NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. Justice Department appeals lawyer is on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team probing interference in the 2016 presidential election, Reuters has learned. Scott Meisler, an appellate attorney with the Justice Department’s criminal division, is one of 16 lawyers who have signed on to the probe and one of only two who have not been previously identified.  Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, said Meisler joined the team in mid-June. In an investigation like Mueller’s, former U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli said appeals lawyers would help determine whether the conduct being examined violates sometimes complex federal laws. “Having people who’ve spent their careers making difficult judgments in this area would be quite valuable,” Verrilli said. Appeals lawyers usually argue in federal circuit courts or the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold or overturn trial results. The solicitor general’s office represents the U.S. government  before the Supreme Court. Meisler is one of several appeals lawyers on Mueller’s legal team. The most senior is Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben, who has argued more than 100 cases before the Supreme Court and is widely considered the Justice Department’s top criminal law expert. Elizabeth Prelogar, an assistant solicitor general, is another appeals lawyer on the team. Mueller, who was appointed special counsel in May, is looking into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and  Russia during the election, among other matters.  Last week, his team began interviewing former and current White House officials, according to a person familiar with the matter. Russian officials have denied meddling in the U.S. election, and Trump denies any collusion by his campaign. A 2005 Georgetown University Law Center graduate and fluent Spanish speaker, Meisler has been in his current position since 2009, aside from a recent year-long stint as an assistant solicitor general. He has represented the government in appeals involving search warrants and seizures, motions to suppress wiretap evidence, mail fraud, wire fraud, structuring financial transactions and money laundering.

Summary: न्याय विभाग ने मुलर की रूस जांच पर वकील से अपील की


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Even before Sunday night's vicious presidential debate, Republican Donald Trump was losing ground in many of the states he needs to win to capture the presidency, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation Project analysis released on Monday.  The project estimates that if the election had been held at the end of last week, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton had at least a 95 percent chance of winning enough states to reach the minimum 270 Electoral College votes needed to become the next president, based on polling between Sept. 30 and Oct. 7.  _________________________ STATES OF THE NATION What would it take for Donald Trump to turn the map red? _________________________ Those odds had steadily grown from about 60 percent on Sept. 15 to almost 90 percent on Sept 30. In the last four weeks, her estimated margin of victory has grown from about 14 votes to 118, according to the project.  The polling did not capture reaction to Trump’s performance in Sunday’s debate or the release on Friday of his 11-year-old sexually aggressive comments about women.  The results, however, mirrored other estimates of her chances of winning the campaign.  Statistical analysis outfit FiveThirtyEight, for example, put Clinton’s chance of victory in the election at about 55 percent three weeks ago. Currently, they estimate the odds of a Clinton win at 82 percent. In the same period, the New York Times’ estimates of the odds of a Clinton victory have also increased, from about 70 percent to 84 percent.  Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nevada and Florida are now leaning toward the Democratic candidate, according to the Reuters/Ipsos project, an online survey of about 15,000 people every week. Arizona and Iowa are in the too-close-to-call category after being considered likely Trump states.  More broadly, the state-by-state results show how Trump’s support is sliding. In the last week, he has lost ground in at least 21 states, including in seven of the 18 states where he is leading, while improving his position in 19 states.  Meanwhile, Clinton lost ground in 12 states, including in three of the 23 states where she is leading, and improved her standing in 30 sates.  Based on these results, Trump’s best hope for a victory would require a precipitous drop in the number of Democratic voters going to the polls on Nov. 8 from expected levels, combined with a similarly large increase in Republican turnout.  LOCKER-ROOM TALK  Trump’s crude comments about groping women and aggressively pursuing a married woman, captured on an open microphone, have sent his campaign into turmoil. The recording, first reported by The Washington Post, was made in 2005, in advance of a cameo appearance on a soap opera.  Over the weekend, numerous Republican elected officials and candidates responded by calling for Trump to step aside.  Trump responded to his waning support among some Republicans by calling them hypocrites. During Sunday’s debate he apologized but said the comments were just “locker-room talk.”  He also attacked Bill Clinton’s treatment of women and said Hillary Clinton should be in jail for her use of a private email server while secretary of state. Trump said that, if elected, he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate her.  A nearly yearlong FBI investigation into the emails concluded earlier this year that no charges should be filed, although FBI Director James Comey said Clinton had been careless in her handling of sensitive material.   The sexually explicit comments controversy followed published reports suggesting the Republican Party leadership was having an internal debate about shifting resources away from the presidential race and into U.S. House and Senate races.  The Republicans currently control both branches of Congress. Many experts think control of the Senate could shift to the Democrats, although few are predicting the Republicans will lose control of the U.S. House of Representatives.  Even before the weekend, the Trump campaign had struggled through two weeks of negative news coverage that began with the campaign’s first presidential debate on Sept. 26, which Reuters/Ipsos polling suggested Clinton had won.  Shortly after the first debate, the New York businessman also attacked – in tweets that began in the early hours of the morning – a former Miss Universe whom Clinton had referred to during the debate as an example of Trump degrading women.  Also during that period, a New York Times report detailed how Trump lost nearly $1 billion in 1995, a loss that could be used to avoid paying federal taxes for up to 18 years, depending on his annual income.  Clinton has had her share of woes as well, including the release of hacked emails last week of comments she appeared to have made to banks and big business. In the 2014 comments, she pushes for open trade and open borders, and takes a conciliatory approach to Wall Street, both positions she later backed away from.

Summary: पिछले सप्ताह तक, क्लिंटन के व्हाइट हाउस में 95 प्रतिशत संभावनाः रॉयटर्स/इप्सोस स्टेट्स ऑफ द नेशन


LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May said on Wednesday everyone wanted to see an agreement to restore Northern Ireland s devolved government after parties failed to reach agreement.  We all want to see a Northern Ireland executive restored,  she told lawmakers.

Summary: ब्रिटिश प्रधानमंत्री मई चाहते हैं कि उत्तरी आयरलैंड की सरकार बहाल हो


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump should stop attacking minority groups and start talking about issues that Americans care about, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday. “My advice to our nominee is to start talking about the issues that the American people care about, and to start doing it now,” McConnell told reporters when asked about Trump’s attacks on a Hispanic judge who is overseeing fraud lawsuits against Trump University. “In addition to that, it’s time to quit attacking various people that you competed with or various minority groups in the country and get on message.”

Summary: ट्रम्प को अल्पसंख्यक समूहों पर हमला करना बंद कर देना चाहिएः सीनेट के मैककोनेल


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish court has freed on bail a British citizen facing charges of joining a terrorist organization, Turkey s Ihlas news agency said on Friday. Joseph Robinson, a former British soldier, is accused of fighting with the Syrian Kurdish YPG milita. He was arrested in July while on holiday in the southwestern Turkish town of Didim, Ihlas said. Robinson denies the charge and said during his defense at an initial hearing that he went to Syria to help provide medical assistance to victims of the civil war there, Ihlas said.  Turkey considers the YPG to be an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey s southeast and is designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union as well as Turkey. Robinson faces a jail sentence of up to 10 years if found guilty, local media said. His Bulgarian fiance, who is accused of terrorist propaganda in the same case, was released before the start of the trial but imposed with a travel ban. The next hearing in the case is set for March 12.

Summary: तुर्की की अदालत ने आतंकवाद के मुकदमे में ब्रिटिश नागरिक को जमानत पर रिहा कियाः मीडिया


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union vowed to ensure that Malta finds the  barbarous  assassins of a journalist being buried there on Friday and to resolve  potential structural problems  with the rule of law on the island. Reflecting concern in Europe over possible systemic failings in Maltese democracy, European Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans called on the EU s smallest state to leave  no stone unturned  in hunting the killers of investigative blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia, who died in a car bombing last month.  The eyes of Europe are on the Maltese authorities,  wrote Timmermans, a former Dutch foreign minister who as Jean-Claude Juncker s deputy oversees the Brussels executive s efforts to ensure member states respect democratic and judicial standards.  If journalists are silenced, so is democracy,  he said in a reply, seen by Reuters, to a letter from European media editors urging the EU to ensure justice for Caruana Galizia.  We want those directly and indirectly responsible for this horrible murder to be brought to justice. And we want the investigations to run their full course, so that any other related wrongdoings that may emerge can also be prosecuted and potential structural problems be resolved,  he added. Caruana Galizia was a controversial figure who accused many of the most senior figures in both government and opposition of corruption and involvement in international money-laundering.  We insist that the Maltese authorities leave no stone unturned to make sure that this atrocious, barbarous assassination does not lead to the situation that the perpetrators apparently want to achieve: that no-one dares ask pertinent questions and no journalist dares investigate the powers that be,  he added.  This will not happen in Europe. Not on this Commission s watch.  The Commission said in a separate statement that Juncker condemned such attacks in the strongest possible terms.  The right of a journalist to investigate, ask uncomfortable questions and report effectively, is at the heart of our values and needs to be guaranteed at all times,  the statement said.    Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, who is himself suing Caruana Galizia s son for libel over allegations of corruption, says everything will be done to find her killers.  His government has offered a one million-euro reward and protection for anyone providing information to identify them. The Commission has limited powers to intervene directly in member states. It has applied largely moral pressure on Hungary and Poland to reverse proposed laws that it sees as breaching EU treaties by curbing judicial, media or other freedoms.      It has warned that it could seek to suspend Poland, but this would require support from all member states - something the Commission sees as difficult to obtain. The Commission does have powers to fine states for breaches of EU legislation. European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said in a statement he would attend the funeral in Malta at the invitation of Caruana Galizia s family.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ ने माल्टा से पत्रकार के 'बर्बर' हत्यारों को खोजने का आह्वान किया


PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron said Turkey remained a vital partner of the European Union and ties should be maintained even if the country had strayed from the EU path, according to a newspaper interview published on Thursday. A senior Turkish official said EU states must decide whether they wanted Turkey as a member, but there was a sense  they no longer want the marriage...(but) want cohabitation . Comments from the French president followed German Chancellor Angela Merkel s remarks in a television debate on Sunday that the EU should halt membership talks with Ankara.  Turkey has indeed strayed away from the European Union in recent months and worryingly overstepped the mark in ways that cannot be ignored,  Macron told Greece s Kathimerini newspaper.  But I want to avoid a split because it s a vital partner in many crises we all face, notably the immigration challenge and the terrorist threat.  The EU is eager to preserve a deal with Turkey that has stemmed the mass migration via Turkish territory of people from conflict areas. Turkey has in the past questioned the EU s sincerity in keeping its side of the arrangement.  Relations with Ankara and the European Union have deteriorated since a failed July 2016 coup that has been followed by the arrests of tens of thousands of people across the country. Critics accuse President Tayyip Erdogan of using the coup attempt as pretext for a reckoning political opponents. Turkey, which signed an association agreement with the EU in 1963, began formal negotiations to join the union in 2005. However, several members, including France, have opposed talks on certain subjects meaning that only 16 negotiation chapters out of 35 have been opened.  Speaking to reporters in Paris, Turkey s ambassador echoed President Erdogan s comments that the EU had to make its mind up about membership and dismissed any notion of an alternative  special partnership .  Integrating Turkey into the EU is not a Turkish question, but a European question now. Of course we have the impression of being duped,  Ismail Hakki Musa told reporters in Paris.   They no longer want the marriage they want cohabitation. For a privileged partnership it s too late and Europe must now be honest and sincere.   Turkey s relationship with France is not as bad as that with Germany, but ties have been strained following the arrest of French journalists in the country. The most recent, Loup Bureau, was seized by Turkish border guards on the frontier with Iraq in early August. Musa said Macron and Erdogan had asked their respective interior and justice ministers to find a way to solve the problem.    We have to find a solution without tainting the fundamentals of the Turkish system,  he said. France s foreign minister is due in Ankara on Sept. 14.   Finland s Foreign Minister Timo Soini, arriving in Brussels for talks with counterparts, said he was against ending membership talks with Turkey.  It s always useful to have a dialogue. We know there are problems with human rights in Turkey.  While Macron has sought not to anger Erdogan since taking office, when responding in an interview last month on why being on the world stage was not so easy, Macron appeared to take a veiled swipe at the Turkish president.       I am the one who has to talk with Erdogan every 10 days,  he told Le Point without elaborating.

Summary: फ्रांस के मैक्रों ने तुर्की के साथ यूरोपीय संघ के संबंधों को जारी रखने का आग्रह किया


BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed to U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday China’s adherence to resolving the North Korean nuclear issue via talks, state news agency Xinhua said. Xi, meeting Trump on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the German city of Hamburg, said that at the same time as making “necessary responses” to North Korea contravening U.N. resolutions there should be stepped-up efforts to promote talks, Xinhua added.

Summary: चीन के शी ने बातचीत के माध्यम से उत्तर कोरिया के मुद्दे को हल करने की प्रतिबद्धता दोहराईः सिन्हुआ


BEIJING (Reuters) - When Kim Jong Un inherited power in North Korea in late 2011, then-Chinese president Hu Jintao was outwardly supportive of the untested young leader, predicting that  traditional friendly cooperation  between the countries would strengthen. Two years later, Kim ordered the execution of his uncle Jang Song Thaek, the country s chief interlocutor with China and a relatively reform-minded official in the hermetic state. Since then, ties between the allies have deteriorated so sharply that some diplomats and experts fear Beijing may become, like Washington, a target of its neighbor s ire.  While the United States and its allies - and many people in China - believe Beijing should do more to rein in Pyongyang, the acceleration of North Korea s nuclear and missile capabilities has coincided with a near-total breakdown of high-level diplomacy between the two. Before retiring this summer, China s long-time point man on North Korea, Wu Dawei, had not visited the country for over a year. His replacement, Kong Xuanyou, has yet to visit and is still carrying out duties from his previous Asian role, traveling to Pakistan in mid-August, diplomats say. The notion that mighty China wields diplomatic control over impoverished North Korea is mistaken, said Jin Canrong, an international relations professor at Beijing s Renmin University.  There has never existed a subordinate relationship between the two sides. Never. Especially after the end of the Cold War, the North Koreans fell into a difficult situation and could not get enough help from China, so they determined to help themselves.  A famine in the mid-1990s that claimed anywhere from 200,000 to three million North Koreans was a turning point for the economy, forcing private trade on the collectivized state. That allowed the North a degree of independence from outside aid and gave credence to the official  Juche  ideology of self-reliance.  China fought alongside North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, in which Chinese leader Mao Zedong lost his eldest son, and Beijing has long been Pyongyang s chief ally and primary trade partner. While their relationship has always been clouded by suspicion and mistrust, China grudgingly tolerated North Korea s provocations as preferable to the alternatives: chaotic collapse that spills across their border, and a Korean peninsula under the domain of a U.S.-backed Seoul government. That is also the reason China is reluctant to exert its considerable economic clout, worried that measures as drastic as the energy embargo proposed this week by Washington could lead to the North s collapse. Instead, China repeatedly calls for calm, restraint and a negotiated solution. The North Korean government does not provide foreign media with a contact point in Pyongyang for comment by email, fax or phone. The North Korean embassy in Beijing was not immediately available for comment. China s foreign ministry did not respond to a faxed request for comment. It has repeatedly spoken out against what it calls the  China responsibility theory  and insists the direct parties - North Korea, South Korea and the United States - hold the key to resolving tensions.  Until his death in 2011, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il made numerous entreaties to ensure China would back his preferred son as successor.  While then-President Hu reciprocated, the younger Kim, in his late 20s at the time, began to distance himself from his country s most powerful ally.  There s a lot of domestic politics in North Korea where this young leader who isn t well-known, he s not proven yet, especially has to show that he s not in the pocket of Beijing,  said John Delury of Seoul s Yonsei University.  I think he made the decision first to keep Hu Jintao and then (current President) Xi Jinping really at bay.  Within months of coming to power, Kim telegraphed North Korea s intentions by amending its constitution to proclaim itself a nuclear state. The execution of Jang in 2013 sealed Beijing s distrust of the young leader.  Of course the Chinese were not happy,  said a foreign diplomat in Beijing focused on North Korea.  Executing your uncle, that s from the feudal ages.  In an attempt to warm ties, Xi sent high-ranking Communist Party official Liu Yunshan to attend the North s October 2015 military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Workers  Party of Korea. Liu hand-delivered a letter from Xi praising Kim s leadership and including congratulations not just from the Chinese Communist Party but Xi s personal  cordial wishes  in a powerful show of respect. Xi s overture has been repaid with increasingly brazen actions by Pyongyang, which many observers believe are timed for maximum embarrassment to Beijing. Sunday s nuclear test, for example, took place as China hosted a BRICS summit, while in May, the North launched a long-range missile just hours before the Belt and Road Forum, dedicated to Xi s signature foreign policy initiative. Mao Zedong s description of North Korea s relationship with China is typically mischaracterised as being as close as  lips and teeth . His words are better translated as:  If the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold,  a reference to the strategic importance of the North as a geographical security buffer. Despite its resentment at the pressure North Korea s actions have put it under, Beijing refrains from taking too hard a line. It said little when Kim Jong Un s half-brother was assassinated in February at Kuala Lumpur s airport. The half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, had been seen as a potential rival for power in Pyongyang and had lived for years in Beijing, then Macau. An editorial in China s influential Global Times warned after Pyongyang s latest nuclear test that cutting off North Korea s oil would redirect the conflict to one between North Korea and China. Zhao Tong, a North Korea expert at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center in Beijing, said North Korea was deeply unhappy with China s backing of earlier UN sanctions.  If China supports more radical economic sanctions that directly threaten the stability of the regime, then it is possible that North Korea becomes as hostile to China as to the United States.  (This story has been refiled to remove reference to uncle in paragraph 18)

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया के साथ चीन के संबंध बिगड़ने से 'होंठ और दांत' नहीं रहे


BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday voiced her support for tougher U.N. sanctions against North Korea in a telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a German government spokesman said.  There was agreement that the conflict about North Korea s nuclear armament must be resolved peacefully,  Steffen Seibert said in a statement. Merkel told Putin she supported efforts of the U.N. Security Council to rapidly adopt further sanctions against North Korea to make Pyongyang change its course, he added. Merkel also welcomed Russia s proposal of deploying U.N. peacekeepers to address the Ukraine crisis, but stressed that the proposed mandate needed to be expanded, Seibert said. Putin signaled his willingness to look into the idea of deploying U.N. peacekeepers not only on the contact line in the Donbass region, but also in other areas in eastern Ukraine to protect OSCE officials monitoring the Minsk peace deal, he added.

