BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon s president called on Saudi Arabia on Saturday to clarify why Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri could not return home, a week after he stunned his country by resigning while in the kingdom. A senior Lebanese official said President Michel Aoun had told foreign ambassadors Hariri had been  kidnapped  and should have immunity. Hariri s shock resignation has thrust Lebanon back into the frontline of a power struggle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi ite Iran - a rivalry that has wrought upheaval in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Bahrain.  Lebanon does not accept its prime minister being in a situation at odds with international treaties,  Aoun said in a statement. He said any comment or move by Hariri  does not reflect reality  due to the questions over his status following his resignation in a broadcast from Saudi Arabia.  Lebanese authorities believe Riyadh is detaining Hariri who flew to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 3, two top Lebanese government officials, a senior politician close to Hariri and a fourth source have said. French President Emmanuel Macron echoed similar concerns, saying in a call with Aoun on Saturday that  Lebanese political leaders should enjoy freedom of movement . Macron, who made an unscheduled visit to Riyadh earlier this week, will receive the Lebanese foreign minister in Paris on Tuesday, the Elysee statement said. Riyadh says Hariri is free and decided to resign because Iran s Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, was calling the shots in his coalition government. Hariri has made no public remarks since quitting last week, when he said he feared assassination and accused Iran along with Hezbollah of sowing strife in the Arab world. Hariri, whose family made its fortune in the Saudi construction industry, has also given no sign of when he might return to Beirut. The Lebanese premier took part in a ceremony in Riyadh on Saturday welcoming Saudi King Salman from Medina, his media office said. Hariri met with the Turkish and British ambassadors at his Riyadh home in the afternoon, it said. Sources close to Hariri say Saudi Arabia has concluded that the prime minister - a long-time Saudi ally - had to go because he was unwilling to confront Hezbollah. His phone was confiscated after he arrived in Riyadh, and the next day he was forced to resign on a Saudi TV channel, senior sources close to Hariri and top Lebanese political and security officials said. Aoun wants Saudi Arabia,  with which we have brotherly ties and deeply rooted friendship, to clarify the reasons preventing Prime Minister Hariri s return,  his office said. France and other Western countries have looked on with alarm at the rising tensions in the region.  We would like Saad al-Hariri to have all his freedom of movement and be fully able to play the essential role that is his in Lebanon,  a French foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday. Hariri s resignation unraveled a political deal among Lebanon s rival factions that made him prime minister and Aoun, a Hezbollah ally, president last year. The coalition government included Shi ite Hezbollah, a heavily armed military and political organization. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday that Saudi had declared war on Lebanon and his group, accusing Riyadh of forcing Hariri to resign to destabilize Lebanon. The comments mirrored an accusation by Riyadh earlier this week that Lebanon and Hezbollah had declared war on the Gulf Arab kingdom. Hariri s political party denounced on Saturday Iranian intervention in Arab countries and attacks against Saudi Arabia. The Future Movement party said it stands by the premier and was  waiting impatiently for his return to Lebanon to handle his national responsibilities in leading this stage.  In a statement, the United States called Hariri  a trusted partner  and referred to him as prime minister. The White House  rejects any efforts by militias within Lebanon or by any foreign forces to threaten Lebanon s stability ... or use Lebanon as a base from which to threaten others in the region,  it said. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had told reporters on Friday there was no indication Hariri was being held against his will but that the United States was monitoring the situation. The resignation of Hariri comes amid an anti-corruption purge in Riyadh in which dozens of senior princes and businessmen have been rounded up.

Summary: लेबनान के राष्ट्रपति ने सऊदी अरब पर यह कहने के लिए दबाव डाला कि हरीरी क्यों नहीं लौटा है


VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis launched a global Roman Catholic campaign on Wednesday to improve the lot of immigrants and one of his top cardinals urged politicians to  touch the hand of a migrant  before trying to stereotype them. The two-year  Share the Journey  campaign comes at a time of growing anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States and many European countries where far-right parties have made inroads. On Sunday the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (Afd) party surged to third place in a national election, tapping into public disquiet over the arrival of more than a million migrants in Germany over the past two years. The pope, who has made defense of migrants a major plank of his pontificate, launched the campaign in comments to tens of thousands of people in St. Peter s Square for his weekly audience, urging Catholics around the world to be  open, inclusive and welcoming . Italy s anti-immigrant Northern League has vowed to clamp down on migration from developing countries if it takes power in a coalition government after next year s elections. At a news conference at the Vatican, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila called for a  culture of personal encounter  where friendship supplants fear.  I would invite the leaders to meet a migrant, touch the hand of a migrant, smell a migrant, listen to their stories and you will see that they are like you and me,  he said.  They are not really  other . They could be me. They could be my brother, my sister, my parents,  said Tagle, whose grandfather left China for the Philippines as a poor boy. The two-year campaign of  action and awareness  is being spearheaded by Caritas Internationalis, the worldwide umbrella of Catholic charities. The campaign encourages local communities to facilitate encounters between migrants and those who fear or denigrate them  in church halls and private homes.  Look them in the eyes, listen to why they left their homes, how their journey s been, see the real people behind the numbers and scare stories,  Tagle said. He urged politicians  not to close the doors on people who might enrich your society . In the United States, where President Donald Trump wants to build a wall along the border with Mexico, his ex-chief strategist Steve Bannon - himself a Catholic - got embroiled in a row with the U.S. Catholic Church this month when he said its bishops backed illegal immigrants in order to fill empty pews. Francis this month said he hoped Trump would re-think his decision to end a program protecting undocumented immigrant children, saying it was important for young people to have roots.

Summary: वेटिकन ने राजनेताओं से प्रवासियों की रक्षा करने का आग्रह किया, न कि उन्हें रूढ़िबद्ध करने का


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the British opposition Labour Party, said on Thursday he would fight any attempt by Prime Minister Theresa May s government to use Britain s exit from the European Union as a way to turn the country into a tax haven.  Corbyn, who was speaking to a meeting of the socialists and democrats in the European Parliament in Brussels, has previously warned that the country must avoid a  race to the bottom  by slashing tax rates to attract foreign investment.   We will resist any attempt by British Conservatives to use Brexit to try and create any kind of deregulated tax haven off the shores of Europe,  he said.

Summary: विपक्षी नेता का कहना है कि ब्रेक्सिट का इस्तेमाल ब्रिटेन को कर पनाहगाह बनाने के लिए नहीं किया जाना चाहिए


LONDON (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that his remarks last week about a jailed Iranian-British aid worker could have been clearer, and said he had not wanted to add credence to Iranian allegations against her. On Nov. 1, Johnson said that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been teaching people journalism before her arrest in Iran in April 2016.  The UK government has no doubt that she was on holiday in Iran when she was arrested last year and that was the sole purpose of her visit,  Johnson said.  My point was that I disagreed with the Iranian view that training journalists was a crime, not that I wanted to lend any credence to Iranian allegations that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been engaged in such activity,  he said.  I accept that my remarks could have been clearer in that respect and I am glad to provide this clarification.  Johnson said he would travel to Iran in the coming weeks and discuss all consular issues there.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के जॉनसन ईरान में जेल में बंद सहायता कार्यकर्ता पर टिप्पणी को स्पष्ट करना चाहते हैं


NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump s administration is ending a program that allowed children fleeing violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to apply for refugee status in the United States before leaving home.  The administration will phase out the Central American Minors (CAM) program during fiscal year 2018, according to a report provided to Congress and obtained by Reuters. That report also sets the overall refugee cap for the year at its lowest level in decades.  The CAM program started at the end of 2014 under the administration of former President Barack Obama as a response to tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors and families from Central America who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border seeking asylum in the United States.   The program allowed vulnerable young people with parents in the United States to process their applications in their home region and avoid making the dangerous trip through Mexico to the U.S. border on their own, said Karen Musalo, the director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at University of California-Hastings.   I think there is very little interest in understanding on the part of this administration as to who are refugees and our country s commitment to protect people fleeing persecution,  Musalo said. The report said it was ending CAM  because the vast majority of individuals accessing the program were not eligible for refugee resettlement.  The government will instead focus on  more targeted  refugee processing in Central America, working with the government of Costa Rica, the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration, the report said. The U.S. had already said in August it was ending one element of the program. An executive order on border security signed by Trump days after he took office in January triggered a review of the program, putting on hold the applications of more than 2,700 children who had been conditionally approved for entry into the United States. Those applications - the bulk of which were for children from El Salvador - have been canceled.  As of August 4, more than 1,500 children and eligible family members had arrived in the United States as refugees under the CAM program since it began in December 2014, according to the State Department. More than 13,000 people have applied for the program since it began, it said.

