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Tornado destroy 10 homes in New Mexico, 5 people injured

Authorities say a tornado has destroyed 10 homes in a small southeastern New Mexico community and five people suffered non-life threatening injuries.

National Weather Service meteorologist Chuck Jones said the tornado touched down Tuesday in Dexter for about five minutes but that its strength hasn't been determined. The agency is sending a team to survey damage.

Chaves County Mike Herrington in a statement says cleanup won't start Wednesday because heavy winds of up to 70 mph (112 kph) are blowing debris around.

He told the Roswell Daily Record that five people were taken to hospitals with what appeared to be non-life threatening injuries.

The newspaper says roofs were ripped off buildings.

The American Red Cross sent a team to assist people who were displaced from their homes.

Source: Fox News National

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U.S. bank executives say Wall Street has reformed, though crisis scars linger

A Wall Street sign outside the New York Stock Exchange
FILE PHOTO - A Wall Street sign is pictured outside the New York Stock Exchange in New York, October 28, 2013. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

April 9, 2019

(Reuters) – The U.S. economy is strong and Wall Street has reformed practices that contributed to the financial crisis a decade ago, chief executives of some of the largest U.S. banks said in prepared testimony released by the House Financial Services Committee late on Monday.

But in discussing all the progress that has been made, there was also an acknowledgement that scars from the crisis linger, and that many consumers still have a negative perception of the financial industry.

“Confidence in U.S. financial services and the American economy remains uncertain,” wrote Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co, the largest U.S. bank.

Testimony from CEOs of Citigroup Inc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley, Bank of New York Mellon, State Street Corp and Northern Trust also appeared.

Wednesday will mark the first time the largest U.S. banks have appeared before Congress since the 2008 financial crisis, and will see the CEOs face off against Democratic Representative Maxine Waters and progressives including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who have fiercely criticized Wall Street. Waters leads the committee which vets financial companies on behalf of the U.S. lower house.

As the 2020 election race heats up, U.S. Democrats driven by progressive firebrands like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren see financial inclusion as a draw for voters.

In their testimonies, the chief executives emphasized a range of regulatory measures including stress tests and so-called “living wills” adopted since 2008 that have helped bolster capital levels and improve the safety and soundness of the U.S. system, as well as other improvements to risk management and culture.

Some banks including Morgan Stanley also emphasized the contribution they make to the U.S. economy through community lending, underwriting and green finance, while also acknowledging the industry needed to do better on liberal issues like diversity.

“We recognize that we have significant work to do to achieve our diversity goals, and that it requires efforts at every level of the firm to deliver results over the long term,” Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman wrote in his testimony.

Citigroup said the biggest U.S. banks are in a better position to handle an economic downturn at present than they were during the last crisis, adding that the bank has doubled its regulatory capital since the financial crisis despite shrinking its balance sheet by $500 billion over the last decade.

“We recognize that rebuilding trust is harder than rebuilding your balance sheet,” said Citigroup Chief Executive Mike Corbat.

The executives also discussed cybersecurity, diversity initiatives, executive compensation and controversial arbitration clauses in consumer contracts, in response to questions asked by Waters, who invited them to appear.

(Reporting by Lauren LaCapra and Imani Moise in New York, Michelle Price in Washington and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

Source: OANN

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John Oliver’s parody book among most ‘challenged’ works

Not everyone was amused by the John Oliver send-up of a picture book by the wife and daughter of Vice President Mike Pence.

"Last Week Tonight With John Oliver Presents A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo," in which the Pence's family bunny turns out to be gay, was among the books most objected to last year at the country's public libraries.

The best-selling parody ranked No. 2 on the list of "challenged" books compiled by the American Library Association.

Alex Gino's "George," which features a transgender child, was No. 1. Others on the list announced Monday included Angie Thomas' best-seller about a teen girl whose friend is shot by police, "The Hate U Give," and Dav Pilkey's "Captain Underpants" series.

The list is part of the association's "State of America's Libraries Report" and was released at the start of National Library Week.

Source: Fox News National

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Time for a change: EU lawmakers vote to scrap clock shifts in 2021

Members of the European Parliament take part in a voting session in Strasbourg
Members of the European Parliament take part in a voting session in Strasbourg, France, March 26, 2019. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler

March 26, 2019

STRASBOURG (Reuters) – European Union lawmakers voted on Tuesday to scrap the practice of moving clocks forward by an hour in spring then back again in the autumn in the bloc from April 2021, two years later than the EU executive initially proposed.

