NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan authorities banned protests in central Nairobi and other hotspots as they tried to keep a lid on mounting political turmoil in the build-up to a repeat presidential vote. The order issued on Thursday covered business districts in Nairobi, the western city of Kisumu and the port of Mombasa - the scenes of repeated demonstrations since the Supreme Court annulled the last vote in August, citing irregularities. The main opposition, which has held rallies calling for electoral reforms and the sacking of vote officials, said it would take to the streets again on Friday, and on a daily basis from Monday, despite the ban.  The protests are covered by the bill of rights in the constitution. We do not hold the protests as a favor by the State,  Dennis Onyango, the spokesman for opposition leader Raila Odinga, said. Politicians and activists from all sides have traded insults and accusations since the court ruling, raising fears of a repeat of the ethnically charged violence that killed around  1,200 people after a contested 2007 vote. President Uhuru Kenyatta, whose August election victory was annulled by the court ruling, is due to stand again against Odinga on Oct. 26. But this week Odinga announced he was withdrawing from the race, because of failure to reform the election board. The board responded that the vote would go ahead anyway with the names of Odinga and the other original candidates on the ballot paper.  At least 17 demonstrators were hospitalized on Wednesday with bullet wounds and other injuries, said medical workers in Kisumu, an opposition stronghold.  The opposition has accused the police of using excessive force while the government has accused the protesters of destroying private property .  Reuters saw footage of a crowd attacking a policeman with stones and sticks during protests in the western town of Homa Bay, near Kisumu. Marius Tum, the Homa Bay police boss, said 14 people had been arrested and would be charged with assault and participating in unlawful assembly.  Odinga s spokesman Onyango did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on the incident.   The standoff has spooked investors in the region s richest economy. The all share index on the Nairobi bourse was 0.43 percent lower at the close, amid low volumes, traders said.  In August, only Odinga and Kenyatta polled more than one percent. Three of the other candidates - Abduba Dida, Japheth Kavinga and Ekuru Aukot - told Reuters they intended to stand again.   The political battle in this country has been between the Odingas and the Kenyattas for the longest time,  said Aukot.  Voters will be looking for a neutral person who can pacify the country.  A Kenyan rights group said this week that at least 37 people were killed in protests immediately following the Aug. 8 poll. The opposition did not call any protests on Thursday.

Summary: केन्या ने मतदान तनाव बढ़ने के कारण शहर-केंद्र विरोध प्रदर्शनों पर प्रतिबंध लगा दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. envoy for North Korea will travel to Japan and Thailand next week to discuss how to increase pressure on Pyongyang after its latest ballistic missile test, the U.S. State Department said on Friday. North Korea, formally called the Democratic People s Republic of Korea (DPRK), last week tested its most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), saying the device could reach all of the United States. Joseph Yun, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, will travel to Japan and Thailand Dec. 11-15 to meet government officials  to discuss ways to strengthen the pressure campaign following the DPRK s latest ballistic missile test,  the State Department said in a brief written statement.  The United States looks forward to continuing its partnership with both these nations so that the DPRK will return to credible talks on denuclearization,  it added. Tensions have risen markedly in recent months over North Korea s development, in defiance of repeated rounds of U.N. sanctions, of nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching the United States. Last week s missile test prompted a U.S. warning that North Korea s leadership would be  utterly destroyed  if war were to break out. The Pentagon has mounted repeated shows of force after North Korean tests. The United States has sent mixed signals about its interest in talks with the North, with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson saying that Washington was pursuing such contacts but President Trump tweeting that this was a waste of time.

Summary: उत्तर कोरियाई मामलों के लिए अमेरिकी राजदूत ने जापान, थाईलैंड की यात्रा की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi urged Republicans to establish a process to move forward on improvements to Obamacare on Friday after their healthcare reform effort failed in the Senate. “We call upon the speaker to establish a process - we can go right to the committees - and have the discussion on how we keep America healthy,” Pelosi said at a news conference at which Democrats called for a bipartisan effort on healthcare reform.

Summary: डेमोक्रेटिक नेता ने अमेरिकी सदन से ओबामाकेयर सुधारों पर आगे बढ़ने का आग्रह किया


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Catalonia s regional government is not planning to hold a snap election following a disputed independence referendum, the region s foreign affairs chief said.  Elections are not on the table now,  Raul Romeva told a new conference in Brussels on Wednesday.

Summary: कैटेलोनिया के विदेश मामलों के प्रमुख ने कहा कि क्षेत्रीय समय से पहले चुनावों की कोई योजना नहीं है


CHENGDU, China (Reuters) - When she was a child, Qin Lijuan s grandfather was the local Communist Party boss in the district where they lived in southwestern China. But one of her favorite things to do was decidedly capitalistic. Her grandmother ran a shop and around Chinese New Year was flush with cash. Qin loved handling the money and counting it. She wanted to be rich one day.  When I was little I told my grandma that when I was done with school I d take care of the store,  she said. When she eventually went to university in the southwestern metropolis of Chengdu, Qin, who goes by the English name Coco, still had money on her mind. Studying animation at a branch of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Qin counted her pennies and dreamed of making 10,000 yuan a month so that she could enjoy the best of what the thriving city had to offer.  At the time I thought, very simplistically, I d eat the best that Chengdu has to offer and see the best things,  she said.  That s how big my dream was.  However, she learned that working as an animator on video games or in movies, natural career paths in her field, would earn her less than half of what she hoped for.  She decided to look elsewhere and in early 2014 a friend helped her land a job selling memberships to an exclusive golf club with branches around China. She quickly got the hang of sales and learned to network within the small circles of people rich enough to join the club. As she picked up clients, though, a sweeping anti-corruption campaign launched by President Xi Jinping was gaining traction.  Xi targeted extravagant behavior, including golf, which was regarded as synonymous with wealth and power. In 2015, the party banned officials from holding golf club memberships. Even before that happened, Qin felt the effects of the campaign. Officials began quietly returning memberships or transferring them to others, she said. Golf memberships had become a liability.  Business wasn t as good as before,  she said. Her mother had recently had minor surgery, so Qin decided it was a good time to leave the golf company and move back to her hometown of Nanchong, a city in Sichuan province some 200 km (125 miles) east of Chengdu. She moved in with her sister and got a job managing a new golf driving range, but soon felt out of place after more than five years in the provincial capital. She said she felt a strong sense of culture shock.  I basically couldn t find similar people in terms of their thinking,  she said. In Chengdu, she had grown accustomed to having a coffee to start the morning, but her colleagues at the driving range in Nanchong thought that was pretentious. She felt she had outgrown her hometown and wasn t moving forward. Chengdu beckoned, but she knew she needed a new job. She had been interested in finance but didn t know much about it, so she enrolled in a wealth management course. Within months, she moved back to Chengdu and was hired by a consumer credit company where she has worked for the past two years. The dreams of the cash-counting girl seemed back on track but the future remains uncertain.  I m quite anxious,  she said.  My main concern is whether or not I ll have enough earning power.

Summary: कैश एंड कॉफीः बदलते चीन में एक युवा महिला का मार्ग


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will officially nominate acting Education Secretary John B. King to fill the post permanently, he said in a statement on Thursday, urging the Senate to quickly confirm King for the job. King has been the acting secretary since the beginning of the year, after Arne Duncan stepped down from the post. The White House had said in January that it was unclear whether the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress would confirm King in the year remaining in Obama’s presidency.

Summary: ओबामा कार्यवाहक शिक्षा सचिव किंग को स्थायी रूप से पद भरने के लिए नामित करेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Saturday that even after Castro’s death “much work remains to secure the freedom of the Cuban people,” something that the United States must be fully committed to. “Now that Fidel Castro is dead, the cruelty and oppression of his regime should die with him,” Ryan said in a statement. “Today let us reflect on the memory and sacrifices of all those who have suffered under the Castros.”

Summary: सदन के अध्यक्ष रयान ने कहा कि क्यूबा में स्वतंत्रता हासिल करने के लिए काम जारी है


NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya s Supreme Court will rule on Monday on cases that seek to nullify the re-election of President Uhuru Kenyatta last month and the judges could order a fresh vote or clear the way for the incumbent to be sworn in for a second term. The two cases appear to represent a final chance for legal scrutiny of the Oct. 26 election and the ruling could end a protracted political crisis in which more than 60 people have been killed. Kenya is a hub for trade, diplomacy and security in East Africa.  We will deliver judgment on the 20th,  Chief Justice David Maraga told lawyers at the end of a hearing on Thursday. Kenyatta defeated opposition leader Raila Odinga in August but Odinga challenged the election and the court voided it citing procedural irregularities and ordered a fresh vote. The court s decision was the first of its kind in Africa. Odinga boycotted last month s poll, saying the election commission had failed to carry out sufficient reforms. Kenyatta won with 98 percent of the vote. Lawyers for the petitioners, a former lawmaker and two human rights activists, urged the court to nullify the repeat poll due to a lack of fresh nominations for candidates and violence in some areas that prevented voting. Their counterparts for the election board, its chairman and Kenyatta, rejected the petition and urged the court to uphold the result to help end a crisis that has hurt the economy. The Supreme Court was created by a 2010 constitution that followed a crisis over a disputed election in 2007 in which around 1,200 people were killed in ethnic clashes. Analysts said the September ruling by the Supreme Court could embolden other judiciaries in Africa. This month, Liberia s Supreme Court halted a presidential run-off until the election board investigates claims of fraud in the first round of voting.

