BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Kurdish officials said on Thursday thousands of their people had fled Kirkuk region fearing persecution since Iraqi armed forces retook it following a referendum on Kurdish independence that was rejected by Baghdad. The officials said roughly 100,000 people had gone, though that number could not be confirmed independently, and many Kurdish neighborhoods in Kirkuk city appeared to be operating normally.  The United Nations voiced concern at reports that civilians, mainly Kurds, were being driven out of parts of northern Iraq retaken by Iraqi forces and their houses and businesses looted and destroyed, and urged Baghdad to stop any such abuses. A mayor from the town of Khanaqin, Mohammed Mulla Hassan, said a Kurdish man was killed and six wounded by Iraqi security forces while protesting at the army s takeover there. Kurdish troops had left Khanaqin, near the border with Iran, on Tuesday to avoid clashing with advancing Iraqi forces. Central government forces swept into Kirkuk, a multi-ethnic city of more than 1 million people and the hub of a major oil-producing area, largely unopposed on Monday after most Kurdish Peshmerga forces withdrew rather than fight. Iraqi forces also took back control of Kirkuk oilfields, effectively halving the amount of output under the direct control of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in a serious blow to the Kurds  independence quest. Baghdad s recovery of Kirkuk, situated just outside the KRG s official boundaries on disputed land claimed by Kurds, ethnic Turkmen and Arabs, put the city s Kurds in fear of attack by Shi ite Muslim paramilitaries, known as Popular Mobilisation, assisting government forces  operations in the region. Nawzad Hadi, governor of Erbil, the KRG capital, told reporters that around 18,000 families from Kirkuk and the town of Tuz Khurmato to the southeast had taken refuge in Erbil and Sulaimaniya, inside KRG territory. A Hadi aide told Reuters the total number of displaced people was about 100,000. Hemin Hawrami, a top aide to KRG President Masoud Barzani, tweeted that people had fled  looting and sectarian oppression  inflicted by Popular Mobilisation militia. U.N. relief officials said they had received allegations that 150 houses had been burned and 11 blown up in Tuz Khurmato and offices of Turkmen political parties in Kirkuk assaulted. The U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq issued a statement urging the Baghdad government  to take every action to halt any violations and ensure all civilians are protected and that the perpetrators of acts of violence, intimidation and forced displacement of civilians be brought to justice . Khanaqin, mainly populated by Kurds, also lies in a long contested territory just outside KRG boundaries. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Wednesday that security was being maintained in Kirkuk by local police backed by the elite Counter Terrorism Service, trained and equipped by the United States mainly to fight Islamic State militants.  All other armed group should not be allowed to stay,  Abadi said.      Sunni Muslim Kurds comprise the largest community in Kirkuk followed by Sunni and Shi ite Muslim Turkmen, Sunni Arabs and Christian Assyrians, according to the Iraqi Planning Ministry.  In another sign of rising tensions, Iraq s Supreme Justice Council ordered the arrest of KRG Vice President Kosrat Rasul for allegedly saying Iraqi troops were  occupying forces  in Kirkuk. Iran and Turkey joined the Baghdad government in condemning the Iraqi Kurds  Sept. 25 referendum, worried it could worsen regional instability and conflict by spurring their own Kurdish populations to push for homelands. The Kurds  long-time big power ally, the United States, also opposed the vote. With the referendum having given Abadi a political opening to regain disputed territory and tilt the balance of power in his favor, the KRG cabinet on Thursday welcomed his call for talks to resolve the crisis. Abadi had said on Tuesday he considered the referendum  a thing of the past , and asked that the KRG cancel the outcome of the vote as a precondition for negotiations to begin.  In a statement, the KRG cabinet said,  It will not be possible to resolve the issues through military operations . It added:  (We have) asked the international community to help both sides start a dialogue to solve the outstanding issues based on the Iraqi constitution.    KRG Peshmerga forces deployed into Kirkuk in 2014 when Iraqi government forces fell apart in the face of a lightning offensive by Islamic State insurgents, preventing the oilfields from falling into jihadist hands. Iraqi armed forces also took control of Kurdish-held areas of Nineveh province north of Kirkuk, including the Mosul hydro-electric dam, after the Peshmerga pulled back. Crude oil flows through the KRG pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan have been disrupted by a gap between incoming and outgoing personnel since Baghdad s retaking of Kirkuk.    An Iraqi oil ministry official in Baghdad said on Thursday that Iraq would not be able to restore Kirkuk s oil output to levels before Sunday because of missing equipment at two fields. The official accused the Kurdish authorities previously in control of Kirkuk of removing equipment at the Bai Hasan and Avana oil fields, northwest of the city. Kurds have sought independence since at least the end of World War One when colonial powers carved up the Middle East after the multiethnic Ottoman Empire sundered, leaving Kurdish-inhabited land split between Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria.

Summary: कुर्द अधिकारियों का कहना है कि इराकी सेना के अधिग्रहण के बाद से हजारों लोग किर्कुक से भाग गए हैं


CANFIELD, Ohio/CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton opened a final two-month sprint to the Nov. 8 election on Monday with the Republican presidential nominee suddenly looking stronger as he and his Democratic rival took their bitter fight to Ohio. Both Trump and Clinton made overtures to a news media that each candidate sees as often hostile to them, talking to reporters on their private planes. Clinton’s session with reporters was her first news conference since last December. After eating a gyro at a diner in the Cleveland area, Trump rallied thousands of cheering supporters at a county fair in Canfield, and Clinton visited a brewery in Cleveland. For a time, their planes were parked about 200 yards apart at the Cleveland airport, a sign of Ohio’s importance in the election. Ohio is considered one of four swing states - those that are not clearly in the Democratic or Republican camp - that could prove decisive in the Electoral College vote that will ultimately determine the winner. The other swing states are Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Trump was buoyed by more polls showing him in a competitive position. The latest Reuters-Ipsos poll showed Trump with 40 percent support vs 39 percent for Clinton, effectively ending Clinton’s bump up in the polls after the Democratic nominating convention. Other polls showed Clinton’s lead had shrunk. “I think we’ve had a great month,” Trump said. Clinton remained in a strong position to win the White House race, but Trump and his team cited his growing strength in opinion polls nationally and in several states where the election is likely to be decided to argue that his message is breaking through to voters. Clinton, who emerged into the public eye after days of raising money from wealthy donors behind closed doors, said she always knew the race would be close. “We’re just going as hard and fast as we possibly can to be organized for turning out the vote, because we’ve always thought this was going to be hard, and that’s why, you know, I’m not worried, I’m just working,” she said. Trump, shaking his fist triumphantly, plunged into a crowd at the Mahoning County Fair where supporters had built a replica of the wall that the Republican nominee has pledged to build along the U.S.-Mexico border.  “This has been an unbelievable reception!” Trump said after maneuvering through a crowd of people who shouted his name, against a backdrop of food stands offering fare ranging from chicken on a stick to Italian sausages, fudge and fresh corn. Inviting reporters onto his plane for the first time since accepting the Republican presidential nomination, Trump said his focus going forward will be on how to create jobs for middle-class Americans. He has spent most of the past two weeks trying to clarify his position on illegal immigration, first flirting with a softening, then reinforcing his hardline approach, and then, on his plane, saying undocumented people might ultimately get on a path to a legal status once border enforcement steps are taken. “I’m all about the jobs now,” he said, saying his position on the immigration issue was now well known. He also pledged to participate in all three televised presidential debates, ending speculation that he might sit out one or more if he was not happy with the format. His first face-off with Clinton is at Hofstra University in New York state on Sept. 26. Clinton made her stop at a brewery in Cleveland before heading to a nearby Labor Day parade and rally, where she tested a new jab at her opponent: “Friends don’t let friends vote for Trump.”  The Labor Day holiday traditionally kicks off the last stretch of campaigning ahead of the November election. Speaking to reporters on her new campaign plane, she took credit for Trump’s overture to the news media. Clinton, buffeted by controversy over her use of a private email server as U.S. secretary of state, has been criticized by Republicans and the news media for months for failing to hold a news conference. “I heard now that we’ve got this great plane, that Donald Trump actually invited his press on his plane where I’m told he even answered a few questions,” said Clinton. Trump’s rebound from a series of self-inflicted wounds follows the hiring of a new campaign management team, and the Republican nominee is showing more discipline on the stump. Trump has been helped by what his campaign said was a positive week last week, highlighted by a quick trip to Mexico, appearing side by side with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, and a visit to a black church in Detroit. But an immigration speech that Trump gave following his trip to Mexico drew criticism from some of his Hispanic supporters, and several backers advising him on the issue decided to part ways with his campaign. Trump aide Jason Miller said rising poll numbers showed that the campaign was moving in the right direction. “The trend lines are the important thing to point to,” Miller told Reuters. “The problem that Clinton has is there is no positive information flow for her campaign.” Clinton, who was President Barack Obama’s first-term secretary of state, appeared at few public campaign events during the latter half of August, instead raising funds at high-dollar events in the East Coast vacation spots of Martha’s Vineyard and the Hamptons, and with celebrities in Los Angeles and high-tech leaders in Silicon Valley. Clinton’s campaign announced that it had raised $143 million in August for her presidential bid and the Democratic Party. Clinton is again on the defensive over her use of a private email server and possible conflicts of interest with her family foundation while secretary of state, which have caused unease for some voters. But experts still see the Democratic nominee as the odds-on favorite to win the presidency.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस की दौड़ अंतिम 2 महीनों में प्रवेश करते ही ट्रम्प, क्लिंटन ने ओहियो को अदालत में पेश किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump’s new campaign manager said on Wednesday she would encourage the Republican presidential nominee to focus on substance and continue delivering policy speeches as he has done in the last week. “Keep giving these policy speeches, because I tell you ... there’s absolutely zero evidence that the voters want this election to be about this content-free cacophony with no substance and no issues,” Kellyanne Conway said in an interview with Fox News.  Conway was named to the position on Wednesday by the Trump campaign in a shake-up that also appointed the head of conservative website Breitbart News to the new position of campaign CEO.

