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China aims to make Belt and Road sustainable, prevent debt risks: finance minister

Chinese Finance Minister Liu Kun attends a news conference during the ongoing NPC in Beijing
FILE PHOTO: Chinese Finance Minister Liu Kun attends a news conference during the ongoing National People's Congress (NPC), China's parliamentary body, in Beijing, China March 7, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

April 25, 2019

BEIJING (Reuters) – China aims to make the Belt and Road Initiative sustainable and prevent debt risks, finance minister Liu Kun said at a forum on Thursday, adding that Beijing will support financing via multiple channels.

Yi Gang, the central bank governor, said at the Belt and Road Forum that local currencies will be used for investments related to China’s Belt and Road Initiative to curb exchange rate risks.

China will follow market principles and rely on commercial funds for Belt and Road financing, Yi said.

(Reporting by Kevin Yao; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

Source: OANN

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Germany tightens travel advice on Turkey

A foreign tourist, with the Byzantine-era monument of Hagia Sophia in the background, take pictures at Sultanahmet square in Istanbul
A foreign tourist, with the Byzantine-era monument of Hagia Sophia in the background, takes pictures at Sultanahmet square in Istanbul, Turkey April 21, 2018. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

March 9, 2019

BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany changed its travel advice for visitors to Turkey on Saturday, warning its citizens that they risked arrest for expressing opinions that would be tolerated at home but may not be by Turkish authorities.

“It cannot be ruled out … that the Turkish government will take further action against representatives of German media and civil society organizations,” an updated Foreign Ministry travel advisory read.

“Statements, which are covered by the German legal understanding of the freedom of expression, can lead in Turkey to occupational restrictions and criminal proceedings.”

The advice, which a ministry spokeswoman confirmed was updated on Saturday, noted that several European, including German, journalists had been denied accreditation in Turkey without explanation. In the last two years German nationals have also been increasingly arbitrarily detained, it said.

Turkish authorities are suspicious about any connections to the network of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara says orchestrated a 2016 attempted coup, the ministry said.

But it added that any holidaymakers who had taken part in meetings abroad of organizations banned in Turkey risked being detained, as did Germans who made, or endorsed, statements on social media critical of the Turkish government.

(Reporting by Andreas Rinke; Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

Source: OANN

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Ron Johnson: 'Concerned' About Trump's Emergency Declaration

Ron Johnson: 'Concerned' About Trump's Emergency Declaration

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said Sunday he’s “concerned” about President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build his long-promised border wall, saying Congress' role has become "really diminished."

In an interview on NBC News’ “Meet The Press,” Johnson argued Trump has the authority yet “I wish he wouldn’t use it in this case… I understand his frustration.”

“I think many of us are concerned about this,” he added, regarding whether the declaration is overreach. “[P]ast Congresses have given any executive, any administration way too much power. And this would be another expansion of that power.”

“Right now, the presidency is probably the most powerful, and then the courts,” he said. “And Congress is really diminished. And we should start taking back that congressional authority.”

He said he’s not decided, however, if he’ll support a resolution to disapprove of Trump’s national emergency declaration.

“I’m going to take a look at the case the president makes,” he said. “And I'm also going to take a look at how quickly this money is actually going to be spent, versus what he's going to use…. I'll decide when I actually have to vote on it.”

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Without vaccine, hundreds of children die in Madagascar measles outbreak

Malagasy fisherman Dada holds a photo of three siblings who died of measles one week apart in Fort Dauphin
Malagasy fisherman Dada holds a photo of three cousins who died of measles one week apart in Fort Dauphin, Madagascar February 28, 2019.

March 11, 2019

By Lova Rabary

ANTANANARIVO (Reuters) – Two months ago, giggles floated through the home of fisherman Dada as his four-year-old son played ball outside with his two younger cousins on one of Madagascar’s famed sun soaked beaches.

A few weeks later, all three children were dead, victims of the worst measles outbreak on the Indian Ocean island in decades.

Measles cases are on the rise globally, including in wealthy nations such as the United States and Germany, where some parents shun life-saving vaccines due to false theories suggesting links between childhood immunizations and autism.

In Madagascar, one of the world’s poorest countries, parents are desperate to vaccinate their children, many trudging for miles to get to clinics for shots. But there are not enough vaccines, the health ministry says, and many people are too poor to afford them.

Fisherman Dada – like many Malagasy, he only uses one name – had taken his son Limberaza to be vaccinated once already in their home in the southern district of Fort Dauphin.

But a second-dose booster shot cost $15 at a clinic – and the whole family survives on less than $2 a day – so he took the boy to a back-street doctor instead.

