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Four Zimbabwe generals retired in Mnangagwa’s first purge of military

FILE PHOTO: President Emmerson Mnangagwa arrives for the official opening of the ruling party ZANU PF's annual conference in Esigodini, outside Bulawayo
FILE PHOTO: President Emmerson Mnangagwa arrives for the official opening of the ruling party ZANU PF's annual conference in Esigodini, outside Bulawayo, Zimbabwe December 14, 2018. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo/File Photo

February 18, 2019

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa retired four generals on Monday, in the first major shake-up of the armed forces since he took office and including the man who led a deadly crackdown against post-election protests in August.

The quartet’s removal also coincided with the absence abroad of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga – the retired general responsible for ousting former president Robert Mugabe in November 2017 and now widely viewed inside the country as the power behind Mnangagwa’s administration.

All four generals will be appointed to diplomatic posts overseas in line with Zimbabwe’s “critical global engagement and re-engagement strategy,” a government spokesman said.

Mnangagwa has been under increasing pressure to take action over allegations of brutality by the security forces since a second crackdown in January, triggered by a sharp hike in fuel costs that he had decreed.

That violence led to accusations from opposition parties that the country is reverting to the authoritarian rule that characterized much of Mugabe’s 37-year rule.

The most high-profile of the sidelined commanders was Major General Anselem Sanyatwe, who led the presidential guard and drew widespread criticism for telling an inquiry into the post-election violence that one of his soldiers caught on video shooting into a crowd was firing into the air at a 45 degree angle.

The inquiry found that the military used “disproportionate and unjustified” force, including live bullets, to quell the Aug. 1 unrest.

Mnangagwa also retired Major General Douglas Nyikayaramba, the defense forces inspector general who had been largely absent from day-to day operations since November 2017.

Air Vice Marshal Shebba Shumbayawonda and army chief of staff Major General Martin Chedondo were the other two retired officials.

“Government will release accreditation details for each … once various bilateral consultations are concluded,” Mnangagwa’s chief secretary, Misheck Sibanda, said in a statement.

By posting the officers outside the country, Mnangagwa is continuing a tradition that flourished under Mugabe, who used to sideline those who fell out of favor with him.

But Mugabe’s plan in 2017 to retire several generals seen as against moves to appoint his wife Grace as vice president was one reason behind his removal, army sources say.

(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; editing by John Stonestreet)

Source: OANN

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Short European equities ‘most crowded’ trade in BAML survey

The German share price index DAX graph at the stock exchange in Frankfurt
FILE PHOTO: The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, March 12, 2019. REUTERS/Staff

March 19, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Fund managers have named bearish bets in European equities as the “most crowded” trade for the first time, replacing emerging markets, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s March survey released on Tuesday.

Investors have shunned European stocks for some time, betting the market would be weaker compared with the United States and other regions as euro-zone economic growth slows and Britain’s chaotic exit from the European Union raises worries about disruption to its economy.

A slowdown in China, the world’s No. 2 economy, topped the list of biggest tail risks, ousting the trade war, which had been at the forefront of investor concerns for the previous nine months, the survey showed.

BAML’s March survey – conducted between March 8-14, with 239 panelists managing $664 billion in total – also showed investor risk appetite continued to fall, with global equity allocations remaining at September 2016 lows.

(Reporting by Josephine Mason, Editing by Helen Reid)

Source: OANN

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Bereaved families blame Boeing after Ethiopia crash report

Dried flowers are seen at a family grave site for victims of the Ethiopian Airlines ET 302 plane crash in Nakuru County
Dried flowers are seen at a family grave site for victims of the Ethiopian Airlines ET 302 plane crash in Nakuru County, Kenya April 5, 2019. REUTERS/George Nganga

April 5, 2019

By Jason Neely and Duncan Miriri

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia/NAKURU, Kenya (Reuters) – Mourning families of Ethiopian Airlines passengers who died in last month’s crash are asking awkward and angry questions of U.S. planemaker Boeing after closely following a preliminary report into the disaster.

Though Ethiopian investigators’ remit was not to find blame, they implicitly pointed at Boeing by recommending it fix a faulty system and saying pilots followed pre-established procedures, before the 737 MAX crashed killing all 157 on board.

