi said.  The German-built submarine, which uses diesel-electric propulsion, was inaugurated in 1983, making it the newest of the three submarines in the navy s fleet, according to the navy. President Mauricio Macri said the government was in contact with the crew s families.  We share their concern and that of all Argentines,  he wrote on Twitter.  We are committed to using all national and international resources necessary to find the ARA San Juan submarine as soon as possible.  Argentina accepted an offer from the United States for a NASA P-3 explorer aircraft, which had been stationed in the southern city of Ushuaia and was preparing to depart to Antarctica, to fly over the search area, Balbi said. A Hercules C-130 from the Argentine Air Force was also flying over the operational area. Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Britain and South Africa had also formally offered assistance.

Summary: अर्जेंटीना ने 44 चालक दल के साथ लापता पनडुब्बी की खोज तेज की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate’s permanent subcommittee on investigations will probe Mylan Pharmaceuticals’ pricing of the allergy auto-injector EpiPen, according to a press release issued on Wednesday. The release described the probe as a “preliminary inquiry.” Mylan has been criticized - including by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton - for sharply raising the price of EpiPens, which are carried by people with life-threatening allergies. Mylan raised the price from about $100 in 2008 to about $600 currently. It has offered some discounts but this has done little to allay concerns. “Our review of this matter will be robust, thorough, and bipartisan. Parents and school districts in Ohio, Missouri and across the country need affordable access to this life-saving drug, and we share their concern over Mylan’s sustained price increases,” Senators Rob Portman, the Republican chair of the subcommittee, and Claire McCaskill, the top Democrat, said in a statement. Mylan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Summary: सीनेट जांच समिति माइलान के एपिपेन मूल्य निर्धारण की जांच करेगी


KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - Kurdish Peshmerga forces have retreated to positions they held in northern Iraq in June 2014 in response to an Iraqi army advance into the region after a Kurdish independence referendum, a senior Iraqi commander said on Wednesday. An Iraqi military statement said government forces had taken control of Kurdish-held areas of Nineveh province, including the Mosul hydro-electric dam, on Tuesday after the Peshmerga pulled back. On Monday, Baghdad s forces recaptured the major oil city of Kirkuk to the south shortly after the Peshmerga abandoned it. The Peshmerga had advanced into Nineveh and the Kirkuk region over the past three years as part of the war against Islamic State militants, filling a void left by a temporary collapse of the Iraqi army in the face of an IS onslaught.  As of today we reversed the clock back to 2014,  the Iraqi army commander, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. There was no immediate comment from Kurdish leaders. The territory taken by the Peshmerga as it rolled back Islamic State was outside the official boundaries of the autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), mainly in Kurdish-populated areas claimed historically by the Kurds. With this week s withdrawals from disputed territories, Peshmerga forces appeared to have re-deployed roughly along the KRG s boundaries. Iran and Turkey joined the Baghdad government in condemning the Iraqi Kurds  Sept. 25 referendum, worried it could worsen regional instability and conflict by encouraging their own Kurdish populations to push for homelands. With the referendum having given Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi a political opening to regain contested land and shift the balance of power in his favor, it may prove a gamble that makes the KRG s quest for statehood more elusive.  Around 61,200 people were displaced Iraq s military operation in and around Kirkuk, a city of over 1 million, over the past 48 hours but most were now returning to their homes, the U.N. humanitarian affairs office in Baghdad said. Witnesses said, however, that dozens of Kurdish families began to flee Kirkuk on Wednesday for Sulaimaniya inside the KRG for fear of attack by Shi ite Popular Mobilization paramilitaries, allied with Baghdad and armed by Iran, that had entered the city along with government forces.  We have a family member with the Peshmerga and we are afraid we might get arrested by the Popular Mobilization. We are fleeing towards Sulaimaniya,  said the driver of one car filled with his family. At least 150 vehicles were seen streaming out of Kirkuk at one point. But most subsequently turned around and returned home after local police assured them that fears of reprisals were groundless, a Reuters reporter said. Though Kurdish-owned shops in Kirkuk were mainly closed on Wednesday due to concern about the presence of Shi ite militia, there were no reports of serious incidents as federal security forces patrolled the streets, witnesses said.  We call on all parties to do everything possible to shield and protect all civilians impacted by the current situation,  Lisa Grande, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, said. Abadi ordered the prosecution of anyone found circulating fake videos aimed at inciting strife between Kurds and Arabs and endangering civil peace in areas retaken by Baghdad s forces. The Kurdish vote was championed by KRG President and KDP party chief Masoud Barzani but not supported by the rival PUK party, in part because of the strong opposition of the Kurds  longtime ally the United States. The United States sided with Abadi s Shi ite-led government in rejecting the Kurds  secessionist move. Barzani has stood by it, saying the overwhelming  yes  for independence  won t be in vain  and would be pursued by peaceful means.  Kurds have sought an independent state since at least the end of World War One, when colonial powers divided up the Middle East after the multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire fell apart and left Kurdish-populated land split between Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.

