WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to allow national monument designations to be rescinded or reduce the size of sites as the administration pushes to open up more federal land to drilling, mining and other development. Trump’s order is part of an effort to reverse many of the  environmental protections implemented by his predecessor, Democratic President Barack Obama that Trump said were hobbling economic growth. Trump’s agenda is being cheered by industry but enraging conservationists. Legal challenges are expected because no president has ever rescinded a monument designation. In announcing the order on Wednesday Republican Trump said Obama’s use of the 1906 Antiquities Act to create monuments was an “egregious abuse of federal power” that allowed the federal government to “lock up” millions of acres of land and water. The Antiquities Act gives a president the authority to create national monuments from federal lands to protect significant natural, cultural, or scientific features. “Today we’re putting the states back in charge,” Trump said, adding that they should decide which land is protected and which is open for development.   Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told reporters late Tuesday the order requires him to review about 30 national monuments created over the past two decades, and recommend which designations should be lifted or altered. The monuments covered under the review will range from the Grand Staircase created by President Bill Clinton in 1996 to the Bears Ears created by Obama in December 2016, both in Utah.   Zinke said he will seek local feedback before making  recommendations, adding that reversing a monument designation could be tricky. “It is untested, as you know, whether the president can do that,” Zinke said.     President Woodrow Wilson reduced the size of Washington state’s Mount Olympus National Monument in 1915, arguing there was an urgent need for timber at the time. Zinke said he will review the Bears Ears monument first and make a recommendation to the president in 45 days. He has 120 days to issue a full report on all monuments to the president. Bears Ears protects Native American cultural heritage and sacred sites. Obama created the Bears Ears monument in the final days of his administration. Utah’s governor and the state’s congressional delegation opposed the designation, saying it was done against the wishes of citizens eager for development. Utah Governor Gary Herbert, and Senators Mike Lee and Orin Hatch, all Republicans, stood beside Trump as he signed the order. Trump said the lawmakers lobbied him for the order. Bears Ears is near where Texas-based EOG Resources Inc has been approved to drill. Republican House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan praised the order. “I commend the Trump administration for stopping this cycle of executive abuse and beginning a review of past designations,” he said.  Conservation and tribal groups were critical. “With this review, the Trump Administration is walking into a legal, political and moral mine field,” said Kate Kelly, public lands director for the Center for American Progress.  Democratic Congressman Raul Grijalva of Arizona, ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, warned Zinke not to make an “ideological” decision. He said previous monuments were decided “after years of close federal consultation with multiple local stakeholders.” The five Native American tribes that pushed to create the Bears Ears monument to protect ancestral land said they will fight to protect it. The Outdoor Industry Association, the trade group of the recreation industry, also attacked the order.  The group has estimated the outdoor recreation economy generates over $887 billion in consumer spending and creates 7.6 million jobs. “Less than 24 hours after joining with our industry to celebrate the economic power of outdoor recreation, in a hypocritical move, the Trump administration took unprecedented steps that could result in the removal of protections for treasured public lands,” said Rose Marcario, chief executive of outdoor gear retailer Patagonia.   On Friday, before the close of Trump’s first 100 days in office, he is expected to sign an executive order that would review offshore areas available for offshore oil and gas exploration that have been restricted by previous presidents. (This version of the story has been refiled to delete extraneous text in paragraph 17)

Summary: ट्रम्प ने विकास की अनुमति देने के लिए राष्ट्रीय स्मारकों की समीक्षा का आदेश दिया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has backed off a series of proposed changes to the nation’s biofuels policy after a massive backlash from corn-state lawmakers worried the moves would undercut ethanol demand, according to a letter from the agency to lawmakers seen by Reuters. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said in the letter dated Oct. 19 that the agency will keep renewable fuel volume mandates for next year at or above proposed levels, reversing a previous move to open the door to cuts.  The move marks a big win for the biofuels industry and lawmakers from corn-states like Iowa, Nebraska and Illinois, while dealing a blow to merchant refiners like PBF Energy Inc and Valero Energy Corp who hoped the administration of President Donald Trump would help provide regulatory relief. The White House issued a statement hours after the Pruitt letter was delivered to lawmakers expressing the president’s support for maintaining the renewable fuel plan.  “President Donald J. Trump promised rural America that he would protect the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), and has never wavered from that promise,” the White House statement said. Trump’s second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses in early 2016 gave credibility to his candidacy and he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in the state in the Nov. 8 election. It was the first time a Republican had won Iowa since George W. Bush in 2004 and provided Trump a key takeaway. The letter could end uncertainty about the future of the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard that has roiled commodity and energy markets for months. The program, which requires refineries to blend increasing amounts of ethanol and other biofuels into the nation’s fuel supply or buy credits from those who do, appeared on the verge of a massive overhaul. The most popular form of program credits hit two-month highs on Friday on the EPA news, traders said..  The so-called D6 credits sunk to 68 cents last month as EPA considered cost-cutting measures, but prices have rebounded in recent weeks and approached 90 cents on Friday, traders said. Pruitt said the EPA would not pursue another idea floated by EPA leadership that would have allowed exported ethanol to be counted toward those volume quotas. Pruitt also said the EPA did not believe a proposal to shift the biofuels blending obligation away from refiners was appropriate. That plan is backed by representatives of a handful of independent refining companies who have warned the cost of the program will bankrupt plants and cost thousands of jobs. Those ideas would have eased the burden on some in the refining industry, who have argued that biofuels compete with petroleum, and that the blending responsibility costs them hundreds of millions of dollars a year. But Midwestern lawmakers, including Republicans Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst, had vocally opposed all those ideas, calling them a betrayal of the administration’s promises to support the corn belt. They were concerned the moves would undercut domestic demand for ethanol, a key industry in the region that has supported corn growers.  “It’s a great day for Iowa and a great day for rural America. Administrator Pruitt should be commended for following through on President Trump’s commitment to biofuels,” Grassley said in a statement. In the letter, Pruitt said the EPA was prepared to work with Congress to examine the possibility of a waiver that would allow the sale of E15 gasoline, containing 15 percent ethanol, year-round - something currently not permitted during the summer due to concerns about smog. Renewable Fuels Association President and Chief Executive Bob Dinneen said in a response to the letter on Friday morning that the U.S. ethanol industry was “grateful for Administrator Pruitt’s epiphany on the road to the RFS.”  The program disproportionately hurts mid-sized refiners and mom-and-pop gas stations that are the backbone of the nation’s energy infrastructure and needs to reformed, said Greg Blair, a spokesman for the Fueling American Jobs Coalition, a group of merchant refiners formed to seek changes in the program. “If the administration follows the course set out in Administrator Pruitt’s letter, manufacturing jobs in Pennsylvania, Ohio and other states – jobs President Trump promised to protect – will be at risk,” Blair said.

Summary: ई. पी. ए. ने कानून निर्माताओं के दबाव के बाद अमेरिकी जैव ईंधन कार्यक्रम में बदलाव को छोड़ दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives’ Republican leader said on Tuesday that legislation to replace former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law would be completed this year, trying to dispel the idea that the party is retreating from its campaign promise to dismantle Obamacare quickly. “The question is how long does it take to implement the full replacement of Obamacare,” House Speaker Paul Ryan told a news briefing. “We hope to get this done as fast as possible.” Ryan was responding to questions about Republican President Donald Trump’s weekend interview with Fox News in which he said it might take until next year to replace the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, which Republicans consider federal government overreach. Trump and congressional Republicans campaigned on a promise to scrap the 2010 healthcare law. But they are struggling to agree on a replacement for the law, which has enabled up to 20 million previously uninsured Americans to obtain health coverage. “Maybe it’ll take till sometime into next year,” Trump said.   On Tuesday at the White House, spokesman Sean Spicer said the administration was “optimistic about getting this thing completed by this year.” Spicer also said Trump still favors lowering drug prices as part of healthcare reform, with the government negotiating directly with companies on prices to be paid by the Medicare insurance program. Spicer said Trump was committed to using his “skills as a businessman” to drive pharmaceutical prices down. Ryan said it was important to get U.S. Representative Tom Price confirmed as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services soon, so he too can “get to work with replacing” the healthcare law. The Senate is expected to confirm Price this week. Ryan said he was not bothered by recent protests against dismantling Obamacare that have taken place at some Republican lawmakers’ meetings with constituents. “Peaceful protests are something we honor in this country,” he said. While Republicans voted last month to start scrapping Obamacare, they missed a target date of Jan. 27 to begin drafting legislation. This raised some doubts about how quickly they will be able to undo the complicated law, even though they have the majority in Congress. At a recent congressional retreat, Republican leaders told lawmakers they hoped Congress would legislate the repeal by March or April, as part of a process known as budget reconciliation. But some Republicans, like Representative Tom McClintock, have said they think doing it this way will actually make repealing Obamacare “harder and slower, while further disrupting an already faltering healthcare market.”

