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Ukraine’s ex-PM accuses incumbent president of rigging vote

Ukraine's former prime minister, who polled third in the nation's tight race for the presidency, claims that the incumbent president rigged the results in his favor.

Yulia Tymoshenko said at a news conference on Tuesday that President Petro Poroshenko, who finished second beating Tymoshenko by less than 2 percentage points, falsified the vote in his favor. She said, however, that she will not contest the results as she believes the courts are also controlled by the president.

With nearly 99 percent of the vote counted, comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy leads the race with 30 percent. That means that Ukraine's new president will be elected in a runoff between Zelenskiy and Poroshenko later this month.

Tymoshenko was leading in the polls just a few months before the election.

Source: Fox News World

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Cards announce five-year extension with Goldschmidt

MLB: Spring Training-St. Louis Cardinals at New York Mets
Mar 22, 2019; Port St. Lucie, FL, USA; St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Paul Goldschmidt (46) connects for a double against the New York Mets during a spring training game at First Data Field. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

March 23, 2019

The St. Louis Cardinals announced a five-year extension for newly acquired first baseman Paul Goldschmidt on Saturday.

Financial terms were not revealed, but the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported that it will pay him “around $130 million.”

The deal will keep Goldschmidt, 31, in St. Louis through the 2024 season.

“When we made the trade to acquire Paul, we knew we had added one of the game’s premier players,” Cardinals’ President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak said in a statement. “We are all excited for Paul’s introduction to St. Louis, and to our passionate fans, who we feel will make this the perfect match.”

Arizona traded Goldschmidt, a six-time All-Star, to St. Louis in December in exchange for right-hander Luke Weaver, catcher Carson Kelly, infielder Andy Young and the Cardinals’ Compensation B selection in the 2019 draft.

Goldschmidt has slugged 30 or more homers in four of the past six seasons, but the Diamondbacks were shopping the 31-year-old because he was entering the last season of his contract, which was slated to pay him $14.5 million. He batted .290 with 33 homers and 83 RBIs in 2018. He has three 100-RBI campaigns and has batted .300 or better three times since 2013.

Overall, he batted .297 with 209 homers and 710 RBIs in 1,092 games over parts of eight seasons for Arizona. He finished second in National League MVP balloting in 2013, when he set career highs of 36 homers and 125 RBIs, and again in 2015.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Women singers test limits, signal Afghanistan’s changing times

Zahra Elham, 18, an Afghan singer practices in Kabul
Zahra Elham, 18, an Afghan singer practices in Kabul, Afghanistan April 3, 2019. Picture taken April 3, 2019. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail

April 4, 2019

By Orooj Hakimi

KABUL (Reuters) – Soria Hussaini was not sure what would happen when she decided to perform the first Kabul street concert by a woman in recent memory.

The 20-year-old, whose family fled civil war in Afghanistan for Iran during the 1990s, worried about her safety. But nearly 50 people watched the unadvertised concert by Hussaini’s rock group, Azadi, in the city’s Kart-e-Char neighborhood in March, singing and clapping along with the music.

“Some were against this concert, but we did not give up,” she said. “We are all scared of suicide bombings, explosions, abductions and other issues in this country.”

Hussaini’s concert was unusual both for its public setting and the positive response it received in a country where views on women and entertainment are often ultra-conservative.

In sharp contrast, a video surfaced this week and was widely shared on social media showing men whipping a woman, purportedly a Taliban punishment for singing in public. It was not clear when the video was filmed, but it generated fierce online criticism of the Taliban.

Reuters was not able to verify the authenticity of the video. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said he could not confirm the video depicted members of the group, and that it was investigating the incident.

Intensifying peace talks between the United States and the Taliban have brought a focus on the place of women in Afghan society. Many say they fear greater freedoms won in recent years will be eroded under a settlement with the Islamists.

The Taliban banned women from playing music or appearing in public with their faces visible when in power from 1996 to 2001.

One symbol of the changes since the Taliban were overthrown is 18-year-old Zahra Elham, who last month became the first woman to win the vote-in singing competition Afghan Star in the 14 years since local TV station Tolo began screening the popular show modeled on American Idol.

“They finally supported a girl. That day, I witnessed that there is justice, they let a girl move forward,” she said.

