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India’s Congress party chief files election nomination

India's Congress party chief Rahul Gandhi has filed his nomination for another term as a member of Parliament from Amethi, a family bastion in the vote-rich state of Uttar Pradesh.

Gandhi's mother, Sonia Gandhi, the widow of assassinated Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who is running for a seat from Rae Bareli, another city in Uttar Pradesh, joined her son in Amethi on Wednesday, a day before voting in India's multi-phase national elections begins for the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament.

Gandhi's sister, Priyanka Gandhi, the Congress party manager of the eastern half of Uttar Pradesh, and her husband, were also present.

Up for grabs in Uttar Pradesh are 80 of the Lok Sahba's 543 elected seats.

Gandhi is also running from Wayanad in Kerala state.

Source: Fox News World

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The Latest: Feds hunt escaped teen charged in mom’s death

The Latest on the escape of a 15-year-old inmate charged with killing his mother (all times local):

3:45 p.m.

The FBI and the U.S. Marshals Service have joined the hunt in California for a 15-year-old escaped inmate charged with stabbing his mother to death.

Orange County sheriff's Capt. Mike Peters says more than 80 law enforcement personnel are searching for 15-year-old Ike Souzer, who escaped from the Orange County Juvenile Hall just after midnight Friday.

Souzer had been in the middle of a murder trial in the 2017 stabbing of 48-year-old Barbra Scheuer-Souzer. He was 13 when she was killed.

The sheriff's office released surveillance footage showing Souzer tending to an apparent wound on his leg shortly after escaping. The 6-foot-tall, 200-pound teen was wearing red pants and a white shirt.

Peters says investigators are working "to turn over every rock" to find Souza.

___

10:30 a.m.

A 15-year-old boy accused of killing his mother has escaped a Southern California jail.

Probation officials say 15-year-old Ike Souzer escaped from the Orange County Juvenile Hall and jumped a perimeter fence just after midnight Friday. The 6-foot-tall, 200-pound teen was wearing red pants and a white shirt.

Orange County sheriff's Capt. Mike Peters says at least 60 officials are searching for Souzer.

Souzer has been in custody since he was 13, when KCBS-LA reports he was arrested on suspicion of fatally stabbing his mother, 48-year-old Barbra Scheuer-Souzer, in Garden Grove.

A Gofundme page for Scheuer-Souzer's family says she was so good at helping her son with autism that she went back to school to help others with the condition and was about to graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Source: Fox News National

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Ex-Maryland Gov. Harry R. Hughes dies at 92; served 2 terms

Former Maryland Gov. Harry R. Hughes, who prided himself on restoring public faith in the political process, died Wednesday. He was 92.

His daughter, Elizabeth Hughes, said Hughes' had been in hospice.

"I was holding his hand," she said. "He was a wonderful dad. He was a kind generous man, and he had a great sense of humor."

In a statement on Hughes' passing, Gov. Larry Hogan said Wednesday that flags will be flown at half-staff until sunset of the day of interment. Hogan described Hughes as "a longtime friend and Maryland legend whom I deeply admired."

The two-term Democratic governor, who served from 1979 to 1987, also spent 16 years in the General Assembly and seven as Maryland's first transportation secretary.

Hughes came to the governor's mansion at a time when Maryland had become a national symbol for corruption. Gov. Marvin Mandel had been sentenced to jail on political corruption charges and former Gov. Spiro T. Agnew had pleaded no contest to income tax evasion.

Hughes said in a January 1987 interview with The Associated Press that he was most proud of restoring integrity to state government.

"It's an intangible, but very important," Hughes said at the time.

He left political life after a failed bid for the U.S. Senate, saddled by the public with much of the blame for the 1985 savings and loan debacle.

"Looking back, I wouldn't have done anything differently," he said of the one blot on his record. "I think we handled it well."

Hughes and the legislature moved quickly to create a state agency that took over from the private agency that insured the thrifts. Most depositors got all their money back.

Born in Easton on Nov. 13, 1926, Hughes enlisted in the Navy at age 17 and served a year and a half with the Navy Air Corps in World War II. He graduated in 1949 from the University of Maryland and flirted with a baseball career, spending a summer with the New York Yankees' Class D farm team in Easton, before going on to George Washington University School of Law.

He opened a law practice in his hometown of Denton in 1952.

