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EU lawmakers back wifi-based car standard in win for Volkswagen

A Volkswagen logo is pictured in a production line at the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg
FILE PHOTO: A Volkswagen logo is pictured in a production line at the Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg, Germany March 1, 2019. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer

April 17, 2019

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission’s push for a wifi-based standard for cars backed by Volkswagen took a big step forward on Wednesday after EU lawmakers endorsed the move over 5G technology promoted by BMW and Qualcomm.

The EU executive wants to set benchmarks for internet connected cars, a market that could generate billions of euros in revenues for carmakers, telecoms operators and equipment makers, according to analysts.

The issue has split the auto and tech industries and triggered fierce lobbying from both sides seeking a share of a potentially lucrative market for internet-connected cars.

Wifi technology supporters include Renault, Toyota, NXP, Autotalks and Kapsch TrafficCom. The technology primarily connects cars to other cars.

5G backers include big names like Daimler, Ford, PSA Group, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Huawei, Intel, Qualcomm and Samsung.

Fifth generation, or 5G, standard hooks up to both cars and devices in the surrounding environment, with a wider range of applications in areas such as entertainment, traffic data and general navigation.

The last hurdle for the plan is the European Council where opponents would require a blocking majority to overturn the proposal.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Alissa de Carbonnel and Jane Merriman)

Source: OANN

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Italy demands answers over reports daughter of North Korea diplomat abducted

FILE PHOTO: An entrance to the North Korean Embassy in Rome
FILE PHOTO: An entrance to the North Korean Embassy in Rome, Italy, January 3, 2019. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi/File Photo

February 20, 2019

By Crispian Balmer

ROME (Reuters) – Italy warned on Wednesday there would be consequences to pay if there was any truth to reports that the daughter of a missing North Korean diplomat had been abducted from Rome and whisked to Pyongyang.

“If confirmed, this would be of unprecedented gravity,” said Manlio Di Stefano, undersecretary at the Italian foreign ministry. “Those responsible for this will pay, you can be sure of that,” he wrote on Facebook.

North Korean diplomat Jo Song Gil, who was recently acting ambassador to Italy, went missing in November along with his wife, a South Korean member of parliament said last month, following reports that the envoy had defected.

Thae Yong Ho, a former deputy North Korean ambassador to Britain who staged a surprise defection to South Korea in 2016, told a news conference in Seoul on Tuesday that Gil could not take his daughter with him when he escaped the Rome embassy.

“North Korean authorities sent her back home immediately and she’s now under their custody in Pyongyang,” he said, citing his contacts in the North Korean capital.

Di Stefano, a member of the 5-Star Movement in Rome’s governing coalition, said Italy should have protected the unnamed daughter. “She now risks being tortured by one of the worst regimes in the world,” he wrote.

A diplomatic source in Rome has said Italy has no record of Jo seeking asylum there and the whereabouts of him and his family were not known.

Thae urged Jo in January to move to South Korea, but he said the fact his daughter was in North Korea complicated matters.

“The level of punishment that the children of a North Korean diplomat who defected would face is completely different depending on whether the parent went to South Korea or a Western country,” he said, suggesting Jo’s daughter would face much harsher penalties if her father went to Seoul.

Antonio Razzi, a former Italian centre-right parliamentarian who is a staunch defender of secretive North Korea, said Jo’s daughter had been abandoned by her parents and was now safe back home with her grandparents.

“Those two wretches left their daughter alone. She is a child and suffers from a disability,” Razzi told Italy’s Adnkronos news agency. “It is normal that she was sent back to her grandparents,” he added, denying she was in any danger.

Pyongyang normally requires diplomats going overseas to leave at least one child at home, but those from the top echelons or seen as the most loyal to the leadership get some exceptions. Thae has said previously that Jo hailed from a wealthy family of diplomats, and was able to take his child with him on his posting to Italy which started in 2015.

(Reporting by Crispian Balmer with additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin in Seoul; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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Rep. Eric Swalwell Reacts To Mueller Report News

Scott Morefield | Reporter

Rep. Eric Swalwell reacted on Friday to news of the end of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation minus any additional indictments of President Donald Trump or anyone else connected to the Trump administration, campaign, or transition team.

Appearing on CNN’s “The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer,” the California Democrat expressed his desire to “hear from Bob Mueller” himself, as well as the belief that the president will still have “indictments waiting for him” when he leaves office.

