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Greek police use safe driving to stop migrant-smuggling

Police in northern Greece have adopted a new tactic for disrupting gangs that smuggle people into the country from across the land border with Turkey, an increasingly popular route: stopping drivers who work for the gangs and charging them with traffic violations before they can pick up their human cargo.

The drivers can't be charged with smuggling if they don't have migrants with them. But they can face prison terms of several months and stiff fines for violations such as driving without a license, and their cars can be impounded.

The strategy is much less dangerous than policing the border by having patrol cars chase old vehicles crammed with people who just entered Greece. Smugglers sometimes use teenagers with minimal driving experience to transport migrants from the border to other destinations, risking horrific losses of life if they panic and crash during a police pursuit.

In October, a car smuggling migrants collided with a truck and burst into flames near the city of Kavala in northeastern Greece, killing all 11 people who somehow were squeezed inside.

Accidents in northeastern Greece involving vehicles driven by smugglers killed 30 migrants last year — including the 11 killed near Kavala — and injured another 95, according to police data.

"In the serious accidents with refugee and migrant victims, most of the drivers who survived and were immigrants from Asian countries, didn't have driving licenses," said Major-General Nikolaos Menexidis, the police chief for Greece's border region of Thrace and adjoining Eastern Macedonia. "The vehicles were in bad condition, many had worn tires, because the gangs are looking for cheap ways to do their business."

Typically, smuggling gangs charge 1,500-2,000 euros ($1,700-$2,260) per person to sneak migrants from Turkey across the land border to Greece's second-largest city, Thessaloniki.

Police started focusing on vehicles without passengers as a smuggling deterrent in September. From then through February, 125 people suspected of working for smuggling rings were arrested for traffic violations while driving toward the Thrace border region. They had been recruited from among migrants already living in Greece, and none had a drivers' license.

"We want to send smuggling gangs the message that they can't get past us, or at least not easily," Menexidis said.

While main highways extending from Greece's 200-kilometer-long (124-mile-long) border with Turkey along the Evros River already were heavily policed, traffic roadblocks were expanded to cover small country roads as part of the effort to catch drivers heading to the border to meet arriving migrants. Although smugglers tend to prefer small roads to avoid detection, they also are easier for police to control since the traffic is lighter.

The preferred route into Greece continues to be the relatively short sea crossing from the Turkish coast to Greek islands in the eastern Aegean Sea, but the share of people opting to cross at the land border has been increasing. It doubled from 18 percent in 2017 to 36 percent last year.

The growing popularity of the overland route is due to a 2016 agreement between the European Union and Turkey under which people who reach the Greek islands illegally are held in camps and prevented from moving on to the Greek mainland while facing potential deportation, The sea route from Turkey also carries a high risk of drowning: 187 people died trying to cross the eastern Mediterranean last year.

The EU-Turkey deal applies only to the islands, where the camps have become notoriously overcrowded and poor living conditions slammed by human rights groups. The agreement has been largely credited with stemming huge flows of refugees and migrants to Europe like the more than one million people fleeing violence who arrived in 2015, four-fifths of them crossing the water from Turkey to Greece.

According to the United Nations refugee agency, about 50,000 of the 141,500 migrants who reached Europe last year arrived through Greece, 32,500 by sea and 18,000 by land. In 2017, 29,718 came to Greece by sea and 6,582 entered the country by land. Most don't intend to stay in Greece, but plan to pay gangs to spirit them on through the Balkans to Germany or other prosperous EU countries.

Menexidis says targeting drivers working for smugglers has already helped reduce arrivals, as well as lowered the number of migrants dying in traffic accidents.

"These large flows have stopped," he said. "Last year, we had accidents that we don't have this year, so we can argue that the road checks have helped with that too."

___

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Source: Fox News World

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JetBlue targets low-fare transatlantic travel with 2021 London launch

FILE PHOTO: The JetBlue Airways logo is seen on a revolving door entering John F. Kennedy Airport in the Queens borough of New York
FILE PHOTO: The JetBlue Airways logo is seen on a revolving door entering John F. Kennedy Airport in the Queens borough of New York U.S., January 24, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

April 10, 2019

By Tracy Rucinski

(Reuters) – JetBlue Airways Corp hopes to break into the low-fare, transatlantic travel market beginning in 2021 with multiple daily flights from New York and Boston to London, its first European destination, the carrier said on Wednesday.

To service the routes, the sixth largest U.S. carrier will convert 13 Airbus A321LR aircraft from its existing order book with a fresh version of its Mint business product.