Summary: अमेरिकी सदन के अध्यक्ष का कहना है कि ओबामाकेयर प्रतिस्थापन इस साल पारित हो जाएगा


PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodia s main opposition party will boycott a parliamentary vote to strip their detained leader of immunity on Monday and will instead go to Kem Sokha s jail to demand his release, one of his deputies said on Sunday. Kem Sokha, the head of the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), was arrested a week ago and charged with treason for allegedly plotting to win power with the support of the United States, escalating a crackdown on critics of Prime Minister Hun Sen and independent media ahead of a general election next year. Two aid groups run by the publisher of the Cambodia Daily, shut a week ago in a dispute over a crippling tax bill, said they were suspending work after their accounts were frozen. Parliament is due to vote on whether to remove the immunity from prosecution which Kem Sokha gets as an elected member of parliament. The ruling Cambodian People s Party s (CPP) majority means the motion is certain to pass anyway. CNRP deputy leader Mu Sochua said the parliament vote was illegal.  We can t accept this. We will demand that Kem Sokha, who has not done anything wrong, be released,  she said, adding members of parliament would hold a protest at the prison where he is being held near the border with Vietnam. CPP spokesman Sok Eysan said the opposition boycott would be unconstitutional, but the CPP had enough votes to strip Kem Sokha of his immunity anyway. Hun Sen, a 65-year-old former Khmer Rouge commander, has ruled Cambodia for more than 30 years and said last week he planned to stay in power for another decade. Next year s election had been expected to be his toughest electoral test, but Western countries and human rights groups have raised doubts as to whether the vote will be fair. They have criticized Kem Sokha s arrest, but China has given its backing to close ally Hun Sen. The evidence presented against Kem Sokha so far is a video recorded in 2013 in which he discusses a strategy to win power with the help of unspecified Americans. His lawyers have dismissed the evidence as nonsense and said he was only discussing election strategy. In recent weeks, Hun Sen has also expelled the National Democratic Institute, a non-governmental organization that promotes democracy, and ordered 19 radio stations off the air. The independent English-language Cambodia Daily shut last week after being given a month to pay a $6.3 million tax demand. Japan Relief for Cambodia and World Relief for Cambodia, aid groups financed by the paper s publisher, said their accounts had been frozen and they would have to suspend building schools and teaching English and computing to thousands of pupils.

Summary: कंबोडिया की विपक्षी पार्टी नेता पर संसद के मतदान का बहिष्कार करेगी


(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will announce the approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline at the White House on Friday, alongside the chief executive officer of builder TransCanada Corp, according to a senior administration official. The pipeline linking Canadian oil sands to U.S. refiners had been blocked by former President Barack Obama, who said the pipeline would do nothing to reduce fuel prices for U.S. motorists and would contribute emissions linked to global warming. Trump signed an executive order to advance the project soon after taking office in January, saying it would create thousands of jobs. The administration official said that among those scheduled to be at the White House for the 10:15 a.m. EDT announcement are TransCanada Chief Executive Russell Girling and Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions. Expedited approval of projects is part of Trump’s approach for a 10-year, $1 trillion infrastructure package he promised on the campaign trail. The White House is looking for ways to speed up approvals and permits for infrastructure projects, which can sometimes take years to go through the maze of regulatory requirements. “It does fit into the overall strategy the president has for infrastructure,” the official said. The multibillion-dollar Keystone pipeline would bring more than 800,000 barrels per day of heavy crude from Canada’s oil sands in Alberta into Nebraska, linking to an existing pipeline network feeding U.S. refineries and ports along the Gulf of Mexico.  Approvals are still needed from state regulators, and the pipeline could face legal challenges. Conservatives have said they support quick approval. Nick Loris, an energy and environment researcher at the Heritage Foundation, said on Thursday that approval would “re-establish some certainty and sanity to a permitting process that was hijacked by political pandering.” Environmental groups that have opposed the pipeline have said they will continue the fight with petitions, political pressure and mass protests.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः ट्रांसकानाडा के सी. ई. ओ. के साथ बैठक में कीस्टोन एक्स. एल. को मंजूरी देंगे ट्रम्प-आधिकारिक


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday said it welcomed an announcement by a Saudi-led coalition to keep the Hodeidah port in Yemen open for a month and allow humanitarian aid to flow through, and condemned a Houthi bombing of a palace in Saudi Arabia. In a brief statement, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders suggested the United States believed Iran bore ultimate responsibility for the Dec. 19 missile attack against the palace in Riyadh.  We urge the United Nations Security Council to hold Iran responsible for its repeated and blatant violations of Security Council resolutions,  Sanders said. At a briefing later on Thursday, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Tim Lenderking said the United States would have a conversation with Saudi Arabia about the 30 days the port will be open and about possibly changing the timeline, but said the United States first wants to see ships moving in and goods and services reaching the people of Yemen. The Saudi-led Arab coalition fighting in Yemen said on Wednesday it would open the Houthi-controlled port it had blockaded. A cholera epidemic has been spreading across the country and 8 million people are on the brink of famine in what the United Nations deems the world s worst humanitarian crisis. The Saudis say the Red Sea port is also a hub used by the Houthis to bring in weapons, which it accuses Iran of supplying. Tehran denies the charges. Lenderking also said there was no military solution to the conflict and that President Donald Trump s administration believes the best course is  aggressive diplomacy.  Trump had threatened to cut off financial aid to countries that voted on Thursday in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for the United States to drop its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital. When asked if U.S. aid to Yemen would diminish given that Yemen drafted the resolution and was one of the 120 countries that voted for it, Lenderking said he was not sure but Trump s threat was not empty.

Summary: अमेरिका ने यमन बंदरगाह को खुला रखने के सऊदी के नेतृत्व वाले गठबंधन के फैसले का स्वागत किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Eight months into his lifetime U.S. Supreme Court appointment, Neil Gorsuch has given every indication through his votes in key cases and remarks from the bench he will be a stalwart of the conservative legal agenda, as President Donald Trump promised. Still early in his career as a justice that could span decades, Gorsuch has already established himself as among the most conservative members of the top U.S. court, and has not been shy about expressing his views, sometimes in idiosyncratic ways. He also has made public appearances before conservative audiences, including a speech at the Republican president’s Trump International Hotel in downtown Washington, that have drawn rebukes by liberal critics who questioned his independence from the president who nominated him. Gorsuch’s record so far suggests “he is going to be a reliably conservative vote,” said Carolyn Shapiro, a law professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law. Trump, who as a candidate promised to pick a justice in the mold of the late conservative icon Antonin Scalia, has set out to move the federal judiciary to the right. Gorsuch’s appointment has been his biggest step yet toward that goal, restoring the high court’s 5-4 conservative majority. Gorsuch’s April confirmation by the Republican-led Senate, despite strong Democratic opposition, provided one of Trump’s  biggest political victories since taking office in January.  Writing about Gorsuch on Twitter on Tuesday, Trump said he was “very proud of him and the job he is doing,” and rejected a Washington Post report that he had considered rescinding Gorsuch’s nomination this spring after the jurist said attacks on the judiciary like those that had been made by Trump were “disheartening” and “demoralizing.”  The newspaper reported that Trump had vented angrily to advisers that Gorsuch may not be sufficiently loyal. Trump responded that he had “never even wavered.” As the court rolls into 2018 with some big rulings ahead - on free speech, gay rights, voting rights and employee rights - legal experts said Trump will be able to rely on Gorsuch. The new justice has delivered key votes backing Trump’s travel ban on people from several Muslim-majority countries and on the death penalty, and embraced certain kinds of public funding for churches. During arguments this month in one of the court’s biggest cases of its current term, Gorsuch signaled sympathy for a conservative Christian baker who contends he was within his constitutional rights to refuse to create a wedding cake for a gay couple. Gorsuch declined an interview request for this article. Inside the Supreme Court chambers and outside it, Gorsuch, a 50-year-old Coloradoan, speaks his mind. “He is not intimidated about being the newest justice,” said John Malcolm, a lawyer at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank. Gorsuch has regularly sided with his fellow conservative justices. In the legal fight over the three versions of Trump’s travel ban, Gorsuch sided with the president on four different occasions. In June, he was one of three justices who would have let Trump’s second travel ban go into full effect. The court voted 6-3 to allow a limited version of the ban. On the death penalty, Gorsuch was among four conservative dissenters when the court in September granted a stay of execution for a Georgia inmate. In April, in his first recorded vote on the court, he was part of a 5-4 conservative majority that declined a stay of execution request from an Arkansas inmate. The court in 2018 is set to rule on two cases - one from Wisconsin and another from Maryland - involving the practice of drawing legislative districts in states in a way intended to entrench one party in power, known as partisan gerrymandering. The rulings could influence U.S. elections for decades. Based on the Oct. 3 oral argument in the Wisconsin case, in which Democratic voters challenged a Republican-drawn electoral map, it is unclear how the court will rule. Gorsuch used a culinary analogy to express his doubts during the argument about the Democratic challengers’ legal theory. “It reminds me a little bit of my steak rub,” Gorsuch said. “I like some turmeric, I like a few other little ingredients, but I’m not going to tell you how much of each. And so what’s this court supposed to do, a pinch of this, a pinch of that?” During a November speech hosted by the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group, Gorsuch confidently touted his judicial ideology, stressing the importance of interpreting the U.S. Constitution based on its original meaning and narrowly reading the text of laws passed by Congress. “Tonight,” he said to sustained applause, “I can report, a person can be both a committed originalist and textualist and be confirmed to the Supreme Court of the United States.”