“I could not afford to take him to the hospital,” Dada said quietly as his young wife silently held Limberaza’s two-year-old brother.

In January, Limberaza began to cough. A rash followed. After a week, he died, his body afire with fever.

By then Dada’s niece, three-year-old Martina, was also sick. Her weeping mother Martine stroked her face as her fever spiked.

She died eight days later.

That evening, his other sister Pela’s three-year-old son Mario died as she clutched his hands.

“They were so full of life,” Dada said, his voice breaking.

The three cousins are among the almost 1,000 people, mostly children, who have died from measles in Madagascar since October.

Their deaths show the grim reality for those left unprotected from one of the world’s most contagious diseases. The virus, which can cause blindness, pneumonia, brain swelling and death, is able to survive for up to two hours in the air after a cough or sneeze, where it can easily infect people nearby.

Even though there is a highly effective vaccine, globally, around 110,000 people died from measles in 2017, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Most, like Limberaza and his cousins, were children under the age of five.

SHOTS FOR LIFE

During 2000 to 2017, the WHO estimates that widespread use of measles vaccinations prevented 21.1 million deaths – making the shots one of what the United Nations’ health agency calls the “best buys in public health.”

Yet misinformation is knocking confidence in the safety of vaccinations and has jeopardized progress against measles – allowing the disease to gain a hold again in places where it was considered almost beaten.

Europe last year saw its highest level of measles cases in a decade, and in January, the WHO named “vaccine hesitancy” – the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate – as one of the top ten global health threats for 2019.

In Madagascar, poverty is a bigger risk. While wealthy tourists flock to its rainforests to spot wide-eyed lemurs and business people bargain for its luminous sapphires and fragrant vanilla, nearly half of Madagascar’s children are malnourished, the highest rate in Africa.

The former French colony has been battered by decades of coups and instability. Foreign aid plummeted after a 2009 coup sparked bitter political street fighting. Corrupt leaders ignored the crumbling healthcare system despite frequent outbreaks of plague, hemorrhagic fevers and deadly viruses.

Measles is endemic on the island but the last vaccination drive was in 2004. Nearly two-thirds of children have not been vaccinated, according to the WHO and coverage needs to be around 95 percent to prevent the virus spreading in communities.

The country is $3 million short of the $7 million needed for enough measles vaccines to cover its population, the WHO said last month.

There are other hurdles. The vaccines must be kept cold, but less than 15 percent of people in Madagascar have electricity. Roads are mostly mud in the tropical country; journeys are arduous and expensive.

At least 922 people – mostly children – have died of measles in Madagascar since October, the WHO says, despite an emergency program that has vaccinated 2.2 million of the 26 million population so far.

Some of those, like Limberaza, had previously been vaccinated but had only received one shot, and still needed a second booster jab. Madagascar hopes to roll out a free routine two-dose vaccination program this year. Currently, the first shot is free but the booster is not.

    

OBSTACLE COURSE

Despite the difficulties, some parents walk miles seeking shots, said Jean Benoît Mahnes, deputy representative for the United Nations Children’s Fund in Madagascar. But they often arrive to find the clinic closed, or a doctor with no vaccine, or a vaccine that has expired.

“Vaccinating a child can be a real obstacle course here,” he said.

Lydia Rahariseheno, 33, said she had to walk an hour and a half to a clinic along a road plagued by robbers to get her three children vaccinated. She has only managed to get one shot so far because the doctor is often not there.

The health system’s failures mean poverty-stricken parents often take sick children to traditional healers who prescribe a herb, tingotingo, which is boiled and given to them to drink.

The children are only brought to a hospital when their condition deteriorates, said Manitra Rakotoarivony, director of health promotion at the Ministry of Public Health.

Limberaza’s father hoped a second, cheaper shot would protect him – but it didn’t. His cousins Mario and Martine weren’t vaccinated at all.

Now the family is desperate to protect their remaining children.

“We did not expect the failure to vaccinate him would kill him,” wept Pela, Mario’s mother. “My other child, for sure, I am going to take him to get vaccinated.”

(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London; writing by Katharine Houreld; editing by Carmel Crimmins)

Source: OANN

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Trump: Migrants Will Go to ‘Sanctuary Cities’

President Donald Trump said Monday that his proposal to send migrants to so-called sanctuary cities is taking effect.

Trump tweeted:

"Those Illegal Immigrants who can no longer be legally held (Congress must fix the laws and loopholes) will be, subject to Homeland Security, given to Sanctuary Cities and States!"

It was unclear, however, whether the Department of Homeland Security is taking any steps to implement the contentious plan. Lawyers there had previously told the White House that the idea was unfeasible and a misuse of funds. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is already strapped for cash.

