ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday he would discuss a planned Moscow-backed Syrian congress with Russian President Vladimir Putin during an official visit to Russia s Sochi. Speaking to reporters before departing for visits to Russia, Kuwait and Qatar, Erdogan also said he would ask Putin to remove obstacles to visa-free travel with Russia. The Russian-sponsored Syrian Congress on National Dialogue, scheduled for Nov. 18, has been postponed and the main Syrian Kurdish group will not be invited if it is held later after objections by Turkey, an Erdogan spokesman said last week.

Summary: तुर्की के एर्दोगन ने कहा कि वे रूस के पुतिन के साथ सीरियाई वार्ता कांग्रेस पर चर्चा करेंगे


SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A California neuroscientist vying to unseat Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher stepped up his criticism of the conservative on Tuesday, demanding he return a $1,000 contribution from indicted Trump adviser Paul Manafort. The Orange County seat held by Rohrabacher is key to Democrats’ hopes to increase their numbers in the U.S. House of Representatives in next year’s elections. Neuroscientist Hans Keirstead, a stem cell researcher and entrepreneur from Laguna Beach, is one of seven Democrats aiming to beat him, according to the Federal Election Commission. “We’ve got a Russian-tainted Congressman taking Russian-tainted money from Manafort,” Keirstead said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “Something has to be put straight here.” Federal investigators probing Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election on Monday charged Manafort, a lobbyist and former Trump campaign manager, with money laundering. Rohrabacher, a senior member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, has frequently praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and was considered for a role in U.S. President Donald Trump’s cabinet. His Southern California base in Orange County was for decades a Republican stronghold and a center of support for Ronald Reagan. Reliably conservative voters there have sent Rohrabacher to the House for nearly 30 years. But the 48th Congressional district has undergone profound demographic shifts in recent years, and it is now one of nine Republican districts in California that Democrats have targeted. Hillary Clinton beat Trump in the district in 2016, winning 152,000 votes compared to his 146,600. “These are people who care about the environment, care about social issues,” said Drew Godinich, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in California. “Donald Trump and Donald Trump’s Republican Party are no longer a good match for them.” Democrats’ success in the district, however, is far from assured. Despite a tilt toward Clinton for the presidency, voters there chose Rohrabacher over Democrat Suzanne Savary by more than six percentage points in 2016. Through a spokesman, Rohrabacher indicated that he was not at this time prepared to reject Manafort - or the $1,000 donation the political operative made to his 2014 campaign. “The Congressman advises his political opponents and the media to observe the presumption of innocence, still an American principle,” spokesman Ken Grubbs said in an email.

Summary: मैनफोर्ट का पैसा लौटा दें, डेमोक्रेट ने कैलिफोर्निया रिपब्लिकन से की मांग


BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday she could well imagine a European finance minister but stressed that the creation of such a position would have to be underpinned with reforms of substance.  We certainly need to strengthen the governance of the euro zone ... I have nothing against a European finance minister. I can well imagine that,  she told a joint news conference in Berlin with French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.  But what is important to me is that we underpin the slogans -  economic government  and  European finance minister  and  budget  - with substance.  Merkel added that although monetary policy in the euro zone was harmonized, economic cooperation was still  incoherent.

Summary: मर्केल एक यूरोपीय वित्त मंत्री की अच्छी तरह से कल्पना कर सकती हैं।


KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday it was hard for him to work with the current U.S. administration because it did not stick to any agreements, including on Syria. Putin said he was ready to engage with a new president however, whoever the American people chose, and to discuss any problem.

Summary: रूस के पुतिन ने कहा कि ओबामा प्रशासन किसी भी सौदे पर कायम नहीं है


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is open to working with the United States to try to solve the crisis in Libya, Russia s ambassador to Libya was cited as saying on Friday by the RIA news agency.  He was also cited as saying that Moscow was ready to initiate the lifting of an international arms embargo on Libya, but that was something he said could only be done once the North African country had a united army.

Summary: रूस ने कहा कि वह लीबिया संकट को हल करने के लिए अमेरिका के साथ काम करने के लिए तैयार हैः आर. आई. ए.


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s Strategic and Policy Forum is disbanding because debate over member participation “has become a distraction” from its goals of aiding policy discussions, the business advisory group said in a statement on Wednesday. “As such, the President and we are disbanding the Forum,” the group said. “Intolerance, racism and violence have absolutely no place in this country and are an affront to core American values,” it said, after corporate CEOs quit two Trump  business advisory councils in protest at his remarks blaming violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, not only on white nationalists but also on the protesters who opposed them.

Summary: ट्रम्प बिजनेस पॉलिसी फोरम ने कहा कि 'व्याकुलता' के कारण भंग किया जा रहा है


DUBAI (Reuters) - The ruler of Oman received Iran s foreign minister on Monday, the state news agency ONA reported, in a rare official appearance for the long-time leader. Sultan Qaboos, who is in his late 70s, was pictured in conversation with Iran s Javad Zarif at al-Shumoukh fort in the state of Manah, south-west of Oman s capital, Muscat. The agency said Qaboos and Zarif discussed cooperation between the two countries and regional issues, but gave no further details.   Zarif was due to visit Qatar on the second leg of his Gulf tour. Qatar has grown closer to Iran since Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain imposed sanctions on Doha in June, accusing it of supporting terrorism, a charge it denies. In the past two years, Qaboos has been to Germany several times for medical checks, fuelling concern over succession in the U.S-allied state. He has no children and has not publicly appointed a successor.

Summary: दुर्लभ आधिकारिक उपस्थिति में, ओमान के शासक ने ईरानी मंत्री से मुलाकात की


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump appears to have carved out a wider path to the White House as a number of states including Florida and Ohio are no longer considered likely wins for Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project released on Saturday. The project, which combines opinion polls with an analysis of voting patterns under different election scenarios, still shows Clinton would have the best chance of winning the presidency if the Nov. 8 election were held today. Yet Trump has caught up to her level of support in several states. Clinton now has an 83 percent chance of winning the election by an average of 47 votes in the Electoral College, the body that ultimately selects the president. In late August, the States of the Nation estimated that Clinton had a 95 percent chance of winning by an average of 108 electoral votes. Over the past few weeks, Clinton’s lead in the national polls has slipped considerably. Polls tend to narrow as  Election Day nears, and the Clinton campaign has struggled to overcome controversy about how she handled classified information while serving as secretary of state. A separate Reuters/Ipsos poll of likely voters showed an 8-point lead for Clinton has vanished since the last week of August.    Clinton is still favored to win 17 states, including many with large, urban populations such as New York, New Jersey and California that heavily influence the outcome of the election. Trump would likely win 23 states, many of them with smaller populations. The number of states projected for Clinton has dropped over the past few weeks. Two of those states, Ohio and Florida, were considered likely wins for Clinton in late August. Now the candidates are about even in support. Five more states, including Michigan and North Carolina are also up for grabs.  The sample size was insufficient to determine the outcome in Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska and the District of Columbia, though Alaska usually votes Republican and Washington D.C. for the Democratic Party candidate. The Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project is driven by an online survey that gathers responses from about 15,000 people per week. Their responses are weighted according to the latest population estimates, and each respondent is ranked according to their likelihood to vote.  Once the poll is complete, the project tallies the levels of support and estimated error for both candidates, and then runs multiple election simulations given their respective support.  (Click here: here for the project’s interactive tool that allows users to set turnout targets for various voter groups.)

Summary: ट्रम्प क्लिंटन की अनुमानित चुनावी बढ़त के करीबः रॉयटर्स/इप्सोस पोल


VIENNA (Reuters) - Young conservative star Sebastian Kurz is on track to become Austria s next leader, projections of Sunday s parliamentary election result showed, but his party is well short of a majority and could seek an alliance with the far right. Kurz, who is just 31, campaigned on an anti-immigration platform so strict that the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) accused him of plagiarism. That appears to have succeeded in drawing some voters away from the FPO two years after Austria was swept up in Europe s migration crisis, which boosted the FPO in polls. Kurz s People s Party (OVP) is in the lead on 30.5 percent, with its current coalition partner, the Social Democrats, on 26.2 percent, just behind the FPO on 26.8 percent, a projection by pollster SORA said shortly after polls closed, based on an early count of 49 percent of non-postal ballots. The projection had a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points. It will be refreshed and become more precise as more ballots are counted throughout the evening. Another projection by pollster ARGE Wahlen also showed the OVP in the lead. Kurz, named party leader only in May, has been careful to keep his coalition options open, but he called an end to the current alliance with the Social Democrats and pledged to shake up Austrian politics, which for decades has been dominated by coalitions between those two parties. While that would suggest he will turn to the anti-Islam FPO, he has also said there could be leadership changes within the losing parties, a possible hint at being willing to work with the Social Democrats if Chancellor Christian Kern were ousted as leader by Defense Minister Hans Peter Doskozil. The Social Democrats (SPO) have also opened the door to forming coalitions with the FPO, meaning the far-right party is placed to be kingmaker and play the two parties off each other during coalition talks. It is highly unlikely, however, that the Social Democrats would ally with the FPO if the SPO came third.

