CLEARWATER, Fla. (Reuters) - Some of his supporters fret that President Donald Trump is backing himself into a corner with promises that can’t be kept. Others lament he is not pulling America from international conflicts as he vowed – or say he should “get off of Twitter.”  Those grumbles are early warning signs for Trump as he marks his 100th day in office on Saturday.  They were heard in Reuters interviews with Trump supporters in “swing” counties that went for Democrat Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 but then flipped for Trump last year – a slice of the electorate dominated by white voters that is crucial to the Republican’s re-election hopes and that Democrats want to win back.  Reuters visited the same four places - Pinellas County in Florida, Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania, Macomb County outside of Detroit, Michigan, and Gates County in rural North Carolina - right after the Nov. 8 election.  What reporters found this time in more than two dozen interviews is that Trump voters are largely standing with their man but with signs of restlessness, mainly over foreign policy, concerns over getting legislation through Congress and some skepticism that he won’t be able to follow through with promises – from building a wall along the Mexican border to repealing Obama’s signature healthcare law.  But rather than bash Trump, many largely blamed Democrats and Republicans alike, a fractured Congress, the federal judiciary, and what they see as a hostile news media.   They showed a willingness to trust the president almost implicitly, saw him as a tireless worker, and appreciated his efforts to secure the border and curb immigration. They had little interest in the in-fighting between his senior aides in the White House.  “Maybe sometimes I question what’s going on,” said Karen Mayer, 47, an attorney in Clearwater, a west coast Florida city in Pinellas County, where the majority of its 500,000 voters went for Obama in 2008 and 2012 but then flipped for Trump last year. He prevailed over Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton by slightly more than 1 percent of the vote there.  “But at the same time, I have faith that he has a strong team,” Mayer said.  In a statement touting Trump’s record in the first 100 days, the White House highlighted, among other things, his attempts to streamline government by proposing a lean budget, and his aggressiveness in foreign affairs, particularly with regard to challenging Russia and Iran.  If Trump has reason to worry about his re-election prospects, it should be because of supporters like Brian McCann, 48, who owns a real estate firm in Northampton, Pennsylvania. “I think he’s finding out that he can’t follow through on all his talk,” he said. “Internationally, I think he’s creating more tensions than solutions.”  That was the main reason that Holly Peseski, 46, a legal assistant in Mt. Clemens, Michigan, graded Trump’s tenure as a “B-minus” so far. “I don’t like the recent bombings he’s done,” Peseski said, referring to U.S. missile strikes on a Syrian airfield and a huge bomb dropped on a militant hideout in Afghanistan. “He was a little too quick to act.”  Peseski had another complaint about Trump: “I wish he’d get off of Twitter.”      The counties Reuters visited reflect the rural, suburban and largely white coalition that carried Trump to the White House.  Trump was able to flip these counties and dozens more like them powered by an enthusiastic voter base that included many people who had not cast ballots in years, as well as some Democrats who crossed over largely because of their dislike of Clinton.  An analysis of Reuters/Ipsos polling data shows slippage in Trump's approval ratings, with lower enthusiasm among white men without a college degree, the core of his political base.  In comparing Trump’s approval rating in the first 20 days of his tenure to a 20-day period in April, Reuters also found a rise in disapproval among independents, college-educated adults, people with below-average incomes, white women and white Millennials.  Those women voters were important to Trump’s victory. He beat Clinton 53 percent to 43 percent among white women, who comprise 37 percent of the electorate. In Pinellas County, for instance, white women are by far the largest demographic among its more than 275,000 registered voters. Trump beat Clinton there by a little more than 5,000 votes.  David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who lost his Pinellas-based seat in November in part, he said, because of his criticism of Trump, has seen few signs that the president’s support is fading, but at the same time, “he’s not picking up new supporters.”  Trump’s overall approval rating in Reuters/Ipsos polling has declined steadily over the past two weeks and is now at its lowest level since he took office, with 40 percent of Americans now approving of his performance in office.  Some voters interviewed in the swing counties identified the struggling effort to replace Obama’s healthcare law as an early worry about Trump.  Walter Watson, 62, a retired art teacher in Gatesville, a town of about 320 people in rural Gates County, North Carolina, said he did not like the way Trump and Republicans tried to rush through a new healthcare plan without giving it what he thought was proper consideration.  “You got to be careful, because this is a life and death issue for a lot of people,” Watson said.  His sparsely populated county backed Obama with 52 percent of the vote in 2012, but Trump won it with 53 percent in 2016.  Congress is the biggest hindrance to Trump’s success, many of those interviewed said.  “I don’t think he’s going to be able to do even half of what he claimed,” said Bob White, 71, a retired finance worker in Clinton Township in Michigan. “I don’t think Congress is going to go along with him.”  But even as they express skepticism that Trump can achieve all of his campaign promises, his supporters are sticking with him for now.  “I think he’s trying,” said Watson. “But he probably overstated what he could do, because even a president has limits.”

Summary: 'ट्विटर से बाहर निकलें': जैसे ही ट्रम्प 100वें दिन के करीब आ रहे हैं, कुछ असंतोष की हलचल


NEWARK, N.J. (Reuters) - Two former associates of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie were sentenced to federal prison on Wednesday for their part in the “Bridgegate” lane closure scandal that helped scuttle the Republican’s presidential bid. Bill Baroni, 45, the former deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, will serve two years, while Bridget Kelly, 44, a former deputy chief of staff for Christie, received a sentence of 1-1/2 years. The defendants were found guilty in November of plotting to close down access lanes at the George Washington Bridge linking New York City and northern New Jersey, the world’s busiest span, for nearly a week in 2013 in an act of political retribution. Prosecutors said the resulting traffic jams in the town of Fort Lee, New Jersey, were intended to punish its Democratic mayor for refusing to back Christie’s re-election bid, as the governor’s aides tried to burnish his bipartisan credentials before his 2016 presidential campaign. Christie has denied any involvement and was not charged. But the scandal tarnished his national profile and contributed to record-low approval ratings in his home state. In an NBC interview before the hearing, Christie deflected questions about the appropriate penalty. A spokesman for the governor, Brian Murray, said Christie would have no comment on the sentences.  U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton in Newark rejected defense pleas that she sentence Baroni and Kelly to probation rather than prison, citing “an outrageous display of abuse of power.” But she agreed with prosecutors that Kelly bore slightly less responsibility than Baroni, New Jersey’s highest-ranking Port Authority official. The agency oversees operations for major bridges, ports and airports in the New York City area and is run by officials appointed by New Jersey and New York state’s governors. Both defendants told Wigenton they felt remorse. “I respectfully ask that you allow me the opportunity to reconnect with my children and rebuild our lives,” said a tearful Kelly, a single mother of four. Baroni and Kelly will be allowed to remain free on bail while they appeal their convictions. Following the sentencings, Kelly struck a defiant note outside the courthouse. “This fight is far from over,” she said. “I will not allow myself to be the scapegoat in this case.” The plot to use the bridge to inflict political payback was “out of the playbook of some dictator of a banana republic,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Cortes said in court. During the trial, Kelly and Baroni testified that another Port Authority executive, David Wildstein, convinced them the lane realignment was part of a legitimate traffic study. But Wildstein, who pleaded guilty and was the government’s star witness, told jurors the defendants were fully aware the study was a cover story. It was Kelly’s infamous email to Wildstein saying, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee,” that set the plan in motion, prosecutors said. The three officials selected the first day of school to maximize gridlock and ignored increasingly desperate pleas for help from Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich. No other officials have been charged over Bridgegate, though evidence at trial suggested Christie and numerous members of his inner circle knew about the closures earlier than they had publicly acknowledged. “While a number of people outside of this courtroom were involved in what happened in Fort Lee that day, some charged, some not, that does not change the fact that I failed,” Baroni said in court. After his White House bid fizzled early in 2016, Christie became one of the staunchest supporters of his former rival, Donald Trump, who went on to win the presidency. Christie headed Trump’s transition team and was considered a candidate for a Cabinet post. But he was replaced as transition team chief soon after the election Nov. 8 and passed over for an administration job. State law bars the governor from running for a third term this year. The Bridgegate case indirectly led to one other conviction, after authorities investigating the plot uncovered an unrelated bribery scheme orchestrated by a Christie confidante, former Port Authority Chairman David Samson. Samson pleaded guilty to pressuring United Airlines into operating an unprofitable flight so he could visit a vacation home more easily.

Summary: 'ब्रिजगेट' घोटाले में क्रिस्टी के पूर्व सहयोगियों को दो साल तक की जेल


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq won t be able to restore Kirkuk s oil output to last week s levels before Sunday because of missing equipment at two fields, an oil ministry official told Reuters on Thursday. The official accused the Kurdish authorities previously in control of Kirkuk of removing equipment at the Bai Hasan and Avana oil fields, north west of the city.

Summary: इराक रविवार को किर्कुक उत्पादन बहाल करने की उम्मीद करता हैः तेल मंत्रालय के अधिकारी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will make an announcement this week on an  overall Iran strategy,  including whether to decertify the international deal curbing Tehran s nuclear program, the White House said on Tuesday.  He ll make that later this week,  White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters when asked about the certification decision and the administration s broader strategy on Iran. Trump, who has called the 2015 pact agreed between Iran and six world powers an  embarrassment,  is expected to announce that he will decertify the deal ahead of an Oct. 15 deadline, a senior administration official said last week. Trump is also expected to designate Iran s most powerful security force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp, as a terrorist organization as part of a new Iran strategy.  The president has reached a decision on an overall Iran strategy and wants to make sure that we have a broad policy to deal with ... all of the problems of Iran being a bad actor,  Sanders said. Trump accuses Iran of supporting terrorism and says the 2015 deal does not do enough to block its path to acquire nuclear weapons. Iran says it does not seek nuclear weapons and in turn blames the growth of militant groups such as Islamic State on the policies of the United States and its regional allies. The hawkish turn in U.S. policy toward Iran has alarmed many of its European allies. British Prime Minister Theresa May told Trump by phone on Tuesday that the deal was  vitally important for regional security.  German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Monday urged the United States  not to call into question such an important achievement that has improved our security.  France voiced concern on Tuesday that designating the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist group could exacerbate tensions in the region. If Trump declines to certify the Iran deal, U.S. congressional leaders would have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on Tehran suspended under the agreement. Iranian authorities, who have said Tehran would not be the first to violate the accord, have stepped up their rhetoric against the Trump administration over the possible terrorist designation of the Revolutionary Guards.  The Americans have driven the world crazy by their behavior. It is time to teach them a new lesson,  Iranian armed forces spokesman Masoud Jazayeri said on Tuesday.

