ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's military spokesman tweeted that Indian aircraft crossed into Pakistan on Tuesday and carried out an airstrike but said there were no casualties from the attack.
Maj. Gen Asif Ghafoor said the Indian "aircrafts" crossed into the Pakistan-controlled Muzafarabad sector of Kashmir. He added that Pakistan scrambled fighter jets and before turning back, the Indian jets they "released payload in haste," near Balakot, on the edge of Pakistani-ruled Kashmir.
There has been no comment from India.
The incursion could have been in retaliation for a deadly Feb. 14 suicide bombing in India's half of Kashmir that killed at least 40 troops. The Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility. The bomber who made a video before the attack was a resident of Indian Kashmir.
Pakistan and India both lay claim to a united Kashmir.
FILE PHOTO: Banners of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank are pictured in front of the German share price index, DAX board, at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, September 30, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
March 12, 2019
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s Verdi labor union on Tuesday voiced strong objections to a possible merger between Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank, arguing that a combined entity would be a more attractive target for a hostile foreign takeover.
The union, in a statement e-mailed to Reuters, also said that Deutsche’s biggest problem, its investment bank, wouldn’t be helped by a tie-up with Commerzbank. A merger would put at least 10,000 jobs at risk, it added.
The reaction from the union follows news over the weekend that Deutsche Bank’s chief executive Christian Sewing had agreed to hold tentative talks with rival Commerzbank.
Berlin, which has been worried about Deutsche’s health, has pushed for a merger as Deutsche has struggled to generate sustainable profits since the 2008 financial crisis.
“We reject a merger,” said Jan Duscheck, head of Verdi’s banking division.
It wouldn’t create a truly big bank in the European market, and the new entity would be “considerably more attractive for a hostile takeover, for example, by France,” he said.
“The merger would not result in a ‘national champion’,” he added.
Both banks declined to comment.
(Reporting by Tom Sims, editing by Louise Heavens; Editing by Riham Alkousaa and Louise Heavens)
FILE PHOTO: San Francisco Giants Manager Bruce Bochy stands next to the World Series trophy before the team's MLB National League baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals in San Francisco, California April 7, 2013. REUTERS/Stephen Lam
February 19, 2019
San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy announced Monday that he will retire after the 2019 season.
The announcement was made on the club’s Twitter feed.
“I will be retiring after the season.” –@BruceBochy
Bochy, who turns 64 in April, has guided the Giants to three World Series titles (2010, 2012, 2014) during his tenure. He also managed the San Diego Padres to the 1998 World Series when that club lost to the New York Yankees.
Bochy enters the 2019 season with the 11th-most wins in major league history. He is 1,926-1,944 in 24 seasons — 12 with the Padres and 12 with the Giants.
“Words cannot adequately express the amount of admiration, gratitude and respect the Giants family has for Bruce Bochy,” team president and CEO Laurence M. Baer said in a prepared statement. “His honesty, integrity, passion and brilliance led to the most successful period of Giants baseball in the history of our franchise. He will always be a Giant and we look forward to honoring him and all of his achievements throughout his final season in San Francisco and inevitably in Cooperstown.”
He stands 74 ways away from reaching 2,000 career wins. Every manager who has reached that mark is enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
“It’s been an unbelievable ride,” Bochy said. “There’s so much I’m grateful for.”
Bochy’s teams went 951-975 in his tenure with San Diego from 1995-2006. He was National League Manager of the Year in 1996 and led the Padres to four postseason berths.
Bochy won division titles in each of his final two seasons in San Diego but was told after the 2006 campaign he could explore his options. He eventually accepted the Giants’ job.
World Series title No. 1 came after the 2010 season when San Francisco defeated the Texas Rangers in five games.
Two years later, the Giants won their second title under Bochy with a four-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers.
In 2014, San Francisco won a memorable seven-game series against the Kansas City Royals. Bochy made the call to install ace left-hander Madison Bumgarner in relief on two days rest and received five shutout innings to win his third title.
The Giants also made the playoffs in 2016 and were eliminated by the Chicago Cubs in the National League Division Series.
