UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in called on Thursday for the North Korean nuclear crisis to be handled in a stable manner, so that peace was not destroyed. Moon told the U.N. General Assembly sanctions were needed to bring Pyongyang to the negotiating table and force it to give up its nuclear weapons, but Seoul was not seeking North Korea s collapse and the international community was ready to help the country if it stood on the right side of history. In the meantime, Moon said all countries must strictly adhere to U.N. sanctions on North Korea and impose tougher steps in the event of new provocations by Pyongyang.

Summary: दक्षिण कोरिया के मून का कहना है कि उत्तर कोरिया के संकट से 'स्थिर' तरीके से निपटा जाना चाहिए


BEIJING (Reuters) - China will support Interpol, raising the profile and leadership of the global police cooperation agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Tuesday at the opening of Interpol s general assembly in Beijing, state media reported. Last year, Interpol elected a senior Chinese public security official, Vice Public Security Minister Meng Hongwei, as its president, prompting rights groups to ask whether Beijing could try and use the position to go after dissidents abroad. Xi said China s stability was just as much its contribution to the world as its economic development, and that it firmly supported the international struggle against terrorism.  China highly commends Interpol s efforts to protect the world s security and stability, and will continue to support Interpol to play an even more important role in global security governance,  the official Xinhua news agency cited Xi as saying. Beijing has tried for many years to enlist the help of foreign countries to arrest and deport back to China suspected wanted for crimes including corruption and terrorism Such requests have met resistance, particularly from Western countries where there have been concerns over whether evidence submitted by China met acceptable standards for Western courts. There were also worries that suspects might be mistreated and would not get a fair trial in China, and that allegations could  be politically motivated. In cross-border law-enforcement cooperation, Xi said, the laws of each country must be respected equally without  double standards .  China s Public Security Minister, Guo Shengkun, told the assembly that China hoped to use international police cooperation to strengthen its defense against the threat of militants returning from abroad to join groups like the East Turkistan Islamic Movement. Rights groups have criticized China for misusing Interpol s  red notice  system to target exiled Uighurs from Xinjiang, accusing them of terrorism, including Dolkun Isa, the general secretary of the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress. Interpol Secretary-General Juergen Stock, a German national, said the organization had  significantly increased  vetting of  red notice requests from all 190 member countries and last year  99 per cent  complied with Interpol s internal regulations. Stock reiterated that red notices were not international arrest warrants but rather an  alert system  that enabled member countries to decide whether to take action  on the basis of their own legal assessment and situation .

Summary: चीन के शी ने कहा कि वह इंटरपोल की छवि को बढ़ाने का समर्थन करेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday that new sanctions imposed against Venezuela were aimed at hobbling the regime of President Nicolas Maduro by restricting the country’s access to U.S. debt and equity markets. “We urge those within the regime, including those who have been sanctioned, to distance themselves from the violence and the dictatorship,” Mnuchin told reporters at the White House. He said the sanctions were not aimed at “changing leadership” in Venezuela.  White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster said at the same news conference that United States had no plans to take military action in Venezuela, but that President Donald Trump intended to take advantage of “a broad range of ... integrated options” in the future.

Summary: नए प्रतिबंधों का उद्देश्य वेनेजुएला की अमेरिकी ऋण बाजार तक पहुंच को प्रतिबंधित करना है


ZURICH (Reuters) - Nuclear proliferation watchdog CTBTO is examining unusual seismic activity in North Korea that took place around 50 km (31 miles) from previous nuclear testing in the isolated country, it said on Saturday.  Analysts looking at unusual #seismic activity of a much smaller magnitude in the #DPRK,  CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo said in a Twitter post.  Korean Peninsula unusual #seismic activity: LAT=41.36 LON=129.76 mb=3.5 About 50km from prior tests. #CTBT Analysts investigating,  he said in a subsequent post. China s earthquake administration said it had detected a magnitude 3.4 quake in North Korea that was a  suspected explosion , raising fears that Pyongyang might have conducted another nuclear bomb test. A CTBTO spokeswoman said Zerbo s remark about a  smaller magnitude  referred to its monitoring of an event in North Korea on Sept. 3 which the agency described as consistent with a man-made explosion but stopped short of calling a nuclear blast, pending testing for airborne radioactivity. North Korea has described the Sept. 3 incident as a test of an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile, marking a dramatic escalation of the regime s stand-off with the United States and its allies. The CTBTO (Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization) was founded in 1996 to monitor compliance with an accord negotiated in the 1990s that bans nuclear explosions. The treaty has not come into effect because eight countries with nuclear technology have yet to sign it.

Summary: सीटीबीटीओ उत्तर कोरिया में "असामान्य भूकंपीय गतिविधि" देख रहा है


BERLIN (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron s proposals to strengthen the European Union drew mixed reaction in Germany, with a lawmaker from Chancellor Angela Merkel s Bavarian allies warning against turning the bloc into an  unlimited transfer union . Macron offered a sweeping vision for a renewal of Europe in a speech on Tuesday, calling for the EU to cooperate more closely on defense, immigration, tax and social policy, and for the single currency bloc to have its own budget. He was speaking two days after the German election in which Merkel s conservative CDU/CSU bloc scored its worst result since 1949, limiting her freedom to maneuver on Europe. The co-governing Social Democrats (SPD), which suffered its worst election result since the end of World War Two, ruled out a re-run of a  grand coalition  with Merkel. Outgoing Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, a senior SPD member, lauded the French proposals.  Emmanuel Macron today held a courageous, a passionate plea against nationalism and for Europe - a Europe which he wants to reform, strengthen and unite with our help,  Gabriel said.  Right now, we need to seize this opportunity for Franco-German initiatives to make Europe more democratic, involve the citizens and make it fit for the future.  Gabriel said a joint determination by EU member states was needed to resolve problems in Europe, adding of Macron:  He can count on us.  Cem Ozdemir, co-leader of the left-leaning Greens, a potential coalition partner for Merkel, told reporters in Berlin:  Germany should take Macron s extended hand and push Europe forward, with other partners.   It s an important signal to us in Berlin that Macron makes his proposals directly after the German election. Because only if Paris and Berlin work closely together and have the courage to implement concrete reforms, can we strengthen Europe.  Ozdemir, seen as a possible foreign or finance minister in Merkel s coalition government, said the euro zone in particular needed reforms to make it resilient against future shocks.  We need investment in digitization, sustainable technologies and infrastructure, in particular, to ensure long-term investment and create future-proof jobs,  Ozdemir said. But Hans Michelbach, a lawmaker from Merkel s CSU allies, said Macron s ideas were unsuitable to take Europe forward.  They do not lead to a deepening (of the EU) but to a deeper split in the EU,  he said. Michelbach accused Macron of planning to turn the euro zone into an  unlimited transfer union  and to roll back the EU s Stability Pact.  But these are the wrong lessons from the euro zone crisis,  Michelbach said, adding Macron should not be relieved of his duty to bring the French budget deficit in line with the EU s fiscal rules. His comments were echoed by Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, a senior member of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), another potential coalition partner for Merkel.  This was a courageous speech by President Macron, even if not all of his proposals meet approval of the FDP,  Lambsdorff said. Lambsdorff welcomed Macron s call to strengthen military cooperation in the EU and seize the opportunities of digitization, but he rejected the call for a euro zone budget.  The problem in Europe is not a lack of public funds, but the lack of reform. A euro zone budget would set exactly the wrong incentives,  Lambsdorff said. The fiscally conservative FDP dislikes the idea of any facility that may lead to financial transfers from wealthier euro zone countries to poorer ones. Macron said he hoped his ideas would be taken into account in Germany s coalition building negotiations. Those talks are not expected to begin until mid-October and may take several months.

Summary: मैक्रों के यूरोप भाषण पर बर्लिन में मिली-जुली प्रतिक्रिया आई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly $1 trillion of taxes imposed by the Affordable Care Act will remain in place if the Senate fails to adopt legislation to dismantle the law known as Obamacare, the top Republican on tax policy in the House of Representatives said on Monday. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady told reporters there are no plans to use future tax reform legislation as a secondary route for abolishing the Obamacare levies, should the Senate healthcare effort stall. President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law is funded by a range of taxes on businesses, individuals and investments that Republicans have long sought to eliminate as part of their drive to demolish Obamacare. But failure to overturn the healthcare law could constrain the scope of tax reform, which President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have billed will be the biggest overhaul of the U.S. tax system since the Reagan era. “We have never planned to import that $1 trillion of taxes into the tax reform effort,” said Brady, one of six principals involved in closed-door discussions to reach agreement on a sweeping tax reform package.  “Those taxes are a big drag on the economy, and I think, very harmful for local businesses and those who have healthcare, which is why it’s critical that the Senate complete its work.” Brady said tax reform legislation would have a harder time lowering taxes without healthcare legislation. House Republicans, including Speaker Paul Ryan, say that eliminating Obamacare’s taxes would make it easier for tax reform to include big tax cuts by lowering the revenue target that tax legislation would have to hit.   Brady spoke just before the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released a widely anticipated analysis of Senate legislation to repeal and replace much of Obamacare. The CBO report showed that the Senate healthcare bill would eliminate about $700 billion in Obamacare tax revenues over a decade. That is nearly $200 billion less than the tax cuts in the healthcare bill that passed the House last month, which reduced health coverage more dramatically and cut the federal deficit by less. Senate Republican leaders want to hold a vote on their bill this week. If the Senate approves the bill, the House and Senate would have to reconcile the differences and send a single piece of legislation to the White House for Trump’s signature.