Summary: युवा रूढ़िवादी कुर्ज़ ऑस्ट्रियाई नेता बनने की राह परः वोट अनुमान


BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, in response to his name appearing in a trove of leaked documents about offshore investments, said he left a company registered in tax haven Barbados before taking a ministerial post with a previous government. The so-called Paradise Papers published on Sunday showed the investments of wealthy people and institutions ranging from United States Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to Britain s Queen Elizabeth. Reuters has not independently verified the documents. Santos was listed in the leaked documents as a board member of insurance company Nova Holding in April and May 2000 and also Global Tuition, an insurance firm focused on education, from April 1999 to May 2001. Santos said in a statement on Sunday that he left Global Tuition before taking up his duties as Finance Minister in the government of then-President Andres Pastrana in August 2000. He said he was not a partner, did not invest any money and was not paid for serving on the board.  I imagine they delayed in officially registering the changes,  Santos said in answers given to El Espectador newspaper and released by his office.  I participated until before I became Finance Minister.  Santos said that after 2000 he was a Global Tuition client  for some of their insurance for the education of my three children.   Global Tuition s office was closed in Colombia for a public holiday on Monday and could not be reached for comment. The company s office in the United States said any comment would come from the Colombia office. The president s statement did not mention the other company,  Nova Holding. Nova Holding could not immediately be reached for comment. The documents were obtained by Germany s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and some media outlets, including El Espectador and Connectas website in Colombia. The names of three former Colombian defense ministers and two former ambassadors to the United States also appear in the leaked papers.

Summary: कोलंबिया के राष्ट्रपति का कहना है कि उन्होंने लीक हुए टैक्स हेवन पेपर्स में सूचीबद्ध फर्म को छोड़ दिया


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The foreign ministers of Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala will meet in Mexico next week to discuss immigration policy responses to Donald Trump’s U.S. presidency, the Honduran ambassador to Mexico said on Wednesday. Central American ministers want to open lines of communication with Mexico’s Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray to discuss problems with migration and the flow of Central Americans, Alden Rivera said in an interview.     “It’s a first point of contact ... we don’t expect to have an answer,” Rivera said.     The meeting between Videgaray and the three Central Americans will take place in Mexico City, Rivera said.  Mexico’s foreign ministry said that there was no meeting officially in the calendar yet. Rivera said his main concern was a change in U.S. immigration policy and how Mexico reacts to that, which would have an impact on Central America. Trump has vowed to deport millions of undocumented U.S. immigrants and build a wall along the Mexican border. “No country is ready for a mass deportation. It would be a big risk. We could fall into a humanitarian crisis,” he said. In November, Reuters reported that Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala had agreed to join forces to seek support from Mexico to forge a group response to Trump’s government.

Summary: मेक्सिको, मध्य अमेरिका ट्रम्प के नेतृत्व में प्रवास पर चर्चा करेंगेः राजदूत


BEIJING (Reuters) - China s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday it hoped all parties could contribute to resolving the issue on the Korean peninsula peacefully, after the United States put North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism. Ministry spokesman Lu Kang made the comment at a daily news briefing.

Summary: चीन को उम्मीद है कि सभी पक्ष उत्तर कोरिया मुद्दे को शांतिपूर्ण तरीके से सुलझा सकते हैं


GENEVA (Reuters) - Azerbaijan, Egypt and Indonesia have all unjustly arrested dozens of people during anti-gay crackdowns in recent weeks, subjecting many to mistreatment in custody, the United Nations human rights office said on Friday.  Arresting or detaining people based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity is by definition arbitrary and violates international law,  U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a news briefing. In Azerbaijan, more than 80 lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) people have been arrested since mid-September and the U.N. has received allegations that some were subjected to electric shocks, beatings, forced shaving and other forms of humiliation to force them to incriminate themselves before being released, Colville said. There was no immediate comment from authorities in Baku. More than 50 people have been arrested so far in Egypt s widest anti-gay crackdown, a swift zero-tolerance response to a rare show of public support for LGBT rights in the conservative Muslim country. Two were arrested for waving rainbow flags at a concert and one for a Facebook page, Colville said.  In some cases, individuals were reportedly arrested after being entrapped by law enforcement officials on apps and in internet chat rooms. Charges include  habitual debauchery ,  inciting indecency and debauchery , and  joining a banned group ,  he said.  At least 10 men in Egypt have been sentenced to between one and six years imprisonment, while most others await trial and a few have been released, Colville added. In Indonesia, more than 50 people were arrested at a sauna in Jakarta last Friday, Colville said. Four men and one woman were charged under the country s pornography law, a vague statute used to arrest people for consensual same-sex relations, he said.  In all three countries, authorities have alleged that those arrested were involved in sex work   although in almost all cases the accused have denied such allegations or indicated that they were coerced into confessing involvement,  Colville said. He called for the release of people detained on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity and for authorities to drop charges based on vague or discriminatory laws, and to repeal such legislation.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र ने मिस्र, अजरबैजान, इंडोनेशिया में समलैंगिकों के खिलाफ कार्रवाई की निंदा की


MOSCOW (Reuters) -  Muscle flexing  by U.S. armed forces in South Korea is fraught with grave consequences for the entire region, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday. Moscow called on the United States and North Korea to get down to talks to find a political solution to problems on the Korean Peninsula, Zakharova told a weekly news briefing.

Summary: रूस का कहना है कि दक्षिण कोरिया में अमेरिका की 'मांसपेशियों में लचीलापन' गंभीर परिणामों से भरा हुआ है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. president, has tapped senior adviser Paul Manafort to be campaign chairman and chief strategist, CNN’s chief Washington correspondent said in a tweet on Thursday. In his tweet, CNN’s Jake Tapper cited campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks.

Summary: ट्रंप ने मैनफोर्ट के सलाहकार को चुनाव अभियान का अध्यक्ष बनायाः सीएनएन


DOHA (Reuters) - Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said on Wednesday his country was against  isolating and besieging  any other country.  He was speaking in the Qatari capital Doha. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and transport ties with Doha on June 5, saying Qatar supports regional foe Iran and Islamists, a charge which Qatar denies.

Summary: इराक के विदेश मंत्री ने कहा, किसी भी देश को अलग-थलग करने और घेरने के खिलाफ


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois’ Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed big, permanent increases in income tax rates and a $36 billion fiscal 2018 spending plan on Sunday with the help of some Republican votes as the cash-strapped state scrambled to stave off a bond rating downgrade to junk.     The $5 billion tax package, which passed in a 72-45 vote and drew an immediate veto threat from Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, would boost the personal income tax rate to 4.95 percent from 3.75 percent and the corporate rate to 7 percent from 5.25 percent. It would also close tax loopholes and expand tax credits. The spending plan won passage in a 81-34 vote. Both bills now head to the Democratic-led Senate, which returns to session on Monday, for concurrence votes. The country’s fifth most populous state began an unprecedented third-straight fiscal year on Saturday without a complete budget. A fiscal stalemate between Illinois’ governor and Democrats who control the legislature has pounded the state’s credit ratings to a step above junk and ballooned its unpaid bill backlog to $15 billion. The pair of decisive House votes set Democrats on a collision course with Rauner, who vowed to veto the 32 percent personal income tax hike he pinned to House Speaker Michael Madigan.  “The legislature could have passed a no reform budget like this one two years ago,” Rauner said in a statement. “Instead, they allowed Mike Madigan to play his political games, passed phony budgets, racked up our debt and inflicted pain on the most vulnerable.” Rauner has insisted for two years that a budget be coupled with a property tax freeze and legislative term limits, among other things. In order for Rauner to match his tough words with results, he will have to persuade at least two of the 15 House Republicans to switch their yes votes in favor of the tax hike legislation. The measure passed the House with one more vote than the threshold necessary to override a gubernatorial veto. In his own statement after the votes, Madigan praised how Republicans and Democrats together took a “crucial step toward reaching a compromise that ends the budget crisis by passing a fully funded state budget in a bipartisan way.” The tax legislation would give the state a revenue boost to support a full-year budget and start paying down the bill pile that was on track to grow even larger after a federal judge on Friday ordered increased payments on Medicaid provider bills. In giving Democratic supporters the narrow margin to move the legislation to the state Senate, some House Republicans shed tears during debate, predicted their tax votes could topple them politically in next year’s elections and delivered a pointed challenge to Rauner to set aside his budgetary preconditions and do what was right for the state’s fiscal health. “I say to the governor, if these bills pass the House and Senate, the revenue bill and expenditure bill, we will have sent you a balanced budget. Have the courage to do what is right and sign the bills,” said State Representative David Harris, who was among 15 Republicans to side with Democrats. “Bring this madness to an end.” Their defiance came after House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, a Rauner ally, noted the deal was not negotiated with the governor and did not represent “an exercise in good faith,” given that negotiations involving some of the governor’s non-budgetary priorities were shunted to the sidelines.

Summary: इलिनोइस हाउस ने 5 अरब डॉलर के कर पैकेज, खर्च योजना को मंजूरी दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved an $81 billion bill to help widespread recovery efforts from hurricanes and wildfires this year. By a vote of 251-169, the House passed the measure to help Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and states rebuild following the natural disasters. The bill now goes to the Senate where it is expected to be approved this week.

Summary: अमेरिकी सदन ने आपदा सहायता के लिए 81 अरब डॉलर की मंजूरी दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that NATO is not obsolete, as he had declared on the campaign trail last year, but said NATO members still need to pay their fair share for the European security umbrella. At a news conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Trump thanked NATO members for their support of his decision last Thursday to launch 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack on civilians and said it was time to end Syria’s civil war. “I said it was obsolete. It’s no longer obsolete,” Trump said, adding that the Transatlantic alliance was adapting to the broader mission against Islamic militants that he had urged. Stoltenberg said he had an excellent and productive meeting in the Oval Office with Trump.