Summary: मर्केल ने उत्तर कोरिया के खिलाफ संयुक्त राष्ट्र के कड़े प्रतिबंधों का समर्थन किया, पुतिन से बात की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, has pledged to divest at least $94 million worth of investments in 43 entities to avoid conflicts of interest, according to an ethics agreement released on Wednesday. Mnuchin said in a 42-page financial disclosure report that these investments include more than $50 million worth of common shares of CIT Group Inc, the financial services group that acquired his OneWest Bank in 2015. However, his CIT shares are likely worth more. They are listed in the “Over $50 million” category, the highest amount required on the asset valuation form for presidential political appointees. The investor group he led sold OneWest in 2015 for $3.4 billion, seven years after they purchased the assets of failed mortgage lender IndyMac Bank for $1.55 billion. Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive and Hollywood film financier, added that he resigned his position as a CIT director in December as part of his agreement with the Treasury’s assistant general counsel. He pledged to divest Goldman Sachs shares worth over $5 million and Goldman Sachs Treasury investments worth over $25 million. The disclosure forms, which allow a range for the value of assets, reveal that Mnuchin is worth at least $118 million to around $392 million, making him he richest Treasury secretary since his former boss, ex-Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson, who served under George W. Bush and was worth over $700 million at the time he took office in 2006. By contrast, President Barack Obama’s Treasury secretaries, Tim Geithner and Jack Lew, were each worth between about $740,000 and $1.7 million when they took office. Under Mnuchin’s ethics agreement, he will refrain from any decisions involving CIT Group until August 2018, when a final payment of at least $5 million from CIT Group is made as part off a “holdback” agreement related to the OneWest merger.  Among other assets disclosed by Mnuchin are a small airplane he operates for business and personal use, and an interest in a 1978 Willem de Kooning oil painting, “Untitled III”, valued between $5 million and $25 million. Mnuchin also said in his ethics agreement that prior to or upon Senate confirmation he would fully disclose the assets of his fiancée, Scottish-born actress Louise Linton, as if they were married and pledged to refrain from any matter that affects her finances. The documents are on file with the Office of Government Ethics. (here+Index/30AAAB9D74B0557B852580A5004FF9F9/$FILE/Mnuchin,%20Steven%20T.%20finalEA.pdf)

Summary: ट्रम्प के ट्रेजरी नॉमिनी म्नुचिन ने लाखों की संपत्ति बेचने का संकल्प लिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The economy, terrorism and healthcare ranked as the top three concerns facing Americans casting ballots in Tuesday’s presidential election, according to an early reading from the Reuters/Ipsos Election Day poll. The poll of about 35,000 people found that 25 percent of voters picked the economy as the “most important problem.”. Another 14 percent named “terrorism/terrorist attacks” and 13 percent picked healthcare. By contrast, the economy was the No. 1 concern for 46 percent of American voters in 2012, according to the Reuters/Ipsos national tracking poll four years ago. Almost nobody listed terrorism as a top concern in 2012, and 8 percent listed healthcare as the top worry. A signature Trump issue, immigration, was chosen by 7 percent of voters as the most important issue in Tuesday’s poll. The poll reading will be updated as more poll responses are tallied and more votes are counted across the country.

Summary: अमेरिकी मतदाताओं की चिंताओं की सूची में अर्थव्यवस्था सबसे ऊपरः रॉयटर्स/इप्सोस


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa s Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) will hear the state s appeal against the six-year murder sentence handed to Paralympic gold medallist Oscar Pistorius on Nov. 3, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said on Tuesday.  The state will argue that six years in jail is too lenient a sentence for the murder by Pistorius of Reeva Steenkamp, his girlfriend, in 2013.   The state, in the papers, we stipulate clearly that the sentence imposed is shockingly low,  said NPA spokesman Luvuyo Mfaku.   The presiding officer has the discretion to deviate from the minimum prescribed sentence when compelling and substantial circumstances exist. But... with this matter, the presiding officer exercised that discretion in a very lenient manner.  Women s rights groups in a country beset by high levels of violent crime against women say Pistorius has received preferential treatment compared to non-whites and those without his wealth or international celebrity status. The SCA told state prosecutors and the defence in November that they would need to argue their cases in court before it would rule on the matter.   State prosecutors, led by advocate Gerrie Nel, say the sentence was too lenient as the jail term was less than half the 15 years they had sought. In his arguments at the trial, Nel said Pistorius had shown no remorse for the 2013 shooting. Lawyers for the gold medallist, known as the  Blade Runner  for his carbon-fibre prosthetics, say he did not deliberately kill model and law graduate Steenkamp. The athlete was originally convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to five years in jail. That conviction was increased to murder by the SCA in December 2015 and his sentence increased to six years by trial Judge Thokozile Masipa. She dismissed in August 2016 a request by Nel to appeal Pistorius  sentence, saying she was not persuaded that there was a reasonable prospect of success at another court. Nel then launched his case at the SCA, in Bloemfontein, 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Johannesburg.

Summary: दक्षिण अफ्रीका की अदालत नवंबर में पिस्टोरियस के खिलाफ राज्य की अपील पर सुनवाई करेगी


KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Three men wanted for the killing of Kim Jong Nam were driven to the murder site in a car bought by a North Korean embassy official, a Malaysian court was told on Wednesday, bringing into focus the embassy s role in the sensational murder. Two women, Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Doan Thi Huong, a Vietnamese, are charged with conspiring with four North Korean fugitives to kill the North Korean leader s half-brother using banned chemical weapon VX, at the Kuala Lumpur international airport on Feb. 13. Defense lawyers say the women were duped into thinking they were playing a prank for a reality TV show. Closed circuit television recordings played in court on Wednesday showed three of the fugitives at the airport in a car registered to a North Korean suspect named Ri Jong Chol. Jong Chol, who was arrested and deported shortly after the murder, told investigators the car had been bought in his name by a North Korean embassy official named Chal Su in October 2016, lead investigator Wan Azirul Nizam Che Wan Aziz said.  We made a request to the North Korean embassy to identify and question Chal Su, but did not receive any cooperation,  Wan Azirul told the court. Airport video recordings screened in court earlier showed the embassy s second secretary and a manager for North Korean airline Air Koryo helping the four fugitives flee immediately after the murder. Wan Azirul on Wednesday named the two individuals as North Korean embassy second secretary Hyon Kwang Song and Air Koryo manager Kim Uk Il. Both men had gone into hiding at the embassy in Kuala Lumpur, along with Ri Ji U, a 30-year-old North Korean also known as James, after warrants were issued for their arrest, Wan Azirul said. Police took statements from the embassy s second secretary and the Air Koryo official before releasing them, but did not pursue Ji U or Chal Su in the absence of instructions to do so, Wan Azirul said.  During this probe, which involves international issues, I faced many constraints in investigating and needed to refer to my superior officers before taking any action,  he added. North Korea has vehemently denied accusations by South Korean and U.S. officials that Kim Jong Un s regime was behind the killing. Kim Jong Nam, who was living in exile in Macau, had criticized his family s dynastic rule of North Korea and his brother had issued a standing order for his execution, some South Korean lawmakers have said. The murder unraveled once-close ties between Malaysia and North Korea. Malaysia was forced to return Kim Jong Nam s body and allow the suspects hiding in the embassy to return home, in exchange for the release of nine Malaysians barred from leaving Pyongyang.

Summary: किम जोंग नाम के मुकदमे में उत्तर कोरियाई दूतावास के अधिकारी फोकस में


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Thursday a draft sanctions resolution against North Korea that will be submitted to the U.N. Security Council is the result of “extensive diplomatic conversations” between the United States and China over Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test. “I do think it is indicative of how productive diplomacy can be,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters during a daily briefing. “It’s not easy, but it certainly is an indication that the United States and China, when our interests are aligned, can cooperate quite effectively to advance the interest of citizens in both our countries.” The U.N. Security Council aims to put the draft resolution to a vote in the coming days, council diplomats said on Wednesday.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया के प्रतिबंध प्रस्ताव पर अमेरिका और चीन सहमतः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump urged two senior intelligence officials in March to publicly deny there was any evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, the Washington Post reported on Monday, citing current and former officials. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers refused to comply with Trump’s requests because they believed them inappropriate, according to two current and two former officials, the Post said.

Summary: ट्रंप ने दो शीर्ष खुफिया अधिकारियों से रूस की मिलीभगत से इनकार करने को कहाः वाशिंगटन पोस्ट


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser, Jared Kushner, has used a private email account alongside his official White House account to exchange messages with other administration officials, Politico reported on Sunday. Politico said the emails included correspondence about media coverage, event planning and other subjects. Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said Kushner complied with government record-keeping rules by forwarding all the emails to his official account. During Trump’s 2016 election campaign, the Republican derided Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server for official correspondence when she was secretary of state under President Barack Obama. Some of those messages were later determined to contain classified information. Trump often led crowds in chants of “Lock her up!” during the campaign and vowed in October she would “be in jail” over the matter if he became president. He has since said he would not pursue prosecution. Politico said other senior Trump aides had also used private email accounts, including former chief of staff Reince Priebus, former chief strategist Steve Bannon and economic adviser Gary Cohn. “Mr. Kushner uses his White House email address to conduct White House business,” Lowell said in a statement provided to Politico, as well as other media organizations including Reuters. “Fewer than a hundred emails from January through August were either sent to or returned by Mr. Kushner to colleagues in the White House from his personal email account,” the lawyer said. “These usually forwarded news articles or political commentary and most often occurred when someone initiated the exchange by sending an email to his personal, rather than his White House, address,” the statement added.  Many White House officials use personal phones to communicate by text message with reporters and others.