Summary: उम्मीदवार को नीति पर ध्यान केंद्रित करने के लिए प्रेरित करने के लिए नए ट्रम्प अभियान प्रबंधक


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Transportation Committee on Wednesday proposed legislation to privatize the U.S. air traffic control system and make other aviation changes, but it faces an uncertain future in Congress. The panel plans to consider the bill next Tuesday, and the full House will vote in mid-July, said the committee’s Republican chairman, Representative Bill Shuster. “This is about saving the taxpayers’ money,” Shuster told reporters on Wednesday. “Maintaining the status quo is unacceptable.” The legislation would make it illegal for an airline to bump an already boarded passenger from a flight. In April, a United Airlines passenger was forcibly removed from his seat, prompting public outrage. The airline banned the practice.	 The bill would also require the U.S. Transportation Department to clarify regulations for compensating passengers, including that there is no maximum compensation, and would legally bar the use of cellphones and other mobile devices for phone calls during flights. No airline currently allows in-flight calls from personal phones. In April, the Federal Communications Commission said it planned to halt a regulatory process that could have led to in-flight calls on airplanes. The legislation also requires large and medium-sized airports to provide clean private rooms in all terminals for nursing mothers.  Airlines would have to post a prominent link on their website on services offered in the event of a widespread computer outage. Many airlines have been hit by computer system outages over the last year. The most controversial proposal is the privatization of air traffic control. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump unveiled a plan to modernize air traffic control and lower flying costs. Under the proposal, air traffic control would be spun off from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and put under the oversight of a nonprofit corporation. Congressman Shuster said airlines would have three seats on the 13-member board: one for major airlines, one for cargo carriers and one for regional airlines. The Trump administration has proposed giving airlines two seats on the board, while Shuster last year proposed giving airlines four seats. Shuster aims to address concerns among private plane owners and rural airports by barring the new air traffic control entity from charging general aviation operators user fees.  Critics say the plan would hand control of a key asset to special interests and big airlines. A coalition of five general aviation groups said in a statement on Wednesday that they would not support the bill, saying it was “fundamentally flawed.” The Airline Owners and Pilots Association said the bill has a “high potential for unintended consequences as well as increased costs and uncertainty.” Shuster’s bill would reauthorize the FAA for six years and also has provisions to speed up a decision by the Transportation Department on whether to allow expanded commercial drone use. The Transportation Department would also have to consider whether to require airlines to stock emergency medicine for children aboard flights. The legislation would also authorize significantly higher funding for a program that subsidizes commercial air service to rural airports, which the Trump administration budget proposed eliminating. The Senate Commerce Committee’s chairman, Senator John Thune, said on Tuesday that he was not planning to include air traffic control privatization in the FAA reauthorization, a committee aide said. The administration and Shuster say they would not charge the private entity for the government’s air traffic control assets and would bar Congress from reviewing fees charged by the board. Executives from United, Hawaiian Airlines Inc, American Airlines Inc and Southwest Airlines Co, strongly back the proposal. The FAA spends nearly $10 billion a year on air traffic control funded largely through passenger user fees, and has spent more than $7.5 billion on next-generation air traffic control reforms in recent years. It is unclear whether privatization would speed the rollout of new systems such as satellite-based aircraft tracking that replaces ground radar dating back to World War Two.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन ने अमेरिकी हवाई यातायात नियंत्रण के निजीकरण के लिए विधेयक का प्रस्ताव रखा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives unveiled on Monday an $81 billion aid package to deal with hurricanes and wildfires, far above President Donald Trump’s $44 billion request. The legislation would help Puerto Rico and several states recover from devastating hurricanes and California and other Western states cope with wildfires. It was unclear whether the latest natural-disaster aid plan would be rushed through the Republican-controlled Congress this week, before the start of a Christmas recess, or await congressional votes early next year. The bill, introduced by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, includes $27.6 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and $26.1 billion for community development block grants.  “We have a commitment to our fellow citizens that are in the midst of major rebuilding efforts in all areas, including Texas, Florida, California, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands,” Frelinghuysen, a New Jersey Republican, said in a statement.     Earlier this year, Congress approved two disaster aid packages totaling about $52 billion. Trump’s $44 billion request submitted in mid-November was widely criticized by lawmakers as being insufficient. About a third of Puerto Rico’s residents are still without power and hundreds remain in shelters three months after Hurricane Maria devastated the island. In California, wildfires have burned more than 1 million acres (400,000 hectares) and destroyed thousands of homes.

Summary: हाउस प्लान से बढ़ेगा ट्रम्प का आपदा सहायता अनुरोध


MADRID (Reuters) - Dinner at the Barcelona home of Catalonia-born Montserrat Armisen, an independence supporter, can be a tense affair.   He criticizes us and doesn t let us eat in peace,  said Armisen of her husband, Gustavo Gomez, a Colombian who favors keeping the Spanish state intact, and their children, Jordi, 18, and Nicolas, 27.  We go to our protests, return and don t say anything, but he just carries on,  said Armisen, 55.  It bothers us because there is no respect for us from his part.   For many in Spain, the Catalonia crisis that threatens to fracture the country is also tearing at ordinary families and evoking painful memories of Spain s 1936-39 civil war.  The prospect that Catalonia, a former principality which prides itself on its distinct language and culture, might break away has created divisions across Spanish society, from the kitchen table to the soccer pitch. Many in Spain regard Catalan secessionists as a noisy minority whose national identity is built on a misreading of history, ungrateful to a Spanish state that has underwritten the region s peace and prosperity. In their turn, some secessionists decry unionists as  fascists , harking back to dictator Francisco Franco, who suppressed Catalan language and traditions after his forces won the civil war until his death in 1975. Most Catalans backed the Republican side against Franco.  Small groups of far-right activists have taken part in recent anti-independence protests, with a few giving fascist salutes or carrying the flag of the Falange, the dominant party under Franco. Neo-fascists are disowned by the vast majority of those who want to keep Spain intact but their appearance in public shows how the Catalonia crisis has reopened some of Spain s deepest and most painful wounds.  If I say things I am called a fascist,  said Armisen s husband, Gomez, 58, who has lived in Barcelona with his family for a decade.  Telling them they should not be independent is not being a fascist. Everything that has been done, in my view, is completely illegal,  he told Reuters Television, adding that his wife had even asked him to leave home - something she denies.  What am I doing here?  Gomez asked, holding back tears. Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont had pledged to proclaim the region s independence from Spain after Catalans defied a ban and police crackdown and, according to his government s count, voted overwhelmingly to break away in an Oct. 1 referendum. But, in a speech to the Catalan regional parliament on Tuesday, Puigdemont stepped back from a formal declaration of independence, claiming a mandate to launch secession but saying he would delay doing so to allow time for talks with Madrid on the region s future. Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria savaged Puigdemont s speech, saying he should come back to the path of the law if he wanted talks with Madrid. She said the Spanish cabinet would meet on Wednesday to discuss its response. On Monday, Pablo Casado, a spokesman for Spain s ruling Popular Party, recalled that 83 years ago, the then Catalan leader, Lluis Companys, was jailed for declaring a Catalan state. He was executed by firing squad in 1940 during Franco s rule. Casado said anyone who declared independence might end up like Companys, in prison. In response, the pro-independence Catalan CUP party said on Twitter:  Thanks for being so Franco, Pablo Casado , using a play on the Spanish word for  frank  and  Franco . The dispute has touched Spain s sacred pastime, soccer. On the day after the referendum, the Spanish national team s Catalan defender, Gerard Pique, an independence supporter, was jeered by fans as he trained with the team. Trade unions are also divided. The Catalan arm of one of Spain s biggest unions, Comisiones Obreras (Workers  Committees), initially backed calls for a general strike in Catalonia on Oct. 3 in response to the police crackdown on the referendum, according to media reports. But at a national level, Comisiones Obreras and another big union, the UGT, later said their Catalan affiliates would not take part in the strike, only protests against the crackdown.  In no case are we going to support positions that give cover to a unilateral declaration of independence,  they said in a joint statement. Rosa Borras, 47, took part in a demonstration in favor of national unity in Madrid last weekend. Thinking of her relatives in Catalonia, the situation is deeply saddening, she said.  I ve come because I feel very Spanish and it makes me very sad what s happened,  she said.  I wanted to be here for unity, because I also feel very Catalan.

Summary: रसोईघर से लेकर फुटबॉल मैदान तक, कैटेलोनिया संकट ने पुराने स्पेनिश घाव खोल दिए


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Moscow and Washington are continuing a dialogue on North Korea and the future of the international deal on Iran s nuclear program, RIA news agency cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Friday.

Summary: रूस का कहना है कि उत्तर कोरिया, ईरान पर वाशिंगटन के साथ बातचीत जारी हैः आर. आई. ए.


ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) - The White House said on Wednesday that it does not expect the government to shut down next month, but has contingency plans in place if the U.S. Congress fails to reach a deal on funding the government by a Dec. 8 deadline. “We are not anticipating a shutdown. We think that we’ll be able to work together. But the developments of the last 24 hours are discouraging,” White House spokesman Raj Shah told reporters traveling with Trump. Republicans control both chambers of the U.S. Congress, but their leaders will likely need to rely on at least some Democratic votes to pass the funding measure. “There are always contingencies in place. We hope it doesn’t get to that,” Shah said. Democratic leaders in Congress skipped a meeting with President Donald Trump on Tuesday that was expected to have been focused on the budget, raising the risk of a government shutdown next month with both sides far apart on the terms of an agreement. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, pulled out of the White House meeting because of a tweet that Trump sent earlier in the day attacking them as weak on illegal immigration and bent on raising taxes. Democrats have said they will demand help for young people brought to the United States illegally as children as part of their price for providing votes on the budget measure.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस को अमेरिकी सरकार के बंद होने की उम्मीद नहीं है


MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Suspected Boko Haram militants killed 18 people in northeast Nigeria on Friday, according to local witnesses and officials, the latest in an escalating number of lethal attacks in the region. The knife-wielding attackers, moving under cover of night,  targeted people in the town of Banki, 80 miles (130 km) southeast of the city of Maiduguri in Borno state, the epicenter of the eight-year conflict with Boko Haram, said a community leader and a local member of a vigilante group. The attack on the town, which sits on the border with Cameroon, is the latest in a string of deadly Boko Haram raids and bombings that have undermined the Nigerian military s statements that the insurgency is all but defeated. The frequency of attacks in northeastern Nigeria has increased in the last few months, killing at least 172 people since June 1 before Friday s attack, according to a Reuters tally. The attack on Banki left 18 dead, according to Modu Perobe, a member of the Civilian Joint Task Force, a regional vigilante group. Abor Ali, a local ruler, confirmed the death toll. Boko Haram s eight-year insurgency has left at least 20,000 dead and sparked one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world, with tens of thousands already in famine-like conditions, according to the United Nations. Some 8.5 million people in the worst affected parts of northeast Nigeria are now in need of some form of humanitarian assistance, with 5.2 million people lacking secure access to food, the U.N. has said.

Summary: पूर्वोत्तर नाइजीरिया में बोको हराम के संदिग्ध सदस्यों ने 18 लोगों की हत्या कर दी


The following statements were posted to the verified Twitter accounts of U.S. President Donald Trump, @realDonaldTrump and @POTUS.  The opinions expressed are his own. Reuters has not edited the statements or confirmed their accuracy.  @realDonaldTrump : - The approval process for the biggest Tax Cut & Tax Reform package in the history of our country will soon begin. Move fast Congress! [0728 EDT] - I will be traveling to Florida tomorrow to meet with our great Coast Guard, FEMA and many of the brave first responders & others. [0734 EDT] - With Irma and Harvey devastation, Tax Cuts and Tax Reform is needed more than ever before. Go Congress, go! [0836 EDT]  -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR)

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ट्विटर पर ट्रम्प (13 सितंबर)-कर सुधार, फ्लोरिडा


PRAGUE (Reuters) - The anti-establishment ANO party that won the Czech parliamentary election may form a minority government if other parties remain opposed to forming a coalition, ANO chief Andrej Babis said on Friday. The ANO won 29.6 percent in last weekend s vote, nearly three times as much as the runner-up centre-right Civic Democrats, but fell short of a majority in parliament, a fractious chamber of nine parties. ANO s stance against immigration and corruption in mainstream parties, pledges to bring effective government and a centrist economic program drew voters away from parties that dominated Czech politics from the end of communism, echoing a swing to anti-system and anti-immigrant parties across Europe.  Babis has held talks with the eight other parties holding parliamentary seats but was spurned by all apart from the far-right, anti-European SPD, not his preferred coalition partner.  If we are rejected everywhere, we will try a minority government,  Babis, a billionaire businessman, told the www.idnes.cz website, part of a media group he owned until it was shifted to a trust fund this year.  And we will come with an agenda that partially meets the programs of all parties.  Babis has however also set more rounds of talks with all parties, and said he would wait to see how the situation develops after the new parliament first convenes on Nov. 20. ANO has 78 of the 200 seats in parliament. Most parties shun Babis because he faces charges of fraud. Police say he hid ownership of a farm and conference center near Prague in 2008 so it could qualify for a 2 million euro EU subsidy that was only meant for small business. He denies any wrongdoing and says the charges were politically motivated. Babis s Agrofert group, placed in a trust fund earlier this year, spans over 250 companies in chemicals, food, farming and media around central Europe including Germany. Forbes puts his net worth at $4 billion.    The mix of business, media and political power, plus his domineering style and wish to simplify parliamentary procedures, have prompted accusations that he is a threat to democracy. He denies this, saying he only wants to move the country forward. Pledges not to join a Babis-led cabinet were at the heart of most parties  pre-election agendas, making any turnaround tough despite positions similar to ANO on policies like infrastructure investment, tax cuts and greater government transparency. Babis again sought to dispel fears he would be anti-European fanned by his opposition to adopting the euro currency and deeper European integration, and the possibility his cabinet  could lean on eurosceptic votes from the SPD camp.    I see no reason why we should leave the European Union.  Europe is a project thanks to which we have peace, free movement of people, goods, capital and services,  he told Friday s daily Pravo. Babis added, however, that the EU needed to better protect its external borders against inward migration and draw lessons from Britain s decision to quit the EU largely over sovereignty and immigration issues.

Summary: चेक चुनाव विजेता बाबिस ने अल्पसंख्यक सरकार के लिए गर्मजोशी दिखाई


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq demanded on Thursday that the U.S. government backtrack on a decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital to avoid fuelling terrorism, and a prominent Iraqi militia said the decision was a reason to attack U.S. troops. President Donald Trump reversed decades of U.S. policy on Wednesday and recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, imperiling Middle East peace efforts and upsetting the Arab world and Western allies alike.  We caution against the dangerous repercussions of this  decision on the stability of the region and the world,  an Iraqi government statement said.   The U.S. administration has to backtrack on this decision to stop any dangerous escalation that would fuel extremism and create conditions favorable to terrorism,  it said. The Iran-backed Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba said Trump s decision could become a  legitimate reason  to attack U.S. forces in Iraq.  Trump s stupid decision to make Jerusalem a capital for the Zionist will be the big spark for removing this entity from the body of the Islamic nation, and a legitimate reason to target American forces,  said the group s leader Akram al-Kaabi. The U.S. is leading an international coalition helping Iraq fight Islamic State and has provided key air and ground support. It has more than 5,000 troops deployed to Iraq. Nujaba, which has about 10,000 fighters, is one of the most important militias in Iraq. Though made up of Iraqis, it is loyal to Iran and is helping Tehran create a supply route through Iraq to Damascus. It fights under the umbrella of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a mostly Iranian-backed coalition of Shi ite militias that played a role in combating Islamic State. The PMF is government sanctioned and formally reports to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi s office.

Summary: इराक ने येरुशलम पर अमेरिकी पीछे हटने की मांग की, मिलिशिया ने कहा कि सैनिक लक्ष्य हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A congressional tax oversight committee will not seek U.S. President Donald Trump’s tax returns despite calls from Democrats for a review to determine possible business ties to foreign countries including Russia, the panel’s Republican chairman said on Monday. Defying decades of precedent, Trump has refused to release his tax documents, which Democrats say could show whether his business empire poses any conflicts of interest as he moves forward on issues ranging from tax reform to foreign relations.  “If Congress begins to use its powers to rummage around in the tax returns of the president, what prevents Congress from doing the same to average Americans?” House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady told reporters. “Privacy and civil liberties are still important rights in this country, and (the) Ways and Means Committee is not going to start to weaken them.” The Texas Republican was responding to questions about a Feb. 1 letter from Representative Bill Pascrell, a Ways and Means Democrat who asked Brady to obtain Republican Trump’s returns from the U.S. Treasury so the committee could review them in closed session and vote on whether to make them public. Pascrell later said he continued to hope for action, saying: “Our committee must respond by using its legal authority as Congress has in the past to provide proper oversight. This is Checks and Balances 101.” Experts say federal law authorizes the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee and the Joint Committee on Taxation to examine individual tax returns. The two other panels are headed by Senator Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican who dismissed the idea of seeking Trump’s returns last week. House Republicans contend that the authority to examine tax returns was meant to ensure the proper administration of the tax code. Brady said his panel was doing just that in 2014, when it released confidential tax data during a probe of IRS treatment of conservative group applications for nonprofit status. Pascrell’s letter said Trump’s business empire involves state-owned enterprises in China and the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Saudi Arabia. “It is imperative for the public to know and understand his...financial positions in domestic and foreign companies,” Pascrell wrote.  Brady said the letter misrepresented the law’s intent to promote confidentiality and privacy. “I’ve read his letter and I disagree with all of it,” he said.

Summary: अमेरिकी हाउस टैक्स पैनल ट्रम्प टैक्स रिटर्न की मांग नहीं करेगाः सांसद


VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis will meet Myanmar s top Buddhist monks, its military generals and civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in November when he visits that country and Bangladesh, both caught up in a crisis over the Rohingya Muslim minority.   According to a full program of the Nov. 26-Dec. 2 trip released by the Vatican on Tuesday, the pope will say two Masses in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and one in Bangladesh, which is predominantly Muslim. Francis will be the first pope to visit Myanmar and the second to visit Bangladesh, where Pope John Paul visited in 1986. The pope arrives in Yangon, the country s largest city, on Nov. 27 after a flight of more than 10 hours and is scheduled to rest for about 24 hours before heading to the country s capital Naypyitaw for a day.   There, he will have separate private talks with President Htin Kyaw and Suu Kyi, who is both State Counsellor and Foreign Minister, making her effectively the country s civilian leader.   A senior Vatican official said military leaders are expected to attend a separate, public meeting where the pope will address politicians and diplomats. This is where he is expected to give the keynote speech of the trip.   Myanmar is facing international scrutiny over the plight of its Rohingya community. In February, Francis said they had been tortured and killed simply because they wanted to live their culture and Muslim faith.   Last August, some hard-line Buddhists were riled with the pope spoke about  the persecution of our Rohingya brothers and sisters  and asked Catholics to pray for them, adding that they should be given  their full rights .   On Nov. 29, the pope will address the Sangha Maha Nayaka, the country s highest Buddhist authority, which is a government-backed panel of senior monks responsible for regulating the Buddhist clergy.   The United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday that Bangladesh border guards reported more than 11,000 Rohingya refugees crossing into their country from Myanmar on Monday alone..   The government offensive has drawn international condemnation and U.N. accusations of ethnic cleansing, which the government denies.   There are about 700,000 Roman Catholics in Myanmar according to the country s cardinal, Charles Maung Bo, out of a population of about 51.4 million.   Catholics make up a tiny minority in Bangladesh. Francis will be the second pope to visit that country, after Pope John Paul in 1986. (This refiled version of the story adds dropped numeral in second paragraph Nov 26 instead of 6).