Summary: कुर्द सेना जून 2014 की लाइनों से हट गईः इराकी सेना कमांडर


BEIJING (Reuters) - China s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said it welcomed all efforts to ease tension on the Korean peninsula after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson offered to begin direct talks with North Korea without pre-conditions. Ministry spokesman Lu Kang made the comment at a daily news briefing in the Chinese capital.

Summary: चीन ने कहा कि वह कोरियाई प्रायद्वीप पर तनाव कम करने के सभी प्रयासों का स्वागत करता है


SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Saturday that U.S. President Donald Trump s first trip to Asia showed he was a  destroyer  and he had begged for war on the Korean peninsula.  Trump, during his visit, laid bare his true nature as destroyer of world peace and stability and begged for a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula,  the foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the state news agency. Trump had warned North Korea on Wednesday not to underestimate the United States as he wrapped up his visit to South Korea. The North Korean spokesman said nothing would deter Pyongyang from pursuing its nuclear weapons programme.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया का कहना है कि ट्रम्प ने अपनी एशिया यात्रा के दौरान युद्ध की भीख मांगी थी


NAIROBI/ABIDJAN (Reuters) - U.S. special forces soldiers were with their counterparts from Niger on Wednesday in the West African nation s volatile southwest, a growing hot-bed of jihadist violence, when the report came in of a raid nearby. The assailants were believed to be led by Dondou Chefou, a lieutenant in a new group operating along the Mali-Niger border and called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. A decision was soon taken to pursue them. The mixed force was ambushed by fighters on dozens of vehicles and motorcycles. Under heavy fire, U.S. troops called in French fighter jets for air support, but the firefight was at such close quarters that the planes could not engage and were instead left circling overhead as a deterrant.  The version of events, as told by two Nigerien and two Western sources briefed on the incident, shines a light on Washington s increasingly aggressive Special Forces-led counter-terrorism strategy in Africa and its risk of casualties.  Four U.S. soldiers died in the firefight, killed in a country where most Americans were unaware that their army is deployed but where Washington has steadily grown its presence. One soldier s body was only recovered two days later. At least four Nigeriens were also killed and, according to one Niger security source, militants seized four vehicles in the ambush. French helicopters, scrambled after the U.S. call for help, evacuated several soldiers wounded in the clash. A diplomat with knowledge of the incident said French officials were frustrated by the U.S. troops  actions, saying they had acted on only limited intelligence and without contingency plans in place.  After initially offering only scant details of what happened in the Nigerien desert on Wednesday, the U.S. military s Africa Command said on Friday the soldiers were in the area to establish relations with local leaders.   It was not meant to be an engagement with the enemy,  Africom spokesman Colonel Mark Cheadle told reporters.  The threats at the time were deemed to be unlikely, so there was no overhead armed air cover during the engagement.   U.S. forces do not have a direct combat mission in Niger, but their assistance to its army does include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in their efforts to target violent extremist organizations. U.S. military deployments are on the rise in Africa.  In May, a U.S. Navy Seal killed in a raid on an al Shabaab militant compound in Somalia became the first U.S. combat death in Africa since the 1993  Black Hawk Down  disaster in Mogadishu. In Niger, Washington has deployed around 800 soldiers, runs a drone base in the capital Niamey, and is building a second in Agadez at a cost of around $100 million. U.S. Special Forces help local troops develop counter-terrorism skills to tackle threats from al Qaeda-linked groups, Nigeria s Boko Haram and Islamists who have pledged allegiance to Islamic State.   It s a pretty broad mission with the government of Niger in order to increase their capability to stand alone and to prosecute violent extremists,  the U.S. military s Joint Staff Director, Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie, said on Thursday. Washington has long seen the Sahel as a security threat but involvement increased in the wake of a 2012 occupation of northern Mali by Islamist militants.  France led an offensive against the Islamists a year later, and the U.S. government now provides logistical and intelligence support to a 4,000-troop French counter-terrorism operation in the region.  The U.S. military organizes an annual, high-profile U.S. drill as well as longer-term, more discreet training of regional forces. But experts say U.S. involvement in the fight does not stop there.   It is likely that there are other operations going on aside from just the training operations,  said Andrew Lebovich, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. In missions run out of a base in the northern Niger town of Arlit and others like the one that led to the ambush of U.S. troops, sources say they have helped local troops and intelligence agents make several arrests.   It is discreet but they are there,  a Nigerien security source told Reuters. Analysts are awaiting the political fallout of Wednesday s ambush with some speculating it may spark a reversal of the U.S. stance on a new regional force - known as the G5 Sahel - which France is pushing but which Washington is cool on. Others however like Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, a former top United Nations official in West Africa and Somalia, recall with concern the American pullout following the  Black Hawk Down  incident. Eighteen U.S. soldiers were killed when Somali militia shot down two helicopters in Mogadishu.  In Somalia, they over-reacted and withdrew their troops ... My worry is that after this attack they will also over-react. Trump might just say  Why should we die for this?  I hope they don t.