Summary: कुशनर ने व्हाइट हाउस के कारोबार के लिए निजी ईमेल खाते का इस्तेमाल कियाः पोलिटिको


COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - The populist Danish People s Party (DF), upon whose support the minority government depends to pass laws, gave its backing on Friday to a fiscal budget for 2018 but one of the coalition parties said it still wanted an agreement on tax cuts. The Liberal Alliance (LA), a junior partner in the three-way coalition led by Prime Minister Lokke Rasmussen s Liberals and also including the Conservative party said it would not support the budget in parliament unless a deal to cut taxes was agreed. But DF, which is not a member of the coalition, said it could not guarantee that a deal involving  historically big tax cuts  could be reached. If LA does not vote to give the budget final approval, Rasmussen could be forced either to hand power to the Social Democrat-led opposition or to call a snap election.  We don t know how this will all end,  DF s negotiator Ren  Christensen told reporters.  Otherwise we would have had three deals now,  he said, referring to another proposal by DF that would tighten rules on granting residency to refugees. Economy minister Simon Emil Ammitzboll-Bille, a LA lawmaker, said the budget negotiations had been  chaotic  and there had been a  crisis of confidence  between the parties, but that the confidence had now been re-established. Tax cuts have been on the right-leaning government s wish list for a long time, but pro-welfare DF has been less eager to back that part of the government s policies. The parties will meet again after the weekend to discuss the proposed tax cuts and DF s proposal to make it easier for authorities to revoke residence permits for refugees from war once there is peace in their home countries. The budget deal includes among other things increased spending on health and elderly care and on infrastructure.

Summary: डेनमार्क सरकार ने बजट के लिए समर्थन जीता लेकिन कनिष्ठ भागीदार के पास शर्तें हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to sharply reduce the annual $300 million in U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority unless it take steps to stop making what lawmakers described as payments that reward violent crime. The House backed by voice vote the Taylor Force Act, named after a 29-year-old American military veteran fatally stabbed by a Palestinian while visiting Israel last year. The measure is intended to stop the Palestinians from paying stipends, referred to as “martyr payments,” to the families of militants killed or imprisoned by Israeli authorities. The payments can reach $3,500 per month. “This perverse ‘pay-to-slay’ system uses a sliding scale. The longer the jail sentence, the greater the reward. The highest payments go to those serving life sentences - to those who prove most brutal,” Republican Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said before the vote. Force’s attacker was killed by Israeli police, and his killer’s family receives such a monthly payment. To become law, the measure must also be passed by the U.S. Senate and signed by President Donald Trump. Similar legislation has been passed by two Senate committees, but there was no immediate word on when the Senate might take up the bill. Its passage reflected strong pro-Israel sentiment in Washington. Separately on Tuesday, Trump told Israeli and Arab leaders that he intends to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, changing decades-old U.S. policy, despite the Palestinians’ desire to have their capital in East Jerusalem. Trump’s fellow Republicans control majorities in both the House and Senate. Palestinian officials have said they intend to continue the payments, which they see as support for relatives of those imprisoned by Israel for fighting against occupation or who have died in connection with that cause. The measures moving through Congress now are not as severe as had been proposed. The legislation passed by the House had been amended to allow exceptions such as continued funding for water projects and children’s vaccinations.

Summary: सदन ने 'शहीद भुगतान' पर फिलिस्तीनियों को सहायता सीमित करने के लिए उपाय पारित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Donald Trump spoke with First Minister Of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon on Friday in what Trump’s transition team described as “a short congratulatory call” on his election victory last month. “The President-elect and the First Minister look forward to strengthening the relationship between Scotland and the United States,” a statement from Trump’s team said.

Summary: ट्रम्प, स्कॉटलैंड के स्टर्जन ने शुक्रवार को संक्षिप्त रूप से बात कीः बयान


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fresh off one foreign trip and preparing for another, Donald Trump was enjoying a period of relative calm - until the White House was rocked by a fresh controversy over contacts between the president’s campaign and Russia. For Trump, who has been swept up all year in crises of his own making, this time the target was his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., whose meeting with a Russian lawyer last year led to accusations that the president’s son entertained working with Russians to spread negative information about Democrat Hillary Clinton.  Among Trump’s wide-ranging group of outside advisers and former campaign officials, Donald Jr.’s meeting with the lawyer on the expectation of gaining access to negative information on Clinton was seen as problematic, a demonstration of the son’s political inexperience, but not illegal. “You can’t shrug this off even though you know he’s very likely going to be okay,” said an outside Trump adviser, who asked to remain unidentified. “This is the president’s namesake and you have to circle the wagons in defense of the president’s son.” “There’s no question in my mind that every person in the White House has some level of concern about this. Otherwise it’s malpractice,” the adviser said. Inside the White House, the mood was one of heavy acceptance that another political problem had emerged but also of caution as to its significance for a wider probe into Russia’s meddling in the election and whether there was collusion with the Trump campaign. Benumbed by previous crises from the firing of then-FBI Director James Comey to the appointment of a special prosecutor, White House officials showed no signs of panic and said they were trying to advance the president’s agenda. The new incident erupted as Trump seemingly enjoyed a rare moment of calm. His trip to Warsaw and Hamburg last week went fairly smoothly, although critics accused him of not being tough enough in his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Wednesday, he is to depart to Paris for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and to participate in flag-waving Bastille Day ceremonies. Trump himself was described by the White House as frustrated by yet another distraction involving the Russia investigation. “He knows that he didn’t do anything and he really wants to focus on the good things that are happening and the things he was elected to do, and he doesn’t like it when things get in the way,” a senior White House official said. The president offered a restrained reaction, not resorting to Twitter to launch a tirade against his critics, but issuing a brief statement praising his “high-quality person” who showed “transparency” by releasing the email chain with the lawyer on Tuesday.  There was a sense among former campaign advisers that Donald Trump Jr. had shown his political naivete by agreeing to the meeting. They noted that it took place at a time when Trump had a barebones staff and that his family members, initially reluctant to getting involved in his campaign, were searching to carve out space for themselves. “Besides proving that he was gullible and he got snookered, it’s still not a smoking gun,” said one former campaign adviser. Among even Republicans, there was dismay at the turn of events. Conservative author Quin Hillyer wrote in a blog post that Trump should step down for cozying up to Russia. (The blog link is here)  “The American people absolutely cannot trust Trump’s objectivity about Russian intentions and Russian actions,” Hillyer wrote. “This is an utterly untenable situation. For the good of the country, Trump must lance the boil, and resign.” The outside Trump adviser said the Trump Jr. case “unfortunately supports the narrative” advanced by Trump’s Democratic opponents and propagated by what Trump world feels is a left-leaning news media. “Donald Jr. is the nicest of nice guys, genuinely authentic,” the adviser said. “A lot of us are disappointed that if it had to be somebody, why did it have to be Don Jr.?”

Summary: ट्रम्प के सहयोगियों के बीच, डोनाल्ड जूनियर संकट पर चिंता और हताशा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday ending so-called chain migration, which allows legal immigrants to apply for relatives abroad to come to the United States, would be part of any legislation to help young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. “Yes it will be part of a DACA deal,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News Channel, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that benefits the young immigrants. Trump is ending the program in March 2018. “I don’t think any Republican would vote for anything having to do with leaving chain migration. Chain migration is a disaster for this country and it’s horrible,” he said, adding that funding for a wall on the border with Mexico would also be part of a DACA deal.

Summary: ट्रम्प का कहना है कि श्रृंखला प्रवास को समाप्त करना डी. ए. सी. ए. सौदे का हिस्सा होगाः फॉक्स साक्षात्कार


PARIS (Reuters) - Some 700 French adults, one-third of them women, and about 500 children are in jihadi-held areas in Iraq and Syria, an official at the French president s office said on Friday, raising potential legal challenges over how to handle them. The presidency official said that half of the 500 children were born there, and in total about 2,000 French nationals or residents had gone to the two countries, of whom between 200 and 300 had been killed. France, like other European nations, is wrestling with how to deal with those returning from the conflict. Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, said in August that 271 jihadi militants had gone back to France and were under investigation.  Around 1,400 foreign wives and children of suspected Islamic State fighters are being held by Iraqi authorities in a camp after government forces expelled the jihadist group from one of its last remaining strongholds in Iraq.

Summary: इराक और सीरिया के जिहादी कब्जे वाले क्षेत्रों में लगभग 500 फ्रांसीसी बच्चेः अधिकारी


COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark s immigration minister on Tuesday posted a screenshot of her iPad showing a drawing of the Prophet Mohammad on Facebook, one of the satirical cartoons that caused outrage among Muslims around the world more than a decade ago. The Facebook post comes as a reaction to a decision by the Skovgaard Museum in Viborg, Denmark, not to include the drawing in a new exhibition about blasphemy since the Reformation.  It is the museum s own choice and they have their full right to do it, but I think it s a shame,  said Inger Stojberg, minister for immigration and integration, in her Facebook post.  The Facebook post is accompanied by a screen shot of the minister s iPad background screen, which shows a cartoon of a bearded man with a bomb in his turban. Stojberg said in the post she uses the cartoon as her background screen because it reminds her that Denmark is a country with freedom of speech, which includes the right to criticize religions.  Honestly, I think we should be proud of the Mohammad cartoons,  Stojberg said. Three Danish embassies were attacked and at least 50 people were killed in rioting in 2006 in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, after drawings of the Prophet Mohammed, images many Muslims consider blasphemous, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.   The picture posted on Monday by the minister was one of those cartoons.