WATCH:

“It’s my personal view that the report will not be fully accepted by the American people until we hear from Bob Mueller,” Swalwell said.

After noting the “dozens of indictments” produced already and the work that has been “farmed off to other offices like the Southern District of New York,” Swalwell stated he would “accept the Mueller report if I hear it from Mr. Mueller, because I have respect for the rule as I know my colleagues do.”

“Do you accept the current Justice Department guideline that a sitting president of the United States cannot be indicted?” Blitzer asked. (RELATED: Dana Loesch Question On Gun Control Stops Eric Swalwell In His Tracks)

That’s their guidelines. I don’t accept that a president should escape criminal liability by being re-elected or running out the statute of limitations. What we will do, and we are working on this, we will put in place a law in Congress, and hopefully the Senate passes it too, which would say that the statute would not run if a president is not indicted because of DOJ policy. I don’t see how he does not have indictments waiting for him considering that he is individual one and considering the conduct that Michael Cohen talked about when he came to Congress and testified.

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Source: The Daily Caller

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Guaido says he’s trying to freeze Venezuelan accounts in Switzerland

Venezuela's Guaido attends a news conference to mark the 5th anniversary of the arrest of the opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez in Caracas
FILE PHOTO: Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido, who many nations have recognized as the country's rightful interim ruler, attends a news conference to mark the 5th anniversary of the arrest of the opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez in Caracas, Venezuela February 18, 2019. REUTERS/Manaure Quintero

February 20, 2019

(Reuters) – Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said he spoke to Switzerland’s president on Wednesday to try to freeze banks accounts belonging to the tumultuous South American nation after “irregular movements” were discovered.

Guaido invoked a constitutional provision to claim the presidency three weeks ago, arguing that Nicolas Maduro’s reelection last year was a sham. Since then, Guaido has been trying to control Venezuelan assets overseas.

In an interview with Mexican network Televisa, Guaido said he had spoken with the Swiss president earlier on Wednesday. He did not mention President Ueli Maurer by name and a Swiss foreign ministry spokesman denied the two men had spoken.

Guaido said the Venezuelan government held bank accounts in Switzerland and that irregular efforts to migrate part of those accounts to “another site” had been detected.

“We are doing everything possible to protect these assets that belong to the republic,” he said.

He did not say who had detected the movements in the accounts, whether any money had been transferred, or give further details.

Most Western countries, including the United States, have recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state, but Maduro retains the backing of Russia and China as well as control of state institutions including the military.

Switzerland has urged protection for Guaido and calls the situation in Venezuela under Maduro “extremely problematic,” but says it formally recognizes states, not governments.

The Swiss Finance Ministry, which Maurer also heads, declined to comment on the Venezuelan accounts, referring further requests for information to the foreign ministry’s asset recovery department.

Switzerland’s Federal Office of Justice said no one in Venezuela so far had sought Swiss legal assistance in tracking down assets.

(Reporting by Adriana Barrera in Mexico City and Michael Shields in Zurich; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Bill Trott and Richard Chang)

Source: OANN

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Macron’s party rules out joining EU centrist group after Le Pen accusations

FILE PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron watches as German Chancellor Angela Merkel departs after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris
FILE PHOTO: French President Emmanuel Macron watches as German Chancellor Angela Merkel departs after a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, February 27, 2019. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo

March 12, 2019

PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron’s party will not join the pan-European ALDE group, his EU election campaign chief said on Tuesday, after it emerged the centrist alliance had received funding from the Bayer-Monsanto agriculture and chemicals conglomerate.

ALDE is the fourth-biggest party in the European Parliament and has courted Macron, whose Republic on the Move party has no lawmakers in the European Parliament as it was created after the last EU parliament election.

But far-right leader Marine Le Pen revealed last week that ALDE had received funds from U.S. seed maker Monsanto, now part of German chemicals group Bayer.

Monsanto is a frequent target of criticism in France from green activists and others over concerns about genetically modified crops and week killers such as glyphosates it has developed.

“None of our European lawmakers will sit in the next legislature within a political group or European political movement which tolerates such financing,” Stephane Sejourne, Macron’s EU election campaign chief, said in a statement.

In reaction to Sejourne’s statement, ALDE said it would end the sponsorship of congresses by private companies.

“The participation of the private sector were used to finance part of our congresses in order to give more people the possibility to participate,” ALDE Party President Hans van Baalen said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, this has been interpreted as practices that could have been perceived as active political influence.”