Not everyone celebrated her success, however, said Elham, who recalled a frightening 2-km (1.2-mile) walk home from the TV studio one night in January, as her celebrity grew.

“Everyone was taunting me on the way,” said Elham, who hails from the Hazara ethnic minority that has long suffered discrimination in Afghanistan. “There were comments about ethnicity since, in our tribe, it is not desired for a girl to become a singer. Now my fear has increased.”

#MYREDLINE

TV journalist Farahnaz Forotan, 26, received a more supportive reaction when she launched last month a social media movement with the hashtag “MyRedLine”, encouraging women – and men – to publicly declare what rights they would not surrender.

Forotan launched the movement by declaring that her pen, symbolic of her profession, was her red line. Since the Taliban government fell in 2001, a robust media industry has emerged in Afghanistan, including many female journalists.

Forotan’s personal RedLine video has been viewed nearly 12,000 times on Facebook. She is planning visits to all 34 Afghan provinces to expand her campaign.

“I thought that we were at a more sensitive and historic situation than any other time in the past and this sensitive and historic situation needs historic deeds,” she said.

Supporters recorded short smartphone videos of themselves declaring their own “red lines”, including a female lawyer citing her work defending women’s rights.

“We emphasize that we won’t go back,” Forotan said, referring to the Taliban era.

Meanwhile Hussaini, who still lives in Iran, is already planning two more Afghan street concerts, one in Bamiyan province and another in Kabul.

“I see a good future in Afghanistan and am hopeful that street concerts will become more common here,” she said.

(Reporting by Orooj Hakimi in Kabul; additional reporting by Abdul Qadir Sediqi; Writing by Rod Nickel; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Source: OANN

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Saudi Arabia welcomes U.S. move to end all Iran sanction waivers

FILE PHOTO: Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf attends a preparatory meeting between Arab foreign ministers ahead of the Arab summit in Tunis
FILE PHOTO: Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf attends a preparatory meeting between Arab foreign ministers ahead of the Arab summit in Tunis, Tunisia March 29, 2019. REUTERS/Zoubeir Souissi

April 23, 2019

DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister on Tuesday welcomed a U.S. decision to end all Iran sanction waivers by May, saying it was a necessary step to halt Tehran’s “destabilizing” policy in the region.

“Saudi Arabia fully supports this step taken by the United States as it is necessary to force the Iranian regime to end its policy of destabilizing stability and its support and sponsorship of terrorism around the world,” Ibrahim al-Assaf said in comments carried on state media.

He reiterated a statement issued by the kingdom’s energy minister on Monday that the world’s largest oil exporter would coordinate with other oil producers to ensure an adequate crude supply and balanced markets after Washington’s announcement.

(Reporting by Omar Fahmy in Cairo and Tuqa Khalid in Dubai; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

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Cops: Florida man stabbed nephew for hogging bathroom

Authorities say a 72-year-old Florida man repeatedly stabbed his nephew because he was taking too long in the bathroom.

Volusia County Sheriff's deputies and DeLand police arrived Tuesday to find the 29-year-old victim with wounds in his stomach and back.

Investigators said the victim lives in his vehicle in his father's driveway and that his father allows him to use the bathroom. According to a report, he was about to get in the shower when his uncle Dan Johnson started banging on the bathroom door, complaining he'd been in for too long. The victim said he opened the door and was stabbed repeatedly with a knife. Johnson told investigators the victim had taken a step toward him.

The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports Johnson was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and is being held without bond.

The victim is expected to survive.

___

Information from: Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal, http://www.news-journalonline.com

Source: Fox News National

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Frugal consumers, higher costs take fizz out of Japan’s food stocks

FILE PHOTO : A man is reflected on an electronic board showing a graph analyzing recent change of Nikkei stock index outside a brokerage in Tokyo
FILE PHOTO : A man is reflected on an electronic board showing a graph analyzing recent change of Nikkei stock index outside a brokerage in Tokyo, Japan, January 7, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo

March 14, 2019

By Ayai Tomisawa

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s food firms, once seen as a rare group of winners in the country’s fight against deflation, are falling out of favor with investors as consumers reject price hikes on many household products.