Summary: चुनाव प्रचार के रुख को पलटते हुए ट्रंप ने कहा, नाटो अप्रचलित नहीं है


KIEV/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Ukraine s Petro Poroshenko met U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday and said afterwards that they had a shared vision on a  new level  of defense cooperation, but not whether this included the U.S. provision of defensive weapons to Ukraine. The United States is reviewing whether to send weapons to Ukraine to help it defend itself, an option that previous U.S. president Barack Obama vetoed and which is opposed by Russia. After meeting Trump in New York, President Poroshenko told a televised briefing:  It s very important that there is a shared vision on a new level of cooperation in the defense sphere.   We discussed all areas of this cooperation, including cooperation with the defense ministry and other institutions,  he added, without saying whether there had been any progress on the defensive weapons initiative. The two leaders skirted around the topic of Russia when they spoke to reporters at the beginning of their private meeting. Instead, they chose to emphasize economic cooperation when they appeared before reporters at their meeting on the fringes of the U.N. General Assembly. Relations between Kiev and Moscow are at their lowest ebb since Russia annexed Crimea more than three years ago and Russian-backed separatist fighters took up arms against Ukrainian government forces in the east of the country. Before holding private talks, Trump praised Poroshenko, telling him that  I wouldn t say it s (Ukraine) the easiest place to live  but  it s getting better and better on a daily basis.  Speaking in English, Poroshenko said he believed that the two countries had improved security and economic cooperation with many U.S. companies doing business in Ukraine.  That s a story that s pretty untold,  said Trump.  Companies are going very strongly right now into the Ukraine, they see a tremendous potential there.  It was not immediately clear if they spoke privately about relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who did not attend the U.N. General Assembly. The war in eastern Ukraine between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces has killed more than 10,000 people in three years. Kiev accuses Moscow of sending troops and heavy weapons to the region, which Russia denies.  Poroshenko said Trump had supported Ukraine s proposal to deploy U.N peacekeepers  including on the uncontrolled part of the Ukraine-Russia border, which would prevent the possibility of penetration by Russian troops or Russian weapons . Putin this month also suggested U.N. peacekeepers be deployed to eastern Ukraine. But Russia has balked at Ukraine s proposal that would ban any Russian nationals from taking part in the peacekeeping mission which Kiev wants deployed along the part of its border with Russia it does not control. Poroshenko said the meeting with Trump lasted an hour and was also attended by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and other senior U.S. officials.

Summary: यूक्रेन के राष्ट्रपति ने कहा कि ट्रम्प ने रक्षा सहयोग के 'नए स्तर' पर दृष्टिकोण साझा किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Marshals Service, the law enforcement arm of the federal judicial system, wastes money from a government asset forfeiture fund and spends it improperly, a senior U.S. senator charged on Tuesday. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, in a memo to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, said: “Evidence shows that the USMS wasted and misused money it received ... The agency also provided incomplete and in some cases misleading details about some of these expenditures.” Sessions in recent months reinstated a civil asset forfeiture program that had been shut down by the Obama administration. The program has been expected to generate more money for law enforcement. On Tuesday, the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted to add a series of amendments to a broader spending package that would restrict the Justice Department’s implementation of the civil asset forfeiture program. Civil asset forfeiture gives police and other law enforcement agencies the power to seize cash and other assets from motorists or travelers at airports if they have “probable cause” to suspect the money is connected to a crime.   The owners of the property do not need to be convicted of a crime in order to justify the seizure. Representatives for the Justice Department and Marshals Service said both agencies were reviewing Grassley’s letter. Money collected from criminal and civil asset forfeitures goes into the Justice Department’s asset forfeiture fund and is used to pay for expenses for seizures and investigations. Proceeds are also shared with law enforcement agencies that contribute to the fund.  The USMS handles the seized property. Grassley’s investigative staff looked at USMS expenditures for a planned relocation of its headquarters, use of the Texas-based Asset Forfeiture Academy to train employees and funding for certain employees and expenses. Grassley said whistleblowers came forward to report that some positions funded by forfeited funds “are not fully dedicated” to the effort. Whistleblowers also alleged in 2015 that a planned headquarters relocation plan entailed the construction of personal in-office bathrooms for senior leadership and unnecessary furniture. After Grassley inquired, the USMS said in 2016 it planned to minimize excessive costs in part by reusing furniture. Since then, Grassley said whistleblowers reported that the furniture was discarded and that televisions were installed in offices of employees not permitted to use them.

Summary: अमेरिकी मार्शल्स सेवा संपत्ति जब्त करने के लिए धन बर्बाद करती हैः सीनेटर


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump has repeatedly called this year’s presidential election rigged and has coyly said “I will keep you in suspense” on whether he would accept a Hillary Clinton victory, but many Republicans are less circumspect, according to a new poll. Only half of Republicans would accept Clinton, the Democratic nominee, as their president. And if she wins, nearly 70 percent said it would be because of illegal voting or vote rigging, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Friday. Conversely, seven out of 10 Democrats said they would accept a Trump victory and less than 50 percent would attribute it to illegal voting or vote rigging, the poll showed. The findings come after repeated statements by Trump that the media and the political establishment have rigged the election against him. He also has made a number of statements encouraging his supporters to fan out on Election Day to stop ineligible voters from casting ballots. The U.S. government has accused Russia of a campaign of cyber attacks against Democratic Party organizations and state election systems. Clinton has said she will accept the results of the election no matter the outcome. The poll showed there is broad concern across the political spectrum about voting issues such as ineligible voters casting ballots, voter suppression, and the actual vote count, but Republicans feel that concern more acutely. For example, nearly eight out of 10 Republicans are concerned about the accuracy of the final vote count. And though generally they believe they will be able to cast their ballot, only six out of 10 are confident their vote will be counted accurately. Among Democrats, about six out of 10 are concerned about the vote count. They, too, believe they wi1l be able to cast their ballot, but eight out of 10 are confident their vote will be counted accurately. “Republicans are just more worried about everything than Democrats,” said Lonna Atkeson, a professor at the University of New Mexico and head of the Center for the Study of Voting, Elections, and Democracy. Additionally, seven out of 10 Republicans are concerned about issues such as vote buying, faulty voting machines, or confusing ballot designs. Six out of 10 Democrats feel the same way. Nearly eight out of 10 Republicans are concerned that ineligible voters, including non-citizens, will illegally cast ballots. Four out of 10 Democrats feel the same way. Six out of 10 respondents, regardless of party, say they are concerned about issues such as voter intimidation and suppression.  Atkeson said the level of concern and mistrust in the system, especially among Republicans, is unprecedented. “I’ve never seen an election like this. Not in my lifetime. Certainly not in modern history.” The difference, she said, is Trump. “It has to be the candidate effect.”  She worries that the lack of trust is dangerous. It is one thing to not trust government, but quite another to doubt the election process. “Then the entire premise of democracy comes into question,” she said. About one in five Democrats said they would protest if their candidate loses. Slightly fewer Republicans said they would do the same. Fewer than one in 10 Democrats said they are prepared to take up arms in opposition compared to fewer than one in 20 Republicans. Democrats are also are three times as likely to say they would leave the country. There is one area where there is little disagreement: Most people do not expect the losing candidate to concede the race gracefully.  The poll surveyed 1,192 American adults online from Oct. 17 to 21. The results have a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points. The credibility interval for Democrats is 5.1 percentage points; for Republicans it is 5.5 points. (In 4th paragraph corrects to say “ineligible,” not “illegible”)

Summary: क्लिंटन के जीतने पर आधे रिपब्लिकन चुनाव परिणाम को अस्वीकार कर देंगेः रॉयटर्स/इप्सोस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Sunday he expected Mexico to pay for the wall he has promised to build along the southern border, resuscitating a campaign promise that roiled U.S. relations with Mexico in the first week of his presidency. “Eventually, but at a later date so we can get started early, Mexico will be paying, in some form, for the badly needed border wall,” Trump said in a Twitter post. Trump returned to his Mexico demand on a morning in which he simultaneously tried to pressure congressional Democrats to include funding for the border wall in must-pass spending legislation needed to keep the U.S. government open beyond Friday. A spokesman for the Mexican president’s office said President Enrique Pena Nieto has repeated that Mexico will not pay for the wall. The Republican president’s demand that Mexico pay for the  border wall triggered a diplomatic crisis with the southern U.S. neighbor during the first week of his presidency. Pena Nieto on Jan. 26 scrapped a planned trip to meet with Trump and the White House floated the idea of a 20 percent tax on goods from Mexico to pay for the wall. The two leaders agreed the following day not to talk publicly about payment for the wall, the Mexican government said. The White House said the two recognized they had differences over the proposed wall but agreed to “work these differences out.” Trump sought the wall, projected to cost more than $20 billion, as part of his effort to curb illegal immigration. Mexico has rejected payment for the construction project as out of the question. Attorney General Jeff Sessions told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday the wall would get paid for one way or another.     “I don’t expect the Mexican government to appropriate money for it but there are ways that we can deal with our trade situation to create the revenue to pay for it, no doubt about it,” Sessions said.

