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UK PM May could ditch Brexit negotiator Robbins to get her deal ratified: Evening Standard

Olly Robbins, senior civil servant and Europe adviser to Prime Minister Theresa May, arrives at the Cabinet Office, in London
FILE PHOTO: Olly Robbins, senior civil servant and Europe adviser to Prime Minister Theresa May, arrives at the Cabinet Office, in London, Britain January 28, 2019. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

March 18, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May could sacrifice her chief Brexit negotiator Olly Robbins in a last ditch attempt to get her divorce deal approved, the London Evening Standard newspaper reported on Monday, citing unidentified lawmakers.

“One MP (lawmaker) was told that the Prime Minister would ‘update her negotiating team’ before the next phase of talks, while another was told that Mr Robbins, a bete noir of the European Research Group of Tory (Conservative) MPs, would ‘go as soon as the deal is through’,” the newspaper said.

The newspaper said the mooted offer to move Robbins had not won over lawmakers in May’s Conservative Party who wanted her to leave office before Brexit talks move to trade.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton; editing by Michael Holden)

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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Former Trump lawyer Cohen says assisting with more probes

FILE PHOTO - Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney of U.S. President Donald Trump, arrives to testify to the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington
FILE PHOTO - Michael Cohen, the former personal attorney of U.S. President Donald Trump, arrives to testify to the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 6, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

April 5, 2019

(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen has received requests for information from at least six government entities since late February, according to a letter from Cohen’s attorney to Democratic lawmakers, a sign of ongoing interest in evidence Cohen may have on his former boss.

The letter was sent by Lanny Davis on Thursday to the Democratic heads of four congressional committees asking that they attest in writing to his cooperation so far and the need to make him available to continue assisting with their probes.

Davis said he hoped federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York would take that into consideration and file a motion to have his sentence reduced and postpone the start of his prison term so he can readily assist investigators.

Cohen, who is due to start a three-year prison term on May 6, is still going through a recently accessed hard drive with more than 14 million files, including e-mails, voice recordings and attachments from his computers and phones, Davis said.

“It is our hope that the authorities in the Southern District of New York will consider this total picture of cooperation … and the particular facts involved here to grant Mr. Cohen a reduced term,” Davis wrote.

Cohen was one of Trump’s closest aides and once said he would “take a bullet” for him. But he turned against Trump last year and is cooperating with prosecutors after pleading guilty to tax evasion, bank fraud and campaign finance violations.

Cohen testified before a handful of congressional committees in late February including a dramatic televised hearing in front of the House Oversight Committee in which he denounced the president as a “conman” and a “cheat” and accused Trump of breaking the law while in office.

“There is no doubt that Mr. Cohen’s testimony, both public and private, has contributed substantially, with documents and other evidence, to triggering additional areas for investigation by law enforcement authorities and the Congress,” Davis wrote.

Davis did not identify the six government entities.

(Reporting by Nathan Layne in New York; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

Source: OANN

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Slovenia set to run surplus, reduce debt: finance minister

Andrej Bertoncelj, Slovenian finance minister candidate, speaks at the parliament in Ljubljana
FILE PHOTO: Andrej Bertoncelj, Slovenian finance minister candidate, speaks at the parliament in Ljubljana, Slovenia September 6, 2018. REUTERS/Borut Zivulovic

March 13, 2019

By Marja Novak

LJUBLJANA (Reuters) – Slovenia plans to continue to run budgets at a surplus in the coming years, with a surplus of 0.6 percent of gross domestic product forecast this year after 0.8 percent in 2018, Finance Minister Andrej Bertoncelj told Reuters on Wednesday.

He said public debt was expected to fall to below 60 percent of GDP “in two to three years” after reaching some 66 percent this year, down from 70 percent in 2018.

“It is of key importance that we run a budget surplus … and reduce public debt,” Bertoncelj said in his first international interview since he took the post in September, when the minority center-left government of Prime Minister Marjan Sarec was sworn in following June’s election.

He said the government planned to reduce taxes on wages and personal income, which are above the euro zone average, which should help boost household spending, and at the same time increase tax on corporate profit to ensure a budget surplus.

The tax on corporate profit stands at 19 percent but is likely to increase to 20 percent next year and possibly to 22 percent by 2022. However, companies that invest in research and development will be able to reduce the tax rate to 5 percent.

