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Why We’re Celebrating the First Step Act After 3 Months

In the three months since the First Step Act was signed into law, the legislation has mandated fairer sentences and galvanizing further support for criminal justice reform. But we know there is much more to be done, write Van Jones and Jessica Jackson

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Afghan official blasts US talks with Taliban

Afghanistan's national security adviser on Thursday blasted the U.S. talks with the Taliban, saying the Trump administration has alienated the Afghan government, legitimized the militant network and is crafting a deal that will never lead to peace.

"If we are to make peace, it cannot be just a mere deal out somewhere far away where were not in the loop," Hamdullah Mohib said at a blunt and candid briefing with reporters that prompted a scolding by State Department officials.

Mohib, the former Afghan ambassador to the United States, also took aim at Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. point man negotiating with the Taliban. He suggested that the negotiations conducted by Khalilzad, a veteran American diplomat who was born in Afghanistan, are clouded by Khalilzad's political ambitions to lead his native country.

"The perception in Afghanistan and people in the government think that perhaps — perhaps — all this talk (with the Taliban) is to create a caretaker government of which he will become the viceroy," Mohib said, adding that Khalilzad had eyes on the Afghan presidency in both 2009 and 2014 when Ghani was elected.

He said more transparency about what the U.S. and the Taliban have discussed would help to quell misinformation and rumors. He said the Afghan government is the last to find out what has transpired at the negotiating table and has resorted to getting information by tracking tweets from the foreign minister in neighboring Pakistan, or brief readouts from U.S. officials involved.

"We are told that Ambassador Khalilzad is a great diplomat," Mohib said. "Well, I'm not sure I buy that because he is ostracizing and alienating a very trusted ally and partner."

"We think either Ambassador Khalilzad doesn't know how to negotiate or there are other reasons behind what he's doing. But what he's doing is not getting a deal that would result in peace."

State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino dismissed Mohib's comments. He said David Hale, undersecretary of political affairs, summoned Mohib Thursday afternoon to reject his criticism about the U.S. talks with the Taliban.

"Hale underscored the longstanding U.S. assistance and support to Afghanistan, and expressed our commitment to the Afghan government's stability and full participation in the peace process," Palladino said.

He said Khalilzad represents Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and that "attacks on Ambassador Khalilzad are attacks on the department and only serve to hinder the bilateral relationship and the peace process."

Mohib insists that the U.S. is keeping the Afghan government in the dark. He said he has no information to share with Afghanistan's 350,000 police and soldiers, who have taken heavy casualties from the Taliban. He said in the past five years, 45,000 Afghans have been killed in the fighting — 36,000 security forces and 9,000 civilians.

"What are they fighting for? How am I supposed to convince them that they are not being sold out?" Mohib asked.

"As national security adviser, I have no information to share with those who are fighting for Afghanistan on the front line."

The longest session between the U.S. and the Taliban, lasting 13 days, ended this week with both sides citing progress toward ending the 17-year war in Afghanistan, but many questions remain unanswered.

The Taliban are negotiating from a position of strength: They effectively control half the country, and President Donald Trump has made clear he is frustrated with America's longest war, wants to see a peace deal and is determined to bring at least some U.S. troops home.

The two sides have reached a draft agreement on the withdrawal of U.S. troops — a longtime Taliban demand — and the insurgents have rebuffed U.S. efforts to get them to negotiate with the Kabul government. Khalilzad has said that when the draft agreement about a withdrawal timeline and effective counterterrorism measures is finalized, the Taliban and other Afghans, including the government, will begin intra-Afghan negotiations on a political settlement and comprehensive ceasefire.

Mohib said the Taliban are planning a "full-on" spring fighting offensive, emboldened by their sit-downs with American negotiators and have no inclination to negotiate with the Afghan government.

"There is no reason for them to do so," he said, adding that the legitimacy they've won from the talks has prompted them to boast that foreign ministers from around the world are seeking to meet with them.

In the talks, the Taliban have said they will prevent Afghanistan from being used as a base for launching terror attacks, as it was prior to 9/11. But the insurgents have provided no specifics on what that would entail, and it remains unclear whether they are willing or able to confront other militant groups, some of which are longtime allies.