Summary: सीमा पर दीवार के लिए मेक्सिको 'अंततः' भुगतान करेगाः ट्रम्प


BELGRADE (Reuters) - Russia s elite aerobatic team zoomed over Serbia s military airport on Friday as Belgrade exhibited its newest fighter jets in a display demonstrating close ties between the fellow Slavic, Orthodox Christian countries. Serbia has sought to balance ambitions to join the European Union with continued warm relations to Russia, which backed Belgrade s ultimately failed effort to prevent its ex-province of Kosovo from seceding and declaring independence. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu attended Friday s air show, staged to commemorate the liberation of Belgrade from Nazi Germany by the Soviet Red Army and Yugoslav Communist partisans in 1944. Five of six MiG-29s donated to Serbia by Russia in 2016 - Serbia now has 10 MiGs in all, dating to 1987 - were painted in new grey camouflage and parked on the runway of Batajnica military base just outside Belgrade for the occasion.  Dear Mr Shoigu, thank you for these wonderful presents, thanks to the people of Russia and President (Vladimir) Putin,  Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told Shoigu in Russian.  I hope our cooperation will be even better.  Russia s aerobatic team, the Swifts, demonstrated their flying skills while Serbian jets and air mobile infantry carried out a mock air security operation and assault on ground targets. Serbia has joined NATO s Partnership for Peace program but  is not pursuing membership of the alliance, which remains deeply unpopular among Serbs because of its 1999 air war to stop then-nationalist President Slobodan Milosevic s campaign to crush Kosovo s uprising by killing and expelling ethnic Albanians.  Last year, Belgrade signed a deal with Airbus  to buy nine H145M light helicopters with weapon pods to be used by both military and police. But Serbia, which in 2014 opened accession talks with the EU, remains attached to friendship with Russia, an ally that, for example, blocked independent Kosovo from becoming a member of the United Nations, at Belgrade s request.

Summary: रूसी एरोबेटिक्स टीम सर्बियाई वायु शक्ति के प्रदर्शन में शामिल हुई


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Republicans are ramping up discussions on overhauling the U.S. tax code that a prominent Republican anti-tax advocate said on Wednesday will produce a bill by September with a hefty corporate tax cut. Grover Norquist, head of the anti-tax Americans for Tax Reform and a lobbyist close to Republican leaders, said a “Big Six” group of Republican tax decision-makers was targeting the end of this month for producing a basic framework for a bill to be introduced in September.  “The House, the White House and the Senate have been meeting for a couple months. They’ll have a package in September,” said Norquist, a conservative tax and small-government activist who has met with Big Six members. The group met on Wednesday evening and two members who emerged 45 minutes later said they were united on tax principles but offered no comment on whether they had agreed to a framework. “We’re all on one page, on one unified page,” White House economic adviser Gary Cohn said.  House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady also told reporters there was unity and to expect a statement in coming days. Central to the discussion is the 35 percent corporate income tax rate, how much it can be cut and whether a cut can be made permanent. The White House wants to slash the rate to 15 percent for seven years, while congressional Republicans are trying to settle on a permanent rate that does not increase the deficit. President Donald Trump and his representatives on the Big Six - Cohn and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin - are “really excited about the 15 percent rate” for corporations, Norquist said. The congressional Big Six members are Brady, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch. Norquist has played a key role in tax negotiations in Washington for years.  Trump is insisting on lowering the tax rate for pass-through businesses, now taxed at the top individual tax code rate, to 15 percent, Norquist said. The Big Six agree that Trump’s 15 percent corporate rate cannot be achieved on a permanent basis without adding to the federal deficit, administration officials said.   Such a steep tax rate cut would mean a revenue loss of more than $2 trillion over a decade, independent analysts say.  To solve the deficit issue, the White House is open to making the 15 percent rate temporary, with an expiration in seven years, Norquist said. That would conflict with Republicans in Congress who want a permanent tax overhaul, but it would ensure rates would not have to be renewed during Trump’s presidency. Mnuchin said on Wednesday morning that the administration would be “sensitive to increasing the debt.” “We are very close to releasing a detailed plan and I can assure you that we believe that detailed plan will be responsible on the impact on the economy and the cost to the debt,” he said. Under current law, companies adhere to complex depreciation schedules for how long it takes for equipment to wear out and lose value. Business groups have called for “100 percent expensing,” a policy that would let companies write off the entire price of equipment in the year of purchase. Former President Barack Obama pushed for temporary 100 percent expensing as a economic stimulus to help reverse the recession when he took office.  The White House is considering a three-year window to allow 100 percent expensing, Norquist said. After the three years, the rate would return to 50 percent, which is the current law.

Summary: वाशिंगटन ने कर पर फिर से ध्यान केंद्रित किया; कर-विरोधी कार्यकर्ता ने सितंबर में विधेयक देखा


LONDON (Reuters) - Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been stripped of a human rights award by the City of Oxford, where she was an undergraduate, as British institutions increasingly distance themselves from the beleaguered former rights icon. Oxford City Council voted unanimously this week to recommend Suu Kyi s Freedom of the City award be withdrawn, citing deep concerns over the treatment of Rohingya Muslims under her watch. The city s reputation is  tarnished by honoring those who turn a blind eye to violence,  local councilor and Labour party member Mary Clarkson said in a speech proposing the motion. Over 500,000 members of Myanmar s Rohingya minority have fled across the border to Bangladesh since late August, when militant Rohingya attacks led to a violent crackdown by the army. Myanmar s de facto leader Suu Kyi, previously renowned for her human rights activism, has been widely criticized for her silence on the subject.   While the UN calls the situation a  textbook example of ethnic cleansing , Aung San Suu Kyi denies any ethnic cleansing and dismisses numerous claims of sexual violence against Rohingya women as  fake rape,  Clarkson said.  In a speech in late September, her first public statement on the subject since the exodus of refugees began, Suu Kyi said her government condemned all human rights violations and promised to punish perpetrators.  But she did not address accusations of ethnic cleansing and did not criticize the army s actions. Her speech was described as  little more than a mix of untruths and victim-blaming  by Amnesty International director for the region, James Gomez. A similar Freedom of the City award is being considered for withdrawal by Sheffield city council in the north of England, after residents submitted a petition last month.  The award will likely be reviewed by councillors this month, the council s democratic services team, which handles petitions, told Reuters.  Oxford University college St Hugh s, Suu Kyi s alma mater, removed her portrait last week from public display while Unison, Britain s second-largest trade union, announced last month it would suspend her honorary membership.

Summary: ऑक्सफोर्ड शहर ने आंग सान सू की से मानवाधिकार पुरस्कार छीन लिया


WASHINGTON/KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - The White House urged Malaysia on Thursday to demonstrate good governance and a transparent business climate, a day after U.S. prosecutors sued to try and seize $1 billion in assets they said were bought with money stolen from a state development fund. The civil lawsuits present a potentially thorny issue for the two countries that have grown closer during the administration of President Barack Obama, who has visited the southeast Asian nation twice in the last two years. The lawsuits will likely affect relations, but they did not come as a surprise, said a U.S. congressional aide. “It has been a concern of a lot of people for a long time. Corruption in Malaysia is a huge problem,” the aide said. No criminal charges have been filed in the scandal surrounding Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund, which was overseen by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. Obama spoke generally with Najib on a visit to Malaysia last year about the need for transparency and good governance, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said at a news briefing. “For business interests who are considering doing business in Malaysia, they’re going to be looking for signs that there is good business climate,” Earnest told reporters. The Malaysian government “should be conspicuous about making clear that they’re committed to transparency and good governance, and the kind of rules that will encourage people who are considering investing in Malaysia’s fast-growing economy to have confidence that they can do so fairly,” Earnest said. Najib said in response to the lawsuits that his government would give its full cooperation to international investigations of the 1MDB case. Malaysia’s foreign minister Anifah Aman met the U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia Joseph Yun on Thursday to discuss the lawsuits. “Malaysia highly values its bilateral relations with the United States and calls on the U.S. to recognize the various steps taken by the Government of Malaysia to address the 1MDB issue,” the ministry said in a statement on Thursday night. Malaysia’s Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali, however, expressed “strong concerns at the insinuations and allegations” of wrongdoing against Najib in the lawsuits.  He said in a statement that none of the probes conducted by law enforcement agencies across the globe over the past year show that any funds were misappropriated from 1MDB. The U.S. investigation is the largest set of cases brought by the Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, which seeks the forfeiture of the proceeds of foreign corruption. Targeting assets ranging from valuable paintings and a private jet to the 2013 hit movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” and rights to popular songs, the civil lawsuits said $3.5 billion was misappropriated from 1MDB. 1MDB said in a statement that it was not a party to the lawsuit, did not have any assets in the United States, “nor has it benefited from the various transactions described.”

