SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) - Miguel Cruz awoke to the descent of Hurricane Maria on his home on Wednesday morning when the massive storm peeled off most of the roof, sent his belongings flying in all directions, but left intact an icon of Jesus hanging above his bed. Cruz was one of thousands of Puerto Ricans picking through the wreckage left by Maria after the hurricane devastated basic services on the debt-laden U.S. territory, pitching most of its 3.4 million residents into darkness as night fell. Crashing into Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, Maria flipped the tops off buildings, knocked out phones and electricity across the island and turned low-lying roads into swollen rivers awash with debris.  I was terrified. I prayed to God that the door and windows wouldn t open,  said Sonja Alvarez, 52, who spent 10 hours shut in a bedroom with her family while Maria raged outside.  But there came a point when I thought they would.   Trees were torn apart, windows shattered and exposed homes turned inside out by Maria, which killed at least one man, who was struck by a piece of flying lumber. The storm also killed at least nine elsewhere in the Caribbean. By 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT), Maria was drifting away from Puerto Rico. The slowing storm was blowing maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (175 kph) and was 55 miles (90 km) off the eastern tip of the Dominican Republic, the National Hurricane Center said. The brutal winds left streets in the historic Old Town of the Puerto Rican capital, San Juan, strewn with rubble, from collapsed balconies to fallen lamp posts and dead birds. Among the most dramatically damaged areas in the capital was La Perla, a small barrio nestled into the steep hill separating the stone walls of Old San Juan from the sea. Once a notorious slum, La Perla s image has brightened in recent years as it has become an artsier enclave with colorful homes providing the setting for the megahit  Despacito  by Puerto Rican singers Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee. However, the red, wooden home of area resident Cruz was reduced to a roofless jumble, with the front door hanging at right angles to the frame. Behind it, a painting of the Sacred Heart of Jesus looked out from a bare white wall.  (Maria) has turned my house into a convertible. I can see the stars,  the 45-year-old self-employed laborer said wryly, after relating how he had fled to a bunker downstairs with his pit-bull, Estrella.  I m sort of used to these things,  Cruz added.  But this was tough.  Down the slope from his home stood the shattered hulk of a concrete and steel garage with five cars trapped under the roof and sidewall that gave way under Maria s battering. Beyond his home, near the stone walls of the 500-year-old city, a cooker, a fridge and a toilet stood exposed atop  another wooden house with views of the Caribbean.  There used to be another floor,  said Angela Torres, 32, explaining that the rest of the kitchen, two bedrooms and living room had been stripped from the building by Maria. After the rooms flew off, Torres, who had hunkered down on Tuesday night with her 87-year-old grandmother one floor below, learnt that Maria had knocked down one wall and the balcony of her own home a few miles away.  I almost died when they sent me the photos,  she said.  But I haven t been able to go yet because you can t get out.  Many in the capital left their coastal homes for refuge elsewhere, filling hotels across the city. Some returned to find their flats ruined by Maria, battered and full of water. Gingerly entering her sodden fifth-storey flat in the heart of Old San Juan, Aida Pietri was suddenly gripped by panic as the battered door to her rooftop terrace slammed open and shut in the wind and a bird flew through it.  Where are my daughter s ashes?  she said, rummaging through the scattered cushions, plants and papers. Eventually her eyes alighted on a metal box, and she found them, undamaged.

Summary: तूफान मारिया प्यूर्टो रिकान लोगों के लिए भय, दर्द और सदमे लाता है


DUBAI (Reuters) - Gulf carriers Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways said on Saturday they will allow passengers barred from the United States by President Donald Trump’s executive order to board U.S.-bound flights after a federal judge blocked the move. U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) has advised both airlines they can board travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries and all refugees who had been banned under the order, the airlines said. “Acceptance will naturally be subject to checks completed by U.S. authorities as existed prior to the issuance of the Executive Order on 27 January,” an Etihad spokesman told Reuters in emailed comments. A Qatar Airways spokeswoman confirmed the airline was again accepting all passengers with valid travel documents. Trump’s suspension on the entry of nationals from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, and all refugees caught airlines off guard, with some carriers forced to re-roster flight crew in order to abide by the order.

Summary: एतिहाद, कतर एयरवेज अमेरिकी उड़ानों में प्रतिबंधित यात्रियों को वापस जाने देगा


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leaders of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee said on Tuesday they reached an agreement to finance a federal insurance program for millions of lower-income children and pregnant women that was due to expire at the end of the month. Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, chairman of the finance committee, and the panel’s top Democrat, Senator Ron Wyden, said in a statement the agreement would provide money for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for five years. CHIP reauthorization is not typically contentious as the program receives bipartisan support. But lobbyists and industry officials have said any healthcare-related legislation has become more complicated following the failure of Republicans to repeal and replace Obamacare. “I am hopeful we can move forward swiftly to ensure no lapse in care for our nation’s most vulnerable children,” Hatch said in a statement, calling the agreement “a good first start.” Wyden said in a statement he hoped to get the extension of CHIP into law “as soon as possible.”

Summary: प्रमुख अमेरिकी सीनेटरों ने बच्चों के स्वास्थ्य कार्यक्रम के वित्तपोषण पर समझौता किया


ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast will cut its armed forces by about 1,000 troops by the end of the year, the government spokesman said on Wednesday, in a bid to rationalize a costly and sometimes unruly military. Government spokesman Bruno Kone told reporters after a cabinet meeting that the 997 soldiers had accepted voluntary retirement this year as part of an initiative to conform to  accepted standards , partly by reducing the ratio of non-commissioned officers to lower ranks. Ivory Coast does not give details on the size of its military, but security sources estimate there are more than 25,000 troops in a country with a population of about 24 million. Francophone West Africa s biggest economy suffered two army mutinies this year that damaged its reputation among investors and forced the government to agree to costly pay rises.   The distribution of Ivory Coast s army is out of step with the standards accepted in modern armies,  Kone said.    The former French colony, once known as one of the most stable states in West Africa, is still recovering from a brief civil war fought after President Alassane Ouattara won a disputed election in 2010 but incumbent Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down. Ouattara has struggled to assert his authority over the army, which was cobbled together in an uneasy merger of the northern New Forces rebels who supported him and the professional troops who had fought against him. The soldiers being taken out of action included three senior officers, 634 non-commissioned officers and 354 regular foot soldiers, Kone said.

Summary: आइवरी कोस्ट सेना को कम करने के लिए 1,000 सैनिकों को सेवानिवृत्त करेगा


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Ali Larijani, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, said on Monday that Tehran had a specific plan of action if the United States withdrew from the nuclear pact and that Washington would regret any such decision, the Interfax news agency reported. Larijani made the statement in St Petersburg where he was taking part in a parliamentary forum.

Summary: ईरान के लारीजानी का कहना है कि अगर अमेरिका परमाणु समझौते से हट जाता है तो तेहरान के पास एक योजना हैः इफैक्स


SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Parties in a four-year-old legal challenge to California’s emissions trading program will head to court in Sacramento on Tuesday with a business group arguing the billions the program collected amounts to an “illegal tax” on businesses.  California’s cap-and-trade program sets an overall limit on greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and either hands out or sells a declining number of state-issued permits, which large manufacturers and oil refineries are required to turn in annually. The lawsuit by business group CalChamber argues that the state legislature never authorized the California Air Resources Board (ARB) to collect revenue from the program when it passed AB 32, its landmark climate change law.  Revenue from the program funds clean energy programs, especially in poorer communities, and helps finance the state’s ambitious high speed rail project.  “The lawsuit does not challenge any of the provisions of AB 32, including cap-and-trade authority, nor the merits of climate change science,” said Denise Davis of the CalChamber.  It just argues that the state has no right to sell permits and generate revenue, she said.  The ARB prevailed in Sacramento Superior Court in 2013 after successfully arguing that it was given broad authority to design a program to meet emissions targets, including the sale of permits.   CalChamber’s appeal of that ruling has kept the issue alive, casting a shadow over the emissions trading market, which has at times suffered a lack of participation due to uncertainty over its future. Despite the state’s earlier victory, the Third Appellate District Court’s request last year for supplemental information indicates they are taking a close look, experts said.  “The Court is taking its full examination of the legal issues in this case very seriously,” said Allison Smith, who has written on the case and is a partner with Stoel Rives LLP, which is not involved in the case. The three-judge panel is expected to render a decision within 90 days.

Summary: अदालत की अपील में तर्क दिया गया है कि कैलिफोर्निया उत्सर्जन व्यापार योजना 'अवैध कर' के समान है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has spoken to Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir about the situation in Saudi Arabia, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman said on Thursday, where a crackdown on corruption has led to dozens of arrests.  State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert also said the U.S. charge d affaires in Riyadh met on Wednesday with Saad al-Hariri, who resigned as Lebanese prime minister while in Saudi Arabia. Asked about reports Hariri was being held in the kingdom, Nauert declined to say where the meeting took place or to elaborate on Hariri s status. She described the talks as  sensitive, private, diplomatic conversations.  In his conversation on Tuesday with Jubeir, Nauert said, Tillerson urged that the Saudi government conduct any corruption prosecutions  in a fair and transparent manner.  Saudi authorities have arrested dozens of royal family members, officials and businessmen in the anti-corruption crackdown that began on Saturday. They face charges ranging from money-laundering to extortion. The line between public funds and royal money is not always clear in Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy ruled by an Islamic system in which most law is not systematically codified and no elected parliament exists. The Trump administration has endorsed the purge, cementing a dramatic strengthening in the relationship under U.S. President Donald Trump that in part has been driven by both governments  determination to confront Iran s growing regional power. Many experts see the crackdown as a move by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who heads a new anti-corruption body, to amass more power to enact political, economic and social reforms and to ensure that he succeeds his father, King Salman.

