NEW YORK (Reuters) - The drama started early at Donald Trump’s first news conference as president-elect. Trump, who spent much of his U.S. presidential campaign bashing the news media for what he called unfair coverage, kicked off with uncharacteristic praise for the New York Times and other media organizations.  The reason? The Times, and others, had held back on reporting salacious and unsubstantiated allegations that suggested Trump could be blackmailed by Russia. The praise did not last long. For those organizations that he said had crossed the line - BuzzFeed, which released an unsubstantiated memo about the allegations, and CNN, which was one of the first to report on the broader story - he delivered a  scathing critique.  “You are fake news,” Trump said to CNN correspondent Jim Acosta, calling his organization terrible and declining to take a question from him despite Acosta’s several attempts to shout one. That dust-up was one of many theatrical moments at the first news conference in six months for Trump, a businessman and reality TV star-turned-politician who enters the White House on Jan. 20. There was turbulence even before Trump took the lectern in the lobby of his Manhattan tower. The president-elect’s team had set out about 80 chairs, not nearly enough for the roughly 250 journalists who were present.  Trump’s team created some suspense when beforehand four aides walked to the front of the room and placed thick stacks of paper on a table. Trump would get to that later. When the president-elect arrived, a group of staff and supporters standing in a space near the elevators in the Trump Tower lobby applauded. That group would act as Trump’s personal cheering section during the news conference, clapping and whooping whenever he made points they liked. The press does not normally cheer the president at such events. At the start, Trump stood off to the side with his three oldest children while he had two introductions - one from his incoming press secretary, Sean Spicer, and one from his running mate, Mike Pence. Both slammed media organizations for reporting the unsubstantiated allegations. CNN later released a statement about its reporting. “CNN’s decision to publish carefully sourced reporting about the operations of our government is vastly different from BuzzFeed’s decision to publish unsubstantiated memos,” it said. “The Trump team knows this.” BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti in a memo to employees defended the decision to publish the dossier, referring to it as a “newsworthy document.” Trump stood in front of a row of American flags, using a presidential and patriotic display as a backdrop. As the questioning grew more intense, he brought up an attorney, who gave a long and detailed pitch on live television about how the business owner would attempt to avoid conflicts of interest.  The lawyer’s presentation acted as a brief intermission to the frenzied pace. Once Trump was ready to end, he pointed to the stacks of paper by the lectern. He said he was unsure it had been properly explained that they represented some of the paperwork he had filled out to begin placing his business in the hands of his sons so long as he is president, a maximum of eight years. If after eight years of running his business he found the sons had not done a good job, he would tell them, “You’re fired,” Trump said, using a catchphrase from “The Apprentice,” the reality TV show he hosted.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने अशांतिपूर्ण समाचार सम्मेलन की अध्यक्षता करते हुए कहा, "आप फेक न्यूज हैं!"


TALLINN (Reuters) - Estonia has detained a man suspected of being a Russian agent operating against the Estonian state, the prosecutor s office said on Tuesday. The man was stopped at the weekend as he prepared to leave Estonia for Russia from the north-east border town of Narva. He was formally charged on Monday in a Tallinn court.    A person, who is a Russian citizen, is suspected of acting as an FSB agent in the preparation of a computer crime against the Republic of Estonia,  the prosecutors office said.  The target of his action against Estonia was the Estonian state authorities.  No further details were given. Russia s Federal Security Service, or FSB, is a successor to the KGB, the Soviet Union s security service. Neither the FSB nor the Russian Foreign Ministry immediately replied to requests for comment.  Estonia, occupied by the Soviet Union until 1991 but now a member of NATO and the European Union, has a strained relationship with its powerful neighbor.   In May this year, Estonia expelled two Russian diplomats posted at Moscow s consulate in Narva for contacts with local officials that were considered inappropriate for diplomats.   Earlier in the same month, an Estonian court handed out a five-year prison sentence to a Russian national for spying for the foreign intelligence unit of the Russian armed forces.

Summary: एस्टोनिया ने संदिग्ध रूसी एफ. एस. बी. एजेंट को गिरफ्तार किया


SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Sunday he was confident a refugee resettlement deal with the United States would go ahead, despite White House comments which seemed to cast doubt about its future under a Trump Administration.  White House deputy spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters the deal to resettle in the U.S refugees currently held at Australian-funded offshore processing centers was reached with President Barack Obama, and it was the prerogative of each president to set policies. “We have one President at a time, Schultz said on Friday. “The President-elect, Donald Trump, will set the policies once he takes the oath of office.” Turnbull downplayed the comments when questioned by reporters in Sydney on Sunday. “It’s a very good arrangement and we are confident that we’ll continue through the change of administration,” the Australian Associated Press quoted him saying. Australia announced last month the Obama administration had agreed to take a substantial number of the 1,200 refugees held on Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. The resettlement deal with United States came after Turnbull agreed in September to take part in a U.S.-led program to resettle refugees from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador as part of Australia’s annual intake of 18,750 asylum seekers. Whether Donald Trump, who has advocated a ban on people from nations that had been “compromised by terrorism”, honors the agreement is uncertain.  U.S. Homeland Security officials were scheduled to begin assessing asylum seekers on Nauru this week. Many of asylum seekers at the camps are Muslims who have fled conflicts in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ian Rintoul, from the Refugee Action Coalition, said it was very clear the deal Australia struck with the U.S. was not airtight. “The announcement was very hastily put together because they weren’t expecting Trump to win and then it came very clear the whole deal could roll over,” he said. (This version of the story has been refiled to correct typographical errors in first and third paragraphs)

Summary: ऑस्ट्रेलियाई प्रधानमंत्री का कहना है कि उन्हें विश्वास है कि ट्रम्प अमेरिकी शरणार्थी समझौते से बाहर नहीं निकलेंगे


(Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump trails Democrat Hillary Clinton by 10 points in the 2016 presidential campaign, according to a poll released on Tuesday, showing little change from a week ago and suggesting his comments about a Mexican-American judge had yet to affect his standing in the race. The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll came after several days in which Trump faced sharp criticism over his insistence that a federal judge who was born in Indiana to Mexican parents was biased in a case involving the celebrity billionaire. But the fallout from Trump’s comments appeared to have done little to help Clinton build her lead over the presumptive Republican nominee.   The online survey showed that 44.3 percent of likely voters said they would vote for Clinton, compared with 34.7 percent who would support Trump. A further 20.9 percent said they would not vote for either candidate. The results were little changed from last week’s survey. The poll was conducted from Friday to Tuesday, starting shortly after Trump’s first comments about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is overseeing fraud lawsuits against Trump University, the New York businessman’s defunct real estate school. Trump has suggested that Curiel’s heritage is influencing the judge’s opinion about the case because of Trump’s campaign rhetoric about illegal immigration. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan called Trump’s comments textbook racism on Tuesday, while Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Trump should stop attacking minority groups. Bowing to pressure from fellow Republicans, Trump said on Tuesday he would no longer talk about the judge, adding that his previous remarks about Curiel had been misconstrued. Other events, including news that Clinton had secured enough  delegates and superdelegates to become the first female presidential candidate of a major U.S. political party, occurred toward the end of the poll. The poll included 1,261 respondents and had a credibility interval of 3.2 percentage points. See the poll results in Reuters' Polling Explorer. [polling.reuters.com/#poll/TM651Y15_13/filters/LIKELY:1/dates/20160401-20160607/type/day] For most of the year, Clinton has maintained an edge over Trump in the Reuters/Ipsos poll of likely voters. That edge briefly disappeared in May after Trump’s remaining rivals for the Republican nomination dropped out and party leaders started to line up behind his campaign.  Trump’s level of support has since eroded as he sparred with his party’s leadership and continued to be dogged with questions about Trump University. The Reuters/Ipsos poll differs from others that are often days removed from when their data was collected. As a result, the Reuters/Ipsos poll often detects shifts in opinion well ahead of other surveys.  <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Polling Explorer (Clinton versus Trump) polling.reuters.com/#poll/TM651Y15_13/filters/LIKELY:1/dates/20160401-20160607/type/day ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस मैचअप में क्लिंटन ने ट्रम्प को 10 अंकों से आगे कियाः सर्वेक्षण


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors in Alexandria, Virginia, have expanded a long-running grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks to include the leak of Central Intelligence Agency documents to the website, a source familiar with the inquiry said. The source, who is familiar with the investigation and requested anonymity to discuss sensitive information, said the probe is focused on who leaked descriptions and technical information on techniques and tools the CIA has used to eavesdrop on intelligence targets to the website. U.S. agencies have made only vague public comments on the latest WikiLeaks disclosures, but security and law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation said in the wake of the leaks that it is focused on whether an intelligence contractor was responsible. At this point, they said, investigators do not think Russia or another foreign government was involved. U.S. officials have confirmed that Alexandria-based prosecutors have been conducting a federal grand jury investigation into WikiLeaks and its sources. Some court documents on elements of the inquiry have been made public.  The U.S. Justice Department declined to comment, as did a spokesman for the CIA, which has not publicly confirmed the authenticity of the material made public by WikiLeaks. The website said the material it published comprised thousands of pages of internal CIA discussions about hacking techniques and the use of popular products such as Apple Inc iPhones; Google Inc Android devices; and Samsung Electronics television sets to spy on people. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said his website would provide technology companies with access to the CIA hacking tools it acquired, enabling the companies to patch software vulnerabilities.