Summary: डेनमार्क के मंत्री ने फेसबुक पर विवादास्पद पैगंबर कार्टून को फिर से प्रकाशित किया


MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina (Reuters) - The Argentine navy raised the possibility on Thursday that a navy submarine missing in the South Atlantic suffered an explosion, heightening concerns over the fate of the 44 crew members on the eighth day of an international search effort. A sound detected underwater by an international agency on the morning of Nov. 15, around the time the ARA San Juan sent its last signal and in the same area, was  consistent with an explosion,  navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told reporters. The sub had only a seven-day supply of oxygen, a fact that drained hope from some of the relatives of the crew who have gathered at the vessel s base in the city of Mar del Plata.  What s the point of hope if it s already over?  Itati Leguizamon, wife of one of the missing crew members, told reporters.  The navy did not have enough information to say what the cause of the explosion could have been or whether the vessel might have been attacked, Balbi said. Search-and-rescue crews were undeterred by a series of false leads that raised hope over recent days that the sub might be located. Asked during an evening news conference about the fate of the 44 sailors, Balbi said the situation was  critical .  We are not going to enter into conjecture out of respect for the families,  he added. The information about the possible explosion was received  on Thursday from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization, or CTBTO, an international body that runs a global network of listening posts designed to check for secret atomic blasts. The Vienna-based agency, which has monitoring stations equipped with devices including underwater microphones that scan the oceans for sound waves, said in a statement that two of its  stations had detected an unusual signal near where the submarine went missing. The agency was more guarded about whether that  was caused by an explosion. A huge sea and air hunt is being conducted for the San Juan, a German-built, diesel-electric powered submarine that was launched in 1983, as crew members  relatives waited anxiously for news more than a week after the vessel disappeared. The relatives had been largely optimistic until Thursday. They shed tears and insulted authorities after being briefed on the news of the possible explosion. They were told about it before the public announcement. Balbi said the news of the abnormal sound was consistent with a separate report received on Wednesday of an  acoustic anomaly  in the same area and around the same time. The San Juan was some 430 km (270 miles) off the Patagonian coast when it sent its last signal.  This is very important because it allows us to correlate and confirm the acoustic anomaly from the U.S. report yesterday,  Balbi said.  Here, we re talking about a singular, short, violent, non-nuclear event, consistent with an explosion.  In Vienna, CTBTO hydroacoustic engineer Mario Zampolli said the signal his agency had detected  could be consistent with an explosion but there is no certainty about this.  Speaking to Reuters, he agreed with Balbi s description of the signal as unusual and short, adding that the cause was non-natural. The submarine was en route from Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world, to Mar del Plata, 400 km (250 miles) south of Buenos Aires, when it reported an electrical malfunction shortly before disappearing. Some relatives have questioned authorities for letting the crew navigate on an ageing submarine - criticism that has highlighted the armed forces  dwindling resources since the end of a military dictatorship in the 1980s.  Authorities have said the level of maintenance, not the age, was what mattered, and that the vessel was in good condition.

Summary: अर्जेंटीना उप के अंतिम ज्ञात स्थान के पास संभावित विस्फोट का पता चला


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Members of the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives will discuss next week whether the nation’s top tax collector, John Koskinen, should be impeached over conservative charges he stonewalled a congressional investigation, House leaders said Wednesday. Democrats decried the move as a politically motivated embarrassment that would in any case be stopped in the Senate. Even some Republicans said they did not think Koskinen’s activities justified impeachment from his post as Internal Revenue Service (IRS) commissioner. Conservative Republicans in the House have said Koskinen failed to comply with a congressional investigation into whether the IRS applied extra scrutiny to applications for tax exempt status by conservative groups between 2010 and 2012. House Speaker Paul Ryan and other leading House Republicans have shown little interest in pursuing impeachment. But Ryan indicated Wednesday that he expected floor action because conservatives had filed a privileged resolution, which can bypass regular procedures and take precedence on the House floor. “This is something that we’re going to have a planning conference on next week,” Ryan told a regular press conference. “This is something where Congress is going to work its will.” The Senate’s Democratic leader, Harry Reid, called the process a “waste, put that in big capital letters” and said it could be blocked in the Senate by that chamber’s Majority Leader, Republican  Mitch McConnell. A spokesman for McConnell declined to say what action McConnell might take if the House does vote for Koskinen’s impeachment. “I know Koskinen very well,” another senior Senate Republican, Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch told Reuters. “Yeah, he’s made mistakes but he hasn’t made mistakes that justify an impeachment.” Koskinen became IRS commissioner in December 2013, after the controversy already had exploded over the way the agency had handled the applications for tax exempt status. Members of the House Freedom Caucus, the chamber’s most conservative bloc, have said Koskinen should be pushed out because of his role in the aftermath of the scandal. They noted that he was commissioner when backup tapes were destroyed containing emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner, who had headed the IRS’ tax-exempt division. Democrats have noted that the Justice Department brought no criminal charges against Lerner and say the case against Koskinen shows little more than agency mismanagement and misstatements.

Summary: अमेरिकी हाउस रिपब्लिकन चर्चा करेंगे कि आईआरएस प्रमुख पर महाभियोग चलाया जाए या नहीं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Wednesday it had carried out air strikes in Somalia against an al Qaeda-allied Islamist group and killed six militants. The group, al Shabaab, is fighting to topple Somalia s Western-backed transitional federal government and impose its own rule on the Horn of Africa country. The U.S. military s Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a statement it had carried out three air strikes on Wednesday at 2:15 a.m. local time (2315 GMT Tuesday).  The operation occurred in southern Somalia, about 260 kilometers (162 miles) south of the capital, Mogadishu,  the statement said.  Al Shabaab has lost control of most of Somalia s cities and towns since it was pushed out of Mogadishu in 2011. But it retains a strong presence in parts of the south and center and carries out gun and bomb attacks.

Summary: अमेरिका का कहना है कि सोमालिया में हवाई हमलों में अल-शबाब के छह लड़ाके मारे गए


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Members of the U.S. Congress took the field for their traditional Republicans vs. Democrats baseball game on Thursday, with many wearing hats to honor Representative Steve Scalise, who was critically wounded by a gunman as his Republican team practiced a day before. When the members of the Republican team were announced at Nationals Park, mention of Scalise’s name drew a standing ovation from the areas designated for Republican, Democrat and nonpartisan fans alike. President Donald Trump did not attend but in a video address shown on the stadium’s giant screen praised the friendly nature of the annual charity event. David Bailey, a Capitol Hill police officer who was part of Scalise’s security detail and helped bring down the shooter, also was injured in the Wednesday incident but had recovered enough to throw the game’s ceremonial first pitch. The Democrats won the game, 11-2, but loaned the trophy to the Republicans until Scalise is better. Both Republican and Democratic leaders at the game encouraged a sense of unity in the wake of the shooting during an otherwise politically rancorous time in Washington when the parties are sharply divided over healthcare legislation and investigations of the members of the Trump administration. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi stood side by side to shout: “Let’s play ball!” and the crowd chanted “U-S-A! U-S-A!” as the game began. Scalise, 51, a Louisiana Republican who is the No. 3 House Republican, remained in critical condition at a hospital a few miles from the stadium after undergoing a third surgery on Thursday. He was hit in the left hip, suffering injuries to internal organs, broken bones and severe bleeding, in Wednesday’s shooting. For the game, which began in 1909, members of the Senate and House of Representatives donned uniforms representing teams from their constituencies, and many topped them with hats from Louisiana State University, Scalise’s alma mater, as a tribute. In addition to Scalise, a police officer, a congressional aide and a lobbyist were shot on Wednesday morning when a man opened fire as the Republican lawmakers practiced for the game in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Virginia.  Nearly 25,000 tickets were sold for the game and it was on track to raise more than $1 million, roughly double what it did last year, organizers said. Ticket sales picked up after Wednesday’s shooting, eventually setting an attendance record, the organizers said, as attendees such as Alexander Hilten, 16, of Arlington, Virginia, decided to come to the game for the first time. “A lot of times in politics we have divisions but it shouldn’t come to violence,” he said. “It’s cool that they’re putting it on even after the shooting. It just shows how resilient these politicians are.” The Capitol Police Memorial Fund was added to the list of charities that will receive money raised by the game in honor of two members of Scalise’s security detail who were at the Wednesday practice session and returned fire. The Washington Nationals Dream Foundation, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington and the Washington Literary Center are the game’s other beneficiaries. (This story corrects typographical error in paragraph 2, day of shooting in paragraph 8 and spelling of Hilten’s name in paragraph 12.)

Summary: वार्षिक अमेरिकी कांग्रेस बेसबॉल खेल शूटिंग के बाद एकता लाता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said she does not anticipate any major policy shifts affecting the region despite her unprecedented call with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump that deeply rankled China, according to media reports on Tuesday. In a meeting with a small group of American reporters, Tsai played down the significance of the exchange last Friday with Trump. The telephone call was the first with a U.S. president-elect or president since President Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition to China from Taiwan in 1979.  The call prompted a diplomatic protest from Beijing on Saturday and, on Monday, reassurance from the Obama administration that Washington is committed to the “One China” policy. China regards Taiwan as a renegade province.  “I have to stress that one phone call does not mean a policy shift,” Tsai told reporters from U.S. outlets that included USA Today, National Public Radio and the Washington Post. “I do not foresee major policy shifts in the near future because we all see the value of stability in the region,” she added, according to the reports.    Tsai added: “The phone call was a way for us to express our respect for the U.S. election as well as congratulate President-elect Trump on his win.”  Republican Trump, a real estate developer who has never previously held public office, takes office on Jan. 20 after winning the Nov. 8 election. In a statement on the meeting with journalists, Tsai’s office made no mention of her remarks regarding the call with Trump.  Instead, it said Tsai told journalists that Taiwan and the United States shared many common values and that Taiwan was a major market for U.S. exports.