Summary: यदि सीनेट स्वास्थ्य विधेयक को स्वीकार करने में विफल रहता है तो ओबामाकेयर कर लागू रहेगाः ब्रैडी


PRAGUE (Reuters) - The European Union s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said on Tuesday that he was ready to speed up negotiations with Great Britain.  Barnier said that the agenda and dates for the next round of Brexit talks would be set  in next few hours or days .

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ के बार्नियर ब्रेक्सिट वार्ता को गति देने के लिए तैयार हैं


ANKARA (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday that she would work to speed up the transfer of financial assistance promised by the European Union to Turkey as part of a migrant deal, Turkish presidential sources said. The two leaders also agreed in a phone call to accelerate an improvement in bilateral ties once a new German government has been formed, the sources said.

Summary: जर्मनी की मर्केल ने एर्दोगन से कहा कि वे तुर्की को यूरोपीय संघ की सहायता में तेजी लाएँगेः तुर्की के सूत्र


MADRID (Reuters) - The Spanish government has given Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont five days to say whether he declared independence or not, Spanish news agency Efe said on Wednesday. If Puigdemont was to confirm he did declare independence, he would be given an additional three days to rectify. Failing this, Article 155 of the constitution, which allows the central government to suspend a region s political autonomy and rule it directly, would be triggered. [L8N1MM2OL]

Summary: स्पेन ने कैटलन नेता को स्वतंत्रता स्पष्ट करने के लिए पांच दिन का समय दिया


SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Center-left presidential candidate Alejandro Guillier conceded the Chilean presidency to billionaire conservative Sebastian Pinera on Sunday, as Chile followed other South American nations making a political turn to the right. With 96.31 percent of votes counted in the world s top copper producer, former president and market favorite Pinera had won 54.57 percent of ballots, according to electoral agency Servel. Guillier had 45.43 percent.  Guillier recognized a  harsh defeat  but urged Pinera to continue with outgoing center-left President Michelle Bachelet s reforms.

Summary: चिली के गिलियर ने पिनेरा को राष्ट्रपति पद स्वीकार किया


TUNIS/ROME (Reuters) - At least eight people drowned on Monday when a boat carrying dozens of mostly Tunisian migrants collided with a navy vessel off the country s southeast coast, its defense ministry said. According to testimony from survivors, there were between 70 and 80 people on board, International Organization for Migration (IOM) spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo said. He said at least 20 people were missing and some 40, almost all Tunisians, had been rescued. The ministry said eight bodies had been recovered after the collision with the Tunisian navy boat, which occurred 54km (33 miles) off the coast. Italian news agency ANSA said the migrant vessel had sunk. Libya has long been the busiest country of departure for a steady flow of migrants trying to reach the European Union from North Africa.  But activity on that route has declined since July as Libya s coast guard and an armed group in the smuggling hub of Sabratha tightened controls. Meanwhile departures from Tunisia have picked up, many in wooden boats that have started landing on secluded Sicilian beaches, often in broad daylight. A rescue mission after Monday s collision was being coordinated by the Maltese coast guard, an Italian coast guard spokesman said. Two Italian coast guard ships, a finance police boat and a navy ship had been sent to assist, he said. A Maltese plane was en route to the scene, a Maltese army spokesman said.

Summary: ट्यूनीशियाई प्रवासी और नौसेना की नौकाओं की टक्कर, आठ शव मिले


DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia will for the first time allow women to attend sports events, preparing special sections in three selected stadiums from early next year in another step toward opening public spaces to women. The stadiums in Jeddah, Dammam and Riyadh will be set up to accommodate families from early 2018, said the statement from the General Sports Authority, carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency late on Sunday. Last month Saudi Arabia announced that, from June, women would be allowed to drive cars, ending the world s only ban on female driving. An economic and social reform program led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman aims to open up cloistered lifestyles, shaped in part by a strict, conservative version of Sunni Islam that limits the role of women. Prince Mohammed also seeks to diversify the economy away from oil as part of his proposed reforms. The crown prince will be the first Saudi leader since 1953 to hail from a new generation when he inherits the throne; his father Salman is the sixth brother in a row to serve as king. The kingdom adheres to an austere Wahhabi brand of Sunni Islam, which bans gender mixing, concerts and cinemas. Women are required to receive permission from a male guardian to obtain passports or leave the country. Some of the social aspects of the reforms have been criticised by some clerics and Saudis on social media. Saudi authorities are also starting to reform areas once the exclusive domain of the clergy, such as education, courts and the law, and have promoted elements of national identity that have no religious component or pre-date Islam. Prince Mohammed told businessmen and reporters at a major investment forum last week that the country would cleave to a more open and tolerant interpretation of Islam.

Summary: सऊदी अरब 2018 में महिलाओं को खेल स्टेडियमों में प्रवेश की अनुमति देगा


HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe s President Robert Mugabe fired Emmerson Mnangagwa as vice president on Monday for showing  traits of disloyalty , his information minister said, abruptly removing a favorite to succeed the 93-year-old leader. Mnangagwa s removal provides a boost for Mugabe s wife, Grace, who has been a vocal critic of the vice president and is also seen as a potential successor to her husband.  The vice president has consistently and persistently exhibited traits of disloyalty, disrespect, deceitfulness and unreliability,  Information Minister Simon Khaya Moyo told reporters.  It had become evident that his conduct in his discharge of his duties had become inconsistent with his official responsibilities.  Mnangagwa s top aide Christopher Gwatidzo said he had not seen the statement by Khaya Moyo and declined to say whether the vice president had been at his office on Monday.  Grace, 52, nicknamed  Gucci Grace  for her love of shopping, called Mnangagwa a  coup plotter  and a  coward  on Sunday in a speech that inflamed an already bad-tempered rift in the ruling Zanu-PF party. It followed a speech by Mugabe at a rally on Saturday where he publicly rebuked his deputy for the first time. The reaction of the military could be key. Some army generals backed Mnangagwa to succeed Mugabe and have publicly said they will not allow someone who did not fight in the 1970s independence war to rule. Grace did not fight in that war. Grace made international headlines in August when a South African model said the Zimbabwean first lady had whipped her with an electric cable in a Johannesburg hotel suite. Grace denied the allegations. The fight over the future control of ZANU-PF has overshadowed an economic crisis marked by chronic shortages of cash and spiraling prices of goods that has raised fears of a return to hyperinflation. Mnangagwa was Mugabe s protege and had been at his side through five decades of prison, guerrilla war and then post-liberation government, and questions are being raised about what caused the fallout between the two men. By firing Mnangagwa, Mugabe has removed one of his last remaining liberation war comrades who have stood by him since independence from Britain in 1980. However, Grace said on Sunday Mnangagwa had always been plotting against her husband, even months after independence. Mnangagwa s biggest undoing may well have been his vocal supporters, who kept prodding Mugabe to step down. Mugabe has a history of punishing ambition in ZANU-PF. Relations also cooled between the two men in August after suggestions by Mnangagwa s allies that he had been poisoned by ice cream from a dairy owned by the Mugabes. That Mnangagwa s expulsion was announced by a government minister and not the chief secretary to the president and cabinet also spoke to the deterioration in the relationship. Mugabe plans to contest elections due next year and will likely face a weakened and fractured opposition. His main rival Morgan Tsvangirai has been in and out of a South African hospital after announcing he had colon cancer in 2016.

Summary: जिम्बाब्वे के मुगाबे ने उपराष्ट्रपति पद से हटाया, उत्तराधिकारी पद के शीर्ष उम्मीदवार के रूप में देखे गए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Thursday said she regrets making critical comments about Republican presidential contender Donald Trump. “On reflection, my recent remarks in response to press inquiries were ill-advised and I regret making them,” she said in a statement issued by the court. Ginsburg, the 83-year-old senior liberal member of the high court, inserted herself into the U.S. presidential election in recent days by making negative remarks about Trump in a series of media interviews.  Her earlier remarks prompted criticism from Trump, who said she should resign. In one of a series of Twitter posts, he also said Ginsburg’s “mind is shot.” The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Ginsburg’s statement. Legal ethics scholars also questioned Ginsburg’s actions, saying Supreme Court justices should stay out the political fray in order to maintain their judicial integrity. The New York Times and the Washington Post chided Ginsburg in editorial articles. “Judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office. In the future I will be more circumspect,” Ginsburg said. In a CNN interview posted on Tuesday, Ginsburg called the presumptive Republican nominee “a faker.” In a separate interview with the New York Times, Ginsburg joked about moving to New Zealand if Trump wins the White House. Under a code of conduct that federal judges - but not Supreme Court justices - are required to follow, judges are forbidden from publicly endorsing or opposing candidates for public office.  Supreme Court justices generally shy away from discussing politics or other divisive issues in public. Ginsburg is one of the more outspoken members of the court but had never before made such pointed remarks about a political candidate. The controversy erupted as Trump prepared for the opening of the July 18-21 Republican convention, which will formally make him the party’s presidential nominee for the Nov. 8 election. The Supreme Court has been ideologically split between four liberals and four conservatives since conservative Justice Antonin Scalia died in February.