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस ने धन घोटाले के मद्देनजर मलेशियाई पारदर्शिता का आह्वान किया


WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - Saddled with the toughest job in American diplomacy, the chief U.S. negotiator with North Korea stands between a U.S. president who insists he doesn’t want to talk and an enemy who shows no interest in listening. While veteran State Department Asia hand Joseph Yun might be Washington’s best diplomatic hope for reducing the risk of a  devastating war on the Korean peninsula, he serves an administration riven by divisions over how to handle Pyongyang.     On the other side, North Korea’s young leader, Kim Jong Un,  shows little interest in negotiating either, at least not until he has developed a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. Despite the daunting obstacles, South Korean-born Yun has told colleagues and others he hopes his diplomatic efforts can lower the temperature in a dangerous nuclear stand-off, according to Reuters interviews with more than a dozen current and former U.S. officials and South Korean diplomats. Most were deeply skeptical about his chances.     “He’s such a dreamer,” a White House official said, with a note of sarcasm.     “We don’t think this is going anywhere,” said another U.S. official, although he suggested it was still worthwhile to keep engaging at some level with the North Koreans as long as Yun does not appear to be undermining President Donald Trump’s public rejection of direct negotiations. Trump has told aides that his military threats will drive North Korea to capitulate and rein in its nuclear and missile programs, four White House officials said, a view not shared among most U.S. intelligence agencies. Yun, however, is quietly pursuing direct diplomacy with North Korean officials at the United Nations and has a mandate to discuss issues beyond the release of U.S. citizens, a senior State Department official told Reuters this week. In June, he secured the release of U.S. student Otto Warmbier, who returned to the United States in a coma and died days later.  Trump headed to Asia on Friday as a senior aide warned the world is “running out of time” on the North Korea crisis. Behind the scenes, Yun is trying to keep open a fragile line of communication that could be used to prevent any miscalculation by one side or the other from spiraling into military conflict. Further aggravating tensions, two U.S. strategic bombers conducted drills over South Korea on Thursday. That followed word from South Korea’s spy agency that North Korea may be preparing another missile launch. U.S. officials have said privately that intercepting a test missile is among options under consideration, though there is disagreement within the administration about the risks. In the midst of this is Yun, a soft-spoken, 32-year foreign service veteran who took on the job a year ago, near the end of the Obama administration. He is grappling with Trump’s strident rhetoric as well as disagreement among the president’s top aides over whether saber-rattling will force Kim to capitulate and what the threshold for any military actions should be, according to several U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.  Concern about Yun’s difficulties has surfaced in Seoul, where he visits regularly and where Trump will travel next week on the second stop of his Asian tour. Several South Korean officials expressed worry that Yun’s diplomatic efforts with North Korea lack any real underpinning of support from the White House.     “Things are clearly not easy for him,” one South Korean diplomat said. “Yun is precisely that person (to talk to North Korea), but Trump is killing the whole process.” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters on Sept. 30 the United States was probing for a diplomatic opening, only to be slapped down by Trump, who told him via Twitter this was a waste of time. At the same time, CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who regularly briefs Trump on intelligence matters and is considered one of the most hawkish voices on North Korea in the president’s inner circle, has apparently gained stature.     Several officials familiar with those discussions say Pompeo is feeding Trump assessments that U.S. military threats will force Kim to bow to U.S. demands for nuclear disarmament, a position that some U.S. intelligence officers privately contest.     The CIA declined comment. A U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Yun  has become diplomatically “untethered,” not fully connected to a core U.S. approach that is emphasizing economic sanctions and the threat of military action rather than diplomacy.     The one tangible achievement of Yun’s diplomatic efforts in the past year was winning the release of 22-year-old Warmbier in secret talks with North Korean officials in Oslo and New York. Yun flew to Pyongyang in June to medically evacuate Warmbier. When Choe Son Hui, head of the North Korean foreign ministry’s North America bureau, met Yun in Oslo, she was unaware of how serious Warmbier’s condition was, a source in Washington knowledgeable about the matter said.  But once she learned about it she was “shocked” and Yun was summoned urgently to meet a North Korean diplomat in New York, which quickly led to Warmbier’s return home, the source said. Warmbier’s death complicated Yun’s efforts as it contributed to a chilling of U.S.-North Korean contacts around that time, the State Department official said.     Despite Trump’s threats of military action against Pyongyang, the State Department official said Yun’s view was “the less you engage diplomatically, the more likely you are in the dark.” Even so, Trump’s rhetoric has raised questions among allies, and possibly even in North Korea, about how serious, if at all, his administration is about diplomacy and how much of a mandate Yun may have to pursue it.     Trump “personalized” the conflict – deriding Kim as “Little Rocket Man” -  against the advice of his national security and intelligence experts, some of whom warned it could be counterproductive, a senior national security official said.     Another official pointed out, however, that Trump, who in May said he would be honored to meet Kim, had not hurled any fresh insults at Kim in recent days, raising hopes for an altered approach. A South Korean official in Seoul said it was necessary for Washington to have someone in contact with North Korea to help spur future negotiations if they are ever to take hold. But Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, told Japan’s NHK television this week: “What we cannot afford to do is enter into these long, drawn-out negotiations that allow North Korea to use these negotiations as cover for continuing their nuclear and missile programs.” Former U.S. negotiators sympathize with Yun, whose authority to negotiate has been undercut by the tug-of-war between a White House breathing fire and a State Department pushing a peaceful solution.     “Nobody doubted my authority,” said Wendy Sherman, one of the lead U.S. negotiators who achieved the 2015 deal under which Iran agreed to restrain its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions. “All of this undermines our ability to do the job.” Robert Gallucci, who was chief U.S. negotiator during the North Korean nuclear crisis of 1994 and has had recent contact with Yun, said the envoy is “realistic about the challenges of negotiating in the current atmosphere, including the tone set by the president, but he believes in the mission even as his approach is guided by realism.”

Summary: 'वह एक ऐसा सपने देखने वाला हैः' संदेहवाद अमेरिकी राजदूत के उत्तर कोरियाई शांति प्रयासों को रोकता है


ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish authorities issued detention warrants for 79 former school employees on Wednesday over alleged links to last year s failed military coup, broadcaster NTV said. They were suspected of using ByLock, an encrypted messaging app which the government says was used by the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom it accuses of orchestrating the abortive putsch in July 2016. The suspects worked at private schools and tutor schools which prepared students for university entrance exams, many of which used to be run by supporters of Gulen.   Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, has denied involvement and condemned the coup attempt. Since the coup attempt some 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from jobs in the public and private sectors, including some who worked at schools founded by his supporters,  and more than 50,000 have been detained for alleged links to it. The crackdown has alarmed rights groups and some of Turkey s Western allies, who fear the government is using the coup as a pretext to quash dissent. The government, however, says Gulen s network deeply infiltrated Turkey s institutions - the army, schools and courts - and only a massive purge could neutralize the threat.

Summary: तुर्की ने तख्तापलट के बाद की जांच में 79 स्कूल कर्मचारियों को हिरासत में लेने का आदेश दियाः एनटीवी


(Reuters) - Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee who has led a movement to derail Donald Trump’s nomination, said on Friday he would not consider running for the White House. In an interview with CNN, Romney said he will not vote for either Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, or Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 election.

Summary: रोमनी ने कहा कि वह व्हाइट हाउस के लिए चुनाव लड़ने पर विचार नहीं करेंगे


SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The founding dean of a prominent Singapore school said on Monday he was stepping down, four months after he stirred a heated debate in the city-state with the comment that small countries like Singapore must  always behave like small states . Kishore Mahbubani, a long-time diplomat and the wealthy city-state s former envoy to the United Nations, said he had written to the board of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy saying he would step down as dean at the end of the year. The announcement followed a high-profile expulsion by the government of a professor at the school, a China-born U.S. citizen, who was accused of being an agent of influence for a foreign country. In the statement to the school s governing board, Mahbubani cited a double heart bypass operation last year and said he wanted to  focus on a new career that involves more time spent on reading, reflection and writing .  I realize that the time had come for me to take a fresh look at what I should achieve over the next decade as I enter my 70s,  he said. Kishore is 69 and has served 13 years as dean. Kishore s statement did not refer to the controversy fueled by his column in July that Qatar s experience of conflict with its Arab neighbors offered big lessons for small countries. In the piece titled  Qatar: Big lessons from a small country , Kishore warned that Singapore could face the fate of the Gulf state which believed it could act as a middle power and exercise influence beyond its borders  because it sits on mounds of money .   I would like to emphasize as strongly as I can that this Qatar episode holds many lessons for Singapore,  he wrote in Singapore s Straits Times newspaper. The first lesson, he said, was:  Small states must always behave like small states.  Public criticism or perceived admonishments of the government are rare in Singapore, one of the richest and most politically stable countries in the world. His comments drew a sharp rebuke from Singapore s political leaders and fellow former foreign service officials as flawed and intellectually questionable. A veteran diplomat, Bilahari Kausikan, called them  muddled, mendacious and indeed dangerous .  Mahbubani could not be reached for comment.  A spokeswoman for the National University of Singapore, where the Lee Kuan Yew school is an autonomous postgraduate school, said:  Professor Kishore Mahbubani s decision to retire is unrelated to the article mentioned.  The school is named after modern Singapore s founding father.

Summary: छोटे देशों के खतरों की चेतावनी देने वाले सिंगापुर के शिक्षाविद ने दिया इस्तीफा


SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - An Indian court on Monday remanded in custody a French journalist for five days after he was arrested in the disputed Kashmir region for filming a documentary without permission and violating visa regulations, police said. The freelance journalist, Paul Comiti, was arrested on Sunday in Srinagar, the main city in Indian-administered Kashmir where Muslim separatists have been waging a violent campaign against  Indian rule since the late 1980s. Comiti held an Indian business visa which did not permit him to make a documentary on political or security-related issues, Senior Superintendent of Police Imtiyaz Ismael Parray told Reuters. Comiti had met a separatist leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and filmed protesters throwing stones at members of the security forces, said another senior police official, who declined to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to the media. He had also met victims of anti-riot  pellet guns  that the  security forces use against protesters. More than 3,800 people have been wounded and one killed by the weapons since a new round of protests against Indian rule erupted last year, with more than 100 partially or fully blinded, official figures show.  We called him to ask him about his activities, but he refused to present himself before the police,  the second police official said.  He was not authorized to film here because he was on a business visa. He was finally arrested.  Muslim-majority Kashmir is claimed in full but ruled in part by mostly Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan and has been at the heart of nearly seven decades of hostility between the neighbors. Comiti had asked the defense ministry for permission to  film in Kashmir, but it had been denied because he was on a business visa, said the second police official. A French Embassy s consular official based in New Delhi met Comiti at the police station in Srinagar, police said. An embassy spokesman was not available for comment. An insurgency by separatist militants raged in Kashmir through the 1990s and into the 2000s but it had died down more recently. But the killing by the security forces of a young, popular separatist leader in July 2016 sparked a new wave of protests by a new generation in India s only Muslim-majority state. India s interior minister said last year the government planned to reconsider the use of the pellet guns to control crowds, after the multiple casualties stirred public anger and condemnation by rights groups.

