WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said in a commencement speech on Saturday that U.S. race relations have improved over the last three decades, but that significant work still needs to be done. “I tell you this not to lull you into complacency, but to spur you into action because there’s still so much work to do,” Obama told about 2,300 Howard University graduates in Washington, acknowledging that racism and inequality still persist. “We cannot sleepwalk through life,” he said. The United States has faced a number of racial controversies in recent years, including the 2014 shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, that sparked sometimes violent protests. The United States has a racial gap in economic opportunities, Obama said, noting that the overall U.S. employment rate is around 5 percent, but it is near 9 percent for African-Americans. Obama, the son of a white mother and African father, told the graduates to embrace their racial identity. “Be confident in your blackness,” Obama said, adding “there is no one way to be black ... There’s no straightjacket, there’s no constraints, there’s no litmus test for authenticity.” He added that “my election did not create a post-racial society,” but was one example of how attitudes have changed. Obama also urged the crowd not to try to prod colleges and universities into disinviting controversial speakers - something that has taken place regularly at campuses throughout the United States. Howard University is one of about 100 historically black colleges and universities in the United States. Obama argued that the United States and the world has progressed dramatically since 1983 when he graduated from college. “America is by almost every measure better than it was” in 1983, Obama said, noting that U.S. poverty rate is down, the number of people with college degrees is up and the number of women in the workforce have risen. Obama said today’s college graduates are better positioned than any other to address the country’s tough outstanding problems. “You need a strategy,” Obama said, adding passion and anger are not enough to effect political change and encouraging them to embrace compromise. “Not just hashtags but votes.” He noted the low voter turnout among young people in the 2014 congressional elections. He told the graduates they needed to vote “every time ... not just when you’re inspired.” But Obama noted an area that has not improved in recent decades - the U.S. prison population - currently at 2.2 million, it is up more than fourfold from 500,000 in 1983. African-American men are six times more likely than white men to be incarcerated, Obama said, and urged the graduates to lobby the U.S. Congress to pass a pending criminal justice reform measure. Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, praised Obama’s remarks on Twitter, writing “even conservatives would applaud it.”

Summary: ओबामा ने कहा कि अमेरिका के नस्लीय संबंधों में सुधार हुआ है, लेकिन काम किया जाना बाकी है


WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Donald Trump said on Monday he will no longer issue press credentials to the Washington Post, stopping the publication from gaining access to press areas at his presidential campaign events. The Washington Post, based in the U.S. capital, is one the country’s the most influential newspapers and has one of the largest circulations.  “They have no journalistic integrity and write falsely about Mr. Trump,” his campaign said in a statement explaining the decision. “Mr. Trump does not mind a bad story, but it has to be honest.” Trump’s campaign repeated criticism the candidate has made of Post owner Jeff Bezos, who also owns online retailer Amazon.com. It is unusual for a presidential campaign to refuse to issue credentials to news organizations. Credentials are needed for reporters, photographers and other staff to gain access to press seating, travel with the campaign and attend media-only events, like press conferences. “Donald Trump’s decision to revoke The Washington Post’s press credentials is nothing less than a repudiation of the role of a free and independent press,” the newspaper’s editor, Marty Baron, said in a statement. “When coverage doesn’t correspond to what the candidate wants it to be, then a news organization is banished. The Post will continue to cover Donald Trump as it has all along — honorably, honestly, accurately, energetically, and unflinchingly. We’re proud of our coverage, and we’re going to keep at it.” A source close to the campaign said the ban could be temporary and pointed out that Trump has already barred other new organizations, including Politico, from obtaining press credentials and then reversed course. Ben Smith, executive editor of Buzzfeed, responded that his news organization, which targets millennials, is also banned from covering official Trump events. The Huffington Post posted on Twitter that its reporters are also barred. “A candidate for the highest elected office in the land doesn’t get to choose what goes in a newspaper,” said Committee to Protect Journalist Deputy Executive Director Robert Mahoney. “It provides a ready-made excuse for authoritarian leaders to crackdown further on independent journalists. We urge Donald Trump to reconsider and let the Washington Post do its job.” Trump’s campaign took issue with an article that appeared on The Washington Post’s website earlier on Monday with the headline, “Donald Trump suggests President Obama was involved with Orlando shooting’ as their headline.” The headline was changed to “Donald Trump seems to connect President Obama to Orlando shooting” within an hour after it was published. The Washington Post has assigned a team of reporters to produce a book about Trump that is scheduled to be released later this year.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने वाशिंगटन पोस्ट के प्रचार अभियान की प्रेस साख को रद्द कर दिया


BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia s lower house of congress late on Monday backed a bill to regulate transitional justice under the nation s peace deal with Marxist FARC rebels, including special tribunals that will try guerrilla leaders for war crimes. The bill, which was approved with some modifications, is considered the cornerstone of the peace agreement signed last year between the government and the FARC, known until recently as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The special courts will mete out alternative sentences like landmine removal for ex-guerrilla leaders who are convicted of war crimes committed during the five-decade war. Under the peace deal, those convicted will not serve time in traditional jails. The lower house made changes to the text agreed this month by the Senate, so it must now go for conciliation between the two chambers. Once there is agreement on alterations the bill will go to President Juan Manuel Santos to be signed into law.  With this step, we move towards peace: transitional justice guarantees the rights of the victims and establishes the basis for the reconciliation of Colombians,  Santos said on Twitter. Congress had until the end of the month to approve the law using a court-approved  fast-track  mechanism to reduce the number of required debates in an effort to implement the peace accord as quickly as possible. The FARC, now a political party known as the Revolutionary Alternative Common Force, has argued against any changes to the original agreement, including extradition for crimes committed after demobilization. The law, which would also apply to members of the military who have been accused of atrocities, is part of the agreement that allowed more than 11,000 members of the FARC - combatants and others - to lay down their arms and enter politics. With the modifications, the FARC will be able to participate in politics, but face the risk of losing benefits if they committed sexual abuse against minors. They can be also be extradited for crimes committed after the culmination of the peace process.  We have achieved an agreement with teeth,  said Rodrigo Lara, president of the lower house.  Any FARC member who commits a another crime will immediately leave the special regime and go to the ordinary jurisdiction. Sexual crimes will not be protected.   The leader of the FARC, Rodrigo Londono, a presidential candidate for next year s election, has said any changes put at risk the implementation of the peace agreement. Under the agreement the FARC will have 10 guaranteed seats in Congress until 2026. The group has announced a slate of candidates for elections next year.

Summary: कोलंबिया की कांग्रेस ने पूर्व एफ. ए. आर. सी. विद्रोहियों के लिए शांति न्यायाधिकरण को मंजूरी दी


BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Union and Britain must quickly solve major issues in Brexit negotiations such as finances and citizens  rights but there is a good chance a deal can be reached, European Parliament negotiator Guy Verhofstadt was quoted as saying.  It s our goal to conclude the talks with an agreement. And I m actually not so pessimistic about that,  Verhofstadt told Handelsblatt newspaper in an interview published on Thursday.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ की संसद के ब्रेक्सिट वार्ताकार-समझौते पर पहुंचने के बारे में 'इतना निराशावादी नहीं'


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate passed legislation on Tuesday that would allow families of Sept. 11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia’s government for damages, setting up a potential showdown with the White House, which has threatened a veto. The Saudis, who deny responsibility for the 2001 attacks, strongly object to the bill. They had said they might sell up to $750 billion in U.S. securities and other American assets in retaliation if it became law. The “Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act,” or JASTA, passed the Senate by unanimous voice vote. It must next be taken up by the U.S. House of Representatives, where the Judiciary Committee intends to hold a hearing on the measure in the near future, a committee aide said. If it became law, JASTA would remove the sovereign immunity, preventing lawsuits against governments, for countries found to be involved in terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. It would allow survivors of the attacks, and relatives of those killed in the attacks, to seek damages from other countries. In this case, it would allow lawsuits to proceed in federal court in New York as lawyers try to prove that the Saudis were involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed al-Jubeir has said his country’s objection to the bill is based on principles of international relations. “What (Congress is) doing is stripping the principle of sovereign immunities which would turn the world for international law into the law of the jungle,” he said in a statement on Tuesday. James Kreindler, a prominent trial lawyer who represents 9/11 families and won large payouts for the victims of the 1988 bombing of Pan American Airways Flight 103 over Scotland, said he expected the bill to pass the House and become law. “It would be crazy for (President Barack) Obama to veto bipartisan legislation (which would) open (U.S.) courts to victims of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history,” Kreindler said. Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat and a JASTA co-sponsor, said the bill is overdue. “Today the Senate has spoken loudly and unanimously that the families of victims of terrorist attacks should be able to hold the perpetrators, even if it’s a country, a nation, accountable,” Schumer told a news conference. Republican Senator John Cornyn, also a sponsor of the bill, said JASTA does not target the Saudis, although he alluded to a still-classified section of a report on the Sept. 11 attacks that Saudi critics say might implicate Riyadh. “We have yet to see the 28 pages that have not been yet released about the 9/11 report, and that may well be instructive,” Cornyn said at the news conference. Other lawmakers who have seen the 28 pages have said releasing them would quiet such rumors. Cornyn said it was up to the court to decide whether the Saudis were liable. “I don’t believe that this will be destructive of the relationship that we have with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” he said. The White House said Obama still plans to veto JASTA. “This legislation would change long-standing, international law regarding sovereign immunity,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a daily press briefing. “And the president of the United States continues to harbor serious concerns that this legislation would make the United States vulnerable in other court systems around the world.” Asked if Senate Democrats would back a veto, Schumer said he would vote against Obama. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who had opposed the bill, said the version passed on Tuesday eased his worries that it might leave U.S. allies more vulnerable to lawsuits, for example if groups based within their borders but not supported by their governments were behind a terrorist attack. “We don’t want to alienate allies, but we do want to create redress if a nation-state was involved in helping a terrorist organization attack American interests, and I think they should be held liable,” Graham said in a brief interview.