Summary: अमेरिका मध्य अमेरिकी बाल शरणार्थियों के लिए कार्यक्रम को चरणबद्ध तरीके से समाप्त करेगा


PRAGUE (Reuters) - Czech President Milos Zeman has thrown his support behind a bid by Ivana Trump, the ex-wife of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, to become the next ambassador to the country of her birth. “They could not send a better U.S. ambassador to Prague,” Zeman told her in a telephone call on Wednesday, the president’s office said in a statement. Ivana Trump told the New York Post last week she would suggest to her ex-husband that she become ambassador to the Czech Republic. The 67-year-old socialite, born in Zlin in what was then Czechoslovakia, told the paper the country was “where I’m from and my language and everybody knows me”. Her suggestion, reported by Czech media over the weekend, has been welcomed by other politicians but most enthusiastically by the president’s office, whose spokesman said on Twitter it was a great choice. It was another sign of a sharp pro-American U-turn by the Czech presidential administration. Zeman was one of the few European politicians who vocally backed Trump in his campaign for the U.S. presidency. After the real estate billionaire won the election in a surprise victory a week ago, Zeman held a rare press briefing in which said he was “very happy” with Trump’s victory and that the two shared opinions on immigration and terrorism. Like Trump, the outspoken Czech president has often railed against “elites” critical of his leadership and has warm views towards Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Unlike Trump, Zeman is very keen on deepening ties with China. Despite his country’s NATO membership, Zeman has often repeated the Russian line on the conflict in Ukraine and was not invited to the White House under President Barack Obama.  He has had an open feud with current U.S. ambassador to Prague, Andrew Schapiro. In 2015, he “closed the door” of Prague Castle to the envoy for a time, after he made comments perceived as critical of the Czech president’s decision to attend a World War Two commemoration in Moscow. The president’s spokesman, Jiri Ovcacek, tweeted last week that “a beautiful gift for my January birthday will be the exit” of the current ambassador.

Summary: प्राग के लिए ट्रम्प की पूर्व पत्नी से बेहतर कोई अमेरिकी राजदूत नहीं हैः चेक राष्ट्रपति


TUNIS (Reuters) - The United Nations began a new push on Tuesday to stabilize Libya by getting rival factions to revise the stalled peace plan and set the country on the path to elections.  The effort aims to end the turmoil that developed in Libya after the 2011 NATO-backed uprising ended Muammar Gaddafi s 42-year rule, giving space to Islamist militants and smuggling networks that have sent hundreds of thousands of migrants to Europe. Political and military fractures have left the country mired in conflict and the OPEC member s economy in freefall. Rival parliaments and governments have vied for power.   Last week, U.N. envoy Ghassan Salame announced a one-year  action plan  for a transition toward presidential and parliamentary elections.  The plan got underway on Tuesday with negotiations between delegations from rival parliaments from eastern Libya and Tripoli, which are meant to draw up amendments to a previous U.N.-mediated plan signed in December 2015. As the delegations convened in Tunis, Salame said he hoped the amendments could be agreed rapidly and that he sensed a  window of opportunity  for reconciliation.   All Libyans are fed up. They are going from transition to transition with no horizon,  he said.  We have sleeping institutions that need to be awoken, divided institutions that need to be united, and hijacked institutions that need to be rebuilt.  The 2015 deal has only had limited support from power-brokers and was never endorsed by factions aligned with military commander Khalifa Haftar that control eastern Libya. Haftar, who has been courted by Western states after making military gains, was in Rome on Tuesday where he met Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti and Italy s highest ranking military officer, Claudio Graziano.  Pinotti expressed hope that all parties would support Salame s  inclusive political strategy ... excluding any military solution , according to a defense ministry statement. Italy and other Western states have tried to work with the U.N.-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, but it has been hamstrung by internal splits and has been unable to halt a slide in living standards or tame the power of armed groups.  We re here to move the political process forward for the sake of the country s stability,  said Moussa Faraj, head of the delegation from the High Council of State in Tripoli, according to a tweet from the United Nations from the Tunis meeting which got closed to the press after Salame s speech.      Under the new U.N. plan, once amendments have been agreed a national conference drawing on a much larger number of representatives from across Libya is meant to approve the members of a transitional government that would run the country until elections. The eastern parliament, or House of Representatives (HOR), is expected to devise laws for national elections and for a referendum to approve a much-delayed constitution. The chamber has barely functioned over the past two years and has been boycotted by a large number of its members.  Our task is difficult,  said Abdusalam Nasia, head of the HOR delegation, according to the United Nations.  I call on all to leave personal interests behind and focus on common interests.

Summary: संयुक्त राष्ट्र ने लीबिया में क्रांति के बाद की उथल-पुथल को समाप्त करने के लिए नई योजना शुरू की


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois’ Republican governor has launched an unusual attack ad in his re-election campaign that features three neighboring governors crediting their states’ job gains to Illinois taxes crafted by a state House Democratic leader. Illinois Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, who kicked off his 2018 re-election campaign this week, saw his first term marred by a political impasse that left Illinois without a budget for two years before lawmakers overrode his veto this summer to raise taxes.     Governors in the new ad include Missouri’s Eric Greitens, Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and Indiana’s Eric Holcomb - all Republicans like Rauner - thanking Rauner’s political foil, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, for blocking reforms, raising taxes and sending jobs to their states. “Hoosiers love you, Mike Madigan,” Holcomb said in the ad. Among the Democrats whom Rauner, a wealthy businessman, could face after a March primary are J.B. Pritzker, an heir to the Hyatt Hotels Corp fortune, and Chris Kennedy, son of the late U.S. Senator Robert Kennedy.        The governor’s race in the fifth-largest state is expected to rank among the most expensive in the country. Experts who follow elections said the ad was unusual. “This is creative since it uses GOP governors from surrounding states to shift the blame for Illinois’ woes from Rauner to a Democratic leader,” University of Virginia political science professor Larry Sabato said.  “Voters usually hold their governor responsible for the state of the state,” he added.  While it is not unusual for governors to make appearances for other campaigns, they tend to take a more positive approach, highlighting an incumbent’s achievements, said Dick Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.     While the ad may resonate with rural, conservative voters, it also comes as Illinois and other states seek to attract Amazon.com’s $5 billion second headquarters. Simpson said highlighting how Illinois policies hurt the state is “probably not helpful.”     Madigan dismissed the ad in a statement, calling it a “race to the bottom being led by his role models from states where middle-class wages are a fraction of what they are in Illinois.”     Rauner has feuded with Democrats, who control the state legislature, over his insistence a state budget be tied to policy demands that would weaken unions, impose legislative term limits and freeze property taxes.     He also has angered conservatives by signing a bill to expand state-funded coverage of abortions. Political scientists said he faces a tough re-election bid in a state often carried by the Democratic candidate in presidential elections. Spending on the race could top $150 million, a rarity, said Sarah Brune, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform.

Summary: इलिनोइस के गवर्नर ने चुनाव विज्ञापन में डेमोक्रेट पर हमला करने के लिए अपने समकक्षों को सूचीबद्ध किया


BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States is probing North Korea to see whether it is interested in dialogue and has multiple direct channels of communication with Pyongyang, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Saturday.  We are probing, so stay tuned,  Tillerson told a small group of reporters during a trip to China.  We ask: Would you like to talk? We have lines of communications to Pyongyang. We re not in a dark situation.

Summary: अमेरिका यह देखने के लिए "जांच" कर रहा है कि क्या उत्तर कोरिया वार्ता में रुचि रखता हैः टिलरसन


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Tweets by U.S. President Donald Trump are viewed in Moscow as his official position and read by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. A prolific user of Twitter before he was elected late last year, Trump has continued to use the social media platform to voice his views on policy and world affairs since moving into the White House. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday it was not his place to comment on Trump s actions, but added:  In any case, everything which is published from his authorised Twitter account is perceived by Moscow as his official statement.  Naturally, it is reported to Putin along with other information about official statements by  politicians,  Peskov said, adding that Putin was not a Twitter user himself. Trump s activity on Twitter have previously cause controversy. His tweets sparked outrage in Britain last month and a sharp rebuke of Prime Minister Theresa May when he retweeted anti Islam videos from a British far-right group.

Summary: क्रेमलिनः हम ट्रम्प के ट्वीट्स को आधिकारिक बयानों के रूप में देखते हैं


AMSTERDAM/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - An inquiry by the global chemical weapons watchdog found sarin was used in a March attack in Syria on an opposition-held town, just days before the banned nerve agent killed dozens in a separate attack nearby, sources told Reuters on Wednesday. The March 30 air strike in the northern Syrian town of Latamneh injured around 70 people who suffered nausea, foaming at the mouth and muscle spasms.   Samples analysis results show clear presence of sarin,  a source told Reuters of the findings by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The report by the OPCW Syria Fact Finding Mission is due to be finalised within weeks. The Fact Finding Mission reported in June that sarin was used in an April 4 attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed dozens of people and prompted the United States to launch missiles on a Syrian air base. Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in 2013 under a deal brokered by Russia and the United States. The Syrian government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons during the country s more than six-year civil war.  The OPCW Fact Finding Mission is only responsible for determining if chemical weapons were used in attacks in Syria. A joint United Nations and OPCW investigation, established by the U.N. Security Council in 2015, determines who is to blame. This team - known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) - has already found Syrian government forces were responsible for three chlorine gas attacks in 2014 and 2015 and that Islamic State militants used mustard gas. It is due to report to the Security Council this month on who is to blame for the April 4 Khan Sheikhoun attack.  The 15-member Security Council is due to renew the mandate for the JIM by mid-November. However, Russia has publicly questioned the work of the inquiry and some diplomats said it was uncertain if Moscow would support extending the mandate.   The Russians don t like what the JIM has come up with so far, so they are muttering about not allowing a rollover,  said a council diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia declined to comment on the future of the inquiry on Wednesday.  Renewing the U.N. Joint Investigative Mechanism now should be the Security Council s top priority,  U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said in a statement on Wednesday.  We owe it to the innocent people - including children - who have suffered and died at the hands of the Syrian regime to continue to push for full accountability for these horrific crimes,  she said.  U.N. war crimes investigators said in a report last month that Syrian forces had used chemical weapons more than two dozen times, including in a sarin attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun in April that killed more than 80 people.