His record with San Francisco heading into 2019 stands at 975-969.
“Ever since I moved to San Francisco in 2007, the city and our awesome fans have embraced me,” Bochy said on Twitter. “I’m going to miss it, but I’m so grateful for the last 12 years and am looking forward to finishing strong this season.”
Bochy’s health has been a concern in recent seasons and he has undergone multiple heart procedures.
Bochy was a catcher for the Houston Astros (1978-80), New York Mets (1982) and Padres (1983-87) and batted .239 with 26 homers and 93 RBIs over nine major league seasons.
Democrat presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke was asked if he supports up-to-birth abortions during a campaign event in Cleveland, Ohio, but rather than answer the question directly, he instead pivoted to the general topic of abortion.
“Are you for or against third-trimester abortions?” I asked O’Rourke Monday.
“The question is about abortion and reproductive rights and my answer to you is that should be a decision that the woman makes. I trust her,” O’Rourke said to cheers and applause.
“The former Texas congressman, who rose to prominence during a failed Senate run against Ted Cruz (R., Texas) last year, co-sponsored in 2017 the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would have eliminated nearly all state restrictions on abortion, including so-called right-to-know laws and mandatory waiting periods.”
“O’Rourke’s refusal to engage with the policy debate surrounding third-trimester abortions in particular is broadly reflective of the Democratic presidential field, which comprises lawmakers who maintain a blanket opposition to abortion restrictions regardless of gestational age.”
Mike Adams joins Owen Shroyer live via Skype to break down an array of news stories including the push to censor nutritional / health information by big tech, medical fascism, 3-D printed gun technology, and how some feminists are calling for abortion to be an option for women after an undetermined amount of time following the birth. It could be days, weeks, or even months after the successful delivery that the mother “chooses” to abort the infant.
DHAKA, Bangladesh – A fire in Bangladesh killed at least 81 people and gutted a section of Chawkbazar, a section of Dhaka that dates to the Mughal era 400 years ago, in a stark reminder of the lapses in public safety that continue in the South Asian country despite its rapid economic development.
The fire leaped from building to building in the ancient district, a warren of narrow streets — some only one meter (3 feet) wide — with apartments squeezed over shops, restaurants and industrial warehouses on the ground floors.
Witnesses said many gas cylinders stored in the buildings continued to explode one after another. They said the fire also set off explosions in the fuel tanks of some vehicles that were stuck in traffic in front of the destroyed buildings.
Officials said firefighters struggled to reach the area because of heavy traffic and narrow alleys that were busy when the fire started.
After a fire in 2010 swept through Nimtoli, a district near Chawkbazar, killing at least 123 people, authorities promised to bring the area into compliance with building codes and regulations, and evict chemical warehouses from buildings where people lived.
Industrial facilities can't legally exist in areas that are zoned residential, said Mohammed Manjur Morshed, an assistant professor of urban planning at Khulna University of Engineering and Technology.
"This type of thing happens, there's a big initiative to move everything out, and then after some time people forget about it and the government is really not interested any more. It's like that," Morshed said.
In 2014, three people were killed and three others severely burned when a perfume warehouse on the third floor of a building in Chawkbazar caught fire. The following year, a fire gutted eight plastic factories.
Morshed said government regulations are sufficient, but are routinely flouted in Chawkbazar. "This is a historic area with a distinct culture," he said. "They are not really abiding by the government's rules."
The newer northern half of Dhaka, where many famous fashion brand factories are located, contrasts greatly with the southern half that includes Chawkbazar.
"As the area was developed continuously, there is very high population density and haphazard growth," said Shafiq-Ur Rahman, an urban planning professor at Jahangirnagar University in Dhaka.
"You need to consider preservation to maintain the heritage," he said, "but this is not the first time. We have an unfortunate history, and we need in redeveloping to figure how to provide services, like access for firefighters."
Denizens of the Muslim-majority nation throng to Chawkbazar each year for Mughal foods to celebrate iftar, when Muslims break their fast during Ramadan.
