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Cargill names new head of grain trading and processing

FILE PHOTO: A Cargill logo is pictured on the Provimi Kliba and Protector animal nutrition factory in Lucens
FILE PHOTO: A Cargill logo is pictured on the Provimi Kliba and Protector animal nutrition factory in Lucens, Switzerland, September 22, 2016. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

April 4, 2019

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Food and agriculture group Cargill Inc has appointed Joe Stone as its new head of agricultural supply chain, effective June 1, the U.S.-based company said on Thursday.

David Webster will take over the head of Cargill’s feed making animal nutrition business, a role vacated by Stone, Cargill said in a statement.

Longtime Cargill executive GJ van den Akker will retire as enterprise lead for Cargill’s Agricultural Supply Chain in 2020, the company said. The supply chain business includes origination, trading, processing, and distribution of crops like corn, wheat and soybeans.

Cargill, the largest privately-held U.S. company, has cut spending to offset the U.S.-China trade war, swine fever in Asian hogs and slumping U.S. ethanol prices.

(Reporting by Caroline Stauffer and Karl Plume; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Source: OANN

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Proxy firms Glass Lewis, ISS back Allergan in fight against Appaloosa

Allergan ticker info and symbol are displayed on a screen on the floor of the NYSE
FILE PHOTO: Allergan ticker info and symbol are displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) April 6, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

April 15, 2019

By Manas Mishra

(Reuters) – Two major shareholder advisory firms urged investors to vote against billionaire investor David Tepper’s hedge fund demand that Allergan Plc immediately split the roles of chief executive officer and chairman, in a boost to the Botox maker.

The recommendation from Institutional Shareholder Services LP and Glass Lewis & Co against the proposal of Tepper’s Appaloosa gives firepower to Allergan Chairman and CEO Brent Saunders ahead of the drugmaker’s shareholder meeting on May 1.

“Their recommendations affirm our position that our plan to adopt separate Chair and CEO positions with the next leadership transition is the best approach for Allergan shareholders,” Allergan said in a statement.

However, an analyst said the recommendations were contrary to the views of many investors.

“This news is likely to frustrate a sizeable group of shareholders and we continue to await the result of the vote,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Randall Stanicky said.

Appaloosa has been pressing Allergan since last year to separate the two roles, and asked for an immediate split after Allergan said an independent member of its board would be chairman, but only at its next leadership change.

Both the proxy firms said that an immediate separation of the roles was not necessary.

“There are no significant concerns regarding the board’s current leadership structure sufficient to suggest that an immediate split of the CEO and chairman roles is warranted at this time rather than at the next CEO transition,” ISS was quoted as saying in the Allergan statement.

Appaloosa said ISS’ recommendations were “baffling” as they were inconsistent with the firm’s support for a similar proposal last year, and asked shareholders to vote for its proposal.

Allergan, under pressure to rescue the company’s falling stock prices, launched a review of its strategy last year. But that review is likely to result in the sale of its relatively small infectious disease unit.

Appaloosa has voiced its discontent with the results of the review, and has called for a breakup or sale of the company, citing recent clinical failures such as that of its depression treatment rapastinel.

Allergan’s shares have fallen about 12 percent in the past 12 months. They trade nearly 60 percent below their record high of $340.33 in 2015.

(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

Source: OANN

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U.S. housing starts drop to more than two-year low

FILE PHOTO: Development and construction continues on a large scale housing project of over 600 homes in Oceanside, California
FILE PHOTO: Development and construction continues on a large scale housing project of over 600 homes in Oceanside, California, U.S., June 25, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

February 26, 2019

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – U.S. homebuilding tumbled to a more than two-year low in December as construction of both single and multi-family housing declined, the latest indication that the economy lost momentum in the fourth quarter.

Housing starts dropped 11.2 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.078 million units last month, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday. That was the weakest reading since September 2016. Data for November was revised down to show starts at a 1.214 million unit rate instead of the previously reported pace of 1.256 million units.

