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May heads to EU on Wednesday to push for Brexit breakthrough

FILE PHOTO: Juncker and May discuss Brexit in Brussels
FILE PHOTO: British Prime Minister Theresa May meets with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to discuss Brexit, at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium December 11, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

February 19, 2019

By Gabriela Baczynska

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Prime Minister Theresa May will meet top EU official Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels on Wednesday, pressing on with efforts to find a way to get their Brexit deal through Britain’s parliament.

A raft of meetings between EU and British officials in recent days has yet to produce a breakthrough after May’s parliament resoundingly defeated the divorce deal she had agreed with the bloc in November.

While May’s spokesman said the meeting was a “significant” part of a process of engagement with the EU, sources said it was far from certain that this week’s meetings would come up with a concrete way to break the impasse in the London parliament.

The main sticking point is the so-called backstop, an insurance policy to prevent the return of extensive checks on the sensitive border between EU member Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland.

“The EU 27 will not reopen the withdrawal agreement, we cannot accept a time limit to the backstop or a unilateral exit clause,” said Margaritis Schinas, spokesman for the EU’s executive European Commission.

“Further talks will be held this week to see whether a way through can be found that would gain the broadest possible support in the UK parliament and respect the guidelines agreed by the European Council,” he told a regular news briefing.

“We are listening and working with the UK government … for an orderly withdrawal of the UK from the EU on March 29.”

May’s spokesman again said it was the prime minister’s intention to persuade the EU to reopen the divorce deal.

“There is a process of engagement going on. Tomorrow is obviously a significant meeting between the prime minister and President Juncker as part of that process,” the spokesman told reporters.

Britain’s Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay and Attorney General Geoffrey Cox met the bloc’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels on Monday evening and were due back in the EU’s political hub again mid-week.

38 DAYS TO GO

The EU says the backstop is essential for peace on the island of Ireland. Should no better way be found, it would keep the UK in a basic customs union with the bloc to prevent Irish border checks on goods.

But Cox’s legal advice that Britain could find itself trapped in the backstop indefinitely fueled fears among some eurosceptics as that would undercut a key Brexit promise of pursuing an independent global trade policy.

In her phone call last week with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, May stressed the central role of Cox in unlocking parliamentary ratification of the Brexit deal, EU sources said.

Barclay and Cox want to discuss “legal text” with Barnier later this week that would give Britain enough assurances over the backstop, according to British sources.

May has until Feb. 27 to secure EU concessions on the backstop or face another series of Brexit votes in the House of Commons where lawmakers want changes to the withdrawal deal.

The bloc refuses to reopen the already-negotiated legal withdrawal treaty for Britain. EU and UK sources said London could accept other guarantees on the backstop.

The EU has offered to change the accompanying political declaration on new EU-UK ties after Brexit or to produce separate legal assurances or clarifications over the backstop.

But it does not want another effort to sink in Britain’s lower house of parliament and so, 38 days to go, it is still not clear what shape Brexit would take, or whether it would be delayed.

Juncker on Monday gave the EU’s clearest signal yet that London could seek a long delay of its exit date of March 29.

But that would require Britain to organize European Parliament elections on its soil in May, a prospect ruled out on Tuesday by a junior Brexit minister.

The protracted Brexit uncertainty raises the risk of the most-damaging, abrupt split, triggering contingency plans increasingly from governments on both sides, as well as businesses.

(Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski, Elizabeth Piper in London Writing by Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Janet Lawrence and Alison Williams)

Source: OANN

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Redemption song: Tiger sings familiar tune at Masters

Tiger woods celebrates after winning the 2019 Masters
Golf - Masters - Augusta National Golf Club - Augusta, Georgia, U.S. - April 14, 2019. Tiger Woods of the U.S. celebrates with with his green jacket and trophy after winning the 2019 Masters. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

April 14, 2019

By Frank Pingue

AUGUSTA Ga. (Reuters) – With the cool stroke of a putter under ominous clouds hovering over the 18th green at Augusta National, Tiger Woods put an emphatic finishing touch on the most redemptive victory in sport history on Sunday.

While the scene was a familiar one since Woods came into the week with four Green Jackets, this one was the most improbable given it followed years of surgeries and personal problems that convinced many the best golfer of his generation was done.