Summary: विकिलीक्स को सी. आई. ए. सामग्री के रिसाव की जांच कर रहे अमेरिकी अभियोजकः सूत्र


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - A subtle diplomat like Talleyrand, Donald Trump is not. The U.S. president, in his first foray at the U.N. General Assembly, derided North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a “rocket man ... on a suicide mission” and delivered an unabashed defense of sovereignty at the seat of global multilateralism. But if his speech drew barbs from allies and authoritarian adversaries, it did nothing to deter his dance partners at the premier diplomatic waltz of the year, the 193-member United Nations’ annual gathering of world leaders known by the acronym UNGA. Trump held bilateral meetings with 13 leaders this week,   more than his predecessor Barack Obama had at his first UNGA(five), his last (six) or his busiest (10), according to data compiled by CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller. Trump’s less than diplomatic speech on Tuesday recalled the fiery nationalist language of his Jan. 20 inaugural address and raised eyebrows across the political spectrum by its bald assertion of the primacy of U.S. interests. “Our government’s first duty is to its people, to our citizens - to serve their needs, to ensure their safety, to preserve their rights, and to defend their values,” he said, evoking his campaign’s nationalist themes despite the departure of advocates such as Steve Bannon from the White House.  Germany’s foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, delivered a riposte in a scathing and barely veiled critique on Thursday. “National egoism, I believe, is worthless as a regulatory principle for our world,” Gabriel said. “The motto ‘our country first’ not only leads to more national confrontations and less prosperity, in the end there can only be losers.” Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s authoritarian 93-year-old leader who has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980, also sought to nudge Trump in a more peaceable direction. “Mr. Trump, please blow your trumpet, blow your trumpet in a musical way towards the values of unity, peace, cooperation, togetherness, dialogue,” he said. In his speech, Trump said if the United States were forced to defend itself or its allies, it would have “no choice but to totally destroy North Korea” and he called Iran’s government a “murderous regime” that exports “violence, bloodshed and chaos.” His directness contrasts with the subtlety of 18th- and 19th-century French diplomat Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, who is reputed to have said: “A diplomat who says ‘yes’ means ‘maybe,’ a diplomat who says ‘maybe’ means ‘no,’ and a diplomat who says ‘no’ is no diplomat.” Still, Trump’s language has seeped into the discourse of other leaders, perhaps seeking to curry his favor. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke of “draining the swamp” of Israeli occupation while South Korean President Moon Jae-in called North Korean behavior “extremely deplorable.” Trump, possibly recalling the criticism that his Democratic U.S. presidential opponent Hillary Clinton earned for calling some of his supporters a “basket of deplorables,” was pleased. “I’m very happy that you used the word ‘deplorable’,” Trump told Moon. “That’s been a very lucky word for me and many millions of people.” Both Moon and Abbas had sitdowns with Trump, and there was no shortage of others who wanted to meet him. A U.S. official said the White House accommodated as many requests for meetings as they could schedule, noting some leaders who wanted to meet Trump did not make the cut. The U.S. president has also wanted to see the leaders of China, India and Germany, but they did not come this year. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani met Trump on Thursday, and officials in Kabul said all the impetus had come from the Afghan side, with no burning interest from the White House. French President Emmanuel Macron made clear he would work with any U.S. president, whoever he was, and said he and Trump had clear disagreements on climate change and Iran policy. “I want a deep, cordial dialogue to bring him back into the international and multilateral fold on these two subjects,” Macron told reporters. “As I’m a pragmatist, I put myself in a position to work the best way possible with him.”  Asked if dealing with Trump was like managing a difficult child, the French president replied: “Not at all. I’m managing a partner of the world’s biggest power and a historical partner for our country.”

Summary: कूटनीतिक विमर्श के बावजूद, ट्रम्प का डांस कार्ड भरा हुआ है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren released on Friday a report criticizing what she called “shockingly weak” punishments for corporate crimes and condemned the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission for their lax approach. Warren, in a 13-page report titled “Rigged Justice,” outlined 20 civil and criminal cases from 2015 that she said illustrated patterns of weak and problematic enforcement of white-collar crimes, either as a result of “limited resources or lack of political will.” “The Obama administration has made repeated promises to strengthen enforcement and hold corporate criminals accountable, and the DOJ announced in September that it would place greater emphasis on charging individuals responsible for corporate crimes,” Warren wrote.  “Nonetheless ... accountability for corporate crimes is shockingly weak.” Warren, a favorite among progressives, criticized the Justice Department and federal law enforcement agencies for rarely prosecuting individuals. She called the SEC “particularly feeble” and said loose regulation at other agencies often turns legal rules into suggestions, which companies can freely ignore. Warren said federal law is unambiguous in stating that if a corporation has committed a violation, individuals working there also must be at fault, but that federal agencies rarely pursue convictions of large corporations or their executives. “If justice means a prison sentence for a teenager who steals a car but it means nothing more than a sideways glance at a CEO who quietly engineers the theft of billions of dollars, then the promise of equal justice under the law has turned into a lie,” she wrote. “The contrast between the treatment of highly paid executives and everyone else couldn’t be sharper.” The report, which Warren said will be the first in an annual series on enforcement, described low-punishment cases ranging from for-profit colleges engaging in deceptive recruitment practices to General Motors covering up years of ignition switch problems in its vehicles. Another example listed was the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster, in which Massey Energy CEO Donald Blankenship was convicted of one misdemeanor following a mine explosion that killed 29 people, despite his company’s history of safety failures.

Summary: सेन वारेन ने कॉर्पोरेट अपराध के लिए 'आश्चर्यजनक रूप से कमजोर' दंड की निंदा की


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency with less support from black and Hispanic voters than any president in at least 40 years, a Reuters review of polling data shows, highlighting deep national divisions that have fueled incidents of racial and political confrontation. Trump was elected with 8 percent of the black vote, 28 percent of the Hispanic vote and 27 percent of the Asian-American vote, according to the Reuters/Ipsos Election Day poll. Among black voters, his showing was comparable to the 9 percent captured by George W. Bush in 2000 and Ronald Reagan in 1984. But Bush and Reagan both did far better with Hispanic voters, capturing 35 percent and 34 percent, respectively, according to exit polling data compiled by the non-partisan Roper Center for Public Opinion Research.  And Trump’s performance among Asian-Americans was the worst of any winning presidential candidate since tracking of that demographic began in 1992. The racial polarization behind Trump’s victory has helped set the stage for tensions that have surfaced repeatedly since the election, in white supremacist victory celebrations, in anti-Trump protests and civil rights rallies, and in hundreds of racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic hate crimes documented by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which tracks extremist movements. The SPLC reports there were 701 incidents of “hateful harassment and intimidation” between the day following the Nov. 8 election and Nov. 16, with a spike in such incidents in the immediate wake of the vote.     Signs point to an ongoing atmosphere of confrontation.     The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a white separatist group that vilifies African-Americans, Jews and other minorities, plans an unusual Dec. 3 rally in North Carolina to celebrate Trump’s victory. Left-wing and anarchist groups have called for organized protests to disrupt the president-elect’s Jan. 20 inauguration. And a “Women’s March on Washington,” scheduled for the following day, is expected to draw hundreds of thousands to protest Trump’s presidency.     American politics became increasingly racialized through President Barack Obama’s two terms, “but there was an attempt across the board, across the parties, to keep those tensions under the surface,” says Jamila Michener, an assistant professor of government at Cornell University.  Trump’s anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rhetoric “brought those divisions to the fore; it activated people on the right, who felt empowered, and it activated people on the left, who saw it as a threat,” she added.     That dynamic was evident last week.     When Vice President-elect Mike Pence attended the Broadway musical “Hamilton” in New York on Friday, the multi-ethnic cast closed with a statement expressing fears of a Trump presidency. A far different view was on display the next day as a crowd of about 275 people cheered Trump’s election at a Washington conference of the National Policy Institute, a white nationalist group with a strong anti-Semitic beliefs.      “We willed Donald Trump into office; we made this dream our reality,” NPI President Richard Spencer said. After outlining a vision of America as “a white country designed for ourselves and our posterity,” he closed with, “Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory!” Though Trump’s election victory was driven by white voters, his performance even among that group was not as strong as some of his predecessors. Reagan and George H.W. Bush both won the presidency with higher shares of the white vote than the 55 percent that Trump achieved.      The historical voting patterns reflect decades of polarization in American politics, but the division surrounding Trump appears more profound, says Cas Mudde, an associate professor specializing in political extremism at the University of Georgia. These days, he adds, “people say they don’t want their children even to date someone from the other party.”     Indeed, voters’ opinions of those on the opposite side of the partisan divide have reached historic lows. Surveys by the Pew Research Center showed this year that majorities of both parties held “very unfavorable” views of the other party – a first since the center first measured such sentiment in 1992. And the lion’s share of those people believe the opposing party’s policies “are so misguided that they threaten the nation’s well-being,” the center found.     That level of division has spurred activists on both sides of the political divide to take their activism in a more confrontational direction.     In the wake of Trump’s victory, protesters on the left took to the streets by the thousands in cities across the country, in some cases causing property damage.  Much of the agitation was motivated by a belief that Trump’s administration will foster racism and push the courts and other political institutions to disenfranchise minority voters, says James Anderson, editor of ItsGoingDown.Org, an anarchist website that has promoted mass demonstrations against Trump’s presidency, including a call to disrupt his inauguration.     Many on the left have come to distrust government institutions, embracing a breed of activism aimed at directly confronting what they see as condemnable political forces, Anderson says. “The answer now is to organize, build power and autonomy and fight back.”     On the opposite end of the political spectrum, Trump’s election is bringing new hope for right-wing activists who felt abandoned by the major parties.      John Roberts, a top officer in the Ku Klux Klan affiliate planning the December rally to celebrate Trump’s election, says the group is committed to non-violent demonstrations, but he sees Trump’s election as likely to bring a new era of political conflict. And much of the strife, he says, will be centered around racial divisions.     “Once Trump officially takes office, there is going to be a boiling over at some point in time,” Roberts says. “Who knows when that’s going to be, but it’s not going to be pretty.”