While building permits rose 0.3 percent to a rate of 1.326 million units in December, they were driven by the volatile multi-family housing sector.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast housing starts slipping to a pace of 1.250 million units last month. The release of the December housing starts and building permits report was delayed by a 35-day partial shutdown of the federal government that ended on Jan. 25.

The report added to weak December retail sales and business spending plans on equipment in suggesting that economic growth cooled down significantly at the tail end of 2018. It also indicated that residential investment probably contracted in the fourth quarter, which would extend a decline that began in early 2018.

The housing market hit a soft patch last year amid higher mortgage rates as well as land and labor shortages, which led to tight inventories and more expensive homes.

But there is reason for optimism. Mortgage rates have been declining, house price inflation is decelerating and wages are steadily increasing, which could improve affordability, especially for first-time home buyers.

A survey last week showed homebuilder confidence increased in February, but builders continued to say land and labor shortages and tariffs on lumber and other key building materials were keeping costs high.

Single-family homebuilding, which accounts for the largest share of the housing market, dropped 6.7 percent to a rate of 758,000 units in December, the lowest level since August 2016.

It was the fourth straight monthly decline in single-family home building.

Single-family starts in the South, which accounts for the bulk of homebuilding, rose 2.2 percent in December. Single-family homebuilding plunged 20.3 percent in the Northeast and dived 18.5 percent in the West. Groundbreaking activity on single-family homes tumbled 14.2 percent in the Midwest.

Permits to build single-family homes fell 2.2 percent in December to a pace of 829,000 units. Starts for the multi-family housing segment dropped 20.4 percent to a rate of 320,000 units in December. Permits for the construction of multi-family homes rose 4.9 percent to a pace of 497,000 units.

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Source: OANN

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Mating season brings out aggressive alligators across Florida

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TAMPA, Fla. - With April comes the start of alligator mating season, meaning more gators are on the prowl in some unlikely places in Florida and the rest of the coastal South.

Warmer weather also revs up the prehistoric predators’ metabolism, making them more active and aggressive as they hunt for prey and a mate.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) says over 7,000 nuisance alligators had to be killed or relocated last year, compared to 6,700 in 2017. Although the chances are slim, only 1 in 3.2 million to be exact, six people on average are attacked by the animals every year.

Areas with the highest removal numbers are in and around central Florida. Tampa topped the list in 2017 with 181 nuisance gators but was topped last year by Sarasota, which tallied 205.

Generally, an alligator may be deemed a nuisance if it is at least four feet in length and residents believe it poses a threat to people, pets or property; the FWC says their removal does not have a significant impact on the state's alligator population.

Nuisance gators larger than four feet are usually sold to alligator farms or harvested if a trapper doesn’t have a special permit to take them alive and gators smaller than four feet are released back into the wild.

State alligator trapper Robb Upthegrove measures a nuisance alligator captured in Tampa, Fla.

State alligator trapper Robb Upthegrove measures a nuisance alligator captured in Tampa, Fla. (Fox News)

Once an endangered species, they're now federally protected, meaning only FWC-contracted trappers can retrieve them after residents report sightings using the Nuisance Alligator Hotline at 866-FWC-GATOR (866-392-4286).

Once reported, the state issues a permit for a trapper to remove a suspicious gator.

State alligator trapper Robb Upthegrove has been handling live alligators for over eight years and receives removal calls around the clock.

“This one here came from a residence in Baum, the larger gator came from a Walmart in Wimauma, the smaller gator came from a lake in Auburndale,” he said as he took inventory of his catches from the past 24 hours.

An estimated 1.3 million alligators now roam the waterways in every one of the Sunshine State’s 67 counties.

“Pretty much any body of water that's going to be in Florida, you might come across an alligator at some point,” said Karina Paner, manager of Croc Encounters Reptile Park & Wildlife Center, which houses dozens of alligators reported as a nuisance and rescued by the center. “All the waterways are connected…a lot of the lakes and ponds in neighborhoods are connected through piping, so they travel through that.”