Summary: पोप म्यांमार में शीर्ष बौद्ध भिक्षुओं से मिलेंगे, सेना को संबोधित करेंगे


MADRID (Reuters) - Spain s Constitutional Court has blocked Catalonia s declaration of independence made by the regional parliament on Friday, a court spokeswoman said on Tuesday.  Hours after Catalonia s parliament voted on a unilateral declaration of independence, the Spanish government dissolved the parliament, fired the government and set a date for regional elections Dec. 21.

Summary: स्पेन की संवैधानिक अदालत ने कैटेलोनिया की स्वतंत्रता की घोषणा को रद्द कर दिया


BEIRUT (Reuters) - The ease with which some state-built homes collapsed in Sunday s earthquake in western Iran showed corrupt practices when they were constructed, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday in a sentiment shared by many ordinary Iranians. Some of the houses which collapsed in an earthquake that killed at least 530 people and injured thousands of others were built under an affordable housing scheme initiated in 2011 by Rouhani s predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  That a house built by (ordinary) people in the Sarpol-e Zahab region has remained standing while in front of it a government-built building has collapsed is a sign of corruption,  Rouhani told a cabinet meeting, state media said.  It s clear there has been corruption in construction contracts,  he said. Sarpol-e Zahab is the town hardest hit by Sunday s 7.3 magnitude quake, the deadliest in Iran in more than a decade.  A picture widely circulated by ordinary Iranians on social media shows a building with relatively little damage in Sarpol-e Zahab next to a heavily damaged government-constructed building. This has fueled speculation that shoddy construction in the building of government housing had led to a higher number of casualties from the earthquake.  Rouhani said on Tuesday that any shortcomings in government constructed buildings in the earthquake zone will be punished. Mohammad Hossein Sadeghi, the prosecutor general in Kermanshah, the largest city in the earthquake zone, said on Wednesday that the quality of construction of new buildings that were heavily damaged would be investigated and charges may be brought against anyone deemed responsible.  If there are any problems with the construction, the individuals who were negligent must answer for their deeds,  Sadeghi said, according to the Iranian Students  News Agency (ISNA). An arrest warrant has been issued for a contractor responsible for a recently built hospital which was heavily damaged in the town of Islamabad-e Gharb, parliamentarian Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh said on Tuesday, according to the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA). Residents in the earthquake zone have also complained about the slow and inadequate government response as they struggle to find food, water and shelter.

Summary: ईरानी भूकंप में ध्वस्त सरकारी आवास भ्रष्टाचार को दर्शाता हैः रूहानी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. voting rights advocates scored a string of courtroom victories this year that rolled back some of the nation’s most restrictive voting laws. Now they face another challenge: making sure those rulings are not undermined by officials who oversee elections at the local level. With early voting already under way ahead of the Nov. 8 election, local officials in several states are trying to enforce restrictions that have been suspended or struck down in court, civil rights advocates say. In some cases, the action appears to be the result of bureaucratic confusion. In other cases, they appear to be actively resisting the law. “There are still too many places where voting is going to be difficult and confusing, not easy and straightforward,” said Leah Aden, senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The foot-dragging by local officials adds another element of uncertainty to what already promises to be a volatile election. The Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that states with a history of racial discrimination don’t have to win approval from the U.S. Justice Department when they want to change the way they conduct elections - the first time the Deep South will be free of federal oversight since 1964.  That same ruling has also hobbled the Justice Department’s ability to dispatch observers to potentially troublesome spots, raising concerns that it will be harder to deal with any problems that unfairly stop voters from casting their ballots.  Voters in 14 states will also face new voting restrictions, from scaled-back early voting hours to photo-identification requirements, according to New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. Roughly 10 percent of eligible voters do not have a government-issued photo ID, including a disproportionate share of minority, poor, student and elderly voters. Republican state legislators who have passed laws paving the way for these changes say they are needed to fight voter fraud. Numerous studies of the issue, however, suggest there is scant evidence of voter fraud in past elections.  One study by Justin Levitt, a Loyola University law professor who now heads the Justice Department’s voting rights section, found only 31 cases of voter impersonation out of more than 1 billion votes cast between 2000 and 2014.  Voting rights advocates have managed to roll back some of those restrictions in Texas, North Carolina, North Dakota, Kansas, Ohio and Wisconsin, potentially making it easier for millions of people to vote in states that have the potential to determine the outcome of the election. Not all court challenges have been successful. Civil rights groups in Arizona have failed to defeat a new law that makes it illegal for them to collect absentee ballots by hand, a popular practice in Hispanic and Native American neighborhoods. Republican legislators said the law was needed to combat fraud, though they could cite no examples. “Now if I go help a neighbor of mine and I take his ballot for him I can serve a year in prison. That’s really scary,” said Antonio Valdovinos, who heads La Machine, a Hispanic activist group. In other states, local officials in some of those states have resisted putting those rulings into effect.  After a federal judge ruled that Texas’ stringent photo-ID law discriminated against black and Hispanic voters, state officials agreed to allow voters who have trouble getting a drivers’ license or other approved ID card to provide other forms of identification, such as a utility bill. But in September, the same judge found the state had not properly told voters about the loosened requirements and ordered the state to rewrite voter education materials.  With early voting under way, poll workers in at least seven counties in Texas are still posting misleading signs that tell voters they must provide a photo ID, according to the Texas Civil Rights Project, a coalition of grassroots groups. Officials at the state and the county level say they are in the process of updating posters and educating workers about the new rules, which have been in place since August.  In Wisconsin, clerks in many state offices have refused to issue voting cards to people who don’t have the documents necessary to get a photo ID, despite a court order requiring them to do so, activists say. A federal judge found earlier this month that the state had not done enough to tell its employees, as well as voters, about the ruling.  In some cases state officials have only agreed to comply after months of wrangling. In Kansas, Secretary of State Kris Kobach – a leading proponent of stricter voter identification requirements – refused for months to comply with a May court ruling that ordered him to restore the voting rights of 18,000 residents who had been kept off registration lists because they did not provide proof of U.S. citizenship. He gave in last month, when he was threatened with contempt of court.    “We think we’ve won these cases, we get the good legal ruling, but the implementation is where the actual details are,” said Dale Ho, head of the American Civil Liberties Union’s voting rights project. On top of that, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has encouraged his supporters to patrol voting sites to look for possible signs of fraudulent voting, raising fears that his supporters might try to intimidate black, Hispanic and Muslim voters.  “We are on the precipice of the most chaotic election for people of color in 50 years,” said Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a coalition of more than 200 national rights groups.

Summary: अदालत में जीतना, जमीन पर हारनाः अनिश्चितता ने अमेरिकी मतदान अधिकारों को प्रभावित किया


TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The president of Honduras declared himself re-elected on Tuesday despite calls from the Organization of American States (OAS) for a fresh vote over allegations of fraud and deadly protests following last month s disputed election. In Washington, his rival asked the United States and others to reject the result and cut off aid, warning that protests in which more than 20 people have died could escalate into generalized violence unless there is a new election. The opposition alliance said it would file a legal challenge to the country s electoral tribunal s verdict that President Juan Orlando Hernandez won the Nov. 26 election. Hernandez spoke for the first time since the tribunal issued  that verdict on Sunday. A partial recount did not tip the result in favor of his opponent, TV host Salvador Nasralla, the tribunal said. Hernandez, who is an ally of the United States, said in a televised address that he would bring  peace, harmony and prosperity  to the poor Central American nation.  As a citizen and president-elect of all Hondurans, I humbly accept the will of the Honduran people,  said Hernandez, a conservative who has led a military crackdown on the country s violent gangs.  Nasralla, who leads a center-left coalition, called for a new vote monitored by international observers, saying Hernandez was holding onto power illegally.   Honduras runs the risk of falling into an undesired and fratricidal civil war, with unforeseen consequences in the Central American region,  he told reporters. At least 24 people, including two police officers, have died in simmering protests around the country since the opposition declared fraud, according to the Honduran human rights group COFADEH, which tracks kidnappings and murders by the state. However, for the most part the protests have been relatively small. Opposition leaders have accused government security forces of firing into barricades and peaceful protests. A military official said troops are firing only into the air and only if they are in imminent danger, such as coming under fire. Opposition leaders deny protesters are armed with guns. The political unrest has hit a country that struggles with violent drug gangs, one of world s highest murder rates - although murders have dropped under Hernandez s crackdown - and endemic poverty. Together, these drive a tide of Hondurans to migrate to the United States.  Nasralla traveled on Monday to Washington to meet with OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro and a senior State Department official. Following his visit, the U.S. State Department urged Honduran political parties to raise any concerns about the official results through a formal legal challenge this week - the step that Nasralla s opposition alliance said later in the day that it would take. However, Nasralla earlier rejected the value of a legal challenge, saying the courts are controlled by Hernandez. Instead, he said the United States, Latin American countries and other foreign powers should push for fresh elections, not recognize the current results and cut off aid to Honduras.  In the midst of the post-election chaos, the U.S. State Department certified late last month that the Honduran government has been fighting corruption and supporting human rights, clearing the way for Honduras to receive millions of dollars in U.S. aid. As results rolled in on Nov. 26, Nasralla initially seemed headed for an upset win. But results abruptly stopped being issued. When they restarted, the outcome began to favor Hernandez, arousing suspicion among Nasralla supporters. Shortly after the electoral tribunal backed Hernandez s victory on Sunday, the OAS said the election did not meet democratic standards and called for a re-run. On Monday, one of Hernandez s top officials rejected the call for another vote. Hernandez, 49, has been supported by U.S. President Donald Trump s chief of staff, John Kelly, since Kelly was a top general.