The European Parliament voted by 410 to 192 in favor of ending the practice of seasonal time shifts. The vote is not the last word on the issue but will form the basis of discussions with EU countries to produce a final law. The countries have yet to take a stance.

EU law has required all countries in the bloc to observe daylight saving time, moving clocks forward by an hour on the last Sunday of March and back by an hour on the final Sunday in October.

The practice of switching the clocks, also observed in countries such as the United States, was first introduced in World War One to save energy by prolonging evening daylight in summer.

The European Commission proposed in September ending the practice after an EU-wide opinion survey showed a large majority in favor of doing so. The survey generated 4.6 million responses, with 84 percent of respondents wanting to end seasonal clock changes.

Critics say the survey was dominated by Germans, who made up 70 percent of the respondents.

A parliament report in favor of operating on a single time throughout the year said scientific studies link time changes to diseases of the cardiovascular or immune systems because they interrupt biological cycles, and that there were no longer any energy savings.

“New technology and different ways of living mean that we no longer earn anything (from time change), in fact we don’t save,” Marita Ulvskog, the lawmaker in charge of the time change file, told the EU parliament during a debate on the issue on Monday.

If the Commission’s original proposal had passed, the coming weekend would have been the last occasion to set clocks forward, with EU countries then deciding whether to stick to permanent summer time or switch back in October to permanent winter time.

Countries would not then be able to change their clocks forward and backward during the year, but would be free to decide which time zone they wanted to be in.

The European Union will have 27 members once Britain leaves the bloc. The UK government has indicated it will stick to the current system after Brexit.

The seasonal time shift has also been the subject of debate in the United States, where legislators have tried unsuccessfully to abolish it. For now, Hawaii and most of Arizona do not follow the practice since World War Two of adjusting clocks.

Russia decided in 2011 to switch to permanent summer time in an attempt to improve citizens’ well-being but shifted to permanent winter time in 2014 after public complaints.

The majority of countries outside Europe and North America do not adjust their clocks.

(Reporting by Clare Roth and Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Source: OANN

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Top U.S. trade official says EU, U.S. ‘working hand in hand’ on China

FILE PHOTO: U.S. trade delegation member Clete Willems leaves a hotel for talks with Chinese officials in Beijing
FILE PHOTO: U.S. trade delegation member Clete Willems leaves a hotel for talks with Chinese officials in Beijing, China Feb. 13, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo

April 8, 2019

Source: OANN

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Indonesians to vote in world’s biggest single-day election

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo, his running mate Ma'ruf Amin greet presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto and his running mate Sandiago Uno before a debate in Jakarta, Indonesia
FILE PHOTO: Indonesia's President Joko Widodo, his running mate Ma'ruf Amin greet presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto and his running mate Sandiago Uno before a debate in Jakarta, Indonesia April 13, 2019. REUTERS/Edgar Su

April 14, 2019

By Kanupriya Kapoor and Ed Davies

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Tens of millions of Indonesians will vote in presidential and parliamentary elections this week after campaigns focused on the economy, but with political Islam looming ever larger in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation.

President Joko Widodo, a former furniture salesman who launched his political career as a small-city mayor, is standing for re-election in a contest with ex-general Prabowo Subianto, whom he narrowly defeated in 2014.

Most opinion polls give Widodo a double-digit lead but the opposition has disputed survey findings. It has also said it has uncovered data irregularities affecting millions on the electoral rolls and has vowed to take legal action or use “people power” if its complaints are not resolved.

(GRAPHIC: Indonesia election by the numbers – https://tmsnrt.rs/2V4DCqq)

Some analysts say an unexpected win for the challenger would probably cause a brief slump in Indonesian markets, while a very close race could elevate the risk of a disputed vote.

“In a scenario in which Widodo wins by an unexpectedly narrow margin, large and prolonged protests in Jakarta would elevate tensions and pressure the currency,” said Kevin O’Rourke in the Reformasi Weekly note on Indonesia published last week.

While most polls have put the president ahead, they could not be taken for granted, a senior government official said.

“Absolutely everybody is flying blind because we don’t know how far the opinion polls can be respected,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Widodo ended his six-month campaign with a mass rally at Jakarta’s main stadium at the weekend, where festive crowds overflowed into a surrounding park and streets.