"Our understanding is even if there is a deal, it's a bad deal," Mohib said, adding that any Taliban guarantees that Afghan soil will not be used again as a launching pad for terror attacks amounts to "having cats guard the milk."

Source: Fox News National

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Exclusive: Saudi Arabia threatens to ditch dollar oil trades to stop ‘NOPEC’ – sources

FILE PHOTO: An oil tanker is being loaded at Saudi Aramco's Ras Tanura oil refinery and oil terminal in Saudi Arabia
FILE PHOTO: An oil tanker is being loaded at Saudi Aramco's Ras Tanura oil refinery and oil terminal in Saudi Arabia May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah

April 5, 2019

By Dmitry Zhdannikov, Rania El Gamal and Alex Lawler

LONDON/DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia is threatening to sell its oil in currencies other than the dollar if Washington passes a bill exposing OPEC members to U.S. antitrust lawsuits, three sources familiar with Saudi energy policy said.

They said the option had been discussed internally by senior Saudi energy officials in recent months. Two of the sources said the plan had been discussed with OPEC members and one source briefed on Saudi oil policy said Riyadh had also communicated the threat to senior U.S. energy officials.

The chances of the U.S. bill known as NOPEC coming into force are slim and Saudi Arabia would be unlikely to follow through, but the fact Riyadh is considering such a drastic step is a sign of the kingdom’s annoyance about potential U.S. legal challenges to OPEC.

In the unlikely event Riyadh were to ditch the dollar, it would undermine the its status as the world’s main reserve currency, reduce Washington’s clout in global trade and weaken its ability to enforce sanctions on nation states.

“The Saudis know they have the dollar as the nuclear option,” one of the sources familiar with the matter said.

“The Saudis say: let the Americans pass NOPEC and it would be the U.S. economy that would fall apart,” another source said.

Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

A U.S. state department official said: “as a general matter, we don’t comment on pending legislation.”

The U.S. Energy Department did not respond to a request for comment. Energy Secretary Rick Perry has said that NOPEC could lead to unintended consequences.

DOLLAR HEGEMONY

NOPEC, or the No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act, was first introduced in 2000 and aims to remove sovereign immunity from U.S. antitrust law, paving the way for OPEC states to be sued for curbing output in a bid to raise oil prices.

While the bill has never made it into law despite numerous attempts, the legislation has gained momentum since U.S. President Donald Trump came to office. Trump said he backed NOPEC in a book published in 2011 before he was elected, though he not has not voiced support for NOPEC as president.

Trump has instead stressed the importance of U.S-Saudi relations, including sales of U.S. military equipment, even after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year.

A move by Saudi Arabia to ditch the dollar would resonate well with big non-OPEC oil producers such as Russia as well as major consumers China and the European Union, which have been calling for moves to diversify global trade away from the dollar to dilute U.S. influence over the world economy.

Russia, which is subject to U.S. sanctions, has tried to sell oil in euros and China’s yuan but the proportion of its sales in those currencies is not significant.

Venezuela and Iran, which are also under U.S. sanctions, sell most of their oil in other currencies but they have done little to challenge the dollar’s hegemony in the oil market.

However, if a long-standing U.S. ally such as Saudi Arabia joined the club of non-dollar oil sellers it would be a far more significant move likely to gain traction within the industry.

WHAT IF?

Saudi Arabia controls a 10th of global oil production, roughly on par with its main rivals – the United States and Russia. Its oil firm Saudi Aramco holds the crown of the world’s biggest oil exporter with sales of $356 billion last year.

Depending on prices, oil is estimated to represent 2 percent to 3 percent of global gross domestic product. At the current price of $70 per barrel, the annual value of global oil output is $2.5 trillion.

Not all of those oil volumes are traded in the U.S. currency but at least 60 percent is traded via tankers and international pipelines with the majority of those deals done in dollars.

Trading in derivatives such as oil futures and options is mainly dollar denominated. The top two global energy exchanges, ICE and CME, traded a billion lots of oil derivatives in 2018 with a nominal value of about $5 trillion.

