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Egypt: Archaeologists uncover ancient tomb with mummies

Egypt says archaeologists have uncovered an ancient tomb with mummies believed to date back about 2,000 years in the southern city of Aswan.

The Antiquities Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that the tomb is from the Greco-Roman period, which began with Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.

It is located near one of Aswan's landmarks, the Mausoleum of Aga Khan, who lobbied for Muslim rights in India and who was buried there after his death in 1957.

The statement said archaeologists found artifacts, including decorated masks, statuettes, vases, coffin fragments and cartonnages — chunks of linen or papyrus glued together.

Egypt often announces new discoveries, hoping to spur the country's tourism sector, which has suffered major setbacks during the turmoil following the 2011 uprising against autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Source: Fox News World

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Is the RUSSIA PROBE BACKFIRING ON MUELLER?

 Is the RUSSIA PROBE BACKFIRING ON MUELLER? According to General Flynn he says that the FBI pushed him not to a have a lawyer present during his “interview.” Of course this questioning led to his guilty plea and one charge of lying to federal authorities during this Anti-Trump witch hunt. Attorneys for former National Security Adviser […]

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Spotify prompts Nordic pension funds to add private equity to playlists

The Spotify logo hangs on the facade of the New York Stock Exchange with U.S. and a Swiss flag as the company lists it's stock with a direct listing in New York
FILE PHOTO: The Spotify logo hangs on the facade of the New York Stock Exchange with U.S. and a Swiss flag as the company lists it's stock with a direct listing in New York, U.S., April 3, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

April 15, 2019

By Esha Vaish and Simon Jessop

STOCKHOLM/LONDON (Reuters) – A vibrant start-up scene, which has spawned stars such as Spotify, Skype and Rovio, is inspiring Nordic pension funds to invest more money with local private equity funds.

Managers looking to pump up their pension returns hope that this will plug them into the Nordic business world’s inner circle and help them to back the best prospects early on.

“With Spotify we got a call that maybe there were some shares for sale … We thought it was a great product so we said let’s dig into this and we made an acquisition with our friends at AMF,” Bo Selling, Alecta’s head of equities, told Reuters.

Swedish pension funds Alecta and AMF saw their 2016 investments in Spotify nearly triple in value when it listed in 2018. This success has helped fuel demand from other pension funds and encouraged some to change their investment parameters in order to be able to seek out the region’s next big hit.

As part of this shift, Sweden said earlier this year it will allow some of its largest state public pension funds, named APs 1, 2, 3 and 4, to allocate up to 40 percent of the about $140 billion they manage to illiquid investments, removing a 5 percent limit for unlisted instruments.

“We will most likely do more investments in private equity and venture (capital),” said Jenny Askfelt Rudd, head of alternative investments at AP4, which has about 3 percent of its assets in private equity.

Around a quarter of all assets raised in Europe so far in 2019 have gone to funds based in the Nordics, data from industry tracker Preqin showed, part of a global surge in demand that has seen total undeployed capital in the sector pass $2 trillion.

This is driven by institutional investors looking to shore up returns as global economic uncertainty roiled stock markets.

But it is not all one-way traffic. Last year, Norway’s government recommended against allowing its $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund to expand into private equity.

The ball is now in the hands of the country’s parliament, with the fund arguing the move could help improve its balance between risk and return, and naming Uber and Airbnb among missed opportunities due to the current restrictions.

For interactive versions of the graphics, click here https://tmsnrt.rs/2Fby9bT and here https://tmsnrt.rs/2O77Fv9.

Norway’s sovereign fund posted a negative return on investment of 6.1 percent in 2018, while AP4 posted its second negative result since 2008 last year and warned it faced significant challenges in delivering returns at levels achieved in the past decade.

A Swedish parliamentary committee that worked on the pension rule changes found that where listed equities generated returns of an average 6.9 percent, alternative investments have delivered a combined 12.3 percent.

Denmark’s PFA, which runs 75 billion euros ($85 billion) in assets, is already active, growing its alternatives investments from 1 billion euros in late 2015 to 5 billion euros now.

“We have an ambition to grow that significantly over the coming years,” Peter Tind Larsen, head of alternative investments at PFA, said.

Despite concerns that demand is fuelling a valuation bubble, Selling said Alecta believes there are still opportunities to grow its private equity portfolio, with just 0.5 percent of its 860 billion Swedish crowns ($93 billion) in assets in unlisted equities.

“A good company with a good model and good growth prospects can be deemed interesting even if it is priced at a higher multiple on the earnings,” Selling said.