Summary: रासायनिक हथियारों पर नजर रखने वाली संस्था ने पाया कि मार्च में सीरिया में हुए हमले में सरीन का इस्तेमाल किया गया थाः सूत्र


BEIJING (Reuters) - Members of China s ruling Communist Party have a duty to follow orders from the central leadership lest the country stray into anarchy, the country s top newspaper wrote on Friday, warning against those who put themselves above the party. President Xi Jinping has amassed power since taking office five years ago, tightening party control over all aspects of life and locking up rights activists and dissidents on subversion charges.  Xi has also gone after competing power bases by jailing opponents for corruption, including the powerful former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang and the popular one-time party boss of Chongqing, Bo Xilai. The party under Xi s leadership has repeatedly warned that it will not tolerate dissenting voices, and the official People s Daily struck a firm note in pressing home that message against a phenomenon it termed  de-centralism .  De-centralism is a way of thinking and behaving where each goes their own way, with only freedom and no discipline, only thinking of acting alone and ignoring everyone else,  the paper wrote in a commentary.  It is an extreme expression of individualism, and in its essence it s anarchy,  it added. The government has previously accused some of its disgraced former top officials, including Zhou and Bo, of seeking to establish  independent kingdoms . Both men are currently serving life terms for corruption. Bo was well-known for his populist policies, including a high-profile crackdown on organized crime, investments in flashy infrastructure projects and quasi-Maoist practices like organizing mass sing-alongs praising the party. Chongqing, one of China s most important cities and located in the country s southwest, has remained a hotbed of intrigue. Another former party boss, Sun Zhengcai, is currently awaiting trial in his own corruption scandal. He too is accused of paying lip service to orders from Beijing. The People s Daily said that some party officials were too  free and undisciplined  in their thinking.  Add to that is the encroachment of individualism, hedonism and the worship of money. A small number of these people slip into the morass of de-centralism and cannot extract themselves,  it said. Party members must do as they are told, as that is the only way to guarantee the authority of the central leadership, the paper added.

Summary: कोई आदमी एक द्वीप नहीं-चीन ने पार्टी के रास्ते से भटकने के खिलाफ चेतावनी दी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on Thursday he may consider issuing a subpoena because the White House has not been forthcoming with details of an ambush in Niger that left four U.S. soldiers dead. The attack earlier this month, which U.S. officials suspect was carried out by a local Islamic State affiliate, has thrown a spotlight on the U.S. counter-terrorism mission in the West African country, which has about 800 U.S. troops. “It may require a subpoena,” McCain said when asked what steps his committee might need to take to determine what happened to the four troops. Questioned what information the committee still needed, McCain said: “Everything.”  Asked whether the White House had been forthcoming with the information needed by the committee, he added, “of course not.”      White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said a Pentagon investigation is aimed at finding out what happened in Niger. “An investigation doesn’t mean anything was wrong. An investigation doesn’t mean people’s heads are going to roll. The fact is, they need to find out what happened and why it happened,” he said during an appearance in the White House briefing room. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters on Thursday that the incident was under investigation and defended the military’s response, even as he acknowledged that it did not yet have all the accurate information on the incident. Initially, the Pentagon announced that three soldiers had been killed in the ambush. The body of a fourth soldier, Sergeant La David T. Johnson, was recovered more than a day later and questions have been raised about why it took as long as it did. “The U.S. military does not leave its troops behind and I would just ask that you not question the actions of the troops who were caught in the firefight and question whether or not they did everything they could in order to bring everyone out at once,” Mattis said before the start of a meeting with his Israeli counterpart.     McCain said he had had a good conversation with President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, and hoped the White House would eventually provide the information needed by the committee. From initial accounts, the 40-member patrol, which included a dozen U.S. troops, came under swift attack by militants riding in a dozen vehicles and on about 20 motorcycles. The mission had been seen as a relatively lower-risk endeavor for America’s elite commandos and there was no armed air cover at the time that could carry out air strikes if necessary. Mattis said contact was considered “unlikely” but did not provide further details. “There’s a reason we have U.S. Army soldiers there and not the Peace Corps, because we carry guns. And so it’s a reality, it’s part of the danger that our troops face,” he said. Under heavy fire, U.S. troops called in French fighter jets for air support, but the firefight was at such close quarters that the planes could not engage and were instead left circling overhead. U.S. officials have said French aircraft were overhead within 30 minutes. Mattis said a contract aircraft evacuated the dead U.S. soldiers and Johnson’s body was found later by local nationals. The U.S. military’s Africa Command said the soldiers were in the area to establish relations with local leaders and deemed it unlikely that they would meet resistance.

Summary: सीनेटर मैक्केन का कहना है कि नाइजर हमले पर जवाब पाने के लिए सम्मन की आवश्यकता हो सकती है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Friday Mexico would repay the United States for his planned border wall, a day after news emerged that his transition team was exploring getting the Republican-led Congress to vote to approve the funding. Trump told the New York Times he would most likely seek repayment through renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which groups the United States, Mexico and Canada. Sean Spicer, a spokesman for Trump, said on Friday the incoming administration would need government funding to build the wall and that Trump said in October Mexico’s payment would be a reimbursement. “The idea that we’re going through the appropriations process and figuring out how to pay for it shouldn’t be news,” he told a briefing, confirming earlier reports on the funding. Trump’s promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and make Mexico pay for it, was a major campaign theme and helped energize his supporters. The suggestion has infuriated Mexican officials who have said they would never agree to pay for a wall. Trump may face resistance in Congress to the idea of the United States paying for the wall. Some Republican lawmakers worry about the high cost and question whether it is the best way to solve the complex issue of illegal migration. Some conservative groups have called for a crackdown on benefits and jobs available to illegal migrants, which they say are a magnet for migration. Republican Representative Luke Messer told reporters on Friday he had proposed legislation to get Mexico to pay for the border wall by ending a child tax credit given to illegal immigrant parents, which he said cost $4.2 billion annually.  “If you close that loophole for two years, you could pay for the higher ticket cost,” Messer said, referring to one estimate that a wall could cost $10 billion. CNN and other media organizations reported on Friday Trump’s transition team had signaled to congressional Republicans that he preferred to fund the wall through Congress as soon as April. In response, Trump tweeted that the media was not reporting that Mexico would repay money spent to build the wall. A ‘Pay for the Wall’ memo Trump’s team issued in early 2016 proposed pressuring Mexico by cutting off remittances from undocumented Mexicans in the United States. It proposed amending the Patriot Act, passed after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, to include wire transfers as accounts that could be frozen. “It’s an easy decision for Mexico: make a one-time payment of $5-10 billion to ensure that $24 billion (in remittances) continues to flow into their country year after year,” the memo said. “We have the leverage, so Mexico will back down,” it said. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s office declined to comment on Trump’s comments on Friday. In August, Pena Nieto told Trump Mexico would not pay for a border wall. Representative Martha McSally, the Republican chair of the border and maritime security subcommittee, told Reuters a 2006 law known as the “Secure Fence Act” would give Trump the authority he needs to extend fencing or build a wall. An internal report prepared by U.S. Customs and Border Protection estimates initial costs for expanding border fencing would cost over $11.3 billion. Building a wall would be more costly. Trump has signaled since being elected that he would be open to fencing rather than a wall in some areas.  If funding was tied to a government funding bill, lawmakers could be forced to approve it to avoid a government shutdown. House appropriators have no interest in threatening a shutdown, spokeswoman Jennifer Hing said. “The (appropriations) committee has not received any request from the Trump team or GOP leadership on this issue. If and when a proposal is received, we will take a careful look at it,” she said. The Mexican peso MXN=, which briefly weakened about 0.2 percent against the dollar following Trump's tweet, fell to record lows this week as Trump intensified criticism of businesses making goods in Mexico rather than in the United States.

Summary: सीमा की दीवार पर खर्च किए गए अमेरिकी धन का भुगतान मेक्सिको करेगाः ट्रम्प


(Reuters) - Lawyers for U.S. President Donald Trump are not likely to file their planned complaint this week against former FBI Director James Comey over disclosing details about conversations with the president, a spokesman for Trump’s legal team said on Tuesday. A person close to the legal team said on Friday Trump’s chief personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, expected to file a complaint against Comey early this week to the Justice Department’s inspector general’s office. “I think it’s going to take a little longer,” Mark Corallo, a spokesman for the legal team, said on Tuesday. “It may well slip to next week.” Corallo also said the complaint may be filed to the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility rather than its Office of Inspector General. Trump’s lawyers are sifting through additional information and preparing at least one submission, and a meeting scheduled for Wednesday may clarify the proper avenue for the complaint, he said. The president has responded to Comey’s testimony on Thursday to the Senate Intelligence Committee by denying that he tried to interfere with an FBI investigation, and calling the former FBI chief a leaker. In his testimony, Comey said that after Trump fired him last month he gave a memo he wrote about a meeting with the president to a friend in order to have its contents disclosed to the media. In a statement following the testimony, Kasowitz accused Comey of leaking “privileged” information. Some legal experts have said the information disclosed was not privileged because Trump himself had already publicly discussed their conversations. A former high-ranking Justice Department official familiar with how the inspector general handles complaints said any filing by Kasowitz would most likely be treated as part of an existing investigation into Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. “This could end up as a footnote in a longer report,” the former official said. Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, said he believes the Comey disclosure violated FBI regulations but said the Office of Professional Responsibility may be reluctant to look into an disciplinary allegation against a former rather than current employee.  “The challenge for the Trump team is to find an office that will get to the merits,” said Turley. John Lavinsky, a spokesman for the Inspector General, declined to comment.