But Paner reminded residents to keep that in perspective.

“They're not really bothering us as much as we're kind of taking over their space,” she added. “They're not coming out to attack us…they're doing what they've always done even before we were here…”

Paner said while many Floridians have learned to coexist, the threat is always there—especially if people feed them.

“…You are teaching the alligator to lose its natural fear of people and then they start approaching people for food,” she said. “That’s when accidents happen.”

In addition to being illegal, Upthegrove says feeding alligators also hurts trappers’ chances of catching them.

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Sarah Maccollum of Brandon has two kids, but no fence between her home and a pond a few yards away.

“…We’re just a little nervous with the gator being out here and the kids being outside all the time,” she told Fox News.

Her neighbor, Porsche Davis, called the Nuisance Alligator Hotline Wednesday to report a nearly six-foot alligator that had repeatedly been seen near the water’s edge. In a community with dozens of small children and animals, she said she didn’t want to take any chances.

“Water equals gator in Florida…so that’s a big concern,” she said.

Fellow Brandon resident Linda Haas’ home is feet away from a pond known to have alligators.

“Gators can climb a fence...I have little dogs under five pounds so it would be just an appetizer for them,” she told Fox.

(The state is encouraging residents to call its Alligator Nuisance Hotline if they're concerned about a gator getting too close.)

Since 1988, there have been 18 fatal attacks on humans involving an alligator in Florida and two since 2016, according to the FWC. The two most recent incidents occurred during mating season.

Last June, an alligator killed a 47-year-old South Florida resident, Shizuka Matsuki, while she walked her dogs near a lake in Davie, Fla.

In June 2016, 2-year-old Lane Graves was dragged into the water and killed by an alligator near the shore of a Disney World resort.

The FWC recommends not swimming during dusk or dawn, an alligator’s most active hours, keeping animals on a leash and away from water and keeping a safe distance away from the animal.

“Enjoy them from a distance because we can enjoy them living in Florida,” said Paner. “We can live amongst them.”

Until the season ends in June, Upthegrove said he and other state trappers will continue responding to reports as quickly as they can to help keep the public safe.

Source: Fox News National

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U.S. pressing Gulf states to keep Syria isolated: sources

FILE PHOTO: Life in Assad’s Syria
FILE PHOTO: A picture of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen at a train station in Damascus, Syria, September 12, 2018. Picture taken September 12, 2018. REUTERS/Marko Djurica/File Photo

February 18, 2019

By Ghaida Ghantous and Michael Georgy

DUBAI (Reuters) – The United States is lobbying Gulf states to hold off restoring ties with Syria, including the UAE which has moved closer to Damascus to counter the influence of its rival Iran, five sources told Reuters.

The opposing approaches are an early test of whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad can gain political and diplomatic credibility after a nearly eight-year civil war turned him into an international pariah.

Many countries cut links with Syria at the start of the war.

Several Gulf states shut or downgraded their embassies, Syria was suspended from the Arab League, flights stopped and border crossings were closed. The United States and other countries imposed economic sanctions.

Washington, backed by Gulf countries Saudi Arabia and Qatar, does not want Syria welcomed back into the international community until a political process to end the war is agreed.

“The Saudis are quite helpful in pressing the others. Qatar also is doing the right thing,” said a U.S. official, when asked about the diplomatic pressure.

The official said that the United States was pleased that “some Gulf states are putting the brakes on”.

The U.S. position suggests that Assad is still a long way from being accepted, even after his forces reclaimed most of Syria through victories over Sunni rebels, thanks largely to help from Iran and Russia.

The lack of support from Washington and regional heavyweight Riyadh to end Syria’s isolation will make it harder for the devastated country to attract investment needed to rebuild it.

While the UAE believes Sunni Muslim states must embrace Syria swiftly in order to move Assad out of Shi’ite Iran’s orbit, Saudi Arabia and Qatar back the U.S. approach.

