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Michael Bennet on cancer diagnosis: ‘I don’t see this stopping me’ from 2020 run

EXETER, N.H. – Sen. Michael Bennet says he’s optimistic he’ll soon be running for president.

The two-term Colorado Democrat – who announced last week that he recently was diagnosed with prostate cancer – told Fox News, “I feel really lucky. It was caught early and this is a really treatable form of cancer and we have insurance. I think I’m going to be fine. I hope I will because I really want to have the opportunity to run in 2020.”

Bennet was interviewed Sunday as he campaigned in New Hampshire, the state that holds the first primary in the race for the White House.

BENNET ANNOUNCES HE HAS PROSTATE CANCER

Pointing to then-Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts – the 2004 Democratic nominee who had successful cancer surgery at the onset of his presidential campaign – Bennet, 54, said, “John was 59 when he had the same operation. He had it and two weeks later he was in California, doing what he needed to do out there to campaign. So I take this seriously, but if all goes well I don’t see this stopping me.”

Bennet didn’t bring up his diagnosis during a question-and-answer session with the Rockingham County Democrats that lasted over an hour, but members of the crowd wished him well.

“I don’t feel the need to bring it up myself. I’m glad to talk about it if people want to raise it,” he told Fox News.

The diagnosis apparently hasn’t slowed Bennet down on the campaign trail. The Exeter event was the second to last in a jam-packed two-day swing through New Hampshire. On Monday he’s headed to Iowa, which votes first in the presidential caucus and primary calendar.

BENNET CRITICIZES REP. OMAR'S COMMENTS AS 'HATEFUL'

Bennet, who said he had planned to declare his candidacy for president this month, explained that he hoped to jump into the White House race a few weeks after next week’s surgery, if he gets a clean bill of health.

Michael Bennet in Exeter, N.H., talking to Rockingham County Democrats.

Michael Bennet in Exeter, N.H., talking to Rockingham County Democrats. (Fox News)

That wouldn’t leave a lot of time for Bennet to make the stage at the first round of Democratic presidential primary debates, set for late June.

“We’ve made it a little bit harder on myself although I wouldn’t have asked for this issue,” he explained. “I think it’s important to be on the debate stage, whether it’s the first debate or the second debate, however you’re able to do it, and we will work to get on there. I don’t want to make excuses for it, but we slowed down a little bit.”

FIRST 2020 DEBATES TO BE HELD IN JUNE

When Bennet likely jumps into the race, he’ll be facing off against a large field of Democratic contenders (it currently stands at 17), many with bigger name ID and bigger campaign war chests. And there’s already a candidate from Colorado in the race. The state’s former two-term governor – John Hickenlooper – launched his campaign last month.

Many of the leading contenders are supporters of the single-payer “Medicare for All” health care proposal, a top wish-list item for the progressive base of the Democratic Party.

However, Bennet isn’t endorsing “Medicare for All.” Instead, he teamed up with Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia to come up with a plan called “Medicare-X” which would establish a public option for people maintaining their private insurance.

“I wouldn’t even call it extreme or left wing or too progressive or any of that stuff,” Bennet said when asked about “Medicare for All.” “I know people out there want to have a public option to compete with private insurance. I know they want to have a choice and I know they don’t want to be dictated by the federal government what that choice has to be. That’s how I developed the idea for 'Medicare X.'”

He touted that his plan is “more achievable.”

And, pointing to President Trump’s efforts to scrap ObamaCare, Bennet argued that “we have a president who has spent his administration trying to take health care away from millions of Americans.”

Bennet, who served as superintendent of the Denver public school system before first winning election to the U.S. Senate in 2010, highlighted his push to reform education.

“This will make me unelectable but I’ll say it on the first day – I think kids should go to school six days a week. And, I don’t think they should go to school nine months a year. I think they should go to school off and on year-round,” Bennet told the crowd.

He highlighted that year-round school would narrow the achievement gap, saying that “in the summertime the more affluent kids gain proficiency, the less affluent kids lose proficiency.”

He also stressed that “this is a place with a lot of low hanging fruit where we can make an enormous difference... with some very smart strategic (federal) funding, we can revolutionize community colleges in this country and we could change dramatically what we’re doing in K-12.”