Bertoncelj believes Slovenia will remain competitive compared with other euro zone states even after the corporate tax hike since it is likely to remain below the euro zone average.

Bertoncelj said he was aware that the economic growth of Slovenia’s trading partners was slowing down but added “we cannot talk about crisis as there is a big difference between economic slowdown and crisis”.

Export-oriented Slovenia, which managed to narrowly avoid an international bailout for its banks in 2013, increased its exports by 13.7 percent year-on-year in January after they rose by 9.2 percent in the whole of 2018.

Its main export partners are Germany, Italy, Croatia, Austria and France while main exports include cars, car parts, pharmaceutical products and household appliances.

Despite the headwinds, Bertoncelj said most forecasts show Slovenia’s economy would expand by some 3.4 percent this year, which is “a solid growth” versus 4.5 percent in 2018.

He said one of the government’s main tasks is to improve the efficiency of the public sector, which should help toward higher economic growth.

Bertoncelj said credit rating agencies might “soon” improve ratings for Slovenia. At present Slovenia holds a rating of A+ by S&P, A- by Fitch and Baa1 by Moody’s.

Earlier, Labour Minister Ksenija Klampfer outlined a plan to gradually increase the retirement age to 67 over the next 15 years from 65 at present to ease the burden of the rapidly aging population on the budget.

Bertoncelj also said the country could issue another bond to refinance its debt this year, which could be a green bond, after issuing a 1.5 billion euro 10-year bond in January but gave no further details.

(Reporting by Marja Novak; Editing by Alison Williams)

Source: OANN

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Maryland school apologizes for whites-only admission policy

The Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore has apologized for a past admission policy that barred black students.

The Baltimore Sun reports school President Samuel Hoi publicly apologized Thursday in a memo that detailed some of the school's racist history. The memo says the school was forced by "legal appointment" in 1891 to admit its first black student, which reportedly led to about 100 students dropping out.

In 1895, the school adopted a whites-only enrollment policy that remained in place until the school opened admission to all races in 1954. The apology comes after a campus exhibition called "Blackives" hosted a demonstration Thursday featuring the story of a would-be student who was denied admission because of his race. The memo says the exhibition has been extended.

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Information from: The Baltimore Sun, http://www.baltimoresun.com

Source: Fox News National

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Russia and US spar over South Sudan peace agreement

The Security Council has extended the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan by a vote of 14-0 with Russia abstaining to protest the resolution's failure to welcome September's peace agreement.

Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky clearly aimed Moscow's anger at the United States, among others.

He noted "progress" since the agreement was signed, citing "a substantial drop in the level of violence recorded" and the number of human rights violations.

But U.S. deputy ambassador Jonathan Cohen said after Friday's vote that the Trump administration "remains deeply concerned by the lack of political commitment from parties at the national level to fully implement all tenets of the agreement."

He noted the failure of previous peace agreements, and said the U.S. wants to see action on implementation.

Source: Fox News World

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Northern Irish police arrest 2 over killing of journalist

Police in Northern Ireland on Saturday arrested two teenagers in connection with the fatal shooting of a journalist during rioting in the city of Londonderry.

The men, aged 18 and 19, were detained under anti-terrorism legislation and taken to Belfast for questioning, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said Saturday. No further information was immediately given.

Lyra McKee, 29, a rising star of investigative journalism, was shot and killed, probably by a stray bullet aimed at police, during rioting Thursday night. Police said the New IRA dissident group was most likely responsible and called it a "terrorist act."

Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton said earlier that a gunman fired a number of shots at police during the unrest. Police on Friday night released closed-circuit TV footage showing the man suspected of firing the shots that killed McKee.

The killing reminded many of the decades of violence that plagued Northern Ireland before the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement. It was condemned by all the major political parties as well as the prime ministers of Britain and Ireland.

Speaking in Dublin, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said the people of Ireland and Northern Ireland had chosen peace and cooperation on Good Friday 21 years ago and will not be "dragged into the past" by political violence.

McKee rose to prominence in 2014 with a moving blog post — "Letter to my 14 year old self" — describing the struggle of growing up gay in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland.

In the post, she described the shame she felt at 14 as she kept the "secret" of being gay from her family and friends and the love she eventually received when she was finally able to reveal it.

She also had recently signed a contract to write two books.

Hours before her death, she tweeted a photo of the rioting with the words: "Derry tonight. Absolute madness."