In 1954, he was elected to represent Caroline County in the House of Delegates and in 1958 was elected to the state Senate, where he served until 1970.

He was appointed to head the newly created state Department of Transportation in 1971, but resigned in May 1977 to protest the award of a large construction management contract.

Hughes' campaign for his party's nomination for governor was beset by financial problems and he was dismissed by political observers early on as "a lost ball in high grass."

His friends often lamented Hughes was too shy to promote himself, too restrained to ask for campaign contributions.

But he shocked the pundits with a Democratic primary upset of Acting Gov. Blair Lee, who moved up from lieutenant governor when Mandel went to prison.

Hughes was elected Maryland's 57th governor in 1978 by a landslide, 71 percent of the vote, the largest margin of victory for a Maryland governor at that time. He was re-elected in 1982 with 62 percent.

During his two terms, he launched an aggressive economic development program, a large tax relief program, an overhaul of the corrections system and the biggest prison construction program in state history.

In 1983, he signed an agreement with the governors of Virginia and Pennsylvania and the mayor of the District of Columbia to work to restore the polluted Chesapeake Bay.

He also cited his programs dealing with child and spousal abuse, drunken driving, increases in school aid and transportation projects that included an interstate from Baltimore to Annapolis.

After eight years as governor, he launched a bid for the U.S. Senate, but was dogged on every step by depositors angered by the savings and loan crisis and he lost the primary.

Hughes left government to become a partner in the Baltimore office of the Washington law firm of Patton, Boggs and Blow, which represents mostly corporate clients before government agencies.

Source: Fox News National

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Argentina inflation rate will slow to about 34 percent this year: OECD

FILE PHOTO: Employee stands as he operates a machine at industrial manufacturing company Gottert in Garin
FILE PHOTO: An employee stands as he operates a machine at industrial manufacturing company Gottert in Garin, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina November 1, 2018. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci

March 27, 2019

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that Argentina’s inflation rate will slow to about 34 percent in 2019, an agency official said in Buenos Aires on Wednesday.

The OECD’s prediction was higher than the most recent central bank poll of economists, who predicted 2019 inflation of 31.9 percent.

Argentina, the third-largest economy in the region, recorded inflation of nearly 48 percent in 2018 as a result of a sharp devaluation of its peso currency <ARS = RASL>.

The central bank imposed a restriction of zero growth in the monetary base last year. Alvaro Santos Pereira of the OECD told a news conference on Wednesday that the policy will result in the deceleration of inflation.

Argentina’s central bank has signaled a more hawkish stance over the last month, looking to tighten monetary policy in order to tame inflation and protect the peso, which analysts said should limit the recent weakness.

The OECD also estimated that Argentina’s economy will begin growing again in the second half of the year, following a 2.5 percent dip in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018. It also predicted GDP growth of 2.3 percent in 2020.

President Mauricio Macri negotiated a $56.3 billion standby financing deal with the International Monetary Fund last year. The agreement requires his government to erase its primary fiscal deficit.

(Reporting by Eliana Raszewski in Buenos Aires; Writing by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

Source: OANN

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Thousands flee Tripoli homes as battle rages on outskirts

A member of Misrata forces, under the protection of Tripoli's forces, takes his position near a military camp in Tripoli
A member of Misrata forces, under the protection of Tripoli's forces, takes his position near a military camp in Tripoli, Libya April 9, 2019. REUTERS/Hani Amara

April 10, 2019

By Ahmed Elumami

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Eastern forces and troops loyal to the Tripoli government fought on the outskirts of Libya’s capital on Wednesday as thousands of residents fled from the battle.

The Libyan National Army (LNA) forces of eastern commander Khalifa Haftar held positions in the suburbs about 11 km (7 miles) south of the center, with steel containers and pickups with mounted machine-guns blocking their way into the city.

Residents reported LNA planes buzzing Tripoli and the sound of clashes in outskirts. Haftar’s forces were engaging Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj’s fighters at the former international airport, one soldier told Reuters.

The United Nations said at least 4,500 Tripoli residents had been displaced, most moving away from their homes in conflict areas to safer districts of the city. Many more were trapped, it said.

The LNA forces moved out of their stronghold in east Libya to take the sparsely-populated but oil-rich south earlier this year, before heading a week ago toward Tripoli, where the internationally-recognized government of sits.