Bennet also urged that Democrats “need a president and leadership in Washington that’s as strategic as” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

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“It’s not about nice. That guy is not nice. But it’s about following through on what he’s trying to do,” he said of the longtime Republican senator from Kentucky. “We need to be as strategic as McConnell.”

But he added, “I do not believe that we need to be as ruthless as McConnell.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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Italy budget unable to boost long-term growth: paper citing EU document

European Union and Italian flags are seen in downtown Rome
European Union and Italian flags are seen in downtown Rome, Italy, October 19, 2018. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

February 21, 2019

MILAN (Reuters) – Italy’s budget does not contain measures able to boost growth and makes Italy a “risk of contagion” for the rest of the euro zone, Italian daily La Repubblica said on Thursday, citing an EU Commission document.

The newspaper cited the commission’s Country Report, due to be approved on Wednesday, as saying the Italian budget would have negative effects on economic growth, deficit and debt.

“There are no measures capable of positively impacting on long-term growth,” the paper cited the document as saying.

(Reporting by Stephen Jewkes; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

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Driver, 28, charged with DUI; vehicle was missing wheel, had margarita drink in cup holder, police say

An Oklahoma woman was arrested early Sunday on DUI charges after police said she drove past them on a rimmed wheel and was later found to have a full margarita drink in the car's cup holder, reports said.

Amy Ann Dillon, 28, was intoxicated and told police she had consumed two tequila shots, according to Tulsa police. She was also not able to produce a driver's license, police said.

"We could hear her coming from a block away," Tulsa police said in a statement on Facebook, referring to the sound of the car rim scraping along the pavement. "She did not do well on her SFST (Standardized Field Sobriety Test) and we found a full Margarita inside her cup holder."

Amy Ann Dillion, 28, was allegedly driving drunk on a rim on Sunday.

Amy Ann Dillion, 28, was allegedly driving drunk on a rim on Sunday. (Tulsa Police Department)

Tulsa police also said Dillon could barely stand upright when speaking with them.

"She blew a .21 and 'climbing,'" which is almost three times the legal limit blood-alcohol content limit of 0.08, the Tulsa World reported, citing Tulsa police.

Dillon's car also showed front-end damage. Authorities didn't immediately know how the car was damaged or how long she drove on the rim, but she could potentially face hit-and-run charges, Oklahoma City's KFOR-TV reported.

Last year, Dillon entered nolo contendere pleas to charges of DUI and leaving the scene of a collision with property damage, the paper reported. She was serving a one-year deferred sentence, court records showed.

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This is Dillon's second DUI offense, and she was also charged with operating a motor vehicle with defective tires, transporting an open container, and driving with no driver's license in possession, according to police.

Dillon remained in the Tulsa County jail Sunday afternoon on $2,000 bail, the World reported, citing jail records.

Source: Fox News National

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Jury finding upends Bayer’s Roundup defense strategy: experts

FILE PHOTO: Werner Baumann, CEO of Bayer AG poses for a picture during the annual results news conference of the German drugmaker in Leverkusen
FILE PHOTO: Werner Baumann, CEO of Bayer AG poses for a picture during the annual results news conference of the German drugmaker in Leverkusen, Germany February 27, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo

March 20, 2019

By Tina Bellon

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bayer AG had hoped a new trial strategy focusing jurors on scientific evidence could stem a burgeoning tide of U.S. lawsuits over its glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup, but a second jury finding on Tuesday that the product caused cancer has narrowed the company’s options, some legal experts said.

Bayer shares tumbled more than 12 percent on Wednesday after a unanimous jury in San Francisco federal court found Roundup to be a “substantial factor” in causing California resident Edwin Hardeman’s non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The jury decision was a blow to Bayer after the judge in the Hardeman case, at the company’s request, had split the trial, severely limiting evidence plaintiffs could present in the first phase. Tuesday’s defeat on terms considered advantageous to Bayer sets up the second phase to be even tougher and limits the grounds on which the company could appeal any final verdict, the experts said.

“The fact that Bayer lost this trial despite it being set up in the most favorable way for them is a huge setback,” said Thomas Rohback, a Connecticut-based defense lawyer.

Bayer in a statement on Tuesday said it stood behind the safety of Roundup and was confident the evidence in the second trial phase would show that Monsanto’s conduct was appropriate and the company not liable for Hardeman’s cancer.

