TBILISI (Reuters) - Kakha Kaladze climbed to the top of world soccer as a defender for Italian club AC Milan, and now his career is taking another turn: he wants to become the mayor of the capital city in his native country of Georgia. Kaladze, now 39 and running as a candidate for the ruling Georgian Dream party, has an advantage over the other seven candidates in the field as one of ex-Soviet Georgia s most recognizable public figures. He told Reuters after a campaign event he considered his career in sport was good preparation for politics. It taught him about teamwork.  Every time when I talk about success in politics or in sport, I stress how important it is to have a team of professionals,  he said. Kaladze has more than 30 percent support among likely voters, the National Democratic Institute said in a report this month   more than any other candidates. His closest competitor is likely to be Zaal Udumashvili, a well-known former television anchor who is representing the United National Movement, an opposition party. The result may have to be decided in a second round run-off. Some voters see Kaladze as the favorite, in part because he has the backing of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder of the Georgian Dream party and Georgia s richest man.  I m sure Kaladze will be elected as a mayor,  said Nugzar Malkhazashvili, a 47-year-old doctor and resident of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. Kaladze s soccer career included a spell at Ukrainian club Dynamo Kyiv, then a period at AC Milan during which the club were Italian league champions once and won the UEFA Champions League twice. He finished his career at another Italian club, Genoa, before retiring in 2011. Kaladze was also a successful businessman, owning a handful of investments in Georgia, Ukraine, Italy and Kazakhstan. He entered politics in the year he retired, becoming an active supporter of Ivanishvili. He has served as energy minister and deputy prime minister in governments dominated by Ivanishvili s allies. In the race for mayor of the Georgian capital he has promised to solve problems with traffic by building new roads and overpasses, improve ecology by constructing new parks and green zones and to address education and healthcare problems. He said he was already looking beyond the election, and focusing on how he will fulfill his promises.  I don t see October 21 (the election day) as a problem. I anticipate difficulties after October 21. We will have serious challenges, but I hope that we will overcome all difficult barriers,  Kaladze told Reuters.

Summary: पूर्व फुटबॉल स्टार कलाद्ज़े जॉर्जिया की राजधानी में महापौर पद के लिए चुनाव लड़ रहे हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives Ethics Committee said on Friday it had begun an investigation into public reports that Democrat Ruben Kihuen engaged in sexual harassment, and a second lawmaker denied a former aide’s allegations of sexual misconduct. The ethics panel said that announcing the probe was not a sign the committee already had determined the Nevada representative violated any rules. “As I’ve said previously, I intend to fully cooperate, and I welcome an opportunity to clear my name,” said Kihuen in a statement provided to Reuters. The news website Buzzfeed has reported that Kihuen, currently finishing his first year in Congress, harassed a staff member on his 2016 political campaign, and on Thursday there were multiple reports of an anonymous lobbyist’s description of his unwanted advances. Reuters has not independently confirmed the reports. Lawmakers from both U.S. political parties have recently been ensnared in allegations of sexual misconduct, prompting the committee to launch a probe this month of all House members and their staffs. On Friday a second Democratic congressman, Bobby Scott of Virginia, was accused by former legislative aide Macherie Reese Everton of touching her leg and back without permission in 2013 and offering to advance her career in exchange for sex and said she was wrongfully dismissed from her job. Scott, who has served 25 years in Congress, rejected  Everton’s charges and said he had never sexually harassed anyone.  “I absolutely deny this allegation of misconduct,” he said in a statement. “I am confident that this false allegation will be seen for what it is when the facts are adequately reviewed.” Reuters has not independently verified the claims.  This week Republican Representative Blake Farenthold said  he would not seek re-election after accounts surfaced that he created a hostile work environment. In a Facebook post, Farenthold denied allegations of sexual harassment by former staff members but admitted he allowed an unprofessional culture to flourish in his Capitol Hill office. Members of Congress are working on legislation to update the body’s rules on sexual harassment. Representative Carolyn Maloney said she will introduce a bill on Friday that says companies cannot block sexual harassment victims from publicly disclosing the details of their allegations, which often are included in settlement agreements. Allegations of misconduct in recent weeks have also been made against movie-makers, television interviewers and other men in the private sector.

Summary: अमेरिकी सांसद ने यौन रिपोर्टों की जांच की, दूसरे सांसद ने आरोपों से इनकार किया


BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday said he hoped President-elect Donald Trump could stand up to Russia when needed, and would take a constructive approach to cooperating with Moscow where interests aligned. “In order for us to solve many big problems around the world, it is in our interest to work with Russia,” Obama told a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “My hope is that the president-elect coming in takes a similarly constructive approach, finding areas where we can cooperate with Russia where our values and interests align, but that the president-elect also is willing to stand up to Russia when they are deviating from our values and international norms,” Obama said. He added it was important for sanctions imposed against Russia over its actions in eastern Ukraine to remain in place until Moscow complied with the Minsk peace agreement. Obama, asked if he thought Merkel should run for a fourth term as chancellor, said he considered her an outstanding leader and would vote for Merkel, if he were a German citizen.

Summary: ओबामा ने उम्मीद जताई कि जरूरत पड़ने पर ट्रंप रूस के खिलाफ खड़े हो सकते हैं


BRASILIA/CARACAS (Reuters) - Dismissed Venezuelan prosecutor Luisa Ortega said on Wednesday she had evidence that President Nicolas Maduro was involved in corruption with construction company Odebrecht. Ortega, 59, was a key player in Venezuela s government but broke with it in March. She fled last week to Colombia by boat and on Wednesday morning landed in Brazil. Ortega said she had been persecuted in an effort to hide details of high-level corruption, saying she had proof, though she offered none. Ortega linked the Odebrecht scandal with Maduro and Socialist Party heavyweights including Diosdado Cabello and Jorge Rodriguez. Ortega said she had evidence that Cabello received some $100 million from the Brazilian company.  The international community must investigate such cases,  she told a news conference. Venezuelan authorities did not respond to a request for comment. Odebrecht admitted in a settlement with U.S. and Brazilian prosecutors to paying bribes across 12 countries to win contracts. According to a U.S. court ruling, between 2001 and 2016, Odebrecht paid about $788 million in bribes in countries including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela. Ortega was removed from her position early this month by Venezuela s newly formed constituent assembly, a controversial pro-government body whose installation was called dictatorial by governments worldwide. Maduro said on Tuesday he would seek Ortega s arrest, accusing her of having worked for some time with the United States. Maduro blames Washington for many of Venezuela s problems, including triple-digit inflation, shortages of basic goods and months of anti-government unrest. In Caracas, state-controlled television broadcast images on Wednesday of a police operation in what it said was Ortega s apartment. The cameras showed marble floors, large paintings of Ortega herself and one by Andy Warhol, a cellar containing an array of expensive wines and a wardrobe filled with designer labels. Ortega said she would give details of the corruption cases to authorities in the United States, Spain, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia. Since settling in the United States, Brazil and Switzerland for a record $3.5 billion, Odebrecht has sought to negotiate leniency deals that would allow it to keep operating in other countries across Latin America.

Summary: वेनेजुएला की पूर्व अभियोजक का कहना है कि उनके पास मादुरो के भ्रष्टाचार के सबूत हैं


PARIS (Reuters) - France s foreign minister said on Wednesday he was worried that U.S. President Donald Trump could put into doubt a nuclear deal between Iran and a group of major world powers.   The agreement which was passed two years ago enables Iran to give up on a nuclear weapon and so avoid proliferation. We have to guarantee this stance,  Jean-Yves Le Drian said during a visit to Science-Po university in Paris.  I am worried at this moment in time by the position of President Trump, who could put into question this accord. And if this accord is put into question then voices in Iran will speak up to say:  Let s also have a nuclear weapon.  We are in an extremely dangerous spiral for the world.

Summary: ईरान परमाणु समझौते पर ट्रंप के रुख से चिंतित हैं फ्रांस के विदेश मंत्री


BEIRUT/PARIS (Reuters) - Lebanon s president said on Thursday he hoped the crisis over Saad al-Hariri s resignation as prime minister would end soon, with Hariri due to leave Saudi Arabia for France this weekend. Hariri quit in a broadcast from Saudi Arabia on Nov. 4, railing against Riyadh s bitter foe Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.  The shock resignation thrust Lebanon into both a domestic political crisis and the Middle East s overarching rivalry that pits Saudi Arabia and its allies against a bloc led by Iran. A Elysee Palace source said Hariri would fly to Paris on Saturday and meet President Emmanuel Macron the same day.  French officials said they did not know how long Hariri would stay before returning to Beirut but hoped his trip would help soothe the crisis by demonstrating he was not being held in Saudi Arabia, as Lebanon s President Michel Aoun has said.  His arrival will ease tensions by showing he s free to move around,  said a French diplomatic source.  There would be consultations before he returns to Beirut to build international support for him to negotiate a new political deal in Lebanon, French officials said.       We re not trying to find a compromise or open dialogue between sides, but trying to create the conditions for a de-escalation in the region. We want to avoid a proliferation of crises that could get out of control.  Hariri accepted an invitation to France on Thursday after meeting French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who was visiting Saudi Arabia. Aoun, who has refused to accept Hariri s resignation unless he returns to Lebanon, has accused Riyadh of holding Hariri hostage. He said on Thursday on Twitter he hoped  the crisis is over  and the France visit would open the door to a solution. Lebanon maintains a delicate sectarian balance, after Sunnis, Shi ites, Christians and Druze fought a 1975-1990 civil war, with factions often backed by regional rivals. Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, is a long-term ally of Saudi Arabia. Aoun, a Christian, is a political ally of Hezbollah, the heavily armed Shi ite Muslim movement that is backed by Iran. Hariri s government, a power-sharing coalition formed last year, includes Hezbollah.  Since Hariri announced his resignation, Saudi Arabia has  accused Lebanon of declaring war on it, citing Hezbollah s role fighting in other Arab countries. On Thursday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Saudi Arabia was consulting with its allies about what leverage to use against Hezbollah.  We will make the decision when the time comes,  he told Reuters in an interview. Top Lebanese officials and senior politicians close to Hariri say he was forced to quit and was being held by the Saudis. Politicians from all sides in Lebanon have called for his return to Beirut.  Saudi Arabia has denied forcing Hariri to resign or detaining him. In an interview on Sunday, his first public comments since resigning, Hariri said he is free to leave and would return home soon to formally submit his resignation. He also warned of possible Saudi action against Lebanon, including sanctions and threats to the livelihood of Lebanese workers in the Gulf, unless Hezbollah is reined in.  Aoun said in a statement that once Hariri returned to Lebanon he would have to stay until a new government was formed.  Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil has toured European capitals seeking diplomatic help to end the crisis. On Friday he is to go to Russia, after visiting Germany and Turkey on Thursday.   The issue is one of freedom ... of international conventions related to immunity,  Bassil said in Ankara after meeting with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.  France s foreign minister, Le Drian, said Paris was working to normalize the situation in Lebanon. After meeting Le Drian, Jubeir described Hezbollah as an arm of Iran s Revolutionary Guards and said it must disarm for Lebanon to be stable.   Whenever we see a problem, we see Hezbollah act as an arm or agent of Iran and this has to come to an end,  he said.

