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What is the scariest retirement healthcare number?

FILE PHOTO: A nurse walks along the hallways of the East Arkansas Family Health Center in Lepanto
FILE PHOTO: A nurse walks along the hallways of the East Arkansas Family Health Center in Lepanto, Arkansas, U.S., May 2, 2018. Picture taken May 2, 2018. REUTERS/Karen Pulfer Focht

April 2, 2019

By Beth Pinsker

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A typical couple could potentially spend $285,000 on out-of-pocket healthcare costs in retirement.

But that is hardly the scariest number you need to consider when it comes to medical costs as you age.

This estimate, released on Tuesday by Fidelity Workplace Consulting, is based on Medicare premiums for Americans 65 and older, plus the deductibles and co-pays required for medical care and prescription drugs. It also accounts for inflation and investment growth.

If you have $1 million in retirement savings and plan to spend a healthy 4 percent of that per year plus Social Security, your monthly healthcare budget would need to account for about $5,000 per year per person.

These bulk figures sound large, yet what is not included may be even more worrisome:

– Long-term care

Since Medicare, the government health plan for those over 65, does not cover long-term care costs, Fidelity’s average spend does not include it either.

But this is where you find the big price tag. The average cost of nursing care is more than $80,000 per year according to the Administration on Aging, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Home healthcare can be even more expensive at $20 an hour.

While Medicaid is a government safety net for low-income individuals of any age, it does not work for all nursing homes, nor for home care. The only way to insure against running out of money for private-pay nursing homes or home care is to get long-term care insurance. The problem? It is so expensive that even the companies selling long-term care policies are getting out of the business.

Genworth, the biggest provider, just announced that it is not going to sell traditional individual policies and hybrid ones with annuities through brokers. While group policies and direct-sales will still be available, it is just one more contraction in an already shrinking market.

There are still ways to protect yourself. Jesse Slome, executive director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance, favors a some-is-better-than-none approach. Limited long-term care policies, which have lower premiums and lower benefits, sold by companies such as New York Life and Mutual of Omaha, will at least pay some of your costs, he said.

– Dental and vision

Medicare does not cover dental and vision costs. The good news? “Those are things most people can anticipate and afford,” said Hope Manion, senior vice president, Fidelity Workplace Consulting

As 66-year-old Slome learned in a year on Medicare, it is hard to let go of savings you worked so hard to accumulate. Slome noted this as he was about to head out to the optometrist for a long-avoided update to his eyewear.

“I was moving something in the garage and a hedge clipper scratched the glasses. I have distance glasses and computer glasses and reading glasses. All three pairs will be redone – this is a thousand-dollar visit,” Slome lamented.

A smart way to leverage retirement savings for ad hoc medical costs is through health savings accounts, which allow triple-tax-free savings for healthcare costs, Manion said. You will need a high-deductible health plan to qualify, however.

– Pre-Medicare healthcare costs

Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 are the ones who need to worry most about healthcare costs, because some people cannot keep working even if they want to. Fifty-four percent of people in this age group are worried about covering healthcare costs before Medicare kicks in, according to a recent survey from AARP.

“That age band is really scary,” Manion said. “That’s when premiums skyrocket.”

This is also typically the time when chronic health conditions worsen and doctors pile on prescriptions as well as procedures. Medicare does a better job managing these costs than private-pay insurance, Manion said.

Last year Slome went into the hospital just a few weeks before he became eligible for Medicare. In three days, he blew through $6,500, all out-of-pocket costs because he had a high-deductible plan.

“Three weeks later, it would have been zero!” Slome said.

(Editing by Lauren Young and Phil Berlowitz)

Source: OANN

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Virginia’s Jerome enters NBA draft

FILE PHOTO: NCAA Basketball: Final Four-National Championship-Virginia vs Texas Tech
FILE PHOTO: Apr 8, 2019; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Virginia Cavaliers guard Ty Jerome reacts to fans after cutting the net and defeating the Texas Tech Red Raiders in overtime in the championship game of the 2019 men's Final Four at US Bank Stadium. Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

April 15, 2019

Virginia guard Ty Jerome is entering the NBA draft one week after helping guide the Cavaliers to a national championship in Minneapolis.