The White House and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Florida man in Easter bunny costume caught in viral brawl reveals who he is, why he hopped into action

A costumed stranger fighting for justice removed his mask Monday -- but it wasn't Bruce Wayne revealing he's Batman or Peter Parker confessing he's Spider-Man.

It turns out the person seen in an Easter bunny outfit brawling with two others this weekend in a viral video has a familiar identity: Florida man.

Antoine McDonald, still dressed in the holiday getup he purchased at Walmart, admitted to being the man behind the whiskers and wiggling nose during an interview Monday with FOX35 Orlando.

McDonald said he was out Easter Sunday with his cousin and friend heading to a club in downtown Orlando -- and dressed from floppy ear to thumper in the rabbit attire -- when the group saw a man spit on a woman, who then retaliated by punching the expectorator.

“I see this lady and this guy going back and forth, and I’m just looking at it and walking," McDonald told FOX35 Orlando. "Then I see him spit on her, and she starts hitting him, so I walk over there, I try to help."

FLORIDA PERSON IN EASTER BUNNY COSTUME CAPTURED BRAWLING ON VIDEO

At that point, the man and woman started tussling.

"I try to break up the fight at first," McDonald said. "I felt I had to do something to help get him off of her to make sure she got away from the fight safely and unharmed.”

Video taken by a club promoter, who goes by "workfth" on Instagram, showed a person in an Easter bunny costume appearing to try to pull two people apart before eventually throwing several punches himself.

Antoine McDonald identified himself as the person underneath the Easter bunny suit.

Antoine McDonald identified himself as the person underneath the Easter bunny suit. (FOX35/Instagram)

The fight continued for several seconds, with the costumed Easter bunny delivering vicious body blows (instead of the usual chocolate-filled baskets). Bystanders watched and shouted as the surreal scene before a police officer finally jumped in and broke up the bunny beatdown.

“Only in Florida. only in Orlando you see a bunny fighting. You’ve got to pull your phone out,” the promoter told FOX35.

11-FOOT ALLIGATOR CAPTURED IN FLORIDA AFTER RESCUE CREW MISTAKES IT FOR UNCONSCIOUS PERSON

The video was posted on Instagram on Sunday night and, quick as a rabbit, garnered more than 1 million views in a day.

No arrests were made Sunday night and McDonald said he and his friends departed the scene and continued with their festivities. He said he didn’t expect to receive so much attention from the bizarre incident.

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“I’m walking down the street going about my day in my bunny suit," McDonald said, "and people are like, 'Oh, did you just get in a fight? Was that you?' I’m like, 'Excuse me?'”

Source: Fox News National

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Mueller report sparks new DC war over Russia probe: Subpoenas, payback and more

The public release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report on Thursday marked the dramatic final note of a lengthy and contentious investigation, but also sparked a tinderbox of new calls for subpoenas, congressional testimony, resignations, and even impeachment proceedings -- all despite the probe's central finding that no evidence showed that President Trump's team "coordinated or conspired" with Russia.

The whirlwind moments kept coming, even hours after the report's release, as more and more revelations from the 448-page document trickled out. The White House, for its part, claimed total victory and vindication for the president who, according to the report, once fretted that the special counsel's appointment marked the "end" of his presidency and that he was "f---ed" beyond the possibility of redemption.

"As I have been saying all along, NO COLLUSION - NO OBSTRUCTION!" Trump wrote on Twitter.

Wrote journalist Glenn Grenwald on The Intercept: "Robert Mueller Did Not Merely Reject the Trump/Russia Conspiracy Theories. He Obliterated Them."

But Democrats and media outlets that long advanced the idea that the Trump campaign had worked with Russia quickly turned their focus to whether the president had, instead, deliberately and corruptly interfered with the now-completed investigation into such an alleged conspiracy.

Attorney General William Barr leaves his home in McLean, Va., on Wednesday morning, April 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz)

Attorney General William Barr leaves his home in McLean, Va., on Wednesday morning, April 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz)

Within minutes of the report's publication, House Judiciary Committee Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., charged that the special coounsel had provided "disturbing evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction of justice" and, referencing the report's limited redactions, finished with a tantalizing flourish: "Imagine what remains hidden from our view."

Nader immediately called on Mueller himself to testify, and top Republicans, including Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr, said they would have no objections to him doing so.

MUELLER MADE 14 CRIMINAL REFERRALS, INCLUDING FOR OBAMA WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL -- WITH 2 INVESTIGATIONS ONGOING

Like previous heated hearings featuring former FBI Director James Comeycounterintelligence head Peter Strzok, and ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, a moment with Mueller in the congressional hot-seat would promise to be yet another spectacle in a long-running investigative saga.