Summary: लेबनान के राष्ट्रपति को उम्मीद है कि हरीरी की फ्रांस यात्रा से संकट समाप्त होगा


(Reuters) - FBI Director James Comey undercut some of the main arguments Hillary Clinton has made in defense of her use of an unauthorized private email system while she was U.S. secretary of state.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation began investigating Clinton’s email system after government watchdogs found that some of her messages contained classified government secrets last year. Comey is recommending that Clinton not face criminal charges. But in an unusual step, he used a news conference to give a public rebuttal on Tuesday of the defenses offered by Clinton over the last year. Here are seven times that Comey contradicts Clinton: Clinton said: Clinton said in March 2015 that she returned “anything that could be possibly viewed as work related.” She later swore under oath that she returned all her work emails to the State Department in 2014, some 30,000 in all. Comey said: The FBI recovered “several thousand” work emails that were not returned to the State Department. Comey has “reasonable confidence” that there was no deliberate effort to withhold these messages.   Clinton said: Clinton has repeatedly said she did not send or receive any classified information through her private email system, and that emails being released to the public that were now marked classified were being retroactively “upgraded.” Comey said: The FBI found 110 emails in 52 email chains that contained information that was classified at the time the messages were sent. Eight of those chains contained Top Secret information, the highest level of government classification; another 36 chains contained Secret information, and eight contained confidential information. Clinton said: Clinton has repeatedly said she did not send or receive any emails that were “marked” classified. Comey said: A “very small number” of emails were marked as containing classified information. “But even if information is not marked ‘classified’ in an email, participants who know or should know that the subject matter is classified are still obligated to protect it,” Comey said. Clinton said:      The “security and integrity” of the email system were taken seriously, and “robust protections” were put in place, according to her staff in March 2015. Comey said: The system was “not even supported by full-time security staff, like those found at departments and agencies of the U.S. government, or even with a commercial service like Gmail.” Clinton said: Clinton said there is no evidence there was ever a breach of her email system. Comey said:  It would be unlikely to find “direct evidence” of Clinton’s email system being hacked, but the FBI believes “it is possible that hostile actors gained access.” “Hostile actors” also gained access to some people Clinton corresponded with on her email system. Clinton said: “I’m certainly well aware of the classification requirements,” Clinton said in March 2015. Comey said: Clinton and her colleagues were “extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.” Clinton said: Clinton has maintained that her email system was allowed and that she did nothing wrong. She has also said it was a “mistake” and apologized for it. Comey said:  There is no evidence that Clinton and her colleagues intended to break the law, but people who engage in similar activity are “often subject to security or administrative sanctions.”

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः एफ. बी. आई. बनाम क्लिंटन-विवाद के सात बिंदु


(Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump convenes a gathering of leaders of some of the largest technology companies at his New York headquarters on Wednesday as he continues to form his administration before taking office on Jan. 20. The session is billed as an introductory meeting that would not result in any job or investment announcements, sources said.  Below is a list of attendees expected at the summit, according to sources. Trump’s transition team has announced the meeting but did not name any invited executives during a conference call with reporters on Tuesday.  * CEO Larry Page of Alphabet Inc, Google’s parent company * Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook * Facebook Inc COO Sheryl Sandberg * Amazon.com Inc CEO Jeff Bezos * Tesla Motors Inc CEO Elon Musk * Microsoft Corp CEO Satya Nadella  * Oracle Corp CEO Safra Catz * In addition, the technology news website Recode reported that Intel Corp executives were invited. An Intel spokeswoman declined to comment.     * The Wall Street Journal reported Palantir Technologies Inc CEO Alex Karp would also attend the meeting.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः गूगल, एप्पल और अन्य तकनीकी दिग्गजों से मिलेंगे ट्रंपः सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are seeking to add an amendment this week to spending legislation that would slash the number of staff at the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The budget research office, known as the CBO, has drawn recent Republican criticism, including from the White House, after it concluded that Republican proposals to replace Obamacare would lead to 23 million more Americans being uninsured if they became law. Representative Mark Meadows, head of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said on Monday his colleague Morgan Griffith has offered an amendment to an appropriations bill the House is expected to take up this week that would cut the CBO’s staff of 235 by 89 employees, saving about $15 million. “They ought to be aggregators,” Meadows said of the CBO at a National Press Club lunch. “There’s plenty of think tanks that are out there. We ought to take a score from Heritage, from AEI (American Enterprise Institute), from Brookings, from the Urban Institute and bring them together for a composite score.” The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank based in Washington, as is the American Enterprise Institute. The Brookings Institution and Urban Institute are liberal-leaning think tanks based in Washington. The CBO is one of a handful of analysis units of Congress whose employees strive for political impartiality, providing dependable and neutral information that lawmakers can use when making often complex budget, tax and other decisions. Its staff includes economists, public policy analysts, lawyers and editors. In May, after Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney called the CBO’s healthcare analysis “absurd” and questioned its continued existence, Democrats defended the office, saying Republican attacks were irresponsible. “When Trump administration officials either disagree with or do not understand the impacts of their own policies, they prefer to attack the nonpartisan analysts who are doing their jobs with integrity and expertise,” Representative Steny Hoyer, a Democratic House leader, said at the time. The CBO was created in 1974 during a spending dispute between the Democratic-controlled Congress and Republican President Richard Nixon after he withheld funds for government programs that did not support his political positions.

Summary: सदन में रिपब्लिकन ने कांग्रेस के बजट कार्यालय में कटौती के लिए जोर दिया


SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Puerto Ricans still living largely in darkness 12 days after Hurricane Maria leveled their island reveled in small victories on Sunday in what promises to be a months-long slog back to some semblance of normal life.  Some islanders got their cell phone service back on Sunday, others gathered at bars for drinking and dancing after the dry law was lifted this weekend.  “Everyone is talking about Maria,” said Julianna Melendez, 36, while out at a bar in Guaynabo, near the capital San Juan. “A lot of people lost their homes, and they are still living in them. We need help.” Food and drinking water are still in short supply and power is down for most of the U.S. territory’s 3.4 million people nearly two weeks after the fiercest hurricane to hit the island in 90 years.  U.S. lawmakers urged President Donald Trump on Sunday to stop sniping at Puerto Ricans and get to work helping them recover, two days before he was to visit the island. The Republican president said his government was doing a “great job” to help Puerto Rico recover and took a new swipe at critics who said he had been slow to aid the island. “We have done a great job with the almost impossible situation in Puerto Rico. Outside of the Fake News or politically motivated ingrates,” he said in a Twitter post.  Trump faces difficult weeks, if not months, in managing the U.S. territory. His senior general leading military relief operations in Puerto Rico, Lieutenant General Jeff Buchanan, said they were clearing roads and getting more supplies to people, but recognized “it’s still a long haul.” Trump has intensified his praise of the federal response after the mayor of San Juan made clear those efforts fell short and American media continued to broadcast images of the havoc and suffering on the island that belied his words. At the same time, he criticized San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz on Saturday and said Puerto Ricans wanted “everything to be done for them.”  Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told CBS’ “Face the Nation” the relief effort so far has been “slow footed, disorganized and not adequate.” “The president, instead of tweeting against the mayor of San Juan who’s watching her people die and just made a plea for help, ought to roll up his sleeves and get to work here,” he said. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican, urged an end to the political fingerpointing. “Every minute we spend in the political realm bickering with one another over who’s doing what, or who’s wrong, or who didn’t do right is a minute of energy and time that we’re not spending trying to get the response right,” Rubio told CBS. Trump launched his attack on San Juan’s mayor during a weekend stay at his golf resort in New Jersey, where he was attending the President’s Cup tournament on Sunday. He dedicated the Cup trophy to victims of Maria and this summer’s previous major hurricanes Irma and Harvey, “all of those people that went through so much, that we love.”  Referring to Puerto Rico, Trump said “we have it under really great control.”  Maria pummeled Puerto Rico on Sept. 20 as a very powerful Category 4 hurricane on the heels of Irma, with roof-ripping winds and torrential rains that caused widespread flooding and heavily damaged homes, roads and other infrastructure. About half of the island’s people do not have access to drinking water, and 95 percent remain without power, according to the Pentagon. Nearly 90 percent of cell phone towers are out of service, according to the Federal Communications Commission.  Impassable roads have made it hard for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and others to distribute food, water and fuel. Guaynabo Mayor Angel Perez said the situation is improving, albeit slowly. City employees are working 12-hour shifts, going door-to-door throughout the suburb of more than 100,000, taking a census on whether residents need water, ice, clothing or other basic necessities. “FEMA is telling me I’ll be getting some money in advance instead of reimbursement, so that’s really going to help,” Pérez said, adding that damages to municipal buildings alone will top $25 million in Guaynabo. Carmen Miranda, 60, of Luquillo, is among those who has faced long lines for gasoline, medicine and supplies. She spent 13 hours one day trying to buy fuel at a station that ran dry and was in line on Saturday at a store that ran out of diesel. “I’m going to have to come back another day,” she said. “It’s just horrible, those lines. That needs to be resolved immediately. President Trump, anyone, help us!” she said. At a briefing in San Juan, Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello reported that fuel and food supplies had begun to arrive in Puerto Rico. “We still need to do much more,” he said. Rossello remains in good standing with Trump, earning plaudits in the president’s tweets, while Cruz came under sustained fire from other Washington officials.  FEMA director Brock Long admonished her for not being in closer contact with relief coordinators. Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin both said on Sunday that Cruz’s criticism was unfair.  Cruz, who has been living in a shelter since her house was destroyed by Maria, pressed on with her appeal for basic necessities as insurers and politicians began to tally the costs of the storm and the size of the aid package Puerto Rico will need. “Let us not talk about the debt, let us not talk about the cost of reconstruction. Let us just talk about saving lives right now,” Cruz said on Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” program.