Summary: ट्रम्प इस सप्ताह ईरान की व्यापक रणनीति की घोषणा करेंगेः व्हाइट हाउस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said on Wednesday she hoped “cooler heads will prevail” over the vacancy on the Supreme Court, suggesting that Republicans should act on President Barack Obama’s nominee. Ginsburg’s comments at Georgetown Law Center came a day after Democrats in the Republican-controlled Senate renewed their push for a confirmation hearing for Obama’s pick, appeals court judge Merrick Garland.  The nomination has been pending for 175 days without Senate action, the longest ever to the high court.  Republicans have said the next president should get to make the appointment because the vacancy, created by the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia in February, came in the final year of Obama’s presidency. “I do think that cooler heads will prevail, I hope sooner rather than later,” Ginsburg said. Ginsburg, 83, a liberal appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1993, acknowledged that the Senate, which has the responsibility to confirm or reject judicial nominations, did not have to confirm the nominee. But she said it did have an obligation to at least consider Garland instead of taking no action at all. “The president is elected for four years, not three years,” she said in relation to the president’s authority to make appointments in the final year of a term. “Maybe some members of the Senate will wake up and appreciate that that’s how it should be.” Earlier on Wednesday, Democratic senators held a press conference outside the Supreme Court demanding action on the nomination. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has so far held firm to his pledge to take no action. The nine-seat court has been one justice short since Scalia’s death. With four liberals and four conservatives now on the bench, an appointment by a Democratic president could end decades of conservative domination on the court. Ginsburg has a long track record of making sometimes outspoken public remarks, in stark contrast to most of her colleagues. In July, she issued a statement in which she said she regretted comments she made in press interviews criticizing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.  In one CNN interview she described him as a “faker.”

Summary: न्यायमूर्ति गिन्सबर्ग को उम्मीद है कि उच्च न्यायालय की रिक्तियों पर 'कूल हेड्स' की जीत होगी


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Labor Department will delay implementation of its “fiduciary” rule by 60 days while it undertakes a review on whether the rule may hinder Americans’ ability to get access to retirement investment advice, according to a filing in the Federal Register. The department’s rule, which requires brokers offering retirement investment advice to act in the best interest of their customers, has been heavily criticized by Republicans and Wall Street amid concerns it may make investment advice too costly. The delay of the rule, which was slated to take effect April 10, was prompted after President Donald Trump in February ordered the department to conduct the review on whether it should be revised or repealed. In order to delay the effective date, the department had to undertake a formal rule-making process.  If the department ultimately decides on a repeal or change, it will need to undertake another rule-making process in the future. In addition to the 60-day delay, the department also said that other regulatory requirements in the rule for firms to provide disclosures and written representations of compliance to investors will not be mandated until Jan. 1, 2018. That date, the department added, is when it expects to complete its review. As of March 17, the department said it had received 15,000 comments in support of a delay, versus 178,000 comments opposing any delay.  Despite the lop-sided results, the department said a delay is justified because time is needed to complete the presidentially mandated review. Rigid adherence to the original April 10 compliance deadline, the department said, could result in “an unduly chaotic transition to the new standards” and lead to “confusion, excessive costs, and needlessly restricted or reduced advisory services.”

Summary: अमेरिकी श्रम विभाग समीक्षा लंबित रहने तक 60 दिनों के लिए 'प्रत्ययी' नियम में देरी करेगा


NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet in New York on Sunday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the U.S. State Department said in a brief statement. The State Department did not provide any details on what the two men would discuss during the 9 p.m. (0100 GMT on Monday) meeting. Possible topics include the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, the Syrian civil war and North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs.

Summary: टिलरसन, रूस के लावरोव रविवार को मिलेंगेः अमेरिकी विदेश विभाग


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rex Tillerson’s job as chief U.S. diplomat became harder before it even began because of White House moves that have antagonized Muslim nations, European allies, Mexico and U.S. bureaucrats, current and former U.S. officials said. Hours after the Senate confirmed Tillerson as the 69th secretary of state by a 56-43 vote, the former Exxon Mobil Corp CEO was sworn in as the chief foreign affairs adviser to President Donald Trump. The Senate vote was largely along party lines, with all 52 Republicans voting in favor, along with three Democrats and one independent. Tillerson takes up his post at the State Department on Thursday morning when he will address staff. Under any circumstance, Tillerson would have inherited a messy globe with a civil war in Syria, nuclear-armed North Korea threatening to test an intercontinental ballistic missile and challenges from a rising China and an assertive Russia. In the 12 days since Trump’s inauguration, however, the White House has taken steps that foreign policy professionals view as self-inflicted wounds. “We’ve done a series of own goals,” said a senior U.S. official on condition of anonymity. “There are always mess-ups and friction with new administrations. That’s not new. This is worse than usual.” On Thursday, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto took the rare step of cancelling a Washington trip to meet Trump, who has repeatedly demanded Mexico pay for a wall on the U.S. border. On Friday, Trump signed an executive order imposing a four-month hold on refugees entering the United States and a temporary bar on most travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The order has not only caused consternation for the nations involved but among other Muslim-majority countries, allies such as Germany and Britain and career State Department officials. About 900 department officials signed a memo dissenting from the policy, a source familiar with the document said, an unusual rebellion against a new president’s policies. As reports of the internal dissent spread on Monday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said career officials who disagreed should “get with the program or they can go.” The result has been that two constituencies Tillerson has to manage - foreign nations and the U.S. diplomatic corps - have  already got their noses out of joint before his swearing-in. “He will start at a disadvantage and will have to play catch-up to build trust with his foreign counterparts and with State Department employees,” said John Bellinger, a State Department legal adviser under Republican President George W. Bush. “Tillerson walks into a situation where he has got an unhappy and suspicious White House and he has an unhappy and suspicious workforce,” said another former State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It would have been difficult enough given the chaos.” Several current and former U.S. officials said they were dismayed by the process that led to the executive order, with little evidence that there was broad consultation within the government, let alone with Congress or foreign allies. The secretary of homeland security, John Kelly, was reported to have been largely blindsided by the order. According to the New York Times, he was on a White House conference call getting his first full briefing on it when Trump signed the order. Loren DeJonge Schulman, a former national security council and Pentagon official, said the belief that Trump did not bring his top advisers into the discussion of the matter would itself handicap the new secretary of state. “The secretary of state’s power and his influence primarily derive from the idea that he speaks for the president,” said Schulman, now at the Center for a New American Security think tank in Washington, saying it was an open secret the White House may not be consulting cabinet officials on such matters. “The fact that foreign audiences will realize that on day one is going to definitely weaken his hand,” she said.

Summary: मुख्य अमेरिकी राजनयिक के रूप में टिलरसन का काम शुरू होने से पहले ही कठिन हो गया था


MOGADISHU (Reuters) - The number killed in twin bombings in the Somali capital Mogadishu last weekend has risen to 358, the government said late on Friday.  As well as the confirmed death toll, 228 people were injured in what was the deadliest attack in the country s history, Somalia s news agency quoted the information and internal security ministers as saying.

Summary: सोमालिया में बम विस्फोटों में मरने वालों की संख्या बढ़कर 358 हुई


ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey wants to open a new border gate with Iraq in cooperation with the central government in Baghdad after it shuts down the existing gate in response to last week s Kurdish independence referendum, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said.  We have proposed opening the new Ovakoy gate, west of currently used Habur gate, to Baghdad and we are expecting their support. We will be happy to discuss this with (Iraqi Prime Minister Haider) al-Abadi,  Yildirim told reporters, saying the timing of his visit to Baghdad was a work in progress. Yildirim also said he wanted to boost cooperation with central Iraqi government on economy, defense, security and political issues.