The idea is to offer customers a fresh choice on routes where JetBlue President Joanna Geraghty said current competitor fares “are enough to make you blush.”

New York-based JetBlue, which unveiled the long-awaited launch at an employee event at John F. Kennedy International Airport, said it is still evaluating which London airports it will serve.

The company, which has built a reputation in the United States for more coach legroom than competitors and free broadband internet, has argued for regulators to force slot divestitures at high-traffic airports like London’s Heathrow to create a level playing field for new entrants.

A handful of Europe-based budget carriers have tried to penetrate the transatlantic market in recent years, but only cash-strapped Norwegian Air is still standing.

Iceland’s WOW, PrimeraAir Nordic, Britain’s Flybmi and Monarch Airlines and Cypriot carrier Cobalt have all ceased operations in a sector grappling with over-capacity and high fuel costs.

JetBlue said it will raise the bar on what travelers can expect from a low-cost carrier, particularly in Europe.

The carrier has argued in the past that its version of business class, Mint, has driven a 50 percent decline in premium fares on some competing U.S. routes, a reduction it believes it can also deliver for premium travel between the United States and Europe.

“JetBlue’s Mint product suits the Atlantic market as they will likely come in with stimulative fares to drive customer awareness and loyalty,” Cowen analyst Helane Becker said in a recent note to clients.

The main issue will be whether JetBlue is able to gain access at major international airports, she said, like London Heathrow and Amsterdam Schiphol.

(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski, editing by G Crosse)

Source: OANN

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Erdogan: Istanbul's Hagia Sophia could be turned into mosque

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Istanbul's Hagia Sophia — a Byzantine-era cathedral that was turned into a mosque and now serves as a museum — could be reconverted into a mosque.

Erdogan spoke during a television interview Sunday ahead of Turkey's March 31 local elections.

The former Byzantine cathedral was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul in 1453. Turkey's secular founder turned the structure into a museum in 1935 that attracts millions of tourists each year.

There have been increasing calls for the government to convert the symbolic structure back into a mosque, especially following reports that the gunman who killed Muslim worshippers in New Zealand left a manifesto saying the Hagia Sophia would be "free of minarets."

Source: Fox News World

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Man Charged In New York City Subway Attack On 78-Year-Old Woman

Neetu Chandak | Education and Politics Reporter

A man was charged with assault Saturday after allegedly kicking a 78-year-old woman in the face on a New York City subway as others watched on in early March.

Marc Gomez, 36, was arrested Saturday, the New York Police Department (NYPD) said to The Daily Caller News Foundation over email. He was charged with multiple counts of assault and harassment.

WATCH:

A community tip reportedly led to the arrest, according to a tweet from ABC 7 reporter Naveen Dhaliwal Saturday. (RELATED: Police: Two People Pretending To Be Officers Abduct Woman, Drop Her Off At Police Headquarters)

The elderly woman, who has not been identified, was treated for swelling, cuts to the face and bleeding after getting assaulted on the subway March 10 around 3 a.m. Video footage shows onlookers watching and yelling as she got hit.

WATCH (warning, graphic content):

“It’s terrible,” an MTA worker said, the New York Post reported. “I can’t believe something like that could happen.”

It is unclear why Gomez allegedly kicked the woman.

NYPD Chief of Detectives Demort Shea said Gomez was in custody in a tweet Saturday.

“Thank you to the worldwide community for the tremendous assistance,” Shea tweeted.

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Source: The Daily Caller

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Ohio 7-Eleven owner gives shoplifting teen food instead of calling police

A would-be 7-Eleven thief was caught before he stole anything, but he still got the items he was planning to take —  thanks to the convenience store's owner.

The owner of the store said that he spotted the almost-shoplifter trying to take food from his business in Toledo, Ohio. He noticed the teen on surveillance cameras before confronting him.

NURSE ADOPTS GIRL WHO HAD NO VISITORS DURING HOSPITAL STAY

But Jitendra "Jay" Singh, who's owned the store for roughly five years, said he was shocked by the person he met over the weekend.

"He said, 'I'm stealing for myself,'" Singh told WTVG. '"I'm hungry, and I'm doing it for my younger brother.'"

Singh decided not to involve law enforcement, he said. Instead, he chose to help the apparently hungry teenager.

"It's not going to make any difference to me if I give him some food because we make a lot of food, we sell a lot of food," Singh told the news station. "If he goes to jail then he's definitely not going to do anything good in life."