GET WITH THE PROGRAMMERS

On the flipside, private equity firms are seeking partnerships with pension funds to bump up the valuation of assets without having to seek a market listing, bankers say.

Independent Vetcare (IVC), Europe’s largest veterinary services firm, was valued at 3 billion euros when Alecta and AP6 – a specialist in unlisted investments – bought 20 percent in February versus the roughly 500 million euros EQT paid to buy it in 2016, sources told Reuters.

So far in 2019, five Nordic-based funds have raised a combined 4.2 billion euros in assets, 22 percent of the total for Europe as a whole, Preqin data showed. That compares with 16 percent last year and 6 percent in 2017.

For an interactive version of the graphics, click here https://tmsnrt.rs/2VMu8jZ and here https://tmsnrt.rs/2Xeeaja.

EQT is the local sector leader and has seven of the ten biggest funds raised in the region, including EQT VIII, which last year raised 10.8 billion euros. Others include Nordic Capital, Altor, IK Investment Partners, Creandum and Northzone.

Much of their focus is on the region’s vibrant digital start-up scene. The European Digital City Index ranks Stockholm second to London in terms of support for digital entrepreneurs. Helsinki and Copenhagen also make the top ten.

“Being a programmer is the most common job in Stockholm, so it’s everywhere,” Ted Persson, operating partner at EQT Ventures, said.

Swedish payments company Klarna is seen by bankers as one of the hottest local firms to invest in ahead of a likely IPO, and pension funds seem primed to take a slice in its external fundraising this year.

Valued by bankers with knowledge of its recent internal fundraising at around 32 billion Swedish crowns, the firm counts private equity firms Sequoia and Permira, as well as rapper Snoop Dogg, as investors.

“A number of the largest pension funds have hired additional people with strong corporate finance expertise, and we … expect to see these funds taking the lead on larger transactions,” Klaus Thune, co-head of Nordic banking at JP Morgan, said.

(Editing by Alexander Smith)

Source: OANN

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Rabbis: ‘Not kosher’ to buy at grocery store during strike

As thousands of Stop & Shop workers remain on strike in New England, some Jewish families are preparing for Passover without the region's largest supermarket chain, which has deep roots in the local Jewish community.

A number of rabbis in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island have been advising their congregations not to cross picket lines to buy Jewish holiday essentials at the store that one analyst says has the highest sales of kosher products among New England grocery stores. More than 30,000 Stop & Shop workers walked off the job April 11 over what they say is an unfair contract offer, a claim the company disputes.

"The food that you're buying is the product of oppressed labor and that's not kosher," said Rabbi Barbara Penzner, of Temple Hillel B'nai Torah, a reconstructionist synagogue in Boston. "Especially during Passover, when we're celebrating freedom from slavery, that's particularly egregious."

Rabbi Jon-Jay Tilsen, of Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel, a conservative synagogue in New Haven, Connecticut, cited ancient Jewish law prohibiting artisans from taking the livelihood of fellow artisans.

Tilsen said that ban is akin to the use of replacement workers by companies during labor strikes, which Stop & Shop has employed. "I am not making any judgment about the current strike," he stressed. "I am stating that we, local Jews, must respect the workers' action."

But at Temple Shalom, a reform synagogue in the Boston suburb of Newton, Rabbis Allison Berry and Laura Abrasley said it's ultimately a personal decision, though one they suggest should be framed within the American Jewish community's long history of supporting organized labor.

"Jewish law is interpreted in different ways," they said via email. "We encourage our members to celebrate the upcoming holiday in a manner that honors both the Jewish value of freedom and workers' dignity."

Penzner and other rabbis acknowledge their call to avoid the ubiquitous grocer can be challenging for some, especially in more remote communities where Stop & Shop is the most affordable — and sometime the only — place Jews can get matzo meal, for making matzo balls, gefilte fish, coconut macaroons and more for Passover Seder.

New Haven resident Rachel Bashevkin said she stocked up on Passover essentials before the strike. And for anything else, she won't be turning to Stop & Shop, which she said stocks harder to find items that make the meal extra special, like specialty baked goods, desserts, sweets and teas.

"The message of Passover is to me totally (that) you don't celebrate your holiday at the expense of other people," she told the New Haven Register earlier this week.

The dilemma isn't unique to Jews, either.

Rev. Laura Goodwin, of Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, in Sutton, Massachusetts, said she had ordered the church's Easter flower arrangements from the nearby Stop & Shop weeks ago. But when it became clear the strike wasn't going to end before the holiday, she scrambled to purchase enough tulips, hyacinths and daffodils from other stores.