Her partner, Sara Canning, told a vigil Friday that McKee's amazing potential had been snuffed out.

Canning said the senseless murder "has left me without the love of my life, the woman I was planning to grow old with."

"It has left so many friends without their confidante," she added.

The New IRA is a small group who reject the 1998 Good Friday agreement that marked the Irish Republican Army's embrace of a political solution to the long-running violence known as "The Troubles" that claimed more than 3,700 lives.

The group is also blamed for a Londonderry car bombing that did not cause any injuries in January. It is regarded as the largest of the splinter dissident groups still operating and has been linked to several other killings in the past decade.

Source: Fox News World

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The Wider Image: China's start-ups go small in age of 'shoebox' satellites
LinkSpace’s reusable rocket RLV-T5, also known as NewLine Baby, is carried to a vacant plot of land for a test launch in Longkou, Shandong province, China, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

April 26, 2019

By Ryan Woo

LONGKOU, China (Reuters) – During initial tests of their 8.1-metre (27-foot) tall reusable rocket, Chinese engineers from LinkSpace, a start-up led by China’s youngest space entrepreneur, used a Kevlar tether to ensure its safe return. Just in case.

But when the Beijing-based company’s prototype, called NewLine Baby, successfully took off and landed last week for the second time in two months, no tether was needed.

The 1.5-tonne rocket hovered 40 meters above the ground before descending back to its concrete launch pad after 30 seconds, to the relief of 26-year-old chief executive Hu Zhenyu and his engineers – one of whom cartwheeled his way to the launch pad in delight.

LinkSpace, one of China’s 15-plus private rocket manufacturers, sees these short hops as the first steps towards a new business model: sending tiny, inexpensive satellites into orbit at affordable prices.

Demand for these so-called nanosatellites – which weigh less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and are in some cases as small as a shoebox – is expected to explode in the next few years. And China’s rocket entrepreneurs reckon there is no better place to develop inexpensive launch vehicles than their home country.

“For suborbital clients, their focus will be on scientific research and some commercial uses. After entering orbit, the near-term focus (of clients) will certainly be on satellites,” Hu said.

In the near term, China envisions massive constellations of commercial satellites that can offer services ranging from high-speed internet for aircraft to tracking coal shipments. Universities conducting experiments and companies looking to offer remote-sensing and communication services are among the potential domestic customers for nanosatellites.

A handful of U.S. small-rocket companies are also developing launchers ahead of the expected boom. One of the biggest, Rocket Lab, has already put 25 satellites in orbit.

No private company in China has done that yet. Since October, two – LandSpace and OneSpace – have tried but failed, illustrating the difficulties facing space start-ups everywhere.

The Chinese companies are approaching inexpensive launches in different ways. Some, like OneSpace, are designing cheap, disposable boosters. LinkSpace’s Hu aspires to build reusable rockets that return to Earth after delivering their payload, much like the Falcon 9 rockets of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

“If you’re a small company and you can only build a very, very small rocket because that’s all you have money for, then your profit margins are going to be narrower,” said Macro Caceres, analyst at U.S. aerospace consultancy Teal Group.

“But if you can take that small rocket and make it reusable, and you can launch it once a week, four times a month, 50 times a year, then with more volume, your profit increases,” Caceres added.

Eventually LinkSpace hopes to charge no more than 30 million yuan ($4.48 million) per launch, Hu told Reuters.

That is a fraction of the $25 million to $30 million needed for a launch on a Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Pegasus, a commonly used small rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a high-flying aircraft and is not reusable.

(Click https://reut.rs/2UVBjKs to see a picture package of China’s rocket start-ups. Click https://tmsnrt.rs/2GIy9Bc for an interactive look at the nascent industry.)

NEED FOR CASH

LinkSpace plans to conduct suborbital launch tests using a bigger recoverable rocket in the first half of 2020, reaching altitudes of at least 100 kilometers, then an orbital launch in 2021, Hu told Reuters.

The company is in its third round of fundraising and wants to raise up to 100 million yuan, Hu said. It had secured tens of millions of yuan in previous rounds.

After a surge in fresh funding in 2018, firms like LinkSpace are pushing out prototypes, planning more tests and even proposing operational launches this year.

Last year, equity investment in China’s space start-ups reached 3.57 billion yuan ($533 million), a report by Beijing-based investor FutureAerospace shows, with a burst of financing in late 2018.