Libya has been split into rival eastern and western administrations since the 2011 topping of former strongman Muammar Gaddafi. He ruled for more than four decades before falling in a Western-backed revolt.

Since then, political and armed factions have vied for power and control of Libya’s oil wealth, and the country split into rival eastern and western administrations linked to shifting military alliances after a battle for Tripoli in 2014.

The United Nations wants to bring both sides together to plan an election and way out of the chaos.

“I JUST WANT TO SURVIVE”

Its humanitarian agency the OCHA said it was extremely concerned about the “disproportionate and indiscriminate use” of explosive weapons in densely-populated areas.

Half a million children were at risk, it added.

As well as the humanitarian consequences, renewed conflict in Libya threatens to disrupt oil supplies, boost migration across the Mediterranean to Europe, scupper the U.N. peace plan, and encourage militants to exploit the chaos.

Islamic State killed three people in a remote desert town under LNA control two days ago.

In Tripoli, nearly 50 people have died, mainly fighters but also some civilians including two doctors, according to latest U.N. casualty estimates. The toll is expected to rise.

Several thousand migrants, detained after trying to use Libya as a staging-point for crossing the Mediterranean to Europe, have also been caught up in the crisis.

The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Tuesday it had relocated more than 150 of them – among several thousand in total – from one detention center in south Tripoli to a facility of its own in a safe zone.

One official at that detention center said he flung open the doors on Wednesday and released another 150 migrants for their own safety due to the proximity of clashes.

The United Nations, United States, European Union and G7 bloc have appealed for a ceasefire, a return to the U.N. peace plan, and a halt to Haftar’s push.

Opponents cast him as a would-be dictator in the mould of Gaddafi, though Haftar projects himself as a champion against extremism pushing to restore order to Libya.

Haftar was among officers who helped Gaddafi rise to power in 1969 but fell out with him during a war with Chad in the 1980s. He was taken prisoner by the Chadians, rescued by the CIA, and lived for about 20 years in Virginia before returning in 2011 to join other rebels in the uprising against Gaddafi

Despite the flare-up in conflict, normal life was just about continuing in Tripoli, a city of roughly 1.2 million people, though prices were rising and businesses are closing earlier than usual, residents said.

“I don’t care who wins or loses, I just want to survive with my family,” said a teacher in Tripoli, who hoped to get out.

(Additional reporting by Aidan Lewis i Cairo; Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: OANN

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Cash-flush buyout firms target Europe in take-private scramble

FILE PHOTO: People walk past the London Stock Exchange Group offices in the City of London, Britain
FILE PHOTO: People walk past the London Stock Exchange Group offices in the City of London, Britain, December 29, 2017. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo

April 16, 2019

By Pamela Barbaglia

LONDON (Reuters) – Once shunned due to intense public scrutiny and competition from corporate buyers, private equity firms are increasingly targeting listed companies in Europe, shrugging off forecasts of a regional economic slowdown.

European buyouts have hit a 12-year record of $31.6 billion so far this year, of which almost half has been invested in listed companies, Refinitiv data shows, with industry buyers deterred by geopolitical concerns and global slowdown fears.

Although these worries have led to a 67 percent fall in European mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the first quarter, buyout firms – entrusted with record amounts of cash to invest – say they cannot stay on the sidelines.

“Whether it’s a good or bad time, the industry’s job is to put money at work,” said Warburg Pincus European head Daniel Zilberman. Warburg Pincus is leading a $3.4 billion deal to buy British satellite operator Inmarsat with Apax Partners.

So-called take-private deals, where a public company is bought and delisted, hit their highest level last year since a previous boom in 2006–2007, a report by Bain & Company showed, with 170 such deals clinched globally.

Of $227 billion of public-to-private deals last year, $71 billion were in Europe and $118 billion in North America.

This is continuing into 2019, with a consortium of Hellman & Friedman and Blackstone buying German classifieds group Scout24 in a 5.7 billion euro deal which ranks as the biggest private equity takeover of a listed company in Germany.

“Private equity funds are not scared of a downturn. They have the flexibility to underwrite any macro concern in their pricing model and holding periods. In fact, they can take a long-term approach if market conditions suddenly deteriorate,” Laurent Haziza, global co-head of financial sponsors at Rothschild, said.

This confidence is backed by cash swelling U.S. private equity coffers, highlighted by Blackstone’s latest $22 billion buyout fund.