Summary: भारतीय पुलिस ने कश्मीर में फिल्माने के आरोप में फ्रांसीसी पत्रकार को गिरफ्तार किया


LONDON (Reuters) - London s ambulance service said they had treated 11 people, mostly for head and leg injuries, with nine taken to hospital after a car collided with pedestrians near the city s Natural History Museum on Saturday.  We sent multiple resources to the scene, including our hazardous area response team, ambulance crews, paramedics in fast response cars and incident response officers,  Peter McKenna, deputy director of operations, said in a statement.  We have worked closely with other members of the emergency services at the scene, with our priority being to get people to safety and ensure they received the medical help they needed as quickly as possible.

Summary: लंदन संग्रहालय की घटना के बाद ग्यारह का इलाज किया गया-एम्बुलेंस सेवा


SEOUL (Reuters) - Several North Korean missiles were recently spotted moved from a rocket facility in the capital Pyongyang, South Korea s Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) reported late Friday amid speculation that the North was preparing to take more provocative actions. The report cited an unnamed intelligence source saying South Korean and U.S. intelligence officials detected missiles being transported away from North Korea s Missile Research and Development Facility at Sanum-dong in the northern part of Pyongyang. The report did not say when or where they had been moved. The missiles could be either intermediate range Hwasong-12 or intercontinental ballistic Hwasong-14 missiles, according to the report, though the missile facility at Sanum-dong has been dedicated to the production of intercontinental ballistic missiles. A source from South Korea s defense ministry said he could not confirm details of the report or whether there has been any unusual activities in the area mentioned. South Korean official have voiced concerns that North Korea could conduct more provocative acts near the anniversary of the founding of its communist party on Oct. 10, or possibly when China holds its Communist Party Congress on Oct. 18.     Amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea and U.S. forces recently held their first joint short range air defense training exercise in South Korea, according to a statement released by the U.S. Pacific Command on Friday. The statement did not give the date of the exercise, but said the next exercise is scheduled to take place over the next few months as the two forces become more familiar with each other s capabilities.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया ने विकास केंद्र से चलती मिसाइलों को देखाः दक्षिण कोरियाई प्रसारक


SEATTLE (Reuters) - An Alaska law requiring doctors to notify the parents of girls under the age of 18 seeking an abortion violates the state’s constitution and cannot be enforced, the state’s top court ruled on Friday. The 4-1 decision marks a long-awaited victory for Planned Parenthood and other abortion-rights advocates in Alaska who argued the 2010 law violates the privacy of pregnant teens. It also comes on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to strike down a Texas abortion law imposing strict regulations on doctors and facilities in the strongest endorsement of abortion rights in America in more than two decades. A woman’s right to abortion was established in the court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, but several states have tried to restrict access to abortion through their own laws.  In Alaska, Planned Parenthood and doctors argued that the notification law was particularly threatening to vulnerable teens who live in abusive homes. Justice Daniel Winfree, writing for the majority, said that the notification law’s “discriminatory barrier to those minors seeking to exercise their fundamental privacy right to terminate a pregnancy violates Alaska’s equal protection guarantee.” Another justice, Dana Fabe, in a concurring opinion, wrote that “the Alaska Constitution permits a parental notification law, but not one that contains provisions that are among the most restrictive of any state’s notification laws.” The office of Alaska’s Attorney General did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  Alaska’s law required 48-hour advance notice to parents before a physician may terminate a minor’s pregnancy, though it allowed a minor to seek a judge’s permission to bypass the notice process and granted an exception for medical emergencies. The law took effect in 2010 after a Superior Court ruled that the state had an interest in promoting communication between a pregnant girl and her family. Christine Charbonneau, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest and the Hawaiian Islands, said in a statement that “We all want teens to be safe - and the sad truth is that some teens live in dangerous homes and can’t go to their parents.”

Summary: अलास्का की शीर्ष अदालत ने गर्भपात के लिए माता-पिता के नोटिस को खारिज कर दिया


ANKARA (Reuters) - The Turkish government s spokesman on Wednesday said that the United States  decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel will plunge the region and the world into  a fire with no end in sight .  Declaring Jerusalem a capital is disregarding history and the truths in the region, it is a big injustice/cruelty, shortsightedness, foolishness/madness, it is plunging the region and the world into a fire with no end in sight,  Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Twitter.  I call on everyone to act logically, respect the agreements they signed and behave reasonably, avoid risking world peace for domestic politics or other reasons,  he said. U.S. officials have said President Donald Trump is likely to give a speech on Wednesday unilaterally recognizing Jerusalem as Israel s capital, a step that would break with decades of U.S. policy.

Summary: तुर्की का कहना है कि जेरूसलम को इजरायल की राजधानी घोषित करने से 'आग का कोई अंत नहीं दिखाई देगा'


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans on Wednesday passed a bill in the House of Representatives that touched on nearly every step U.S. agencies take in creating and applying new rules, continuing their blitz to radically reform “abusive” federal regulation of areas from the environment to the workplace. In a 238-183 vote, the House passed the “Regulatory Accountability Act,” which combined eight bills aimed at changing how the vast government bureaucracy runs. Only five Democrats voted for it. The legislation would give President-elect Donald Trump tools “to wipe out abusive regulation,” said Bob Goodlatte, the Judiciary Committee chairman who is among the many House leaders calling for lighter regulation and saying the costs to comply with federal rules are too high. Republicans say there is little accountability for regulations that apply to almost every aspect of American life because they are created by appointed officials and not elected representatives. Federal agencies operate either independently or under the president’s authority.  The current reform push is part of Trump’s campaign promise to “drain the swamp,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Wednesday. As House Republicans push for reform - last week they passed bills requiring Congressional approval of major rules and giving Congress power to kill dozens of recently enacted ones - Democrats are fighting back. Democrats have said the many extra procedures required by the reform bills would stall agencies’ work, making it impossible to create needed regulations on the environment, financial markets and other areas. Democrats contend that slowing down rulemaking is intended to help big businesses escape oversight. The accountability act would jeopardize the government’s capability “to safeguard public health and safety, the environment, workplace safety and consumer financial protections,” the Judiciary Committee’s senior Democrat, John Conyers, said before the vote.   “Worse yet, many of these new requirements are intended to facilitate the ability of regulated entities - such as well-funded corporate interests - to intervene and derail regulatory protections they oppose,” Conyers said. Specifically, the bill would require agencies to post more detailed information on proposals for an extended period of time, limit judge’s interpretations in legal challenges, and require agencies to enact the lowest-cost version of a rule.  The House is expected to vote on Thursday on changes to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the major securities and derivatives regulators.  Still, none of these bills may become law, as Democrats hold enough seats in the Senate to filibuster.

Summary: रिपब्लिकन ने 'अपमानजनक' अमेरिकी विनियमन में सुधार के लिए व्यापक विधेयक पारित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Barack Obama made clear he did not support Michael Flynn during a meeting with then President-elect Donald Trump, the White House said on Monday. “It’s true that the president, President Obama, made it known that he wasn’t exactly a fan of General Flynn’s,” during their one-hour meeting, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said at a news briefing. Obama and Trump met at the Oval Office on Nov. 10, two days after the Republican’s election victory. Spicer was asked about new reports that Obama warned Trump against hiring Flynn, who was pushed out as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency during the Democratic president’s term, as national security adviser. Trump later dismissed Flynn  after less than a month over his contacts with Russian officials.

Summary: ओबामा ने बताया कि वह फ्लिन के प्रशंसक नहीं थेः व्हाइट हाउस प्रवक्ता


GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemala s attorney general and a U.N. anti-graft body accused the mayor of Guatemala City, Alvaro Arzu, of corruption on Thursday, adding him to a long list of influential politicians under investigation for suspected wrongdoing. Arzu, who was also Guatemalan president from 1996-2000, rejected the accusations after they were announced by Ivan Velasquez, head of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), and Attorney General Thelma Aldana. Velasquez, who has unsuccessfully tried to impeach President Jimmy Morales but was instrumental in bringing down his predecessor Otto Perez, said Arzu was suspected of creating fake payrolls and using public funds for his re-election bid in 2015.  It was possible to document existence of bogus positions in the Guatemala municipality,  Velasquez, a veteran Colombian prosecutor, told a news conference that Arzu also attended. Velasquez said the positions were created for relatives of Byron Lima, a former security official for Arzu and army captain who died in a prison riot in 2016 while serving a 20-year sentence for the murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi in 1998. Velasquez and Aldana, who worked together to bring charges against the now-imprisoned Perez, need Supreme Court approval to strip Arzu of the immunity he enjoys as an elected official. Arzu, one of the most influential politicians in Guatemala and mayor of the capital since 2004, tried to get hold of the microphone to face down his accusers during the news conference.  This pair are trying to get back at me because they couldn t carry out their  coup  with another president,  Arzu told reporters.  These were not bogus positions, those people came to work every day. They should go ahead and investigate me, I m not bothered (that they are trying to strip my immunity),  he said. Arzu has been a vigorous supporter of President Morales who, unlike Perez, managed to avoid being stripped of his immunity by Congress when it was put to a vote last month. That followed CICIG accusations that Morales used illicit campaign financing during his run for the presidency in 2015. Velasquez and Aldana have also accused Guatemala s main political parties of engaging in illegal campaign financing, setting much of the establishment against them. Former president Perez and his ex-vice-president are in prison and on trial for corruption. Many senior officials from his Cabinet are also under investigation for suspected graft.