Summary: सुप्रीम कोर्ट के जस्टिस गिन्सबर्ग ने ट्रंप की आलोचनाओं पर 'खेद' जताया


MASERU (Reuters) - Lesotho s top military leader, Khoantle Mots omots o, and two  senior officers were shot dead on Tuesday at an army barracks, the government said. While it was not immediately clear what the motivation for the shooting was, the kingdom has been subject to several coups and periodic political violence since gaining independence from Britain in 1966, and South Africa called for calm. Colonel Tanki Mothae, the principal secretary for the defense force, told Reuters the two senior officers were under investigation for the murder of another former Lesotho defense commander in 2015. Prime Minister Thomas Thabane, who fled the country in 2014 after a coup attempt and whose wife was shot dead in June, offered no details about the killings during a news conference other than saying the incident was being investigated. Neither Mothae nor the prime minister confirmed South African media reports that the two officers had killed the defense commander and then died in a gunfight with soldiers. South African President Jacob Zuma condemned  in the strongest terms possible the senseless and regrettable killing  and called for  calm and restraint  in the mountainous country that is entirely surrounded by its large neighbor. Lesotho is a major supplier of water to South Africa s industrial heartland. Zuma also said the Southern African Development Community (SADC) would send a ministerial fact-finding mission to Lesotho on Thursday to assess the situation.      South African Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has made frequent trips to Lesotho to try to secure peace among political rivals as a facilitator for SADC.  Lesotho has been through bouts of political turbulence since the attempted coup in 2014 and its last three elections - most recently in June - have failed to produce winners with clear majorities.

Summary: लेसोथो रक्षा बल के कमांडर की गोली मारकर हत्या, दक्षिण अफ्रीका ने शांति बनाए रखने का आह्वान किया


(Reuters) - Former Democratic Senator and Indiana Governor Evan Bayh announced on Wednesday that he will come out of retirement to run for the U.S. Senate, a move that could determine whether Democrats can take control of the upper chamber in November.  “With the challenges facing Indiana and our country, I can no longer sit on the sidelines and watch as partisan bickering grinds Washington to a halt,” Bayh said in a statement announcing his candidacy.  Bayh served two terms in the Senate before announcing his retirement in 2010. He has maintained a campaign account with more than $9.2 million cash on hand. The Republican candidate, Todd Young, has a campaign account with more than $1 million. Fellow Democrat Baron Hill cleared the way for Bayh to run on Monday when he announced that he was leaving the Senate race. The Democratic Party needs a net gain of four Senate seats to take control of the 100-member chamber in the Nov. 8 election.

Summary: पूर्व सीनेटर इवान बेह ने सीनेट के लिए चुनाव लड़ने की घोषणा की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Friday asked the Supreme Court to block a judge’s ruling that prevented President Donald Trump’s travel ban from being applied to grandparents of U.S. citizens and refugees already being processed by resettlement agencies. In a court filing, the administration asked the justices to overturn Thursday’s decision by a U.S. district judge in Hawaii, which limited the scope of the administration’s temporary ban on refugees and travelers from six Muslim-majority countries. The latest round in the fight over Trump’s March 6 executive order, which he says is needed for national security reasons, came after the Supreme Court intervened last month to partially revive the two bans, which were blocked by lower courts. The Supreme Court said then that the ban could take effect, but that people with a “bona fide relationship” to a U.S. person or entity could not be barred.  The administration had narrowly interpreted that language, saying the ban would apply to grandparents and other family members, prompting the state of Hawaii to ask Hawaii-based U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson to expand the definition of who could be admitted. He ruled for the state late on Thursday. In the court filing, the Justice Department said the judge’s ruling “empties the (Supreme) Court’s decision of meaning, as it encompasses not just “close” family members but virtually all family members. The conservative-leaning Supreme Court is not currently in session but the justices can handle emergency requests. The administration’s application could be directed either to Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has responsibility for emergency requests from western states, or to the nine justices as a whole. If the court as a whole is asked to weigh in, five votes are needed to grant such a request. “The truth here is that the government’s interpretation of the Supreme Court’s stay order defies common sense,” said Omar Jadwat, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union involved in challenging the ban. “That’s what the district court correctly found and the attorney general’s misleading attacks on its decision can’t change that fact.” In his decision, Watson harshly criticized the government’s definition of close family relations as “the antithesis of common sense.” Watson also ruled that the assurance by a resettlement agency to provide basic services to a newly arrived refugee constitutes an adequate connection to the United States because it is a sufficiently formal and documented agreement that triggers responsibilities and compensation. In the court filing, the Justice Department said Watson’s ruling on refugees would make the Supreme Court’s decision on that part of the executive order “effectively meaningless.” The ruling, if left in place, means refugees can continue to be resettled in the United States, beyond a cap of 50,000 set by the executive order. That limit was reached this week.  The Supreme Court’s decision last month revived parts of Trump’s March 6 executive order banning travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days, as well as refugees for 120 days. The court also agreed to hear oral arguments in the fall over whether the ban violates the U.S. Constitution.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने सुप्रीम कोर्ट से यात्रा प्रतिबंध के फैसले पर रोक लगाने को कहा


HONOLULU (Reuters) - President Donald Trump arrived in Hawaii on Friday as he set out on the longest trip to Asia by an American president in more than a quarter century, looking for help to pressure North Korea to stand down from a nuclear crisis. After Air Force One landed at Joint Base Hickam, Trump and his wife, Melania, were draped with traditional lei necklaces. Trump went on to nearby Camp Smith for a classified briefing from Pacific Command military leaders that officials expected would touch on North Korea and other areas. Later, he was to visit Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona memorial for the U.S. sailors killed when Japan bombed the American naval base on Dec. 7, 1941. Trump s 12-day trip to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines, ending on Nov. 14, takes him out of Washington at a time when he has been beset by several issues. These include an intensifying federal investigation into Russian meddling in last year s election, New York s recovery from an attack earlier this week that killed eight people, and debate over a Republican tax-cut plan that if approved by Congress would be Trump s first major legislative victory. The trip began just days after Trump s former campaign manager Paul Manafort was indicted in the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and after his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, faced Democratic calls to appear before Congress again to clarify his previous testimony about the campaign s Russia contacts. Amid the furor caused by the revelations, the Kremlin said on Friday that a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at an Asian economic summit next week was being discussed, and Trump said it might happen.  We may have a meeting with Putin,  Trump told Fox News.  And, again   Putin is very important because they can help us with North Korea. They can help us with Syria. We have to talk about Ukraine.  Court documents made public on Monday also disclosed that a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty early last month to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The documents cited a March 2016 meeting, when Trump was campaigning for the presidency, and attended by Trump and Sessions, in which Papadopoulos offered to help arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin. While Trump tweeted about developments vigorously this week, he told The New York Times on Wednesday that he was  not angry at anybody  about the case and there was nothing to suggest any collusion by his campaign and Russia. Trump s plan for an extended absence from Washington has alarmed allies who, after seeing a healthcare reform bid fizzle, worry the tax effort could suffer without Trump to keep momentum going. On Saturday, Trump is to fly to Japan and later visit South Korea in search of a united front against North Korea before going to Beijing, where he will push Chinese President Xi Jinping to get tougher with Pyongyang. In the Fox interview, Trump was asked if he planned to be tough on China over thorny issues including trade, intellectual property theft and subsidies.  You have to understand something - very important,  he responded.  We have a problem called North Korea.  Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping  has been pretty terrific  in cutting Pyongyang off from banking and oil systems. He added that Japan had reason to be worried about North Korea and alluded to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe s campaign for a military buildup against that threat.  Well, you know Japan is a warrior nation,  he said.  I tell China and I tell everyone else that, listen, you re going to have yourself a big problem with Japan pretty soon if you allow this to continue with North Korea.  Trump will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Danang, Vietnam, make a state visit to Hanoi and end his trip with the Association of South East Asia Nations summit in Manila. Trump told reporters before leaving on Friday that he would spend an extra day in the Philippines. The last time a U.S. president was in Asia for so long was in late 1991 and early 1992, when President George H.W. Bush became ill at a Japanese state dinner.

Summary: घर पर बैठे ट्रम्प ने वर्षों में सबसे लंबी राष्ट्रपति एशिया यात्रा शुरू की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump called on fellow Republican Roy Moore on Friday to concede to Democrat Doug Jones in the Alabama U.S. Senate race, following the party’s stinging loss in the southern U.S. state earlier this week. Moore, whose controversial candidacy was beset by allegations that he sexually assaulted or pursued teenage girls while in his 30s, has so far refused to admit defeat in Tuesday’s election that saw Jones win by 1.5 percentage points with 99 percent of the ballots counted. The embattled Republican has made two statements since his loss, but has not conceded even as Trump and others have reached out to congratulate Jones, a former prosecutor, on his win. “I would certainly say he should,” Trump, who endorsed Moore in the final stage of the campaign, told reporters at the White House.  “He tried,” Trump added, referring to Moore’s campaign efforts and reiterating his earlier comments that as the party’s top leader he would have liked to keep the seat in Republican hands.  Jones defeated the former judge in a special election to replace Jeff Sessions, who left the Senate to serve as U.S. Attorney General under Trump. State officials have said the outcome is unlikely to change even as provisional ballots are counted. The Democratic win would narrow Republicans’ hold on the Senate to 51 out of 100 seats. It has also buoyed Democrats’ hopes of a potential comeback for the party in the 2018 midterm elections.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने मूर से अलबामा सीनेट की दौड़ स्वीकार करने का आग्रह किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday he saw no reason for U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from investigations into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. “If he himself is a subject of an investigation, of course he would. But if he’s not, I don’t see any purpose or reason to doing this,” the Wisconsin Republican told reporters. “We have seen no evidence from any of these ongoing investigations that anybody in the Trump campaign or the Trump team was involved in any of this,” he added.