Just the prospect of NOPEC has already had implications for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Qatar, one of the core Gulf OPEC members, quit the group in December because of the risk NOPEC could harm its U.S. expansion plans.

Two sources said that despite raising the dollar threat, Saudi Arabia did not believe it would need to follow through.

“I don’t think the NOPEC bill will pass but the Saudis have ‘what if’ scenarios,” one of the sources said.

ASSET SALES

In the event of such a drastic Saudi move, the impact would take some time to play out given the industry’s decades-old practices built around the U.S. dollar – from lending to exchange clearing.

Other potential threats raised in Saudi discussions about retaliation against NOPEC included liquidating the kingdom’s holdings in the United States, the sources said.

The kingdom has nearly $1 trillion invested in the United States and holds some $160 billion in U.S. Treasuries.

If it did carry out its threat, Riyadh would also have to ditch the Saudi riyal’s peg to the dollar, which has been exchanged at a fixed rate since 1986, the sources said.

The United States, the world’s largest oil consumer, relied heavily on Saudi and OPEC supplies for decades – while supporting Riyadh militarily against its arch-foe Iran.

But soaring shale oil production at home has made Washington less dependant on OPEC, allowing it to be more forceful in the way it deals with Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern nations.

Over the past year, Trump has regularly called on OPEC to pump more oil to lower global oil prices, and linked his demands to political support for Riyadh – something previous U.S. administrations have refrained from doing, at least publicly.

(Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Alex Lawler in London and Rania El Gamal in Dubai; additional reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington; editing by David Clarke)

Source: OANN

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Texas woman allegedly attacks husband after getting silence when she asked if she’s pretty: report

A woman in Texas allegedly assaulted her common-law husband after he didn't respond when she asked if she was pretty.

Lizeth Guadalupe Ramirez, 20, was arrested late Tuesday after the alleged incident, the Laredo Morning Times reported, citing police. She allegedly told investigators the man assaulted her and tried to strangle her.

CONNECTICUT MAN CRASHES VEHICLE INTO STRANGER'S YARD, WANDERS IN NAKED, POLICE SAY

However, the common-law husband reportedly told a different story, telling police the couple was at a movie theater when she asked him if she looked pretty.

Ramirez's husband said he didn't respond — as he didn't hear her — which upset Ramirez, and prompted them to leave the theater.

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During their ride home, Ramirez's husband claimed she allegedly hit him repeatedly. At their home, she allegedly continued to hit him and even assaulted a family member who tried to intervene, according to the news outlet.

Ramirez was charged with two counts of assault and family violence, online Webb County jail records indicated.

Source: Fox News National

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U.S. February job growth weakest in nearly one and a half years

FILE PHOTO: A man holds his briefcase while waiting in line during a job fair in Melville, New York
FILE PHOTO: A man holds his briefcase while waiting in line during a job fair in Melville, New York July 19, 2012. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

March 8, 2019

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. employment growth almost stalled in February, with the economy creating only 20,000 jobs, adding to signs of a sharp slowdown in economic activity in the first quarter.

The meager payroll gains reported by the Labor Department on Friday were the weakest since September 2017, with a big drop in the weather-sensitive construction industry. They also reflected a decline in hiring by retailers and utility companies as well as the transportation and warehousing sector, which is experiencing a shortage of drivers.

The sharp step-down in payrolls was another blow to President Donald Trump who has suffered a series of setbacks in recent weeks, including failed nuclear talks with North Korea, a record goods trade deficit despite his administration’s “America First” policies and the economy missing the White House’s 3 percent annual growth target in 2018.

But the stumble in job growth, which followed two straight months of hefty gains, likely understates the health of the labor market as other details of the closely watched employment report were strong.

The unemployment rate fell back to below 4 percent and a wider measure of underemployment fell by the most ever. In addition, annual wage growth was the best since 2009, and the economy created 12,000 more jobs in December and January than previously reported, bringing the total for the two months to 538,000.

“We had warned that recent employment gains had overstated the underlying strength of the U.S. labor market,” said Harm Bandholz, chief U.S. economist at UniCredit Research in New York. “And the correction now came in February with a bang, rather than spread out over various months.”

