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Nigeria's president is re-elected after delayed, bumpy vote

Nigeria's president was declared the clear winner of a second term in Africa's largest democracy early Wednesday, after a campaign in which he urged voters to give him another chance to tackle gaping corruption, widespread insecurity and an economy limping back from a rare recession.

While many frustrated Nigerians had said they wanted to give someone new a try, President Muhammadu Buhari , a former military dictator, profited from his upright reputation in an oil-rich nation weary of politicians enriching themselves instead of the people.

Speaking shortly after the announcement of the official results and as many Nigerians awakened to the morning prayer, Buhari told colleagues that he was "deeply humbled" by the win. He also said he regretted the loss of dozens of lives in election-related violence.

Supporters began dancing in the streets of the capital, Abuja, on Tuesday night as vote counting stretched his lead from the weekend election to nearly 4 million votes over top opposition challenger Atiku Abubakar, a billionaire former vice president who made sweeping campaign promises to "make Nigeria work again."

Buhari received 15.1 million votes, or 55 percent, the electoral commission said in making its official declaration. Abubakar received 11.2 million, or 41 percent. The average national turnout was 35.6 percent, continuing a downward trend.

In a failed last-ditch effort to stop the official declaration, Abubakar's party claimed that election data had been manipulated and demanded fresh elections in four of Nigeria's 36 states.

Buhari's party rejected the accusations. It also called on Abubakar, who hasn't made a public appearance since Saturday's election, to accept his loss gracefully and concede. "Let this nation move forward," campaign spokesman Babatunde Fashola said.

"There's no opposition that will roll over and play dead. Anybody that lost an election will always complain," Hameed Ali, the ruling party agent attending the vote declaration, told reporters.

The election, once described as too close to call, suffered from a surprise weeklong postponement and significant delays in the opening of polling stations. While election observers called the process generally peaceful, at least 53 people were killed in an attack claimed by the Islamic State West Africa Province extremist group and other violence, analysis unit SBM Intelligence said.

It remained to be seen whether Abubakar will follow through on pledges to accept a loss, or challenge the results. A former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, said the troubled election had given the candidates grounds to go to the courts. That route could take months.

Many Nigerians have prayed for peace. They were surprised in 2015 when President Goodluck Jonathan took the unprecedented step of conceding to Buhari before official results were announced. It was the first defeat of an incumbent president by the opposition in the country's history.

"Jonathan set the benchmark on how electoral outcomes should be handled," Chris Kwaja, a senior adviser to the United States Institute of Peace, a U.S. government-backed institution promoting conflict resolution worldwide, told The Associated Press. "Accept defeat in the spirit of sportsmanship. This is a critical vehicle for democratic consolidation."

Nigerians were praised for their patience and resilience in this bumpy vote.

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Anna reported from Kano, Nigeria. Associated Press writer Sam Olukoya in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.

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Follow AP's full coverage of the Nigeria elections here: https://www.apnews.com/Nigeria

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Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa

Source: Fox News World

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Iran says U.S. pressures on Iran, Venezuela making oil market fragile

FILE PHOTO: Iran's Oil Minister Zanganeh arrives for an OPEC meeting in Vienna
FILE PHOTO: Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh arrives for a meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna, Austria, November 30, 2016. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader/File Photo

April 14, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Iran’s oil minister said on Sunday that U.S. sanctions on Iran and Venezuela and tensions in Libya have made the supply-demand balance in the global oil market fragile, and warned of consequences for increasing pressures on Tehran.

Oil prices have risen more than 30 percent this year on the back of supply cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and U.S. sanctions on oil exporters Iran and Venezuela, plus escalating conflict in OPEC member Libya.

“Oil prices are increasing every day. That shows the market is worried,” Bijan Zanganeh was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.

“Venezuela is in trouble. Russia is also under sanctions. Libya is in turmoil. Part of U.S. oil production has stopped. These show the supply-demand balance is very fragile,” Zanganeh said.

“If they (the Americans) decide to increase pressures on Iran, the fragility will increase in an unpredictable way,” he added.

Zanganeh said one of the consequences of pressure on Iran was a rise in fuel prices in the United States.

“Mr. Trump should choose whether to add more pressure on Iran or keep fuel prices low at gas stations in America,” Zanganeh was quoted as saying by the oil ministry’s news agency SHANA.

The U.S. reimposed sanctions on Iran in November after pulling out of a 2015 nuclear accord between it and six world powers. The sanctions have already halved Iranian oil exports.