Summary: होंडुरास के राष्ट्रपति ने नए चुनावी आह्वान की अनदेखी की, प्रतिद्वंद्वी ने 'गृह युद्ध' की चेतावनी दी


ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq s parliament  has no right  to remove Kirkuk s governor from office, a senior Kurdish official said on Thursday, after parliament voted him out following a request by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.  He is an elected governor of the council of Kirkuk,  said Hoshyar Zebari, a close adviser to Kurdish President Massoud Barzani.  That is the only body that can remove him.  The decision to remove the governor, Najmaddin Kareem, comes after Kirkuk - an oil-rich province claimed by both the central government in Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq - voted to take part in a referendum set for Sept. 25 on Kurdish independence.

Summary: इराकी संसद को किर्कुक के गवर्नर को हटाने का कोई अधिकार नहीं हैः वरिष्ठ कुर्द अधिकारी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday announced cash management measures to avoid a U.S. default. In a letter to House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, Mnuchin said the Treasury would no longer be able to fully invest in two retirement funds for federal workers. They are the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund and the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund, according to the letter. All the funds would be made whole once the debt limit is increased, Mnuchin said. The U.S. Treasury is bumping up against the cap on how much money it can borrow to cover the budget deficit that results from Washington spending more than it collects in taxes. Only Congress can raise that limit. A temporary measure that suspended the debt limit expired on Dec. 8, although the Treasury has emergency means to continue to pay all its bills through January, the department has said.  The United States is one of only a few nations that requires the legislature to approve periodic increases in the legal limit on how much money the federal government can borrow.

Summary: अमेरिकी कोषागार ने ऋण सीमा के कारण नकदी प्रबंधन उपायों को जोड़ा


ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algerians are facing the eventual departure of their long-serving president, the ailing Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in the knowledge that all is being done to ensure little changes when he goes. The 80-year-old leader, who has ruled the North African country for nearly two decades, was incapacitated by a stroke in 2013 but may decide to run again in the next presidential election due in May 2019. Should he bow out, though, many Algerians believe the person elected to replace him will be secondary. Just as now, observers say, a powerful ruling caste dominated by the army will run the show from behind the scenes. That may be good news for an aged and thinning party elite from the Front de Liberation National (FLN), allied business tycoons and generals - collectively known as  Le Pouvoir  or  The Powers That Be  - that has long managed Algeria s politics. It is a source of frustration, however, for young Algerians who have known no other leader. They worry less about who is in charge and more about jobs at a time of high unemployment, low oil prices and economic austerity.  For Samir Abdelaoui, who studies at a private English language school, leaving the country may offer the way out.  I don t care about politics, all I need is a decent job, if not here, then overseas. I want a visa, not a president,  said Abdelaoui, who is learning English to increase his chances of getting a work visa abroad. Speculation is rife abroad over what will happen to Algeria after the departure of Bouteflika, who has visited Europe several times for treatment and remained in hospital in France for months after his stroke. But inside Algeria, an apparent oasis of stability in a chaotic region, the regime s allies regard the problem as settled.   After Bouteflika the military command will organize the succession. The political class is weak here,  said Anis Rahmani, Chairman of Ennahar TV, an insider close to the authorities. One liberal Algerian analyst also expected continuity.  The institutions in Algiers are stronger than the men. The men go but the institutions stay,  the analyst said, requesting anonymity.  The institutions are functioning well, whether Bouteflika is sick, in Algiers or abroad. As long as his health allows him to he will continue beyond 2018.  Hopes for the election of a reformist, modernizing president who will bring in a competitive democracy and open society, have all but faded away. The priority, according to observers of Algeria s system, is the stability that its citizens see as incarnated in Bouteflika. The former French colony, which freed itself in a brutal independence struggle that ended in 1962, is haunted by  memories of a 1990s civil war that erupted after the state canceled elections when an Islamist party appeared set to win. That conflict killed 200,000 people, leaving many Algerians wary later of the unrest that toppled the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya in the  Arab Spring  revolts of 2011.  Algeria is a country in a very bad neighborhood and because we are in a bad neighborhood the army should remain involved. I don t think the army would want to seize power after Bouteflika but they will be part of the political process,  said another Algerian political analyst who also requested anonymity. Young Algerians, who form two thirds of the population of 41 million, nevertheless feel left out and disconnected with a remote political class. By contrast, French President Emmanuel Macron walked through the streets of Algiers on a visit last week and talked directly with excited young people - something they have not experienced with their own leader for a long time. One of the analysts described the ruling class as  totally obsolete in a country of youths .  We dream of a young class that has vitality, but the political class is not ready to give them one inch,  said the analyst Bouteflika, in power since 1999, is rarely seen and has not spoken in public since his stroke. Yet if he or his circle decides he will run for a fifth term, sources close to  Le Pouvoir  say, he would be without doubt elected. The ruling FLN and the pro-government National Rally for Democracy dominate parliament while the opposition including leftists and Islamists is weak and divided. If Bouteflika doesn t run, the tight circle of army generals and intelligence officials could produce a  joker  candidate  from outside the political class. For now, though, the possible alternatives are all members of the old elite such as Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia or former premier Abelmalek Sellal. Any succession scenario involving Said Bouteflika, the president s younger brother and a close aide, would be controversial as the military men don t favor hereditary rule, observers say. Foreign diplomats say they expect the generals to arrange a smooth transition. Instead they worry more about how the country, which relies on oil and gas exports, will manage the state-controlled economy in an era of low energy prices. The government spends about $30 billion a year to subsidize everything from basic foodstuffs and fuel to healthcare, housing and education. This system has helped to keep the social peace, but the government has failed to develop industries beyond the energy sector and is fiscally strapped. Algeria has done little to encourage foreign investment despite the desperate need for jobs, and even less to ease visa restrictions or build hotels to attract tourists to its beaches, mountains and desert wilderness, all a short flight from Europe. So far the uncontested success has been security. Even Western diplomats move freely without the convoys that accompany them in many other Arab capitals. Still, remnants of al Qaeda remain active and have declared allegiance to Islamic State. A twin car bombing killed 67 in Algiers in 2007 and at least 38 hostages died when jihadis seized a gas plant in 2013.  The security services have also uncovered and infiltrated sleeper cells while Algeria has closed all its border crossings with Libya, Mali, Niger, Morocco and Mauritania, turning them into military zones to prevent jihadis scattered across the Sahel region from connecting with each other. The next president should be a strongman who will guarantee security because we are in a state of war against terrorism,  said Rahmani.  There is an external threat. The borders are all on fire. The next president should have a military background, power and authority to decide.

Summary: समय आने पर अल्जीरिया की सत्तारूढ़ जाति व्यवस्थित उत्तराधिकार पर सेट हो जाती है


WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Leaders of religious conservative groups largely stood behind Donald Trump on Saturday, the day after vulgar sexual comments he made about women surfaced online, but some expressed concern that the U.S. Republican presidential nominee’s remarks could depress evangelical turnout on Election Day. Most evangelical leaders did not condemn Trump, and instead pointed to an urgent need to prevent Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton from winning the presidency, reshaping the Supreme Court and implementing liberal policies. The latest blow to Trump’s campaign came after a 2005 video surfaced of the then-reality TV star talking on an open microphone about groping women and trying to seduce a married woman. Vice presidential running mate Mike Pence said he could not defend Trump’s words. Gary Bauer, chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, said Trump’s “grossly inappropriate language” does not change the choice facing the country in the Nov. 8 election and that “I continue to support the Trump-Pence ticket.” “Hillary Clinton is committed to enacting policies that will erode religious liberty, promote abortion, make our country less safe, and leave our borders unprotected,” Bauer said. White evangelicals make up about 20 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Public Religion Research Institute, and represent a crucial voting bloc Trump needs to win the presidency. They have long represented a pillar of support for Republicans. In 2004, they were instrumental in President George W. Bush’s re-election. They turned out in similar numbers in 2008 and 2012, when Mitt Romney, a Mormon who many evangelicals considered too moderate, was the Republican nominee, according to a report by the Pew Research Center. Support from evangelicals for Trump has been strong throughout his campaign, even though it was only late in life that the New York businessman adopted their cause. Social conservatives flocked to his side over other deeply religious Republican presidential candidates, such as Ted Cruz. “Naturally I’m disappointed,” said Steve Scheffler, head of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition. “But, you know, the Bible tells me that we are all sinners saved by grace and I don’t think there’s probably a person alive that I know of that hasn’t made some mistakes in the past.” He said Clinton has peccadilloes of her own, most notably marital woes with her husband, former President Bill Clinton. “So yes, I will vote for Donald Trump. I’m not excusing his behavior at all. It’s disgusting,” he said. Still, politically active Christian conservative leaders across the country said they were worried that Trump’s comments could depress turnout among evangelicals. “Evangelicals are not going to vote for Hillary,” said religious political activist David Lane. “But this could cause them to stay home. This could be a big deal. Things like this matter.” Much will hinge on Trump’s performance in the second presidential debate on Sunday night, and whether he can convince Christians that he is a changed man, Lane said. “He already apologized and said he was wrong,” said Lane. “I think he’s moving in the right direction. But he’s got to do really well in the debate Sunday night.” Other religious leaders, however, were less forgiving. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, tweeted an article detailing evangelical apathy toward the Trump tape, calling it a “disgrace.” “What a scandal to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to the integrity of our witness,” Moore wrote. Still, the majority view among religious conservatives appeared to be summed up by Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council action group, who said evangelicals “are left with a choice of voting for the one who will do the least damage to our freedoms.” “This is far from an ideal situation, but it is the reality in which we find ourselves and as difficult as it is, I refuse to find sanctuary on the sidelines and allow the country and culture to deteriorate even further by continuing the policies of the last eight years,” he said.