But the 43-year-old Woods, who two years ago was barely hitting 60-yard shots as he worked his way back from spinal fusion surgery in April 2017, turned back the clock to deliver the sporting world a tale of redemption unlike any other.

“I had serious doubts after what transpired a couple years ago. I could barely walk. I couldn’t sit. Couldn’t lay down. I really couldn’t do much of anything,” said Woods.

“Luckily I had the procedure on my back, which gave me a chance at having a normal life. But then all of a sudden, I realized I could actually swing a golf club again.

“I felt if I could somehow piece this together that I still had the hands to do it. The body’s not the same as it was a long time ago, but I still have good hands.”

When his tap-in bogey settled in the cup for a one-shot win, Woods threw up his arms in triumph, igniting chants of “Tiger Tiger” that bounced through the pines as he went on to share celebratory hugs with his mother, two children and girlfriend.

The moment was a long time coming for the former world number one, who last tasted major success at the 2008 U.S. Open when his oldest child, daughter Sam, was still an infant.

Since that day, Woods went through a highly-public divorce in 2010 after revelations of his marital infidelities convinced him to take a self-imposed hiatus from professional golf, a DUI arrest in 2017 as well as multiple knee and back surgeries.

‘STRUGGLED FOR YEARS’

Ever since Woods appeared on television’s Mike Douglas Show at the age of two displaying his raw putting skills alongside Bob Hope, he has been expected to produce the remarkable.

And while the list of remarkable feats that Woods went on to achieve on the golf course is seemingly never ending, even he admitted this triumph, which drew congratulatory messages from U.S. President Donald Trump and former President Barack Obama, is among the most special.

“It would be up there,” Woods said when asked where his latest major ranks. “One of the hardest I have ever had to win just because what has transpired the last couple years with trying to come back to playing.”

Woods was two back of overnight leader Francesco Molinari when he stepped up to the par-four 11th, which marks the start of a five-hole stretch at Augusta National where the year’s first major often hangs in the balance.

After yet another errant tee shot, Woods recovered with a skillful approach at 11 for par then moved into a share of the lead at the par-three 12th where Molinari made double-bogey after his tee shot went into Rae’s Creek.

From there Woods, clad in his familiar final-round red shirt and black pants and the galleries hanging on his every swing, was off to the races as he showcased his competitive nerve to win a major for the first time while trailing after 54 holes.

To do so, Woods had to fend off a slew of big-name players who at some point over the back nine either held a share of the lead or were just a shot back.

Woods said one of the things he was most happy about was that his children, who were at last year’s British Open when he could not hang onto a back-nine lead, were able to witness it in person after watching him fight pain for so long.

“The kids are starting to understand how much this game means to me, and some of the things I’ve done in the game; prior to comeback, they only knew that golf caused me a lot of pain,” said Woods.

“If I tried to swing a club I would be on the ground and I struggled for years, and that’s basically all they remember.

With the win Woods broke Gary Player’s record (13 years) for the longest gap between Masters wins. It also breathed new life into a decades-long debate about whether the 15-times major winner can catch Jack Nicklaus (18) on the all-time list.

When he finally slipped back into the winner’s Green Jacket, a scene many golf fans had longed for but never thought they would see again, Woods had just two words to say:

“It fits.”

(Reporting by Frank Pingue, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

Source: OANN

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Tod’s e-commerce surge shows turnaround is working, CEO says

Milan Fashion Week Spring 2019
FILE PHOTO: A model presents a creation at the Tod's show during Milan Fashion Week Spring 2019 in Milan, Italy, September 21, 2018. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

April 18, 2019

By Claudia Cristoferi

SANT’ELPIDIO A MARE, Italy (Reuters) – Turnaround efforts at Italian luxury group Tod’s are starting to bear fruit with e-commerce sales growing at a “high-double digit” pace, owner and Chief Executive Diego Della Valle told shareholders on Thursday.

The shoes and leather goods company, famous for its Gommino loafers, has been struggling to revive the appeal of its brands to attract younger luxury shoppers, focusing on digital and more frequent collections and collaborations.

“Our recipe is known and unchanged. We want to keep our long-standing consumers and attract millennials,” Della Valle, who is also Tod’s chairman, said.

“We’ve got to the operational stage on some fronts and this gives us a little more confidence that the road taken is the right one.”