Summary: ताइवान की साईः ट्रम्प कॉल के बावजूद कोई बड़ा नीतिगत बदलाव नहीं-रिपोर्ट


SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Indonesian business tycoon Hary Tanoesoedibjo said on Tuesday he was not planning to stand in the country s 2019 presidential election, and that he would support current President Joko Widodo if he chose to run again. Tanoesoedibjo, a business partner of Donald Trump whose political ambitions have led to similarities with the U.S. President being drawn, said in January he would decide before the end of next year whether to run in the ballot.  He previously stood as a candidate for vice president in the 2014 election and subsequently founded his own political party, which will contest Indonesia s general elections in 2019.    Looking at the constellation today, I think President Jokowi will run again and I am in the position to support him,  he told Reuters at the Asia TV Forum and Market in Singapore. Asked if he would stand, he replied:  No, I don t think so.  Widodo is expected to stand for a second term against Prabowo Subianto, who also rang against him in 2014. Religious and political tension in Indonesia, which has the world s largest Muslim population, escalated to its highest level during a divisive election for Jakarta governor earlier this year. Tanoesoedibjo said the political climate in Indonesia remained stable but that the country needed a president that  stands in the middle of everyone .   He (Widodo) is the strongest candidate. He is very moderate and he is very nationalist,  added Tanoesoedibjo. As a business partner of Trump, Tanoesoedibjo believes his relationship with the U.S. President could help ties between the nations and he is not worried about the impact U.S. trade protectionism may have on the Southeast Asia s biggest economy.  At least Mr Trump knows Indonesia better because of the relationship we have between our group and the Trump organization,  he said.  But what he is doing about reviewing the trade relationship with other countries I think is right....but Indonesia is too small...for the U.S. in terms of the amount of trade between the two countries and I don t think that would have any impact at all.  Tanoesoedibjo is Trump s business partner in two resort developments in Indonesia - on the island of Bali and in West Java. Turning to his other business interests Tanoesoedibjo said he had plans to list a division of his company - MNC Studios International - on the Jakarta stock exchange next year.  We have seen many interests (by investors) because it s the largest production company in the country,  he said.

Summary: इंडोनेशियाई 'ट्रम्प' ने कहा कि राष्ट्रपति पद के लिए चुनाव लड़ने की उनकी कोई योजना नहीं है


GENEVA (Reuters) - An estimated 10 million people worldwide are stateless, including three million officially, a status that deprives them of an identity, rights, and often jobs, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday. Muslim Rohingyas in Buddhist-majority Myanmar form the world s biggest stateless minority, with some 600,000 having fled violence and repression since late August and taken refuge in Bangladesh, it said.  In a report,  This is Our Home  - Stateless Minorities and their Search for Citizenship , the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) called on governments to end the discriminatory practice by 2024.   If you live in this world without a nationality, you are without an identity, you are without documentation, without the rights and entitlements that we take for granted ... having a job, having education, knowing that your child belongs somewhere,  Carol Batchelor, director of UNHCR s division of international protection, told a news briefing. UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said 3.2 million people in 75 countries were known to be stateless, having been registered or counted by governments. But the estimated total is 10 million, including large populations in countries including Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Lebanon and Democratic Republic of Congo, he said. Governments should give nationality to people born on their territory if they would otherwise be stateless, and facilitate naturalization for longtime stateless residents, UNHCR says. Other stateless groups   many of whom have lived for generations in their homelands   include many Syrian Kurds, the Karana of Madagascar, Roma in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and the Pemba of Kenya, the report said.   We need to ensure that there is not a deliberate, arbitrary exclusion or deprivation of nationality,  Batchelor said. Asked whether Rohingya fell into the category of those deliberately excluded and deprived of nationality, Batchelor said:  We can only look at the result ... Myanmar has a nationality law. It outlines categories of persons that are considered to be citizens of Myanmar. The Rohingya are not on that list.    Some 30,000 stateless people in Thailand have acquired nationality since 2012 and the Makonde, a community of 4,000, became Kenya s 43rd officially recognized tribe last year, the report said.  We are seeing reductions in Thailand, in central Asia, in Russia, in Western Africa. But the numbers are not nearly as substantial as they would need to be for us to end statelessness by 2024,  said Melanie Khanna, head of UNHCR s statelessness section.

Summary: दुनिया के राज्यविहीन लोग राष्ट्रीयता के हकदार हैंः यू. एन. एच. सी. आर.


NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An Indian court on Thursday acquitted a former telecoms minister, politicians and business executives of graft and money laundering charges in the grant of telecoms licenses due to lack of evidence in one of the country s biggest corruption scandals. The case relates to alleged below-market-price sale of lucrative telecoms permits bundled with airwaves in 2008, which a federal auditor said may have cost the government as much as $28 billion in lost revenue. A special court convened by the federal investigator was called to give its verdict on the accused, including former telecoms minister A. Raja.  The prosecution has miserably failed to prove its charge,  defense lawyer Vijay Aggarwal told reporters, citing the judge s ruling. Shares of companies affected by the case rose after the verdict, with Reliance Communications Ltd gaining as much as 13.3 percent, DB Realty jumping nearly 20 percent and SUN TV Networks Ltd rising as much as 6.8 percent. The scandal dented the fortunes of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his government, which oversaw the sale of the licenses at below-market prices, and triggered street protests. It was one of the several scandals that emerged during Singh s second term, hobbling policymaking and diverting the government s attention away from pushing forward crucial economic reforms. The uncertainty hurt business sentiment in Asia s third-biggest economy, and led to questions about the government s efforts to crack down on corruption. In 2012, the Supreme Court ordered 122 licenses held by eight operators to be revoked, declaring the licenses illegal and the process  wholly arbitrary, capricious and contrary to public interest .

Summary: भारतीय अदालत ने 2जी दूरसंचार मामले में सभी अभियुक्तों को बरी किया


LONDON (Reuters) - London s ambulance service said on Friday it had sent its hazardous area response team to an incident at a west London metro station after reports of a blast.  We have sent multiple resources to the scene including single responders in cars, ambulance crews, incident response officers and our hazardous area response team,  the London Ambulance Service said on Twitter.  Our initial priority is to assess the level and nature of injuries.   London s transport authority said it had extended a suspension of the underground line which runs through Parsons Green metro station in west London.

Summary: लंदन एम्बुलेंस सेवा ने स्टेशन की घटना के लिए खतरनाक क्षेत्र प्रतिक्रिया दल भेजा


(Editor’s note: This story contains language that may offend readers in the fourth paragraph) By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) - Years before Donald Trump dominated the news cycle with his style of angry politics, Maine Governor Paul LePage made headlines with a similarly brash approach. Since he was elected in 2010, the Republican has told critics of his decision to skip a civil rights breakfast to “kiss my butt” and accused a Democratic rival of forcing budget measures on taxpayers “without Vaseline.” But when LePage, the second U.S. governor to endorse Trump, recently left an obscenity-laced voicemail message for a lawmaker who he believed had called him a racist, he put his career in jeopardy. LePage’s widely circulated verbal attack, in which he called Democratic State Representative Drew Gattine a “little son-of-a-bitch, socialist cocksucker,” sparked the most intense firestorm of criticism the second-term governor has seen. Even legislative leaders from his own party called him into a closed-door meeting to discuss his future. The reaction shows that not all politicians can get away with the kind of bellicose approach that helped Trump wipe out his primary rivals and win the support of angry voters who feel U.S. politicians do not care about their problems. “Trump is a master of media and LePage is not. They are very different at the end of the day,” said Michael Franz, chairman of the government and legal studies department at Maine’s Bowdoin College. “Trump says he hates the media, but he works it very well. LePage just hates it.” The governor infamously joked in 2013 that he would like to blow up the offices of the Portland Press Herald newspaper, which he felt treated him unfairly. On Wednesday, LePage told reporters he had met with Gattine and apologized, and that he had no plans to resign from office. Asked what might change about his governing style, LePage responded that he would no longer speak with reporters. “I will no longer speak to the press ever again after today,” LePage said. “I’m serious. Everything will be put in writing. I am tired of being caught, the gotcha moments.” That came a day after LePage openly discussed the idea of stepping down in a regular monthly interview with a Maine radio station. He later backed away from his comments, and paraphrasing Mark Twain, said in a Twitter post, “The reports of my political demise are greatly exaggerated.” LePage endorsed Trump’s run in February, shortly after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie did.  “I was Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular,” LePage said at the time, saying that the wealthy New York businessman and reality TV star “could be one of the greatest presidents if he sits down and puts together a good team.” Trump has also praised LePage, saying that he would offer him a role in his administration “if he were available.” Both men describe their political styles as authentic and off-the-cuff and accuse more measured rivals of being career politicians who are out of touch with the needs of average voters. LePage’s brusqueness played well in Maine until recently. He won re-election in a three-way 2014 race with the support of 48 percent of voters with a wider margin of victory than the 38 percent he garnered in his first run, also a three-way race. Neil Levesque, executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics said that success, coupled with Trump’s rise, could have emboldened LePage to double down on attack politics. “Almost anything goes now. You can call your opponents almost anything, you can threaten them,” Levesque said. “This is the new norm in American politics.”