Summary: अमेरिकी सदन के अध्यक्षः रूस की जांच से सत्रों के अलग होने का कोई कारण नहीं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the United States later this year, during a phone call on Tuesday in which the leaders discussed economic and defense cooperation. In its readout of the conversation, the White House said the two leaders also discussed security in South and Central Asia. The region includes Afghanistan, where U.S. troops are still battling Taliban militants, and Pakistan.  The two leaders “resolved that the United States and India stand shoulder to shoulder in the global fight against terrorism,” according to the readout that was posted on the White House website. Tweeting from his personal account, Modi said his conversation with Trump had been “warm”, and that they would work closely in the coming days to further strengthen bilateral ties. He also invited Trump to visit India. The U.S.-India relationship has flourished of late and New Delhi is hopeful that this will continue under Trump, who courted the votes of the Indian diaspora in his presidential run. Trump’s pledge to ban immigration by Muslims from countries he says harbor Islamic militants has also played well among Modi’s Hindu-nationalist base, which is hostile to Pakistan. There are concerns, though, that Trump may pull back the U.S. security umbrella from the region, exposing India to a rising China. His tough line on immigration and “America First” jobs policy could make it tougher for India’s information technology sector to send staff to the U.S. to do project work.

Summary: ट्रम्प इस साल के अंत में अमेरिकी यात्रा के लिए भारत के मोदी की मेजबानी करेंगेः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Members of the Democratic Party’s liberal wing on Thursday nervously awaited Hillary Clinton’s announcement in coming days of a vice presidential running mate, urging her to choose someone who opposes a massive Pacific free trade deal and backs tough Wall Street reform. Two U.S. senators, Tim Kaine and Cory Booker, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack were among the contenders, according to a Democratic source with knowledge of the discussions. “After promising to oppose the TPP, it’s important for Clinton to pick someone who shares that position,” said Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee The Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal, known as TPP, became a key issue during the primary season, with critics contending that it would be unfair to American workers. Clinton’s chief rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, has headed the effort on the U.S. left to oppose the TPP and trade deals like it. The Democratic source said that while Clinton’s decision was being closely held, there were “vibes” she may be leaning toward Kaine as a partner to take on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his vice presidential running mate Mike Pence in the Nov. 8 election. But the source said that the consideration of Vilsack, a former governor of Iowa, “is real,” even if Kaine, a senator from Virginia who is also a former governor of the state, might have an edge. Clinton “wants somebody who will be a reliable partner she can trust and make the policy decisions” and potentially step into the presidency, the source said, adding that Clinton sees Kaine as someone who would “fit that bill.” Hispanic-Americans, meanwhile, continued to push for a first-ever Latino on the Democratic ticket. “For our members that kind of a message would certainly resonate,” said Yvanna Cancela, political director for the Culinary Workers Union in Las Vegas. “It is way past the time for when we have a Latino in one of the highest offices in the country.” Labor Secretary Thomas Perez and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro had both been mentioned. Others have also come under consideration. The source added that U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a favorite of the party’s liberal wing and a fierce critic of Wall Street, received close consideration by Clinton but would not provide the “right balance” for the ticket. Others have also been under consideration in recent days, including Booker, to see if they hit a “surprise” chord with Clinton, the source said. Booker, an African-American, is a first-term senator and a former mayor of Newark, New Jersey. Both Kaine and Vilsack have backed free-trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiation by the Obama administration, encompassing about 40 percent of the world’s economies stretching from Japan to Chile. Critics include Trump as well as Sanders. Clinton herself has distanced herself from the trade deal.  Taylor said that it is “also important she pick someone committed to strong Wall Street reform,” saying that the “wrong pick” could hamper Democrats’ drive to keep Trump from winning the White House. Booker traveled to Cleveland to defend the Clinton campaign, which has come under continued attack at the Republican convention there this week. “The vile and the viciousness, it doesn’t reflect who we are as a country,” Booker said of the Republican convention, in an interviewed with MSNBC. Asked about his appearance Thursday on Clinton’s official Instagram account, Booker said it should not be read as tea leaves about a potential vice presidential pick.  “You have a social media-minded person and I understand this platform,” he said.  The Democratic source knowledgeable about the process said Clinton could announce her running mate as early as Friday in Florida. She will campaign there in the run-up to next week’s Democratic convention in Philadelphia, where Clinton is expected to be formally nominated. Another Democratic source said Clinton might wait until Saturday to help keep the media focused on the Republican convention in Cleveland, where opposing wings of that party were in open warfare.  Television interviewer Charlie Rose, speaking with Clinton recently, noted that some view Kaine as “boring.” Clinton responded, “I love that about him.” Susie Tompkins Buell, a founder of the Esprit fashion label and close friend of Clinton, on Thursday would not comment on who might be the choice. But Buell, a major donor to Clinton’s campaign, said the person would be a “high contrast” to Trump’s choice of Pence.

Summary: क्लिंटन पर व्यापार के मामले में सख्त उपराष्ट्रपति चुनने का दबाव है, वॉल स्ट्रीट


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump finds himself under immense pressure as he considers de-certifying the international nuclear deal with Iran, a move that would ignore warnings from inside and outside his administration that to do so would risk undermining U.S. credibility. Trump is expected to unveil a broad strategy on confronting Iran this week, likely on Friday. There was always the chance he could still have a last-minute change of heart and certify Iran s compliance with the 2015 accord, which he has called an  embarrassment  and the  worst deal ever negotiated.  Senior U.S. officials, European allies and prominent U.S. lawmakers have told Trump that refusing to certify the deal would leave the U.S. isolated, concede the diplomatic high ground to Tehran, and ultimately risk the unraveling of the agreement. Signed by the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, the European Union and Iran, the deal relieved sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbing its disputed nuclear program. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concluded that Iran secretly researched a nuclear warhead until 2009, which Tehran denies. Iran has always insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and denies it has aimed to build an atomic bomb.      After Trump made clear three months ago he would not certify Iran s compliance with the deal, his advisers moved to give him options to consider, a senior administration official said.  They came up with a plan that protects the things they are concerned about but doesn t recertify, which the president made clear he was not going to do. That ship has sailed,  according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said Trump has been telling foreign leaders and U.S. lawmakers that his refusal to certify the Iran deal would not blow it up.  He s not walking away from it. The chances of him walking away from it go down if they work with him on making it better,  the official said. White House officials said Trump is expected to announce a broad, more confrontational policy toward Iran directed at curbing its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and financial and military support for Hezbollah and other extremist groups. Trump has said he believes the nuclear deal is too generous toward Iran and would not stop it from trying to develop a nuclear weapon.  He has criticized the agreement s  sunset clauses,  under which some restrictions on Iran s nuclear program would expire over time. He also wants to toughen language on ballistic missiles and inspections. The International Atomic Energy Agency says Iran is complying with the agreement. European officials have categorically ruled out renegotiating the deal, but have said they share Trump s concerns over Iran s destabilizing influence in the Middle East. Several diplomats have said Europe would be ready to discuss sanctioning Iran s ballistic missile tests and forming a strategy to curb Iran s influence in the region. Officials have also said there could be room to open a new negotiation for what happens once some of the core terms of the deal begin expiring in 2025, although there is no reason to believe Iran would be ready to enter in such a negotiation. Iran has said it may exit the deal if the U.S. withdraws. De-certifying would not withdraw the United States from the deal but it would give the U.S. Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose the sanctions on Tehran that were suspended under the agreement. One U.S. official involved in administration said that declining to certify Iran s compliance would probably leave all of the parties to the deal on one side and the United States on the other.  That means that while the French and others are also interested in curbing Iran s destabilizing activities, they may be less likely to follow (the U.S.) lead at the risk of the agreement blowing up,  the official said. British Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron both spoke to Trump this week to express their concerns about the potential decision not to recertify the Iran deal.  If the feeling is that the United States no longer supports the agreement, then the political reality is that the agreement will be in serious jeopardy and its implementation will be very difficult,  a senior French diplomat said. Two other U.S. officials, who also requested anonymity, said Trump s bellicose rhetoric on a number of fronts is troubling both many of his own aides and some of America s closest allies, a few of whom have asked U.S. officials privately if Trump s real objective is attacking Iran s nuclear facilities. One of the officials said that like the heated rhetoric with North Korea on its nuclear program, the Iran discussion has vexed White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson  who have tried to advise the President that there are significant risks in the course he d prefer to pursue.   At the end of the day, though, everyone recognizes that he s the decider.  Trump allies who oppose the deal have watched the president closely to see if he might buckle under pressure.    He s not going to re-certify,  said Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump national security aide.  I m not worried. His gut instinct is absolutely right.

