Upcoming shows
Real News

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Alex Jones – Info Wars

12:00 pm 4:00 pm



Maga First News

Upcoming Shows

Join The MAGA Network on Discord

0 0

To lure young talent, banks mimic tech workspaces

A Nordea bank sign is seen at its headquarters in Helsinki
A Nordea bank sign is seen at its headquarters in Helsinki, Finland, May 5, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins

March 11, 2019

By Stine Jacobsen

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Tattooed models in mustard robes replaced the usual gray-suited bankers at Nordea Bank’s Copenhagen headquarters recently, as the Danish bank strutted out its latest attempt to woo young talent.

Hosting a fashion show is just one way companies like Nordea, the largest financial group in Nordic countries, are trying to attract twentysomething and thirtysomething employees. As financial services have moved online, banks have to battle with tech giants like Google and Amazon, which boast offices with features like massage rooms, to sign up tech-savvy millennials skilled in areas like artificial intelligence and programming.

“Banks today are not really banks like they were years ago,” Danske Bank’s head of real estate, Christian Ronn Osteraas, said in an interview. “Banks are more and more IT companies, so the fact that we compete for the same talents also means that we have to offer the same or better physical benefits and services.”

Workplace ambience is becoming increasingly crucial for banks in the quest for talent among youth who care about the environment and not just a juicy paycheck.

“Seventy-seven percent of millennials say that the workspace is more important than salary,” said chief operating officer Troels Bjerg at ISS, a top facility services firm whose customers include most of Europe’s 25 biggest banks.

Chief executives see attracting and retaining talent as their No. 1 challenge, according to data from ISS World, a Danish provider of facilities management, security, catering and other support services to companies globally.

“It has moved from being on the janitor’s agenda to the CEO’s agenda,” Bjerg said.

THAT START-UP FEELING

Nordea is also looking at places like Disney and Silicon Valley for inspiration to shed banking’s dusty image.

“It is important that you have something you can talk about when you get home,” said Trine Thorn, Nordea’s head of workplace management in Denmark. “We have to create something attractive and different. I want to have this start-up feeling.”

At Danske Bank in Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital where it has 700 IT employees, you can nap in a booth in ‘The Library’ relaxation area or challenge colleagues at ping pong or PlayStation in another room.

Danske’s shared services center in Vilnius will stay when the bank pulls out of the Baltic countries and Russia in the wake of one of the largest-ever money laundering scandals.

Video games and flexible seating may not suit everyone, though.

“Everybody wants an inspiring workplace and the challenge might be that millennials have been highlighted so much lately,” Osteraas of Danske said. “It is important to attract talents of the future, but it should not remove focus from other types of employees.”

FROM CLEANER TO EXPERIENCE MANAGER

Nordea has been working closely with ISS to create a workplace that feels both like a bank and a tech start-up.

ISS, mainly known for its cleaning and catering services, said its new business for workplace experiences has been one of its fastest-growing areas in recent years. “Experience managers” create initiatives like a pop-up car wash in an office parking lot or a tour around the company to support knowledge sharing.

“My role is to help create a culture that’s more relevant to generation Z,” said Dino Portelli, an ISS experience manager contracted by a big global bank in New York.

Portelli is behind initiatives like a shuttle bus to the bank’s remote site, with a host onboard who can help employees book a meeting room, provide replacement pantyhose if needed, or pre-order coffee to be ready upon arrival.

“Banks are very corporate, but here it feels like you are in a Google (office),” he said of the site, which also includes a manicure salon and works with a local farm to supply greens.

“They arrive in their suits on Monday. By Wednesday they’re in slacks. And by Friday they’re playing ping-pong.”

(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen; Editing by Lauren Young and Richard Chang)

Source: OANN

0 0

Alcohol shops in Mosul reopen two years after its recapture from IS

A man sells liquor in his shop in Mosul
A man sells liquor in his shop, after it was banned during the Islamic State militants' seizure of the city, in Mosul, Iraq April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Abdullah Rashid

April 23, 2019

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) – Almost two years after Iraqi forces recaptured the city of Mosul from Islamic State (IS), small shops selling alcohol are reopening their doors and new ones are appearing. 

Customers purchase bottles or cans of liquor which are then placed in black plastic bags, or emptied out into nondescript plastic bottles. 

Mosul was home to two million people before being overrun in 2014 by IS, which proclaimed a “caliphate” stretching into neighboring Syria. It held Mosul for three years.

Under the militant group’s strict rule, items such as alcohol and cigarettes were banned. Shops that sold alcohol were burned down and destroyed. 

Liquor store owner Nemat Hassan said IS burned his store down in the city. “There was more than $40,000 worth of stock. They burned it,” he said. 