Summary: मेन के राज्यपाल का गुस्सा गुस्से की राजनीति की सीमाओं का परीक्षण करता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. derivatives regulator will move on from reforms undertaken after the 2007-09 financial crisis to a new focus on U.S. competitiveness and the potential for shocks to the global $710 trillion swaps markets under President-elect Donald Trump. J. Christopher Giancarlo, in line to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission once Trump is inaugurated on Jan. 20, has said the agency should look beyond mandates from the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law to current trends in financial markets. He counts among those cyber threats, liquidity risk, market concentration and de-globalization. As the sole Republican on the CFTC, Giancarlo will at least temporarily run the commission where he is currently the minority member.  Even if Trump later nominates someone else for the permanent post, Giancarlo, who was previously an executive vice president at GFI Group, a wholesale brokerage that runs electronic trading platforms, will be influential in the coming months. In a speech in London on Friday, he said regulators should foster best practices for new trading technologies, address diminishing liquidity, and review regulations that could cause market fragmentation as they enter “the new year and, perhaps, a new regulatory environment.” This week, he forced the commission to delay limits on the positions that traders can hold on physical commodity futures and swaps. Redrawn position limit rules are likely to reappear in 2017, as are the following other agenda items. Giancarlo has often argued the United States should not move too far ahead of other countries in tightening regulations governing the swaps market, which the United States dominates. That could put U.S. firms at a disadvantage and drive up trading costs, he says.  In August he warned the CFTC could create a liquidity crunch by sticking to its September deadline for implementing a new swaps margin rule, given European regulators had delayed start dates for their similar rules. Indeed, in September Asian swaps markets foundered and trades fell through as the U.S. rules came online. The CFTC then gave swap dealers an extra month to comply. “Championing American markets means no longer asking U.S. market participants to go it alone and take it on the chin in implementation of global regulatory reform,” Giancarlo later told the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “Rather, it means standing up for America’s capital and risk transfer markets and treating them as the vital national interests that they are.”  Giancarlo sees the CFTC as “stuck in a 20th Century time warp” when it comes to technology.  He can be expected to push the CFTC toward giving industry space for breakthroughs in artificial intelligence guiding trade execution, “smart” contracts that calculate payments and value in real-time, and distributed ledger technology, known as Blockchain.  In November he voted against the “Reg AT” - Regulation Automated Trading - to update oversight of fast computer trades,  criticizing it for not adequately protecting algorithmic trading companies’ prized source codes and being too prescriptive.  Giancarlo says regulators in other countries, notably Britain, are leading the way in financial technology and the CFTC must follow in making room to experiment. Since 2012, any dealer with more than $8 billion in swap activity has had to register with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which subjects it to stricter federal oversight. That activity value in dollars, known as the “de minimis” threshold, was poised to fall to $3 billion by the end of 2017, but the CFTC recently delayed the drop by a year. Under Giancarlo, the threshold may never fall - or could disappear altogether.  He has called the thresholds “made up numbers” lacking policy justification. He also said that in general, a specific de minimis level may not do anything to optimize “the safety, soundness, liquidity or vibrancy of U.S. swaps markets.”  In March, Giancarlo failed to launch recommendations on regulating energy markets made by a committee he led, which was dominated by people from the energy sector. Reform proponents said the suggestions were sops to industry and he withdrew its report. When he is in charge, Giancarlo could turn back to the committee’s work. It questioned the need for new position limits and suggested an alternative “accountability system,” where exchanges could grant exemptions to limits.

Summary: अमेरिकी व्युत्पन्न नियामक ट्रम्प के तहत डोड-फ्रैंक से आगे बढ़ेगा


BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Thousands of Romanians lined the streets of Bucharest on Saturday for the funeral of the country s former king Michael, one of the last surviving World War Two European heads of state. Born in 1921, Michael ruled Romania twice, switched its alliance away from Nazi Germany to the Allied side during the war and was subsequently forced into exile by a Communist takeover in 1947. He died in Switzerland on Dec. 5 at the age of 96, having retired from public life due to severe illness in 2016. On Saturday, Bucharest churches rang their bells and mourners, many in tears, threw white flowers at the funeral procession, chanting  King Michael  and  Down with communism . European royalty attended, including Spain s former king, Juan Carlos, Britain s Prince Charles, King Carl Gustaf of Sweden and his wife Queen Silvia. Even though the restoration of the monarchy is not an issue in the European Union state, Michael commanded great respect from Romanians who saw him in sharp opposition to a political class which they link with poverty and corruption.   His death comes at a time of deep divisions in Romanian society. Massive street protests against attempts by the ruling Social Democrats to weaken the fight against corruption and the rule of law have taken place on and off throughout 2017. Earlier this month, the Social Democrats used their solid majority to approve a judicial overhaul in the lower house that threatens to put the justice system under political control. On Monday, lawmakers begin debating changes to the criminal code that critics say will derail law and order. A descendant of the German Hohenzollern dynasty and a cousin of Britain s Queen Elizabeth, Michael was in his early twenties when he participated in a 1944 coup that overthrew fascist leader Marshal Ion Antonescu.  Romania then broke with Nazi Germany and switched to the Allied side. Historians have said his actions might have shortened the war and saved thousands of lives. After communism collapsed, politicians fearing Michael s influence blocked his first few attempted visits after decades of exile in Switzerland, Britain and the United States. He finally returned to Romania in 1992 and regained citizenship in 1997. With his passing, the Romanian royal family s relevance will likely fade, since his children have little public standing. Princess Margareta, his eldest daughter, remains custodian of the crown.

Summary: हजारों रोमानियाई पूर्व राजा माइकल का शोक मनाते हैं


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia hopes that Turkey can stabilize the situation in Syria s Idlib Province where Moscow believes there is a high threat of attacks by militants, a senior Russian diplomat said on Monday, the RIA news agency reported.   There is a pretty high level of tension there and there is still a threat of offensives by radical groups deployed there,  the agency cited Alexander Lavrentyev, the head of the Russian delegation at the Astana talks on the Syria crisis, as saying.  But we hope that our Turkish partners will in the end fulfill their part of the obligations concerning the Idlib de-escalation zone and will stabilize the situation there.

Summary: रूस को उम्मीद है कि तुर्की सीरिया के इदलिब में स्थिति को स्थिर कर सकता हैः आरआईए


MOSCOW (Reuters) - North Korea has petitioned the Russian parliament to help 3,500 migrant workers from the isolated Asian country stay in Russia despite new U.N. sanctions, the Interfax news agency reported on Friday, citing a Russian lawmaker. Tougher sanctions on North Korea, imposed by the United Nations Security Council over Pyongyang s ballistic missile and nuclear programs on Sept. 11, banned countries from providing new work permits for North Korean nationals, but allowed existing workers to remain. Most of the around 30,000-40,000 North Korean migrants legally working in Russia were hired before the new sanctions entered into force and the ban will not affect them, Interfax said, quoting an earlier statement from Maxim Topilin, Russia s labor minister.  But the ban could apply to 3,500 workers who only signed their contracts in September, the month when the U.N. Security Council, including Russia, voted for the new sanctions, Interfax reported. It cited Kazbek Taysayev, a lawmaker in the lower house of parliament and a member of a  friendship group  between the Russian and North Korean parliaments, as saying:  North Korea s embassy officially addressed us. We supported them and sent our petitions in order to let these people stay so that they can work.  Even if the workers signed their contracts after the ban took effect, they had started making arrangements and preparing the documents earlier and could be allowed to stay, said Taysayev.  The U.N. resolution said it did not apply to work permits  for which written contracts have been finalized prior to the adoption of this resolution.  North Korea s embassy in Moscow was not available for immediate comment.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया ने प्रतिबंधों के बावजूद श्रमिकों को रहने देने के लिए रूस से अनुरोध कियाः इफैक्स


TOKYO (Reuters) - The United States will respond strongly in the case of a further North Korean nuclear test, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday, days after the North’s failure to launch what the United States believes was an intermediate-range ballistic missile. North Korea conducted a fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch the next month, both in contravention of U.N. Security Council resolutions. Expanded U.N. sanctions aimed at starving North Korea of funds for its nuclear weapons program were approved in a unanimous Security Council vote in early March on a resolution drafted by the United States and China. Blinken, who is meeting senior Japanese government officials in Tokyo, told reporters North Korea would be digging itself deeper into a hole if it pursued further provocations. “There will be additional strong response in case of another (North Korean) nuclear test,” Blinken said, adding that such actions by North Korea were “unacceptable”. Blinken said the United States would consider “a number of possibilities” while adding that it was “premature” to be specific. Some experts expect North Korea to conduct its fifth nuclear test in the near future, possibly before its party congress in early May, following the embarrassing missile failure on Friday.

Summary: अमेरिका ने उत्तर कोरिया के एक और परमाणु परीक्षण की स्थिति में 'कड़ी प्रतिक्रिया' देने का वादा किया