Nadler also announced he would subpoena the full, unredacted version of the Mueller report and any underlying grand jury evidence. That move set up a likely legal confrontation with the Justice Department, where attorneys worked with Mueller's team to redact legally sensitive matters concerning classified information, ongoing investigations, unnecessary personal information and grand jury proceedings.

“The attorney general deciding to withhold the full report from Congress is regrettable, but not surprising,” Nadler said during a press conference, at which he refused to rule out impeachment proceedings. “Even in its incomplete form, the Mueller report shows disturbing evidence that President Trump obstructed justice.”

However, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., cautioned against impeachment proceedings. "Based on what we have seen to date, going forward on impeachment is not worthwhile at this point," he said. "Very frankly, there is an election in 18 months and the American people will make a judgement."

Republicans, meanwhile, claimed vindication, pointing specifically to several portions of Mueller's findings that debunked long-held conspiracy theories and media reports that misrepresented the Trump team's contacts with Russia.

For example, notably absent from Mueller's analysis was any mention of the unverified report that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had "secret talks" with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London's Ecuadorian embassy months before stolen emails damaging to Hillary Clinton's campaign were published.

Closely scrutinized communications between the Russian ambassador and Trump campaign officials at the Republican National Convention and at a speech in Washington, D.C. were "brief, public, and non-substantive," Mueller wrote.

Similarly, breathless coverage of a meeting between the ambassador and Jeff Sessions in Sept. 2016 in Sessions' office amounted to little more than a footnote in Mueller's report, which said Sessions' talks included a "passing mention of the presidential campaign."

TRUMP WORRIED MUELLER APPOINTMENT WOULD DISTRACT FROM HIS PRESIDENCY: 'THIS IS THE END. I'M F---ED'

And "the investigation did not establish that one Campaign official's efforts to dilute a portion of the Republican Party platform on providing asssistance to Ukraine were undertaken at the behest of candidate Trump or Russia."

The FBI, in its warrant application to surveil former Trump aide Carter Page, quoted directly from a disputed Washington Post opinion piece which noted that a Trump campaign official vetoed a proposed platform amendment that would have called for providing lethal arms to Ukrainian forces fighting Russia, and suggested the move was a possible indicator that the campaign had been compromised.

One-time adviser of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Carter Page, addresses the audience during a presentation in Moscow

One-time adviser of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Carter Page, addresses the audience during a presentation in Moscow (Reuters)

The Trump campaign, at the time, supported providing only defensive arms to Ukrainians, and rejected a single Republican delegate's proposed platform amendment that called for providing lethal arms. Later, the Trump administration changed course and approved lethal arms sales to Ukraine.

The FBI did not provide its own independent assessment of whether the Washington Post opinion piece contained accurate information, and did not mention that the Obama administration had the same policy towards arming Ukraine as the one Trump's team supported.

Separately, Mueller wrote that investigators "did not establish that Manafort coordinated with the Russian government on its election-interference efforts," despite reports that he shared polling data with an individual linked to Russian intelligence.

PRIVATE COMEY MEMOS CONTAINED FAR MORE SENSITIVE INFORMATION THAN PREVIOUSLY KNOWN

Mueller's team "did not identify evidence of a connection between Manafort's sharing polling data and Russia's interference in the election, which had already been reported by U.S. media outlets at the time of the August 2 meeting," the report stated.

Referring to a discredited BuzzFeed News bombshell report, Mueller wrote, "The evidence available to us does not establish that the President directed or aided Cohen's false testimony [concerning the Trump Tower Moscow project]," even though evidence showed that Trump "knew" Cohen had lied to Congress.

BuzzFeed has inexplicably stood by its reporting that Trump directed Cohen to lie to Congress in the face of mounting inconsistencies, even though the story has been contradicted explicitly by Mueller, Cohen, and every other relevant on-record source.

Summing up the positive news for his administration in the report, Trump tweeted a reference to the popular "Game of Thrones" television series, with the words, "No collusion, no obstruction. For the haters and the radical left Democrats -- Game Over."

And White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told reporters that Thursday was the "best day" since Trump's election, calling the Mueller probe a "political proctology exam" and the final report a "clean bill of health."

"It should make people feel really great that a campaign I managed to its successful end did not collude with any Russians," Conway said. "We’re accepting apologies today, too, for anybody who feels the grace in offering them."

Democrats, however, claimed their own vindication, and charged that Barr had improperly given cover for the president. 2020 presidential contender Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., called on Barr to "resign," after Barr pointed out in his press conference that Trump's mental state -- including his apparent frustration at the long-running investigation -- was relevant to the question of whether he obstructed justice.

