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FedEx misses earnings estimates, cuts full-year EPS forecast again

FILE PHOTO: Traders work at the post that trades FedEx on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange
FILE PHOTO: Traders work at the post that trades FedEx on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange April 7, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

March 19, 2019

(Reuters) – Package delivery company FedEx Corp missed analysts’ estimates for quarterly profit and cut its full-year earnings per share forecast for the second time, citing weaker global trade growth, sending its shares down 5 percent on Tuesday.

The Memphis, Tennessee-based company cut its fiscal 2019 adjusted earnings per share forecast to a range of $15.10 to $15.90, from $15.50 to $16.60 previously.

FedEx, which is seen as a bellwether for the global economy, in December slashed its full-year profit forecast, blaming weak growth in Europe and a cooling Chinese economy due to an ongoing trade war with the United States.

“Slowing international macroeconomic conditions and weaker global trade growth trends continue…,” Chief Financial Officer Alan Graf said in a statement.

The company’s adjusted net income fell to $797 million, or $3.03 per diluted share, in the third quarter ended Feb. 28, from $1.02 billion, or $3.72 per share, a year earlier.

Total revenue rose nearly 3 percent to about $17 billion.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of $3.11 per share and revenue of $17.67 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles and Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

Source: OANN

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Brain-Inspired Chip to Power Intelligent Robot Swarms

An ultra-low power hybrid chip inspired by the brain could help give palm-sized robots the ability to collaborate and learn from their experiences.

Combined with new generations of low-power motors and sensors, the new application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) — which operates on milliwatts of power — could help intelligent swarm robots operate for hours instead of minutes.

To conserve power, the chips use a hybrid digital-analog time-domain processor in which the pulse-width of signals encodes information. The neural network IC accommodates both model-based programming and collaborative reinforcement learning, potentially providing the small robots larger capabilities for reconnaissance, search-and-rescue and other missions.


Humanity is being persuaded to accept it’s own replacement by technological and scientific milestones forwarded by politicians inching out the eventual end game.

Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology demonstrated robotic cars driven by the unique ASICs at the 2019 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). The research was sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) through the Center for Brain-inspired Computing Enabling Autonomous Intelligence (CBRIC).

“We are trying to bring intelligence to these very small robots so they can learn about their environment and move around autonomously, without infrastructure,” said Arijit Raychowdhury, associate professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “To accomplish that, we want to bring low-power circuit concepts to these very small devices so they can make decisions on their own. There is a huge demand for very small, but capable robots that do not require infrastructure.”

The cars demonstrated by Raychowdhury and graduate students Ningyuan Cao, Muya Chang and Anupam Golder navigate through an arena floored by rubber pads and surrounded by cardboard block walls. As they search for a target, the robots must avoid traffic cones and each other, learning from the environment as they go and continuously communicating with each other.

The cars use inertial and ultrasound sensors to determine their location and detect objects around them. Information from the sensors goes to the hybrid ASIC, which serves as the “brain” of the vehicles. Instructions then go to a Raspberry Pi controller, which sends instructions to the electric motors.

In palm-sized robots, three major systems consume power: the motors and controllers used to drive and steer the wheels, the processor, and the sensing system. In the cars built by Raychowdhury’s team, the low-power ASIC means that the motors consume the bulk of the power. “We have been able to push the compute power down to a level where the budget is dominated by the needs of the motors,” he said.

The team is working with collaborators on motors that use micro-electromechanical (MEMS) technology able to operate with much less power than conventional motors.

“We would want to build a system in which sensing power, communications and computer power, and actuation are at about the same level, on the order of hundreds of milliwatts,” said Raychowdhury, who is the ON Semiconductor Associate Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “If we can build these palm-sized robots with efficient motors and controllers, we should be able to provide runtimes of several hours on a couple of AA batteries. We now have a good idea what kind of computing platforms we need to deliver this, but we still need the other components to catch up.”

In time domain computing, information is carried on two different voltages, encoded in the width of the pulses. That gives the circuits the energy-efficiency advantages of analog circuits with the robustness of digital devices.

“The size of the chip is reduced by half, and the power consumption is one-third what a traditional digital chip would need,” said Raychowdhury. “We used several techniques in both logic and memory designs for reducing power consumption to the milliwatt range while meeting target performance.”