Summary: नाइजर में अमेरिकी मौतों ने अफ्रीका सैन्य मिशन रेंगने को उजागर किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Donald Trump started thinking during his campaign for the presidency last year about filling a Supreme Court vacancy, he turned to a group of Washington insiders at the controls of a well-oiled machine that puts conservative judges on the bench. That disciplined network of operatives, shepherded by judicial activist Leonard Leo, on Friday delivered for Trump his first major accomplishment as U.S. president: the confirmation of conservative Neil Gorsuch as a Supreme Court justice.  Unlike the chaotic rollouts of other Trump policy initiatives, the Gorsuch nomination went relatively smoothly. Democrats put up a fight in the Senate, but they lacked the votes to block the Republican majority and they lost. Other key players included experienced Washington hands such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, former Senator Kelly Ayotte and White House Counsel Don McGahn.  “It worked because it was all planned out before the nomination. We know what works, what doesn’t work, what resources we need. We know the other side’s arguments and how to answer them. It’s like war,” Leo told Reuters on Friday. The only surprise stumble in the effort came when Trump attacked judges who blocked his order banning U.S. entry by people from certain Muslim-majority countries. Gorsuch distanced himself from the president’s Twitter messages. Other than that, discipline was maintained from the first of five meetings that Leo, a veteran of Bush-era judicial confirmation battles, attended with Trump. The two met twice before the election.  Leo helped compile a list of potential nominees for Trump. That helped win over conservative activists unsure of Trump’s ideological compass at a time when he was still fighting for the Republican presidential nomination. A second, longer list came in September. It included Gorsuch, a federal judge. The campaign for Gorsuch’s confirmation would not have happened without McConnell, who stopped former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, from filling the high court vacancy created when conservative icon Antonin Scalia died in February 2016. After Trump won the election, he named McGahn, a Washington-based campaign finance lawyer at Jones Day, as White House counsel. Known by his colleagues as “The Quiet Man,” McGahn managed the nomination from inside the administration. Leo, who reported to McGahn, pushed back against Democrats’ claims that Trump basically out-sourced the nomination process to outside groups. Leo said McGahn carefully scrutinized the lists of nominees and was not simply a rubber stamp. The Gorsuch campaign got heavy marketing and promotion backing from the Judicial Crisis Network (JCN), a coordinating body for conservative and grassroots groups. It launched $10 million in pro-Gorsuch advertising, targeting in particular Senate Democrats facing re-election contests in 2018.  The JCN was born during the administration of former President George W. Bush, when Republicans realized a strong outside campaign was critical to getting conservatives on the court.  Carrie Severino, the group’s chief counsel, said the fact Trump agreed to stick to the nominees list made her job easier. “We were prepared for several possibilities, and we had ads, websites, research packets, and much more ready to launch the moment a name was confirmed,” she said. Leo said conservatives have borrowed techniques from the liberal coalitions that worked to defeat the nomination of Robert Bork by Republican then-President Ronald Reagan in 1987. The JCN also tapped social media and communications professionals. Washington public relations heavyweight Ron Bonjean played a role, reporting to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.  At the White House, McGahn and a team in his office held “murder boards” where Gorsuch was bombarded with questions senators might ask. Legislative Affairs Director Marc Short and his team organized visits with senators and worked with Ayotte. Asked to accompany Gorsuch around Capitol Hill, Ayotte accepted, she said in an interview. Ayotte had lost her re-election bid in November and had criticized Trump. But she helped arrange meetings for Gorsuch with almost 80 senators. In the end, said sources close to the Gorsuch effort, it worked because it was highly regimented. Leo said the machine that got Gorsuch on the bench is here to stay although he will return to his job as executive vice president of the Federalist Society, a conservative lawyers’ group. Leo hopes Trump will tap that machine for a possible second nomination during his presidency. “Supreme Court confirmations have become full-blown political campaigns,” he said.