Summary: तुर्की इराक सीमा, हवाई क्षेत्र बंद करेगा, बगदाद के साथ नया द्वार खोलेगा


HAVANA (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama challenged Cuba’s Communist government with an impassioned call for democracy and economic reforms on Tuesday, addressing the Cuban people directly in a historic speech broadcast throughout the island. Taking the stage at Havana’s Grand Theater with President Raul Castro in attendance, Obama said he was in Cuba to extend a hand of friendship and “bury the last remnant” of the Cold War in the Americas. But he also pressed hard for economic and political reforms and greater openness in a one-party state where the government stifles dissent, Internet access is low and the media is in state hands. His speech was the high point of a 48-hour trip made possible by his agreement with Castro in December 2014 to cast aside decades of hostility that began soon after Cuba’s 1959 revolution, and work to normalize relations.  Nonetheless, Obama threw down a very public gauntlet to Castro, saying Cubans cannot realize their full potential if his government does not allow change and relax its grip on Cuban politics and society.  “I believe citizens should be free to speak their minds without fear,” Obama told the audience on the final day of his visit. “Voters should be able to choose their governments in free and democratic elections.” “Not everybody agrees with me on this, not everybody agrees with the American people on this but I believe those human rights are universal. I believe they’re the rights of the American people, the Cuban people and people around the world,” Obama said. The hand-picked audience cheered him repeatedly, especially when he criticized the longstanding U.S. economic embargo against Cuba, spoke glowingly of Cubans’ talents and praised the country’s achievements in healthcare and education.  The spectacle of the leader of the United States, the superpower to the north for long reviled by Cuba’s government, standing in Havana and urging such changes in a speech broadcast into homes across the island would have been unthinkable before the two countries began their rapprochement 15 months ago. Since then, Obama has repeatedly used his executive powers to relax trade and travel restrictions, while also pushing Cuba to accelerate cautious market-style reforms introduced by Castro and allow greater political and economic freedom.  Castro has welcomed Obama’s moves while insisting that a new relationship with the old enemy does not mean Cuba plans to change its political system. The audience of more than 1,000 people at Obama’s speech on Tuesday included officials and business people from both countries, U.S. lawmakers and members of Cuba’s cultural elite. Obama drew sustained applause when he reiterated his call for the U.S. Congress to lift the embargo, which he called “an outdated burden on the Cuban people.”  But the response was more muted when he challenged Castro to allow greater political liberties.  Obama went straight from the speech to a private meeting with prominent dissidents on the island, a few of whom object to his engagement policy. “As far as I am concerned nothing has changed, the repression continues,” said Berta Soler from the Ladies in White group, who met Obama at the embassy. Cuba’s government dismisses the dissidents as mercenaries without public support but Obama applauded their work and “extraordinary courage.” Obama sees his dramatic shift away from a decades-old policy of trying to isolate and weaken Cuba as a success story and wants to make it an irreversible part of his legacy by the time he leaves office in January. Still, major obstacles remain to full normalization of ties, notably the differences over human rights, the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress’ refusal to lift the embargo and Washington’s resistance to discussing the return of the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obama’s critics at home have criticized his visit to Cuba as a premature reward to the Communist government. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, said on Tuesday the trip legitimizes what he called Castro’s “tyrannical dictatorship.” With his words carried live by Cuba’s state-run media, Obama sought to persuade ordinary Cubans that his new policy was focused primarily on helping them to improve their lives. Standing at a lectern flanked by U.S. and Cuban flags, he laid out a hopeful vision of future relations and told Cubans “it’s up to you” to take steps to change the country. Obama pointedly stopped short of what some of his critics had demanded – that he echo U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s famous exhortation in a 1987 speech in West Berlin for Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. But he did encourage Cubans to embrace democracy, set up their own businesses and help improve Cuban society. “Many suggested that I come here and ask the people of Cuba to tear something down. But I’m appealing to the young people of Cuba who will lift something up, build something new,” he said. Some Cubans who saw the speech in their homes or local cafes were also impressed by his frank admission of America’s own failings. “He has been very honest in his statements,” said Santiago Rodriguez, 78, in his home in central Havana. “It is not only the blockade (embargo) that has overwhelmed us for years. This was a message full of suggestions and positive criticism for the future of Cuba.” Castro, an army general who took over as president from his ailing brother, Fidel Castro, in 2008, was at the theater to greet Obama on arrival and sat in the audience for the speech. At the end, he lightly applauded from the balcony, then waved to the crowd. Later, the two leaders entered together to loud applause at Havana’s Latin American Stadium and sat side-by-side for a baseball game between Cuba’s much-loved national team and Major League Baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays. Castro was also on hand at the airport to bid Obama farewell, giving him an enthusiastic handshake at the bottom of Air Force One’s stairway and then exchanging waves once the U.S. leader reached the top. After the two men met on Monday, they aired some of the old grievances between their countries at a joint news conference, even as they sought to advance the diplomatic thaw. Obama’s administration is seeking to galvanize the Cuban people to help him pressure their government for reforms. But flashes of anger from Castro at the news conference illustrated how Washington runs the risk of being accused of meddling. Obama’s address on Tuesday was the first time a sitting U.S. president’s speech was broadcast to the Cuban people while on Cuban soil – although speeches by visiting popes have been carried live by state media. Jimmy Carter, traveling to Cuba in 2002 as the first former U.S. president to visit since the revolution, also called for political freedoms in a speech broadcast on live television.

Summary: ओबामा ने लोकतंत्र के आह्वान के साथ कम्युनिस्ट नेतृत्व वाले क्यूबा को चुनौती दी


VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis canonized 35 new Roman Catholic saints on Sunday, including three indigenous children martyred in 16th century Mexico and considered the first Christians killed for their faith in the New World. Francis used the occasion to announce that he had decided to call a meeting of bishops, or synod, from countries in the    Pan-Amazon region for October, 2019, to discuss the condition of the Church in the area and the plight of indigenous people. The region includes Guyana, Suriname, French Guyana, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru and Brazil. The three children the pope canonized before a crowd of tens of thousands in St. Peter s Square were of the Talaxcaltec people, an indigenous pre-Colombian group in what is now Mexico. The first child, Cristoforo, was converted to Christianity by Franciscan missionaries and was killed in 1527 by his own father, a tribal chief who spurned his son s attempts to convert him from paganism. The boy was beaten and thrown into a fire when he was 13. Two other indigenous children from the same area, Antonio and Juan, were killed by Indios in the village of Cuauhtinchan in 1529 as a result of their conversion. They are believed to have been 12 or 13 when they were beaten to death for helping Dominican missionaries. The pope also canonized 30 martyrs who were killed for their faith in Brazil in 1645. They included two Portuguese missionaries and 28 followers killed by Dutch colonial soldiers during a period of persecution of Catholics. In announcing the 2019 synod for bishops from the Amazon region, Francis said indigenous people there today were  often abandoned and without the prospect of a bright future, even due to the crisis of the Amazon Forest, a lung of utmost importance for our planet . Francis, an Argentine and the first Latin American pope, has often linked his calls for social justice, particularly for indigenous people, to those for defense of the environment, saying the poor will suffer the most from the effects of climate change. In 2015 he wrote a landmark encyclical, or papal letter, on defense of the environment and he has called for special protection for the Amazon region because of its vital importance to the planet s ecosystem. In his comments on Sunday, the pope did not mention the role of the Church in suppressing native cultures in the New World. But during a visit to Bolivia in 2015, Francis said  many grave sins were committed against the native people of America in the name of God . He asked forgiveness for the Church, for  crimes committed against native peoples during the so-called conquest of America . On Sunday, Francis also canonized Father Faustino Miguez, a Spanish priest who lived in the 19th and 20th centuries, and Father Angelo d Acri, an Italian itinerant preacher who died in 1739 after serving in some of the most remote areas of mountainous southern Italy.

Summary: पोप ने पहली नई दुनिया के शहीदों को सम्मानित किया, 2019 के लिए अमेज़ॅन धर्मसभा का आह्वान किया


YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Militants seeking independence for Cameroon s English-speaking regions killed four gendarmes on Monday, the government said, as disputes with the Francophone-dominated government degenerate into open warfare.   Several separatists were killed by security forces in ensuing clashes, the government spokesman said. Repression by President Paul Biya s government against what began as peaceful protests a year ago by Anglophone activists over perceived social and economic marginalization has bolstered support for armed militants demanding a full break with Yaounde. The separatists have launched a series of deadly raids on government police and soldiers in recent weeks, leading authorities to escalate a crackdown that has killed dozens of civilians. Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Cameroon s government spokesman, said  the separatists had killed four gendarmes earlier on Monday in the town of Kembong in Southwest region s Manyu Division.  The assailants, ensnared by the measures put in place by our defense and security forces, are now reduced to sporadic attacks carried out by hidden faces and using perfidy,  Tchiroma said. A representative for the separatists could not be immediately reached for comment. Manyu, with its dense equatorial forests along the Nigerian border, has become the center of the insurgency from which the separatists have launched a series of attacks on security forces in villages. The violence there has fueled a mounting refugee crisis. At least 7,500 people have crossed into Nigeria since Oct. 1, when the secessionists declared an independent state called Ambazonia, and the U.N. refugee agency says it is bracing itself for as many as 40,000.    Cameroon s linguistic divide harks back to the end of World War One, when the German colony of Kamerun was carved up between allied French and British victors. The English-speaking regions joined the French-speaking Republic of Cameroon the year after its independence in 1960. French speakers have dominated the country s politics since. Tensions have long simmered but the recent violence is the most serious to date and has emerged as a serious challenge to Biya s 35-year rule. The 84-year-old is expected to seek a new  term in an election next year.

Summary: कैमरून के अलगाववादियों ने अंग्रेजी बोलने का संकट बढ़ने पर चार सैनिकों की हत्या कर दी


EAST CHICAGO, Ind. (Reuters) - The head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) toured his first hazardous waste site on Tuesday amid proposed budget cuts that could devastate efforts to clean up contaminated land and water around the country.  Scott Pruitt’s visit to East Chicago, Indiana, came a day after the agency denied a report that it was considering closing its Chicago office, which oversees regional environmental protection efforts, including the Flint, Michigan drinking water clean-up and Great Lakes restoration. “The reason I’m here is because it is important that we restore confidence to the people here in this community that we are going to get it right going forward,” Pruitt told the media after meeting with residents and lawmakers.  Pruitt did not address the report of the possible office closure or how drastic budget cuts would impact the EPA’s operations. He toured a housing complex built on the Superfund site where around 1,000 residents had to leave their homes earlier this year due to lead contamination. Dozens of people held signs on Wednesday urging the EPA to continue clean-up efforts.     The Superfund program was started in 1980 to clean up hazardous waste sites, which now number just over 1,300 around the country.  The White House budget proposal submitted to Congress last month includes a 31 percent cut in spending for the EPA, including a similar reduction of the agency’s Hazardous Substance Superfund Account by $330 million to $762 million. Clean-up would continue in East Chicago, lawmakers said.  Pruitt, “made commitments that we would have it right,” Democratic Senator Joe Donnelly said.” There is a budget that is sent over and then there is a real budget that is put together. And the real budget will provide the funds necessary to make sure East Chicago is right.”  East Chicago, around 25 miles (40 km) outside of Chicago, was home to the now defunct U.S. Smelter and Lead Refinery Inc which contaminated the facility and surrounding areas with lead and arsenic. Demetra Turner, 44, a resident of the West Calumet Housing Complex who has yet to leave, urged others to keep pressure on the EPA.  “Keep fighting people, keep fighting, because that is what it takes,” she said.