The UAE sees Assad as the “only option”, according to one Gulf source, and believes that stemming Iranian influence in Syria could help prevent the kind of hold it now has in Iraq.

During the war, the UAE did support armed groups opposed to Assad. But its role was less prominent than that of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and its support was mostly to do with ensuring that Islamist forces did not dominate the uprising.

U.S. and Saudi officials have spoken to representatives of other Gulf countries, urging them not to restore ties with Syria, three Gulf political sources, a U.S. official and a senior Western diplomat said.

They particularly want to ensure that those countries do not back Syria’s return to regional organization the Arab League, and that embassies are kept closed or operating with only junior staffing.

“GAVE THEM FLAK”

With Assad strengthening his position militarily, relations with some countries have started to thaw. The UAE reopened its Damascus embassy in December.

This was a major boost for Assad, and the United States “gave the Emiratis flak”, said the U.S. official. A UAE official did not respond to a request for comment.

“In the last seven years there has been absolutely zero Arab influence in Syria. Zero Arab influence has been a disaster,” UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash told reporters in a recent briefing in Washington.

He said Abu Dhabi re-established diplomatic ties with Damascus to “be closer to the reality on the ground”.

Gargash said more Arab states need to engage “to crowd the space” taken by Russia and Iran, who support Assad, and Turkey, which backs the rebels.

The next step for Syria’s international rehabilitation could be reinstatement to the Arab League, which would be largely symbolic but something Assad’s government would likely use to show its return from the diplomatic wilderness.

The League said last Monday that there was not yet the necessary consensus for this to happen, and the United States is pushing hard to ensure it does not, according to the sources.

“Washington is lobbying against it and Saudi Arabia and Egypt are working to slow down the readmittance of Syria in the Arab League,” said the senior Western diplomat.

Government media offices in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman’s foreign ministry did not respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.

A Kuwaiti foreign ministry official declined to comment on whether Kuwait had been asked by Washington or Riyadh to hold off on normalizing ties and reiterated the country’s stance that “any possible return of relations with it can only be through the Arab League”.

Not all Arab League nations severed ties with Syria after the outbreak of the war in 2011. Oman maintained diplomatic ties with Damascus. A day after the UAE reopened its embassy, Bahrain said its embassy in Damascus and the Syrian diplomatic mission in Manama had been operating “without interruption”.

Kuwait’s deputy foreign minister said in December it would reopen its embassy in Damascus once the Arab League allowed it.

“SOFT POWER”

Saudi Arabia has no plans now to normalize ties, said one Gulf official, adding “everything is suspended” until Syrians agree a transition from Assad’s rule.

Rival Qatar has said it sees no “encouraging” signs for restoring normal relations, its foreign minister said in January.

But Abu Dhabi hopes it can eventually sway Syria toward the business-friendly UAE model, and Dubai can play a role as a hub for trade with Syria.

Abu Dhabi last month hosted a Syrian delegation led by prominent businessman Mohammad Hamsho to discuss potential cooperation in trade, infrastructure, agriculture, tourism, logistics and renewable energy, state media reported.

Gargash acknowledged, however, that real investment would not happen without a political process.

A second senior Western diplomat said that without a U.N.-led political process it would be difficult for sanctions to be removed which would clear the way for investment.

“I don’t think this is the end of the war and time for reconstruction,” that diplomat said.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Landay and Michelle Nichols in Washington, Tom Perry and Angus McDowall in Beirut, Aziz El Yaakoubi in Dubai, Stephen Kalin in Riyadh and Eric Knecht in Doha; Editing by Anna Willard)

Source: OANN

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Golf: Stallings and Mullinax take early lead in rainy New Orleans

PGA: Zurich Classic of New Orleans - First Round
Apr 25, 2019; Avondale, LA, USA; Scott Stallings hits from the 18th hole bunker during the first round of the Zurich Classic golf tournament at TPC Louisiana. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Lew-USA TODAY Sports

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Americans Scott Stallings and Trey Mullinax birdied seven of their final nine holes to take a one-stroke lead at the rain-shortened opening round of fourball matches at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans on Thursday.