Running ran out on stage in sneakers, to the cheers of the crowd after an hours-long concert by local bands, he struck an optimistic tone for the future of the world’s third-largest democracy.

That was a stark contrast to his opponent, who has repeatedly warned Indonesia is on the verge of collapse.

Prabowo, as he is usually known, held a similarly big rally the previous weekend where supporters, many dressed in Islamic robes, held a mass prayer before a fiery speech about how Indonesia was being pillaged by foreigners and the elite.

QUICK COUNTS

Widodo has touted a record infrastructure drive and deregulation as major successes during his tenure, calling it a first step to tackle inequality and poverty in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy.

(GRAPHIC: Presidenti Joko Widodo’s achievements – https://tmsnrt.rs/2CRgHYC)

In a televised weekend debate, Widodo and his running mate, Islamic cleric Ma’ruf Amin, said their opponents, neither of whom has served in public office for more than a few months, did not understand managing macrolevel economics.

Widodo, a moderate Muslim from central Java, has had to burnish his Islamic credentials after smear campaigns and hoax stories accused him of being anti-Islam, a communist or too close to China, all politically damaging in Indonesia.

Prabowo, who has close links to some hardline Islamist groups, and his running mate, business tycoon Sandiaga Uno, have pledged to boost the economy by slashing taxes as much as 8 percentage points, and focus on key infrastructure projects.

Nearly 500,000 police and military will fan out across the vast archipelago to safeguard the vote. In Jakarta, the capital, officers will guard polling station to deter voter intimidation or clashes, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said.

More than 192 million will also vote in national and regional legislative elections, being contested by more than 245,000 candidates, in what is being described as the world’s biggest single-day election.

Overseas voting is already underway, with thousands lining up outside Indonesian missions in Singapore and Australia.

On Wednesday, polling stations will open at 7 a.m. (2200 GMT Tuesday) in eastern Indonesia and close at 1 p.m. (0600 GMT) on the western side of the country.

Voters will manually punch five separate paper ballots for president and vice president, and legislative candidates.

Unofficial “quick counts”, based on vote samples from polling stations, will be released hours after polling ends and the winning presidential candidate is expected to be apparent by late Wednesday.

The General Election Commission is expected to announce an official result in May.

Candidates have 72 hours after the official result to complain to the Constitutional Court. A nine-judge panel has 14 days to reach a decision, which cannot be appealed.

(Additional reporting by Jessica Damiana, Gayatri Suroyo and John Chalmers in Jakarta, and Alison Bevege in Sydney; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Source: OANN

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Wynn makes $7.1 billion buyout play for Australian casino giant Crown

FILE PHOTO - The logo of Australian casino giant Crown Resorts Ltd adorns the hotel and casino complex in Melbourne
FILE PHOTO - The logo of Australian casino giant Crown Resorts Ltd adorns the hotel and casino complex in Melbourne, Australia, June 13, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Reed/File Picture

April 9, 2019

By Byron Kaye and Tom Westbrook

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian casino giant Crown Resorts said on Tuesday it had received an indicative A$10 billion ($7.1 billion) takeover offer from Las Vegas’s Wynn Resorts, sending Crown’s shares soaring as investors bet on an even higher bid.

A sale would mark an end to Crown 47-percent owner James Packer’s 12-year foray into casinos after he re-badged his father’s media empire as a gambling concern in 2007. Packer quit the Crown board last year due to mental illness.

For Wynn, the deal would give the world’s second-largest casino company a foothold in a market popular with Chinese tourists, although a recent downturn in Chinese consumer spending has constrained Crown’s revenue and share price.

“Pricewise, you’d be looking for a little bit more than this,” said James McGlew, executive director of corporate stockbroking at Perth-based Argonaut Ltd, a Crown shareholder.

“This is what appears to be the opening salvo.”

A sale along the lines proposed by Wynn would be Australia’s biggest M&A deal so far this year.

Crown shares jumped 21 percent to A$14.19, their biggest intraday gain since the company re-listed with its current name. Even so, they were still below the indicative buyout price of A$14.75 due to uncertainty about whether a deal would eventuate.