Summary: प्रस्तावित बजट कटौती के बीच ई. पी. ए. प्रमुख ने इंडियाना अपशिष्ट स्थल का दौरा किया


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia s Defence Ministry denied on Monday that Russian war planes had carried out deadly air strikes on a village in Syria s Deir al-Zor province that had killed dozens of civilians, the Interfax news agency reported. Moscow was responding after the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that at least 53 civilians, including children, had been killed in Russian air strikes in the eastern Syrian village of Al-Shafah.

Summary: रूस ने इस बात से इनकार किया है कि उसके विमानों ने सीरिया के देइर अल-ज़ोर में नागरिकों को मार गिरायाः इफैक्स


TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan families displaced from a town ransacked after the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 will be allowed to return home in February, the U.N.-backed government said on Tuesday after more than a year of negotiations. The deal, if implemented, would be a step toward reconciliation in the North African oil producing country, which is heavily divided between competing factions, communities, tribes and governments since 2011. Residents of the town of Tawergha were expelled by former anti-Gaddafi rebels in 2011 in retaliation for the strongman having used their settlement as a launch pad for attacks on the western city of Misrata during the uprising.  They have been living in camps and makeshift settlements in poverty across Libya and were banned from returning home. They faced abuse and arbitrary arrest since videos surfaced purportedly showing some of them joining Gaddafi forces in 2011.  Within the frame of achieving the national reconciliation ... as well as to develop the basics of state of law and institutions, I declare today the beginning of return of Tawergha families to their town on the first of February,  the Tripoli-based Prime Minister Fayez Seraj said in a statement. The town, which is east of Misrata, has been a ghost town since it was looted by Misrata forces in 2011. Some 40,000 people were displaced, according to Human Rights Watch s website. The government will pay compensation to the relatives of those who were killed and to those who had been detained, wounded or whose homes were destroyed in the conflict, it said. A spokesman for the Misrata city council confirmed the deal, saying it was up to the government to implement it.

Summary: 2011 में लीबिया के शहर से पीछा किए गए परिवार घर जा सकते हैंः सरकार


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump will strike a blow against the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement on Friday in defiance of other world powers, choosing not to certify that Tehran is complying with the deal in a major reversal of U.S. policy. Trump s decision will not withdraw the United States from the agreement, which was negotiated by Washington and other world powers during the administration of former President Barack Obama. The move likely gives U.S. lawmakers 60 days to decide whether to bring back sanctions on Iran that were lifted under the deal.   If Congress reimposes the sanctions, the United States would in effect be in violation of the terms of the nuclear deal and it would likely fall apart. If lawmakers do nothing, the deal remains in place. Here is a look at where key U.S. lawmakers stand on the deal:  SENATE MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL: Like every Republican in Congress, McConnell voted against the Iran nuclear agreement. He has not expressed a position on how he will respond to Trump s decertification, but has not yet broken from Trump on policy matters. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SPEAKER PAUL RYAN: Has not said where he stands.  I don t want to get ahead of the president,  he said last week. HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER KEVIN MCCARTHY: Has not said what he would do. SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN BOB CORKER: Repeatedly spoke out against the agreement and wrote legislation that gave Congress some say over it. While he has questioned Trump recently on some foreign policy issues - helping spark a Twitter feud - Corker has followed the administration line on most policy matters. Corker said on Friday he expected to introduce legislation to  address flaws  in the pact without violating it.  HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN ED ROYCE: Royce says  As flawed as the deal is, I believe we must now enforce the hell out of it.  It was not clear how he would respond to the legislation.  SENATE MINORITY LEADER CHUCK SCHUMER: Opposed the deal two years ago but more recently says it should be left in place but strongly enforced with efforts to clamp down on other activities like Iran s ballistic missile program. HOUSE MINORITY LEADER NANCY PELOSI: Supported the original deal, still supports it. SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE TOP DEMOCRAT BEN CARDIN: Opposed the deal two years ago, but says U.S. should honor it now, while strictly enforcing it and clamping down on other Iranian activities detrimental to the interests of the United States and its allies. HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS TOP DEMOCRAT ELLIOT ENGEL: Opposed the deal two years ago but said killing it now would be a  grave mistake.  Still an Iran hawk on issues such as Tehran s ballistic missile program, human rights violations and its support for what Washington sees as terrorism.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ईरान परमाणु समझौते पर अमेरिकी कांग्रेस के नेता


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has approved arms sales packages worth more than $3.8 billion to Bahrain including F-16 jets, upgrades, missiles and patrol boats, the Pentagon said on Friday. The approvals coincide with the State Department s notification to Congress, which had held up a similar arms deal last year over human rights concerns.  The proposed sales include 19 F-16V jets made by Lockheed Martin Corp which could have a value of up to $2.7 billion, the Pentagon said.  Other potential sales approved Friday include two 35 meter (114 feet) patrol boats with machine guns, 221 anti-tank missiles made by Raytheon Co and $1.8 billion worth of upgrades to Bahrain s existing fleet of F-16 jets, the Pentagon said in separate statements. In May, U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington s relations with Bahrain would improve, after meeting with the king of the Gulf Arab state during a visit to Saudi Arabia. However in June, U.S. Senator Bob Corker, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he would block arms sales to members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, including Bahrain, until they made progress in resolving a simmering dispute with Qatar. But a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity earlier on Friday, said the proposed sales were cleared by the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs Committees through the regular  tiered review process  which precedes this formal notification. The U.S. official also said the United States has regular discussions with Bahrain on human rights and political reform and continues to urge its government to pursue efforts that will enhance regional security.

Summary: विदेश विभाग ने बहरीन को 38 करोड़ डॉलर के हथियारों की बिक्री को मंजूरी दीः पेंटागन


JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African President Jacob Zuma reiterated a call on Monday for radical reforms to shift the balance of  monopoly  economic power away from whites who dominated under apartheid, saying without such change blacks would stay poor for a long time. He made the remarks, reiterating a staple criticism leveled by his ruling ANC about South Africa s economy, against the backdrop of widespread allegations of corruption against Zuma and his friends, the Indian-born Gupta brothers. Zuma was responding to a question about his role as an enemy of  white capital , during an interview with the ANN7 news network, which was founded by the Guptas. Zuma and the Guptas have denied any wrongdoing.   I don t know why there is a debate in fact. Because there is a monopoly capital and in South Africa it is white ... because of our history, it does have a color. It is white,  Zuma, who steps down as head of the ANC in December but can remain head of state until elections due in 2019, said.  Companies that dominate in the mines, there are not many ... You will find the same companies in charge. That means they are monopolizing the economy and they re not black,  he said. The Chamber of Mines in the world s top platinum producer says that in 2016, 39 percent of the sector was owned by  historically disadvantaged South Africans  - meaning non-whites.   Zuma said the policy of  radical economic transformation,  which has also seen moves to change the constitution to allow for the expropriation of land for redistribution to landless blacks, was needed to  correct the past.   The ANC must follow this policy because if you don t, we are going to stay in poverty, in inequality, for a long time.  The frontrunners to replace Zuma at the helm of the ANC are Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, a trade unionist who amassed a fortune in the world of business, and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, former chair of the African Union and Zuma s ex-wife. Ramaphosa is viewed more favourably by foreign investors, who help cover the country s deficits. Many of them are unsettled by Dlamini-Zuma s calls to radically redistribute wealth and her perceived links to her former husband. In a separate interview on state broadcaster SABC, ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe said  state capture is a reality,  referring to allegations that the Guptas and others have undue political influence with access to state resources and contracts under Zuma. Mantashe is regarded as an ally of Ramaphosa with ties that go back to the 1980s when they were involved in the founding of the National Union of Mineworkers.

Summary: दक्षिण अफ्रीका के जुमा ने एक बार फिर श्वेत आर्थिक शक्ति के एकाधिकार की निंदा की


LONDON (Reuters) - Britain will be in the “front seat” to negotiate a new trade deal with the incoming administration of Donald Trump, a top Republican in the United States Senate said, the BBC reported. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker said after meeting British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson that a trade deal between the two countries would be a priority as Britain prepares to leave the European Union. Last year, ahead of the Brexit vote, President Barack Obama exhorted Britons to stay in the EU and warned that if they left they would be at “the back of the queue” for a U.S. trade deal. Corker said Johnson knows full well that “there is no way the United Kingdom is going to take a back seat”. “They will take a front seat and I think it will be our priority to make sure that we deal with them on a trade agreement initially but in all respects in a way that demonstrates the long-term friendship that we’ve had for so long,” Corker was quoted as saying by the BBC. Trump, while a candidate for the U.S. presidency, hailed Brexit as a “great thing” when visiting Scotland the day after the vote, though Britain cannot sign a trade deal until it leaves the EU which under current plans will likely be in 2019.  After visits to see aides in Trump Tower in New York and meet members of Congress in Washington, Johnson said there had been a “huge fund of goodwill” towards Britain and a desire to move quickly on a trade deal. “They want to do it and they want to do it fast and that understanding was most vivid and most urgent on the part of the incoming administration,” he told parliament on Tuesday when asked about his trip. Speaking earlier, Johnson also described the incoming Trump administration as having a “very exciting agenda of change” and stressed that close relations between the two countries were not under threat. “We are America’s principal partner in working for global security and, of course, we are great campaigners for free trade,” Johnson was quoted as saying by the Guardian newspaper. “We hear that we are first in line to do a great free trade deal with the United States. So it’s going to be a very exciting year for both our countries.”