The 6-foot-5 junior announced his decision via Instagram.

“I came to Virginia to win a national championship and to be able to do that with my brothers is a dream come true,” Jerome wrote. “I have had a basketball in my hand basically since the day I was born. My dream has always been to play in the NBA. Therefore, after speaking with my family and coaches and giving it a lot of thought, I know it’s the right time to announce that I will be entering the NBA draft and signing with an agent.”

Jerome knows it’s the right time because he’s “as ready as I’m going to be,” he said in a subsequent interview with Sports Illustrated.

Jerome averaged 13.6 points, 5.5 assists and 4.2 rebounds per game last season. He was Virginia’s primary ballhandler but was technically the starting 2-guard for the Cavaliers. He said he patterns his game after a combination of Steve Nash and Klay Thompson.

The Cavaliers are bracing to lose Jerome and sophomore forward De’Andre Hunter from a team that lost only three games last season.

–Field Level Media

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U.S. inflation forecasts decline, supporting rate-hike holiday

A customer shops for Thanksgiving ham at a grocery store in Los Angeles
A customer shops for Thanksgiving ham at a grocery store in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 21, 2017. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

March 11, 2019

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. consumers expect prices to rise more slowly, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a decline in inflation expectations in February that likely reinforces policymakers’ reluctance to hike rates.

The survey of consumer expectations, published on Monday, is one of the Fed’s price gauges as it weighs the need for rate rises. It showed one- and three-year ahead inflation expectations were down 0.2 percentage points to 2.8 percent last month, with sharp declines in expected medical care expenses. Both the one- and three-year gauges had been roughly unchanged since April 2018.

Stable and low inflation is one of the main reasons that the U.S. central bank, having raised interest rates four times last year, is now taking a wait-and-see approach to any more tightening in 2019.

The Fed is also conducting a broad policy review that may result in the central bank welcoming inflation that is slightly and temporarily over its target. Some policymakers and analysts think the Fed now has far more ability to respond to upward spikes in prices rather than persistently low readings. That is because interest rate cuts lose their potency as those borrowing costs approach zero.

Fed officials last raised their target policy rate in December to 2.25 to 2.50 percent but signaled after that point that they would be “patient” before deciding future moves.

The New York Fed’s survey found that consumers expected tame inflation despite also forecasting their own wages would rise. Average one-year earnings growth expectations increased to 2.5 percent last month, from 2.4 percent the month before. Consumers also forecast a lower likelihood that unemployment will rise. Economists are debating whether rising wages and low unemployment figures still translate into higher inflation as orthodox economic theory assumes.

Consumers were also slightly more optimistic about the direction of U.S. stock prices and their ability to access credit to finance purchases.

The internet-based survey taps a rotating panel of 1,300 households.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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Japanese refiners halt Iran oil imports as waiver expiry looms

Oil tankers pass through the Strait of Hormuz
Oil tankers pass through the Strait of Hormuz, December 21, 2018. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed

March 29, 2019

By Yuka Obayashi and Florence Tan

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese refineries have put a halt on imports of Iranian oil after buying 15.3 million barrels between January and March ahead of the expiry of a temporary waiver on U.S. sanctions, according to industry sources and data on Refinitiv Eikon.

The waiver, which allowed Japan to buy some Iranian oil for another 180 days, expires in early May. However, Japanese refiners want to ensure enough time for all cargoes already loaded to arrive in Japan and for payments to be completed.

“We think it would be difficult to keep on lifting Iranian oil after March,” a Fuji Oil spokesman said, noting that banks and insurance companies want to make sure all the transactions and deliveries are done well before the waivers expire.

