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U.S. government posts $234 billion deficit in February

FILE PHOTO: A guard walks in front of a Federal Reserve image before press conference in Washington
FILE PHOTO: A security guard walks in front of an image of the Federal Reserve following the two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy meeting in Washington, DC, U.S. on March 16, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

March 22, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. federal government posted a $234 billion budget deficit in February, according to data released on Friday by the Treasury Department.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a $227 billion deficit for the month.

The Treasury said federal spending in February was $401 billion, up 8 percent from the same month in 2018, while receipts were $167 billion, up 7 percent compared to February 2018.

The deficit for the fiscal year to date was $544 billion, compared with $391 billion in the comparable period the year earlier.

When adjusted for calendar effects, the deficit was $547 billion for the fiscal year to date versus $439 billion in the comparable prior period.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Edited by Andrea Ricci)

Source: OANN

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President Trump’s cooperation with Mueller probe was ‘unprecedented’: Ken Starr

Contrary to Democrat claims President Trump sought to obstruct the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, he actually cooperated to an unprecedented extent, according to former independent counsel Ken Starr.

Starr, who was the independent counsel who investigated the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky scandals during the Clinton administration, made the comment on "America's Newsroom" Thursday:

"The president famously does not hold things back. He hated this whole thing, called it a witch hunt. But...actions speak louder than words.

"For the White House counsel to spend 30 hours answering questions of Bob Mueller and his staff is extraordinary, talk about unprecedented," Starr said. "That's an unprecedented level of cooperation with a special counsel investigation."

TRUMP BLASTS RUSSIA PROBE

Starr added: "Here is a key that no one should lose sight of -- Bill Clinton committed crimes. Richard Nixon committed crimes. Whatever this report shows, the bottom line is no crimes are being charged by those who are charged with making that decision -- that's the Justice Department."

Attorney General William Barr told reporters at a morning press conference that special counsel Robert Mueller’s report recounts 10 episodes involving President Trump that were investigated as potential acts of criminal obstruction of justice. Barr said Mueller did not reach a “prosecutorial judgment” and that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein concluded the evidence was not sufficient to establish the president committed an offense.

Barr said Trump did not exert executive privilege over any information included in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. He said the White House counsel reviewed a redacted version of the report before Trump decided not to invoke executive privilege.

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Barr has said redactions in the report's release are legally mandated.to protect four broad areas of concern: sensitive grand jury-related matters, classified information, ongoing investigations and the privacy or reputation of uncharged "peripheral" people.

On "America's Newsroom," Starr said: "We shouldn't forget this all began about collusion, and so I think this will be very helpful [in] reminding us that while the Russians attempted to reach out to Trump campaign folks, apparently those efforts were not accepted or [were] rebuffed. I think that will be a big plus sign for President Trump and the integrity of the campaign."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Exclusive: Foreign insurers gear up to tap China’s $1.6 trillion pensions business – sources

The logo of British life insurer Prudential is seen on their building in London
The logo of British life insurer Prudential is seen on their building in London, Britain March 17, 2019. REUTERS/Simon Dawson

April 12, 2019

By Sumeet Chatterjee and Alun John

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Foreign insurers including Generali and Prudential Plc are in early talks with authorities to enter China’s private pensions sector, people with knowledge of the matter said, as Beijing opens up to overseas companies.

Hong Kong-based AIA Group and Manulife Financial are also considering similar moves, they said.

Beijing gave approval to the first foreign joint-venture firm to establish a pensions insurance business last month and two of the people said China has been running pilot projects in three provinces involving foreign firms. Those projects end later this year.

Foreign insurers would compete with eight established Chinese pension insurance firms that dominate the potentially lucrative market, where the fast-greying population is set to produce 250 million people older than 60 by 2020.

“The average longevity of people in China is increasing but the pension market remains under-penetrated,” Prudential Asia Chief Executive Nic Nicandrou told Reuters.

Some of the foreign companies are expected to submit applications in the second half of this year to set up pensions businesses, the people said. They declined to be identified as the plans are not firm yet and also are not public.

“POISED”

Last month, Heng An Standard Life, a joint venture between Standard Life Aberdeen and Tianjin TEDA International, became the first foreign joint-venture entity to receive regulatory approval by China to establish a pensions insurance company.

China’s pensions assets, including those managed by the state, grew by 20 percent in 2017 to 11 trillion yuan ($1.64 trillion) and are expected to more than quadruple by 2025, consultancy KPMG said in a report this year.

Underlining the potential, consultant Willis Towers Watson said China has one of the lowest ratios of private-employee annuity pension assets to GDP among major economies at 1.5 percent. That compares with 120.5 percent of GDP in the United States and more than 130 percent in Australia.

Prudential has a 50-50 life-insurance venture with China’s CITIC Group. Nicandrou said the venture is “well poised” to participate in the pension market but he did not elaborate on any specific plans.

Rob Leonardi, Asia regional officer for Italy’s top insurer Generali, said the firm was seeing progress in pensions reform in China.

