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Scaffolding firm says workers smoked at Paris’ Notre-Dame

A view shows Notre-Dame Cathedral, a week after a massive fire devastated large parts of the gothic structure in Paris
A view shows Notre-Dame Cathedral, a week after a massive fire devastated large parts of the gothic structure in Paris, France, April 23, 2019. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

April 24, 2019

By Julie Carriat and Emmanuel Jarry

PARIS (Reuters) – A scaffolding firm that has worked on the roof of Notre-Dame said some of its workers had smoked on the site, but ruled out that a cigarette butt might have started the fire that destroyed the cathedral’s oak-framed roof last week.

A spokesman for family-owned Le Bras Freres, confirming a report in French weekly Le Canard Enchaine, told Reuters that some workers of its Europe Echafaudage scaffolding unit had informed police that they had “sometimes” smoked on the scaffolding, despite a smoking ban on the site.

“We condemn it. But the fire started inside the building… so for company Le Bras this is not a hypothesis, it was not a cigarette butt that set Notre-Dame de Paris on fire,” Le Bras Frères spokesman Marc Eskenazi said.

The Canard Enchaine reported that police had found the remains of seven cigarette butts in the burnt-out cathedral.

“This is not wrong,” said a source close to the investigation, who declined all other comment.

Eskenazi said it was impossible to set a log on fire with a cigarette butt and questioned how cigarette butts could have been found on the site.

“If cigarette butts have survived the inferno, I do not know what material they were made of,” he said.

Europe Echaffaudage also ruled out the possibility that the fire might have been started by an electricity incident at one of the two lifts on the site.

“The lifts’ electricity was perfectly within specifications and well maintained,” he said.

He added that the two lifts were on the outside of the building, situated at 45 and 65 meters (71 yards) from the base of the spire, where the first smoke and flames had been spotted and that the workers had cut the power to the lifts at 1750 when they had left the site for the day.

The Canard Enchaine also reported that electrical wiring ran through the roof of the cathedral, but the church administration denied that safety norms had not been respected.

“Nothing was ever done without the authorization of the state…There were no wires dangling, everything was properly installed,” Notre-Dame spokesman Andre Finot said.

In 2012, electrical engines had been installed to sound the bells in the spire.

Finot said that when a first smoke alarm rang, security staff had made verifications but had not remarked anything unusual.

“I don’t know whether they might have checked the wrong place,” he said. He added that when a second alert rang shortly after, they spotted flames at the base of the fire.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said that it is not ruling out any hypothesis about the origin of the fire and that investigators are considering all possibilities.

President Emmanuel Macron has pledged that Notre-Dame will be rebuilt within five years.

The cathedral was built over nearly 200 years starting in the middle of the 12th century, but the spire on its roof was added during a 19th century restoration.

(Reporting Julie Carriat and Emmanuel Jarry; Writing by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: OANN

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Citi: Clients turn cautious on emerging markets after two weeks of inflows

A man walks past a Citibank branch in lower Manhattan, New York
FILE PHOTO: A man walks past a Citibank branch in lower Manhattan, New York October 16, 2012. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

March 11, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Investment bank Citi said on Monday that its clients had turned cautious on emerging market assets over the last week, with both real money and leveraged investors pulling out funds following four weeks of inflows.

“Real money and leveraged investor flows turned negative across EM last week, suggesting trimming of EM exposure amidst decline in the EUR and risk assets in general,” Citi’s Dirk Willer wrote in a note to clients, referring to the week ending Friday March 8.

There was some divergence across regions, with real money outflows dominating investors’ movements last week. Indonesia’s rupiah, Hong Kong dollar, Malaysian ringgit and Philippine peso suffered the heftiest flows, Citi found analyzing its clients’ money flows.

“Anxiety over US-China deal and weakness of risk assets may have triggered trimming of exposure,” Willer wrote.

Data showed that investors pulled out of Latin America with Chilean and Colombian peso at the fore front, while low yielders such as Polish zloty and the Czech crown attracted flows.

(Reporting by Karin Strohecker; Editing by Tom Arnold)

Source: OANN

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US Ambassador Slams Mayor Pete For Pushing ‘Hate Hoax’ About Mike Pence

Richard Grenell, the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, slammed Democrat presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg’s recent attacks on Vice President Mike Pence, likening the homosexual mayor’s conduct to that of Jussie Smollett.

