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San Francisco man assaulted by two women who stole BB gun, Rolex watch during home invasion: police

A San Francisco man was hospitalized early Tuesday after two women broke into his home, assaulted him, and fled the scene with a BB gun and a Rolex watch, police said.

Officers responded to a home robbery invasion in the South Beach neighborhood home at around1:45 a.m., investigators said.

The offers were told that two women broke into the man’s home, stole some items, and assaulted him before fleeing in a car, Fox 2 reported.

TEXAS HOME INVASION SUSPECT SHOT DEAD BY HOMEOWNER’S SON: REPORTS

The 26-year-old victim was taken to hospital for treatment, the report said. Police said his injuries were not life-threatening. His identity was not released.

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The suspects remain at large. A description of them and their vehicle was not immediately released.

Source: Fox News National

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Man who sent white powder to Trump’s sons to be sentenced

Prosecutors are seeking three years in prison for a Massachusetts man who admitted to sending threatening letters filled with white powder to President Donald Trump's sons and others.

Daniel Frisiello is set to be sentenced Friday in Boston federal court. He pleaded guilty in October.

The letter Frisiello sent to Donald Trump Jr. was opened last year by his now-ex-wife, Vanessa. She was briefly hospitalized as a precaution after she reported feeling ill. The substance turned out to be nonhazardous.

Other recipients of Frisiello's letters included Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan.

Frisiello's lawyer is seeking five years of probation, including one year of home confinement. His lawyer says the 25-year-old has developmental delays, is autistic and would be susceptible to "exploitation, violence and isolation" in prison.

Source: Fox News National

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Italian cabinet infighting overshadows growth plan

FILE PHOTO: Matteo Salvini, Italy's Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the far-right League Party, speaks as he launches campaigning for the European elections
FILE PHOTO: Matteo Salvini, Italy's Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the far-right League Party, speaks as he launches campaigning for the European elections, in Milan, Italy April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo/File Photo

April 24, 2019

By Giuseppe Fonte and Gavin Jones

ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s government approved an economic growth plan in the early hours of Wednesday after a bad-tempered cabinet meeting that exposed divisions in the ruling coalition and fuelled speculation about a government collapse.

The infighting overshadowed media coverage of the “growth decree” which called for tax breaks and investment incentives and for simplified procedures for public tenders.

The ruling parties, the right-wing League and anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, are feuding as they compete for votes ahead of European Parliament elections on May 26, stoking investor fears that the government could fall.

The government had presented the decree as a landmark in its efforts to kickstart Italian growth, which has lagged euro zone peers for two decades, but it instead served to underline an intensifying feud between the coalition partners’ leaders.

5-Star chief Luigi Di Maio showed up for the meeting more than an hour late, after using a TV appearance to call for a junior League minister to resign over a corruption scandal. League leader Matteo Salvini has refused to sack the minister.

“It’s official – there are two governments,” read the front-page headline in national daily newspaper La Repubblica.

Di Maio and Salvini repeatedly say they want the alliance to continue even as they attack each other on a range of issues, and they have shown no willingness to compromise over the future of the League official at the centre of the scandal.

Armando Siri, a transport ministry undersecretary and economic adviser to Salvini, has been put under investigation for allegedly accepting bribes to promote the interests of renewable energy firms. Siri denies any wrongdoing.

“I plan to govern for a full mandate and I have no intention of sending Italians to (early) elections,” Salvini told reporters on Wednesday.

He added that he would not push for a cabinet reshuffle to have more weight in government after the EU elections, where the League is likely to be the largest party, opinion polls suggest.

He said Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte – an academic who is from neither ruling party but is close to 5-Star – had not asked for Siri’s resignation. Shortly afterwards Conte said he would speak to Siri, without giving further details.

DEBT RELIEF CHANGE

The growth decree contained few surprises, though the dispute was reflected in a change to one of the decree’s major measures – debt relief for the municipality of Rome, which is run by 5-Star.

The decree was less generous than an original draft of the plan after criticism from the League.

Cabinet also broadened the scope of its plan to compensate savers hit by the country’s recent banking crisis, making the money available to those with an annual income of up to 35,000 euros ($39,000) or with assets of up 200,000 euros.

The asset test was raised from 100,000 euros in the original draft, but it later emerged the amended scheme with the higher threshold would be conditional on EU approval.

The decree also gave the green light for the government to potentially take an equity stake in any vehicle set up to rescue loss-making airline Alitalia. The government is desperate to save the carrier and avoid mass layoffs.