Summary: दशकों में सबसे कम अल्पसंख्यक मतों के साथ ट्रम्प ने जीत हासिल की, विभाजन को बढ़ावा दिया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday urged Republicans in Congress to repeal Obamacare and work on a healthcare plan that he said would draw Democratic support. In a tweet following the loss of support for a Senate Republican bill, Trump said, “Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!” Democrats have insisted that they will not cooperate with any Republican legislation that repeals President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare law, but would work in a bipartisan way to improve it.

Summary: ट्रम्प ने अमेरिकी कांग्रेस से ओबामाकेयर को निरस्त करने का आग्रह किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A third of Democratic senators have so far announced they will vote against confirming U.S. President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, adding to a chorus of opposition from the left, but leaving questions over whether there will be a concerted effort to block a vote in the Senate. To date, 16 of the 48 Democratic senators have publicly backed their leader, Chuck Schumer, who said on Thursday he opposes confirming appeals court judge Neil Gorsuch. Others have yet to announce their intentions.  Gorsuch is headed toward a Senate Judiciary Committee vote, likely on April 3, on his nomination to the high court after a marathon four-day confirmation hearing this week.  After that, it is not yet clear how much of a fight Democrats will put up when the nomination is due for a final vote in the 100-member Senate, where there are 52 Republicans.   The Democratic opposition to Gorsuch could prompt a showdown in the Senate and delay the judge’s confirmation but ultimately the Republicans are likely to win that fight and avoid another setback in Congress for Trump who suffered a blow on Friday when lawmakers pulled a major healthcare bill. Senate rules enable Democrats to insist on 60 votes to overcome a procedural move called a filibuster to allow a final up-or-down vote on confirming Gorsuch, 49, to the lifetime job on the nation's highest court. (GRAPHIC - Confirming Gorsuch: How it works tmsnrt.rs/2nANgEj)  But the Senate’s Republican leadership could adopt a rule change allowing a vote that would only require a simple majority of the chamber. If eventually confirmed, Gorsuch would restore a conservative majority on the nine-seat high court. For Democrats, putting up a fight would at least frustrate Trump and placate liberal activists sore about the Republican-led Senate’s refusal to vote on President Barack Obama’s nominee to the same open seat on the court last year.  If eventually confirmed, Gorsuch would restore a conservative majority on the nine-seat high court.  Conservative activists were targeting ten Democrats running for reelection in 2018 in states Trump won in the presidential election as possible “yes” votes for Gorsuch among Democrats.  Of that number, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin have already announced their opposition to the nomination. The other seven, including Joe Manchin of West Virginia, have yet to announce their plans. Another Democratic senator under pressure from both sides on Gorsuch is Michael Bennet, who represents Gorsuch’s home state of Colorado. Bennet has yet to announce his position. Republicans are also hopeful that some Democratic members of the judiciary committee, including Chris Coons of Delaware and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, might be wary of blocking a vote on the nominee. Their spokesmen did not respond to requests seeking comment. Don Stewart, a spokesman for Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said it would be an “unprecedented, even nuclear step” to require a 60-vote threshold before the Senate can vote on the nominee. “There has never, in the history of the Republic, ever been a successful partisan filibuster of a Supreme Court nominee,” he added. The last attempt to filibuster a nominee was a Democratic bid to block a vote on Justice Samuel Alito, who was nominated by President George W. Bush in 2005. Democrats failed to gather enough support and the Senate voted 72-25 to proceed to an up-or-down vote. Alito was eventually confirmed by 58-42.  Sarah Binder, a political scientist at George Washington University, said Democrats may be able to gather enough support to block a vote because so few of them are moderates from Republican-leaning states, meaning they may feel they have little to lose. If Trump’s popularity drops, that could embolden them further, she added.

Summary: अमेरिकी उच्च न्यायालय के उम्मीदवार का लोकतांत्रिक विरोध बढ़ता है


LONDON (Reuters) - Spanish government bonds and stocks were in demand on Thursday after a media report said Catalonian President Carles Puigdemont was set to call a snap regional election for Dec. 20, a move that could ease tensions with Madrid.  Barcelona-based La Vanguardia said Puigdemont had taken the decision in a bid to persuade the government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy not to enforce direct rule in the region. Puigdemont will make a statement at 1330 CET (1130 GMT), the regional government said.  This news is positive for Spain because it looks like Puigdemont is looking for ways other than declaring independence,  said ING strategist Martin van Vliet.   It sounds like he is calling these elections so that Madrid does not have to invoke article 155,  that would allow central government to suspend the wealthy region s autonomy. Spain s 10-year government bond yield - which moves inversely to price - fell 6 basis points to 1.58 percent on the news.  Spain s country stock index IBEX rose as much as 1.9 percent to a four-week high.  The gap between Spanish and German 10-year government bond yields   a keenly watched measure of market sentiment towards Spain   moved to its tightest in a month.  The spread between the two widened sharply earlier this month after Catalonia voted overwhelmingly in favor of breaking away from Spain, albeit on a low turnout, in an Oct. 1 referendum declared illegal by authorities in Madrid.

Summary: कैटलन में संभावित चुनाव की खबर से स्पेन के बाजारों में तेजी


VIENNA (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that military drills held by the United States and South Korea seemed to have aimed at provoking North Korea to hold more missile tests. He also said Moscow condemns North Korea s missile tests.

Summary: रूसः अमेरिकी सैन्य अभ्यास का उद्देश्य N.Korea को उकसाना हो सकता है


BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. companies that have expressed the most fervent public support for President Barack Obama’s environmental agenda are also funding its biggest enemies - the scores of U.S. lawmakers who are climate change skeptics and oppose regulation to combat it, according to a Reuters review of public records. Ahead of the Nov. 8 presidential and congressional elections, the donations from companies including PepsiCo, Dupont, and Google reveal a disconnect between how these companies present themselves to the public on environmental issues, and how they manage their political contributions to support business-friendly policy. (Click here for a graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2bWl9dN) Many companies active in U.S. politics spread their political donations broadly on both sides of the aisle and consider multiple issues when deciding whom to support. But inconsistency between a company’s environmental positions and its political giving may point up a need for better oversight, according to Jon Lukomnik, head of the Investor Responsibility Research Center Institute.  “There really needs to be a process that looks at these issues ... at C-suite and board levels on a periodic basis,” Lukomnik said. The Reuters review covered donations made during the 2016 election cycle by the political action committees (PACs) of 30 of the biggest publicly traded U.S. companies that signed Obama’s “American Business Act on Climate Change Pledge” in 2015, a public promise to enact climate-friendly corporate policies and support strong climate change oversight like the global climate accord signed in Paris. The review found that 25 of the 30 companies are funding the campaigns of lawmakers featured on a “climate deniers” list that was put together by Organizing For Action, a non-profit created by former Obama campaign aides to advocate his agenda. The list includes more than 130 members of Congress, nearly all Republicans, and is a who’s who of the biggest opponents of Obama’s plan to combat climate change. Some of those on the list dispute the label “denier” and describe themselves as climate change “skeptics”. The list includes Republican Congressman Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, an energy advisor to presidential candidate Donald Trump who once argued the Earth was cooling not warming, and Republican U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, who last year held up a snowball on the Senate floor as evidence global warming does not exist.  The review found PepsiCo and DuPont’s political action committees gave about half or more of the money from their top donations in support of senators and congressmen on the list. That amounted to $56,500 from the Pepsi PAC’s 29 donations of $2,500 and above, and $40,000 from the DuPont PAC’s 19 donations of $2,000 and above. Other signatories to the American Business Act on Climate Change Pledge that gave more than a third of their top political contributions to lawmakers on the list include Google, AT&T, GE, Verizon, and Mondelez, according to the review.  Those levels of donations given to climate skeptics are relatively high given that the list covers about a quarter of U.S. Congress members. Officials from PepsiCo, Google, AT&T, and Verizon did not respond to requests for comment. DuPont declined to comment, and Mondelez referred Reuters to the press release announcing its participation in the climate pledge. A GE spokeswoman said the company supports “elected officials based on a wide range of issues, but we have consistently been outspoken about the need to address climate change and have invested over $17 billion in cleaner technology R&D over the last 11 years.”  PepsiCo has also been working to become more energy efficient, and now operates the country’s largest fleet of electric delivery trucks. But it still has a sizeable carbon footprint: It produced some 4.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2013, down 2 percent from 2012, according to its website. A more recent figure was not available. DuPont, also working to increase its energy efficiency, emitted 16.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2013. Congressman Cramer, a self-described climate skeptic who opposes Obama’s climate agenda but has taken donations from companies that signed the climate pledge, said companies tend to consider issues like tax policy, national security, and regulatory policy when picking who to support - as opposed to a single issue like the environment. He, like other lawmakers featured on the Organizing For Action “climate deniers” list, said the debate over climate change was not as clear cut as Obama’s allies depict it.  “It is not a black and white issue, like if you agree with Obama you’re enlightened, and if you don’t you’re in the dark,” he said. “It is more of a spectrum.” A spokeswoman for Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, another lawmaker featured on the list, said he had “done more than almost any other member of Congress to increase the use of clean energy” sources like wind and biofuels.  But she added he was opposed to Obama’s climate change initiatives, like the Clean Power Plan to curb carbon output, because he felt that it could hurt the competitiveness of U.S. businesses globally. Senator Inhofe, who said he doesn’t mind the label “climate denier”, suggested that some companies had signed the American Business Act on Climate Change pledge for superficial reasons. “These are competitive companies, and the board might have said ‘Look, right now it might be a popular thing to join this, and there’s no downside since we’re not really committing to anything.’ That absolutely goes on,” he said. The five companies reviewed by Reuters that did not fund opponents to Obama’s climate change agenda either had no political action committee, like Apple, or made only a small number of contributions, like Coca Cola.  Lauren Compere, managing director at sustainable investment manager Boston Common Asset Management, said consistency between policy and political giving was becoming increasingly important to environmentally-minded investors. “No company should want to be perceived as espousing progressive climate policies on the one hand, while funding climate deniers on the other,” she said.

