This undated photo provided by the Aurora, Ill., Police Department shows missing child, Timmothy Pitzen. Police in the Chicago suburb of Aurora say the department is sending two detectives to the Cincinnati area to investigate a missing child report that could involve the Aurora boy who disappeared in 2011. Aurora Police Sgt. Bill Rowley said Wednesday, April 3, 2019 that the department knows there is a boy involved but they don't know who he is or if he has any connection to the Timmothy Pitzen case. (Aurora Police Department via AP)
CINCINNATI – The Latest on efforts to confirm the identity of a 14-year-old who told police he is Timmothy Pitzen, an Illinois boy who has been missing since 2011 (all times local):
4:45 p.m.
Authorities have rejected a teenager's claim that he is an Illinois boy who disappeared in 2011 at age 6.
The FBI says DNA testing ruled out the teenager as being Timmothy Pitzen, missing from Aurora, Illinois. Police say the story of the teenager found wandering streets in Newport, Kentucky, on Wednesday didn't check out.
The teenager told police that he was Timmothy and that he had escaped two kidnappers.
Authorities didn't immediately release the teenager's true identity or other information.
Timmothy Pitzen disappeared around the time his mother killed herself after leaving a note that her 6-year-old son was fine but that no one would ever find him.
Police and the boy's family say there have been other false sightings over the years.
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2:25 p.m.
The former principal at Timmothy Pitzen's elementary school says his thoughts have been with the boy's family since a teenager told police in Kentucky he was Timmothy, who disappeared in 2011.
As authorities tried Thursday to confirm the teen's identity, Nick Baughman said he hopes the results provide the Pitzen family with "peace and closure and they would heal." The teen was found Wednesday in Newport, near Cincinnati.
Baughman now is an administrator at another Illinois school district. He was Greenman Elementary principal in Aurora, Illinois, when Amy Fry-Pitzen removed her 6-year-old son early from school.
Fry-Pitzen later was found dead at a hotel in Illinois in a suicide. She left a note that said Timmothy was with others who would love and care for him.
Baughman says "it was just one of those moments where you maintain hope and be supportive and say a lot of prayers."
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12 p.m.
Police in the Illinois hometown of a boy missing since 2011 say they can't yet confirm that he is in fact a teenager found wandering in Kentucky.
The Aurora police department says they are assisting an FBI investigation and hope to have something more definitive later Thursday.
Authorities are trying to confirm the identity of a 14-year-old boy who told police in Newport, Kentucky, that he escaped two kidnappers in the Cincinnati area and ran across a bridge. He said his name is Timmothy Pitzen.
In 2011, Timmothy Pitzen's mother killed herself, leaving a note saying her son was fine but that no one would ever find him. Timmothy was 6 years old.
Aurora police sent two detectives to check out the teenager's story. Timmothy's grandmother and an aunt said that police were using DNA testing.
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10:50 a.m.
The grandmother of an Illinois boy missing since 2011 says she's trying not to get her hopes up after hearing that he might be alive.
Speaking from her home in northern Illinois, Alana Anderson says "there have been so many tips and sightings and what not and you try not to panic or be overly excited."
Authorities are trying to confirm the identity of a 14-year-old boy who told police in Newport, Kentucky, that he escaped two kidnappers in the Cincinnati area and ran across a bridge. He said his name is Timmothy Pitzen.
In 2011, then-6-year-old Timmothy Pitzen's mother killed herself, leaving a note saying her son was fine but that no one would ever find him.
Anderson says her daughter was having problems with her fourth marriage and had battled depression for years.
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8:30 a.m.
Authorities are trying to confirm the identity of a teenager who told police he is an Illinois boy missing since 2011.
A 14-year-old boy told police in Newport, Kentucky, on Wednesday that he escaped two kidnappers in the Cincinnati area and ran across a bridge. He said his name was Timmothy Pitzen.
In 2011, then-6-year-old Timmothy Pitzen's mother picked him up at school in Illinois, took him to the zoo and a water park, and later killed herself at a hotel, leaving a note saying her son was fine but that no one would ever find him.