Italy last year unveiled a big-spending budget for 2019, rattling the euro and other financial markets, but it has so far had little impact on growth. The economy slipped into technical recession at the end of 2018 and is now barely expanding.

Italy, the euro zone’s second-most indebted nation after Greece, had public debts equalling 132.2 percent of GDP in 2018, up from 131.4 percent in 2017.

($1 = 0.8923 euros)

(Editing by Giselda Vagnoni, Mark Bendeich and Alison Williams)

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Remember–Dems Peddled Avenatti's Kavanaugh Smears

As they race to distance themselves from Michael Avenatti, who was arrested this week and charged with trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike, it's worth taking a moment to remember that during the the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation fight, leading Democrats peddled absurd attacks from the…

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Venezuela’s Fabiana Rosales, a young activist, emerges into the political spotlight

FILE PHOTO: Fabiana Rosales, wife of Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido, smiles after a meeting at Peru's Foreign Ministry in Lima
FILE PHOTO: Fabiana Rosales, wife of Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaido, smiles after a meeting at Peru's Foreign Ministry in Lima, Peru March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Janine Costa/File Photo

March 28, 2019

By Luc Cohen and Roberta Rampton

CARACAS/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Barely two months after emerging from obscurity in her home country of Venezuela, political activist Fabiana Rosales sat in the Oval Office across from U.S. President Donald Trump in a yellow armchair normally reserved for visiting heads of state.

Rosales’ husband is Juan Guaido, the leader of the opposition-controlled National Assembly who invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency in January. While she was drumming up support at the White House, Guaido was calling for protests against a nationwide blackout, the second to hit the oil-rich country in a month.

A day earlier, assailants had thrown stones and attempted to enter Guaido’s car in downtown Caracas, according to a Reuters witness.

Officials in President Nicolas Maduro’s government have launched criminal investigations into Guaido – recognized by the United States and most Western countries as Venezuela’s rightful leader.

“What they don’t know is that, when they do that, what they’re doing is pushing us forward,” Rosales said at the White House. “We will not rest. We are here to save lives and to give back freedom.”

Spies and pro-government armed groups have long followed her and Guaido, who have a nearly two-year-old daughter named Miranda Eugenia, the 26-year-old Rosales told Reuters during a trip to Peru.

“She’s been through a lot, let’s put it that way,” Trump said in remarks that were translated into Spanish, as Rosales nodded and smiled. On Thursday, Rosales traveled to Palm Beach, Florida, to meet with U.S. first lady Melania Trump at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

Rosales, who was born in the Andean city of Merida and was in primary school when Maduro’s predecessor and mentor Hugo Chavez was elected in 1998, became involved in Venezuela’s volatile politics at a young age.

While studying journalism at university in western Zulia state, Rosales was a student activist for the Popular Will opposition political party, to which both Guaido and prominent former mayor Leopoldo Lopez, now under house arrest, belong.

She later worked as a press officer for a city council in her home state, before moving onto a similar role in a district of Caracas.

She and Guaido, a 35-year-old engineer who represents the coastal state of Vargas in the assembly, married in 2013. They have a yellow Labrador named Regulo, who takes classes at a training school for dogs, according to Rosales’ Instagram account.

As Guaido’s prominence has risen, the government has escalated the rhetoric against him, with Maduro implying he was behind alleged “attacks” on a power generator that caused the blackout, while the country’s state comptroller on Thursday announced he would be banned from public office for 15 years.

Maduro dismisses Guaido’s claim to the presidency as a Washington-backed effort to seize power in Venezuela.

“Despite the persecution, intimidation and even kidnappings of those who fight for a better Venezuela, the work has not stopped,” Rosales wrote on Twitter. “Our commitment to Venezuelans is stronger than any low blow by the usurpers.”

Last week, Guaido’s chief of staff was detained by intelligence agents on accusations of terrorism that allies denied. The incident raised concern that Maduro may soon detain Guaido. Nevertheless, Guaido has continued to call on his supporters to take to the streets in a bid to oust Maduro.

“I decided to leave fear aside, I decided to fight for my country,” Rosales said during the interview in Lima. “The greatest inheritance I can leave for my daughter is a free country.”