(Photo by DoD)

With each pulse-width representing a different value, the system is slower than digital or analog devices, but Raychowdhury says the speed is sufficient for the small robots. (A milliwatt is a thousandth of a watt).

“For these control systems, we don’t need circuits that operate at multiple gigahertz because the devices aren’t moving that quickly,” he said. “We are sacrificing a little performance to get extreme power efficiencies. Even if the compute operates at 10 or 100 megahertz, that will be enough for our target applications.”

The 65-nanometer CMOS chips accommodate both kinds of learning appropriate for a robot. The system can be programmed to follow model-based algorithms, and it can learn from its environment using a reinforcement system that encourages better and better performance over time — much like a child who learns to walk by bumping into things.

“You start the system out with a predetermined set of weights in the neural network so the robot can start from a good place and not crash immediately or give erroneous information,” Raychowdhury said. “When you deploy it in a new location, the environment will have some structures that it will recognize and some that the system will have to learn. The system will then make decisions on its own, and it will gauge the effectiveness of each decision to optimize its motion.”

Communication between the robots allow them to collaborate to seek a target.

“In a collaborative environment, the robot not only needs to understand what it is doing, but also what others in the same group are doing,” he said. “They will be working to maximize the total reward of the group as opposed to the reward of the individual.”

With their ISSCC demonstration providing a proof-of-concept, the team is continuing to optimize designs and is working on a system-on-chip to integrate the computation and control circuitry.

“We want to enable more and more functionality in these small robots,” Raychowdhury added. “We have shown what is possible, and what we have done will now need to be augmented by other innovations.”


Mike Adams breaks down the Democrats’ plan to change U.S. Presidential Election laws to usurp citizens’ real representation and enact mob rule by making the winner of the popular vote the President.

Source: InfoWars

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As Israelis head to polls, it’s all about Netanyahu

Israel's election on Tuesday boils down to a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has dominated the country's politics for the better part of three decades.

Serious corruption charges seem to have had no effect on his supporters, who revere Netanyahu as a friend of powerful world leaders — chief among them Donald Trump — and guarantor of Israel's security in a tough neighborhood.

The prime minister's opponents say he is a corrupt politician who has divided the country by inciting against Arabs, who make up 20 percent of the population, and whose policies toward the Palestinians are leading Israel off a cliff.

The race appears too close to call in its final days, as Netanyahu faces a strong challenge from Benny Gantz, a popular former army chief.

Source: Fox News World

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WTO chief sees difficult road for trade liberalization

The World Trade Organization sees a "challenging" and "difficult" road ahead for international trade liberalization due to the current political climate.

The WTO's director-general says he's confident Mexico and the United States can sort out their current trade difficulties, which include a border-crossing slowdown, U.S. threats to close the border and the still-pending ratification of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

But Roberto Azevedo said Thursday the fight to expand free trade "is going to be challenging, is going to be difficult, above all because of the political conditions we have in the world today."

Mexico's Economy Secretary said a slowdown on border crossing would affect U.S. consumers because "soon they won't find fresh vegetables on store shelves."

Source: Fox News World

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Ryanair pilots in Portugal vote for pay agreement

A Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS plane takes off at the Riga International Airport
A Ryanair Boeing 737-8AS plane takes off at the Riga International Airport, Latvia March 15, 2019. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

April 2, 2019

(Reuters) – Irish-based carrier Ryanair said on Tuesday its pilots based in Portugal have voted for a labor agreement for the next four years, taking another step to head off any risk of another round of damaging strikes ahead of its peak summer season.

The agreement governing pay and conditions was negotiated between Ryanair and the Portuguese pilot union SPAC to cover all of the airline’s directly employed pilots in Portugal, the carrier said.

Ryanair has been struggling with labor relations since it bowed to pressure to recognize unions for the first time almost a year ago.

The airline had said in October that it had reached an agreement with its Portuguese pilots on seniority and home base issues, looking at the time to end a damaging series of strikes that had hurt its business.

It had said that the Portuguese deal – covering issues such as leave allocation and promotion – would allow talks with Portugal’s SPAC union on a full collective labor agreement.

Separately, Ryanair said on Tuesday that passenger traffic grew 9 percent to 10.9 million in March.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

Source: OANN

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Second Justin Fairfax accuser calls for public hearing into assault allegations

A woman who has accused Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of raping her while they were undergraduates at Duke University nearly two decades ago called Monday for the state's general assembly to hold a public hearing into her allegations and those of another woman against the Democrat.