Summary: सीनेट ने 9/11 पीड़ितों को सऊदी अरब पर मुकदमा करने की अनुमति देने वाला विधेयक पारित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio racked up a number of endorsements from party leaders on Monday, giving weight to his message that he can become the establishment favorite behind whom Republicans can unite. Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah and former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole said they would back the U.S. senator from Florida for the party’s nomination to run for president in the Nov. 8 election. Three Republican leaders from Nevada - U.S. Senator Dean Heller and U.S. Representatives Cresent Hardy and Mark Amodei - also announced their support for Rubio leading up the state’s caucuses on Tuesday. “I’m delighted to support @marcorubio because he is best choice to keep our country safe,” Hutchinson posted on Twitter. “Will you join me and help Marco win Arkansas?” The Arkansas primary comes after Nevada in the state-by-state nominating contest on March 1. Twelve other states and American Samoa will also be holding primaries or caucuses on that date, known as Super Tuesday. The endorsements came as Rubio tries to seize on the exit of former Florida Governor Jeb Bush on Saturday to win the support of more mainstream members of their party. Bush dropped out after a poor showing in South Carolina’s Republican primary. Hatch, who said he had initially supported Bush because he had more experience, called Rubio the “more serious candidate” compared with front-runner Donald Trump.  “I feel he has the background to be able to really help turn this mess around,” Hatch told reporters. Dole, a former U.S. senator from Kansas who lost to then-President Bill Clinton in 1996, said he switched his support to Rubio after Bush left the campaign trail because he was young, hard-working and a “better candidate” than rival Ohio Governor John Kasich. “He wants to grow the party as opposed to (U.S. Senator Ted) Cruz,” Dole said in an interview on ABC’s “Political Powerhouse” podcast, referring to another Republican candidate. “I don’t know what he wants to grow.”  (Reporting by Megan Cassella; Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Eric Walsh and Jonathan Oatis) This article was funded in part by SAP. It was independently created by the Reuters editorial staff. SAP had no editorial involvement in its creation or production.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन रूबियो ने राष्ट्रपति पद के लिए अधिक समर्थन प्राप्त किया


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Iran is prepared for all possible scenarios if U.S. President Donald Trump scraps a nuclear deal reached between Tehran and six major powers in 2015, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday.  Iran is ready for any possible scenarios if Trump walks out of the deal. That includes immediately resuming its nuclear work that was curbed under the deal,  said the official on condition of anonymity.

Summary: ट्रंप के समझौते से हटने पर ईरान फिर से प्रतिबंधित परमाणु कार्य शुरू करने के लिए तैयारः ईरानी अधिकारी


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Sunday that Saad al-Hariri s freedom was being restricted in Riyadh, the first time the Lebanese government has publicly declared its belief that Saudi Arabia is holding its prime minister against his will.  Aoun said Hariri was living in  mysterious circumstances  in Riyadh which had  reached the degree of restricting (his) freedom  and  imposing conditions on his residency and on contact with him even by members of his family . Reuters cited senior Lebanese government officials on Thursday saying that the authorities believed Hariri was being held against his will in Riyadh, where he unexpectedly resigned as prime minister on Nov. 4, the day after arriving there. Aoun said this threw doubt over anything that Hariri has said, or will say, and his statements could not be considered as an expression of his full free will. Hariri is expected to give a televised interview later on Sunday. Saudi Arabia has denied Hariri is being held against his will or that he had been forced to resign.

Summary: लेबनान के औन का कहना है कि रियाद में प्रधानमंत्री हरीरी की स्वतंत्रता प्रतिबंधित है


BEIRUT (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron called Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Saturday to discuss developments in the shock resignation in Saudi Arabia last week of Lebanon s prime minister, Aoun s office said.  Macron, who made an unscheduled visit to Riyadh on Thursday, stressed France s commitment to supporting Lebanon, its unity and sovereignty, Aoun s office said in a statement.

Summary: फ्रांस के मैक्रों ने प्रधानमंत्री के इस्तीफे पर लेबनान के औन को फोन कियाः औन का कार्यालय