The company, which bought Monsanto last year, on Wednesday declined to comment beyond that statement.

Tuesday’s finding did not address liability, which will be determined following the second trial phase that began on Wednesday.

Bayer denies glyphosate or Roundup cause cancer. The German company faces more than 11,200 lawsuits over the popular weed killer. Last August, following the first Roundup trial, a California state court jury issued a $289 million verdict against the company.

Two weeks after that verdict, which was later reduced to $78 million and is being appealed, Bayer Chief Executive Werner Baumann reassured analysts that the company had a new legal strategy based on focusing jurors on the scientific evidence.

“Bayer and the joint litigation team are working to ensure that, going forward, this overwhelming science will get the full consideration it deserves,” Baumann said in an Aug. 23 conference call.

A LOT AT STAKE

There is a lot at stake for Bayer, which acquired Roundup maker Monsanto last year for $63 billion. Though Bayer does not break out sales figures for Roundup, glyphosate is the world’s most widely used weed killer, and Roundup is the leading brand.

Bayer’s new strategy was focused on keeping out plaintiffs’ allegations that the company improperly influenced scientists, regulators and the public about the safety of Roundup. Bayer has denied it acted inappropriately and said in public statements following the August verdict that it thought the jury was inflamed by the claims of corporate misconduct.

Vince Chhabria, the San Francisco federal judge overseeing the Hardeman case, agreed with the company’s argument that such evidence was a “distraction” from the scientific question of whether glyphosate causes cancer. He agreed to split the trial in a January order.

Had Bayer had won the first phase, there would have been no second phase looking at company liability. Now that it has lost, almost all of the previously excluded evidence can be presented to the jury.

Plaintiffs’ lawyers hit Bayer with those allegations in their opening statements for the second phase on Wednesday. Aimee Wagstaff, one of Hardeman’s lawyers, said Monsanto influenced the science around Roundup through its “cozy” relationship with regulators.

Bayer could convince the jury in the second phase that, despite their finding that Roundup played a substantial role in Hardeman’s cancer, the company was not liable. Experts said that was unlikely.

“They could present evidence of how careful they were in developing Roundup, but that’s an uphill battle given that the scientific evidence was their strongest argument,” said Alexandra Lahav, a law professor at the University of Connecticut.

A lawyer for Bayer on Wednesday argued that Bayer could not be held liable because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as well as other regulators worldwide, approved Roundup without a cancer warning.

If the Hardeman trial had not been split and a final verdict went against Bayer, the company might have been able to appeal any damages award to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals by claiming the jury had been improperly swayed by inflammatory evidence, said Lori Jarvis, a Virginia-based mass tort defense lawyer. That argument will now be difficult to make.

“It would not be surprising at all for the 9th Circuit to uphold what the jury did in this case, particularly given the great effort Chhabria put into creating a level playing field for Monsanto,” Jarvis said.

Some lawyers said Bayer could still argue on appeal that plaintiffs’ experts and their scientific evidence were insufficient and statistically invalid and should not have been admitted at trial. But they noted the 9th Circuit, which oversees the San Francisco federal court, has generally been permissive in allowing expert testimony.

However, experts said it was probably too soon to write off Bayer’s legal strategy, noting future Roundup cases could result in different outcomes.

“It’s a relatively early phase in this litigation as a whole and we just need to see more trials to understand Bayer’s liability,” said Adam Zimmerman, a law professor at Los Angeles-based Loyola Law School.

(Reporting by Tina Bellon; Editing by Anthony Lin and Bill Berkrot)

Source: OANN

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EU to take action against Poland if judges harassed for consulting ECJ

European Commission first Vice-President Timmermans delivers a speech during a debate on BREXIT, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg
European Commission first Vice-President Frans Timmermans (R) delivers a speech during a debate on BREXIT after the vote on british Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, January 16, 2019. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler

February 19, 2019

By Jan Strupczewski

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission will take action against Poland if its government is harassing judges for consulting the European Court of Justice on the legality of Polish reforms, Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans said on Tuesday.

Timmermans, responsible in the Commission for making sure European Union countries observe the rule of law, was responding to a letter from Poland’s biggest judge association Iustitia, which asked him to act.

Iustitia urged Timmermans to sue the nationalist and eurosceptic Polish government over the harassment of judges who question the legality of the government’s judicial reforms, by asking the opinion of the ECJ.