Summary: एक सेल संकेत, एक खुला बारः खंडहर में प्यूर्टो रिको के लिए छोटी जीत


(Reuters) - Special Counsel Robert Mueller is examining what role, if any former national security adviser Mike Flynn may have had in an effort to obtain Hillary Clinton’s emails from Russian hackers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.  Efforts to seek out the hackers who stole emails of former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was led by Republican activist Peter Smith, the Journal said.  Mueller was appointed special counsel to determine whether there was collusion between President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Moscow. Flynn resigned in February after revelations that he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office and misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations. Representatives from the White House and Mueller’s office could not immediately be reached for comment.

Summary: रॉबर्ट मुलर हैकरों से क्लिंटन के ईमेल मांगने में फ्लिन की भूमिका की जांच कर रहे हैंः डब्ल्यूएसजे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration said on Monday it was vastly expanding the scope of a policy blocking U.S. assistance to foreign groups that perform or provide information about abortions, a move critics say will hinder women’s access to critical care. The new policy means that $8.8 billion in U.S. assistance to an array of programs fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria and maternal and child health will be subject to the so-called Mexico City policy. The policy, introduced in 1984, holds that no U.S. government funding for family planning services can be given to foreign clinics or groups that offer abortion services or discuss abortion, even if the funds for those activities come from non-U.S. government sources. The policy previously applied to a much narrower stream of about $600 million in U.S. government funds. Since it was unveiled, the Mexico City rule has been routinely rescinded under Democratic administrations and reinstated under Republican ones, and is used by presidents to signal where they stand on abortion rights. Critics of the policy call it the “global gag rule,” and say it hurts vulnerable women worldwide who depend on aid groups for their healthcare. Even when the Mexico City policy is not in place, federal law prevents the use of U.S. funding for abortions abroad.  President Donald Trump, a Republican, reinstated the policy in January, just days after taking office, but he went further and directed government agencies to figure out a plan to apply the policy “to global health assistance furnished by all departments or agencies.” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has approved a plan to expand the policy’s provisions to funding for HIV/AIDS, maternal and child health, malaria and other health programs, the State Department said on Monday. That includes about $6 billion in funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, the world’s largest provider of AIDS-fighting medicine. PEPFAR, launched in 2003 during Republican President George W. Bush’s administration, has been credited with saving millions of lives and enjoys bipartisan support.  Other programs affected by the expanded policy, called “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance,” include the President’s Malaria Initiative, which received about $621 million in funding in 2016, according to its website. The State Department said in a statement: “Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance does not reduce the amount of global health assistance the U.S. Government makes available, and funding previously obligated will not be affected as a result of this policy.” U.S. officials said the malaria and HIV/AIDS programs would be resilient even if the United States had to deny funding to existing healthcare providers. “We have a diversity of partners who are providing services and that would be available to continue those services,” a senior administration official told reporters on condition of anonymity. The new policy applies to funds provided to foreign non-governmental organizations, but not to aid provided to governments or multilateral organizations, the State Department said. The expanded policy also does not apply to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief or to U.N. funds and programs. Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the expanded policy would have “severe consequences for millions of vulnerable women and children.” Anti-abortion groups praised the decision, saying it merely represented a realignment of funding.

Summary: ट्रम्प प्रशासन ने वैश्विक गर्भपात विरोधी नीति का व्यापक विस्तार किया


SEOUL (Reuters) - The North Korean soldier critically wounded when making a dash to the south last month may have cheated death, but even as his health improves, he is months if not years away from finding a normal life in South Korea, officials and other defectors say.  The transition to life in the democratic and prosperous South can be difficult for any defector from the isolated and impoverished North, let alone for a soldier from an elite border unit with potentially actionable military intelligence and a high profile that may complicate efforts to blend in. The 24-year-old soldier, identified only by his surname Oh, has been released from intensive care after being shot five times during his daring defection, but is still battling a hepatitis B infection which could delay his transfer to a military hospital for some time, doctors said.  As active duty soldier defectors have up-to-date information, the intelligence agencies would question the soldiers and see if anything needs to be addressed in our military s operation and combat plans,  a current South Korean government official involved in resettling North Korean refugees told Reuters. Oh will likely be under the protection of South Korea s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), and then be offered work such as code cracking in the military or related agencies, a former senior South Korean government official said.   The decision would be made after a comprehensive assessment on what he means to national security, the level of information he has, and whether he would be capable of mingling with other defectors at the resettlement center,  the former official said. Defections by active-duty soldiers are extremely rare, once a year or less. Intelligence agencies are keen to question Oh, who was stationed in the Joint Security Area near the heavily fortified border, according to South Korean lawmakers briefed by the NIS.  Doctors have asked that officials wait until Oh is fully recovered both physically and emotionally before they begin questioning. Given his high-profile escape and status as a member from an elite border unit, Oh will likely be given more personalized assistance, away from other North Korean defectors at the Hanawon resettlement center, the former South Korean official said.  Most defectors undergo security questioning by the National Intelligence Service for a few days up to several months in extreme cases, before being moved to the Hanawon resettlement center.  There they receive mandatory three-month education on life in the capitalist South, from taking public transportation to opening a bank account to creating an email address.  It s where you would get to see the outside world for the first time, as they take you out to meet people on the streets and learn how to access the social service network. These days, you can also do a homestay with an ordinary South Korean family,  said Ji Seong-ho, a 35-year-old defector who heads Now, Action and Unity for Human Rights (NAUH), a group that rescues and resettles North Korean refugees.  Such training can be more useful for some people than others, said Kim Jin-soo, a 29-year-old former member of the North Korean secret police who defected to the South in 2011.  Looking back, it would ve been really useful if they taught more realistic things even though it might discourage people, like how to prepare for a job fair and find a suitable workplace and why it s important to lose the North Korean accent,  he said.   Fresh off Hanawon, you re like a one-year-old baby. But those are the things that would pose a real obstacle when you actually go out there on your own,  said Kim, who now works at a advertising firm in Seoul.  After leaving Hanawon, central and local governments provide defectors 7 million won ($6,450) in cash over a year - barely a fifth of South Korea s annual average income - as well as support in housing, education and job training. Police officers are assigned to each of the defectors to ensure their security.  Oh may have potential value to the South Korean government or organizations that try to highlight conditions in North Korea, but it will be up to him whether he wants to live a life in the limelight, said Sokeel Park, country director for Liberty in North Korea, which helps North Korean refugees.  If he has any mind to get involved in that kind of stuff then there will be all kinds of media or non-governmental organizations who would fall over themselves to give him that platform,  said Park.   But if he makes a good recovery and he chooses to blend it, then he s just another young guy with a vague back story.  GRAPHIC: Defector braves hail of bullets reut.rs/2zAUDRN

Summary: घायल उत्तर कोरियाई दलबदलू के लिए एक नए जीवन की ओर लंबा रास्ता


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. House of Representatives committee that polices Wall Street plans to unveil a new draft of sweeping legislation by month’s end that would give the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law a major facelift. In a statement released to reporters, a spokeswoman for House Financial Services Chairman Jeb Hensarling said he is looking forward to working with President Donald Trump to enact the Financial CHOICE Act - a bill that will protect consumers “by holding Wall Street and Washington accountable” and end bank bailouts.

Summary: अमेरिकी सदन के सांसद संशोधित डोड-फ्रैंक ओवरहाल बिल जारी करेंगे


ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday dismissed NATO allies  concern over Turkey s deal to buy a missile defense system from Russia and said Ankara would continue to take the security measures it thought right. Turkey, whose relations with its allies have frayed in recent months, said it opted for the S-400 because Western companies had offered no  financially effective  alternative. But NATO officials have voiced disquiet over the purchase of missiles incompatible with alliance systems.  They went crazy because we made the S-400 agreement. What were we supposed to do, wait for you? We are taking and will take all our measures on the security front,  Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara. Western firms which had bid for the contract included U.S. firm Raytheon (RTN.N), which put in an offer with its Patriot missile defense system. Franco-Italian group Eurosam, owned by the multinational European missile maker MBDA and France s Thales TCFP.PA, came second in the tender. Turkey, with the second-largest army in the alliance, has enormous strategic importance for NATO, abutting as it does Syria, Iraq and Iran. But the relationship has become fractious. Erdogan has been infuriated by Washington s support for  Kurdish YPG fighters in the battle against Islamic State in Syria. Turkey sees the YPG as an extension of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey s largely Kurdish southeast. The U.S. Pentagon said it had expressed concerns to Ankara about the Russian purchase.  A NATO interoperable missile defense system remains the best option to defend Turkey from the full range of threats in its region,  spokesman Johnny Michael said in a statement. France, however, said Turkey s decision was a sovereign choice which did not require comment from NATO allies. France s foreign minister is due to visit Turkey on Thursday. Germany has said it would restrict some arms sales to Turkey, reflecting the diplomatic strain over a security crackdown in Turkey following a failed military coup last year. Berlin had originally sought to freeze major arms sales, but scaled that back after Turkey said that would harm the joint fight against Islamic State. Berlin has criticized mass arrests that followed the failed coup and demanded the release of around a dozen German or Turkish-German citizens arrested in recent months. Turkey originally awarded a $3.4 billion contract for the defense system to China in 2013, but canceled that two years later, saying it would concentrate on developing a system domestically. Turkey later began talks with Russia, and in July Erdogan said the deal had been signed, although negotiations appear to have been drawn out over financing.  Turkish media quoted Erdogan this week as saying he and Russian President Vladimir Putin were determined that the agreement should proceed.