(Reporting by Vivian Sequera and Luc Cohen in Caracas and by Roberta Rampton in Washington; Additional reporting by Mitra Taj in Lima, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

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Royals beat Indians on walk-off, earn three-game sweep

MLB: Cleveland Indians at Kansas City Royals
Apr 14, 2019; Kansas City, MO, USA; The Kansas City Royals celebrate after third baseman Hunter Dozier (17) game winning hit during the ninth inning against the Cleveland Indians at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken/USA TODAY Sports

April 15, 2019

Hunter Dozier’s RBI single in the bottom of the ninth drove in Terrance Gore to give host Kansas City a 9-8 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Sunday, giving the Royals a three-game series sweep at Kauffman Stadium.

Gore, pinch-running for Ryan O’Hearn — who drew a leadoff walk off Brad Hand (0-1) — stole second base and advanced to third on a throwing error by catcher Roberto Perez. Wily Peralta (1-1) pitched a scoreless inning for the victory as Kansas City earned its first walk-off victory of the season.

The Indians had not been swept in a road series of at least three games since May of last year at the New York Yankees.

The Royals chased Corey Kluber after 2 2/3 innings. The right-hander allowed 11 of the 18 batters he faced to reach base safely.

Kluber gave up six runs on six hits and a career-most five walks. He threw 89 pitches, with only 49 of them for strikes (he struck out four). The five walks doubled Kluber’s season total. He didn’t walk more than three batters in any game in 2018, and he walked three only once.

Royals starter Jakob Junis battled through 6 1/3 innings, giving up five runs on eight hits, but three of those runs were scored by the game’s first four batters. Leonys Martin led off the game with a home run to right-center field. It was the second time in five days that Martin homered to lead off a game. Four batters later, Tyler Naquin drove in Carlos Gonzalez and Carlos Santana with a two-run single.

The Royals got to Kluber in the second. Lucas Duda hit his first home run of the season, a three-run shot to right field. With two outs, Whit Merrifield hit a home run to right, giving the Royals a 4-3 lead.

The four runs were the most the Royals have scored off Kluber since Aug. 2, 2012, when they scored six in the first in Kansas City. It was also the first time since that game that the Royals had hit two home runs off Kluber in the same inning (Alex Gordon and Eric Hosmer).

Kluber wasn’t much better in the third, walking four batters, including two with the bases loaded.

The Indians scored again in the fourth, but Junis escaped with only two runs given up. The first three batters got hits and the Indians had first and third with no outs. But Junis induced a double-play ground out that scored the second run and then retired Martin to end the inning.

The Royals added a run in the fifth on a bunt single by catcher Cam Gallagher, and another in the sixth on a home run by Jorge Soler.

But the Indians tied the score with three runs off the Royals bullpen in the seventh. The final two were on a bases-loaded single by Jake Bauers.

–Field Level Media

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Japan exports seen falling at slower pace in February, core CPI steady: Reuters poll

FILE PHOTO - Birds fly in front of Mt. Fuji and a crane at a port in Tokyo
FILE PHOTO - Birds fly in front of Mt. Fuji and a crane at a port in Tokyo, Japan January 25, 2016. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo

March 15, 2019

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s exports in February likely fell at a much slower pace than the previous month, but weak global demand and U.S.-China trade frictions continue to cloud the outlook, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.

Exports are expected to have slipped 0.9 percent in February from a year earlier, the poll of 17 economists found, after slumping 8.4 percent in January, the biggest decline in more than two years.

Imports, however, likely declined at a sharper pace of 5.8 percent in February after falling 0.6 percent in January, according to the poll.

“We expect exports in February made up for some of their losses (in January) caused by the Lunar New Year holiday,” said Takumi Tsunoda, senior economist at Shinkin Central Bank Research Institute. The holiday, which causes significant business disruptions across much of Asia, began in early February this year and in mid-February in 2018.

“But the nation’s exports to Asia, especially shipments of IT-related items, are expected to have stayed weak.”

The trade balance likely swung back to a surplus of 310.2 billion yen ($2.78 billion) from a deficit of 1.41 trillion yen in January, the poll showed.

Global trade has slowed amid weaker Chinese and European economic growth and as Washington and Beijing remain locked in a tit-for-tat tariff battle, which is taking an increasing toll on Japan’s export-reliant economy.

The Finance Ministry will release trade data at 8:50 a.m. Japan time on Monday, March 18 (2350 GMT, March 17).

On inflation, Japan’s core consumer price index, which includes oil products but excludes volatile fresh food costs, is forecast to have risen 0.8 percent in February, the same pace as in January.