Police from Aurora, Illinois, sent two detectives to the Cincinnati area, where the FBI and local police are investigating. The boy was taken to a hospital, but no information was released.
ATHENS, Greece – Greece's Supreme Court has upheld a damage award of 800,000 euros ($900,000) for the family of a student who was fatally shot while riding a motorcycle past an army camp.
The court's decision, made public on Tuesday, upheld a lower court ruling which the Greek government had appealed. The government argued the amount awarded was excessive.
The 22-year-old student died on July 25, 2000 from bullet wounds he received while riding at night past the Skaramangas army camp west of Athens.
A junior officer was convicted of firing the rounds while investigating reports of suspicious whistling near the camp's perimeter fence. He received a 13-year prison sentence.
The motorcycle was on a highway 170 meters (yards) away from the fence when the student was hit.
A transgender woman in New York was arrested for allegedly targeting numerous white people in a hate crime spree.
Police on Saturday arrested 37-year-old Thomas Herd, a black trans woman they suspect of carrying out a string of attacks targeting white people in the Bronx and upper Manhattan.
One couple told CBS New York Herd approached them in the Bronx and asked if they were white, before using pepper spray on them.
“She pepper sprayed me, I couldn’t see anything,” the female victim said. “It really sucked because I knew it was a hate crime.”
Herd also reportedly threatened the couple with a knife when they attempted to approach her.
After taking Herd to a hospital for a mental evaluation, investigators attempted to tie her to similar cases where other white people had been approached and sprayed with “an unknown chemical substance.”
“Police say the first incident happened on the downtown platform of the 2 and 3 trains at the 125th Street and Lenox Avenue station. The suspect allegedly sprayed five people while walking westbound on 125th Street towards St. Nicholas Avenue, according to police,” reports CBS New York.
Seeking your help identifying this individual sought for multiple assaults in the subway system & street level in the vicinity of 125th St station (2/3 lines) @NYPD28Pct & 96th St station (1-line) @NYPD24Pct on March 8. Contact CrimeStoppers @NYPDTips if you can help. pic.twitter.com/V5pVPPFW29
“Around an hour later, the same person allegedly sprayed a 30-year-old woman while waiting on the subway platform at the 96th Street and Broadway station.”
Police are still investigating whether Herd was behind all 11 of the attacks, and have not said whether they’ll pursue hate crime charges.
Elizabeth Warren’s plan for student loan debt cancellation and free college tuition – costing $1.25 trillion over 10 years – does little to address two major education issues, according to one critic.
Brian Brenberg, associate professor and chair of the program in business and finance at the King’s College in New York, said Warren’s plan contains “big problems” during an appearance on “Fox and Friends” on Tuesday morning.
“One of the big problems is costs here. We are talking about trillions of dollars,” he said. “She wants to forgive loans for people who have loans now. She is not talking about folks who paid their loans off in the past and sitting there and thinking what a chump I am that I paid off my loans. That's a big problem.”
"She is not talking about folks who paid their loans off in the past and sitting there and thinking what a chump I am that I paid off my loans. That's a big problem.”
Under Warren’s plan, unveiled on Monday, each person’s student debt would get a relief of $50,000 if household income is up to $100,000. Higher incomes would also be entitled to massive debt reductions, while only those households with earnings of over $250,000 would get no student debt reduction.
But Brenberg points that while Warren’s proposal attempts to tackle the issue of massive student loan debts, it does little to address the real problem of what causes so many graduates to remain indebted for years, which is the quality of education.
“She is also not talking about the value people get from schools. So, yeah, people have a lot of loans. $1.5 trillion in loans,” Brenberg said.
“But the problem is they are not getting value for their education which is why they can't pay off those loans. Let's talk about that. She doesn't want to hold the universities accountable.”
But the problem is they are not getting value for their education which is why they can't pay off those loans. Let's talk about that. She doesn't want to hold the universities accountable.”