Summary: रूस के रक्षा समझौते के बाद तुर्की अपने सुरक्षा उपाय करेगाः एर्दोगन


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An influential conservative bloc of Republican lawmakers on Thursday said it opposed renewal of an internet surveillance law unless major changes were made in how the U.S. government collects and uses American data, reflecting disagreement within the majority party. A week ago, President Donald Trump’s administration and 14 Republican U.S. senators said they wanted the spying authority to be renewed without any changes before it expires at the end of the year. Amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act adopted by Congress in 2008, including a controversial part known as Section 702, broadened the U.S. government’s legal authority to conduct surveillance of phone calls, emails and other communications belonging to foreigners who live overseas. U.S. intelligence agencies and U.S. allies consider the law vital to national security, but privacy advocates have criticized Section 702 for allowing the incidental collection of data belonging to an unknown number of Americans without a search warrant. “Government surveillance activities under the FISA Amendments Act have violated Americans’ constitutionally protected rights,” the group of about three dozen lawmakers, known as the House Freedom Caucus, said in a statement. “We oppose any reauthorization of the FISA Amendments Act that does not include substantial reforms to the government’s collection and use of Americans’ data.” The caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives has already had success in challenging the Trump White House and the Republican congressional leadership on other policy issues. It opposed legislation to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system on grounds that it did not do enough to repeal former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, earning concessions on a bill that passed the House in May. The intraparty dissent among Republicans in Congress over Section 702 resembles a debate that took place two years ago, when lawmakers disagreed sharply over whether to curtail a National Security Agency program that collected U.S. call metadata in bulk - a practice exposed publicly by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden. The dispute led to the brief expiration of the USA Patriot Act before lawmakers passed a law effectively terminating the bulk collection practice. The extent of Section 702 spying was also revealed in disclosures by Snowden, prompting outrage internationally and embarrassing some U.S. technology firms. On Wednesday, a declassified court document, made public in response to lawsuits filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation, revealed that an unidentified U.S. technology company objected in 2014 to participating in a Section 702 program, but was ordered by a judge on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to comply.

Summary: ट्रम्प का विरोध करते हुए, रूढ़िवादी गुट ने इंटरनेट जासूसी कानून में सुधार की मांग की


ANKARA (Reuters) - Seven people were wounded when an explosion hit a shuttle bus carrying prison guards in the Turkish coastal province of Izmir on Thursday, and authorities were investigating a possible terrorist attack, the local mayor said. The bus was hit as it passed a garbage container at around 7:40 a.m. (0440 GMT), Levent Piristina, the mayor of Izmir s Buca district, said on Twitter. Photographs he posted on social media showed its windows blown out and its windscreen shattered. The force of the blast appeared to have blown out some of the bus s panels, and the nearby street was littered with debris.  We are getting information from police sources and they are focusing on the possibility of a terrorist attack,  he said, adding that all seven wounded were in good condition. Both state-run TRT Haber and private broadcaster Dogan news agency said the explosion was caused by a bomb placed in the garbage container that exploded when the shuttle bus passed. No one immediately claimed responsibility. Both Kurdish militants and jihadist Islamic State militants have carried out suicide and bomb attacks in major Turkish cities in recent years. Kurdish militants have previously targeted buses carrying security personnel.  In December, a bomb killed at least 13 soldiers and wounded more than 50 when it ripped through a bus carrying off-duty military personnel in the central city of Kayseri, an attack the government blamed on Kurdish militants. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), considered a terrorist organization by the United States, Turkey and the European Union, has waged a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state. The outlawed PKK wants autonomy for Turkey s largely Kurdish southeast.

Summary: तुर्की के इजमिर में बस में विस्फोट, कई घायल


(Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence have spoken with nearly 30 foreign leaders since winning the Nov. 8 election, Trump’s transition team said in a statement on Wednesday. Discussions with many of the leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, were already public knowledge. Leaders from Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan were missing from the list, as were any African heads of state or leaders from Southeast Asia.

Summary: ट्रम्प, पेंस ने लगभग 30 विदेशी नेताओं से बात की-बयान


MADRID (Reuters) - Spain s High Court said on Tuesday it had granted a U.S. request to extradite Russian citizen Peter Levashov, who is accused of U.S. hacking offences including operating a network of infected computers used by cyber criminals.  Levashov, 36, was arrested while on holiday in Barcelona in April.  U.S. prosecutors have accused him of running the Kelihos botnet, a network of more than 100,000 infected devices used by cyber criminals to distribute viruses, ransomware, phishing emails and other spam attacks. U.S. prosecutors are seeking a 52-year jail sentence against Levashov, who denies the charges against him. The Spanish court said Levashov had three days to lodge an appeal against the extradition decision. Levashov, who is fighting extradition, told the Madrid court last week that he had worked for President Vladimir Putin s United Russia party for the last 10 years, Russia s RIA news agency reported. He told the court that investigators in the United States would torture him for information about his political work if he was sent there to face the charges.  If I go to the U.S., I will die in a year. They want to get information of a military nature and about the United Russia party,  RIA quoted him as saying.  I will be tortured, within a year I will be killed, or I will kill myself.  The Spanish court ruling said that Levashov s lawyers had also alleged a political motivation behind the U.S. request for his extradition and that the real reason behind it may be that he was a programmer who might have  hacked the U.S. elections . U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that the Kremlin orchestrated a wide-ranging influence operation that included email hacking and online propaganda to discredit Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump, a Republican, win the White House last November. The Kremlin denies the allegations. The Spanish court dismissed all the arguments put forward by Levashov and his lawyers against extradition.  Nothing has been proven with respect to the allegations about political motivation and neither ... has the potential infringement of the accused s right to life or of his physical integrity,  the court ruling sad. In an eight-count indictment handed down by a federal grand jury in Connecticut in April, Levashov was charged with causing intentional damage to a protected computer and wire fraud. Russia has lodged its own request for Levashov s extradition from Spain, RIA reported.

Summary: स्पेन की अदालत ने रूसी हैकिंग संदिग्ध के लिए अमेरिकी प्रत्यर्पण को मंजूरी दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China s ambassador to Washington on Friday called on the United States to refrain from making threats over North Korea, which a day earlier launched another missile over Japan into the Pacific Ocean. Ambassador Cui Tiankai told reporters at an embassy event:  Honestly, I think the United States should be doing ... much more than now, so that there s real effective international cooperation on this issue.   They should refrain from issuing more threats. They should do more to find effective ways to resume dialogue and negotiation,  he said. President Donald Trump and others in the United States and beyond have urged China to increase diplomatic and economic pressure on its Communist ally to help resolve the standoff over North Korea s weapons programmes. China fought alongside North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, in which Chinese leader Mao Zedong lost his eldest son, and Beijing has long been Pyongyang s chief ally and primary trade partner. But the Chinese government has pushed back against the notion that it has any control over Pyongyang, and says it is the United States that should be doing more. Trump tweeted earlier this month that the United States was considering halting trade with countries doing business with North Korea. Cui on Friday cautioned against putting China-U.S. trade on the table.  Efforts to undermine Sino-U.S. trade, or even slapping sanctions on China, I think would be off-target,  the Chinese state news agency Xinhua quoted Cui as saying on Friday at a Chinese National Day reception.  If someone were to pressure China or impose sanctions on China over the DPRK, it would not be supported by many U.S. citizens,  Cui said, referring to North Korea by the acronym for its official name, Democratic People s Republic of Korea.  Workers at U.S. airplane factories, farmers growing soybeans, companies that sell smartphones to China, manufacturers that enjoy large market shares in China, companies in the service sector that have gained trade surplus in China, U.S. states that engage in robust trade with China would all stand against it,  Xinhua quoted him as saying.

Summary: चीन के वाशिंगटन दूत ने कहा कि अमेरिका को उत्तर कोरिया पर धमकियां देना बंद कर देना चाहिए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Paul Ryan, the top Republican in the U.S. Congress, says he talks to Donald Trump often, but the president-elect has tapped a little-known lawmaker from western New York to be his eyes and ears among congressional Republicans. In the latest example of how much Trump values personal loyalty, the billionaire businessman has effectively designated Representative Chris Collins to be the White House transition team’s congressional liaison.  Collins, 66, has been in Congress less than four years. He has no House leadership role. He chairs no committees. He was previously county executive for Erie County, New York. But Collins was the first lawmaker on Capitol Hill to endorse Trump’s presidential bid. He co-chaired Trump’s U.S. House Leadership Committee during the campaign. Collins said Ryan, the speaker of the House of Representatives, announced the news about his role to fellow Republicans at a Tuesday caucus meeting. Ryan’s office had no immediate comment. Collins said he suggested the role to Trump the day after the Nov. 8 elections. “I said I’m going to stay in Congress. But I think I can be a bit of a liaison, if you will, of members, kind of making sure the administration knows exactly what’s going on,” he told reporters. Trump later mentioned the idea to Ryan, who asked Collins to do the job, according to Collins. Collins seconded Ryan’s renomination to the speakership on Tuesday, calling the gesture “a sign of Trump’s support for Mr. Ryan”. Analysts called the move unusual. “A new president generally relies on the leadership,” said Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute. “But it’s not a role with a great deal of power and it’s not the same as being a conduit once Trump is president and working on policy.”   Collins’ official role is to serve as a conduit to the transition team for lawmakers who want to convey concerns or ideas for legislation and staffing. An aide said Collins has not participated in legislative discussions between House and Senate Republican leaders and the Trump team. Ryan told reporters on Tuesday that he and Trump are “on the same page, we’re working hand in glove.”  But the two have not always seen eye to eye. Ryan was slow to endorse Trump for president and once described his comments about a judge of Mexican heritage as “the textbook definition of racism”. Trump has slammed Ryan as “a very weak and ineffective leader.”