“Every Polish judge is also a European judge, so no one should interfere with the right of a judge to pose questions to the European Court of Justice,” Timmermans told reporters on entering a meeting of EU ministers who were to discuss Poland’s observance of the rule of law.

“If that is becoming something of a structural matter, if judges are being faced with disciplinary measures because they ask questions to the court in Luxembourg, then of course the Commission will have to act,” Timmermans said, without elaborating.

The Polish government of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has been in conflict with the Commission for undermining the independence of Poland’s courts since the start of 2016.

PROCEDURE

Worried about the government flouting basic democratic standards in the country of 38 million people, the Commission has launched an unprecedented procedure on whether Poland is observing the rules of law, which serves mainly as a means of political pressure.

The procedure could lead to the loss of voting power in the EU for a government that does not observe the rule of law.

Poland was the first ever to be put under that procedure, by the European Commission for undermining the independence of the courts

“Sadly, not much has changed and some things even have worsened,” Timmermans said.

The EU has also launched a similar procedure against Hungary, where the authoritarian rule of Prime Minister Viktor Orban is raising concern in other EU countries. Brussels has also warned Romania to stop its push for influence over the judicial system.

    Iustitia, grouping one third of all Polish judges, wrote to Timmermans to act against repressive disciplinary steps against judges by the National Council of Judiciary, which, under changes made by the PiS government, is now appointed by politicians from the ruling PiS parliamentary majority.

    “The proceedings are usually initiated against judges who are active in the field of defending the rule of law, among others by educational actions, meetings with citizens, international activity,” Iustitia head Krystian Markiewicz wrote in the letter to Timmermans, seen by Reuters.

    “Therefore I appeal for referring Poland to the Court of Justice of the European Union in connection with the regulations concerning the disciplinary proceedings against judges,” he wrote.

(Additional reporting by Joanna Plucinska in Warsaw, Writing by Jan Strupczewski; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Source: OANN

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ECB’s Coeure sees no argument for tiered deposit rate: FAZ

FILE PHOTO: Benoit Coeure, board member of the European Central Bank (ECB), is photographed during an interview with Reuters journalists at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt
FILE PHOTO: Benoit Coeure, board member of the European Central Bank (ECB), is photographed during an interview with Reuters journalists at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany, May 17, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

April 23, 2019

BERLIN (Reuters) – European Central Bank board member Benoit Coeure sees no reason for creating a tiered deposit rate that exempts banks from part of an ECB charge on their idle cash, he said in an interview published on Tuesday.

Coeure argued that lenders should focus on their costs rather than blame the ECB’s negative rate for their low profits and hinted that the upcoming round of multi-year loans to banks should not be as generous as the previous edition.

“At the current juncture, I do not see the monetary policy argument for tiering,” Coeure told German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “However, we must keep a close eye on developments.”

He was joining other members of the ECB’s Governing Council in expressing reservations about a tiered system, which would relieve banks from paying a 0.40 percent annual charge on a portion of their excess reserves.

Such a set-up, already introduced in countries including Japan and Switzerland, would make it easier for the ECB to keep its deposit rate at record lows for longer or even cut it, by easing the burden on banks.

The ECB has said it won’t raise rates at least until the end of the year but financial markets don’t price in a rate hike until 2021.

In his interview, Coeure distanced himself from those expectations.

“We are not tied to such market expectations; they are an important input, but we are not led by them,” Coeure said, adding they reflected “an assessment of the downside risks which is different to that of the Governing Council”.

Coeure added that the terms of the ECB’s new Targeted Long-Term Financing Operations, likely to be unveiled in June, would reflect the improved lending conditions compared to when the previous round of cheap loans was introduced in 2016.

Finally, he stuck to ECB expectations for a rebound in growth, albeit with a degree of uncertainty.

“We expect growth to return in the second half of the year. There are no grounds for overly gloomy thoughts,” he said. “On the other hand, it is very uncertain how long and how strong the downturn will be.”

(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; Writing by Francesco Canepa in Frankfurt; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

Source: OANN

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Shock, prayers around the world for Notre Dame Cathedral

The world reacted with shock, horror and prayers to the massive fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

As the flames tore through the 12th-century cathedral, Spain's prime minister offered France the help of his country in the recovery.