Summary: केन्या की अदालत सोमवार को राष्ट्रपति चुनाव के मामलों पर फैसला सुनाएगी


NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States, Britain and other countries opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will not support the reconstruction of the country until there is a political transition “away from Assad,” British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Monday. The “Friends of Syria” group, an alliance of mainly Western and Gulf Arab countries, met in New York on Monday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly at a time when the conflict in Syria, now in its seventh year, appears to be less urgent with attention focused on the North Korean nuclear threat and the fate of the Iran nuclear deal. “We believe that the only way forward is to get a political process going and to make it clear to the Iranians, Russians and Assad regime that we, the like-minded group, will not support the reconstruction of Syria until there is such a political process and that means, as Resolution 2254 says, to a transition away from Assad,” Johnson said. He was speaking after a meeting of about 14 countries that back the Syrian opposition including France, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States.  The U.N. Security Council has adopted a Syria transition road map through a Geneva-led process. Russia joined the war on Assad’s behalf in 2015, turning the momentum in his favor. Assad also enjoys robust support from Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Meanwhile, the moderate Syrian opposition is moribund and the United States has largely stepped back from a leading role in Syrian diplomacy. Earlier this year the Trump administration also halted the CIA’s covert program to equip and train certain rebel groups fighting Assad. Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, David Satterfield, said all those at the meeting agreed that “there has got to be a political process if there is to be any international participation in the reconstruction of Syria.” “The regime and the regime supporters cannot declare a victory solely based on a map and colors of positions on the ground,” Satterfield said. “The reconstruction of Syria depends very much on that credible political process. That political process is focused on Geneva and the role of the United Nations.” The meeting on Monday was in stark contrast to last year’s which took place after a ceasefire deal between the United States and Russia effectively collapsed when an aid convoy was bombed in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. Aleppo is now in the hands of Assad’s forces and Assad himself is in a much stronger position, thanks to Russian and Iranian support. The last major international attempt to resolve the crisis ended in failure when the International Syria Support Group (ISSG), which included Iran, was cast aside after Syrian government forces retook the rebel stronghold of Aleppo in 2016. Russia, Turkey and Iran have been negotiating separately for months in Astana to try to reduce the violence on the ground by creating de-escalation zones across the country, although those talks do not cover a long-term political solution “We discussed here how to bring it back to the U.N.-led process and Geneva,” Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström told Reuters. Asked if there was consensus on that, she said “I would say so.”  “It’s good if the Astana process leads to de-escalation and a reduction of the violence but it has to lead into the political process.” Earlier on Monday, France warned that the status quo in Syria risked leading to the country’s permanent fragmentation and opening the door to new radical Islamist groups. Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told reporters in New York he would hold a meeting with the four other permanent members of the Security Council - Britain, China, Russia and the United States - on Thursday to persuade them to create a contact group to give new impetus to end the seven-year conflict. Le Drian said “realism” dictated that Assad could not stay in power after millions of Syrians had fled the country due to the war, but that it was vital major powers worked together to help revive U.N.-brokered peace talks in Geneva. Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said the French contact group proposal was not discussed at the Friends of Syria meeting.  But Riyad Hijab, a prominent Syrian opposition leader, said he told French President Emmanuel Macron that the initiative was important in part because “of American withdrawal and Russia is dominating the entire process. So Mr. Macron’s initiative  is the right way to fix this because it’s vital all five (permanent Security Council members) are involved in the process.”

Summary: असद विरोधी राष्ट्रों ने राजनीतिक प्रक्रिया के पटरी पर आने तक सीरिया के पुनर्निर्माण से इनकार किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The awkward efforts of Republicans to embrace their party’s standard-bearer Donald Trump looked particularly painful in Congress this week as lawmakers ducked into elevators, dashed away from reporters, ignored questions or, worse, tried to answer them.  Only days after a furor over his criticism of a Mexican-American judge, the presumptive presidential nominee sent Republicans reeling again by renewing his call for a ban on Muslim immigration after a gunman who pledged allegiance to Islamic militants killed of 49 people at a Florida nightclub. Then former reality TV star Trump waded into two sensitive topics for social conservatives by embracing the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and suggesting the country may need certain new gun control measures.   For lawmakers accustomed to well-crafted talking points and predictable lines of questioning, the week marked a chaotic flurry of contorted responses or terse, tight-lipped replies. Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming walked away when asked about Trump’s embrace of the LGBT community, saying: “I don’t know what the latest is. I haven’t read anything. I haven’t been watching.” Florida Senator Marco Rubio, a former Trump adversary in the presidential primaries, had to bat away two Trump questions before he could announce that he is considering running for re-election – a decision that could determine whether Republicans retain control of the Senate in the Nov. 8 election. Senator Ted Cruz, another rival in the primaries, refused to respond directly to the speech in which Trump hardened his line on Muslims while Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr called it “an OK speech” before stepping into an elevator and refusing to respond to any more questions.   The Trump challenge is obvious even for seasoned Republicans.          “I’m spending my days commenting on everything that Donald Trump says,” lamented John McCain, chairman of Senate Armed Services Committee. Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, ricocheted from rejection of Trump’s comments on Muslims to doubts about the legality of his proposed immigration ban to bafflement over the billionaire’s response to the Orlando shootings.  Trump controversies have also overshadowed House Speaker Paul Ryan’s rollout of a policy agenda, a campaign document that was supposed to help bring Trump’s position more into line with mainline party doctrine.  Asked on Thursday whether he was bothered by having to contend with Trump’s remarks, Ryan called Trump “a different kind of candidate...(in) a different kind of year.”  Asked how many more times he would be called on to do so, Ryan said: “I don’t know the answer to that question either.” In an ironic message to his critics among the Republican leadership this week, Trump had this to say: “Be quiet, just please be quiet. Don’t talk. Please be quiet. Just be quiet.” Ryan’s response? “...You can’t make this up sometimes,” he said.   A political neophyte who has never held elected office, Trump has also said he may not need much from his Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill anyway. “We have to have our Republicans either stick together or let me just do it by myself. I’ll do very well,” he said in a CNN interview. “A lot of people thought I should do that anyway, but I’ll just do it very nicely by myself.”

Summary: उम्मीदवार की बयानबाजी से परेशान रिपब्लिकन सांसदों के पास बोलने के लिए शब्द नहीं हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats have a rare chance to win major concessions in a U.S. Congress they do not control by taking advantage of a battle within the Republican Party over keeping the government open.  With a Friday deadline looming when most funding for federal agencies runs out, Democrats finally have some clout. But their power is strongest while the Republicans in Congress remain fractured and fighting.  The showdown with Republicans could come to a head on Thursday when Democrats are expected to press their demands to President Donald Trump at a White House meeting. For Trump, the complex, and very public, battle over the shutdown will also be a demonstration of his ability to deliver on a central 2016 campaign promise of adding billions of dollars to the U.S. military budget. That issue is at the core of Republicans’ behind-the-scenes negotiations with Democrats. Most Republicans want a defense buildup. But many also want to limit government spending. While many Democrats also support bolstering defense, they insist on raising spending on non-defense programs too.  Democrats’ top two demands include passage of legislation that has eluded them for 16 years: protecting from deportation nearly 700,000 young people known as “Dreamers,” whose parents brought them illegally to the United States as children. The Democrats also want to shore up Obamacare by reversing Trump’s decision to stop monthly subsidy payments to insurance companies offering healthcare policies to lower-income people. Democrats will enter the White House meeting knowing their support is crucial to Senate Republicans passing any spending bills. Republicans control the chamber by 52-48, but need 60 vote for passage of most spending measures. While a partial government shutdown would keep emergency services and the military mainly operating, thousands of operations would be suspended, such as the operation of national parks. Republicans have clear control of the House of Representatives. But a core of conservative Republicans who consistently vote against funding bills in their drive for smaller government could balk. Democrats have a history of strongly supporting stopgap funding bills, providing the cushion for victory in the Republican House. Conservative Republicans said on Tuesday they would try to pass temporary spending bills without House Democrats’ support. If so, it is unclear whether such a bill could clear the Senate, where Democratic votes are necessary to pass most bills.   There is another wild card for both parties in Thursday’s meeting: Trump. Democrats will test the unpredictable president to see whether he is willing to go the bipartisan route in order to keep federal agencies running smoothly or whether he will be in a confrontational mood. In May, angry he did not win money to build his promised wall along the border with Mexico, Trump said the United States needed a “good shutdown” to force his agenda on Congress. Just last week, he wrote on Twitter about the spending bills: “I don’t see a deal.” Democrats are counting on the bipartisan Trump showing up, betting that he and fellow Republicans in Congress do not want to leave the immigration legislation, popularly known as the Dreamers Act, to fester until a March deadline, so close to the 2018 congressional election season. Chuck Schumer, Senate minority leader, and Nancy Pelosi, House minority leader, are calculating that voters’ wrath would rain down on Republicans if the government lights go out. Republicans would blame Democrats. At a news conference last Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said that if Democrats vote against the temporary spending bill because they have not won their demands, “then they will have chosen to shut the government down.” Republicans already are trying to exploit possible differences among Democrats over whether to link support for the stopgap spending bill to the immigration measure. Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said she expected Democrats to vote for the government funding bill this week, telling Reuters in an interview that while it “is important to all of us” to take care of the Dreamers, “I don’t think we should shut the government down.” Senator Dick Durbin, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, told the Washington Post last week he would oppose any spending bill if Congress had not first taken care of the Dreamers. On Tuesday, Schumer noted there were “good negotiations” under way on the immigration measure. This week’s vote to keep the government operating on temporary funding is likely to be the first of a three-step process that could stretch to Jan. 31. A second step would be another short-term funding bill, followed by one to fund the government through the fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