Summary: अल्प-ज्ञात रिपब्लिकन कांग्रेस में ट्रम्प का संपर्क बन जाता है


EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Britain s struggles to chart a way out of the European Union are boosting the case for Scottish independence, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Sunday, but she shied away from committing to a date for another referendum vote. Scotland rejected independence by a 10 percentage point margin in a 2014 vote, and polls indicate that support for it has not shifted significantly since then.  We will consider the (independence referendum) timing again when we have more clarity on what we face,  Sturgeon said, speaking as her Scottish National Party (SNP) began a three-day conference in Glasgow.   People watch the chaos that is engulfing the UK right now and people look ahead and see the damage that is likely to be done by this unfolding disaster that is not just Brexit but this incompetent and chaotic approach to Brexit being presided over by (Conservative Prime Minister) Theresa May,  she told the BBC.  I think the case for Scotland s future in Scotland s hands (...) is becoming greater and stronger by the day.  Sturgeon, who heads the devolved Scottish government, saw her party lose more than one third of its seats in Britain s June election after it mistimed a push for another vote on secession. It subsequently put the plan on hold. Brexit has put the union of the UK s four nations under strain because Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain  while Wales and the larger England voted to leave. Britain s main parties are fighting over what new relationship is needed with the bloc after 40 years of shared trade and politics. May has seen her authority over the Conservatives erode since a June s snap election in which she lost her parliamentary majority. That means Britain still has a choice over the shape of its future trading relations, Sturgeon argued.  I believe so, so strongly, not for ideological reasons but for hard practical reasons, it would be an act of monumental folly for the UK to come out of the single market.

Summary: स्कॉटलैंड की स्वतंत्रता के मामले में "ब्रेक्सिट अराजकता" से मदद मिलीः स्टर्जन


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As the Senate’s top Republican mulls whether to push ahead on a criminal justice reform package, the bill’s advocates say its power to cut crime is on display in his own back yard. Mitch McConnell, the Senate’s Republican leader, represents Kentucky, one of a handful of states that have had some success with sentencing reform and reducing violent crime. Violent crime rates are down nationwide since President Barack Obama’s first term, but states such as Kentucky have seen it fall more steeply than the national rate. Kentucky’s imprisonment rate also declined after it reduced sentences for certain drug offenders and passed a policy to release some prisoners to community supervision before the end of their sentences in 2011. The policy saved the state more than $29 million over two-and-a-half years, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, a policy research group. McConnell could move forward in the Senate with a reform measure that would lower mandatory minimum sentences for some nonviolent federal drug offenders and permit judges to rehear cases with those new sentences in mind. It is backed by the Obama administration and a bipartisan group of 30 senators. The federal measure “has been informed by success stories” in states that have passed similar laws over the past decade, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates told Reuters.  “I’m confident that we would see similar results if Congress were to pass important reforms at the federal level,” she said. McConnell in January vowed to bring “everybody in the Republican Conference up to speed... before any decision is made about floor time” since the bill has so far been discussed mainly in the Senate Judiciary Committee. McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said he had no new announcements on the bill’s prospects for advancement. Some Republicans oppose it, such as Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, who says parts of the proposal applying to armed drug offenders would “release thousands of violent felons.” But sponsors of the Senate package cite state-level success in arguing for the federal reforms. “While I am excited about our federal prospects, the fact is that we could not have gotten to this point if it were not for the great reforms that Utah and other ‘red’ states around the country are enacting,” Republican Utah Senator Mike Lee told Reuters, referring to states that predominantly support the Republican Party. Thirty states reduced crime and imprisonment rates simultaneously between 2009 and 2014, Pew said, with 18 of those states’ crime rates falling faster than the national rate. Utah last year lowered penalties for certain drug offenses. It also restricted prison beds to only the most serious offenders through a law the state expects to nearly flatline prison growth over the next 20 years and save $542 million. The U.S. Sentencing Commission estimates more than 12,000 prisoners - about six percent of the federal prison population - would be eligible to have their cases reheard under the Senate bill. A parallel package of bills in the House of Representatives also awaits a floor vote.  Earlier this month, Justice Action Network hired McConnell’s former chief of staff, Hunter Bates, to lobby for the bill. Bates told Reuters that McConnell is “not quite ready” to advance the bill yet, but that it is on a “short list” of bills that have a shot at becoming law in 2016.

Summary: अमेरिकी सजा सुधार समर्थक राज्य स्तर पर सफलता का हवाला देते हैं


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish police detained 100 people in three separate operations on Friday over suspected links to Islamic State, state-run Anadolu news agency said. It said police arrested 82 foreign nationals in an operation centered on Istanbul. Eleven more foreign nationals were arrested in the southern province of Adana and seven Turkish nationals were arrested in the western province of Izmir. Weapons and documents were also seized, Anadolu said. The raids came a day after police arrested more than 190 people suspected of having ties to Islamic State in the capital Ankara and northwestern province of Bursa.

Summary: तुर्की ने इस्लामिक स्टेट के 100 संदिग्धों को हिरासत में लियाः अनादोलु एजेंसी


OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - Two paramilitary police officers were killed and two others wounded in Burkina Faso when a convoy carrying fuel to the Inata gold mine hit a landmine, Avocet Mining Plc and the government said on Wednesday. Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the incident although security analysts have attributed other recent attacks in gold-rich northern Burkina Faso to a new local jihadist group known as Ansaroul Islam.  The explosion destroyed the leading vehicle, killing two gendarmes and seriously wounding two others,  the defense ministry said in a statement. The explosion was caused by an improvised explosive device on the road from the town of Djibo, about 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of the capital Ouagadougou, it added. The mining firm said it would review security measures and take measures to ensure the safety of the mine and its employees. Burkina Faso, like other countries in West Africa, has been targeted sporadically by jihadist groups, including one founded by a local radical preacher, Ibrahim Dicko, who was released from prison in Mali in 2015. Most attacks have been along its remote northern border with Mali, which has seen activity by Islamist militants for more than a decade. A security source said that short bursts of gunfire rang out briefly overnight near the Inata mine as an anti-terror unit of the paramilitary police pursued the suspected attackers. Suspected Islamist militants killed at least 18 people and wounded several during a raid on a restaurant in Burkina Faso s capital in August. Shares in Avocet closed down 4.9 percent after initially falling some 10 percent on the London stock exchange. Avocet had said earlier this month that its unit, Societe des Mines de Belahouro (SMB), which operates the Inata gold mine, may file for insolvency after a loan repayment freeze with its creditors expired. The company owns 90 percent of the Inata Gold Mine that produced 72,485 ounces of gold in 2016. Avocet is struggling to keep the mine operating after former workers seized a shipment of gold last year. Its shares have dropped nearly 60 percent this year.

Summary: बुर्किना फासो में एवोकैट के काफिले ने बारूदी सुरंग पर हमला किया, जिसमें दो की मौत हो गई


CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt s aviation minister will travel to Russia to sign protocol agreements as early as Friday to allow the resumption of Russian flights that were suspended after the 2015 bombing of a tourist jet, Egyptian sources and Russia s minister said on Thursday. Russian President Vladimir Putin met Egypt s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo this week to discuss resuming flights and to sign a deal for a nuclear power plant as part of growing bilateral cooperation. Two Egyptian sources said the minister would leave on Thursday for Russia, but did not confirm the date for signing the agreement. The two governments may sign a deal on Friday allowing to resume Russian civilian flights, the TASS news agency cited Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov as saying on Thursday.  We expect that he (the Egyptian minister)  will come on Friday,  Sokolov said, according to the RIA news agency. Asked whether an aviation security protocol with Egypt will be signed, he said:  We expect that it will be signed.  Moscow halted civilian air traffic to Egypt in 2015 after militants detonated a bomb on a Russian Metrojet flight leaving the tourist resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and killing 224 people on board. The bombing and the Russian suspension were blows to Egypt s tourism industry, a key source of hard currency. The industry has been struggling after the upheaval triggered by a 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak s 30-year rule. The return of Russian flights and tours could be a massive boost to tourist numbers that are still well below the 14.7 million visitors annually Egypt saw in 2010 before the uprising a year later and the unrest that followed.