According to the details provided by Warren, her student debt cancelation plan has a one-off price tag of $640 billion to the government.
But Warren’s proposal also proposes to eliminate tuition and fees for two and four-year public college degree programs, as well as a $100 billion investment in Pell Grants, a federal aid program that requires no payback – bringing the total price tag of about $1.25 trillion over 10 years.
She claims that the cost of the policy, in addition to her proposed universal free college, would be “be “more than covered by my Ultra-Millionaire Tax -- a 2% annual tax on the 75,000 families with $50 million or more in wealth.”
CNN president Jeff Zucker delivered a keynote speech at SXSW Saturday that saw him expressing belief that there was political motivation behind the Justice Department's lawsuit to stop AT&T's acquisition of his parent company, Time Warner, as well as discussing the Democratic National Convention's relationship with the media.
Referring to comments Trump said in regard to filing suits against the deal, Zucker stated that he believed there was political motivation to block progress. "I believe that it came from the highest levels of the government," he said.
Earlier this week members of Congress petitioned the Department of Justice to look into whether or not there was interference with the deal as a report surfaced alleging that Trump ordered Gary Cohn to pressure the DOJ to block the merger.
"There was absolutely no basis for the government doing what they were doing," he said. "Clearly there was a political agenda at work, and I don't think it takes being a genius to where that comes from."
Zucker's appearance at the Austin, Texas-based entertainment and tech festival came less than a week after taking on both sports and news under WarnerMedia. In discussing his lateral move within the company, Zucker said that although his "two passions in life are news and sports" CNN would remain "fundamentally about news."
Zucker equally criticized the relationship between the Trump White House and Fox News, calling the network a "propaganda network" and noting their relationship is "completely symbiotic," which is detrimental to journalism. Zucker has spoken out about Fox News before and repeated some of his concerns by adding that the network has "done a lot of damage to the political discourse" in the country.
The controversy surrounding new hire, and Trump Administration aide Sarah Isgur Flores was brought up, but laid to rest by Zucker. Noting the similarities and quick transitions for many who work in politics to and from both journalism and entertainment, he stood by the choice citing the diversity in political leanings as healthy for the industry. Before moving on, Zucker mentioned Isgur Flores taking a step back from her role "due to recent personal events."
Turning an eye towards Fox News and their upset in not being handed a political debate, Zucker was quick to bring up the fact that news is not owed anything. He talked of the news network almost as a petulant child, citing Fox News as ultimately causing, "a lot of damage to the political discourse" both during the election and now Trump's presidency.
When it came to discussing the DNC's decision to keep Fox News from hosting a primary debate for the upcoming 2020 presidential election, Zucker said implied that it was the organization's right to deny such privileges.
"There's no obligation to give one to Fox," he said, also noting that the DNC doesn't have to give one to anyone, CNN included.
The conversation also took a turn towards the future of CNN with Zucker diving into the need for innovation within their digital platform and content. After the closing off their Beam and Snapchat show last summer, there was some concern that the news giant was taking a step backwards. The point being driven home as the moderator brought up controversy over the lack of diversity brought out by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) this week. Zucker countered with an assurance of the commitment to diversity "on and off the air," bringing the company forward into the future with a pro-truth stance.
FILE PHOTO: An electric vehicle charging cable is seen on the bonnet of a Volvo hybrid car in this picture illustration taken July 6, 2017. REUTERS/Phil Noble/Illustration
March 26, 2019
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Volvo Cars has raised 600 million euros ($677 million) via a bond issue on Tuesday, its second this year and which also comes seven months after the Swedish carmaker shelved plans to list on the stock market.
Carmakers like Volvo are facing rising costs for developing electric and driverless cars while they grapple with the fallout from trade wars and an industry downturn.
Volvo said on the Tuesday the bond would mature in April 2024, pay a fixed coupon of 2.125 percent and have an issue price was 99.625, equating to a yield of 2.205 percent and a Euro mid-swap of plus 215 basis points.
The settlement was expected to be April 2 April and the bonds would be listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, Volvo said.