Food company shares have only added 2.8 percent this year, compared with a 7.5 percent gain in the Topix, which in turn underperformed the world’s many other equity indexes.

(For a graphic on ‘Topix sectors’ click https://tmsnrt.rs/2F8BI2A)

Prices of food items including soft drinks, yogurt, ramen noodles and ice cream, will go up from this spring, pushed up by higher labor and transportation costs.

At the same time, the increase in retail prices firms can expect to deliver will be capped by consumer resistance and what economists describe as Japan’s deflationary mindset.

“Even if companies can raise their top lines, they would be struggling to make profits due to rising costs and that’s the main challenge that food makers are facing right now,” said Keita Kubota, senior investment manager at Aberdeen Standard Investment, adding that the earnings from Coca-Cola and Suntory do not bode well for the food industry.

“While there are lots of price hikes planned in 2019, we still don’t know how much these price hikes would lead to profits.”

Indeed, many companies, such as Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings Inc, Suntory Beverage & Food and potato chips maker Calbee Inc, have warned of falls in profits as the planned price hikes fail to cover rising upstream costs.

Mizuho Securities says the combined operating profit for 20 Japanese food companies for the December quarter fell 5 percent year-on-year.

In January, Coca-Cola Japan said it would raise prices on some of its large bottled beverages in April. This, however, would not help counter the full impact of rising costs and on Feb. 14 it said it expected a 29 percent hit to its 2019 annual profit.

The next day, its share price tumbled 13 percent to a 2-1/2 year low, around where it has been trading since.

(For a graphic on ‘Japan food companies’ click https://tmsnrt.rs/2F8nC19)

It’s a similar picture in other parts of the sector with Suntory Beverage to raise its beverage prices in May and forecasting a 17 percent drop in annual net profit. Calbee will raise its potato chips prices in May and has slashed its operating profit outlook by 8.8 percent for the fiscal year through March.

The sector’s market underperformance contrasts with three to four years ago, when investors cheered firms’ food price hikes, buoyed by hopes that monetary and fiscal stimulus would help businesses pass on costs to customers and stoke a virtuous consumption cycle.

Now, however, not even an exemption for food from a planned sales tax hike in October has been able help stocks in the sector.

That’s partly because of still high valuations: food maker shares currently trade at 18.6-times earnings, compared with a multiple of 13 for Topix and 9.8 for the auto sector.

“The government failed to counter falling consumption when they raised sales tax in 2014. Consumer sentiment hasn’t changed since then,” said Hiroyuki Ueno, a senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management.

“Since valuations have become too expensive, we want to avoid food shares.”

(Reporting by Ayai Tomisawa; Editing by Sam Holmes)

Source: OANN

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Guatemala’s anti-graft candidate slams brief detention in Honduras

FILE PHOTO: Guatemalan Attorney General Aldana participates in a news conference in Guatemala City
FILE PHOTO: Guatemalan Attorney General Thelma Aldana participates in a news conference in Guatemala City, Guatemala, August 28, 2017. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas/File Photo

April 12, 2019

By Gustavo Palencia and Sofia Menchu

TEGUCIGALPA/GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) – A Guatemalan presidential hopeful known for taking on high-profile corruption cases as attorney general said on Thursday she was detained at an airport in Honduras before abruptly leaving the country shortly afterward.

Thelma Aldana, Guatemala’s former chief prosecutor, is among the front-runners in next month’s election but faces an arrest warrant back home that she dismisses as the work of her political opponents.

Aldana said in a post on her Twitter page she was “arbitrarily detained” in Honduras and lashed out at what she dubbed a “pact of the corrupt” in which she included Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

The Honduran migration institute confirmed in a statement that Aldana landed at the main airport in the capital on Thursday morning on a flight from neighboring El Salvador, was processed, and “voluntarily” left the country nearly three hours later and returned to El Salvador.

The statement noted twice that Aldana was traveling in a private plane.

The Honduran national police said in a separate statement Aldana was never detained and that there are no restrictions on her travel in the country.

A senior campaign aide said security officials questioned Aldana without identifying themselves.

“Thelma was taken to an office where she was interrogated several times and questioned about personal matters and security issues that put her at risk due to the information they were seeking,” campaign strategist Jose Carlos Marroquin told Reuters.