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Cedric Bishop, a customer at the 7-Eleven posted the story on Facebook on Sunday, where it gained traction. He wrote that while at the store, the teen was pocketing "munchies" — food Singh said "is not food" before proceeding to give him "real" food.

Singh gave the teen sausage, pizza and chicken, according to Bishop, who said he gave the teen $10 so he knows "someone cares."

Source: Fox News National

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Germany warns of Turkey's refusal to accredit journalists

Germany's Foreign Ministry is warning that Turkey might take "further measures" against German journalists after reporters were denied accreditation in recent weeks.

The Foreign Ministry updated its travel advice late Saturday for Germans planning to go to Turkey. It said Turkish authorities refused to issue to several journalists the permits needed to report from the country.

The ministry said "as such, it can't be ruled out that the Turkish government will take further measures against representatives of German media as well as civil society organizations."

The ministry also cited Turkey's "arbitrary arrest" in recent years of German citizens suspected of links to banned groups, such as the network of a Turkish cleric living in the U.S. Turkey accuses followers of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen of being behind a failed 2016 coup.

Source: Fox News World

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Dr. Bill Bennett: Joe Biden has ‘got to deal with this issue up front’

Former Secretary of Education Dr. Bill Bennett said former Vice President Joe Biden has "got to deal with this issue up front” as reports of two more women accusing Biden of touching them inappropriately surfaced.

A total of four women have complained publicly about the prospective 2020 Democratic presidential candidate.

“This is Joe Biden, I’ve known him for a long time. Let’s remember that Joe Biden has suffered losses unlike many of us. He lost his wife and his daughter in an accident, then he lost his son recently. I think he is naturally by disposition, someone who touches, reaches and I don’t think any of these things I’ve heard, rise to the level of such serious offence, so I’d give the guy some room,” Bennett told "America's Newsroom" on Wednesday.

BETO PRAISES 'COURAGE' OF BIDEN ACCUSERS, QUESTIONS WHETHER FORMER VP SHOULD ENTER 2020 RACE

The mounting scandal surrounding Biden, who has yet to officially enter the 2020 Democratic fray despite being seen as the frontrunner to challenge President Trump in the general election, started with allegations made by former Nevada state assemblywoman Lucy Flores that Biden kissed her on the back of her head during a 2014 campaign rally supporting her bid for lieutenant governor.

Flores made the accusations in a piece in New York magazine in which she accused the former vice president of approaching her from behind, putting his hands on her shoulders, sniffing her hair and kissing her on the back of the head.

"The vice president of the United States of America had just touched me in an intimate way reserved for close friends, family, or romantic partners — and I felt powerless to do anything about it," she wrote.

Since then three other women have come forward to accuse Biden of unwanted touching during public events.

Amy Lappos, a former aide to Connecticut Democrat Rep. Jim Himes, claims Biden grabbed her during a $1,000-per-plate October 2009 fundraiser.

“It wasn’t sexual, but he did grab me by the head," Lappos said. “He put his hand around my neck and pulled me in to rub noses with me. When he was pulling me in, I thought he was going to kiss me on the mouth.”

The New York Times reported that writer D.J. Hill said Biden in 2012 put his hand on her shoulder, then dropped it down her back in a way that made her "very uncomfortable" while Hill and her husband posed for pictures with him at a fundraiser in Minneapolis. Former college student Caitlyn Caruso also told the paper that Biden "rested his hand on her thigh — even as she squirmed in her seat to show her discomfort — and hugged her 'just a little bit too long' at an event on sexual assault at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.

NEW YORK POST: JOE BIDEN IS DAMNED BY HIS OWN 'HARASSMENT' STANDARD 

Biden has denied ever acting inappropriately toward Flores and his spokesperson referred Fox News' requests for comment on the new allegation to Biden's earlier statements.

"In my many years on the campaign trail and in public life, I have offered countless handshakes, hugs, expressions of affection, support and comfort," Biden said in a statement Sunday. "And not once -- never -- did I believe I acted inappropriately. If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully. But it was never my intention."

Biden added: "I may not recall these moments the same way, and I may be surprised at what I hear. But we have arrived at an important time when women feel they can and should relate their experiences, and men should pay attention. And I will.”

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On “America’s Newsroom” Wednesday Bennett said he thinks Biden will enter the 2020 race but said, “he’s got to deal with this issue up front and then move on to more serious matters. I think more serious matters.”