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Tuesday played down any impact that White House national security adviser Michael Flynn’s resignation might have on Mattis’ debut trip this week to Europe to meet NATO allies. “Frankly, this has no impact. Obviously, I haven’t changed what I’m heading there for. It doesn’t change my message at all,” Mattis told reporters shortly before landing in Brussels, as he praised the NATO alliance but stressing its need to adapt to the challenges posed by Russia. “And who’s on the president’s staff is who I will work with,” he said. Flynn resigned late on Monday after revelations that he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office and had misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations. Flynn’s resignation occurred hours after it was reported that the Justice Department had warned the White House weeks ago that Flynn could be vulnerable to blackmail for contacts with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak before Trump took power on Jan. 20. Mattis has taken a dimmer view of the prospects of partnership with Moscow than Flynn did during the presidential campaign or Trump has since taking office, while not ruling out areas where U.S. and Russian interests might align. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Mattis said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization needed to adapt to the challenges posed by Russia after 2014, when Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula upended the alliance’s assumptions about cooperation with Moscow. “2014 was a watershed year. It was a year when many of our hopes for some kind of partnership with Russia were shown to be unavailing,” Mattis said, extolling NATO as “the most successful military alliance in history.” “We’ve got to adapt and make certain that the trans-Atlantic bond remains strong,” he said. In his January Senate confirmation hearing, Mattis accused Russia of trying to break the NATO alliance. [nL1N1F218B] Flynn, in contrast, frequently raised eyebrows among Washington’s foreign policy establishment for trying to persuade Trump to warm up U.S. relations with Russia. One U.S. official said Flynn’s departure, coupled with Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and Syria and Republican congressional opposition to removing sanctions on Russia, removes Trump’s most ardent advocate of taking a softer line toward Russian President Vladimir Putin. Flynn’s leaving “may make a significant course change less likely, at least any time soon,” the official said. [nL1N1FY1L9] Another official said Flynn’s departure might strengthen the hands of some Cabinet secretaries, including Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Summary: अमेरिकी रक्षा प्रमुखः व्हाइट हाउस में बदलाव से यूरोप की शुरुआत प्रभावित नहीं होगी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Representative Jason Chaffetz, who chairs a House committee with broad investigative powers, on Wednesday announced his plans to leave Congress after the 2018 midterm elections, saying he had no intention of running for any political office. “I have no ulterior motives. I am healthy. I am confident I would continue to be re-elected by large margins. I have the full support of Speaker (Paul) Ryan to continue as Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. That said, I have made a personal decision to return to the private sector,” Chaffetz said in a statement on Facebook.  The conservative Republican, who was first elected to the House in 2008 and represents a district in eastern Utah, gained prominence as head of the committee that was investigating Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. During the raucous 2016 presidential campaign that pitted Clinton against Trump, Chaffetz distanced himself from the Republican candidate following the public airing of a video last year in which Trump made lewd comments about women. But as Trump appeared to weather that storm and was competitive with Clinton in the homestretch to the Nov. 8 election, Chaffetz moderated his criticism of the New York real estate developer. With Trump in the White  House, Chaffetz early this year said he would use his committee chairmanship to continue investigating Clinton. But he refused to look into contacts that Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, had with a Russian official amid suspicions that Moscow played a role in influencing the U.S. elections. Flynn has since left his high-level White House job. Chaffetz, 50, had in the past considered running for a Senate seat and in announcing his retirement from the House at the end of his term next year he is leaving open that option. “I may run again for public office, but not in 2018,” Chaffetz said in his Facebook posting.        A former Chaffetz aide told Reuters the congressman may seek to run for Utah governor in 2020, though no firm decision had been made yet.

Summary: हाउस ओवरसाइट के प्रमुख चैफेट्ज़ 2018 के बाद कांग्रेस छोड़ देंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-led Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday set a July 18 confirmation hearing for David Kautter, President Donald Trump’s nominee for a top tax policy job at the U.S. Treasury. If approved by the panel and confirmed by the full Senate, Kautter would become assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy, a position seen as crucial to implementing the tax reform legislation that Trump and his Republican allies in Congress have promised to unveil later this year. Kautter, a former Senate legislative aide, was most recently a tax partner at the firm RSM, which provides tax and audit services. He was also director of American University’s Kogod Tax Center and had a long career at the audit and consulting firm Ernst & Young LLP.   “This hearing will provide members with the opportunity to learn first-hand how Mr. Kautter will work with Congress to advance pro-growth tax reform,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said in a statement.

Summary: सीनेट पैनल ने ट्रम्प के कर उम्मीदवार के लिए सुनवाई शुरू की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned late on Monday after revelations that he had discussed U.S. sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador to the United States before Trump took office and misled Vice President Mike Pence about the conversations. Flynn’s resignation came hours after it was reported that the Justice Department had warned the White House weeks ago that Flynn could be vulnerable to blackmail for contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Trump took power on Jan. 20. Flynn’s departure was a sobering development in Trump’s young presidency, a 24-day period during which his White House has been repeatedly distracted by miscues and internal dramas. The departure could slow Trump’s bid to warm up relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Flynn submitted his resignation hours after Trump, through a spokesman, pointedly declined to publicly back Flynn, saying he was reviewing the situation and talking to Pence. Flynn had promised Pence he had not discussed U.S. sanctions with the Russians, but transcripts of intercepted communications, described by U.S. officials, showed that the subject had come up in conversations between him and the Russian ambassador. Such contacts could potentially be in violation of a law banning private citizens from engaging in foreign policy, known as the Logan Act. Pence had defended Flynn in television interviews and was described by administration officials as upset about being misled. “Unfortunately, because of the fast pace of events, I inadvertently briefed the vice president-elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian ambassador. I have sincerely apologized to the president and the vice president, and they have accepted my apology,” Flynn said in his resignation letter. Retired General Keith Kellogg, who has been chief of staff of the White House National Security Council, was named the acting national security adviser while Trump determines who should fill the position. Kellogg, retired General David Petraeus, a former CIA director, and Robert Harward, a former deputy commander of U.S. Central Command, are under consideration for the position, a White House official said. Harward was described by officials as the leading candidate. A U.S. official confirmed a Washington Post report that Sally Yates, the then-acting U.S. attorney general, told the White House late last month that she believed Flynn had misled them about the nature of his communications with the Russian ambassador. She said Flynn might have put himself in a compromising position, possibly leaving himself vulnerable to blackmail, the official said. Yates was later fired for opposing Trump’s temporary entry ban for people from seven mostly Muslim nations. A U.S. official, describing the intercepted communications, said Flynn did not make any promises about lifting the sanctions. But he did indicate that sanctions imposed by President Barack Obama on Russia for its Ukraine incursion “would not necessarily carry over to an administration seeking to improve relations between the U.S. and Russia,” the official said. Flynn, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general, was an early supporter of Trump and shares his interest in shaking up the establishment in Washington. He frequently raised eyebrows among Washington’s foreign policy establishment for trying to persuade Trump to warm up U.S. relations with Russia.   A U.S. official said Flynn’s departure, coupled with Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and Syria and Republican congressional opposition to removing sanctions on Russia, removes Trump’s most ardent advocate of taking a softer line toward Putin. Flynn’s leaving “may make a significant course change less likely, at least any time soon,” the official said. Another official said Flynn’s departure may strengthen the hands of some cabinet secretaries, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. However, the second official said, Flynn’s exit could also reinforce the power of presidential aides Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, whom he described as already having the president’s ear. Congressional Democrats expressed alarm at the developments  surrounding Flynn and called for a classified briefing by administration officials to explain what had happened. “We are communicating this request to the Department of Justice and FBI this evening,” said Democratic representatives John Conyers of Michigan and Elijah Cummings of Maryland. U.S. Representative Adam Schiff of California, ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Flynn’s departure does not end the questions over his contacts with the Russians. “The Trump administration has yet to be forthcoming about who was aware of Flynn’s conversations with the ambassador and whether he was acting on the instructions of the president or any other officials, or with their knowledge,” Schiff said. The committee’s chairman, Republican Devin Nunes, thanked Flynn for his service. “Washington D.C. can be a rough town for honorable people, and Flynn — who has always been a soldier, not a politician —deserves America’s gratitude and respect,” he said.

Summary: ट्रंप के राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा सहायक फ्लिन ने रूसी संपर्कों को लेकर दिया इस्तीफा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - CIA Director John Brennan said on Wednesday he would resign if the next president ordered his agency to resume waterboarding suspected militants, an apparent reference to comments by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump embracing the banned interrogation method. “I can say that as long as I’m director of CIA, irrespective of what the president says, I’m not going to be the director of CIA that gives that order. They’ll have to find another director,” said Brennan, who did not mention Trump by name. Brennan, who has been director since 2013, tacked his comment to the end of his response to a question about drone strike policy after speaking at the Brookings Institution, a Washington policy institute.Brennan said previously he would refuse to resume the practice, which simulates drowning and was used by the CIA on three suspected militants detained in secret foreign prisons during President George W. Bush’s administration. But his pledge to resign if ordered to revive waterboarding was his most emphatic affirmation of his position to date. Trump, set to be formally nominated next week as the Republican nominee for the Nov. 8 election, has said he would reauthorize waterboarding immediately if elected, contending that “torture works.” At an April 20 rally in Indianapolis, he recalled being asked about waterboarding during a debate the previous week. “They asked me: ‘What do you think about waterboarding, Mr. Trump?’ I said I love it. I love it, I think it’s great. And I said the only thing is, we should make it much tougher than waterboarding,” he said. Democratic President Barack Obama signed an executive order after taking office in January 2009 that banned waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques,” or EITs. Such executive orders can be rescinded by a president’s successors. Obama, other top U.S. officials, many lawmakers and human rights groups have denounced waterboarding as torture. Some former Bush administration and CIA officials have defended waterboarding and other EITs, denying they are torture and saying they elicited valuable intelligence. Brennan told his confirmation hearing in 2013 he had not tried to stop harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding when he was at the spy agency earlier in his career, but had objected to them privately. A Senate Intelligence Committee study, issued in 2014, concluded that EITs failed to elicit any significant intelligence. Brennan said on Wednesday it was not possible to “establish cause and effect” between the use of EITs and the acquisition of reliable information.

Summary: सी. आई. ए. निदेशक का कहना है कि अगर उन्हें वाटरबोर्डिंग फिर से शुरू करने का आदेश दिया गया तो वह इस्तीफा दे देंगे


PARIS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday called on the United Nations  IAEA atomic watchdog body to ensure the strict compliance of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.  He urged the IAEA to ensure strict compliance with the provisions of the agreement in all its dimensions,  Macron s office said in a statement, after Macron met International Atomic Energy Agency director general Yukiya Amano.

Summary: फ्रांस के मैक्रों ने आई. ए. ई. ए. से ईरान परमाणु समझौते का कड़ाई से अनुपालन सुनिश्चित करने का आग्रह किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A recanvass of Kentucky’s Democratic presidential primary results found Hillary Clinton won the contest by 1,911 votes, Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Grimes said on Thursday. Clinton’s rival for the party’s nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders, had requested a recount in the razor-close contest earlier this week. Grimes, in posts on Twitter, said the results of the recanvass would be certified by the state’s Board of Elections on May 31.

Summary: केंटकी ने पुनर्मतदान के बाद क्लिंटन को डेमोक्रेटिक प्राइमरी विजेता घोषित किया