Aldana, 63, served as attorney general from 2014 to 2018 and helped topple a former president on corruption charges. She also investigated current President Jimmy Morales.

A Guatemalan judge issued a warrant for Aldana’s arrest last month on charges including embezzlement and tax fraud.

She has dismissed the order as politically motivated, along with a separate ruling last week by Guatemala’s electoral tribunal that revoked her candidacy citing irregularities during her tenure as attorney general.

She has appealed against the electoral tribunal’s ruling to the constitutional court, Guatemala’s top court.

Aldana led the field of presidential candidates with 28 percent in a recent poll before the June 16 election, ahead of Zury Rios, the daughter of former dictator Efrain Rios Montt, and former First Lady Sandra Torres.

Running on a platform of efficient and transparent government, Aldana has pledged to expand the U.N.-backed International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, or CICIG.

Morales’ government announced in January it would not renew the CICIG’s mandate and expelled the anti-corruption body’s leader.

(Reporting by Gustavo Palencia in Tegucigalpa and Sofia Menchu in Guatemala City; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO - Otto Frederick Warmbier is taken to North Korea's top court in Pyongyang North Korea
FILE PHOTO – Otto Frederick Warmbier (C), a University of Virginia student who was detained in North Korea since early January, is taken to North Korea’s top court in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this photo released by Kyodo March 16, 2016. Mandatory credit REUTERS/Kyodo/File Photo

April 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States did not pay any money to North Korea as it sought the release of comatose American student Otto Warmbier.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Trump had approved payment of a $2 million bill from North Korea to cover its care of the college student, who died shortly after he was returned to the United States after 17 months in a North Korean prison.

(Reporting by Makini Brice and Susan Heavey)

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Members of The Cranberries, bassist Mike Hogan, drummer Fergal Lawler and guitarist Noel Hogan speak to Reuters during an interview in London
Members of The Cranberries, bassist Mike Hogan, drummer Fergal Lawler and guitarist Noel Hogan speak to Reuters during an interview in London, Britain, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Gerhard Mey

April 26, 2019

By Hanna Rantala

LONDON (Reuters) – Irish rockers The Cranberries are saying goodbye with their final album released on Friday, a poignant tribute to lead singer Dolores O’Riordan who died last year.

“In the End” is the eighth studio album from the band that rose to fame in the early 1990s with hits likes “Zombie” and “Linger”, and includes the final recordings by O’Riordan, who drowned in a London hotel bath in January 2018 due to alcohol intoxication.

Work on the album began during a 2017 tour and by that winter, O’Riordan and guitarist Neil Hogan had penned and demoed 11 tracks.

With O’Riordan’s vocals recorded, Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler completed the album in tribute to her.

“When we realized how strong the songs were, that was the deciding factor really… There was no point… trying to ruin the legacy of the band,” Noel Hogan said in an interview.

“It was obvious that Dolores wanted this album done because when you hear the album, you hear the songs and how strong they are, and she was very, very excited to get in and record this.”

The Cranberries formed in Limerick in 1989 with another singer. O’Riordan replaced him a year later and the group went on to become Ireland’s best-selling rock band after U2, selling more than 40 million records.

O’Riordan, known for her strong distinctive voice singing about relationships or political violence, was 46 when she died.

“She was actually in quite a good place mentally. She was feeling quite content and strong and looking forward to a new phase of her life,” Lawler said.

“A lot of the lyrics in this album are about things ending… people might read into it differently but it was a phase of her personal life that she was talking about.”

The group previously announced their intention to split after the release of “In The End”.

“We are absolutely gutted we can’t play (the songs) live because that’s something that’s been a massive part of this band from day one,” Noel Hogan said.

“A few people have said to us about maybe even doing a one off where you have different vocalists… as kind of guests of ours. A year ago that’s definitely something we weren’t going to entertain but I don’t know, I think it’s something we need to go away and take time off for the summer and have a think about.”

Critics have generally given positive reviews of the album; NME described it as “(seeing) the band’s career go full-circle” while the Irish Times called it “an unexpected late career high and a remarkable swan song for O’Riordan”.