The fire is a "catastrophe for France, for Spain and for Europe," Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez tweeted, adding that the flames are destroying "850 years of history, architecture, painting and sculpture."

U.S. President Donald Trump said the cathedral "might be greater than almost any museum in the world and it's burning, very badly." He said the fire, which dominated news coverage, was a terrible sight to behold.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, said he prayed at his city's St. Patrick's Cathedral for intercession.

Source: Fox News National

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Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner said Tuesday that a detailed plan for a merit-based immigration system will be presented to President Trump, giving priority to skilled immigrants rather than those with family ties to the U.S.

“I do believe that the president’s position on immigration has been maybe defined by his opponents by what he’s against as opposed to what he’s for,” Kushner said at the Time 100 Summit in New York City. “What I’ve done is I’ve tried to put together a very detailed proposal for him.”

KUSHNER: RUSSIA INVESTIGATION HAD ‘HARSHER IMPACT’ ON US THAN ELECTION MEDDLING

Kushner announced that the new immigration proposal, which Trump will receive this week or next, will resemble the point-based systems in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and will unify people by ensuring strong wages and secure borders while protecting humanitarian values.

“We want to protect our country’s humanitarian values. We want to make sure we’re reunifying families, and we want to do this in a way that allows our country to be competitive long term,” he said. “And my hope is we can really do something that unifies people around what we’re for on immigration.”

“We want to protect our country’s humanitarian values. We want to make sure we’re reunifying families, and we want to do this in a way that allows our country to be competitive long term. And my hope is we can really do something that unifies people around what we’re for on immigration.”

— Jared Kushner

JARED KUSHNER RESPONDS AFTER HASAN MINHAJ CALLS OUT HIS TIES TO SAUDI PRINCE

Kushner denied in the same talk that he has clashed with White House staffer Stephen Miller, who’s seen as tougher on immigration than others, adding that the plan was concocted with the help of Miller and Kevin Hassett, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.

“And I say that If that if I can get Stephen Miller and Kevin Hassett to agree on an immigration plan, then Middle East peace will be easy by comparison,” Kushner joked, referring to the Israel-Palestine peace plan he’s working on.

“And I say that If that if I can get Stephen Miller and Kevin Hassett to agree on an immigration plan, then Middle East peace will be easy by comparison.”

— Jared Kushner

After the plan gets presented to Trump, it will likely undergo some changes and then he will decide when to proceed with it, Kushner said.

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“It’s very, very complicated, but it’s a very interesting issue, and if we can solve it, I do think it’s a critical component for America’s long-term competitive advantage,” he added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday said his government must make men aware of the dangers of poor hygiene after expressing dismay over the 1,000 penis amputations that apparently occur in his country each year.

“In Brazil, we have 1,000 penis amputations a year due to a lack of water and soap,” he said while speaking to reporters in Brasilia after visiting the Education Ministry. “We have to find a way to get out of the bottom of this hole.”

The far-right leader called the figure “ridiculous and sad,” Reuters reported. A spokeswoman for the Brazilian urology society told the news agency the number is based on its official data for penis amputations.

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The amputations were conducted out of necessity over untreated infections, along with complications from HIV and various cancers, she said.

Source: Fox News World

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A top Russian diplomat says Russia is willing to negotiate a new nuclear weapons treaty with the United States and China.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters on Friday Moscow is closely following reports in the United States that the U.S. would like to reach a nuclear weapons deal with both Russia and China, and is “willing” to negotiate. The story was reported by CNN earlier Friday.

Ryabkov also said that Russia “would like to convince” the U.S. to adopt a joint statement that would condemn any use of nuclear weapons.

Ryabkov’s comments come just months after the U.S. withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a cornerstone of the post-Cold War security, and Russia followed suit. Each claims breaches by the other.

Source: Fox News National

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Government dysfunction and an intelligence failure that preceded the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka are traced to simmering divisions between the president and prime minister after a weekslong political crisis that crippled the country last year.

The government has admitted to a “lapse of intelligence” after officials failed to act upon near-specific information received from foreign agencies. Suicide bombers exploded themselves last Sunday in three churches and three luxury hotels, killing 253 people and wounding 400 more. Authorities said eight Muslim militants blew themselves up at their targets while the wife of one of the attackers blasted herself on being rounded up by police.

