WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate committee approved President Barack Obama’s nominee to be ambassador to Myanmar on Thursday, after the administration assured panel members it would not quickly change sanctions policy as the country moves from decades of military rule. Republican Senator Cory Gardner said he had been concerned that the Obama administration would move too quickly to ease sanctions on Myanmar before it had made the transition to democratic government. But Gardner said during Thursday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting he had been assured that the sanctions policy had not changed, and that Congress would be “fully consulted” about any shift. The Obama administration has continued deep concerns about human rights and other issues in Myanmar, also known as Burma. U.S. officials have said they would watch for the democratic process to move forward before lifting more sanctions, which target more than 100 individuals and businesses and limit U.S. investment in the country. The 19-member panel approved the nomination of Scot Marciel unanimously by voice vote. He must still be confirmed by the full Senate before taking up his position as ambassador.

Summary: सीनेट पैनल ने म्यांमार के उम्मीदवार को मंजूरी दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace negotiator, Jason Greenblatt, is returning to Israel to “continue the peace track” after the president met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last week in New York, a White House official said on Sunday. “While President Trump had productive meetings with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas at the United Nations, we always said that the UN would not focus on peace conversations and that those conversations would be happening on a separate track,” the official said in a statement. “(Greenblatt) will have follow-up meetings in advance of a private trip in the region with his family for Sukkot. The meetings are part of the Administration’s quiet, steady discussions toward peace,” he said. Sukkot is a Jewish holiday.

Summary: शांति वार्ता के लिए इजरायल लौट रहे हैं ट्रंप के सहयोगी ग्रीनब्लैटः अधिकारी


KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia said on Tuesday it has received proposals from three companies offering to continue the search for Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which has been missing since 2014, but no decision has been made yet. MH370 vanished three years ago somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people aboard. Its disappearance has become one of the world s greatest aviation mysteries. Malaysian Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said proposals were received from U.S.-based seabed exploration firm Ocean Infinity, Dutch firm Fugro and an unidentified Malaysian company.  We wont be deciding anything now on whether we are embarking on a new search or not,  Liow told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Kuala Lumpur.  We have to discuss with the companies. It will take some time as it s some detailed discussions,  he said. Liow was commenting on media reports from Australia that said Malaysia could resume the search as early as this week. Australia, Malaysia and China called off a A$200 million ($159.16 million), two-year search for the plane in January, amid protests from families of those onboard. Liow said the proposals would eventually be presented to the other countries in the tripartite committee - China and Australia - before a decision was taken. Representatives for Ocean Infinity have said the company would only want to be paid if the aircraft was found. The Boeing 777 aircraft disappeared on March 8, 2014, and is thought to have been diverted thousands of miles off course out over the southern Indian Ocean before crashing off the coast of Western Australia.

Summary: मलेशिया का कहना है कि लापता एमएच370 की खोज के लिए नए प्रस्तावों पर अभी तक कोई निर्णय नहीं लिया गया है


(Reuters) - A federal agency on Monday released final rules on how employers can offer workers financial incentives of up to 30 percent of the cost of their cheapest health insurance plans to participate in wellness programs without violating federal laws protecting the confidentiality of medical information. The move from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission aims to clear up confusion over the way two federal laws protecting employees’ medical privacy apply to the popular programs, which are designed to control medical spending by reducing obesity, smoking and other risk factors.  The rules, which were first proposed in November, mark a compromise with U.S. businesses that opposed the EEOC’s previous stance that providing incentives for voluntary wellness programs rendered them involuntary, and thus illegal. The 2010 Affordable Care Act allowed U.S. employers to increase the rewards they offer to employees who participate in wellness programs. But in a series of 2013 lawsuits against companies, including Honeywell International Inc, the EEOC said requests for medical information related to incentive-based wellness programs violated the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.  Under the new rules, incentives for wellness programs are open only to employees, not their families, and are capped at 30 percent of the cheapest individual health insurance premium offered through the employer. The new rules are more restrictive than those passed under the ACA, which allowed incentives of up to 30 percent of the actual cost of an employee’s insurance plan and 50 percent for programs approved by the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services. Only smoking-cessation programs received that approval. Senator Lamar Alexander (R.-Tennessee), chair of the Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said he would push legislation, along with House Republicans, to reverse the rules. The National Business Group on Health, a non-profit organization advocating for large healthcare employers, said that although it would have “hoped for some additional flexibility... the rules do what the EEOC was asked to do.” Some health and workers’ rights groups say the rules, which take effect next year, penalize employees who decline to join wellness programs and hand over private medical information. Maxwell Mehlman, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, said lower-income employees could be unduly pressured to join wellness programs. “It’s hard to say that that’s a voluntary program for a lot of people,” he said.

Summary: ओबामा प्रशासन ने कल्याण कार्यक्रमों पर नियम जारी किए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For seven years, U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell vowed to slay Obamacare if only his Republican Party controlled both chambers of Congress and the White House. Pull it out “root and branch,” he pledged. The 75-year-old Senate majority leader now has that luxury. But instead of basking in the glow of his first major legislative victory in the Donald Trump era, McConnell is what a source close to the majority leader calls “the man in the middle in an impossible spot.” Late on Monday and again on Tuesday, after a long struggle, McConnell’s efforts to repeal all or portions of former President Barack Obama’s landmark 2010 Affordable Care Act and replace them with less expensive healthcare came crashing down. With 52 Republican senators in the 100-member chamber, McConnell could lose only two of his colleagues on any bill that was opposed by Democrats and still win with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tie-breaking vote.  Three times, he failed to muster the 50 supporters needed.  The man who epitomized “the party of no” in Democrats’ eyes during Obama’s presidency, especially when he slammed the door in February 2016 on Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court nomination, fell victim to the “no” of fellow Republicans. “We finally get a chance to repeal and replace, and they don’t take advantage of it,” Trump, six months into his four-year presidential term, said on Tuesday. Across Washington, there was dismay Republicans could not deliver on a promise they assert helped them to assume control in January of Congress and the White House. “I am kind of shocked,” said Republican Representative Dave Brat, of the conservative firebrand House Freedom Caucus that has been a thorn in the side of the Republican establishment. His hand weakened, McConnell could be heading into fierce budget battles, a tax reform fight and a storm over legislation avoiding a government debt default that could shake global financial markets. The result has Democrats feeling emboldened 16 months before the next congressional elections. Around town, the sphinxlike McConnell is known as a master of Senate rules, able to outfox opponents, giving nothing away until he can strike at just the right moment. The senator’s leadership job, a position he yearned for in the years leading up to his 2015 ascension, does not appear to be in jeopardy.  But this rocky run calls into question McConnell’s reputation as a master tactician and deal-maker that he earned as Republican minority leader under the Democratic Obama. It is “a real blow to Republicans in Congress generally and to leadership,” said former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, a Republican.  More of the blame sits with the rank-and-file, Lott said. “The problem in Washington today is not lack of leadership. The problem is lack of followership.” Had McConnell succeeded, Lott said he would have been “considered a magician” given the inability of Republicans to coalesce around healthcare legislation for so many years. A Republican operative with ties to McConnell saw a possible silver lining: Failure to pass healthcare could boost chances for tax reform or infrastructure investment if Republicans felt it a more urgent political imperative to rack up a win for Trump before the November 2018 congressional elections. McConnell, a courtly Kentuckian who can appear at pains to speak to reporters nipping at his heels, won accolades in years past for cutting deals with Democrats to keep the government operating and making permanent most of former President George W. Bush’s tax cuts. Those deals involved giving voters government services and lower taxes. But Republican healthcare legislation involves taking something away from millions of lower-income people - their medical coverage. “In part they (Republicans) misunderstood how difficult it will be” to repeal and replace Obamacare, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat, said in a phone interview. Republican rhetoric against Obamacare was so “hyperbolic” it had to take priority early in Trump’s presidency, but senators lacked enthusiasm for legislation, said Daschle, who like Lott lobbies on behalf of healthcare interests.  Once boxed into healthcare, McConnell took another controversial step, one that many Republicans questioned. Instead of developing a healthcare bill in public,  McConnell and his top aides, with the advice of a 13-member group of male senators, called the shots. McConnell said hearings were unnecessary, as healthcare policy had been intensively debated since Obama took office in 2009. He said he was listening to suggestions of all of his 51 fellow Republican senators. Many senators felt disconnected and tensions boiled over. As Monday wore on, matters only got worse for McConnell. Republican Senator Ron Johnson publicly accused him of “a real breach in trust” in hard-charging back-room negotiations. He threatened to withhold support for the bill. McConnell supporters argued that no matter how he handled the private negotiations, the Republican leader was dealt a difficult hand from the outset. “The majority leader is trying to keep all the frogs in the wheelbarrow and it’s a tough job but he’s doing a good job,” said Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski. And then there was Trump. As McConnell struggled, the president was in France last week celebrating Bastille Day before jetting back to the United States to attend a tournament at his New Jersey golf course. He tweeted about his excitement at the tournament, his disgust with “fake news” and an investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election. Trump boasted that the White House “is functioning perfectly” and “I have very little time for watching T.V.” Missing, some Senate aides said, was Trump traveling the country in a serious effort to bolster support for McConnell’s efforts.