He added the company, which launched a new business model in late 2017 to reverse falling sales and refresh its namesake brand, could have moved earlier to tackle issues.

“But we’re doing what is needed”, he said listing among actions taken a management reshuffle that led to the appointment of a joint-CEO which Della Valle said was working out well.

Online sales, which account for 7 percent of total revenue, are growing at a “high double digit” pace and the firm hopes they will keep expanding at this rhythm in one or 1-1/2 years’ time so that the contribution to group sales can become more sizeable, Della Valle said.

To complement the online expansion in line with current multi-channel consumer trends, Tod’s is also planning to open a new flagship store on Milan’s famed Montenapoleone fashion street in a month.

Della Valle said disappointing quarterly earnings were the result of a push to “achieve sustainable results quite quickly”.

The company, which has fallen short of market expectations in recent years, has said 2019 will be another “year of transition” in terms of profitability.

The Della Valle family has been gradually increasing its stake in Tod’s as a sign of confidence in the company of which it now owns 63 percent.

“I’m happy where I am,” Della Valle said when asked about his role at the company.

(Reporting by Claudia Cristoferi, editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Source: OANN

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GOP Sen. John Kennedy: 'No Sympathy' for 'Sleaze' Manafort

There was not any evidence of collusion with Russia in connection with President Donald Trump's campaign manager Paul Manafort's conviction, but Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Wednesday his offenses are still serious and he does not feel sorry for him.

"Mr. Manafort was convicted of bank fraud and tax fraud," Sen. Kennedy told Fox News' "America's Newsroom" before Manafort was to be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. "There was no evidence of any collusion with Russia or any of that, but bank and tax fraud are serious offenses against the American people and he always played on the margins."

Further, Kennedy said he thinks he has called Manafort a "sleaze" in the past, and "he is. I don't have any sympathy for him."

Kennedy also said Wednesday he found revelations in testimony documents released by House Judiciary Committee Republicans from last year's questioning of former FBI attorney Lisa Page "disgusting."

"Ninety-nine percent of the men and women at the FBI and at Justice are good people," said Kennedy, "but you've got a 99 small minority over there, or you did, maybe you still do, most of them appear to be anti-Trump though I'm sure there are some anti-[Hillary] Clinton but they'll act from their political beliefs. Then they want to go out and sell books."

Deputy FBI Director Andy McCabe, in particular, "acts like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth," but everyone forgets he was fired for lying to the FBI, Kennedy said.

Source: NewsMax America

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Houston bounces Ohio State, to face Kentucky next

NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament-Second Round-Houston vs Ohio State
Mar 24, 2019; Tulsa, OK, USA; Houston Cougars guard Galen Robinson Jr. (25) and Houston Cougars guard Corey Davis Jr. (5) celebrate after their game against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament at BOK Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

March 25, 2019

Guard Corey Davis Jr. led a balanced attack with 21 points, and backcourt mate Galen Robinson Jr. had 13 points, five assists and a career-high six steals to lift No. 3 Houston to the Sweet 16 with a 74-59 victory over No. 11 Ohio State on Sunday night in the second round of the Midwest Regional in Tulsa, Okla.

Houston (33-3) will play No. 2 seed Kentucky (29-6) in the round of 16 in Kansas City, Missouri. Kentucky advanced with a 62-56 victory over No. 7 Wofford in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday.

Houston led 39-31 at the half but missed its first eight shots of the second half to let Ohio State (20-15) remain within striking distance.

C.J. Jackson’s fourth 3-pointer of the game drew Ohio State within 49-44 with 11:45 left. By that time, the Buckeyes had made 10 of their first 23 attempts from long range.

Ohio State got into the bonus with 9:57 left, but every time the Buckeyes appeared to be making a run, Houston blunted the push with a key basket.

Robinson, a senior leader, broke down the Ohio State defense late in the shot clock for a layup and Davis intercepted a pass in the paint and dribbled the length of the court for another point-blank leaner for a 60-49 Houston lead with 7:27 left.

Ohio State committed turnovers on its first three possessions and on four of its first five, and Houston took advantage to take a slim early lead.

The Buckeyes, however, were uncharacteristically on fire from the perimeter, making eight 3-pointers in the first half, including back-to-back bombs by forward Kaleb Wesson, who normally does most of his damage on the inside.