That accounted for about 18 percent of global space start-up investments in 2018, a historic high, according to Reuters calculations based on a global estimate by Space Angels. The New York-based venture capital firm said global space start-up investments totaled $2.97 billion last year.

“Costs for rocket companies are relatively high, but as to how much funding they need, be it in the hundreds of millions, or tens of millions, or even just a few million yuan, depends on the company’s stage of development,” said Niu Min, founder of FutureAerospace.

FutureAerospace has invested tens of millions of yuan in LandSpace, based in Beijing.

Like space-launch startups elsewhere in the world, the immediate challenge for Chinese entrepreneurs is developing a safe and reliable rocket.

Proven talent to develop such hardware can be found in China’s state research institutes or the military; the government directly supports private firms by allowing them to launch from military-controlled facilities.

But it’s still a high-risk business, and one unsuccessful launch might kill a company.

“The biggest problem facing all commercial space companies, especially early-stage entrepreneurs, is failure” of an attempted flight, Liang Jianjun, chief executive of rocket company Space Trek, told Reuters. That can affect financing, research, manufacturing and the team’s morale, he added.

Space Trek is planning its first suborbital launch by the end of June and an orbital launch next year, said Liang, who founded the company in late 2017 with three other former military technical officers.

Despite LandSpace’s failed Zhuque-1 orbital launch in October, the Beijing-based firm secured 300 million yuan in additional funding for the development of its Zhuque-2 rocket a month later.

In December, the company started operating China’s first private rocket production facility in Zhejiang province, in anticipation of large-scale manufacturing of its Zhuque-2, which it expects to unveil next year.

STATE COMPETITION

China’s state defense contractors are also trying to get into the low-cost market.

In December, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) successfully launched a low-orbit communication satellite, the first of 156 that CASIC aims to deploy by 2022 to provide more stable broadband connectivity to rural China and eventually developing countries.

The satellite, Hongyun-1, was launched on a rocket supplied by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the nation’s main space contractor.

In early April, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALVT), a subsidiary of CASC, completed engine tests for its Dragon, China’s first rocket meant solely for commercial use, clearing the path for a maiden flight before July.

The Dragon, much bigger than the rockets being developed by private firms, is designed to carry multiple commercial satellites.

At least 35 private Chinese companies are working to produce more satellites.

Spacety, a satellite maker based in southern Hunan province, plans to put 20 satellites in orbit this year, including its first for a foreign client, chief executive Yang Feng told Reuters.

The company has only launched 12 on state-produced rockets since the company started operating in early 2016.

“When it comes to rocket launches, what we care about would be cost, reliability and time,” Yang said.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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German drug and crop chemical maker Bayer holds annual general meeting
Werner Baumann, CEO of German pharmaceutical and chemical maker Bayer AG, attends the annual general shareholders meeting in Bonn, Germany, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

April 26, 2019

By Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger

BONN (Reuters) – Bayer shareholders vented their anger over its stock price slump on Friday as litigation risks mount from the German drugmaker’s $63 billion takeover of seed maker Monsanto.

Several large investors said they will not support aspirin investor Bayer’s management in a key vote scheduled for the end of its annual general meeting.

Bayer’s management, led by chief executive Werner Baumann, could see an embarrassing plunge in approval ratings, down from 97 percent at last year’s AGM, which was held shortly before the Monsanto takeover closed in June.

A vote to ratify the board’s actions features prominently at every German AGM. Although it has no bearing on management’s liability, it is seen as a key gauge of shareholder sentiment.

“Due to the continued negative development at Bayer, high legal risks and a massive share price slump, we refuse to ratify the management board and supervisory board’s actions during the business year,” Janne Werning, representing Germany’s Union Investment, a top-20 shareholder, said in prepared remarks.

About 30 billion euros ($34 billion) have been wiped off Bayer’s market value since August, when a U.S. jury found the pesticide and drugs group liable because Monsanto had not warned of alleged cancer risks linked to its weedkiller Roundup.

Bayer suffered a similar defeat last month and more than 13,000 plaintiffs are claiming damages.

Bayer is appealing or plans to appeal the verdicts.

Deutsche Bank’s asset managing arm DWS said shareholders should have been consulted before the takeover, which was agreed in 2016 and closed in June last year.