Since the city was recaptured, some have decided to return to what remains of their homes and rebuild their stores. Hassan reopened his shop and said he hasn’t faced any problems. 

“When we came back after Daesh (Islamic State), the security forces were controlling Mosul. There are no problems, thank God. There have been no threats by any groups, no problems in Mosul.” 

Another liquor store owner, Adel Jindy, said many more stores are appearing in the neighborhood as more licenses are being granted. 

“Before there were four stores in Al Dawasah (neighborhood) now there are many licensed shops,” he said. 

Business is generally good – the only time customers are afraid of coming in is after an attack or a car bomb. But once the initial panic fades, it’s business as usual, said Jindy. 

In Iraq members of the Yazidi and Christian religious minorities are allowed to have alcohol licenses. Alcohol is prohibited by Islam.

Mosul has been the site of several bomb blasts in recent months. In an attack this March, a car packed with explosives blew up killing two people and wounding another 24 near Mosul University.

Nearly two million Iraqis are still displaced by the fight against IS, according to a survey by REACH, a non-governmental organization. Many say they are not ready to go home because of the destruction and lack of services.

(Reporting by Reuters Television; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

Source: OANN

0 0

Euro zone growth seen bottoming out in second quarter: ECB’s Praet

FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank (ECB) executive board member Praet speaks during an interview with Reuters in Frankfurt
FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank (ECB) executive board member Peter Praet speaks during an interview with Reuters in Frankfurt, Germany, March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo

April 12, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The euro zone economy appears to be stabilizing in the second quarter so the European Central Bank’s projection for a rebound in the second half of the year remains on track, ECB Chief Economist Peter Praet said on Friday.

“There are good reasons to say that the economy is going to stabilize, it’s probably stabilizing somewhere in the second quarter … That’s our scenario and I still believe in that scenario,” Praet, who leaves office next month, told a financial conference.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Source: OANN

0 0

National final: Virginia leads Texas Tech 32-29 at halftime

NCAA Basketball: Final Four-National Championship-Virginia vs Texas Tech
Apr 8, 2019; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Virginia Cavaliers guard Braxton Key (2) dunks the ball against Texas Tech Red Raiders guard Matt Mooney (13) during the first half in the championship game of the 2019 men's Final Four at US Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports

April 9, 2019

MINNEAPOLIS – Virginia led Texas Tech 32-29 at halftime of the NCAA national championship game at U.S. Bank Stadium on Monday.

Virginia guard Ty Jerome’s triple from the top of the key ended a tug-of-war first half during which the teams combined for 10 3-pointers. The first half featured five ties and four lead changes.

For a stretch of more than six minutes, Texas Tech (31-6) answered every Virginia score

Kyle Guy’s 3-pointer knotted the game at 27, answering a jumper from Texas Tech’s Brandone Francis. Guy led all scorers with 10 at halftime.

Texas Tech went ahead for the first time with 5:22 left in the half. A pair of Kyler Edwards free throws broke a 21-all tie and Matt Mooney’s jumper pushed the lead to four.

Virginia (34-3) looked to have Texas Tech on the ropes early, holding a 17-7 lead, until the Red Raiders dropped in 3s on three trips in a row to awaken the building. The stretch cut the Cavaliers’ edge to 19-16 at the under-8 media timeout.

Texas Tech was only 1 of 11 from the floor when Francis started the barrage. Texas Tech got a triple from Edwards 32 seconds later and another from Francis with 8:24 on the clock in the first half.

Texas Tech missed its first nine field goals. Sophomore guard Davide Moretti made a 3-pointer 7:20 into the first half to break the cold snap, but the Red Raiders trailed 9-6.

–By Jeff Reynolds, Field Level Media

Source: OANN

0 0

Emotional statements from parents, kids in torture case

A Southern California couple who pleaded guilty to locking up and abusing 12 of their 13 children for years, as well as some of the victims, made their first public comments Friday during an emotion-charged hearing where the parents were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

Louise Turpin wept and said she hoped to hug her children again one day. Her husband, David Turpin, was overcome with emotion as he tried to read his statement just after the two eldest of the couple's 13 children, also in tears, described the impact of the abuse.

The children, ranging from 3 to 30, have not been publicly identified. Here are excerpts from their statements and from the judge:

___

Jane Doe 4, age 30:

"My parents took my whole life from me but now I'm taking my life back. I'm in college now and living independently.

"I believe everything happens for a reason. Life may have been bad but it made me strong. I fought to become the person I am. I saw my dad change my mom. They almost changed me but I realized what was happening. I immediately did what I could to not become like them.