(Reuters) - Following is the full text of former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony as prepared for delivery to the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee. Comey is scheduled to testify at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT) on Thursday as part of the committee’s investigation into U.S. intelligence agency allegations that Russia tried to interfere with the 2016 presidential election and potential collusion by President Donald Trump’s campaign. Russia has denied the allegations and Trump denies any collusion.  The committee posted Comey’s opening statement on its website on Wednesday: “Chairman Burr, Ranking Member Warner, Members of the Committee. Thank you for inviting me to appear before you today. I was asked to testify today to describe for you my interactions with President-Elect and President Trump on subjects that I understand are of interest to you. I have not included every detail from my conversations with the President, but, to the best of my recollection, I have tried to include information that may be relevant to the Committee. January 6 Briefing “I first met then-President-Elect Trump on Friday, January 6 in a conference room at Trump Tower in New York. I was there with other Intelligence Community (IC) leaders to brief him and his new national security team on the findings of an IC assessment concerning Russian efforts to interfere in the election. At the conclusion of that briefing, I remained alone with the President-Elect to brief him on some personally sensitive aspects of the information assembled during the assessment. “The IC leadership thought it important, for a variety of reasons, to alert the incoming President to the existence of this material, even though it was salacious and unverified. Among those reasons were: (1) we knew the media was about to publicly report the material and we believed the IC should not keep knowledge of the material and its imminent release from the President-Elect; and (2) to the extent there was some effort to compromise an incoming President, we could blunt any such effort with a defensive briefing. “The Director of National Intelligence asked that I personally do this portion of the briefing because I was staying in my position and because the material implicated the FBI’s counter-intelligence responsibilities. We also agreed I would do it alone to minimize potential embarrassment to the President-Elect. Although we agreed it made sense for me to do the briefing, the FBI’s leadership and I were concerned that the briefing might create a situation where a new President came into office uncertain about whether the FBI was conducting a counter-intelligence investigation of his personal conduct. “It is important to understand that FBI counter-intelligence investigations are different than the more-commonly known criminal investigative work. The Bureau’s goal in a counter-intelligence investigation is to understand the technical and human methods that hostile foreign powers are using to influence the United States or to steal our secrets. The FBI uses that understanding to disrupt those efforts. Sometimes disruption takes the form of alerting a person who is targeted for recruitment or influence by the foreign power. Sometimes it involves hardening a computer system that is being attacked. Sometimes it involves ‘turning’ the recruited person into a double-agent, or publicly calling out the behavior with sanctions or expulsions of embassy-based intelligence officers. On occasion, criminal prosecution is used to disrupt intelligence activities. “Because the nature of the hostile foreign nation is well known, counterintelligence investigations tend to be centered on individuals the FBI suspects to be witting or unwitting agents of that foreign power. When the FBI develops reason to believe an American has been targeted for recruitment by a foreign power or is covertly acting as an agent of the foreign power, the FBI will ‘open an investigation’ on that American and use legal authorities to try to learn more about the nature of any relationship with the foreign power so it can be disrupted. “In that context, prior to the January 6 meeting, I discussed with the FBI’s leadership team whether I should be prepared to assure President-Elect Trump that we were not investigating him personally. That was true; we did not have an open counter-intelligence case on him. We agreed I should do so if circumstances warranted. During our one-on-one meeting at Trump Tower, based on President-Elect Trump’s reaction to the briefing and without him directly asking the question, I offered that assurance. “I felt compelled to document my first conversation with the President-Elect in a memo. To ensure accuracy, I began to type it on a laptop in an FBI vehicle outside Trump Tower the moment I walked out of the meeting. Creating written records immediately after one-on-one conversations with Mr. Trump was my practice from that point forward. This had not been my practice in the past. I spoke alone with President Obama twice in person (and never on the phone) – once in 2015 to discuss law enforcement policy issues and a second time, briefly, for him to say goodbye in late 2016. In neither of those circumstances did I memorialize the discussions. I can recall nine one-on-one conversations with President Trump in four months – three in person and six on the phone. January 27 Dinner “The President and I had dinner on Friday, January 27 at 6:30 pm in the Green Room at the White House. He had called me at lunchtime that day and  invited me to dinner that night, saying he was going to invite my whole family, but decided to have just me this time, with the whole family coming the next time. It was unclear from the conversation who else would be at the dinner, although I assumed there would be others. “It turned out to be just the two of us, seated at a small oval table in the center of the Green Room. Two Navy stewards waited on us, only entering the room to serve food and drinks. “The President began by asking me whether I wanted to stay on as FBI Director, which I found strange because he had already told me twice in earlier conversations that he hoped I would stay, and I had assured him that I intended to.  He said that lots of people wanted my job and, given the abuse I had taken during the previous year, he would understand if I wanted to walk away. “My instincts told me that the one-on-one setting, and the pretense that this was our first discussion about my position, meant the dinner was, at least in part, an effort to have me ask for my job and create some sort of patronage relationship. That concerned me greatly, given the FBI’s traditionally independent status in the executive branch. “I replied that I loved my work and intended to stay and serve out my ten-year term as Director. And then, because the set-up made me uneasy, I added that I was not ‘reliable’ in the way politicians use that word, but he could always count on me to tell him the truth. I added that I was not on anybody’s side politically and could not be counted on in the traditional political sense, a stance I said was in his best interest as the President. “A few moments later, the President said, ‘I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.’ I didn’t move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed. We simply looked at each other in silence. The conversation then moved on, but he returned to the subject near the end of our dinner. “At one point, I explained why it was so important that the FBI and the Department of Justice be independent of the White House. I said it was a paradox: Throughout history, some Presidents have decided that because ‘problems’ come from Justice, they should try to hold the Department close. But blurring those boundaries ultimately makes the problems worse by undermining public trust in the institutions and their work. “Near the end of our dinner, the President returned to the subject of my job, saying he was very glad I wanted to stay, adding that he had heard great things about me from Jim Mattis, Jeff Sessions, and many others. He then said, ‘I need loyalty.’ I replied, ‘You will always get honesty from me.’ He paused and then said, ‘That’s what I want, honest loyalty.’ I paused, and then said, ‘You will get that from me.’ As I wrote in the memo I created immediately after the dinner, it is possible we understood the phrase ‘honest loyalty’ differently, but I decided it wouldn’t be productive to push it further. The term – honest loyalty – had helped end a very awkward conversation and my explanations had made clear what he should expect. “During the dinner, the President returned to the salacious material I had briefed him about on January 6, and, as he had done previously, expressed his disgust for the allegations and strongly denied them. He said he was considering ordering me to investigate the alleged incident to prove it didn’t happen. I replied that he should give that careful thought because it might create a narrative that we were investigating him personally, which we weren’t, and because it was very difficult to prove a negative. He said he would think about it and asked me to think about it. “As was my practice for conversations with President Trump, I wrote a detailed memo about the dinner immediately afterwards and shared it with the senior leadership team of the FBI. February 14 Oval Office Meeting “On February 14, I went to the Oval Office for a scheduled counterterrorism briefing of the President. He sat behind the desk and a group of us sat in a semi-circle of about six chairs facing him on the other side of the desk. The Vice President, Deputy Director of the CIA, Director of the National Counter-Terrorism Center, Secretary of Homeland Security, the Attorney General, and I were in the semi-circle of chairs. I was directly facing the President, sitting between the Deputy CIA Director and the Director of NCTC. There were quite a few others in the room, sitting behind us on couches and chairs. “The President signaled the end of the briefing by thanking the group and telling them all that he wanted to speak to me alone. I stayed in my chair. As the participants started to leave the Oval Office, the Attorney General lingered by my chair, but the President thanked him and said he wanted to speak only with me. The last person to leave was Jared Kushner, who also stood by my chair and exchanged pleasantries with me. The President then excused him, saying he wanted to speak with me. “When the door by the grandfather clock closed, and we were alone, the President began by saying, ‘I want to talk about Mike Flynn.’ Flynn had resigned the previous day. The President began by saying Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong in speaking with the Russians, but he had to let him go because he had misled the Vice President. He added that he had other concerns about Flynn, which he did not then specify. “The President then made a long series of comments about the problem with leaks of classified information – a concern I shared and still share. After he had spoken for a few minutes about leaks, Reince Priebus leaned in through the door by the grandfather clock and I could see a group of people waiting behind him. The President waved at him to close the door, saying he would be done shortly. The door closed. “The President then returned to the topic of Mike Flynn, saying, ‘He is a good guy and has been through a lot.’ He repeated that Flynn hadn’t done anything wrong on his calls with the Russians, but had misled the Vice President. He then said, ‘I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.’ I replied only that ‘he is a good guy.’ (In fact, I had a positive experience dealing with Mike Flynn when he was a colleague as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency at the beginning of my term at FBI.) I did not say I would ‘let this go.’ “The President returned briefly to the problem of leaks. I then got up and left out the door by the grandfather clock, making my way through the large group of people waiting there, including Mr. Priebus and the Vice President. “I immediately prepared an unclassified memo of the conversation about Flynn and discussed the matter with FBI senior leadership. I had understood the President to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December. I did not understand the President to be talking about the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign. I could be wrong, but I took him to be focusing on what had just happened with Flynn’s departure and the controversy around his account of his phone calls. Regardless, it was very concerning, given the FBI’s role as an independent investigative agency. “The FBI leadership team agreed with me that it was important not to infect the investigative team with the President’s request, which we did not intend to abide. We also concluded that, given that it was a one-on-one conversation, there was nothing available to corroborate my account. We concluded it made little sense to report it to Attorney General Sessions, who we expected would likely recuse himself from involvement in Russia-related investigations. (He did so two weeks later.) The Deputy Attorney General’s role was then filled in an acting capacity by a United States Attorney, who would also not be long in the role. After discussing the matter, we decided to keep it very closely held, resolving to figure out what to do with it down the road as our investigation progressed. The investigation moved ahead at full speed, with none of the investigative team members – or the Department of Justice lawyers supporting them – aware of the President’s request. “Shortly afterwards, I spoke with Attorney General Sessions in person to pass along the President’s concerns about leaks. I took the opportunity to implore the Attorney General to prevent any future direct communication between the President and me. I told the AG that what had just happened – him being asked to leave while the FBI Director, who reports to the AG, remained behind – was inappropriate and should never happen. He did not reply. For the reasons discussed above, I did not mention that the President broached the FBI’s potential investigation of General Flynn. March 30 Phone Call “On the morning of March 30, the President called me at the FBI. He described the Russia investigation as ‘a cloud’ that was impairing his ability to act on behalf of the country. He said he had nothing to do with Russia, had not been involved with hookers in Russia, and had always assumed he was being recorded when in Russia. He asked what we could do to ‘lift the cloud.’ I responded that we were investigating the matter as quickly as we could, and that there would be great benefit, if we didn’t find anything, to our having done the work well. He agreed, but then re-emphasized the problems this was causing him. “Then the President asked why there had been a congressional hearing about Russia the previous week – at which I had, as the Department of Justice directed, confirmed the investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. I explained the demands from the leadership of both parties in Congress for more information, and that Senator Grassley had even held up the confirmation of the Deputy Attorney General until we briefed him in detail on the investigation. I explained that we had briefed the leadership of Congress on exactly which individuals we were investigating and that we had told those Congressional leaders that we were not personally investigating President Trump. I reminded him I had previously told him that. “He repeatedly told me, ‘We need to get that fact out.’ (I did not tell the President that the FBI and the Department of Justice had been reluctant to make public statements that we did not have an open case on President Trump for a number of reasons, most importantly because it would create a duty to correct, should that change.) “The President went on to say that if there were some ‘satellite’ associates of his who did something wrong, it would be good to find that out, but that he hadn’t done anything wrong and hoped I would find a way to get it out that we weren’t investigating him. “In an abrupt shift, he turned the conversation to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, saying he hadn’t brought up ‘the McCabe thing’ because I had said McCabe was honorable, although McAuliffe was close to the Clintons and had given him (I think he meant Deputy Director McCabe’s wife) campaign money. Although I didn’t understand why the President was bringing this up, I repeated that Mr. McCabe was an honorable person. “He finished by stressing ‘the cloud’ that was interfering with his ability to make deals for the country and said he hoped I could find a way to get out that he wasn’t being investigated. I told him I would see what we could do, and that we would do our investigative work well and as quickly as we could. “Immediately after that conversation, I called Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente (AG Sessions had by then recused himself on all Russia-related matters), to report the substance of the call from the President, and said I would await his guidance. I did not hear back from him before the President called me again two weeks later. April 11 Phone Call “On the morning of April 11, the President called me and asked what I had done about his request that I ‘get out’ that he is not personally under investigation. I replied that I had passed his request to the Acting Deputy Attorney General, but I had not heard back. He replied that ‘the cloud’ was getting in the way of his ability to do his job. He said that perhaps he would have his people reach out to the Acting Deputy Attorney General. I said that was the way his request should be handled. I said the White House Counsel should contact the leadership of DOJ to make the request, which was the traditional channel. “He said he would do that and added, ‘Because I have been very loyal to you, very loyal; we had that thing you know.’ I did not reply or ask him what he meant by ‘that thing.’ I said only that the way to handle it was to have the White House Counsel call the Acting Deputy Attorney General. He said that was what he would do and the call ended. “That was the last time I spoke with President Trump.”