Grenell, who is also gay, took issue with Buttigieg’s incendiary targeting of Pence over his Christian faith and supposed anti-LGBT positions, asserting that the vice president and his wife have always treated Grenell and his partner with nothing but kindness and respect.

“Mayor Pete has been pushing this hate hoax along the lines of Jussie Smollett for a very long time now – several weeks – and I find it really ironic that Mayor Pete stayed silent about this so-called hate hoax on him and others during 2015, 2016, 2017, when Mike Pence was governor,” Grenell told Fox host Martha MacCallum. “It’s ironic that right about now when he’s starting his fundraising apparatus to run for president, he comes up with this idea and this attack.”

“One of the things that really bothers me about this attack is that Mike Pence is a friend of mine. Mike and Karen are great people, they’re Godly people, they’re followers of Christ. They don’t have hate in their heart for anyone. They know my partner, they have accepted us.”

“You asked me, do we agree philosophically on every single issue? No. I don’t agree philosophically with my hero Dietrich Bonhoeffer on everything, I don’t agree with my partner on everything,” Grenell continued. “The gay community used to be the community pushing tolerance and diversity; we were the ones that were saying everyone should be able to accept and love each other. Now suddenly there’s a whole community of people demanding we all think alike.”

Grenell also pointed out that Pence has always spoken highly of Buttigieg, including when both held public office in the state of Indiana, as governor and as mayor of South Bend, respectively.

“Let me just say one more thing – when Mayor Pete came out, the vice president complimented him and said he holds him in high regard,” Grenell said. “The vice president, or then-governor, has said nothing but positive things about Mayor Pete. I think this is a total hate hoax and I think it’s outrageous.”



Bernie Sanders appears to be okay with possible physical attacks on Kaitlin Bennett due to his rhetoric and characterization of Kaitlin and Infowars.

Dan Lyman:

Source: InfoWars

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APNewsBreak: Ex-governor pardoned late mentor's grandson

Documents obtained by The Associated Press show former Maine Gov. Paul LePage pardoned his late mentor's grandson and people convicted of everything from drug trafficking to embezzlement.

The state released the list of 112 people who were pardoned in response to a request by the AP made under the state's Freedom of Access Act. The state had previously confirmed only one name.

Past Maine governors routinely released the names of individuals pardoned in high-profile cases. But the secretary of state's office this year said a 2017 change in state law prevented the release of pardons made by LePage, a Republican.

The state has since reversed course. Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed a March 15 executive order allowing for pardons to be made public.

A message was left seeking comment from representatives for LePage, who left office in January.

Source: Fox News National

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2020 long-shot Delaney swipes at Dem rivals: 'Running on things that aren’t real solutions'

CONCORD, N.H. – Former Rep. John Delaney worries that some of his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination are moving too far to the left.

“You have to put forward ideas that make sense,” the Maryland Democrat told reporters Thursday as he sat down for an interview during a jam-packed two-day swing through the state that holds the first primary in the White House race.

WHO'S ON THE RISE IN THE LATEST POLL IN THE 2020 DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION RACE

Delaney charged that many of the other 2020 presidential candidates are “running on things that aren’t real solutions.”

Among the proposals he pointed to was the Green New Deal, the sweeping plan popular with the Democratic Party’s progressive base that aims to transform the country’s economy to fight climate change -- while enacting a host of new health care and welfare programs.

“If you say the way I’m going to address climate change is by tying it to universal basic income, or by tying it to universal health care, you’re basically saying you’re not going to do anything on climate change,” he argued.

Instead, Delaney pushed his own plan to reduce carbon, which he said enjoyed bipartisan support when he introduced it during his tenure in Congress.

Delaney voiced concern that some of the proposals being pushed by his rivals will give President Trump and fellow Republicans ammunition and “could take us down a path where we’re not that competitive against the president” in next year’s general election.

“Democrats are going to realize that this election in 2020 should not be about kind of throwing the whole model of the country out of the window and starting from scratch. That feels like a very tough race to win,” he said.

FIRST DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY DEBATES TO BE HELD IN MIAMI IN LATE JUNE

The former-term term congressman argued that Democrats won back the House of Representatives in the 2018 midterms because “they didn’t run as extreme candidates. And in many ways the United States of America is a giant purple district. The country is a competitive country. And so the lessons of 2018 should be obvious to us. If we want to flip a competitive district or a competitive country, we have to do it with a more moderate solutions orientated candidate.”

Delaney -- who touts his working-class upbringing, his success in the business world as the youngest CEO on the New York Stock Exchange, and his willingness to work with Republicans during his years on Capitol Hill -- paints himself as a moderate who can unify the country.