On collusion, according to the report, former national security adviser Michael Flynn told investigators that Trump repeatedly requested that his team find tens of thousands of emails deleted from a private server controlled by Hillary Clinton.

At a July 2016 campaign rally, Trump remarked sarcastically, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing."

After that statement, Flynn contacted operatives in the hopes of uncovering the documents, according to Mueller. And Peter Smith, a GOP consultant, "created a company, raised tens of thousands of dollars, and recruited security experts and business associates,” the report stated.

Smith told Mueller's team “he was in contact with hackers ‘with ties and affiliations to Russia’ who had access to the emails, and that his efforts were coordinated with the Trump Campaign" -- a claim Mueller could not verify.

Regardless, Mueller found no evidence that the Trump team had “initiated or directed Smith’s efforts.”

Multiple media reports, and several commentators, focused on a section of Mueller's report that read: “According to notes written by (Sessions' chief of staff Jody) Hunt, when Sessions told the President that a Special Counsel had been appointed, the President slumped back in his chair, and said, ‘Oh my God.  This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm f…….' ... The President became angry and lambasted the Attorney General for his decision to recuse from the investigation, stating, ‘How could you let this happen, Jeff?’"

But Mueller's report went on to make clear that Trump's concern was with losing a political mandate, not going to jail: “The president returned to the consequences of the appointment and said, ‘Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I won't be able to do anything. This is the worse thing that ever happened to me.’”

Mueller further referenced several incidents described in the report in which top Trump advisers resisted or defied the president’s “efforts to influence the investigation” -- while saying those efforts were unsuccessful because of that defiance.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller exits St. John's Episcopal Church after attending services, across from the White House, in Washington, Sunday, March 24, 2019.  (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

Special Counsel Robert Mueller exits St. John's Episcopal Church after attending services, across from the White House, in Washington, Sunday, March 24, 2019.  (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

For example, the report detailed Trump's alleged effort to have Mueller sidelined, amid reports at the time that the special counsel’s office was investigating the president for obstruction of justice. The report detailed a dramatic moment where the president's White House counsel apparently rejected the push.

“On June 17, 2017, the president called [White House Counsel Don] McGahn at home and directed him to call the Acting Attorney General and say that the Special Counsel had conflicts of interest and must be removed. McGahn did not carry out the direction, however, deciding that he would resign rather than trigger what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre,” the report stated, referencing the Watergate scandal.

The report noted that Trump did not follow up with McGahn in a later meeting as to whether he would fire Mueller, and ultimately decided not to terminate him.

The report also detailed the run-up to Trump's decision to fire Comey, after the FBI Director repeatedly refused to publicly confirm that Trump was not under investigation -- even though Comey had privately confirmed that to Trump.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

According to Mueller's report, there was "substantial evidence" that Comey's termination had to do with his “unwillingness to publicly state that the president was not personally under investigation.”

Mueller cited reports that the day after Comey was fired, Trump told Russian officials that he had “faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”

Comey acknowledged in testimony last December that when the agency initiated its counterintelligence probe into possible collusion between Trump campaign officials and the Russian government in July 2016, investigators "didn't know whether we had anything" and that "in fact, when I was fired as director [in May 2017], I still didn't know whether there was anything to it."

In remarks late Thursday, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe -- who was fired last year for making unauthorized leaks to the media and lying to investigators about them -- sounded a rare, nonpartisan note of optimism amid the brouhaha gripping the nation.

"The Mueller Report is a remarkable document – detailed, thorough, objective, and full of facts rather than rhetoric," McCabe said in a statement. "It stands as a tribute to the hard work of the team of FBI agents and lawyers who, despite the endless stream of attacks on law enforcement from this Administration, worked for two years to find the facts and the truth amidst a swamp of lies and misinformation. It shows what our law enforcement personnel – especially the dedicated men and women of the FBI – do every day on cases large and small throughout this country. We owe them our profound gratitude.”

Fox News' Jake Gibson, Bill Mears, Catherine Herridge, and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers stand guard in front of a mosque as a Muslim man walks past him during the Friday prayers at a mosque, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Easter Sunday, in Colombo
FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers stand guard in front of a mosque as a Muslim man walks past him during the Friday prayers at a mosque, five days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Catholic churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Tom Lasseter and Shri Navaratnam

KATTANKUDY, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran was 12 years old when he began his studies at the Jamiathul Falah Arabic College. He was a nobody, with no claim to scholarship other than ambition.

Zahran and his four brothers and sisters squeezed into a two-room house with their parents in a small seaside town in eastern Sri Lanka; their father was a poor man who sold packets of food on the street and had a reputation for being a petty thief.