The last Iranian oil cargo onboard supertanker Kisogawa is expected to arrive at Chiba, Japan, on April 9, the data showed.

The United States last year demanded that nations cut all Iranian oil imports when it reimposed sanctions on the country’s petroleum sector on Nov. 4 over Tehran’s nuclear program.

However, Washington granted temporary exemptions to Iran’s biggest oil clients – Japan, China, India, South Korea, Taiwan, Italy, Greece and Turkey.

Refiners in Japan, the world’s fourth-biggest oil consumer, had stopped loading Iranian oil by mid-September, and only resumed loading in late January after banks received government assurances about processing payments to Iran.

Japan has loaded 15.3 million barrels of Iranian crude in the first three months this year, which is equivalent to 86,430 barrels per day (bpd) during the six-month waiver period, according to Refinitiv data and Reuters calculations.

This represents a 33 percent drop from an average of 129,300 bpd that Japanese companies lifted between January and September last year before the sanctions kicked in, Refinitiv data showed.

The drop was more than the 20 percent reduction in supplies that Washington was said to have sought from each country over the six-month waiver period.

Japan has increased imports from the Middle East, Russia and the Americas as its Iranian imports fell, according to government data.

Japanese refiners have been pushing the government to seek an extension of the U.S. sanctions waivers after the initial exemption period expires.

Japanese officials and their U.S. counterparts met earlier this month in Washington to discuss the U.S. sanctions.

“I think the waiver could be extended, but maybe for a smaller volume and for a smaller number of countries,” said Takayuki Nogami, chief economist at Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp.

“If the U.S. government does not extend the waiver, it could push crude oil prices up significantly as the gasoline season approaches and it could hurt Trump’s reputation,” he said.

On Wednesday, Japan extended state-backed insurance to cover imports of oil from Iran for another year.

(Reporting by Florence Tan and Yuka Obayashi; editing by Richard Pullin)

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Man charged with Slovak journalist’s murder confesses to shooting him: TV

FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators take part in a protest rally marking the first anniversary of the murder of investigative reporter Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova in Bratislava
FILE PHOTO: Demonstrators take part in a protest rally marking the first anniversary of the murder of investigative reporter Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova in Bratislava, Slovakia, February 21, 2019. REUTERS/David W. Cerny/File Photo

April 11, 2019

BRATISLAVA (Reuters) – A man charged with Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak’s murder has confessed to shooting him, Slovak public television RTVS and the aktualne.sk news website reported on Thursday, quoting police sources.

The killing last year of Kuciak, a reporter covering corruption, and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova, sparked massive protests that led to the resignation of the prime minister, Robert Fico.

(Reporting by Tatiana Jancarikova; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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Fed policymakers do not want rate cuts, not even the doves

FILE PHOTO: The Federal Reserve Board building on Constitution Avenue is pictured in Washington
FILE PHOTO: The Federal Reserve Board building on Constitution Avenue is pictured in Washington, U.S., March 27, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

March 29, 2019

By Trevor Hunnicutt and Ann Saphir

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Barely a week after the U.S. Federal Reserve called a halt to interest rate hikes, policymakers are now battling a view growing in financial markets, and embraced by the Trump administration, that the Fed will need to cut rates before long.

Larry Kudlow, President Donald Trump’s top economic advisor, said Friday on CBNC that while there is “no emergency,” the Fed should cut rates to protect the U.S. economy from slowing down.

But no fewer than five Fed officials in the past 24 hours have touted the underlying strength of the American economy and argued the recent spate of weak data on business activity is more likely to prove fleeting than lasting.

Even the Fed’s two most dovish policymakers – the presidents of the St. Louis and Minneapolis regional banks – say they are not ready to agitate for the central bank to start reversing three years of rate increases.

On Friday one of the bank’s centrists, Randal Quarles, the Fed Board of Governor’s Vice Chair for Supervision, offered an optimistic view of the U.S. economy and said more rate increases may be needed if recent positive trends in productivity and investment continue.