In the festive atmosphere, makeshift stalls and itinerant vendors sell spices, sweets, minced mutton, kebabs and other delicacies in tight passageways teeming with the faithful.
Thousands of animals are slaughtered in the open during Eid-ul-Azha, a sacrificial festival, near Chawkbazar Shahi Mosque.
A government eviction drive in Chawkbazar and other areas of Old Dhaka to clear makeshift stalls from walkways was met with protests last May on the eve of Ramadan by business owners and residents.
According to local reports, some 500 illegal stands were evicted from the narrow streets. In response, hundreds of legal shops closed in protest.
On Thursday afternoon, shops had opened and the streets were crowded in much of Chawkbazar, outside a police cordon where authorities continued to comb through the destruction left by the blaze.
The fire was about 500 meters (550 feet) away from Dhaka's 18th-century Central Jail, a former Mughal fort where ex-Prime Minister and opposition leader Khaleda Zia has been held since February last year on corruption charges. Since 2016, the jail has only been used to hold opposition figures, and Zia is currently the only inmate. It was not threatened by the fire.
A cashier checks Indian rupee notes inside a room at a fuel station in Ahmedabad, India, September 20, 2018. REUTERS/Amit Dave
April 9, 2019
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India has met the fiscal deficit target of 3.4 percent of gross domestic product in 2018/19 fiscal year ended March 31, by cuts in state spending and higher borrowings from small savings funds, a government source told reporters on Tuesday.
The government missed the tax collections target by over 1 trillion rupees ($14.41 billion), including about 500 billion rupees shortfall in income tax receipts, said the source, who requested anonymity.
The official declined to share further details about expenditure cuts in the fund allocations to different ministries.
(Reporting by Aftab Ahmed, Writing by Manoj Kumar, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)
North Carolina's elections board on Thursday unanimously ordered a new election for a U.S. House seat after officials said corruption surrounding absentee ballots tainted the results of last November's vote.
The bipartisan board's 5-0 decision came after Republican candidate Mark Harris requested a new vote, telling the panel that evidence of possible ballot fraud had undermined confidence in the election.
In the televised hearing, board members said "corruption" and the "absolute mess with the absentee ballots" had cast doubt on the fairness of the contest and voters deserved a fresh election.
Harris' request for a new vote came as a surprise. For months, he had said he should be declared the victor in the 9th Congressional District after he led Democrat Dan McCready by 905 votes out of 282,717 ballots cast on Nov. 6. Elections officials, however, had refused to certify him as the winner due to allegations of irregularities in the vote.
"Through the testimony I've listened to over the past three days, I believe a new election should be called," Harris said at a hearing in Raleigh. "It's become clear to me that the public's confidence in the 9th district seat general election has been undermined to an extent that a new election is warranted."
Harris' statement came on the fourth day of a hearing on whether his campaign benefited from what state investigators called illegal election manipulation by political consultant Leslie McCrae Dowless.
Earlier on Thursday, Harris said he had known Dowless was going door to door on the candidate's behalf to help voters obtain absentee ballots, a process that is legal. Harris said Dowless assured him he would not collect the ballots from the voters, which would violate state law.
But residents of at least two counties in the district said Dowless and his paid workers collected incomplete absentee ballots and, in some instances, falsely signed as witnesses and filled in votes for contests left blank, according to testimony at the hearing.
Kim Strach, executive director of the state's election board, earlier this week called the operation a "coordinated, unlawful and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme."
According to text messages Harris' attorneys turned over to the board on Thursday, Harris sought a meeting with Dowless when he learned that Dowless had led a successful absentee ballot program for Republican candidate Todd Johnson during a 2016 congressional primary election.
In those messages to a Bladen County judge, Harris asked about "the guy whose absentee ballot project for Johnson could have put me in the US House this term, had I known, and he had been helping us."
Harris campaign officials have said they did not pay Dowless to do anything illegal, and Dowless has maintained his innocence.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries at OPEC’s headquarters in Vienna, Austria December 5, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo
April 26, 2019
JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he called the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and told the cartel to lower oil prices.