And European rivals are keeping up the pace as London-based Cinven looks to raise 10 billion euros for its seventh fund, sources said, well beyond an initial target of 8 billion euros, while CVC raised a record 16 billion euros in 2017.

For an interactive version of the below graphic, click here https://tmsnrt.rs/2Xh6I6F.

“UNDER PRESSURE”

Private equity investors say European mid-cap companies – especially those trading in London’s FTSE 250 index which has been on a downward trajectory for the past 12 months – have become cheaper due to macro-economic jitters, with executives more receptive to their proposals as a result.

“Most CEOs are under pressure as they need to prepare for a downturn and consider ways to keep funding growth. They are increasingly turning to private equity firms to discuss their options,” Luca Bassi, a managing director at Bain Capital Private Equity, said.

Bassi also said the perception of private equity funds has changed due to their growing focus on piecing together global industry leaders.

“We are part of the same ecosystem,” he said, pointing to Bain’s expertise in digital payments. “The days of corporate raids have gone. We can help companies navigate the recession when it hits.”

But bankers and analysts say some buyout funds may regret paying top dollar to buy listed companies.

“The biggest risk for private equity funds is a contraction of valuation multiples at exit,” Zilberman at Warburg Pincus said. “At the moment assets are priced at very high multiples, but interest rates are rising, the cost of capital is going up and multiples will need to come down over time.”

The average purchase price for leveraged buyouts in Europe has surged to nearly 11 times core earnings (EBITDA) in 2018, above levels leading up to the global financial crisis, data from LCD, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, showed.

In the United States valuations have hovered at an all-time high of roughly 10.6 times EBITDA since 2017.

(GRAPHIC: Average purchase price multiple for all PE buyouts – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XiKBwC)

“You need to create real strategic value to justify the kind of multiples in the market and meet your return targets,” said Zilberman of Warburg Pincus. “But you also need to price in a recession and prepare for the worst.”

In the boom years of 2006-2007, when global private equity investments surged to roughly $650 billion, the industry relied on excessive debt to fund mega deals and then extracted returns through financial engineering, resulting in companies struggling to stay afloat and some funds going out of business.

Although similar fears have started to surface given the combination of record asset prices, abundant capital and an uncertain economic backdrop, the industry is so far unfazed.

“Higher risk is a function of higher returns. Big funds are designed to take on more risk, and often over longer time horizons,” JP Morgan’s co-head of EMEA M&A Dwayne Lysaght said.

(Reporting by Pamela Barbaglia; Graphics by Ritvik Carvalho; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Source: OANN

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New Jersey's largest port drug bust in decades sees 3,200 pounds of cocaine worth $77M

Authorities seized roughly 3,200 pounds of cocaine in Newark, New Jersey last month in a shipment officials claim is the largest amount recovered at the ports of entry in 25 years.

Officials said the cocaine is worth an estimated $77 million. It was seized on Feb. 28, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

BOY, 7, PICKS UP BAG OF COCAINE, FENTANYL DROPPED BY MAN IN SUBWAY, POLICE SAY

Captured at the Port of New York/Newark by multiple law enforcement agencies, officials said in a news release that the shipping container included "six packages containing a white powdery substance that field-tested positive for cocaine."

Roughly 3,200 pounds of cocaine was recovered at the Port of New York/Newark in February, officials said.

Roughly 3,200 pounds of cocaine was recovered at the Port of New York/Newark in February, officials said. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

“This is a significant seizure, in fact it is the largest cocaine seizure at the Port of New York/Newark since May 1994,” Troy Miller, director of New York field operations for the agency, said. “This interception prevents a massive quantity of drugs from getting to the streets and in the hands of our children.”

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The container, according to a spokesperson for the agency, was recovered from a ship that originated in South America.

Officers turned the drugs over to federal Homeland Security officials for investigation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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FILE PHOTO - A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat
FILE PHOTO: A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat April 1, 2014. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – India has once again delayed the implementation of higher tariffs on some goods imported from the United States to May 15, a government official said on Friday.

The new tariff structure was to come into force from May 2, the spokeswoman said without citing reasons for the delay.

Angered by Washington’s refusal to exempt it from new steel and aluminum tariffs, New Delhi decided in June last year to raise the import tax from Aug. 4 on some U.S. products including almonds, walnuts and apples.

But since then, New Delhi has repeatedly delayed the implementation of the new tariff.