Summary: ट्रम्प के सर्वोच्च न्यायालय द्वारा नियुक्त गोरसच ने सही दिशा में आगे बढ़ने की साजिश रची


MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte s son on Thursday told a Senate inquiry he had no links to a seized shipment of $125 million worth of narcotics from China, dismissing as  baseless  the allegations of his involvement in the drugs trade. Opponents of the president, who has instigated a fierce crackdown on a trade he says is destroying the country, say they believe his son Paolo may have helped ease the entry of the drug shipment at the port in Manila, the capital.  On Tuesday Duterte said he had told Paolo to attend the senate investigation if he had nothing to hide, besides advising him not to answer questions and invoke his right to keep silent.  I cannot answer allegations based on hearsay,  Paolo Duterte, the vice mayor of the southern city of Davao, told the Senate.   My presence here is for the Filipino people and for my fellow Davaoe os whom I serve,  he added, referring to the people of Davao, where his father served as mayor for more than two decades before being elected president in 2016.  The Philippine leader has repeatedly said he would resign if critics could prove any members of his family were involved in corruption. Senator Antonio Trillanes, a staunch critic of the president, displayed to the Senate panel photographs of Paolo Duterte beside a businessman who was behind the shipment in which the alleged drugs were found. The president s son-in-law, Manases Carpio, who has also been accused of links to the May drug shipment from China, told the hearing he had no involvement.  Duterte unleashed his bloody campaign the day he took office on June 30 last year, after promising Filipinos he would use deadly force to wipe out crime and drugs. Police records show more than 3,800 people have died in police operations since July last year, and more than 2,100 other reported murders are linked to drugs. Police reject activists  allegations that they are executing suspected drug users and dealers and say officers shoot only in self-defense. Trillanes said he had intelligence information from an undisclosed foreign country that Paolo Duterte was a member of a criminal syndicate, citing as proof a  dragon-like  tattoo with secret digits on his back.  Asked about the tattoo, Duterte said he had one, but declined to describe it, invoking his right to privacy. Asked by Trillanes if he would allow a photograph to be taken of the tattoo and sent to the U.S Drug Enforcement Agency to decode secret digits, Duterte said:  No way . He refused to respond to questions about his bank accounts, calling them  irrelevant . Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the attendance of Duterte and Carpio  demonstrates that both gentlemen are willing and ready to face malicious allegations intended to impugn their character and credibility.  ($1=51.0290 Philippine pesos)

Summary: फिलीपींस के राष्ट्रपति के बेटे ने 125 मिलियन डॉलर की नशीली दवाओं के शिपमेंट से संबंध होने से इनकार किया


GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala s Supreme Court said on Wednesday it would not investigate the country s president for receiving a salary bonus that made him one of Latin America s best-paid leaders.  President Jimmy Morales received 50,000 quetzals ($6,808) each month as a  Bonus for Extraordinary Responsibility  from the Defense Ministry that was not part of the official presidential salary, Guatemala s federal auditor said last month.  With the bonus, which began last December, Morales  monthly pay package totaled about 200,000 quetzals ($27,233), according to the defense minister. He later returned the bonus funds. The court s decision preserves Morales  immunity against corruption investigations. In a separate case last month, Guatemala s Congress voted to protect the president from a potential probe into alleged illegal campaign financing.   The president already returned the bonus and ... a person cannot be judged twice for the same incident. That is what causes it to be rejected,  Supreme Court spokesman Angel Pineda said of the bonus case.  A statement from the president s office said Morales accepted the court s decision, and contended that actions against him had been politically motivated.     Guatemala s federal prosecutor and a United Nations-backed commission against impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) had pushed to revoke immunity for Morales after his salary bonus became known.      Last month, thousands of Guatemalans marched to protest high-level corruption in the impoverished country and to demand that Morales and Guatemalan lawmakers step down.  The federal auditor, which audits all government spending, said on Sept. 12 it would investigate the salary bonus, but has not yet produced any findings.   With the salary bonus, Morales earned 70 percent more than Chilean President Michelle Bachelet and 130 percent more than Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, two of the region s best-paid leaders. The bonus made his salary about 90 times more than the $300 monthly minimum wage in Guatemala, where 60 percent of the population lives in poverty.

Summary: ग्वाटेमाला सुप्रीम कोर्ट राष्ट्रपति के वेतन बोनस की जांच नहीं करेगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and his Afghan counterpart discussed security in a phone call on Thursday, officials said, hours after the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said thousands more troops were needed to break a stalemate with the Taliban. Trump and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani also spoke about opportunities to strengthen ties, counterterrorism cooperation and economic development, the White House said in a statement. It said Trump also emphasized the continuing importance of the U.S.-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership and his support for Ghani’s government, which is faced with an emboldened Taliban-led insurgency that is still gaining ground after more than 15 years of war. The Afghan Embassy in Washington said Trump and Ghani had spoken on Dec. 3, but Thursday’s call was their first since Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Hours before the call, General John Nicholson, the commander of U.S. and international troops in Afghanistan, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington he did not have enough troops to adequately advise Afghan forces on the ground. Nicholson said he had enough U.S. troops to carry out counterterrorism operations against the Taliban, al Qaeda and other insurgents but also acknowledged gains made by the Taliban over the past year. “We have a shortfall of a few thousand,” Nicholson said. Trump has so far offered little clarity about whether he might approve more forces for Afghanistan. About 8,400 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, well down from their peak of about 100,000 in 2011. Nicholson said extra forces need not all come from the United States and could also be drawn from other allies. The focus of the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan has narrowed considerably to training Afghan forces and conducting counterterrorism missions since a significant drawdown began under Democratic former U.S. President Barack Obama. Obama was often criticized by Republicans in Congress for focusing too much on driving down U.S. troop numbers in an attempt to force Afghan soldiers to become more self-sufficient. Nicholson said U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis would speak with allies soon and suggested Mattis might also visit Afghanistan, which might help him prepare his own recommendations for Republican Trump. He also spoke of security in Afghanistan in terms of the often-difficult U.S. relationship with Pakistan, long seen as a haven for insurgents from the Taliban, the Haqqani network and other militant Islamist groups. “Our complex relationship with Pakistan is best assessed through a holistic review,” Nicholson said. Addressing U.S. concerns about Pakistan was at the top of his list of priorities with the Trump administration, he said. The Afghan Embassy in Washington said Trump and Ghani had also discussed regional security issues, “as well as the joint fight against terrorism and countries that sponsor it.” It also said Trump said he planned to meet Ghani soon. (This story has been refiled to say Afghan embassy, not U.S., in paragraph 4)

Summary: ट्रम्प ने अफगान नेता से की बात, अमेरिकी कमांडर ने और सैनिकों की मांग की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday condemned an alt-right conference in Washington over the weekend where some members performed a Hitler salute and yelled “Hail Trump!” after a speech about white nationalism. “I condemn them. I disavow, and I condemn,” Trump said in a New York Times interview in New York, according to a reporter’s Twitter post.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने वाशिंगटन में ऑल्ट-राइट सभा की निंदा कीः न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders each picked up primary wins on Tuesday in yet another demonstration of how divided the party is in the drawn-out national race to win the nomination for November’s general election. Clinton narrowly defeated Sanders in Kentucky, a state where she was not expected to win. Sanders bested her in Oregon, a state that played to his strengths. In Kentucky, the two candidates will likely split the 55 delegates up for grabs. In Oregon, Sanders will take only a handful more of the 61 delegates that were awarded.     Clinton’s sizeable lead in delegates means it is likely she will eventually be her party’s nominee, but she remains more than 100 delegates short of sealing the deal. The Democratic primary now hits a two-week lull, with the final set major contests, including California, scheduled for June 7. Clinton, who spent the past two days campaigning in Kentucky, would like to lock up the nomination and turn her attention to the Nov. 8 general election and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. Trump has begun to organize his general election campaign. On Tuesday, he signed a joint fundraising agreement with the Republican National Committee. The agreement allows him to raise $449,400 from a single donor by splitting the funds between his campaign, the RNC and state Republican parties.  Trump, who eschewed donations in the political system through the primary, has thus far insisted on mostly self-funding his campaign. The shift to a more traditional fundraising approach could draw the ire of some supporters. Trump, in an interview with Megyn Kelly that aired on Fox News Tuesday night, said he did have regrets about his actions during the Republican primary process. “I could have used different language in a couple of instances, but overall I’m happy with the outcome,” Trump said.  Sanders supporters became angry when Nevada state party officials chose to end their convention and block efforts to award the U.S. senator from Vermont more delegates than he initially won in the February caucus. Clinton won the caucus. The Nevada incident was a warning about the potential for fireworks at July’s Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Clinton’s campaign continued to express confidence that she would be able to unify the party. “Hillary Clinton is grateful to the thousands of Nevadans who came out to participate in the caucuses and convention process,” Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said. “She believes every voice should be heard and no one should be intimidated, harassed or threatened in this process. When the primary process is complete, our party must come together and ensure a Democrat is elected to serve as our next president,” Mook said. Sanders on Tuesday joined his supporters in criticizing the Nevada Democratic Party after Saturday’s events. One Sanders supporter threw a chair, unhappy about being blocked in a rules vote that was part of the effort to help the senator win more delegates to the national convention. Others drew chalk graffiti on a party building, while the state’s party chairwoman has been receiving death threats. Sanders framed Nevada’s incident as a warning. “If the Democratic Party is to be successful in November, it is imperative that all state parties treat our campaign supporters with fairness and the respect that they have earned,” Sanders said in a statement on the Nevada incident.   Sanders - who said he condemns violence and personal harassment of individuals - leveled some of the same complaints his supporters did, arguing that state party Chairwoman Roberta Lange did not allow a headcount on a disputed rules change. He also argued that 64 delegates to the state convention were not given a hearing before being ruled ineligible. The state party disputed the Sanders campaign’s interpretation of the events. It said some delegates did not show up at the convention and others were disqualified because they were not registered as Democrats in time. “The Sanders campaign is continuing to be dishonest about what happened Saturday and is failing to adequately denounce the threats of violence of his supporters,” the Nevada Democratic Party said in a statement. Sanders supporters began circulating a picture of Lange on the internet that included her cellphone number and encouraged others to contact her to express their unhappiness.  Lange said on MSNBC she had been receiving death threats, including many containing vulgar language. Public messages sent to her Twitter account included a barrage of derogatory statements. MSNBC played some of the voicemails, including one saying “people like you should be hung in a public execution.” “What you heard is a few of the thousands of emails and texts and Facebook messages and Twitter messages that I’ve gotten,” Lange said on MSNBC. “Threats to my family, to my grandson, to my husband.  Sanders’ continued presence in the race is prompting concerns among Clinton allies that he will damage her ability to take on Trump and hurt her in the fall.  But Sanders supporters shrug off that worry, arguing that Trump is such a flawed candidate that Clinton will easily dispatch with him if she faces him in the Nov. 8 election. Clinton’s camp seems to agree.  “Ultimately, we are confident that the passion and energy from the primary will be united in a common purpose — to move forward the ideals of our party and keep the White House out of Donald Trump’s hands,” her campaign manager Mook said.