Still, the mixed report was another indication the economy, which in July will mark a record 10 years of expansion, is slowing and supports the Federal Reserve’s “patient” approach toward further interest rate increases this year.

The economy is losing speed as the stimulus from a $1.5 trillion tax cut and increased government spending ebbs. The record goods trade deficit is also hurting activity as well as slowing global economies. Growth estimates for the first quarter are around a 1 percent annualized rate.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast nonfarm payrolls rose by 180,000 jobs last month. In addition to the weather and rising worker shortages, a stock market selloff and jump in U.S. Treasury yields in late 2018, which tightened financial market conditions, also likely curbed hiring.

The length of the average workweek fell to 34.4 hours last month from 34.5 hours in January.

“All this report did was remind people that the economy is decelerating and a moderating economy doesn’t create a massive number of new positions,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania.

U.S. stocks fell as the employment report added to concerns of softening global growth sparked by weak China export data and a prolonged slowdown in eurozone. The dollar dropped against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury prices were mixed.

SOLID WAGE GAINS

Job gains over the last two months averaged 186,000 per month, well above the roughly 100,000 needed to keep up with the working-age population. The unemployment rate fell two-tenths of a percentage point to 3.8 percent in February, also as federal government workers who were temporarily unemployed during a 35-day partial shutdown returned to work.

The longest shutdown in U.S. history ended on Jan. 25.

A broader measure of unemployment, which includes people who want to work but have given up searching and those working part-time because they cannot find full-time employment, dropped to 7.3 percent, the lowest since March 2001, from 8.1 percent in January. The decline in the so-called U6 rate was the largest since the BLS launched the series in 1994.

Average hourly earnings rose 11 cents, or 0.4 percent, in February after gaining 0.1 percent in January. That raised the annual increase in wages to 3.4 percent, the biggest gain since April 2009, from 3.1 percent in January.

Overall, wage inflation remains moderate. A report on Thursday showed labor costs rising only 1.4 percent in 2018, the smallest gain since 2016, after increasing 2.2 percent in 2017.

Economists say employers have kept hiring at a strong pace despite low unemployment as more people returned to the labor force, including students, women and people who had dropped out to collect disability benefits. They, however, say that source of labor supply is dwindling.

The labor force participation rate, or the proportion of working-age Americans who have a job or are looking for one, was unchanged last month at more than a five-year high of 63.2 percent. Economists expect job growth to average about 150,000 this year.

Last month, employment at construction sites fell by 31,000 jobs, the biggest drop since December 2013, after increasing by 53,000 in January. The leisure and hospitality sector added no jobs after payrolls increased by 89,000 in January.

The manufacturing sector created 4,000 jobs, the fewest since July 2017, after hiring 21,000 workers in January. The diffusion index of manufacturing employment, which measures the proportion of industries that showed job gains during the month, fell to 51.3 in February.

“Weakness in capex and exports, much of it tied to knock-on effects from the tariffs and trade-war confusion generally, are likely behind the slowdown in hiring by the manufacturing sector,” said Steve Blitz, chief U.S. economist at TS Lombard in New York.

Retail payrolls fell by 6,100 jobs. There were also job losses in the utilities as well as transportation and warehousing industries. Government payrolls dropped by 5,000 jobs last month, pulled down by declines both local and state government education.

Professional and business services employment increased by 42,000 jobs in February. The education and health care sector added only 4,000 jobs.

(Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao and Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Biden reportedly debates tapping Stacey Abrams as running mate from the start – could it backfire?

It’s the talk of the 2020 presidential campaign.

Joe Biden’s top political advisers reportedly are debating whether the former vice president should launch a White House bid by pledging to choose a running mate.

BIDEN, SANDERS, REMAIN ON TOP IN LATEST 2020 DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY POLL

And that running mate, according to a report from Axios, could be Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nominee in Georgia. The former minority leader in the state’s House of Representatives nearly became the nation’s first black female governor and the first Democrat to win a gubernatorial election in Georgia in two decades, but lost the election.

The new speculation comes after Biden and Abrams had a private sit-down earlier this month, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Abrams has been weighing her own political future, which could include a 2020 Senate bid, a 2022 run for governor again, or even possibly her own White House bid. Abrams is considered a quickly rising star in the party and earlier this year gave the Democratic response to Republican President Trump’s State of the Union address.