Meredith Watson wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece that she was "frustrated by calls for an investigation rather than a public hearing" into the allegations brought against Fairfax by her and Vanessa Tyson.

"Such 'investigations' are secret proceedings, out of the public eye, leaving victims vulnerable to selective leaks and smears. And we all know how such investigations end: with 'inconclusive results,'" Watson wrote. "My privacy has already been violated, yet I am still willing to testify publicly under oath. Tyson has made the same offer. Our plea to the Virginia General Assembly to require the same of Fairfax has been met with inaction."

Watson has said that Fairfax raped her in 2000, but that she did not report it because of how Duke officials responded to her earlier claim that she was raped by basketball star Corey Maggette. An attorney for Watson has claimed that Fairfax was one of the people she told about the alleged assault by Maggette and that the future lieutenant governor "used this prior assault against Ms. Watson" when he allegedly raped her. The attorney, Nancy Erika Smith, claimed that Fairfax told Watson at a campus party after the alleged assault that "I knew that because of what happened to you last year, you’d be too afraid to say anything."

FACEBOOK MESSAGES SHOW SECOND FAIRFAX ACCUSER DETAILED RAPE ALLEGATIONS DURING 2017 RACE

Last week, Fox News obtained Facebook messages from Watson in which she commented on Fairfax's 2017 candidacy for Virginia lieutenant governor and told contacts about the alleged rape.

"I see you’ve been promoting Justin Fairfax on FB despite knowing he raped me, which is mind-blowing to me. Are you seriously voting for him today? #METOO,” she wrote to one contact on Election Day, 2017.

Tyson, an associate professor of politics at Scripps College in California, previously accused Fairfax of forcing her to perform oral sex on him during the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Fairfax, who was attending Columbia Law School, was working as a so-called "body man" for vice presidential nominee John Edwards.

Fairfax has said that the encounters with Watson and Tyson were consensual and suggested that both women's accusations are part of a political smear campaign to prevent him from succeeding Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam if he's forced to resign amid a racist photo scandal.

Watson wrote that she had refused to make her allegations "a partisan issue" or "a financial issue by suing for compensation. I have refused to make it a law-enforcement issue. Despite nearly 100 offers to be interviewed, I have refused to make my rape a media opportunity ... My motivation was never for personal gain. And what have I gained? I have endured relentless scrutiny of my personal life and an unending, bitter flood of hurtful misinformation trumpeted by the media."

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"Despite every attempt to shame me, I am not ashamed," Watson concluded. "It is Justin Fairfax who should be ashamed. It is the Virginia legislature that should be ashamed. And it is the media that should be ashamed.

"If we as a society continue to allow women who report rape to be abused, disparaged and tormented a second time, then shame on us all."

Fox News' Brooke Singman, Matt Richardson, Garrett Tenney and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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RBI to cut rates again before vote; BJP victory best for economy: Reuters poll

FILE PHOTO: A Reserve Bank of India sign at its New Delhi offices
FILE PHOTO: A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) sign on the gate of its office in New Delhi, India, November 9, 2018. REUTERS/Altaf Hussain/File Photo

April 2, 2019

By Vivek Mishra

BENGALURU (Reuters) – The Reserve Bank of India will cut rates for a second consecutive time when its three-day policy meeting ends on Thursday, shortly before the first phase of the national election begins, a Reuters poll found.

Those expectations for another rate cut have strengthened over the past month after Shaktikanta Das was appointed as the new RBI Governor in December. Lending rates were lowered and the policy stance shifted at his first meeting in February.

While the central bank justified that move by highlighting a lower inflation outlook and a slowdown in growth, not everyone was convinced those were the only reasons behind the policy easing.

“We already know that the central bank is under pressure from the government to ease policy. We have two meetings in Q2 – April and June – with this pressure if they cut rates they would rather do it in April than in June,” said Prakash Sakpal, Asia economist at ING.

“No matter how effective this will be in time for the election – it is hard to imagine that just one week before the elections you cut the rate and that does magic and boosts growth. It will be a token from which the government takes credit.”

Sakpal, like many other contributors in the poll, wasn’t convinced the economy needs more easing at a time when the outlook for core inflation remains elevated and the government’s latest populist measures ahead of the general election would weigh on prices.