“It’s a preliminary-style bid which doesn’t yet provide an adequate premium for control, and most would expect there to be both more debate about the strategic merit and pricing,” said Angus Gluskie, managing director of White Funds Management, which also holds Crown shares.

Crown said the talks with Wynn were at a preliminary stage and no agreement on value or structure had been reached.

Wynn was proposing to buy the company half in cash, half in shares, and the current proposal had not gone to the Crown board.

A Wynn spokesman declined to comment.

A spokesman for Consolidated Press Holdings, Packer’s company which holds his Crown shares, was also not immediately available for comment.

RETREAT

The sale at the current proposed price would fetch about A$4.7 billion for Packer, who in addition to Crown quit 22 company directorships last year in a remarkable retreat for the scion of a family which had been a fixture of corporate Australia most of the 20th century.

The deal would also provide some relief for Crown shareholders, who have seen their investment go sideways since late 2016 when 18 of the company’s staff were arrested in China for breaking laws banning casino marketing.

Crown has since pulled back from its Asia expansion plans – where it had competed with Wynn in the world’s biggest gambling destination of Macau – and instead relied on high-rolling Chinese tourists at home to grow profit.

The deal would put Wynn in charge of one of Australia’s most high profile developments, a A$2.2 billion luxury casino precinct called Barangaroo on the Sydney waterfront, which Crown has pitched as its future growth engine.

Wynn has properties in the United States and Macau, but over the past year it has ramped up promotion of a resort in Japan, a market seen as the next potential goldmine to Macau and a former expansion target for Crown.

The U.S. company has seen a series of shakeups following sexual misconduct claims against former CEO Steve Wynn. The company’s largest shareholder, Elaine Wynn, who co-founded the firm with her ex-husband, is agitating for changes on the board.

(Reporting by Byron Kaye, Tom Westbrook and Paulina Duran in SYDNEY and Devika Syamnath in BENGALURU; editing by Stephen Coates)

Source: OANN

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Members of The Cranberries, bassist Mike Hogan, drummer Fergal Lawler and guitarist Noel Hogan speak to Reuters during an interview in London
Members of The Cranberries, bassist Mike Hogan, drummer Fergal Lawler and guitarist Noel Hogan speak to Reuters during an interview in London, Britain, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Gerhard Mey

April 26, 2019

By Hanna Rantala

LONDON (Reuters) – Irish rockers The Cranberries are saying goodbye with their final album released on Friday, a poignant tribute to lead singer Dolores O’Riordan who died last year.

“In the End” is the eighth studio album from the band that rose to fame in the early 1990s with hits likes “Zombie” and “Linger”, and includes the final recordings by O’Riordan, who drowned in a London hotel bath in January 2018 due to alcohol intoxication.

Work on the album began during a 2017 tour and by that winter, O’Riordan and guitarist Neil Hogan had penned and demoed 11 tracks.

With O’Riordan’s vocals recorded, Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler completed the album in tribute to her.

“When we realized how strong the songs were, that was the deciding factor really… There was no point… trying to ruin the legacy of the band,” Noel Hogan said in an interview.

“It was obvious that Dolores wanted this album done because when you hear the album, you hear the songs and how strong they are, and she was very, very excited to get in and record this.”

The Cranberries formed in Limerick in 1989 with another singer. O’Riordan replaced him a year later and the group went on to become Ireland’s best-selling rock band after U2, selling more than 40 million records.

O’Riordan, known for her strong distinctive voice singing about relationships or political violence, was 46 when she died.

“She was actually in quite a good place mentally. She was feeling quite content and strong and looking forward to a new phase of her life,” Lawler said.

“A lot of the lyrics in this album are about things ending… people might read into it differently but it was a phase of her personal life that she was talking about.”

The group previously announced their intention to split after the release of “In The End”.

“We are absolutely gutted we can’t play (the songs) live because that’s something that’s been a massive part of this band from day one,” Noel Hogan said.

“A few people have said to us about maybe even doing a one off where you have different vocalists… as kind of guests of ours. A year ago that’s definitely something we weren’t going to entertain but I don’t know, I think it’s something we need to go away and take time off for the summer and have a think about.”

Critics have generally given positive reviews of the album; NME described it as “(seeing) the band’s career go full-circle” while the Irish Times called it “an unexpected late career high and a remarkable swan song for O’Riordan”.