Summary: इवेंजेलिकल नेता ट्रम्प के साथ बने हुए हैं, क्लिंटन को हराने पर ध्यान केंद्रित करते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An explosion at an entry control point at Bagram airfield near the Afghan capital Kabul caused a small number of casualties, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.  An explosion occurred outside an entry control point at Bagram Airfield at 5:38 p.m. local time today,  a statement said.   The explosion resulted in a small number of casualties,  it said, adding that the airfield was secure and the incident was being investigated.

Summary: काबुल के पास हवाई क्षेत्र में विस्फोट में हताहतों की संख्याः अमेरिकी सेना


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump lashed out at what he called the party’s “rigged” delegate selection rules on Monday after rival Ted Cruz swept all of Colorado’s 34 delegates over the weekend. The New York billionaire, who has been outmaneuvered by Cruz in a series of recent state meetings to select national convention delegates, said the process was set up to protect party insiders and shut out insurgent candidates. “The system is rigged, it’s crooked,” Trump said on Fox News on Monday, alleging the Colorado convention results showed voters were being denied a voice in the process. “There was no voting. I didn’t go out there to make a speech or anything, there’s no voting,” Trump said. “The people out there are going crazy, in the Denver area and Colorado itself, and they’re going absolutely crazy because they weren’t given a vote. This was given by politicians - it’s a crooked deal.” Trump has 743 bound delegates to 545 for Cruz, according to an Associated Press count, in the battle for the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination on the first ballot and avoid a messy floor fight at the Republican National Convention from July 18-21. But both are at risk of not acquiring enough delegates for a first-ballot victory, leaving many free to switch their votes on later ballots. That has set off a fierce scramble by Republican candidates to get their supporters chosen as convention delegates and brought new scrutiny to the selection rules, which vary by state. Trump, who has brought in veteran strategist Paul Manafort to lead his delegate-gathering efforts, complained about Cruz’s recent success at local and state party meetings where activists pick the actual delegates who will attend the national convention. Trump accused Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, of trying to steal delegates in South Carolina. Trump won the state primary in February, but Cruz supporters got four of the first six delegate slots filled at congressional district meetings on Saturday, according to local media. Cruz also succeeded at getting more of his supporters chosen as delegates in Iowa, where he won the caucuses in January, and at last week’s state convention in North Dakota. “Now they’re trying to pick off those delegates one by one,” Trump said. “That’s not the way democracy is supposed to work. They offer them trips, they offer them all sorts of things and you’re allowed to do that. You can buy all these votes.” Trump distributed a video of what he said was a Colorado voter setting his Republican Party registration on fire in protest of the process. “Great people being disenfranchised by politicians,” Trump said on Twitter, adding the Republican Party was “in trouble.” Guy Short, a Cruz backer in Colorado who was elected as a Republican national convention delegate for the sixth time, disputed Trump’s allegations. “Donald Trump is a liar,” Short told Reuters in an email. “Nobody was offered anything. In fact, I spent thousands of dollars of my own money campaigning to become a delegate because it’s that important to make sure Donald Trump is NOT our nominee.” Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer told Fox News the process for choosing delegates had been set by states for more than a year and was no secret. “Not understanding that is one thing, but it’s hardly rigged when it’s done right out in the open,” he said. Cruz campaign spokeswoman Alice Stewart said Trump was insulting the process to distract from his losses. “He has a pattern of whining when he isn’t winning,” she said in a statement. Trump’s organizational troubles even extend to two of his children. Eric Trump, 32, and Ivanka Trump, 34, missed the deadline for registering as Republicans to vote in next week’s New York primary. State records show both are registered voters who are not enrolled in a party, ABC News reported. For already registered voters, any request to switch party affiliation must have been made by early October. The deadline for new voter registrations was March 25. Trump was the target on Monday of a new ad by the Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton, that listed Trump’s comments on women, Mexican immigrants and Muslims. Both Clinton and rival Bernie Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, have tried to position themselves as the Democrat most capable of defeating Trump. “Donald Trump says we can solve America’s problems by turning against each other,” Clinton’s ad said. “It’s wrong and it goes against everything New York and America stand for.”

Summary: रिपब्लिकन प्रतिनिधियों के चयन के नियमों में 'धांधली' की गईः ट्रम्प


BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan votes in a presidential election on Sunday that is being closely fought between a protege of the outgoing president and an opposition leader, testing stability in a country where two previous leaders were ousted in violent riots. The mainly Muslim ex-Soviet state of six million people stands out from its neighbors, mostly run by autocrats, in having a boisterous democracy that produces sometimes chaotic changes of leadership. Serving President Almazbek Atambayev has to step down because of term limits, and is backing Sooronbai Jeenbekov, a 58-year-old member of Atambayev s Social Democratic Party, to succeed him. He is facing strong opposition from Omurbek Babanov, 47, who heads the biggest opposition party, Respublika-Ata Zhurt (Fatherland). The most likely outcome is that neither Babanov nor Jeenbekov will win outright on Sunday, setting up a second round run-off, according to the U.S.-based International Republican Institute, which has conducted its own polling.  Both leading candidates differ little on the main points of policy: a secular state, hewing close to Russia in a region where Moscow vies for influence with the United States and China. However, they represent rival interest groups and clans inside Kyrgyzstan that are fighting for access to power and state resources. In a September poll by Coalition for Democracy and Civil Society, a Western-backed NGO, 38.7 percent of respondents said they expected Babanov to win and 41.2 percent picked Jeenbekov. Eleven more candidates are running in the vote. A candidate needs more than 50 percent for an outright win. Opposition candidate Babanov is a wealthy businessman with a charismatic style, while Jeenbekov is a former livestock technician turned bureaucrat. Both say they will maintain strong ties to Moscow.  Kyrgyzstan hosts a Russian military airbase. Remittances from hundreds of thousands of migrant laborers working in Russia are a vital source of Kyrgyzstan s foreign currency revenue. The campaign has featured allegations of coup plots and corrupt practices, hinting at the fragile political stability that has dogged Kyrgyzstan since a revolution in 2005 that ousted long-standing leader Askar Akayev.   I am going to start my fight against corruption with you,  Jeenbekov told opposition candidate Babanov in a televised debate, in which he also called his younger opponent  a chick . The Kyrgyz government detained one of Babanov s supporters on Sept. 30, charging him with plotting a violent coup during the vote. It has also accused several Babanov campaign workers of planning to bribe voters. Babanov has denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the charges against his supporters as dirty election tactics. Atambayev s government last month accused Kazakhstan, a bigger and wealthier neighbor which is also close to Russia, of interfering in the election after Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev met Babanov and appeared to endorse him.   Kazakhstan has denied backing any candidates, and, citing security concerns, introduced tighter checks on the Kyrgyz border this week.

Summary: किर्गिस्तान की नाजुक स्थिरता का परीक्षण करने के लिए निकटता से चुनाव लड़ा


WASHINGTON/CANNON BALL, N.D. (Reuters) - Native Americans and activists protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline project expressed alarm on Wednesday after federal lawmakers from North Dakota said the final permit had been granted for the project, a statement later contradicted by the Army, which issues such permits. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said on Wednesday it has started a review for the permit but that the easement had not been granted. “The Assistant Secretary for the Army Civil Works will make a decision on the pipeline once a full review and analysis is completed in accordance with the directive,” it said in a statement. (Graphic: here) Activists in North Dakota expressed anger after two lawmakers said late on Tuesday that final right-of-way for the pipeline had already been approved.  In a statement late on Tuesday, activists at the Sacred Stone camp, the original protest camp on Standing Rock Sioux land, called on other activists to return for prayer and “direct action.”      The Standing Rock Sioux tribe, along with other Native American groups, environmentalists and other activists have argued that the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline led by  Energy Transfer Partners LP would damage sacred lands and could leak oil into the tribe’s water supply. Proponents believe the pipeline is necessary to transport U.S. oil safely and that it would create jobs. The pipeline would stretch for 1,170 miles (1,885 km) from North Dakota’s oil-producing Bakken region to Patoka, Illinois. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe had successfully won delays from the Obama administration for further environmental review, but last week President Donald Trump signed an executive order telling the Corps of Engineers to expedite review of the project. It is unclear how long that review will take. It still needs a required permit to tunnel under Lake Oahe, a reservoir that is part of the Missouri River. The reservoir is the water source for the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, whose land in Cannon Ball is adjacent to the line’s route.    Jade Begay, spokeswoman for the Indigenous Environmental Network, a nonprofit group and one of the primary groups protesting the line, said: “People (in protest camps) are watching pretty closely. People are in a reactionary place and it is dangerous for politicians to put out these unfounded statements.”  In a statement posted on their website, the Sacred Stone camp - the original camp, established last April - asked protesters to return to their encampment so that they could stage another demonstration. That camp is located on Sioux land in Sioux County; it is not the site of the bulk of protests, which are in Morton County on federal land.  The main protest camp, known as Oceti Sakowin, had been the staging ground for ongoing protests, some of which led to violent clashes between law enforcement and activists.  That camp is in the process of being broken down, because it is located on a flood plain, and when it floods, any remaining structures could foul the river.  Protesters on Wednesday attempted to set up another camp across from Oceti Sakowin, on the other side of Highway 1806, on private property. In a press release, North Dakota law enforcement said they asked protesters to leave the camp, and after refusals, evicted about 40 people from that land, which is owned by Dakota Access. On Tuesday, U.S. Senator John Hoeven of North Dakota said in a statement that Acting Secretary of the Army Robert Speer had told him and Vice President Mike Pence that Speer directed the Corps to proceed with the easement. U.S. Representative Kevin Cramer also said he had been informed of the directive. A spokesman for Hoeven, Don Canton, said on Wednesday that Speer told the senator that the Army Corps was doing its due diligence in acting on Trump’s memo from last week, and that Hoeven had not discussed the environmental study with the Corps. Lewis Grassrope, a member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, said the Trump administration and North Dakota  lawmakers were trying to inspire fear and anger through premature statements. “They want us to react and go do actions, which will give them the right to say, ‘OK, they’re not peaceful. So let’s put in this pipeline,’” he said.     Several groups opposing the project, including the Standing Rock Sioux, said they would fight the granting of an easement in court, as an environmental study still needs to be completed. Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II last week said he requested a meeting with Trump, but has not received a response. Standing Rock representatives were not available for comment on Wednesday, but Begay said that “Trump, when he made these executive orders, did not have any consultation with tribal leaders.”