Summary: मिच मैककोनेलः अमेरिकी स्वास्थ्य सेवा युद्ध के 'बीच में आदमी'


BERLIN/LONDON (Reuters) - America’s closest allies condemned U.S. President Donald Trump in unusually strong and personal terms on Wednesday after he put part of the blame for violent clashes in the state of Virginia on those marching against gun-brandishing neo-Nazis. British Prime Minister Theresa May, widely criticised at home for cultivating close ties to Trump during his first half year in office, spoke out after the president repeated his view that the white nationalists and counter-protesters were both to blame. “There’s no equivalence, I see no equivalence between those who propound fascist views and those who oppose them and I think it is important for all those in positions of responsibility to condemn far-right views wherever we hear them,” May said. The leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats said May should rescind her invitation to Trump to pay a state visit to Britain. “After. @realDonaldTrump whitewash of murder and hatred by #WhiteSupremacists why is he still on list of invited official guests to UK?” Vince Cable tweeted. Politicians in Germany, which has tough laws against hate speech and any symbols linked to the Nazis who murdered 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, expressed shock at the images of people in Charlottesville, Virginia carrying swastikas and chanting anti-Jewish slurs.  Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the “racist, far-right violence”. Her challenger in next month’s election called Trump’s comments the “confused utterances” of a dangerous man. “We should not tolerate the monstrosities coming out of the president’s mouth,” Martin Schulz told the RND newspaper group in an interview. German Justice Minister Heiko Maas, like Schulz a member of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) which rules in coalition with Merkel, accused Trump of trivialising anti-Semitism and racism. His Israeli counterpart, Ayelet Shaked, a member of the ultranationalist Jewish Home party in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, tweeted: “The neo-Nazis in the United States should be prosecuted. This was not what the American constitution was meant for.” In a heated news conference on Tuesday, Trump said there was “blame on both sides” for the violence, which culminated in the death of a 32-year-old woman, Heather Heyer, after a car crashed into anti-racist demonstrators. A 20-year-old Ohio man said to have harboured Nazi sympathies has been charged with her murder. Trump’s remarks were praised by white supremacists like David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, who applauded the president’s “honesty and courage”. But in Europe, even far-right parties that have welcomed Trump’s nationalist message, were critical of his stance. “These were white supremacists and racists. They need to be condemned in very clear terms,” said Florian Philippot, vice president of France’s National Front and the manager of Marine Le Pen’s campaign for the French presidency. (This story has been refiled to delete typo in paragraph seven)

Summary: वर्जीनिया हिंसा पर ट्रम्प के रुख ने अमेरिका के सहयोगियों को झकझोर दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump used the swearing-in ceremony of Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday to sign three executive orders, including ones targeting transnational drug cartels and those who commit crimes against law enforcement. “These dangerous times require a determined attorney general,” Trump said at an Oval Office ceremony for Sessions, who said rising crime is a “dangerous, permanent trend” in the United States and also promised to “end this lawlessness” of illegal immigration.

Summary: अटॉर्नी जनरल के शपथ लेने के बाद ट्रंप ने कार्टेलों को निशाना बनाने और अपराध करने का आदेश दिया


BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday welcomed the prospect of talks on a  grand coalition  with her Social Democrat (SPD) rivals and defended the record of the previous such government, saying it had worked well. Merkel s fourth term was cast into doubt when the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) walked out of three-way coalition talks with her conservative bloc and the Greens last Sunday, causing a political impasse in Europe s biggest economy. But on Friday, the SPD reversed a previous decision and agreed to talk to Merkel, raising the possibilities of a new  grand coalition  which has ruled Germany for the last four years, or of a minority government. Addressing party members on Saturday, Merkel argued voters had given her conservatives a mandate to rule in the Sept. 24 election which handed her party the most parliamentary seats but limited coalition options. Her conservatives bled support to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).  Europe needs a strong Germany, it is desirable to get a government in place quickly,  Merkel told a regional party meeting in northern Germany, adding, however, that her acting government could carry on day to day business.  Asking voters to go to the polls again would, I think be totally wrong,  she said. On Monday, Merkel had said she would prefer new elections to a minority government in which her party would be only held in power by others. Without even mentioning the option of a minority government, Merkel said she wanted to look ahead after the setbacks of the last week. Sounding self-assured and drawing applause during her speech, she turned her attention fully to the SPD.  Welcoming the prospect of talks with her former partner, she defended the record of the last coalition.  We worked well together,  she said, adding under the grand coalition, Germany enjoyed the strongest labor market for decades, a balanced budget and pensioners and families had benefited, she argued. President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is to host Merkel, SPD leader Martin Schulz and the leader of her conservative CSU  sister party for a meeting on Thursday. Steinmeier had exerted considerable pressure on Schulz to change course for the sake of stability in Germany. However, no one is saying things will be easy and the two former partners are already jostling over policy.  Merkel said her aims are to maintain Germany s solid finances, cut some taxes and expand the digital infrastructure.  In a nod to her CSU conservative allies, she also said she aims to limit the number of migrants entering Germany to 200,000 per year. This, however, may be hard for the SPD to swallow.  A cap, which may not be called that, breaches the constitution and the Geneva Convention. With the SPD there will be no limit put on family members who want to join asylum seekers,  SPD deputy leader Ralf Stegner told the Funke media group.  Schulz, who had until Friday rejected any deal with Merkel, said there was nothing automatic about the outcome and promised party members a vote on talks.  The SPD is split as many members fear that renewing a grand coalition would be political suicide. It scored its worst result since 1933 in the September election. Several other leading SPD members have called for other commitments, such as investment in education and homes.  Some senior SPD members have made clear that they will not let Merkel hold them hostage.  Mrs Merkel is not in a position to be setting conditions,  Malu Dreyer, premier of the state of Rhineland Palatinate, told the Trierscher Volksfreund.

Summary: मर्केल ने सोशल डेमोक्रेट्स के साथ भव्य गठबंधन की ओर इशारा किया


The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS.  The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy.  @realDonaldTrump : - While the Fake News loves to talk about my so-called low approval rating, @foxandfriends just showed that my rating on Dec. 28, 2017, was approximately the same as President Obama on Dec. 28, 2009, which was 47%...and this despite massive negative Trump coverage & Russia hoax! [0746 EST] - Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer? Should be charging MUCH MORE! [0804 EST] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR)

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ट्विटर पर ट्रम्प (29 दिसंबर)-अप्रूवल रेटिंग, अमेज़न


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia hailed a “historical turning point” in U.S.-Saudi relations after a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman highlighted the two leaders’ shared view that Iran posed a regional security threat. The meeting on Tuesday appeared to signal a meeting of the minds on many issues between Trump and Prince Mohammed, in a marked difference from Riyadh’s often fraught relationship with the Obama administration, especially in the wake of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. “This meeting is considered a historical turning point in relations between both countries and which had passed through a period of divergence of views on many issues,” a senior adviser to Prince Mohammed said in a statement. “But the meeting today restored issues to their right path and form a big change in relations between both countries in political, military, security and economic issues,” the adviser said. Saudi Arabia had viewed with unease the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, whom they felt considered Riyadh’s alliance with Washington less important than negotiating the Iran nuclear deal. Riyadh and other Gulf allies see in Trump a strong president who will shore up Washington’s role as their main strategic partner and help contain Riyadh’s adversary Iran in a region central to U.S. security and energy interests, regional analysts said. The deputy crown prince viewed the nuclear deal as “very dangerous”, the senior adviser said, adding that both leaders had identical views on “the danger of Iran’s regional expansionist activities”. The White House has said the deal was not in the best interest of the United States. Iran denies interference in Arab countries. The meeting was the first since Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration with the prince, who is leading the kingdom’s efforts to revive state finances by diversifying the economy away from a reliance on falling crude oil revenues. Under the plan, which seeks to promote the private sector and make state-owned companies more efficient, Riyadh plans to sell up to 5 percent of state oil giant Saudi Aramco in what is expected to be the world’s biggest initial public offering. The two leaders, who discussed opportunities for U.S. companies to invest in Saudi Arabia, kicked off their talks in the Oval Office posing for a picture in front of journalists. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, chief of staff Reince Priebus and strategist Steve Bannon were also present at the Oval Office meeting with Prince Mohammed. The meeting also appeared to illustrate support for some of the most contentious issues that Trump has faced since taking office on Jan. 20. On a travel ban against six Muslim-majority countries, the adviser said Prince Mohammed did not regard it as one that was aimed at “Muslim countries or Islam”. Earlier this month Trump signed a revised executive order on banning citizens from Yemen, Iran, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Libya from traveling to the United States but removed Iraq from the list, after his controversial first attempt was blocked in the court Trump’s travel ban has come under criticism for targeting citizens of several mainly Muslim countries. The senior adviser said Prince Mohammed “expressed his satisfaction after the meeting on the positive position and clarifications he heard from President Trump on his views on Islam”. The senior adviser said the leaders discussed the “successful Saudi experience of setting up a border protection system” on the Saudi-Iraq border which has prevented smuggling. Trump has vowed to start work quickly on the barrier along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border to prevent illegal immigrants and drugs from crossing to the north. Obama late last year suspended the sale of U.S.-made precision-guidance munitions to the Saudis, a reaction to thousands of civilian casualties from Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen. U.S. officials said Trump was considering ending that ban and approving the sale of guidance systems made by Raytheon Co. The State Department has approved the move, which awaits a final White House decision, the officials said. A source close to the issue, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a main topic of the meeting would be Saudi investment in the United States, which could help the U.S. president fulfill his promises of job creation. “It’s the creation of jobs through investments - President Trump wants results and statistics matter for him,” said Ingrid Naranjo, an expert in U.S.-Saudi relations. “It makes a lot of sense for the diversification strategy of Saudi to invest abroad and especially in the U.S.” Gregory Gause, a Gulf expert at Texas A&M University, said that while Saudi Arabia might find the “atmospherics” of its relations with Trump better than those with Obama, it might find less change than it hopes on key issues.  For example, he said, Trump is unlikely to mount a major, costly effort to counter Iranian influence in Iraq, or to launch a full-scale campaign to oust Syrian President Bashar al Assad, as Riyadh might wish. “I think they’re going to find rhetorically that the new administration says things and uses language they like more,” said Gause. “But I think on the ground, we’re not going to see an enormous difference.”