Summary: अमेरिकी व्यापार समझौते के लिए ब्रिटेन 'अग्रिम सीट' पर, शीर्ष रिपब्लिकन ने कहा


ZURICH (Reuters) - More than one in three Swiss feel uncomfortable around people perceived to be  different  because of their nationality, religion, skin color or other factors, a government survey found. The poll released on Tuesday sought for the first time to gauge how people coexist in a country of 8.4 million residents, a quarter of them foreigners. Thirty-six percent said they felt uneasy in the presence of people they found outside the norm, particularly those who spoke a foreign language, or moved around.  It did not give more details on the last category, but Roma and other itinerant groups have complained of discrimination in the mountainous state that has stayed outside the European Union.  Sixteen percent of respondents went further and said they felt threatened by foreigners. Despite that, most were in favor of granting more rights to foreign nationals, the poll discovered. Two out of three said racism was a key social problem, and 56 percent believed the integration of migrants was working well. With four national languages and a decentralized system of government, traditionally Christian Switzerland is increasingly diverse. There are more than 10 main religious communities in a population made up of people with roots in 190 other countries. Right-wing parties have stoked anti-foreigner sentiment, pushing for a series of measures including a ban on the construction of new minarets on mosques that became law in 2009.  But parliament last year watered down demands in a 2014 referendum to impose quotas on immigration from the European Union, the bloc that surrounds it and provides most of its trade.

Summary: तीन में से एक स्विस बाहरी लोगों के साथ असहज हैः सर्वेक्षण


CARACAS (Reuters) - From his refuge at the Chilean ambassador s home, Venezuela s deputy congressional leader has defended  civil disobedience  against President Nicolas Maduro and urged demoralized opponents to unite and oust him in a presidential vote.   All the focus of our struggle now is to have truly free presidential elections,  opposition lawmaker Freddy Guevara said in a video released overnight after he entered the Chilean diplomatic residence at the weekend.  Venezuela is due to hold a presidential vote in 2018. But foes of Maduro are demanding that the pro-government election board first be reformed, charging the election will be rigged if it is not. Saying he should be tried for violence, authorities have revoked Guevara s parliamentary immunity and banned the 31-year-old leader of hardline Popular Will party from traveling. Guevara, who is vice president of the opposition-led National Assembly, was at the forefront of anti-Maduro street demonstrations between April and July in which at least 125 people died and thousands were injured. Opponents say Maduro s leftist government has run oil-rich Venezuela s economy into the ground and resorted to increasingly authoritarian tactics to retain power.  The usurpers of the Supreme Court and State Prosecutor s Office accuse me of crimes I have not committed but based on events I do recognize,  Guevara said in the video released via social media.  Yes, I called protests and believe in civil disobedience. I organized them and will do it again. Never will they convince me, those who were in the street, nor the international community, that we are guilty when you murdered us.  Chief prosecutor Tarek Saab, who recently replaced a dissident prosecutor, presented the case against Guevara to the pro-Maduro Constituent Assembly superbody, which has sidelined congress, in a session late on Monday. Saab blamed Guevara for the shooting, stoning and stabbing of security officials, paying adolescents to protest, and exhorting violence during the protests this year.  He didn t care who died,  Saab said.  The U.S. State Department weighed in on the Guevara case on Tuesday, saying in a statement the government s moves against him were  yet another extreme measure to close the democratic space in Venezuela, criminalize dissent and control information.  Maduro, 54, has long had his sights on Guevara, nicknaming him  Chucky  in reference to a horror film s murderous doll. Popular Will founder Leopoldo Lopez is under house arrest, for his role in protests in 2014, and the party is under constant threat of being banned as officials accuse it of terrorism.  Mr. Nicolas Maduro, sadly for you, we have taken the decision not to give you any more hostages,  Guevara added in his video, explaining his decision to take refuge rather than face trial like Lopez did. Earlier this year the Chilean ambassador s opulent residence in the Country Club zone of Caracas took in five pro-opposition magistrates threatened with jail time.  They eventually crossed the border secretly to Colombia before flying to Santiago to be received by President Michelle Bachelet s government, which has joined a chorus of major Latin American nations in denouncing Maduro for rights abuses. Critics say Maduro has turned the country into a dictatorship by twisting elections and detaining opponents. His supporters say Maduro, who inherited the socialist course of his predecessor the late Hugo Chavez, is resisting a U.S.-backed push for a coup, and insist Venezuela s election process is sound. In another overnight development, a local journalist missing since Saturday turned up at dawn wearing only his underwear on a motorway outside Caracas, he and authorities said.  Jesus Medina, who works for the DolarToday currency and political website that virulently opposes Maduro, said he was kidnapped, tortured and threatened before being released.  To inform is not a crime,  Medina said in a video, showing injuries on his face. He declined to give more details of the alleged kidnapping, including the identity of his captors, because the incident was under investigation. The state prosecutor s office opened an investigation.

Summary: चिली की शरण से, वेनेजुएला के कांग्रेस डिप्टी ने मादुरो की अवहेलना की


MANILA (Reuters) - Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte will ask Congress to extend martial law in the volatile southern island of Mindanao to quell an insurgency, cabinet officials said on Sunday. Duterte placed the restive region of 22 million people under military rule on May 23 after Islamist militants took over parts of the southern Marawi City in what was the Philippines  biggest security crisis in years. Martial law is due to expire on Dec. 31. The Philippine leader will formally request on Monday a one-year extension of martial law, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea told reporters. The 23-member Senate and the 296-member House of Representatives will vote once they convene in joint session. Lawmakers are due to go on recess on from Dec. 16 to Jan. 14, 2018. Military rule should be extended in Mindanao given threats from Maoist guerrillas, Islamist militants and separatist groups, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said. Militants linked to Islamic State, which tried to gain a foothold in Southeast Asia by capturing parts of Marawi City, are strengthening their recruitment programs, Andanar said.  There were intelligence reports saying they are planning to attack another city,  Andanar told a radio interview. The request comes nearly two months after Duterte declared the liberation of Marawi City. More than 1,100 people - mostly militants - were killed and 350,000 displaced by the Marawi unrest. Continuing martial law beyond the initial 60-day limit requires lawmakers  approval, but the constitution does not restrict how long it can be extended.

Summary: फिलीपींस के दुतेर्ते मिंडानाओ मार्शल लॉ के एक साल के विस्तार की मांग करेंगे


BERLIN (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Saturday denied a report that said the Social Democrat, whose party has agreed to enter talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel s conservatives on forming a coalition, was eyeing the post of finance minister. News magazine Der Spiegel reported that Gabriel had recently told senior members of his SPD party that he was interested in becoming German finance minister if the SPD agreed to a re-run of the current  grand coalition  with Merkel s conservatives.  What Spiegel is writing is sheer nonsense,  Gabriel told Deutschlandfunk radio.  I m in a caretaker government and no one knows what the next government will look like.  More than two months after a national election, Germany has not managed to form a new government, so the conservative coalition from the last legislative period is still in power. Merkel, who lost many supporters to the far-right in September s election, is banking on the SPD to extend her 12-year tenure after attempts to cobble together an awkward three-way alliance with the liberal Free Democrats and environmentalist Greens crumbled. If the SPD were to agree to another  grand coalition  - an option that the SPD says is by no means a foregone conclusion - and demand the finance ministry, it would likely result in changes to Germany s European policy such as more focus on spending and investment rather than austerity. Wolfgang Schaeuble, who was Germany s conservative finance minister until he took on the role of president in October, became unpopular among struggling euro zone states during his eight years in office due to his focus on austerity. SPD leader Martin Schulz said on Thursday that Europe could not afford to undergo another four years of the kind of European policy that Schaeuble had practiced.

Summary: जर्मनी के गैब्रियल ने इस खबर का खंडन किया है कि उनकी नजर वित्त मंत्री पद पर है


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Venezuela s former chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega met Mexico s attorney general on Thursday, a Mexican official said, weeks after she fled her homeland accusing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of involvement in corruption. Ortega, who was removed from her position earlier this month, said a week ago she had evidence that Maduro was involved in graft with construction company Odebrecht. The 59-year-old Ortega has said she would give details of the corruption cases to authorities in the United States, Spain, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia. Mexican attorney general Raul Cervantes met Ortega for around 10 minutes in Mexico City, an official at the attorney general s office said. He gave no further details of the meeting and spoke on condition of anonymity. Late on Thursday, Ortega posted a picture on Twitter of herself with Cervantes in Mexico, saying the two had met to  coordinate actions in the fight against corruption.  Pictures posted on social media earlier on Thursday showed Ortega arriving at Mexico City airport. Ortega says she has been persecuted by opponents in an effort to hide details of high-level corruption and that she has proof of it. She was a key player in Venezuela s government before breaking with it in March. Ortega left Venezuela for Colombia and traveled to Brazil to meet prosecutors last week. Odebrecht admitted in a settlement with U.S. and Brazilian prosecutors to paying bribes across 12 countries to win contracts. According to a U.S. court ruling, Odebrecht paid about $788 million in bribes in countries including Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela between 2001 and 2016. Mexico s government has been sharply critical of the Maduro administration, accusing it of undermining democracy.