“If this trend continues, we can expect more foreign funded companies to express further interest in the coming months,” he said. The company declined to give details about its plans for the market.

AIA, which operates the only wholly owned foreign life insurance business in China, declined to comment.

“MATTER OF TIME”

Global asset managers have been lobbying Beijing to offer tax benefits and other incentives to encourage investment in mutual funds for retirement.

Manulife, which signed a pact with Agricultural Bank of China in 2017 to jointly explore opportunities in China’s pension and retirement market, is looking to establish a joint-venture pension management company.

It plans to draw upon its life insurance and asset management joint ventures in China to launch retirement solutions and products, said Calvin Chiu, head of Asia retirement at Manulife Asset Management.

“The government has expressed willingness to open up the financial services sectors in the country, it’s just a matter of time and priority. They do recognize the value that foreign players can add in the pension space,” he said.

China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

“All countries are trying to shift pensions away from the iron rice bowl concept,” Gerry Grimstone, chairman of Heng An Standard Life said.

“There have been some attempts at this in China, but, the fact is, there is technology in the west, and an approach to this which the Chinese were keen to bring into their market.”

(Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee and Alun John; Editing by Neil Fullick)

Source: OANN

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Exclusive: Exxon eyes Israel gas bid in major Middle East shift

FILE PHOTO: A logo of Exxon Mobil is displayed on a monitor above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York
FILE PHOTO: A logo of Exxon Mobil is displayed on a monitor above the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., December 5, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

March 13, 2019

By Ron Bousso

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp is considering exploring for oil and gas in Israel, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter, in what would make Exxon the first oil major to operate in the country still technically at war with Gulf Arab states.

A number of large gas discoveries offshore Israel and in nearby eastern Mediterranean waters in the last decade have made Israel a potentially lucrative prospect for big energy firms. The region is emerging as a new hot spot for gas exploration and production.

Until those discoveries, Israel was believed to be sitting on scant oil and gas reserves. There was little reason for energy firms to explore for energy in Israel and risk complicating operations and future investments in nearby Arab countries that hold some of the world’s largest energy reserves.

Exxon executives held talks with Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz in Houston this week about bidding for the right to explore and pump oil from offshore blocks in an auction that Israel will hold in June, said the person with direct knowledge.

Exxon, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, recently acquired a $50,000 data package from the Israeli energy ministry for the auction, the person said.

An Exxon team also visited a data center set up by the ministry in Jerusalem, the source said. That center holds detailed information about the geology of the sub-sea rocks, believed to hold up to 75 trillion cubic feet of gas and 6.6 billion barrels of oil, according to estimates.

Exxon declined comment. Israel’s energy ministry declined comment.

In February, Exxon announced a major gas discovery in Cyprus together with its partner Qatar Petroleum. That field is near two other huge gas finds in the region: Leviathan off Israel and Zohr off Egypt.

The U.S. major and competitors such as Royal Dutch Shell and France’s Total have avoided investing in Israel, for fear of souring relationships with the governments of giant regional oil and gas producers such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. Those countries do not recognize Israel.

Exxon is one of the biggest foreign investors in Qatar. It also has refining and petrochemical operations in Saudi Arabia, and produces oil and gas in Iraq and the United Arab Emirates.

President Donald Trump has angered the Arab world and stoked international concern with changes to U.S. policy in the region, including moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged oil and gas companies to use their clout in world markets to advance the Trump administration’s foreign policy agenda. That included helping the administration’s efforts to isolate Israel’s arch-enemy Iran, and Venezuela.

(GRAPHIC: East Mediterranean gas – https://tmsnrt.rs/2O5muhW)

MEDITERRANEAN GAS HUB

The discovery and development of major fields off the coasts of Egypt, Israel and Cyprus have led to the development of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum, a partnership created in January between seven countries, including those three, to create a regional gas market.

Steinitz met with U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry on Monday on the sidelines of an energy conference in Houston to discuss this partnership. He also held talks with his regional counterparts.

“We are just at the tip of the iceberg… Israel and Cyprus are little countries, but they have a good chance to become exporters in the future,” Steinitz said during a panel discussion at CERAWeek. “It’s also important that we have the strong backing from the United States of America.”

Israel gas production is dominated today by a handful of local, Greek and U.S. companies. The country became a producer in 2013 with the launch of the Tamar field, operated by U.S. explorer Noble Energy Inc. Noble is developing the Leviathan and is scheduled to begin production later this year.

Israel hopes that the coming licensing round will draw significantly larger interest than a previous round when only two companies bid amid skepticism about its ability to sell and export the fuel.

Israel has signed major export deals with Jordan and Egypt over the past two years, opening new markets to companies looking to sell Israeli gas. Egypt also saw rapid growth in natural gas production following the discovery of giant fields in the Mediterranean.

Several other major oil and gas companies are considering bidding in the licensing round, which closes June 17, according to the source.

(Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Simon Webb and Howard Goller)

Source: OANN

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William Weld: We’d Be Better Off With Pence as President

The first Republican to announce a GOP 2020 primary challenge to President Donald Trump says "we would be much better off with a President Mike Pence."

"For the good of the country, if he had the self-awareness that Richard Nixon had, sense of shame is too strong a word, but self-awareness is probably too soft a word, he would resign," former Massachusetts Gov. Weld told MSNBC's "The Last Word" on Tuesday night. "The truth is: We would be much better off with a President Mike Pence than a President Donald Trump."

Weld warned against Democrats impeaching President Trump, because "those boils over at the White House are dying to have impeachment proceedings initiated so that Mr. Trump can scream like a stuffed pig."

"It's just going to give him such a delicious talking point the last few months before the election," Weld told host Lawrence O'Donnell. 

Weld is ready to challenge President Trump in a Republican primary for the 2020 presidential candidacy, although Ohio Republican John Kasich and Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan are weighing a run as well.

Weld admitted he will not bother campaigning in the deep red southern states, but he will focus on the northeast, mid-Atlantic, and California.

"It is time to return to the principles of Lincoln — equality, dignity, and opportunity for all," he said at the time. "There is no greater cause on earth than to preserve what truly makes America great. I am ready to lead that fight."

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Vietnam tells monks to stop profiting from karma rituals

Vietnamese authorities have ordered monks at a popular Buddhist pagoda to stop "soul summoning" and "bad karma eviction" ceremonies after an investigation found the rituals were a scam.

The state-run Lao Dong (Labor) newspaper said tens of thousands of worshippers have been paying the 18th century Ba Vang pagoda in northern Quang Ninh province between 1 million and several hundred million dong ($45-$13,500) to have their bad karma vanquished.

The Committee for Religious Affairs, a government body, issued a statement on its website on Friday saying "the ritual goes against Buddhist philosophy and violates Vietnam's law on religion and folk beliefs."

"It has a negative impact on social order and security," it added.

Calls to the pagoda were not answered Friday.

Monks at the pagoda teach that all illnesses and misfortune result from bad deeds in previous lives.

Three times a month, they hold a two-day ceremony to "summon wandering souls" and "remove bad karma," demanding donations, supposedly representing good deeds, to help cure bad karma and make up for supposed bad deeds in previous lives.

Such rituals have been going on for years, but the practice has drawn unfavorable attention as the amounts demanded by the monks soared to the point where they began taking payments by bank transfers and by installments.

Public outrage flared when an inspirational speaker associated with the pagoda blamed a victim for being gang raped, saying she had committed evil acts in a past life in comments posted on the pagoda's website and on social media. The 20-year-old college student was taken hostage and raped by five men for two days before she was killed on the eve of the Feb. 5 Lunar New Year.

"The teaching was hurtful and disrespectful to the soul of my daughter," Tuoi Tre, another official newspaper, quoted the woman's mother as saying.

The monks also teach that homosexuality comes from bad karma and should be "cured" by having people of the opposite sex spend time together.

"Vindictive wandering souls follow people. They bring you illness, marriage problems and make your children unwell. We have the power to summon the souls and evict them," the abbot of the pagoda, Thich Truc Thai Minh, told followers during a gathering that was live streamed on social media on Thursday.

A reporter for Lao Dong shot a video at the pagoda showing a monk telling another woman, who was distraught over losing her only child, that "It's your karma. In previous life, you were a witch."

"And the wandering soul says it will take your life, too. Not just your child," the monk said.

Ba Vang pagoda was built on a mountain slope in Uong Bi district of Quang Ninh province. It was recently renovated and expanded to become one of Vietnam's largest pagoda complexes.

Only a minority of Vietnam's 95 million people follow Buddhism, but many non-Buddhists go to pagodas and temples and practice a form of folk religion that includes some Buddhist practices.

Religions that are not registered with the government are prohibited. The Ba Vang pagoda belongs to a registered Vietnamese Buddhist association.

Source: Fox News World

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Washington state could become first state to allow human composting

Washington state lawmakers on Friday passed a bill that would allow residents take part in “natural organic reduction” of human remains, citing in part research that said careful composted human remains could be safe for use in a household garden, reports said.

The Seattle Times reported that Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee’s office on Friday said he did not review the final legislation. Inslee-- who is running for president-- has been active on Twitter since the state Senate and House of Representative passed bill 5001, but did not mention the bill in any posts. The bill reportedly passed easily and had bipartisan support.

The report pointed out that the measure has been several years in the making. There was a trial that involved six backers who agreed to organic reduction. The results were positive and “the soil smelled like soil and nothing else,” the report said.

Troy Hottle, a fellow at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, told the paper that the method is as “close to the natural process of decomposition [as] you’d assume a body would undergo before we had an industrialized society.”

An NBC News report last year said the procedure could cost $5,500.

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“People from all over the state who wrote to me are very excited about the prospect of becoming a tree or having a different alternative for themselves,” Democratic state Sen. Jamie Pedersen told NBC.

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)

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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)

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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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