Summary: मिस्र के मंत्री रूसी उड़ानों को फिर से शुरू करने के लिए समझौते पर हस्ताक्षर करने के लिए तैयार हैंः एजेंसियां


ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Bomb blasts killed a Pakistani army officer and three soldiers  searching for the kidnappers of a freed U.S.-Canadian family in a tribal region bordering Afghanistan, Pakistani and U.S. officials said. Pakistan s army said the attacks in Kurram tribal district on Sunday also wounded three soldiers during the search for those who held American Caitlan Coleman, her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, and their three children hostage. The family were freed on Wednesday when the Pakistani army shot out the tires of a vehicle carrying the family during a rescue based on intelligence shared by U.S. authorities.  A local government official, Baseer Khan, said an improvised explosive device exploded when a military bomb disposal squad was scanning the route, and the other two bombs went off when an army team reached the site.   The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.  These personnel were searching for the kidnappers of a U.S. citizen and her family,  said David Hale, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, in a statement.  We remain extremely grateful for the Pakistani military s quick response and successful humanitarian operation allowing Caitlan Coleman and her family to return home safely.  The family s rescue has been hailed by U.S. President Donald Trump as a  positive moment  for U.S.-Pakistan relations, which have frayed in recent years amid Washington s assertions that Islamabad has not been doing enough to tackle Taliban-linked Haqqani militants who are believed to be on Pakistani soil. Coleman and Boyle were held by Haqqani militants who kidnapped them while backpacking in Afghanistan in 2012.  The Pakistani army has indicated that the captors were tracked shortly after entering from Afghanistan, although it remains unclear whether the family were kept in Afghanistan for all five years, or in Pakistan for some of the time.  Haqqani militants, once termed by a U.S. general a veritable arm of Pakistan s top spy agency, the Inter Service Intelligence (ISI), operate on both sides of the long porous border.     Boyle, in a video statement released by the Pakistani military, called his captors criminals and pagans who had nothing to do with Islam. Boyle described the operation to free his family as  incredibly  professional.  I did see the truth, and the truth was that car was riddled with bullets,  he said.  The ISI and the army got between the criminals and that car to make sure that the prisoners were safe, my family was safe.

Summary: बम विस्फोटों में पाकिस्तानी सैनिक मारे गए जो U.S.-Canadian परिवार के अपहरणकर्ताओं का शिकार कर रहे थे


(Reuters) - Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump drew guffaws and derision on social media after he asked a campaign rally in Pittsburgh, “How’s Joe Paterno?” The legendary Penn State University football coach died four years ago.  “I went to school in this state. I know a lot about Pennsylvania and it’s great,” Trump said. “How’s Joe Paterno? We gonna bring that back? How about that whole deal?”  The term "Joe Paterno" quickly became a top trending topic on Twitter, with many asking if Trump knew Paterno was dead. A video clip was posted on YouTube.  Paterno, once one of the most revered college athletic coaches in the United States, was fired by Pennsylvania State University in 2011 over a child sexual abuse scandal involving assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. Paterno died on Jan. 21, 2012. Sandusky was later convicted on child sex abuse charges.  Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said the candidate was referring to a statue of Paterno that was removed from the campus in 2012. A Quinnipiac University survey in 2015 showed that many Pennsylvanians want it returned to the campus.  Penn State spokesman Ben Manning said on Thursday the university does not comment on candidates’ campaign speeches.  Social media users mocked Trump for seemingly implying that he would bring Paterno back to life.  "Someone should tell Trump that Joe Paterno is dead and also that he conspired with a serial child rapist," tweeted kept_simple (@kept_simple).  BuzzFeed political editor Katherine Miller (@katherinemiller) tweeted, "Trump obviously meant when are we going to bring back the Paterno statue and then, subsequently, Paterno back from beyond, through sorcery."  Twitter users with accounts geo-tagged to the university’s home, the town of State College, had mixed reactions.  "Bring Paterno back? @realdonaldtrump has odd expectations of his abilities, and responsibilities, as president," tweeted Holly Swanson (@StateCollegeMom).  Not all reaction was negative.  "All Trump has to do is say he'll bring the Paterno statue back. He'll win PA in a landslide," Kalooz (@Kalzony53).  Trump had weighed in on the fallout from the Sandusky scandal in July 2012 when the National Collegiate Athletic Association levied sanctions against Penn State’s football program. He said in a tweet that the program should be suspended.

Summary: ट्रम्प की 'पेटर्नो' टिप्पणी ने सोशल मीडिया पर खिल्ली उड़ाई


BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that she would prefer new elections to leading a minority government after talks about forming a three-way coalition collapsed overnight.  My point of view is that new elections would be the better path,  Merkel told ARD television in an interview to be broadcast later in the evening. She added that her plans did not include being chancellor in a minority government.

Summary: मर्केल का कहना है कि वह अल्पसंख्यक सरकार के बजाय नए चुनावों को प्राथमिकता देंगी


The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS.  The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy.  @realDonaldTrump : - The reason for the plan negotiated between the Republicans and Democrats is that we need 60 votes in the Senate which are not there! We.... [0901 EDT] - Either elect more Republican Senators in 2018 or change the rules now to 51%. Our country needs a good “shutdown” in September to fix mess! [0907 EDT] - Congratulations to the winners of the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy, the great Air Force Falcons! Watch: 45.wh.gov/g7r7ei [1708 ET] - FBI Director Comey was the best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton in that he gave her a free pass for many bad deeds! The phony.. [2251 ET]    - It’s an honor to serve as your Commander-in-Chief! Congratulations on winning the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, @AFFootball! [1846 ET] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR)

Summary: ट्विटर पर ट्रम्प (2 मई): बंद, कानून, निदेशक कोमी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives on Wednesday unanimously passed legislation to improve safety planning for children who are born dependent on opioid drugs.  A similar bill is pending in the Senate. It is one of more than a dozen new measures that are aimed at addressing a U.S. epidemic of addiction to pain pills and cheap heroin.     The legislation came in response to a Reuters investigation last year, titled “Helpless and Hooked,” which revealed that at least 110 babies had died since 2010 after being born dependent or exposed to opioids and sent home with parents ill-prepared to care for them. “It’s hard to imagine that stories like these could be any more tragic,” Rep. Lou Barletta, a Pennsylvania Republican who is the prime sponsor of the bill, said on the House floor. “Unfortunately, they are. Because they should have and in many cases could have been prevented.” Only nine of the 50 U.S. states followed a federal law requiring them to track and help those newborns, Reuters reported. The news agency found that more than 130,000 newborns were diagnosed with drug withdrawal over the last decade, but most of them weren’t reported to state child-protection authorities. In April, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services asked all states to report by June 30 whether and how they are following the existing law, known as the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act. States receive federal funding after giving assurance they are complying. Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the leading Democratic co-sponsor, emphasized that the new legislation would require help for not only the newborn but also for the mother and family. That provision is aimed at overcoming resistance to reporting cases of newborn addiction among doctors and other health-care workers, who sometimes fear that mothers may be punished if the cases come to official attention.      “This important step with this bill is to ensure that the whole family is healthy and successful and supported,” Clark said. The measure, formally known the Improving Safe Care for the Prevention of Infant Abuse and Neglect Act, passed 421-0. Children’s advocates are seeking more federal funding to go with the commitment. “We would view this as a good first step, but they need to make it real and put some money in it,” said John Sciamanna, vice president of public policy for the Child Welfare League of America. Among the other opioid-related bills adopted by the House on Wednesday was one designed to help states emulate a pilot program for drug-affected newborns in Huntington, West Virginia. Rep. Evan Jenkins, a Republican who helped create the Huntington facility, known as Lily’s Place, before he became a congressman, said his bill would help improve access to care for poor babies and women on Medicare. The Reuters series can be read here: here

Summary: ओपिओइड निर्भरता में पैदा हुए बच्चों की सहायता के लिए सदन ने विधेयक पारित किया


LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Theresa May wants to agree the broad outline of a transition deal with the European Union for after Brexit in the next few months, her spokesman said on Monday.  We would hope we could reach an agreement on the broad outline of what an implementation period looks like within the next few months,  the spokesman told reporters.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के प्रधानमंत्री अगले कुछ महीनों में ब्रेक्सिट संक्रमण की रूपरेखा पर सहमत होना चाहते हैं


BEIJING - China will expand a pilot project for anti-graft supervision reforms nationwide next year that will consolidate existing corruption agencies, state-run news agency Xinhua reported, as President Xi Jinping expands his signature policy drive. Xinhua said in a report published late on Saturday China s top legislature adopted a decision calling for new supervisory commissions to be set up by the People s Congresses at provincial, city and county-levels to  supervise those exercising public power . Xi s signature anti-graft drive has jailed or otherwise punished nearly 1.4 million Communist Party members since 2012. The leader, who began his second five-year term in October, has vowed to maintain the  irreversible  momentum of the campaign to root out corruption. China aims to pass a national supervision law and set up a new commission at the annual parliament meetings early next year. The new National Supervision Commission will work with the Communist Party s anti-graft body, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, expanding the purview of Xi s anti-graft campaign to include employees at state-backed institutions.  Xinhua said the commissions to be set up nationwide under the China legislature s new directive will have the power to investigate illegal activities such as graft, misuse of authority, neglect of duty, and wasting public funds. The commissions will have the ability to conduct searches, freeze assets and detain suspects as part of those efforts, the Xinhua report said.