Summary: वेनेजुएला के पूर्व अभियोजक ने मैक्सिकन अटॉर्नी जनरल से मुलाकात की


(Reuters) - Former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, 94, has been hospitalized since last week due to low blood pressure, his spokeswoman said on Friday.  The former Senate majority leader was admitted to the Walter Reed National Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, on Sept. 13, said his spokeswoman, Marion Watkins. “After a routine check-up it was determined that he had low blood pressure which they’re correcting with medication,” Watkins said. “Right now they hope to release him within a matter of days.”  Watkins added that medical staff were hopeful for his recovery and that Dole, who is a special counsel at the Alston & Bird law firm in Washington, appreciated all the warm wishes he had received.  “Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes,” Dole said on Twitter early on Friday, responding to a tweet from his wife Elizabeth Dole’s foundation. “I hope to be home sipping a cosmo in a few days.”  His wife had tweeted from the Dole Foundation account saying she was “sorry to miss #InvictusGames2017,” a sports event that begins on Saturday in Toronto for wounded, injured or sick armed services personnel and other veterans. Dole, a decorated World War Two combat veteran, was seriously injured during the war. “I’m with my husband, @SenatorDole, at the hospital. Please pray for his speedy recovery,” she wrote online.  After serving in the Kansas legislature, Dole was elected to the U.S House of Representatives in 1960 and then the Senate in 1968, where he was re-elected four times. Dole twice served as Senate Republican leader and earned a reputation as an effective legislator who was well liked among Democrats as well as Republicans for his ability to build coalitions. Dole was also part of four unsuccessful presidential campaigns. In 1976, he was President Gerald Ford’s vice presidential choice, but that ticket lost to Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale.  Dole ran for president in 1980 but lost the Republican nomination to Ronald Reagan and eight years later Republicans chose George H.W. Bush over him. Dole won the Republican nomination in 1996 but was defeated by incumbent Democrat Bill Clinton.

Summary: पूर्व रिपब्लिकन राष्ट्रपति पद के उम्मीदवार बॉब डोल अस्पताल में भर्ती


DHAKA (Reuters) - Hundreds of people rushed to a Bangladeshi community centre prayer meeting to get free food packets on Monday, killing at least 10 people and injuring more than 50 in the crush, police said. The family of a former mayor in the southern port city of Chittagong had organised a prayer meet and offered the food packets in his memory.   We repeatedly announced on the loudspeaker that there are  adequate stock of foods at the centre, but when the gate was opened, hundreds of people tried to enter at the same time,  Devashis Paul, a local leader of the ruling Awami League party, said.

Summary: बांग्लादेश की प्रार्थना सभा में मुफ्त भोजन के पैकेटों के लिए भीड़ ने 10 लोगों की जान ले ली


COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish inventor Peter Madsen has admitted to dismembering Swedish journalist Kim Wall on board his submarine in August and dumping her body parts in the sea, but he still denies killing her, police said on Monday. The police said in a statement Madsen had told them in an Oct. 14 interrogation that Wall, 30, had died from carbon monoxide poisoning inside the submarine, while he was on the deck of the vessel. The police would now gather additional information from coroners and submarine experts from the Danish defense command. In past court hearings, Madsen said that Wall had died accidentally after being hit by a heavy hatch cover on his UC3 Nautilus submarine.   The police said they would now extend the charges against Madsen - which already include murder and mutilating Wall s body - to include sexual assault without intercourse, based on 14 interior and exterior stab wounds to the journalist s genitals.  Kim Wall had suffered 14 stabs in and around the genitals and it is due to these stabs that we have said that there must have been a sexual motive,  police spokesman Jens Moller Jensen told journalists in Copenhagen.  Madsen denies the murder and sexual assault charges. The cause of death was still unknown, said Jensen.  Wall, a freelance journalist who was researching a story on Madsen, went missing after he took her out to sea in the 17-metre (56-foot) submarine in August. On Aug. 23, police identified a headless female torso that washed ashore in Copenhagen as Wall s. Wall s arms as well as her and Madsen s mobile phones are still missing and the police are currently assessing if divers should continue the search for them.  Earlier this month, police said they had also recovered Wall s head and legs. They said they found no skull fracture, despite Madsen s earlier account that she had been hit on the head by the hatch cover.  The submarine is one of three that Madsen built, and one of the largest of its kind privately produced in the world. It could carry eight people and weighed 40 tonnes fully equipped.  The case has been scheduled to run for eight days at Copenhagen s district court from March 8 2018.

Summary: डेनमार्क की पनडुब्बी के मालिक ने स्वीकार किया कि स्वीडिश पत्रकार का शव क्षत-विक्षत थाः पुलिस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump is set to formally announce a review of vehicle fuel efficiency rules locked in at the end of the Obama administration when he meets with automaker chiefs this week, according to two sources briefed on the matter. The move by Trump would be a victory for automakers after months of pushing the new administration to reconsider the rules, which they say would be too expensive, could cost jobs and are out of step with vehicles consumers want to buy. Trump will visit an autonomous vehicle testing facility in a Detroit suburb on Wednesday and meet there with chief executives of several U.S. automakers. His administration has decided to review the feasibility of the vehicle emissions rules, which apply to the years 2022 through 2025, sources told Reuters last week. Former President Barack Obama moved to keep them in the final days of his administration. Reuters reported on the planned announcement on March 3. A formal notice by U.S. regulators to restart the review is expected to be made public on Wednesday.  White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Monday the trip is focused on “job creation and automobile manufacturing... highlighting the need to eliminate burdensome regulations that needlessly hinder meaningful job growth.” The chief executives of General Motors Co (GM.N), Ford Motor Co (F.N) and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCHA.MI) (FCAU.N) will meet with the president in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan, along with senior officials from Japanese and German automakers, including Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) and Daimler AG (DAIGn.DE). Trump will hold a roundtable with CEOs and then make a speech to autoworkers and others. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had until April 2018 to decide whether the standards were feasible under a “midterm review,” but moved up its decision to a week before Obama left office in January. Automakers argue the vehicle emissions rules, which would raise the fleet average fuel efficiency to more than 50 miles per gallon (mpg) by 2025 from 27.5 mpg in 2010, will impose significant costs and are out of step with consumer preferences. They argue they need more flexibility to meet the rules amid low gas prices. Environmentalists, who favor the standards, say the rules will reduce fuel costs and greenhouse gases and have vowed to sue if the Trump administration weakens them. Trade groups representing automakers, including General Motors, Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) and Toyota, have asked the EPA to withdraw the determination finalizing the rules, which stem from a 2011 deal the industry reached with the U.S. government. Changing the 2022-2025 fuel rules will require a lengthy regulatory process and environmentalists and Democratic state attorneys general are likely to sue if the Trump administration significantly weakens the requirements. The Obama administration said in 2011 the changes would boost fuel efficiency to a fleet-wide average of 54.5 mpg, save motorists $1.7 trillion in total fuel costs over the life of the vehicles and cost the auto industry about $200 billion over 13 years. The fuel standards were a central part of Obama’s legacy on addressing climate change. In July, the EPA estimated the fleet would average only 50.8 mpg to 52.6 mpg in 2025 under the rules because Americans were buying more sport utility vehicles and trucks and fewer cars. Automakers briefed on the meeting do not expect the EPA to take action this week to attempt to prevent California from setting its own vehicle emissions rules. A Trump administration official confirmed it does not intend to address California’s authority this week. Reuters reported last week the EPA is considering taking steps to reverse California’s waiver under the Clean Air Act that allows it to set its own vehicle greenhouse gas emissions standards. Trump has repeatedly met with automaker CEOs since taking office and made boosting employment, especially in the auto sector, a top priority.

Summary: वाहन उत्सर्जन नियमों की समीक्षा की घोषणा करेंगे ट्रंपः सूत्र


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump’s choice of Representative Mick Mulvaney to become White House budget director on Wednesday appeared to pick up enough Republican votes to vault him into the job. Republican Senator Thad Cochran, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, informed his staff that he intends to support Mulvaney’s confirmation, according to an aide. Earlier in the day an aide said Cochran had not yet decided whether to vote for Mulvaney. With Republican Senator John McCain announcing on the Senate floor that he would oppose Mulvaney, Cochran was seen as the potential 51st vote needed in the 100-member chamber for confirmation. McCain, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee that oversees defense programs, blasted Mulvaney in a Senate floor speech, saying the nominee had pursued “reckless budget strategies” that led to a partial government shutdown in 2013. McCain also lashed out at Mulvaney’s efforts on military affairs, including a vote in 2011 that the Arizona senator said would have brought the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, ending a mission to prevent it from “becoming a safe haven for terrorists.” Without Cochran, Vice President Mike Pence would have been thrust into the spotlight and likely called upon to break a likely 50-50 tie that threatened to doom Mulvaney’s nomination. Pence was needed to break such a tie over Betsy DeVos to be education secretary. Some Senate Republicans have been worried Mulvaney might not go along with beefing up spending on military programs. A Senate vote on Mulvaney, a leading member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus who represents a region of South Carolina, was expected on Thursday at 7 a.m. (1200 GMT). Any one of the 100 senators could still change their position on Mulvaney before the vote, but there were no fresh signs of that happening following Cochran’s decision. A Senate panel only narrowly backed the nominee this month in a party-line vote. Republicans have 52 of the 100 Senate seats and are able to approve Trump’s nominees if they can hold together a majority. Democrats have criticized Mulvaney for taking a hard line on popular social programs and for not paying more than $15,000 in taxes in relation to a household employee until after he was nominated. He has said he favors raising the Social Security retirement age to 70 and means-testing beneficiaries of the Medicare health care program. These positions have drawn the ire of Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats and sought the party’s presidential nomination in 2016.