More than 85 percent of nearly 70 economists polled over the past week forecast the RBI would cut its benchmark lending rate, the repo rate, to 6.00 percent on April 4. The consensus showed the central bank would then keep rates on hold through to the middle of next year at least.

Just under half of economists expect the RBI to make at least one more cut after this month’s meeting, which would take the repo rate to its lowest since 2010.

Inflation has remained below the RBI’s 4 percent target for seven straight months and was expected to average 4.0 percent this fiscal year.

But core inflation, which excludes food and fuel, is running closer to 5.5 percent.

“My biggest worry is that the rate cut would be ineffective as banks are not ready to transfer that to borrowers,” said Vishnu Varathan, head of economics and strategy at Mizuho Bank. “And a rate cut under (the) wrong circumstances can cause a rupee depreciation and macro instability.”

India’s growth outlook for the fiscal year ended in March and the current one was cut to 7.1 percent and 7.2 percent, respectively, from 7.3 percent predicted for both three months ago.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has faced criticism from opposition parties and economists for having allegedly manipulated economic growth figures and suppressing the release of jobs data to show the economy has performed better under his leadership.

Fifty-three percent of economists who answered an additional question said they were confident about the accuracy of recent official Indian economic data releases, but the remaining 47 percent said they were not.

“There have been reports of the government forcing the statistical agency to sit on the report until after the elections. This is probably the fact with most big developing economies – China has the same issue, nobody trusts China’s data, but we still have to rely on that,” ING’s Sakpal added.

(GRAPHIC: Reuters Poll: Accuracy of Indian economic data – https://tmsnrt.rs/2WDx56u)

Economists unanimously said the BJP winning a majority or a BJP-led NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government would be best for the economy.

None said a Congress majority or the Congress-led UPA (United Progressive Alliance) or a coalition of regional parties – also known as the Third Front – would be best.

That broadly aligns with a separate Reuters poll of equity strategists and brokers, which showed a majority win for the ruling party would be the most favorable outcome for Indian stocks.

“In order to push reforms ahead, a BJP win is necessary, as the opposition mainly has been focusing on attacking the NDA, rather than presenting an alternative policy agenda,” said Hugo Erken, senior economist at Rabobank.

(Polling by Khushboo Mittal and Vivek Mishra; editing by Ross Finley and Sam Holmes)

Source: OANN

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Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon
Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon, South Korea, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

April 26, 2019

SEOUL (Reuters) – K-pop and drama star Park Yu-chun was arrested on Friday on charges of buying and using illegal drugs, a court said, the latest in a series of scandals to hit the South Korean entertainment business.

Suwon District Court approved the arrest warrant for Park, 32, due to concerns over possible destruction of evidence and flight risk, a court spokesman told Reuters.

Park is suspected of having bought about 1.5 grams of methamphetamine with his former girlfriend earlier this year and using the drug around five times, an official at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said.

Park has denied wrongdoing, saying he had never taken drugs, and he again denied the charges in court, Yonhap news agency said.

Park’s contract with his management agency had been canceled and he would leave the entertainment industry, Park’s management agency, C-JeS Entertainment, said on Wednesday.

Park was a member of boyband TVXQ between 2003 and 2009 before leaving the group with two other members, forming the group JYJ.

A scandal involving sex tapes, prostitutes and secret chat about rape led at least four other K-pop stars to quit the industry earlier this year.

The cases sparked a nationwide drugs bust and investigations into tax evasion and police collusion at night clubs and other nightlife spots.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight taxis after landing at Reagan National Airport in Washington
FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight from Los Angeles taxis after landing at Reagan National Airport shortly after an announcement was made by the FAA that the planes were being grounded by the United States over safety issues in Washington, U.S. March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – American Airlines Group Inc cut its 2019 profit forecast on Friday, saying it expected to take a $350 million hit from the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX planes after cancelling 1,200 flights in the first quarter.

The company said it now expects its 2019 adjusted profit to be between $4.00 per share and $6.00 per share.

Analysts on average had expected 2019 earnings of $5.63 per share, according to Refinitiv data.

The No. 1 U.S. airline by passenger traffic said net income rose to $185 million, or 41 cents per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $159 million, or 34 cents per share, a year earlier.