“Gasoline prices are coming down. I called up OPEC, I said you’ve got to bring them down. You’ve got to bring them down,” Trump told reporters.
(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Sonia Bompastor, director of the Olympique Lyonnais womenÕs Youth Academy, leads a training at the OL Academy in Meyzieu near Lyon, France, April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Emmanuel Foudrot
April 26, 2019
By Julien Pretot
MEYZIEU, France (Reuters) – Olympique Lyonnais president Jean-Michel Aulas was wringing out his women’s team shirts in the locker room on a rainy London day eight years ago when he decided it was time to take gender equality more seriously.
It was halftime in their Champions League semi-final second leg against Arsenal at Meadow Park with 507 fans watching and Aulas realized that his players did not have a another kit for the second half.
“Next time, there will be a second set just like for the men, that’s how it’s going to work from now on,” he said.
Lyon have since won five Champions League titles to become the most successful women’s team in Europe and recently claimed a 13th consecutive domestic crown.
They visit Chelsea on Sunday in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final, with a fourth straight title in their sights.
At the heart of their achievements is a pervasive ethos that promotes gender equality throughout the club, starting in the youth academy.
In 2013, Aulas appointed former Lyon and France player Sonia Bompastor as head of the Women’s Academy — the female equivalent of one of France’s top youth set-ups that has produced players such as Karim Benzema, Alexandre Lacazette and Hatem Ben Arfa.
At the Youth Academy, girls and boys share the same facilities.
“Pitches, physiotherapy rooms are the same for all,” the 38-year-old Bompastor told Reuters.
As the girls train under the watch of former Lyon and France international Camille Abily, the screams of the boys practicing can be heard nearby.
The boys and girls also benefit from the same psychological support that includes hypnosis sessions and yoga.
“We have a ‘mental ability’ cell and the hypnotist acts on the girls’ subconscious, on their deeply held beliefs after observing them on and off the pitch,” Bompastor added.
SAME TREATMENT
One message the Academy staff are trying to convey is that girls are as good as boys.
“Women’s nature is such that we have low self-esteem. So self-esteem is a big topic for our girls,” said Bompastor.
This is not the case with the boys, she added.
“Some 14, 15-year-old boys still think they would beat our professional players, we tell them this would not be happening. We still need to work on those beliefs,” she said.
Female players also have to face questions that their male counterparts do not, Bompastor explained.
“In France there is a problem with the way women are considered, there are high aesthetic expectations. So we get heavy questions on femininity, intimate questions that men don’t get,” she said.
OL’s Academy has been held up as a shining example for others to follow, even in the U.S., where women’s soccer has a wider audience than in Europe.
“About one third of the (senior women’s) squad comes from the Academy, we have a good balance,” said Bompastor.
“I’m getting tons of requests from American universities and foreign clubs, who want to come and visit our facilities.”
‘ONE CLUB’
The salaries of the senior players is one area where there remains a large discrepancy between Lyon’s men’s and women’s teams.
While the three best-paid women players in the world are at Lyon with Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg earning 400,000 euros ($445,520) a year, this figure is dwarfed by the around 4 million euros earned annually by men’s player Memphis Depay.
There is, however, a level of interaction between the men’s and women’s players that is not present at many other clubs.
“When you talk about OL you talk about women and men, you talk about one club and you feel it when you are here or outside in the city,” Germany defender Carolin Simon told Reuters.
“We see it when we play in the big stadium. It’s not ‘normal’ for women’s football,” the 26-year-old, who joined the club last year, added.
Lyon’s female players also enjoy respect from their male counterparts, Simon said.
“It’s very cool, it’s a big honor to feel that it doesn’t matter if you are a professional man or woman. We talk with the men, there are handshakes, it’s a good atmosphere and it’s also why we are successful,” said Simon.
“The men respect us and it’s not just for the cameras.”
Her team mate, England’s Lucy Bronze, sees the men’s respect as key to improving women’s football.
“We might not be paid the same but they are just normal with us, they see us as footballers the same as they are,” Bronze told Reuters.