Summary: टिलरसन ने सऊदी अरब में गिरफ्तारी के बारे में सऊदी समकक्ष से बात कीः विदेश विभाग


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Tuesday proposed a $582.7 billion defense budget that emphasizes emerging threats from Russia, China and Islamic State rebels, but the plan is already under fire from Republican lawmakers who charge it short-changes the U.S. military. President Barack Obama’s last budget would boost spending on the war against Islamic State militants to $7.5 billion during the 2017 fiscal year, a 50 percent jump over the $5 billion approved this year. Some $200 million of that would go to fight militants in north and west Africa. The proposal also would quadruple funds to counter Russian pressure in Europe, including its seizure of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and repeated strategic bomber flights near NATO air space. Spending to boost U.S. military presence and training in Europe would rise to $3.4 billion from $800 million this year. The budget heralds a strategic shift as Washington looks beyond the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and enters a new period of great power competition from Russia and China as well as threats from smaller rivals like Iran and North Korea, officials said. “This budget marks a major inflection point for the Department of Defense,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in a statement. “Even as we fight today’s fights, we must also be prepared for the fights that might come in 10, 20 or 30 years.” Overall, the administration is seeking a Pentagon base budget of $523.9 billion for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, plus $58.8 billion for war funding and overseas operations. The base budget is about $2.5 billion more than this year’s while war spending remains relatively flat, officials said. The spending proposal is in line with a congressional budget deal last year that set Pentagon funding guidelines for 2016 and 2017. But Republican lawmakers have criticized the war funding plan, saying the $59 billion figure in the budget deal was a floor, not a ceiling, and the president should have sought more. “This request is inadequate to address the national security threats we face,” Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. Congressman Mac Thornberry, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, accused the administration of playing “budgetary games.” McCain said by seeking the minimum level of war funding in the budget deal, the president had left the Pentagon with $17 billion less than it estimated it would need for 2017 in last year’s budget. To make up the shortfall in planned spending, the Pentagon cut more than $5 billion by adjusting its assumptions about expected fuel costs and inflation levels, Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord said. It also cut procurement to $112.1 billion, down 6 percent, from this year. The reductions would come mainly from planned aircraft purchases, including five fewer F-35 Joint Strike Fighters (LMT.N) and a reduction in several types of Army helicopters(BA.N), budget documents show.  While cutting procurement, the Pentagon proposed increasing spending on research and development by 4 percent, to $71.8 billion, as it looks to develop new technologies to give it a military edge. The department said it would spend $16.8 billion in its classified military intelligence accounts.  It also agreed to delay until 2022 its controversial plan to retire the A-10 close air support aircraft, which is being used in the fight against Islamic State. Retaining the aircraft will cost $3.4 billion over the five-year period. The budget would continue to shrink the size of the U.S. Army, which will drop to 460,000 soldiers in 2017 from the current 475,000. Separately, the president’s budget would fund a new $150 million polar icebreaker vessel to ensure year-round accessibility to the Arctic for Coast Guard missions.

Summary: पेंटागन ने 2017 के लिए $583 बिलियन का बजट मांगा; रिपब्लिकन ने कहा कि पर्याप्त नहीं है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Anthony Scaramucci, President Donald Trump’s new communications director, said on Sunday that one of his first tasks will be to halt leaks and that staff on his team would be fired if the leaks do not stop. “If we don’t get the leaks stopped, I am a businessperson, and so I will take dramatic action to stop those leaks,” Scaramucci said on Fox News Sunday. Scaramucci told CBS’s Face the Nation that leakers are “actually un-American,” and that he would lead a team meeting on Monday.  The hiring of Scaramucci, a Wall Street financier and Republican fundraiser, brings a combative style to the White House press office as President Donald Trump lashes out at probes into whether his campaign colluded with Russians during the 2016 campaign. Special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into any relationships or contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russia during the election, but Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing by federal investigators.   White House press secretary Sean Spicer, who became a household name in his short and turbulent drama-filled term, quickly resigned after Scaramucci’s appointment. Sarah Sanders, Spicer’s deputy, was promoted to press secretary. Scaramucci was forced to deal with leaks on his first days on the job after The Washington Post reported last week that Trump and his legal team had examined presidential powers to pardon aides, family members and potentially himself. Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday that leaks against the administration are a “crime” and that he has “complete power to pardon.” Scaramucci said Trump only tweeted about the issue of pardons in reaction to the leak. Trump “doesn’t like the fact that he has a two-minute conversation in the Oval Office or in his study and that people are running out and leaking,” about the administration examining legal options of pardons, Scaramucci, who reports directly to Trump, said on CBS. “There’s no need for him to pardon anybody,” he said.     And Scaramucci, who has at times supported Democrats, spent part of the weekend deleting some of his own past tweets on subjects that run counter to Trump administration policy, such as taking action on climate change. Explaining the deletions, Scaramucci wrote on Twitter that “past views evolved & shouldn’t be a distraction.”

Summary: ट्रम्प के नए संचार निदेशक ने मीडिया लीक पर कार्रवाई का वादा किया


LONDON/RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian security officials said on Monday that the country had been targeted as part of a wide-ranging cyber espionage campaign observed since February against five Middle East nations as well as several countries outside the region. The Saudi government s National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) said in a statement the kingdom had been hit by a hacking campaign bearing the technical hallmarks of an attack group dubbed  MuddyWater  by U.S. cyber firm Palo Alto Networks. Palo Alto s Unit 42 threat research unit published a report last Friday showing how a string of connected attacks this year used decoy documents with official-looking government logos to lure unsuspecting users from targeted organizations to download infected documents and compromise their computer networks. Documents pretending to be from the U.S. National Security Agency, Iraqi intelligence, Russian security firm Kaspersky and the Kurdistan regional government were among those used to trick victims, Unit 42 said in a blog post (goo.gl/SvwrXv). The Unit 42 researchers said the attacks had targeted organizations in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Israel, as well as entities outside the Middle East in Georgia, India, Pakistan and the United States.  The Saudi security agency said in its own statement that the attacks sought to steal data from computers using email phishing techniques targeting the credentials of specific users.  The NCSC said they also comprised so-called  watering hole  attacks, which seek to trick users to click on infected web links to seize control of their machines. The technical indicators supplied by Unit 42 are the same as those described by the NCSC as being involved in attacks against Saudi Arabia. The NCSC said the attacks appeared to be by an  advanced persistent threat  (APT) group - cyber jargon typically used to describe state-backed espionage.  Saudi Arabia has been the target of frequent cyber attacks, including the  Shamoon  virus, which cripples computers by wiping their disks and has hit both government ministries and petrochemical firms. Saudi Aramco, the world s largest oil company, was hit by an early version of the  Shamoon  virus in 2012, in the country s worst cyber attack to date. The NCSC declined further comment on the source of the attack or on which organizations or agencies were targeted. Unit 42 said it was unable to identify the attack group or its aims and did not have enough data to conclude that the MuddyWater group was behind the Saudi attacks as outlined by NCSC.  We cannot confirm that the NCSC posting and our MuddyWater research are in fact related,  Christopher Budd, a Unit 42 manager told Reuters.  There s just not enough information to make that connection with an appropriate level of certainty.  Palo Alto Networks said the files it had uncovered were almost identical to information-stealing documents disguised as Microsoft Word files and found to be targeting the Saudi government by security firm MalwareBytes in a September report.

Summary: सऊदी एजेंसी का कहना है कि साइबर जासूसी अभियान में देश को निशाना बनाया गया


GENEVA (Reuters) - The 400,000 civilians besieged in the Syrian enclave of Eastern Ghouta face  complete catastrophe  because aid deliveries are blocked and hundreds of people need urgent medical evacuation, U.N. humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said on Thursday. Seven people have died because they were not evacuated and 29 more were at imminent risk including 18 children, he told reporters in Geneva after a regular meeting of the U.N. humanitarian taskforce on Syria.  I feel as if we are now returning to some of the bleakest days of this conflict again,  Egeland said.   Nowhere is it as bad as in Eastern Ghouta,  he said of the area, which is surrounded by the army. The area east of Damascus had been  completely sealed off  since September, leaving U.N. aid convoys and evacuations as a potential lifeline facing a  bureaucratic wall of inaction .   We cannot continue like that. If we only get a fraction of what is needed it will be a complete catastrophe,  he said.  What about a ceasefire now in this area and a green light to all medical evacuations?  As well as people wounded in the fighting, there were a growing number of acutely malnourished children, which meant they were very close to dying, he said.   Why men in their 50s and 60s like me stop women and children from getting the medical service that would save their lives is beyond my imagination. It can change tomorrow.  Russian, Syrian and U.N. officials had met in Damascus to try to break the deadlock, both for Eastern Ghouta and for about 55,000 civilians stranded on the Jordanian border in a desolate area known as the Berm.   The first meeting still hasn t produced at all the concrete results that were needed but it is our strong feeling that the Russian Federation wants us to get the access and wants to help us so we are hopeful that this trilateral mechanism will yield results.  The Berm had not received an aid distribution since June, but the United States, Russia and others had worked out a detailed plan to supply aid from Damascus. Despite diplomatic efforts to set up  de-escalation zones  there was still fighting in many areas, including Aleppo, Idlib, Raqqa, Deir al-Zor and Hama, and civilians were being caught in the crossfire. He said the war had lasted longer than the Second World War, and supplies were depleted, so that the coming winter could be the toughest of the war even if it is the last.   This is a man-made disaster, it can end,  Egeland said.