Abrams would bring diversity to the ticket, and some of Biden’s advisers – according to Axios – feel the move would add excitement to the former vice president’s campaign. And they feel that pointing to the 45-year old Abrams as a running mate could blunt concerns over the 76-year old Biden’s age.

BIDEN HINTS AGAIN AT 2020 WHITE HOUSE RUN

Sources close to Biden have told Fox News that the former vice president is likely next month to announce his campaign, which would be his third stab at trying to win the presidency. And the past two weeks, Biden’s publicly strongly hinted that he would be running.

While the former vice president has reportedly discussed naming a running mate early, it’s not known if he’s signed off on the suggestion of coming out of the gate with a pledge to name a number two on his ticket.

“It would certainly be something unique, something different. It would send a strong message,” said Mo Elleithee, the founding executive director of Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service and a Fox News contributor.

But there are downsides as well. The strategy could be seen as a gimmick that the former vice president needs to stand out in a large Democratic 2020 field, and Biden could be seen as having “an air of inevitability.” And it could raise the question of whether Biden feels out of step with the current political climate, concerned about decades-old political positions the longtime senator from Delaware held that now are unpopular among Democrats.

“I don’t think it’s necessary. I don’t think he should feel it’s something he has to do . At the end of the day he’ll go out there and make his own case,” explained Elleithee, a senior spokesman for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign who later served as communications director for the Democratic National Committee.

“He may choose to name a running mate before the end of the primary season but I don’t he needs to feel compelled to do it on day one. I think that could actually detract a bit from a bigger message,” Elleithee added.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Christchurch Mosque Tied To Terrorism, Says NZ Newspaper

The Christchurch mosque where a gunman opened fire and killed dozens of Muslims has links to radical Islamic terrorism, according to a New Zealand newspaper.

The newspaper, called Stuff, reported on a story in 2014 about how two Australians killed in Yemen by drone strike were radicalized in Christchurch mosques.

Specifically, Christopher Havard was reportedly radicalized by the Al Noor mosque, the same mosque targeted by shooter Brenton Tarrant.

The article has since been wiped from the internet after the Christchurch shooting, but an archived version is available HERE.

From Stuff:

“Jones was killed alongside Australian Christopher Havard, whose parents said he was introduced to radical Islam at the Al-Noor mosque in Christchurch.”

“Mosque leaders confirmed Havard stayed there and studied in 2011, but denied radical teaching took place.”

“But a man who attended a converts’ weekend at the mosque 10 years ago said a visiting speaker from Indonesia talked about violent jihad and plenty shared his views. ‘Most of the men were angry with the moral weakness of New Zealand. I would say they were radical.'”

“Havard was the subject of an AFP arrest warrant over the kidnapping of Westerners in Yemen in December, 2012. It is not known if Jones, who reportedly fought under the name Abu Suhaib al-Australi, was involved.”

“Jones and Havard were with five others in the convoy hit by a missile fired from a US drone in Yemen’s Hadramout province on November 19. While authorities believe they were ‘foot soldiers’ of AQAP [Al-Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula], they were not the main target of the attack.”

Conservative commenatator Milo Yiannopoulos pointed out the connection on Facebook over the weekend asking, “If you’d known that this mosque was a terrorist factory, would it have changed your feelings about the news at all?”

“The Al-Noor mosque in Christchurch targeted by Brenton Tarrant produced at least two terrorists, from a very small congregation,” he wrote Saturday.

According to literary magazine New English Review, New Zealand authorities should investigate the mosque for signs of radicalization.

“The Al Noor mosque should receive some official scrutiny but indiscriminate carnage of innocents isn’t the way,” reports the Review.

“Maybe the New Zealand authorities have, or will now that his friend Mark Taylor is soon to be returned ‘home’ from a Kurdish prison, investigate the circumstances around the radicalisation at Al Noor, of jihadi Christopher Harvard, and any part played in the radicalisation of Daryl Jones.”