Stallings and Mullinax combined for an 11-under-par 61 at the team event at TPC Louisiana, on a day blighted by a seven-hour, 33-minute stoppage due to heavy rain and lightning.

Briton Martin Laird and Canadian Nick Taylor mixed 11 birdies with three bogies for a 10-under round of 62 and a share of second place with American Brian Gay and Slovak Rory Sabbatini.

Gay and Sabbatini’s round was suspended for darkness after the 14th hole, where they had just made a ninth straight birdie.

They were far from alone in finishing early, with only eight teams able to complete their rounds at the course on the Mississippi River, which shares space with resident alligators.

The shot of the day belonged to Kevin Kisner, who had his first hole-in-one at a PGA Tour event on the 201-yard, par-three third as he and fellow American Scott Brown moved into a tie for sixth.

The weather is forecast to improve on Friday and through the weekend at the event, which features 80 two-player teams playing fourball in the first and third rounds and foursomes in the second and a final rounds.

(Reporting by Rory Carroll; Editing by Ian Ransom)

Source: OANN

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Great Synagogue of Warsaw to ‘reappear’, 76 years after being destroyed by Nazis during Ghetto Uprising

The Great Synagogue of Warsaw, destroyed by the Nazis in 1943 during World War II, will re-appear as an image in blue light, brightening the sky above the city Thursday night.

The blue image, a virtual reconstruction projected against a glass building that’s now where the synagogue once stood, will serve to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising that began April 19, 1943 when several hundred poorly armed Jews confronted several thousand German troops, resisting deportation to Nazi extermination camps.

A recording of prayers sung by the synagogue’s cantor will accompany the image. The cantor and his family perished in the ghetto.

Opened in 1878, the synagogue was then the largest in the world. Some 370,000 Jews lived in Warsaw before World War II, or one in three residents out of a population of 1.3 million.

After the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, the Nazis drove more than 400,000 Jews into the one square mile Warsaw Ghetto. Between 1940 and 1942, 90,000 Jews died in the ghetto from starvation and disease, said Dr. Michal Trezbacz, head of research at the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews, while 265,000 were sent from the ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp.

The blue image, a virtual reconstruction projected against a glass building that’s now where the synagogue once stood, will serve to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

The blue image, a virtual reconstruction projected against a glass building that’s now where the synagogue once stood, will serve to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. (Marta Kuśmider )

On May 16, 1943, when the Warsaw Ghetto was firmly under Nazi control, SS leader Jurgen Stroop blew up the Great Synagogue. “The Warsaw Ghetto was no more,” he wrote. “The will of Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler (the SS leader) had been done.”

The ghetto area is now the biggest Jewish cemetery in Europe, said Professor Jacek Leociak, a Holocaust expert from the Polish Academy of Sciences. Many of the dead were buried in the rubble after the Germans crushed the uprising. They razed the ghetto buildings block by block, using flamethrowers to force Jews from cellars where many hid.

“There were no Jews left to retrieve the bodies,” said Leociak. Their remains lie under the rebuilt Muranow district where the ghetto was located.

“The murdered Jews and synagogue can’t be brought back,” said Gabi Von Seltmann, creator of the night display. “But through a combination of remembrance and love we can overcome destruction and death.”

POLAND HONORS FIGHTERS, VICTIMS OF WARSAW'S 1944 REVOLT

15 April 2018, Warsaw, Poland: To commemorate the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, polish Artist, Gabi von Seltmann projects a photo of the great Synagogue of Warsaw, on its former location, that now has become a glass Sky Scraper. The synagogue was blown up by the Nazis in 1943.

15 April 2018, Warsaw, Poland: To commemorate the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, polish Artist, Gabi von Seltmann projects a photo of the great Synagogue of Warsaw, on its former location, that now has become a glass Sky Scraper. The synagogue was blown up by the Nazis in 1943. (Natalie Skrzypczak/picture alliance via Getty Images)

Von Seltmann said she launched the project with the support of the Open Republic Association Against Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia and the Jewish Historical Institute Association in Poland.