“You are pointing out that the lawsuits have not been lost yet. We and our customers, however, have already lost something – money and trust,” Nicolas Huber, head of corporate governance at DWS, said in prepared remarks for the AGM.

He said DWS would abstain from the shareholder vote of confidence in the executive and non-executive boards.

Two people familiar with the situation told Reuters this week that Bayer’s largest shareholder, BlackRock, plans to either abstain from or vote against ratifying the management board’s actions.

Asset management firm Deka, among Bayer’s largest German investors, has also said it would cast a no vote.

Baumann said Bayer’s true value was not reflected in the current share price.

“There’s no way to make this look good. The lawsuits and the first verdicts weigh heavily on our company and it’s a concern for many people,” he said, adding it was the right decision to buy Monsanto and that Bayer was vigorously defending itself.

This month, shareholder advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis recommended investors not to give the executive board their seal of approval.

(Reporting by Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Source: OANN

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Sudan’s military, which ousted President Omar al-Bashir after months of protests against his 30-year rule, says it intends to keep the upper hand during the country’s transitional period to civilian rule.

The announcement is expected to raise tensions with the protesters, who demand immediate handover of power.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, which is spearheading the protests, said Friday the crowds will stay in the streets until all their demands are met.

Shams al-Deen al-Kabashi, the spokesman for the military council, said late Thursday that the military will “maintain sovereign powers” while the Cabinet would be in the hands of civilians.

The protesters insist the country should be led by a “civilian sovereign” council with “limited military representation” during the transitional period.

The army toppled and arrested al-Bashir on April 11.

Source: Fox News World

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FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture
FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture, March 30, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

April 26, 2019

By Charlotte Greenfield

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – China’s Huawei Technologies said Britain’s decision to allow the firm a restricted role in building parts of its next-generation telecoms network was the kind of solution it was hoping for in New Zealand, where it has been blocked from 5G plans.

Britain will ban Huawei from all core parts of 5G network but give it some access to non-core parts, sources have told Reuters, as it seeks a middle way in a bitter U.S.-China dispute stemming from American allegations that Huawei’s equipment could be used by Beijing for espionage.

Washington has also urged its allies to ban Huawei from building 5G networks, even as the Chinese company, the world’s top producer of telecoms equipment, has repeatedly said the spying concerns are unfounded.

In New Zealand, a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network that includes the United States, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) in November turned down an initial request from local telecommunication firm Spark to include Huawei equipment in its 5G network, but later gave the operator options to mitigate national security concerns.

“The proposed solution in the UK to restrict Huawei from bidding for the core is exactly the type of solution we have been looking at in New Zealand,” Andrew Bowater, deputy CEO of Huawei’s New Zealand arm, said in an emailed statement.

Spark said it has noted the developments in Britain and would raise it with the GCSB.

The reports “suggest the UK is following other European jurisdictions in taking a considered and balanced approach to managing supplier-related security risks in 5G”, Andrew Pirie, Spark’s corporate relations lead, said in an email.

“Our discussions with the GCSB are ongoing and we expect that the UK developments will be a further item of discussion between us,” Pirie added.

New Zealand’s minister for intelligence services, Andrew Little, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday that he would report to parliament the conclusions of a government review of the 5G supply chain once they had been taken.

He added that the disclosure of confidential discussions on the role of Huawei was “unacceptable” and that he could not rule out a criminal investigation into the leak.

The decisions by Britain and Germany to use Huawei gear in non-core parts of 5G network makes it harder to prove Huawei should be kept out of New Zealand telecommunication networks, said Syed Faraz Hasan, an expert in communication engineering and networks at New Zealand’s Massey University

He pointed out Huawei gear was already part of the non-core 4G networks that 5G infrastructure would be built on.

“Unless there is a convincing argument against the Huawei devices … it is difficult to keep them away,” Hasan said.

(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The logo commodities trader Glencore is pictured in Baar
FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company’s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Glencore shares plunged the most in nearly four months on Friday after news overnight that U.S. regulators were investigating whether the miner broke some rules through “corrupt practices”.

Shares of the FTSE 100 company fell as much as 4.2 percent in early deals, and were down 3.5 percent at 310.25 pence by 0728 GMT.

On Thursday, Glencore said the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating whether the company and its units have violated some provisions of the Commodity ExchangeAct and/or CFTC Regulations.

(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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