Total operating revenue rose 2 percent to $10.58 billion.

(Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

April 26, 2019

By James Oliphant

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (Reuters) – Four years ago, Donald Trump campaigned in small towns like Marshalltown, Iowa, vowing to restore economic prosperity to the U.S. heartland.

In his bid to replace Trump in the White House, Pete Buttigieg is taking a similar tack. The difference, he says, is that he can point to a model of success: South Bend, Indiana, the revitalized city where he has been mayor since 2012.

The Democratic presidential contender has vaulted to the congested field’s top tier in recent weeks, drawing media and donor attention for his youth, history-making status as the first openly gay major presidential candidate and a resume that includes military service in Afghanistan.

But Buttigieg’s main argument for his candidacy is that he is a turnaround artist in the mold of Trump, although the Democrat does not expressly invoke the comparison with the Republican president.

“I’m not going around saying we’ve fixed every problem we’ve got,” Buttigieg, 37, said after a house party with voters in Marshalltown. “But I’m proud of what we have done together, and I think it’s a very powerful story.”

Critics argue improving the fortunes of a Midwestern city of 100,000 people does not qualify Buttigieg, who has never held national office, for the presidency of a country of 330 million. Others say South Bend still has pockets of despair and that minorities, in particular, have failed to benefit from its growth.

Buttigieg has told crowds in Iowa and elsewhere that his experience in reviving a struggling Rust Belt community allows him to make a case to voters that other Democratic candidates cannot. That may give him the means to win back some of the disaffected Democratic voters who turned their backs on Hillary Clinton in 2016 to vote for Trump.

Watching Buttigieg at a union hall in Des Moines last week, Rick Ryan, 45, a member of the United Steelworkers, lamented how many of his fellow union workers voted for Trump. The president turned in the best performance by a Republican among union households since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Ryan said he hoped someone like Buttigieg could return them to the Democratic fold.

“He’s aware of the decline in the labor force in America, not just in Indiana or Des Moines or anywhere else,” Ryan said. “Jobs are going overseas. We need a find to way to bring that back.”

Randy Tucker, 56, of Pleasant Hill, Iowa, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said Trump appealed to union members “desperate for somebody to reach out to them, to help them, to listen to their voice.”

Buttigieg could do the same, he said. “In my heart right now, he’s No. 1.”

PAST VS. FUTURE

Buttigieg stresses a key difference in his and Trump’s approaches.

Trump, he tells crowds, is mired in the past, promising to rebuild the 20th century industrial economy. Buttigieg argues the pledge is misleading and unrealistic.

Buttigieg says his focus is on the future, and he often talks about what the country might look like decades from now.

“The only way that we can cultivate what makes America great is to look to the future and not be afraid of it,” Buttigieg said in Marshalltown.

Buttigieg knows his sexual preference may be a barrier to winning some blue-collar voters. But he notes that after he came out as gay in 2015, he won a second term as mayor with 80 percent of the vote in conservative Indiana.

Earlier this month, he announced his presidential bid at the hulking plant in South Bend that stopped making Studebaker autos more than 50 years ago. After lying dormant for decades, the building is being transformed into a high-tech hub after Buttigieg and other city leaders realized it would never again attract a large-scale industrial company.

“That building sat as a powerful reminder. We hoped we would get back that major employer that would fix our economy,” said Jeff Rea, president of the regional Chamber of Commerce.

Buttigieg is praised locally for spurring more than $100 million in downtown investment. During his two terms, unemployment has fallen to 4.1 percent from 11.8 percent.

But a study released in 2017 by the nonprofit group Prosperity Now said not all of the city’s residents had shared in its rebound. The median income for African-Americans remained half that of whites, while the unemployment rate for blacks was double.

Regina Williams-Preston, a city councilor running to replace Buttigieg as mayor, credits him for the revitalized downtown. But she said he had a “blind spot” when it came to focusing on troubled neighborhoods like the one she represents and only grew more engaged after community pressure.

“He understands it now,” she said. “The next step is figuring out how to open the doors of opportunity for everyone.”

‘ONE OF US’

Trump touts the fact that the United States added almost 300,000 manufacturing jobs last year as evidence he made good on his promise to restore the industrial sector. But that growth still left the country with fewer manufacturing jobs than in 2008.