Summary: सीरिया का पूर्वी घौता 'पूरी तरह से तबाही' का सामना कर रहा हैः संयुक्त राष्ट्र


VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis urged U.S. President Donald Trump to be a peacemaker at their first meeting on Wednesday after they exchanged sharp words last year, and Trump promised he would not forget the pontiff’s message. Under clear blue skies, Trump received a tribute from the Swiss Guard in a Vatican courtyard when he arrived. He entered a small elevator taking him to the third floor of the Apostolic Palace and, after a long ceremonial walk past frescoed corridors, shook the pope’s hand at the entrance to the private study that the frugal pontiff uses only for official occasions. Before the door of the wood-lined elevator closed, a Vatican protocol official was heard quipping to the president that it was not “like Trump Tower in New York”. Francis smiled faintly as he greeted Trump outside the study and was not as outgoing as he sometimes is with visiting heads of state. Trump, seeming subdued, said, “It is a great honor.” Even when the two were sitting at the pope’s desk in the presence of photographers and reporters, the pope avoided the  small talk that usually occurs before the media is ushered out. The two spoke privately for about 30 minutes with translators. Both men looked far more relaxed at the end of the private meeting, with the pope smiling and joking with Trump and his wife Melania. Francis’s interpreter could be heard translating a comment by the pope to the First Lady: “What do you give him to eat?” Francis then gave Trump a small sculptured olive tree and told him through the interpreter that it symbolized peace. “It is my desire that you become an olive tree to construct peace,” the Pope said, speaking in Spanish. Trump responded: “We can use peace.” Francis also gave Trump a signed copy of his 2017 peace message whose title is “Nonviolence -  A Style of Politics for Peace”, and a copy of his 2015 encyclical letter on the need to protect the environment from the effects of climate change. “Well, I’ll be reading them,” Trump said. During his election campaign, Trump said scientific findings that human economic activity contributed to global warming were a hoax. As president, he has proposed deep cuts for the Environmental Protection Agency and the elimination of many environmental regulations. Trump gave the pope a boxed set of five first-edition books by murdered U.S. civil rights leader Martin Luther King. As Trump and the pope said goodbye at the door of the study, Trump told him: “Thank you, thank you. I won’t forget what you said.” Asked how the meeting with the pope went, Trump said: “Great. He is something. He is really good. We had a fantastic meeting.” A Vatican statement said the meeting was “cordial” and that the Vatican hoped there could be “serene collaboration” between the U.S. government and the American Catholic Church, including “assistance to immigrants”. The U.S. Catholic Church hierarchy opposes Trump’s attempt to cut federal assistance for cities that give sanctuary to illegal immigrants. It also opposes his plan to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico. The pope said last year a man who thinks about building walls and not bridges is “not Christian”. Trump, who was a candidate at the time, responded that it was “disgraceful” of the Argentine-born pope, who represents just over half of the world’s two billion Christians, to question his faith. The meeting with the pope was the third stop on Trump’s nine-day foreign tour, and part of his world tour of religions after meeting leaders of Muslim nations in Saudi Arabia and visiting holy sites in Jerusalem. Trump at first did not plan to stop in Rome during his visit to Europe, which some in the Vatican saw as a snub. When he changed his mind, the Vatican squeezed him in at 8:30 a.m. on a Wednesday morning, an unusual day and an unusually early time. He later flew to Brussels where he was to meet Belgium’s king and prime minister on Wednesday evening before a day of meetings with European Union and NATO leaders on Thursday.

Summary: पोप ने ट्रम्प को शांतिदूत बनने के लिए कहा, उन्हें पर्यावरण संबंधी पत्र दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal appeals court judges on Tuesday probed the intent behind a sweeping 2013 North Carolina law that changed the state’s election rules. A lawyer for the state, Thomas Farr, defended the law and denied claims by attorneys for the U.S. Justice Department and civil rights groups that the law intentionally suppressed minority voters, speaking before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia. The court already temporarily stayed the law’s provisions that eliminate voters’ ability to register the same day they vote and to vote outside their assigned precincts, methods that critics say are disproportionately used by minority voters. If the appeals court follows a lower court’s April ruling and upholds the law, those options may not be available for North Carolina voters in the upcoming election in November, widely viewed as one of the most critical presidential and general elections in recent U.S. history. Judge Henry Floyd asked Farr about the fact that the legislature considered an expanded version of the law soon after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Shelby County v. Holder that Congress could no longer subject states with a record of race-based voter discrimination to special elections oversight. North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature got the “opportunity” to change some “pretty liberal voter registration provisions” with that decision, Floyd said.  “And it happened the same day Shelby was decided. Looks pretty bad to me, in terms of purposeful discrimination,” he added. Judge James Wynn asked Farr what type of voter behavior information the state legislature considered when passing the law: “At the time that it enacted this, did it have ... information that the use of these particular procedures was disproportionately higher in the minority community than they were in the non-minority community?”  Farr replied that the state board of elections launched a campaign to educate voters about the new requirements. “When these rules were used in 2014 election, African-American turnout increased at a higher rate than whites,” Farr told Reuters by email after the hearing. Attorneys for the civil rights groups opposing the law appeared jubilant afterwards, greeting supporters outside the courthouse and at a local church in Richmond, where NAACP members sang, spoke and answered questions from reporters. “The judges asked really probing questions to understand the crux of the matter,” said Allison Riggs, a lawyer for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. “The court below just got the law wrong.”

Summary: संघीय न्यायाधीशों ने उत्तरी कैरोलिना मतदान कानून के पीछे के इरादे पर सवाल उठाया


BEIJING (Reuters) - China has closed more than 13,000 websites since the beginning of 2015 for breaking the law or other rules and the vast majority of people support government efforts to clean up cyberspace, state news agency Xinhua said on Sunday. The government has stepped up already tight controls over the internet since President Xi Jinping took power five years ago, in what critics say is an effort to restrict freedom of speech and prevent criticism of the ruling Communist Party. The government says all countries regulate the internet, and its rules are aimed at ensuring national security and social stability and preventing the spread of pornography and violent content. A report to the on-going session of the standing committee of China s largely rubber stamp parliament said the authorities had targeted pornography and violence in their sweeps of websites, blogs and social media accounts, Xinhua said. As well as the 13,000 websites shut down, almost 10 million accounts had also been closed by websites, it added. It did not give details but the accounts were likely on social media platforms.  Internet security concerns the party s long-term hold on power, the country s long-term peace and stability, socio-economic development and the people s personal interests,  Xinhua said. More than 90 percent of people surveyed supported government efforts to manage the internet, with 63.5 percent of them believing that in recent years there has been an obvious reduction in harmful online content, it added.  These moves have a powerful deterrent effect,  Wang Shengjun, vice chairman of parliament s standing committee, told legislators, according to Xinhua. Authorities including the Cyberspace Administration of China have summoned more than 2,200 websites operators for talks during the same period, he said. Separately, Xinhua said that over the past five years, more than 10 million people who refused to register using their real names had internet or other telecoms accounts suspended. China ushered in a tough cyber security law in June, following years of fierce debate around the controversial legislation that many foreign business groups fear will hit their ability to operate in the country. China maintains a strict censorship regime, banning access to many foreign news outlets, search engines and social media including Google (GOOGL.O) and Facebook (FB.O).

Summary: चीन ने पिछले तीन वर्षों में 13,000 से अधिक वेबसाइटों को बंद किया


LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister Theresa May s government is confident of winning a vote on a major piece of Brexit legislation, due in parliament later on Monday or early Tuesday, May s spokesman said. Parliament is due to hold a late-night vote on whether to let the central plank of Britain s Brexit plan - the EU withdrawal bill - move to the next stage of the lawmaking process.  Asked whether the government was confident of the outcome, he said:  Yes. We ve said this is a hugely important bill in terms of preparing the way for a smooth Brexit for business and the rest of the country, and we encourage all MPs (Members of Parliament) to support it.

