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Criminal referrals tied to Mueller probe may have wide reach; Schools closed over teen obsessed with Columbine

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Developing now, Wednesday, April 17, 2019

CRIMINAL REFERRALS TIED TO MUELLER PROBE COULD HAVE WIDE REACH: As many as two dozen individuals may be implicated in House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes' criminal referrals to the Justice Department arising out of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's recently concluded Russia probe, sources have confirmed to Fox News ... The sources confirmed that the referrals related in part to the anti-Trump dossier compiled by British ex-spy Christopher Steele, and his work for the Clinton camp and the Democratic National Committee-funded firm Fusion GPS.

Meanwhile, three top Republican Senate committee chairmen said Tuesday that the DOJ has 10 days to explain itself as to why FBI investigators looking into Hillary Clinton's email use in 2016 sought access to "highly classified information" they said was "necessary" to complete their probe, but later withdrew the request and cleared Clinton of wrongdoing. Attorney General William Barr is expected to release a redacted version of the Mueller report to the public on Thursday.

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This combination of undated photos released by the Jefferson County, Colo., Sheriff's Office on Tuesday, April 16, 2019 shows Sol Pais. On Tuesday authorities said they are looking pais, suspected of making threats on Columbine High School, just days before the 20th anniversary of a mass shooting that killed 13 people. (Jefferson County Sheriff's Office via AP)

This combination of undated photos released by the Jefferson County, Colo., Sheriff's Office on Tuesday, April 16, 2019 shows Sol Pais. On Tuesday authorities said they are looking pais, suspected of making threats on Columbine High School, just days before the 20th anniversary of a mass shooting that killed 13 people. (Jefferson County Sheriff's Office via AP)

SCHOOLS CLOSED OVER WOMAN 'INFATUATED' WITH COLUMBINE MASSACRE: Multiple Denver-area school districts have canceled classes for Wednesday after a Miami woman “infatuated” with the 1999 Columbine massacre made threats and traveled to Colorado where she bought firearms earlier this week, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI ... Sol Pais, 18, who has a history of making “concerning” comments, arrived in Colorado from Miami early Monday and bought a pump action shotgun and ammunition, the FBI told reporters Tuesday evening. The FBI’s Miami office had reportedly alerted its Denver counterpart after learning of the potential threat.Authorities said Pais was last seen in the foothills of Denver and remains at large. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is currently leading multiple agencies in a massive manhunt.

TRUMP MOVES TO DENY BAIL TO SOME ASYLUM SEEKERS - Amid a surge of Central American migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border, the Trump administration on Tuesday reportedly moved to deny bail to some asylum seekers ... According to the Wall Street Journal, if the ruling issued by Attorney General William Barr takes effect, it could mean that asylum seekers could spend more time in jail while their cases are decided. The ruling is due to be implemented in 90 days.

A VOW TO REBUILD NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL IN FIVE YEARS: French President Emmanuel Macron vowed Tuesday to rebuild the badly burned Notre Dame Cathedral in five years, as dramatic footage was released showing the heroism of firefighters who battled the blaze for hours ... “We will rebuild Notre Dame even more beautifully and I want it to be completed in five years," Macron said in a televised address to the nation. "We can do it." Macron added that Monday's inferno "reminds us that our story never ends. And that we will always have challenges to overcome. What we believe to be indestructible can also be touched."

TRUMP HAS 2020 PREDICTIONS: President Trump offered his thoughts Tuesday night on which two Democratic contenders he thinks will be left standing in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. Out of the crowded pool of contenders, Trump predicted on Twitter that former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders will be the final two in the battle to be the party’s nominee ...  “I believe it will be Crazy Bernie Sanders vs. Sleepy Joe Biden as the two finalists to run against maybe the best Economy in the history of our Country (and MANY other great things)!” he wrote. “I look forward to facing whoever it may be. May God Rest Their Soul!”

'WASHED UP CELEB' LIAR: Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx described “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett as a “washed up celeb who lied to cops” in texts messages released Tuesday by her office in response to a public-records request by the Chicago Tribune ... Foxx compared Smollett’s case to her office’s pending indictments against R&B singer R. Kelly in text messages to Joseph Magats, her top assistant, on March 8, the paper reported “Pedophile with 4 victims 10 counts. Washed up celeb who lied to cops, 16 (counts),” she wrote. “… Just because we can charge something doesn’t mean we should.”