Summary: अमेरिकी कंपनियाँ जलवायु नीतियों को बढ़ावा देती हैं, जलवायु संदेहियों को धन देती हैं


NEWARK, N.J. (Reuters) - To preserve federal funding for critical rail projects, New Jersey and New York senators on Wednesday asked U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to examine firsthand the decaying train tunnels that threaten to cripple regional travel if they fail. In a letter to Chao, four Democratic senators, two each from New York and New Jersey, asked Chao to visit before Republican President Donald Trump’s administration finalizes any federal infrastructure package. They also urged Chao to support Amtrak’s Gateway Program, which includes building a passenger rail tunnel underneath the Hudson River in partnership with NJ Transit, the two states, and their bi-state port authority.  That project, which had been fast-tracked by Chao’s predecessor in the administration of former President Barack Obama, is considered one of the most important infrastructure projects in the nation. “We’re teetering every single day on the brink of truly a traffic Armageddon,” U.S. Senator Corey Booker said at a news conference in Newark’s Penn Station about the invitation to Chao he issued with New York senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and fellow New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez.  “The new administration has to come to the table with a commitment to what is not just a New Jersey problem, not just a regional problem, but really an American problem,” Booker said. The area is also a chokepoint on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, a key section of rail that connects Washington to Boston. The Transportation Department said in a statement that Chao intends to tour a number of the country’s infrastructure projects, including the Gateway site. An important source of funding for Gateway and some other U.S. projects is uncertain because Trump proposed cutting the federal New Starts grant program in his initial budget plan.  Two NJ Transit train derailments in recent weeks, both the fault of Amtrak, badly snarled commutes. They also prompted New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, to say he would halt state payments to the national rail operator, from which NJ Transit leases tracks. At the news conference, a handful of protesters criticized Christie for underfunding New Jersey transportation and cancelling a previous rail tunnel project. The governor on Wednesday blamed problems on “an absolute failure of the federal government to stand up to their obligations” to maintain infrastructure and said Amtrak is part of Chao’s responsibility. He said he had spoken to Trump about the Gateway project.

Summary: न्यूयार्क, एन. जे. के सीनेटरों ने परिवहन सचिव को सड़ती हुई रेल सुरंगों को देखने के लिए आमंत्रित किया


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Republican presidential debate held without front-runner Donald Trump attracted 12.5 million viewers to Fox News Channel on Thursday, according to preliminary Nielsen data. Trump boycotted the event after Fox News, owned by 21st Century Fox, refused to yield to his demand that network anchor Megyn Kelly be replaced as a moderator.  (Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editin gby Tom Brown) SAP is the sponsor of this coverage which is independently produced by the staff of Reuters News Agency.

Summary: ट्रम्प के बिना रिपब्लिकन बहस ने फॉक्स न्यूज पर 12.5 लाख दर्शकों को आकर्षित किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lobbyists and Republican lawmakers are gearing up for battle over a new U.S. regulation that is likely to dent profits in the $6 billion short-term, high-interest “payday” loan industry.  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is expected in coming days to release a long-anticipated rule curbing payday lending, now that a final review by other regulatory agencies has concluded, three people familiar with the matter said. The rule pits the country’s consumer financial watchdog against payday lenders who say the new regulation will wipe out much of their established industry, currently overseen by the states, and push poor and rural customers to use illegal loan sharks.  “We are likely, on our part, to take the appropriate actions that we can to see this rule never becomes effective, and that includes a possible lawsuit,” said Dennis Shaul, chief executive of the Community Financial Services Association of America (CFSA), a payday lending trade group. The group says the rule-drafting process was flawed because the agency did not listen to borrowers or properly process comment letters - an argument that could form the basis of potential litigation. The CFPB has declined to comment on its procedure or on the final rule, but public records show it closely followed the law throughout the rulemaking process. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s Republican party, which says the CFPB goes too far in its regulations, wants to undo the rule through legislation. Recently, Republicans in the House of Representatives added a “rider,” or amendment, to a spending bill banning the CFPB from regulating the payday loan industry. They are also poised to repeal the rule under the Congressional Review Act and bar the CFPB from ever drafting a similar regulation, according to aides and lobbyists. Borrowers take out the small, short-term loans to cover emergencies and traditionally repay them with their next paychecks. Because the loans can carry interest rates as high as 390 percent, borrowers can become trapped in devastating cycles of taking out new loans to pay outstanding ones, the CFPB said.  The agency began drafting the rule last summer to end this “debt trap,” by requiring lenders to conduct background checks showing borrowers can afford the loans and to limit the number of loans made to a single borrower.  “The rule that we’re expecting will do a lot to combat the debt cycle,” said Karl Frisch, head of Allied Progress, a consumer advocacy group.

Summary: आसन्न अमेरिकी वेतन ऋण नियम पर विरोधियों ने चाकू तेज किए


CLARK, Philippines (Reuters) - China and Southeast Asian navies aim to hold an inaugural joint maritime exercise next year, Singapore s defense minister said on Tuesday, as they try to build trust amid conflicting claims over the South China Sea. China claims almost the entire strategic waters through which about $3 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims, with tensions exacerbated by Beijing s island-building and Washington s increasing freedom of navigation patrols.  Singapore supports it,  Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen told reporters when asked about China s offer to hold maritime exercises.  We will push it ... for the very reason that all ASEAN and China want that. If you exercise, you at least build understanding and trust.  The exercises were discussed at a meeting between China and Singapore on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Defense Ministers  Meeting at the former U.S. air force base at Clark, north of the capital Manila.  We ll work out the details. See the logistics... and find a suitable area where ASEAN and China navies can exercise together,  Ng said. Singapore and China have not always seen eye to eye in recent months. Singaporean troops have trained in self-ruled Taiwan, an island China claims as its own, which had been an irritant in ties. Last November, Chinese-controlled Hong Kong impounded nine Singaporean armored military vehicles being shipped home from Taiwan, inflaming tension. Hong Kong later released the vehicles. Ng said Singapore also had a proposal to  reduce risk of actual conflict  by agreeing to a new code of unexpected encounters in the air after ASEAN adopted a code to avoid sea encounters.  ASEAN and its eight regional partners, the United States, Russia, China, South Korea, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand, had agreed to set up a  direct communications link  among them to ease tension. Ng said the United States and Japan also welcomed the idea of exercises.   Secretary (of Defense Jim) Mattis welcomed the exercises together with ASEAN countries,  he said. Ng also hoped for the early conclusion of a code of conduct in the South China Sea after a framework agreement was reached this year to reduce conflicts and misunderstanding.

Summary: चीन, दक्षिण पूर्व एशिया का लक्ष्य समुद्री अभ्यास के साथ विश्वास पैदा करना हैः सिंगापुर


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi defended the role of an Iranian-backed paramilitary force at a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday in Baghdad. Tillerson arrived on Monday hours after the Iraqi government rejected his call to send home the Popular Mobilisation, an Iran-backed force that helped defeat Islamic State and capture the Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk. In his opening remarks at the meeting with Tillerson, Abadi said Popular Mobilisation “is part of the Iraqi institutions,” rejecting accusations that it is acting as an Iranian proxy. “Popular Mobilisation fighters should be encouraged because they will be the hope of country and the region,” he added.    Iraq is one of the few countries allied closely to both the United States and Iran, and Tillerson’s effort to drive a wedge between Baghdad and Tehran appeared to have backfired, drawing a sharp statement from the prime minister’s office. Tillerson visited Iraq a day after a rare joint meeting with Abadi and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. After that meeting, he called on Iraq to halt the work of the Tehran-backed paramilitary units, which have operated alongside government troops in battles against Islamic State and, since last week, in a lightning advance that seized the oil city of Kirkuk from Kurdish security forces. At his meeting with Abadi in Baghdad, Tillerson urged the Iraqi government and Masoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil to resolve their conflict on Kurdish self-determination and disputed territories through dialogue.  “We are concerned and a bit sad,” Tillerson said. “We have friends in Baghdad and friends in Erbil, and we encourage all parties to enter into discussion ... and all differences can be addressed.”   Iraqi forces are deploying tanks and artillery just south of a Kurdish-operated oil pipeline that crosses into Turkey, a Kurdish security official said, the latest in a series of Iranian-backed operations against the Kurds. “Iranian militias that are in Iraq, now that the fight against Daesh and ISIS is coming to a close, those militias need to go home,” Tillerson said on Sunday in Saudi Arabia. Abadi’s office responded sharply. “No party has the right to interfere in Iraqi matters,” a statement from his office read. It did not cite the prime minister himself but a “source” close to him. It referred to the mainly Shi’ite Popular Mobilisation as “patriots”. One of the closest groups to Iran within Popular Mobilisation, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, reacted to Tillerson’s comment by saying it would be Americans who will be forced to leave Iraq. “Your forces should get ready to get out of our country once the excuse of Daesh’s presence is over,” said Asaib’s leader, Sheikh Qais al-Khazali, according to the group’s TV channel, al-Aahd. The international battle against Islamic State fighters in northern Iraq since 2014 saw the United States and Iran effectively fighting on the same side, with both supporting the Iraqi government against the militants. Washington has 5,000 troops in Iraq and provided air support, training and weapons to Iraqi government forces. At the same time, Iran armed, trained and advised Shi’ite paramilitaries that often fought alongside the army. The latest twist in the Iraq conflict, pitting the central government against the Kurds, is trickier for U.S. policymakers. Washington still supports the central government but has also been allied to the Kurds for decades. Iran is the pre-eminent Shi’ite power in the Middle East. Shi’ites, including Abadi, are the majority in Iraq, but it also has large Sunni Arab and Kurdish communities. In the campaign for the Kurdish referendum, Iran backed the government against the Kurds. Major-General Qassem Soleimani, commander of foreign operations for Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, repeatedly warned Kurdish leaders to withdraw from the oil city of Kirkuk or face an onslaught by Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed fighters, Kurdish officials briefed on the meetings said. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed Tillerson’s remarks. The paramilitaries could not go home because “they are at home” already, he was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA. Abadi has asserted his authority with the defeat of Islamic State in Mosul and the Iraqi army’s sweep through Kirkuk and other areas that were held by the Kurds. The buildup at the Kurdish oil export pipeline is taking place northwest of Mosul, an official from the Kurdistan Regional Government’s security council said. The loss of Kirkuk dealt a major blow to the Kurds, who had been steadily building an autonomous region in northern Iraq since a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, who oppressed them for decades. “We are concerned about continued military build-up of Iraqi forces and Iranian-backed Popular Mobilisation Forces towards the Kurdistan Region,” said the Kurdistan Region Security Council in a statement. Elections for the Iraqi Kurdistan region’s presidency and parliament set for Nov. 1 will be delayed because political parties failed to present candidates, the head of the electoral commission, Hendrean Mohammed, told Reuters. Parties have been unable to focus on the elections in the turmoil that followed the referendum, a Kurdish lawmaker said on condition of anonymity.