Summary: डेमोक्रेट क्लिंटन और सैंडर्स ने ओरेगन, केंटकी में नामांकन प्रतियोगिताओं को विभाजित किया


SHAH PORIR DWIP, Bangladesh (Reuters) - A crying Rohingya mother in a yellow headscarf cradling her  five-week-old infant son who died after their boat capsized is one of the most powerful Reuters images of Muslim refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar. Hamida, her husband Nasir Ahmed and their two young sons were among 18 refugees on a small fishing boat crossing the Bay of Bengal to the Bangladesh village of Shah Porir Dwip.  As they neared the shore, the boat capsized and they were tossed into the murky water. Reuters photographer Mohammad Ponir Hossain was taking pictures of exhausted refugees on the beach when he heard an autorickshaw driver shouting that a boat had capsized.  I rushed to the spot and found people crying over the dead body of a child,  Ponir said. Click here for a photo essay - reut.rs/2wfJOUr He took a picture of Hamida, cradling the tiny pale body of her child, Abdul Masood. He appears to have died as the survivors scrambled through the crashing waves to shore. Another picture showed the anguish on the face of Nasir Ahmed as he carried his son away from the crowd. The couple s other son survived the accident. Around 400,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh in less than three weeks and people are still arriving, by land and sea, after attacks by Rohingya militants sparked a fierce counteroffensive by Myanmar s army.  Senior United Nations officials have described the violence as a  textbook example of ethnic cleansing . Hamida s family was among tens of thousands of Rohingya who embarked in a rickety fleet of small wooden fishing boats on the crossing from Myanmar s coast to southern Bangladesh, a journey that can take up to five hours.  They are so desperate that they are risking their lives to escape Myanmar. The pictures show what is going on here,  Ponir said.

Summary: सीमा पार करते समय बच्चे की मौत से रोहिंग्या दुखी


ATLANTIC CITY (Reuters) - A New Jersey judge on Friday rejected a bid by Governor Chris Christie’s administration to freeze spending by cash-strapped Atlantic City, which the governor argued was needed to protect tax revenues for city schools. Superior Court Judge Julio Mendez declined to order the city to stop all spending and divert what little remaining cash it has to the school district. But the nearly insolvent seaside gambling hub could find itself back in court with the state, which sued on Monday. Both sides are due back April 19, unless the city makes its April 15 payment to the district or can reach a deal on payments. Christie’s move was one of several on Monday that added to Atlantic City’s woes and kicked off a week of escalating mudslinging, perhaps the worst so far during the city’s recent financial crisis, in which Christie called Mayor Don Guardian a “liar.” That same day, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Atlantic  City’s credit rating deeper into junk territory and the Borgata Casino Hotel & Spa won the right to appeal four years of property taxes after Judge Mendez, in a separate case, found the city violated an $88.2 million settlement agreement by failing to pay.     Christie and state Senate leaders want the state to takeover city operations, saying local officials have not done enough to cut expenses as the casino industry suffered from competition in neighboring states. Guardian has called that plan a “fascist dictatorship,” and state Assembly leaders on Thursday advanced an alternate rescue package with softer takeover provisions. The city had expected to shut down on Friday after running out of cash. But this week its nine public sector unions agreed to convert to a monthly payroll schedule, giving the city breathing room until quarterly tax payments arrive in May. Christie said the city’s paycheck-to-paycheck budgeting will leave the schools broke. “The school district will not be able to operate” if it does not receive the roughly $8 million a month it is owed from the city, Assistant Attorney General Dan Dryzga told the court on Friday.  The city said a payment is not due until April 15.  “The schools can’t operate in a vacuum without police and fire services,” said Robert Tarver, an attorney representing the city. Atlantic City’s budget has been under state oversight since 2011. Guardian has said it remits payments to schools on a schedule laid out by the state.

Summary: न्यू जर्सी के क्रिस्टी ने अटलांटिक सिटी के खर्च को रोकने के लिए बोली खो दी


DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland s Deputy Prime Minister has to resign or else she will force a snap election next month, a senior member of the opposition party propping up the country s minority government said on Monday.  I think the Tanaiste (deputy prime minister) should recognize that unless she does stand aside, she is going to force this country into an election nobody wants, that nobody needs and is not in the country s interests,  Fianna Fail s Jim O Callaghan told national broadcaster RTE.  I don t see any other method out of this.

Summary: उप प्रधानमंत्री के इस्तीफा नहीं देने पर आयरलैंड में चुनाव की तैयारी, विपक्ष ने कहा


TOKYO (Reuters) - A rapidly weakening typhoon Lan made landfall in Japan on Monday, setting off landslides and flooding that prompted evacuation orders for tens of thousands of people, but then headed out to sea after largely sparing the capital, Tokyo. Four people were reported killed, hundreds of plane flights  canceled, and train services disrupted in the wake of Lan, which had maintained intense strength until virtually the time it made landfall west of Tokyo in the early hours of Monday.  At least four people were killed, including a man who was hit by falling scaffolding, a fisherman tending to his boat, and  a young woman whose car had been washed away by floodwaters. Another casualty was left comatose by injuries and a man was missing, NHK public television said. Around 130 others suffered minor injuries. Rivers burst their banks in several parts of Japan and fishing boats were tossed up on land. A container ship was stranded after being swept onto a harbor wall but all 19 crew members escaped injury. Some 80,000 people in Koriyama, a city 200 km (124 miles) north of Tokyo, were ordered to evacuate as a river neared the top of its banks, NHK said, but by afternoon water levels were starting to fall. Several hundred houses in western Japan were flooded.  My grandchild lives over there. The house is fine, but the area is flooded, and they can t get out,  one man told NHK. Lan had weakened to a category 2 storm when it made landfall early on Monday, sideswiping Tokyo, after powering north for days as an intense category 4 storm, according to the Tropical Storm Risk monitoring site. Lan is the Marshall islands word for  storm . By Monday afternoon the storm had been downgraded to a tropical depression and it was in the Pacific, east of the northernmost main island of Hokkaido, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.  Around 350 flights were canceled and train services disrupted over a wide area of Japan, although most commuter trains were running smoothly in Tokyo.  Toyota Motor Corp canceled the first shift at all of its assembly plants but said it would operate the second shift as normal.

Summary: टाइफून के कारण जापान में बाढ़, समुद्र में जाने से पहले चार लोगों की मौत


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States should fight back against Russia or any nation that seeks to interfere in U.S. elections, Nikki Haley, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said on Wednesday. “We should stand up to any country that attempts to interfere with our system,” she told lawmakers. Asked what would be her message to Moscow on Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election, she said: “That we are aware that it has happened. That we don’t find it acceptable and that we are going to fight back every time we see something like that happening.”

Summary: अमेरिका को रूस के खिलाफ लड़ना चाहिए, अन्य जो चुनावों में हस्तक्षेप करते हैंः ट्रम्प यू. एन. पिक


ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey is determined to conduct its dealings in Iraq with the central government after the Iraqi Kurdish independence referendum and the two countries  prime ministers will meet soon, government spokesman Bekir Bozdag said on Thursday. Bozdag, also a deputy prime minister, said in an interview with broadcaster TGRT that the Turkish armed forces  training of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters had been terminated and that further steps would follow in response to the referendum.

Summary: तुर्की इराकी केंद्र सरकार के साथ सौदा करेगा, प्रधान मंत्री जल्द ही मिलेंगेः प्रवक्ता


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration said on Wednesday that it will take aggressive action to combat other countries’  unfair trade practices and may defy World Trade Organization rulings that it views as interfering with U.S. sovereignty In an annual trade policy agenda document, the U.S. Trade Representative’s office said the administration “will not tolerate” unfair trade practices that distort markets, including currency manipulation, unfair government subsidies, intellectual property theft and state-owned enterprises. The document publicly released to Congress on Wednesday signals that the administration may try to push the limits of what is acceptable under WTO rules in its quest to make good on campaign promises to slash U.S. trade deficits with China and Mexico, and bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. The document represents a departure from the Obama administration’s strict adherence to WTO compliance in its challenges to unfair foreign trade practices. “Unlike earlier presidents, Trump is signaling a willingness to impose import restrictions — especially against a country like China — where the justification under WTO rules for doing so may be highly questionable,” said Chad Bown, a senior fellow and trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “The downside of the United States going down this path is that it is likely that other countries will follow suit immediately,” Bown added. The USTR document said it was not in the United States’ interest to let some WTO rulings undermine the use of effective remedies that the Geneva-based trade body expressly allows to fight unfair trade.    “Accordingly, the Trump administration will act aggressively as needed to discourage this type of behavior — and encourage true market competition,” the USTR said in the document. Laying out many of Trump’s trade plans in writing for the first time, the document said the Trump administration plans to strictly enforce U.S. trade laws, defend U.S. national sovereignty over trade policy, and use all possible leverage to open foreign markets to U.S. exports, the document said.  It makes clear the Trump administration’s view that U.S. law supersedes WTO rules — a view that could be invoked should Congress adopt a border tax adjustment plan to impose new taxes on imports that is later challenged as violating WTO tariff rules by other member countries. “The Trump administration will aggressively defend American sovereignty over matters of trade policy,” the report said. The nominee to be Trump’s top trade negotiator, veteran steel industry lawyer Robert Lighthizer, in 2010 advocated “aggressive interpretations of WTO provisions that might help us deal with Chinese mercantilism.” Lighthizer is awaiting confirmation by the U.S. Senate. He served as a deputy USTR in the Reagan administration, helping to negotiate import quotas on Japanese goods in the 1980s, with the help of powerful trade law provisions that have largely gone unused since the WTO was launched in 1995.