THE SOUNDBITE

'PALACE INTRIGUE'- "I would say that that's sort of the latest iteration of the palace intrigue stories that the media, the mainstream media tend to love to run around here ... It’s easier than doing what you and Bret Baier did last night, which is have a town hall about issues, which is ask the tough questions, try to find solutions to America’s problems. They’d rather just try to pit us all against each other and the president against current and former and future staff."Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, on "The Story with Martha MacCallum," responding to reports that White House officials are worried the Mueller report will expose them as providing damaging information to the special counsel. (Click the image above to watch the full video.)

TODAY'S MUST-READS
Charlie Kirk: Dem civil war between left and far left will benefit Republicans.
Jailhouse romances that raised eyebrows.
Sean Hannity: Michelle Obama's divorced dad comment 'insulting.'

MINDING YOUR BUSINESS
EXCLUSIVE: T-Mobile, Sprint refute reports that deal is in jeopardy.
EXCLUSIVE: Howard Schultz retains Republican adviser as Democrat dissent brews.
FAA safety panel certifies training for Boeing Max software update as investors call for board revamp.

STAY TUNED

On Fox News:

Fox & Friends, 6 a.m. ET: Special guests include: U.S. Sen Rick Scott, R-Fla.; Paula Deen shares her recipe for grilled butter burgers.

Hannity, 9 p.m. ET: Karl Rove, former White House deputy chief of staff under President George W. Bush; Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow at the Hoover Institute.

On Fox Business:

Mornings with Maria, 6 a.m. ET: Joy Falotico, Lincoln Motor Co. president; Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News senior judicial analyst; Richard Fowler, Fox News contributor.

Varney & Co., 9 a.m. ET: Mateusz Morawiecki, prime minister of Poland.

Making Money with Charles Payne, 2 p.m. ET: Bruce Linton, CEO and chairman at Canopy Rivers Inc.

Lou Dobbs Tonight, 7 p.m. ET: U.S. Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. and Andy Biggs, R-Fla.

On Fox News Radio:

The Fox News Rundown podcast: "Andrew Yang’s Thousand Dollar Giveaway" - Andrew Yang, entrepreneur and Democrat presidential candidate, is starting to receive national recognition with his idea of a $1,000 monthly "Freedom Dividend" for every American. He joins the podcast to explain his platforms and why he stands apart from the others in the field. In addition, Fox News international correspondent Simon Owen is in Paris with the latest update on the Notre Dame Cathedral fire. Plus, commentary by Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News medical analyst.

Want the Fox News Rundown sent straight to your mobile device? Subscribe through Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Stitcher.

The Brian Kilmeade Show, 9 a.m. ET: Marc Thiessen, fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and Fox News contributor and Fox Business' Kennedy take on the top headlines of the day. Jared Cohen and  Dan Keyserling tell the story behind their new book.

The Todd Starnes Show, Noon, ET:  The Christian rock group 7eventh Time Down will drop by the studio for a musical performance and Jeremy Dys, deputy general counsel for First Liberty Institute, will discuss Vice President Pence's upcoming commencement address at Taylor University.

#TheFlashback
1993: A federal jury in Los Angeles convicts two former police officers of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney King; two other officers are acquitted.
1973: Federal Express (later FedEx) begins operations as 14 planes carrying 186 packages take off from Memphis International Airport, bound for 25 U.S. cities.
1972: Boston Marathon allows women to compete for the first time; Nina Kuscsik is the first officially recognized women's champion, with a time of 3:10:26.

Fox News First is compiled by Fox News' Bryan Robinson. Thank you for joining us! Have a good day! We'll see you in your inbox first thing Thursday morning.

Source: Fox News National

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EU antitrust watchdog considering Apple probe: Vestager

Logo of Apple is seen at a store in Zurich
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Apple is seen at a store in Zurich, Switzerland January 3, 2019. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

March 14, 2019

BERLIN (Reuters) – The European Union’s competition watchdog is considering opening a probe of Apple over allegations that it uses its app store to gain an advantage on its own services over rivals’, the authority’s chief said on Thursday.

Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, told German newspaper Tagesspiegel her watchdog would examine if there were parallels with Google, which in 2017 was fined over 2 billion euros for unfairly disadvantaging rivals on its platform.

“We have to examine the role of Apple and Apple’s app store,” she was quoted as saying. “If we conclude that they have a market-dominating position, then the case would be comparable to our proceedings against Google.”

The EU’s consideration of a possible probe of Apple comes after music streaming service Spotify filed a complaint against the iPhone maker, saying it was unfairly limiting rivals to its own Apple Music streaming service.