Summary: अबादी ने टिलरसन के साथ बैठक में ईरानी समर्थित अर्धसैनिक बलों की भूमिका का बचाव किया


(Reuters) - Maine Governor Paul LePage said on Wednesday he would not carry out an expansion of the state’s Medicaid program under Obamacare that was approved by voters unless it was fully funded by the legislature, calling it “ruinous” for the state’s budget. About 60 percent of voters in Maine approved the ballot proposal in Tuesday’s election, according to the Bangor Daily News, making the state the first in the country to vote to expand Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor and disabled. LePage, a Republican, has staunchly opposed expansion of the program, vetoing legislation to do so on several occasions. In a statement, the governor said he would not implement the expansion until it was fully funded by the Maine legislature, where control is split between Republicans and Democrats.  “Credit agencies are predicting that this fiscally irresponsible Medicaid expansion will be ruinous to Maine’s budget,” LePage said in a statement. “I will not support increasing taxes on Maine families, raiding the rainy day fund or reducing services to our elderly or disabled.” LePage said a previous Medicaid expansion in Maine in 2002 created $750 million in debt to hospitals and took resources away from vulnerable people. Maine Senate Democratic leader Troy Jackson said in a statement that the governor “has the power to put up roadblocks to prevent implementation of the voter-approved Medicaid expansion referendum, and I have no reason to believe he won’t continue to do as he has always done.” Jackson added that Democrats “are determined to use every tool at our disposal to ensure the will of the voters is upheld.”     Maine voters were asked to approve or reject a plan to provide healthcare coverage under Medicaid for adults under age 65 with incomes at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level, which in 2017 is about $16,000 for a single person and about $22,000 for a family of two.  If implemented, about 70,000 additional state residents would be eligible for the Medicaid program, local media reported, in addition to the roughly 268,000 people who are currently eligible. Maine has been prominent in the national healthcare debate. U.S. Senator Susan Collins, a moderate Republican from the state, helped block her party’s efforts to repeal Obamacare, enacted under former Democratic President Barack Obama and formally known as the Affordable Care Act. Collins said on Wednesday she never took a position on state referendum questions, but was surprised at LePage’s statement. “I’m not going to comment on what the governor should or should not do”, Collins told reporters. “I think it’s significant that healthcare was such a prominent issue and I believe when you look at the overwhelming vote in my state (on) the Medicaid expansion that it shows that Republicans need to put forth constructive legislation.”

Summary: मेन के गवर्नर का कहना है कि वह वोट के बावजूद मेडिकेड का विस्तार नहीं करेंगे


ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The family of a former director of the Turkish PakTurk Schools in Pakistan has been abducted by authorities in the eastern city of Lahore, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said, less than a year after Pakistan sought to deport them. Pakistan has forged close ties with Turkey in recent years and President Tayyip Erdogan, who opposes the PakTurk Schools, has made several state visits to Islamabad. Turkey has accused the schools of alleged links to Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, or his  Hizmet  movement, which Erdogan says was behind a failed coup attempt in Turkey last year. PakTurk schools deny such links but in November last year  Pakistan ordered their Turkish teachers to leave the country. HRCP said Mesut Kacmaz, former director of the PakTurk International Schools and Colleges, was picked up on Wednesday by 20 armed individuals, according to their Turkish neighbor who spoke to the rights group. Kacmaz, his wife, and two daughters were,  roughed-up, hooded, handcuffed and taken in a wagon  to a  furnished house where several other interrogators were also present , HRCP, a non-governmental organization, said in a statement late on Wednesday.  HRCP urges the government to immediately release the Kacmaz family and desist from deporting them. There are credible reports of other Turkish educationists being arrested upon their arrival in Turkey and their subsequent torture.  The Punjab province s police department did not respond to requests for comment.  HRCP said the family has been living in Pakistan for the past year on a valid United Nations  asylum seeker certificate. The schools educate more than 10,000 students in Pakistan.

Summary: पाक तुर्क स्कूल के निदेशक के तुर्की परिवार का पाकिस्तान में अपहरणः मानवाधिकार समूह


(Reuters) - The U.S. Congress on Thursday approved a temporary funding bill to prevent federal agencies from shutting down at midnight Friday when existing money was set to expire. The following are the major items that were debated on the legislation that President Donald Trump is expected to sign into law: The Friday midnight deadline for action was the result of the Republican-controlled Congress failing to pass any of the regular appropriations bills for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Instead, the government has been operating on a series of temporary measures. This newest stopgap bill continues funding for government operations through Jan. 19, giving lawmakers several weeks to work out a spending bill that would pay for agency activities through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.  House of Representatives conservatives failed in their bid to attach a major defense spending increase that would fund the Pentagon through September. Instead, Congress agreed to fund the military through Jan. 19, like most other programs. But in a move to attract support, a $4.7 billion increase was included to be used for missile defense and ship repair. Democrats and Republicans will continue negotiations on higher funding for both military and non-military programs. An $81 billion disaster aid bill was going to be attached to the government funding bill. Instead, the House approved it as a stand-alone bill, only to see the Senate put off action until at least next month. It would build on about $52 billion already provided to Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and several states hit by severe hurricanes, wildfires or other natural disasters. Democrats want to do more for Puerto Rico and some Republicans worry about the mounting costs of disaster aid. The Children’s Health Insurance Program, which helps provide medical care to nearly 9 million children in low-income families, will get $2.85 billion to cover expenses through March as lawmakers seek a more permanent solution. Senators put off until early next year their bid to maintain healthcare subsidies for low-income people participating in the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Many House Republican lawmakers dislike the idea. The National Security Agency’s warrantless internet surveillance program under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act will be extended through Jan. 19 as lawmakers try to reconcile competing versions of such legislation in the House and Senate.  Legislation to protect “Dreamers” from deportation was not included, despite Democrats’ push to resolve the issue by year’s end. It was a major disappointment for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and immigration advocacy groups. But negotiators are still trying to reach a deal on helping immigrants, many from Mexico and Central America, brought to the United States illegally as children. The issue is expected to come back to life in early 2018.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः कांग्रेस के खर्च बिल के केंद्र में बड़ी-बड़ी वस्तुएँ


BRASILIA (Reuters) - A Brazilian congressional report recommended on Tuesday that President Michel Temer should not face trial for obstruction of justice and membership in a criminal organization, arguing that the charges against him were unfounded. The report by Congressman Bonifacio de Andrada, a Temer ally, also recommended shelving charges against two of his cabinet ministers stemming from a corruption case involving bribes paid by meatpacker JBS SA.  The constitutional and legal affairs committee in Brazil s Congress was expected to approve the report next week. The full lower house, which has the power to decide whether a president should be put on trial by the Supreme Court, will likely close the case a week later. That victory for Temer would all but ensure that Brazil s most unpopular modern day president will survive the crisis and serve out his term through the end of 2018. But fighting off the charges has seriously delayed and could derail the president s efforts to balance Brazil s government accounts.  Temer took office last year after the impeachment of his leftist predecessor Dilma Rousseff. He vowed to clean up the government in the midst of Brazil s worst corruption scandal. Instead he was accused of taking bribes and condoning the payment of hush money to a jailed politician in plea bargain testimony by Joesley Batista, an owner of JBS, the world s largest meatpacker. Temer has denied any wrongdoing and his lawyers argued that the case against him was flawed because it was based on one man s word and an inconclusive recording that Batista secretly made of a conversation with the president. Andrada said the charges were based on  bogus  plea bargain statements that do not warrant criminal prosecution.  There is no evidence of a criminal organization, but rather political activities that are being treated as criminal acts,  he said in his report that he read out to the committee. Temer aides said they were confident the chamber would shelve the charges by a bigger margin than its rejection of an earlier corruption charge on August 2 by 263-227 votes, when it needed only 172 votes to throw the case out. A survey by Brasilia-based consultancy Arko Advice published this week showed that support for the government has increased in Congress since August and 71 percent of the 212 lawmakers polled believe the new charges against Temer would be rejected. Still, it is unclear whether Temer can win approval this year for his plan to overhaul the costly pension system, the key measure to reduce a bulging budget deficit that cost Brazil its investment grade credit rating two years ago. A senior executive for Moody s Investors Service said on Tuesday that failure to pass pension reform would make it  easier  to decide on maintaining a negative outlook for Brazil s sovereign rating early next year.