Summary: ईरान परमाणु समझौते पर रुख नरम करने के दबाव का ट्रंप ने किया विरोध


BEIJING (Reuters) - The southwestern Chinese megalopolis of Chongqing will purge the  vile influence  of its former top official Sun Zhengcai after he was expelled from the Communist Party for corruption, the city government said, praising the move as  brilliant . Sun, a senior official once considered a contender for top leadership, had been party chief of the city until an abrupt announcement in July that he had been replaced by a rising political star close to President Xi Jinping, Chen Miner. He was put under investigation later in July and on Friday the party announced he would be prosecuted for corruption, accusing him of leaking secrets, bribery and abusing his power. In a front page story on Saturday, the official Chongqing Daily said a city party meeting overseen by new party boss Chen offered strong support for the Sun decision, which comes just weeks before the party opens a key twice-a-decade Congress.  Everyone said they resolutely uphold the party s decision, resolutely practice the party s spirit and will resolutely purge Sun Zhengcai s vile influence,  the paper said.   The party s decision to investigate and handle Sun Zhengcai s serious breach of discipline is completely correct, absolutely brilliant, came just at the right time and has completely won the hearts of the party, the military and the people.  It has not been possible to reach Sun directly for comment and unclear if he has been allowed to retain a lawyer.  He is certain to be found guilty when his case comes before a court as the party controls the legal system, which won t challenge its accusations. These include trading power for sex and sloth. Chongqing, one of China s most important cities, is perhaps best known outside China for its association with its disgraced former party boss, Bo Xilai, who was once himself a contender for top leadership before being jailed for life in 2013 in his own dramatic corruption scandal. The government has yet to give exact details of what Sun is suspected of. The official newspaper of the northeastern province of Jilin, where Sun was party chief from 2009 until late 2012, implied on Saturday at least some of his crimes took place there too.  While in Jilin he neglected Jilin s development, put his undivided attention on promotion, and seriously damaged Jilin s political ecology,  the paper said, summarizing a provincial party meeting to condemn him. Sun had been seen as a potential candidate for elevation at next month s party Congress and as a possible future premier. But sources with ties to the leadership and foreign diplomats say Sun had been out of favor after the party s corruption watchdog in February criticized Chongqing authorities for not doing enough to root out Bo s influence. Sun is the latest senior official to be investigated under Xi s sweeping crackdown on corruption. The party s official People s Daily said on Saturday the move against Sun augured further struggles ahead, saying major victories did not mean the anti-corruption fight was over.

Summary: चीन के चोंगकिंग ने पूर्व नेता के 'नीच प्रभाव' को हटाने का संकल्प लिया


WASHINGTON/CHICAGO (Reuters) - The head of the Midwest region of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offered her resignation over the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan, the agency said on Thursday, as it issued an emergency order to resolve the growing problem.     Susan Hedman, the second official to resign since the crisis unfolded, had played down a memo by an EPA employee that said tests had shown high levels of lead in the city’s water, telling Flint and Michigan administrators it was only a draft report. Hedman’s resignation will take effect Feb. 1, the EPA said. Before the agency’s announcement on Hedman, the White House said President Barack Obama will ensure officials will be held accountable if any wrongdoing is found. The EPA on Thursday issued an emergency order requiring Michigan and the city of Flint to take immediate steps after determining that their response to the crisis had been “inadequate to protect human health.” Under the direction of a state-appointed emergency manager, Flint, a working class mostly African-American city of 100,000 north of Detroit, switched water supplies to the Flint River in 2014, to save money. The river is known locally as a dumping ground. The more corrosive river water, which was not treated, caused more lead to leach from the city’s aging water pipes than the Detroit water the city had tapped previously.  Complaints about the water began within a month of the change, but officials did not take steps to remedy the situation until October 2015 after tests showed elevated levels of lead in some tap water in the city and in some children. Lead is a neurotoxin that can damage brains and cause other health problems.  The city switched back to Detroit water in mid October, but the contamination continued. The Flint crisis pushed EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy on Thursday to issue a new policy to elevate any issues that appear to be a substantial threat to public health, or that “other authorities appear to be unable to address.”  “Our strength can become a weakness if we interpret our responsibility as ending with simple technical compliance,” McCarthy said in a memo to all EPA staff. The EPA’s inspector general agreed to evaluate the Midwest office’s public water system supervision program and its implementation of its state oversight.  Representative Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said “The EPA is rife with incompetence and Region 5 is no exception. Mismanagement has plagued the region for far too long and Ms. Hedman’s resignation is way overdue.” White House spokesman Josh Earnest, noting that the Justice Department was investigating the contamination of Flint’s water supply, told reporters that Obama will make sure that EPA officials are held responsible for any errors that may be uncovered. By the end of next week, Michigan would have access to $80 million for water infrastructure funding agreed to in last month’s bipartisan budget, Obama told a group of mayors at the White House.  Michigan Governor Rick Snyder and other officials will be called to testify next month to a congressional panel. U.S. Representative Brenda Lawrence, a Democrat, requested a Feb. 3 hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last week, said spokeswoman Tracy Manzer. The invitation will be specifically for the governor and he cannot send a representative on his behalf, Manzer said. However, Republicans on the committee said nothing about the hearing was set in stone and it was not yet on the committee’s website calendar. Details being discussed about a hearing on Flint “are entirely premature,” said a spokesman for Republicans on the committee who did not want to be named. “There are no confirmed details at this time, particularly with respect to a date or witness invitations,” the spokesman said. Dan Wyant, former director of Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality, are among the other invitees. Wyant resigned in December over the growing crisis in Flint. The hearing will “identify precisely what went wrong in the process and to ensure that those who were responsible are to be held accountable and that this never happens again,” Manzer said. Snyder, a Republican, has rejected calls from critics for his resignation over the crisis. He asked the Michigan state legislature this week to approve $28 million to assist Flint and said there would be additional funding requests. The Michigan House approved the funding unanimously on Wednesday and the bill was in the Senate on Thursday. In recent weeks, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services also has said that it has seen an increase in Legionnaires’ disease cases in the county that includes Flint covering the period in which the river water was the primary source. It could not conclude if the cases were related to the water switch. A report released on Thursday found 87 Legionnaires’ cases in the county from June 2014 through October, including nine deaths.

Summary: फ्लिंट जल संकट पर ई. पी. ए. अधिकारी ने दिया इस्तीफा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to bolster the government’s cyber security and protect critical infrastructure from cyber attacks, marking his first significant action to address what he has called a top priority. The order seeks to improve the often-maligned network security of U.S. government agencies, from which foreign governments and other hackers have pilfered millions of personal records and other forms of sensitive data in recent years. The White House said the order also aimed to enhance protection of infrastructure such as the energy grid and financial sector from sophisticated attacks that officials have warned could pose a national security threat or cripple parts of the economy. The directive, which drew largely favorable reviews from cyber experts and industry groups, also lays out goals to develop a more robust cyber deterrence strategy, in part by forging strong cooperation with U.S. allies in cyberspace. White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert said the order sought to build on efforts undertaken by the former Obama administration.  Among the notable changes, heads of federal agencies must use a framework developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to assess and manage cyber risk, and prepare a report within 90 days documenting how they will implement it. The Obama administration had encouraged the private sector to adopt the voluntary NIST framework. But it did not require government agencies to do so, which opened it up to criticism as it frequently scrambled to respond to major hacks, such as the theft of more than 20 million personnel records from the Office of Personnel Management. Government agencies would now “practice what they preach,” Bossert told reporters during a White House briefing. “A lot of progress was made in the last administration, but not nearly enough.” Michael Daniel, who served as White House cyber security coordinator under former Democratic President Barack Obama, generally praised the order but said it was largely “a plan for a plan.” Trump, a Republican, has also asked agencies to review their federal workforce’s cyber talent, an area where the government has faced a growing shortfall of qualified personnel in recent years. The order calls for an examination of the impact of moving agencies toward a shared information technology environment, such as through cloud computing services. It also urges voluntary cooperation with the private sector to develop better strategies to fend off and reduce attacks from botnets, or  networks of infected devices. Trump nearly signed a cyber security measure just days into his presidency in January, but it was pulled back to allow for more input from federal agencies and consultation with experts. Before taking office, Trump said he intended to make cyber security a priority of his administration. But he has raised alarm among cyber security experts by frequently using a personal Twitter that could be hacked by an adversary. His skepticism of the conclusion by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia hacked Democratic emails during the election to help him win has drawn criticism. Russia has repeatedly denied assertions it used cyber means to meddle in the U.S. election. Bossert said Russia’s alleged hacks were not a motivation for the order, adding that “the Russians are not our only adversary on the internet.”