Their early songs still play on the radio. This week, “Dreams” was performed at the funeral of journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot dead in Londonderry last week as she watched Irish nationalist youths attack police following a raid.

“We wrote them as kids, as a hobby and 30 years later they are on radio and on TV, like all the time… That’s far more than any of us ever thought we would have,” Noel Hogan said.

“That would make Dolores really happy because she was very precious about those songs. Her babies, she called them and to have that hopefully long after we’re gone… that’s all any band can wish for.”

(Reporting by Hanna Rantala; additoinal reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Susan Fenton)

Source: OANN

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2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston, Texas, U.S. April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

April 26, 2019

By Joshua Schneyer and M.B. Pell

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Senator Elizabeth Warren will introduce a bill Friday that offers new protections for U.S. military families facing unsafe housing, following a series of Reuters reports revealing squalid conditions in privately managed base homes.

The Reuters reports and later Congressional hearings detailed widespread hazards including lead paint exposure, vermin infestations, collapsing ceilings, mold and maintenance lapses in privatized base housing communities that serve some 700,000 U.S. military family members.

(View Warren’s military housing bill here. https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dy5aht)

(Read Reuters’ Ambushed at Home series on military housing here. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/usa-military)

The Massachusetts Democrat’s bill would mandate both regular and unannounced spot inspections of base homes by certified, independent inspectors, holding landlords accountable for quickly fixing hazards. The military’s privatization program for years allowed real estate firms to operate base housing with scant oversight, Reuters found, leaving some tenants in unsafe homes with little recourse against landlords.

The bill would also require the Department of Defense and its private housing operators to publish reports annually detailing housing conditions, tenant complaints, maintenance response times and the financial incentives companies receive at each base. The provisions aim to enhance transparency of housing deals whose finances and operations the military had allowed to remain largely confidential under a privatization program since the late 1990s.

The measure would also require private landlords to cover moving costs for at-risk families, and healthcare costs for people with medical conditions resulting from unsafe base housing, ensuring they receive continuing coverage even after they leave the homes or the military.

“This bill will eliminate the kind of corner-cutting and neglect the Defense Department should never have let these private housing partners get away with in the first place,” Warren said in a statement Friday.

The proposed legislation comes after February Senate hearings where Warren, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2020 U.S. presidential election, slammed private real estate firms for endangering service families, and sought answers about why military branches weren’t providing more oversight.

Her legislation would direct the Defense Department to allow local housing code enforcers onto federal bases, following concerns they were sometimes denied access. Warren’s office said a companion bill in the House of Representatives would be introduced by Rep. Deb Haaland, Democrat of New Mexico.

In response to the housing crisis, military branches are developing a tenant bill of rights and hiring hundreds of new housing staff. The branches recently dispatched commanders to survey base housing worldwide for safety hazards, resulting in thousands of work orders and hundreds of tenants being moved. The Defense Department has pledged to renegotiate its 50-year contracts with private real estate firms.

Congress has been quick to take its own measures. Earlier legislation proposed by senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris of California, along with Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia, would compel base commanders to withhold rent payments and incentive fees from the private ventures if they allow home hazards to persist.

(Editing by Ronnie Greene)

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FILE PHOTO: Offices of Deloitte are seen in London
FILE PHOTO: Offices of Deloitte are seen in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar

(Reuters) – Deloitte quit as Ferrexpo’s auditor on Friday, knocking its shares by more than 20 percent, days after saying it was unable to conclude whether the iron ore miner’s CEO controlled a charity being investigated over its use of company donations.

Blooming Land, which coordinates Ferrexpo’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, came under scrutiny after auditors found holes in the charity’s statements.

Ferrexpo on Tuesday said findings of an ongoing independent investigation launched in February indicated some Blooming Land funds could have been “misappropriated”. It did not provide any details or publish its findings.

Shares in Ferrexpo, the third largest exporter of pellets to the global steel industry, were 23.4 percent lower at 206.1 pence at 1022 GMT following news of Deloitte’s resignation.

“Ferrexpo’s shares are deeply discounted vs peers … following the resignation of Deloitte, we expect downside risks to dominate Ferrexpo’s shares near term.” JP Morgan analyst Dominic O’Kane said in a note on Friday.

Swiss-headquartered Ferrexpo did not provide a reason for the resignation of Deloitte, which declined to comment, while Blooming Land did not respond to a request for comment.