The carnage has brought forth arguments that worshippers and holidaymakers fell victim to the rivalry and a lack of communication between the country’s two leaders — President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The Cabinet led by Wickremesinghe says neither he nor his ministers were informed of the intelligence received by the defense authorities. Sirisena is the head of state, defense minister, minister in charge of the police and head of the armed forces. He also chairs the National Security Council, which includes the heads of security agencies and departments. Traditionally the prime minister also plays an important role on the council.

According to Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, Sirisena has not included Wickremesinghe in national security affairs since a dispute between them came into the open in October last year. This is an unusual departure from the protocol, he said.

Senaratne said that Sirisena was overseas when the attacks took place and even after that, the National Security Council refused to meet with Wickremesinghe as he tried to give them instructions.

Sirisena has also said that he was not informed of the intelligence received and vowed to overhaul the leadership of the defense forces.

The top bureaucrat at the Defense Ministry, Hemasiri Fernando, has resigned at Sirisena’s insistence.

“It is a major factor,” said Jehan Perera, the head of local activist group National Peace Council, referring to the alleged lack of coordination between the leaders contributing to the failure to prevent the attacks.

“The primary responsibility has to be taken by the president, he did not give the information and he did not act,” Perera said. “He had the Ministry of Defense, took the police from the prime minister, chaired the National Security Council meetings and did nothing,” Perera said.

Kusal Perera, a journalist and political commentator, says security and intelligence officials should have acted on the information whether or not they received orders from politicians.

“If they (Wickremesinghe and his party) were not invited to the National Security Council, why did not they say in Parliament that they were not responsible for the security of the country any longer,” said Perera, who is not related to Jehan Perera.

“Saying that now is taking political advantage, not taking responsibility,” he said.

Sirisena and Wickremesinghe belong to different political parties but came together for Sirisena’s presidential campaign in 2015. Their relationships broke down and their differences exploded last year when Sirisena suddenly sacked Wickremesinghe as prime minister and appointed in his place former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa, whom he defeated in the presidential election. The crisis crippled the country for more than seven weeks to the point of not being able to pass this year’s national budget on time.

A court decision compelled Sirisena to reappoint Wickremesinghe, but the two leaders have been rivals within the same government.

Rajapaksa, who is the minority leader in Parliament, blames the government for weakening intelligence and dropping its guard, which he had maintained to defeat the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels 10 years ago to end the 26-year-old civil war. He also criticized the government for the detention of intelligence officers accused of extrajudicial killings and abductions during the closing days of the war, which he said crippled the security apparatus before the bombings. According to conservative U.N estimates, some 100,000 people were killed in Sri Lanka’s conflict.

Sirisena summoned an all-party conference Thursday to which Wickremesinghe was also invited. At the conference, Sirisena stressed “setting aside all the political beliefs and difference (so that) everybody should collectively commit towards building a peaceful environment within the country,” a statement from his office said.

“It is not a secret that the disagreements between me and the government aggravated over the past two years,” Sirisena told the country’s media executives Friday. “One of the reasons for that is weakening of military intelligence and arresting military officials unnecessarily and my speaking up against it within and outside the government.”

Jehan Perera said that the security threat could prove politically advantageous to Rajapaksa and his family, with a presidential election scheduled at the end of this year. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, a younger brother of Mahinda, was the powerful defense secretary during his brother’s reign and has expressed his interest to join the contest.

“People are saying we want a stronger leader and they are talking about Gotabhaya. It (the blasts) has worked to their benefit,” Perera said.

Source: Fox News World

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Cyprus police are intensifying a search for the remains of more victims at locations where an army officer, who authorities say admitted to killing five women and two girls, allegedly had dumped their bodies.

Police said Friday’s search will concentrate on a military firing range, a reservoir and a man-made lake near an abandoned mine approximately 32 kilometers (20 miles) west of the capital Nicosia.

On Thursday, the 35-year-old suspect told investigators that he had killed four more people than he had previously admitted to. All the suspect’s alleged victims are foreign nationals.

Police have already found the bodies of a 38-year-old Filipino woman and two as yet unidentified women.

Search crews are now looking for the daughter of the 38-year-old, a Romanian mother and daughter and another Filipino woman.

Source: Fox News World

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