When Wesson picked up his second foul with 5:44 left in the first half, Ohio State led 27-25. But with Wesson on the bench for most of the rest of the half, Houston went on a 12-6 run and led 39-31 at intermission. Fabian White and Robinson had four points each and Corey Davis Jr. had a 3-pointer in the surge.

Davis, who scored 26 points and made seven 3-pointers in Houston’s first-round rout of Georgia State, led Houston with 11 first-half points.

Despite Ohio State’s 3-point success in the first half, the Cougars pounded Ohio State in the paint, 20-2. The Buckeyes also damaged their chances with eight turnovers in the first 20 minutes. They finished with 14 for the game.

Jackson led Ohio State with 18 points, and forward Wesson added 15.

White had 11 points for Houston, and Armoni Brooks had 10.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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James McCord, Watergate Co-Conspirator, Died Two Years Ago

The death two years ago of James W. McCord, one of President Richard Nixon's men arrested at the Watergate complex in 1972, was kept entirely out of the press, according to the website Kennedys and King.

McCord died June 15, 2017, but his family wanted to keep it quiet. Filmmaker Shane O'Sullivan first published news of McCord's death in his book, "Dirty Tricks: Nixon, Watergate, and the CIA," a history of the Watergate investigation released in November 2018.

The Washington Post said McCord died of pancreatic cancer in Douglassville, Pennsylvania. He was 93.

McCord served in the CIA for 19 years before being privately employed as head of security for the Committee to Reelect the President (CREEP).  

McCord, along with four other burglars, were arrested June 17, 1972 during a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. They were caught wiretapping phones and stealing documents.

Nixon took steps to cover up the crime but was re-elected later that year in a landslide victory. His role was revealed two years later, leading to his resignation, the first of a U.S. president.

McCord was convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and bugging the Democratic Party's Watergate headquarters.

After 16 days of trial spanning 60 witnesses and more than 100 pieces of evidence, the jury found them guilty of all charges against them in just under 90 minutes.

Source: NewsMax America

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Soccer: Racist abuse tarnishes England win in Montenegro

Euro 2020 Qualifier - Group A - Montenegro v England
Soccer Football - Euro 2020 Qualifier - Group A - Montenegro v England - Podgorica City Stadium, Podgorica, Montenegro - March 25, 2019 England's Raheem Sterling celebrates scoring their fifth goal Action Images via Reuters/Carl Recine TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

March 26, 2019

PODGORICA (Reuters) – England’s stunning 5-1 rout of Montenegro in their Euro 2020 qualifier on Monday was soured by racist abuse directed at some of their players leading to calls for stadium bans.

Defender Danny Rose was subjected to monkey chants and Raheem Sterling, scorer of England’s fifth goal, was also targeted, with racist abuse heard throughout the game.

Sterling called for Montenegro supporters to be banned from matches, while England manager Gareth Southgate said he would report the incidents to European soccer’s governing body UEFA.

“I definitely heard abuse of Danny Rose when he got booked at the end of the game,” said Southgate.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that happened and we’ll report it to UEFA. It’s not acceptable,” he added on ITV Sport.

Southgate said he had not had a chance to talk to Sterling, who gestured by cupping his hands to his ears toward a section of Montenegro fans when he scored late on.

Sterling told Sky Sports: “I didn’t hear (racist chanting) personally but Danny (Rose) made it clear and (made me) aware that’s what they were doing so I just wanted to show them that they were going to need more than that to upset us and stop us.

“It’s a shame to see this keep going on. We can only bring awareness to the situation. It’s now time for the people in charge to put a stamp on it. You can fine someone but what’s that going to do? You’ve got to make it a bit harder.

“You’ve got to punish the whole fans who can’t come to the games. You’ve got to do something that will really make them think twice because if their team can’t play with fans it’s going to be difficult for them.”

Sterling later wrote on Twitter: “Best way to silence the haters…(and yeah I mean racists)”

Southgate, whose side have now hit 10 goals in two Group A games, added of the incidents: “I know what I heard. We’ll definitely deal with it in the right way and we have to make sure we support our players.”

In a separate interview with beIN Sports, he said: “The irony of football is that the dressing room is so united. No matter what religion, no matter what color, but we still have these issues in society that overshadow that.”

MONKEY CHANTS

Southgate gave a first start to Chelsea’s 18-year-old Callum Hudson-Odoi, who also said he had heard the racist behavior.