Will Johnson joins Alex Jones live via Skype to talk with callers about the distinct possibility of Globalist forces using the New Zealand shooting, whether as a premeditated false flag or not, to practice ’emergency’ internet censorship and gun confiscation on a global scale.

Source: InfoWars

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Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner said Tuesday that a detailed plan for a merit-based immigration system will be presented to President Trump, giving priority to skilled immigrants rather than those with family ties to the U.S.

“I do believe that the president’s position on immigration has been maybe defined by his opponents by what he’s against as opposed to what he’s for,” Kushner said at the Time 100 Summit in New York City. “What I’ve done is I’ve tried to put together a very detailed proposal for him.”

KUSHNER: RUSSIA INVESTIGATION HAD ‘HARSHER IMPACT’ ON US THAN ELECTION MEDDLING

Kushner announced that the new immigration proposal, which Trump will receive this week or next, will resemble the point-based systems in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and will unify people by ensuring strong wages and secure borders while protecting humanitarian values.

“We want to protect our country’s humanitarian values. We want to make sure we’re reunifying families, and we want to do this in a way that allows our country to be competitive long term,” he said. “And my hope is we can really do something that unifies people around what we’re for on immigration.”

“We want to protect our country’s humanitarian values. We want to make sure we’re reunifying families, and we want to do this in a way that allows our country to be competitive long term. And my hope is we can really do something that unifies people around what we’re for on immigration.”

— Jared Kushner

JARED KUSHNER RESPONDS AFTER HASAN MINHAJ CALLS OUT HIS TIES TO SAUDI PRINCE

Kushner denied in the same talk that he has clashed with White House staffer Stephen Miller, who’s seen as tougher on immigration than others, adding that the plan was concocted with the help of Miller and Kevin Hassett, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.

“And I say that If that if I can get Stephen Miller and Kevin Hassett to agree on an immigration plan, then Middle East peace will be easy by comparison,” Kushner joked, referring to the Israel-Palestine peace plan he’s working on.

“And I say that If that if I can get Stephen Miller and Kevin Hassett to agree on an immigration plan, then Middle East peace will be easy by comparison.”

— Jared Kushner

After the plan gets presented to Trump, it will likely undergo some changes and then he will decide when to proceed with it, Kushner said.

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“It’s very, very complicated, but it’s a very interesting issue, and if we can solve it, I do think it’s a critical component for America’s long-term competitive advantage,” he added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday said his government must make men aware of the dangers of poor hygiene after expressing dismay over the 1,000 penis amputations that apparently occur in his country each year.

“In Brazil, we have 1,000 penis amputations a year due to a lack of water and soap,” he said while speaking to reporters in Brasilia after visiting the Education Ministry. “We have to find a way to get out of the bottom of this hole.”

The far-right leader called the figure “ridiculous and sad,” Reuters reported. A spokeswoman for the Brazilian urology society told the news agency the number is based on its official data for penis amputations.

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The amputations were conducted out of necessity over untreated infections, along with complications from HIV and various cancers, she said.

Source: Fox News World

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A top Russian diplomat says Russia is willing to negotiate a new nuclear weapons treaty with the United States and China.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters on Friday Moscow is closely following reports in the United States that the U.S. would like to reach a nuclear weapons deal with both Russia and China, and is “willing” to negotiate. The story was reported by CNN earlier Friday.

Ryabkov also said that Russia “would like to convince” the U.S. to adopt a joint statement that would condemn any use of nuclear weapons.

Ryabkov’s comments come just months after the U.S. withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a cornerstone of the post-Cold War security, and Russia followed suit. Each claims breaches by the other.

Source: Fox News National

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Government dysfunction and an intelligence failure that preceded the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka are traced to simmering divisions between the president and prime minister after a weekslong political crisis that crippled the country last year.

The government has admitted to a “lapse of intelligence” after officials failed to act upon near-specific information received from foreign agencies. Suicide bombers exploded themselves last Sunday in three churches and three luxury hotels, killing 253 people and wounding 400 more. Authorities said eight Muslim militants blew themselves up at their targets while the wife of one of the attackers blasted herself on being rounded up by police.