He added, “He’s got to respond to it and he’s got to deal with it adequately and he’s got to adjust his behavior obviously.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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A Chinese woman adjusts a Chinese national flag next to U.S. national flags before a Strategic Dialogue expanded meeting, part of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) in Beijing
A Chinese woman adjusts a Chinese national flag next to U.S. national flags before a Strategic Dialogue expanded meeting, part of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, July 10, 2014. REUTERS/Ng Han Guan/Pool (CHINA – Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS)

April 26, 2019

By April Joyner

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Even as the lift from optimism over prospects for U.S.-China trade detente shows signs of wearing off for the wider U.S. stock market, upbeat sentiment around China’s economy could bolster shares of materials companies.

Shares of S&P 500 industrial and technology companies, which were buffeted by last year’s tit-for-tat tariffs as well as slowing global demand, have been very responsive to progress in U.S.-China trade relations and a strengthening Chinese economy. This year, those sectors have outpaced the ascent in the S&P 500, which reached a record closing high on Tuesday.

Materials stocks have not been as sensitive, however, even though they also stand to benefit as a stronger Chinese economy lifts global consumption and industrial output. As China has taken measures to stimulate its economy, its economic data have turned more upbeat. That in turn could aid global growth, which has flagged as a result of China’s cooldown.

“What we’re seeing is China spending more on stimulus: fiscal stimulus and monetary stimulus,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco in New York. “That’s likely to be a positive for materials.”

The People’s Bank of China has cut banks’ reserve requirement ratio five times over the past year and is widely expected to ease policy further to spur lending and reduce borrowing costs. The stimulus appears to have boosted Chinese economic data, with factory activity growing in March for the first time in four months.

Yet so far in 2019, the S&P 500 materials index has underperformed the S&P 500 at large, rising just 11.9% compared with 16.7% for the benchmark index. Moreover, it is among the biggest decliners in the period since the S&P’s previous record closing level on Sept. 20. The materials index has fallen 7% over those seven months, versus a 5.2% gain for technology and a 3% loss for industrials. Only the energy index has dropped more over that period.

A trade agreement could serve as a catalyst for a bump in materials shares as a drag on China’s economy is lifted, some market strategists say. Some commodity prices, including those for copper and oil, have ascended this year as the prospects for the global economy have somewhat brightened.

“It all goes back to the global growth outlook,” said Andrea DiCenso, portfolio manager for alpha strategies at Loomis Sayles in Boston. “With the front run in hard data, we’re beginning to see a pretty significant rally.”

Additionally, a trade agreement is expected to include commitments from China to purchase higher quantities of U.S. products such as soybeans, which could benefit companies that make agricultural chemicals, including DowDuPont Inc and CF Industries Holdings Inc.

CF Industries is scheduled to report quarterly results after the bell on Wednesday, and DowDuPont is scheduled to report before the market open on Thursday.

To be sure, even with a trade agreement, some materials companies could face price pressures. Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc fell 10.1% on Thursday after the copper mining company posted a lower-than-expected profit as its production slipped and its costs rose.

A rollback of tariffs on Chinese imports, particularly aluminum and steel, would likely prompt a fall in some commodity prices, which could hurt prospects for certain materials companies, said Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera Investment Management in El Segundo, California.

Even so, those drawbacks may be outweighed by the support for global demand fostered by a U.S.-China trade agreement.

“You could see a number of companies with lowered expectations bring them back up as they talk favorably about the impact that a trade deal would have on them,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York.

(Reporting by April Joyner; additional reporting by Sinéad Carew; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Source: OANN

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Cyprus police on Friday widened their search for more victims of a suspected serial killer after the 35-year-old national guard captain told investigators he killed four more people that he previously admitted to on the small Mediterranean nation.

The count now has climbed to seven.

CYPRUS FEARS POSSIBLE SERIAL KILLER AFTER BODIES OF TWO WOMEN ARE DISCOVERED IN MINESHAFT

Authorities said they are focusing on a military firing range, a man-made lake and an abandoned mine about 20 miles west of the capital Nicosia.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades expressed “deep sorrow and concern” at the slayings and said he shared the public’s revulsion at “murders that appear to have selectively targeted foreign women who are in our country to work.”

“Such instincts are contrary to our culture’s traditions and values,” he said in a statement from China, where he was on an official visit. He urged calm so police can complete their investigation.

The scale of the alleged crimes by a Cypriot National Guard captain has horrified the small nation of over a million people, where multiple killings are rare. Five British law enforcement officials — including a coroner, a psychiatrist and investigators who specialize in multiple homicides — have been dispatched to help with the investigation.