The teenager, who became the second-youngest England player to start a competitive game, confirmed he heard monkey chants, marring what had been a memorable night in his career.

“You are trying to enjoy the moment but when you are hearing stuff like that from the fans, it’s not right, it’s unacceptable,” he told beIN Sports.

“I don’t think discrimination should be anywhere — we are equal. Me and Rosey heard it, the ‘oooh, oooh’ monkey stuff.

“You just have to keep your heads, keep a strong mentality. Hopefully UEFA will deal with it,” added Hudson-Odoi.

“Raheem has spoken to me about it and told me people will be rude and say things you don’t want to hear. You block it out of your head but at the same time it should not happen. It’s unacceptable.”

The anti-discrimination group Kick it Out tweeted: “Disgraceful to hear racist chants directed at black @England players this evening.

“As we’ve argued countless times, it’s time for @UEFA to take strong, decisive action – fines won’t do.

“Extended stadium bans or tournament expulsion are what’s needed.”

Former England striker Ian Wright, summarizing for ITV, also said UEFA had to get tougher.

“It will probably go to UEFA and they (Montenegro) will be fined a pittance and we’ll get the same thing again here the next time or somewhere else in Europe. It’s not going to stop them.”

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris)

Source: OANN

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Tiger woods celebrates after winning the 2019 Masters
FILE PHOTO: Golf – Masters – Augusta National Golf Club – Augusta, Georgia, U.S. – April 14, 2019 – Tiger Woods of the U.S. celebrates on the 18th hole after winning the 2019 Masters. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

April 26, 2019

Tiger Woods is sending a message that he thinks he still has enough left, emotionally and physically, to win three more major championships to tie Jack Nicklaus’ record 18 titles.

Speaking to GolfTV in his first sit-down interview since the Masters, Woods said he has taken some time off since his victory at Augusta National, which still doesn’t feel real.

“Honestly, it’s hard to believe,” Woods said. “I was texting one of my good friends last night … that I couldn’t believe that I won the tournament. That it really hasn’t sunk in. I haven’t started doing anything. I’ve just been laying there. And every now and again, I’ll look over there on the couch and there’s the jacket.”

That’s the fifth green jacket for the 43-year-old Woods, who hadn’t won a major tournament since the 2008 U.S. Open. Along the way, four back surgeries, a divorce and other personal issues derailed him.

He said he has been spending time with his children – daughter Sam, 11, and son Charlie, 10 – who weren’t born when their father was the most dominant golfer on the planet.

“They never knew golf to be a good thing in my life and only the only thing they remember is that it brought this incredible amount of pain to their dad and they don’t want to ever want to see their dad in pain,” Woods said. “And so to now have them see this side of it, the side that I’ve experienced for so many years of my life, but I had a battle to get back to this point, it feels good.”

He said he hopes – maybe expects — they’ll see this side again.

And no one will take Woods for granted at the PGA Championship at Bethpage Black Course on Long Island, N.Y., which starts May 16.

Woods said he’ll be ready for a course he already conquered once in a major: the 2002 U.S. Open.

“I’m doing all the visual stuff, but I haven’t put in the physical work yet. But it’s probably coming this weekend,” he said.

Before Woods encountered health and personal problems, it was expected that topping Nicklaus’ major mark was “when” and not “if.” Then the certainty went away, but Woods thought he still had a chance.

“I always thought it was possible, if I had everything go my way. It took him an entire career to get to 18, so now that I’ve had another extension to my career – one that I didn’t think I had a couple of years ago – if I do things correctly and everything falls my way, yeah, it’s a possibility. I’m never going to say it’s not.

“Now I just need to have a lot of things go my way, and who’s to say that it will or will not happen? That’s what the future holds, I don’t know. The only thing I can promise you is this: that I will be prepared.”

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Maria Butina, the Russian woman who was accused of being a secret agent for the Russian government, was sentenced to 18 months in prison Friday by a federal judge in Washington after pleading guilty last year to a conspiracy charge.

Butina, who has already served nine months behind bars, will get credit for time served and can possibly get credit for good behavior, the judge said. She will be removed from the U.S. promptly on completion of her time, the judge added, and returned to Russia.