Summary: कांग्रेस के सरकारी बंद का सामना करते हुए डेमोक्रेट ने अपनी ताकत झोंकी


(Reuters) - A tax plan by U.S. Senate Republicans released on Thursday diverges in several ways from legislation being pushed by Republicans in the House of Representatives, complicating Republican efforts to fulfill their goal of overhauling the tax code by the end of the year. Here are the major provisions that differ significantly. CORPORATE RATE: The House plan would immediately cut the  corporate income tax rate to 20 percent from 35 percent. The Senate would set the same rate, but delay it by one year. CARRIED INTEREST: The Senate leaves unchanged a loophole that allows private-equity fund managers and other wealthy Wall Street financiers to pay the capital gains tax rate instead of the higher income tax rate on their “carried interest” income. The House version narrows the loophole by requiring investments to be held for more than three years instead of one year currently in order to qualify for capital gains treatment. NET OPERATING LOSSES: The Senate version eliminates the carry-back and carry-forward tax strategies by businesses to reduce past and future tax liabilities using net operating losses. The House version tightens the rules around their use. PASS-THROUGHS: The House caps the maximum tax rate on small businesses and other non-corporate enterprises at 25 percent, down from the current top rate on “pass-through” income of up to 39.6 percent. The Senate version has no special pass-through rate but allows business owners to deduct about 17.4 percent of business income from individual taxes. That translates to a 30 percent tax rate for high-income filers. REPATRIATION OF OVERSEAS EARNINGS: The Senate imposes a tax of 12 percent for liquid assets and 5 percent for illiquid. The House sets the rates at 14 percent and 7 percent, respectively. TAX BRACKETS: The Senate version maintains seven tax brackets, with the top bracket’s rate at 38.5 percent. The House has four brackets with the top one unchanged from current levels at 39.6 percent and lifts qualifying income on that top rate to more than $1 million. MORTGAGE INTEREST DEDUCTION: The House caps the deduction of interest payments on mortgages of up to $500,000, and only on a primary residence. The Senate version keeps the existing limit at $1 million but eliminates the deduction of interest on home-equity loans.   DEDUCTING STATE AND LOCAL TAXES: The Senate bill repeals the state and local tax deduction entirely. The House version repeals the deduction for state and local income and sales tax and caps the deduction for state and local property tax paid at $10,000.  STANDARD DEDUCTION: The two versions are in line with each other, with a standard deduction of $12,200 for individuals and $24,000 for married couples, nearly double the current  levels. CHILD TAX CREDIT: The Senate would expand the child tax credit to $1,650 from $1,000. The House version sets it at  $1,600.  INHERITANCES: While the House wants to double the exemption on inherited assets and repeal the tax over a period of six years, the Senate only wants to double the exemption.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः अमेरिकी सीनेट और हाउस कर प्रस्ताव कैसे भिन्न हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Russian oligarch once close to Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, has offered to testify to congressional panels investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election, but lawmakers are rejecting his conditions, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing congressional officials. The offer by aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska comes amid growing attention to his ties to Manafort, one of several Trump associates under scrutiny by the Federal Bureau of Investigation over possible collusion with Russia during the presidential campaign. Manafort and Deripaska did business in the mid-2000s, when Manafort, a Republican operative, was providing campaign advice to Ukrainian politicians backed by Moscow, but their relationship later deteriorated, resulting in a lawsuit, the Times said.  Representatives for Deripaska in the United States did not respond to the Times’ requests for comment. Manafort has denied any impropriety with his ties to Russia and has turned over documents a Senate intelligence panel had requested.         Deripaska, who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, recently offered to cooperate with congressional intelligence committees in exchange for full immunity, according to three congressional officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly, the Times said. However, the Senate and House panels rejected his offer because of concerns that immunity agreements create complications for federal criminal investigators, the officials said, according to the Times. The congressional investigations into Russian interference in the election is separate from a probe into the matter being led by a special counsel appointed last week by the Justice Department, former FBI Director Robert Mueller.     Trump’s administration has been dogged by concerns about its ties to Russia and questions over whether Trump associates may have cooperated with Russians as they sought to meddle in last year’s election on Trump’s behalf. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January that Moscow tried to sway the November vote in Trump’s favor. Russia has denied involvement, and Trump has denied any collusion between his campaign and Russia. Controversy has engulfed Trump since he fired FBI Director James Comey on May 9 as Comey oversaw an investigation into possible collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia.

Summary: ट्रम्प के पूर्व सहयोगी से संबंध रखने वाला रूसी गवाही के लिए प्रतिरक्षा चाहता हैः न्यूयॉर्क टाइम्स


BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil s President Michel Temer has made policy and spending concessions in an effort to survive a congressional vote on corruption charges Wednesday that has put his reform agenda at risk, analysts and political actors said. To please the powerful farm lobby that has two-fifths of the votes in the lower house, Temer agreed to lower fines for environmental damage. He attempted to relax a definition of slave labor but was forced to backtrack after an outcry. In the clearest move to favor an ally, the Republican Party that has 37 seats in the 512-seat chamber and runs the Transport Ministry, Temer removed Sao Paulo s busy and lucrative Congonhas airport from a list of airports to be privatized. The party has appointees in the ministry and state airport operator Infraero. Critics and political observers say Temer has sacrificed austerity policies to save his presidency but will emerge from Wednesday s vote a weakened leader unable to pass substantial measures, such as an overhaul of the pension system. Temer faces charges in a bribery case based on testimony by an owner of the world s largest meatpacker JBS SA that has implicated several of his cabinet ministers. The lower house decides whether a president should stand trial before the Supreme Court, which can only take place if two-thirds of deputies vote for it.   He will survive because he has a majority, though not my vote because I believe there is enough evidence to put him on trial by the Supreme Court,  said Fabio Sousa, a lawmaker of the centrist the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), a member of Temer s governing coalition. Temer managed to block a first corruption charge in August. Now he faces charges of obstruction of justice and criminal organization for allegedly receiving bribes from JBS. Temer has met with dozens of lawmakers in recent days to secure their votes. Presidential aides said he hopes to widen his margin of support so that he can move ahead with his reforms, paralyzed for six months by the political crisis. Those votes come at a cost, in pork-barrel spending. According to public spending watchdog Contas Abertas, Temer fast-tracked spending in congressional districts worth 4.4 billion reais ($1.3 billion) to help win the first vote, and is now hitting the 2 billion real mark ahead of Wednesday s vote. O Globo newspaper estimated the cost of Temer s handouts to taxpayers at 12 billion reais, half of which would have come  from the planned airport concession auction. Yet most analysts believe Temer will get less votes this time, because lawmakers have started to distance themselves from his government ahead of next year s general elections.  After this vote, Temer will become a lame duck president. It will be very difficult for him to pass any reforms,  said David Fleischer, politics professor emeritus at Brasilia University. Investors are waiting to see if Temer can deliver a pension reform to tackle a budget deficit that cost brazil its investment grade credit rating.  If he does get social security reform approved, it will be badly watered down,  Fleischer said.

Summary: ब्राजील के टेमर ने पद पर बने रहने के लिए रियायतें दीं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An unconventional debate between a billionaire Republican and a democratic socialist is shaping up in California after presidential candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders expressed an interest in squaring off against each other. Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, is still in a primary battle against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, while Trump effectively clinched the Republican Party’s nomination earlier this month when his two remaining rivals dropped out. In an appearance on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” late Wednesday, Trump said he was willing to participate in such an event against Sanders. “If I debated him, we would have such high ratings,” the New York developer and reality television star said. “I think I should ... take that money and give it to some worthy charity.” Sanders appeared to agree in a post on Twitter on Thursday. “Game on,” he tweeted. “I look forward to debating Donald Trump in California before the June 7 primary.” Trump and Sanders have gone through a series of debates against rivals within their parties but Republican and Democratic presidential candidates usually do not debate each other until the parties have selected a nominee. The hashtag #BernieTrumpDebate began trending in the United States with news of the possible debate. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in an email to Reuters on Thursday there were no formal plans yet for such an event. Representatives for the Sanders campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kimmel said he asked Trump about the debate at the suggestion of Sanders, who is scheduled to appear on the show Thursday night. Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who was elected to Congress as an independent and has made economic equality a keystone of his campaign, had first challenged Clinton to a California debate. He said he was disappointed when the former secretary of state declined. The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment to a possible Trump-Sanders debate. Clinton has tried to woo Sanders supporters as she works to secure the party’s nomination for the Nov. 8 election. But some worry his supporters - who are largely young, working-class and disillusioned with party establishment - will turn instead to political neophyte Trump, who has championed a populist agenda. Sanders has said he will do everything he can to ensure that Trump does not win the White House.

Summary: कैलिफोर्निया चुनाव से पहले सैंडर्स ट्रंप पर बहस कर सकते हैं, न कि क्लिंटन पर


BEIRUT (Reuters) - An intensifying push by the Syrian government and allied forces to take the last major rebel stronghold near the capital Damascus killed at least 23 people on Sunday and injured many, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The group said at least 127 people, including 30 children, have been killed by air strikes and shelling since the Syrian army backed by Russian jets began an offensive nearly two weeks ago to take the besieged rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area. Eastern Ghouta is one of several  de-escalation  zones across western Syria, where Russia has brokered deals to ease the fighting between rebels and President Bashar al-Assad s government. A Reuters witness said there had been drones in the sky since Sunday morning and warplanes had heavily bombarded the towns of Mesraba and Harasta. Heavy shelling also hit Eastern Ghouta and dozens had been injured.    Assad s forces have besieged Eastern Ghouta since 2012 and the area is suffering a humanitarian crisis.  Ghouta residents are so short of food that they are eating trash, fainting from hunger and forcing their children to eat on alternate days, the U.N. World Food Programme said in a report this week.      The opposition Eastern Ghouta Damascus Countryside local council said this week the escalating bombardment was forcing people to seek shelter in unsuitable and unsanitary places which it feared could lead to disease outbreaks.  A number of shells from the rebel enclave have hit government-held Damascus in the past two weeks.       Syria s six-year-old civil war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions to flee in the worst refugee crisis since World War Two.   U.N.-backed peace negotiations are due to begin in Geneva on Nov. 28. Several previous rounds of Geneva talks have failed to agree a political transition for Syria or a way to stop the violence.    Yahya Aridi, spokesman for the Syrian opposition Geneva delegation, said on Sunday it was now time for the Syrian government and the opposition to  get to the table and start talking about transition, from dictatorship to freedom  in Geneva.