Warsaw native Marta Dziewulska, the spokesperson for the museum, said the image of the synagogue reminds her that Warsaw was a different city before the Germans razed it and slaughtered the Jews. The tiny presence of Jews in Poland dilutes her own identity, she said, because Jews were so woven into Polish life and now are gone.

“I can’t ask questions about the past from people who are no longer here,” she said.

Opened in 1878, the synagogue was then the largest in the world. Some 370,000 Jews lived in Warsaw before World War II, or one in three residents out of a population of 1.3 million.

Opened in 1878, the synagogue was then the largest in the world. Some 370,000 Jews lived in Warsaw before World War II, or one in three residents out of a population of 1.3 million. (Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews)

Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, will attend some of the commemoration events on Friday. He noted that the number of Holocaust survivors still living dwindles each year. Eventually, they will all be gone, which is why we must continue to bear witness to the Holocaust through our participation in these events.

WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING FIGHTER SIMCHA ROTEM DIES AT 94

“This is a clarion call of what can happen… of what human beings can do to other human beings,” he said. “We must never let this happen again.”

Young volunteers, in a program organized by the museum, will hand out thousands of yellow paper daffodils as part of the commemoration, inspired by the late Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the ghetto uprising. Edelman had brought yellow flowers to a large monument in the former ghetto that honors Mordecai Anielewicz, one of the uprising’s leaders.

On May 16, 1943, when the Warsaw Ghetto was firmly under Nazi control, SS leader Jurgen Stroop blew up the Great Synagogue. “The Warsaw Ghetto was no more,” he wrote. “The will of Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler (the SS leader) had been done.”

On May 16, 1943, when the Warsaw Ghetto was firmly under Nazi control, SS leader Jurgen Stroop blew up the Great Synagogue. “The Warsaw Ghetto was no more,” he wrote. “The will of Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler (the SS leader) had been done.” (Polin Museum the History of Polish Jews)

Rabbi Schudrich, recalling the heroism of the ghetto fighters, said a friend asked Edelman if he fought to choose his way of death. Schudrich quoted Edelman’s reply: “No, we fought in order to choose the way we live until we die.”

This commemoration is especially important now, said Deidre Berger, Director of the American Jewish Committee’s Berlin office.

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“The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is a story of opposition to an authoritarian regime of terror,” she said, “That should be told with ever greater urgency in a Europe rocked by growing anti-Semitism.”

Source: Fox News World

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Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during the inauguration of the newly-elected parliament in Kabul
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during the inauguration of the newly-elected parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

April 26, 2019

By Rupam Jain and Hameed Farzad

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani encouraged newly-elected lawmakers to participate in the peace process with the Taliban as he opened on Friday the first session of parliament since a controversial election.

Ghani has invited thousands of politicians, religious scholars and rights activists to an assembly known as a loya jirga next week to discuss ways to end the 17-year war.

Several opposition leaders have said they will boycott the four-day assembly in Kabul, saying it was pulled together without their input and is being used by Ghani as he seeks a second term in a September presidential election.

“We have presented the peace plan on a regular basis and we are committed to it,” Ghani said in the first session since parliamentary elections marred by technical problems, militant attacks and accusations of voting fraud last year.

“Based on this plan, there will be no peace deal and negotiation that does not have the green card of the parliament,” he added.

Officials from the United States and the Taliban have held several rounds of talks to end the Afghan war.

U.S. negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, has reported some progress toward an accord on a U.S. troop withdrawal and on how the Taliban would prevent extremists from using Afghanistan to launch attacks as al Qaeda did on Sept. 11, 2001.

The insurgents have so far rejected U.S. demands for a ceasefire and talks on the country’s political future that would include Afghan government officials.