Summary: ट्रम्प ने सरकारी साइबर सुरक्षा को उन्नत करने के उद्देश्य से आदेश पर हस्ताक्षर किए


RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday urged the Pope and the leaders of Russia, France and Jordan to intervene against Trump s declared intention to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, Abbas s spokesman said.  President Abbas spoke after his call with President Trump with the presidents of Russia and France, with the Pope and with King Abdullah of Jordan. He told them such a move was rejected and he urged them to intervene to prevent it from happening,  Nabil Abu Rdainah told Reuters. He said Abbas was not informed about the timing of the planned transfer of the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Summary: अब्बास ने पोप, विश्व शक्तियों से अमेरिकी दूतावास के कदम के खिलाफ हस्तक्षेप करने को कहाः प्रवक्ता


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday overwhelmingly passed legislation to keep federal agencies funded until April 28 and avert government shutdowns at the end of this week when existing appropriations expire. By a vote of 326-96, the House passed the legislation that is now before the Senate where it has encountered opposition from Democrats who are upset over the refusal by Republicans to include a long-term extension of expiring healthcare benefits for retired coal miners and their families. Instead, the bill would continue the benefits only until next April. “I’ve never seen anything this callous in my life,” said West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin. As a result, the Senate might not be able to vote on the spending bill until sometime this weekend, technically putting the U.S. government into a partial shutdown mode on Saturday. Flint, Michigan, which has endured a two-and-a-half-year struggle with lead-contaminated drinking water, would get access to a $170 million fund for infrastructure improvements and lead poisoning prevention under the bill. The stop-gap funding bill reflects the inability of the Republican-controlled Congress to pass the dozen regular appropriations bills for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 and runs through Sept. 30, 2017, freezing most spending at current levels. Congress was unable to pass them in part because of internal disagreements among Republicans on some of those measures and because Democrats held firm to an earlier budget deal that aims to restrain spending caps on defense as long as those caps were imposed on other domestic programs.          Congress likely will end up arguing well into 2017 over spending priorities for the current fiscal year even as it must begin considering funding government operations in fiscal 2018. Congress’ delay in finishing its work also means that President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, will have some say in government spending priorities for the period of April 28-Sept. 30, instead of President Barack Obama. A provision is also embedded in the spending bill to make it easier for Trump to win confirmation of General James Mattis to be defense secretary early next year. Republicans demanded it to help Mattis get around a requirement that the defense secretary be a civilian for seven years before taking the job. Mattis retired from the military in 2013. The bill moving through Congress, as lawmakers try wrapping up their work for the year, contains $5.8 billion for waging military operations against the Islamic State worldwide.

Summary: अमेरिकी सरकार के अस्थायी वित्तपोषण विधेयक ने सीनेट में बाधा डाली


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The feud between Republican presidential contenders Donald Trump and Ted Cruz over their spouses heated up on Thursday, with Cruz calling the party front-runner “a sniveling coward” for threatening his wife on Twitter. The senator from Texas also sharpened his attacks on Trump’s conservative credentials, linking the brash billionaire to disgraced New York politicians Eliot Spitzer and Anthony Weiner. Cruz continued bashing Trump for making Cruz’s wife, Heidi, a target of social-media barbs. “I have to say, seeing him go deeper and deeper into the gutter, it’s not easy to tick me off,” Cruz said at a news conference while campaigning in Dane, Wisconsin. “But you mess with my wife, you mess with my kids, it’ll do it every time.  “Donald, you’re a sniveling coward,” Cruz said. “Leave Heidi the hell alone.” Cruz’s remarks were the latest burst of hostility between the two camps, which earlier this week erupted into full view when Trump accused Cruz of posting a nude photo of Melania Trump on Twitter. Trump responded by threatening to “spill the beans” on Cruz’s wife, Heidi.    Cruz denied having anything to do with the image, which was part of an attack by an anti-Trump Super PAC, Make America Awesome.  “Donald, real men don’t attack women. Your wife is lovely, and Heidi is the love of my life,” Cruz said in a post on Twitter earlier on Thursday. Cruz’s tweet followed one moments earlier by Trump in which he retweeted an image featuring a less-than-flattering picture of Heidi Cruz juxtaposed with a glamorous photo of Melania. The back-and-forth was too much for Senator Lindsey Graham, a former presidential candidate, who blasted both men in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show on Thursday.    “Talk about things that people really care about, and knock this crap off because these are serious times, and you’re not behaving like you want to be president of the United States,” he said.  For Trump, attacking another candidate’s wife may carry some political risk.  Half of U.S. women say they have a “very unfavorable” view of the billionaire businessman, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling in March. Cruz fared better, with 24 percent of the 5,000 women surveyed saying they had a “very unfavorable” view of him. The Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton, did worse than Cruz but better than Trump, with 36 percent of women polled saying they had a “very unfavorable” view of her. The poll had a credibility interval of 2 percentage points. Also on Thursday, Cruz began to press Trump on his history of supporting Democratic politicians in New York, which holds its Republican primary on April 19. And while Manhattan is home to Trump’s business empire, Cruz spent time there this week campaigning. In media releases and social-media postings, Cruz highlighted Trump’s history of donating not only to Spitzer, New York’s former governor who resigned amid a prostitution scandal, and Weiner, the former U.S. congressman who quit after tweeting lewd images of himself, but also to other New York liberals such as U.S. Representative Charles Rangel, Senator Chuck Schumer, and New York’s current governor, Andrew Cuomo.  The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment, but Trump posted an Instagram video that showed former Republican presidential candidates Carly Fiorina and Graham expressing doubts about Cruz earlier in the campaign. Both have since endorsed Cruz, saying he is in the best position to halt Trump’s march toward the nomination. Both Trump and Cruz are trying to garner enough delegates to win the Republican nomination ahead of the party’s convention this summer. After Tuesday’s contests in Arizona and Utah, Trump had 739 of the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination, according to The Associated Press. Cruz had 465. Polls show Trump leading in New York ahead of its primary. And there were also indications on Thursday of Trump’s strength in California, where many observers believe he could clinch the nomination by winning its primary on June 7. A new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California found that among likely Republican primary voters, Trump led with 38 percent to 27 percent for Cruz and 14 percent for Ohio Governor John Kasich. The next Republican contests will be on April 5 in Wisconsin and on April 9 in Wyoming.

Summary: जैसे-जैसे तनाव बढ़ता जा रहा है, क्रूज़ ने ट्रम्प को 'शरारत करने वाला कायर' कहा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has sanctioned 26 individuals as part of its non-proliferation designations for North Korea as well as nine banks, including some with ties to China, according to the U.S. Treasury Department Office Of Foreign Assets Control Sanctions.  In a list on the office s website posted on Tuesday, the U.S. sanctions target individuals in North Korea as well as some North Korean nationals in China, Russia, Libya and Dubai.

Summary: अमेरिकी कोष ने उत्तर कोरिया पर 26 व्यक्तियों, नौ बैंकों पर प्रतिबंध लगाए


AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - At least two people were killed and several others wounded by stabbings in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht on Thursday evening, police said. The police said in a statement there were two stabbing incidents with a few hundred meters (yards) of each other in a residential neighborhood in northern Maastricht, which borders Germany and Belgium.

Summary: दक्षिणी डच शहर मास्ट्रिच में चाकू से हमले में दो की मौत, कई घायलः पुलिस


DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi King Salman told U.S. President Donald Trump that any decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem before a permanent peace settlement is reached will inflame the feelings of Muslims, Saudi state-owned media said on Tuesday. They said that King Salman had received a telephone call from Trump about developments in the region and the world.  The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques asserted to His Excellency the U.S. president that any American announcement regarding the situation of Jerusalem prior to reaching a permanent settlement will harm peace talks and increase tensions in the area,  state news agency SPA said. It quoted King Salman as saying that Saudi Arabia supported the Palestinian people and their historic rights and asserted that  such a dangerous step is likely to inflame the passions of Muslims around the world due to the great status of Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa mosque...

Summary: सऊदी राजा ने जेरूसलम में अमेरिकी दूतावास स्थानांतरित करने के खिलाफ ट्रम्प को चेतावनी दीः एजेंसी


WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The Trump administration wants to revamp and rename a U.S. government program designed to counter all violent ideologies so that it focuses solely on Islamist extremism, five people briefed on the matter told Reuters.  The program, “Countering Violent Extremism,” or CVE, would be changed to “Countering Islamic Extremism” or “Countering Radical Islamic Extremism,” the sources said, and would no longer target groups such as white supremacists who have also carried out bombings and shootings in the United States.  MORE For hardline West Bank settlers, Jared Kushner's their man Iranians fear attacks and economic isolation as Trump talks tough Republicans wrestle with effort to cut Obamacare Such a change would reflect Trump’s election campaign rhetoric and criticism of former President Barack Obama for being weak in the fight against Islamic State and for refusing to use the phrase “radical Islam” in describing it. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for attacks on civilians in several countries.  The CVE program aims to deter groups or potential lone attackers through community partnerships and educational programs or counter-messaging campaigns in cooperation with companies such as Google (GOOGL.O) and Facebook (FB.O).  Some proponents of the program fear that rebranding it could make it more difficult for the government to work with Muslims already hesitant to trust the new administration, particularly after Trump issued an executive order last Friday temporarily blocking travel to the United States from seven predominantly Muslim countries.  WATCH Uber CEO quits Trump advisory board Still, the CVE program, which focuses on U.S. residents and is separate from a military effort to fight extremism online, has been criticized even by some supporters as ineffective.  A source who has worked closely with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on the program said Trump transition team members first met with a CVE task force in December and floated the idea of changing the name and focus.   In a meeting last Thursday attended by senior staff for DHS Secretary John Kelly, government employees were asked to defend why they chose certain community organizations as recipients of CVE program grants, said the source, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the discussions.  Although CVE funding has been appropriated by Congress and the grant recipients were notified in the final days of the Obama administration, the money still may not go out the door, the source said, adding that Kelly is reviewing the matter.  The department declined comment. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.  Some Republicans in Congress have long assailed the program as politically correct and ineffective, asserting that singling out and using the term “radical Islam” as the trigger for many violent attacks would help focus deterrence efforts.  Others counter that branding the problem as “radical Islam” would only serve to alienate more than three million Americans who practice Islam peacefully.  Many community groups, meanwhile, had already been cautious about the program, partly over concerns that it could double as a surveillance tool for law enforcement.  Hoda Hawa, director of policy for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said she was told last week by people within DHS that there was a push to refocus the CVE effort from tackling all violent ideology to only Islamist extremism.  “That is concerning for us because they are targeting a faith group and casting it under a net of suspicion,” she said.  Another source familiar with the matter was told last week by a DHS official that a name change would take place. Three other sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said such plans had been discussed but were unable to attest whether they had been finalized.  The Obama administration sought to foster relationships with community groups to engage them in the counterterrorism effort. In 2016, Congress appropriated $10 million in grants for CVE efforts and DHS awarded the first round of grants on Jan. 13, a week before Trump was inaugurated.  Among those approved were local governments, city police departments, universities and non-profit organizations. In addition to organizations dedicated to combating Islamic State’s recruitment in the United States, grants also went to Life After Hate, which rehabilitates former neo-Nazis and other domestic extremists.  Just in the past two years, authorities blamed radical and violent ideologies as the motives for a white supremacist’s shooting rampage inside a historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina and Islamist militants for shootings and bombings in California, Florida and New York.  One grant recipient, Leaders Advancing & Helping Communities, a Michigan-based group led by Lebanese-Americans, has declined a $500,000 DHS grant it had sought, according to an email the group sent that was seen by Reuters. A representative for the group confirmed the grant had been rejected but declined further comment.   “Given the current political climate and cause for concern, LAHC has chosen to decline the award,” said the email, which was sent last Thursday, a day before Trump issued his immigration order, which was condemned at home and abroad as discriminating against Muslims while the White House said it was to “to protect the American people from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals.”