A spokeswoman for Volvo, which is owned by China’s Geely, said the money raised would be used for corporate purposes.
In November, Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson had ruled out a bond issue in the short term because of turbulent markets.
(Reporting by Esha Vaish in Stockholm. Editing by Jane Merriman)
KHARTOUM, Sudan – Sudan's ruling military council has proposed a meeting with the organizers of the protests that toppled President Omar al-Bashir after they suspended talks with the generals over the weekend.
The council says it is willing to discuss proposals from the coalition of groups behind the protests for an immediate transfer of power to a transitional civilian government.
The Sudanese Professionals Association and its allies, who organized the four months of demonstrations that drove al-Bashir from power on April 11, have not yet accepted the invitation to Wednesday's meeting.
The military has said it is meeting with all political factions to discuss the transition. The protesters fear the military intends to hold onto power or leave much of al-Bashir's regime intact.
Avengers fans gather at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood to attend the opening screening of “Avengers: Endgame” in Los Angeles, California, U.S., April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake
April 26, 2019
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Marvel Studios superhero spectacle “Avengers: Endgame” hauled in a record $60 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices during its Thursday night debut, distributor Walt Disney Co said.
Global ticket sales for the film about Iron Man, Hulk and other popular characters reached $305 million for the first two days, Disney said.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn attends the funeral service for murdered journalist Lyra McKee at St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, Northern Ireland April 24, 2019. Brian Lawless/Pool via REUTERS
April 26, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – The leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, said on Friday he had turned down an invitation to a state dinner which will be part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Britain in June.
“Theresa May should not be rolling out the red carpet for a state visit to honor a president who rips up vital international treaties, backs climate change denial and uses racist and misogynist rhetoric,” Corbyn said in a statement.
He said maintaining the relationship with the United States did not require “the pomp and ceremony of a state visit” and he said he would welcome a meeting with Trump “to discuss all matters of interest.”
(Reporting by Andy Bruce; Writing by William Schomberg)
Libyan Minister of Economy Ali Abdulaziz Issawi speaks during an interview with Reuters in Tripoli, Libya April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Hani Amara
April 26, 2019
By Ulf Laessing
TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libya’s U.N.-recognized government has budgeted up to 2 billion dinars ($1.43 billion) to cover costs of a three-week-old war for control of the capital, such as treatment for the wounded, to be funded without new borrowing, the economy minister said.
Ali Abdulaziz Issawi suggested the government hoped for business to continue more or less as usual despite the assault on Tripoli, in the country’s northwest, by forces tied to a parallel administration based in the eastern city of Benghazi.
Once Africa’s third largest producer of oil, Libya has been riven by factional conflict since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with the country now broadly split between eastern-based forces under Khalifa Haftar and the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, in the west, under Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj.
Still, with Haftar’s Libyan National Army forces unable so far to pierce defenses in Tripoli’s southern suburbs, normal life and business activities continue in much of the capital and western coastal towns.
Issawi, in an interview with Reuters in his Tripoli office, also said Libya’s commercial ports and wheat imports were still functioning normally, although some roads have been blocked.
He said the Serraj government estimates it will spend up to 2 billion dinars extra on medical treatment for wounded, aid for displaced people and other “emergency” war costs.
He said this was not military spending but analysts believe that the sum will also cover expenditures such as pay for allied armed groups or food for fighters.
“We could actually spend less,” he added, in comments that gave the first insight into the economic impact of the fighting.
Issawi said the Tripoli government, which controls little territory beyond the greater capital region, would not incur new debt to fund the war costs, sticking to a plan to post a 2019 budget without a deficit.
Tripoli derives revenue largely from oil and natural gas production, interest-free loans from local banks to the central bank, and a 183 percent surcharge on foreign exchange transactions conducted at official rates.
But with centralized tax collection greatly diminished, public debt has piled up – to 68 billion dinars in the west, including unpaid state obligations such as social insurance.
Some analysts expect Serraj’s government will be forced to raise new debt if the war for control of Tripoli drags on.