Summary: ब्राजील की कांग्रेस की रिपोर्ट में टेमर के आरोपों को हटाने की सिफारिश की गई है।


MUNICH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister on Sunday rejected Iranian calls for dialogue saying Tehran was the main sponsor of terrorism in the world, a destabilizing force in the Middle East and wanted to “destroy us.” “Iran remains the single main sponsor of terrorism in the world,” Adel al-Jubeir told delegates at the Munich Security Conference. “It’s determined to upend the order in Middle East ... (and) until and unless Iran changes its behavior it would be very difficult to deal with a country like this.” Al-Jubeir said Iran was propping up the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, funding the Houthi separatists in Yemen and violent groups across the region. He said the international community needed to set clear “red lines” to halt Iran’s actions.

Summary: सऊदी विदेश मंत्री ने ईरान को वैश्विक आतंकवाद का मुख्य प्रायोजक बताया


JAKARTA (Reuters) - The U.S. government had intimate knowledge of the mass killing of alleged communists in Indonesia in the mid 1960s even as it failed to publicly reveal the slaughter, newly declassified U.S. documents show.The documents also reveal that Indonesian army intermediaries told Western embassies they were considering toppling then president Sukarno less than a fortnight after the killing of six generals by rebel military personnel that sparked the bloodletting. The murder of the generals on Sept. 30, 1965, is still widely depicted as an attempted communist coup against Sukarno.  The murders were used as a pretext for an anti-communist pogrom by Indonesia s military and Islamic groups that led to at least 500,000 deaths. One of the worst massacres of the 20th century, the killings in 1965 and 1966 have never been officially investigated and  perpetrators have never faced justice. Indonesia, the world s largest Muslim-majority country, still has periodic bouts of anti-communist hysteria. Last month, a meeting by human rights activists and victims of the anti-communist purge was shut down after Islamists and nationalists rioted outside the venue. One cable from the U.S. embassy in Jakarta to the Department of State, written three months after members of the communist party, the PKI, were first targeted, said there were  an estimated 100,000 PKI deaths . In Medan, on the island of Sumatra, clerics from the Muslim group Muhammadiyah urged members to kill communists, according to a telegram from the U.S. consul. Conscious  PKI members are classified as lowest order of infidel, the shedding of whose blood is comparable to killing chicken,  the consul said in one report. Muhammadiyah youth group chairman Dahnil Anzar said the documents showed  nothing new  but such conflict should not happen again. A U.S. consular officer in the city of Surabaya, in East Java, said in a telegram members of Ansor, the youth wing of the Nahdlatul Ulama Islamic organization, were responsible for  widespread slaughter  and they thought killing communists was a  ticket to heaven .  Army is quietly releasing nightly 10 to 15 prisoners to Muslims for execution,  the official in Surabaya said in another dispatch. Abdul Rochman, secretary general of Ansor, told Reuters that the group s involvement in the killings of 1965 was a  form of self-defense .  (The PKI) carried out provocative activities like aggressive recruitment and went further by insulting our imams, poisoning and killing our members, burning mosques,  he said. We believe the NU s reaction was relatively measured and not disproportionate. Indonesia s chief security minister, Wiranto, declined to answer questions. Army deputy chief of staff, H Siburian, said he had not seen the documents so could not comment. CONCERN ABOUT LEFT-WING POLICIES Rochman, from NU s Ansor, said he supported any move for dialogue and reconciliation.  We must make sure all voices are heard - NU s voice, the victims  voices, the children of suspected communists.  Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said redress for victims was  long overdue . The U.S. embassy did not respond to requests for comment. While the documents do not solve the mystery of why the six generals were killed on Sept. 30, they do show that the United States and its Indonesian military allies were deeply concerned about Sukarno s left-wing policies and ties to the communists. Then U.S. ambassador Marshall Green wrote on Oct. 12, 1965, that the army had approached western embassies through an  intermediary  and said they were considering a  quick move  to overthrow Sukarno, although no final decision was made. In the event of such a coup, Green says the United States could help with  anything from covert operations and assistance [to] transport, money, communications equipment, or arms . In January 1967, Major General Sjarif Thajeb told a U.S. embassy official Sukarno planned to accuse foreigners and their  little army friends  of orchestrating the Sept. 30 killings.  The president s plan had galvanized the military  hawks  to oust Sukarno  by March . Army general Suharto became acting president in March, ushering in three decades of military dictatorship.

Summary: अमेरिका को इंडोनेशियाई साम्यवाद विरोधी नरसंहार के बारे में पता था क्योंकि यह सामने आया था


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Representative Todd Rokita keeps a clock hanging on the wall of his Capitol Hill office that tracks the U.S. government’s rising debt in real time and reminds him of his top priority: reining in federal spending. “I was sent here on a fiscal note,” said the Indiana lawmaker and vice chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, who rode a Republican wave during his first election to Congress in 2010. When President Donald Trump unveils his budget for the 2018 fiscal year on Thursday, Rokita will be among many conservative Republicans cheering proposed cuts to domestic programs that would pay for a military buildup. More moderate Republicans are less enthusiastic and worry Trump’s budget could force lawmakers to choose between opposing the president or backing reductions in popular programs such as aid for disabled children and hot meals for the elderly. “What you would hope is that the administration is aware of the difficulty of some of these things,” said Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma. The release of Trump’s budget, which comes as the Republican president is facing an intraparty revolt over proposed legislation to replace the Obamacare healthcare law, could open another fight among Republicans who control both houses of Congress. To keep the government running, lawmakers will need to approve a spending plan later this year. The White House has released few details about Trump’s budget, other than making clear the president wants to boost military spending by $54 billion and is seeking equivalent cuts in non-defense discretionary programs. But several agencies, including the State Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, have been asked to prepare scenarios for steep reductions, according to officials familiar with the discussions. While supporting deficit-reduction efforts, Cole said a major research university in his district could get hit by National Institutes of Health cuts, as could sewage treatment facilities funded by the EPA. Republican Senator Rob Portman, whose home state of Ohio sits on the southern shores of Lake Erie, expressed concern about media reports saying the Trump budget had penciled in sharp cuts in a cleanup program for the Great Lakes. While Rokita, who was among a group of Republican lawmakers who met with Trump last week, appeared comfortable with what he had learned so far about Trump’s budget, some Republican members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus said they wanted to see even further budget cuts. Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama said the outcry from lawmakers over the expected cuts underscored to him that the blueprint would be a “a very large step in the right direction” of reining in the debt. Brooks added: “My fear is that the Trump budget will not be austere enough to minimize America’s risk of suffering the kind of debilitating insolvency and bankruptcy that is destroying the lives of Venezuelans right now.” OPEC member Venezuela is immersed in a deep economic crisis, with inflation in triple digits, shortages of basic goods, and many people going hungry. Brooks and other members of the Freedom Caucus are among the most vocal critics of the legislation backed by the White House to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, former Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare plan, known as Obamacare. To try to woo the conservative lawmakers on Trump’s legislative agenda, budget director Mick Mulvaney, himself a former member of the House Freedom Caucus, has invited them to a bowling and pizza night at the White House on Tuesday night. Another Freedom Caucus member, Representative David Schweikert of Arizona, said Mulvaney was encouraging lawmakers to submit maverick fiscal ideas to the White House. Schweikert said he hoped to revive a proposal from a few years ago, in the midst of a fight over raising the U.S. debt limit, that would have allowed the government to take a series of alternative, albeit controversial steps, such as paying some creditors ahead of others. One senior Republican aide, who referred to Trump’s budget as a “slash and burn” proposal, said one fear of some House lawmakers was that they would be pressured to back big spending cuts only to have them rejected by the Senate, where Republicans hold a slimmer majority. The risk for House members is that their votes could prompt a backlash in the 2018 congressional elections. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said a budget that cuts State Department funds by one-third is unlikely to pass in his chamber. Other high-ranking Republicans are setting off alarms. Senator Lindsey Graham, following a White House lunch on Tuesday with Trump, said: “What I told him is that when we get in a deadlock between the House and the Senate, different factions of the party ... you’re the guy who needs to come down and close the deal.” Cole said Congress would ultimately have the final say on the budget. “At the end of the day, we’ll have a budget. We’ll pass the budget,” he said. “Our budget is not necessarily the president’s budget.”

Summary: ट्रम्प बजट ने रिपब्लिकन के बीच नई लड़ाई शुरू की


LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The European Union banned the sale of oil and oil products to North Korea on Monday, in a largely symbolic move aimed at encouraging countries that have more significant levels of trade with the country to follow suit. EU foreign ministers also imposed a blanket ban on doing business with North Korea in sanctions that go beyond the latest U.N. measures. The EU does not sell oil to Pyongyang.  Following North Korea s most powerful nuclear test, the U.N. Security Council capped North Korean imports of crude oil, but China and Russia resisted an outright ban. EU ministers cited  the persistent threat to international peace and stability  posed by Pyongyang. As part of the measures, North Korean workers in the EU - estimated to be about 400, mainly in Poland - now face a lower limit on the amount for money they can send home and their work visas will not be renewed once they expire.  The sanctions add three more top North Korean officials and six businesses to a blacklist banning them from travel to the EU and freezing their assets.  That will take the total of those sanctioned by the EU to 41 individuals and 10 companies, a senior EU official said. U.N. sanctions target 63 people and 53 companies and institutions.