Summary: सऊदी उप क्राउन प्रिंस और ट्रम्प की मुलाकात एक 'महत्वपूर्ण मोड़': सऊदी सलाहकार


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan will use a meeting in southern Russia next week to discuss the Syria situation and energy cooperation, Russian news agencies cited the Kremlin as saying on Friday. The two men are due to meet in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on Nov. 13.

Summary: पुतिन और एर्दोगन सीरिया पर चर्चा करने के लिए अगले सप्ताह बैठक का उपयोग करेंगेः एजेंसियां


DENPASAR, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesian police are hunting for a U.S. citizen who escaped on Monday from an overcrowded prison on the holiday island of Bali by cutting through steel bars in a ceiling, the jail s second breakout of foreign inmates this year.  The Kerobokan prison, about 10 km (six miles) from the main tourist beaches in the Kuta area, often holds foreigners facing drug-related charges. Cristian Beasley, who was a suspect in crimes related to narcotics but had not been sentenced, escaped at 4.10 a.m. (2010 GMT Sunday), said Badung Police chief Yudith Satria Hananta.  It is thought that the prisoner escaped ... by cutting through the steel bars above the ceiling,  he said in a statement, without giving details of how Beasley escaped without being detected. Beasley, 32, from California, is believed to have then used a rope to climb down a wall before getting over a perimeter wall in an area being refurbished. Police had questioned witnesses and guards and were hunting for Beasley, Hananta said. Another American, Paul Anthony Hoffman, 57, was captured while also trying to escape, Hananta said. Representatives of Beasley and Hoffman could not immediately be reached for comment. In June, an Australian, a Bulgarian, an Indian and a Malaysian tunneled to freedom about 12 meters (13 yards) under the prison s walls. The Indian and the Bulgarian were caught soon after in neighboring East Timor, but Australian Shaun Edward Davidson and Malaysian Tee Kok King remain at large. Davidson has taunted authorities by saying he was enjoying life in various parts of the world, in purported posts on Facebook.  Kerobokan has housed a number of well-known foreign drug convicts, including Australian Schappelle Corby, whose 12-1/2-year sentence for marijuana smuggling got huge media attention. Indonesia has executed several foreign drug convicts in recent years. Indonesian prisons are often overcrowded, partly because a war on drugs led by the government of President Joko Widodo has led to a surge in the number of people locked up. As of June, Kerobokan housed 1,378 inmates, more than four times its planned capacity of 323, government data show. Prison escapes are fairly common in Indonesia, which launched an investigation this year after about 350 inmates broke out of a prison on the island of Sumatra.

Summary: बाली जेल से बाहर निकलने के बाद अमेरिकी नागरिक फरार


PNHOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday called on lawmakers from the main opposition party to defect ahead of a court ruling on whether to dissolve it, saying they could be banned from politics for five years if they left it too late. The government s move to ban the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) follows the arrest of its leader, Kem Sokha, on treason charges.  He rejects the charges as politically motivated ahead of next year s general election. Hun Sen, the world s longest serving prime minister, has held power for more than 32 years.  Western countries have called for the release of Kem Sokha and for an end to attempts to dissolve the CNRP. Hun Sen said in a message to CNRP parliamentarians and local councillors, he knew not all had been involved in Kem Sokha s alleged treason and they should take the chance to switch to his ruling Cambodian People s Party (CPP).  I want to give you this opportunity to continue in your job,  he said.  It will not only be that the party is dissolved and then the matter is finished. Maybe more than 100 people will be banned from politics for five years.  He said such a ban was likely to include all the CNRP s steering committee - meaning most of its members of parliament, around half of whom have fled Cambodia to escape arrest. No CNRP officials were immediately available for comment. Cambodia s Supreme Court is in theory independent of the government in ruling on the interior ministry s request for the CNRP to be banned, but Hun Sen has said it is  a fact  that the party will be dissolved. Cambodia s parliament has already passed a law to share out elected positions to other parties if the CNRP is dissolved. Most of the seats in parliament will go to minor parties while local councils, known as communes, will be taken over by the ruling party.

Summary: कंबोडिया के प्रधानमंत्री ने दलबदल या चेहरे को राजनीति से प्रतिबंधित किए जाने के विरोध से कहा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has for months rained withering ridicule on onetime party favorite Jeb Bush, on Sunday refused to take responsibility for the former Florida governor’s exit from the 2016 White House race. “I just don’t know what did him in,” Trump, who won South Carolina’s Republican primary election handily on Saturday, said in an interview on CNN. Trump had repeatedly made Bush the target of pointed attacks throughout his campaign for the Republican nomination to run in the Nov. 8 general election, labeling him “weak,” “low-energy” and “an embarrassment” to the Bush political dynasty. On Sunday, Trump denied any role he may have played in taking down Bush, who ended his campaign on Saturday night after a fourth-place finish in South Carolina. “Jeb fought very hard,” the billionaire businessman said. “It wasn’t his time. That’s all.” Bush, the brother of one president and the son of another, had prided himself as the only candidate to attack Trump head-on throughout the campaign and frequently accused him of lacking ideas. He appeared to take one last jab at Trump in his concession speech on Saturday, saying: “Despite what you may have heard, ideas matter. Policy matters.” Sounding less like his normally combative self, Trump on Sunday credited Bush in a pair of interviews with having fought hard in the campaign and called him “very capable.” “Those last couple of weeks he was on television so much, I was looking,  I’d say, ‘Man, I’ve never seen anything like this,’” Trump said on CNN. He did, however, chide Bush for having run “brutal” negative ads against him, saying he was “a little bit offended.” “So, you know, this is a tough business, I will tell you,” the billionaire real-estate mogul said of presidential politics. “I think real estate in Manhattan is a lot easier.”  (Reporting by Megan Cassella; Editing by 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: प्रतिद्वंद्वी बुश के जाने पर ट्रम्पः मुझे मत देखो


SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s “isolationist” foreign policy pronouncements are feeding insecurity in some Asian nations fearful of China’s growing power, and risk emboldening nationalists and authoritarians in the region. The real estate developer, who is very close to securing the Republican nomination for November’s presidential election, has with undiplomatic abandon challenged much of the status quo in U.S.-Asia relations. Overall, his comments have sounded like a death knell for the “pivot to Asia” strategy adopted by President Barack Obama five years ago. Trump has said U.S. allies like Japan and South Korea should pay more toward their defense, warned he could withdraw U.S. troops from bases in Japan, and mulled whether Japan and South Korea should have their own nuclear arms. This week he told Reuters he is willing to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which would represent a major shift in U.S. policy.  In a television interview on Friday, Trump told MSNBC that while he was open to talks, he “would never go to North Korea.”  Trump has also threatened to rein in China’s big trade surplus with the United States, saying he will threaten to impose heavy duties on Chinese goods. And Trump says he will rip up and then renegotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact agreed to by the U.S., Japan, and 10 other countries in February.  Furthermore, Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States risks undermining moderate leaders in Muslim countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh. “If he becomes president and adopts his own version of foreign policy, the U.S. will cease to be a Pacific power. That’s the end result,” said Kunihiko Miyake, a former Japanese diplomat, who served in both Beijing and Baghdad.  “It’s not that we would adopt ‘Japan First,’ but if the U.S. leaves, there will be a vacuum and … China will try to fill it,” said Miyake, research director at the Canon Institute for Global Studies. “It’s a survival issue for all allies of the United States.” Trump could, of course, lose the election to the likely Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, who is well known by many Asia policymakers.  And if he is elected he could act much differently in office. But Asian diplomats and policy advisers say that initial impressions count. Trump’s idea of making Japan and South Korea pay up rather than enjoy a cheaper ride under the U.S. security umbrella sent shudders through Tokyo and Seoul.  Trump reiterated his stance on Friday. “They have a lot of money, both of those nations,” he told MSNBC, pointing to Japan’s auto sales and South Korea’s electronics industry. “We have to get reimbursed.”  In addition, his comments about the possibility of a local nuclear deterrent fanned fears among Asian diplomats that the world could become an even more dangerous place.  “It is here that Trump is most scary,” Lalit Mansingh, a former Indian ambassador to Washington, told Reuters in New Delhi, though he also noted it may be “just election rhetoric.. Japan’s nationalist-led government has already boosted defence spending and has reinterpreted its pacifist constitution to allow its military to come to the aid of allies under attack even if Japan itself if not attacked, a major shift in Japan’s post-war security stance. “His position is causing anxiety, especially in East Asia,” said a senior lawmaker in Japan’s ruling coalition. “It is really hard to comprehend because conservatives have supported a stronger military presence and more engagement.” Mansingh said he expects China to test the foreign policy resolve of whoever occupies the White House next, and the South China Sea looms as one of the most likely flashpoints. Tensions over China’s land-building and installations on islets in the disputed waters flared on Tuesday, when two Chinese warplanes carried out what the Pentagon called an “unsafe” intercept of a U.S. military reconnaissance aircraft. “They’re building a massive fortress in the South China Sea. They’re not supposed to be doing that,” Trump told Reuters, without saying what he would do about it. At least, according to Mansingh, China’s leaders and Trump shared the mentality of dealmakers, which could help settle diplomatic wrangles before they get out of hand. Jia Qingguo, an adviser to China’s government on foreign affairs, said Trump sounds like an “isolationist” who doesn’t want the United States to become too active internationally. “So, he doesn’t sound that aggressive,” said Jia, the dean of the School of International Relations at China’s elite Peking University. “Chinese tend to think that too much so-called internationalism on the part of the U.S. is not that good.” A senior Japanese government official said Washington could lose influence in Asia if there was any perception it was softening its stance on issues like the South China Sea. “And it would be very difficult to get it back,” he warned. Mansingh says those fears are overblown as the United States’ self-interest lay in protecting access to the Pacific and Indian Oceans.  “What would American withdrawal mean? Does it want to hand over the affairs of the world to China? Would that serve anybody’s interest? I don’t think so.” There are also fears that the TPP could unravel, or become worth a lot less to Asian partners, should Trump renegotiate the pact, as he has said he wants to do. The deal has yet to be ratified by the U.S. Congress, but Obama has warned that delay could allow China to steal a march through its own proposed regional trade deal with 15 other nations.      “I think it’s hard to imagine that TPP would survive a Trump presidency,” said a top trade official in a major country in the region, who declined to be more closely identified. “‘Less intervention’ would be a small benefit compared to the massive damage to the world from a USA that becomes more isolationist and more crassly commercial under Trump,” he said.  The lack of priority Trump appears to give to issues that don’t serve his “America first” agenda could mean he’ll soft-pedal on human rights and democratic values, some critics said. That would come at a time when generals are running Thailand, a ‘strong man’ has just been elected as president of the Philippines, and Malaysia’s prime minister has silenced independent media. “Let’s hope that someone on his team realizes that respect for human rights must be a core U.S. foreign policy value and not just a reality show line,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director for Human Rights Watch’s Asia division. On the other hand, Panitan Wattanayagorn, an adviser to Thailand’s defence minister, Prawit Wongsuwon, expressed confidence that Trump wouldn’t apply pressure to countries like his. “All in all, if Trump arrives, the chances of stronger ties will be good because he would want allies,” said Panitan.