With much of Libya dominated by armed factions that also act as security forces, the public wage bill for both the western and eastern administrations has soared as fighters have been made public employees in efforts to buy their loyalty.
The east has sold bonds worth 35 billion dinars outside the official financial system as the Tripoli central bank does not fund the parallel government apart from some wages.
Despite its limited reach, the Tripoli government still runs an annual budget of around 46.8 billion dinars, mainly for public salaries and fuel subsidies.
“This year we cannot finance via debt…we will not borrow (by agreement with the central bank),” Issawi said.
According to International Monetary Fund data, Libya’s central government debt-to-GDP ratio is 143 percent, making it one of the most heavily indebted in the world on that measure.
Issawi declined to say what parts of the budget would be trimmed to support the extra outlay for war costs.
However, with some 70 percent of the budget allocated to public wages, fuel subsidies and other welfare benefits, a portion devoted to infrastructure is most likely to be axed.
Widespread lawlessness has meant there have been no major infrastructural projects since 2011, when a NATO-backed uprising overthrew dictator Muammar Gaddafi, leaving schools, hospitals and roads in acute need of restoration.
FOREX SURCHARGE
Issawi said the government planned to raise as much as 30 billion dinars by the end of 2019 from hard currency deals after imposing in September a 183 percent surcharge on commercial and private transactions done on the official rate of 1.4 to the U.S. dollar. That fee has effectively devalued the official rate to 3.9, much closer to the black market equivalent.
Some 17 billion dinars have been raised since then, with hard currency allocated for import credit letters now issued without delays, Issawi said. The forex fee has helped the government forecast a budget in the black for 2019.
Despite the narrowing spread between the two rates, the black market continues to thrive. Dozens of traders remained at their favorite spot behind the central bank headquarters in Tripoli when Reuters reporters visited it last week.
But traders said it could take time for the Serraj government to register the extra forex receipts as official banking channels were taking up to six months to approve import financing, keeping the black market in play for dealers.
Issawi said authorities planned to lower the forex fee from 183 percent, without saying when. The black market rate has dropped from 6 to around 4.1 since September but it has hardly moved of late as demand for black market cash remains high.
The Tripoli government has stopped subsidizing food and bread, which used to be cheaper than drinking water in Libya. Wheat imports are now being arranged by private traders and there are surplus stocks of flour at the moment, Issawi said.
(Reporting by Ulf Laessing in Tripoli with additional reporting by Karin Strohecker in London; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., threatened possible jail time for White House officials refusing to comply with subpoenas to testify before the House Oversight Committee.
Connolly, a member of the House panel, made his comments during an interview on CNN on Thursday. He said that “if a subpoena is issued and you’re told you must testify, we will back that up.”
He added: “And we will use any and all power in our command to make sure it’s backed up — whether that’s a contempt citation, whether that’s going to court and getting that citation enforced, whether it’s fines, whether it’s possible incarceration.”
“We will go to the max to enforce the constitutional role of the legislative branch of government.”
His comments came after three officials have refused to comply with congressional requests to testify, CNN noted.
Trump told The Washington Post that his staff should not testify on Capitol Hill, explaining that the White House cooperated fully with special counsel Robert Mueller and “there is no reason to go any further, especially in Congress where it’s very partisan.”
“Outdated laws” need fixing to deal with the surge in illegal immigrant families crossing the U.S. border with Mexico, a top Border Patrol official said Friday.
Historically 70 to 90 percent of apprehensions at the border were quickly returned to Mexico, Hastings said.
Now, 83 percent of those apprehended have come from the Central American northern triangle which includes Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, and of those 63 percent are “family units” and children who cannot be returned, he said.
“There are no consequences that we can apply to this group currently,” Hastings said. “We’re overwhelmed. If you look at agents there doing a tremendous job trying to deal with the flow.”
The law dictates children have to be released after 20 days of detention.
“Up to 40 percent of our agents are processing at any given time,” he said. “That should say that in and of itself is pulling from those border security resources.”
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