Quarles is the latest in a series of policymakers insisting the Fed has an option to raise rates even as markets increasingly regard such a move as unlikely. The latest monthly jobs report showed a sharp slowdown in hiring, and recent data shows factory activity, business and consumer confidence and inflation have all weakened.

Indeed, prices on futures contracts tied to the Fed’s policy rate on Friday reflected bets the central bank will need to reduce interest rates by September.

Speaking in New York, Quarles said he is inclined to dismiss the recent data as “a bit odd” and “inconsistent” with underlying strength, wage gains that should be boosting households, and a rise in productivity he feels could be “persistent” and lead to stronger growth down the road.

DOVES AND HAWKS TOGETHER

But it wasn’t just Quarles, who has long tended to be on the more hawkish end of the Fed’s policy spectrum.

Even Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari, one of the biggest opponents of rate hikes at the central bank, told Reuters on Friday that it is “premature” to think about a cutting rates in response to economic data and market indicators.

Also on Friday, Dallas Federal Reserve President Robert Kaplan said bond markets are pointing to skepticism about future economic growth. But some economic data in the first quarter was distorted by a partial U.S. government shutdown and consumers are in good shape, he said.

Perhaps most telling are remarks by the influential chief of the New York Fed, John Williams, who on Thursday said the U.S. economy is in “a very good place” and described the likelihood of a recession in 2019 or 2020 as “not elevated.”

“I’m not as worried about a recession as some of my colleagues in the private sector,” Williams said. “I still see the probability of a recession this year or next year as being not elevated relative to any year.”

St. Louis Fed President James Bullard late Thursday also said it was premature to discuss any rate cut and felt the economy would likely rebound.

The Fed last week kept its target range for short-term rates at 2.25 percent to 2.5 percent, and projections showed most policymakers do not see any rate hikes this year, a downgrade from December when the median forecast was for rates to rise to 2.9 percent.

That downgrade was followed days later by a market phenomenon known as a yield curve inversion, where short-term rates exceed long-term rates, a pattern in the bond market that historically precedes a recession.

Policymakers have been keen to avoid the perception becoming reality, which may explain some of their pushback in recent days.

With the unemployment rate at 3.8 percent and the economy still growing faster than potential even as it slows, they also are reluctant to abandon the idea that inflation and wages will eventually perk up.

“It’s just taking a longer time than it typically does,” San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said earlier this week.

(Reporting by Ann Saphir and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Dan Burns and Andrea Ricci)

Source: OANN

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Exclusive: Ghosn, suffering from kidney failure, was arrested illegally – defense document

Junichiro Hironaka, chief lawyer of the former Nissan Motor chairman Carlos Ghosn, walks in front of a screen showing Ghosn's video statement during a news conference at Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo
Junichiro Hironaka, chief lawyer of the former Nissan Motor chairman Carlos Ghosn, walks in front of a screen showing Ghosn's video statement during a news conference at Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo, Japan April 9, 2019. REUTERS/Issei Kato

April 11, 2019

By Tim Kelly

TOKYO (Reuters) – Carlos Ghosn’s “illegal” arrest has interrupted his care for chronic kidney failure, which the former Nissan Motor boss suffers from as a result of treatment for high cholesterol, his defense alleged in documents seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The documents, prepared by Ghosn’s defense team after he was arrested for the fourth time by Tokyo prosecutors last week and the details of which have not been previously reported, allege his arrest was designed to halt the defense’s preparation and force a confession.

Tokyo prosecutors declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

The prosecutors re-arrested last Thursday Ghosn at his Tokyo residence where he had been staying following his release on a $9 million bail. He has since been returned to a detention center where he previously spent more than 100 days. Prosecutors arrested him on suspicion of enriching himself at a cost of $5 million to Nissan.