Summary: डकोटा पाइपलाइन समीक्षा शुरू होते ही कार्यकर्ताओं का गुस्सा बढ़ा


TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) - Florida Governor Rick Scott on Thursday replaced a local prosecutor who declared she would not seek the death penalty in a case against a man accused of killing an Orlando police officer and refused to recuse herself. In an executive order, Scott removed State Attorney Aramis Ayala, the elected prosecutor in central Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit, and reassigned the murder case to State Attorney Brad King of the nearby Fifth Judicial Circuit. Ayala, at a news conference earlier on Thursday, said Florida’s death penalty system was the cause of “legal chaos” and said she would not seek the death penalty against Markeith Loyd, charged in the Jan. 9 shooting of the policewoman. He was arrested after an intensive manhunt that drew widespread attention. The statement by Ayala, who took office early this year, outraged law enforcement groups, some state lawmakers and State Attorney General Pam Bondi. But several groups, including Amnesty International USA and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, rose to her defense. “She has made it clear that she will not fight for justice and that is why I am using my executive authority to immediately reassign the case to State Attorney Brad King,” Scott said in a statement. After a discussion with Scott on Thursday afternoon, Ayala issued a statement saying she offered to have “a full conversation” about her decision, but he “declined to explore my reasoning.” “Upon receipt of any lawful order, my office will follow that order and fully cooperate to ensure the successful prosecution of Markeith Loyd,” she said. Florida’s governor signed legislation on Monday tightening state law to require a unanimous recommendation by a jury before judges can impose the death penalty. The law is the state’s latest effort to restart its death penalty process, which was put on hold twice last year after rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and the Florida Supreme Court in separate cases. Loyd was arrested on Jan. 7 after a nine-day manhunt that followed the shooting death of Orlando police Master Sargent Debra Clayton. At the time, Loyd was already a suspect in the murder of his pregnant ex-girlfriend, Sade Dixon, in December. Florida prisons hold 382 people who have been sentenced to die. Some have been on death row since the 1970s because the process of appealing death penalty verdicts can take decades.

Summary: फ्लोरिडा के गवर्नर ने मृत्युदंड विरोधी अभियोजक की जगह ली


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Saturday it had ordered that Iran, Venezuela and four African nations be added to a U.S. list of countries accused of failing to crack down on human trafficking, a step that further isolates them from the United States.  The White House said it also was increasing restrictions on North Korea, Eritrea, Russia and Syria, which already were on the list, by constraining them from engaging in educational or cultural exchange programs with the United States. In addition, President Donald Trump s administration instructed the U.S. executive director of the International Monetary Fund and U.S. executive directors at other multilateral development banks to vote against extending loans or other funds to North Korea, Russia and Iran for fiscal year 2018, which begins on Sunday. Under a 2000 U.S. law called the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, the United States does not provide non-humanitarian, non-trade-related foreign assistance to any country that fails to comply with minimum standards for eliminating trafficking and is not making efforts to do so. The White House said in a notice that Iran, Venezuela, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Equatorial Guinea, South Sudan and Sudan had been added to the list of countries subject to these restrictions for the new fiscal year. The move came six days after Trump included Venezuela and Iran on a list of eight countries targeted for travel restrictions to the United States. The restrictions on Venezuela focused on government officials who the Trump administration blamed for the country s slide into economic disarray. The travel ban on Iranians was broader. That travel ban list lifted previous restrictions on citizens from Sudan.

Summary: अमेरिका ने ईरान, वेनेजुएला पर मानव तस्करी में विफलता का आरोप लगाया


KAMPALA (Reuters) - The Ugandan army on Friday attacked rebel camps in eastern Congo, an army spokesman said. The attack followed intelligence sharing with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, spokesman Richard Karemire told Reuters.    So in a pre-emptive move this afternoon, UPDF conducted attacks, they are of a limited nature on camps in DRC,  he said.

Summary: युगांडा की सेना ने पूर्वी कांगो में विद्रोही शिविरों पर हमला किया


BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel s chief of staff will become acting and temporary finance minister when Wolfgang Schaeuble leaves office, sources in her conservative party said on Friday. The decision comes as negotiations to form a new government look likely to drag into 2018.     The sources said Merkel had decided that Peter Altmaier would take over from Schaeuble, who agreed on Wednesday to become president of the lower house of parliament to let someone from another coalition party take the role. . Government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer would not deny the news, first reported by Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, but noted the Bundestag would not elect a new president until its first session, which must take place by Oct. 24.  We will inform you about everything promptly after that,  Demmer told a regular news conference. Altmaier, a conservative and close confidant of Merkel s, would take over after the 75-year-old Schaeuble is nominated by the conservative alliance at a meeting on Oct. 17. He would then hand over to whoever is named by a new coalition partner, probably the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), which urged Merkel to accelerate the process of forming a new government. Fifty-nine percent of Germans support Merkel s aim to create a three-way coalition with the FDP and the environmentalist Greens, a survey for broadcaster ZDF found.  But a so-called  Jamaica  coalition - after the parties  colors of black, yellow and green that match the Jamaican flag - has never been tested at the national level and there are serious differences on migration, energy, taxes and Europe. Complicating coalition talks is a debate between Merkel s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the CSU, which lost 10 percentage points in Sunday s vote. Eager to claw back support ahead of state elections in 2018, the CSU has redoubled its calls for limiting migration, something Merkel has opposed. Only 23 percent of Germans would favor the continuation of the  grand coalition  of Merkel s conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD), which governed for the last four years. Almost two-thirds of those polled supported the SPD s decision to go into opposition at the national level after its worst election result in the post-war era on Sunday. Andrea Nahles, the SPD s newly elected parliamentary leader, said the conservatives, the FDP and Greens  need to and will get(a coalition agreement) done .  If Chancellor Merkel thinks the SPD is a tactical reserve option for an emergency, then she is wrong,  Nahles told Bild. Altmaier himself suggested negotiations may take longer than four years ago, when a deal was done by Christmas.  That s what I m hoping for, but what s decisive is the substance, not the date,  Altmaier said in an interview published by Focus magazine on Friday. Exploratory talks are expected after the Oct. 15 election in the state of Lower Saxony, now ruled by a coalition of the SPD and Greens. But Wolfgang Kubicki, deputy leader of the FDP, urged Merkel to get the process started sooner.  Everyone knows what needs to be done. There s no reason to wait any longer,  he told the Handelsblatt newspaper. He said the conflict within conservatives  should not result in Germany remaining without a new government for a long time.  Underscoring the problems still ahead in forming a government, key officials with the Greens and FDP on Friday questioned a push by Merkel s conservatives to implement facial recognition technology in video surveillance.  Kubicki told Der Spiegel:  Widespread facial recognition would be a significant step toward a surveillance state.  Konstantin von Notz, deputy of the Greens in parliament, echoed his concerns, adding,  Then we wouldn t be living in a free country anymore.

Summary: जर्मनी की मर्केल अपने सहयोगी ऑल्टमेयर को कार्यवाहक वित्त मंत्री के रूप में नामित करेंगीः सूत्र


BEIJING (Reuters) - China s ruling Communist Party has expelled a former party boss of northwestern Gansu province, the country s anti-graft agency said on Friday, after an investigation showed he received bribes and was involved in  superstitious activities .  In a statement on its website, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said Wang Sanyun, who was appointed as Gansu s party secretary in late 2011, had been  passive  in implementing the party s key policies,  seriously derelict  in his duties and accepted bribes and gifts in exchange for offering promotions.  The case has been referred to prosecutors, it said.  Wang, 64, had violated disciplinary regulations by frequenting  private clubs , the statement said, adding that he had also been involved in  superstitious activities  over a prolonged period of time, without elaborating. It was not possible to reach Wang or a representative for comment and it was unclear whether he had been allowed to retain a lawyer.  Wang was demoted from his post in Gansu in April to serve on a less prominent special committee of the national legislature, before being detained and placed under investigation in July. Separately, the commission said that the former president of the country s second-largest coal producer China Coal Energy Company Ltd, Gao Jianjun, would also be prosecuted for suspected graft after a party investigation found he took bribes and abused his power. It was not possible to reach Gao or a representative for comment. The company did not answer calls out of business hours early on Friday evening. Gao was put under investigation in May. President Xi Jinping has presided over a far-reaching anti-corruption drive since coming to power in 2012, punishing more than a million party members, jailing top military figures and retired security tsar Zhou Yongkang, the most senior official toppled for corruption since 1949.