Summary: ट्रंप के व्यापार कार्यालय ने डब्ल्यूटीओ के नियमों को आक्रामक दृष्टिकोण से देखाः दस्तावेज़


MELBOURNE (Reuters) - China accused Australia of hysteria and paranoia on Wednesday  after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull vowed to ban foreign political donations in a move to curb external influence on its domestic politics. Foreign powers were making  unprecedented and increasingly sophisticated attempts to influence the political process  in Australia and the world, Turnbull told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday. He had cited  disturbing reports about Chinese influence . The announcement came as concern grows that Beijing may be extending its soft power efforts in the country and as relationships between Australian politicians and Chinese government interests become increasingly contentious.  Some Australian media have repeatedly fabricated news stories about the so-called Chinese influence and infiltration in Australia,  the Chinese Embassy in Australia said in an English-language statement on its website.  Those reports, which were made up out of thin air and filled with cold war mentality and ideological bias, reflected a typical anti-China hysteria and paranoid (sic).   The statement said that  irresponsible remarks  by some Australian politicians and government officials had damaged trust between the countries and that it categorically rejected all allegations. China s soft power has come under renewed focus this week after a politician from Australia s opposition Labor party was demoted from government having been found to have warned a prominent Chinese business leader and Communist Party member that his phone was being tapped by intelligence authorities. In June, Fairfax Media and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported on a concerted campaign by China to  infiltrate  Australian politics to promote Chinese interests. Australia and neighboring New Zealand are among roughly a third of countries worldwide that allow foreign donations to political parties. Such donations are prohibited in the United States, Britain and several European countries. The new laws, modeled in part on the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, would criminalize foreign interference and require the registration of lobbyists working for nation states, Turnbull said.  China has no intention to interfere in Australia s internal affairs or exert influence on its political process through political donations,  the embassy said.  We urge the Australian side to look at China and China-Australia relations in an objective, fair and rational manner.

Summary: चीन ने विदेशी प्रभाव कानूनों को लेकर ऑस्ट्रेलिया पर पागलपन का आरोप लगाया


HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland is planning large-scale military drills with the United States and other allies, its defense minister said on Friday, in a region worried by Russia s increasing military activity. Jussi Niinisto said the exercises would help troops prepare for a crisis, without mentioning a specific threat. The war games will not take place until 2020 at the earliest and will be similar to neighboring Sweden s  Aurora  drill that involved 19,000 troops in September, he added.  The exercise is planned to broadly gather conscripts, reservists and soldiers to practice ... together with our main partners like Sweden, the United States and other countries,  Niinisto told broadcaster MTV.  If there s a crisis, it will be good for us to practice receiving help.  Tensions have been rising in the region since Russia s 2014 annexation of Ukraine s Crimea peninsula. Finland, which borders Russia, has forged closer ties with NATO in recent years, though most Finns oppose actually joining the alliance. In September, Russia held its own  Zapad  war games in Belarus, the Baltic Sea, western Russia and its Kaliningrad outpost.

Summary: फिनलैंड की संयुक्त राज्य अमेरिका और स्वीडन के साथ सैन्य अभ्यास की योजना है


BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives said they were willing to open formal talks on forming a government with Germany s Social Democrats (SPD) - but her chosen partner was expected to take two more days to decide how to proceed. Weakened by heavy election losses to the far-right and then by the collapse last month of talks on a three-way alliance, Merkel is pinning her hopes on the SPD for a fourth term as chancellor and to avoid new elections. Leaders of Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU) and her Bavarian conservative allies (CSU) sought to persuade their SPD counterparts to drop their objections to a renewal of the  grand coalition  the two parties have been governing in since 2013.  The CDU and CSU representatives made clear that they wanted to begin exploratory talks with the SPD on creating a stable government,  the conservative camp said in a statement. But an SPD official said the party first needed to hold consultations before announcing a decision on Friday. After four years of governing with Merkel, the center-left party scored its worst election result since 1933 - and few members want to repeat that experience. Sensing that Merkel s lack of alternatives leaves it in a strong position, the SPD has said it would agree to share power only if it wins commitments on more generous social policy.  A decisive point for the SPD is that the social agenda has more prominence in Germany,  leading Social Democrat Carsten Schneider told German television ahead of the talks, demanding  fairness for ordinary heroes.  But the mood between the two parties is still sour and Merkel herself has been a frequent target of criticism by the Social Democrats. The secrecy surrounding the talks underlined their sensitivity. With both sides having a lot to lose, the parties plan no public statements when talks conclude on Wednesday evening. SPD leader Martin Schulz has made a pitch for EU integration leading to a  United States of Europe  by 2025, and the SPD wants a big spending boost on education, more nursery spots and a big healthcare reform. Merkel wants to maintain Germany s solid finances, cut some taxes and expand the digital infrastructure.  The SPD had vowed to go into opposition after its dismal election result and only softened its approach, agreeing to meet Merkel, due to pressure from President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who wants to avoid new elections. The SPD pulled no punches in attacking Merkel during the election campaign. Schulz has described Merkel, known for pragmatism rather than vision, as a vacuum cleaner of ideas and has also accused her of silencing debate on issues.  A row last month over a conservative minister breaking protocol to back an extension for an EU license for a weed-killer despite SPD opposition hurt ties at a crucial time.    One of the SPD s deputies, Ralf Stegner, adopted a combative tone on Wednesday, saying nobody could dictate the terms to the SPD as the conservative bloc needed the party to rule.  Some in the SPD are prepared to contemplate another grand coalition, albeit with a clear SPD signature, but others prefer the idea of tolerating a minority government under Merkel.  One other option is a  KoKo  (cooperation coalition) agreement under which the SPD would agree to work with Merkel in some areas, such as the budget and European and foreign affairs, but force her to seek ad-hoc majorities for other policies. This idea is unpopular with conservatives who prefer a grand coalition.  We have to try it - but please, seriously,  Carsten Linnemann, head of a group representing small and medium-sized businesses in the conservative bloc, told ARD television.

Summary: मर्केल के रूढ़िवादी उत्सुक हैं, लेकिन एसपीडी अभी भी जर्मन सरकार की बातचीत पर अडिग है


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq’s Popular Mobilization on Sunday called on the Iraqi government to ban U.S. nationals from entering Iraq and to expel those who are already in the country, in a reaction to the new U.S. travel curbs on Iraqis. Popular Mobilization is mainly a coalition of Shi’ite paramilitary groups armed and trained by Iran to fight Islamic State. It became an Iraqi government-approved body last year. The call to ban U.S. nationals came in a statement published by its spokesman, Ahmed al-Assadi.

Summary: इराक के शिया अर्धसैनिक बलों ने अमेरिकी नागरिकों पर प्रतिबंध लगाने की मांग की


TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will curb asylum seekers  rights to work and detain any not deemed refugees or who have made multiple applications, the Yomiuri daily reported on Tuesday, in a move to further tighten one of the developed world s toughest refugee systems. From as early as mid-November, Japan will only allow those it regards as bona fide refugees the right to work. The Justice Ministry estimates that the new rule will effectively deny the right to work for more than 10,000 asylum seekers a year who don t qualify for refugee status, the Yomiuri said, without citing sources.Others, including those who fail to qualify as refugees in initial checks and multiple asylum applicants, will be held in detention centers after their permission to stay in Japan expires, the report said. At present, asylum seekers with valid visas receive renewable permits allowing them to work in Japan while their refugee applications are reviewed - a system the government says encourages people to seek asylum in order to work.  We are looking at policies, including that in the (Yomiuri) article. We haven t decided whether to put it into action,  said Yasuhiro Hishida, a Justice Ministry official overseeing  refugee recognition.  Japan accepted just three refugees in the first half of 2017 despite a record 8,561 fresh asylum applications, and only 28 in 2016. Human Rights Watch in January described the country s record on asylum seekers as  abysmal . The prospect of the crackdown drew criticism from Japan s most prominent refugee organization, which said that asylum seekers would struggle to make ends meet without work permits.  It s essential that minimum living conditions are ensured while people apply for asylum,  said Eri Ishikawa of the Japan Association for Refugees.  The world s third biggest economy has remained unwelcoming to immigration despite a shrinking, aging population that has exacerbated the worst labor shortages in four decades and drags on an already slow economic growth. Japan s reluctance to accept foreign workers and refugees is in contrast to the policies of other industrialized countries, and has forced labor-hungry industries including construction and manufacturing to rely on asylum seekers with work permits. Immigration remains a controversial subject in Japan, where many pride themselves on cultural and ethnic homogeneity.  Almost six in 10 Japanese think diversity of ethnic groups, religions and races makes their country a worse place, a poll this month by the Pew Research Center showed.

Summary: जापान शरण चाहने वालों के खिलाफ कार्रवाई शुरू करेगाः योमियूरी


MOSCOW (Reuters) - A military helicopter on a rural training exercise in western Russia mistakenly fired rockets at a group of parked vehicles,  knocking at least one person to the ground, footage posted by Russian news sites and on social media showed. A video clip published on Tuesday by the independent news site Fontanka.ru showed a helicopter firing a salvo of rockets at a military truck covered in camouflage netting in open countryside, with three vehicles with no military markings visible, parked a few meters away. A man in civilian clothes who had been standing close to the truck was engulfed in a cloud of dust. The person filming the clip, who was slightly further away, could be seen sprawled on the ground.  Russia is currently staging the  Zapad 2017  war games in the area, major exercises on NATO s eastern flank that were inspected on Monday by Russian President Vladimir Putin.  Fontanka.ru said the incident occurred on Sept. 18 and left one person with concussion. It did not give details on the source of the video. A second video from the same location, which was posted on social media by Russian investigative bloggers Conflict Intelligence Team, showed the aftermath, including a smashed window in a white jeep nearest to the truck, and shrapnel damage to the military truck. Reuters could not independently verify the videos. The Russian Defence Ministry s western military district, in a statement cited by Interfax news agency, said that during a training exercise a helicopter s targeting system had mistakenly acquired a target, but denied anyone had been injured.  The representative cited by Interfax did not say when the incident happened, or where, or if the exercise was part of the  Zapad-2017  war games.   As a result of a strike by an unguided rocket, a cargo vehicle with no people on board was damaged,  Interfax quoted a representative of the military district as saying. The Western military district includes north-western Russia and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, all areas where the  Zapad-2017  exercises are focused.  Russia s defense ministry in Moscow did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Asked by reporters about the incident, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov referred questions to the defense ministry.               (The online version of the story has been corrected to fix a typo in the second paragraph.)