Summary: यूरोपीय संघ ने प्रतीकात्मक संकेत में उत्तर कोरिया पर तेल प्रतिबंध लगाया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives is unlikely to raise the country’s debt ceiling without conditions to rein in spending, a Republican lawmaker said on Tuesday, raising the specter of another potential clash even as Republicans control both Congress and the White House. The Trump administration has asked Congress to extend the federal borrowing capacity to meet U.S. payment obligations with a “clean” bill that does not include any other provisions.  Asked if the House would act to pass such a bill when lawmakers return to Washington next month, U.S. Representative Tom Cole said “probably not clean.” “Most Republicans want to do something to lower the trajectory of the debt,” Cole, a member of the House  Appropriations and Budget committees, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program.  Disagreements over the country’s borrowing capacity have prompted skirmishes for years. The latest tussle among Republicans follows a fight over healthcare legislation that left the party unable to make good on years of promises to  repeal and replace Obamacare, and has also raised concern among some investors.. The Treasury is expected to fully exhaust its remaining borrowing capacity in October. More fiscally conservative House Republicans see the debt ceiling issue as tied to deficit-reduction, and want to include spending cuts or the selling off of government assets — something Cole, a more establishment Republican, backed on Tuesday. Representative Mark Walker, who chairs the conservative Republican Study Committee, said in a Washington Examiner Op-Ed article that a debt ceiling agreement should also address any future crises and recommended two conservative measures to that end. Both measures would require the government to issue new bonds to pay principal and interest on debt held by the public and by two Social Security trusts. One would also allow the president to rescind budget authority over unobligated funds and to order the sale of government assets.  “Both these measures are steps in the right direction,” wrote Walker, whose group represents the House’s largest conservative caucus. Both the House and the Senate left for summer recess until early September despite requests from the White House to pass a debt limit bill before the congressional break this month.   Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said debate over the issue could stretch into September, when lawmakers must also pass separate legislation to fund day-to-day government activities before the fiscal year ends later that month.

Summary: 'स्वच्छ' ऋण सीमा विधेयक के प्रतिनिधि सभा में पारित होने की संभावना नहीं हैः सांसद


(Reuters) - It could take years to learn how long men infected with Zika are capable of sexually transmitting the virus, which can cause crippling birth defects and other serious neurological disorders. In the meantime, health officials have warned couples to refrain from unprotected sex for six months after a male partner is infected. The extraordinary recommendation, based on a single report of Zika surviving 62 days in semen, could affect millions. The grave risks associated with Zika, along with its potential reach, are driving U.S. health authorities to pursue research even though funding is mired in Congressional gridlock. A study of sexual transmission risk is one example of science that health officials said can’t wait for politics. Borrowing money earmarked for other programs, the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has started enrolling men infected with Zika in Brazil and Colombia in the study to determine how long the virus remains transmittable in semen. The study could take years to complete, but interim results could help public health officials fine-tune their recommendations on sex. “We are going out on a limb, but we have to,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. institute, said in an interview. “We can’t say we’re going to wait until we get all the money.” Public health officials are alarmed by Zika’s transmission versatility, which has the potential to expand its reach. It is primarily spread by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, as are the dengue and chikungunya viruses. But at least 10 countries, including the United States and France, have reported Zika infections in people who had not traveled to an outbreak area but whose sexual partners had. This ability to spread through sex could help Zika gain a further foothold outside the warm habitats of its most effective agent, the mosquito. To protect women who are pregnant or trying to conceive, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended couples refrain from unprotected sex for six months - triple the 62 days the virus survived in the semen in one British case study. The World Health Organization recently issued similar guidance. But such strict advice is not ideal, Dr. Anne Schuchat, a CDC deputy director, said in an interview. “To tell people not to have sex until we get back to you is not a very satisfying recommendation,” she said. “We would like to have some more understanding of the sexual risk.” In the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, where more than 2,100 cases of infection have been reported since the start of the year, health officials are passing out Zika protection kits that include bug spray and condoms, along with the recommendation. But the warning against unprotected sex isn’t going over very well, said Dr. Chris Prue, a CDC behavioral scientist who has studied the response. “Condoms are not popular in a lot places,” she said. “There’s religious and personal preferences and lots of personal factors in that.” U.S. lawmakers deadlocked over funding to fight the Zika virus on Tuesday, as Senate Democrats blocked a Republican proposal they said fell short of the challenge posed by the virus and hurt other health priorities. It was unclear when Congress would revisit the request by President Barack Obama for $1.9 billion. In the meantime, the White House has diverted more than $500 million earmarked for other projects for urgent Zika initiatives, including those where scientific opportunities will be lost if not acted upon immediately. One such study will follow children born to women infected with Zika to identify the development of any disabilities not detected at birth. Other projects on the priority list include vaccine development and mosquito eradication.    One study underway will assess whether the risk of transmission is greater from men who experience Zika infection symptoms, such as fever and rash, than from those who don’t. This information is considered vital since most people experience no symptoms. The study of infected men in Brazil and Colombia will test semen from thousands of men over time to determine how long Zika poses a risk to sexual partners. As long the virus can be grown in a laboratory from semen cell samples, infectious disease experts believe it is potentially contagious. Zika typically clears the bloodstream about a week after infection, but it has been detected in urine for at least twice as long. Its persistence in semen in the British case study has caused some researchers to draw comparisons to other viruses. HIV can last in blood and semen indefinitely, and the mosquito-borne West Nile virus can reside in the kidneys and urine for years, researchers said. One patient who survived the deadly Ebola outbreak had evidence of that virus in his semen for 18 months. “We got very surprised by Ebola that it was hanging around for so long,” said Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. “One of the big questions we have to ask is does Zika also cause a similar type of latency?”

Summary: अमेरिकी कांग्रेस के वित्तपोषण गतिरोध के बावजूद जीका यौन अनुसंधान शुरू


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democrats are gearing up for a potentially ugly fight over Donald Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court pick, with some liberal activists urging them to do everything possible to block any nominee from the Republican president-elect. Democrats are still seething over the Republican-led Senate’s decision last year to refuse to consider outgoing President Barack Obama’s nomination of appeals court judge Merrick Garland for a lifetime post on the court. The action had little precedent in U.S. history and prompted some Democrats to accuse Republicans of stealing a Supreme Court seat. Trump last week vowed to announce his appointment within about two weeks of taking office on Friday. He said he would pick from among 20 candidates suggested by conservative legal groups to fill the lingering vacancy caused by the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia last Feb. 13. Scalia’s replacement could tilt the ideological leaning of the court for years to come, restoring the long-standing conservative majority that disappeared with Scalia’s death just at a time when it appeared liberals would get an upper hand on the bench. Liberal groups are gearing up for a battle, with the People For the American Way calling the judges on Trump’s list of candidates “very extreme.”  “We’re hearing from Senate Democrats and parallel concern among outside groups that this is going to be a major fight,” said Marge Baker, the group’s executive vice president. “We’ll be arguing that Democrats use every means at their disposal to defeat the nominee. This is going to be ‘all hands on deck,’ using all means at our disposal.” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has said it is hard for him to imagine Trump picking a nominee who Democrats could support, and said he would “absolutely” fight to keep the seat vacant rather than let the Senate confirm a Trump nominee deemed to be outside the mainstream. “We are not going to make it easy for them to pick a Supreme Court justice,” Schumer told MSNBC on Jan. 3, adding that if the Republicans “don’t appoint someone who’s really good, we’re going to oppose them tooth and nail.” Senate Democrats may be in a position to hold up Trump’s selection indefinitely. Senate rules require 60 votes in the 100-seat chamber to overcome a procedural hurdle called a filibuster on Supreme Court nominees. There are 52 Republican senators. Assuming all 52 back Trump’s nominee, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell either would need to lure eight Democrats to his side or change the rules and ban the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations. Republicans, then in the minority, complained that their rights had been trampled when Senate Democrats in 2013 voted to eliminate the filibuster for executive branch and judicial nominees beyond the Supreme Court. Baker said liberals cannot hold their fire for fear that Republicans will use this so-called nuclear option, adding, “At some point you don’t game this out. You say, ‘This is a fight.’” Other liberal groups urged a more conciliatory approach. “We’re not predisposed to opposition here,” said Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Any nominee will be evaluated, Clarke said, adding that the group is girding for a nominee who is hostile to civil rights. Trump’s nominee could influence the court on a wide range of issues including abortion, the death penalty, religious rights, presidential powers, gay and transgender rights, federal regulations and others. Political considerations also hang over the confirmation fight. Democrats and the two independents aligned with them in the Senate will be defending 25 seats in the 2018 elections, while Republicans defend only eight. Many of those Democratic seats are in Republican-leaning states Trump won in the Nov. 8 election, including West Virginia, Missouri, North Dakota, Indiana, Montana, Michigan and Ohio. Republicans likely will target these and other Democrats in hopes of coaxing them into backing Trump’s nominee. That means Democratic senators such as West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, Indiana’s Joe Donnelly and Missouri’s Claire McCaskill could face extra pressure not to block Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. The liberal groups are facing off with well-funded conservative adversaries. The Judicial Crisis Network, for instance, has said it will spend at least $10 million on advertising and grassroots efforts to pressure Senate Democrats to back Trump’s nominee.  Carrie Severino, the group’s chief counsel, said it would be hypocritical for Democrats to block a vote after arguing the Constitution required the Senate to act on Garland. “A lot of them (Democrats) spent the last nine months saying there is a constitutional duty to have a vote. I’d find it shocking if they would not carry out what they think their duty is,” Severino said. Nan Aron, president of the liberal Alliance for Justice, said the high level of interest the vacancy has generated among activists, lawyers, students and others makes up for the deep pockets of the other side. “I don’t think we’ll need $10 million given the outcry expressed already,” Aron said.