Summary: ब्रिटेन सरकार ब्रेक्सिट कानून पर मतदान जीतने को लेकर आश्वस्तः प्रवक्ता


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Tuesday was scheduled to interview two candidates to replace James Comey as head of the FBI, former agency No. 2 James Pistole and former Assistant Attorney General Chris Wray, the White House said. The interviews mark a re-start of sorts for the search to find someone to replace Comey, who Trump fired on May 9. Trump said earlier this month he was “very close” to picking a nominee for the post and he had already met with several candidates. “The president will be meeting with two additional candidates this afternoon, both Chris Wray and John Pistole,” White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters. “When the president feels as though he’s met with the right candidate he’ll let us know.” Pistole, the former head of the Transportation Security Administration, served as deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 2004 to 2010. USA Today was first to report that Trump would be meeting with Pistole. Wray served as assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division from 2003 to 2005. Comey was leading an FBI probe into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia to sway the 2016 presidential election. His dismissal prompted an outcry from Democrats and some Republican lawmakers and raised questions about whether the president was trying to interfere with the investigation.  The week after Comey was fired, reports emerged that Trump had asked Comey to end the agency’s investigation into ties between former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russia, according to a source who has seen a memo of the conversation written by Comey. The Department of Justice appointed a special counsel, former FBI director Robert Mueller, to head an independent investigation of the Russia matter.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने दो साक्षात्कारों के साथ एफ. बी. आई. प्रमुख की तलाश शुरू की


GREENSBORO, N.C. (Reuters) - President Barack Obama won two straight elections for the White House, but on Tuesday during a talk with students at a town hall on race and sports he discussed a few times when he did not always come out on top.  Obama recounted the fallout from his first presidential debate in his ultimately successful 2012 election race against Republican Mitt Romney. “I had that first debate, which was roundly panned. Everybody said you were terrible,” Obama said at the town hall hosted by ESPN’s The Undefeated at North Carolina A&T State University. “What is true is that I’ve always kind of hated these debate formats, so it wasn’t my best performance.” He said what really inspired him to “dig deep” for the second debate was seeing young volunteers around the country. While they put on a brave face, Obama said he could tell they were worried about the race. “I just thought to myself these kids are pouring their hearts and souls into making calls and knocking on doors, I’m not going to disappoint them,” he said.  Obama also described his experience losing his first campaign for a U.S. congressional seat in 2000 and how it humbled him. Without that defeat, Obama said he did not believe he would have went on to win his Senate race in 2004.  “What is true about politics that is similar to sports, though, is when you lose, you lose publicly,” he said. “It’s a hard feeling. One of the benefits of defeat is to take some of the vanity out of what it is you’re trying to achieve.” The issue of race and sports has been in the spotlight recently after NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers started a controversial movement when he chose to stay seated, and then later opted to kneel, for the national anthem this season to protest racial injustice.  Asked about sports and activism, Obama cited two of his childhood sports heroes: boxer Muhammad Ali and tennis player Arthur Ashe. Both had totally different styles, with Obama saying Ali was more outspoken and Ashe more buttoned down. But he said they both brought about change. “How you do it is less important than your commitment to use whatever platforms you have to speak to the issues that matter,” he said.

Summary: ओबामा ने टाउन हॉल में छात्रों को बताया कि असफलताओं ने उन्हें कैसे आकार दिया है


(Reuters) - U.S. Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill sought on Tuesday details from the nation’s top opioid drugmakers on their sales and marketing practices, as lawmakers step up efforts to tackle the country’s deadly opioid crisis. The Missouri senator’s investigation comes amid an epidemic of opioid addiction, with 91 Americans dying everyday as a result of overdose, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "This epidemic is the direct result of a calculated sales and marketing strategy major opioid manufacturers have allegedly pursued over the past 20 years to expand their market share," McCaskill, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, wrote in a letter to the drugmakers. (bit.ly/2o7pa4p) McCaskill asked Johnson & Johnson, Mylan NV, Purdue Pharma, Insys Therapeutics Inc and Depomed Inc for internal estimates of the risk of abuse, addiction and overdose of opioids. The companies are the top five U.S. prescription opioid drugmakers by 2015 sales, according to McCaskill’s letter. Depomed and Purdue Pharma said they were reviewing the letter and would respond accordingly. Purdue also said its OxyContin painkiller made up just 2 percent of the U.S. opioid analgesic prescription market. Johnson & Johnson said it had received the letter and would address the senator’s request. “We believe that we have acted appropriately, responsibly and in the best interests of patients regarding our opioid pain medications,” said Jessica Castles Smith, a spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson unit Janssen. Mylan said it is committed to helping find solutions to the issue of opioid abuse and misuse. “We welcome the senator’s interest in this important matter and we share her concerns regarding the misuse of prescription opioids,” a Mylan spokeswoman told Reuters in an email.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेटर ने पांच शीर्ष ओपिओइड दवा निर्माताओं की जांच शुरू की


LONDON (Reuters) - Pro-European campaigners accused ministers of failing to take preparations for Brexit seriously enough on Thursday, after a committee of lawmakers published the government s sector-by-sector analysis on the impact of leaving the European Union. The analyses have become a focal point for critics of the government s approach to Brexit since last year s referendum vote to leave. The government revealed in October the 58 economic sectors  it had analyzed to help it prepare for leaving, but refused requests to publish them. Brexit minister David Davis said the reports contained  excruciating detail  and that their publication could undermine negotiations with the EU. However, lawmakers demanded to see the papers and used an unusual parliamentary procedure to compel the government to hand them over to a parliamentary committee. The committee published them on Thursday, but with some sensitive sections redacted.  There is little or nothing in them that couldn t be learned from the annual reports of different trade bodies,  said Pat McFadden, a member of the committee and spokesman for the Open Britain campaign group.  Breezy busking won t cut it when people s jobs and livelihoods are on the line. Winging it should not be a matter of principle,  the opposition Labour Party lawmaker said.  Since his initial remarks, Davis has stressed that the work does not constitute a formal impact assessment - a detailed document setting out the economic implications of policy decisions. He said earlier this month that it was too soon for such work to have been conducted.  The documents released on Thursday cover sectors from asset management to tourism, describing each sector, the current EU regulatory regime and a summary of how trade is conducted in these areas. A section entitled  sector views  was redacted by the committee. Non-profit organization The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, which has previously warned of the risks posed by leaving the EU, also criticized the documents.  What leaps out at you is the total absence of analysis. Search, and you do not find,  said the organization s director Richard Black.

Summary: आलोचकों ने ब्रिटेन सरकार पर ब्रेक्सिट की तैयारियों को गंभीरता से नहीं लेने का आरोप लगाया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is under “active consideration” to serve as U.S. Secretary of State along with other candidates, Vice President-elect Mike Pence said on “Fox News Sunday.”  Romney, who met President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday, was a critic of Trump during the campaign. Pence said that Romney was willing to be considered for the position. Trump was “very grateful that Governor Mitt Romney came in. They had a good meeting. It was a warm and a substantive exchange and I know he is under active consideration to be Secretary of State... along with some other distinguished Americans.”  But Democrats were skeptical that Romney is an actual contender. Representative Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, said on CNN Sunday that he would love Romney to get the position and he would be a “consummate diplomat.” “But I think it’s a total head fake. I think this is Donald Trump still being the entertainer, still running a show where he wants to build suspense and he alone knows who the contestant will be the winner. It’s more of a nod to the appearance of bringing people together.”

Summary: विदेश मंत्री पद के लिए रोमनी सक्रिय विचाराधीनः पेंस


SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Tuesday he is open to all forms of talks with North Korea, but now is not the time for dialogue, making the comments two days after the North conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test.  Moon was speaking in an interview with Russia s TASS news agency in Russia a day ahead of his summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum which kicks off on Wednesday.

Summary: दक्षिण कोरिया के चंद्रमा ने उत्तर कोरिया के साथ बातचीत का स्वागत किया, लेकिन अब समय नहीं हैः मीडिया


Global health officials are racing to better understand the Zika virus behind a major outbreak that began in Brazil last year and has spread to almost 60 countries.  The following are some questions and answers about the virus and current outbreak: How do people become infected? Zika is transmitted to people through the bite of infected female mosquitoes, primarily the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the same type that spreads dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are found in all countries in the Americas except Canada and continental Chile, and the virus will likely reach all countries and territories of the region where Aedes mosquitoes are found. The virus can also be transmitted through sex, from either a male or female partner who has been infected, and a few cases of apparent infection via blood transfusion have been reported. How do you treat Zika? There is no treatment or vaccine for Zika infection. Companies and scientists are racing to develop a safe and effective vaccine for Zika, but a preventative shot is not expected to be ready for widespread use for at least two or three years. How dangerous is it? The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that infection with the Zika virus in pregnant women is a cause of the birth defect microcephaly, a condition defined by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems, and other severe brain abnormalities in babies. The CDC said that since the causal relationship had been established, several important questions must still be answered with studies that could take years. The World Health Organization in an updated assessment said the “most likely explanation” is that Zika virus infection during pregnancy is a cause of congenital brain abnormalities including microcephaly. In addition, the agency said infection is a trigger of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), a rare neurological disorder that can result in paralysis. The update from the WHO came after considering months of research. Its previous statement, based on a rapid assessment of evidence, said there was strong scientific consensus that Zika virus caused GBS, microcephaly and other neurological disorders. Brazil recently reported 1,835 confirmed cases of microcephaly believed to be linked to Zika infections in pregnant women. It is investigating more than 3,200 suspected cases of microcephaly. Current research indicates the greatest microcephaly risk is associated with infection during the first trimester of pregnancy, but health officials have warned an impact could be seen in later weeks. Recent studies have shown evidence of Zika in amniotic fluid, placenta and fetal brain tissue. What are the symptoms of Zika infection?     People infected with Zika may have a mild fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain and fatigue that can last for two to seven days. But as many as 80 percent of people infected never develop symptoms. How can Zika be contained? Efforts to control the spread of the virus focus on eliminating mosquito breeding sites and taking precautions against mosquito bites such as using insect repellent and mosquito nets. U.S. and international health officials have advised pregnant women to avoid travel to Latin American and Caribbean countries, sections of Miami, Florida in the United States and Singapore where they may be exposed to Zika. They are also advising that men and women who have traveled to Zika outbreak areas use condoms or abstain from sex for six months to prevent sexual transmission of the virus. How widespread is the outbreak? Active Zika outbreaks have been reported in at least 58 countries or territories, most of them in the Americas, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Brazil has been the country most affected. (1.usa.gov/1ovAJyh) Africa (1): Cape Verde  Americas (48): Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Bonaire, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saba, Puerto Rico, Saint Barthelmy, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Eustatius, St. Maarten, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, United States, U.S. Virgin Islands and Venezuela. Asia (1): Singapore Oceania/Pacific Islands (8): American Samoa, Fiji, Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga.  What is the history of the Zika virus? The Zika virus is found in tropical locales with large mosquito populations. Outbreaks of Zika have been recorded in Africa, the Americas, Southern Asia and the Western Pacific. The virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947 in rhesus monkeys and was first identified in people in 1952 in Uganda and Tanzania, according to the WHO.  What other complications are associated with Zika? Zika has also been associated with other neurological disorders, including serious brain and spinal cord infections. The long-term health consequences of Zika infection are unclear. Other uncertainties surround the incubation period of the virus and how Zika interacts with other viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes, such as dengue.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः जीका वायरस क्यों खतरे का कारण बन रहा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, discussed joint counterterrorism operations in the Sahel region of Africa, the White House said in a statement. The U.S. military said earlier on Friday that a fourth soldier was killed during an Oct. 4 attack in Niger, raising the death toll from an incident that has thrown a spotlight on the U.S. counterterrorism mission in the West African nation. Macron expressed his condolences over the shooting in Las Vegas on Sunday while Trump conveyed his condolences regarding the knife attack in Marseille on Monday, the statement said.