U.S. President Donald Trump eventually aims to halt Iranian oil exports, choking off Tehran’s main source of revenue. Washington is pressuring Iran to curtail its nuclear program and stop backing militant proxies across the Middle East.

OPEC and its allies meet in June to decide whether to continue withholding supply. Though OPEC’s de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, is considered keen to keep cutting, sources within the group said it could raise output from July if disruptions continue elsewhere.

The producer group’s supply cuts have been aimed largely at offsetting record crude production in the United States.

(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Jan Harvey)

Source: OANN

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Barr faces grilling on Mueller report handling at House hearing

Attorney General William Barr appeared Tuesday before a House committee for his first Capitol Hill hearing since revealing the central findings of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Barr appeared before the House Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee for a hearing originally meant to address Barr’s fiscal 2020 spending request for the Justice Department. But in the wake of the battle between congressional Democrats and the Trump administration for the release of the full Russia report, Barr is expected to face a grilling from lawmakers on his decisions related to the review of Mueller’s findings.

DEMS RAMP UP ANTI-TRUMP PROBES POST-MUELLER

Subcommittee Chairman José Serrano, D-N.Y., told Fox News that while Barr will mainly face questions concerning appropriations, it would be “almost impossible” to ignore questions related to the Mueller investigation.

“In extremely quick fashion, you turned a 300-plus page report into a 4-page letter that supposedly summarized [Mueller’s] findings,” subcommittee Chairman expected to say, adding that he is concerned that Barr will turn the report over to Congress with “too many scratch-outs” and redactions.

Lawmakers, specifically, are expected to focus on Barr’s four-page summary of the special counsel report, where he stated that there was no evidence of collusion between members of the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election. The special counsel also reviewed whether the president had obstructed justice in any way, but ultimately did not come to a conclusion on that issue. Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, though, said the evidence was “not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense.”

Barr has said that he does plan on sharing much of the report itself with Congress, noting that, with the help of the special counsel’s office, the Justice Department is reviewing material that “by law cannot be made public.” Barr has vowed to share the report, including redactions, by mid-April, and has said that it will not be sent to the White House or President Trump in advance.

But last week, reports surfaced claiming that the special counsel’s office had created summary documents for Barr to release and that they were ignored. Serrano is expected to question that decision, and say that Barr’s summary “understates the level of malfeasance by the President and several of his campaign and White House advisors.”

"The American people," Serrano will say, "have been left with many unanswered questions; serious concerns about the process by which you formulated your letter; and uncertainty about when we can expect to see the full report."

House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita M. Lowey, D-N.Y., will also slam Barr's handling of the report as "unacceptable," according to her prepared remarks.

"I must say, it is extraordinary to evaluate hundreds of pages of evidence, legal documents, and findings based on a 22-month long inquiry and make definitive legal conclusions in less than 48 hours," Lowey will say. "Even for someone who has done this job before, I would argue it is more suspicious than impressive."

In a statement last week responding to media reports, the DOJ defended Barr's rollout of Mueller's conclusions.

"Given the extraordinary public interest in the matter, the Attorney General decided to release the report's bottom-line findings and his conclusions immediately — without attempting to summarize the report — with the understanding that the report itself would be released after the redaction process," the Justice Department statement said.

The statement also said that every page of Mueller's report was marked that it may contain grand jury material "and therefore could not immediately be released."

A Justice Department official, speaking Thursday on condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential process, said summaries of the findings that Mueller's team included as part of its report also contained grand jury information, making it hard for a swift release.

Fox News’ Gregg Re, Chad Pergram, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Manafort to Serve 7.5 Years in Prison

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. sentenced Paul Manafort to 73 months in prison on Wednesday, days after the former Trump campaign chairman receiving a 47 month sentence in a separate case in Virginia.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that Manafort will serve some of his sentence concurrently with his sentence in Virginia. In all, Manafort will spend around seven-and-a-half years in jail for a variety of crimes related to consulting work he did in Ukraine prior to joining the Trump campaign.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Jackson noted that prosecutors with the special counsel’s office did not present evidence of collusion between Manafort, the Trump campaign and Russians to influence the 2016 election.

“The question of whether there was any collusion with Russia…was not presented in this case, period, therefore it was not resolved by this case,” said Jackson.


Owen Shroyer exposes the tyranny now becoming mainstream on the left.

Manafort, 69, apologized during brief remarks before Jackson handed down the sentence.

“I am sorry for what I have done and for all the activities that have gotten us here today,” said Manafort.