Bayer confirmed it had been a sponsor for ALDE congresses for several years.

“It is a widespread and widely accepted practice which isn’t specifically linked to Bayer or ALDE,” a spokeswoman said.

It listed Bayer as a donor for 12,000 euros in an audit for 2017 published on its website.

Under EU law, European political parties may accept donations from people or corporations of up to 18,000 euros per year and per donor.

As the election race heats up, Macron has been cool to the idea of joining the ALDE alliance, aiming instead to create his own centrist coalition on the European stage in which he would call the shots.

Le Pen, who is nipping at the heels of Macron’s party in voter intention surveys, told RTL radio last Thursday: “Lobbies fund European political parties and they fund ALDE, Emmanuel Macron’s party at the European parliament.”

(Reporting by Michel Rose; additional reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: OANN

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Bangladesh former PM Zia sent to hospital from prison

An official says Bangladesh opposition leader and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia is being treated in a state hospital after being taken there from the centuries-old jail where she has been imprisoned since a corruption conviction.

The director of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Brig. Gen. A.K. Mahbubul Hoque, says Zia's condition is not life-threatening but there were complications.

The 73-year-old leader has been in jail since February 2018, when she was sentenced to five years in prison for alleged corruption in the establishment of an orphanage fund when she was prime minister from 1991 to 1996. The High Court later extended her sentence to 10 years.

Zia's party says the sentencing was politically motivated.

Source: Fox News World

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From street kids to war romance, Oscar foreign-film slate keeps it real

Director Alfonso Cuaron attends the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon in Beverly Hills
Director Alfonso Cuaron attends the 91st Oscars Nominees Luncheon in Beverly Hills, California, U.S. February 4, 2019. REUTERS/David McNew

February 20, 2019

By Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – From Lebanese street children to love behind the Iron Curtain and the daily life of a Mexican housekeeper, this year’s Oscar-nominated foreign language films draw from real life and, in some cases, deeply personal experiences.

While Poland’s “Cold War” and Germany’s “Never Look Away” are set decades ago, Japan’s “Shoplifters” and Lebanon’s “Capernaum” take on contemporary themes, while “Roma” is the most personal film ever made by Alfonso Cuaron.

“Roma,” inspired by Cuaron’s 1970s childhood in Mexico City’s Colonia Roma neighborhood, is seen as the favorite to take not only the foreign language Oscar on Sunday but could make history by also winning best picture.

The film, shot entirely in black and white, is inspired by the two women who raised Cuaron: his mother and a domestic worker.

“The source material were my memories, but then the film took on its own life,” Cuaron said. “Now my memories are tainted by the film.”

LOVE AND CHAOS

Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski was inspired by the love life of his parents for “Cold War,” a dark romance between a pianist and a singer set in both Communist-led Poland and postwar France. The lead characters, Wiktor and Zula, are named after his parents.

“It was very personal to start with because that’s where the idea came from,” Pawlikowski said. “It’s inspired by the tempestuous and chaotic relationships which involved many divorces, separations, marrying other people, remarrying, moving countries and so on.”

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck also looked back to World War Two for “Never Look Away.” The story about a struggling artist in Nazi-era Germany and then Communist-ruled East Germany spans four decades.

Donnersmarck was born in West Germany in 1973 and partly grew up in the United States.

Donnersmarck said he wanted to “see how within one family drama you have the murderers and the victims and the Nazis and those whom they abused and killed and destroyed living under one roof.”

In Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s drama “Shoplifters,” an elderly widow, three adults, a boy and a girl create a family unit that is united by financial and emotional need.

They steal to supplement their working-class wages, all while hiding from authorities after kidnapping the girl from her abusive parents.

The film employs a “ripped-from-the-headlines” approach based on news reports Kore-eda read about families who commit crimes.

Lebanese director Nadine Labaki cast street children in “Capernaum” to tell the story of a 12-year-old boy in a Beirut slum who tries to stop his younger sister from being married off.

    The plot was largely based on events Labaki witnessed or cast members experienced, and took more than four years to make. The film’s young protagonist is played by a Syrian refugee. Another young cast member was jailed during the shoot, and a third was deported to Kenya.

“None of it was make-believe,” Labaki said.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; editing by Jill Serjeant and Jonathan Oatis)

Source: OANN

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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)

Source: OANN

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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)

Source: OANN

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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)

Source: OANN

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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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