Summary: ट्रम्प के व्हाइट हाउस के बजट प्रमुख को सीनेट का प्रमुख समर्थक मिला


BEIJING (Reuters) - Global automakers reported a surge in China sales last year as consumers rushed to take advantage of a tax cut on small-engine cars, but cautioned 2017 would be tougher for the industry as the incentive is rolled back and the broader economy slows. Toyota Motor Corp, Ford Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co Ltd on Friday each reported sales growth of 8 percent or better for 2016, although Honda Motor Co Ltd led the pack with a 24 percent growth. Toyota, which reported an 8.2 percent rise in China sales last year, sees growth slowing in 2017 as slightly higher taxes keep some buyers away from the world’s biggest auto market. It expects to sell at least 1.2 million vehicles, steady from 2016. “We are not being strictly volume focused. We would like to do so (increase volumes) while boosting car quality and keep our customer base satisfied with our products and service,” a Beijing-based Toyota spokesman told Reuters.  While Honda expects to sell more vehicles in China this year, it forecast a significantly slower growth rate of 7.4 percent, roughly in line with a slowing economy.  Demand for cars in China got a shot in the arm in 2016 ahead of a planned expiry of lower taxes at year-end. Sales will come under pressure this year, but not fall sharply, given a decision to slowly roll back the incentive instead of abruptly ending it. The purchase tax on cars with engines of 1.6 litres or smaller in China, at 5 percent now, will rise to 7.5 percent this year before returning to 10 percent in 2018. Overall passenger car sales in China could have dropped 2 percent this year had the tax cut expired on Dec. 31, but are now expected to grow by 3-5 percent, consultancy Automotive Foresight said.  Analysts, however, cautioned that car sales could fall in the first quarter as consumers fearing the policy would end in 2016 moved ahead their purchases instead of waiting until 2017. “In late 2016 we definitely saw pull forward effects in engines below 1.6 liter. This will effect the Q1 negatively,” a sales executive at a major foreign automaker told Reuters.  Honda posted the biggest growth in China sales last year among automakers reporting Friday, powered by a steady stream of new models, mainly in the hot sport-utility vehicle segment. Vehicle sales by Honda rose to 1.25 million in 2016, while Ford reported a growth of 11.9 percent to 1.24 million vehicles. But with premium Lincoln brand car sales, which are not consistently included in monthly data releases, Ford’s sales totaled 1.27 million, giving it an edge over Toyota and Honda. All three, however, continued to lag Nissan Motor Co Ltd in China sales. Nissan’s sales grew 8.4 percent to 1.35 million vehicles in the country last year.  General Motors Co and Volkswagen continue to be the market leaders in China. On Thursday, GM and its joint venture partners reported sales of 3.87 million vehicles in China for 2016, up 7.1 percent. The full-year figures come in spite of sales slipping for several brands in the final month, with GM, Honda and Toyota all reporting a year-on-year drop for December with news China was not completely ending its tax incentive making its impact felt.

Summary: वैश्विक वाहन निर्माताओं के लिए 2016 में चीन में बिक्री बढ़ी; 2017 सुस्त रहा


ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Turkish soldiers were not in Syria s Idlib yet, but that Free Syria Army was carrying out the operation, news channel NTV reported. Erdogan said in an earlier speech that a major military operation was underway in the Syria s northwest province of Idlib, which Free Syrian Army rebel groups said they were preparing to enter with Turkish backing. NTV reported that Erdogan told reporters after his speech that Russia was backing the operation from the air, while Turkish soldiers were supporting it from inside Turkish borders.

Summary: एर्दोगन ने कहा कि तुर्की इदलिब पर एफएसए के कदम का समर्थन कर रहा है


LIMA (Reuters) - Indigenous villagers ended a 43-day protest that had halted production in Peru s largest oil block after signing a deal with the government, tribal leaders and officials said on Tuesday. As part of the agreement, the government of President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski promised to apply an indigenous rights law before awarding any new, long-term oil drilling contract for Block 192   a chief demand of protesters, the energy and mines ministry said in a statement. Canadian Frontera Energy Corp operates Block 192 under a two-year contract but has not produced any oil from it since Achuar, Quechua and Kichwa indigenous tribes seized oil wells on Sept. 18. Protesters wanted the government to clean up oil pollution in the region and to commit to including tribes in talks on long-term oil drilling plans. The blockade was one of scores of conflicts that sometimes disrupt mining and energy operations in Peru, the world s second biggest copper producer and a relatively small oil producer. Talks between the government and Frontera over a long-term drilling contract ended with no deal, state-owned oil company Petroperu announced earlier this month. Aurelio Chino, a chieftain in the Pastaza River Basin, told Reuters that protesters were no longer occupying company installations. A statement by the leaders of 16 villages that took part in the protests said the protest would end. The government also promised villagers that it would start implementation of an emergency healthcare program in the next 10 days and would form a commission to direct environmental clean-ups in Block 192, the ministry said. Frontera will be summoned to take part in dialogue sessions with villagers to discuss their needs, it added. Frontera has said that the protest did not have a not a material impact for the company.

Summary: सरकारी समझौते के बाद पेरू के तेल ब्लॉक में जनजातीय नाकाबंदी हटाई गई


ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish lender Aktif Bank said on Thursday it had not violated any U.S. or international sanctions, after it was mentioned in the U.S. case regarding Iran sanctions violations. Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab, who is a witness, testified on Wednesday that he had initially handled Iranian transactions through Aktif Bank. He said Aktif Bank at first hesitated to open an account for him and it shut down the account after receiving a warning from the United States.  No transaction violating U.S. or international sanctions has occurred on behalf of our bank,  the lender said in a statement.  We have and continue to cooperate with international and national institutions and the result of this case will not have negative impacts on us.  Zarrab said he used Halkbank to continue his transactions with Iran after Aktif Bank stopped working with him. A Halkbank executive, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, is a defendant in the case. Atilla has pleaded not guilty.

Summary: अकतिफ बैंक का कहना है कि उसने अमेरिका, अंतर्राष्ट्रीय प्रतिबंधों का उल्लंघन नहीं किया है


(Reuters) - Donald Trump was scheduled to hold additional meetings on Thursday and Friday as he forms his administration before taking over from Democratic President Barack Obama on Jan. 20.  The Republican president-elect has held more than 85 meetings so far, according to his transition team. Trump was to meet with the following people on Thursday and Friday, according to his team: * Retired U.S. Navy Admiral, former supreme allied commander of NATO, dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University * Former CEO of Ford Motor Co, Sept 2006 to July 2014 * Director at Google  since 2014 * U.S. Representative from Idaho, a Republican * Serves on House Judiciary and Natural Resources committees * U.S. Senator from West Virginia, a Democrat Trump has also invited technology industry leaders for a meeting on Dec. 14, according to media reports citing transition officials.

Summary: फैक्टबॉक्सः ट्रम्प पूर्व-फोर्ड सी. ई. ओ., यू. एस. सांसदों, अन्य लोगों से मिलेंगे


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. B-1 bombers carried out a training exercise on Tuesday with Japanese and South Korean military aircraft in the vicinity of the Sea of Japan, the U.S. military said, amid growing tension over North Korea s missile and nuclear programs. It was first time U.S. Pacific Command B-1B Lancers have conducted combined training with Japanese and South Korean fighter aircraft at night, the U.S. military said in a statement.

Summary: दो अमेरिकी बी-1 बमवर्षक विमानों ने जापान सागर के आसपास प्रशिक्षण अभियान चलाया


CAIRO (Reuters) - One of Egypt s top Muslim leaders, the Imam of Al Azhar mosque, rejected a meeting requested by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in protest against a U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel s capital, Al Azhar said in a statement on Friday. Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb had rejected a request from the United States for Pence to meet him on Dec. 20 at Al Azhar saying President Donald Trump must reverse his decision on Jerusalem.

Summary: मिस्र के मुस्लिम नेता ने येरुशलम पर अमेरिकी पेंस के साथ बैठक को खारिज कियाः बयान


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran has made important progress in its effort to implement the international agreement to curtail its nuclear program, but its actions must still be independently verified, the White House said on Friday. “We want to make sure they don’t cut any corners,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told a briefing. He said Iran would not receive sanctions relief until the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirms it has complied with the agreement. Earnest said he had no update on the timing of the implementation of the nuclear deal.

Summary: व्हाइट हाउस का कहना है कि परमाणु समझौते पर ईरान की प्रगति की पुष्टि की जानी चाहिए


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon s President Michel Aoun said on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump s Jerusalem decision was dangerous and threatened the credibility of the United States as a broker of the peace process in the region.  He said the decision had put back the peace process by decades, and had threatened regional stability and perhaps global stability. Lebanon s Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said on Twitter that Lebanon rejected the decision and had the utmost solidarity with the Palestinian people and their right to establish an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.  The leader of Lebanon s Hezbollah movement, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, will speak on Thursday about the issue of Jerusalem, the Hezbollah-affiliated al-Manar TV station reported.

Summary: लेबनान के राष्ट्रपति ने कहा कि ट्रम्प के फैसले से स्थिरता को खतरा है


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China has told the United States that it warned Pyongyang it would impose “sanctions actions on their own” against North Korea should it carry out another nuclear test, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday. Tillerson, speaking on Fox News, also said U.S. intelligence reports suggest that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was “not crazy,” indicating he might be a rational actor who could be negotiated with as the international community seeks to rein in Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs. Tillerson’s comments suggest that efforts by President Donald Trump, who held a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this month, may have yielded China’s toughest threat yet to take action against its defiant neighbor and ally, North Korea.

Summary: चीन ने किसी भी परमाणु परीक्षण के बाद उत्तर कोरिया को प्रतिबंधों की चेतावनी दीः टिलरसन


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers have fired cruise missiles at Islamic State targets in Syria s Deir al-Zor and Idlib provinces, the RIA news agency quoted Russia s Defense Ministry as saying on Tuesday. The strikes were carried out at a safe distance from U.S. special forces and U.S.-backed militias, the ministry was cited as saying.

Summary: रूसी बमवर्षकों ने सीरिया में इस्लामिक स्टेट के ठिकानों पर क्रूज मिसाइलें दागींः आर. आई. ए.