Summary: दमिश्क विद्रोही एन्क्लेव के लिए सीरियाई सरकार का दबाव कम से कम 23 लोगों की मौत


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate committee swiftly approved Republican President Donald Trump’s nominees for commerce and transportation secretaries by voice vote on Tuesday, signaling that they will face little resistance to approval by the full Senate. Members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee voiced no objections to the nominations of billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, 79, as commerce secretary and veteran government administrator Elaine Chao, 63, as transportation secretary. Republicans control the Commerce committee by a single vote.  The single voice vote for the two nominees marked a stark contrast from Monday’s 11-10 vote by the Senate Foreign Relations committee to advance the nomination of former Exxon Chief Executive Officer Rex Tillerson to be secretary of state. All Democrats on that panel voted against Tillerson.  Ross, a corporate turnaround expert who made his fortune investing in distressed steel, textile, auto parts companies and banks, is expected to take a lead role in shaping Trump’s trade policies. These are aimed at protecting U.S. manufacturers from imports, renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and pursuing bilateral trade deals after Trump signed an order on Monday to cancel the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Chao would play a key role in Trump’s plan to significantly raise government spending on U.S. infrastructure, including roads and bridges, an initiative that has strong support from Democrats and many Republicans.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेट पैनल ने ध्वनि मत पर रॉस, चाओ के नामांकन को आगे बढ़ाया


BERLIN (Reuters) - A 32-year-old German man admitted in court on Monday that he sold the weapon used by a teenage gunman who killed nine people in Munich last year, a court spokesman said, adding that the defendant told relatives he felt sorry for his actions. David Ali Sonboly, 18, killed nine people before shooting himself dead. Another 27 people were injured. Police concluded the German-born Sonboly was a deranged lone gunman obsessed with mass killings who drew no inspiration from Islamist militancy. The Munich public prosecutor s office has charged the accused, identified only as Philipp K., as is customary in German law, with selling weapons illegally and nine counts of negligent homicide as well as five counts of negligently causing grievous bodily harm.  A written statement was read, acknowledging that the accused had traded with weapons. The defendant expressed his regret that one of these firearms was used in the rampage here in Munich,  court spokesman Florian Gliwitzky said.  He offered his apologies to the relatives and with this, he also expressed that he was regretting his actions.  A spokeswoman for the public prosecutor said the suspect so far only had admitted to the charge of selling weapons illegally. She added that evidence revealed during the hearing showed that the suspect had far-right attitudes. A defense lawyer said his client would not give any more statements in the course of the trial. Authorities arrested the man in Marburg, about 100 km (65 miles) north of Frankfurt a year ago, after contacting him on the so-called  dark net  and posing as buyers for an automatic weapon and a Glock 17 pistol for 8,000 euros ($9,550). During a sting operation, the suspected arms dealer said he had sold the 18-year-old Iranian-German another Glock 17 pistol during a meeting in Marburg, followed by 350 rounds of ammunition during a second meeting. Authorities around Europe are concerned that secretive marketplaces make it too easy for criminals and militants to obtain weaponry that has traditionally been highly regulated across Europe.

Summary: जर्मन ने म्यूनिख हमले के शूटर को बंदूक बेचने की बात स्वीकार की


(Reuters) - Proponents of government efforts to clean up hazardous waste sites like radioactive soil buried in a St. Louis-area landfill fear the Trump administration’s proposed 30 percent budget cut will slow or damage the already struggling Superfund program. The White House budget proposal submitted to Congress on Thursday includes a 31 percent cut in spending for the U.S. Environmental Protecting Agency, including a similar reduction of the agency’s Hazardous Substance Superfund Account by $330 million to $762 million. The Superfund program, started in 1980, has been criticized over the years for its slow efforts to clean up hazardous waste sites, which now number more than 1,300 around the country. Proponents argue that the EPA fights with one arm tied behind its back because its budget has been halved from $2 billion in recent years, while critics say what they characterize as a bloated bureaucracy should step out of the way and allow the states and private sector do the job faster, cheaper and more effectively. “This is a program that is already a bit on life support, so to take another third out of it is really quite harmful,” said Ken Kimmell, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, which advocates for science-based solutions to problems. Those who worry about the Superfund program’s future are angry that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is already abandoning newly made promises, citing comments he made earlier this month to U.S. mayors. On March 2, Pruitt said certain EPA programs, including the Superfund program, “are essential to protect.” An EPA spokeswoman said the focus for the agency has not changed, only how to achieve its mission. “This budget helps refocus the agency on being more effective, more focused, and less costly,” Julia Valentin said in an email. “It is about empowering the states to be primary implementers of environmental programs on the ground, rather than insist that EPA micromanage them.” That is cold comfort to some living near Superfund sites, like Dawn Chapman, a 36-year-old stay-at-home mom who co-founded a group named “Just Moms” four years ago to bring attention to the plight of residents near the West Lake Landfill in Bridgeton, Missouri, about 20 miles (30 km) northeast of St. Louis. The EPA last fall indefinitely delayed its proposal for how to clean up contaminated soil at the landfill, next to another site where an underground fire has been smoldering for several years. Residents complain of higher rates of cancers, bloody noses or asthma. “I don’t see how this is going to speed up anything,” Chapman said of the proposed smaller budget. Chapman, who has three children with special needs, is unsure whether the landfill is the cause of their issues. She wants the cleanup to move ahead, but is not confident the state could handle the matter any better. Michael McKenna, a Republican strategist and energy lobbyist, said asking an organization to do their job with a little bit less is not unusual, and the EPA will find efficiencies. “It’s a bit premature to declare the sky is falling,” he said. Critics of the EPA said the agency needs to operate better with less, and work more closely with the private sector and states to get back to its core mission. “The problem I have with the EPA, it’s turned into more of an ideological group more concerned with spreading a liberal message (President Barack) Obama had,” said Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma.  Inhofe has been critical of what he characterized as overreach by the EPA, as well as its rule making and bureaucracy under Obama. However, some environmental groups argue that the shifting the work to the states is not the answer. Mike Scott, a senior organizing representative with the Sierra Club in Montana, said that state got $37 million from the EPA last year for its 16 Superfund sites. He added that the state’s Department of Environmental Quality gets almost half its annual budget from the EPA as well. “Even if they say, ‘We’re going to shift this over to the states,’ I don’t understand how the states are going to have the resources to pay for it,” Scott said.  Backers and critics of the program agree on one thing: The budget that comes out of Congress will look far different from the Trump proposal and likely will reverse some of the cuts to the Superfund program. “We’re in the first couple steps of a thousand-mile journey,” McKenna said. “This is not where we’re going to end.”

Summary: ट्रम्प बजट खतरनाक अपशिष्ट स्थलों की सफाई में 30 प्रतिशत की कटौती करेगा


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 : - Stock Market could hit all-time high (again) 22,000 today. Was 18,000 only 6 months ago on Election Day. Mainstream media seldom mentions! [0849 EDT] - “Corporations have NEVER made as much money as they are making now.” Thank you Stuart Varney @foxandfriends Jobs are starting to roar,watch! [0903 EDT] - Only the Fake News Media and Trump enemies want me to stop using Social Media (110 million people). Only way for me to get the truth out! [0955 EDT] -- Source link: (bit.ly/2jBh4LU) (bit.ly/2jpEXYR)

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ट्विटर पर ट्रम्प (1 अगस्त)-शेयर बाजार, नकली मीडिया


MANILA (Reuters) - Three Russian warships, including two anti-submarine vessels, docked in Manila on Friday to unload what navy officials said was weaponry and military vehicles donated to the Philippines as part of a new defense relationship. It was the third port visit this year by Russian warships as part of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte s moves to engage closely with Moscow, an arch-rival of Manila s former colonial master and closest defense ally, the United States. The load included 5,000 assault rifles, a million rounds of ammunition and 20 army trucks, Russian and Filipino navy officials said.   We would do our best to make this port call a significant contribution indicating friendly ties and relations between two nations in the interest of security and stability in this region,  said Eduard Mikhailov, deputy commander of Russia s Pacific Fleet flotilla. The visit was timed to coincide with the arrival next week of Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, who is attending a regional defense meeting, and U.S. counterpart Jim Mattis, a Philippine navy spokesman said. Russia and the Philippines are expected to sign a security deal on military logistics next week.