Summary: राष्ट्रपति ट्रम्प का विचार ही एशिया में कुछ लोगों को डराता है, दूसरों को बढ़ावा देता है


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday he would decide very soon whether to run for re-election next year, something he is widely expected to do and comfortably win.   Putin, 65, has been in power, either as president or prime minister, since 2000. If, as expected, he contests and wins what would be a fourth presidential term in March, he would be eligible to serve another six years until 2024. In a glitzy event in Moscow attended by young people, a host asked Putin if he would be running for re-election in March. The Russian leader, who polls regularly show enjoys a popularity rating of around 80 percent, asked the audience if they supported him running in the elections.  Yes,  the audience shouted back, applauding him loudly.   I understand that this decision must be taken in the near future and it will be taken in the near future,  Putin told the audience.   And when taking it I will of course take into account our conversation today and your reaction.

Summary: रूस के पुतिन ने कहा कि वह जल्द ही फैसला करेंगे कि वह फिर से चुनाव लड़ेंगे या नहीं


HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe agreed to resign on Sunday but his ruling ZANU-PF party did not want him to quit in front of the military, an act that would have made its intervention look like a coup, two senior political sources said on Monday.  It would have looked extremely bad if he had resigned in front of those generals. It would have created a huge amount of mess,  one senior source within ZANU-PF said. Another political source said the speech was meant to  sanitize  the military s action.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे के मुगाबे का भाषण सेना के हस्तक्षेप को साफ करने के लिए थाः सूत्र


KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - Visitors to Kirkuk in northern Iraq are greeted by an imposing statue of a Kurdish Peshmerga fighter with a gun slung over his shoulder, a reminder of tensions building in the hotly-contested city ahead of a referendum on Kurdish independence. Erected in July, the statue has come to symbolize how the Kurds want to cement their hold on oil-rich Kirkuk and other parts of the region by holding next Monday s vote. Peshmerga, which means those who confront death, are the military forces of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan. The referendum is risky, especially in Kirkuk, a multi-ethnic city also claimed by Arabs since oil was discovered there in the 1930s. The Kurdistan region produces around 600,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil.  The central government in Baghdad, Iraq s neighbors and Western powers fear the vote could divide the country and spark a wider regional conflict, after Arabs and Kurds cooperated to dislodge Islamic State from its stronghold in Mosul. Already at least one Kurd has been killed in pre-referendum clashes, and security checkpoints have been erected across the city to prevent further violence. But the Kurds say they are determined to go ahead with the vote, which, though non-binding, could trigger the process of separation in a country already divided along sectarian and ethnic lines. Iran, Turkey, the United States and Western allies oppose the vote. Some non-Kurds fear Baghdad will attempt to regain control of Kirkuk and send in Shi ite militias (PMU), also known as the Hashid al-Shaabi, stationed just outside the province.  I fear the Hashid will come and fighting will start in Kirkuk,  said Nazim Mohammed, an Arab from Mosul who fled to Kirkuk when the northern city was overrun by Islamic State. Backed by Iran, the militias fear an independent Kurdistan would split Iraq, giving them and Tehran less influence. Kirkuk, populated by Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Christians and other minorities, is one of 15 ethnically mixed areas in northern Iraq that will participate in the referendum. They are claimed by both the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government(KRG).  A decision by KRG President Massoud Barzani to include these so-called disputed territories in the plebiscite was widely interpreted as a unilateral move to consolidate Kurdish control. Critics say Kurdish intentions were already clear before the referendum was announced. Peshmerga fighters seized Kirkuk in 2014, after fleeing Iraqi security forces left its oil fields vulnerable to Islamic State militants who had just swept across northern Iraq.  The statue is dedicated to the Peshmerga and is designed to represent the appreciation of the people of Kirkuk. Tensions between the KRG and Baghdad are not new, and hinge on oil revenue. The Kurds have long accused Baghdad of failing to make budget payments to the region, while central government has opposed oil deals made by the Kurds without its consent. Nevertheless, the Kurds have been marking their territory in the run-up to the vote. Peshmerga outposts dot the area, protecting the flaming oil fields on Kirkuk s outskirts. Kurdish flags have been hoisted across the city since the spring, and now fly alongside Iraqi flags on government buildings. Dreaming of long-denied statehood since World War One, the Kurds say the are ready to fight if necessary.  Kurdistan s land belongs to the Kurdish people,  Kemal al-Kirkuki, the Kurdish military commander responsible for the front-line against Islamic State, told Reuters at his base in Dibis.  No one, not the PMU, has the right to take it ... We will ask them to leave Kurdish territory, peacefully. But we are prepared to fight if we need to.  On Monday, clashes broke out in Kirkuk after a Kurdish convoy celebrating the referendum drove by a Turkmen political party s office. A Kurd was killed, and two others were injured, security sources said.  This followed a week of escalating rhetoric between the Kurdish leadership and Baghdad, where parliament voted to reject the referendum and oust Kirkuk s Kurdish governor, Najmaddin Kareem. The conflict over the disputed territories is bitter. If the Kurdistan region of Iraq declared a break-off from Baghdad, Kirkuk would fall right on the border between the two. Kirkuk produces around one quarter of the region s oil.    If the Kurds want to press for a separation of sorts,  said Joost Hiltermann, MENA program director at the International Crisis Group,  the boundary question becomes critically important.   If Baghdad and Erbil continue to take unilateral steps,  he said,  things can only escalate . There are no reliable statistics on Kirkuk s population, where both Kurds and Arabs say they have a demographic majority; vital to legitimize their respective claims over the province.  Kirkuk was meant to have a census under the 2005 constitution, drafted two years after former Iraqi leader Saddam was toppled in the U.S.-led invasion, but it did not take place because of the risk of ethnic and religious tensions.  During Saddam s Anfal campaign waged against the Kurds in the 1980s, there was a forced  Arabisation  of disputed areas, which ejected Kurds from the province. Arabs from other parts of Iraq were then settled, taking over Kurdish homes and businesses. In 1988, Saddam caused international outrage by staging a chemical attack on the Kurdish city of Halabja which killed thousands of people. Many Arabs have been ousted since Saddam was toppled in 2003, emboldening the Kurds to reclaim large parts of the disputed territories, including Kirkuk. Displaced Kurds were provided with incentives to return, while Kurds from other areas were also moved in, angering other minorities.  Since 2003 some 600,000 Kurds have arrived, many of them are here illegally,  said Ali Mehdi Sadiq, a Turkman member of Kirkuk s local council.  Without dialogue everything is possible. We need to avoid a war engulfing the whole of Iraq.  He blamed Governor Kareem, a Kurd who lived for more than 30 years in the United States for what he called a Kurdish discrimination of minorities.  The governor said the Kurds would guarantee minorities  rights, pointing to relative stability in the Kurdistan region in contrast to Baghdad where suicide bombings are frequent. But his support for Kurdish independence is worrying minorities: he refused to sit behind an Iraqi flag during an interview, preferring the Kurdish one and said he would destroy his Iraqi passport the minute he got a Kurdish one. He shrugged off the decision by Iraq s parliament last week to sack him as  unlawful , adding:  This is a proud day for me.      Anticipating trouble ahead, some residents of Kirkuk have been stockpiling basic foods such as flour, rice and milk.  Since they announced the referendum I have hardly had any customers. The market is dead,  said 27-year-old Ali Hamza, an Arab who has a small textiles shop in the old city. Several Kurds interviewed supported the independence vote but privately said they were worried about clashes afterwards. But faced with his people s fears of clashes and economic  problems, Governor Kareem said that when taking a big step like the referendum,  anything was possible .  Nothing comes without a price.  For a graphic on Iraq's oil producing region of Kirkuk, click: here

Summary: कुर्दिस्तान की स्वतंत्रता के लिए होने वाले मतदान से पहले किर्कुक एक फ्लैशप्वाइंट के रूप में उभर रहा है