MARIA BUTINA, ACCUSED RUSSIAN SPY, PLEADS GUILTY TO CONSPIRACY

An emotional and apologetic Butina said in court Friday she is “truly sorry” and regrets not registering as a foreign agent.

“I feel ashamed and embarrassed,” she said, adding that her “reputation is ruined.”

Butina has been jailed since her arrest in July 2018. She entered the court Friday wearing a dark green prison jumpsuit and spoke in clear English, with a slight Russian accent.

“Please accept my apologies,” Butina said.

Butina’s lawyer, Robert Driscoll, said after the sentencing they had hoped for a “better outcome,” but expressed a desire for Butina to be released to her family by the fall.

Prosecutors had claimed Butina used her contacts with the National Rifle Association and the National Prayer Breakfast to develop relationships with U.S. politicians and gather information for Russia.

Prosecutors also have said that Butina’s boyfriend, conservative political operative Paul Erickson, identified in court papers as “U.S. Person 1,” helped her establish ties with the NRA.

WHO IS MARIA BUTINA, THE RUSSIAN WOMAN ACCUSED OF SPYING ON US?

In their filings, prosecutors claim federal agents found Butina had contact information for people suspected of being employed by Russia’s Federal Security Services, or FSB, the successor intelligence agency to the KGB. Inside her home, they found notes referring to a potential job offer from the FSB, according to the documents.

Investigators recovered several emails and Twitter direct message conversations in which Butina referred to the need to keep her work secret and, in one instance, said it should be “incognito.” Prosecutors said Butina had contact with Russian intelligence officials and that the FBI photographed her dining with a diplomat suspected of being a Russian intelligence agent.

Fox News’ Jason Donner, Bill Mears, Greg Norman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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An official Sri Lankan police Twitter account was deleted after it misidentified an American human rights activist as a suspect in the country’s Easter Sunday terrorist attacks.

On Thursday, police posted the names and photos of six people that they said were at-large suspects in the bombings that killed more than 250 people.

However, one of the names on the list was Muslim U.S. activist Amara Majeed, who quickly tweeted that she had been falsely identified.

“I have this morning been FALSELY identified by the Sri Lankan government as one of the ISIS terrorists that committed the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka. What a thing to wake up to!” she wrote.

SRI LANKA AUTHORITIES SAY EASTER ATTACK LEADER KILLED IN ONE OF NINE HOTEL BOMBINGS

She wrote in a follow-up tweet that the claim was “obviously completely false” and asked social media users to “please stop implicating and associating me with these horrific attacks.”

“And next time, be more diligent about releasing such information that has the potential to deeply violate someone’s family and community,” she continued.

Later, she wrote an update saying police apologized for wrongly mistaking her as a suspect.

Police said in a statement: “However, although one of the released images was identified as one Abdul Cader Fathima Khadhiya in the information provided by the CID, the CID has now informed that a) the individual whose image was labeled as Abdul Cader Fathima Khadiya is not in fact Abdul Cader Fathima Khadiya b) the individual pictured is not wanted for questioning c) Abdul Cader Fathima is the correct name of the suspect wanted by the CID.”

On Friday, the account, @SriLankaPolice2 was deleted with no explanation. Police did not release more information regarding the mistake.

Majeed, who founded “The Hijab Project” when she was 16 years old, told the Baltimore Sun that it was hurtful to be linked to the attacks.

“Sri Lanka is my motherland,” the Brown University student said. “It’s very painful to be associated with [the bombings].”

CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP

Mohamed Zahran, the suspected leader of the attacks which targeted six hotels and churches, killed himself in a suicide bombing at the Shangri-La hotel. Police also said they had arrested the second-in-command of the group, called National Towheed Jamaat. Catholic churches in Sri Lanka canceled all Sunday Masses until further notice over concerns that they remain a top target of Islamic State-linked extremists.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers stand guard in front of a mosque as a Muslim man walks past him during the Friday prayers at a mosque, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Easter Sunday, in Colombo
FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers stand guard in front of a mosque as a Muslim man walks past him during the Friday prayers at a mosque, five days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Catholic churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Tom Lasseter and Shri Navaratnam

KATTANKUDY, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran was 12 years old when he began his studies at the Jamiathul Falah Arabic College. He was a nobody, with no claim to scholarship other than ambition.

Zahran and his four brothers and sisters squeezed into a two-room house with their parents in a small seaside town in eastern Sri Lanka; their father was a poor man who sold packets of food on the street and had a reputation for being a petty thief.