Ghosn has denied all allegations against him and said he is the victim of a boardroom coup.

“This arrest is illegal,” the defense said in one of the documents, dated April 5, the day after he was re-arrested.

Ghosn has high cholesterol and, as a result of treatment, suffers from chronic kidney failure and rhabdomyolysis, the defense said. Rhabdomyolysis is a syndrome where muscle fibers release their contents into the blood stream.

Interrupting his treatment for the “convenience of prosecutors’ investigation” was “inhuman”, the defense said in the document.

(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

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Members of The Cranberries, bassist Mike Hogan, drummer Fergal Lawler and guitarist Noel Hogan speak to Reuters during an interview in London
Members of The Cranberries, bassist Mike Hogan, drummer Fergal Lawler and guitarist Noel Hogan speak to Reuters during an interview in London, Britain, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Gerhard Mey

April 26, 2019

By Hanna Rantala

LONDON (Reuters) – Irish rockers The Cranberries are saying goodbye with their final album released on Friday, a poignant tribute to lead singer Dolores O’Riordan who died last year.

“In the End” is the eighth studio album from the band that rose to fame in the early 1990s with hits likes “Zombie” and “Linger”, and includes the final recordings by O’Riordan, who drowned in a London hotel bath in January 2018 due to alcohol intoxication.

Work on the album began during a 2017 tour and by that winter, O’Riordan and guitarist Neil Hogan had penned and demoed 11 tracks.

With O’Riordan’s vocals recorded, Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler completed the album in tribute to her.

“When we realized how strong the songs were, that was the deciding factor really… There was no point… trying to ruin the legacy of the band,” Noel Hogan said in an interview.

“It was obvious that Dolores wanted this album done because when you hear the album, you hear the songs and how strong they are, and she was very, very excited to get in and record this.”

The Cranberries formed in Limerick in 1989 with another singer. O’Riordan replaced him a year later and the group went on to become Ireland’s best-selling rock band after U2, selling more than 40 million records.

O’Riordan, known for her strong distinctive voice singing about relationships or political violence, was 46 when she died.

“She was actually in quite a good place mentally. She was feeling quite content and strong and looking forward to a new phase of her life,” Lawler said.

“A lot of the lyrics in this album are about things ending… people might read into it differently but it was a phase of her personal life that she was talking about.”

The group previously announced their intention to split after the release of “In The End”.

“We are absolutely gutted we can’t play (the songs) live because that’s something that’s been a massive part of this band from day one,” Noel Hogan said.

“A few people have said to us about maybe even doing a one off where you have different vocalists… as kind of guests of ours. A year ago that’s definitely something we weren’t going to entertain but I don’t know, I think it’s something we need to go away and take time off for the summer and have a think about.”

Critics have generally given positive reviews of the album; NME described it as “(seeing) the band’s career go full-circle” while the Irish Times called it “an unexpected late career high and a remarkable swan song for O’Riordan”.

Their early songs still play on the radio. This week, “Dreams” was performed at the funeral of journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot dead in Londonderry last week as she watched Irish nationalist youths attack police following a raid.

“We wrote them as kids, as a hobby and 30 years later they are on radio and on TV, like all the time… That’s far more than any of us ever thought we would have,” Noel Hogan said.

“That would make Dolores really happy because she was very precious about those songs. Her babies, she called them and to have that hopefully long after we’re gone… that’s all any band can wish for.”

(Reporting by Hanna Rantala; additoinal reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Susan Fenton)

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2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston, Texas, U.S. April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

April 26, 2019

By Joshua Schneyer and M.B. Pell

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Senator Elizabeth Warren will introduce a bill Friday that offers new protections for U.S. military families facing unsafe housing, following a series of Reuters reports revealing squalid conditions in privately managed base homes.

The Reuters reports and later Congressional hearings detailed widespread hazards including lead paint exposure, vermin infestations, collapsing ceilings, mold and maintenance lapses in privatized base housing communities that serve some 700,000 U.S. military family members.