Their early songs still play on the radio. This week, “Dreams” was performed at the funeral of journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot dead in Londonderry last week as she watched Irish nationalist youths attack police following a raid.

“We wrote them as kids, as a hobby and 30 years later they are on radio and on TV, like all the time… That’s far more than any of us ever thought we would have,” Noel Hogan said.

“That would make Dolores really happy because she was very precious about those songs. Her babies, she called them and to have that hopefully long after we’re gone… that’s all any band can wish for.”

(Reporting by Hanna Rantala; additoinal reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Susan Fenton)

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2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston, Texas, U.S. April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

April 26, 2019

By Joshua Schneyer and M.B. Pell

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Senator Elizabeth Warren will introduce a bill Friday that offers new protections for U.S. military families facing unsafe housing, following a series of Reuters reports revealing squalid conditions in privately managed base homes.

The Reuters reports and later Congressional hearings detailed widespread hazards including lead paint exposure, vermin infestations, collapsing ceilings, mold and maintenance lapses in privatized base housing communities that serve some 700,000 U.S. military family members.

(View Warren’s military housing bill here. https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dy5aht)

(Read Reuters’ Ambushed at Home series on military housing here. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/usa-military)

The Massachusetts Democrat’s bill would mandate both regular and unannounced spot inspections of base homes by certified, independent inspectors, holding landlords accountable for quickly fixing hazards. The military’s privatization program for years allowed real estate firms to operate base housing with scant oversight, Reuters found, leaving some tenants in unsafe homes with little recourse against landlords.

The bill would also require the Department of Defense and its private housing operators to publish reports annually detailing housing conditions, tenant complaints, maintenance response times and the financial incentives companies receive at each base. The provisions aim to enhance transparency of housing deals whose finances and operations the military had allowed to remain largely confidential under a privatization program since the late 1990s.

The measure would also require private landlords to cover moving costs for at-risk families, and healthcare costs for people with medical conditions resulting from unsafe base housing, ensuring they receive continuing coverage even after they leave the homes or the military.

“This bill will eliminate the kind of corner-cutting and neglect the Defense Department should never have let these private housing partners get away with in the first place,” Warren said in a statement Friday.

The proposed legislation comes after February Senate hearings where Warren, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2020 U.S. presidential election, slammed private real estate firms for endangering service families, and sought answers about why military branches weren’t providing more oversight.

Her legislation would direct the Defense Department to allow local housing code enforcers onto federal bases, following concerns they were sometimes denied access. Warren’s office said a companion bill in the House of Representatives would be introduced by Rep. Deb Haaland, Democrat of New Mexico.

In response to the housing crisis, military branches are developing a tenant bill of rights and hiring hundreds of new housing staff. The branches recently dispatched commanders to survey base housing worldwide for safety hazards, resulting in thousands of work orders and hundreds of tenants being moved. The Defense Department has pledged to renegotiate its 50-year contracts with private real estate firms.

Congress has been quick to take its own measures. Earlier legislation proposed by senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris of California, along with Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia, would compel base commanders to withhold rent payments and incentive fees from the private ventures if they allow home hazards to persist.

(Editing by Ronnie Greene)

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FILE PHOTO: Offices of Deloitte are seen in London
FILE PHOTO: Offices of Deloitte are seen in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar

(Reuters) – Deloitte quit as Ferrexpo’s auditor on Friday, knocking its shares by more than 20 percent, days after saying it was unable to conclude whether the iron ore miner’s CEO controlled a charity being investigated over its use of company donations.

Blooming Land, which coordinates Ferrexpo’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, came under scrutiny after auditors found holes in the charity’s statements.

Ferrexpo on Tuesday said findings of an ongoing independent investigation launched in February indicated some Blooming Land funds could have been “misappropriated”. It did not provide any details or publish its findings.

Shares in Ferrexpo, the third largest exporter of pellets to the global steel industry, were 23.4 percent lower at 206.1 pence at 1022 GMT following news of Deloitte’s resignation.

“Ferrexpo’s shares are deeply discounted vs peers … following the resignation of Deloitte, we expect downside risks to dominate Ferrexpo’s shares near term.” JP Morgan analyst Dominic O’Kane said in a note on Friday.