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli supporters of U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump have opened a campaign office in the occupied West Bank, saying they hope to get as many American expatriates as possible to cast an absentee ballot for their candidate. There are about 300,000 U.S. citizens in Israel, according to the non-profit group Republican Overseas Israel, which opened the office in the Jewish settlement Karnei Shomron on Monday. It estimates as many as 80,000 of them live in the West Bank, though it is not clear how many are eligible voters. The initiative has no official ties to the Trump campaign or the Republican National Committee (RNC), and the Israeli group opened the West Bank office, and a handful of others throughout Israel, with its own funds, said co-chairman Marc Zell. “We are however in close coordination with the Trump campaign and RNC to the extent that it’s feasible,” said Zell. A poll of Jewish Israelis conducted in May found 40 percent of respondents backed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and 31 percent supported Trump. The poll did not specify whether those who responded were eligible to vote in the U.S. election. Trump has accused the administration of President Barack Obama of lacklustre support for Israel. He has also rejected last year’s nuclear deal with Iran, Israel’s arch-foe, and has called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. The new office in the West Bank is not staffed full-time but will be used as a “logistical jumping-off point” for outreach activity, Zell said. Israel captured the West Bank, land where Palestinians hope to establish an independent state, in the 1967 Middle East war. Most countries view Israeli settlements built there as illegal and an obstacle for peace. Israel rejects this, saying Jews have been living in the territory for thousands of years. The U.S. presidential election takes place on Nov. 8.

Summary: इजरायली ट्रम्प समर्थकों ने वेस्ट बैंक में अभियान कार्यालय खोला


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Since taking office, U.S. President Donald Trump has shown an affinity, and perhaps even a deference, to the generals he has surrounded himself with in his Cabinet and at the White House, save one exception: the war in Afghanistan. More than a dozen interviews with current and former U.S. officials familiar with the discussions reveal a president deeply frustrated with the lack of options to win the 16-year-old war, described internally as “an eroding stalemate.”  The debate carries echoes of the same dilemma Barack Obama faced in 2009. Then, as now, odds are that Trump will ultimately send more troops, current and former officials say. “It’s the least worst option,” one former U.S. official familiar with the discussions said, speaking on condition of anonymity, while acknowledging that with Trump, a pullout cannot be completely ruled out. Trump’s defense secretary, retired Marine Corps General Jim Mattis, has had the authority for nearly two months to add thousands more troops to the roughly 8,400 there now (down from a peak of more than 100,000 in 2011). Army General John Nicholson, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, requested the troops back in February. But officials say Mattis won’t use his authority until he has buy-in from Trump for a strategic vision for America’s longest war. Beyond more troops for Afghanistan, the strategy would aim to address militant safe havens across the border in Pakistan. That too has become a divisive issue, with several members of Trump’s inner circle split on how hard to press Islamabad. Sources say that the discussions - which included a high-level White House meeting on Thursday - could drag out for the rest of the summer, blowing past a mid-July deadline to present a war strategy to an increasingly impatient Congress. After Thursday’s meeting, chaired by Vice President Mike Pence, people familiar with the deliberations told Reuters that a final decision did not appear imminent. Pentagon officials have declined to comment on internal deliberations. The White House has also declined to comment ahead of a decision on the strategy. While U.S.-backed fighters are rolling back Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the same cannot be said of the fight against the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that the conditions in Afghanistan will almost certainly deteriorate through next year, even with a modest increase in military assistance from America and its allies. During a July 19 meeting in the White House Situation Room, Trump said Mattis and Marine General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, might want to consider firing Nicholson, who was picked by Obama in 2016 to lead the war effort and has earned the respect of Afghan leaders.  “We aren’t winning,” Trump told them, according to accounts of the conversation. But current and former officials say the frustration had been mounting for months.  At least as far back as February, one former U.S. official said the internal deliberations about Afghanistan were not aimed  at creating a broad set of options for Trump. Shortly before McMaster was due to present his plan to Trump for approval ahead of the May NATO summit, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson declined to endorse it, saying Trump was not being presented with options, the former official and another current official said. “The lack of options meant that the only recommendation that was originally to be put forward to the president was essentially the status quo,” the former official said, discounting the troop increase as any serious shift in strategy. But in the months since, the possibility of a full pull-out has been repeatedly presented and refined along with a true “status-quo” option in which no new troops are sent to Afghanistan, but none are pulled out either. Still, U.S. defense leaders are not believed to be favoring those options. David Sedney, a former Pentagon policy advisor under the Obama administration, said failure to prioritize Afghanistan could replicate the mistakes by previous U.S. presidents.  “We’ve been ambivalent about Afghanistan for the last 17 years and when you have an ambivalent policy, it fails,” said Sedney, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank in Washington. McMaster, Mattis, Tillerson, Dunford, Nicholson and some U.S. intelligence officials argue that refusing to commit more U.S. forces to train, equip and in some cases support the Afghan security forces would eventually result in the Taliban retaking most of the country from the U.S.-backed government in Kabul. Trump’s concerns about Afghanistan are shared by some senior officials close to the president, including chief strategist Steve Bannon, who, officials say, is skeptical about the need for an increase in troops in Afghanistan. Divisions have also emerged within Trump’s administration on how much to pressure Pakistan, and how quickly, in order to address militant safe havens blamed for helping prolong Afghanistan’s war. Nicholson, McMaster and Lisa Curtis, senior director for South and Central Asia at the National Security Council, favor taking a strong hand with Pakistan to deal with Taliban militants using that country as a base from which to plot attacks in Afghanistan, current and former officials say. On the other side are State Department officials and others at the Pentagon, including Dunford, who take a broader view of Pakistan’s strategic importance and are less convinced that harsh actions will secure more cooperation from Islamabad, they said. Pakistan fiercely denies allowing any militant safe havens on its territory.  The Trump administration is exploring a new approach toward Pakistan, Reuters has reported. Potential responses under discussion include expanding U.S. drone strikes, redirecting aid to Pakistan and perhaps eventually downgrading Pakistan’s status as a major non-NATO ally.

Summary: अफगान समीक्षा में, ट्रम्प की हताशा ओबामा के वर्षों की प्रतिध्वनि है


CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela has arrested the state oil company s boss for the western region and eight other executives at PDVSA, according to an internal company memo and a half-dozen sources in the OPEC member s oil industry.  It was not immediately clear why Gustavo Malave and the other employees were apprehended, though a series of corruption probes are under way at PDVSA and have entangled other employees.  The sources said Malave was arrested on Monday in Zulia state, Venezuela s traditional oil-producing region near Colombia, in what would be one of the highest-profile detentions of a PDVSA executive.  PDVSA, the prosecutor s office, and Malave did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  Separately, Venezuela s new chief prosecutor Tarek Saab on Thursday announced he was investigating  spectacular  overpricing in a dozen contracts in the nation s Orinoco oil belt, on the other side of the country.  The reputation of PDVSA - short for Petroleos de Venezuela SA - has been tarnished in recent years by graft investigations involving high-profile staff.  The company has blamed the problems on a small group of employees and executives, and promised a war on corruption. Last year, the opposition-led congress said $11 billion was lost at PDVSA between 2004 and 2014, when Rafael Ramirez was in charge of the company. He denied the allegations. The Caracas-based company is the financial motor of leftist President Nicolas Maduro s government, but is reeling from low oil prices, mismanagement, and lack of investments.

Summary: वेनेजुएला ने शीर्ष तेल कार्यकारी, आठ अन्य पी. डी. वी. एस. ए. कर्मचारियों को गिरफ्तार कियाः सूत्र


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters on Friday that Venezuela is having problems with fulfilling its obligations on its debt to Russia.  We have a request from our colleagues in Venezuela to do a restructuring,  Siluanov said. Venezuela owed Russia $2.84 billion as of September last year.

Summary: वेनेजुएला को ऋण पर दायित्वों को पूरा करने में समस्याएँ हैंः रूस


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down a gender distinction in U.S. immigration law that treats mothers and fathers differently when determining a child’s citizenship, calling such inequality “stunningly anachronistic.” The high court, in a 8-0 ruling authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, found that a provision in federal law that defines how people born overseas can be eligible for U.S. citizenship violated the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection guarantee.  The ruling, however, may not help the man who brought the case, New York resident Luis Morales-Santana, who was seeking to avoid deportation to the Dominican Republic after being convicted of several offenses. The law requires that unwed fathers who are American citizens spend at least five years living in the United States - a 2012 amendment reduced it from 10 years - before they can confer citizenship to a child born abroad, out of wedlock and to a partner who is not a U.S. citizen. For unwed U.S. mothers in the same situation, the requirement was only one year. In the ruling, the Supreme Court said that until Congress revises the law, both women and men will be covered by the five-year requirement. Ginsburg, known for her work on gender equality before she became a jurist, wrote for the court that in light of the Supreme Court’s various rulings regarding the equal protection guarantee since 1971, having separate “duration-of-residence requirements for unwed mothers and fathers who have accepted parental responsibility is stunningly anachronistic.” The arguments made in defense of the law by former President Barack Obama’s administration before he left office in January “cannot withstand inspection under a Constitution that requires the government to respect the equal dignity and stature of its male and female citizens,” Ginsburg wrote. Morales-Santana’s deceased father was an American citizen, while his mother was not. His father failed to meet the law’s five-year requirements by 20 days. His lawyer, Stephen Broome, said he is reviewing how the ruling affects his client. Morales-Santana, 54, was born in the Dominican Republican and has lived legally in the United States since 1975. He was convicted of several criminal offenses in 1995, including two counts of robbery and four counts of attempted murder. The U.S. government has sought to deport him since 2000. The high court split 4-4 on the same issue in 2011. In July 2015, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York sided with Morales-Santana and struck down the law at issue, saying it applied “impermissible stereotyping” in imposing a tougher burden on fathers. The U.S. Justice Department sought to defend the law and asked the high court to take the case. The case is one of several with immigration-related themes that are before the justices at a time when President Donald Trump’s administration is pursing efforts to strengthen immigration enforcement.

Summary: उच्चतम न्यायालय ने नागरिकता कानून में लैंगिक असमानता को अमान्य करार दिया