SIRNAK, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkey escalated its opposition to a Kurdish independence referendum in northern Iraq on Tuesday, training tank guns and rocket launchers across the southern border and saying the break-up of its neighbors could lead to global conflict. Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said in Ankara next Monday s vote posed a major risk and Turkey would take  every step  needed to thwart any similar steps in its mainly Kurdish southeast. Iraqi Kurdish authorities have defied growing international pressure to call off the vote, which Iraq s neighbors fear will fuel unrest among their own Kurdish populations. Western allies say it could detract from the fight against Islamic State.  A change that will mean the violation of Iraq s territorial integrity poses a major risk for Turkey,  Canikli said.  The disruption of Syria and Iraq s territorial integrity will ignite a bigger, global conflict with an unseen end.  Kurds in north Syria, like those in Iraq, have capitalized on the turmoil in both countries to consolidate a degree of autonomy. Washington has supported Syrian Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State, despite Turkish protests.  Turkish troops dug in on the southern border on Tuesday and turned their weapons toward Kurdish-run northern Iraq. Tanks and rocket launchers mounted on armored vehicles faced the Iraqi frontier, about 2 km (one mile) away. Mechanical diggers tore up agricultural fields for the army to set up positions in the flat, dry farmlands. The military drill, launched without warning on Monday, is due to last until Sept. 26, Turkish military sources said, a day after the planned referendum. A Reuters reporter saw armored vehicles carrying heavy weaponry and soldiers taking positions in specially dug areas, their weapons directed across the border. A generator and satellite dish could be seen at one location. The show of force reflects the scale of concern in Turkey, which has the largest Kurdish population in the region, that the vote could embolden the outlawed Kurdish PKK which has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey s southeast since 1984. The Turkish air force has frequently struck against PKK units operating from the mountains of northern Iraq and limited detachments of Turkish infantry have made forays across the frontier in the past. Turkey also sees itself as protector of Iraq s ethnic Turkmen minority, with particular concern about Kirkuk where Kurds have extended their control since seizing the oil city when Islamic State overwhelmed Iraqi forces in 2014. Police deployed overnight in Kirkuk to prevent any outbreak of ethnic violence, residents said. The standoff has hit the Turkish lira, which weakened beyond 3.5 to the dollar on Tuesday for the first time in four weeks.  The increasing tension before the referendum in northern Iraq continues to effect lira negatively,  Kapital FX Research Assistant Manager Enver Erkan said. Cross-border trade, however, appeared to continue. Despite the nearby military maneuvers a kilometer-long line of traffic, mostly trucks and cargo, queued to enter Iraq at the Habour border gate. Turkey s strong economic ties to the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) will weigh on any response from Ankara. The KRG pumps hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day through Turkey and has approved plans for Russian oil major Rosneft to invest in pipelines to export gas to Turkey and Europe. The military exercises came as Turkey, the central government in Baghdad and their shared neighbor Iran all stepped up protests and warnings about the independence referendum in the semi-autonomous Kurdish northern Iraq. The United States and other Western countries have also voiced concerns and asked Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani to call off the vote, citing fears the referendum could distract attention from the fight against Islamic State militants. Iraq s Supreme Federal Court ordered Barzani to suspend the vote and approved Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi s demand to consider  the breakaway of any region or province from Iraq as unconstitutional , his office said on Monday. Turkey has brought forward to Friday a cabinet meeting and a session of its national security council to consider possible action.

Summary: तुर्की ने इराक या सीरिया के टूटने पर वैश्विक संघर्ष की चेतावनी दी


(Reuters) - Republican leaders of the House of Representatives pulled legislation to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system from consideration on Friday due to a shortage of votes, despite desperate lobbying by the White House and its allies in Congress, dealing a stiff setback to President Donald Trump. DANIEL MORGAN, SENIOR PORTFOLIO MANAGER, SYNOVUS TRUST COMPANY, ATLANTA, GEORGIA: “There’s a bit of a relief rally. There were worries going into it... but it’s a mixed bag. “It does now open the door for maybe they table the whole thing and just move on, and I would think the next thing on the docket would have to be tax reform. The market, to me, is more interested in tax reform than it is in changing Obamacare. “In a way, for me, sitting on $600 million worth of investments, I think it’s great. Let’s move and get into tax reform, and then get into the infrastructure bill.” PETER JANKOVSKIS, CO-CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER, OAKBROOK INVESTMENTS LLC, LISLE, ILLINOIS: “The market is relieved it’s not going to go down to a defeat, and it’s hopeful they’ll come to some sort of agreement over the weekend. The market is hoping for an agreement as a stepping stone to additional agreements.” “News report suggested that the likely outcome was they were going to lose. I would think the expectations are that they’re pulling it so they can work on it.” “The last few days, market has sort of traded on the back foot on anticipation of the vote that would happen at some point this week. Generally, risk sentiment has been undermined off of that, especially with this steady drip of news that indicated lacking support for the bill. And now, I think, it sort of lifted that uncertainty, at least temporarily, for the rest of the day. Maybe just lifting the uncertainty premium has markets breathing a sigh of relief for now.” PARESH UPADHYAYA, DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY STRATEGY, PIONEER INVESTMENTS, BOSTON: “The initial market interpretation is a positive sign. It seems like it is taking that Trump wants to instead of sinking it, he wants to give it another shot. It seems like they think he is working to get something on his agenda to be passed by Congress. Or perhaps it’s a sign that if healthcare reform is shelved, Trump will focus on tax reform. It’s more a knee jerk reaction.  “There are still a lot of hard questions regardless to tax reform. He can’t force people to change their vote on social media. Good old fashion politicking is needed to build consensus.  “If this stronger dollar has legs, it depends on the next step. If there is a pivot to taxes from healthcare, the market has to see the plan.” RAHUL SHAH, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, IDEAL ASSET MANAGEMENT, NEW YORK: “From an investor viewpoint, it shows that Trump will not be able to easily pass his agenda. That being said, healthcare is more difficult to pass than tax cuts and the infrastructure bill that he’s proposing. “In one sense that’s a negative, but on the other hand it also might give some relief to investors who are concerned about some of Trump’s more controversial proposals like increased tariffs and a border adjustment tax.  “You could see this as a glass half empty or a glass half-full, gridlock is not something that’s unheard of on Wall Street, so I think stocks should be OK going forward.” “I think the most important thing is that this changes the perception of the relationship between Trump and Congress. For the last few months the assumption has been that Congress would do whatever the Trump plan called for, and that apparently is not going to be the case.” PETER KENNY, SENIOR MARKET STRATEGIST, GLOBAL MARKETS ADVISORY GROUP, NEW YORK: “I don’t think it’s going to have a huge impact on equities, although it may have more of an impact on biotech and healthcare.  “This is now an indication that the president’s agenda is probably going to be more ambitious than Congress can manage. It is probably going to mean that equity markets are going to have to factor in a degree of dysfunction that investors were hoping they wouldn’t have to. Which means it will likely have a muted impact on equity performance moving forward.  “There is very little on the horizon as of right now, as a result of this thing being pulled, that is going to fuel a significant move higher in prices. This is largely going to homogenize any sort of volatility moving forward and is probably going to be a cap on any near-term performance in terms of the upside. “The fact this bill, which the President has said flat-out he will make it work for all Americans in general, can’t pass is an indication this agenda is going to be more ambitious than this Congress can work with. This doesn’t even include the Democrats. It is not just divided between Democrats and Republicans, it is divided between progressives, Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians. It is an indication that investors should not expect the kind of velocity in terms of agenda accomplishments they were expecting when he was elected.” MARGARET PATEL, SENIOR PORTFOLIO MANAGER, WELLS FARGO ASSET MANAGEMENT, BOSTON: “It looked like the market was worried that the Trump agenda would get completely bogged down in the healthcare issue, and now that they’ve taken the healthcare issue off the table, I think the market is more optimistic that they can do other things that are more doable that are not so complicated, such as regulatory reform and lowering taxes. It does seem like a positive move to shelve an issue that’s so complex and very expensive no matter what the plan, move on to something that is a little bit easier, which would be lowering taxes.” BRIAN BATTLE, DIRECTOR OF TRADING, PERFORMANCE TRUST CAPITAL PARTNERS, CHICAGO: “It didn’t pass and it didn’t fail so any conjecture about the ultimate meaning is premature. President Trump is getting a lesson in varsity Washington politics.” STOCKS: S&P 500 pares losses to end session down fractionally; Dow ends down 0.29 percent; Nasdaq ends up 0.19 percent BONDS: 2- and 10-year Treasury yields rise from session lows FOREX: The dollar index edges up by gains against the euro and yen

Summary: तत्काल दृश्यः रिपब्लिकन ने ओबामाकेयर निरसन विधेयक को वापस लिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former U.S. National Security Agency employee pleaded guilty on Friday to illegally taking classified information outside the spy agency that an intelligence official said was later stolen from his home computer by Russian hackers. Nghia Hoang Pho, who worked in the NSA’s elite hacking unit, retained U.S. government documents containing top-secret national defense information between 2010 and March 2015, the Justice Department said. Pho, a 67-year-old U.S. citizen born in Vietnam, faces up to 10 years in prison. He is not being held by authorities as he awaits his sentencing, which is scheduled for April 6, 2018, in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. A U.S. intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Pho was the same NSA employee who had been identified in media reports for using Kaspersky Lab antivirus software on his home computer. Some U.S. officials have said software from the Moscow-based company allowed Russian intelligence agencies to pilfer sensitive secrets from the United States through Pho’s computer.  The Department of Homeland Security in September ordered federal agencies to start removing Kaspersky software from their computers. U.S. officials have said the firm either has ties to Russian intelligence or is forced to share information held on its servers with Russian officials. Kaspersky has repeatedly denied the allegations but acknowledged its software in 2014 took NSA code for a hacking tool from a customer’s computer before its chief executive, Eugene Kaspersky, ordered the code destroyed. The court documents do not appear to make mention of Russian intelligence agencies or Kaspersky Lab. The connection was first reported by the New York Times. The intelligence official declined to comment on whether  Pho knew the software he was using at home was vulnerable. Pho is at least the third NSA employee or contractor to be charged within the past two years on counts of improperly taking classified information from the agency, breaches that have prompted criticism of the secretive NSA. A federal grand jury indicted former NSA contractor Harold Martin in February on charges alleging he spent up to 20 years stealing up to 50 terabytes of highly sensitive government material from the U.S. intelligence community, which were hoarded at his home. In June another NSA contractor, Reality Winner, 25, was charged with leaking classified material about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to a news outlet. She pleaded not guilty. And in 2013, former contractor Edward Snowden pilfered secrets about NSA’s surveillance programs and shared them with journalists. He now lives in Moscow. Pho, of Ellicott City, Maryland, took both physical and digital documents that contained “highly classified information of the United States,” including information labeled as “top secret,” according to court records unsealed Friday. He was aware the documents contained sensitive information and kept them at his residence in Maryland, the records said. Asked for comment, Pho’s attorney, Robert Bonsib, said, “Any conversations regarding this case will be made in the courtroom during the sentencing.” He declined to comment further. Officials at the NSA and other U.S. intelligence agencies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The NSA, whose main mission is gathering and analyzing foreign communications for potential security threats, is based at Fort Meade, Maryland.