Summary: चीन की सत्तारूढ़ कम्युनिस्ट पार्टी ने गांसु पार्टी के पूर्व प्रमुख को भ्रष्टाचार के आरोप में निष्कासित कर दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump sent a Twitter message bragging about corporate America’s high profits under his presidency on Tuesday, prompting critics to say he was undercutting Republican arguments in favor of a tax cut for corporations. As Republicans in Washington try to refocus on taxes after the collapse of their failed drive to repeal Obamacare, Trump sent a morning tweet that said: “Corporations have NEVER made as much money as they are making now.” Corporate lobbyists and Republicans consistently argue that a cut in the corporate income tax is needed to help corporations be more competitive. But highlighting corporate profits could diminish that argument. “This is a weird way to launch their proposal to cut corporate taxes,” Democratic Senator Brian Schatz said in a tweet of his own responding to Trump. The largest U.S. public companies have seen profits accelerate in 2017, with quarterly earnings rising at a double-digit pace compared with a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters data. Full-year earnings are expected to be up 11.5 percent, which would be the strongest growth since 2011. More than six months into his presidency, Trump still sends out tweets that catch aides and allies off guard and sometimes clash with Republicans’ messaging on their policy agenda. The Trump tweet “takes the edge of urgency off the plea to reduce the burden on corporations,” said William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank. Trump later took credit for surging U.S. stock prices that pushed the Dow Jones Industrial Average to a new record high on Tuesday. But the broader market saw a bigger rally under former President Barack Obama. The benchmark S&P 500 Index has gained 9.4 percent since Trump took office on Jan. 20, lagging a 16.2 percent S&P gain during Obama’s first months in office. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that Congress would take up tax reform after the U.S. Labor Day holiday on Sept. 4, beginning in the House of Representatives. A White House timeline envisions a House vote on tax legislation in October and Senate vote in November.  But there is little consensus on the issue. The White House insists on cutting the corporate rate to 15 percent, while House Republicans favor 20 percent. A top Senate Republican this week said lawmakers would be lucky to get it down to 25 percent.   On Tuesday, Senate Democrats offered to work with Republicans on a bipartisan tax package, but only if it does not cut taxes for the wealthy, add to the federal deficit or allow Republicans to enact legislation on their own. But McConnell rejected the offer from 45 lawmakers led by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. “Most of the principles that would get the country growing again, they’re not interested in addressing,” the Kentucky Republican told reporters.  McConnell said he hoped Republican legislation might win support from three Senate Democrats who face reelection next year in Republican states and did not join the offer from other Democrats.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने कॉर्पोरेट कर में कटौती की मांग करते हुए कॉर्पोरेट मुनाफे की सराहना की


SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean workers are operating in the Kaesong industrial zone, state-run web sites said on Friday, after the joint venture with South Korea was suspended last year amid disagreement over the North s nuclear and missile programmes. The South ended more than a decade of cooperation at the factory park on the North Korean side of the demilitarized zone (DMZ) after the North launched a rocket that put an object into orbit, closing the last remaining window of interaction between the two sides.  At the time, South Korea said it would no longer allow funds paid for Kaesong to be used in the North s missile and nuclear programmes. Since then, a South Korean official has said there is no evidence that North Korea diverted wages paid to its workers by South Korean companies operating in the park to its weapons programmes.  They do not even see our proud workers labouring vigorously working in the Kaesong industrial complex,  North Korea s propaganda web site Meari (arirangmeari.com) said in a post dated Friday.  Another propaganda web site, Uriminzokkiri, said  it is nobody s business what we do in an industrial complex where our nation s sovereignty is exercised .  U.S.-funded broadcaster Radio Free Asia reported on Monday that North Korean authorities were operating 19 clothing factories within the Kaesong complex without informing South Korean authorities, citing an unnamed source with knowledge of North Korean matters in China.  An official at South Korea s Ministry of Unification said North Korea must not violate South Korean firms  property rights within the complex, wire service Yonhap reported.  The ministry could not be immediately reached for comment. Reclusive North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. In recent weeks, North Korea has launched two missiles over Japan and conducted its sixth nuclear test, and may be fast advancing toward its goal of developing a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said last weekend that Washington was directly communicating with Pyongyang on its nuclear and missile programmes but that Pyongyang had shown no interest in dialogue. U.S. President Donald Trump later dismissed any prospect of talks with North Korea as a waste of time.

Summary: बंद, दक्षिण-निवेशित कारखाने क्षेत्र में काम कर रहे उत्तर कोरियाई श्रमिक


NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday urged a New York jury to find Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive at Turkey s majority state-owned Halkbank, guilty of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions, while Atilla s lawyers said he was a  blameless pawn.  The closing arguments in Manhattan federal court capped off a three-week trial that has strained diplomatic relations between the United States and Turkey.  This is a case about lies,  Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Lockard told the jury, saying Atilla lied to U.S. authorities that Halkbank was complying with sanctions. Halkbank has denied involvement in illegal activities. Lockard pointed to the testimony of Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, who was charged in the case but pleaded guilty and testified for the prosecutors. Zarrab testified that Atilla helped design fraudulent gold and food transactions that allowed Iran to spend its oil and gas revenues abroad, including through U.S. financial institutions, defying U.S. sanctions. Atilla denied conspiring with Zarrab while testifying in his own defense during the trial. Lockard said Zarrab s testimony was supported by other evidence, including an April 2013 message in which Halkbank s then-general manager, Suleyman Aslan, asked Zarrab if he had any problem with  the method proposed by Hakan Atilla.  Attempts by Reuters to reach Aslan for comment have been unsuccessful. Lockard also said that Zarrab s scheme continued even as Aslan and others at the bank were replaced.  The only person who s been involved at every step is Mr. Atilla,  he said. Atilla s lawyer, Victor Rocco, said Zarrab was not credible. He noted that Zarrab had hired prominent American lawyers to try to negotiate his release through diplomacy, and said he decided to turn on Atilla after that failed.  Hakan Atilla is a blameless pawn, collateral damage in a  story that belongs in The Twilight Zone, not in American court,  Rocco said. Rocco argued that evidence pointed to Atilla s innocence. He cited a call in which Zarrab told one of his employees that Atilla  threw a wrench in the gears,  but that Zarrab resolved the problem by going to Aslan. Rocco also pointed to an April 2013 call in which Zarrab said he lied to Atilla, even though Zarrab had said Atilla was already in on the scheme by October 2012.  If in October of 2012 Hakan Atilla was part of a conspiracy with Zarrab, why is Zarrab lying to him six months later?  Rocco asked. U.S. prosecutors charged nine people in the criminal case, though only Zarrab, 34, and Atilla, 47, have been arrested by U.S. authorities. U.S. District Judge Richard Berman is expected to instruct the jury Wednesday morning, after which jurors will begin deliberating on the case.

Summary: तुर्की के बैंकर के अमेरिकी मुकदमे में अंतिम दलीलें सोने के व्यापारी पर निर्भर करती हैं


BERLIN (Reuters) - A top leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservative party said her website had been hit by thousands of cyber attacks   many from Russian IP addresses   before Sunday s televised election debate. German intelligence and government officials have often voiced concerns that Moscow could seek to interfere in the Sept. 24 national election, in which Merkel is widely expected to win a fourth term. Russia has repeatedly denied trying to influence foreign elections.  Julia Kloeckner, vice chairman of Merkel s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said on Monday that her political website had seen some 3,000 attacks on Sunday before the debate between Merkel and Social Democratic leader Martin Schulz. Following a pattern seen in earlier hacks, the CDU s headquarters in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, where Kloeckner is the party s leader, also experienced  massive attacks  ahead of the debate, she said.   Many of the senders have Russian IP addresses,  Kloeckner added.         German authorities have blamed a spate of cyber attacks  directed at the German parliament, individual lawmakers, political parties and political think-tanks since summer 2015 on APT 28, a Russian hacker group with links to Moscow. Kloeckner did not say how the attacks had been discovered or what form they had taken. Many recent cyber attacks targeted at German politicians and institutions have used phishing schemes that include attachments with malicious software.  Germany s BSI federal cyber protection agency said it was aware of the incidents and was in touch with the CDU headquarters in the state, a spokesman said. Officials with the headquarters of the CDU and the Social Democrats, junior partners in the ruling coalition, said they had not seen a wave of similar attacks on their websites. Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of Germany s BfV domestic intelligence agency, told reporters in July that Berlin expected Russia to try to influence this month s election and said he suspected that Russian President Vladimir Putin would prefer a different German chancellor than Merkel. Merkel backs continued sanctions against Russia for its actions toward Ukraine. Relations between Germany and Russia have been cool in recent years, although Germany is highly dependent on energy supplies from Russia. A spokesman for the German interior ministry told a news conference on Monday that cyber attacks directed at political parties had increased generally in recent months, but declined to comment on the latest incidents.  He noted the BSI had been working closely with politicians and parties to increase security. Experts said hackers were increasingly going after subsidiary sites such as those of local party branches in the hope of finding vulnerabilities. Tyson Barker, program director of the Aspen Institute Deutschland think-tank, said the attacks on a state-level CDU party infrastructure continued a pattern of hackers probing for potential weak links in the broader political system.   The main battle front in this hybrid war   in the U.S. as in Germany   will likely be in the states, not Berlin or Washington, said Barker, adding:  Those who thought Russian intelligence was going to sit this one out seem to have been proven wrong.

Summary: मर्केल के सहयोगी ने रूसी आईपी पतों से हजारों साइबर हमलों का हवाला दिया