Summary: ट्रम्प, मैक्रों ने अफ्रीका के साहेल में संयुक्त आतंकवाद विरोधी अभियानों पर चर्चा की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former FBI Director James Comey will testify next Thursday before a U.S. Senate panel investigating Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. election, in a hearing that could add to difficulties facing President Donald Trump. In his first public appearance since Trump fired him on May 9, Comey will address the Senate Intelligence Committee in both an open session and behind closed doors, which would allow him to discuss classified information, the committee said on Thursday. Comey was leading the FBI’s probe into the allegations, and his firing sparked a political uproar. Facing rising pressure, the Justice Department last month named Robert Mueller, another former FBI chief, as a special counsel to investigate the matter. The Justice Department and multiple U.S. congressional committees are investigating Russia’s actions in the 2016 presidential election and questions about possible collusion between Russian officials and Trump campaign associates. At next week’s hearing, Comey is expected to be asked about conversations in which Trump is reported to have pressured him to drop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn, whose ties to Russia are under scrutiny. Controversy erupted again this week after the Republican head of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, approved subpoenas to the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency for information relating to the “unmasking” of the names of Trump campaign advisers inadvertently picked up in top-secret foreign communications intercepts. The White House and Nunes have alleged that former Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration eavesdropped on Trump’s campaign, an assertion that Comey has disputed and current U.S. officials dismiss as absurd. Four current and former U.S. officials who have reviewed the materials told Reuters there was no evidence that political motives drove Obama’s aides to request the names be unredacted. “There is no substance to this, so the only way to look at it is as an attempt to distract the headlines and the public from Comey’s public testimony and Mueller’s investigation, both of which are serious,” said one of the U.S. officials familiar with the information Nunes subpoenaed. Committee aides complained Nunes had acted unilaterally, and the top Democrat on the panel, Representative Adam Schiff, said Nunes’ actions violated his earlier decision to recuse himself from the Russia probe. Democratic Representative Jackie Speier said it appeared that Nunes was “more concerned with pushing the White House narrative than seeking the truth.”  Trump on Thursday renewed his allegation, without citing evidence, that his campaign communications were monitored, saying in a tweet: “The big story is the ‘unmasking and surveillance’ of people that took place during the Obama administration.” Nunes followed suit hours later, tweeting: “Seeing a lot of fake news from media elites and others who have no interest in violations of Americans’ civil liberties via unmaskings.” The names of U.S. citizens mentioned in foreign communications intercepted by U.S. intelligence agencies are normally redacted, or “masked,” in intelligence reports. The requests to unmask the names of Trump associates underwent the same stringent evaluations that U.S. privacy laws and intelligence regulations require for all such applications, and they produced nothing out of the ordinary, said the four officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. At most, only one of the requests related to Russia in any way, and the rest pertained to other countries, two of them said. The requests involved between 30 and 40 top-secret reports on intercepted communications in which foreign officials outside the United States mentioned the Trump campaign and people involved in it, the officials said. The reports contained no evidence that any Americans were targets of U.S. eavesdropping operations, they said. Russia has repeatedly denied any effort to interfere in the U.S. election, but Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday some Russians might have acted on their own without their government’s involvement. Trump has denied any collusion between Russia and his campaign. He has repeatedly questioned the U.S. intelligence finding that Putin directed an operation that included computer hacking, fake news and propaganda intended to swing the election in Trump’s favor against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

Summary: एफबीआई के पूर्व प्रमुख कोमी अगले सप्ताह रूस की जांच में गवाही देंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry  introduced a second batch of legislative proposals on Tuesday aimed at speeding up how the Pentagon buys weapons and making it easier for firms to retain their intellectual property. Thornberry’s legislation follows an initial batch of reforms enacted last year with the 2016 annual defense policy bill, and continues efforts to make weapons programs more transparent. The proposals are aimed at simplifying the convoluted U.S. Defense Department acquisition process, with a big push to fund more experimentation and prototyping of new weapons, while driving to get new technologies into the hands of troops faster. Many big weapons programs are over budget and behind schedule, although Pentagon officials say changes undertaken since 2009 are starting to have a positive impact. The new legislation aims to shorten the time it takes from the start of the design phase of a new program until a military service can start using a new weapon in combat to five-to-six years from around nine year currently, the staff said. The bill requires all weapons systems to have “open systems architectures” that will allow the services to hold competitions for more components, and carry out quicker upgrades as new technologies are developed. It authorizes the Air Force, Army and other military services to use certain funding to pay for prototype upgrades of components and to develop technology faster. The bill also seeks to end a controversy about how the Pentagon treats private companies’ intellectual property that has made non-traditional suppliers reluctant to do business with the U.S. military and its complex defense acquisition rules. Instead of automatically giving the government broad rights to control intellectual property rights that are jointly funded by industry and government, the bill would mandate that such arrangements would have to be negotiated between the parties. The legislation would also continue a push to make the military services more responsible and accountable for weapons programs, requiring them to begin overseeing milestone decisions for joint programs after Oct. 1, 2019. The bill also requires the secretary of defense, or his staff, to fix the costs and expected fielding date for new weapons programs, and then hold the services accountable for meeting those targets. To ensure more transparency, the bill also calls for creation of an acquisition scorecard that would compare program cost estimates with those submitted by independent estimators.

Summary: पेंटागन अधिग्रहण को और अधिक फुर्तीला बनाने के उद्देश्य से सुधारः सदन


(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc, Target Corp and PepsiCo Inc on Wednesday joined an expanded group of nearly 800 companies calling in a letter for U.S. legislation to protect immigrants brought into the country illegally by their parents from deportation, according to organizer FWD.us. The retailers and other companies asking Congress to pass a permanent replacement for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, reflect broadening pressure on political leaders to find a solution for the roughly 800,000 immigrants known as “Dreamers”.  A group of businesses less than half the size and weighted toward technology companies sent a similar letter in August, before President Donald Trump said he would end the program. The new letter reflects Trump’s decision and asks for a permanent solution to let DACA recipients remain in the United States. Trump said that DACA immigrants who have work permits that expire before March can apply to renew them for another two years, if they do so before Oct. 5. Both letters were spearheaded by FWD.us, a pro-immigration group co-founded by Facebook Inc Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg. The very first incarnation of the letter included signatories from major technology companies such as Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com and Alphabet Inc’s Google. But over the course of several days, a much broader swath of the U.S. economy, from media firm Viacom to private equity firm TPG signed on. The newer letter adds firms like biotech firm Becton, Dickinson and Co, according to a copy of the letter and signatures seen by Reuters. “That you see business leaders from every major sector of the economy come out and ask Congress to pass a permanent fix for DACA right away shows that this is a bipartisan issue that has strong support,” Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, told Reuters. The new letter calls on Congress to “immediately pass the bipartisan DREAM Act - or similar legislation - that gives Dreamers the permanent legislative solution they deserve.” The DREAM Act, first introduced in Congress in 2001, would provide Dreamers with a way to become U.S. citizens after first becoming permanent residents. DACA, a set of executive actions introduced by President Barack Obama in 2012, didn’t include a pathway to citizenship, which would require an act of Congress. Some conservatives in particular object to offering  citizenship to DACA recipients. Activists including United We Dream also are encouraging DACA recipients and companies they work for to be public about their situation. Enrique Ramirez was brought to the United States from Mexico when he was two years old. He graduated from Harvard University and is now attending law school at the University of Texas at Austin. “There’s been so much money invested in me by this country, wouldn’t even a conservative person want me to contribute to my community here?” Ramirez said. DACA shields recipients from deportation and allowed them to work and attend school legally if certain requirements were met. Speaking on ABC television on Sept. 19, Apple CEO Tim Cook said he was “encouraged” that leading Democrats and Republican President Trump have said they are near a deal on DACA legislation. Apple has said it has 250 DACA beneficiaries among its ranks.  “We think it’s essential that we not only let them stay in this country, but welcome them,” Cook said of DACA recipients. “I am encouraged that Congress will pass a law to make this permanent.” Other tech companies are looking to pair with local groups to help DACA recipients. Ride-haling firm Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] said that is holding a series of town-hall meetings in 10 cities to answer drivers’ questions about DACA changes, and that it plans to donate $500,000 to local groups that can help drivers with issues like paperwork and application fees.