Summary: ट्रम्प की कानूनी टीम ने कोमी के खिलाफ लीक शिकायत दर्ज करने में देरी की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump planned to meet with the heads of the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Friday, a spokesman for the U.S. Republican president-elect said. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Sean Spicer said CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and DNI’s James Clapper intend to attend the briefing with Trump on the U.S. intelligence agencies’ final report on the subject of Russian hacking of U.S. political groups and individuals.

Summary: ट्रम्प शुक्रवार को सी. आई. ए., एफ़. बी. आई. और डी. एन. आई. प्रमुखों से मिलेंगेः प्रवक्ता


BEIJING (Reuters) - China marked the 80th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre on Wednesday with a call to work with Japan for peace, but President Xi Jinping kept a low profile and left the main public remarks to another senior official. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 massacre in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A postwar Allied tribunal put the death toll in the eastern city of Nanjing at 142,000, but some conservative Japanese politicians and scholars deny a massacre took place at all. Ties between China and Japan, the world s second- and third-largest economies, have been plagued by a long-running territorial dispute over a cluster of East China Sea islets and suspicion in China about efforts by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to amend Japan s pacifist constitution. However the two countries have sought to get relations back on track, and Abe and Xi met last month on the sidelines of a regional summit in Vietnam. Speaking at a memorial in Nanjing, Yu Zhengsheng, who heads a high-profile but largely ceremonial advisory body to China s parliament, said China and Japan were neighbours with deep historic ties. China would deepen relations with all its neighbours, including Japan, on the basis of amity, sincerity and friendship, Yu said, in comments carried live on state television.  China and Japan must act on the basis of both their people s basic interests, correctly grasp the broad direction of peaceful and friendly cooperation, take history as a mirror, face the future and pass on friendship down the generations,  Yu said.  A sombre Xi, wearing a white flower in his lapel to symbolise mourning, stood in the audience but did not speak. Doves to signify peace flew overhead after Yu finished speaking. Xi later met massacre survivors, the official Xinhua news agency said, telling them,  Lessons learned from the past can guide one in the future . South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who arrived in Beijing for a four-day visit, offered condolences to the victims in a speech to businessmen, in what his office called the first such public mention of the massacre by a South Korean leader. In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga spoke of the importance of looking to the future.  The leaders of Japan and China have agreed in past meetings to further improve relations and it is important, while cherishing this trend, to together show a future-oriented stance,  Suga told a regular news conference:  It was the second time Xi has attended the event since China marked its first national memorial day for the massacre in 2014. At that time, he called on China and Japan to set aside hatred and not allow the minority who led Japan to war to affect relations now.

Summary: चीन ने नानजिंग नरसंहार की वर्षगांठ मनाई लेकिन शी ने कुछ खास नहीं किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House hopefuls Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and 13 other Republican U.S. senators on Thursday demanded that Islamic State fighters be sent to the Guantanamo Bay detention center, which would boost its population as President Barack Obama moves to close it. The lawmakers introduced a resolution expressing the need to detain the fighters at the controversial military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, after reports that U.S. special operations forces had captured leaders of the militant group. “There should be no confusion in the minds of our enemies that, if captured, they will be sent to the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay to be interrogated,” Rubio said in a statement.  Rubio, Cruz, billionaire front-runner Donald Trump and Ohio Governor John Kasich face off in a presidential debate on Thursday night in Miami. The resolution was led by Senator Steve Daines. In addition to Rubio and Cruz, the co-sponsors were Senators Jerry Moran, Cory Gardner, Tom Cotton, Mark Kirk, Orrin Hatch, Joni Ernst, Johnny Isakson, John Boozman, Pat Roberts, Jim Inhofe, Tim Scott and David Vitter. The measure would be nonbinding but underscores the strong resistance in the Republican-controlled Congress toward Obama’s efforts to close the detention camp. Obama launched a final push to persuade Congress to close the detention center for suspected members of groups such as al Qaeda last month. The Obama administration has been trying for years to make good on a pledge the president made at the beginning of his first term in 2009 to close the facility but has faced stiff political opposition. Republican lawmakers insist the prison is an essential tool for holding and interrogating suspects who threaten the United States. Opponents of the detention center say that holding prisoners for years without charge or trial is a human rights violation that goes against fundamental U.S. values and potentially endangers American military personnel.

Summary: क्रूज़, रूबियो और कैदियों को ग्वांतानामो भेजना चाहते हैं


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey s Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Monday that the United States wanted to use the trial in New York of a Turkish gold trader to impose sanctions on Ankara. In an interview with broadcaster Kanal24, Bozdag also said that the United States had pressured the trader, Reza Zarrab, to sign off on accusations against Turkey.  They may have told Zarrab,  Either you will remain in prison until you die, or you will sign under what we tell you,  and they threatened him with retributions to sign off on accusations,  Bozdag said.

Summary: तुर्की का कहना है कि अमेरिका अंकारा पर प्रतिबंध लगाने के लिए सोने के व्यापारी मामले का उपयोग करना चाहता है


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel s military on Wednesday reduced by four months the 18-month jail term of an ex-soldier who killed an incapacitated Palestinian assailant, saying his service record warranted clemency though he showed no remorse in the case. In March 2015, infantry conscript Elor Azaria was caught on videotape shooting dead a Palestinian who was lying wounded after taking part in a stabbing attack on other Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron. Azaria said he shot Abd Elfatah Ashareef because he feared the Palestinian could carry out another attack, but a court-martial found contradictions in the testimony and convicted him of manslaughter. The verdict was upheld on appeal. After being discharged from the military, Azaria went to prison last month and appealed to the armed forces chief, Lieutenant-General Gadi Eizenkot, to reconsider his sentence, citing the cost to his family of the acrimonious trial. In a response letter made public on Wednesday, the military informed Azaria that Eizenkot had decided to cut the jail term  on grounds of compassion and mercy ... taking into account your past as a combat soldier in an operational theater . But the letter also faulted the former soldier over  grave actions for which you did not take responsibility and for which you did not express regret,  adding that  the important messages in the court rulings should be heeded . Azaria became a right-wing cause celebre in Israel, where most Jewish men and women are drafted at 18 for military service. One poll found that nearly half of Israeli Jews believe any Palestinian attacker should be killed on the spot. The Palestinian government said Azaria s jail term had given Israeli soldiers a  green light  to kill with impunity. Under Israeli law, manslaughter can carry a maximum 20 years behind bars. Military prosecutors had asked the appeals court to impose a three- to five-year sentence on Azaria, but were turned down.

Summary: इजरायल ने संभावित फिलिस्तीनी हमलावर की हत्या करने वाले सैनिक की जेल की सजा में कटौती की


LONDON (Reuters) - Brexit minister David Davis said Britain had taken a big step forward in delivering the country s departure from the European Union on Friday, commenting on a deal with the EU Commission to move to the next stage of negotiation.  Today is a big step forward in delivering Brexit. Been a lot of work but glad the Commission have now recommended that sufficient progress has been reached,  Davis said on Twitter.

Summary: ब्रिटेन के ब्रेक्सिट मंत्री का कहना है कि आज यूरोपीय संघ से बाहर निकलने की दिशा में एक बड़ा कदम हैः ट्विटर


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he did not make and does not possess any tapes of his conversations with former FBI Director James Comey, laying to rest speculation that arose after he tweeted last month that Comey better hope there were no tapes. “With all of the recently reported electronic surveillance, intercepts, unmasking and illegal leaking of information, I have no idea whether there are ‘tapes’ or recordings of my conversations with James Comey, but I did not make, and do not have, any such recordings,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Summary: ट्रंप ने कहा कि उन्होंने एफ. बी. आई. के पूर्व निदेशक कोमी के साथ बातचीत रिकॉर्ड नहीं की थी


AMMAN (Reuters) - Syria demanded on Saturday that Turkish troops who had entered northwestern Syria leave immediately, saying their presence constituted a  flagrant aggression . A Foreign Ministry statement carried on state media said the entry of Turkish military vehicles into rebel-held northwest Syria through the Bab al-Hawa crossing late on Thursday was a violation of international law.   Syria condemns in the strongest terms the incursion of units of the Turkish army in Idlib province, which constitutes a flagrant aggression against the sovereignty and security of Syrian territory,  the statement said. Turkey says it is operating alongside Syrian rebel groups to implement a deal reached last month with Russia and Iran in the Kazakh capital Astana to reduce fighting between insurgents. But Syria s statement said:  The Turkish aggression is not tied in any way with the understandings that were reached between the guarantor states in the Astana process, but constitutes a violation of these understandings.