“Energy bills likely supported core CPI, while prices of gasoline and telecommunications weighed on,” said Shinichiro Kobayashi, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting.

“Core CPI will likely stay lackluster for a while as falls in oil prices will start to appear and mobile carriers are expected to cut phone charges.”

The Internal Affairs Ministry will publish data on consumer prices at 8:30 a.m. Tokyo time on March 22 (2330 GMT on March 21)

The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy settings steady on Friday but tempered its optimism that robust exports and factory output will underpin growth, in a nod to heightened overseas risks that threaten to derail a fragile economic recovery.

(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Kim Coghill)

Source: OANN

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Members of The Cranberries, bassist Mike Hogan, drummer Fergal Lawler and guitarist Noel Hogan speak to Reuters during an interview in London
Members of The Cranberries, bassist Mike Hogan, drummer Fergal Lawler and guitarist Noel Hogan speak to Reuters during an interview in London, Britain, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Gerhard Mey

April 26, 2019

By Hanna Rantala

LONDON (Reuters) – Irish rockers The Cranberries are saying goodbye with their final album released on Friday, a poignant tribute to lead singer Dolores O’Riordan who died last year.

“In the End” is the eighth studio album from the band that rose to fame in the early 1990s with hits likes “Zombie” and “Linger”, and includes the final recordings by O’Riordan, who drowned in a London hotel bath in January 2018 due to alcohol intoxication.

Work on the album began during a 2017 tour and by that winter, O’Riordan and guitarist Neil Hogan had penned and demoed 11 tracks.

With O’Riordan’s vocals recorded, Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler completed the album in tribute to her.

“When we realized how strong the songs were, that was the deciding factor really… There was no point… trying to ruin the legacy of the band,” Noel Hogan said in an interview.

“It was obvious that Dolores wanted this album done because when you hear the album, you hear the songs and how strong they are, and she was very, very excited to get in and record this.”

The Cranberries formed in Limerick in 1989 with another singer. O’Riordan replaced him a year later and the group went on to become Ireland’s best-selling rock band after U2, selling more than 40 million records.

O’Riordan, known for her strong distinctive voice singing about relationships or political violence, was 46 when she died.

“She was actually in quite a good place mentally. She was feeling quite content and strong and looking forward to a new phase of her life,” Lawler said.

“A lot of the lyrics in this album are about things ending… people might read into it differently but it was a phase of her personal life that she was talking about.”

The group previously announced their intention to split after the release of “In The End”.

“We are absolutely gutted we can’t play (the songs) live because that’s something that’s been a massive part of this band from day one,” Noel Hogan said.

“A few people have said to us about maybe even doing a one off where you have different vocalists… as kind of guests of ours. A year ago that’s definitely something we weren’t going to entertain but I don’t know, I think it’s something we need to go away and take time off for the summer and have a think about.”

Critics have generally given positive reviews of the album; NME described it as “(seeing) the band’s career go full-circle” while the Irish Times called it “an unexpected late career high and a remarkable swan song for O’Riordan”.

Their early songs still play on the radio. This week, “Dreams” was performed at the funeral of journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot dead in Londonderry last week as she watched Irish nationalist youths attack police following a raid.

“We wrote them as kids, as a hobby and 30 years later they are on radio and on TV, like all the time… That’s far more than any of us ever thought we would have,” Noel Hogan said.

“That would make Dolores really happy because she was very precious about those songs. Her babies, she called them and to have that hopefully long after we’re gone… that’s all any band can wish for.”

(Reporting by Hanna Rantala; additoinal reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Susan Fenton)

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2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston, Texas, U.S. April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Loren Elliott

April 26, 2019

By Joshua Schneyer and M.B. Pell

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Senator Elizabeth Warren will introduce a bill Friday that offers new protections for U.S. military families facing unsafe housing, following a series of Reuters reports revealing squalid conditions in privately managed base homes.

The Reuters reports and later Congressional hearings detailed widespread hazards including lead paint exposure, vermin infestations, collapsing ceilings, mold and maintenance lapses in privatized base housing communities that serve some 700,000 U.S. military family members.

(View Warren’s military housing bill here. https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dy5aht)

(Read Reuters’ Ambushed at Home series on military housing here. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/usa-military)

The Massachusetts Democrat’s bill would mandate both regular and unannounced spot inspections of base homes by certified, independent inspectors, holding landlords accountable for quickly fixing hazards. The military’s privatization program for years allowed real estate firms to operate base housing with scant oversight, Reuters found, leaving some tenants in unsafe homes with little recourse against landlords.