Summary: मनीला के नए संबंधों को बढ़ावा देते हुए रूसी युद्धपोत फिलीपींस में डॉक करते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is “extremely concerned” about a security breach at the CIA that led to anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks publishing agency documents on its hacking tools, the White House said on Wednesday. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said at a news briefing that the Trump administration intends to be tough on leakers. “Anybody who leaks classified information will be held to the highest degree of law. We will go after people who leak classified information. We will prosecute them to the full extent of the law,” he said.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस ने कहा, विकीलीक्स सी. आई. ए. के उल्लंघन को लेकर ट्रम्प 'बेहद चिंतित' हैं


(Reuters) - Hurricane Irma is likely to be downgraded to a Category 4 storm by the time it makes landfall in Florida, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Thursday. Irma, at present a Category 5 storm packing maximum sustained winds of 180 miles (285 km) per hour, is moving off the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, the NHC said.   It has become a little less organized over the past few hours but the threat of direct hurricane impacts in Florida over the weekend and early next week continues to increase, it said. Hurricane watches were in effect for the northwestern Bahamas and much of Cuba. Irma, one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century, killed eight people on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin and left Barbuda devastated on Thursday. Meanwhile, a hurricane swirling in the Gulf of Mexico, Katia, which is about 195 miles (310 km) northeast of Veracruz with maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour (130 km per hour), is likely to gain near major hurricane strength by landfall, the NHC said. A third hurricane in the Atlantic, Jose, has strengthened slightly and is expected to intensify further over the next 48 hours, it added. Hurricane Jose is about 815 miles (1,310 km) east of the Lesser Antilles with maximum sustained winds of 90 miles per hour (150 km per hour), the Miami-based weather forecaster said.

Summary: फ्लोरिडा में भूस्खलन होने पर तूफान इरमा के श्रेणी 4 तक गिरने की संभावनाः एन. एच. सी.


BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Justice reform has stagnated in Romania this year, and challenges to judicial independence remain a persistent source of concern, the European Commission said on Wednesday. The European Union has monitored the justice systems of Romania and its neighbor Bulgaria since they joined the bloc a decade ago. It has backed an unprecedented crackdown on high-level graft in Romania, which Transparency International ranks among the bloc s most corrupt states. Romanian prosecutors have investigated hundreds of public officials, including a former prime minister. This week, anti-corruption prosecutors opened an investigation into the leader of the ruling Social Democrat Party on suspicion of forming a  criminal group  to siphon off cash from state projects, some of them EU-funded.  While progress in meeting some recommendations was advancing well ... the reform momentum in 2017 was lost overall,  said the Commission s latest justice monitoring report, released on Wednesday.  Challenges to and questioning judicial independence have also been a persistent source of concern.  The ruling Social Democrats are preparing a judicial overhaul that the Commission, foreign diplomats, thousands of magistrates and Romania s president have criticized as placing the justice system under political control.  Thousands of Romanians protested against the measures this month. The overhaul, announced by the justice minister in August, is under debate in parliament and the Social Democrat Party has said it aims to approve it by the end of this parliamentary session.  The most contested changes include those to a judicial inspection unit which oversees magistrates  conduct, and the way in which chief prosecutors are appointed. Justice Minister Tudorel Toader said on Wednesday of the Commission report:  The report refers to legal solutions that are still at the start of parliamentary debate, that are not finalised.  President Klaus Iohannis said in a statement he thought the report was  a serious warning signal the ruling coalition must take into account .  Affecting the independence of the judicial system and, in general, any pressure or attempt to politically control the judiciary will only return Romania to the past,  he said. This spring, Romania saw its largest street protests in decades, against what demonstrators saw as attempts by the ruling coalition to weaken the crackdown on high-level corruption.  In May, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said Romania should be able to persuade the EU to lift special monitoring of its justice system by the time it takes over the presidency of the EU Council in 2019.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ रोमानियाई न्यायिक स्वतंत्रता की चुनौतियों पर चिंतित है


SUBIC, Philippines (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is no stranger to controversy and  he has often come in for sharp criticism both at home and overseas, but in the town of Subic in the Philippines, he s a hero. Once home to one of the biggest U.S. naval facilities in the world, Subic is a haven for retired servicemen who seem thrilled that Trump is visiting the Philippines, and convinced the divisive tycoon can do no wrong.  Trump, I back him big time,  said Mike McCarthy, a former master chief with the U.S. 7th Fleet, drinking in one of the American-themed bars that line Subic s main street, with names like  Alaska ,  Crazy Horse  and  Rolling Stone .  They won t allow him to govern, but he s smarter than them, always a step ahead,  he said of opponents of Trump.  The U.S. president arrives in the capital Manila on Sunday for a summit of Asian leaders, on the last leg of a tour that has taken him to Japan, South Korea, China and Vietnam.  He s just doing things a different way, his Tweeting, his strong words. But where has he made a wrong call yet?  said McCarthy. A native of Florida who has lived in Subic for a decade, McCarthy said Trump s respect for veterans meant he s a big hit with them and among the military.  If he asked me to come and meet him in Manila, I d be there in a shot,  he added. Trump is set to meet Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and will try to shore up relations strained by the mercurial Duterte s notorious anti-U.S. sentiment and his enthusiasm for better ties with Russia and China. Others who will be in Manila for the summit meetings include Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Russian Premier Dmitry Medvedev and leaders from Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand and member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The Philippines will deploy nearly 60,000 police and army personnel to provide security. The Philippines has for decades been a key U.S. defense ally and although the base was closed in 1992, Subic has since received a regular flow of retirees and visits by U.S. warships for repairs, resupply and exercises. About 220,000 Americans, many of them military veterans, live in the Philippines. An additional 650,000 visit each year, according to U.S. State Department figures. Subic has maintained its American feel, with bars offering military discounts and restaurants serving anything from baby-back ribs, buffalo wings and steaks to burgers named  shotgun  and an omelette called  the sheriff . It has tattoo parlors, liquor stores with signs advertising bourbon whiskey and a Harley Davidson repair shop servicing the easy-rider motorcycles that have long been a fixture in the town of 100,000 people, about a three-hour drive north from Manila. Veteran James Goodman, 51, has owned six bars during his 13 years in Subic. His latest venture,  Sit-n-Bull , has bar games, live sports and rock music that competes with the lively chatter of tattoo-clad patrons in tank tops. The walls are adorned with vehicle license plates from Florida, Ohio, California and Nevada, next to a neon-lit USA sign in red, white and blue. A guitar hangs next to a wood carving of a native Indian and an American Football playoff schedule offering hot dog promotions.  I m very glad Donald Trump is coming here, I believe he and President Duterte will get along,  said Goodman, from New Jersey.  He s for the American people ... I look forward to his leadership, I look forward to his re-election.  I d love to meet Trump, I d love to buy him a beer.  His business partner Ronn Oliver, 54, who runs a nearby restaurant of the same name, says veterans appreciate Trump and recognize his shrewdness.  He knows what he s doing, he shocks, but he sets up his opponents, he plays them, he knows what reaction he s gonna get,  said Oliver, a former serviceman and commercial fisherman from Seattle, Washington.  He needs to build more support, so people can catch up with what he s doing. They ve gotta give him a couple of years to get into it.  Christopher Lamb, 48, a fisherman who said he is from  Florida, says he shook Trump s hand four decades ago. Wearing a baseball cap and white vest, he offers a few slurred words that show his pride in Trump s rise to the presidency.  I met this man, he was nothing then, and now he s the most powerful man in the world,  said Lamb. Retiree Mike Allen, 66, from Ohio, has lived in Subic for a year and recognizes he might be the lone dissenter when it comes to Trump.  The military guys here, they love him,  he said, with a shake of the head.  He says one thing one day and another thing the next. He s isolating us and he loves white supremacists. An American president can t be like that.

Summary: ट्रम्प की फिलीपींस यात्रा से पहले, अमेरिकी दिग्गजों से एक बड़ा अंगूठा


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia dismissed as false on Thursday a Reuters report that said a government think tank controlled by President Vladimir Putin had developed a plan to swing the 2016 U.S. presidential election in Donald Trump’s favor. Reuters reported on Wednesday that the Moscow-based Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS) had provided the framework and rationale for what U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded was an intensive effort by Russia to interfere with the Nov. 8 election. The Reuters report cited three current and four former U.S. officials who had acquired two documents prepared by the institute. Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the U.S. election. The Kremlin and RISS did not respond to requests for comment on the documents before Wednesday, but on Thursday the think tank issued a statement saying the report was false. “It seems, that in their conspiratorial consciousness the authors of this conceit did not weigh reality against their coveted fantasies, in order to once again draw attention to the theme ... of Russia’s ‘participation’ in the pre-election campaign in the United States,” said RISS Director Mikhail Fradkov.  Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said people should not pay attention to reports based on anonymous sources. “I don’t know anything about this, I can only say that seven anonymous sources are not worth one real one.” The documents obtained by the U.S. intelligence officials were central to the conclusion by the administration of Barack Obama that Russia mounted a “fake news” campaign and launched cyber attacks against Democratic Party groups and Hillary Clinton’s campaign, the current and former officials said. That campaign began after Putin asked the institute to draw up a plan for interfering with the U.S. presidential race, said one of the sources, a former senior U.S. intelligence official. U.S. President Donald Trump has said Russia’s activities had no impact on the outcome of the race. Ongoing congressional and FBI investigations into Russian interference have so far produced no public evidence that Trump associates colluded with the Russian effort to change the outcome of the election.