“His father didn’t do much,” recalled the school’s vice principal, S.M. Aliyar, laughing out loud.

The boy surprised the school with his sharp mind. For three years, Zahran practiced memorizing the Koran. Next came his studies in Islamic law. But the more he learned, the more Zahran argued that his teachers were too liberal in their reading of the holy book.

“He was against our teaching and the way we interpreted the Koran – he wanted his radical Islam,” said Aliyar. “So we kicked him out.”

Aliyar, now 73 with a long white beard, remembers the day Zahran left in 2005. “His father came and asked, ‘Where can he go?’.”

The school would hear again of Mohamed Zahran. And the world now knows his name. The Sri Lankan government has identified him as the ringleader of a group that carried out a series of Easter Sunday suicide bombings in the country on April 21.

The blasts killed more than 250 people in churches and luxury hotels, one of the deadliest-ever such attacks in South Asia. There were nine suicide bombers who blew apart men, women and children as they sat to pray or ate breakfast.

Most of the attackers were well-educated and from wealthy families, with some having been abroad to study, according to Sri Lankan officials.

That description does not, however, fit their alleged leader, a man said to be in his early 30s, who authorities say died in the slaughter. Zahran was different.

INTELLIGENCE FAILINGS

Sri Lanka’s national leadership has come under heavy criticism for failing to heed warnings from Indian intelligence services – at least three in April alone – that an attack was pending. But Zahran’s path from provincial troublemaker to alleged jihadist mastermind was marked by years of missed or ignored signals that the man with a thick beard and paunch was dangerous.

His increasingly militant brand of Islam was allowed to grow inside a marginalized minority community – barely 10 percent of the country’s roughly 20 million people are Muslim – against a backdrop of a dysfunctional developing nation.

The top official at the nation’s defense ministry resigned on Thursday, saying that some institutions under his charge had failed.

For much of his adult life, Zahran, 33, courted controversy inside the Muslim community itself.

In the internet age, that problem did not stay local. Zahran released online videos calling for jihad and threatening bloodshed.

After the blasts, Islamic State claimed credit and posted a video of Zahran, clutching an assault rifle, standing before the group’s black flag and pledging allegiance to its leader.

The precise relationship between Zahran and Islamic State is not yet known. An official with India’s security services, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that during a raid on a suspected Islamic State cell by the National Investigation Agency earlier this year officers found copies of Zahran’s videos. The operation was in the state of Tamil Nadu, just across a thin strait of ocean from Sri Lanka.

“LIKE A SPOILED CHILD”

Back in 2005, Zahran was looking to make his way in the world. His hometown of Kattankudy is some seven hours’ drive from Colombo on the other side of the island nation, past the countless palm trees, roadside Buddha statues, cashew hawkers and an occasional lumbering elephant in the bush. It is a town of about 40,000 people, a dot on the eastern coast with no clear future for an impoverished young man who’d just been expelled.

Zahran joined a mosque in 2006, the Dharul Athar, and gained a place on its management committee. But within three years they’d had a falling out.

“He wanted to speak more independently, without taking advice from elders,” said the mosque’s imam, or spiritual leader, M.T.M. Fawaz.

Also, the young man was more conservative, Fawaz said, objecting, for instance, to women wearing bangles or earrings.

“The rest of us come together as community leaders but Zahran wanted to speak for himself,” said Fawaz, a man with broad shoulders lounging with a group of friends in a back office of the mosque after evening prayers. “He was a black sheep who broke free.”

Mohamed Yusuf Mohamed Thaufeek, a friend who met Zahran at school and later became an adherent of his, said the problems revolved around Zahran’s habit of misquoting Islamic scriptures.

The mosque’s committee banned him from preaching for three months in 2009. Zahran stormed off.

“We treated him like a spoiled child, a very narrow-minded person who was always causing some trouble,” said the head of the committee, Mohamed Ismail Mohamed Naushad, a timber supplier who shook his head at the memory.

Now on his own, Zahran began to collect a group of followers who met in what Fawaz described as “a hut”.

At about that time, Zahran, then 23, married a young girl from a small town outside the capital of Colombo and brought his bride back to Kattankudy, according to his sister, Mathaniya.

“I didn’t have much of a connection with her – she was 14,” she said.

Despite being “a bit rough-edged”, Zahran was a skilled speaker and others his age were drawn to his speeches and Koranic lessons, said Thaufeek. He traveled the countryside at times, giving his version of religious instruction as he went.

Also, Zahran had found a popular target: the town’s Sufi population, who practice a form of Islam often described a mystical, but which to conservatives is heresy.