Summary: ग्वाटेमाला के अभियोजकों ने कथित भ्रष्टाचार के लिए पूर्व राष्ट्रपति को निशाना बनाया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is expected to impose sanctions on multiple Iranian entities as early as Friday following Tehran’s recent ballistic missile test, but in a way that will not violate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday. One source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said about eight Iranian entities were to be sanctioned, or “designated” in U.S. legal jargon, for terrorism-related activities and about 17 for ballistic missile-related activities under separate existing U.S. executive orders. The source declined to name the entities. The sources said the new sanctions had been in the works for some time and that Iran’s decision to test-fire a ballistic missile on Sunday had helped to trigger U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose them. The White House signaled a newly aggressive stance toward Iran on Wednesday when Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser, made a statement putting Iran “on notice” for test-firing the missile and senior U.S. officials said the administration was reviewing how to respond. The new sanctions may be the leading edge of a tougher policy but the sources stressed that the United States was imposing them in a manner so as not to conflict with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal under which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for relief from economic sanctions. Trump said earlier on Thursday that “nothing is off the table” in dealing with Iran following the missile launch, and his fellow Republicans in Congress said they would back him up with new sanctions. Trump’s comment was in response to a question about whether he would consider military options to respond to Tehran, a day after Flynn’s comment about putting Iran “on notice.” The sanctions are not likely to have much, if any, practical effect on the Iranian entities or on U.S. companies or individuals who are, with few exceptions, barred from dealing with Iran. The sanctions are to be imposed under Executive Order 13224, which freezes the U.S. assets of entities or individuals who commit, threaten to commit, or support terrorism, and Executive Order 13382, which freezes the assets of weapons of mass destruction proliferators or their supporters. Given the long history of U.S. sanctions against Tehran dating to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, there are unlikely to be any assets under U.S. jurisdiction to be blocked. However, the sanctions could have the effect of dissuading foreign companies from dealing with the Iranian entities who are designated, said Brookings Institution analyst Robert Einhorn. Spokespeople for the White House, the State Department and the Treasury Department had no immediate comment.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः अमेरिका को ईरानी संस्थाओं पर नए प्रतिबंध लगाने की उम्मीद है-सूत्र


DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia s King Salman received Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Riyadh on Wednesday and reiterated the kingdom s support for the Palestinian people, state news agency SPA reported.  The king reassured the Palestinian leader that Saudi Arabia continues to support the right of Palestinians to an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, SPA said.   The two leaders also discussed the latest developments in the Palestinian territories, it said. A dozen Saudi princes and officials also attended the meeting.  Saudi Arabia condemned U.S. President Donald Trump s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and said any decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem before a permanent peace settlement is reached would inflame the feelings of Muslims, official media reported.

Summary: सऊदी राजा ने फलस्तीनी राष्ट्रपति अब्बास की अगवानी की


ROME (Reuters) - The Italian parliament approved the government s latest economic forecasts on Wednesday, but the Senate vote exposed deep divisions on the political left that could complicate the drafting of the 2018 budget. Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni s coalition won two votes in the upper house on the Treasury s Economic and Financial Document (DEF), even though parliamentarians with the leftist Mdp party walked out of one of the ballots. The Mdp was formed earlier this year following a schism in the Democratic Party (PD), with a small group of left-wingers accusing PD leader Matteo Renzi of shifting the ruling party too far to the right and shunning its Socialist roots. National elections are due in early 2018, and political jockeying is on the increase as Italy s myriad parties seek to establish clearly defined identities ahead of the vote. The Mdp, backed by former prime minister Massimo D Alema, is particularly anxious to put clear water between itself and Renzi s PD, seizing on the DEF to push its demands for more money to be spent on health care and job creation.  We have sent a political signal,  said Mdp senator Federico Fornaro. Gentiloni, who does not have a clearly defined majority in the upper house, was saved any embarrassment thanks to the backing of 12 Senators from the center-right ALA group, which is headed by Denis Verdini, previously close to former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Centre-left politicians said the Mdp was trying to smear Renzi by portraying him as a rightwinger.  The question of relations between the Mdp and the government is tied to its competition with the PD ahead of the elections,  said senior centrist politician Mario Catania.  The point is that the Mdp is following D Alema s line and pushing for the downfall of Renzi.  The government has to present its budget by Oct. 20, giving parliament until the end of the year to approve the package in what could be the last major act of the legislature. Gentiloni hopes to get the backing of the Mdp to guarantee smooth passage through both houses. The DEF hiked the 2018 growth forecast to 1.5 percent from a previous target of 1.0 percent, giving the Treasury room to present a more expansive budget than originally expected.  The health system is an area where we will weigh up measures to improve it and make it more efficient,  Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan told the Senate on Wednesday in an apparent nod to Mdp demands.

Summary: इटली सरकार को टकराव के बावजूद सीनेट के माध्यम से अर्थव्यवस्था विधेयक मिला


MOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russian long-range bombers struck Islamic State on Friday in Albu Kamal in eastern Syria, where the jihadists have staged a counter-attack after the Syrian army declared victory over them.  Six TU-22M3 bombers took off from bases in Russia and overflew Iran and Iraq before launching the strike, the Russian defense ministry said in a statement reported by Russian news agencies. Albu Kamal, a small town on the border with Iraq, was Islamic State s last Syrian stronghold, along with some neighboring villages and desert areas.  The Syrian army said it and its allies, including the Lebanese Hezbollah group, took it from the militants on Nov. 9 and declared  the fall of the terrorist Daesh organization s project in the region .  Islamic State fighters hidden in Albu Kamal launched a counter-attack days later and forced the army and its allies to pull out of Albu Kamal, residents said on Nov. 13.  The army, which has driven Islamic State from huge swathes of central and eastern Syria in a multi-pronged campaign this year, re-entered the town soon afterwards, a war monitor said.  TASS cited the ministry as saying the planes had bombed Islamic State fortified positions, militants, and armored vehicles. Satellite and drone surveillance had confirmed that all of the designated targets had been destroyed, it said.

Summary: रूसी लंबी दूरी के बमवर्षकों ने सीरिया में इस्लामिक स्टेट के ठिकानों पर हमला कियाः एजेंसियां


BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Wednesday said that any attempt to hype up its decision to jail a Taiwanese rights activist for subversion would be futile, after Taiwan s ruling political party labeled the result  unacceptable . A Chinese court on Tuesday jailed Li Ming-che, Taiwanese community college lecturer and human rights non-governmental worker, for five years for subverting Chinese state power.  Li was tried alongside a mainland activist, Peng Yuhua, who received a seven year sentence for the same charge. Both were found guilty of attempting to promote political reform in China through discussions of democracy in social media chatrooms. Taiwan s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said the result was  totally unacceptable  and called for Beijing to return Li to Taiwan. It is not a crime for Li to share his opinions about democratic freedoms with friends, they said. China s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang told reporters at a regular news briefing:  Any attempts to hype up the case for political ends or to instigate opposition between compatriots across the straits will all be futile.  Although Taiwan and Beijing should have mutual respect for each other s social systems and development paths, Taiwan cannot  impose  its political ideas on the mainland or use the cover of democratic freedoms to break Chinese law, Ma said.     Ties between Beijing and the self-ruled island of Taiwan have been frosty since Taiwan s Tsai Ing-wen led the independence-leaning DPP to election victory last year.  Beijing claims the island as part of China and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control. Chiu E-Ling, secretary general of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday that Li s supporters would call on Tsai and her government go beyond mere words to secure Li s release.  They also expressed concern over the verdict s implication for the rights of Taiwanese citizens, saying that Li had expressed his opinions online while on Taiwan soil.  The Global Times, a state-backed tabloid popular with China s nationalists, said in an editorial on Wednesday that the DPP s statement was tantamount to encouraging Taiwanese to come to China and break the law.  We hope that Taiwanese people will not accept the DPP s witchcraft and will not become an assault team or sacrificial victims for them,  the paper said.  One s own safety should be more important than the slogans they utter,  it added.