Summary: चीन देश भर में भ्रष्टाचार पर्यवेक्षण पायलट योजना का विस्तार करेगाः सिन्हुआ


BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany sought to cool tempers over Turkey s EU accession prospects on Monday after Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Social Democrat (SPD) rival both said in a TV debate the country had no place in Europe, drawing charges of populism from Ankara. The Turkish Foreign Ministry, while making no direct threat to back out, reminded Germany of an agreement between Ankara and the EU that has stemmed a flood of migrants from conflict zones reaching Europe, not least Germany, via Turkey. Merkel appeared bounced into sharpening her rhetoric on Turkey during Sunday s debate when her main challenger Martin Schulz vowed to stop Ankara s bid to join the EU if he were elected chancellor. Merkel, who has been at odds with President Tayyip Erdogan on many fronts over the last year, at first rejected such a direct approach but returned to the matter later, saying  the fact is clear that Turkey should not become a member of the EU . Erdogan s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin, on his Twitter feed, accused mainstream German politicians of  indulgence in populism .  It is not a coincidence that our president Erdogan was the main topic of the debate,  he said, suggesting they were simply diverting attention from more serious political problems.  Germany and Europe s attacks on Turkey/Erdogan...are reflections of the narrowing of their horizons.  The exchange inflamed ties with Ankara already strained by  Erdogan s crackdown on opponents following a failed coup in July last year. Twelve German citizens, four with dual citizenship, have been detained in Turkey on political charges. The German government said on Monday one person had been released. Last month, Erdogan said Merkel s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Schulz s SPD and the Greens were all  enemies of Turkey  and encouraged Turkish voters in Germany not to vote for them. Merkel s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, sought to take the heat out of the accession question on Monday, stressing that it was not a pressing matter for Berlin and would be discussed by EU leaders only at a summit in October.  So the issue will only be up for debate after the Bundestag election,  he told a regular government news conference, referring to the Sept. 24 election at which Merkel is seeking a fourth term.  The Chancellor s words speak for themselves,  Seibert said. Merkel, arguably the most influential politician in the European Union, promised during Sunday s television debate to speak to other EU leaders  so that we can end these accession talks.  Seibert, softening her remarks, said Turkey was not ready to join the EU - for now; a formulation that would be accepted even by those backing eventual Turkish accession.  At the moment, Turkey is not at all in a position to join the European Union,  he said.  In fact, the negotiations are dormant at the moment.  In Brussels, a spokesman for the European Commission said:      Turkey is taking giant strides away from Europe and that is making it impossible for Turkey to join the European Union, this is what we believe.  EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said:  Turkey... is still a candidate country. So we will continue talks ... to define the future of our relationship.  Turkey s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said EU membership  is still a strategic goal for Turkey . He said Ankara was ready for further talks, but the process faced political obstacles. Turkey s foreign ministry said in a statement:  We would like to remind the politicians who ran after us to save the EU from great chaos during the refugee crisis that not leaving the relations with Turkey in the hands of populism is important.  Merkel s opening of German borders to admit some one million migrants drew strong criticism from some. But she appears to have weathered the migrant crisis, with help from the Turkish-EU agreement, standing now some 14 points clear of Schulz in opinion polls.    Home to some 3 million people of Turkish descent, Germany has traditionally had good relations with Turkey, a major trade partner. But ties between the NATO allies have deteriorated and Merkel s CDU has long opposed Turkish EU membership. The green light for membership talks was given months before Merkel became chancellor in 2005 and she had previously always said that she would respect that decision, referring to the negotiations as  open ended . Turkey s EU Affairs Minister Omer Celik said any talk of ending his country s negotiations for EU accession amounted to an  attack on Europe s founding principles . Erdogan accuses Germany of harboring plotters behind the 2016 coup attempt. Turkey has arrested 50,000 in a crackdown, including EU-Turkish citizens. Western politicians say the dragnet is a pretext for Erdogan to rid himself of his opponents.

Summary: जर्मनी तुर्की के यूरोपीय संघ में शामिल होने के सवाल से गर्मी निकालना चाहता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday that the Trump administration’s upcoming tax plan will not be aimed at lowering income taxes for the wealthiest Americans. “”We are looking for a middle income tax cut. On the high end the plan is to eliminate state and local deductions ... and even if we do end up with a slight reduction on the high end that will be offset by a reduction of deductions so their taxes won’t go down,” Mnuchin said during an interview at a policy forum organized by news outlet Politico. He added that details of the tax reform framework, due for release the week of Sept. 25,  would include a specific rate proposal for the corporate tax rate. “You’re going to see a specific rate proposal in that,” Mnuchin said, adding it would also include details on deduction of corporate interest.

Summary: ट्रेजरी के म्नुचिन का कहना है कि अमीरों के लिए कर में कोई कटौती नहीं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday called on Congress to approve additional funding to combat the spread of the Zika virus in the United States, saying that money to fight the outbreak is rapidly running out.  “Congress needs to do its job,” Obama said at a press conference after a meeting with officials at the Pentagon. “Fighting Zika costs money.”

Summary: ओबामा का कहना है कि जीका से लड़ने के लिए अमेरिकी धन तेजी से समाप्त हो रहा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump endured some blunt exchanges when he met Republican members of Congress on Thursday but several lawmakers, including past critics, emerged with encouraging words about their presumptive White House nominee. Republican aides cited good attendance from both houses of Congress at the two closed-door meetings, even though some lawmakers made a point of staying away, citing previous commitments. The New York businessman-turned-politician has sought in speeches and meetings in recent weeks to unite the party behind his unorthodox candidacy and to reassure Republican leaders about his conservative credentials. In a Miami speech on Friday, Trump will say the economic policies of Democrats like President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the party’s presumptive nominee, have harmed minorities, said Steve Moore, a Trump economic policy adviser.   Trump drew 41 of 54 Republican senators to the U.S. Senate meeting where he called out three senators who had been critical of his candidacy, according to Republican aides familiar with the meeting. Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort said the meetings with lawmakers were positive and productive, adding characterizations of discord “attributed to unnamed sources, are wholly inaccurate.”   Trump also met privately with Senator Ted Cruz, his former rival for the Republican nomination. They did not discuss an endorsement but Cruz did accept Trump’s invitation to speak at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland the week of July 18, Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said. At the first session on Thursday, with members of the House of Representatives, Trump shared a hug with House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican who has often criticized Trump even while endorsing him, lawmakers said. They joked a bit about some of their past exchanges during an hour-long session, and Trump took questions. “I’m going to make you proud,” Representative Bill Flores quoted Trump as saying. Trump won grassroots support during months of state-by-state nominating contests for the Nov. 8 election with a pledge to ban Muslims temporarily from entering the United States and to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico. He regularly annoys party leaders with inflammatory remarks. Flores, a Texan who heads the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative grouping in Congress, had criticized Trump, including for having questioned a U.S. judge’s motives because of his Mexican ethnicity. Flores had said he wanted to see “more vision and less trash talk” from the presumptive nominee. After Thursday’s session, Flores said he felt better about Trump. “Based on what I have heard today, I’ve got the confidence that you are going to see a lot more in terms of visionary messaging,” Flores said. “Today was extremely positive,” said New York Republican Peter King, another representative who has criticized Trump. “There was not one negative moment.” But not everyone was won over. “I need to be persuaded,” said Representative Charlie Dent, a moderate Republican from Pennsylvania who said he would not support either Trump or  Clinton. Trump’s session with Republican senators sounded more turbulent. The Washington Post reported details of a combative exchange between Trump and Senator Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican who has expressed concern that Trump’s comments on immigration will cause Hispanic voters in the state to reject him. When Flake stood up and introduced himself, Trump told him, “You’ve been very critical of me,” the Post said. “Yes, I’m the other senator from Arizona — the one who didn’t get captured — and I want to talk to you about statements like that,” Flake responded, referring to Trump’s past dismissal of Senator John McCain’s record as a prisoner during the Vietnam war. The senator urged Trump to stop attacking Mexicans; Trump predicted that Flake would lose his re-election, at which point Flake informed Trump that Flake was not up for re-election this year. Flake’s spokesman Jason Samuels said the Post account was accurate. Trump also turned to Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who has refused to endorse him, and “said something along the lines of ‘Surely you don’t want Clinton,’” one Republican aide said of the session. Trump said he would win also in Illinois, the home state of a third Republican critic, Senator Mark Kirk, who is in a tight re-election race and recently withdrew his endorsement of Trump. “He’s wrong,” Kirk told reporters several hours later. “I think Trump is going to get a vote like Alan Keyes got, which is about 28 percent,” Kirk said, referring to the Republican who ran unsuccessfully for senator against Obama in Illinois in 2004.   Trump’s Twitter posting as he left Washington showed no sign of discord. “Very interesting day! These are people who love our country!” he tweeted.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने रिपब्लिकन सांसदों के साथ हाथापाई की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The investigative arm of Congress has agreed to examine whether a panel that oversees foreign investment in the United States has the legal powers it needs to keep up with efforts by state-owned firms in Russia and China to buy strategic U.S. companies. The Government Accountability Office said in a letter to lawmakers released on Monday that it would begin the review in about four months once the staff with the needed expertise were cleared of other duties. The letter was dated Sept. 30. The study is being initiated in response to a request on Sept. 15 by 16 members of Congress, who voiced concern that legislation governing the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has not been updated enough to ensure the panel can do its job effectively. “Now is an opportune time for GAO to review what has worked well, and where CFIUS authorities may need to be expanded, especially given the rise in state-owned enterprises and state-controlled enterprises from China and Russia, among other designated countries,” the lawmakers said in their letter. The letter from the lawmakers noted that foreign investment oversight began as an executive order from the president and was only codified by Congress in response to concerns about foreign ownership of defense industries and ports. The letter said lawmakers were now concerned about recent investments in the telecommunications, media and agriculture sectors that raised questions about “the degree to which foreign ownership ... may pose a strategic rather than overt national security threat.” It noted that Chinese companies designated by Beijing as “state champions” often benefited from illegal subsidies in order to gain strategic access to markets like the United States. The letter said Congress had raised concerns about China National Chemical Corp’s (ChemChina) CNNCC.UL planned $43 billion acquisition of Swiss agricultural seed and pesticides provider Syngenta AG SYNN.S and to Dalian Wanda Group’s bid for major American movie studios like Legendary Entertainment and Paramount Studios. It said the media acquisitions were particularly concerning because of “China’s efforts to censor topics and exert propaganda controls on American media.” “These examples raise serious security questions about what authority CFIUS currently has, or may need to be added, to address these concerns,” the lawmakers said in their letter.

Summary: जी. ए. ओ. अमेरिकी रणनीतिक फर्मों में विदेशी निवेश पर पैनल की जांच करेगा


RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia s Finance Ministry said on Sunday that the kingdom s decision to set up an anti-corruption committee and detain prominent figures enhanced confidence in the rule of law, Al Arabiya television reported.  The decisions preserve Saudi Arabia s investment climate, the Saudi-owned television channel said.  Saudi Arabia announced the committee and the detentions late on Saturday.