Tensions in the area went back some years. In 2004, there was a grenade attack on a Sufi mosque and in 2006 several homes of Sufis were set afire. Announcements boomed from surrounding mosques at the time calling for a Sufi spiritual leader to be killed, said Sahlan Khalil Rahman, secretary of a trust that oversees a group of Sufi mosques.

He blamed followers of the fundamentalist Wahhabi strain of Islam that some locals say became more popular after funding from Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Wahhabism, flowed to mosques in Kattankudy.

It was, Rahman said, an effort “to convert Sufis into Wahhabis through this terrorism”. Rahman handed over a photograph album showing charred homes, bullet holes sprayed across an office wall and a shrine’s casket upended.

ONLINE RADICAL

It was an ideal backdrop for Zahran’s bellicose delivery and apparent sense of religious destiny.

He began holding rallies, bellowing insults through loudspeakers that reverberated inside the Sufis’ house of worship as they tried to pray.

In 2012, Zahran started a mosque of his own. The Sufis were alarmed and, Rahman said, passed on complaints to both local law enforcement and eventually national government offices. No action was taken.

The then-officer in charge of Kattankudy police, Ariyabandhu Wedagedara, said in a telephone interview that he couldn’t arrest people simply because of theological differences.

     “The problem at the time was between followers of different Islamic sects – Zahran was not a major troublemaker, but he and followers of other sects, including the Sufis, were at loggerheads,” Wedagedara said.

Zahran found another megaphone: the internet. His Facebook page was taken down after the bombings, but Muslims in the area said his video clips had previously achieved notoriety.

His speeches went from denouncing Sufis to “kafirs”, or non-believers, in general. Zahran’s sister, Mathaniya, said in an interview that she thought “his ideas became more radical from listening to Islamic State views on the Internet”.

In one undated video, Zahran, in a white tunic and standing in front of an image of flames, boomed in a loud voice: “You will not have time to pick up the remains of blown-up bodies. We’ll keep sending those insulting Allah to hell.”

“HARD TO TAKE”

Zahran spoke in Tamil, making his words available to young Muslims clicking on their cellphones in Kattankudy and other towns like it during a period when, in both 2014 and 2018, reports and images spread of Sinhalese Buddhists rioting against Muslims in Sri Lanka.

In 2017, Zahran’s confrontations boiled over. At a rally near a Sufi community, his followers came wielding swords. At least one man was hacked and hospitalized. The police arrested several people connected to Zahran, including his father and one of his brothers. Zahran slipped away from public view.

That December, the mosque Zahran founded released a public notice disowning him. Thaufeek, his friend from school, is now the head. He counted the places that Zahran had been driven away from – his school, the Dharul Athar mosque and then, “we ourselves kicked him out, which would have been hard for him to take”.

The next year, a group of Buddha statues was vandalized in the town of Mawanella, about five hours drive from Kattankudy. There, in the lush mountains of Sri Lanka’s interior, Zahran had taken up temporary residence.

“He was preaching to kill people,” said A.G.M. Anees, who has served as an imam at a small mosque in the area for a decade. “This is not Islam, this is violence.”

Zahran went into hiding once more.

On the Thursday morning before the Easter Sunday bombings, Zahran’s sister-in-law knocked on the door of a neighbor who did seamstress work near Kattankudy. She handed over a parcel of fabric and asked for it to be sewn into a tunic by the end of the day.

“She said she was going on a family trip,” said the neighbor, M.H. Sithi Nazlya.

Zahran’s sister says that her parents turned off their cellphones on the Friday. On Sunday, when she visited their home, they were gone.

She does not know if Zahran arranged for them to be taken somewhere safe. Or why he would have carried out the bombing.

But now in Kattankudy, and in many other places, people are talking about Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran.

(Reporting by Tom Lasseter and Shri Navaratnam; Additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani, Shihar Aneez and Alasdair Pal; Editing by John Chalmers and Alex Richardson)

Source: OANN

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A Wells Fargo logo is seen in New York City
FILE PHOTO: A Wells Fargo logo is seen in New York City, U.S. January 10, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith

April 26, 2019

By Jessica DiNapoli and Imani Moise

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wells Fargo & Co’s board has retained executive search firm Spencer Stuart to hunt for a new chief executive, ideally a woman who can tackle its regulatory and public perception issues, two people familiar with the matter said.

Wells Fargo’s ambition to become the only major U.S. bank with a female CEO underscores the need to restore its image with a wide range of constituents, including customers, shareholders, regulators and politicians, after it became mired in a scandal in 2016 for opening potentially millions of unauthorized accounts.