Summary: रूस ने रॉयटर्स की रिपोर्ट का खंडन किया कि थिंक टैंक ने अमेरिकी चुनाव को प्रभावित करने की योजना बनाई


(Reuters) - Recreational marijuana is on track to be legalized in Canada by July 2018, making Canada the first Group of Seven country to allow the drug nationwide and the second in the world after Uruguay. While the federal legislation proposed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau s Liberal government will regulate cannabis production, the details of who can sell it and who can buy it will be largely left up to the country s provinces. The following are details of some key factors of how legal marijuana is shaping up in Canada.  So far, five of Canada s 10 provinces have come forward with frameworks for retail marijuana sale. In Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick, cannabis sales will be run by provincial government-owned entities. The western provinces of Manitoba and Alberta have said they will license private retailers.  The federal government set the minimum legal age for buying marijuana at 18, but the provinces can raise that if they wish. In Ontario, Canada s most populous province, the legal age will be 19. The federal government s proposed law also permits adults to grow up to four marijuana plants at home, although Quebec announced Thursday it will not allow residents of the province to grow their own marijuana.  Federal and provincial governments are tightening the rules around impaired driving and bringing in a roadside saliva test to check for drug impairment. The federal government is setting up systems to track all cannabis from seed to sale, to license non-medical producers and to test marijuana for potency and quality control. The federal government has already issued more than 70 licenses for producing medical marijuana, which has been legal in Canada since 2001. MJIC Inc s equal-weighted Canadian Marijuana Index, which tracks stocks of major legal cannabis companies, is up 28 percent this year. The Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences ETF, the first exchange traded fund in North America to focus on the legal market, is up more than 20 percent since it launched in April. Canopy Growth Corp, Aurora Cannabis and Aphria, three of Canada s four biggest marijuana producers by market cap, have gained 89 percent, 137 percent and 71 percent respectively this year. MedReleaf Corp, the fourth, which listed in June, is up 107 percent since its debut.  Marijuana stocks listed have surged since Oct. 30, when U.S. alcohol company Constellation Brands bought a nearly 10 percent stake in Canopy for about C$245 million ($192.05 million). A battle is brewing between the federal government and some provinces over how tax revenue is divided between the two levels of government. The federal government said last week it wants an excise tax on all cannabis products of C$1 (78 cents) per gram (0.04 ounce), or 10 percent of the retail price, whichever is higher.  The government proposed splitting the tax 50-50 with the provinces, drawing criticism from Ontario which says it will face higher costs related to enforcement and establishing a system for sales.  ($1 = 1.2757 Canadian dollars)

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्स-पॉट नेशनः कानूनी मारिजुआना के लिए कनाडा की योजनाएँ


NEW YORK (Reuters) - French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen was seen at Trump Tower on Thursday, but a spokesman for President-elect Donald Trump said she did not meet with him or his team. “No meetings with anyone,” transition spokesman Sean Spicer said. “It’s a public building.” Le Pen, whose National Front party holds anti-immigrant and anti-European Union views, was seen entering an elevator at the building, according to a Reuters witness, but she did not speak to reporters gathered there. George Lombardi, a Trump friend who lives in Trump Tower, told reporters that he had coffee there Thursday with Le Pen, who he said he has known for 20 years. He said Le Pen did not request a meeting with Trump. A day earlier, Lombardi said, they attended a party with people they believe might raise money for her campaign, including business people and diplomats. “This is a perfectly privately encounter that she had with some friends of ours,” Lombardi said. “Some people had been asking to meet her a long time ago, and she just happened to be here because I happen to live here.” Le Pen, who is currently projected to lose a runoff with conservative former prime minister Francois Fillon in next May’s election, has struggled to raise money for her campaign both in France and abroad. She has also sought to burnish her credentials with foreign appearances. Her staff in April announced that she would go to Britain to campaign for that country’s exit from the European Union but she ended up not going after being shunned by the Brexit campaign. Le Pen was seen at Trump Tower with Lombardi, Louis Aliot, her partner and vice president of National Front, and Ludovic De Danne, her international affairs adviser. Her staff confirmed her visit to New York, characterizing it as a private trip. “She took two days to have a break,” campaign director David Rachline said. Trump Tower has been the site of a series of meetings between Trump, a Republican, and business and political leaders as he assembles his administration ahead of his Jan. 20 inauguration. It also has become a tourist destination since Trump’s surprise November election victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.  The group Human Rights Watch mentioned both Trump and Le Pen in a report warning that the rise of populist leaders threatens global human rights. It cited Trump’s victory as well as Britain’s move to leave the European Union led by Nigel Farage, who Trump has praised.  Le Pen is expected to earn enough votes in the first round of presidential voting in April to enter a second round election set for May 7. Last summer Le Pen told a French magazine that if she were American, she would vote for Trump rather than Clinton. A week after Trump’s victory, Le Pen said she, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin “would be good for world peace.”

Summary: फ्रांस के धुर दक्षिणपंथी नेता ली पेन ने ट्रम्प टावर का दौरा किया लेकिन कोई ट्रम्प वार्ता नहीं की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration has told agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services to avoid using certain words or phrases in official documents being drafted for next year’s budget, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. The newspaper said one of the agencies, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was given a list of seven prohibited words or phrases: “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.” Officials at a second agency were also told to use “Obamacare” instead of the Affordable Care Act to describe President Barack Obama’s 2010 healthcare law and to use “exchanges” instead of “marketplaces” in reference to venues where people can buy federally subsidized health insurance, the Post reported. The HHS pushed back on the report.  “The assertion that HHS has ‘banned words’ is a complete mischaracterization of discussions regarding the budget formulation process,” spokesman Matt Lloyd said in a statement.  “HHS will continue to use the best scientific evidence available to improve the health of all Americans. HHS also strongly encourages the use of outcome and evidence data in program evaluations and budget decisions,” he said. The newspaper said State Department documents also now refer to sex education as “sexual risk avoidance.” A briefing at the second HHS agency relied on a document from the White House Office of Management and Budget, which oversees President Donald Trump’s annual budget proposal to Congress, according to the Post.   The Post said no explanations were given for the language changes.

Summary: ट्रम्प प्रशासन ने स्वास्थ्य एजेंसियों में चुनिंदा शब्दों पर प्रतिबंध लगा दियाः पेपर


STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - Members of the European Commission will have to wait two years before taking up new employment after they quit the EU executive under a new ethical code of conduct proposed by the President of the Commission on Wednesday. Seeking to bolster the public s trust in the EU institutions, Jean-Claude Juncker called for more enforced ethical standards and greater transparency in the Commission. The code of conduct will be enforced from Feb. 1, 2018, and will apply to all current members. This comes after Juncker s predecessor Jose Manuel Barroso caused public uproar after joining U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs to advise it on Brexit, and former Commissioner Neelie Kroes was reprimanded for not declaring income that would effectively have reduced her pension. The  cooling off period  between a Commission term and the start of new employment was extended from 18 months to two years for members and three years for the president.     The code also requires members to declare investments above 10,000 euro ($11,900) and establishes an Independent Ethical Committee to advise on all ethical issues.

Summary: जंकर ने यूरोपीय संघ के कार्यकारी सदस्यों के लिए नई आचार संहिता की घोषणा की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - FBI Director James Comey on Monday confirmed for the first time that the bureau is investigating possible ties between Republican Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia as Moscow sought to influence the 2016 U.S. election. Comey and Admiral Mike Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, made clear that their investigation of Moscow and November’s U.S. elections could last for months. Appearing before a congressional panel, Comey also publicly challenged Trump’s claim that former President Barack Obama wiretapped his 2016 campaign headquarters in Manhattan’s Trump Tower. The two officials spent 5-1/2 hours before the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee in testimony marked by starkly partisan divides between the panel’s majority Republicans and Democrats. Comey refused to back away from his claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not simply want Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to lose the election; he wanted Donald Trump to win. Trump created a controversy in early March when he tweeted without giving evidence that Obama had wiretapped his campaign while the businessman competed against Clinton. “With respect to the president’s tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, I have no information that supports those tweets,” Comey said. Leon Panetta, a former U.S. defense secretary and CIA director during the Obama administration, said in an interview that Trump should “acknowledge that he made a mistake, apologize to President Obama.” The committee is one of several in the U.S. Congress  investigating whether Russia tried to influence the election, mostly by hacking Democratic operatives’ emails and releasing embarrassing information. Russia denies the allegations.  Comey confirmed the FBI has been investigating since July possible Russian efforts to interfere in the election, including any cooperation between Trump’s campaign and Moscow. He said that while the Russian government wanted to hurt Clinton’s campaign and help Trump’s, intelligence agencies made no judgment on whether the efforts influenced the outcome. Comey gave no details of the classified investigation and said the fact that it exists does not mean charges would be filed. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia tried to help Trump by hacking leading Democrats. “I think that was a fairly easy judgment for the (intelligence) community,” he said. “Putin hated Secretary Clinton so much that the flip side of that coin was he had a clear preference for the person running against the person he hated so much.”         Asked about Comey, White House spokesman Sean Spicer read a series of quotes from officials - some from the Obama administration - who have said they have seen no signs of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia. In a tweet before the hearing, Trump wrote: “The Democrats made up and pushed the Russian story as an excuse for running a      terrible campaign.” Spicer said he was unaware of any White House official being under investigation by the FBI. Trump has frequently urged better relations with Russia, which has been at odds with the United States over Ukraine and the Syrian civil war.  Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the intelligence committee, detailed activities by Trump associates with ties to Russia, including former campaign manager Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, who was forced out as Trump’s national security adviser after talking to the Russian ambassador and then misrepresenting the conversation to Vice President Mike Pence.  “Is it possible that all of these events and reports are completely unrelated and nothing more than an entirely unhappy coincidence? Yes, it is possible,” Schiff said. “But it is also possible, maybe more than possible, that they are not coincidental, not disconnected and not unrelated.” Trump’s March 4 tweet about wiretapping pulled attention away from the claims of Russian election interference. He issued his tweet two days after Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who met with Russia’s U.S. ambassador at least twice last year, said he would recuse himself from any investigation of the matter. The White House has contended in recent days that Trump’s claim of wiretapping referred to general surveillance of the campaign. The White House has not provided evidence of surveillance of any kind. “Let me be clear: We know there was not a physical wiretap on Trump Tower. However, it’s still possible that other surveillance activities were used against President Trump and his associates,” said Representative Devin Nunes, the committee’s Republican chairman. Last week, Trump’s spokesman cited a media report that British intelligence was behind the surveillance, prompting ridicule in London. Rogers said the allegation had strained relations with London. “I think it clearly frustrates a key ally of ours,” Rogers said. Comey warned that Russia would attempt to influence the next U.S. presidential election in 2020 and perhaps congressional elections next year.  “They’ll be back in 2020. They may be back in 2018. And one of the lessons they may draw from this is that they were successful because they introduced chaos and division and discord and sowed doubt about the nature of this amazing country of ours and our democratic process,” he said. Clinton’s fellow Democrats feel Comey played an inappropriate role in the 2016 presidential contest by issuing a statement shortly before Election Day reviving an investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server. Then, just two days before the election, Comey announced the FBI was sticking by a decision made months earlier that no criminal charges were warranted.