Summary: वाशिंगटन के अंदरूनी सूत्रों ने ट्रम्प को अमेरिकी सुप्रीम कोर्ट में बड़ी जीत दिलाई


ANKARA (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani s decision not to postpone an independence referendum later this month is  very wrong , Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. Speaking in an interview with broadcaster A Haber, Erdogan said Turkey would announce its official position on the referendum after its National Security Council and cabinet have convened on Sept. 22. Earlier on Friday Barzani said the vote would not be delayed, despite pressing requests from the United States and other Western powers worried that the tensions between Baghdad and Erbil would distract from the war on Islamic State militants, who continue to occupy parts of Iraq and Syria.

Summary: तुर्की के एर्दोगनः जनमत संग्रह को स्थगित नहीं करने का इराकी कुर्दों का निर्णय "बहुत गलत"


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri, who sparked a political crisis on Saturday by declaring his surprise resignation in Riyadh, has traveled to the UAE, Saudi-owned media said on Tuesday.  His resignation has thrust Lebanon back onto the front line of the Middle East s most biting rivalry, pitting a mostly Sunni bloc led by Saudi Arabia and including the UAE against Shi ite Iran and its allies.  On Monday Saudi Arabia accused Lebanon of declaring war against it because of aggression by Iran s Lebanese ally Hezbollah, dramatically escalating the crisis and threatening to destabilize tiny Lebanon. The ratings agency Moody s has said that any return in Lebanon to the political paralysis that existed before Hariri joined a national unity government last year would harm its credit rating. The sudden nature of Hariri s resignation has also fueled speculation in Lebanon that he was coerced into quitting and has been held against his will. Saudi Arabia has denied this. Hariri, a political ally of Saudi Arabia, left Riyadh early on Tuesday for Abu Dhabi to meet the United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the Hariri-owned Future TV and Saudi-owned al-Arabiya reported.  Saudi Arabia s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said on Tuesday that Iran s decision to supply rockets to militias in Yemen constitutes a  direct military aggression  against the kingdom. A rocket fired from Yemen intercepted on the outskirts of Riyadh hours after Hariri s resignation on Saturday. On Monday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told CNN the rocket  was an Iranian missile launched by Hezbollah .

Summary: लेबनान के हरीरी संयुक्त अरब अमीरात की यात्रा के लिए सऊदी अरब से रवाना हुए


WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese efforts to persuade North Korea to rein in its nuclear program have failed, President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, ratcheting up the rhetoric over the death of an American student who had been detained by Pyongyang. Trump has held high hopes for greater cooperation from China to exert influence over North Korea, leaning heavily on Chinese President Xi Jinping for his assistance. The two leaders had a high-profile summit in Florida in April and Trump has frequently praised Xi while resisting criticizing Chinese trade practices. “While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried!” Trump wrote on Twitter. It was unclear whether his remark represented a significant shift in his thinking in the U.S. struggle to stop North Korea’s nuclear program and its test launching of missiles or a change in U.S. policy toward China. “I think the president is signaling some frustration,” Christopher Hill, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, told MSNBC. “He’s signaling to others that he understands this isn’t working, and he’s trying to defend himself, or justify himself, by saying that at least they tried as opposed to others who didn’t even try.” China’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that China had made “unremitting efforts” to resolve tensions on the Korean peninsula, and that it had “always played and important and constructive role”. “China’s efforts to resolve the peninsula nuclear issue is not due to any external pressure, but because China is a member of the region and a responsible member of the international community, and because resolving the peninsula nuclear issue is in China’s interests,” ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a daily news briefing.  On Tuesday, a U.S. official, who did not want to be identified, said U.S. spy satellites had detected movements recently at North Korea’s nuclear test site near a tunnel entrance, but it was unclear if these were preparations for a new nuclear test - perhaps to coincide with high-level talks between the United States and China in Washington on Wednesday. “North Korea remains prepared to conduct a sixth nuclear test at any time when there is an order from leadership but there are no new unusual indications that can be shared,” a South Korean Defense Ministry official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.  Seoul was in close consultation with Washington over the matter, the official added.     North Korea last tested a nuclear bomb in September, but it has conducted repeated missile test since and vowed to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland, putting it at the forefront of Trump’s security worries. U.S.-CHINA DIALOGUE The Trump statement about China was likely to increase pressure on Beijing ahead of Wednesday’s Diplomatic and Security Dialogue, which will pair U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis with China’s top diplomat, State Councilor Yang Jiechi, and General Fang Fenghui, chief of joint staff of the People’s Liberation Army. The State Department says the dialogue will focus on ways to increase pressure on North Korea, but also cover such areas as counter-terrorism and territorial rivalries in the South China Sea. The U.S. side is expected to press China to cooperate on a further toughening of international sanctions on North Korea. The United States and its allies would like to see an oil embargo and bans on the North Korean airline and guest workers among other moves, steps diplomats say have been resisted by China and Russia. In a sign that U.S.-Chinese relations remain stable, a White House aide said Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, were invited by the Chinese government to visit the country later this year. Trump has hardened his rhetoric against North Korea following the death of Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia student who died on Monday in the United States after returning from captivity in North Korea in a coma. In a White House meeting with visiting Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko, Trump criticized the way Warmbier’s case was handled in the year since his arrest, appearing to assail both North Korea and his predecessor, President Barack Obama. “What happened to Otto is a disgrace. And I spoke with his family. His family is incredible ... but he should have been brought home a long time ago,” Trump said. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the United States holds North Korea accountable for Warmbier’s “unjust imprisonment” and urged Pyongyang to release three other Americans who are detained. Chinese state-run newspaper the Global Times, published by the official People’s Daily, said Chinese officials must be wary that Warmbier’s death might push Washington to put greater pressure on Beijing. “China has made the utmost efforts to help break the stalemate in the North Korean nuclear issue. But by no means will China, nor will Chinese society permit it to, act as a ‘U.S. ally’ in pressuring North Korea,” the Global Times said in an editorial. If Washington imposes sanctions on Chinese enterprises, it would lead to “grave friction” between the two countries, said the paper, which does not represent Chinese government policy. Trump’s tweet about China took some advisers by surprise. A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States had limited options to rein in North Korea without Chinese assistance. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said a meeting between Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is less likely following Warmbier’s death. Spicer said Trump would be willing to meet Kim under the right conditions, but “clearly we’re moving further away, not closer to those conditions.” For graphic on Americans detained by North Korea, click: tmsnrt.rs/2r5xYpB

Summary: चीन ने उत्तर कोरिया पर मदद करने की कोशिश की लेकिन असफल रहाः ट्रंप


LIMA (Reuters) - The first Latin American leader to visit U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House said on Friday that he told Trump he prefers bridges to walls and favors the free movement of people across borders. However, Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski declined to comment specifically on Trump’s proposal to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to curb illegal immigration and drug trafficking in a press conference following the meeting. “I don’t want to get into the wall,” Kuczynski, a former Wall Street investment banker said in a video distributed by his office. “We’re interested in the free movement of people ... I emphasized that to President Trump and we prefer bridges to walls.” Kuczynski has previously likened Trump’s wall proposal to the Berlin Wall and once joked that he would cut off ties with the United States if Trump were elected president. Kuczynski later congratulated Trump on his surprise electoral victory and described their talk on Friday as “cordial and constructive.” Trump called Peru, a country of 30 million in South America, “a fantastic neighbor” and said it was an honor to have Kuczynski in the White House, according to video showing the two posing for pictures after the meeting. Kuczynski said the two leaders only briefly discussed Peru’s fugitive former President Alejandro Toledo, whom Peru had asked Trump to deport from the United States under a provision of migratory law that allows for deportations to preserve diplomatic ties. “This is a matter of the judiciary that was not discussed for more than a few seconds,” Kuczynski said of Toledo. Up until a week ago, Kuczynski’s centrist government had seen deporting Toledo as a better alternative to a potentially lengthy process of Peru’s judiciary seeking his arrest and eventual extradition. Toledo is wanted in connection with a far-reaching graft probe and has denied prosecutors’ allegations that he took $20 million in bribes from Brazilian builder Odebrecht SA. In discussing migration, Kuczynski said he emphasized to Trump that only 70 Peruvians out of 1 million living in the United States are in jail, 200,000 of whom are there illegally.     “Peru has not exported criminals to the United States,” Kuczynski said. “They’re nurses, they’re doctors, they’re all sorts of people.”