Summary: पाठः एफ. बी. आई. के पूर्व निदेशक कोमी की सीनेट समिति के समक्ष तैयार की गई गवाही


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday rejected a resolution to revoke an Obama-era rule to limit methane emissions from oil and gas production on federal lands, dealing a blow to President Donald Trump’s efforts to free the drilling industry from what he sees as excessive environmental regulation. The Congressional Review Act resolution received just 49 votes after Republican leaders scrambled for weeks to secure the 51 needed to pass it. The resolution would have revoked the rule and prevented similar regulations from being introduced. Getting the Trump administration to repeal the BLM rule had been a top priority of the oil and gas industry. Companies said it was unnecessary, would could cost them tens of thousands of dollars per well and hinder production. But not all Republicans supported the measure, in part because it would have made regulating methane waste more difficult in the future.  Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona made a surprise vote against the resolution, joining fellow Republicans Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine in opposition to torpedo it. “While I am concerned that the BLM rule may be onerous, passage of the resolution would have prevented the federal government, under any administration, from issuing a rule that is ‘similar’,” McCain said in a statement. He said the Interior Department should issue a new rule on to replace the existing one on methane leaks, which he called a public health and air quality issue. The rule, finalized by President Barack Obama in his last weeks in office, updated 30-year-old regulations that govern flaring, venting and natural gas leaks from oil and gas production. Obama’s administration said it would preserve up to 41 billion cubic feet (BCF) of natural gas per year that is currently lost to leaks and flaring. The American Petroleum Institute and other industry groups have said the methane rule is unnecessary because companies have made strides in reducing leaks on their own.  “The rule could impede U.S. energy production while reducing local and federal revenues,” said Erik Milito, API’s Upstream and Industry Operations Group Director. Members of the Western Energy Alliance, which include Devon Energy , Whiting Petroleum and EOG Resources  had also been strongly opposed to the rule. Environmental groups hailed what they depicted as a rare victory for the environment after several regulatory rollbacks by the Trump administration. “In recent months, thousands of Americans asked the Senate to stand up for clean air and against the oil lobby, and their efforts were successful today,” said Jamie Williams, president of the Wilderness Society. The Western Values Project estimated that if the rule had been rescinded, the U.S. Treasury would have lost out on $800 million in lost potential royalties from leaked or vented natural gas over the next decade. Republican Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works who supported the resolution to kill the rule, called on Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to act unilaterally to revoke it.

Summary: ओबामा के मीथेन नियम को रद्द करने का प्रयास अमेरिकी सीनेट के आश्चर्यजनक मतदान में विफल रहा


DOUALA (Reuters) - A celebrated Cameroonian writer who wrote a piece critical of the government s handling of a separatist crisis in its Anglophone region was detained at Douala airport on Thursday, his wife and lawyer said. Patrice Nganang, a prize-winning poet, professor and author who lives in New York, was due to board a Kenya Airways flight to Nairobi and then onwards to Harare to join his wife on Thursday but never arrived. After 24 hours of trying to track him down, Nyasha Bakare said he had been found by his lawyers at a government detention center in Yaounde, the capital.  He s apparently OK. That s the main thing,  Bakare said, adding that the authorities appeared to be preparing for a legal hearing. His lawyer Emmanuel Simh said:  He is accused of insulting the president of the republic, and after the hearings we will be able to give further information.   A spokesman at the government s communications department was not immediately available to comment.  Last week the government ordered thousands of villagers to leave their homes in the Anglophone Southwest region as it deployed troops to root out armed separatists. The move marked an escalation of a year-long crackdown on peaceful protests in the English-speaking western part of the country that has killed dozens of civilians and forced thousands to flee to Nigeria.  Are we going towards the forced relocation of populations and the creation of (refugee) camps?  Nganang wrote in Paris-based Jeune Afrique on Dec. 5, describing this as  offensive .  So bilingual Cameroonians can be enemies in a country whose president has never said a single speech in English?  he added. President Paul Biya has ruled Cameroon since 1982 and plans to stand for another term next year. The separatist stirrings add to headaches over the economy slowing sharply since 2014 and attacks in the north by Islamist militant group Boko Haram which have strained the military. The linguistic divide harks back to the end of World War One, when the League of Nations divided the former German colony of Kamerun between the allied French and British victors. Biya s 35-year rule has grown increasingly intolerant of dissent, with opposition activists, journalists and intellectuals routinely arrested and sometimes charged. In April, a Cameroonian reporter for Radio France International was jailed for 10 years by a military court on terrorism charges, including for failing to report acts of terrorism to authorities. The verdict attracted international criticism.

Summary: पुरस्कार विजेता कैमरून के लेखक को सरकार की आलोचना करने के बाद हिरासत में लिया गयाः पत्नी


VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis told executives of leading internet companies on Friday to use  their great profits  to defend children from sexual exploitation and other dangers lurking online. The pontiff, speaking at a conference in Rome, said the Catholic Church needed to accept responsibility  before God, victims and public opinion  for its own sex abuse scandals, but wanted to share the lessons it had learned. Speaking to participants including representatives from Facebook and Microsoft, he said social media businesses had to do more than set up filters and algorithms to block harmful content. The 80-year-old pope spoke out against the spread of extreme pornography, the dangers of so-called  sexting  between young people and between adults and children, and cyber bullying, calling it  a true form of moral and physical attack . He said  heinous, illicit activities  such as the commissioning and live viewing of rape and violence against minors via the so-called Dark Web had to be stopped. The Church-organized conference - called Child Dignity in the Digital World - was held two months after a monsignor was recalled from the Vatican s Washington embassy in August after the U.S. State Department said he may have violated child pornography laws. Church officials have been caught up in a series of scandals around the world - two years ago, the Vatican put its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic, an archbishop, on trial for child sex offences. He died before a verdict was reached. The conference, held at a pontifical university in Rome, brought together experts from digital companies, law enforcement, medicine and academia to discuss online bullying, pornography and the preying on children by pedophiles. The pope said social media businesses had to invest  a fair portion of their great profits  to protect  impressionable minds . He said it would be a mistake to think that  automatic technical solutions, filters devised by ever more refined algorithms in order to identify and block the spread of abusive and harmful images, are sufficient to deal with these problems . Businesses also had to address the broader ethical concerns associated with the growth of technology, rejecting the concept of  an ideological and mythical vision of the net as a realm of unlimited freedom . He said that while the digital revolution had enormous advantages,  we rightly wonder if we are capable of guiding the processes we ourselves have set in motion, whether they might be escaping our grasp . The pope acknowledged the Church s  own failures in providing for the protection of children: extremely grave facts have come to light, for which we have to accept our responsibility before God, before the victims and before public opinion . Because of  skills gained in the process of conversion and purification,  he said the Church felt  especially bound to work strenuously and with foresight for the protection of minors and their dignity . Since the Church s scandals exploded around the world about 20 years ago, it has strived to put in to place so-called best practices to protect children.  It has defrocked priests, worked with local police and the pope has declared a  zero tolerance  where clerics could not appeal a conviction on technical grounds. But victim s groups say the Vatican and the pope have not gone far enough, particularly in making bishops accountable for covering up or mishandling cases of child abuse. A commission Francis set up in 2014 to advise him on how to root out sexual abuse has been hit by defections by two key members who lamented lack of progress and cooperation from Vatican officials. The Rome conference s 13-point  Declaration of Rome  called on politicians, religious leaders, law enforcement organizations to help build a global awareness of the need to protect children from exploitation via the internet.

Summary: पोप ने वेब कंपनियों से कहाः बच्चों की सुरक्षा के लिए लाभ का उपयोग करें


TOKYO (Reuters) - Popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, whose fledgling party is gaining momentum ahead of an Oct. 22 general election, said on Thursday at a news conference that she would look into what steps are needed to reduce Japan s dependence on nuclear energy to zero by 2030. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is calling the snap poll in the hope his Liberal Democratic Party-led coalition can keep its majority in the parliament s lower house, where it now holds two-thirds of the seats. Koike has said she wants Japan to abandon nuclear power - a stance likely to resonate with many voters - but had not previously mentioned a target date. Abe s government plans to retain atomic power as part of the energy mix, despite safety worries after the 2011 Fukushima crisis.

Summary: टोक्यो के गवर्नर कोइकेः 2030 तक परमाणु ऊर्जा निर्भरता से बाहर निकलने के कदमों की जांच करेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The State Department said Wednesday that the United States would be open to talking to North Korea  when the time is right  but that it could not happen now because Pyongyang has shown no sign of a willingness to halt its missile and nuclear testing. Despite U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson s offer on Tuesday to start talks with North Korea without pre-conditions, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said there would first have to be a  period of calm  in which Pyongyang suspends  testing before any negotiations could begin. Tillerson, in a speech to a Washington think tank on Tuesday, did not explicitly establish such a freeze as a requirement that North Korea must meet ahead of talks. Nauert, speaking at the State Department s daily briefing, insisted that Tillerson was not establishing new policy in his speech, even though he appeared to back away from a key U.S. demand that Pyongyang must first accept that any negotiations would have to be about giving up its nuclear arsenal.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया ने कोई संकेत नहीं दिखाया कि वह बातचीत के बारे में गंभीर हैः अमेरिकी अधिकारी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Republican Senator Marco Rubio will support a compromise tax bill when it comes up for a vote next week in Congress, CNBC reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources. The Florida lawmaker earlier on Friday repeated his concerns that an expansion of child tax credits in the bill was too little to win his support, keeping a cloud over prospects for the legislation’s passage.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन सीनेटर रूबियो कर विधेयक का समर्थन करेंगेः सीएनबीसी, सूत्रों का हवाला देते हुए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to advance a bill that would impose new sanctions on Iran, the same day at least 12 people were killed in attacks in Tehran, as lawmakers planned to add a package of sanctions on Russia to the measure. The vote was 92-7 on a procedural motion to end debate on the Iran sanctions bill, clearing the way for a vote later on passage of the legislation. Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, said most members of his party supported the Iran bill, but that they would only agree to let it go ahead because they expected it would be amended to include “a strong package” of new sanctions on Russia as well. Many lawmakers have been clamoring for new sanctions on Russia over its alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and support for Syria’s government in that country’s six-year-long civil war. Schumer said he was negotiating with the Senate’s Republican leaders on the Russia sanctions. Some senators had urged that Wednesday’s procedural vote be delayed, arguing that the timing was inappropriate because of the attacks in Iran. “The country has just suffered from two significant terrorist attacks after electing a moderate government with 57 percent of the vote — we need to give Iran the opportunity to recover and set a new course,” Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said in a statement. A senior Senate aide said the Iran sanctions measure could come up for a vote as soon as next week. The legislation would impose new sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile development, arms transfers, support for Islamist militant groups and human rights violations. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed it 18-3 last month. To become law, the measure would also have to pass the Republican-led House of Representatives and be signed by President Donald Trump.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेट ने ईरान प्रतिबंध विधेयक को आगे बढ़ाया, रूस के नए प्रतिबंधों पर नजर