"I'm a fighter, I'm strong and I'm shooting through life like a rocket."

___

John Doe 2, age 27:

"Sometimes I still have nightmares of things that have happened, such as my siblings being chained up or getting beaten. But that is the past and this is now. I love my parents and have forgiven them for a lot of the things that they did to us.

"Since January I have learned so much and become very independent. In June of last year I learned how to ride a bike and ever since then I've been hooked and ride it everywhere, such as to school, the store, or sometimes I just go on long rides because I enjoy it so much.

"I'm getting a bachelor's degree in software engineering and after I get my bachelor's degree. I'm going to get a job as a software engineer and go to school part-time to get my master's degree. I also have learned how to advocate for myself, how to swim, how to eat healthy and prepare a balanced meal. I have also been learning how to manage money wisely."

___

John Doe 2, reading a statement from another sister:

"I love both of my parents so much. Although it may not have been the best way of raising us, I am glad that they did because it made me the person I am today. I just want to thank them for teaching me about God and faith. I hope that they never lose their faith. God looks at the heart and I know he sees theirs. I pray often for them."

___

Attorney Janet Latourette, reading a statement on behalf of another daughter:

"I want the court to know that our parents loved each other and loved each of their children. People ... said our parents were having too many children. Our parents didn't agree. They felt that God blessed them with all their children so they kept away from the world and trusted God would guide them through life.

"Through the years things became more and more overwhelming but they kept trusting in God. I remember our mother sitting in her recliner and crying saying she don't know what to do. She didn't want to use rope or chain, but she was afraid her children were taking in too much sugar and caffeine. The reason our parents didn't stop buying the soda was because father needed it for work. He would fall asleep driving and got in an accident. They didn't know what else to do.

"I believe our parents feared if they asked for help, they would lose their children.

"I feel like 25 years is too long. I believe with all my heart our parents tried their best to raise all 13 of us and they wanted to give us a good life. They believed everything they did was to protect us.

"If at all possible, I would appreciate if the court would place our parents as close to the detention center they are in right now so if we ever want to visit them, we can."

___

David Turpin's attorney, Allison Lowe, read from his statement:

"I thank God for all of my children. Each one of them is a blessing from God. My homeschooling and discipline had good intentions. I never intended for any harm to come to my children. I'm sorry if I've done anything to cause them harm.

"I love my children and I believe my children love me. I hope and pray that my children can stay close to each other and look out for each other since their mother and father cannot be there for them and with them."

David Turpin then took over reading, saying he wants his children to be successful in school.

"I am so proud of each and every one of my children. I miss all of my children and I will be praying for them. I long for the opportunity to have contact with them again."

___

Louise Turpin:

"I'm sorry for everything I've done to hurt my children. I love my children so much. I'm blessed to be the mother of each one of them. I really want the best for them. Their happiness is very important to me.

"They are very smart, amazing individuals. I hope they get all the education they need to make their dreams come true. They deserve only the best in life. I don't want any of them to be sad or depressed because of all of this.

"I want them to know that Mom and Dad are going to be OK. ... I really look forward to the day I can see them, hug them and tell them I'm sorry."

___

Judge Bernard Schwartz:

The lives of the children "have been permanently altered in their ability to learn, grow and thrive. You have delayed their mental, physical and emotional health. To the extent that they do thrive ... it'll be not because of you both but in spite of you both.

"The only reason that your punishment is less than the maximum time in my opinion is because you accepted responsibility at an early stage in the proceedings to spare your children from having to relive the humiliation and the harm they endured in that house of horrors."

Source: Fox News National

0 0

‘Two is enough,’ Egypt tells poor families as population booms

A doctor examines a pregnant woman at a hospital in the province of Fayoum
A doctor examines a pregnant woman at a hospital in the province of Fayoum, southwest of Cairo, Egypt February 19, 2019. Picture taken February 19, 2019. REUTERS/Hayam Adel

February 20, 2019

By Lena Masri

SOHAG, Egypt (Reuters) – Nesma Ghanem is hoping for a fourth child even though her doctor says her body can’t handle a pregnancy at the moment. She has three daughters and would like them to have a brother.

“In the future he could support his father and the girls,” said Ghanem, 27, who lives in a village in Sohag, an area with one of Egypt’s highest fertility rates.

The family depends on her husband’s income from a local cafe. “If I have a son people, here in the village can say that he will carry on his father’s name,” she said.

As Egypt’s population heads towards 100 million, the government is trying to change the minds of people like Ghanem. “Two Is Enough” is the government’s first family-planning campaign aiming to challenge traditions of large families in rural Egypt. But Ghanem’s wish to have a son shows how hard that could be.