Summary: Ex-U.S. एन. एस. ए. कर्मचारी वर्गीकृत दस्तावेज़ लेने के लिए अपराध स्वीकार करता है


PARIS (Reuters) - The United States and Israel announced on Thursday they were quitting the U.N. s cultural agency UNESCO, after Washington accused it of anti-Israeli bias. The withdrawal of the United States, which is meant to provide a fifth of UNESCO s funding, is a major blow for the Paris-based organization, founded after World War Two to help protect cultural and natural heritage around the world. UNESCO is best known for designating World Heritage Sites such as the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria and the Grand Canyon National Park.  This decision was not taken lightly, and reflects U.S. concerns with mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias,  State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement. Hours later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would quit too, calling the U.S. decision  brave and moral . UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova expressed her disappointment:  At the time when conflicts continue to tear apart societies across the world, it is deeply regrettable for the United States to withdraw from the United Nations agency promoting education for peace and protecting culture under attack,  she said.  This is a loss to the United Nations family. This is a loss for multilateralism.  Washington has already withheld its funding for UNESCO since 2011, when the body admitted Palestine as a full member. The United States and Israel were among just 14 of 194 members that voted against admitting the Palestinians. Washington s arrears on its $80 million annual dues since then are now over $500 million. Although Washington supports a future independent Palestinian state, it says this should emerge out of peace talks and it considers it unhelpful for international organizations to admit Palestine until negotiations are complete. In recent years, Israel has repeatedly complained about what it says is the body taking sides in disputes over cultural heritage sites in Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories.  Today is a new day at the U.N., where there is price to pay for discrimination against Israel,  Israel s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon said. Netanyahu told world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly last month that UNESCO was promoting  fake history  after it designated Hebron and the two adjoined shrines at its heart - the Jewish Tomb of the Patriarchs and the Muslim Ibrahimi Mosque - as a  Palestinian World Heritage Site in Danger.      An Arab-backed UNESCO resolution last year condemned Israeli s policies at religious sites in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Under UNESCO rules, the U.S. withdrawal will become effective as of the end of December 2018. Three diplomats had told Reuters earlier on Thursday of the impending decision. The organization, which employs around 2,000 people worldwide, most of them based in Paris, has struggled for relevance as it becomes increasingly hobbled by regional rivalries and a lack of money. UNESCO, whose full name is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, is in the process of selecting a new chief, whose priority will be to revive its fortunes. The U.S. move underscores the scepticism expressed by President Donald Trump about the need for the U.S. to remain engaged in multi-lateral bodies. The president has touted an  America First  policy, which puts U.S. economic and national interests ahead of international commitments. Since Trump took office, the United States has abandoned the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks and withdrawn from the Paris climate deal. Washington is also reviewing its membership of the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, which it also accuses of being anti-Israel.  The absence of the United States or any large country with a lot of power is a loss. It s not just about money, it s promoting ideals that are vital to countries like the United States, such as education and culture,  a UNESCO-based diplomat said, warning that others could follow. For differing reasons, Britain, Japan and Brazil are among states that have yet to pay their dues for 2017. Russia s former envoy to UNESCO told RIA news agency the agency was better off without the Americans.  In recent years, they ve been of no use for this organization,  Eleanora Mitrofanova said.  Since 2011 they have practically not been paying to the budget of this organization... They decided to exit - this is absolutely in line with Trump s general logic today.  After four days of secret balloting to pick a new UNESCO chief, Qatar s Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari qualified for the Friday runoff. France s Audrey Azoulay and Egypt s Moushira Khattab were tied in second. One will be eliminated after another vote by 58-member Executive Council on Friday. If the two finalists end level, they draw lots. The election has exposed deep rivalries between Qatar and Egypt that has its roots in the crisis engulfing Qatar and its Gulf Arab neighbors which have severed diplomatic, trade and travel ties with Doha after accusing it of sponsoring hardline Islamist groups, a charge Qatar denies.

Summary: अमेरिका, इज़राइल ने पक्षपात का हवाला देते हुए संयुक्त राष्ट्र की विरासत एजेंसी को छोड़ दिया


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Democratic lawmakers in the Illinois Senate on Tuesday voted in favor of a budget and tax package that includes hikes to income and sales taxes in a go-it-alone effort to break the state’s long-running budget impasse eight days before the end of the legislative session. Illinois is limping toward the June 30 end of its second straight fiscal year without a complete budget due to gridlock between Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and Democrats who control the state legislature. The development is not necessarily a breakthrough, however, as the House remains non-committal on the measures and Rauner has said he will not support them without certain conditions. The package of revenue and appropriations bills would raise income tax from 3.75 percent to 4.95 percent and corporate tax from 5.25 percent to 7 percent. The income tax hike would generate an estimated $4.4 billion annually and the corporate income tax increase would generate around $514 million annually, according to figures provided by Illinois’ Senate Democrats. The budget measure allocates $37.3 billion in spending from the state’s General Revenue Fund, a figure that matches the one proposed by Rauner. The balanced budget removes a $405 million in previously proposed cuts to Medicaid.  “It is time for us to save the state,” Democratic state Senator Toi Hutchinson said on the Senate floor on Tuesday before the votes.  The bills now move to the Democrat-controlled House where it is unclear if they will garner enough support.  The measures would be “thoughtfully considered,” Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan said in a statement on Tuesday evening.  Holding the bills from the House until after May 31, the final day of the legislature, triggers a supermajority requirement, which means Republicans would have to approve them in order to advance the bills to Rauner. But Rauner and other Republicans said on Tuesday they would not support the bills because they do not address property tax relief.  “Let me be clear, to get my signature, any agreement must include real property tax relief,” Rauner said on Twitter. Illinois, the country’s fifth-largest state, is immersed in one of the most politically turbulent eras in its 199-year history due in large part because of its ongoing fiscal woes.   The state’s backlog of unpaid bills hit nearly $14.4 billion on Tuesday, according to the state comptroller’s office. Rauner is also facing a number of high-profile Democratic challengers in next year’s election.

Summary: इलिनोइस सीनेट डेमोक्रेट्स ने बजट योजना पारित की, सदन में बाधाएं देखी गईं


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday said he wanted to decide quickly lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s decision to end a program that shielded from deportation children brought to the United States illegally by their parents. President Donald Trump this month decided to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, in March 2018. Since it was authorized in 2012 by President Barack Obama, the program has provided protection from deportation and the right to work legally to nearly 800,000 young people. Several states, organizations and individuals have filed lawsuits seeking to protect DACA recipients known as Dreamers.  At a hearing in San Francisco federal court, U.S. District Judge William Alsup grouped four of those cases together, including a lawsuit filed by California’s attorney general and six individual Dreamers. Legal briefs for many of the issues could be finished by December, he said. “I don’t like the idea that we’re fiddling while Rome burns and then suddenly the program is expired,” Alsup said. The legal claims in all of the cases are similar: That the Trump administration did not follow proper administrative procedure in rescinding DACA, and that making enforcement promises to a group of people, only to revoke them, violates due process. The Trump administration has said it is ending DACA because Obama overstepped his constitutional authority when he bypassed Congress and created the DACA program unilaterally. Trump called on Congress to enact a law to protect DACA recipients and last week angered some of his fellow Republicans by negotiating with top congressional Democratic leaders on possible legislation.  During the 2016 presidential election, Trump ran on a hardline immigration platform, promising to end DACA and strengthen border protections to increase jobs for U.S. workers. Dreamers with work permits that expire before March can apply to renew them for another two years if they do so before Oct. 5. The Department of Homeland Security might extend that date. In court on Thursday, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate said the government still had not made a decision on the deadline.  Shumate also said the Trump administration has not changed Obama-era restrictions about when a Dreamer’s personal information can be shared with other agencies for immigration enforcement purposes.

Summary: अमेरिकी न्यायाधीश का लक्ष्य डी. ए. सी. ए. पर मुकदमों का शीघ्र निर्णय लेना है


KABUL (Reuters) - Human rights activists are urging Afganistan s President Ashraf Ghani to expand anti-torture laws enacted months ago to allow victims abused by security forces to seek restitution and compensation. A  Redress Annex  attached to the anti-torture law would allow victims to take the government to civil court, something not currently allowed under the law, say activists. The annex has been drafted and its backers hope Ghani will sign a decree making it an official part of the law. A spokesman for Ghani s office did not respond to requests for comment. As of now, it is up to the government to investigate and prosecute members of its own security forces who are accused of torture, something activists and investigators say is rare.  The pervasiveness of torture in Afghanistan makes its criminalization and the prosecution of alleged torturers an urgent priority,  Human Rights Watch senior researcher Patricia Gossman wrote in a post calling for the annex to be enacted.  But the government also needs to enshrine in law the rights of torture victims to redress for their suffering.  If prosecutors delay,  a compensation system would create a new avenue for holding the government accountable,  she said.    Human rights investigators have praised recent moves by Ghani s administration to criminalize torture, but at a practical level reports of torture continue to be widespread. In April, a U.N. report said measures by the government had failed to reduce torture, with nearly 40 percent of conflict-related detainees interviewed by the investigators reporting that they had been tortured or mistreated by Afghan security forces, mostly the police and intelligence services. Among the methods described in the report were severe beatings to the body and soles of the feet with sticks, plastic pipes or cables, electric shocks, including to the genitals, prolonged suspension by the arms, and suffocation. Allowing victims to sue in civil court would ensure that they receive compensation and create a public record of torture cases, said Shaharzad Akbar, a civil society activist who works on anti-torture causes.  Governments across the world are hesitant to prosecute their employees, so redress creates a civil mechanism for the public to hold government accountable,  she said.  This leads to an internal conversation in the government about the responsibility of government entities to prevent torture.