"I just personally wasn't comfortable crossing the picket line," Goodwin said. "Flowers are nice, but they're not as important as people's livelihood."

The religious protests could have significant consequences for the bottom line of the Quincy, Massachusetts-based chain, said Burt Flickinger, a grocery industry analyst for the Strategic Research Group, a New York-based retail consulting firm.

Stop & Shop, which operates about 400 stores in New England, New York and New Jersey, is owned by the Dutch supermarket operator Ahold Delhaize but was founded in the 1900s by a Boston Jewish family whose descendants remain major philanthropists and civic leaders in New England.

Flickinger estimates the company has been losing about $2 million a day since the strike started, a financial hit that will only magnify in the coming days. Passover and the Christian holiday of Easter typically represent about 3% of the company's annual sales.

"They'll see big inventory loses, especially on profitable products like produce, flowers, meat and seafood that will go unsold," he said, projecting the losses for the company could be as much as $20 million for the time period.

Flickinger said competitors are already reaping the windfall, as can be seen in packed parking lots and long lines at many of Stop & Shop's regional rivals, including Shaw's and Market Basket, in recent days. He estimates competitors could see as much as a 20 percent bump in sales during the holiday season with the market leader largely sidelined.

Stop & Shop declined to comment on Flickinger's projections but apologized to customers for the inconvenience. The company has kept most of its 240 stores in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut open, but bakery, deli and seafood counters have been shuttered. The company's New York and New Jersey locations aren't affected by the strikes.

"We are grateful for members of the Jewish community who rely on our stores for kosher and Passover products," the company said in an emailed statement. "We're doing everything we can to minimize disruptions ahead of the holiday."

Source: Fox News National

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Japan Times president apologizes for ‘turmoil,’ warns of legal action against leakers

FILE PHOTO: Descendants of Koreans who were conscripted to the Japanese imperial army or recruited for forced labor under Japan's colonisation surround a statue of a girl as they attend an anti-Japan rally in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul
FILE PHOTO: Descendants of Koreans who were conscripted to the Japanese imperial army or recruited for forced labor under Japan's colonisation surround a statue of a girl as they attend an anti-Japan rally in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul, South Korea, June 22, 2015. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo

March 20, 2019

TOKYO (Reuters) – The Japan Times, an English-language newspaper that amended its description of “comfort women” and wartime forced laborers last year, apologized to its staff last month, but threatened legal action against anyone found leaking confidential information.

In a five-sentence note published last November, the paper said it would refer to Korean laborers simply as “wartime laborers” and would describe comfort women as “women who worked in wartime brothels, including those who did so against their will.”

The move polarized readers. Some saw it as an effort to whitewash Japan’s wartime history, while others celebrated the move as a way to correct foreign misinterpretations.

In an email sent to the paper’s staff on Feb 28, Japan Times president Takeharu Tsutsumi apologized for causing “turmoil.” A Japan Times source shared the email with Reuters; it was verified by several other employees at the paper.

The president explained that the purpose of the style change was to “enable us to report controversial issues in a fair and neutral manner,” and denied that the paper had shifted its political views.

“Some European and American media have accused us with the narrative that ‘The Japan Times’ editorial direction moved to the right following the change in ownership.’ Based on groundless speculation, this is inaccurate,” he wrote, adding that on the other hand “Japan’s right wingers seem to have welcomed this change, but by no means did we intend to reflect any right-wing views.”

Reuters called and emailed Tsutsumi for comment about the internal email. In response, a public relations representative for the Japan Times wrote in an email that it would not respond to queries about internal documents.

In January, Reuters published a story based on interviews with nearly a dozen sources at the Japan Times, as well as hundreds of pages of internal emails and presentation materials, that showed the revision was partly made to ease criticism that the publication was “anti-Japanese” and increase advertising revenue from Japanese corporations and institutions.

The issue of comfort women and Koreans forced to work in wartime factories and coal mines remains incendiary more than seven decades after the war.

Despite the backlash, Tsutsumi told staff there was no significant impact on the number of subscribers. In his email to staff last month, Tsutsumi also called the Reuters story “regrettable” and said it “coupled speculations with information taken out of context to promote a certain narrative.”

“According to the Reuters article, the company’s confidential materials and remarks made at the All Company Meeting appear to have been leaked,” he wrote, saying it was regrettable if any information had been divulged by employees.