Trade friction between India and the U.S. has escalated after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans earlier this year to end preferential trade treatment for India that allows duty-free entry for up to $5.6 billion worth of its exports to the United States.

In a further blow, U.S. on Monday demanded buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May or face sanctions, ending six months of waivers which allowed Iran’s eight biggest buyers including India to continue importing limited volumes.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar in New Delhi and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Source: OANN

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One of Joe Biden’s newly-hired senior advisers has seemingly had a very recent change of heart.

Symone Sanders, a prominent Democratic strategist and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., staffer in 2016, was announced as one of the big-name members of Team Biden on Thursday.

But Sanders, who has also served as a CNN contributor, is seen in resurfaced footage from November 2016 expressing her opposition to a white person leading her party after Donald Trump’s election.

“In my opinion, we don’t need white people leading the Democratic party right now,” Sanders told host Brianna Keilar during a discussion on Howard Dean potentially becoming DNC chairman.

BIDEN HIRES FORMER BERNIE SANDERS’ SPOKESPERSON AS SENIOR ADVISER

“The Democratic party is diverse, and it should be reflected as so in leadership and throughout the staff, at the highest levels. From the vice chairs to the secretaries all the way down to the people working in the offices at the DNC,” she said.

Sanders wrapped up her remarks by saying: “I want to hear more from everybody. I want to hear from the millennials and the brown folks.”

Footage of the interview was resurfaced by RealClearPolitics.

After news of her hiring broke on Thursday, Sanders backed her new boss on Twitter.

TRUMP ASSESSES 2020 DEMS; TAKES SWIPES AT BIDEN, SANDERS; DISMISSES HARRIS, O’ROURKE; SAYS HE’S ROOTING FOR BUTTIGIEG

“@JoeBiden & @DrBiden are a class act. Over the course of this campaign, Vice President Biden is going to make his case to the American ppl. He won’t always be perfect, but I believe he will get it right,” she wrote.

The hiring of Sanders has been viewed as another indication of the expected tough fight that Biden and Sanders are in for as the two frontrunners battle a deep Democratic field.

While Sanders himself didn’t torch Biden as he jumped into the race, it’s clear that many of his progressive supporters view the former vice president as a threat.

Biden’s entry into the race – at least in the early going – sets up a battle between himself and Sanders, who thanks to his fierce fight with eventual nominee Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination, enjoys name ID on the level of the former vice president.

BIDEN VOWS THAT ‘AMERICA IS COMING BACK,’ SPARKING ‘MAGA’ COMPARISONS

Justice Democrats — who also called Biden “out-of-touch” – is an increasingly influential group among the left of the party. They’ve championed progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York as well as Sanders. The group was founded by members of Sanders 2016 presidential campaign.

Biden has pushed back against the perception that he’s a moderate in a party that’s increasingly moving to the left. Earlier this month he described himself as an “Obama-Biden Democrat.”

And Biden said he’d stack his record against “anybody who has run or who is running now or who will run.”

Former Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile – a Fox News contributor – highlighted that “Joe Biden can occupy his own lane in large part because he’s earned it. He’s earned the right to call himself whatever.”

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But she emphasized that “elections are not about the past, they’re about the future…I do believe he has the right ingredients. The question is can he find enough people to help him stir the pot.”

Fox News Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, who is facing increased calls for her immediate resignation, remains in poor health and is not “lucid” enough to decide whether to step down, her attorney told reporters late Thursday.

Steve Silverman, speaking outside one of Pugh’s residences which was raided by the FBI and IRS earlier in the day, said the embattled city leader could make a decision as early as next week.

“She is leaning toward making the best decision in the best interest in the citizens of Baltimore City,” he said, adding that Pugh has “several options” to consider.

“She just needs to be physically and mentally sound and lucid enough to make appropriate decisions.”

BALTIMORE MAYOR CATHERINE PUGH, ON LEAVE AMID BOOK PROBE, HAS HOMES AND CITY HALL OFFICE RAIDED BY FEDS

Silverman said Pugh met with a doctor at home Thursday and plans to do so again Friday, the Baltimore Sun reported.

In the latest image-tarnishing scandal for struggling Baltimore, the first-term Democratic mayor faces accusations that she used children’s book deals to cover up kickbacks for favorable treatment as a state lawmaker and city leader that earned her roughly $800,000 over several years.