Swiss-headquartered Ferrexpo did not provide a reason for the resignation of Deloitte, which declined to comment, while Blooming Land did not respond to a request for comment.

Funding for Blooming Land’s CSR activities is provided by one of Ferrexpo’s units in Ukraine and Khimreaktiv LLC, an entity ultimately controlled by Ferrexpo’s CEO and majority owner Kostyantin Zhevago, Ferrexpo said on Tuesday.

Ferrexpo’s board has found that Zhevago did not have significant influence or control over the charity, but Deloitte said it was unable reach a conclusion on this.

Reuters was not immediately able to contact Zhevago.

In a qualified opinion, a statement addressing an incomplete audit, Deloitte said it had been unable to conclude whether $33.5 million of CSR donations to Blooming Land between 2017 and 2018 was used for “legitimate business payments for charitable purposes”.

Deloitte said on Tuesday that total CSR payments made to Blooming Land by Ferrexpo since 2013 total about $110 million.

Ferrexpo, whose major mines are in Ukraine, has said that the investigation was ongoing and new evidence pointed to potential discrepancies.

Zhevago, 45, who ranked 1,511 on Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires for 2019 with a net worth of $1.4 billion, owns the FC Vorskla soccer club and has been a member of Ukraine’s parliament since 1998.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar in Bengaluru and additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev; editing by Gopakumar Warrier, Bernard Orr)

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Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba
Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba, Mozambique April 26, 2019 in this still image obtained from social media. SolidarMed via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

April 26, 2019

By Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer

JOHANNESBURG/LUANDA (Reuters) – Cyclone Kenneth killed at least one person and left a trail of destruction in northern Mozambique, destroying houses, ripping up trees and knocking out power, authorities said on Friday.

The cyclone brought storm surges and wind gusts of up to 280 km per hour (174 mph) when it made landfall on Thursday evening, after killing three people in the island nation of Comoros.

It was the most powerful storm on record to hit Mozambique’s northern coast and came just six weeks after Cyclone Idai battered the impoverished nation, causing devastating floods and killing more than 1,000 people across a swathe of southern Africa.

The World Food Programme warned that Kenneth could dump as much as 600 millimeters of rain on the region over the next 10 days – twice that brought by Cyclone Idai.

One woman in the port town of Pemba died after being hit by a falling tree, the Emergency Operations Committee for Cabo Delgado (COE) said in a statement, while another person was injured.

In rural areas outside Pemba, many homes are made of mud. In the main town on the island of Ibo, 90 percent of the houses were destroyed, officials said. Around 15,000 people were out in the open or in “overcrowded” shelters and there was a need for tents, food and water, they said.

There were also reports of a large number of homes and some infrastructure destroyed in Macomia district, a mainland district adjacent to Ibo.

A local group, the Friends of Pemba Association, had earlier reported that they could not reach people in Muidumbe, a district further inland.

Mark Lowcock, United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, warned the storm could require another major humanitarian operation in Mozambique.

“Cyclone Kenneth marks the first time two cyclones have made landfall in Mozambique during the same season, further stressing the government’s limited resources,” he said in a statement.

FLOOD WARNINGS

Shaquila Alberto, owner of the beach-front Messano Flower Lodge in Macomia, said there were many fallen trees there, and in rural areas people’s homes had been damaged. Some areas of nearby Pemba had no power.

“Even my workers, they said the roof and all the things fell down,” she said by phone.

Further south, in Pemba, Elton Ernesto, a receptionist at Raphael’s Hotel, said there were fallen trees but not too much damage. The hotel had power and water, he said, while phones rang in the background. “The rain has stopped,” he added.

However Michael Charles, an official for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said heavy rains over the next few days were likely to bring a “second wave of destruction” in the form of flooding.

“The houses are not all solid, and the topography is very sandy,” Charles said.

In the days after Cyclone Idai, heavy inland rains prompted rivers to burst their banks, submerging entire villages, cutting areas off from aid and ruining crops. There were concerns the same could happen again in northern Mozambique.

Before Kenneth hit, the government and aid workers moved around 30,000 people to safer buildings such as schools, however authorities said that around 680,000 people were in the path of the storm.

(Reporting by Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer; Writing by Emma Rumney; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Alexandra Zavis)

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