(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel, writing by Thomas Escritt, editing by Joseph Nasr)

Source: OANN

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The New Republic: Animal Rights Next Frontier for Left

Animal rights are the next frontier for the left, according to The New Republic.

In an article in the liberal opinion outlet, staff writer Emily Atkin wrote "crucial elements of the contemporary progressive agenda" — like protecting the environment and marginalized communities, and "rolling back the unfettered capitalist exploitation of the planet and its inhabitants" — all overlap with the issue of animal rights. 

"As those particular priorities claim center stage in ambitious proposals such as the Green New Deal, the question of what to do about animals . . . will be unavoidable," Atkin wrote.

She noted an idea considered radical in 1989 — that it is almost never acceptable to kill an animal and that animal species possess the same basic rights as humans — is increasingly embraced today.

Thirty-two percent of Americans believe animals should have similar protections as humans, according to a 2015 Gallup poll.

"Thanks to an expansive nexus of interrelated moral and political concerns, the numbers seem poised to continue spiking, particularly among liberals," she wrote. "At the heart of that nexus is a tentative accord to bring animal rights and animal welfare into alignment with one another — together of course, with human rights and human welfare."

With proposals like the Green New Deal, the left has recognized "massive societal shifts are necessary to save the planet and achieve equality," Atkin wrote.

"And with the Green New Deal's increasing prominence in the debate over environmental reform, it's only a matter of time before such shifts will include a serious discussion about the ethics and wisdom of consuming billions of animals every year," she wrote.

Source: NewsMax America

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Syria Reversal Is a Significant Win for Good Sense

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WASHINGTON -- President Trump, in a rare reversal of a decision, has decided to keep "hundreds" of U.S. troops in northeast Syria to provide "campaign continuity" and stability there as the fight against the Islamic State winds down, senior defense officials told me Friday.

"After studying it further, [Trump] has decided to take a different course" from the one he announced in December, which proposed a withdrawal of all the roughly 2,000 U.S. forces in northeast Syria by the end of April, the officials said. Instead, a smaller number of troops will continue their mission of training and advising the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the northeast and countering terrorism. The United States will also maintain a small force at a base in al-Tanf, in the south.

Score this as a significant win for good sense. Trump's impulsive decision to withdraw U.S. forces from a successful, low-cost mission had been one of the most controversial of his presidency, and it had perplexed and worried key allies abroad.

Trump's December announcement was especially anguishing for senior military officials, who feared that the United States was walking away from a battle that wasn't yet finished and undermining its credibility with partners. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis submitted his resignation in protest in December, and Gen. Joseph Votel, the U.S. Central Command commander, took the rare step last week of saying publicly that Trump's decision had gone against the advice he would have given.

Syria illustrates that with Trump, decisions are never over until they're over -- and even then, they may not be over. Over the past week, Trump has evidently been more willing to listen to military advice than his critics sometimes contend. He also seems to have recognized that opposition to his Syria decision was nearly universal, not just in the Pentagon but also with key congressional supporters such as Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, R-S.C., who has campaigned to change Trump's mind.

Now that Trump has altered course, Pentagon officials are continuing talks with Britain, France and other key allies about keeping a small military presence in northeast Syria, as well. The rationale, said one defense official, is "in together, out together." European allies had resisted this initial request, until they were sure that Trump himself was prepared to keep a U.S. force on the ground.

The continued U.S. military presence will upset Turkey, which has bitterly criticized U.S. support for the SDF, which Turkey views as an adjunct of a Kurdish militia it regards as a terrorist group. The president had seemed willing to bow to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's demands in December that the United States pull out its forces, but Trump has since stiffened his spine.

Trump's agreement to support some residual U.S. military presence will avert what many analysts had feared would be a vacuum in northeast Syria that would be filled by Turkey, Russia, Iran and the Syrian regime, further complicating the Syria mess. Here again, Trump seems to have come around to the view pressed quietly by his top military advisers, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan.

Now that Trump has agreed to a continued U.S. role in stabilizing Syria, the challenge will be leveraging this "campaign continuity" diplomatically, in a way that advances discussions about new political framework for rebuilding governance and security in that country. Pentagon and State Department officials say they plan talks with Russia about how best to enhance stability.

(c) 2019, Washington Post Writers Group

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Trump Is Winning Because of His Pro-Americanism

"America is the greatest fighting force for peace, justice and freedom in the history of the world," the president has said. "We are not going to apologize for America. We are going to stand up for America. No more apologies."

No more apologies. No more groveling. No more self-flagellating ourselves on the world stage, as a certain, previous administration had done.