Summary: वॉलमार्ट, टारगेट ने 'ड्रीमर' कानून के आह्वान में भागीदारी की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One in four registered voters in the United States live in areas that will use electronic voting machines that do not produce a paper backup in the November presidential election despite concerns that they are vulnerable to tampering and malfunctions, according to a Reuters analysis. The lack of a paper trail makes it impossible to independently verify that the aging touch-screen systems are accurate, security experts say, in a year when suspected Russian hackers have penetrated political groups and state voting systems and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said the election may be “rigged.”  Election officials insist the machines are reliable, but security experts say they are riddled with bugs and security holes that can result in votes being recorded incorrectly.  A Reuters analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Election Assistance Commission and the Verified Voting Foundation watchdog group found that 44 million registered voters, accounting for 25 percent of the total, live in jurisdictions that rely on paperless systems, including millions in contested states such as Georgia, Pennsylvania and Virginia.  The picture has improved gradually since the 2008 presidential election, when 31 percent of U.S. voters lived in areas that used paperless touch-screen systems. In 2012, 27 percent lived in jurisdictions that used paperless systems.  “Clearly we still have a long way to go to ensure that all Americans have access to a form of voting technology they can trust,” said Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan computer-science professor who has helped to uncover security flaws on touch-screen systems. (Graphic showing different types of voting systems across the U.S. -- tmsnrt.rs/2cZiKQ5) Most of these machines are nearing the end of their expected life span, making them more vulnerable to problems. And Congress has not authorized money for upgrades since 2002, just after the disputed 2000 presidential recount battle in Florida highlighted flaws in aging punch-card and lever-voting systems.     In some states, a divide has emerged between poorer areas that continue to use paperless touch-screen systems and wealthier areas that have bought new optical scan systems that process paper ballots, which many experts say are a better way to ensure accurate elections. In Virginia, for example, counties that still use touch-screen systems have a poverty rate of 23 percent, while those that have switched to optical-scan systems have an average poverty rate of 11 percent. “I would have liked to have had the new machines, but the county says we don’t have the money,” said Patsy Burchett, the top election official in rural Lee County, which has been hit hard by the decline of the coal and tobacco industries and is the poorest county in the state. “These machines are on their last legs,” she said.  U.S. election officials have known about the shortcomings of touch-screen systems since shortly after they were widely adopted in the early 2000s, when researchers showed that vote results could be manipulated with tools as simple as a magnet and a Palm Pilot-style handheld device. The systems have produced questionable results in some elections. In Florida, more than 18,000 iVotronic machines did not record a vote in a 2006 congressional race in which the margin of victory was less than 400 votes. In Fairfax County, Virginia, electronic machines subtracted one vote for every hundred cast for one candidate in a 2003 school-board race. More than 4,400 electronic ballots in Carteret County, North Carolina, were lost and never recovered in the 2004 presidential election. Since 2008, states such as Maryland have traded in their touch-screen machines for optical-scan systems. Others like California and Ohio have added printers to their touch-screen machines which produce a backup paper trail, while Washington and Colorado moved to mail-in ballots. Absentee balloting is also cutting into the use of paperless systems. In 2012, for example, roughly 1 in 10 voters who lived in areas that used paperless systems cast absentee ballots.  Election officials say the touch-screen machines that remain in use are more secure now than they were a decade ago whether they are fitted with printers or not, thanks to extensive testing and better poll-worker training. They say that a hacking incident is unlikely because the machines are not connected to the Internet.  “Voters should have confidence in whatever systems are being used in their jurisdiction because election officials have taken the necessary steps to secure these systems and ensure the integrity of the process,” said Matthew Masterson, a commissioner with the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Although there has so far been no confirmed major incident of U.S. voting machines being hacked, security experts say that those aiming to manipulate votes could spread a virus through memory cards, with no Internet connection needed. The best way to stop that is to switch to paper-based systems, they say. With 55 percent of all U.S. registered voters living in areas that use systems that are no longer in production, according to the Reuters analysis, election officials must rely on a dwindling supply of spare parts. Virginia Beach, Virginia, for example, pulled 32 of its 820 Accuvote TSX touch-screen machines in a 2014 election after residents complained that the machines were registering votes for candidates they didn’t support. The city has since purchased a new optical-scan system. Lacking fresh federal funds, some states have opted to upgrade on their own. Louisiana aims to switch to an iPad-based system by 2019, while Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, are designing systems from scratch. Others see no reason to switch. In Georgia, Secretary of State Brian Kemp said he hasn’t asked the state legislature for money to replace its fleet of paperless AccuVote TS touch-screen machines. “It’s working just fine and all these so-called experts that are making these accusations about our system haven’t seen it,” he said.

Summary: खामियों के बावजूद, कागज रहित मतदान मशीनें अमेरिका में व्यापक रूप से बनी हुई हैं।


KABUL (Reuters) - Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on Monday on a compound of Afghanistan s national intelligence agency in Kabul, which killed at least five people and wounded two. The blast comes a week after the group claimed responsibility for an attack on a training facility of the same agency, the National Directorate for Security, in Kabul that ended when the attackers were killed before causing significant casualties. In a statement issued through the group s Amaq news agency, Islamic State said it was also behind Monday s attack.  In Kabul, security officials said the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber who approached the agency s entrance on foot before blowing himself up. All the casualties reported were of civilian passersby. Najib Danish, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said at least five people were killed and two wounded. U.S. President Donald Trump has been briefed on the attack, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said. Islamic State s local affiliate, which first appeared in eastern Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan in early 2015, has become increasingly active and has claimed several recent suicide attacks in Kabul. It has frequently fought Taliban militants and has been heavily targeted by U.S. air strikes and Special Forces operations in its main stronghold in Nangarhar province. But there remains considerable uncertainty about how the group operates and the exact nature of its connections with Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Summary: इस्लामिक स्टेट ने काबुल में अफगान खुफिया एजेंसी में विस्फोट का दावा किया


NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday doubled down on his scorn for satirical TV show “Saturday Night Live,” whose popularity has soared since Alec Baldwin began impersonating him in the final weeks leading up to the election. Trump, a guest host on “Saturday Night Live” in November 2015 when he was running for the Republican presidential nomination, has vented his anger on Twitter in recent weeks, calling the NBC show “totally unwatchable” and a “hit-job.” In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show on Wednesday, Trump was asked whether he had considered no longer watching it, given his complaints. “I hosted ‘SNL’ when it was a good show, but it’s not a good show anymore,” Trump responded. “First of all, nothing to do with me, there’s nothing funny about it. The skits are terrible.” The show’s audience has jumped 33 percent since Baldwin began impersonating Trump in October, according to NBC. The network said some 11.4 million people on average are watching the program this season, starting Oct. 1, making it the most-watched season since 1992. Trump on Wednesday attempted to cast doubt on the future of “Saturday Night Live,” which has lampooned presidents and politicians from both parties since it first aired 41 years ago.  “Frankly, the way the show is going now, if you look at the kind of work they’re doing, who knows how long that show’s going to be on. It’s a terrible show,” Trump said. The Republican businessman and former star of NBC’s reality TV show “The Apprentice” also said Baldwin’s depiction of him was “really mean-spirited and not very good.” “I do like him and I like him as an actor, but I don’t think his imitation of me gets me at all,” Trump added. Baldwin, who has portrayed Trump as unprepared for office or tweeting during security briefings, tweeted back to Trump last week, “Release your tax returns and I’ll stop. Ha.”  Trump broke with decades of tradition followed by both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates by refusing to release his tax returns. Baldwin, 58, the former star of NBC’s comedy “30 Rock,” told celebrity magazine Hola! in an interview, that he was glad other people found his impressions funny after a divisive election. “There are bad feelings on both sides, so to have the opportunity to give people a chance to talk and laugh about it is a good thing,” Baldwin told the U.S. edition of the magazine in an interview released on Tuesday.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने 'सैटरडे नाइट लाइव' के बारे में 'कुछ भी मज़ेदार नहीं' कहा, लेकिन दर्शकों की भीड़ बढ़ी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. debt held by the public will balloon to 150 percent of economic output by 2047 unless tax and spending laws are changed, the Congressional Budget Office said on Thursday, far exceeding the record level just after World War II. The new projections show steeper 30-year debt growth than last year’s long-term forecast by the non-partisan budget analysis agency, and could make it harder for some members of Congress to support a tax reform plan that is partly financed with higher deficits. Last year, the CBO estimated U.S. public debt would grow to 141 percent of gross domestic product by 2046, while the record was 106 percent of GDP in 1946. That level would be reached in 2035, the CBO said. Under this year’s projection, CBO predicts public debt for 2017 to be about 77 percent of GDP, growing to 89 percent in 2027, and 113 percent in 2037. The new forecasts assume that the Affordable Care Act, the healthcare law known as Obamacare that House Republicans failed to replace last week, stays in place for the long term. The projected debt growth reflects CBO’s estimates of the rising costs of caring for a growing population of people over 65, growth in interest costs, and assumptions of slower economic growth due to reduced assumptions about productivity gains. Annual deficits are expected to average 8.6 percent of GDP in the 2038-2047 period versus 2.9 percent expected for 2017 and 4.0 percent for the 2018-2027 period. The long-term projections extend CBO’s assumptions made in its 10-year budget outlook in January, which showed falling deficits for the next two years, but growth thereafter. Net interest costs in 2047 are expected to be 6.2 percent of GDP, compared with 1.4 percent in 2017 and about 1.2 percent in 1967, the CBO said.   But the wild card in the CBO 30-year projections are real interest rates. Real interest yields on 10-year Treasury notes are assumed to average 1.5 percent over 30 years, rising to 2.3 percent in 2047. Much higher interest rates, coupled with different assumptions in productivity and healthcare cost growth, could  produce significantly different outcomes, CBO said.  The CBO said that its debt-to-GDP ratio could range from 85 percent with low rates and strong growth, to 244 percent with weaker growth and higher rates.