Summary: एफ. बी. आई. प्रमुख ने रूस की चुनाव जांच की पुष्टि की, कहा कि मास्को ने ट्रम्प का समर्थन किया


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad said on Wednesday it was concerned by the closure of a local Kurdish broadcaster at the hands of Iraqi Kurdish security forces a day earlier.  We are concerned by recent actions to curb the operations of some media outlets through force or intimidation, specifically yesterday s raid by Kurdistan Regional Government security forces of the NRT offices in Sulaimaniya,  the embassy said in a statement.

Summary: स्थानीय प्रसारक पर के. आर. जी. सुरक्षा छापे से अमेरिका चिंतित हैः दूतावास


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Republican healthcare bill to repeal and replace major portions of Obamacare cleared a first procedural hurdle in the U.S. House of Representatives when a rule guiding the debate was passed on Thursday. By a partisan vote of 235-192, the Republican-controlled House cleared the way for a debate and vote on passing the legislation later on Thursday. If the bill passes it will hand a major legislative victory to President Donald Trump, but it will face steep hurdles in the Senate.

Summary: अमेरिकी सदन ने रिपब्लिकन स्वास्थ्य सेवा विधेयक पर बहस का रास्ता साफ किया


SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea has threatened to shoot down U.S. bombers flying near the Korean peninsula, but it would have difficulty  matching its words with action given aging air defense systems mostly dating to the Cold War, military experts said. In intensifying rhetoric between the United States and North Korea during the past week, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would  destroy  the country if it threatened the U.S. or its allies. Pyongyang s foreign minister Ri Yong Ho responded that  Trump had  declared war  and North Korea reserved the right to take countermeasures, including shooting down U.S. bombers, even if they were not in its air space. In a show of force on Saturday, U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers escorted by fighters flew east of North Korea, in what the Pentagon said was the farthest north of the Korean Demilitarized Zone that any U.S. fighter jet or bomber has flown in the 21st century. The supersonic B-1B bombers have elaborate electronic countermeasures and are usually escorted by four F-15 fighters, which are likely to prevail in any air combat with North Korea s aging air force, said Bruce Bennett, a military expert at the Rand Corporation think tank.  (And) if the North Koreans try to overwhelm the F-15 escorts by sending up dozens of their fighters, the United States will know that is happening, and would have the option of flying away from North Korea and heading towards Japan,  Bennett said. North Korea could attempt to fire surface-to-air missiles at the U.S. aircraft, but its systems would barely have the range to strike targets outside of North Korean airspace, missile experts said.  If U.S. planes remain off-shore, they would be reasonably safe,  said Michael Elleman, a missile expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Much less shoot them down, it is not even clear whether North Korea would be able to detect some modern-day U.S. aircraft. In 1969, North Korea MiG-21 aircraft did shoot down a U.S. Navy EC-121 aircraft on a reconnaissance mission, which crashed 90 miles off the North Korean coast and killed all 31 Americans on board. But that aircraft was of an aged design based on the Constellation airliner dating back to the 1940s. The latest U.S. fighter jets have stealth capability designed to avoid detection and North Korea s military is known to be incapable of operating radar systems around the clock because supplies of energy are low, South Korean government official said, asking not to be identified.  Due to hurdles from sanctions and oil shortages, I m not sure whether fighters would be able to even return from a mission,  said Park Dae-kwang, an expert on North Korea s air defense at South Korea s state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses.  North Korea has roughly 810 fighter planes, according to South Korea s 2016 defense ministry white paper. But officials and experts say most of these, largely of old Soviet and Chinese origin, are severely outdated and have been plagued with accidents. In 2014, three aged North Korean fighter jets crashed in training over the course of two months, according to South Korean officials at the time.  I doubt very much that any of the North Korean aircraft would be successful taking on our fighter escorts,  said David Maxwell of Center for Security Studies, the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. Last week, North Korea seemed to be unaware that the U.S. B-1B bombers had even been dispatched as it took no action to counter the U.S. patrol at that time, a South Korean lawmaker who was briefed by South Korea s spy agency said on Tuesday. Washington appeared to have disclosed the flight path of its B-1B bombers intentionally after the non response, the lawmaker said.  A Pentagon spokesman said:  We won t confirm what North Korea did or did not know about our B-1B flight on the 23rd, but the mission was completed without incident.  In 1981, the North Koreans tried but failed to shoot down a U.S. SR-71 Blackbird spy plane with a surface-to-air missile. North Korea s best chance of shooting down a U.S. plane would likely be with its KN-06 surface-to-air missile system, which its leader Kim Jong Un declared  perfect  in May after previous defects in earlier testing had been addressed. The KN-06 appeared to be based on Russia s S-300 system with a range of about 150 km (93 miles), said George Hutchinson, managing editor of the International Journal of Korean Studies, and a former U.S. Air Force officer. Hutchinson said it was a more advanced system and  presents concerns because it is a road-mobile transportable system   it can be moved around to enhance its effectiveness and survivability.       However, it is not known how reliable the system is given it has only recently gone into operation, analysts said. Another missile system, the SA-5, has a longer range of 250 km (155 miles) but it relies on old technology which U.S. aircraft could beat, Rand Corp s Bennett said. North Korea has deployed SA-5 and SA-2 surface-to-air missile systems near the inter-Korean border and on its east and west coasts, according to South Korea s defense ministry. Some analysts said North Korea s comments on Monday may have been aimed more toward where the B-1B bombers usually come from - the U.S. military base on the Pacific island territory of Guam, which Pyongyang has threatened to attack with its intermediate-range Hwasong-12 missiles. The Pentagon said the B-1B bombers came from Guam and their fighter escorts came from Okinawa, Japan.   They will probably try to strike U.S. aircraft if they ever enter North Korean airspace, but their anti-aircraft missiles are limited,  said Kim Dong-yub, a military expert and analyst at South Korea s Institute for Far Eastern Studies.  I feel this is more closely linked to North Korea s previous threat they would hit the waters near Guam.  Missile expert Elleman said his main concern was that any North Korean defensive move could quickly lead to all-out conflict.  What I worry about is North Korea  painting  a U.S. plane with a radar as if it were about to launch a weapon,  he said.  That might prompt a defensive reaction to suppress the air defenses of North Korea, either electronically or kinetically. If North Korea fires something, the risks of miscalculation, escalation, grow enormously.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया की छाल अमेरिकी बमवर्षकों को गोली मारने के खतरे में काटने से भी बदतर हो सकती है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Central Intelligence Agency thought for months that it had mistakenly shredded a massive U.S. Senate report on its use of waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques” before suddenly discovering that its copy had not been lost after all, an agency official said on Tuesday. “It’s embarrassing and I have apologized,” Christopher Sharpley, the acting CIA Inspector General, told the Senate Intelligence Committee during his confirmation hearing as President Donald Trump’s nominee for the position. Championed by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein when she chaired the Senate panel, the “torture report,” as it is known, is the result of a six-year investigation into so-called enhanced interrogation techniques used by the CIA after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, during the administration of Republican President George W. Bush. The report has been the subject of disputes between the agency and committee Democrats, as well as Democrats and Republicans, over issues including whether it should be declassified and whether investigators broke the law as they assembled it. Feinstein wants the 6,700-page document declassified. But Republican Senator Richard Burr, her successor as committee chairman, has resisted its release and asked for the return of copies distributed to government agencies under Democratic President Barack Obama. Sharpley said the CIA received the report in December 2014 on a computer disk, which was then uploaded into a classified system. Shortly thereafter, he said, the agency was told to delete it because of ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation. An email was sent saying the disk should not be destroyed, but Sharpley said he was told months later it could not be found and that an employee said it had been shredded. But he said the disk was discovered later, after the FOIA litigation concluded that the report was a “congressional” document not subject to FOIA requests. Sharpley said around that time, Burr asked him to return the disk and he did so. The committee’s Democrats appeared frustrated by Sharpley’s account. “The point of distributing it to the departments was in the hope that they would read it - not look at it as some poison document - and learn from it,” Feinstein said, noting that to her knowledge, not a single fact in the report has been refuted. Sharpley said he had not read the report, only an unclassified executive summary. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden announced after the hearing that he would not support Sharpley’s nomination because he had handed the report over to Burr, although there was no legal requirement to do so. Sharpley also would not commit to protecting any future reports, such as one related to the committee’s probe of potential links between Trump’s campaign and Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election. “I think your highest duty here is to follow the law. The notion that the chairman asked for it and that’s all that governed your judgment isn’t acceptable to me,” Wyden said during the hearing. Obama ended the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” via executive order in January 2009. Led by Feinstein and Republican Senator John McCain, Congress has since passed legislation outlawing their use. Burr said he planned a vote on Sharpley’s nomination next week and looked forward to supporting him.