BALTIMORE’S ACTING MAYOR SAYS HE ‘WOULD HATE TO SEE’ EMBATTLED MAYOR RETURN AFTER BOOK SCANDALS

As a state senator, 69-year-old Pugh sold $500,000 worth of her self-published “Healthy Holly” illustrated paperbacks to the University of Maryland Medical System, a major state employer whose board she sat on for nearly 20 years.

Baltimore police officers stand outside the house of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Pugh and also in City Hall. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Baltimore police officers stand outside the house of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Pugh and also in City Hall. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

UMMS reportedly paid Pugh for 100,000 copies of her books between 2011 and 2018 with the stated intention of distributing the books to schools and day care centers. But some 50,000 copies remain unaccounted for and officials are probing if they were even printed.

Pugh also made $300,000 in bulk sales to other customers including health carriers that did business with the city of Baltimore.

BALTIMORE CITY COUNCIL CALLS ON EMBATTLED MAYOR CATHERINE PUGH TO RESIGN IMMEDIATELY

The politically isolated Pugh slipped out of sight on April 1 after a hastily organized press conference where she called her no-contract book deals a “regrettable mistake.” That same day, Maryland’s governor called on the state prosecutor to investigate allegations of “self-dealing.”

Pugh took an indefinite leave of absence, citing her health deteriorating intensely after a bout with pneumonia.

Federal agents arrive at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Baltimore. MD, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall, as well as the office of her lawyer and the home of a top aide.

Federal agents arrive at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Baltimore. MD, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall, as well as the office of her lawyer and the home of a top aide. (Loyd Fox/Baltimore Sun via AP)

On Thursday morning, agents with the FBI and IRS searched her two Baltimore homes, her City Hall offices, and a nonprofit organization she once led. The home of at least one of Pugh’s aides was also scoured.

Silverman said federal agents also served a subpoena at his law firm, retrieving Pugh’s original financial records. They did not seek any attorney-client privileged communications, he said.

Pugh’s attorney said she was “emotionally extremely distraught” following the searches by FBI and IRS agents.

“There was nothing incriminating that came out of her home,” Silverman said.

UMMS spokesman Michael Schwartzberg told reporters that the medical system received a grand jury witness subpoena seeking documents and information related to Pugh.

Other probes against Pugh include a review by the city ethics board and the Maryland Insurance Administration.

BALTIMORE MAYOR’S $500G DEAL FOR ‘HEALTHY HOLLY’ CHILDREN’S BOOKS DRAWS SCRUTINY

In recent weeks, the calls for Pugh’s resignation have intensified with the strongest voice coming from Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who did not mince words after Thursday’s early morning raids.

“Now more than ever, Baltimore City needs strong and responsible leadership. Mayor Pugh has lost the public trust,” he said. “She is clearly not fit to lead. For the good of the city, Mayor Pugh must resign.”

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service agents search the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall.

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service agents search the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun via AP)

Many of her fellow Democrats, including those on Baltimore’s demoralized City Council and state lawmakers, are also insisting that Pugh put the citizens’ interests above any attempt to preserve her political career.

City Council member Brandon Scott called the Thursday raids “an embarrassment to the city.”

However, only a conviction can trigger a mayor’s removal from office, according to the city solicitor. Baltimore’s mayor-friendly City Charter currently provides no options for ousting its executive.

Six of Pugh’s staffers joined her on paid leave earlier this month; three of them were fired this week by the acting mayor.

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Pugh came to office in late 2016 after edging out ex-Mayor Sheila Dixon, who had spent much of her tenure fighting corruption charges before being forced to depart office in 2010 as part of a plea deal connected to the misappropriation of about $500 in gift cards meant for needy families.

She would certainly face a bruising 2020 Democratic primary if she were to return and run for reelection. Veteran City Council leader Bernard “Jack” Young, who is serving as acting mayor, said as she went on leave that he would merely be a placeholder. But this week, before the raids, he said “it could be devastating for her” if she tried to return.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad, California, U.S., April 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Amit Dave and Mayank Bhardwaj

AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – PepsiCo Inc has sued four Indian farmers for cultivating a potato variety that the snack food and drinks maker claims infringes its patent, the company and the growers said on Friday.

Pepsi has sued the farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, exclusively grown for its popular Lay’s potato chips. The FC5 variety has a lower moisture content required to make snacks such as potato chips.