Funding for Blooming Land’s CSR activities is provided by one of Ferrexpo’s units in Ukraine and Khimreaktiv LLC, an entity ultimately controlled by Ferrexpo’s CEO and majority owner Kostyantin Zhevago, Ferrexpo said on Tuesday.

Ferrexpo’s board has found that Zhevago did not have significant influence or control over the charity, but Deloitte said it was unable reach a conclusion on this.

Reuters was not immediately able to contact Zhevago.

In a qualified opinion, a statement addressing an incomplete audit, Deloitte said it had been unable to conclude whether $33.5 million of CSR donations to Blooming Land between 2017 and 2018 was used for “legitimate business payments for charitable purposes”.

Deloitte said on Tuesday that total CSR payments made to Blooming Land by Ferrexpo since 2013 total about $110 million.

Ferrexpo, whose major mines are in Ukraine, has said that the investigation was ongoing and new evidence pointed to potential discrepancies.

Zhevago, 45, who ranked 1,511 on Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires for 2019 with a net worth of $1.4 billion, owns the FC Vorskla soccer club and has been a member of Ukraine’s parliament since 1998.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar in Bengaluru and additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev; editing by Gopakumar Warrier, Bernard Orr)

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Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba
Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba, Mozambique April 26, 2019 in this still image obtained from social media. SolidarMed via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

April 26, 2019

By Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer

JOHANNESBURG/LUANDA (Reuters) – Cyclone Kenneth killed at least one person and left a trail of destruction in northern Mozambique, destroying houses, ripping up trees and knocking out power, authorities said on Friday.

The cyclone brought storm surges and wind gusts of up to 280 km per hour (174 mph) when it made landfall on Thursday evening, after killing three people in the island nation of Comoros.

It was the most powerful storm on record to hit Mozambique’s northern coast and came just six weeks after Cyclone Idai battered the impoverished nation, causing devastating floods and killing more than 1,000 people across a swathe of southern Africa.

The World Food Programme warned that Kenneth could dump as much as 600 millimeters of rain on the region over the next 10 days – twice that brought by Cyclone Idai.

One woman in the port town of Pemba died after being hit by a falling tree, the Emergency Operations Committee for Cabo Delgado (COE) said in a statement, while another person was injured.

In rural areas outside Pemba, many homes are made of mud. In the main town on the island of Ibo, 90 percent of the houses were destroyed, officials said. Around 15,000 people were out in the open or in “overcrowded” shelters and there was a need for tents, food and water, they said.

There were also reports of a large number of homes and some infrastructure destroyed in Macomia district, a mainland district adjacent to Ibo.

A local group, the Friends of Pemba Association, had earlier reported that they could not reach people in Muidumbe, a district further inland.

Mark Lowcock, United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, warned the storm could require another major humanitarian operation in Mozambique.

“Cyclone Kenneth marks the first time two cyclones have made landfall in Mozambique during the same season, further stressing the government’s limited resources,” he said in a statement.

FLOOD WARNINGS

Shaquila Alberto, owner of the beach-front Messano Flower Lodge in Macomia, said there were many fallen trees there, and in rural areas people’s homes had been damaged. Some areas of nearby Pemba had no power.

“Even my workers, they said the roof and all the things fell down,” she said by phone.

Further south, in Pemba, Elton Ernesto, a receptionist at Raphael’s Hotel, said there were fallen trees but not too much damage. The hotel had power and water, he said, while phones rang in the background. “The rain has stopped,” he added.

However Michael Charles, an official for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said heavy rains over the next few days were likely to bring a “second wave of destruction” in the form of flooding.

“The houses are not all solid, and the topography is very sandy,” Charles said.

In the days after Cyclone Idai, heavy inland rains prompted rivers to burst their banks, submerging entire villages, cutting areas off from aid and ruining crops. There were concerns the same could happen again in northern Mozambique.

Before Kenneth hit, the government and aid workers moved around 30,000 people to safer buildings such as schools, however authorities said that around 680,000 people were in the path of the storm.

(Reporting by Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer; Writing by Emma Rumney; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Alexandra Zavis)

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

April 26, 2019

By Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A government spokesman declined to comment.

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

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

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

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

Only for them to surge after the vote.

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

‘CREDIT NEGATIVE’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

($1 = 70.1800 Indian rupees)

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

Source: OANN

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