Summary: पेरू के राष्ट्रपति ने ट्रम्प से कहा कि वे दीवारों पर पुल बनाने के पक्षधर हैं


SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea plans to buy an additional 20 F-35A stealth fighter aircraft from the United States, a South Korean newspaper reported on Thursday, less than two months after U.S. President Donald Trump announced Seoul would be purchasing billions of dollars in new military equipment. South Korea s Defence Acquisition Program Administration has  established a process for procuring the 20 additional aircraft, the Joongang Ilbo newspaper reported, citing multiple government sources. In 2014 South Korea formally announced a plan to buy 40 F-35As from American defense contractor Lockheed Martin.

Summary: दक्षिण कोरिया 20 अतिरिक्त एफ-35 विमान खरीदने की योजना बना रहा हैः रिपोर्ट


SEOUL (Reuters) - Hoping a thaw in relations with China will reopen opportunities after a diplomatic spat earlier this year cost many of them business, some 300 South Korean executives joined President Moon Jae-in for the start of his four-day trip to China on Wednesday. The delegation was the largest to accompany a South Korean leader abroad, and reflected the value the firms placed on mending ties with their country s biggest trading partner. Trade and business exchanges between the two countries froze earlier this year after South Korea deployed U.S.-made Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system regardless of vehement objections from Beijing.  Among those who traveled were executives from some of the firms hit hardest by the backlash, including Lotte Group and cosmetics and entertainment firms such as Amorepacific and S.M. Entertainment. Addressing around 500 Chinese and South Korean businessmen at a forum in Beijing, Moon stressed the need to  build a systemic foundation for a stable economic cooperation . Moon said he expects to sign a memorandum with President Xi Jinping at a summit on Thursday, a step toward follow-up negotiations of the South Korea-China Free Trade Agreement (FTA) concerning services and investments.  This is expected to expand the entry of both countries  companies into service industries, and revitalize mutual investments,  he said.  The THAAD disagreement knocked about 0.4 percentage points off expected economic growth in South Korea this year and resulted in lost revenues of around $6.5 billion from Chinese tourists in the first nine months of the year, as the number of  visitors fell by half. Anti-South Korean sentiment also battered firms  sales of  entertainment, cosmetics and cars in China.  Multiple officials from South Korea s largest companies told Reuters they hoped that Moon s visit to China would mark the next step toward improving ties after the two governments reached an initial agreement in late October to move past the dispute.  Still, they were doubtful whether a sudden turnaround in business relations would be achieved over the coming days.  If you look at earlier cases, it takes several, gradual steps for unspoken reprisals to be eased,  said an official from a Korean firm accompanying Moon who declined to be identified as the matter was sensitive.   We re hoping this is a key step.  Reuters spoke to around 20 of the South Korean firms represented in the delegation, and none had any fresh investment or business deal announcements planned. Instead, an official at game developer Wemade Entertainment Co Ltd, whose CEO attended the forum, said executives would be looking to reopen dialogue with Chinese counterparts.   Rather than having a specific agenda, we are hoping for a space to discuss various matters,  the official said. In late November, China allowed travel agencies in Beijing and Shandong to resume some sales of group tours to South Korea, but tour agencies were told not to include South Korean retail-to-chemicals giant Lotte Group in travel packages.  Lotte, which provided the land where the THAAD system was installed, was hardest hit in the diplomatic standoff.  Its chain of hypermarkets and supermarkets in China were largely shuttered, and it is expected to sell the stores for a fraction of what it invested. The conglomerate previously said it planned to sell the stores by the end of this year, but the talks have been in  a stalemate,  a Lotte Group official said, declining to be identified due to the sensitivities.  Still, the official hoped the summit would ease the way for the planned sales of hypermarkets in China and lead to a full lifting of group tour bans.  We have big hopes about the summit,  the official said.