Trump is different. He goes over to Europe and he says, "Hey, we value our alliance. We love you guys, but it's time for NATO members to stop free-riding on the American taxpayers." Imagine that. An American president in Europe standing up for you, looking out for your hard-earned money.

Of course, the foreign policy elites back home shuddered, and they fumed and sputtered upon hearing all of this, preferring, of course, Obama's approach. Seizing a better future is exactly what President Trump has begun to do for America, but not by marinating in guilt over past wrongs in public, but by growing the economy -- real hope.

The Obama crew said he couldn't do it. But with a crack team of dedicated pros, Trump renegotiated old trade deals to make them more pro-American worker, and he's holding trade cheaters like China accountable. It's about time. Now, can you ever imagine Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg speaking as triumphantly, as unapologetically, about American dominance in manufacturing, as Trump?

Trump is also unapologetic about the government's duty to enforce our borders, and also to tailor immigration to America's needs and values. But by contrast, the Democrats, they recoil from such terms as "American sovereignty," and they push instead for abolishing of ICE and even abolishing the classification of illegals as "illegal." They feel angry about America's past and present. And America acting in America's interest? Oh no, he can't do that.

Now the president was particularly incensed last week when footage circulated of freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omar referring to 9/11 as an occasion where "some people did something." So he retweeted Omar's video, and then he included clips of the planes going into the World Trade Center towers.

Well, the left, of course, wasn't upset about Omar's original comments. They were mad at Trump, claiming he's the problem by endangering Omar's life.

In a local interview in Minnesota on Monday, Trump was characteristically unapologetic. When asked if he had second thoughts about criticizing Omar, he replied, "No, not at all. Look, she's been very disrespectful to this country. She's been very disrespectful, frankly, to Israel. She's someone that doesn't really understand, I think, life. Real life, what it's all about. It's unfortunate. She's got a way about her that's very, very bad, I think, for our country. I think she's extremely unpatriotic and extremely disrespectful to our country."

Disrespectful to our country -- well, I think a lot of Americans agree with him. Like Obama before her, Omar reflexively apologizes for even in tone, ridiculing America for being worried about Al Qaeda. Yes, because we actually recoil at evil. America and Britain, we don't believe in evil, congresswoman. So, we bristle at it.

Yes, we have to be clear here that Omar's not alone. The Democratic Party is becoming infected with this self-loathing quality. More of its members today feel guilty about America's past, and they want to turn that guilt into the ultimate expiation for our sins -- the sins of colonialism, racism, misogyny, et cetera, et cetera. And they feel justified in tearing down history, in attacking religious symbols with deep historical roots and even refusing to participate in patriotic displays.

2020 is shaping up to be a showdown between more traditional America and this new kind of twisted vision of America. And no matter who the Democratic nominee is, this is the ideological struggle before us. And it's hard right now at least to imagine that the American people would not again embrace the true audacity that unapologetic nature of Trump -- his unwillingness to bow down to the media and political correctness at the moment, and his determination to protect the honor and the people of this country. His habit of standing up to the political elite and refusing to back down.

Now, there are words for this approach. We used to call it American leadership. Maybe we still do.

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Uber, Didi slam Mexico City’s new rules on ride-hailing, including cash ban

The logo of Uber is pictured during the presentation of their new security measures in Mexico City
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Uber is pictured during the presentation of their new security measures in Mexico City, Mexico April 10, 2018. REUTERS/Ginnette Riquelme

April 26, 2019

By Julia Love and Noe Torres

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Uber, Didi Chuxing and other ride-hailing firms on Thursday criticized a host of new regulations of the sector in Mexico’s capital city, which include a ban on cash fares that could exclude many potential customers who lack bank accounts.

Mexico City’s government on Wednesday issued rules that prohibit cash payments for ride-hailing services, require drivers to register with the city, and ban the use of cheaper cars, among other measures.

The regulation marks a setback for San Francisco-based Uber in one of its largest markets ahead of a planned initial public offering. The company has fought hard for the right to accept cash fares in Mexico, arguing that it is a critical tool to reach the millions of Mexicans who do not use credit or debit cards.

In a joint statement, Uber, China’s Didi, Spain’s Cabify and Greece’s Beat said Mexico City’s government agreed in February to work with the sector as it updated regulation. But the new rules were issued “unilaterally and without prior dialogue,” the firms said.

“We are concerned that, as it stands, this reform creates a series of barriers to entry,” the companies said in a joint statement, which was also signed by Estonia’s Bolt and Mexico’s Laudrive. They also noted that drivers could see a hit to their earnings.