Summary: रूस के युद्ध खेलों में हेलीकॉप्टर ने गलती से खड़े वाहनों पर फायर कर दियाः मीडिया


DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia welcomed the new U.S. policy toward Iran and said lifting sanctions had allowed Iran to develop its ballistic missile program and step up its support for militant groups, state news agency SPA reported on Friday. The kingdom said Iran took advantage of additional financial revenues to support for the Lebanese Shi ite movement Hezbollah and the Houthi group in Yemen.

Summary: सऊदी अरब ने ईरान के प्रति अमेरिका की नई रणनीति का स्वागत किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Despite President Donald Trump s full-throated support for Saudi Arabia, the United States appears to be signaling a desire for Riyadh to take a more cautious approach in its regional power struggle with Iran, experts say. The Trump administration, which shares Saudi Arabia s view of Iran as a regional menace, has strongly backed the Kingdom in the wake of a failed missile attack from Iran-aligned forces in Yemeni territory that demonstrated an ability to strike the Saudi capital. Trump has cultivated much warmer ties with the Saudis after a fraught relationship with the Obama administration - the president made Riyadh his first stop on his maiden international trip - and has vowed to take strong action to confront Iran. Nevertheless, Washington, which has U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq, is telegraphing a more tempered stance toward the confrontation in a region beset with turmoil.  On Thursday, the State Department called for  unimpeded access  for humanitarian aid to Yemen, after Saudi Arabia imposed a blockade on the country to stem the flow of arms to Iran-aligned Houthi fighters.  A day later, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made clear he still recognized as Lebanon s prime minister Saad al-Hariri, who unexpectedly announced his resignation on Nov. 4 from Riyadh. In announcing his decision on television, Hariri said he feared assassination and accused Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of sowing strife in the Arab world, thrusting Lebanon into the front line of the competition between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi ite Iran.  Two U.S. officials said the Saudis, led by Crown Prince Mohammed, had  encouraged  Hariri to leave office and Lebanese officials say he is being held in Saudi Arabia, a charge Riyadh denies. Hariri has not commented publicly on whether he is free to come and go as he pleases. In a statement on Saturday, the White House said it  rejects any efforts by militias within Lebanon or by any foreign forces to threaten Lebanon s stability...or use Lebanon as a base from which to threaten others in the region.  When asked to comment on whether the United States was pushing for a more cautious Saudi response, both the White House and State Department referred to Saturday s statement on Lebanon. Tillerson was  not going along with the Saudi position in describing the Lebanese state as under capture by Hezbollah,   said Paul Salem, the senior vice president of the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank.  That s significant.   Tillerson was also  signaling to the Israelis ... that now is not the time to go after Lebanon,  said Salem, referring to long-standing Israeli concerns about Hezbollah s growing military prowess. Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said he believed the Trump administration was still seeking to help the Saudis advance their interests against Iran without destabilizing the region.  This is a delicate balancing act. It involves supporting allies in a policy that the administration agrees with, while trying to mitigate aspects of it that it (sees as) overstated,  Takeyh said. Tillerson s statement also urged  all parties both within Lebanon and outside  to respect Lebanon s independence and said there was no role for any foreign forces. The United States regularly criticizes Iran and Hezbollah for their role in Lebanon. Tillerson s backing of Hariri and the Lebanese government contrasted sharply with the approach taken by Saudi Arabia, which has lumped Lebanon with Hezbollah as parties hostile to it.  I see Rex Tillerson as being an old fashioned American diplomat and old fashioned American diplomacy in the Middle East is all about stability,  said F. Gregory Gause, chairman of the International Affairs Department at Texas A&M University.  I m not entirely sure that that is the position of the chief executive of the United States,  Gause added. The Saudi actions coincide with an anti-corruption purge by the country s future king that tightened his grip on power. Trump tweeted on Monday that he had  great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia  following the mass arrests - the biggest such purge of the kingdom s affluent elite in its modern history. Trump also tweeted that  they know exactly what they are doing.   Former and current U.S. officials with deep knowledge of Saudi Arabia say Trump s enthusiastic support for Prince Mohammed has emboldened the youthful Saudi leader. Tillerson told reporters the purge appeared  well intended  but the mass arrests, which have swept up officials long known in Washington, also fueled U.S. concerns.  It raises a few concerns until we see more clearly how these particular individuals are dealt with,  Tillerson added. Trump s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the president s senior adviser, who has cultivated a close relationship with Prince Mohammed, recently returned from Saudi Arabia, fueling speculation on whether he may have had wind of the Crown Prince s plans. A senior administration official said they had no advance knowledge.

Summary: ईरान के बारे में साझा चिंता के बावजूद अमेरिका ने सऊदी अरब को चेतावनी दी


DOHA/KUWAIT (Reuters) - North Korean workers will start leaving Qatar and Kuwait after the Gulf Arab states said they would stop renewing visas, cutting off a source of foreign income for Pyongyang after U.N. Security Council sanctions and pressure from the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump urged United Nations member states on Tuesday to turn up the pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, using his maiden speech to the world body to address what he has said is the top global challenge. The speech comes after North Korea s nuclear tests and missile launches which have stirred global tensions. Several thousand North Korean workers reside in the U.S-allied Gulf region, mainly working on construction sites. Kuwait hosts the only North Korean diplomatic mission in the region and this week took steps to expel the ambassador and downgrade ties. Qatar, which is hosting the 2022 World Cup, said on Tuesday it was in full compliance with all U.N. sanctions and that it had stopped issuing visas to North Korean nationals following the previous round of sanctions in 2015.  There have never been workers from North Korea working on any World Cup construction sites,  Qatar s Government Communications Office said in a statement, adding some companies had employed North Koreans prior to 2015.  Approximately 1,000 remain, but this number will decline rapidly as their employment contracts expire. Visas to North Korean nationals will not be renewed,  it said. A source familiar with the matter told Reuters the majority of North Koreans working in Qatar were expected to leave in the first six months of 2018 as they come to the end of their employment contracts. A North Korean source told Reuters on Monday Kuwait had given Ambassador So Chang Sik one month to leave the country, which hosts around 3,000 North Koreans. The representation would be downgraded to a charge d affaires, Kuwait confirmed on Monday, reiterating it had banned visas for North Koreans, halted direct flights and severed trade ties following U.N. sanctions in August. A source in the Kuwaiti foreign ministry urged all sides to work toward a solution  that would avert destruction and warfare  state news agency KUNA said. Kuwait s moves follow a meeting between Trump and Kuwait s ruler in Washington earlier this month and a joint statement from their foreign ministers on Sept. 8 which called on the international community to put further pressure on North Korea.  The United States praised Kuwait s positive steps in regards to implementing U.N. resolutions,  the statement said, in an apparent reference to the visa and flights ban. Beyond its largest missions in Moscow and Beijing, North Korea also has major embassies in London, Rome, Stockholm and Berlin, as well as dozens of smaller embassies across Africa and Asia.

Summary: कतर, कुवैत ने उत्तर कोरियाई श्रमिकों के लिए वीजा का नवीनीकरण बंद किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President-elect Mike Pence said on Wednesday the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act will evolve in the months ahead, seeking to deflect criticism by Democrats over dismantling the health care program without an alternate plan. “The architecture of the replacement of Obamacare will come together, as it should, through the legislative process in the weeks and months ahead,” Pence said at a brief news conference after meetings with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Summary: पेंसः ओबामाकेयर प्रतिस्थापन आने वाले हफ्तों, महीनों में एक साथ आएगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A chorus of concern in the U.S. Congress over the potential national security threat of State Department staff cuts grew on Thursday when every Democrat on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee signed a letter asking for a briefing. “The number of minister counselors in the State Department has decreased by 15 percent, career ministers by 42 percent, and career ambassadors by an astounding 60 percent,” they said in the letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. “The amount of talent leaving the State Department endangers the institution and undermines American leadership, security and interests around the world,” said the letter, led by Representative Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the committee. Many members of Congress, Democrats as well as some of President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans, have rejected Trump’s proposal to cut the State Department budget by about 30 percent. Tillerson has embraced the plan, and imposed a hiring freeze while analyzing the agency’s operations and deciding how to reorganize them. On Tuesday, the Republican chairman and top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee both blasted the agency for cuts in staff and what they described as a failure to have a plan for a proposed organization. On Wednesday, Republican Senator John McCain, the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, and Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on a Foreign Relations subcommittee overseeing State, delivered a letter to Tillerson asking him to begin consulting with lawmakers on decisions that have an impact on recruiting, retaining and staffing, removing a hiring freeze and resuming promotions. [L1N1NL2AB] Tillerson has said his reorganization plan aimed to increase efficiency and cut costs, with a target of saving at least 10 percent, or about $5 billion, over the next five years from fiscal-year 2017 levels.  A State Department spokesperson said that all congressional correspondence to the department is reviewed and receives an appropriate response. “We can affirm that the Secretary has said on many occasions that he will advocate for any resources or reforms America’s diplomats need to do their jobs,” the spokesperson said in a email.