Summary: सीरिया ने देश से तुर्की सैनिकों की वापसी की मांग की, कहा कि यह एक "स्पष्ट आक्रामकता" है


WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign has solicited advice from California regulators on how to revamp a federal regulation requiring biofuels like corn-based ethanol be blended into the nation’s gasoline supply, according to campaign and state officials.     The move is the clearest sign yet that, if elected, Clinton would seek to adjust the regulation, called the Renewable Fuel Standard, possibly hurting her chances in corn-growing states like Iowa where she faces a tough battle against Republican rival Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 election. The Renewable Fuel Standard, created by Congress in 2005, mandates that transportation fuel sold in the United States contain a minimum volume of renewable fuels. It was intended to cut greenhouse gas emissions and expand the U.S. renewable fuels sector while lowering reliance on imported oil. It is opposed by the oil industry and environmentalists and has been criticized as a mere subsidy to corn producers.  Clinton advisers have contacted the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to discuss whether a policy like California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard, a market-based system rather than a mandate, could be applied at a national level to replace or augment the Renewable Fuel Standard, and other issues, CARB officials said. Mary Nichols, head of the CARB, said she discussed the state’s regulations with Clinton advisers. While a backer of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, Nichols said she told Clinton’s advisers they could avoid political backlash by focusing on other carbon-reduction strategies instead, such as expanding electric vehicle sales and cleaning up emissions from coal-fired electricity. Nichols did not provide further details on the discussions. A Clinton campaign official, who asked not to be named, confirmed the discussions with CARB but gave no further details.  A campaign spokesman, Tyrone Gayle, said the campaign has been seeking advice from “a diverse set of stakeholders.” He added that the Clinton campaign “does not support replacing the RFS with a national low-carbon fuel standard” but did not elaborate. Former Obama administration climate and energy adviser Heather Zichal said on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia last week that the Renewable Fuel Standard was broken, but that a Clinton administration could make “modifications” to fix it. “Mandates aren’t necessarily a perfect way to regulate,” Zichal said at the event. The U.S. corn lobby hopes to convince both Clinton and Trump to uphold the regulation, which requires a doubling of U.S. biofuels use to 36 billion gallons per year by 2022, when congressionally mandated volume targets are set to expire. The program is designed to last indefinitely after that. Environmentalists, anti-hunger activists and the oil sector have called for the rule to be repealed or changed because they say it raises food and fuel costs without delivering the emissions reductions that it was intended to achieve. MARKET-BASED SYSTEM The California regulation, a key part of the state’s effort to combat climate change, requires a 10 percent reduction in the carbon intensity of transportation fuels by 2020, but leaves it up to companies to decide how to reach that target.     California enacted the Low Carbon Fuel Standard in 2007 targeting oil refiners and distributors that sell in the state’s market. It angered Midwestern ethanol interests because the regulation counts the carbon dioxide footprint of transporting biofuels into the state for blending, effectively blocking many of those imports. Oil companies have complained that the regulation is costly. Clinton in May expressed support for the federal Renewable Fuel Standard in an opinion piece published in an Iowa newspaper, but said it could be improved. Clinton’s openness to overhauling the Renewable Fuel Standard appears to contrast with Trump’s position. During the state-by-state battle for the Republican presidential nomination, Trump said he supported the biofuel mandates set out in the Renewable Fuel Standard. Corn and ethanol industry lobbyists said they have been talking with both the Clinton and Trump campaigns to argue in favor of the Renewable Fuel Standard.

Summary: क्लिंटन अभियान अमेरिकी इथेनॉल जनादेश के विकल्प का अध्ययन कर रहा है


BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Union s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said on Wednesday he was  still working  to reach agreement with Britain about its exit from the bloc.   We are still working. (That is) the only comment I can make,  Barnier said after a speech at the Berlin Security Conference, when asked about reports that Britain had offered to pay much of what the EU was demanding to settle a Brexit  divorce bill .  I am working for an agreement,  Barnier told Reuters.

Summary: बार्नियर कहते हैं कि ब्रिटेन के साथ ब्रेक्सिट शर्तों पर 'अभी भी काम कर रहे हैं'


PARIS (Reuters) - French government spokesman Christophe Castaner said on Wednesday that Emmanuel Macron was backing him to lead the year-old Republic on the Move (LREM) party that brought the president to victory earlier this year. If Castaner wins a Nov. 18 election for the party s leadership, it could trigger a minor government reshuffle as he is a cabinet member in charge of relations with parliament. LREM won a large majority in parliamentary elections in June, consolidating Macron s presidential win in May. Like Macron, most LREM lawmakers had never previously held elected office.  If he chose me and supported my candidacy in the collective talks we re having, it s because I ve got the support of the party s rank and file,  Castaner said on RTL radio. Previously a Socialist lawmaker from southwestern France, Castaner joined Macron s campaign early as his spokesman. Since Macron s victory, Castaner has become a familiar face on national television defending the president s reform agenda. Thanks to Castaner s Socialist roots, Macron s backing for him could help counter recent criticism of Macron as a president of the rich for partially scrapping the wealth tax, a symbol of France s income redistribution system cherished on the Left. Castaner said that for the moment no one else had put forward their candidacy to lead the party.

Summary: फ्रांसीसी सरकार के प्रवक्ता को पार्टी का नेतृत्व करने के लिए मैक्रों का समर्थन मिला


BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Spain s EU partners fear a mounting crisis over Catalans  latest push for independence, and their public support for Mariano Rajoy belies some disquiet that the conservative prime minister s hardline tactics might backfire. Few foreign leaders will speak out on a domestic dispute in which government and courts in Madrid say the Catalan regional authorities in Barcelona are defying a constitutional ban on secession by preparing an independence referendum for Oct. 1.  The official European Union line is that Spanish democracy works and Spaniards should settle their affairs according to national laws. But the worsening standoff, with police arresting elected Catalan officials this week, is troubling officials and politicians abroad, who fear it may hurt Europe in various ways. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, through a spokesman, echoed that line when asked by Reuters if she had had recent contact on the matter with Rajoy, a fellow conservative. While stressing it was an  internal Spanish matter , the spokesman also recalled that Merkel had in previous years told Rajoy that Berlin had  great interest in the maintenance of stability in Spain . Less constrained by diplomatic protocol, other Europeans are starting to speak out:  Rajoy has put a lot of oil on the fire, fuelling the independentist debate. He has made a huge mistake,  Ska Keller, the German co-leader of the Greens in the European Parliament, told Reuters as she called on those who may have influence with Rajoy to intercede and calm things down. While publicly refusing to take sides on whether a Catalan breakaway is desirable, few European leaders would welcome it. As with the 2014 referendum in Scotland, which unlike Catalonia s vote was held with the blessing of the central government in London, countries fear encouraging separatists at home: Belgium s Flemings, Italy s Lombards and so on. There is also a broader unwillingness as Britain exits from the EU to open another Pandora s box of economic uncertainty and legal disruption. The EU s chief executive, Jean-Claude Juncker, was irked when Catalans seized on a remarks last week that they could join the EU after independence to suggest he favored their cause. The European Commission president said he had only reiterated the so-called  Prodi doctrine , dating back 13 years. This is that a breakaway state would have to leave the Union and could then only be let back in if it has gained independence in accordance with constitutional law in the member state it left. Juncker also said that rich  regional traditions  should not become  elements of separatism and fragmentation of Europe . Commission officials reject suggestions they are giving Madrid a soft ride on complaints that Spain s constitution is stifling Catalan rights while the EU is now threatening to suspend Poland over the Warsaw government s plans for constitutional change. The Commission feels constrained by EU law not to take sides in Spain. But the European Parliament, led by the European People s Party (EPP), the center-right bloc to which Rajoy, Merkel and Juncker belong, is more vocal in backing Madrid. Antonio Tajani, the legislature s Italian conservative president, bluntly told a Catalan newspaper last week that to ignore Spain s constitution was to undermine the legal basis for the whole European Union:  Those are the rules,  he said.  This is not a tough line, this is a democratic and a legal line,  the EPP s Spanish Secretary-General Antonio Lopez-Isturiz said, noting that Catalans voted for the constitution in 1978.  The EU legislature s center-left group also backs the view that Spain s constitution must be respected above all.  Nonetheless, that legal approach is causing disquiet.  There are growing concerns in Europe about the way Rajoy is handling this,  said Steven Blockmans of the Centre for European Policy Studies.  They re trying to keep him on board, but with his tactics he s fuelling the independence debate.  Blockmans suggested Spain look at how his native Belgium had amended its constitution to devolve power. The leader of Belgium s powerful Dutch-speaking Flanders region issued a call on Thursday for  international mediation  in the Catalan crisis. Andrew Duff, a British liberal former EU lawmaker now at the European Policy Centre think-tank, said EU leaders should be engaging quietly with Rajoy  to try to soften the sense of crisis . If they are already, they are not making it public.  Rajoy hasn t played this very cleverly,  Duff said.  From Brussels  perspective, this kind of domestic constitutional crisis cries out for political sophistication of a very high level, which we haven t yet seen, either from the Catalans or from Madrid. It puts the Commission in a very awkward position.  A senior EU official said Juncker was likely to go on exercising his right to stay largely silent on the issue for now:  It s like in those police shows,  he said.  Anything you say can be held against you. It s better not to say anything.