The loya jirga, a centuries-old institution used to build consensus among competing tribes, factions and ethnic groups, is an attempt by Ghani to influence the peace talks and cement his position for a second term, Afghan politicians and Western diplomats say.

Amid growing political divisions in Kabul, opposition politicians have demanded that Ghani step down when his mandate ends next month, and give way to an interim government to oversee peace talks with the Taliban. Ghani has ruled that out.

The country’s top court said last week Ghani can stay in office until the presidential election in September.

(Reporting by Hameed Farzad, Rupam Jain, Editing by Darren Schuettler)

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Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Thursday defended special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation while slamming former President Barack Obama’s administration for being slow to take action on Russian interference in U.S. elections and ex-FBI Director James Comey for telling Congress the agency was investigating collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“Our nation is safer, elections are more secure, and citizens are better informed about covert foreign influence schemes,” Rosenstein said in a speech to the Armenian Bar Association, marking his first public remarks after the Mueller report was released, reports CBS News.

He also pointed out that the investigation revealed a pattern of computer hacking and the use of social media to undermine elections as “only the tip of the iceberg of a comprehensive Russian strategy to influence elections, promote social discord, and undermine America, just like they do in many other countries,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

The Obama administration also made “critical decisions,” including choosing not to publicize the full story about Russian hackers and social media trolling, “and how they relate to a broader strategy to undermine America,” said Rosenstein.

He noted that the Mueller probe began after Comey disclosed during a hearing before Congress that President Donald Trump “pressured him to close the investigation and the president denied that the conversation occurred.”

Rosenstein said two years ago, when he was confirmed, he was told by a Republican senator that he would be in charge of the probe and that he’d report the results to the American people.

However, he said he didn’t promise to do that, because it is “not our job to render conclusive factual findings. We just decide whether it is appropriate to file criminal charges.”

Source: NewsMax Politics

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FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei's factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei’s factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China, March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) – Britain must get to the bottom of the leak of confidential discussions during a top-level security meeting about the role of China’s Huawei Technologies in 5G network supply chains, British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Friday.

News that Britain’s National Security Council, attended by senior ministers and spy chiefs, had agreed on Tuesday to bar Huawei from all core parts of the country’s 5G network and restrict its access to non-core elements was leaked to a national newspaper.

The leak of secret discussions has sparked anger in parliament and amongst Britain’s intelligence community. Britain’s most senior civil servant Mark Sedwill has launched an inquiry and written to ministers who were at the meeting.

“My understanding from London (is) that an investigation has been announced into apparent leaks from the NSC meeting earlier this week,” said Hammond, speaking on the sidelines of a summit on China’s Belt and Road initiative in Beijing.

“To my knowledge there has never been a leak from a National Security Council meeting before and therefore I think it is very important that we get to the bottom of what happened here,” he told Reuters in a pooled interview.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday he could not rule out a criminal investigation. The majority of the ministers at the NSC meeting have said they were not involved, according to media reports.

Hammond said he was unaware of any previous leak from a meeting of the NSC.

“It’s not about the substance of what was apparently leaked. It’s not earth-shattering information. But it is important that we protect the principle that nothing that goes on in national security council meetings must ever be repeated outside the room.”

Allowing Huawei a reduced role in building its 5G network puts Britain at odds with the United States which has told allies not to use its technology at all because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

There have been concerns that the NSC’s conclusion, which sources confirmed to Reuters, could upset other allies in the world’s leading intelligence-sharing network – the Five Eyes alliance of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

However, British ministers and intelligence officials have said any final decision on 5G would not put critical national infrastructure at risk. Ciaran Martin, head of the cyber center of Britain’s main eavesdropping agency, GCHQ, played down any threat of a rift in the Five Eyes alliance.

(Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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President Trump on Friday said “no money” was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, after reports that the U.S. received a $2 million hospital bill from Pyongyang for the late American prisoner’s care.