Summary: अमेरिकी सदन डेमोक्रेट राज्य विभाग के बारे में बढ़ती कांग्रेस की चिंता में शामिल हुए


PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Panama recalled its ambassador to the EU from Brussels for consultations after the Central American country was included on a European Union blacklist of countries deemed as tax havens, the government said on Wednesday.   European Union finance ministers adopted a blacklist of 17 jurisdictions deemed tax havens on Tuesday, in an unprecedented step to counter worldwide tax avoidance, although they did not agree on financial levies for the listed countries.  Given the unfortunate incorporation of the country in this discriminatory list, the Republic of Panama has decided to call its Ambassador to the European Union, Dario Chiru, to assess the steps to be followed moving forward,  the government said in a statement.  The list also included American Samoa, Bahrain, Barbados, Grenada, Guam, South Korea, Macau, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Namibia, Palau, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates (UAE). The government of the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago said on Wednesday that it soon would take two bills to parliament to reform its tax codes. Passage of those bills could help it get removed from the EU blacklist, the government said.   The Government of Trinidad and Tobago shares the goals of the EU with respect to fighting tax abuse and reassures that we will act with alacrity on this matter,  the country s attorney general said in a statement

Summary: कर पनाहगाहों की सूची पर पनामा ने यूरोपीय संघ के राजदूत को वापस बुलाया


WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (Reuters) - A state judge in North Carolina gave residents in counties hit hard by Hurricane Matthew five extra days to register to vote after Democrats sued to get an extension to Friday’s deadline, while a federal judge ordered an extension in one Georgia county. The Democratic Party in North Carolina challenged the state election board’s refusal to extend the cutoff date, saying in its suit that thousands of people would have been deprived of their fundamental right to vote in the Nov. 8 election if Friday’s deadline was not extended by at least five days.  The judge ordered an extension to next Wednesday in 36 counties, a lawyer for the state Democratic Party said on Twitter. “This ruling will ensure that those communities who have suffered from the devastating flooding brought on by Hurricane Matthew have the grace period that they need in order to exercise their right to vote and make their voices heard in this critical election,” party officials said. Twenty-four people have died in North Carolina and thousands have been forced from their homes in the eastern and central parts of the state due to record flooding in Matthew’s aftermath.  North Carolina is a battleground state in the presidential election and could play a pivotal role in the race between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. State officials said this week they would not extend the regular deadline to register to vote, but allowances would be made for forms delayed by mail delivery. Those who miss the deadline can still register and vote on the same day during the statewide early voting period from Oct. 20 through Nov. 5. The state has a Republican governor, Pat McCrory, who faces a tough contest for re-election. The state’s Republican Party opposed any extension. “It is clear that North Carolina Democrats, who have been dominated in voter registration by Republicans, want to use a horrific natural disaster to change the rules in the middle of the game,” state Republican Chairman Robin Hayes said in a statement. In Georgia, U.S. District Judge William Moore ordered the voter registration deadline extended until Tuesday in Chatham County, which includes the city of Savannah. The judge said the administrative difficulties of doing so “pale in comparison to the physical, emotional and financial strain Chatham County residents faced in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew.” A federal judge on Wednesday gave residents in Florida six extra days to register to vote after that state’s Democratic Party sued for more time due to Matthew. South Carolina extended its registration deadline due to Matthew from Oct. 7 to Oct. 11.

Summary: नॉर्थ कैरोलिना डेमोक्रेट्स ने मतदाता पंजीकरण की समय सीमा बढ़ाने में जीत हासिल की


BELFAST (Reuters) - The head of Northern Ireland s Democratic Unionist party, which is propping up British Prime Minister Theresa May s government, on Friday called for any Brexit transition period to be kept to a minimum and accused the EU of trying to damage Britain. In some of her most anti-EU comments since she agreed her 10 members of parliament would support May, Arlene Foster said in a statement that she believed  aggressive EU negotiators ... seem determined to do as much damage as they can to the UK.  The DUP campaigned to leave the European Union during last year s referendum. But 56 percent of Northern Ireland voters supported remain, and Foster has tended to shy away from hard Brexit positions. Northern Ireland is widely seen as the region with the most to lose if customs barriers are introduced between Britain and the EU. Foster described May s Friday speech in Florence, in which she called for Britain to stay in the single market under its current terms for around two years, as a  positive vision.   Any transition period should be for the absolute minimum period,  she said.  The wishes expressed in the referendum should be delivered without undue delay.

Summary: डीयूपी नेता का कहना है कि ब्रेक्सिट संक्रमण को 'पूर्ण न्यूनतम' रखा जाना चाहिए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to rapidly deport 2 to 3 million illegal immigrants with criminal records would further tax a system already stretched to its limits, current and former U.S. immigration officials say. Immigration courts, which issue deportation orders, set bond and grant or deny asylum, currently have a backlog of more than 500,000 cases.  Boosting staff could help address the problem but that could prove difficult. Officials at the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security say they have had trouble quickly finding and vetting enough qualified candidates to fill all the positions for judges and immigration agents that Congress has authorized.  The Executive Office of Immigration Review, which adjudicates immigration cases, has so far been able to fill only 294 judge positions out of the 374 Congress has authorized because the process is slow by necessity. Candidates for the job “face a rigorous screening process comparable to that of the appointment of a U.S. attorney,” said spokeswoman Kathryn Mattingly.  Trump said last week after his election victory that once he takes office he will move to deport or incarcerate up to 3 million illegal immigrants who have criminal records.     At U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a force of 6,200 agents responsible for arresting and deporting criminal migrants is already spread thin. While some agents could be redeployed to other areas, more agents would likely need to be hired if deportations were sharply escalated, said an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official who asked not to named. The agency would probably need to add detention space as well, the official added.  More apprehensions of migrants could also strain the Border Patrol, which has struggled to fill open positions. Congress has mandated a force of more than 21,000 border agents, but it currently stands at just over 19,000. Former U.S. Border Patrol chief Mike Fisher said the agency ran into problems a decade ago after Congress asked it to double the number of Border Patrol agents from 6,000 to 12,000 between 2004 and 2006. The push to hire quickly helped fuel corruption, a March 2016 report by the Department of Homeland Security’s independent advisory council found.   The report concluded that the rapid hiring was exploited by Mexican drug gangs, which sent in cartel-friendly applicants for the patrol jobs. Once hired, they then facilitated drug smuggling across the U.S.-Mexico border. The agency began using polygraph tests in 2010 to weed out applicants with criminal histories or ties to cartels. Fisher said the testing made it harder to find qualified candidates, estimating that by the time he left in 2015, the border patrol made one hire out of every 100 applicants. “I can’t imagine if they said ‘double it’ now,” Fisher said.  Trump could try to change laws and procedures to expedite deportation processes, which could reduce the need for additional personnel.  On Friday, Trump tapped Republican Senator Jeff Sessions to be attorney general. Sessions has supported Trump’s plan to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico and undo Obama’s executive actions on immigration.  During President Barack Obama’s time in office, the United States has deported about 2.5 million illegal immigrants, more than under any other president.

Summary: अमेरिकी निर्वासन में वृद्धि एक ओवरटैक्स प्रणाली को प्रभावित कर सकती है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Wednesday declined to comment on the latest so-called tax-inversion deal by a major U.S. company, but said legislation was needed to close the loophole. Asked at a White House briefing about a $16.5 billion deal announced on Monday by Johnson Controls Inc (JCI.N), a U.S. maker of car batteries and heating and ventilation equipment, to acquire Ireland-based peer Tyco International Plc TYC.N, spokesman Josh Earnest said he would not comment on specific deals. “Ultimately, we need legislation to address this loophole,” he said.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस ने आयरलैंड स्थित टाइको को खरीदने के लिए जॉनसन कंट्रोल के सौदे पर टिप्पणी करने से इनकार कर दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A vote by Iraq s minority Kurds for independence is a blow to the United States, which has spent years, billions of dollars and the lives of thousands of troops trying to hold Iraq together, former U.S. officials and other policy experts said. A diplomatic drive to forestall Monday s referendum failed to persuade Kurdish leaders, some of the United States  closest Middle Eastern allies, in what likely will be seen as fresh proof of diminishing American power, they said. The Kurds, who have ruled over a semi-autonomous region within Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, consider the result an historic step in a generations-old quest for a state of their own.  This is a major setback,  said James Jeffrey, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and now a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.  It robs us of the argument that only the U.S. can keep Iraq united.    As a result, the United States could find it harder to stop predominantly Shi ite Muslim Iran from filling the vacuum left by Islamic State s defeat through Shi ite militias and other allies in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere, they said. Moreover, the vote to give Kurdish leaders a mandate to negotiate independence for their region of more than 8.3 million threatens to ignite more strife. That could hinder U.S.-backed efforts to stabilize Iraq, eliminate the remnants of Islamic State, or ISIS, and similar groups.  We see considerable risk,  said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.  The gravest danger is a conflict over the disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk and other ethnically mixed Kurdish-held areas pitting Iraqi troops and Iran-backed Shi ite militias against the Peshmerga, the Kurdistan Regional Government s (KRG) U.S.-trained paramilitary force. Such bloodletting could foreclose Trump administration hopes of promoting negotiations between Baghdad and the KRG and avert a Kurdish declaration of independence.  We say keep your eye on the ball,  State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Tuesday.  This kind of division right now could potentially hurt Iraq.  A conflict also could halt U.S.-backed operations to return home Sunnis displaced by the battles that have reclaimed nearly all the  caliphate  Islamic State declared in 2014.  We are still hopeful of getting people to talk through this stuff rather than doing something more drastic,  said a second U.S. official, who also requested anonymity. The referendum was condemned by neighboring Turkey and Iran, which fear it will embolden independence demands by their Kurdish populations. Ankara and Tehran, trading partners of landlocked Iraqi Kurdistan, are threatening retaliation, fueling fears they could intervene militarily. There were expectations that the U.S., which said it would not recognize the vote, could use its ties to the Iraqi Kurds to persuade KRG President Masoud Barzani to cancel the referendum in exchange for a guarantee of talks with Baghdad. The U.S. protected the Iraqi Kurds when they rebelled against Hussein after the 1991 Gulf War.  The Americans are the midwife of Iraqi Kurdistan,  said Robert Ford, a retired U.S. diplomat now with the Middle East Institute think tank, who served as deputy ambassador to Iraq.  The Kurds moving ahead (with the vote) is a sign of American credibility being much less than it used to be.  The U.S. bid to stop the referendum failed, experts said, in part because the aging Barzani sees fulfilling aspirations for an independent Kurdish state as his legacy. Moreover, said Peter Galbraith, a former U.S. diplomat with ties to Kurdish leaders, the Trump administration mistakenly thought Barzani could weather the backlash from canceling the referendum, which the White House demanded just 10 days before it was held.  This was the most astonishingly inept diplomatic initiative I have ever seen,  Galbraith said.  Former ambassador Jeffrey said the administration also failed to account for Iran s growing influence.  One thing that pushed the Kurds in this direction is the fear that Iraq is coming under the domination of Iran and the Shi ite militias,  he said.  The underlying problem in Iraq is that the Shi ite parties in Baghdad do not want to share power with the Sunni Arabs and the Kurds.