“His father didn’t do much,” recalled the school’s vice principal, S.M. Aliyar, laughing out loud.

The boy surprised the school with his sharp mind. For three years, Zahran practiced memorizing the Koran. Next came his studies in Islamic law. But the more he learned, the more Zahran argued that his teachers were too liberal in their reading of the holy book.

“He was against our teaching and the way we interpreted the Koran – he wanted his radical Islam,” said Aliyar. “So we kicked him out.”

Aliyar, now 73 with a long white beard, remembers the day Zahran left in 2005. “His father came and asked, ‘Where can he go?’.”

The school would hear again of Mohamed Zahran. And the world now knows his name. The Sri Lankan government has identified him as the ringleader of a group that carried out a series of Easter Sunday suicide bombings in the country on April 21.

The blasts killed more than 250 people in churches and luxury hotels, one of the deadliest-ever such attacks in South Asia. There were nine suicide bombers who blew apart men, women and children as they sat to pray or ate breakfast.

Most of the attackers were well-educated and from wealthy families, with some having been abroad to study, according to Sri Lankan officials.

That description does not, however, fit their alleged leader, a man said to be in his early 30s, who authorities say died in the slaughter. Zahran was different.

INTELLIGENCE FAILINGS

Sri Lanka’s national leadership has come under heavy criticism for failing to heed warnings from Indian intelligence services – at least three in April alone – that an attack was pending. But Zahran’s path from provincial troublemaker to alleged jihadist mastermind was marked by years of missed or ignored signals that the man with a thick beard and paunch was dangerous.

His increasingly militant brand of Islam was allowed to grow inside a marginalized minority community – barely 10 percent of the country’s roughly 20 million people are Muslim – against a backdrop of a dysfunctional developing nation.

The top official at the nation’s defense ministry resigned on Thursday, saying that some institutions under his charge had failed.

For much of his adult life, Zahran, 33, courted controversy inside the Muslim community itself.

In the internet age, that problem did not stay local. Zahran released online videos calling for jihad and threatening bloodshed.

After the blasts, Islamic State claimed credit and posted a video of Zahran, clutching an assault rifle, standing before the group’s black flag and pledging allegiance to its leader.

The precise relationship between Zahran and Islamic State is not yet known. An official with India’s security services, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that during a raid on a suspected Islamic State cell by the National Investigation Agency earlier this year officers found copies of Zahran’s videos. The operation was in the state of Tamil Nadu, just across a thin strait of ocean from Sri Lanka.

“LIKE A SPOILED CHILD”

Back in 2005, Zahran was looking to make his way in the world. His hometown of Kattankudy is some seven hours’ drive from Colombo on the other side of the island nation, past the countless palm trees, roadside Buddha statues, cashew hawkers and an occasional lumbering elephant in the bush. It is a town of about 40,000 people, a dot on the eastern coast with no clear future for an impoverished young man who’d just been expelled.

Zahran joined a mosque in 2006, the Dharul Athar, and gained a place on its management committee. But within three years they’d had a falling out.

“He wanted to speak more independently, without taking advice from elders,” said the mosque’s imam, or spiritual leader, M.T.M. Fawaz.

Also, the young man was more conservative, Fawaz said, objecting, for instance, to women wearing bangles or earrings.

“The rest of us come together as community leaders but Zahran wanted to speak for himself,” said Fawaz, a man with broad shoulders lounging with a group of friends in a back office of the mosque after evening prayers. “He was a black sheep who broke free.”

Mohamed Yusuf Mohamed Thaufeek, a friend who met Zahran at school and later became an adherent of his, said the problems revolved around Zahran’s habit of misquoting Islamic scriptures.

The mosque’s committee banned him from preaching for three months in 2009. Zahran stormed off.

“We treated him like a spoiled child, a very narrow-minded person who was always causing some trouble,” said the head of the committee, Mohamed Ismail Mohamed Naushad, a timber supplier who shook his head at the memory.

Now on his own, Zahran began to collect a group of followers who met in what Fawaz described as “a hut”.

At about that time, Zahran, then 23, married a young girl from a small town outside the capital of Colombo and brought his bride back to Kattankudy, according to his sister, Mathaniya.

“I didn’t have much of a connection with her – she was 14,” she said.