Summary: अमेरिकी ऋण 30 वर्षों में सकल घरेलू उत्पाद के 150 प्रतिशत तक पहुंच जाएगाः सी. बी. ओ


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday he hoped to see compromise immigration reform that combines border security measures with protections for immigrants who were brought illegally to the United States as children. President Donald Trump on Tuesday ended a program for so-called Dreamers and gave Congress six months to find a legislative fix. In a New York Times interview on Thursday, Ryan was asked if he would put the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to a vote. “I’m going to put a consensus plan on the floor, because I want members of Congress in both parties to talk to each other and find consensus on this issue.” Ryan said the DACA issue was a symptom of failure of security at U.S. borders. “It is only reasonable that while fixing this serious real problem, we also try to address the root cause of that problem. And that is border security,” he said. “That is where I think the consensus lies.”

Summary: रयान को आव्रजन विधेयक में डी. ए. सी. ए. और सीमा सुरक्षा को जोड़ने की उम्मीदः एन. वाई. टी. साक्षात्कार


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate will not consider an immigration bill as part of year-end legislation but will turn to a measure protecting immigrant youths known as “Dreamers” in January, No. 2 Senate Republican John Cornyn said on Monday. Cornyn also said that if Congress cannot meet an early March deadline for passing legislation providing the protections against deportation for undocumented immigrants who were brought illegally into the United States as children, President Donald Trump could consider extending the deadline. In interviews over the past several days, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers and aides said that talks on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) have been quietly making progress. “The president has given us enough time to deal with this before March and so I think that’s plenty of time and I expect us to meet it,” Cornyn told reporters. “If we can’t, then the president could extend the deadline if he chose to do so. But this is something we’re going to turn to, I’m sure, in January.” Tensions between Republicans and Democrats over the issue of legislative protections for Dreamers increased this fall after Trump took a hard line on the conditions for a deal. An intense lobbying campaign has been underway to urge lawmakers to find a permanent legislative fix after the Republican president ended the DACA program in September. He gave Congress until early March to come up with a legislative replacement. On Capitol Hill, advocates have handed out buttons to lawmakers and aides with the number “122,” referring to the estimated number of Dreamers each day who already are losing the temporary legal status they had under DACA. Immigration advocates have erected a huge monitor on the National Mall. Situated at the base of the U.S. Capitol for lawmakers and tourists alike to see, it broadcasts videos of Dreamers pleading for help. Meanwhile, seven DACA beneficiaries from Mexico, Argentina and Colombia were in the fourth day of a hunger strike to draw attention to the issue. Republican Representative John Carter, a veteran of past immigration debates, said he worried Democrats want to go way beyond the scope of DACA and the approximately 800,000 Dreamers who at one time or another were covered by Democratic former President Barack Obama’s executive order. “They’re talking Dream Act,” Carter said referring to the legislation offered by Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. “And that number is about 2 million people. That’s too much.” Past legislative attempts to allow Dreamers to get work permits and drivers licenses, open bank accounts and “come out of the shadows” have stalled as conservative Republicans and lobbying groups objected to giving “amnesty” to anyone who entered the United States illegally - even those who had no choice in the matter and have grown up here. Democratic Representative Michelle Lujan Grisham, who chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said Republican demands for additional resources for immigration enforcement throughout the United States and not just at the border are a major problem. Her concern is that the Trump administration might use the money to hire more federal agents to nab undocumented relatives of Dreamers. “If you’re going to come in and go to hospitals and go to courtrooms and go to schools” in search of family members, “I’m not going to do that,” she said in an interview.

Summary: 'ड्रीमर' आप्रवासन विधेयक इस महीने अमेरिकी सीनेट के एजेंडे में नहीं है


JAKARTA/CANDI DASA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Bali s rumbling Mount Agung is starting to impact the economy of the holiday island and, if the eruptions and volcanic ash clouds persist, could spark a bigger wave of cancellations by visitors to Indonesia s main tourism destination as peak season beckons. The relatively small island has an outsized importance for Indonesian tourism. In January-September, Bali received 4.5 million foreign tourist arrivals, nearly half of the 10.5 million arrivals in Indonesia.  Foreign tourist arrivals to the majority-Hindu island rose 26 percent in the nine-month period on an annual basis, though dropped on a monthly basis in September, when Indonesian authorities first raised the warning alert on Agung.  Bali is about tourism, nothing else. If it (the eruption)  is prolonged for around 1-3 months, it will impact our tourism significantly,  said I Ketut Ardana, chairman of the Association of the Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies (ASITA).  We can feel a small impact now, the price of staple goods is increasing,  he said.  Indonesia closed Bali s airport on Tuesday for a second day, stranding thousands of visitors due to the ash cloud. On Monday alone, it disrupted 445 flights that would have carried 59,000 passengers. Chinese tourists have overtaken Australians to become the top visitors to Bali, representing around a quarter of arrivals in January-September. Australian and Japanese tourists are the second- and third-largest groups.  Foreign tourists spent about $1,100 on average during Indonesia holidays in 2016, according to tourism ministry data. President Joko Widodo has been trying to promote creation of 10  new Balis  in other parts of the scenic Indonesian archipelago.  But for many so far, holidaying in Indonesia means going to Bali. As Agung spewed tall columns of ash, life continued largely as normal on Tuesday for villagers near the volcano who set up traditional markets and offered Hindu prayers. Matthew Smyth from Ireland, a restaurant owner in Amed, around 15 km (9 miles) from the volcano, said many businesses using rented land would be threatened if the eruption dragged on.  Half of the businesses here are built on credit... if the situation continues many people will lose their land,  said Smyth, who is also setting up a yoga retreat and freediving center. The problems facing Bali tourism come as Indonesian policymakers have been trying to fire up an economy stuck at around 5 percent growth, held back by largely flat consumption. Bali has been growing more quickly. The tourism sector was the biggest contributor to its 6.24 percent regional GDP growth last year. But Agung has already put a dent in Bali s growth this year.      If it (the eruption) is prolonged to a month, especially in Bali, it could have an impact on tourism revenue. I think this is a short-term shock, but it needs to be watched,  said Myrdal Gunarto, an economist at Maybank Indonesia in Jakarta. Wayan Wirjana, 31, the manager of a restaurant in Candi Dasa, a popular beach town in Bali, said he was only getting five visitors a day, down from 15-20 in the summer, and expects the usually busy Christmas and New Year period to be slow.   If things continue in the long term, like through the Christmas period, we ll have to lay off staff even if temporarily. We all have families so there is a very real impact on us,  he said.

Summary: बाली के लोगों ने प्रार्थना की क्योंकि ज्वालामुखी से पर्यटन के जीवन को खतरा है


ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A kidnapped U.S.-Canadian couple and their three children born in captivity have been freed in Pakistan, nearly five years after the couple was abducted in neighboring Afghanistan, Pakistani and U.S. officials said on Thursday.  American Caitlan Coleman and her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, were kidnapped while backpacking in Afghanistan in 2012 by the Taliban-allied Haqqani network, which the United States has long accused Pakistan of failing to fight. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been highly critical of Islamabad, praised Pakistan s cooperation with the U.S. government over the freeing of the hostages, saying it represented  a positive moment  for U.S.-Pakistan relations.  The Pakistani government s cooperation is a sign that it is honoring America s wishes for it to do more to provide security in the region,  Trump said in a statement. Trump s chief of staff, John Kelly, drove home the dire conditions that the family had been subjected to during its long captivity.  They ve been essentially living in a hole for five years,  Kelly said.  That s the kind of people we re dealing with over there.  It was unclear how precisely the Pakistani military secured the family s release, which came after the United States shared intelligence about the hostages  location. It was also unclear when the family would return home. Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the U.S. military had been ready to fly the family out of the country but said Boyle, who is Canadian, had refused to board the aircraft.  Boyle had once been married to the sister of an inmate at the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay. The marriage ended and the inmate was later released to Canada.  As of Thursday evening, there was no indication the family had left Pakistan. Boyle s parents said he told them by phone he would see them in a couple of days.  So we re waiting for that,  his mother, Linda Boyle, said in a video posted on the Toronto Star newspaper s website. U.S. officials expressed hope that the hostages  freedom could represent a turning point in relations between Pakistan and the United States, uneasy allies in fighting Taliban and other Islamist extremists in the region. In recent days, senior U.S. officials have been more pointed  about Islamabad s alleged ties to militant groups, who are battling against U.S. and U.S.-backed forces in a stalemated 16-year-old war in neighboring Afghanistan. Some U.S. officials say Pakistani safe havens have helped prolong the conflict. Pakistan fiercely denies such ties, and it touted the operation as proof of the strength of the alliance.  The success underscores the importance of timely intelligence sharing and Pakistan s continued commitment towards fighting this menace through cooperation between two forces against a common enemy,  a Pakistani army statement said. Boyle s father, in the video message, offered his thanks to Pakistani forces  who risked their lives and got all five of ours out safely and rescued.  The Toronto Star reported that Boyle told his parents that he was in the trunk of the kidnappers  car with his wife and children when they were rescued by Pakistani forces. Boyle said he sustained minor shrapnel wounds during the shootout, which left his kidnappers dead.  The last words Boyle said he heard from the kidnappers were,  kill the hostages,  the Star reported.   The Pakistani army said its forces were able to recover the hostages after acting on U.S. intelligence about their passage into Pakistan from Afghanistan.  The White House, Pentagon and State Department did not offer details about the Pakistani effort, even as it praised cooperation from Islamabad.  But one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no indication that the hostages had been in Afghanistan in the days before they were freed, contrary to the Pakistani account. The United States believed the hostages were probably held by the Haqqani group in or near its headquarters in northwestern Pakistan the entire time, two other U.S. officials said. Declining to discuss U.S. intelligence in detail that was shared with Pakistan, they said the United States had been tracking cars capable of holding six or more people moving from place to place, which analysts had concluded were suggestive of moving hostages.   It was a matter of interdicting vehicles,  another U.S. official told Reuters, saying the United States never dictated to Pakistan how precisely to secure the hostages  release. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland asked for respect for the family s privacy.  Joshua, Caitlan, their children and the Boyle and Coleman families have endured a horrible ordeal over the past five years. We stand ready to support them as they begin their healing journey,  Freeland said. Coleman was pregnant at the time she was kidnapped, and a video released by the Taliban in December showed two sons born while she and her husband were hostages. Thursday s statements from Islamabad and Washington were the first mention of a third child. Some officials said Pakistanis  motive for freeing the hostages may have been political rather than humanitarian, intended to reduce the tensions ahead of upcoming visits by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. Tillerson in a statement said Trump s strategy in the region recognized  the important role Pakistan needs to play to bring stability and ultimately peace to the region.  Mattis, who last week said the United States would try  one more time  to work with Pakistan in Afghanistan, was upbeat on Thursday.  This is a very positive moment and the Pakistan army performed well,  Mattis told reporters during a trip to Florida.