The bill would also require the Department of Defense and its private housing operators to publish reports annually detailing housing conditions, tenant complaints, maintenance response times and the financial incentives companies receive at each base. The provisions aim to enhance transparency of housing deals whose finances and operations the military had allowed to remain largely confidential under a privatization program since the late 1990s.

The measure would also require private landlords to cover moving costs for at-risk families, and healthcare costs for people with medical conditions resulting from unsafe base housing, ensuring they receive continuing coverage even after they leave the homes or the military.

“This bill will eliminate the kind of corner-cutting and neglect the Defense Department should never have let these private housing partners get away with in the first place,” Warren said in a statement Friday.

The proposed legislation comes after February Senate hearings where Warren, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2020 U.S. presidential election, slammed private real estate firms for endangering service families, and sought answers about why military branches weren’t providing more oversight.

Her legislation would direct the Defense Department to allow local housing code enforcers onto federal bases, following concerns they were sometimes denied access. Warren’s office said a companion bill in the House of Representatives would be introduced by Rep. Deb Haaland, Democrat of New Mexico.

In response to the housing crisis, military branches are developing a tenant bill of rights and hiring hundreds of new housing staff. The branches recently dispatched commanders to survey base housing worldwide for safety hazards, resulting in thousands of work orders and hundreds of tenants being moved. The Defense Department has pledged to renegotiate its 50-year contracts with private real estate firms.

Congress has been quick to take its own measures. Earlier legislation proposed by senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris of California, along with Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia, would compel base commanders to withhold rent payments and incentive fees from the private ventures if they allow home hazards to persist.

(Editing by Ronnie Greene)

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

April 26, 2019

By Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reuters was not immediately able to contact Zhevago.

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

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

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

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

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

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Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba
Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba, Mozambique April 26, 2019 in this still image obtained from social media. SolidarMed via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES

April 26, 2019

By Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer

JOHANNESBURG/LUANDA (Reuters) – Cyclone Kenneth killed at least one person and left a trail of destruction in northern Mozambique, destroying houses, ripping up trees and knocking out power, authorities said on Friday.

The cyclone brought storm surges and wind gusts of up to 280 km per hour (174 mph) when it made landfall on Thursday evening, after killing three people in the island nation of Comoros.

It was the most powerful storm on record to hit Mozambique’s northern coast and came just six weeks after Cyclone Idai battered the impoverished nation, causing devastating floods and killing more than 1,000 people across a swathe of southern Africa.

The World Food Programme warned that Kenneth could dump as much as 600 millimeters of rain on the region over the next 10 days – twice that brought by Cyclone Idai.

One woman in the port town of Pemba died after being hit by a falling tree, the Emergency Operations Committee for Cabo Delgado (COE) said in a statement, while another person was injured.

In rural areas outside Pemba, many homes are made of mud. In the main town on the island of Ibo, 90 percent of the houses were destroyed, officials said. Around 15,000 people were out in the open or in “overcrowded” shelters and there was a need for tents, food and water, they said.

There were also reports of a large number of homes and some infrastructure destroyed in Macomia district, a mainland district adjacent to Ibo.

A local group, the Friends of Pemba Association, had earlier reported that they could not reach people in Muidumbe, a district further inland.

Mark Lowcock, United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, warned the storm could require another major humanitarian operation in Mozambique.

“Cyclone Kenneth marks the first time two cyclones have made landfall in Mozambique during the same season, further stressing the government’s limited resources,” he said in a statement.

FLOOD WARNINGS

Shaquila Alberto, owner of the beach-front Messano Flower Lodge in Macomia, said there were many fallen trees there, and in rural areas people’s homes had been damaged. Some areas of nearby Pemba had no power.

“Even my workers, they said the roof and all the things fell down,” she said by phone.

Further south, in Pemba, Elton Ernesto, a receptionist at Raphael’s Hotel, said there were fallen trees but not too much damage. The hotel had power and water, he said, while phones rang in the background. “The rain has stopped,” he added.

However Michael Charles, an official for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said heavy rains over the next few days were likely to bring a “second wave of destruction” in the form of flooding.

“The houses are not all solid, and the topography is very sandy,” Charles said.

In the days after Cyclone Idai, heavy inland rains prompted rivers to burst their banks, submerging entire villages, cutting areas off from aid and ruining crops. There were concerns the same could happen again in northern Mozambique.