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः आतंकवाद-रोधी कार्यक्रम पर पूरी तरह से इस्लाम पर ध्यान केंद्रित करेंगे ट्रंप-सूत्र


KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Monday likely gained ground ahead of national elections next year when the Court of Appeal ruled that the Election Commission can go ahead with a controversial redrawing of voting boundaries. Critics have called out the government over what they describe as skewing the borders in Najib s favour in the redelineation process as he seeks to win a third term in an election that must be held by August. The government denies the charge. Opponents of the redrawing process say it does not address an imbalanced distribution of voters, instead shoving opposition-inclined voters into opposition-held seats to create super-constituencies and also reshaping constituencies to have more distinct ethnic majorities. Electoral boundaries were last shifted nationwide in 2003, and even then the undefeated Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition was accused of manipulating the process. The commission is now seeking to redraw boundaries for more than 120 parliamentary seats, more than half of the 222 seats in total. The Court of Appeal set aside a lower court s order barring the commission from the redrafting exercise amid a legal challenge by the government of the opposition-held state of Selangor over the constitutionality of the process.  The Election Commission has until September 2018 to finish the whole process. There is no urgency,  said Elizabeth Wong, an executive councillor with the Selangor state government, outside the court.  Something is happening to ensure that the prime minister and BN have this list of delineated seats to help them win Selangor,  Wong said in a recording heard by Reuters. The prime minister s office denied Wong s charge, saying the exercise is  is entirely normal, free from political interference  and managed independently by the commission.  The reality is that Malaysia s judiciary is free and fair. Decisions frequently go against the government, as is a matter of public record. The opposition only complain when decisions go against them,  Tengku Sariffuddin, Najib s press secretary, said in an emailed statement. Najib is under pressure to improve on BN s disastrous election outing in 2013, when it lost the popular vote. While BN is widely expected to win its 14th straight polls, Najib s prospects are tempered by voters angered by rising living costs and an unprecedented challenge by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who has joined hands with jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and now leads the opposition.

Summary: मलेशियाई प्रधानमंत्री को चुनावी सीमाओं के फैसले से बढ़ावा मिलने की संभावना


(Reuters) - U.S. Senator Ted Cruz is poised to notch another small but important victory in his battle with billionaire Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination at a hotel convention center in the ranching city of Casper, Wyoming, this weekend.  A committee of Wyoming Republicans is likely to hand Cruz most of the state’s 14 remaining delegates to the party’s national convention in July, political operatives, including Trump supporters in the state, told Reuters. That may not seem like a big number, but both men are engaged in a fierce struggle to win as many as possible of the party insiders who could decide the presidential nominee at a contested convention.  Cruz’s strength in Wyoming underscores the contrast between the way the rivals handle this nuance of American politics: where Cruz focuses on organizing at a minute level to court delegates in preparation for a convention fight, Trump has run a national campaign focused on winning the popular vote in early nominating contests and has paid little attention to the more arcane elements of U.S. presidential politics.     Cruz’s effort has included personal visits to far-flung areas, regular conference calls among his state supporters, and hospitality suites to court backers within state parties, while Trump has assailed the delegate system as “rigged” and only recently reorganized his campaign to focus on them.  “I think Cruz has done a good job with how they targeted states,” said Jason Osborne, a Republican strategist who has advised Trump, and who previously worked on former candidate Ben Carson’s campaign. “An operation like Trump’s was built for something completely different.”  Trump’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.  The United States has a unique system for picking presidential nominees. A combination of nominating polls – usually in the form of state primaries, caucuses, and party conventions – are used to apportion delegates to candidates.  In the Republican race, a candidate needs to win a majority of the total 2,472 delegates to get the nomination. While Trump has won 21 state nominating contests so far to Cruz’s nine, the billionaire leads the Texas senator by only 208 delegates (743-545).  To avoid a convention fight, Trump needs 1,237 delegates to secure the nomination. That means he has to win nearly 60 percent of the remaining delegates before July.  Cruz’s effort in Wyoming, America’s least populous state, is a window into his broader delegate strategy and helps explain how he has become a formidable candidate despite his relatively underdog performance in the primaries so far.  The effort began in 2015, while most other candidates were focused on the early races in Iowa or New Hampshire. Ed Buchanan, a trial attorney in Cheyenne, got a call from Heidi Cruz, the candidate’s wife, in October asking if he would become the state chairman for Cruz’s presidential campaign.  Buchanan, a former speaker of the State House, agreed to the role, which has taken him to every corner of the state trying to court support and build a slate of delegates.  Some states allow the voters to select the delegates who will attend the Republican convention on their behalf, but in most, like Wyoming, Colorado and North Dakota, voters have no say in who goes to Cleveland.  If Trump doesn’t have the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination outright, many delegates will become free at the July convention to pick a candidate based on their personal preference, not the choice of the voters in their state.  That is why campaigns want their supporters among the delegates and that is where Buchanan comes in.  He is responsible for assembling a list of the Cruz campaign’s preferred delegates, which he will present to the Casper conference. Each would-be Cruz delegate has promised not to switch allegiances if the voting at the Cleveland convention goes beyond one ballot.  Buchanan expects them to stick to their word. If they don’t, it will not go unnoticed, he said.  “It’s a small state. The people who are in political circles know each other and that would not be forgotten,” he said.  In Wyoming, Cruz won nine of the 12 delegates who were selected at county-level meetings in March. Nearly 1,000 of the state’s most active party members will decide in Casper this weekend the remaining 14 delegates to be voted on.  Cruz will speak on Saturday and his supporters have organized a hospitality room, where they will have freebies like campaign buttons and food.  Trump has not campaigned in the state and will spend the weekend in New York, which holds a major primary next week. He will send former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in his stead.  “Cruz was here, and that makes a difference to a small state,” former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming said in an interview.  Trump has been slow to adapt his campaign to the delegate fight and has instead attacked the process.  “I know the rules very well, but I know it’s stacked against me by the establishment,” Trump said on CNN on Tuesday.  It is likely now too late to combat Cruz’s operation in Wyoming.  Dick Shanor, who will attend the national convention to support Cruz, said supporters organized to get like-minded voters to show up at the county elections last month, helping the senator to score those early delegate wins.  Jack Volsey, a Trump supporter from Rock Springs, Wyoming, had a different experience. He said he sent a message to a pro-Trump Facebook group in the state asking how he could participate in his county convention, but he never heard back. He was eventually selected as an alternate delegate to this weekend’s gathering, but he has decided not to go.  “I’m not going to go there to sit on the sidelines when I’m sure it’s a done deal already.”

Summary: व्योमिंग में, व्हाइट हाउस की दौड़ की बारीकियों को समझते हुए क्रूज़ ने ट्रम्प पर बढ़त दिखाई


WARSAW (Reuters) - The United States criticized a decision by Poland s media regulator to slap a $415,000 fine on TVN, a U.S.-owned private broadcaster, saying the ruling appeared to undermine media freedom. The broadcaster was fined by regulator KRRiT on Monday over its coverage of protests in parliament last year.  This decision appears to undermine media freedom in Poland, a close ally and fellow democracy. Free and independent media are essential to a strong democracy,  the U.S. Department of State said in a statement on Tuesday. It added that it remained confident in the ability of Polish authorities to ensure democratic institutions were fully functioning and respected. The regulator said it had fined the broadcaster s TVN24 channel for  promoting illegal activities and encouraging behavior that threatens security,  without giving details. TVN24 is the most widely watched independent channel in Poland, and critics on Monday interpreted the fine as an effort to mute its criticism of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party amid speculation the state may take the broadcaster over.  Since taking office in late 2015, the PiS has been at loggerheads with the European Union over policy, including placing the country s media under increased state control.