Konjit Shafi, who lost her 31-year-old brother Sintayehu, listened to the Ethiopian transport minister’s press conference live on Thursday and wondered why lessons were not learned from a similar MAX disaster in Indonesia last October.

“Boeing – they knew the problem already,” she said, referring to an automatic anti-stall system in the MAX model that tipped the jets down in both cases due to faulty sensors.

“If they could have announced the problem to the airlines first, the accident may not have happened,” she told Reuters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Boeing has expressed condolences and promised a software fix. It will also have awkward questions of its own – over whether the Ethiopian crew correctly followed guidance not to restore power to the anti-stall system following sensor damage, and why the plane was also at unusually high thrust.

For Konjit, the report’s release on Thursday brought back her last words with her brother, who called after takeoff to say hello as the family lived in the flight path.

“He asked me to go outside and see the plane because he was just above our home,” she said, sitting in a dimly lit front room in front of a portrait from Sintayehu’s university graduation and a row of burned candles.

“I called him again and asked how the network was working and he answered ‘I don’t know, it’s just working until now’ and then ‘good bye’. I think it’s at that time that the accident happened.”

Flight 302 had taken off late, at 8:38 a.m., and contact was lost six minutes later. It crashed into a dusty plain under still blue skies with such force that much of the wreckage was buried in the dry earth.

“PROFITS BEFORE LIVES”?

Among those on board were three generations of one Kenyan family – grandmother Anne Wangui Karanja, her daughter and her three young grandchildren.

In the back yard of the family home in the central Kenyan town of Nakuru, bunches of white roses were wilting on a newly-built stone memorial, emblazoned with photos, dates of birth and words of remembrance.

“From the report, we gather that the manufacturer is the problem,” said Quindos Karanja, who lost his mother, sister, nieces and nephew. “My anger comes in because they (Boeing) were putting profits before lives.”

The family read the crash report online as soon as it was published, and have followed news coverage with the aid of a stream of lawyers arriving at their home.

“It is good that the CEO of Boeing came out and owned up, but all we want, before these planes go back into the skies, is that they make sure everything is taken care of,” Karanja said.

“We don’t want to have such a tragedy because it is very painful,” he said.

Boeing has not admitted liability, but its boss Dennis Muilenburg said on Thursday the company was working to eliminate the risk of “erroneous activation” of the so-called MCAS anti-stall system via a software update and pilot training.

The 737 MAX fleet has been grounded worldwide as a precaution. If culpability is found, it could open the world’s biggest planemaker to a slew of lawsuits.

Relatives of an American woman killed in the crash, Samya Stumo, filed the first lawsuit on behalf of a U.S. victim in Chicago. The complaint targeted Boeing and Rosemount Aerospace Inc, the manufacturer of the sensor at the heart of the inquiry.

Stumo is the niece of consumer activist Ralph Nader, who has called for a boycott of the 737 MAX.

“We as passengers need to demand that planes be safe so that noone else dies,” said her mother Nadia Milleron.

“Profits should not come before safety, and we are making this effort here to help prevent a third crash.”

(Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

Source: OANN

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Brazil soccer legend Pele leaves hospital in France

Brazilian soccer legend Pele is seen in Paris
FILE PHOTO: Brazilian soccer legend Pele is seen in Paris, April 2, 2019. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

April 9, 2019

PARIS (Reuters) – Brazilian soccer legend Pele was discharged from a French hospital on Monday after recovering from a urinary infection, media in France reported.

Pele, 78, was admitted to the hospital in Paris last Wednesday with a strong fever, after attending an event in the city with France’s World Cup-winning player Kylian Mbapp.

Pele, considered by many as soccer’s best-ever player and the winner of three World Cups with the Brazilian national team, was treated with antibiotics and said on Friday he was feeling much better.

There was no immediate confirmation of the discharge from Pele’s press office in Brazil.

(Reporting by Jean-Stéphane Brosse in Paris; Writing by Marcelo Teixeira in Sao Paulo; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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Head of Chinese energy agency expelled from Communist Party

The head of China's energy planning agency has been expelled from the country's ruling Communist Party and dismissed from his posts.

China's disciplinary committee announced Saturday evening that Nur Bekri used his authority to aid others in job placement, business operations and mineral resource development in exchange for huge amounts of money and property.

Bekri was one of the most senior officials from the predominantly Muslim Uighur (WEE-gur) ethnic minority in China's far west Xinjiang region.