SOMERVILLE, Mass. (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders brought his strategy of trying to reenergize the Democratic Party by lending his star power to lower-level races to a small city just outside Boston on Monday, with a stop to endorse candidates for alderman and city council. Sanders, an independent who ran for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2016 presidential election, announced his support for a dozen candidates backed by “Our Revolution” a group formed by supporters of Sanders’ campaign to boost progressive, liberal candidates. It is unusual for a politician with Sanders’ profile to weigh in on races with no serious Republican contenders, political observers said.   “The local level, more than any other level, is a way to involve people in the political process,” Sanders said in  Somerville, Massachusetts, a city of 80,000 people. Sanders last week pointed to the appearance as one of a series to try to build enthusiasm for lower-level elections. Sanders served four terms as mayor of Burlington, Vermont, before being elected to the Senate. His remarks on Monday mirrored his 2016 stump speeches, without directly addressing the candidates he was supporting in Somerville and neighboring Cambridge. Political observers said Sanders, and the candidates he endorsed, will face a challenge in translating the enthusiasm his campaign generated into votes for lower-level races. In the city’s last municipal election that followed a presidential race, one-in-four registered voters, some 10,241 people, cast ballots. Three out of four who voted in last year’s Hillary Clinton-Donald Trump presidential matchup. “Sanders envisioned his candidacy as a launching pad for nothing short of a revolution within the Democratic Party,” said Jeffrey Berry, a professor of political science at nearby Tufts University. “The energy is more around ‘How do we fight Trump’ than it is ‘How do we create a Democratic Party in the image of Bernie Sanders.’” Sanders may not need to tip too many voters to influence the typically low-turnout city races. In the 2013 ward races, just two candidates secured more than 1,000 votes and the four closest races were decided by an average of 166 votes. “It’s definitely a draw and I think it’s important that he is supporting local candidates,” said Ellora Derenoncourt, a 30-year-old graduate student who was out to show her support for alderman candidate J.T. Scott, a gym owner in his first race. The event did attract some undecided voters who said Sanders’ endorsement would sway their picks among fields of Democratic candidates. “Our country has moved so far to their right since the mid-90s that just being a Democrat doesn’t necessarily qualify you as a liberal or progressive,” said Pamela Massey, 59, of Cambridge. Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator who serves as president of Our Revolution, acknowledged that the group faced a challenge in drumming up enthusiasm for down-ticket races. “We have to try,” Turner said. “We have to remind people that they have an obligation to participate and so often the level of vitriol that is put out the national level can have a negative effect.”

Summary: बर्नी सैंडर्स ने मैसाचुसेट्स दौड़ में स्थानीय राजनीति पर ध्यान केंद्रित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. banking rules must protect the financial system but they need “some refinement,” President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Federal Reserve’s top regulatory post told lawmakers on Wednesday. “As with any complex undertaking, after the first wave of reform, and with the benefit of experience and reflection, some refinements will undoubtedly be in order,” Randal Quarles told the Senate Banking Committee in prepared testimony ahead of his confirmation hearing scheduled for Thursday. If confirmed by the Senate, Quarles will be the central bank’s top official tasked with protecting the stability of the financial system. Quarles worked as a Wall Street lawyer and U.S. Treasury official under President George W. Bush. He was also an executive with private-equity firm Carlyle Group LP (CG.O) and is expected to face tough questions from Democratic lawmakers. Republicans control the Senate and have the votes to confirm Quarles over any objections from Democrats. If confirmed, Quarles would step down from the Cynosure Group, an investment group he founded in 2014.

Summary: फेडरल रिजर्व के लिए ट्रम्प के उम्मीदवार का कहना है कि बैंकिंग नियमों में 'सुधार' की आवश्यकता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The leaders of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee asked Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Friday to investigate any involvement of U.S. interrogators at secret prisons in Yemen where inmates have reportedly been tortured. The Associated Press published a report on Wednesday that nearly 2,000 men have disappeared into a secret network of prisons in Yemen run by the United Arab Emirates or Yemeni forces trained by the Gulf nation, where they have been abused and tortured. The UAE denied the allegations in a statement to AP. The AP report said U.S. forces have been involved in interrogations of detainees, citing senior American defense officials. The U.S. officials denied any participation in or knowledge of human rights abuses, but obtaining intelligence that may have been extracted by torture inflicted by another party would violate the International Convention Against Torture. Senators John McCain, the Senate committee’s Republican chairman, and Jack Reed, its ranking Democrat, asked Mattis to conduct an immediate review of the alleged abuses, including of U.S. support to the forces involved. McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, has been a leader of anti-torture efforts in Congress. In the letter, he and Reed argued that any suggestion the United States is complicit in torture hurts national security. They also asked Mattis to assess what, if anything, U.S. forces knew about the alleged abuses and to provide a briefing to the committee as soon as possible. “We are confident that you find these allegations as extremely troubling as we do,” McCain and Reed wrote.

Summary: सीनेटरों ने यमन में यातना की रिपोर्टों की जांच की मांग की


(Reuters) - Conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died, setting up a major political showdown between President Barack Obama and the Republican-controlled Senate over who will replace the jurist just months before a presidential election. Following is reaction to Scalia’s death. “For almost 30 years, Justice Antonin ‘Nino’ Scalia was a larger-than-life presence on the bench, a brilliant legal mind with an energetic style, an incisive wit and colorful opinions.” “I plan to fulfill my constitutional responsibilities to nominate a successor in due time. There will be plenty of time for me to do so and for the Senate to fulfill its responsibility to give that person a fair hearing and a timely vote.” “These are responsibilities that I take seriously, as should everyone. They’re bigger than any one party. They are about our democracy. They’re about the institution to which Justice Scalia dedicated his professional life and making sure it continues to function as the beacon of justice that our founders envisioned.” “He was a towering figure and important judge on our nation’s highest court. He brought intellect, good judgment, and wit to the bench, and he will be missed by his colleagues and our country.” “He was an extraordinary individual and jurist, admired and treasured by his colleagues. His passing is a great loss to the Court and the country he so loyally served.” “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.” “The president can and should send the Senate a nominee right away. With so many important issues pending before the Supreme Court, the Senate has a responsibility to fill vacancies as soon as possible. It would be unprecedented in recent history for the Supreme Court to go a year with a vacant seat. Failing to fill this vacancy would be a shameful abdication of one of the Senate’s most essential Constitutional responsibilities.” REPUBLICAN SENATOR CHUCK GRASSLEY, SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN “Given the huge divide in the country, and the fact that this president, above all others, has made no bones about his goal to use the courts to circumvent Congress and push through his own agenda, it only makes sense that we defer to the American people who will elect a new president to select the next Supreme Court justice.” SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY, RANKING DEMOCRAT ON SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE “The Supreme Court of the United States is too important to our democracy for it to be understaffed for partisan reasons. It is only February. The president and the Senate should get to work without delay to nominate, consider and confirm the next justice to serve on the Supreme Court.” “Unless (Obama) can find a consensus choice, the next president will pick the replacement for Justice Scalia ... If we lose the election, Hillary Clinton is going to pick somebody that I wouldn’t pick. I’m telling every conservative now, don’t expect to lose the election and still get your way.” “I think it is too late to nominate someone now. “He (Obama) has every right to nominate but it will be up to the Senate to evaluate that nomination ... and decide whether to move forward with it.” “My hope is that the president will promptly nominate someone with strong intellect and integrity who can win bipartisan support. I will work vigorously as a member of the Judiciary Committee to achieve confirmation.” “The Republicans in the Senate and on the campaign trail who are calling for Justice Scalia’s seat to remain vacant dishonor our Constitution. The Senate has a constitutional responsibility here that it cannot abdicate for partisan political reasons.” “While I differed with Justice Scalia’s views and jurisprudence, he was a brilliant, colorful and outspoken member of the Supreme Court.” “He was a justice who did not believe in legislating from the bench and he is a person whom I held in the highest regard and will always greatly respect his intelligence and conviction to uphold the constitution of our country.” “As liberals and conservatives alike would agree, through his powerful and persuasive opinions, Justice Scalia fundamentally changed how courts interpret the Constitution and statutes, returning the focus to the original meaning of the text after decades of judicial activism.” “One of the greatest honors in my life was to attend oral arguments during Town of Greece v. Galloway and see Justice Scalia eloquently defend religious freedom.” “His logic and wit were unparalleled, and his decisions were models of clarity and good sense. I often said he was my favorite justice because he took the Constitution, and the responsibility of judges to interpret it correctly, with the utmost seriousness.” OHIO GOVERNOR JOHN KASICH, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE “His death is a serious loss to our nation and the court. He was an essential, principled force for conservative thought and is a model for others to follow.”  “It is imperative that the Senate not allow President Obama to diminish his legacy by trying to nominate an individual who would carry on his wishes to subvert the will of the people.” “I expect they will nominate a replacement and the Senate will refuse to take it up. From a policy standpoint, a lot of knotty decisions that might have been 5-4 will now be tied and, assuming the Senate won’t act, the lower court rulings will stand. That means on immigration, for example, the Fifth Circuit ruling invalidating the president’s order may prevail.”