Summary: कैटेलोनिया से डरकर, यूरोपीय संघ ने मैड्रिड के पीछे रैली की, लेकिन युद्धरत


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former FBI Director James Comey’s long-anticipated congressional testimony set off a social media storm on Thursday with millions of people jumping into the fray but there was one notable absence - the tweeter in chief himself. President Donald Trump’s ordinarily red-hot Twitter handle, @realDonaldTrump, was dormant during the three-hour hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee, although another Trump helped carry the mantle. Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, live tweeted throughout Comey’s testimony, taking the ex-FBI director to task for his version of what the president told him. Twitter had a field day with other moments of Comey’s testimony, including his revelation that he broke a date with his wife in order to have dinner with Trump and his use of the exclamation “Lordy.” Comey’s disclosure that the person who leaked his memos of meeting with Trump was a Columbia Law School professor led to a stampede on the school’s website, causing it to crash. Here are some highlights of what excited Twitter during the testimony. Trump Jr. took issue with Comey’s comments about whether the president was ordering him to drop the investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. “Knowing my father for 39 years when he ‘orders or tells’ you to do something there is no ambiguity, you will know exactly what he means,” he tweeted.  (here) “Hoping and telling are two very different things, you would think that a guy like Comey would know that,” he concluded, adding the hashtag “#givemeabreak”. (here) With his father’s Twitter handle silent, @DonaldJTrumpJr became the 10th most mentioned Twitter handle in the Comey conversation, according to social media analysis firm Brandwatch. One remark in particular from Comey got the Twittersphere buzzing. “Lordy, I hope there are tapes,” he told the committee regarding whether Trump had recorded their conversation. “Lordy” quickly became the focus of numerous memes, animated graphics and calls for T-shirts. Even the Merriam-Webster dictionary got into the act, tweeting out the definition of “Lordy” as a word used to “express surprise or strength of feeling.”  (here) Twitter said Comey’s “Lordy” remark was among the top three most tweeted moments during the testimony. Social media also poked fun when Comey revealed a presidential intrusion into his domestic life. “I had to call my wife and break a date with her,” Comey said. “I was supposed to take her out to dinner that night.”  “Moral of the #Comey testimony: Don’t cancel a date with your wife,” said CBS-Chicago reporter Jeremy Ross on Twitter. (here) Columbia Law School’s website became overburdened after Comey said he had asked a good friend who is a professor there to leak memos from his meeting with Trump to the media. Daniel Richman later confirmed to Reuters he was the one to whom Comey referred in his testimony. Shortly after the mention by Comey, the school tweeted: “Columbia Law’s site is down at the moment. We are working on a solution. Stay tuned.” (here)

Summary: लॉर्डी! एफ. बी. आई. के पूर्व प्रमुख ने ट्विटर पर हंगामा मचा दिया लेकिन @realDonaldTrump चुप है


CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide attack that took place on Monday targeting the Nahrawan area southeast of Baghdad, the group s Amaq news agency said. The Sunni militant group said it had killed 35 members of Shi ite paramilitaries known as Popular Mobilisation Forces but the Interior Ministry had earlier said the attack targeted civilians and did not provide official casualty figures.

Summary: इस्लामिक स्टेट ने बगदाद के दक्षिण-पूर्व में हमले की जिम्मेदारी लीः अमाक


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Ethics Committee said on Thursday it has opened a preliminary inquiry into alleged misconduct by Senator Al Franken, who has been accused of sexual misconduct and inappropriately touching women. Franken, a Democrat, said this week he was embarrassed and ashamed by his behavior but would not resign.  He said he would cooperate with an Ethics Committee investigation.   “While the committee does not generally comment on pending matters or matters that may come before it, in this instance, the committee is publicly confirming that it has opened a preliminary inquiry into Senator Franken’s alleged misconduct,” the committee said in a statement. Asked for comment, a spokesperson for Franken said the senator was committed to cooperating fully with the ethics investigation. Franken is one of several prominent American men in politics, media and entertainment to be accused in recent months of sexual harassment and misconduct. He was accused of sexual misconduct by Leeann Tweeden, a radio broadcaster who in 2006 appeared with Franken in an entertainment tour for U.S. troops serving in war zones. Another woman, Lindsay Menz, accused Franken of touching her buttocks when they were being photographed at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010. Prior to winning his Senate seat in 2008, Franken was a well-known comedian, television writer and author.

Summary: सीनेट आचार समिति ने सीनेटर फ्रैंकन की जांच शुरू की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The death of Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej on Thursday  adds a new layer of uncertainty to U.S. President Barack Obama’s faltering “pivot” to Asia less than a month before the Nov. 8 U.S. presidential elections. The king was important in cementing the long-standing alliance between the United States and Thailand after World War Two, in a reign that spanned the Vietnam War and development of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which Washington still considers vital to maintaining its influence in the region. King Bhumibol’s death coincides with faltering momentum in   Obama’s signature policy of rebalancing the U.S. diplomatic and security focus to the Asia-Pacific region in the face of China’s rapid rise. The main economic pillar of the rebalance, the 12-nation  Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, is languishing in the U.S. Congress with no guarantee that Obama will be able to push it through before leaving the presidency to Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, both of whom say they oppose the deal. Clinton, as secretary of state under fellow-Democrat Obama from 2009-13, was one of the architects of the policy but Republican Trump has questioned the extent to which he would maintain the U.S. security commitment to East Asia. Obama’s efforts to boost security ties with Southeast Asia have come in response to China’s pursuit of territorial claims in the South China Sea, a vital strategic waterway. However, a torrent of anti-American rhetoric from new Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has cast doubt on the U.S.  military relationship with Manila just months after Washington reached an agreement on rotating access to bases in the country. Other Southeast Asian countries, such as Indonesia and Malaysia, are focused on internal political issues and are avoiding playing any leadership role in ASEAN, while even traditionally reliable regional ally Australia is treading carefully to avoid jeopardizing its economic ties with Beijing. Thailand was already occupying a back seat in regional affairs following a 2014 military coup seen as a means to maintain stability during the king’s long illness. Thailand is expected to turn further inward during a prolonged mourning period and potentially politically fragile royal succession. King Bhumibol’s son, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, who is expected to become Thailand’s new king, lacks the strong connection to the United States of his father, who was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Obama offered condolences to the Thai people and the King’s family, calling King Bhumibol “a tireless champion of his country’s development.” Obama’s former top Asia adviser, Evan Medeiros, now at the Eurasia Group, said the mourning process would likely slow a return to democratic government and Prince Vajiralongkorn was a source of “profound uncertainty.”  “He’s such an unknown, unpredictable figure,” he said. U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the United States and Thailand had been close friends for two centuries. “Our friendship and our partnership have weathered many challenges … we expect it to continue to grow stronger,” Toner told a regular news briefing. While the United States backed a return to democracy, Toner said it would be “premature... to lay our expectations for the near term” as Thailand mourned. While Washington condemned the 2014 coup, it has kept  security ties with Bangkok, particularly through annual military exercises called Cobra Gold. “The fact that we have been able to remain closely tethered and stayed largely on track with Cobra Gold and other cooperative efforts, notwithstanding the military takeover ... is testament to the strong roots we have put down and the work that we’re doing,” the senior U.S. diplomat for Asia, Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel, said on Wednesday. Murray Hiebert of Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, said much had changed since Obama announced his pivot policy in 2011. “The king’s death adds to uncertainty in Southeast Asia, a region in considerable flux already. This makes the U.S. rebalance to Asia more difficult because the situation in so many countries is that of ‘wait and see.’  “When the pivot started, you had Thailand engaged, a new leader in Malaysia who wanted to engage, you had Aquino coming in the Philippines and very forward-leaning internationally and very open to the U.S.; you had an internationalist president in Indonesia. It was a rather different dynamic.” King Bhumibol’s death means Washington finds itself having to rely even more on former foe Vietnam for any kind of strategic ballast in the region. “The Vietnamese are providing the dynamism when it comes to strategic thinking,” U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius said in Washington on Tuesday.  “Indonesia is very internally focused right now ... Thailand is very internally focused, and Malaysia has a rolling political crisis,” he continued. “I don’t know exactly what direction the Philippines is headed; Singapore has a lot of strategic thinkers but it’s a city state; I don’t think you can really count on Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar to provide the strategic engine for ASEAN.” There appears little prospect for now, however, that Vietnam would be willing to open its doors further to the U.S. military should the deal with the Philippines run into problems, given past animosities and concerns about China. “I do not expect the Vietnamese calculation to be, ‘Oh, the Philippines is doing whatever it’s doing, let’s race full steam ahead with the United States.’ No, that’s not about to happen,” Osius said.  “The Vietnamese have been very measured in the pace at which they have expanded the security relationship.” Hiebert said Asian countries remain keen on the U.S. pivot, given their worries about China, but the pace was likely to flag further, presenting a tougher task to revive the initiative once Obama leaves power. “I wouldn’t declare the pivot dead ... I think there’s still quite a bit of interest in the U.S., but some of the sort of dynamism that we saw earlier about building the region is a little bit diminished right now,” he said.

Summary: थाई राजा की मृत्यु ने ओबामा की लड़खड़ाती एशिया धुरी के बारे में अनिश्चितता को बढ़ा दिया


BERLIN (Reuters) - Describing Brexit as  nonsense , German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble warned on Monday against allowing Europe to divide further along east-west lines, saying this would be a  catastrophe . Speaking at his 75th birthday party in the southwestern town of Offenburg, Schaeuble paused after mentioning Britain in the context of Europe. Laughter broke out among the guests and, in an aside, he said Britons were probably unhappy now with their vote last year to leave the EU.  If we were now to get new divisions between east and west after the British   it was nonsense to take such a decision and they are probably no longer happy with it   that would be a catastrophe,  he said.  We must be clear: we will only have a good future, history shows this, if we hold Europe together, and that means all of Europe,  he added. Schaeuble appeared to be referring to a deepening divide between eastern countries like Poland and Hungary and their EU partners to the west over democratic values, acceptance of refugees and further European integration. French President Emmanuel Macron has been especially critical of governments in Warsaw and Budapest, which the EU says are distancing themselves from core European values like free speech and rule of law. Germany, in part because of its history with Poland, has been less openly critical of its eastern neighbors, but it has tacitly supported Macron and steps by the EU to ratchet up pressure on governments in the east. Many Poles, especially rightwing supporters of the ruling Law and Justice party, are animated by a hatred of Germans dating to World War Two, though relations have warmed up since the end of communism when Germany backed Polish EU membership. Last week, European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker stressed his wish to heal divisions between eastern and western states. Juncker also attended Schaeuble s party on Monday and praised him for working to unify the EU.  Schaeuble said those EU states that want to press ahead with closer integration must do so.  But we must also be careful that not only the big states decide. I learned that from Kohl,  he said with reference to late Chancellor Helmut Kohl, with whom he worked on the reunification of Germany.