And the candidate, who announced his long-shot White House bid way back in the summer of 2017, said his game plan is “to stick to my message. Not get caught up in this rush to the left and socialism and all this stuff.”

He also highlighted the summary findings of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation report.

“The Mueller Report has been a game change. I don’t think most Democrats really want to acknowledge that, but it has been. You combine that with a good economy and you’ve got a situation out there where unless you put forth what I call a ‘big tent’ Democrat, someone who could actually win the center, then we’re handing [Trump] a pretty good hand.”

Mueller’s nearly two-year-long investigation did not establish that members of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government to interfere in the election in favor of Trump and at the expense of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

Mueller’s long-awaited findings also did not take a clear position on whether Trump obstructed justice, with no conclusions that the president committed a crime but also not exonerating Trump.

Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Sunday concluded, though, that Mueller’s report did not contain sufficient evidence to establish that Trump committed obstruction of justice.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Sudanese protesters await military’s response on transition demands

Sudanese demonstrators gather to celebrate after Defence Minister Awad Ibn Auf stepped down as head of the country's transitional ruling military council, as protesters demanded quicker political change, near the Defence Ministry in Khartoum
Sudanese demonstrators gather to celebrate after Defence Minister Awad Ibn Auf stepped down as head of the country's transitional ruling military council, as protesters demanded quicker political change, near the Defence Ministry in Khartoum, Sudan April 13, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer

April 14, 2019

By Khalid Abdelaziz

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Several thousand Sudanese protesters continued a sit-in outside the Defense Ministry on Sunday as they pressured the military to accelerate a transition towards civilian rule.

The head of the military council that replaced former President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted on Thursday after three decades in power, has said a civilian government will be formed after consultations with the opposition.

The main organizer of protests that led to Bashir’s ouster, the Sudanese Professionals’ Association (SPA), has demanded that civilians be included on the transitional military council and has pressed for Bashir’s close associates to leave.

It has called for a restructuring of the powerful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) and the dissolution of militia forces that operated under Bashir.

The sit-in, which began on April 6, was the culmination of a protest movement that began nearly four months ago, triggered by a worsening economic crisis.

Up to four thousand people were still camped out on Sunday morning, a Reuters witness said, slightly fewer than on previous days. People were starting to go back to work for the first time in days.

There were deadly clashes at the sit-in last week, but the atmosphere on Sunday was relaxed, with soldiers deployed in the area drinking tea and chatting with protesters.

“We are at our sit-in until we hear the response from the army to the professionals’ association demands,” said Mouawiya Mubarak, 21, a student. “We will defend the revolution from hijacking.”

“Our demands are clear and have not yet been achieved, why would we go home? Our sit-in is the most powerful weapon in our hands,” the SPA said in a tweet.

On Friday, Defense Minister Awad Ibn Auf, who announced Bashir’s ouster and arrest, stepped down after just one day as head of the military council. On Saturday, state media reported that the head of the NISS, Salah Abdallah Mohamed Saleh – better known as Salah Gosh – had also resigned.

The new head of the council, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan Abdelrahman, has said the transition period will last for a maximum of two years. He has canceled an overnight curfew and ordered the release of all prisoners jailed under emergency laws put in place by Bashir.

(Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Source: OANN

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Schwarzenegger: McCain Attack 'Absolutely Unacceptable'

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger joined a packed chorus to defend the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., against President Donald Trump's renewed assault on the Vietnam War pilot who spent five and a half years as a POW.

"He was just an unbelievable person," Schwarzenegger told The Atlantic. "So, an attack on him is absolutely unacceptable if he's alive or dead — but even twice as unacceptable since he passed away a few months ago. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever to do that. I just think it's a shame that the president lets himself down to that kind of level. We will be lucky if everyone in Washington followed McCain's example because he represented courage."

Trump and McCain feuded since the 2016 campaign when Trump questioned McCain's war hero status. The pair never got along after that, and McCain cast the deciding vote to shoot down the GOP-backed measure to repeal Obamacare in 2017.

Trump has spoken ill of McCain, who died last August after a battle with brain cancer, on multiple occasions in recent days.

"He was a great public servant, no two ways about that," Schwarzenegger said. "He was known for his honesty, for his courage, and his patriotism and his service.

"The president should lift people up, should lift the nation up rather than always tearing people down."

Schwarzenegger then doled out some advice to Trump regarding bullying.