The carnage has brought forth arguments that worshippers and holidaymakers fell victim to the rivalry and a lack of communication between the country’s two leaders — President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The Cabinet led by Wickremesinghe says neither he nor his ministers were informed of the intelligence received by the defense authorities. Sirisena is the head of state, defense minister, minister in charge of the police and head of the armed forces. He also chairs the National Security Council, which includes the heads of security agencies and departments. Traditionally the prime minister also plays an important role on the council.

According to Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, Sirisena has not included Wickremesinghe in national security affairs since a dispute between them came into the open in October last year. This is an unusual departure from the protocol, he said.

Senaratne said that Sirisena was overseas when the attacks took place and even after that, the National Security Council refused to meet with Wickremesinghe as he tried to give them instructions.

Sirisena has also said that he was not informed of the intelligence received and vowed to overhaul the leadership of the defense forces.

The top bureaucrat at the Defense Ministry, Hemasiri Fernando, has resigned at Sirisena’s insistence.

“It is a major factor,” said Jehan Perera, the head of local activist group National Peace Council, referring to the alleged lack of coordination between the leaders contributing to the failure to prevent the attacks.

“The primary responsibility has to be taken by the president, he did not give the information and he did not act,” Perera said. “He had the Ministry of Defense, took the police from the prime minister, chaired the National Security Council meetings and did nothing,” Perera said.

Kusal Perera, a journalist and political commentator, says security and intelligence officials should have acted on the information whether or not they received orders from politicians.

“If they (Wickremesinghe and his party) were not invited to the National Security Council, why did not they say in Parliament that they were not responsible for the security of the country any longer,” said Perera, who is not related to Jehan Perera.

“Saying that now is taking political advantage, not taking responsibility,” he said.

Sirisena and Wickremesinghe belong to different political parties but came together for Sirisena’s presidential campaign in 2015. Their relationships broke down and their differences exploded last year when Sirisena suddenly sacked Wickremesinghe as prime minister and appointed in his place former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa, whom he defeated in the presidential election. The crisis crippled the country for more than seven weeks to the point of not being able to pass this year’s national budget on time.

A court decision compelled Sirisena to reappoint Wickremesinghe, but the two leaders have been rivals within the same government.

Rajapaksa, who is the minority leader in Parliament, blames the government for weakening intelligence and dropping its guard, which he had maintained to defeat the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels 10 years ago to end the 26-year-old civil war. He also criticized the government for the detention of intelligence officers accused of extrajudicial killings and abductions during the closing days of the war, which he said crippled the security apparatus before the bombings. According to conservative U.N estimates, some 100,000 people were killed in Sri Lanka’s conflict.

Sirisena summoned an all-party conference Thursday to which Wickremesinghe was also invited. At the conference, Sirisena stressed “setting aside all the political beliefs and difference (so that) everybody should collectively commit towards building a peaceful environment within the country,” a statement from his office said.

“It is not a secret that the disagreements between me and the government aggravated over the past two years,” Sirisena told the country’s media executives Friday. “One of the reasons for that is weakening of military intelligence and arresting military officials unnecessarily and my speaking up against it within and outside the government.”

Jehan Perera said that the security threat could prove politically advantageous to Rajapaksa and his family, with a presidential election scheduled at the end of this year. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, a younger brother of Mahinda, was the powerful defense secretary during his brother’s reign and has expressed his interest to join the contest.

“People are saying we want a stronger leader and they are talking about Gotabhaya. It (the blasts) has worked to their benefit,” Perera said.

Source: Fox News World

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Cyprus police are intensifying a search for the remains of more victims at locations where an army officer, who authorities say admitted to killing five women and two girls, allegedly had dumped their bodies.

Police said Friday’s search will concentrate on a military firing range, a reservoir and a man-made lake near an abandoned mine approximately 32 kilometers (20 miles) west of the capital Nicosia.

On Thursday, the 35-year-old suspect told investigators that he had killed four more people than he had previously admitted to. All the suspect’s alleged victims are foreign nationals.

Police have already found the bodies of a 38-year-old Filipino woman and two as yet unidentified women.

Search crews are now looking for the daughter of the 38-year-old, a Romanian mother and daughter and another Filipino woman.

Source: Fox News World

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
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