He became director of the National Energy Administration in 2014 and was also deputy chairman of the Cabinet's economic planning agency.

The disciplinary commission said Bekri's case will now be investigated by criminal prosecutors.

Thousands of both high- and low-level officials have been detained in President Xi Jinping's multi-year crackdown on corruption.

Source: Fox News World

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Partner of accused ex-cop: Feared ambush before woman shot

The partner of a Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed woman who had called 911 to report a possible crime testified Thursday that he heard a thump on the officers' squad car right before the shooting and feared a possible ambush.

Officer Matthew Harrity's testimony echoed a key claim by Mohamed Noor, who fired a single shot at Justine Ruszczyk Damond as she approached the officers' squad car on July 15, 2017. Damond had placed two 911 calls that night to report a possible sexual assault in the alley behind her home. Struck in the abdomen, the 40-year-old dual citizen of the U.S. and Australia, quickly bled to death in an incident that sparked anger and disbelief in both countries.

Harrity, who was driving, described a tense scene, with he and Noor rolling down the dark alley with headlights off, using a spotlight to search for any evidence of a woman in trouble. Harrity said at one point took a safety off his holster, but that when they neared the end of the alley without finding anything, he thought he had replaced it.

Harrity — wearing his uniform and appearing composed on the stand — testified that he had a "weird feeling" to his left but couldn't make out what it was.

"At this time I hear something hit the car and I also hear some sort of murmur," he said. He immediately drew his gun and held it to his ribs pointing downward, he said.

Prosecutor Amy Sweazy asked Harrity if he always pulled his gun when startled. He said it depends.

"In this situation, with the thump and being startled, I went straight to, 'This could be an ambush,'" Harrity answered. He added: "My first thought is, I'm going to make sure whatever it was is not a threat to me."

Harrity said as he tried to make sense of what was happening, he heard a pop and looked over to see that Noor had fired across him and through the window.

Neither officer had their body cameras running at that point, something Harrity blamed on what he called a vague policy that didn't require it. Both men switched them on afterward, and a portion of Harrity's was played Thursday.

It shows efforts by the two men to save Damond with CPR. Damond's labored breathing is hard, with Harrity saying, "Stay with me, stay with me, stay breathing." He also is heard addressing his partner: "Noor, breathe, just breathe."

At one point, as Harrity steps away to get medical supplies, he cautions Noor to slow down the CPR, and reassures Noor that an ambulance is coming.

A medical examiner testified earlier that Damond was hit in a key artery and lost so much blood so quickly that even faster medical care might not have saved her.

It's not clear whether Noor will testify.

Damond was white. Noor , 33, is a Somali American whose hire two years before the shooting was celebrated by Minneapolis leaders as a sign of a diversifying police force in a city with a large population of Somali immigrants.

Much of the prosecution's early case focused on the handling of the crime scene by police and state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agents, including possible missteps. They also highlighted officers turning their body cameras on and off repeatedly after the shooting.

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Follow Amy Forliti on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amyforliti

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Check out the AP's complete coverage of Mohamed Noor's trial.

Source: Fox News National

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Howard Schultz’s sole purpose is to get Trump re-elected: Juan Williams

The Five” co-host Juan Williams called possible presidential candidate and former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz “irrelevant” Tuesday, saying that the “only purpose” he serves” is to get President Trump re-elected.

“Howard Schultz, goodness gracious, he is so irrelevant to this whole conversation except when it serves your purpose, because guess what? He's not even running as a Democrat,” Williams said.

“Independent,” co-host Jesse Watters interjected.

HOWARD SCHULTZ CONCERNED BY BIDEN ACCUSATIONS AND TIMING

“Howard Schultz, the only purpose he serves right now is to get Trump re-elected, you know,  to try to divide up support for Democrats,” Williams added. He called Schultz “Kryptonite for Democrats.”

Williams and “The Five” discussed the Democratic presidential candidates and a party shift toward the left, reacting to Schultz criticizing the Democratic field for “crying” about capitalism.

“All these politicians who are crying about capitalism. Have they ever made a payroll? Have they ever worked in a business? What have they done other than criticize the system?” Schultz said on "Fox Business Monday."

SCHULTZ: FEDERAL DEBT OUT OF CONTROL

Source: Fox News 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)

Source: OANN

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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)

Source: OANN

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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)

Source: OANN

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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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