The longtime GOP operative faced between 19 and 24.5 years in prison in the Virginia case, but U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III issued a sentence far below federal sentencing guidelines.

Manafort was convicted of and pleaded guilty to charges related to political consulting work he did in Ukraine prior to joining the Trump campaign in 2016.

(Photo by Joe Gratz, Flickr)

Manafort pleaded guilty on Sept. 14, 2018 in the Washington, D.C. case to charges of conspiracy to launder money, acting as a foreign agent of Ukraine, and witness tampering. He was convicted on Aug. 21, 2018 in Virginia on tax evasion and bank fraud charges.

Jackson sentenced Manafort to 60 months on the conspiracy charge and 13 months on the witness tampering offense. Thirty months of that sentence will run concurrently with the sentence handed down in the Virginia case. The additional 43 months will be tacked on to Manafort’s Virginia sentence, meaning that he will serve 90 months — or seven-and-a-half years — in jail, in all.

The special counsel alleged that Manafort lied to prosecutors even after entering a plea agreement that could have seen time shaved off his prison term. Prosecutors claimed that Manafort lied about his interactions with Konstantin Kilimnik, a former Manafort business partner who is suspected of having ties to Russian intelligence.

Most of the charges Manafort faced dealt with consulting work that the longtime political consultant did in Ukraine from 2004 to 2014. He worked as a PR guru for Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukrainian president.


There is a spiritual battle taking place in the world today and patriots will be given the keys to victory if they stay connected to God.

Source: InfoWars

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AP Explains: Why southern African cyclone is so shattering

The lives of hundreds of thousands of people are at risk after a cyclone ripped into central Mozambique and heavy rains continue to fall. Aid groups report people clinging to rooftops and trees as rivers burst their banks and waters rise. Authorities openly worry that the world has not grasped the severity of the crisis.

Here is a look at the disaster that has killed untold hundreds of people in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi.

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WILL THE DEATH TOLL RISE?

Almost certainly. Emergency responders are struggling to reach parts of the three countries after some roads, bridges and communications networks were washed away or destroyed.

A massive storm surge when Cyclone Idai made landfall in Mozambique over the weekend created what one World Food Program staffer calls "inland oceans extending for miles and miles in all directions." The city of Beira with its some 500,000 residents is said to be 90 percent destroyed.

The European Union's global observation program, mapping the crisis, said some 394 square kilometers (152 square miles) of Mozambique had been flooded.

Further deaths could occur if people clinging to hope are swept away by the rising waters or are not reached in time with critical water, food and other aid.

And now authorities are warning of water-borne diseases after what infrastructure existed in the largely impoverished countries was stripped away.

Mozambique's president, after flying over the region, has warned as many as 1,000 people could die.

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WHAT IS BEING DONE TO HELP?

Mozambique and Malawi are two of the poorest countries in Africa, and the economy of once-prosperous Zimbabwe has collapsed in recent years.

Aid appeals for millions of dollars have begun as the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations rush to deliver food, water, fuel and medicines to the vast affected area. In Beira, a staging point for emergency responders, electricity could be out through the end of the month and a fuel shortage is reported. The Beira hospital is severely damaged.

The European Union and Britain have been among the first to pledge aid. The EU says its initial package to Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi is worth about $3.9 million, while Britain says it will provide up to $7.9 million.

The U.S. Embassy in Zimbabwe says it is "mobilizing support" for partners in the three countries, with no further details. Tanzania's military airlifted some 238 tons of emergency food and medicine to the three countries.

Zimbabwe's president has said a number of countries, including the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Angola, also were offering aid.

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WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Aid organizations and authorities are rushing humanitarian aid to Beira and other areas by air and sea, while rescue efforts push on. The torrential rains are expected to continue in central Mozambique until Thursday.

As the water begins to recede throughout the region, the extent of the devastation will become clearer.

And thousands, perhaps scores of thousands, of families could be on the move, seeking new refuge after their homes were washed away.

"I salvaged nothing except this baby," Chipo Dhliwayo told The Associated Press in eastern Zimbabwe, referring to her 6-month-old son.

Burials, which already have begun, will continue.

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Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa

Source: Fox News World

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It’s a ‘Cat 5’ immigration crisis: Nielsen

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Tuesday that the Trump administration is treating the immigration crisis as a “Cat 5 hurricane disaster.”

“We are bringing all of the agencies together; we're asking everybody to chip in,” Nielsen said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

“Why wouldn't we put the U.S. military along our border if it's really a crisis of that magnitude?” Carlson asked Secretary Nielsen.