Summary: अमेरिकी न्यायाधीश स्कैलिया की मृत्यु पर प्रतिक्रिया


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Brussels prosecutors will hold a news conference at 1300 GMT on sacked Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, the subject of a European arrest warrant issued by Spain, a spokesman for the Belgian authority said on Sunday. Warrants for rebellion, sedition, misuse of public funds, disobedience and breach of trust relating to Catalonia s independence campaign concern Puigdemont and four of his associates who fled to Belgium after Madrid s central government imposed direct rule in the autonomous region.  We will give a press conference at 2 p.m. (local time). I can t confirm the arrests of the five people,  spokesman Gilles Dejemeppe said. According to Belgian procedures, prosecutors must bring suspects to a judge, who has 24 hours to decide whether or not to approve the arrest warrant. Appeals can stretch the process to as long as 45 days.

Summary: ब्रसेल्स के अभियोजक कातालान के पूर्व नेता पुइग्डेमोंट पर बोलेंगे


GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura has received assurances that the Syrian government delegation will attend peace talks in Geneva this week, a U.N. spokeswoman said on Tuesday. Earlier the pro-Damascus Syrian newspaper al-Watan reported that the Syrian government delegation to U.N.-backed peace talks in Geneva this week has not yet left Damascus and may announce on Tuesday whether it will participate.  The Government delegation has not yet arrived, the Special Envoy received a message that they are planning to arrive tomorrow, which is the 29th of November,  U.N. spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci told a news briefing in Geneva, declining to give details.  At least we know that they are coming.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र के दूत का कहना है कि उन्हें बुधवार को सीरियाई सरकार के प्रतिनिधिमंडल की उम्मीद करने के लिए कहा गया है


(Reuters) - Myanmar has accused Reuters reporters Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, of breaching the country s Official Secrets Act, a little-used hangover from colonial rule. Sam Zarifi, secretary general of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), said the law can ensnare working journalists  at any time . The two reporters were arrested on Tuesday evening after they were invited to meet police officers for dinner in the north of Yangon. The Ministry of Information said they had  illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media , and published a photo of the pair in handcuffs standing behind a table with documents laid on it. The law dates back to 1923, when Myanmar, then known as Burma, was a province of British India. At the time British administrators worried that rival powers could seek to exploit anti-colonial unrest in its South Asian empire.  The act, which amended earlier anti-spying legislation, was controversial in India even at the time, according to a history published in 2009 by the United Service Institution of India, a New Delhi-based think tank. British military officers pushed for the stronger law over concerns about an  increase in Bolshevik activity , along with geopolitical threats including  the possibility of racial war between Japan and the USA affecting India , the history said. The Official Secrets Act covers trespassing in prohibited areas, handling documents deemed secret and communicating with  foreign agents . It carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison. Zarifi of the Geneva-based ICJ - a human rights group made up of 60 senior international judges, lawyers and legal academics - said the definition of an official secret in the act is  incredibly broad .  Just about anyone in possession of unpublished government documents could find themselves facing prosecution and the harsh penalties a conviction may carry,  Zarifi said.  Under this law many good journalists could be prosecuted at any time.  In India, where the same law also remains on the statute book, courts have ruled that it even applies to parliamentary papers such as budget proposals if they are leaked before they are presented in the legislature. Legal experts say prosecutions under the act have been rare in Myanmar in recent decades.  The military junta that ruled until 2011 frequently used other laws or the Penal Code - also inherited from the colonial era - to lock up its critics alongside common criminals. The sprawling code was drafted in 1860, and gives magistrates more than 500 sections under which to charge alleged offenders. In 1990, a military court sentenced two leaders of the then opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) to 10 years in prison under the Official Secrets Act after they passed an official letter to foreign embassies. The prosecution was part of a broad crackdown following an election won by the NLD that the junta ignored.  They were freed in 1992, in an amnesty, according to a New York Times report at the time. Reports of at least two other cases brought under the act are recorded in the online archives of the Asian Human Rights Commission in 2009 and 2010.  The first case involved a man jailed for trespassing on military land and recording video footage to allegedly send abroad. He had been helping a farmer file a land grab complaint against the military. The second concerned a former army officer who was jailed in 2010 for allegedly having secret information on his laptop that he passed to foreign news agencies. The most well-documented recent case involving the Official Secrets Act came in January of 2014, when the Yangon-based weekly, Unity Journal, published a front page article it said exposed a secret chemical weapons factory run by the military in central Myanmar.  Police arrested the newspaper s CEO and four journalists involved in publishing the story, raided its offices, and attempted to seize all copies of the edition from newsstands. A civilian court in Pakkoku, near the alleged factory, sentenced them in July 2014 to 10 years in prison with hard labor - later reduced to seven years. The case was widely seen by the domestic media as a warning that military affairs remained off-limits even though direct military rule had ended. The  Unity Five  were released in an amnesty in April 2016, soon after the NLD, led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, had come to power following an election in 2015. The Unity Journal subsequently closed.  Reuters was unable to reach government legal officials over the weekend and a Monday public holiday to request details of any other past cases in which the Official Secrets Act was used. Little is known of the allegations against the two Reuters journalists, other than that police said they were  arrested for possessing important and secret government documents related to Rakhine State and security forces  and are charged under Section 3 of the Official Secrets Act. Two policemen are also being investigated in the case, according to police. Section 3 covers entering prohibited places, taking images or handling secret official documents that  might be or is intended to be, directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy . Human Rights Watch in 2016 said Section 3  defines the offence of  spying  extremely broadly .   Where a military establishment is involved, section 3(2) of the statute effectively places the burden on the defendant to prove that they are not guilty,  the group said. In May 2016, the month after Suu Kyi took power, the 1975 State Protection Act that had been used to keep her under house arrest for years was repealed. The Emergency Provisions Act, introduced in 1950 and frequently used against activists after the military seized power in a 1962 coup, was swept away in October the same year. But the Official Secrets Act and other laws, such as the 1908 Unlawful Associations Act, that have been used to jail journalists and activists, remain in force. Reuters was unable to reach Suu Kyi s spokesman to seek comment from Suu Kyi on the use of the Official Secrets Act to detain the two Reuters journalists.

Summary: व्याख्याकर्ताः म्यांमार ने रॉयटर्स के पत्रकारों के खिलाफ औपनिवेशिक युग का कानून लागू किया


PARIS (Reuters) - Russian businessman Suleiman Kerimov, arrested in France earlier this week by tax fraud investigators, will be presented to a judge with a view to formally placing him under judicial investigation, a public prosecutor said on Wednesday. Under France s legal system, being formally placed under investigation often   but not always   leads to a person being sent to trial.

Summary: रूस के केरिमोव को औपचारिक रूप से फ्रांस में जांच के दायरे में रखा जाएगाः अभियोजक


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A journalist was shot dead on Tuesday in the Mexican state of Veracruz as he attended a Christmas celebration at his son s school, the latest murder in the country s deadliest year on record for media workers. Gumaro Perez, 35, who regularly wrote about security and drug trafficking, was shot at four times and killed in the Acayucan municipality, becoming the third journalist killed in the state, and Mexico s twelfth, this year.  Perez worked for Golfo Sur and Voz del Sur, among other media organizations.  We re in shock, waiting for them to hand over the body and see what we re going to do together with his family,  said  journalists  group Asociacion de Periodistas Independientes de Acayucan, to which Perez belonged.  A lone gunman entered Perez s 6-year-old son s classroom, where the Christmas celebration was being held, and fired at Perez, the group said, citing witnesses.  Roberta Jacobson, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, condemned Perez s death in a post on Twitter, writing that she was  outraged by the death of another brave journalist in Mexico.     You don t kill the truth by killing journalists,  she added. At least 65 media workers were killed worldwide doing their jobs this year, including 50 professional journalists the organization Reporters Without Borders said on Tuesday, adding that Mexico is one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist. [ Since 2000, at least 111 media workers have been killed in Mexico, with 38 deaths since Enrique Pena Nieto became president in December 2012, advocacy group Article 19 says.

Summary: बेटे के स्कूल में क्रिसमस समारोह के दौरान मेक्सिको के पत्रकार की गोली मारकर हत्या


JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian authorities detained 22 people late on Monday after a violent mob clashed with police at an anti-communist protest in the capital Jakarta. President Joko Widodo s government has tried to redress a bloody 1965 anti-communist purge, one of the darkest periods in the country s history, but tensions remain over the purge in which an estimated 500,000 people were killed.  The public cannot take the law into their own hands, they must defer to law enforcement apparatus,  Widodo said in a statement issued after the clashes. Communism is banned in Indonesia and any sympathizers are regarded with a deep suspicion and hostility, especially by nationalists and Islamists.      Five police were injured in the clashes when a mob of around 200 gathered outside the Legal Aid Foundation in central Jakarta, which had held a seminar on the 1965 killings at the weekend. Protesters threw rocks and water bottles and police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse the crowd, according to media. Activists called for authorities to safeguard such events and for the public to  look critically at history .  Repressive attitudes and allowing anarchists to threaten people s rights will cripple our democracy,  the national commission for women s rights said in a statement.   There are victims of 1965 and the stigma associated with (communism) that deserve truth, justice, and healing.  The anti-communist purge started in late 1965 after then-general Suharto and the military took power following an abortive communist coup. A million or more people were jailed, suspected of being communists. Successive governments have refused to accept the estimated death toll figure and have refrained from apologizing.     The military, which is accused by activists of gross human rights violations during the 1965 purge, has bristled at any reconciliation efforts.  Military chief Gatot Nurmantyo this year ordered a Suharto-era propaganda film to be screened for soldiers across the country to mark the anniversary of the abortive coup on Sept 30, 1965, the night before the violence was unleashed.