Summary: ब्रेक्सिट के बाद यूरोप में विभाजन के खिलाफ शेयबल ने चेतावनी दी 'मूर्खतापूर्ण'


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has asked two Cabinet departments for the names of government officials working on programs to counter violent extremism, according to a document seen by Reuters and U.S. officials. The requests to the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security involve a set of programs that seek to prevent violence by extremists of any stripe, including recruitment by militant Islamist groups within the United States and abroad. Reuters could not determine why the Trump team asked for these names. The Trump team did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump has frequently criticized President Barack Obama for not doing enough to battle Islamic militants and for his refusal to use the term “radical Islam” to describe Islamic State and other militant groups. Some career officials said they feared the incoming administration may be looking to undo the work that the Obama administration has done on countering violent extremism. “They’re picking a few issues to ask for people’s names,” said one government official who spoke on condition of anonymity, reflecting wider fears that those who worked on such issues could be marginalized by the new administration. Earlier this month, Trump representatives had asked the U.S. Energy Department for the names of staffers who worked on climate change policy. The White House expressed concern that it may have been an attempt to target civil servants, including scientists and lawyers. The Energy Department balked at providing names and a Trump spokesman disavowed the request. The State Department declined to comment on specific requests from the Trump transition team. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.     In a Dec. 9 email seen by Reuters, Trump representatives at the State Department sought a list of positions in the counterterrorism bureau’s office of countering violent extremism. “Please indicate names of people serving in those roles and status (political or career),” the email said, referring to political appointees and career civil servants. Three U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a similar request had been made to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In that case, the Trump transition team asked for the names of members of an interagency task force on countering violent extremism that the Obama administration established in January, the officials said. According to a Jan. 8 DHS statement, the task force falls under the leadership of DHS and the Department of Justice, and includes officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Counterterrorism Center and other government agencies. Several of Trump’s top national security advisers have cast the fight against Islamic militants as an existential conflict between civilizations, according to a review of their writings and public remarks. Retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, Trump’s pick for White House national security adviser, said in a post on Twitter earlier this year, “Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL.” Some counterterrorism experts say that such rhetoric can be used by militant groups to recruit, and will alienate Muslim communities whose help is needed to prevent violence. A U.S. official said their guess was that the Trump team will likely rebrand Obama’s generic fight against violent extremism into a specific battle against Islamic radicalization State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Thursday that the department would be cautious about providing names of employees associated with specific issues, but left open the possibility of providing names on an organizational basis. It was unclear whether the State Department shared the names of the officials in the office on countering violent extremism or whether Homeland Security officials provided names. “Without getting into the specifics of information either requested by the transition team or provided by the Department, I can tell you that ... I know of no requests that have been denied,” a senior State Department official said.

Summary: एक्सक्लूसिवः ट्रम्प टीम ने हिंसक चरमपंथ का मुकाबला करने के लिए काम करने वाले अधिकारियों के नाम मांगे


GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Militants attacked two military bases in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday, killing two U.N. peacekeepers and injuring several others, the U.N. mission and the army said. The mission, known as MONUSCO, said it had deployed attack helicopters in response to the raid, and the army said it was battling militants along the main road leading from North Kivu province s Beni territory to the Uganda border. The fighting, which began this weekend, is a fresh outbreak of violence for a region plagued by ethnic tensions and massacres that killed more than 800 people between 2014-2016. Gunmen believed to belong to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan Islamist group active near the border, attacked a U.N. peacekeeping base in the village of Mamundioma, over 30 km (20 miles) northeast of Beni, MONUSCO said in a statement.  This region has seen more than enough violence already,  mission chief Maman Sidikou said.  I reiterate to all these armed groups who continue to threaten and kill civilians, MONUSCO will respond, and it will respond strongly.  Army spokesman Mak Hazukay said the attacks were carried out simultaneously and hit a U.N. base housing Tanzanian peacekeepers who formed part of an intervention brigade which has a mandate to conduct offensive operations against militants. Hazukay said later that U.N. helicopters were shelling rebel positions inside Virunga National Park as Congolese troops fought to recover a stretch of road from the rebels.  ADF is believed by authorities to have ambushed and killed many civilians nearby this weekend after a lull in attacks against civilians near Beni this year.  Omar Kavota, who leads an organization that monitors violence in North Kivu, said ADF fighters killed at least three civilians on Saturday by slitting their throats and took another 19 hostages. MONUSCO said that according to initial reports, up to 20 civilians were killed. Congolese authorities have blamed the ADF for nearly all the massacres between 2014-2016. However, independent and U.N. experts say several armed groups as well as national army commanders have been involved.

Summary: उग्रवादियों ने पूर्वी कांगो के ठिकानों पर हमला किया, दो संयुक्त राष्ट्र शांति सैनिकों की मौत


VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria s anti-immigration Freedom Party (FPO), seeking to soften its image before Austrians go to the polls next month, offered only lukewarm praise on Monday for a record election showing by its sister party in neighboring Germany. The Alternative for Germany (AfD), which says immigration threatens German culture, shocked the establishment by winning 12.6 percent in Sunday s national ballot, becoming the first far-right party to enter parliament in more than half a century. Its close Austrian equivalent, the FPO, has lost its lead in opinion polls to the conservative People s Party, led by 31-year-old Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, who has made a hard line on immigration one of his hallmarks.  But tensions between the conservatives and their coalition partners, the Social Democrats, before Austria s Oct. 15 parliamentary election mean the FPO has arguably its best chance of entering national government since its leader Heinz-Christian Strache took over the reins 12 years ago. Strache said on Monday the AfD s showing was  a huge success , but added a note of caution.   We agree (with the AfD) when it comes to analyzing the problems but not necessarily regarding the solutions. There are differences indeed,  Strache told broadcaster ORF, without elaborating.  The AfD is a very young party which is, if you like, still in its infancy.  The Freedom Party was founded in the 1950s by former Nazis, an aspect of its history the party argues is no longer relevant to its policies. It has positioned itself as staunchly anti-Islam but now courts Jewish voters, with apparently limited success. Strache has called anti-Semitism  a crime against humanity , but Austria s main Jewish group says the FPO is xenophobic and divisive. While the AfD also denies being a Nazi party, one of its leading candidates, Alexander Gauland, said this month that Germans should take pride in what their soldiers achieved during World Wars One and Two.    They (the FPO) are clearly setting themselves apart from Gauland s rhetoric,  political analyst Peter Hajek said of Strache s remarks. The AfD leadership cracked within hours of its electoral success on Monday when Frauke Petry, the highest-profile figure in its more moderate wing, stormed out of its victory news conference and abandoned its parliamentary group.

Summary: ऑस्ट्रिया के धुर दक्षिणपंथियों ने जर्मन सिस्टर पार्टी की सफलता के लिए दो जयकार दिए


TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - Suicide bombers struck a state-run power station north of Baghdad early on Saturday, killing seven people and forcing the facility to shut down in an attack claimed by Islamic State, police and army sources said. At least three gunmen wearing explosive vests attacked the power station around 3 a.m. local time, near the northern city of Samarra, about 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad. They used grenades to enter the facility.  I was on my night shift and suddenly heard shooting and blasts. A few minutes later I saw one attacker wearing a military uniform and throwing grenades through the windows,  said Raied Khalid, a worker who was injured by shrapnel. Security sources said the three gunmen briefly took control of the station, but police managed to regain control after three hours. Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement.   Four policemen and three workers were killed in the assault, in which 13 were wounded, police and medical sources from a nearby hospital said. One of the attackers, who was cornered by security forces, detonated his suicide vest near one the power generators, causing a fire.  The two other gunmen were killed, security sources said, either by blowing themselves up or in clashes with the security forces. Operations at the facility were expected to be suspended briefly, while repairs were under way, electricity officials said.