Despite being “a bit rough-edged”, Zahran was a skilled speaker and others his age were drawn to his speeches and Koranic lessons, said Thaufeek. He traveled the countryside at times, giving his version of religious instruction as he went.

Also, Zahran had found a popular target: the town’s Sufi population, who practice a form of Islam often described a mystical, but which to conservatives is heresy.

Tensions in the area went back some years. In 2004, there was a grenade attack on a Sufi mosque and in 2006 several homes of Sufis were set afire. Announcements boomed from surrounding mosques at the time calling for a Sufi spiritual leader to be killed, said Sahlan Khalil Rahman, secretary of a trust that oversees a group of Sufi mosques.

He blamed followers of the fundamentalist Wahhabi strain of Islam that some locals say became more popular after funding from Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Wahhabism, flowed to mosques in Kattankudy.

It was, Rahman said, an effort “to convert Sufis into Wahhabis through this terrorism”. Rahman handed over a photograph album showing charred homes, bullet holes sprayed across an office wall and a shrine’s casket upended.

ONLINE RADICAL

It was an ideal backdrop for Zahran’s bellicose delivery and apparent sense of religious destiny.

He began holding rallies, bellowing insults through loudspeakers that reverberated inside the Sufis’ house of worship as they tried to pray.

In 2012, Zahran started a mosque of his own. The Sufis were alarmed and, Rahman said, passed on complaints to both local law enforcement and eventually national government offices. No action was taken.

The then-officer in charge of Kattankudy police, Ariyabandhu Wedagedara, said in a telephone interview that he couldn’t arrest people simply because of theological differences.

     “The problem at the time was between followers of different Islamic sects – Zahran was not a major troublemaker, but he and followers of other sects, including the Sufis, were at loggerheads,” Wedagedara said.

Zahran found another megaphone: the internet. His Facebook page was taken down after the bombings, but Muslims in the area said his video clips had previously achieved notoriety.

His speeches went from denouncing Sufis to “kafirs”, or non-believers, in general. Zahran’s sister, Mathaniya, said in an interview that she thought “his ideas became more radical from listening to Islamic State views on the Internet”.

In one undated video, Zahran, in a white tunic and standing in front of an image of flames, boomed in a loud voice: “You will not have time to pick up the remains of blown-up bodies. We’ll keep sending those insulting Allah to hell.”

“HARD TO TAKE”

Zahran spoke in Tamil, making his words available to young Muslims clicking on their cellphones in Kattankudy and other towns like it during a period when, in both 2014 and 2018, reports and images spread of Sinhalese Buddhists rioting against Muslims in Sri Lanka.

In 2017, Zahran’s confrontations boiled over. At a rally near a Sufi community, his followers came wielding swords. At least one man was hacked and hospitalized. The police arrested several people connected to Zahran, including his father and one of his brothers. Zahran slipped away from public view.

That December, the mosque Zahran founded released a public notice disowning him. Thaufeek, his friend from school, is now the head. He counted the places that Zahran had been driven away from – his school, the Dharul Athar mosque and then, “we ourselves kicked him out, which would have been hard for him to take”.

The next year, a group of Buddha statues was vandalized in the town of Mawanella, about five hours drive from Kattankudy. There, in the lush mountains of Sri Lanka’s interior, Zahran had taken up temporary residence.

“He was preaching to kill people,” said A.G.M. Anees, who has served as an imam at a small mosque in the area for a decade. “This is not Islam, this is violence.”

Zahran went into hiding once more.

On the Thursday morning before the Easter Sunday bombings, Zahran’s sister-in-law knocked on the door of a neighbor who did seamstress work near Kattankudy. She handed over a parcel of fabric and asked for it to be sewn into a tunic by the end of the day.

“She said she was going on a family trip,” said the neighbor, M.H. Sithi Nazlya.

Zahran’s sister says that her parents turned off their cellphones on the Friday. On Sunday, when she visited their home, they were gone.

She does not know if Zahran arranged for them to be taken somewhere safe. Or why he would have carried out the bombing.

But now in Kattankudy, and in many other places, people are talking about Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran.

(Reporting by Tom Lasseter and Shri Navaratnam; Additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani, Shihar Aneez and Alasdair Pal; Editing by John Chalmers and Alex Richardson)

Source: OANN

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