PepsiCo is seeking more than 10 million rupees ($142,840.82) each for alleged patent infringement.

The farmers grow potatoes in the western state of Gujarat, a leading producer of India’s most consumed vegetable.

“We have been growing potatoes for a long time and we didn’t face this problem ever, as we’ve mostly been using the seeds saved from one harvest to plant the next year’s crop,” said Bipin Patel, one of the four farmers sued by Pepsi.

Patel did not say how he came by the PepsiCo variety.

A court in Ahmedabad, the business hub of Gujarat, on Friday agreed to hear the case on June 12, said Anand Yagnik, the lawyer for the farmers.

“In this instance, we took judicial recourse against people who were illegally dealing in our registered variety,” A PepsiCo India spokesman said. “This was done to protect our rights and safeguard the larger interest of farmers that are engaged with us and who are using and benefiting from seeds of our registered variety.”

PepsiCo, which set up its first potato chips plant in India in 1989, supplies the FC5 potato variety to a group of farmers who in turn sell their produce to the company at a fixed price.

The All India Kisan Sabha, or All India Farmers’ Forum, has asked the Indian government to protect the farmers.

The farmers’ forum has also called for a boycott of PepsiCo’s Lay’s chips and the company’s other products.

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

PepsiCo is the second major U.S. company in India to face issues over patent infringement.

Stung by a long-standing intellectual property dispute, seed maker Monsanto, which is now owned by German drugmaker Bayer AG, withdrew from some businesses in India over a cotton-seed dispute with farmers, Reuters reported in 2017. (reut.rs/2ncBknn)

(Reporting by Amit Dave in AHMEDABAD and Mayank Bhardwaj in NEW DELHI; Editing by Martin Howell and Louise Heavens)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the NYSE in New York
FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 3, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By P.J. Huffstutter and Shradha Singh

CHICAGO/BENGALURU (Reuters) – Archer Daniels Midland Co said on Friday it was considering spinning off its ethanol business after slim biofuel margins and Midwestern floods slammed the U.S. grains merchant’s profit, which tumbled 41 percent in the first quarter.

ADM said it was creating an ethanol subsidiary, which will include dry mills in Columbus, Nebraska; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Peoria, Illinois.

The ethanol subsidiary will report as an independent segment, the company said, allowing options “which may include, but are not limited to, a potential spin-off of the business to existing ADM shareholders.”

Results were hit by the “bomb cyclone” blizzards that devastated the Midwest and Great Plains this year, causing massive flooding across Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, washing out rail lines and wreaking havoc in the moving and processing of corn, soybeans and wheat. One-sixth of U.S. ethanol production was halted.

In March, ADM warned Wall Street that flooding and severe winter weather in the U.S. Midwest would reduce its first-quarter operating profit by $50 million to $60 million.

“The first quarter proved more challenging than initially expected,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Juan Luciano, with earnings down in its starches, sweeteners and bioproducts unit. Luciano said impacts of the severe weather ultimately “were on the high side of our initial estimates”.

Ongoing problems in the ethanol industry added to the problems and “limited margins and opportunities” for ADM, Luciano said.

The ethanol industry has been in the midst of a historic downswing due to the U.S.-China trade war, excess domestic supply and weak margins.

ADM, which had been an ethanol pioneer, signaled to Wall Street in 2016 that it was hunting for options and considering sales of its U.S. dry ethanol mills. Luciano told Reuters this year that offers ADM had received for the mills were too low.

In addition, ADM said it planned to repurpose its corn wet mill in Marshall, Minnesota, to produce higher volumes of food and industrial-grade starches.

Other major traders are alsy trying to distance themselves from struggling ethanol businesses. Louis Dreyfus Company BV spun off its Brazilian sugar and ethanol business Biosev in 2013. Rival Bunge sold its sugar book and has sought a buyer for its Brazilian mills since 2013.

ADM, which makes money trading, processing and transporting crops, such as corn, soybeans and wheat, has been looking to strengthen its core business. Last month it said it would seek voluntary early retirements of some North American employees and cut jobs as part of a restructuring effort.

The company expects to lower 2019 capital spending by 10 percent to between $800 million and $900 million.

Net earnings attributable to the company fell to $233 million, or 41 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, from $393 million, or 70 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $15.30 billion from $15.53 billion. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 46 cents per share, while analysts on average had estimated 60 cents, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

(Reporting by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)

Source: OANN

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