(View Warren’s military housing bill here. https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dy5aht)

(Read Reuters’ Ambushed at Home series on military housing here. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/usa-military)

The Massachusetts Democrat’s bill would mandate both regular and unannounced spot inspections of base homes by certified, independent inspectors, holding landlords accountable for quickly fixing hazards. The military’s privatization program for years allowed real estate firms to operate base housing with scant oversight, Reuters found, leaving some tenants in unsafe homes with little recourse against landlords.

The bill would also require the Department of Defense and its private housing operators to publish reports annually detailing housing conditions, tenant complaints, maintenance response times and the financial incentives companies receive at each base. The provisions aim to enhance transparency of housing deals whose finances and operations the military had allowed to remain largely confidential under a privatization program since the late 1990s.

The measure would also require private landlords to cover moving costs for at-risk families, and healthcare costs for people with medical conditions resulting from unsafe base housing, ensuring they receive continuing coverage even after they leave the homes or the military.

“This bill will eliminate the kind of corner-cutting and neglect the Defense Department should never have let these private housing partners get away with in the first place,” Warren said in a statement Friday.

The proposed legislation comes after February Senate hearings where Warren, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2020 U.S. presidential election, slammed private real estate firms for endangering service families, and sought answers about why military branches weren’t providing more oversight.

Her legislation would direct the Defense Department to allow local housing code enforcers onto federal bases, following concerns they were sometimes denied access. Warren’s office said a companion bill in the House of Representatives would be introduced by Rep. Deb Haaland, Democrat of New Mexico.

In response to the housing crisis, military branches are developing a tenant bill of rights and hiring hundreds of new housing staff. The branches recently dispatched commanders to survey base housing worldwide for safety hazards, resulting in thousands of work orders and hundreds of tenants being moved. The Defense Department has pledged to renegotiate its 50-year contracts with private real estate firms.

Congress has been quick to take its own measures. Earlier legislation proposed by senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris of California, along with Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia, would compel base commanders to withhold rent payments and incentive fees from the private ventures if they allow home hazards to persist.

(Editing by Ronnie Greene)

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FILE PHOTO: Offices of Deloitte are seen in London
FILE PHOTO: Offices of Deloitte are seen in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar

(Reuters) – Deloitte quit as Ferrexpo’s auditor on Friday, knocking its shares by more than 20 percent, days after saying it was unable to conclude whether the iron ore miner’s CEO controlled a charity being investigated over its use of company donations.

Blooming Land, which coordinates Ferrexpo’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, came under scrutiny after auditors found holes in the charity’s statements.

Ferrexpo on Tuesday said findings of an ongoing independent investigation launched in February indicated some Blooming Land funds could have been “misappropriated”. It did not provide any details or publish its findings.

Shares in Ferrexpo, the third largest exporter of pellets to the global steel industry, were 23.4 percent lower at 206.1 pence at 1022 GMT following news of Deloitte’s resignation.

“Ferrexpo’s shares are deeply discounted vs peers … following the resignation of Deloitte, we expect downside risks to dominate Ferrexpo’s shares near term.” JP Morgan analyst Dominic O’Kane said in a note on Friday.

Swiss-headquartered Ferrexpo did not provide a reason for the resignation of Deloitte, which declined to comment, while Blooming Land did not respond to a request for comment.

Funding for Blooming Land’s CSR activities is provided by one of Ferrexpo’s units in Ukraine and Khimreaktiv LLC, an entity ultimately controlled by Ferrexpo’s CEO and majority owner Kostyantin Zhevago, Ferrexpo said on Tuesday.

Ferrexpo’s board has found that Zhevago did not have significant influence or control over the charity, but Deloitte said it was unable reach a conclusion on this.

Reuters was not immediately able to contact Zhevago.