Summary: सी. आई. ए. का कहना है कि सीनेट की यातना रिपोर्ट को गलती से 'टुकड़े-टुकड़े' कर दिया गया था


(This January 23 story corrects time of 2009 photo to sometime between 12:07 p.m. and 12:26 p.m. from 1:27 p.m., in paragraph seven) By Daniel Trotta (Reuters) - The picture that lit up social media and unsettled the White House began with a trek up 50 flights of stairs, nearly to the top of the Washington Monument, for a bird’s eye view of Donald Trump’s inauguration on Friday as the 45th U.S. president.  Reuters had asked the U.S. National Park Service in an email on Jan. 13 whether a photographer could be posted on the observation level near the top of the monument, the highest vantage point overlooking the National Mall. The next business day, the park service agreed to grant Reuters access, on condition the news agency would make the picture available to other media that requested it.  Because the elevator is under renovation, photographer Lucas Jackson had to climb 897 steps to reach the 500-foot (152-meter) elevation, carrying a backpack and shoulder bag full of photo gear, plus a step ladder. “It was definitely a strenuous climb,” Jackson said. A CBS News camera operator and a Park Service photographer were the only others taking images from the observation level. Reuters published side-by-side pictures of two moments in history. One image was Trump’s inauguration on Friday, taken by Jackson just as Trump took the oath of office, Jackson said. The other picture was taken by Reuters photographer Stelios Varias from the same spot during former President Barack Obama’s first inauguration, between 12:07 p.m. and 12:26 p.m., during Obama’s inaugural address. Reuters published a combination of the two pictures at 2:02 p.m. (1902 GMT). The caption read: “A combination of photos taken at the National Mall shows the crowds attending the inauguration ceremonies to swear in U.S. President Donald Trump at 12:01 p.m. (L) on January 20, 2017 and President Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, in Washington, DC.” The caption did not state which crowd was larger. The side-by-side images soon went viral on social media sites such as Twitter, where people added commentary about the relative size of the crowds. The controversy dominated Trump’s first weekend in office. From Trump’s vantage point, the new president saw a sea of people that he estimated at 1 million to 1.5 million strong, according to his remarks on Saturday at CIA headquarters. Trump chided the “dishonest media” for showing pictures of empty spaces on the mall. Later that day, White House spokesman Sean Spicer accused  some of the media of engaging in “deliberately false reporting.”  “This was the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe,” Spicer said. Spicer elaborated on Monday, saying he stood by the remark given the “tens of millions of people that watched it online” with devices that were unavailable in the past.

Summary: भीड़ विवादः उद्घाटन दिवस की तस्वीर बनाना


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post on Monday announced that he is banning solitary confinement for juveniles in federal prisons, citing concerns about its harmful psychological effects. The move comes amid a national movement demanding criminal justice reform, which was sparked by numerous high-profile police killings in recent years. In the opinion piece, Obama also said solitary confinement could no longer be used as a punishment for low-level infractions. He said the package of changes would include an expansion of treatment for mentally ill prisoners and an increase in the amount of time inmates in solitary can spend outside of their cells.  He said the changes would affect some 10,000 federal prisoners and stemmed from a review of the practice he directed the U.S. Justice Department to conduct last summer. Obama cited the story of Kalief Browder, a black 16-year-old who was arrested in 2010 and spent almost two years in solitary confinement in New York City’s Rikers Island jail before his release in 2013 and eventual suicide two years later. Solitary confinement, Obama wrote, is “increasingly overused on people such as Kalief, with heartbreaking results — which is why my administration is taking steps to address this problem.” Obama said research suggests solitary confinement has been linked to depression, alienation, withdrawal, a reduced ability to interact with others and the potential for violent behavior.  He said states that have worked to cut back their use of the technique have seen drops in assaults on staff and more prisoners engage in rehabilitation programs. Obama said he hoped the changes he has ordered in the treatment of federal prisoners would serve as a model for reforms by state and local corrections systems.  “There are as many as 100,000 people held in solitary confinement in U.S. prisons - including juveniles and people with mental illnesses,” Obama said. “As many as 25,000 inmates are serving months, even years of their sentences alone in a tiny cell, with almost no human contact.” Just last month, New York state agreed to end its “overreliance” on solitary confinement as a means to discipline inmates in its prisons, as part of a settlement to a lawsuit brought against the state by the New York Civil Liberties Union. California last September also agreed to sharply cut its use of solitary confinement as part of a sweeping settlement to a lawsuit brought by prisoners.

Summary: ओबामा ने संघीय जेलों में किशोरों के लिए एकांत कारावास पर प्रतिबंध लगाया


CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing near a large Shi ite mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul that killed at least one person on Friday, the group s Amaq news agency said. The blast hit the Qala-e Fatehullah area of the city, near the Hussainya mosque, and came with security forces on alert for possible attacks during Ashura, the holiest celebration in the Shi ite religious calendar.

Summary: इस्लामिक स्टेट ने काबुल मस्जिद के पास आत्मघाती बम विस्फोट का दावा कियाः अमाक


(Reuters) - The U.S. Missile Defense Agency and the Navy successfully conducted a missile defense test off the coast of Hawaii, MDA said in a statement on Wednesday. The test, scheduled well in advance, was done from the USS John Paul Jones and comes a day after North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan. The test, using Standard Missile-6 guided missiles, intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile target. North Korea said its missile launch was to counter U.S. and South Korean military drills, and was a first step in military action in the Pacific to  contain  the U.S. territory of Guam. The launch was condemned by the United Nations as an  outrageous  act. The MDA said the test gives the naval component of the missile defense system higher ability to intercept ballistic missiles in their terminal phase. Japan has been worried that the United States has so far declined to arm it with a powerful new radar, Reuters reported on Wednesday. Japan is seeking a land-based version of the Aegis ballistic missile defense system, operational by 2023, as a new layer of defense to help counter North Korea s missile advances.

Summary: अमेरिका ने हवाई तट पर मिसाइल रक्षा परीक्षण किया


BERLIN (Reuters) - German police seized large quantities of guns and ammunition in raids on four locations in Berlin linked to a 40-year-old German man with suspected Islamist ties, the Berlin prosecutor s office said on Wednesday.  The man, a German citizen with a Turkish background, had previously been convicted of weapons violations, and frequented a mosque which was under surveillance by state security, said prosecutor spokeswoman Silke Becker. Germany was hit by several Islamist militant attacks in 2016, including one in Berlin in December in which a Tunisian man shot dead a Polish lorry driver and then killed 11 more people by driving the stolen truck into a Christmas market. Germany s domestic intelligence agency has warned of further attacks by radicalised Muslims, given growing numbers of foreign fighters returning from war zones in Syria and Iraq. [L2N1MU194] Becker said an investigation had been under way since summer, but the raids were triggered by concerns that the suspect could harm his family rather than any specific indication of a planned terrorist attack.   It became clear that the suspect could have an Islamist background and Islamist connection in the broadest sense,  she said.  The suspect was due to go before a judge on Wednesday.

Summary: जर्मन पुलिस ने संदिग्ध इस्लामी आतंकवादी से जुड़े स्थानों पर छापा मारा, बंदूकें जब्त कीं


MADRID (Reuters) - Catalonia s deposed leader Carles Puigdemont urged the region s political forces on Tuesday to unite against Spain, as a window for him to seal an electoral pact with other pro-independence parties began to close. Puigdemont went into self-imposed exile in Belgium last month after Spain s central government fired his secessionist administration, dissolved the Catalan parliament and called an election in the region for Dec 21. Pro-secession parties want that vote to become a de facto independence referendum. Two of those parties, Puigdemont s PDeCAT and the ERC party, said at the weekend they might contest it on a combined ticket. But they must register any alliance by the end of Tuesday, and prospects of them bridging their differences in time looked slim. The Catalan independence push has deeply divided Spain, dragging it into its worst political crisis since the return of democracy four decades ago and fuelling anti-Spanish sentiment in Catalonia and nationalist tendencies elsewhere. In an interview with Catalunya Radio on Tuesday from Brussels, Puigdemont said all parties contesting the election should unite against Madrid.  The ideal would be a broad regional list of parties... that stand for democracy and freedom.  he said, mentioning PDeCAT, ERC, the anti-capitalist CUP and left-wing +Podemos. ERC s spokesman Sergi Sabria said on Monday his party did not rule out a coalition with PDeCAT, but would agree only if other parties joined them, including CUP, which has yet to decide whether it will contest the December ballot. Unequivocal support for Puigdemont and his cause came from some 200 pro-independence Catalan mayors who attended a rally in Brussels on Tuesday evening. They called for continued non-violent resistance and for the European Union to intervene.  Perhaps the path toward freedom will be longer than we thought, but it continues and we haven t given up,  said Toni Comin, one of four former cabinet members in Brussels. Polls show the ERC and PDeCAT combined would not win enough votes for a majority in the Catalan parliament, though running together would increase their chance of success. Puigdemont also said he might be in jail by the time of the election,  but prison doesn t deprive anyone of legitimacy . Madrid issued an arrest warrant against Puigdemont on charges including rebellion, but a Brussels court ruled on Monday the deposed leader could remain at liberty in Belgium until it had decided whether he should be extradited. He and other secessionist leaders face the charges for organizing an independence referendum on Oct. 1 and proclaiming a Catalan republic, in defiance of Spain s constitution. The party that forms the main opposition to the secessionists in Catalonia emerged as the big winner in the first nationwide voter survey published by Spain s most closely watched polling group since the referendum. Support for the pro-business Ciudadanos rose almost three percentage points to 17.5 percent, the Sociological Research Centre (CIS) survey showed. Podemos   which supports a negotiated referendum on independence in Catalonia   and its allies fell almost two points to 18.5 percent in the survey. During Tuesday s rally, Puigdemont called on the Spanish government to suspend Article 155, which Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy enacted last month to govern Catalonia from Madrid, and said they would contest it in the December election.  Catalans have the right to know if their choice will be respected on Dec. 21,  he said.

Summary: कातालान के पूर्व नेता ने अलगाववादी समझौते के लिए खिड़की बंद होने पर एकता का आग्रह किया