“The main challenge is that we’re trying to change a way of thinking,” said Randa Fares, coordinator of the campaign at the Social Solidarity Ministry. “To change a way of thinking is difficult.”

Egypt’s population is growing by 2.6 million a year, a high rate for a country where water and jobs are scarce and schools and hospitals overcrowded. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi says the two biggest threats to Egypt are terrorism and population growth.

“We are faced with scarcity in water resources … scarcity in jobs, job creation, and we need to really control this population growth so that people can feel the benefits of development,” Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali told Reuters.

Decades ago, Egypt had a family-planning program, supported by the United States. The fertility rate fell from 5.6 children per woman in 1976 to 3.0 in 2008 while the use of contraceptives went up from 18.8 percent to 60.3 percent. Large amounts of contraceptives were made available and advertisements increased demand for birth control.

Support for family planning from the Egyptian government and large sums from donors helped make the program successful, said Duff Gillespie, who directed USAID’s population office from 1986 to 1993.

But Egypt was relying on donor support and when that assistance went away, family planning was neglected. By 2014 the fertility rate had gone up to 3.5. The United States is supporting family planning in Egypt again, providing more than $19 million for a five-year project ending in 2022 and $4 million for a smaller private sector project ending in 2020.

Those amounts are significantly lower than the $371 million the United States spent on family planning in Egypt between 1976 and 2008.

“Two Is Enough” is mainly financed by Egyptian money, with the Social Solidarity Ministry spending 75 million Egyptian pounds ($4.27 million) and the U.N. providing 10 million pounds, according to the ministry.

The two-year campaign targets more than 1.1 million poor families with up to three children. The Social Solidarity Ministry, with local NGOs, has trained volunteers to make home visits and encourage people to have fewer children.

Mothers are invited to seminars with preachers who say that Islam allows family planning, and doctors who answer questions. Billboards and TV ads promote smaller families. The government aims to reduce the current fertility rate of 3.5 to 2.4 by 2030.

At a session teaching volunteers how to speak to mothers and fathers about family planning in a village in Giza, Asmaa Mohammad, a 25-year-old volunteer, told Reuters she would rather have three children than two.

“Since I was a child I knew I wanted three children,” said Mohammad who is unmarried and doesn’t have children yet.

Deeply rooted traditions and lack of education explain why many Egyptians have big families. Al-Azhar, Egypt’s top Sunni Muslim authority, endorses family planning, but not all Egyptians agree.

Some view children as a future source of support. Others who only have girls keep having more until they get a boy who can carry on the family name.

During a visit from a campaign volunteer, Ghanem said her wish to have a boy was not the main reason she wasn’t using contraceptives. She stopped using an IUD after suffering from bleeding.

About one in three Egyptian women stop using contraceptives within a year, often due to misinformation about the side effects or lack of information about alternatives, according to the United Nations Population Fund.

Nearly 13 percent of married women of reproductive age in Egypt want to use contraceptives but are unable to, according to official data from 2014.

Now the government has renovated clinics, added staff and provided more free contraceptives. Under “Two is Enough” the goal is to have 70 new clinics up and running in March.

But when Reuters visited a clinic in Sohag last month, there were no contraceptives left. Nema Mahmoud, who had traveled from her village, was told to come back the next day.

Sohag, one of Egypt’s poorest governorates, also has one of the highest fertility rates at 4.3. The National Population Council said contraceptive use in Sohag is the lowest among six governorates surveyed.

For years Mahmoud, 33, didn’t use contraceptives consistently even though she wanted a small family. Her mother-in-law kept her from traveling to the city to get contraceptives when the local clinic was out, she said.

It was only after her mother-in-law died that she started using contraceptives properly. By then Mahmoud had three children and three miscarriages.

Since January, the government has limited cash assistance to poor families to two children instead of three in an attempt to push them to have fewer kids. Mahmoud will receive less cash every month. Her husband works only a few days a month, making 45 Egyptian pounds ($2.60) a day, she said.

Mahmoud and her neighbor Sanaa Mohammad, a 38-year-old mother of three, said the change should apply to new families, not women like them who already benefit from the program and have more than two children.

“It’s not fair to give someone something and then take it away,” said Mohammad.

The government sees the population boom as a threat to its economic reform plans. Every year, 800,000 young Egyptians enter the labor market, where unemployment is officially 10 percent.

In Egypt, population growth is around half the economic growth rate, but it should be no more than a third – otherwise it will be difficult to invest in social programs and improve living standards, said Magued Osman, chief executive of Baseera, the Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research.

Analysts say Egypt should target people before they have children and sex education should be available in schools.