Summary: ट्रम्प यू. एस. सुप्रीम कोर्ट की पसंद पर संभावित रूप से खराब लड़ाई


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced concern over anti-Semitism on the left and right in a congratulatory phone call to German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday after an election that returned her to power but brought the far right into parliament. Merkel s conservative bloc remains the largest group in Germany s lower house, but bled support in Sunday s poll to the far right and may need to cobble together a hitherto untested coalition with environmentalist and liberal parties.  Jewish groups in Europe and the United States expressed alarm at the success of the nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Sunday s ballot and urged other parties not to form an alliance with it. Those parties have pledged to shun the AfD. The AfD, which has surged in the two years since Merkel opened Germany s borders to more than 1 million migrants mainly fleeing Middle East wars, says immigration jeopardizes Germany s culture but denies it is racist or anti-Semitic. A statement issued by Netanyahu s office did not mention the AfD by name in calling on Merkel s future government to  strengthen forces in Germany that accept historical responsibility  for the Nazi Holocaust. It quoted Netanyahu as having  congratulated Merkel on her victory  and voicing confidence the  special relationship between Germany and Israel would deepen and prosper under her leadership . Merkel has been Germany s chancellor since 2005. In the statement, a recap Netanyahu gave his cabinet of his conversation with Merkel, the conservative Israeli leader pointed to anti-Semitism as not being solely a threat from the right.  Israel is concerned over the rise in anti-Semitism in recent years among political elements on the right and the left and also among Islamic elements,  the statement said, without naming any parties. Last month, Netanyahu s 26-year-old son, Yair, drew public criticism in Israel for suggesting on social media that hard-left organizations now pose more of a danger than neo-Nazi groups. Yair Netanyahu spoke after a protester was killed during a white nationalist rally in the U.S. state of Virginia in August. U.S. President Donald Trump stirred controversy at the time by insisting that left-wing protesters who showed up to counter the ultra-rightist rally were also to blame for violence. The far-right has not been represented in the German parliament since the 1950s, a reflection of German efforts to distance themselves from the horrors of the Holocaust. Germany, home today to about 200,000 Jews, has built a reputation in recent decades as a tolerant, safe place for Jews to live. But data show anti-Semitic crimes reported to German police rose 4 percent to 681 in the first eight months of 2017 from the same period last year.

Summary: नेतन्याहू ने मर्केल को बधाई दी, बाएं और दाएं तरफ यहूदी-विरोधी भावना बढ़ती हुई देखी


COX S BAZAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - An estimated 370,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees have fled to Bangladesh from violence in Myanmar since late August, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency, Vivian Tan, said on Tuesday. The government of Buddhist-majority Myanmar says its security forces are fighting Rohingya militants behind a surge of violence that began on Aug. 25. Many of the refugees say Myanmar authorities are intent on pushing Rohingya out of the country.

Summary: म्यांमार से बांग्लादेश भागने वाले रोहिंग्याओं की संख्या 370,000ः संयुक्त राष्ट्र


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Sunday defended his decision to host a visit by U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump to Mexico, but he said it could have been carried out “in a better way”. The hastily arranged meeting of Trump and Pena Nieto on Aug. 31 sparked outrage in Mexico because of Trump’s verbal attacks on Mexicans as well as his threats to build a border wall and tear up trade deals with Latin America’s No. 2 economy.  “I faced a dilemma of ‘yes or no’ once I had made the proposal and he said ‘yes.’ Because, at the end of the day, its all about ensuring the best interests of Mexico, even if it could be very controversial, as it turned out to be,” Pena Nieto said in an interview on Mexico’s Canal 11 television. Pena Nieto had invited both Trump and his rival Hillary Clinton, who turned down the offer.  “Could we have done things better? Maybe yes, admittedly. I think that this genuine interest to bring about a meeting to take care of Mexico’s interests, I think, could have been done in a better way,” he said.  During his visit, Trump struck a collaborative tone with Mexico. But as soon as he was back in the United States, he told a crowd in Arizona that Mexico would pay for his massive border wall “100 percent.” Backlash from the visit forced the resignation of Pena Nieto’s finance minister and trusted aide Luis Videgaray, who had helped arrange the meeting.

Summary: मेक्सिको के राष्ट्रपति ने कहा कि ट्रम्प की यात्रा बेहतर की जा सकती थी


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Western intelligence agencies warned former Lebanese prime minister Saad al-Hariri of an assassination plot against him, the Saudi-owned pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported on Sunday. It cited unnamed sources close to Hariri.  However, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, head of Lebanon s General Security, said he had no information about an assassination plot against political figures in Lebanon. The army also said it had not uncovered any such plots. Asharq al-Awsat reported that the sources  revealed that he had received Western warnings of an assassination attempt that was prepared against him . It did not give further details of the alleged plot.  Hariri announced his surprise resignation on Saturday, citing a plot to kill him, and saying the climate in Lebanon resembled that before the assassination of his father Rafik al-Hariri, who was also prime minister, in 2005. He criticized Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah for their role in Lebanon and other Arab countries.  Hariri traveled to Riyadh on Friday and did not return to Lebanon. His resignation was made in a televised statement from Saudi Arabia, an arch rival of Iran. Asharq al-Awsat reported the same unnamed sources as speculating that Hariri would probably remain outside Lebanon because of the security threat against him.  On Saturday, Saudi-owned television channel al-Arabiya al-Hadath, part of the same media group as Asharq al-Awsat, reported that an assassination plot against Hariri had been foiled in Beirut days earlier, citing an unnamed source. Saudi Gulf Affairs Minister Thamer al-Sabhan said in a television interview that Hariri s personal security detail had  confirmed information  of a plot to kill him. Lebanon s internal security force said in a statement on the reports that it had no information about the matter.

Summary: पश्चिमी खुफिया ने हरीरी को मौत की साजिश की चेतावनी दीः अशर्क अल-अवसत


BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump went around and over the “Great Firewall” of China in a late-night tweet in Beijing as he thanked his hosts for a rare tour of the Forbidden City and a private dinner at the sprawling, centuries-old palace complex.  Many Western social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are banned in China. A sophisticated system has been built to deny online users within China access to blocked content.  That was not an issue for Trump, known for tweeting to his 42.3 million followers at any hour of the day, on Wednesday, the day he arrived in Beijing. “On behalf of @FLOTUS Melania and I, THANK YOU for an unforgettable afternoon and evening at the Forbidden City in Beijing, President Xi and Madame Peng Liyuan. We are looking forward to rejoining you tomorrow morning!” Trump even changed his Twitter banner, uploading a photograph of himself and Melania with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife, Peng Liyuan, during a Chinese opera performance at the Forbidden City.  The Twitter banner upload did not go unnoticed by Chinese state media, with state broadcaster CCTV flashing screenshots of the photograph on Thursday. Trump’s visit was also the third-most talked-about topic on Chinese social media platform Weibo over the last 24 hours, trailing only the birthday of a singer in a Chinese boy band and a weekly Asian pop song chart.  Many people wondered how Trump managed to evade China’s tough internet controls.  “I guess he must have done it via wifi on a satellite network,” said a user on Weibo. Many foreigners log on to virtual private networks (VPNs) to access content hosted outside of China. Another option is to sign up for a data-roaming service before leaving one’s home country.  “The president will tweet whatever he wants. That’s his way of communicating directly with the American people. Why not?” a White House official said ahead of Trump’s arrival in Beijing on Wednesday.  When asked whether China considers Trump’s use of Twitter to be in breach of Chinese law, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said there were many means of communication with “the outside world”.  “In China, people have many channels to communicate, it’s just that they communicate in different ways,” Hua said at a regular ministry briefing. “For example, some people use WeChat, some people use Weibo. Some people use Apple phones, some people use Huawei phones.” Trump tweeted again on Thursday afternoon, posting an ABC News video montage of the “incredible” welcome parade at the Great Hall of the People, where he was greeted by a military band and jumping, flag-waving children.  In his tweet, Trump embedded a link to a photograph of his Beijing visit on Instagram - also forbidden in China.  Not all of Trump’s tweets in China were bright and cheerful.  “NoKo has interpreted America’s past restraint as weakness,” he tweeted about reclusive North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats. “This would be a fatal miscalculation. Do not underestimate us. AND DO NOT TRY US.”

Summary: चीन में प्रतिबंधित, लेकिन ट्रम्प ने बीजिंग यात्रा के बारे में ट्वीट करने के लिए 'ग्रेट फ़ायरवॉल' स्कर्ट किया


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert said on Monday that it may take weeks before many residents are able to return to the Florida Keys, following possible damage to bridges caused by Hurricane Irma.  The Keys are going to take a while,  Bossert told a regular White House briefing, adding:  I would expect that the Keys are not fit for re-entry for regular citizenry for weeks.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस के सलाहकार का कहना है कि फ्लोरिडा कीज़ में वापसी में हफ्तों लग सकते हैं


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department, reacting to Spanish efforts to block a Catalan independence bid, said on Friday that Catalonia is an integral part of Spain and Washington backs Madrid s efforts to keep the country united.  Catalonia is an integral part of Spain, and the United States supports the Spanish government s constitutional measures to keep Spain strong and united,  State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

Summary: कैटेलोनिया से अलग होने के स्पेन के प्रयासों का अमेरिका ने किया समर्थन


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday condemned Venezuela s weekend gubernatorial elections as neither free nor fair and vowed to use its economic and diplomatic power to support Venezuelans in restoring democracy in the oil-exporting nation.  We condemn the lack of free and fair elections yesterday in Venezuela. The voice of the Venezuelan people was not heard,  State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.  As long as the (Venezuelan President Nicolas) Maduro regime conducts itself as an authoritarian dictatorship, we will work with members of the international community and bring the full weight of American economic and diplomatic power to bear in support of the Venezuelan people as they seek to restore their democracy.

Summary: अमेरिका ने वेनेजुएला के चुनावों की न तो स्वतंत्र और न ही निष्पक्ष होने के रूप में निंदा की