Mexico City’s transport ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Minister Andres Lajous told a news conference that the rules were aimed at rooting out corruption and leveling the playing field for ride-hailing firms and taxi drivers.

The regulation also prohibits pre-paid cards, which are frequently used by tech companies in Mexico to reach customers who do not have credit or debit cards.

Uber began accepting cash in Mexico City last year after Mexico’s Supreme Court struck down a ban on cash fares in the western state of Colima.

Uber said in a separate statement on Wednesday that the Mexico City regulation contradicts the Supreme Court’s decision, which it argues should be used as a precedent nationwide.

(Reporting by Julia Love and Noe Torres, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

Source: OANN

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Royal Bank of Scotland CEO Ross McEwan resigns

FILE PHOTO: Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Ross McEwan is seen outside Downing Street in London
FILE PHOTO: Royal Bank of Scotland chief executive Ross McEwan is seen outside Downing Street in London, Britain March 20, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

April 25, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Royal Bank of Scotland plc said on Thursday that Chief Executive Ross McEwan has resigned from his role, signaling a refresh of leadership and direction at the state-backed lender as it continues its journey to full private ownership.

New Zealand-born McEwan, who has led RBS since October 2013, has a 12-month notice period and will remain in his position until a successor has been appointed and an orderly handover has taken place, the bank said.

It is the second key change in RBS’s senior executive team in less than six months following the appointment of Katie Murray as the bank’s chief financial officer in December last year.

The date of McEwan’s departure will be confirmed in due course and Alison Rose, the bank’s CEO of Commercial & Private Banking, is seen as one of the favourites to succeed him.

“After over five and a half very rewarding years, and with the bank in a much stronger financial position it is time for me to step down as CEO,” he said in a statement.

“It has been a privilege to lead this great bank and to have worked with some really outstanding people in process.”

RBS, which is currently more than 62 percent owned by the UK taxpayer, is hosting its annual general meeting on Thursday.

It was bailed out by the UK government to the tune of 45 billion pounds ($58.06 billion) during the 2008 financial crisis and has spent the last decade cutting costs, restructuring its balance sheet, and refocusing on core domestic UK business and consumer lending.

(Reporting By Sinead Cruise, editing by Huw Jones)

Source: OANN

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Tiger woods celebrates after winning the 2019 Masters
FILE PHOTO: Golf – Masters – Augusta National Golf Club – Augusta, Georgia, U.S. – April 14, 2019 – Tiger Woods of the U.S. celebrates on the 18th hole after winning the 2019 Masters. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

April 26, 2019

Tiger Woods is sending a message that he thinks he still has enough left, emotionally and physically, to win three more major championships to tie Jack Nicklaus’ record 18 titles.

Speaking to GolfTV in his first sit-down interview since the Masters, Woods said he has taken some time off since his victory at Augusta National, which still doesn’t feel real.

“Honestly, it’s hard to believe,” Woods said. “I was texting one of my good friends last night … that I couldn’t believe that I won the tournament. That it really hasn’t sunk in. I haven’t started doing anything. I’ve just been laying there. And every now and again, I’ll look over there on the couch and there’s the jacket.”

That’s the fifth green jacket for the 43-year-old Woods, who hadn’t won a major tournament since the 2008 U.S. Open. Along the way, four back surgeries, a divorce and other personal issues derailed him.

He said he has been spending time with his children – daughter Sam, 11, and son Charlie, 10 – who weren’t born when their father was the most dominant golfer on the planet.

“They never knew golf to be a good thing in my life and only the only thing they remember is that it brought this incredible amount of pain to their dad and they don’t want to ever want to see their dad in pain,” Woods said. “And so to now have them see this side of it, the side that I’ve experienced for so many years of my life, but I had a battle to get back to this point, it feels good.”

He said he hopes – maybe expects — they’ll see this side again.

And no one will take Woods for granted at the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black Course on Long Island, N.Y., which starts May 16.

Woods said he’ll be ready for a course he already conquered once in a major: the 2002 U.S. Open.

“I’m doing all the visual stuff, but I haven’t put in the physical work yet. But it’s probably coming this weekend,” he said.

Before Woods encountered health and personal problems, it was expected that topping Nicklaus’ major mark was “when” and not “if.” Then the certainty went away, but Woods thought he still had a chance.

“I always thought it was possible, if I had everything go my way. It took him an entire career to get to 18, so now that I’ve had another extension to my career – one that I didn’t think I had a couple of years ago – if I do things correctly and everything falls my way, yeah, it’s a possibility. I’m never going to say it’s not.