“Being at Lyon has really opened my eyes. To improve women’s football, it starts with having the respect of your male counterparts. It’s the biggest thing because they can influence so many people.”
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Toby Davis)
FILE PHOTO: Ethiopian migrants, stranded in war-torn Yemen, sit on the ground of a detention site pending repatriation to their home country, in Aden, Yemen April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Fawaz Salman/File Photo
April 26, 2019
GENEVA (Reuters) – Yemeni authorities have rounded up about 3,000 irregular migrants, predominantly Ethiopians, in the south of the country, “creating an acute humanitarian situation,” the U.N. migration agency said on Friday.
“IOM is deeply concerned about the conditions in which the migrants are being held and is engaging with the authorities to ensure access to the detained migrants,” the International Organization for Migration said.
The migrants are held in open-air football stadiums and in a military camp, it said in a statement.
The detentions began on Sunday in the city of Aden and the neighboring province of Lahj, which are under the control of the internationally recognized government backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iran-aligned Houthi rebels control Sanaa, the capital, and other major urban centers.
Both sides are under international diplomatic pressure to implement a United Nations-sponsored ceasefire deal agreed last year in Sweden and to prepare for a wider political dialogue that would end the four-year-old war.
Thousands of migrants arrive in Yemen every year, mostly from the Horn of Africa, driven by drought and unemployment at home and lured by the wages available in the Gulf.
(Writing by Maher Chmaytelli, Editing by William Maclean)
U.S. dollar notes are seen in this November 7, 2016 picture illustration. Picture taken November 7. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
April 26, 2019
(Reuters) – Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.
1/DOLLAR JUGGERNAUT
The dollar has zipped to near two-year highs, leaving many scratching their heads. To many, it’s down to signs the U.S. economy is chugging ahead while the rest of the world loses steam. After all, Wall Street is busily scaling new peaks day after day.
Never mind the cause, the effect is stark. The euro has tumbled to 22-month lows against the dollar and investors are preparing for more, buying options to shield against further downside. Emerging-market currencies are also in pain, with Turkish lira and Argentine peso both sharply weaker.
Now U.S. data need to keep surprising on the upside or even just meet expectations. The International Monetary Fund sees U.S. growth at 2.3 percent this year. For Germany, the forecast is 0.8 percent. The U.S. economy’s rude health has given rise to speculation the Fed might resume raising interest rates. Unlikely. But as other countries — Canada, Sweden and Australia are the latest — hint at more policy easing, there seems to be one way the dollar can go. Up.
(GRAPHIC: Dollar outperforms G10 FX – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dz17S5)
2/FED: UP OR DOWN?
Wall Street is near record highs and recession worries are receding, so as we mentioned above, investors might wonder if the Federal Reserve will start raising rates again.
Such a pivot is unlikely after the Fed killed off rate-rise expectations at its March meeting. And the latest Reuters poll all but puts to bed any risk of rates will go up this economic cycle, given inflation remains below the Fed’s alarm threshold and unemployment is the lowest in generations.
Before the March rate-pause announcement, a preponderance of economists penciled in one or more increases this year. But that has flipped. A majority of those surveyed April 22-24 see no further tightening through December and more are leaning toward a cut by the end of next year.
Indeed, interest rate futures imply Fed Funds will be below the current 2.25-2.50 percent target range by this December.
Recent positive consumer spending and exports data have eased market concerns of a sharp economic slowdown. But inflation probably needs to run hot for a long period to panic policymakers off their wait-and-see course.
(GRAPHIC: Federal funds and the economy – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DzjTZz)
3/HEISEI TO REIWA
Next week ends three decades of Japan’s Heisei era. Heisei, or Achieving Peace, began in 1989 near the peak of a massive stock market bubble and closes with the country trapped in low growth, no inflation, and negative interest rates.
The new era that dawns on May 1 is called Reiwa, meaning Beautiful Harmony. It begins when Crown Prince Naruhito ascends the Chrysanthemum Throne. But do investors really want harmony? What they want to see is a bit of economic growth and inflation to shake up the status quo.