Summary: कुर्द स्वतंत्रता मतदान एकीकृत इराक को संरक्षित करने के अमेरिकी प्रयासों को नुकसान पहुंचाता है


DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi authorities said on Wednesday they had arrested 22 people, including a Qatari national, for using social media to spread dissent. Another 24 people were detained in the northern Hail region for stirring tribal divisions, the state news agency SPA reported.  Neither report went into the details of the offenses. The announcements came days after a order from King Salman lifting a ban on women driving in the conservative Islamic kingdom. Saudi Arabia, alongside the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, has also cut diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar accusing it of supporting militants and Iran - charges Doha denies. Citing a source in the newly-created Presidency of State Security, the counter-terrorism and domestic intelligence body, SPA said the 22 had been detained after authorities spotted videos on social media  inciting against public order . The online postings stirred  up feelings towards issues that are still under consideration,  and incited people to commit crimes, SPA said. Separately, SPA carried a statement from the interior ministry saying that during unspecified investigations in Hail,  people linked to the case were promoting lies and exaggerations about their circumstances in order to provoke sedition and tribal tensions . Soon after the two reports, Saudi Arabia s top clerical body, the General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars, issued a statement saying:  Anyone who tried to harm the kingdom security and the unity of its people has committed a dangerous crime .

Summary: सऊदी अरब ने विभाजन भड़काने के आरोप में 46 लोगों को गिरफ्तार कियाः सरकारी मीडिया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Puerto Rico’s long-awaited audited 2014 fiscal statements are close to release and should be ready by the end of January or the beginning of February, an official said on Wednesday.  The U.S. territory is far behind on filing its audited statements and in September was criticized by powerful Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, a Republican, for not having up-to-date audited figures. “It is in the final stage,” Office of Management & Budget Director Luis Cruz Batista told reporters regarding the 2014 fiscal statements. “Auditors need to undertake a process where they need to be satisfied with the necessary information to provide an opinion. They should be ready by the end of this month, first week of February.”

Summary: प्यूर्टो रिको की 2014 की राजकोषीय रिपोर्ट जारी होने के करीबः अधिकारी


ERBIL/SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Kurds voted in large numbers in an independence referendum in northern Iraq on Monday, ignoring pressure from Baghdad, threats from Turkey and Iran, and international warnings that the vote may ignite yet more regional conflict. The vote organized by Kurdish authorities is expected to deliver a comfortable  yes  for independence, but is not binding. However, it is designed to give Masoud Barzani, who heads the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), a mandate to negotiate the secession of the oil-producing region. Turnout among 5.2 million eligible voters was 78 percent, the Kurdish Rudaw TV station said, and vote counting had started. Final results are expected within 72 hours. Voters were asked to say yes or no to the question:  Do you want the Kurdistan Region and Kurdistani areas outside the (Kurdistan) Region to become an independent country?   For Iraqi Kurds - part of the largest ethnic group left stateless when the Ottoman empire collapsed a century ago - the referendum offered a historic opportunity despite intense international pressure to call it off.  We have seen worse, we have seen injustice, killings and blockades,  said Talat, waiting to vote in the regional capital of Erbil, as a group of smiling women, in colorful Kurdish dress, emerged from the school showing their fingers stained with ink, a sign that they cast their ballot. At Sheikh Amir village, near the Peshmerga front lines west of Erbil, long lines of Kurdish fighters waited to vote at a former school. Most emerged smiling, holding up ink-marked fingers. In the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, Kurds sang and danced as they flocked to polling stations. Opposition to the vote simmered among the Arabs and Turkmen who live alongside the Kurds in the northern Iraqi city and there were rumors that the vote would not take place in mixed areas. Officials later ordered an overnight curfew. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered security services  to protect citizens being threatened and coerced  in the Kurdish region, after unconfirmed reports that Arabs in a small town in eastern Iraq were compelled to vote yes. Kurdish officials say no such coercion happened. The Kurds also say the vote acknowledges their contribution in confronting Islamic State after it overwhelmed the Iraqi army in 2014 and seized control of a third of Iraq. But with 30 million ethnic Kurds scattered across the region - mainly in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria - Tehran and Ankara fear the spread of separatism to their own Kurdish populations. President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could cut off the pipeline that carries oil from northern Iraq to the outside world, piling more pressure on the Kurds.  After this, let s see through which channels the northern Iraqi regional government will send its oil, or where it will sell it,  Erdogan said in Istanbul.  We have the tap. The moment we close the tap, then it s done.  The Iraqi army started  major manoeuvres  with the Turkish army at the border, the Iraqi defense ministry said, outlining coordinated measures by the two countries against the Kurds in retaliation for the referendum. Turkey later took the Rudaw TV channel off its satellite service TurkSat, a Turkish broadcasting official told Reuters. The U.S. State Department warned the Kurds last week that  holding the referendum in disputed areas is particularly provocative and destabilizing . Pentagon spokesman Colonel Robert Manning told reporters on Monday:  We hope that it does not become a distraction and take away the focus on destroying ISIS (Islamic State) and beyond that obviously this (is) an issue for Iraq, you know, they are going to have to sort that out.  The referendum was held not only in the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq, but also in areas in the north of the country where Kurdish forces have advanced against Islamic State. These areas also have large non-Kurdish populations. Turkey said it did not recognize the referendum and would view its outcome as null and void, adding that the Iraqi Kurdish government was threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and the whole region. Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said his government was evaluating possible punitive steps regarding its border with northern Iraq and air space in response to the vote.  Erdogan said traffic was only being allowed to cross from the Turkish side of the border into Kurdish areas of Iraq. Ankara s forces are again fighting a Kurdish insurgency in Turkey following the collapse of a peace process. Iran announced a ban on direct flights to and from Kurdistan on Sunday, while Baghdad asked foreign countries to stop direct oil trading with the Kurdish region and demanded that the KRG hand over control of its international airports and border posts with Iran, Turkey and Syria. Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a top military adviser to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, said Iran regarded the referendum as  treason  against the Iraqi Kurds.  Iran has blocked air traffic to this region but we are hopeful that the four neighboring countries will block the land borders with Iraq too,  he was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA. Tehran supports Shi ite Muslim groups who have been ruling or holding security and government positions in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. Syria, embroiled in a devastating civil war and whose Kurds are pressing ahead with their own self-determination, rejected the referendum. Iraqi Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barxani said he hoped to maintain good relations with Turkey and the referendum was not a threat to Ankara.  The referendum does not mean independence will happen tomorrow, nor are we redrawing borders,  he said in Erbil.  If the  Yes  vote wins, we will resolve our issues with Baghdad peacefully.   Opposition to the vote emerged among non-Kurdish populations in areas disputed by the KRG and Baghdad, mainly the oil-rich region of Kirkuk.  Iraq is against the Kurds, so are the Turks, the Iranians, the whole Arab region and Europe. They are going to live in a cage,  said Mohammed Mahdi al-Bayati, a Shi ite Turkmen and a local leader of the Iranian-backed Badr Organization paramilitary group in Tuz Khurmato, south of Kirkuk.   In Sulaimaniya, a center for political groups opposed to Barzani, queues at polling stations were shorter than in Erbil. There were fewer billboards celebrating the referendum, reflecting resentment that a yes vote could be seen as a plebiscite for the Kurdish leader.  I will not vote, the referendum is not good, and it could be dangerous because of the threat from Turkey and Iran,  said a shop owner in Sulaimaniya, Ali Ahmed.

Summary: इराकी कुर्दों ने स्वतंत्रता मतदान कराने की धमकियों की अवहेलना की, मतदान में वृद्धि


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, said on Thursday that he had a “very, very high degree of confidence” in U.S. intelligence agencies. Mattis, speaking at his Senate confirmation hearing, said he expects Trump to be open to his view on intelligence matters, and that the world order was under its biggest attack since World War Two.

Summary: मैटिस ने कहा कि उन्हें अमेरिकी खुफिया एजेंसियों पर 'बहुत, बहुत' भरोसा है


BEIRUT (Reuters) - The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces Alliance reached an industrial zone miles to the east of Deir al-Zor city in rapid advances against Islamic State militants on Sunday, it said in a statement. The SDF announced on Saturday it had launched an operation against the jihadists in northern and eastern parts of Deir al-Zor province, which borders Iraq. The advances bring the SDF to within 15 km (10 miles) of the Syrian army and its allies, which this week broke a years-long Islamic State siege of government-held parts of Deir al-Zor on the other side of the Euphrates river.

Summary: सीरियाई लोकतांत्रिक बलों का कहना है कि देइर अल-ज़ोर औद्योगिक क्षेत्र में पहुंचेः बयान