In a qualified opinion, a statement addressing an incomplete audit, Deloitte said it had been unable to conclude whether $33.5 million of CSR donations to Blooming Land between 2017 and 2018 was used for “legitimate business payments for charitable purposes”.

Deloitte said on Tuesday that total CSR payments made to Blooming Land by Ferrexpo since 2013 total about $110 million.

Ferrexpo, whose major mines are in Ukraine, has said that the investigation was ongoing and new evidence pointed to potential discrepancies.

Zhevago, 45, who ranked 1,511 on Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires for 2019 with a net worth of $1.4 billion, owns the FC Vorskla soccer club and has been a member of Ukraine’s parliament since 1998.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar in Bengaluru and additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev; editing by Gopakumar Warrier, Bernard Orr)

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Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba
Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba, Mozambique April 26, 2019 in this still image obtained from social media. SolidarMed via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

April 26, 2019

By Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer

JOHANNESBURG/LUANDA (Reuters) – Cyclone Kenneth killed at least one person and left a trail of destruction in northern Mozambique, destroying houses, ripping up trees and knocking out power, authorities said on Friday.

The cyclone brought storm surges and wind gusts of up to 280 km per hour (174 mph) when it made landfall on Thursday evening, after killing three people in the island nation of Comoros.

It was the most powerful storm on record to hit Mozambique’s northern coast and came just six weeks after Cyclone Idai battered the impoverished nation, causing devastating floods and killing more than 1,000 people across a swathe of southern Africa.

The World Food Programme warned that Kenneth could dump as much as 600 millimeters of rain on the region over the next 10 days – twice that brought by Cyclone Idai.

One woman in the port town of Pemba died after being hit by a falling tree, the Emergency Operations Committee for Cabo Delgado (COE) said in a statement, while another person was injured.

In rural areas outside Pemba, many homes are made of mud. In the main town on the island of Ibo, 90 percent of the houses were destroyed, officials said. Around 15,000 people were out in the open or in “overcrowded” shelters and there was a need for tents, food and water, they said.

There were also reports of a large number of homes and some infrastructure destroyed in Macomia district, a mainland district adjacent to Ibo.

A local group, the Friends of Pemba Association, had earlier reported that they could not reach people in Muidumbe, a district further inland.

Mark Lowcock, United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, warned the storm could require another major humanitarian operation in Mozambique.

“Cyclone Kenneth marks the first time two cyclones have made landfall in Mozambique during the same season, further stressing the government’s limited resources,” he said in a statement.

FLOOD WARNINGS

Shaquila Alberto, owner of the beach-front Messano Flower Lodge in Macomia, said there were many fallen trees there, and in rural areas people’s homes had been damaged. Some areas of nearby Pemba had no power.

“Even my workers, they said the roof and all the things fell down,” she said by phone.

Further south, in Pemba, Elton Ernesto, a receptionist at Raphael’s Hotel, said there were fallen trees but not too much damage. The hotel had power and water, he said, while phones rang in the background. “The rain has stopped,” he added.

However Michael Charles, an official for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said heavy rains over the next few days were likely to bring a “second wave of destruction” in the form of flooding.

“The houses are not all solid, and the topography is very sandy,” Charles said.

In the days after Cyclone Idai, heavy inland rains prompted rivers to burst their banks, submerging entire villages, cutting areas off from aid and ruining crops. There were concerns the same could happen again in northern Mozambique.

Before Kenneth hit, the government and aid workers moved around 30,000 people to safer buildings such as schools, however authorities said that around 680,000 people were in the path of the storm.

(Reporting by Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer; Writing by Emma Rumney; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Alexandra Zavis)

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A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai
FILE PHOTO: A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai, India, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

April 26, 2019

By Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Surging global oil prices will pose a first big challenge to India’s new government, whoever wins an election now under way, especially as domestic prices have been allowed to lag, meaning consumers are in for a painful surge as they catch up.