Summary: अमेरिका ने U.S.-owned प्रसारक टीवीएन पर जुर्माना लगाने के लिए पोलैंड की आलोचना की


GAZA (Reuters) - The new chief of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, arrived in Cairo on Saturday to hold talks with senior Egyptian officials about the blockade of Gaza on his first such visit as leader, a Hamas spokesman said. In the past few months Hamas has sought to mend relations with Egypt, which controls their one international border crossing from the Gaza Strip. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has been wary of ties between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, ousted from power by Sisi after mass protests.     Hamas controls the Gaza Strip, a densely populated coastal territory that shares borders with Egypt and Israel, with which it has fought three wars since 2008.  For much of the last decade, Egypt has joined Israel in enforcing a partial land, sea and air blockade of Gaza. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said the talks with Egypt will focus on alleviating the blockade and mending a longstanding rift with rival group Fatah, headed by Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. An Egyptian source confirmed Haniyeh s arrival with a delegation for talks on the border crossing, security and power supplies. Haniyeh was elected Hamas leader in May. The group maintains a sizeable armed wing in Gaza since seizing the enclave from Fatah in 2007. Hoping to pressure Hamas to relinquish control of Gaza, Abbas has cut payments to Israel for the electricity it supplies to Gaza. This means that electricity has often been provided for less than four hours a day, and never more than six. Abbas has vowed to keep up sanctions against Gaza, saying measures are aimed against Hamas and not ordinary people. In turn, Hamas is trying to make a crack in the wall of sanctions by improving its relations with Egypt and other Arab countries. Israel, which signed a 1979 peace treaty with Egypt and coordinates closely with it on security, is maintaining a close watch on discussions between Egypt and Hamas. Like the United States and the European Union, it regards Hamas as a terrorist group.

Summary: गाजा की नाकाबंदी पर चर्चा के लिए काहिरा में हमास नेता


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Around 100 Islamic State fighters have surrendered in Syria s Raqqa in the last 24 hours and were  removed from the city , a spokesman for the U.S-led coalition against Islamic State told Reuters on Saturday.   We still expect difficult fighting in the days ahead and will not set a time for when we think (Islamic State) will be completely defeated in Raqqa,  Colonel Ryan Dillon said in an emailed statement.

Summary: U.S.-led गठबंधन का कहना है कि पिछले 24 घंटों में रक्का में 100 आईएस लड़ाकों ने आत्मसमर्पण कियाः प्रवक्ता


(Reuters) - Three days before Puerto Rico’s Democratic presidential primary, Bernie Sanders leveled a blistering attack on a restructuring bill moving through the U.S. Congress and offered a radically different approach to fixing the territory’s $70 billion debt problem. Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont who is giving front-runner Hillary Clinton a tougher-than-expected challenge for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, will formally introduce his legislation next week, a spokesman said on Thursday. Unlike a bipartisan House of Representatives bill that would establish a federal oversight board to renegotiate the massive debt with investors, Sanders’ bill would create a “Reconstruction Finance Corporation of Puerto Rico” that would protect public pensioners from cutbacks and “concentrate losses among vulture funds,” according to a summary. “It is morally reprehensible that Wall Street vulture funds are demanding that Puerto Rico fire even more teachers, close more schools, cut pensions and slash the minimum wage so that they can reap huge profits off the misery of the people of Puerto Rico,” Sanders said in a statement. The term vulture funds is a derogatory reference to specialized investing in deeply discounted or distressed assets, typically bonds, by buying them up on the cheap in hopes of profiting on the expectation of a credit restructuring Clinton has backed the House bill. Last week, a House committee with oversight of Puerto Rico approved a debt restructuring measure that backers hope will be enacted into law before July 1, when the island is faced with making good on $1.9 billion in debt payments. Sanders’ proposal comes as the nominating contests for the presidential election are winding down. Along with Puerto Rico, California and a handful of other states are holding their nominating contests in the coming days. Sanders’ bill sets out to strip the ability of hedge funds to profit off their investments in an attempt to protect pensions ahead of creditors. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation would consist of seven members, all full-time residents of Puerto Rico and mainly chosen by the Puerto Rican legislature and governor. The House bill, by contrast, would give Republicans in the U.S. Congress a say in recommending the majority of the proposed oversight board members. While the House bill boasts no cost to U.S. taxpayers, Sanders wants $10.8 billion for infrastructure improvements in Puerto Rico. He proposes raising federal reimbursements for the Medicare and Medicaid healthcare programs for the poor, elderly and disabled. Sanders also wants elections by Jan. 31, 2018, in Puerto Rico to decide whether it should become a state, an independent country or reform its current status.

Summary: सैंडर्स प्यूर्टो रिको ऋण बिल की पेशकश करेंगे जो पेंशनभोगियों की रक्षा करेगा


SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese state media on Monday continued to play down the protocol-bending phone call last week between U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Taiwan’s president, with editorials in two newspapers saying the move showed Trump’s inexperience. China’s national English-language newspaper, the China Daily, said the 10-minute call “exposed nothing but the inexperience Trump and his transition team have in dealing with foreign affairs”. “The action was due to a lack of a proper understanding of the sensitive issues in Sino-U.S. relations and cross-Strait ties,” it said. The Friday call was the first by a U.S. president-elect or president since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, acknowledging Taiwan as part of “one China”. China’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday it had lodged “stern representations” with what it called the “relevant U.S. side,” urging the careful handling of the Taiwan issue to avoid any unnecessary disturbances in ties. China considers Taiwan a wayward province and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday pointedly blamed Taiwan for the exchange, rather than Trump, calling it “a petty action”. The China Daily said that for Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, the call “achieves nothing substantial, only pride in making what is an illusionary ‘groundbreaking move’, and temporarily diverting public attention on the island away from her bad performance”. “It would be a mistake for Tsai and her party to over-interpret the significance of the call,” it said. Her attempts to “stir up tension... will ultimately backfire”. The Global Times, a hawkish tabloid under the ruling Communist Party’s top newspaper the People’s Daily, called Trump “bluffing and unpredictable”, but said he did not have plans to overturn America’s international relationships. “It seems that Trump is still taking advantage of his perceived fickleness and unpredictability to make some choppy waves in the Taiwan Straits to see if he can gain some bargaining chips before he is sworn in,” it said. The Global Times added targeting him would be inappropriate since he is not yet president. “He has zero diplomatic experience and is unaware of the repercussions of shaking up Sino-U.S. relations,” it said. Instead, China could send a message to Trump by punishing Taiwan, wooing away one or two of the island’s diplomatic allies or beefing up military deployments against Taiwan, it said. “It is certain that Trump doesn’t want a showdown with China, because it is not his ambition, and neither was it included in his promise to the electorate. He puts out feelers to sound China out and chalk up some petty benefits.” On Monday, Taiwan’s Liberty Times, considered close to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, reported Tsai is planning to transit in New York early next month on her way to visit three diplomatic allies - Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador. The trip would take place before Trump’s inauguration January 20 and Tsai’s delegation would seek to meet with Trump’s team, including Reince Priebus, Trump’s White House chief of staff, the report said.  Taiwan’s Presidential Office said media reports about a January trip were “excessive speculation”. It said it would announce any presidential trips at the appropriate time.

Summary: चीनी अखबारों का कहना है कि ताइवान की त्साई के साथ फोन पर बात करना ट्रम्प की अनुभवहीनता को दर्शाता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Friday that it would be “profoundly unwise” to plow money set aside for Ebola-related projects into research and mitigation efforts for the mosquito-borne Zika virus as several top Republican lawmakers have requested. Democratic President Barack Obama has asked the U.S. Congress for more than $1.8 billion to fight Zika in the United States and abroad, and pursue a vaccine. But three key Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives have said they think the government should instead draw from $2.7 billion that has not yet used for public health projects overseas. The Zika virus has been linked to birth defects in Brazil and spread to at least 31 other countries and territories, mostly in the Americas. Representative Hal Rogers, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and Representatives Kay Granger and Tom Cole, who are appropriators for Health and Human Services and the State Department, made their request in a letter to the White House on Thursday. “If the aim of the request is to mount as rapid a response as possible, it is clear to us that the most expeditious way to identify the needed funding is to maximize the use of unobligated funds previously provided for Ebola,” the lawmakers said. Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri, a member of the Republican Senate leadership team, said earlier this month that Obama should repurpose Ebola funds for the new Zika fight. But White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the unspent Ebola money was needed to “build up the public health infrastructure of countries overseas” to help prevent future epidemics. West Africa was stricken by a two-year Ebola epidemic that killed more than 11,300 people starting in December 2013 and led to cases in the United States.  “It’s critically important that we follow through on those efforts and it would be profoundly unwise to take money away from the ongoing effort that’s need to fight Ebola,” Earnest said. Earnest said that the White House would soon put forward a formal Zika funding request for lawmakers. It will include a plan to redirect some Ebola funds to the Zika fight, but Earnest said new funding was also require. Much remains unknown about Zika, including whether the virus actually causes microcephaly, a condition marked by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems. Brazil said it has confirmed more than 500 cases of microcephaly, and considers most of them to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating more than 3,900 additional suspected cases of microcephaly.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस और हाउस रिपब्लिकन में जीका, इबोला के वित्तपोषण को लेकर तकरार