On Thursday, the 35-year-old suspect, who can’t yet be named because he hasn’t been formally charged, told investigators that he had killed four more people than he had previously admitted to. Police said the suspect will appear in court Saturday for another custody hearing.

Cypriot investigators and police officers search a flooded mineshaft where two female bodies were found, outside of Mitsero village, near the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, April 22, 2019. Police on the east Mediterranean island nation, along with the help of the fire service, are conducting the search Monday in the wake of last week's discovery of the bodies in the abandoned mineshaft and the disappearance of the six-year-old daughter of one of the victims. 

Cypriot investigators and police officers search a flooded mineshaft where two female bodies were found, outside of Mitsero village, near the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, April 22, 2019. Police on the east Mediterranean island nation, along with the help of the fire service, are conducting the search Monday in the wake of last week’s discovery of the bodies in the abandoned mineshaft and the disappearance of the six-year-old daughter of one of the victims.  (AP)

The victims — all foreigners— include Marry Rose Tiburcio, 38, from the Philippines, whose bound body was found April 14 in a flooded mineshaft. She and her six-year-old daughter had been missing since May of last year.

The girl remains missing and authorities believe she was also slain by the suspect. Divers have entered the reservoir to search for her but have not found her body yet.

CYPRUS: GROUND NOT YET READY FOR PEACE TALKS RESUMPTION 

Authorities tracked down the officer last week by scouring Tiburcio’s online messages.

Six days later, police discovered another body April 20 in the same mineshaft, identified by Cypriot media as 28-year-old Arian Palanas Lozano, also from the Philippines.

A third alleged victim, also of Filipino descent, is 31-year-old Maricar Valtez Arquiola, who had been missing since December 2017. The suspect initially denied killing Arquiola but reversed himself after a court hearing Thursday, a police official said.

The suspect on Thursday also pointed investigators to a military firing range, where they discovered another unidentified body, which according to the suspect belongs to a woman of either Nepalese or Indian descent.

SERIAL KILLER WHO MAY HAVE COMMITTED 90 MURDERS IS LINKED TO YET ANOTHER KILLING 

Cypriot police are also looking for a Romanian mother and daughter. Cypriot media identified them as Livia Florentina Bunea, 36, and eight-year-old Elena Natalia Bunea, who are believed to have been missing since September 2016.

The man-made lake remains off-limits to a manned search because of high levels of toxic heavy metals from the copper pyrite mine, Fire Service Chief Marcos Trangolas said, adding that authorities will use other means to scour the lake.

Chief of Cypriot police Zacharias Chrysostomou, center, walks with Cypriot investigators and police officers at a flooded mineshaft where two female bodies were found, outside of Mitsero village, near the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, April 22, 2019.

Chief of Cypriot police Zacharias Chrysostomou, center, walks with Cypriot investigators and police officers at a flooded mineshaft where two female bodies were found, outside of Mitsero village, near the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, April 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Cyprus police have faced criticism from immigrant activists who said they didn’t act fast enough to investigate the whereabouts of some of the victims, many of them domestic workers. The island nation has 80 unsolved missing persons cases, going back to 1990.

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Police chief Zacharias Chrysostomou said a three-member panel has been assigned to probe whether police followed all the correct protocol in recent missing persons cases.

According to the state-run Cyprus News Agency, an investigator had told the court at an earlier hearing that the suspect admitted to killing one woman he met online after having sex with her.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Source: Fox News World

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Venezuelan opposition lawmaker Gilber Caro is seen delivering a speech at a forum on human rights in Caracas
Venezuelan opposition lawmaker Gilber Caro is seen delivering a speech at a forum on human rights in Caracas, Venezuela June 12, 2018 in this still image taken from a video. REUTERS TV/ via REUTERS

April 26, 2019

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition-run National Assembly said on Friday that opposition lawmaker Gilber Caro was detained, which it described in a Twitter post as a violation of diplomatic immunity.

Caro had previously spend a year and a half in jail, before being freed in June 2018. The arrest comes as Juan Guaido, the National Assembly’s leader, mounts a challenge to President Nicolas Maduro, arguing his 2018 re-election was illegitimate. Guaido in January invoked the country’s constitution to assume an interim presidency.

(Reporting by Caracas newsroom; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Customers shop in a Sainsbury's store in Redhill
FILE PHOTO: Customers shop in a Sainsbury’s store in Redhill, Britain, March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By James Davey

LONDON (Reuters) – With Sainsbury’s dream of creating Britain’s biggest supermarket group in tatters, its chastened CEO Mike Coupe needs to reassure investors he has the plan to arrest a sales decline when he presents annual results next week.