“The act of leaking confidential information and the act of damaging the company’s reputation constitutes a violation of compliance,” he wrote. “If we learn the identity of the parties who leaked confidential information, we would have no other choice but to penalize them.”

Some of the paper’s staff have criticized the recent changes.

In an open letter published online last month ahead of the president’s email, Tozen, a labor union representing mostly foreign workers in several industries across Japan, and its Japan Times chapter demanded a full retraction of the style changes.

The paper’s local union, which has 15 members, has been in collective bargaining meetings with management over the issue. Members of the Japan Times chapter declined to comment on the contents of the recent all company e-mail.

“Both changes were pushed through with total disregard for the input of knowledgeable writers and editors, with zero advance notice, and the changes also show a disturbing disregard for the mainstream historical record,” the paper’s union members wrote in the letter.

(Reporting by Mari Saito; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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Islamic State closer to defeat in last Syrian enclave

FILE PHOTO: Islamic state members walk in the last besieged neighborhood in the village of Baghouz
FILE PHOTO: Islamic state members walk in the last besieged neighborhood in the village of Baghouz, Deir Al Zor province, Syria February 18, 2019. REUTERS/Rodi Said/File Photo

February 20, 2019

By Rodi Said

NEAR BAGHOUZ, Syria (Reuters) – Islamic State appeared closer to defeat in its last enclave in eastern Syria on Wednesday, as a civilian convoy left the besieged area where U.S.-backed forces estimate a few hundred jihadists are still holed up.

Its capture will nudge the eight-year-old Syrian war towards a new phase, with U.S. President Donald Trump having pledged to withdraw American troops, leaving a security vacuum that other powers would seek to fill.

A Reuters witness near the front lines at Baghouz on the Iraqi border saw dozens of trucks leaving the village and a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they were bringing out civilians.

Baghouz is the final scrap of ground left to Islamic State in the Euphrates valley region that became its last major stronghold in Iraq and Syria after a series of catastrophic defeats in 2017.

Its fall marks a big moment in the group’s trajectory, from winning control over vast territories in 2014 and proclaiming the creation of a caliphate to rule over Muslims, to its stubborn demise under concerted military assault.

Few believe the capture of Baghouz will end Islamic State’s threat: some fighters still hold out in the central Syrian desert and it has managed to stage repeated guerrilla attacks in areas where its territorial rule was ended.

However, it will heighten attention on the promised withdrawal of some 2,000 U.S. troops who have deployed into Syria during the fight against IS, and with it the fate of the Kurdish-led region that the U.S. presence has helped to secure.

Trump on Saturday tweeted: “We are pulling back after 100% Caliphate victory.”

FATE OF KURDISH-HELD ZONE IN THE BALANCE

Turkey has repeatedly threatened an incursion because it sees the Kurdish YPG militia, which spearheads the SDF, as a terrorist group inseparable from the PKK which has waged a three-decade insurgency inside its own borders.

Facing this prospect, the YPG in December invited the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad to take over the westernmost part of its territory, around the city of Manbij, and seeks broader negotiations with him over the area it holds.

The SDF on Monday called for 1,000-1,500 international forces to remain in Syria to ensure that Islamic State’s territorial defeat is lasting. The head of U.S. army Central Command, General Joseph Votel, said he was still carrying out Trump’s withdrawal order.

Among the many civilians who have left Baghouz in recent days are families of Islamic State fighters, including some foreigners who went to Iraq and Syria to join its caliphate.

The SDF has complained that Western countries are reluctant to take back such people, who are seen at home as a security threat but might be hard to legally prosecute.

On Wednesday, Britain stripped citizenship from one of them, 19-year Shamima Begum, who ran away to join Islamic State as a schoolgirl in 2015.

Both the SDF and U.S. officials have said the presence of civilians in Islamic State’s last pocket at Baghouz, targeted by air strikes again on Tuesday night, has slowed their advance.

During years of steady retreats, Islamic State has honed its tactics of street fighting – sheltering among civilians, digging tunnels and laying innumerable mines and booby traps.

Reuters photographs have shown one part of the remaining Islamic State pocket, where fighters and civilians were gathered among scattered tents and vehicles on the edge of a village.

Many civilians who have previously escaped the group’s rule, including some of the thousands of Yazidis in Iraq kidnapped and forced into sexual slavery, still suffer trauma long afterwards.

(Reporting by Rodi Said near Baghouz, Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Angus MacSwan/Tom Perry, William Maclean)

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)

Source: OANN

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

April 26, 2019

By Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reuters was not immediately able to contact Zhevago.

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

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

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

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

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

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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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