“Two Is Enough is good, but by itself it will not do the job,” said Abla Abdel Latif, executive director of the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies.

Wafaa Mohammad Amin, 36, a mother of four who works on “Two Is Enough”, got married at 17 and had her first child a year later. Two of her children were malnourished because she didn’t know how to breastfeed properly. She had to postpone her education and couldn’t work for years.

“There are many things I know now that I wish I had known back then,” she said. “I don’t want others to go through what I went through.”

(Reporting and writing by Lena Masri; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: OANN

0 0

As stock sinks after Berenberg error, Atos alerts French markets watchdog

FILE PHOTO: People walk in front of the Atos company's logo during a presentation of the new Bull sequana supercomputer in Paris
FILE PHOTO: People walk in front of Atos company's logo during a presentation of the new Bull sequana supercomputer in Paris, France, REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/File Photo

April 2, 2019

By Josephine Mason

LONDON (Reuters) – Atos said on Tuesday it has alerted the French markets regulator after Berenberg withdrew its downgrade of the software company’s stock, which briefly wiped almost 450 million euros ($503.42 million) off its market capitalization.

Analyst firm Berenberg on Tuesday issued a research note titled ‘Unleash the bears’, downgrading its rating on the stock to ‘sell’ and reducing its price target to 60 euro ($67) from 90 euro following Atos’ sale of its stake in Worldline.

Berenberg later retracted the note, saying in an email that it had contained an error in its valuation approach and instead analyst Georgios Kertsos placed the stock under review.

“Analyst firm Berenberg issued this morning an analyst note on Atos, which was immediately withdrawn after realizing it contained a material error,” Atos said on its website.

“This had a temporary impact on the stock price of Atos. The group has alerted the French Financial Markets Regulator (AMF).”

Berenberg, a private German bank based in Hamburg, declined to comment further and France’s AMF declined to comment.

A change in recommendation on a company’s stock can often influence the direction of its price. It’s not known how the mistake at Berenberg occurred, but such a retraction is rare.

“In all the years I have been trading, this is the first time that I have seen a retraction,” said one dealer.

Berenberg issued the retraction after being contacted by Atos’ financial and investor relations team about an error in the report, an Atos spokesman said. He would not disclose any further details.

The downgrade knocked 444 million euros off the French company’s market capitalization and sent its shares down almost 5 percent to 83.96 euros in early trading on Tuesday.

They recovered some ground after the retraction, but were still down 1.9 percent at 1514 GMT on the Paris bourse. The CAC 40 was up 0.2 percent.

With just under 775,000 shares traded, turnover in the stock was two-thirds higher than daily averages.

(Reporting by Josephine Mason, Thyagaraju Adinarayan and Helen Reid, additional reporting by Inti Landauro in PARIS; editing by Louise Heavens and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Source: OANN

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Alex Jones – Info Wars

12:00 pm 4:00 pm



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

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

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

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

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].”

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

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

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

DNA Force Plus

Limited Advanced Release

149.95

119.96

DNA Force Plus is finally here! Now you can support optimal energy levels while adapting your body to handle the daily bombardment of toxins to overhaul your body’s cellular engines with a fan-favorite formula.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/dna-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

DNA Force Plus

149.95

119.96

DNA Force Plus is finally here! Now you can support optimal energy levels while adapting your body to handle the daily bombardment of toxins to overhaul your body’s cellular engines with a fan-favorite formula.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/dna-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

DNA Force Plus

149.95

119.96

DNA Force Plus is finally here! Now you can support optimal energy levels while adapting your body to handle the daily bombardment of toxins to overhaul your body’s cellular engines with a fan-favorite formula.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/dna-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

DNA Force Plus

149.95

119.96

DNA Force Plus is finally here! Now you can support optimal energy levels while adapting your body to handle the daily bombardment of toxins to overhaul your body’s cellular engines with a fan-favorite formula.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/dna-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

DNA Force Plus

149.95

119.96

DNA Force Plus is finally here! Now you can support optimal energy levels while adapting your body to handle the daily bombardment of toxins to overhaul your body’s cellular engines with a fan-favorite formula.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/dna-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

DNA Force Plus

149.95

119.96

DNA Force Plus is finally here! Now you can support optimal energy levels while adapting your body to handle the daily bombardment of toxins to overhaul your body’s cellular engines with a fan-favorite formula.

https://www.infowars.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/dna-210.jpg

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

https://www.infowarsstore.com/dna-force-plus.html?ims=jbdoh&utm_campaign=IWL-DNAForcePlus-20%25off-Widget&utm_source=Infowars+Widget&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=Widget-DNFP-20%25off

Source: InfoWars

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

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

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

Title

Artist