Britain’s competition regulator blocked Sainsbury’s 7.3 billion pound ($9.4 billion) takeover of Walmart’s Asda on Thursday, saying the deal would increase prices. Sainsbury’s shares fell 5 percent and are down 22 percent over the last three months.

For Sainsbury’s fourth quarter to March 9 analysts are on average forecasting a 1.6 percent fall in like-for-like sales, which would follow 1.1 percent decline over the Christmas period.

Monthly industry data from researcher Kantar has also shown Sainsbury’s as the weakest performer of the big four grocers this year and this month it lost its status as Britain’s No. 2 supermarket group by market share to Asda.

While Sainsbury’s has struggled, market leader Tesco has gained momentum, this month reporting a 34 percent jump in full year profit.

Prohibition of the deal was a major blow to Coupe, its architect and Sainsbury’s boss since 2014.

Martin Scicluna became Sainsbury’s chairman last month and when bedded-in may decide that if the group needs a major shake-up it is best carried out by a new leader.

Much will depend on the attitude of 22 percent shareholder the Qatar Investment Authority, which has so far declined to comment, as well as Coupe’s own appetite to continue after 15 years at the group.

THE RIGHT STRATEGY?

Coupe said on Thursday he was confident Sainsbury’s was pursuing the right strategy.

That was a clear indication that Wednesday’s results statement will not include radical changes to the group’s plans, such as a big margin reset — sacrificing profit to drive sales.

However, sources connected to Sainsbury’s said Coupe would likely acknowledge that more needs to be done on prices, so the supermarket business can better compete with its big four rivals – Tesco, Asda and No. 4 Morrisons – as well as German-owned discounters Aldi and Lidl.

Coupe’s strategy is based on differentiating Sainsbury’s food offer, growing its general merchandise, clothing business and bank, while investing in convenience and online channels.

Some analysts believe major change is needed.

HSBC analyst David McCarthy reckons Sainsbury’s needs a margin reset, should allocate more space for core lines and needs to drive better store standards. He said Sainsbury’s might consider closing down space in some of its larger stores and reducing its non-food offer.

For the full 2018-19 year analysts are on average forecasting a pretax profit of 626 million pounds, up from 589 million pounds in 2017-18 – a second straight year of profit growth. A full year dividend of 10.5 pence per share is forecast versus 10.2 pence last time.

Bank and lawyer fees related to the proposed combination with Asda were 17 million pounds in the first half and have reportedly jumped to around 50 million pounds.

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Keith Weir)

Source: OANN

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Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey rejected demands from a secular group to remove posts on social media where he sent Easter greetings and cited a Bible verse, offering to provide copies of the Constitution to his critics.

Ducey, who’s a practicing Catholic, has been bombarded with calls from Secular Communities for Arizona to remove the post, which included a cross, a Bible verse, and the phrase, “He is risen.”

ARIZONA’S GOP GOVERNOR WAGING WAR AGAINST OCCUPATIONAL LICENSING LAWS

The group argued the posts crossed a line into government sponsorship of religious messages and was unconstitutional.

The governor fired back at the group, saying in a tweet that he will never remove the posts or other religious ones.

“We won’t be removing this post. Ever. Nor will we be removing our posts for Christmas, Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah, Palm Sunday, Passover or any other religious holiday,” he tweeted. “We support the First Amendment, and are happy to provide copies of the Constitution to anyone who hasn’t read it.”

Dianne Post, an attorney for the secular group, told the Arizona Republic “elected officials should not use their government position and government property to promote their religious views.”

LICENSE REQUIRED TO REPAIR DOORS? REGS SPARK HEATED DEBATE IN ARIZONA

She added the courts have repeatedly “struck down symbolism that unites government with religion,” adding that Ducey’s office must “represent and protect the rights of all residents of Arizona, including those who do not believe in a monotheistic God or any gods at all.”

Many congratulated Ducey for not backing down amid the pressure, though some Facebook users sided with the secular group and criticized the governor on his original post.

“Why do you use a government platform to bring up your personal religion?” asked one person. “Are there no citizens in your jurisdiction that believe differently from you?”

Another stipulated that the post was somewhat discriminatory. “Great sensitivity, Doug. That’s the last time this Jew votes for you,” one person wrote.

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Ducey wished in a statement Arizonans last week a “blessed and joyful Easter and Passover weekend.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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