Summary: बगदाद के उत्तर में पावर स्टेशन पर आत्मघाती हमलावरों का हमला, सात की मौत


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign a measure as early as Tuesday aimed at rescinding a major Obama administration water regulation and direct an end to the government’s defense of the rule, a Trump official briefed on the plan said late Friday. Trump is expected to direct the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, which expands the number of waterways that are federally protected under the Clean Water Act. The rule was finalized by the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in May 2015, and was blocked by a federal appeals court pending further court challenges. The rule has faced intense opposition from Republicans in Congress, farmers and energy companies. Critics contend the rule vastly expands the federal government’s authority and could apply to ditches and small isolated bodies of water. The EPA under President Barack Obama said the rule protects waters that are next to rivers and lakes and their tributaries “because science shows that they impact downstream waters.” A White House spokeswoman did not comment on Friday. Trump is also expected to issue other environmental executive orders as early as next week, including a reversal of the Obama administration’s clean power plant rule and instructing the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management to lift a ban on new coal mining leases on federal lands. EPA administrator Scott Pruitt told The Wall Street Journal last week that he planned to quickly withdraw the clean power plant and WOTUS rules. “There’s a very simple reason why this needs to happen: Because the courts have seriously called into question the legality of those rules,” Pruitt told the newspaper. Withdrawing the water and power plant rules will take time to meet regulatory requirements and will likely face court challenges from some Democratic state attorneys general and environmental groups. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to resolve a dispute over what court should handle challenges of the water regulation. The justices said they would hear an appeal by the National Association of Manufacturers of a Cincinnati-based federal appeals court’s ruling that gave itself jurisdiction to review challenges to the Clean Water Act regulation. The industry group wants challenges to the rule to be heard in district courts. Dozens of agricultural groups, states and municipalities had sued to block the rule. The challengers contend the agencies’ change improperly expanded federal regulatory power.

Summary: ओबामा के जल विनियमन नियम को वापस लेने का आदेश देंगे ट्रंपः अधिकारी


BEIJING (Reuters) - China said on Wednesday it will continue to talk to Myanmar about a controversial stalled dam project, after Myanmar s new energy minister cast doubt over the scheme. Valued at $3.6 billion, the Myitsone dam project in the north of the former Burma has been a sticking point between the two countries since the previous military-backed government suspended work in 2011. Reuters reported in April that officials in China and Myanmar were discussing alternative options that would allow Myanmar to scrap the massive project amid environmental concerns. Big hydropower dams are not a priority in Myanmar s strategy to tackle chronic power shortages, Energy Minister Win Khaing told Reuters on Tuesday. Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China s position on the Myitsone dam had not changed, which was that China had always upheld deepening cooperation with Myanmar on a mutually beneficial basis.  The Myitsone hydropower station is a commercial cooperation project both sides have already agreed upon, and has already been through a complete approval process,  Hua told a daily news briefing.   We will continue to maintain communication with the Myanmar side and proactively and appropriately handle the problems or difficulties which arise during cooperation on the project, to allow relevant cooperation to continue to develop healthily and stably,  she added. The proposed dam, on the upper reaches of the Ayeyarwady river in Kachin state, would have sent most of its power across the border to China s Yunnan province, which now has an oversupply of electricity as it switches to less energy-intensive industries amid an economic slowdown. A government panel set up in August 2016 was still reviewing the dam, Myanmar s energy minister said, adding the government was in dialogue with the Chinese operator, State Power Investment Corp subsidiary Yunnan International Power Investment.

Summary: चीन ने कहा, रुकी हुई बांध योजना पर म्यांमार से बात करता रहूंगा


LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Outside political money is pouring into a race in Nevada to replace U.S. Democratic Senator Harry Reid, who is retiring and who told Reuters that the main reason his favored successor isn’t winning easily is cash from beyond the state’s borders. In a race that underscores the rise of outside money in U.S. campaign finance, as well as a key demographic challenge facing the Republican Party, Catherine Cortez Masto and Joe Heck are in a dead heat to replace the Senate’s No. 1 Democrat. Democrat Cortez Masto, 52, was a two-term Nevada attorney general. If she wins, she will be the first Latina elected to the U.S Senate. Republican Heck, 54, is a three-term House of Representatives member, physician and U.S. Army Reserve general. Polls show a tight race, with the two tied at 37 percent of likely voters in a mid-August Suffolk University survey.  The seat they are contesting is the only one in the Senate this year that Republicans have a truly good chance of flipping to their control from the Democrats. Doing so would shield Republicans’ Senate majority, which is under threat elsewhere. Saying in an interview that Heck’s campaign is fueled by outside money, Reid, a former boxer, lashed out at the Koch brothers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove. “The Chamber of Commerce is nothing more than a front anymore for the Koch brothers. Karl Rove, he doesn’t raise that money. He just goes to the Koch brothers. They’re all fronts for the Koch brothers,” said Reid, 76. “Catherine’s going to win. And if the Koch brothers weren’t involved, she’d win by 15 points,” Reid said. Charles and David Koch are wealthy industrialists who spend millions of dollars supporting libertarian-leaning candidates, mostly Republicans, through a network of groups, some operating under a law that lets them keep their donors’ identities secret. Reid, who now walks with a cane and often appears in dark sunglasses, has long warred with the Kochs. “We’ve certainly seen our fair share of criticism from Senator Reid. But we want to talk about the issues and he moves toward the politics of personal attacks,” said James Davis, spokesman for the Koch-aligned Freedom Partners Action Fund. The Supreme Court, in its 2010 Citizens United decision, opened the door to a tidal wave of political spending by corporations and labor unions on political causes and candidates, reshaping U.S. campaign finance.  More than 20 political groups, including two Koch-aligned organizations and the Reid-aligned Senate Majority PAC, have poured well over $20 million into the Nevada Senate race so far, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign spending. Overall, the spending favors Heck over Cortez Masto by nearly 2-to-1. Freedom Partners and another Koch-aligned group, Concerned Veterans for America, have spent nearly $6 million, mostly on ads portraying Cortez Masto as captive to special interests.  Rove, formerly an adviser to Republican President George W. Bush, is now a Republican activist. He co-founded Republican Super PAC American Crossroads. Spokesman Ian Prior called Reid’s accusations about Rove and the Kochs “funny.” Prior said, “Look, if Harry Reid is looking for a bogeyman to star in his dark fantasy movie, he should just cast himself.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the largest lobbying group for corporations in Washington and closely aligned with the Republican Party. On Reid’s allegations that it is a front for the Kochs, Chamber spokesman Blair Latoff Holmes said, “This is not true, but it’s certainly not the first time Senator Reid has made unsubstantiated allegations.” Nevada’s biggest city is Las Vegas and nearly three-quarters of the state’s population lives in or near the casino capital. Nevada reflects the United States’ growing racial diversity. In 1970, Nevadans were 87 percent white and 6 percent Latino; by 2010, that ratio was 54 percent white and 26 percent Latino. Heck, who is white, has managed to get elected to Congress from an ethnically diverse congressional district split evenly between Republicans and Democrats. But Democrats have a 72,000-vote registration advantage over Republicans in Nevada and Latinos helped elect President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has angered many Latinos with his vow to build a wall on the Mexican border and to deport undocumented aliens. Heck has endorsed Trump. While Trump’s popularity has crumbled in some other states, he has stayed within 2 percentage points of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in Nevada. Cortez Masto has been keen to link Heck to Trump. She said in an interview that Heck has followed Trump’s example of “mud-slinging, dirty campaigning.” Heck spokesman Brian Baluta said Cortez Masto has distorted  Heck’s record. “She talks about Joe more than she talks about herself and it’s always in the most vile and negative way,” Baluta said.

Summary: अमेरिकी सीनेट के रीड, अंतिम दौर में, नेवादा उत्तराधिकार लड़ाई में पैसे के बाहर जैब्स


GENEVA (Reuters) - More than 2 million people fleeing wars or persecution have joined the ranks of the world s refugees this year, but often face more restrictive asylum policies, including in Europe and the United States, the top U.N. refugee official said on Monday. They include 650,000 from South Sudan and 500,000 Muslim Rohingya who have escaped violence in Myanmar for Bangladesh over the past five weeks, many of the latter stateless, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said.  So far in 2017, more than 2 million people have fled their countries as refugees,  Grandi told the UNHCR Executive Committee which opened a week-long meeting in Geneva.  They often arrive sick, traumatized and hungry, in remote border locations, in communities affected by poverty and underdevelopment. Many have urgent protection needs   children separated from their families, men, women, girls and boys exposed to sexual and gender-based violence,  he said. At the end of last year, 17.2 million refugees fell under UNHCR s mandate, but some of them have returned and others have been resettled, and there is no updated total. An additional 5 million Palestinian refugees are cared for by UNRWA. Grandi voiced concern that the refugee issue has been increasingly instrumentalized in local and national policies.  International cooperation has been replaced by fragmented responses, resulting in restrictive immigration and asylum measures, even in countries with their own histories of exile and migration, and a proud tradition of welcome,  he said. Border closures, measures to limit entry, restrictive asylum procedures, indefinite detention in appalling conditions, and offshore processing had regrettably increased, he said, decrying  rising xenophobia .  We have observed the protection environment deteriorate in many parts of the world, including in industrialized countries - in Europe, in the United States, in Australia,  Grandi said. Nearly 1.2 million refugees need resettling globally to third countries, he said.   It is therefore an issue of major concern that fewer than 100,000 resettlement places are expected to be available this year   a drop of 43 per cent from 2016,  he said. Traditionally, the United States has taken the largest number of refugees deemed most vulnerable under UNHCR s resettlement program involving about 10 Western receiving countries. Syrian and Congolese refugees led those resettled last year. The Trump administration last week proposed admitting a maximum of 45,000 refugees next year, the lowest cap in decades, which officials said was necessary to ensure U.S. security, although Democrats and humanitarian groups blasted the decision. The report also projected slashing funding to the refugee resettlement program by 25 percent.

Summary: शरण स्थल सिकुड़ने से दुनिया के शरणार्थियों की संख्या बढ़ी हैः संयुक्त राष्ट्र