Summary: बीजिंग ने ताइपे को ताइवानी कार्यकर्ता को जेल में डालने के चीन के प्रचार के खिलाफ चेतावनी दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday called the Myanmar military operation against the Rohingya population “ethnic cleansing” and  threatened targeted sanctions against those responsible for what it called “horrendous atrocities.” “The situation in northern Rakhine state constitutes ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya,” U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement, using a term he avoided when visiting Myanmar, also known as Burma, last week. “The United States will also pursue accountability through U.S. law, including possible targeted sanctions” against those responsible for the alleged abuses, which have driven hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh, he said. The United States shifted its stance in part to raise pressure on Myanmar’s military and civilian leaders, who have shared power for the past two years under an uneasy arrangement after decades of military rule, to address the crisis. Rights monitors accused Myanmar’s military of atrocities, including killings, mass rape and arson, against the stateless Rohingya during so-called clearance operations after Rohingya militants’ Aug. 25 attacks on 30 police posts and an army base. More than 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Rakhine state in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, mostly to neighboring Bangladesh, since the crackdown, which followed the insurgent attacks.     “These abuses by some among the Burmese military, security forces, and local vigilantes have caused tremendous suffering and forced hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children to flee their homes,” Tillerson said. While repeating U.S. condemnation of the insurgent attacks, he added: “No provocation can justify the horrendous atrocities that have ensued.” Myanmar’s 2-year-old government, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has faced heavy international criticism for its response to the crisis, though it has no control over the generals with whom it shares power. “It’s not a situation that is completely under her authority, but certainly we are counting on her to show leadership and also to work through the civilian government with the military to address the crisis,” a senior U.S. official told reporters in a conference call. The term “ethnic cleansing” is not defined in international or U.S. law and does not inherently carry specific consequences, a second senior U.S. official said on the call. Murray Hiebert, a Southeast Asia analyst with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, said the State Department’s use of the term and threat of sanctions “will likely have limited to no impact on the ground.” “It is likely to create more distrust between the United States and Myanmar’s military and government and push them closer to China, Russia, and its more authoritarian neighbors in Southeast Asia,” he added.  The U.S. move came the same day as a U.N. tribunal convicted former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic of genocide and crimes against humanity for massacres of Bosnian Muslims and ethnic cleansing campaigns, and imprisoned him for life. The second U.S. official said Washington was analyzing whether genocide or crimes against humanity had occurred in Myanmar, which would violate international law, but has made no determination on either and that this would take time to assess. “In the end it’s a court that has to decide that, as we’ve just seen with the verdict against Mladic,” he said. A top U.N. official in September described the military actions as a textbook case of “ethnic cleansing,” but the United States until Wednesday had avoided the term.  Washington has sought to balance its wish to nurture the civilian government in Myanmar, where it competes for influence with China, with its desire to hold the military accountable for the abuses. U.S. officials also worry that the mistreatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority may fuel radicalism. The first U.S. official said Washington would work with Bangladesh and Myanmar to encourage the voluntary repatriation of Rohingya. “We have focused on the issue of voluntary returns,” the official said. “We don’t want people to be forced to return to a situation in which they feel uncomfortable.”  Congressional pressure for a tougher U.S. response to the Rohingya crisis mounted before President Donald Trump’s first visit to Asia this month to attend a summit of Southeast Asian countries, including Myanmar, in Manila. U.S. government sources told Reuters in October that officials were preparing a recommendation for Tillerson that would define the military-led campaign against the Rohingya as ethnic cleansing, which could spur new sanctions. In early November, U.S. lawmakers proposed targeted sanctions and travel restrictions on Myanmar military officials. Rights group Amnesty International called for a comprehensive arms embargo against Myanmar as well as targeted financial sanctions against senior Myanmar military officials.

Summary: अमेरिका ने रोहिंग्याओं के खिलाफ म्यांमार के कदमों को 'जातीय सफाया' बताया


SEOUL (Reuters) - A North Korean border guard briefly crossed the border with the South in the chase for a defector last week - a violation of the ceasefire accord between North and South, a video released on Wednesday by the U.N. Command (UNC) in Seoul showed. The North Koreans were only steps behind the young man when they shot him at least four times as he made his escape on Nov. 13. The video, filmed as the defector drove an army truck through the demilitarized zone and then abandoned the vehicle, gives a dramatic insight into his escape.   The defector, identified by a surgeon as a 24-year-old with the family name Oh, was flown by a U.S. military helicopter to a hospital in Suwon, south of Seoul. Doctors said he had regained consciousness, having had two operations to extract the bullets, and his breathing was stable and unassisted.   He is fine,  lead surgeon Lee Cook-Jong said at a news conference in Suwon.  He is not going to die.  A UNC official said North Korea had been informed on Wednesday that it had violated the 1953 armistice agreement, which marked the cessation of hostilities in the Korean War. The UNC official told a news conference that a soldier from the North Korean People s Army (KPA) had crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), the border between the two Koreas, for a few seconds as others fired shots at the defecting soldier.  The key findings of the special investigation team are that the KPA violated the armistice agreement by one, firing weapons across the MDL, and two, by actually crossing the MDL temporarily,  Chad Carroll, Director of Public Affairs for the UNC, told reporters.  The incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between North Korea and the international community over its nuclear weapons program, but Pyongyang has not publicly responded to the defection. The video, released by the UNC, was produced from surveillance cameras on the southern side of the the Joint Security Area (JSA) inside the demilitarized zone. When tree cover is too dense to see the wounded defector crawling across the border, it switches to infra-red. The film begins with a lone dark green army jeep speeding along empty, tree-lined roads toward the border. At one checkpoint, a North Korean guard marches impassively toward the approaching vehicle. It races by. He runs in pursuit. After passing a memorial to North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, where tourists often gather, the jeep runs into a ditch just meters from the border, which is not clearly marked. For several minutes the driver tries to free the vehicle, but the wheels spin uselessly in fallen leaves. The driver abandons the vehicle and sprints away, pushing tree branches out of his way and sending leaves flying. He scrambles up a slope to cross just seconds before more guards appear, shooting as they run.  One slides into a pile of dead leaves to open fire before running forward and appearing to briefly cross the dividing line between the two countries. He quickly turns on his heel. The video does not show the moment the defector is hit, but he is seen lying in a pile of brush next to a concrete wall in a later edited clip.  The UNC s Carroll said the position was still exposed to North Korean checkpoints across the border. Allied troops operating the cameras had by then notified their commanders and a quick reaction force had assembled on the South Korean side, according to Carroll. The video does not show this force. Infrared imagery shows two South Korean soldiers crawling through undergrowth to drag the wounded North Korean to safety, while the deputy commander of the border security unit oversees the rescue from a few meters away. Doctors have conducted a series of surgeries to remove four bullets from the critically wounded soldier, who arrived at the hospital having lost a large amount of blood.  From a medical point of view he was almost dead when he was first brought here,  said the surgeon, Lee. Hospital officials said the man remains in intensive care. The soldier showed signs of depression and possible trauma, in addition to a serious case of parasites that has complicated his treatment, the hospital said in a statement. Lee said last week one of the flesh-colored parasites he removed from the soldier s digestive tract was 27 cm (10.6 in) long. Continuing stress made the soldier hesitant to talk, but he had been cooperative, doctors said. The patient first recovered consciousness on Sunday, and asked where he was in South Korea, Lee said. He was in  agony  when he came to, the surgeon added. Since then doctors have played South Korean pop music for him, and American action movies including  The Transporter   from 2002. On average more than 1,000 North Koreans defect to the South every year, but most travel via China and numbers have fallen since Kim Jong Un came to power in 2011. It is unusual for a North Korean to cross the land border dividing the two Koreas. They  have been in a technical state of war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. The last time a North Korean soldier had defected across the JSA was in 2007.

Summary: उत्तर कोरिया से पलायनः वीडियो में दलबदलू को आग की चपेट में दिखाया गया है


(This story corrects the number of U.S. and other foreign troops in Afghanistan, paragraphs 15, 16.) KABUL (Reuters) - A bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators visiting Afghanistan on Tuesday called for a new strategy from the Trump administration to turn the tide against an increasingly strong Taliban insurgency and end the longest war in U.S. history. The delegation led by Senator John McCain was in Kabul on a regional trip that included two days in neighboring Pakistan. The visit preceded an expected Trump review later in the month of the strategy for the United States’ longest war, now in its 16th year, a subject that was largely absent from last year’s presidential campaign. Since the exit of most foreign troops in 2014, Afghanistan’s U.S.-backed government has lost ground to a Taliban insurgency in a war that kills and maims thousands of civilians each year and has made Afghanistan the second-ranking country in people seeking refugee status abroad last year, behind Syria. McCain said in a Kabul press briefing on Tuesday at NATO-coalition headquarters that “none of us would say that we are on a course to success here in Afghanistan”. “That needs to change and quickly,” added McCain, a sharp critic of Trump within their Republican party.   McCain was accompanied by U.S. senators Lindsey Graham, Elizabeth Warren, Sheldon Whitehouse and David Perdue on the regional tour. Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said she came to get “the view on the ground about what is happening” in Afghanistan. “We need a strategy in the United States that defines our role in Afghanistan, defines our objective and explains how we can get from here to there,” Warren said. U.S. officials have told Reuters that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis will present Trump with strategic options for  Afghanistan by mid-July.  Last month, Trump gave Mattis the authority to set American troop levels in Afghanistan, but as commander in chief Trump must sign off on an overall strategy for the war. U.S. security officials have privately said the most likely options will be to increase training and air support by 3,000-5,000 troops for still-inexperienced Afghan security forces, while also tracking down al Qaeda, Islamic State and other global Islamist militants based in Afghanistan.  The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, has said “several thousand” more foreign troops – mostly trainers -  are needed to break a military stalemate with the Taliban. In 2001, a U.S.-backed military intervention in Afghanistan toppled the Taliban regime, whose ultra-hardline interpretation of sharia (Islamic law) banned most women from public life and executed people not seen as sufficiently pious, such as men with beards not considered long enough. More than 15 years later, about 13,000 U.S. and allied troops remain in Afghanistan as part of a training and advising mission in support of an elected government that has increasingly been losing ground to a Taliban insurgency that now controls or contests some 40 percent of territory. Several thousand more American troops operate under a counterterrorism mission aimed at groups like Islamic State and al Qaeda.

Summary: अफगानिस्तान में, अमेरिकी सीनेटरों ने ट्रम्प से सुसंगत नीति का आह्वान किया