“Now I just need to have a lot of things go my way, and who’s to say that it will or will not happen? That’s what the future holds, I don’t know. The only thing I can promise you is this: that I will be prepared.”

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Maria Butina, the Russian woman who was accused of being a secret agent for the Russian government, was sentenced to 18 months in prison Friday by a federal judge in Washington after pleading guilty last year to a conspiracy charge.

Butina, who has already served nine months behind bars, will get credit for time served and can possibly get credit for good behavior, the judge said. She will be removed from the U.S. promptly on completion of her time, the judge added, and returned to Russia.

MARIA BUTINA, ACCUSED RUSSIAN SPY, PLEADS GUILTY TO CONSPIRACY

An emotional and apologetic Butina said in court Friday she is “truly sorry” and regrets not registering as a foreign agent.

“I feel ashamed and embarrassed,” she said, adding that her “reputation is ruined.”

Butina has been jailed since her arrest in July 2018. She entered the court Friday wearing a dark green prison jumpsuit and spoke in clear English, with a slight Russian accent.

“Please accept my apologies,” Butina said.

Butina’s lawyer, Robert Driscoll, said after the sentencing they had hoped for a “better outcome,” but expressed a desire for Butina to be released to her family by the fall.

Prosecutors had claimed Butina used her contacts with the National Rifle Association and the National Prayer Breakfast to develop relationships with U.S. politicians and gather information for Russia.

Prosecutors also have said that Butina’s boyfriend, conservative political operative Paul Erickson, identified in court papers as “U.S. Person 1,” helped her establish ties with the NRA.

WHO IS MARIA BUTINA, THE RUSSIAN WOMAN ACCUSED OF SPYING ON US?

In their filings, prosecutors claim federal agents found Butina had contact information for people suspected of being employed by Russia’s Federal Security Services, or FSB, the successor intelligence agency to the KGB. Inside her home, they found notes referring to a potential job offer from the FSB, according to the documents.

Investigators recovered several emails and Twitter direct message conversations in which Butina referred to the need to keep her work secret and, in one instance, said it should be “incognito.” Prosecutors said Butina had contact with Russian intelligence officials and that the FBI photographed her dining with a diplomat suspected of being a Russian intelligence agent.

Fox News’ Jason Donner, Bill Mears, Greg Norman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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An official Sri Lankan police Twitter account was deleted after it misidentified an American human rights activist as a suspect in the country’s Easter Sunday terrorist attacks.

On Thursday, police posted the names and photos of six people that they said were at-large suspects in the bombings that killed more than 250 people.

However, one of the names on the list was Muslim U.S. activist Amara Majeed, who quickly tweeted that she had been falsely identified.

“I have this morning been FALSELY identified by the Sri Lankan government as one of the ISIS terrorists that committed the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka. What a thing to wake up to!” she wrote.

SRI LANKA AUTHORITIES SAY EASTER ATTACK LEADER KILLED IN ONE OF NINE HOTEL BOMBINGS

She wrote in a follow-up tweet that the claim was “obviously completely false” and asked social media users to “please stop implicating and associating me with these horrific attacks.”

“And next time, be more diligent about releasing such information that has the potential to deeply violate someone’s family and community,” she continued.

Later, she wrote an update saying police apologized for wrongly mistaking her as a suspect.

Police said in a statement: “However, although one of the released images was identified as one Abdul Cader Fathima Khadhiya in the information provided by the CID, the CID has now informed that a) the individual whose image was labeled as Abdul Cader Fathima Khadiya is not in fact Abdul Cader Fathima Khadiya b) the individual pictured is not wanted for questioning c) Abdul Cader Fathima is the correct name of the suspect wanted by the CID.”

On Friday, the account, @SriLankaPolice2 was deleted with no explanation. Police did not release more information regarding the mistake.

Majeed, who founded “The Hijab Project” when she was 16 years old, told the Baltimore Sun that it was hurtful to be linked to the attacks.

“Sri Lanka is my motherland,” the Brown University student said. “It’s very painful to be associated with [the bombings].”

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Mohamed Zahran, the suspected leader of the attacks which targeted six hotels and churches, killed himself in a suicide bombing at the Shangri-La hotel. Police also said they had arrested the second-in-command of the group, called National Towheed Jamaat. Catholic churches in Sri Lanka canceled all Sunday Masses until further notice over concerns that they remain a top target of Islamic State-linked extremists.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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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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