The robust U.S. economy is likely the president’s greatest asset in his re-election bid, particularly in states he carried in 2016 such as Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He won Buttigieg’s home state by 19 points over Clinton in 2016.

Sean Bagniewski, chairman of the Democratic Party in Polk County, Iowa, said Buttigieg would be well positioned to compete with Trump in the Midwest.

“People love the fact that he’s a mayor,” said Bagniewski, who has not endorsed a candidate in the nominating contest. “If you can talk about a positive future, and if you actually have experience that can do it, that’s a compelling vision in Iowa.”

Nan Whaley, the mayor of Dayton, Ohio, which faces many of the same challenges as South Bend, agreed.

“He’s one of us,” Whaley said. “That helps.”

(Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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A man looks out at a flooded residential area in Gatineau
A man looks out at a flooded residential area in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

April 26, 2019

MONTREAL/OTTAWA (Reuters) – Rising waters were prompting further evacuations in central Canada on Thursday, with the mayor of the country’s capital, Ottawa, declaring a state of emergency and Quebec authorities warning that a hydroelectric dam was at risk of breaking.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared the emergency in response to rising water levels along the Ottawa River and weather forecasts that called for significant rainfall on Friday.

In a statement on Twitter, Watson asked for help from the Ontario provincial government and the country’s military.

He warned that “flood levels are currently forecasted to exceed the levels that caused significant damage to numerous properties in the city of Ottawa in 2017.”

Spring flooding had killed one person and forced more than 900 people from their homes in Canada’s Quebec province as of 1 p.m. on Thursday, according to a government website.

Ottawa has received 80 requests for service related to potential flooding such as sandbagging, a city spokeswoman said.

The prospect of more rain over the next 24 to 48 hours triggered concerns on Thursday that the hydroelectric dam at Bell Falls in the western part of Quebec could be at risk of failing because of rising water levels.

Quebec’s provincial police said 250 people were protectively removed from homes in the area as of late afternoon in case the dam on the Rouge River breaks.

The dam is now at its full flow capacity of 980 cubic meters per second of water, said Francis Labbé, a spokesman for the province’s state-owned utility, Hydro Quebec. He said Hydro Quebec expected the flow could rise to 1,200 cubic meters per second of water over the next two days.

“We have to take the worst-case scenario into consideration, since we`re already at the maximum capacity,” Labbé said by phone.

The dam is part of a power station that no longer produces electricity, but is regularly inspected by Hydro Quebec, he said.

(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and David Ljunggren and Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by James Dalgleish and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Funeral of journalist Lyra McKee in Belfast
FILE PHOTO: Pallbearers carry the coffin of journalist Lyra McKee at her funeral at St. Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, Northern Ireland, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne/File Photo

April 26, 2019

BELFAST (Reuters) – Detectives investigating the murder of journalist Lyra McKee in Northern Ireland last week suspect the gunman who shot her dead is in his late teens as they made a further appeal to the local community who they believe know his identity.

McKee’s killing by an Irish nationalist militant during a riot in Londonderry has sparked outrage in the province where a 1998 peace deal mostly ended three decades of sectarian violence that cost the lives of some 3,600 people.

The New IRA, one of a small number of groups that oppose the peace accord, has said one of its members shot the 29-year-old reporter dead in the Creggan area of the city on Thursday when opening fire on police during a riot McKee was watching.

The killing, which followed a large car bomb in Londonderry in January that police also blamed on the New IRA, has raised fears that small marginalized militant groups are exploiting a political vacuum in the province and tensions caused by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.

Police released footage on Friday of immediately before and after the shooting showing three men who were involved in the rioting and identified one as the gunman who they believe is in his late teens. 

“I believe that the information that can help us to bring those responsible for her murder to justice lies within the community. I need the public to tell me who he is,” Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy told reporters.

Murphy said those involved in the disorder on the night were teenagers or in their early 20s, and that about 100 people were on the ground watching the trouble as it unfolded.

He added that police believed the gun used in the attack was of a similar caliber to those used before in paramilitary type attacks in Creggan. 

“I recognize that people living in Creagan may find it’s difficult to come forward to speak to police. Today, I want to provide a personal reassurance that we are able to deal with those issues sensitively,” Murphy said, echoing similar appeals in recent days.

(Reporting by Amanda Ferguson, editing by Padraic Halpin and Toby Chopra)

Source: OANN

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