The Bank of Japan’s stimulus toolkit to revive a long-suffering economy is anything but harmonious and yet it’s set to stay. The central bank confirmed recently rates will stay near zero for a long time. But the coming days may not be harmonious or peaceful for currency markets. A 10-day Golden Week holiday kicks off on April 29 and investors are fretting over the risk of a “flash crash” – a violent currency spasm that can occur in times of thin trading turnover.
The year has already seen two yen spikes and many, including Japan’s housewife-trader brigade – so-called Mrs Watanabes – appear to have bought yen as the holiday approaches. Their short dollar/long yen positions recently reached record highs, stock exchange data showed.
(GRAPHIC: Japan stocks: from Hensei to Reiwa – https://tmsnrt.rs/2W6a7Fe)
4/EARNING TURNING
Quarterly earnings were supposed to be the worst in Europe in almost three years, but with a third of results in, things are looking a little rosier.
Two-thirds of companies’ results have beat expectations, and they point to earnings growth of 4.5 percent year-on-year. Financials have delivered the biggest surprises, according to analysis by Barclays.
That might just show how low expectations were. In fact, analysts are still taking a red pen to their estimates.
The latest I/B/E/S data from Refinitiv shows analysts on average expect first-quarter earnings-per-share for STOXX 600-listed companies to fall 4.2 percent. That would be their worst quarter since 2016 and down sharply from an estimated 3.4 percent just a week earlier.
Those estimates may end up being a little too bearish as earnings season goes on, quelling worries that Europe is heading toward a corporate recession.
GSK and Reckitt Benckiser will give the market a glimpse of the health of the consumer products market and spending on everything from toothpaste, washing powder and paracetamol.
Sterling has gone into the doldrums amid the Brexit delay and unproductive talks between the UK government and the opposition Labour party on a EU withdrawal deal. The resurgent dollar, meanwhile, has taken 2 percent off the pound in April. It is unlikely the Bank of England will be able to rouse it at its May 2 meeting.
Despite robust retail and jobs data of late, the economic picture is gloomy – 2019 growth is likely to be around 1.2 percent, the weakest since 2009, investment is down and Governor Mark Carney says business uncertainty is “through the roof”.
Indeed, expectations for an interest rate increase have been whittled down; Reuters polls forecast rates will not move until early 2020, a calendar quarter later than was forecast a month ago. The hunt for a new governor to replace Carney in October adds more uncertainty to the mix.
The recent run of UK data has fueled hopes of economic rebound. That’s put net hedge fund positions in the pound into positive territory for the first time in nearly a year. The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street might temper some of that optimism.
(Reporting by Alden Bentley in New York, Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; Karin Strohecker, Josephine Mason and Saikat Chatterjee in London; compiled by Sujata Rao; edited by Larry King)
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren suggested that doctors and nurses don’t treat African American women the same way they do white women.
Warren appeared on Wednesday together with a number of other 2020 Democratic candidates at the She The People Forum in Houston, discussing issues concerning women of color.
The Massachusetts senator announced on stage a plan to decrease the childbirth mortality rate among black women while identifying a systematic problem with how they are treated.
“And there is a specific problem, as you rightly identified, for women of color who are three, four times more likely to die in childbirth,” Warren said.
“And here’s the thing, even after we do the adjustments for income, for education, this is true across the board. This is true for well-educated African American women, for wealthy African American women, and the best studies that I’m seeing put it down to just one thing, prejudice,” she added.
“That doctors and nurses don’t hear African American women’s medical issues the same way that they hear the same things from white women.”
“That doctors and nurses don’t hear African American women’s medical issues the same way that they hear the same things from white women.”
Warren went on to get into details of her plan, noting that hospitals will be given bonuses if they manage to reduce the childbirth mortality rate among black women in an effort to give financial incentives for those doctors and nurses to provide better care.
“And if they don’t, then they’re going to have money taken away from them,” Warren added.
“I want to see the hospitals see it as their responsibility to address this problem head-on and make it a first priority. The best way to do that is to use the money to make it happen because we gotta have change, and we gotta have change now.”
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