“No money was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, not two Million Dollars, not anything else. This is not the Obama Administration that paid 1.8 Billion Dollars for four hostages, or gave five terroist[sic] hostages plus, who soon went back to battle, for traitor Sgt. Bergdahl!” Trump tweeted Friday.

NORTH KOREA GAVE US $2M HOSPITAL BILL OVER CARE OF AMERICAN OTTO WARMBIER, SOURCES SAY

The Washington Post first reported that North Korean authorities insisted the U.S. envoy sent to retrieve Warmbier, 21, who was a student of the University of Virginia, sign a pledge to pay the bill before allowing Warmbier’s comatose body to return to the United States. Sources confirmed the bill and the amount to Fox News on Thursday.

Sources told the post that the envoy signed an agreement to pay the medical bill on instructions from the president, but a source told Fox News that the U.S. did not ever pay money to North Korea.

The White House declined to comment when asked on the bill, with Press Secretary Sarah Sanders saying in a statement that: “We do not comment on hostage negotiations, which is why they have been so successful during this administration.”

Meanwhile, the president added: “’President[sic] Donald J. Trump is the greatest hostage negotiator that I know of in the history of the United States. 20 hostages, many in impossible circumstances, have been released in last two years. No money was paid.’ Cheif[sic] Hostage Negotiator, USA!”

Warmbier was on tour in North Korea when he allegedly stole a propaganda sign from a hotel. He was arrested in January 2016 and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor in March 2016. Warmbier, for unknown reasons, fell into a coma while in custody and was held in that condition for an additional 17 months.

North Korean officials did not tell American officials until June 2017 that Warmbier had been unconscious the entire time. He died less than a week after he returned to the U.S. North Korean officials, though, have repeatedly denied accusations that Warmbier was tortured, instead claiming that he had suffered from botulism and then slipped into a coma after taking a sleeping pill.

AMERICAN PRISONERS HELD IN NORTH KOREA ON THEIR WAY HOME AFTER POMPEO VISIT, TRUMP SAYS

Fred and Cindy Warmbier sued North Korea over their son’s death and in December were awarded $501 million in damages – money that the Hermit Kingdom will probably never pay.

While the Warmbiers blamed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump has said he believes Kim’s claims that he did not know about the student’s treatment.

Trump and Kim have met in two separate summits. The most recent, held in February, ended without an agreement on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, told Fox News: “Otto Warmbier was mistreated by North Korea in so many ways, including his wrongful conviction and harsh sentence, and the fact that for 16 months they refused to tell his family or our country about his dire condition they caused.  No, the United States owes them nothing. They owe the Warmbier family everything.”

Last year, the Trump administration was also able to save three American prisoners held by North Korea. Kim Dong Chul, Tony Kim, and Kim Hak Song were all detained in North Korea. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brought the three Americans home last May, and said they were all in “good health.”

Fox News’ John Roberts, Rich Edson, Nicholas Kalman, and Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon
Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon, South Korea, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

April 26, 2019

SEOUL (Reuters) – K-pop and drama star Park Yu-chun was arrested on Friday on charges of buying and using illegal drugs, a court said, the latest in a series of scandals to hit the South Korean entertainment business.

Suwon District Court approved the arrest warrant for Park, 32, due to concerns over possible destruction of evidence and flight risk, a court spokesman told Reuters.

Park is suspected of having bought about 1.5 grams of methamphetamine with his former girlfriend earlier this year and using the drug around five times, an official at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said.

Park has denied wrongdoing, saying he had never taken drugs, and he again denied the charges in court, Yonhap news agency said.

Park’s contract with his management agency had been canceled and he would leave the entertainment industry, Park’s management agency, C-JeS Entertainment, said on Wednesday.

Park was a member of boyband TVXQ between 2003 and 2009 before leaving the group with two other members, forming the group JYJ.

A scandal involving sex tapes, prostitutes and secret chat about rape led at least four other K-pop stars to quit the industry earlier this year.

The cases sparked a nationwide drugs bust and investigations into tax evasion and police collusion at night clubs and other nightlife spots.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

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