Before Kenneth hit, the government and aid workers moved around 30,000 people to safer buildings such as schools, however authorities said that around 680,000 people were in the path of the storm.

(Reporting by Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer; Writing by Emma Rumney; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Alexandra Zavis)

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A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai
FILE PHOTO: A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai, India, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

April 26, 2019

By Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Surging global oil prices will pose a first big challenge to India’s new government, whoever wins an election now under way, especially as domestic prices have been allowed to lag, meaning consumers are in for a painful surge as they catch up.

For oil-import dependent India, higher global prices could lead to a weaker rupee, higher inflation, the ruling out of interest rate cuts and could further weigh on twin current account and budget deficits, economists warned.

But compounding the future pain, state-run fuel suppliers and retailers have held off passing on to consumers the higher prices during a staggered general election, which began on April 11 and ends on May 23, according to sources familiar with the situation.

That delay is expected to be unwound once the election is over. And there could be additional price increases to make up for losses or profits missed during the period of delayed increases, the sources said.

In some major Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea, pump prices are adjusted periodically so they move largely in tandem with international crude prices.

That was what was supposed to happen in India but the election means there have been many days when pump prices have been unchanged.

In New Delhi, for example, while crude oil prices have gone up by nearly $9 a barrel, or about 12 percent, in the past six weeks, gasoline prices have only risen by 0.47 rupees a liter, or 0.6 percent.

State-controlled fuel suppliers and retailers declined to say why they had delayed price increases, or discuss whether there has been any pressure from the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A government spokesman declined to comment.

The opposition Congress party said Modi’s government was violating its own policy of daily price revision by advising the state oil companies to hold prices steady.

“The government should cut fuel taxes otherwise consumers will have to pay much higher oil prices once the elections are over,” said Akhilesh Pratap Singh, a senior leader of the Congress party.

(GRAPHIC: India Polls: Fuel price hike lags crude surge – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XLlxik)

Nitin Goyal, treasurer at the All India Petroleum Dealers Association, representing fuel stations in 25 states, said prices were similarly held down for 19 days in the southern state of Karnataka last year, when it held state assembly elections.

Only for them to surge after the vote.

“Consumers should be ready for a rude shock of a massive jump in retail prices, similar to the level we have seen in the Karnataka state election,” Goyal said.

‘CREDIT NEGATIVE’

Sri Paravaikkarasu, director for Asia oil at Singapore-based consultancy FGE, said retail prices of gasoline and gasoil prices would have been up to 6 percent, or about 4 rupee, higher if they had been allowed to rise in line with global prices.

“Indian pump prices have failed to keep up with the recent uptrend in crude prices,” Paravaikkarasu said.

“With the country’s general elections underway, the incumbent government has been keeping pump prices relatively unchanged.”

India had switched to a daily price revision in June 2017 from a revision every two weeks, as the government allowed retailers to set prices.

But the government faced protests last October when retailers raised prices by up to 10 rupees a liter after the crude oil price went above $80 a barrel, forcing it to cut fuel taxes.

Global prices rose to their highest level in 2019 on Thursday, days after the United States announced all Iran sanction waivers would end by May, pressuring importers including India to stop buying Tehran’s oil. [O/R]

Higher oil prices will mean Asia’s third largest economy is likely to see growth of less than 7 percent rate this fiscal year, economists said. Growth slowed to 6.6 percent in the October-December quarter, the slowest in five quarters.

Rating agency CARE has warned that a 10 percent rise in global oil prices could increase demand for dollars, putting pressure on the rupee and widening the current account deficit.

India’s oil import bill rose by nearly one-third in the fiscal year ending March 31 to $140.5 billion, against $108 billion the previous year.

“The increase in international oil prices is a credit negative for the Indian economy,” ICRA, the Indian arm of the Fitch rating agency, said in a note.

“Every $10/ bbl increase in crude oil prices increases the fiscal deficit by about 0.1 percent of GDP.”

Any big price rise would also build a case for the central bank to keep rates steady, or even raise them.

The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee, which cut the benchmark policy repo rate by 25 basis points this month, warned that rising oil and food prices could push up inflation.

Policymakers are worried that a sustained increase in the oil price in the range of $70-75/barrel or higher can move the rupee down by 3-4 percent on an annual basis.

The rupee has depreciated by 1.24 percent against the dollar since a year high in mid-March.

($1 = 70.1800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma; Editing by Martin Howell and Rob Birsel)

Source: OANN

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