Summary: दक्षिण कोरियाई कंपनियों को उम्मीद है कि शिखर सम्मेलन चीन के साथ जल्द पिघल जाएगा


WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton on Tuesday in West Virginia’s primary, winning over voters deeply skeptical about the economy and signaling the difficulty Clinton may have in industrial states in the general election. The loss slows Clinton’s march to the nomination, but she is still heavily favored to become the Democratic candidate in the Nov. 8 election. In a November match-up with Donald Trump, Clinton will need to win over working-class voters in the U.S. Rust Belt, which includes key states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania. Trump, 69, won contests in West Virginia and Nebraska handily on Tuesday. The presumptive Republican nominee is set to meet with party leaders in the U.S. Congress on Thursday, including U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan. After Ryan said last week that he was not yet ready to endorse Trump, Trump said on Sunday that he would have to decide whether he still wanted Ryan to preside over the party’s July convention. Trump said in a Fox interview on Tuesday night that he would like Ryan to chair the convention as planned. “He’s a very good man, he wants what’s good for the party,” the New York billionaire said. Trump has zeroed in on Clinton’s protracted battle with Sanders, a 74-year-old U.S. senator from Vermont. He has taunted Clinton in recent days by saying she “can’t close the deal” by beating Sanders, her only rival for the Democratic Party’s nomination since Feb. 1. Clinton, 68, has said she will ignore Trump’s personal insults, including his repeated use of his new nickname for her, “Crooked Hillary,” and instead will criticize his policy pronouncements. Deep concerns about the economy underscored West Virginia’s Democratic primary. Roughly six in 10 voters said they were very worried about the direction of the U.S. economy in the next few years. The same proportion cited the economy and jobs was their most important voting issue, according to a preliminary ABC News exit poll. A remark Clinton made at an Ohio town hall in March that the country would “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business” at an Ohio town hall in a comment may have hurt her with voters in coal-mining states such as West Virginia. During Clinton’s visit to West Virginia and Ohio last week she repeatedly apologized to displaced coal and steel workers for her comment, which she said had been taken out of context, and discussed her plan to help retrain coal workers for clean energy jobs. To secure the Democratic nomination, a candidate needs 2,383 delegates. Going into West Virginia, Clinton, a former U.S. secretary of state, had 2,228 delegates, including 523 so-called superdelegates, elite party members who are free to support any candidate. Sanders had 1,454 delegates, including 39 superdelegates. Another 29 delegates will be apportioned based on West Virginia’s results. Clinton and Sanders will compete in another primary contest on May 17. Both candidates are also looking ahead to the June 7 contests, the last in the long nominating season, in which nearly 700 delegates are at stake, including 475 in California, where Sanders is now focusing his efforts. Sanders has vowed to take his campaign all the way to the Democrats’ July 25-28 convention in Philadelphia, and wants a say in shaping the party’s platform.  Sanders has repeatedly told supporters at packed rallies that most opinion polls indicate he would beat Trump in a general election match-up by a larger margin than polls show Clinton defeating Trump. Trump, shifting into general election mode, has already begun to consider running mates. He told Fox on Tuesday night that he has narrowed his list to five people. He did not rule out picking New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a former rival who ended his presidential bid in February. Christie, who endorsed Trump and then campaigned for him, on Monday was named to head Trump’s White House transition team.  (Story refiles to add first name of Republican candidate Donald Trump in second paragraph.)

Summary: क्लिंटन वेस्ट वर्जीनिया के कोयला राज्य में सैंडर्स से हार गईं


DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland s second-largest party Fianna Fail, which helps prop up the government, indicated on Friday it would force an election if the country s deputy prime minister does not resign over a policing scandal.  Asked in an interview with national broadcaster RTE whether the only thing that could prevent a snap general election was the resignation of Deputy Prime Minister Frances Fitzgerald, senior Fianna Fail member Dara Calleary said:  I think so.

Summary: आयरलैंड की फियाना फेल पार्टी का कहना है कि अगर उप प्रधानमंत्री इस्तीफा नहीं देते हैं तो चुनाव होगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Supporters of Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s U.S. Supreme Court selection, on Tuesday launched a new push to persuade the Republican-led Senate to act on the nomination before the Nov. 8 presidential election, but their calls fell on deaf ears. With senators returning to work after a seven-week summer recess, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid called the refusal of Republicans to consider Garland’s nomination “disgusting and repugnant.” “Republicans have deadlocked our entire system of justice because of the Republican Senate’s dysfunction,” Reid said. Obama’s nomination of the moderate appeals court judge has been pending without action for 174 days, longer than any other Supreme Court nominee in U.S. history. The U.S. Constitution gives the Senate the job of confirming a president’s judicial nominees. In a move with little precedent in American history, Republicans led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have refused to take any action on Obama’s nominee, insisting that Obama’s successor make the pick. “The Senate is returning from the longest recess in nearly half a century, and perhaps the Republican leadership was hoping that Americans had forgotten about the unprecedented obstruction of a Supreme Court nominee,” said Senator Patrick Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. We Need Nine, a White House-allied group, will hold a news conference in front of the Supreme Court building on Wednesday with Democratic senators and lawyers who previously worked as clerks for Garland. Republicans sounded unconvinced. McConnell “has been crystal clear for the last seven months,” an aide to the senator said on Tuesday. “The next president will select the nominee.” The nine-seat court has been one justice short since the February death of long-serving conservative Antonin Scalia. With four liberals and four conservatives now on the bench, an appointment by a Democratic president could end decades of conservative domination on the court. The White House has called Garland’s confirmation a top priority for the legislative work period that began on Tuesday and ends in early October.  In remarks last month, Republican Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley indicated he could be persuaded by a large number of senators to take action on Garland in a “lame duck” session immediately after the election. His panel would hold any confirmation hearings. Some conservatives worry that if Democrat Hillary Clinton defeats Republican Donald Trump in the election, she would nominate someone more liberal than Garland. But in a statement on Tuesday, Grassley reiterated that “the next president should choose Justice Scalia’s replacement” and said his meetings with home-state voters during the recess “only bolstered the point that Iowans should have the opportunity to have a voice in the direction of the Supreme Court for the next 40 years.”