Summary: इंडोनेशियाई पुलिस ने हिंसक साम्यवाद विरोधी प्रदर्शन के लिए 22 लोगों को हिरासत में लिया


KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine s Odessa airport said on Tuesday it had tightened security measures after being hit by a cyber attack, while the metro system in Kiev also reported a hack on its payment system.  We report that the IT system of Odessa international airport has been hit by a hacker attack. All services of the airport are working in a stricter mode,  the airport said in a statement.  Separately, Ukraine s cyber police said that, while it was monitoring all incidents, they did not appear to amount to a mass cyber attack on the country.

Summary: यूक्रेन हवाई अड्डे का कहना है कि साइबर हमले के बाद सुरक्षा कड़ी कर दी गई है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Aides to former U.S. President Barack Obama fired back on Tuesday as criticism mounted over President Donald Trump’s claim that past U.S. presidents did not contact family members of soldiers who died in combat during their time in the White House.     Trump offered no evidence to back up his claim on Monday, which was immediately pointed out to be false. His remarks came amid questions at a press conference over Trump not having responded yet to the deaths of four U.S. soldiers in an Oct. 4 ambush in Niger. Asked why he had not acknowledged the soldiers’ deaths, Trump said he would send letters to their families later on Monday and would call them “at some point during the period of time.” Obama’s former White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Tuesday that Obama would repeatedly “show his enormous respect ... for those who had paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country” through various visits and meetings as well as phonecalls and letters. Trump, a Republican who as president serves as commander-in-chief of the U.S. military, then appeared to criticize his predecessors handling of the issue of American soldiers’ deaths.  “The traditional way, if you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls. A lot of them didn’t make calls,” Trump said. Pressed on his claim, particularly about Obama, Trump retreated.     “I don’t know if he did. No,” Trump said. “I was told that he didn’t often, and a lot of presidents don’t. They write letters ... I do a combination of both.” “President Obama, I think, probably did sometimes, and maybe sometimes he didn’t. I don’t know. That’s what I was told,” Trump added. “Other presidents did not call, they’d write letters. And some presidents didn’t do anything.”  Obama’s former aides were quick to lash back.  “Stop the damn lying - you’re the President,” Eric Holder, Obama’s former attorney general, said in a post on Twitter.  Alyssa Mastromonaco, Obama’s former deputy chief of staff, also called it a lie. Earnest, now an MSNBC commentator, told the network that past Republican and Democratic presidents had recognized their duty to honor soldiers’ sacrifices and not highlight their own actions. “Unfortunately, President Trump seems incapable of actually doing that,” Earnest said. A spokesperson for former President George W. Bush said he had called, written and visited the families of fallen soldiers. Representatives of former Presidents Bill Clinton, George H. W. Bush and Jimmy Carter either did not immediately respond to a request for comment or did not have an immediate reaction.  An aide to Clinton told ABC News that he did call the families of fallen soldiers.

Summary: ओबामा के सहयोगियों ने पूर्व राष्ट्रपतियों और मारे गए सैनिकों के बारे में दावे को लेकर ट्रम्प की आलोचना की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price promised on Thursday to repay the nearly $52,000 cost of his seats on private charter flights, as expensive air travel by Trump administration officials drew sharp scrutiny from Congress. “Today, I will write a personal check to the U.S. Treasury for the expenses of my travel on private charter planes,” said Price, a former member of Congress, in a statement. “The taxpayers won’t pay a dime for my seat on those planes.” Price was one of a handful of senior officials in President Donald Trump’s administration put on the defensive over reports about their use of charter flights and government aircraft, sometimes for personal travel, when they could have flown commercial for less money.  Price told Fox News on Thursday that Trump had spoken to him about the matter and was not happy. Asked if he retained Trump’s confidence, Price said he worked at the president’s pleasure. Washington media outlet Politico reported that Price had taken at least two dozen private charter flights since May at a cost to U.S. taxpayers of more than $400,000. Politico in a report on Thursday night said the White House had approved the use of military aircraft for other trips by Price to Africa, Europe and Asia in the spring and summer that cost taxpayers more than $500,000. “Secretary Price will write a personal check to the U.S. Treasury for $51,887.31,” a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services said on Thursday. Price is paying his individual share of the charter flight cost, an HHS official said. Price said earlier on Thursday he believed he retained Trump’s confidence. Senior U.S. government officials travel frequently, but are generally expected to keep the costs down by taking commercial flights or the train when possible. Price, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin were all in the spotlight for their travel habits. Politico reported late on Thursday that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke took a charter flight from Las Vegas to Glacier Park International Airport in Montana in June that cost $12,375. The route is served by commercial flights. Zinke also took charter flights between St. Croix and St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands in March and used a military aircraft to travel to Norway in May, according to Politico. “As with previous interior secretaries, the Secretary traveled on charter flights when there were no commercial options available,” Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift said in a statement. “All travel is pre-approved by the ethics office before booking and the charter flights went through an additional level of due diligence.”  Republican Senator Chuck Grassley urged Trump in a statement “to emphasize to cabinet secretaries the necessity of using reasonable and cost-effective modes of travel in accordance with federal restrictions.” In his statement, Price said his travel had been approved by legal and departmental officials. But he expressed regret over the concerns raised and pledged to take no more private charter flights while health secretary. “I was not sensitive enough to my concern for the taxpayer,” said Price, an orthopedic surgeon. He was confirmed in February as health secretary despite questions about how he had been buying shares in publicly traded healthcare companies while working on legislation affecting them. As a conservative Republican U.S. representative in 2009, Price chastised “the fiscal irresponsibility” of private-plane use by government officials in an appearance on CNBC television that he also posted on Twitter. Price’s travels and those of the entire Trump Cabinet are being probed by a U.S. House of Representatives committee.  Senate Democrats wrote to Price on Thursday demanding information about his flights.         The inspectors general at HHS, EPA and Treasury are investigating to see if government travel rules were followed. The EPA’s inspector general said last month it was investigating Pruitt’s frequent travels to his home state of Oklahoma. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Pruitt had taken at least four noncommercial and military flights since mid-February, costing taxpayers more than $58,000. EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman said Pruitt did use one charter flight but that other commissioned flights were done on government planes. “The administrator flies commercial, unless there is a necessity to do otherwise, and with approvals from EPA’s ethics office,” said EPA spokesman Jahan Wilcox. At the Treasury Department, the inspector general is reviewing Mnuchin’s use of a government plane to fly to Kentucky in August for a visit to Louisville and Fort Knox. Mnuchin and his wife viewed the solar eclipse during the trip. On the “CBS This Morning” program on Thursday, Mnuchin said he would use military planes in the future only when there are national security issues or “there’s no other means” of travel.

Summary: निजी विमान यात्रा का खर्च चुकाएंगे ट्रंप के स्वास्थ्य मंत्री


SYDNEY (Reuters) - Thousands of people rallied for marriage equality in Australia s second-biggest city of Melbourne on Saturday ahead of a postal survey on same-sex marriage which could lead to its legalisation. Australia is one of the only developed English-speaking countries not to have legalised same-sex marriage, despite strong popular support and the backing of a majority of lawmakers. Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, of the opposition Labor Party, called on the conservative Liberal Party-led government to do more to ensure the debate did not turn ugly ahead of the postal survey next month.  I m particularly calling on the prime minister of Australia to speak out against any bile or hate speech that we might see in this campaign,  he told the rally. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull last week urged supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage to show mutual respect as their campaigns turned increasingly vitriolic. [nL4N1LB1TJ] Rally organiser Anthony Wallace from activist group Equal Love said 15,000 people attended the event, making it one of the largest gay rights rallies in Australian history. Police declined to estimate the size of the crowd. The rally is an annual event, which this year began and ended at the Victorian State Library, where a mass same-sex wedding ceremony was held.  Australians will vote over several weeks from mid-September in the non-compulsory postal ballot on whether to legalise same-sex marriage. Same-sex marriage is supported by 61 percent of Australians, a 2016 Gallup opinion poll showed, but the issue has fractured the Turnbull government and damaged his standing with voters, now at a six-month low.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रेलिया में समलैंगिक विवाह के लिए मतदान से पहले हजारों लोगों ने किया प्रदर्शन


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Thursday thanked President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for maintaining impartiality during the primary process, and said he would meet with rival Hillary Clinton soon to discuss ways to defeat Republican candidate Donald Trump. Speaking at the White House following a meeting with President Obama, a Democrat, Sanders praised Obama and Biden for not thumbing the scales by endorsing a candidate during the primary season, and said he would do everything he could to stop Trump from succeeding Obama in the November election.