"Why don't you go and sit down with your wife for just a few minutes, Mr. President, and listen to the first lady when she's talking about stopping online bullying," he said. "That is a really great message. Which way do we go? Your way, or her way. That's really the question here."

Source: NewsMax Politics

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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)

Source: OANN

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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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A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai
FILE PHOTO: A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai, India, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

April 26, 2019

By Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Surging global oil prices will pose a first big challenge to India’s new government, whoever wins an election now under way, especially as domestic prices have been allowed to lag, meaning consumers are in for a painful surge as they catch up.

For oil-import dependent India, higher global prices could lead to a weaker rupee, higher inflation, the ruling out of interest rate cuts and could further weigh on twin current account and budget deficits, economists warned.

But compounding the future pain, state-run fuel suppliers and retailers have held off passing on to consumers the higher prices during a staggered general election, which began on April 11 and ends on May 23, according to sources familiar with the situation.

That delay is expected to be unwound once the election is over. And there could be additional price increases to make up for losses or profits missed during the period of delayed increases, the sources said.

In some major Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea, pump prices are adjusted periodically so they move largely in tandem with international crude prices.

That was what was supposed to happen in India but the election means there have been many days when pump prices have been unchanged.

In New Delhi, for example, while crude oil prices have gone up by nearly $9 a barrel, or about 12 percent, in the past six weeks, gasoline prices have only risen by 0.47 rupees a liter, or 0.6 percent.

State-controlled fuel suppliers and retailers declined to say why they had delayed price increases, or discuss whether there has been any pressure from the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A government spokesman declined to comment.

The opposition Congress party said Modi’s government was violating its own policy of daily price revision by advising the state oil companies to hold prices steady.

“The government should cut fuel taxes otherwise consumers will have to pay much higher oil prices once the elections are over,” said Akhilesh Pratap Singh, a senior leader of the Congress party.

(GRAPHIC: India Polls: Fuel price hike lags crude surge – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XLlxik)

Nitin Goyal, treasurer at the All India Petroleum Dealers Association, representing fuel stations in 25 states, said prices were similarly held down for 19 days in the southern state of Karnataka last year, when it held state assembly elections.

Only for them to surge after the vote.

“Consumers should be ready for a rude shock of a massive jump in retail prices, similar to the level we have seen in the Karnataka state election,” Goyal said.

‘CREDIT NEGATIVE’

Sri Paravaikkarasu, director for Asia oil at Singapore-based consultancy FGE, said retail prices of gasoline and gasoil prices would have been up to 6 percent, or about 4 rupee, higher if they had been allowed to rise in line with global prices.

“Indian pump prices have failed to keep up with the recent uptrend in crude prices,” Paravaikkarasu said.

“With the country’s general elections underway, the incumbent government has been keeping pump prices relatively unchanged.”

India had switched to a daily price revision in June 2017 from a revision every two weeks, as the government allowed retailers to set prices.

But the government faced protests last October when retailers raised prices by up to 10 rupees a liter after the crude oil price went above $80 a barrel, forcing it to cut fuel taxes.

Global prices rose to their highest level in 2019 on Thursday, days after the United States announced all Iran sanction waivers would end by May, pressuring importers including India to stop buying Tehran’s oil. [O/R]

Higher oil prices will mean Asia’s third largest economy is likely to see growth of less than 7 percent rate this fiscal year, economists said. Growth slowed to 6.6 percent in the October-December quarter, the slowest in five quarters.

Rating agency CARE has warned that a 10 percent rise in global oil prices could increase demand for dollars, putting pressure on the rupee and widening the current account deficit.

India’s oil import bill rose by nearly one-third in the fiscal year ending March 31 to $140.5 billion, against $108 billion the previous year.

“The increase in international oil prices is a credit negative for the Indian economy,” ICRA, the Indian arm of the Fitch rating agency, said in a note.

“Every $10/ bbl increase in crude oil prices increases the fiscal deficit by about 0.1 percent of GDP.”

Any big price rise would also build a case for the central bank to keep rates steady, or even raise them.

The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee, which cut the benchmark policy repo rate by 25 basis points this month, warned that rising oil and food prices could push up inflation.

Policymakers are worried that a sustained increase in the oil price in the range of $70-75/barrel or higher can move the rupee down by 3-4 percent on an annual basis.

The rupee has depreciated by 1.24 percent against the dollar since a year high in mid-March.

($1 = 70.1800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma; Editing by Martin Howell and Rob Birsel)

Source: OANN

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