Summary: डेमोक्रेट्स ने ओबामा यू. एस. सुप्रीम कोर्ट के उम्मीदवार के लिए नया धक्का शुरू किया


KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko said on Wednesday she has faith in the United States justice system to do the right thing after last week s indictment of Paul Manafort, the man who helped bring her arch enemy to power. A political survivor and the strident voice of Ukraine s 2004/2005 Orange Revolution, Tymoshenko was jailed during the pro-Kremlin presidency of Viktor Yanukovich in 2011 in a case condemned by Western leaders as selective justice. According to the indictment of Manafort, who was a consultant to Yanukovich s Party of Regions before becoming Donald Trump s campaign manager, Manafort used offshore accounts to secretly pay $4 million for a report on her imprisonment. Ordered under house arrest as he awaits trial, Manafort has pleaded not guilty to a 12-count indictment on charges that include money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent of Yanukovich s government. Money laundering allegations against Manafort are not new: Tymoshenko herself made them in a legal case she filed in New York against Yanukovich, Manafort and others that was dismissed in September 2015.   As a result of the work of Yanukovich and his circle, I ended up in prison,  the 56-year-old Tymoshenko said in an interview, in her first public comments about Manafort since his indictment. She said Yanukovich spent huge sums to blacken her name,  ... without doubt this affected my life and that of my family and team in a certain way, and Ukraine as well,  she said.    That is why I believe that U.S. justice will deal with the details, including our claims, and we will get a ruling from one of the most effective legal systems in the world - the U.S. system.  Manafort joined the Trump presidential campaign in March 2016 and later became campaign manager, but he was forced to resign in August as questions emerged about his previous work for Yanukovich s party. She used her fiery brand of oratory to try to humiliate Yanukovich, but he proved her nemesis after beating her in a 2010 election for president.  She was charged with abuse of power in relation to a gas import agreement signed with Russia in 2009 as prime minister and was jailed. She was freed from prison in February 2014 after Yanukovich fled into exile to Russia during the pro-Western Maidan protests and she addressed crowds from a wheelchair on Kiev s Independence Square because of chronic back trouble. The crowd s sympathy for her condition did not help her though to regain a place in the new pro-western leadership and she lost to President Petro Poroshenko in the 2014 election.  But the two-time prime minister who still sports a trademark peasant braid in her hair is now Poroshenko s main challenger at presidential and parliamentary elections due in 2019, according to opinion polls. Tymoshenko said Kiev should have a new type of agreement with the International Monetary Fund, which has propped up Ukraine s economy with a $17.5 billion aid program conditional on economic reforms and tackling entrenched graft.  The IMF program is in choppy waters: as of now Ukraine has refused to implement a sharp hike in gas prices it had previously agreed to, while the Fund is also studying whether recently passed pension changes pass muster.  When I served as prime minister I cooperated with the IMF and I believe that Ukraine can have positive cooperation with the IMF,  she said, when asked whether she would do as the IMF says or abandon the program.  But it seems to me that there needs to be a different emphasis in this cooperation.  She said the program should be focused not on what she termed a reduction in social spending, but instead on tax reform and reducing the size of Ukraine s shadow economy.

Summary: यूक्रेन के टिमोशेंको को मानाफोर्ट के दोषी ठहराए जाने के बाद निष्पक्ष अमेरिकी फैसले की उम्मीद है