Former CEO Tim Sloan left abruptly last month, becoming the second CEO to leave the bank in the scandal’s fallout.

The board plans to approach Citigroup Inc’s Latin America chief Jane Fraser, one of the sources said. During Fraser’s 15-year tenure at Citigroup, she has gained experience running consumer and commercial businesses as well as its private bank.

Fraser could not be immediately reached for comment.

The board also discussed approaching JPMorgan Chase & Co’s Marianne Lake, but after the bank named her to run JPMorgan’s consumer lending business last week, that option became less viable, the source added. The board wants someone who can convince regulators, employees, investors and customers that the bank has fixed problems underpinning the sales scandal, the sources said.

The bank’s board feels that choosing a woman might please lawmakers in Washington who have been critical not only of Wells Fargo’s misbehavior, but of the broader banking industry for a lack of diversity and gender equality, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

It also believes that such a move could bolster Wells Fargo’s image with the households of customers where women play a leading role in managing finances, one of the sources added.

The new CEO will also have to resolve litigation and regulatory matters. There are 14 outstanding consent orders with government entities, as well as probes by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Labor and the Department of Justice.

To be sure, Spencer Stuart will approach and consider several male candidates for the CEO job as well, one of the sources said. The top priority is to find an external candidate who can navigate the bank’s regulatory issues, the source added.

Finding an outsider who meets all those qualifications and wants the job will be difficult, the sources said. There are few people with the necessary experience, even fewer of those who are women, and it is not clear if any of the obvious candidates would be open to taking the role.

The sources asked not to be identified because Wells Fargo’s board deliberations are confidential.

Spokespeople for Wells Fargo and Spencer Stuart declined to comment.

Wells Fargo’s board has not made any public statements about its requirements for a new CEO, beyond Chair Betsy Duke saying the job should attract the “top talent in banking.”

The board wants to complete the search within the next three to six months, one of the sources said.

STALLED SHARES

After Sloan’s ouster, Wells Fargo’s board appointed Allen Parker, who had been general counsel, as interim CEO. The board has said it is looking for an external candidate as a permanent replacement. It is not clear whether Parker will stay at the bank.

Others whose names have been mentioned by analysts, recruiters and industry sources as perspective CEO candidates include Alphabet Inc finance chief Ruth Porat and Bank of America Corp’s chief technology officer Cathy Bessant.

Wells Fargo shares have stalled since Sloan’s departure on March 29th, while the KBW Bank index has rallied more than 7 percent.

Wells Fargo would be “the best stock on earth to buy” if it had the right CEO, said Greg Donaldson, chairman of Donaldson Capital Management in Indiana.

Donaldson held about 50,000 Wells Fargo shares, but sold the stake last year as problems mounted. The CEO change could convince him to re-invest, depending on who it is, he told Reuters.

“It would be very smart for them to get a woman,” he said.

(Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli and Imani Moise in New York; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra, Greg Roumeliotis and Susan Thomas)

Source: OANN

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A worker walks on the roof of a new home under construction in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: A worker walks on the roof of a new home under construction in Carlsbad, California September 22, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake

April 26, 2019

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. economy is growing at a 2.08% annualized pace in the second quarter based on upbeat data on durable goods orders and new home sales in March, the New York Federal Reserve’s Nowcast model showed on Friday.

This was faster than the 1.92% growth rate calculated by the N.Y. Fed model the week before.

(Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Extraordinary European Union leaders summit in Brussels
FILE PHOTO: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte arrives at an extraordinary European Union leaders summit to discuss Brexit, in Brussels, Belgium April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Friday he had assured China’s Huawei Technologies that it would not face discrimination in the rollout of Italy’s 5G telecoms network.

Conte was speaking on a visit to China where he said he met Huawei’s chief executive, Ren Zhengfei. The prime minister’s comments were carried in Italy by TV broadcaster Sky Italia.

“I told him that we have adopted some precautions, some measures to protect our interests that demand very high levels of security … not only from Huawei but any company entering into the 5G arena,” he said.

Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecoms equipment, is under intense scrutiny after the United States told allies not to use its technology because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

(Writing by by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Angelo Amante)

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U.S. President Trump departs for travel to Indianapolis from the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs for travel to Indianapolis, Indiana from the White House in Washington, U.S., April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

April 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Friday was expected to announce his intention to revoke the United States’ status as a signatory of the Arms Trade Treaty, which was signed in 2013 by then-President Barack Obama but never ratified by Congress, two U.S. officials said.

Trump was expected to announce the decision in a speech in Indianapolis, to the National Rifle Association, the officials said. The NRA, a powerful gun lobby group, has long been opposed to the treaty, which was negotiated at the United Nations.

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: OANN

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