Summary: पाकिस्तान में अपहृत U.S.-Canadian दंपति, तीन बच्चों को रिहा किया गया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress, rushing to beat a Friday midnight deadline, on Thursday passed legislation funding the government through Dec. 22. By a vote of 235-193, the House of Representatives passed the bill and rapidly sent it to the Senate, which then approved it 81-14, sending it to President Donald Trump for signing into law. While a Saturday shutdown of government agencies was averted, Congress and Trump will now have to come up with a deal to keep the government operating beyond Dec. 22.

Summary: कांग्रेस ने सरकार को अस्थायी रूप से धन देने और बंद को टालने के लिए विधेयक पारित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department on Friday urged the Baghdad government to avoid clashes in northern Iraq by limiting the movement of federal troops in disputed areas to those coordinated with the Kurdistan Regional Government. In a statement, it said Washington was concerned by reports of violent clashes around the town of Altun Kupri.  The reassertion of federal authority over disputed areas in no way changes their status   they remain disputed until their status is resolved in accordance with the Iraqi constitution,  it said. Iraqi forces on Friday took control of the last district in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk still in the hands of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters following a three-hour battle, security sources said.

Summary: अमेरिका ने इराक से किर्कुक के पास कुर्दों के साथ संघर्ष से बचने का आग्रह किया


MINAMATA, Japan (Reuters) - Shinobu Sakamoto was just 15 when she left her home in the southern Japanese fishing village of Minamata to go to Stockholm and tell the world of the horrors of mercury poisoning. Forty-five years on, she is traveling again, this time to Geneva, to attend from Sunday a gathering of signatories to the first global pact to rein in mercury pollution. Sakamoto is one of a shrinking group of survivors from a 1950s industrial disaster in which tens of thousands of people were poisoned after waste water from a chemical plant seeped into the Minamata bay. (Graphic link reut.rs/2jIdmUS) The waste contained a toxic organic compound, methylmercury, which can cause severe damage to the brain and nervous system, leading to a condition called Minamata disease. It gives its name to the U.N.-backed treaty that took effect last month. Symptoms worsen with age, leaving some victims grappling with the question of who will care for them after the death of  siblings and parents, while others face legal disputes.  If I don t say something, no one will know about Minamata disease,  said Sakamoto, who is one of the few born with the disease who is still able to talk.  There are still so many problems, and I want people to know.  Just 528 people survive from among the 3,000 certified victims of Minamata disease, environment ministry data shows.  More than 20,000 people have sought to be designated victims,  hoping for legal compensation.  We need to take seriously the fact that there are still many people raising their hands,  said ministry official Koji Sasaki, referring to victims  efforts to win recognition.  Born in a family of shipbuilders whose home overlooks the Minamata bay, Jitsuko Tanaka, 64, used to play on the beach with her older sister, picking and eating shellfish, unaware it was contaminated with mercury. She was almost three, and her sister five, when they lost the ability to move their hands freely and walk properly, becoming the first to be identified as disease sufferers. Tanaka s older sister died at age eight. Tanaka survived, but the poisoning left her too weak to walk without support. A few years ago, her family says, even that became impossible. As she lay motionless in bed, her brother-in-law, a fellow sufferer, said he worried about the patients left behind when family members die.    After I die, who will take care of her?  asked Yoshio Shimoda, 69. Sixty-one years since Minamata disease was identified in 1956, the grim struggles have eased for only a few. Before the government named methylmercury as its cause in 1968, disease sufferers faced discrimination over fears it was contagious, which deterred many from seeking legal recognition.  People still send in decades-old umbilical cords to be checked for contamination, hoping for evidence to support their claims to be designated as victims, said Hirokatsu Akagi, director of Minamata s International Mercury Laboratory. Sakamoto, poisoned while still in the womb, considers it her duty to tell the world about the dangers of mercury.  Minamata disease isn t over; it s not a thing of the past.

Summary: 60 से अधिक वर्षों के बाद, जापान के पारा-जहर पीड़ितों को सुनने के लिए संघर्ष करना पड़ता है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic leaders in the U.S. Congress on Monday demanded that lawmakers wait to find out the budgetary and healthcare impacts of a new, last-ditch legislative effort by Republicans to repeal Obamacare before voting on it. In their long-running war on former President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law, Senate Republicans are now proposing to replace it with a system that would give states money in block grants to run their own healthcare programs. Drafted by Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy, the bill was introduced last week. Graham and Cassidy said they were close to securing the votes needed for passage, but the bill’s outlook was uncertain. If approved, it would replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known informally as Obamacare, which Republicans have long seen as government overreach into the healthcare business. The Graham-Cassidy measure has revived a fight that many in Washington thought was over when an Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill flopped in the Senate in July, humiliating Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump. Two Senate committees, including the powerful Finance Committee, on Monday announced they would hold hearings on the bill next week, the first public hearings all year for any Republican Senate proposal to overhaul Obamacare.  Republican Senator John McCain had called for a return to regular order and public hearings before voting against a repeal-and-replace bill in July. Senator Ron Wyden, the top-ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee hearing, said next week’s hearing “makes a mockery of regular order.” The Congressional Budget Office, a non-partisan fiscal analysis unit of Congress, said on Monday it will make a preliminary assessment of the bill’s impact next week. But it said it will not be able to estimate the impact on the deficit or changes in insurance coverage or premiums for several weeks. Worried Democrats seized on the statement to urge Republicans to wait for a full CBO score before holding a vote. “Have the courage and decency to wait for a CBO score,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor on Monday. The House of Representatives is on a break this week. A delay to wait for a CBO analysis is something Republicans can ill afford since in two weeks Senate procedural rules will make it much more difficult for them to advance the legislation. A special parliamentary procedure that would allow the bill to move forward in the Senate with a simple majority of only 51 votes will expire in two weeks. After that, it would need 60 votes, like most Senate legislation. Republicans have a slim 52-vote Senate majority.  Schumer called Graham-Cassidy a “Frankenstein monster of a bill” that would be costly for some states. He said Democrats would use every procedural tool to slow or stop its passage. Stock prices fell for small hospital chains that have high corporate debt loads and that likely would be hurt under the plan’s probable decrease in government payments for patients. Community Health Systems closed down 35 cents, or 4.6 percent, to $7.26, and Tenet Healthcare fell $1.01, or 6.0 percent, at $15.72. Trump has been telephoning members of Congress in recent days urging action on dismantling Obamacare. McConnell has not promised to bring Graham-Cassidy to the floor for a vote, but he asked the CBO for a quick assessment. Not all the Senate’s conservatives back the bill. Senator Rand Paul said it did not go far enough to repeal Obamacare. Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana told reporters he was worried that the bill would allow some states to set up their own single-payer healthcare system. McCain and two other Republican senators, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, all of whom voted against the last Republican effort to repeal Obamacare, were said by aides to be undecided on the latest proposal. Collins, of Maine, told reporters she was still analyzing the measure, but listed several concerns, including possibly higher insurance premiums for older Americans. She said the Maine Hospital Association calculated her state would receive a billion dollars less in Medicaid and other federal healthcare spending over the next decade under the bill, and “that obviously is of great concern to me.”  But if it can get through the Senate, the plan may have a chance in the House of Representatives, also controlled by Republicans. Past Republican proposals to dismantle Obamacare have been hampered, in part, by CBO estimates that showed the bills would have left millions more Americans without health insurance. Obama’s healthcare reform has provided health benefits to 20 million Americans.

Summary: डेमोक्रेट ने ओबामाकेयर हमले पर सीनेट के मतदान से पहले पूरी समीक्षा का आग्रह किया