For oil-import dependent India, higher global prices could lead to a weaker rupee, higher inflation, the ruling out of interest rate cuts and could further weigh on twin current account and budget deficits, economists warned.

But compounding the future pain, state-run fuel suppliers and retailers have held off passing on to consumers the higher prices during a staggered general election, which began on April 11 and ends on May 23, according to sources familiar with the situation.

That delay is expected to be unwound once the election is over. And there could be additional price increases to make up for losses or profits missed during the period of delayed increases, the sources said.

In some major Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea, pump prices are adjusted periodically so they move largely in tandem with international crude prices.

That was what was supposed to happen in India but the election means there have been many days when pump prices have been unchanged.

In New Delhi, for example, while crude oil prices have gone up by nearly $9 a barrel, or about 12 percent, in the past six weeks, gasoline prices have only risen by 0.47 rupees a liter, or 0.6 percent.

State-controlled fuel suppliers and retailers declined to say why they had delayed price increases, or discuss whether there has been any pressure from the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A government spokesman declined to comment.

The opposition Congress party said Modi’s government was violating its own policy of daily price revision by advising the state oil companies to hold prices steady.

“The government should cut fuel taxes otherwise consumers will have to pay much higher oil prices once the elections are over,” said Akhilesh Pratap Singh, a senior leader of the Congress party.

(GRAPHIC: India Polls: Fuel price hike lags crude surge – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XLlxik)

Nitin Goyal, treasurer at the All India Petroleum Dealers Association, representing fuel stations in 25 states, said prices were similarly held down for 19 days in the southern state of Karnataka last year, when it held state assembly elections.

Only for them to surge after the vote.

“Consumers should be ready for a rude shock of a massive jump in retail prices, similar to the level we have seen in the Karnataka state election,” Goyal said.

‘CREDIT NEGATIVE’

Sri Paravaikkarasu, director for Asia oil at Singapore-based consultancy FGE, said retail prices of gasoline and gasoil prices would have been up to 6 percent, or about 4 rupee, higher if they had been allowed to rise in line with global prices.

“Indian pump prices have failed to keep up with the recent uptrend in crude prices,” Paravaikkarasu said.

“With the country’s general elections underway, the incumbent government has been keeping pump prices relatively unchanged.”

India had switched to a daily price revision in June 2017 from a revision every two weeks, as the government allowed retailers to set prices.

But the government faced protests last October when retailers raised prices by up to 10 rupees a liter after the crude oil price went above $80 a barrel, forcing it to cut fuel taxes.

Global prices rose to their highest level in 2019 on Thursday, days after the United States announced all Iran sanction waivers would end by May, pressuring importers including India to stop buying Tehran’s oil. [O/R]

Higher oil prices will mean Asia’s third largest economy is likely to see growth of less than 7 percent rate this fiscal year, economists said. Growth slowed to 6.6 percent in the October-December quarter, the slowest in five quarters.

Rating agency CARE has warned that a 10 percent rise in global oil prices could increase demand for dollars, putting pressure on the rupee and widening the current account deficit.

India’s oil import bill rose by nearly one-third in the fiscal year ending March 31 to $140.5 billion, against $108 billion the previous year.

“The increase in international oil prices is a credit negative for the Indian economy,” ICRA, the Indian arm of the Fitch rating agency, said in a note.

“Every $10/ bbl increase in crude oil prices increases the fiscal deficit by about 0.1 percent of GDP.”

Any big price rise would also build a case for the central bank to keep rates steady, or even raise them.

The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee, which cut the benchmark policy repo rate by 25 basis points this month, warned that rising oil and food prices could push up inflation.

Policymakers are worried that a sustained increase in the oil price in the range of $70-75/barrel or higher can move the rupee down by 3-4 percent on an annual basis.

The rupee has depreciated by 1.24 percent against the dollar since a year high in mid-March.

($1 = 70.1800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma; Editing by Martin Howell and Rob Birsel)

Source: OANN

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