Summary: सऊदी वित्त मंत्रालय का कहना है कि कार्रवाई से निवेश का माहौल बना रहता है


HENNIKER, N.H. (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said during a student town hall on Saturday that student loan servicer Navient Corp has been “misleading people” and “doing some really terrible things.” “Their behavior is outrageous,” Clinton said at New England College, where she was campaigning ahead of the state’s nominating contest on Tuesday, Feb. 9. Clinton’s criticism of the student loan servicer comes after she lost badly among young voters to Democratic challenger Bernie Sanders in last week’s Iowa caucus. She received 11 percent of the vote among 17 to 24 year olds who caucused in Iowa versus 86 percent who supported Sanders, according to a NBC News exit poll. Clinton’s statements came in the response to a question from the audience related to student debt. Navient is being investigated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over late fees and other matters, the company revealed in an August regulatory filing. “We understand the politicization of student loans, but we remain focused on delivering excellent service to our customers,” said Navient spokeswoman Patricia Christel in a statement, inviting Clinton to come meet their “hardworking employees and learn firsthand about our industry-leading default prevention work.”   (Reporting by Amanda Becker; Editing by James Dalgleish and Nick Zieminski) SAP is the sponsor of this content. It was independently created by Reuters’ editorial staff and funded in part by SAP, which otherwise has no role in this coverage.

Summary: क्लिंटन ने छात्र ऋण सेवा प्रदाता नेविएंट को भ्रामक बताया


WELLINGTON (Reuters) - Populist New Zealand First Party leader Winston Peters said on Saturday evening that he believed his party would decide the next government after the hotly contested national elections.  Peters reiterated that he would not rush into a decision on whether to support the incumbent National Party, which has ruled for nine years, or the center-left opposition Labour Party.  Peters said he would not say this evening or tomorrow who he would support and that his party would not rush into a decision. Votes cast for the ruling National Party reached 46.4 percent with 80 percent of results counted by the Electoral Commission. National would likely need New Zealand First s support to form a government, based on those results. The final result that includes all votes will not be released until Oct. 7.

Summary: न्यूजीलैंड फर्स्ट के नेता का कहना है कि उनकी पार्टी न्यूजीलैंड के चुनावों में सत्ता का संतुलन रखती है


(Reuters) - Turkey under President Tayyip Erdogan needs more Westernization, and not less, to bolster dwindling free speech rights and a wobbly democracy, Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk said on Tuesday. Pamuk, 65, also said in an online chat in the Reuters Global Markets Forum that he laments much modernization and saw his stories, including his 10th novel published last year,  The Red-Haired Woman  as focused on the personal costs people pay for discarding traditions in the rush to adapt to the ways of 21st century. The following are edited excerpts: Question: Is Turkey, often described as a bridge between West and East, becoming too Westernized? Answer: The lack of free speech is so grave that we definitely need to be more friendly with the West and Europe. I am not worried about too much Westernization, especially in these days when government is trying to push us away from Western values. Q: Do you see gentrification in Istanbul and other Western influence in Turkey as threats or positives to Turkey s identity? A: I actually do not want to bring East and West together. I essentially want to write poetic, literary observations about the lives of the people in and around Istanbul. And since Istanbul is made up of things from the West, and modernity, and also things that come from traditional cultures, and East, readers think my intention is to  bridge  them. Actually, there are things from East and West that are already harmoniously together in Istanbul. All I do is invent stories about them. Q: How is that theme in  The Red Haired Woman ? A: My main character carries the weight of having an idealist political father, while he is more busy with making money. I have many friends like that ... They are troubled by moral issues like the ones I discussed in this book. Individuality versus belonging to community ... Or economic development and comforts of modernity versus preserving the past than the old architecture and culture. My books are always about how to be modern without losing your identity.  Q: It is Nobel award season. How did your win in 2006 affect you? A: My books were already translated to 46 languages before I won the Nobel prize. Now my books are translated into 63 languages. The prize may have helped. It definitely brought me new readers and some diplomatic responsibility of representing my country.

Summary: तुर्की को अधिकारों पर पश्चिम के नेतृत्व का पालन करना चाहिएः लेखक ओरहान पामुक


DUBAI (Reuters) - A day before they killed Yemen s former president, gunmen from the Iran-aligned Houthi militia group overran one of Ali Abdullah Saleh s fortified compounds in Sanaa. Ransacking the villa, they snapped photos of liquor flasks and vodka bottles and posted them online.  This is how the traitor (Saleh) and his family lived during a time of war, siege and cholera,  Hamid Rizq, a senior Houthi official, said on his official Twitter account. The Houthi gunmen acted fast and mercilessly to punish the 75-year-old Saleh for having appeared to switch sides in Yemen s three-year civil war - a proxy battle for influence between regional powers Iran and Saudi Arabia.  Allied with the Houthis for three years, Saleh had called on Saturday for a  new page  in relations with Saudi Arabia. The murder is a setback for Riyadh, which had hoped the backing of Saleh   and his loyalist army units in northern Yemen - would help close a war that has killed 10,000 people and caused one of the world s most acute humanitarian crises. Saudi Arabia fears the Houthis will become as powerful a force in the Middle East as Lebanon s Iran-backed Hezbollah. The Houthis are holding their ground despite air strikes by Saudi Arabia and its allied forces and a naval blockade that has prevented food, medicine and fuel from arriving in Houthi-controlled northern areas, bringing the region to the brink of famine.  Last month, the Houthis fired a ballistic missile into Riyadh. Now, the Saudis are turning their hopes to Saleh s son Ahmed Ali   and his good ties with Saudi ally United Arab Emirates   to do the job his father couldn t. Photos of Ahmed Ali, a military leader admired by thousands of soldiers in Houthi-run lands, appeared on the front page of UAE newspapers on Wednesday meeting the UAE s de-facto leader Mohammed bin Zayed. Saleh s death caps a 40-year political career that charts Yemen s tragic modern history. A country with few natural resources, awash in weapons and fractured along tribal and religious lines, Yemen has long been buffeted by its powerful neighbors, particularly Saudi Arabia. Saleh was the first leader of a unified Yemen in 1990. But he shifted loyalties various times - fighting the Houthis in the 2000s, for example - as the plates of influence shifted in the Middle East. In this latest geopolitical drama, the UAE is emerging as playmaker in the Yemen crisis. The UAE has been financing and training armed groups that have been pushing toward the Red Sea port of Hodeida, a Houthi stronghold and entry point for supplies getting to millions of civilians in northern Yemen. The Saleh family has long enjoyed good relations with the wealthy Gulf state, which had over the decades funded infrastructure projects in Yemen before becoming a key member of the Saudi-led coalition. Hamza al-Houthi, a top Houthi leader, said the Houthis had suspected the Saleh family s allegiance to the Saudi-held coalition for some time and that tensions had been brewing since August. Al-Houthi said his troops had intercepted UAE arms shipments bound for Saleh s family late last month. As punishment, the Houthis killed his nephew Tareq on Monday. Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group said the latest events mean the war in Yemen is likely to escalate.  The Houthis, while an important military force, are not particularly adept at politics or governance. Their reach...in the population is limited, and over time that will play into their opponents  hands.  But that won t happen anytime soon, so it looks like the conflict will worsen.  Saleh s relationship with Saudi Arabia and its allies has been marked by politics and prayer.  Over the past few decades, Riyadh has tried, in succession, to quash an anti-royalist revolution, Marxism and al Qaeda militancy in Yemen. Riyadh backed Saleh, an Arab nationalist strongman, between 1978 and 2012 to help him quash those ideologies before they could seep next door to Saudi Arabia. But as Arab Spring protests rocked Yemen swept through the Middle East, Riyadh realized Saleh was no longer strong enough for the job and backed a transition to his deputy Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. When the Houthis attacked Sanaa in 2014 and swept Hadi into Saudi exile, Riyadh began the bombing campaign that continues today. At that time, Saleh took one of the riskiest gambles of his turbulent career, allying himself to the Houthis, heirs to a theocratic sect that ruled Yemen for a thousand years. Saleh s Yemeni military   which had jets, tank brigades and long-range missiles  had fought the Houthis in six wars over ten years at the time Saleh had allied himself with Saudi and Western powers. With Saleh s experience administering the country and cultivating a strong military, the Houthis made major military gains around the country and together their forces withstood thousands of Saudi-led air strikes. But the Houthi-Saleh entente cracked in August when a Houthi leader passed over a trusted Saleh confidante for a key military position, according to people in the General People s Congress Party, the grouping of technocrats and tribal grandees that did Saleh s bidding throughout his rule. Saleh loyalists itched for revenge, they said. Fearing disloyalty, the Houthis restricted Saleh to his fief in Sanaa s political district. Gerald Feierstein, a former U.S. ambassador to Yemen of the Middle East Institute in Washington, said the Houthis then waged their war largely without him.  Saleh was largely a spent force by the time he died in a weekend s fighting,  wrote Feierstein in a policy brief. On November 29, tensions exploded. Rumors swirled in the city of Sanaa that the Houthis were planning to paint the domes of a giant mosque and palace that Saleh had built and named after himself in their trademark green. When Houthi militia neared the palace, Saleh s guards fired. The Houthis, experts in mountain guerrilla warfare, overran the palace with grenades and seized it.  The Houthis wanted Saleh to  hand over his weapons and disarm his fighters,  a senior Saleh party official told Reuters.  He refused.  Another party official said that, contrary to reports that Saleh was in his car trying to flee when he was killed on Dec. 4, the former president had been executed with a gunshot to the head after making a last stand at his house. Now, the Saleh associate says he and his colleagues are afraid the Houthis will turn against all of them.  The Houthis want to kill us all.  For a graphic on Yemen's stalemated war, click tmsnrt.rs/2zqGyq9

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