Summary: सैंडर्स ने निष्पक्षता के लिए ओबामा, बाइडन की प्रशंसा की, जल्द ही क्लिंटन से मिलेंगे


ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - The parliament of Iraq s autonomous Kurdistan region approved a plan on Friday to hold a referendum on independence on Sept. 25, ignoring opposition from Baghdad and the wider region as well as Western concerns that the vote could spark fresh conflict. Parliament reconvened in Erbil, the seat of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, where an overwhelming majority of the Kurdish lawmakers taking part backed the plan. Hours after the decision, the White House publicly called for the first time on the KRG to cancel the referendum, warning that the vote was  distracting from efforts to defeat ISIS (Islamic State) and stabilize the liberated areas.   The United States does not support the Kudistan Regional Government s intention to hold a referendum later this month,  the White House said in a statement. It urged the KRG to  enter into serious and sustained dialogue with Baghdad, which the United States has repeatedly indicated it is prepared to facilitate.  The regional parliament s decision came despite an intense diplomatic drive by the United States, which has provided critical military aid to the KRG s fight against Islamic State, to persuade the Kurdish leadership to cancel the referendum. The parliament session was the first held since the legislature was suspended nearly two years ago, though only 68 of 111 lawmakers attended due to a boycott by the main opposition movement Gorran.  We ve been waiting more than 100 years for this,  Omed Khoshnaw, a lawmaker from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDR) of KRG President Massoud Barzani, told Reuters.  There is no other way to guarantee that genocide will never be repeated,  Khoshnaw told the assembly earlier, referring to the persecution of the Kurds and their expulsion from areas such as oil-rich Kirkuk under late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.   Some lawmakers wore Kurdish flags and rose to clap and sing the national anthem after the vote. The Baghdad parliament s decision earlier this week to oppose the referendum drew condemnation from deputies in Erbil.  We refuse to accept the Iraqi parliament s decision, which was unlawful,  Muna Qahwachi, a Turkman lawmaker, told Reuters. Qahwachi said she had voted in favor of the referendum because she said Turkmen were protected in Kurdistan, unlike in the rest of Iraq. Earlier, Barzani shrugged off requests from the United States and other Western powers to put off the referendum. They fear increased tensions between Baghdad and Erbil will distract from the war on Islamic State militants who still occupy parts of Iraq and Syria.  We still haven t heard a proposal that can be an alternative to the Kurdistan referendum,  Barzani told a rally in the Kurdish region, referring to a proposal put forward by the United States and other Western envoys this week. Iraq s neighbors Iran and Turkey also oppose the plebiscite, fearing an independent Kurdish state could fuel separatism among their own Kurdish populations. The opposition Gorran movement boycotted Friday s parliamentary session, the first since a dispute between them and Barzani s KDP caused the suspension of the assembly in October 2015.  Those assembled in parliament today think this is a lawful session, but this is unlawful,  Birzu Majeed, the head of Gorran s parliamentary block, told a news conference held while parliament was in session.  Lawmakers from a third party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), ensured the required quorum. The PUK is a historic rival of the KDP but supports the referendum plan. Meanwhile, Iranian-backed Iraqi Shi ite paramilitary groups have threatened to dislodge the Kurdish forces from the Kirkuk region, which is due to take part in the referendum. Kirkuk is home to sizeable Arab and Turkmen populations and lies outside the official boundaries of the Kurdistan region. It is claimed by both the Kurds and the central government in Baghad. Kurdish peshmerga fighters seized Kirkuk and other disputed territories when the Iraqi army collapsed in the face of Islamic State in 2014, preventing its oilfields from falling into militant hands.

Summary: इराक की कुर्द संसद ने 25 सितंबर को स्वतंत्रता जनमत संग्रह का समर्थन किया


(Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, was in his home state of Oklahoma on at least 43 of the 92 days of March, April and May, according to copies of his travel records obtained by the Environmental Integrity Project watchdog group and reviewed by Reuters.  Pruitt’s frequent visits to Oklahoma have raised concerns among critics that he is cultivating political relationships in the state at taxpayer expense, instead of focusing on his job as head of the environmental regulator. EPA officials contend that  Pruitt works hard and pays for his trips home to Tulsa to see his wife and children. “Administrator Pruitt works long hours and is available around the clock,” said EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman. “He is extremely focused and disciplined, which is evident by the fact that he spearheaded over two dozen significant regulatory actions since being sworn in.” Pruitt has riled environmentalists by routinely raising doubts about the realities of climate change and by vowing to sweep away scores of Obama-era regulations rules to help business. Before becoming head of the EPA under Republican President Donald Trump, he was Oklahoma’s attorney general and repeatedly sued the agency he now runs to block federal environmental rules. The travel records show Pruitt’s schedule this spring often took him to cities in the U.S. heartland where he held meetings – often with oil and gas industry representatives - made speeches and attended events, before flying to Tulsa for extended weekends.  The records showed Pruitt paid for some legs of the trips directly related to his visits home, although it was not clear he paid for all such legs. The airfare for Pruitt’s travel to and from Oklahoma totaled more than $12,000, the Environmental Integrity Project said. That did not include travel and lodging expenses for his staff or his security detail, the records for which were not immediately available. The practice of spending long weekends away from Washington was seen as unusual by former officials. “The American people aren’t paying taxes for part-time Cabinet officials,” said Liz Purchia Gannon, who was spokeswoman for former EPA head Gina McCarthy, who served under former Democratic President Barack Obama during his second term. McCarthy’s family lived in Boston while she was head of the EPA, and she “fit travel home into her personal time,” Purchia Gannon said. A source who worked for former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, McCarthy’s predecessor, said Jackson’s family moved to Washington during her tenure, so she did not have to travel to see them. Jackson was not available for comment.

Summary: ई. पी. ए. प्रमुख ने वसंत का लगभग आधा समय गृह राज्य ओक्लाहोमा में बिताया।


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said on Tuesday he was  willing to meet with Donald Trump, months after comparing the Republican presidential candidate to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. “Yes, I would meet with him,” Pena Nieto said, referring to Trump in a pre-taped television interview broadcast on Tuesday night.  “I have never met him. I can’t agree with some of the things he has said, but I will be absolutely respectful and will seek to work with whomever becomes the next president of the United States.” Trump has sparked outrage in Mexico with his campaign vow to build a wall along the southern U.S. border to keep out illegal immigrants and drugs, and to make Mexico pay for it. In a Mexican newspaper interview in March, Pena Nieto said Mexico would not pay for the proposed wall under any scenario, likening Trump’s “strident tone” to the World War II era dictators.  But at a June summit in Canada, Pena Nieto said he only drew the comparison as a reminder of the devastation wreaked in the past.

Summary: मेक्सिको के राष्ट्रपति ने कहा कि वह ट्रम्प से मिलने के लिए तैयार हैं


MOSCOW (Reuters) - North Korea has opened its doors to Russian tourists, issuing a license for the first travel agency in Moscow to promise clients  full immersion  in the nation s culture and enjoyment  safer than an evening walk in London . NKOREAN.RU, a Russian company licensed by North Korea s government, offers organized tours for groups of up to 10 people or individuals  to show the travelers the multi-faceted life of this most closed of countries . Guests to North Korea must necessarily be  checked  before their trip and will always be accompanied by a guide who will monitor the  adequate behavior of the tourist and guarantee his safety.  Pictures of strategic and military facilities are banned and long talks with locals  are not recommended . North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests and dozens of missile tests since the beginning of last year, significantly raising tension on the heavily militarized Korean peninsula and in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. Two tests of inter-continental ballistic missiles in July triggered a new round of tougher global sanctions. Faced with economic problems made harder by multiple sanctions, the Pyongyang government is keen to develop tourism to earn cash. The most pricey tour, 15 days  full immersion in the culture of North Korea  costing 118,090 rubles ($1,997), includes visits to a farm, a mineral water factory, a Buddhist temple, walks in the mountains and an introduction to national cuisine. Visits to numerous museums to founding leader Kim Il-Sung are also on offer. Other less demanding tours include relaxation on a beach, an aviation show and even a beer festival.  It is unclear how popular these trips will be among Russians who have already developed a fondness for visiting Europe and the affordable resorts of Turkey and Thailand.

Summary: 'लंदन से भी सुरक्षित!' उत्तर कोरिया ने रूसी पर्यटकों के लिए दरवाजे खोले


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish prosecutors have issued detention warrants for 360 people in an operation targeting supporters of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen within the army, state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Wednesday. It said 333 of those facing arrest in the Istanbul-based operation were soldiers, 216 of them serving personnel. Ankara accuses Gulen and his network of orchestrating an attempted coup last year. Gulen denies the charge. Istanbul police officers were continuing operations to capture the suspects, it said. The private Dogan news agency said seven of those facing arrest were pilots. More than 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial over links to Gulen, while 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from jobs in the public and private sectors since the July 15 failed putsch, in which 250 people were killed. Sixteen months on, operations targeting supporters of the U.S.-based preacher are continuing on a daily basis. Last week, nearly 700 people were detained in related investigations. While Turkey s Western allies and rights groups have voiced concern that Ankara is using the investigations to crack down on dissent, Turkey says only such a purge could neutralize the threat represented by Gulen s network, which it says infiltrated institutions such as the military, judiciary and schools.

Summary: तुर्की ने सेना में गुलेन नेटवर्क को निशाना बनाने की जांच में 360 लोगों की गिरफ्तारी की मांग कीः मीडिया


EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Three similar envelopes, one believed to contain a suspicious white powder, were being investigated by police on Tuesday at the Scottish parliament, a source at the building said. The letters were addressed to Conservative lawmakers, Jamie Halcro Johnston, Liz Smith and Edward Mountain, the source said. One of the letters was only intercepted when opened by a researcher on the first floor of building while the other two letters had similar writing.

Summary: पुलिस ने स्कॉटिश संसद में तीन लिफाफों की जांच की, एक में सफेद पाउडर थाः सूत्र