Summary: यातना पीड़ितों को अफगान सरकार पर मुकदमा करने की अनुमति देने के लिए नए कानून की आवश्यकताः कार्यकर्ता


SEOUL (Reuters) - The South Korean army said on Wednesday it conducted a successful air-to-air missile firing drill from Apache helicopters which was designed to respond to  any provocation from the enemy . It was the first time the South Korean army test-fired Stinger missiles from Apache attack helicopters, which were introduced to the army in May last year, the South s army forces said in a statement. The statement did not mention whether the drill was conducted specifically to address North Korean provocations.

Summary: दक्षिण कोरियाई सेना का कहना है कि उसने सफल हेलीकॉप्टर मिसाइल अभ्यास किया


KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Potential witnesses to the multi-billion dollar scandal at 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) are afraid to speak with U.S. investigators as they fear for their safety, the Federal Bureau of Investigation says. A total of $4.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB by high-level officials of the fund and their associates, according to dozens of civil lawsuits filed by the U.S Justice Department in the past two years. 1MDB is at the center of money-laundering probes in at least six countries, including the United States, Switzerland and Singapore. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak set up 1MDB in 2009 and served as chairman of its advisory board until last year. He has denied any wrongdoing. The Prime Minister s office and 1MDB did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the FBI claims. In a federal court filing in Los Angeles, the FBI requested that the names of its informants in the case be kept secret, after many expressed concerns of retaliation if they were found to have been in contact with the U.S. government. Individuals otherwise willing to provide information on the case have also told investigators that they were afraid that they would  place the safety and security of both themselves and their families at serious risk , according to a declaration in the filing by FBI agent special agent Robert Heuchling. The agent said identifying witnesses could result in intimidation or threaten their safety, citing Malaysian news reports of local officials and politicians who have been arrested for purportedly disclosing information linked to 1MDB. The agent cited Malaysian press reports from Aug 30 that said the driver of former Malaysian Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail was shot in public as a possible warning against assisting the U.S government in the case. Abdul Gani had led investigations on 1MDB until he was replaced in 2015. Last month, the U.S. Justice Department asked for a stay on its civil lawsuits seeking to seize more than $1 billion in assets allegedly bought with stolen 1MDB funds because it was conducting a related criminal probe. The lawsuits filed by the department allege that the funds were stolen in four phases. The lawsuits say those involved included Malaysian financier Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, Najib s stepson Riza Aziz, and Khadem al Qubaisi, the former managing director of Abu Dhabi s International Petroleum Investment Co. The trusts holding the assets on behalf of Low, Aziz, al Qubaisi and their families have opposed the request to put the civil proceedings on hold. The Low trusts have asked the United States to provide the identities of witnesses, sources of evidence, and thousands of documents that are relevant to the criminal investigation, the FBI said. The Justice Department has sought to seize a total of about $1.7 billion in assets that it said were bought with misappropriated 1MDB funds. The lawsuits also claim that $681 million in 1MDB funds found its way into the personal accounts of so-called Malaysian Official 1, who Malaysian and U.S. officials have identified as Najib. He was cleared of any wrongdoing in a Malaysian investigation. Low did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the FBI filing and he has previously denied any wrongdoing in the 1MDB case, saying that the Justice Department s actions were  a further example of global overreach in pursuit of a deeply flawed case.

Summary: एफ. बी. आई. का कहना है कि मलेशिया के 1एम. डी. बी. की अमेरिकी जांच में गवाहों को सुरक्षा का डर है


(Reuters) - Hurricane Irma was about 110 miles (175 km) southeast of Key West, Florida, and heavy squalls carrying tornadoes were sweeping across south Florida, the National Hurricane Center said on Saturday.  The storm had maximum sustained winds 120 miles per hour (195 kilometers per hour). The center said the core of Irma will continue to move near the north coast of Cuba for next few hours and should be near the Florida Keys on Sunday morning.

Summary: इरमा से दक्षिण फ्लोरिडा में बवंडर के साथ भारी आंधीः एन. एच. सी.


BERLIN (Reuters) - Police raided apartments across Germany on Tuesday, hunting for evidence on anti-capitalist protesters who clashed with officers during July s Group of 20 leaders summit in Hamburg. Officers searched 23 properties believed to be used by  Black Bloc  anti-capitalist group in eight German states, the Hamburg force said. They seized 26 computers and 36 mobile phones, but made no arrests.  Around  200 police officers were hurt in July in scuffles with the left-wing group, named after its members  black hoods and masks.  Police described how 150-200 people separated themselves off from peaceful marches, donned scarves, masks and dark glasses, then grabbed stones from the pavement and projectiles from building sites to hurl at police.  We are talking about a violent mob, acting together ... Whoever participates in this is, in our view, making themselves culpable,  Jan Hieber, head of the police Special Commission, told reporters.  The militant action was not accidental. There must have been a degree of planning and agreement,  he said.   Police said nearly 600 officers raided properties in states from Hamburg and Berlin to western North Rhine-Westphalia and southern Baden-Wuerttemberg.  They also carried out searches in the southern city of Stuttgart and Goettingen in northern Germany - home to well-known centers of left-wing activism.

Summary: जी20 दंगाइयों की तलाश में जर्मन पुलिस ने फ्लैटों पर छापा मारा


CAIRO (Reuters) - Supporters of Islamic State mocked U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to deny entry to citizens of seven Muslim- majority countries, saying it would fail to stop attacks in the United States and help win new militant recruits instead.  “Your decision will do nothing. Attacks will come at you from inside America, from Americans born in America with American parents and grandparents,” one Islamic State supporter posted on Telegram, an encrypted messaging app. In a move he said would help protect the United States from terrorists, Trump signed an order on Friday suspending the entry of people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for at least 90 days. Admission of all refugees was halted for four months, and for Syrians indefinitely. The sweeping travel curbs took effect immediately, wreaking havoc for would-be travellers with passports from the seven countries and prompting an international outcry. Islamic State, which has been fighting military assaults on several fronts in its heartlands of northern Syria and Iraq, has made no formal comment on Trump’s ban. But some sympathisers took to social media to pour scorn on immigration restrictions they said would serve Islamic State’s cause.  “Trump bans Muslims from entering America and kills them in Yemen, Iraq and Syria, then threatens them ... the wretch does not know he presents an invaluable service to Islamic State,” a supporter calling himself Salem al-Mosuly wrote on Twitter.  An Islamist channel on the messaging app Telegram called “Scholars of Haq”, monitored by U.S. monitoring service SITE, asked whether Trump’s policies meant he was currently the best “caller to Islam” - someone who attracts new believers. Of the first 48 users to respond, 34 answered that he was, according to SITE. SITE quoted one respondent, Abu Magrebi, as saying: “What Trump has done has clearly revealed the truth, and harsh reality behind the American government’s hatred towards Muslims.” “What is Trump doing to his country? He just become president and already people (are) protesting against his policy, and worldwide countries criticising him. Trump will bring American down God willing,” Abu Magrebi wrote in another post monitored by SITE. By Monday morning, the Scholars of Haq channel had been taken down, along with several other channels on which Islamist militants had posted responses on Sunday. Other Islamic State supporters mocked an order issued by Trump on Sunday requiring his joint chiefs of staff give him a plan, in the next 30 days, to defeat the militant group.   “The Crusader Trump has made himself an unthinking Pharaoh. The despicable Crusader forgets the reckless utterances of Bush Junior and the mule Obama before him. They did not succeed and by the grace of God we will rub his nose in the mud as we did his predecessors,” wrote user Turjman Al Asawirti on Telegram.

Summary: जिहादियों ने ट्रम्प के यात्रा प्रतिबंध का मजाक उड़ाया, और हमले करने का संकल्प लिया


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan formally decided on Tuesday it would expand its ballistic missile defense system with U.S.-made ground-based Aegis radar stations and interceptors in response to a growing threat from North Korean rockets. A proposal to build two Aegis Ashore batteries was approved by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe s Cabinet. The sites without the missiles will likely cost at least $2 billion and are not likely to be operational until 2023 at the earliest, sources familiar with the plan told Reuters earlier.  North Korea s nuclear missile development poses a new level of threat to Japan and as we have done in the past we will ensure that we are able to defend ourselves with a drastic improvement in ballistic missile defense,  Japanese Minister of Defence Itsunori Onodera told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.  The decision to acquire the ground version of the Aegis missile-defense system, which is already deployed on Japanese warships, was widely expected. North Korea on Nov. 29 tested a new, more powerful ballistic missile that it says can hit major U.S. cities including Washington, and fly over Japan s current defense shield. That rocket reached an altitude of more than 4,000 km (2,485 miles), well above the range of interceptor missiles on Japanese ships operating in the Sea of Japan. North Korea says its weapons programs are necessary to counter U.S. aggression.  The new Aegis stations may not, however, come with a powerful radar, dubbed Spy-6, which is being developed by the United States.  Without it, Japan will not be able to fully utilize the extended range of a new interceptor missile, the SM-3 Block IIA, which cost about $30 million each.    A later upgrade, once the U.S. military has deployed Spy-6 on its ships around 2022, could prove a costly proposition for Japan as outlays on new equipment squeeze its military budget. Initial funding will be ring-fenced in the next defense budget beginning in April, but no decision has been made on the radar, or the overall cost, or schedule, of the deployment, a Ministry of Defence official said at a press briefing. Japan s military planners also evaluated the U.S.-built THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system before deciding on Aegis Ashore.  Separately, Minister of Defence Itsunori Onodera said this month Japan would acquire medium-range cruise missiles it can launch from its F-15 and F-35 fighters at sites in North Korea, in a bid to deter any attack.  The purchase of what will become the longest-range munitions in Japan s military arsenal is controversial because it renounced the right to wage war against other nations in its post-World War Two constitution.

Summary: जापान जमीन पर आधारित एजिस बैटरियों के साथ बैलिस्टिक मिसाइल रक्षा का विस्तार करेगा


SINGAPORE/SEOUL (Reuters) - A series of recent cyber attacks has netted North Korean hackers millions of dollars in virtual currencies like bitcoin, with more attacks expected as international sanctions drive the country to seek new sources of cash, researchers say. North Korea s government-backed hackers have been blamed for a rising number of cyber attacks, including the so-called WannaCry cyber attack that crippled hospitals, banks and other companies across the globe this year. Analysts say the explosive growth in the value of bitcoin makes it and other  cryptocurrencies  an attractive target for North Korea, which has become increasingly isolated under international sanctions imposed over its nuclear weapons and missile programs.  Bitcoin was trading at over $19,104 per bitcoin at one point on Tuesday, up from less than $1,000 at the beginning of 2017, according to Coinmarketcap.com.    Researchers in South Korea, which hosts some of the world s busiest virtual currency exchanges and accounts for 15 to 25 percent of world bitcoin trading on any given day, say attacks this year on exchanges like Bithumb, Coinis, and Youbit have the digital fingerprints of hackers from North Korea. The researchers  findings have not been independently verified. North Korea has rejected accusations that it has been involved in hacking. A spokesman for South Korea s Unification Ministry, which handles North Korean affairs, said on Monday the government was considering  countermeasures , including more sanctions, over the cyber attacks. Representatives of Bithumb and Coinis declined to comment. On Monday, a Youbit spokeswoman told Reuters the company had not been targeted by North Korean hackers, and on Tuesday the company announced it had suffered another cyber attack that cost it 17 percent of its assets, forcing the exchange to halt operations and file for bankruptcy. The hackers behind the second attack were not identified, but one cyber security researcher, who said he was not authorized to speak about the matter as it was being investigated, said there were similarities between the Youbit hack reported on Tuesday and the earlier attack on the company, which has been linked to North Korea. Another researcher, who worked with Youbit after the first hack in April, said the company has since experienced a consistent string of attacks that used malicious code previously used by North Korea. South Korea s intelligence service reported that some 7.6 billion won ($7 million) worth of cryptocurrencies were stolen in those previous attacks on multiple exchanges, according to South Korea s Chosun Ilbo newspaper. But that amount could now be worth about 90 billion Korean won ($82 million), Moonbeom Park, a researcher at the Korea Internet and Security Agency, told Reuters. Malicious code used in attacks over the summer was  virtually identical  to previous attacks connected to North Korea, he said. The attacks this year began by targeting the companies themselves, stealing customers  personal information, including names and email addresses, Park said. Some of those customers were then targeted with so-called spearphishing emails - infected emails designed to look as if they were from South Korea s taxation agency, the Korean National Tax Service, he said. Other researchers said the attackers had impersonated other official bodies. The emails told the recipient that the agency was about to conduct a tax investigation of the user.  An attached document, however, was a Korean-language file infected with a  Trojan Horse  program that would exploit a vulnerability in the Hanword Korean-language word processing software to allow the hackers to remotely control the user s computer, Park said. From there, the attackers would access the user s bitcoin wallet either on the computer, or on the bitcoin exchange s server, he said. Other researchers said the exchanges were also attacked using fake email accounts. Cristiana Brafman Kittner, principal analyst at the cybersecurity firm FireEye, said she could not confirm whether North Korea had actually stolen any virtual currencies, but said hackers linked to it had targeted  multiple exchanges  over the past six to nine months.  We believe that some of the criminal activity we are observing originating from North Korea is a result of the regime looking for alternative sources of revenue,  she said.  North Korean cyber threat actors present an immediate risk to the financial services sector worldwide.

Summary: बहु-चरणीय साइबर हमलों ने उत्तर कोरिया को आभासी मुद्राओं में लाखों का लाभ दिलायाः शोधकर्ता


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Sunday condemned what she called the “apparent terrorist attacks” in Minnesota, New Jersey and New York.  The three attacks on Saturday involved a stabbing in a Minnesota mall that wounded nine people, a bombing in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood that injured 29 and a pipe bomb explosion in New Jersey.

Summary: क्लिंटन ने न्यू जर्सी, न्यूयॉर्क, मिनेसोटा में 'स्पष्ट आतंकवादी हमलों' की निंदा की


HENNIKER, N.H. (Reuters) - Campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination took a nasty turn on Wednesday with billionaire businessman Donald Trump accusing rival Ted Cruz of fraud as the field of candidates narrowed ahead of next week’s New Hampshire primary. Rand Paul, a U.S. senator from Kentucky with a libertarian philosophy, pulled out of the Republican race. Conservative Rick Santorum also exited the race on Wednesday and endorsed U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida. Both Paul and Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, did poorly in Monday’s Iowa caucuses, which were won by Cruz, with Trump and Rubio finishing second and third. The caucuses were the first of the state-by-state nominating contests ahead of the Nov. 8 election to replace Democratic President Barack Obama.  Trump, a real estate mogul and former reality TV star, went on Twitter on Wednesday to accuse the conservative U.S. senator from Texas of stealing his victory in Iowa. Cruz’s team hit back by telling Trump to seek help for addiction to the social media site. The two men are going head-to-head for voters in New Hampshire, where Cruz’s evangelical Christian credentials will not likely be as helpful as they were in Iowa. Opinion polls show Trump with a roughly 20-point lead in New Hampshire before next Tuesday’s primary.                         As the New Hampshire race heats up, the Democratic presidential contenders will face off later on Wednesday in a town hall-style event hosted by CNN. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton narrowly beat Bernie Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, in Iowa.  Trump called for the nullification of Cruz’s Iowa victory or a new vote in the state. “Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it,” Trump said in a series of tweets. “That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad!” “Oh that voter fraud, you know, these politicians are brutal,” Trump said later at a rally in Little Rock, Arkansas. “They are a bunch of dishonest cookies, I want to tell you.” Trump referred to an email that Cruz’s campaign sent on Monday that implied another Republican candidate, Ben Carson, was about to drop out of the race and that his Iowa backers should be urged to vote for the Texan instead. Cruz later apologized for the email. Trump also accused Cruz’s team of sending out a mailer designed to look like an official electoral document to scare Iowa voters into turning out at the caucuses. The accusations were the latest aggressive tactic from Trump, who has courted controversy with attacks on other candidates and by urging a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States and branding Mexican immigrants as criminals. Obama visited a mosque near Baltimore on Wednesday, declaring that attacks on Islam were an attack on all faiths, in a move to counter rhetoric from Trump and other Republican candidates that have alienated Muslims. The Cruz campaign said Trump’s complaint was a cry for attention after the senator came from behind in the polls to win on Monday. A Cruz spokesman suggested he seek help for “Twitter addiction.” “It is no surprise that Donald is throwing yet another temper-tantrum, or if you like, yet another Trumpertantrum,” Cruz said. “I understand that Donald finds it very hard to lose … but at the end of the day, the Iowa people spoke.” Cruz won support in Iowa from much of the same conservative Christian constituency that helped Santorum to victory in the Iowa caucuses during the 2012 presidential campaign. But Santorum failed to take off in the 2016 race. He said on Fox News he was suspending his run and called Rubio a “born leader.” The endorsement came as Rubio came under attack by rivals seeking to curry favor in New Hampshire. Rubio said he looked forward to teaming up with Santorum. “We want to use him as often as he’s willing to work for us,” Rubio said. Earlier on Wednesday, Paul became the second Republican to drop out of the race since the Iowa caucuses, after former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.  (Additional reporting by Amy Tennery in New York, Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey and Eric Beech in Washington and Roberta Rampton in Maryland; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Bill Trott and Peter Cooney) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters’ editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस के लिए रिपब्लिकन प्रचार अभियान कम हो गया क्योंकि क्षेत्र संकीर्ण हो गया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton promised on Monday to bring the “full weight of the law” against people who kill police officers if she becomes the next U.S. president after two recent episodes of gunmen slaying police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge. Clinton, the presumptive Democratic candidate ahead of a Nov. 8 election, made the promise in a speech in Cincinnati at the annual convention of the civil rights group the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “Anyone who kills a police officer and anyone who helps must be held accountable,” Clinton said. “As president, I will bring the full weight of the law to bear to make sure those who kill police officers are brought to justice.”  The penalties for killing a police officer are rightly more severe than those for killing a civilian because police are symbols of the rule of law, she said. Clinton’s remarks come among heighten tensions between police forces and many black and Latino Americans, who have been rallying in protests across the country against a spate of police killings of black men, often unarmed, during encounters. A black former soldier killed five police officers during one such protest in Dallas, Texas, on July 7. On Sunday, another black former U.S. Marine sergeant killed three police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Summary: राष्ट्रपति पद की उम्मीदवार क्लिंटन ने पुलिस हत्यारों पर मुकदमा चलाने का वादा किया