TRUMP STANDS BY BORDER CLOSURE THREAT

“I think we're looking into that. We've made the request. I'm in constant contact with the acting secretary of defense. I talked to some of the combatant commanders today. We are in fact pushing more and more military resources to the border,” Nielsen said.

President Trump threatened to close the border this week, prompting outrage from Democrats, and he called on Mexico to help prevent illegal immigration by using its own “strong” immigration laws.

The president also shut down aid to El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

"We are in fact pushing more and more military resources to the border."

— Kirstjen Nielsen, secretary of homeland security

“We’re going to have a strong border, or we’re going to have a closed border,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday.

Carlson also pressed Nielsen on whether Trump would consider expanding the E-Verify system to punish employers who hire illegal immigrants, or sign an order eliminating “birthright” citizenship.

CAL THOMAS: IF NOT AN EMERGENCY, WHAT IS IT?

Nielsen made it clear everything was being considered.

“We have to stop the drugs. We have to stop the smuggling and trafficking gangs. He's very serious about it, so yes, I think everything is on the table,” Nielsen said.

Source: Fox News Politics

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New Zealand holds first funerals for mosque shooting victims

A father and son who fled the civil war in Syria for "the safest country in the world" were buried before hundreds of mourners Wednesday, the first funerals for victims of shootings at two mosques in New Zealand that horrified a nation known for being welcoming and diverse.

The funerals of Khalid Mustafa, 44, and Hamza Mustafa, 15, came five days after a white supremacist methodically gunned down 50 worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch — a massacre that he broadcast live on Facebook.

Hamza's high school principal described the student as compassionate and hardworking, and said he was an excellent horse rider who aspired to be a veterinarian.

Those present included Hamza's younger brother, 13-year-old Zaed, who was wounded in an arm and a leg during the attack. The boy tried to stand during the ceremony but had to sit back in his wheelchair, one mourner said.

"We tried to not shake his hand, and not touch his hand or his foot, but he refused, he wanted to shake everybody's hand, he wanted to show everyone that he appreciated them. And that's amazing," said Jamil El-Biza, who traveled from Australia to attend the funeral.

The Mustafas had moved to New Zealand last year, after spending six years as refugees in Jordan. Mustafa's wife, Salwa, told Radio New Zealand that when the family asked about New Zealand they were told "it's the safest country in the world, the most wonderful country you can go ... you will start a very wonderful life there."

She added, "But it wasn't."

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the family should have been safe.

"I cannot tell you how gutting it is to know that a family came here for safety and for refuge," she said.

Families of those killed had been anxiously awaiting word on when they could bury their loved ones. Police Commissioner Mike Bush said police have now formally identified and released the remains of 21 of those killed. Islamic tradition calls for bodies to be cleansed and buried as soon as possible.

The burials began soon after Ardern renewed her call for people to speak of the victims rather than the man who killed them.

Also on Wednesday, a man accused of sharing video footage of Friday's massacre was jailed by a judge until his next court appearance in mid-April. And Bush said he believes police officers stopped the gunman on his way to a third attack.

Ardern's plea against giving the accused gunman notoriety followed his move to represent himself in court, raising concerns he would attempt to use the trial as a platform for airing his racist views.

During a visit Wednesday to the high school Hamza and another victim attended, Ardern revisited that thought and asked students not to say the attacker's name or dwell on him.

"Look after one another, but also let New Zealand be a place where there is no tolerance for racism," she told students at Cashmere High School. "That's something we can all do."

Another Cashmere student, 14-year-old Sayyad Milne, also died in the attack.

About 30 people wounded in the attacks remained hospitalized as of Tuesday evening. About 10 of them were in critical condition, including a 4-year-old girl.

Brenton Harrison Tarrant, a 28-year-old Australian man, has been charged with murder and is next scheduled to appear in court on April 5. Police have said they are certain Tarrant was the only gunman but are still investigating whether he had support from others.

Ardern previously has said reforms of New Zealand's gun laws would be announced next week and she said an inquiry would be convened to look into the intelligence and security services' failures to detect the risk from the attacker or his plans.

New Zealand's international spy agency, the Government Communications Security Bureau, confirmed it had not received any relevant information or intelligence before the shootings.

Sheik Taj El-Din Hilaly, of Sydney, traveled to Christchurch to attend or lead some of the funerals. Through a translator, he said he felt compelled to support the grieving. A nationwide lockdown on mosques was imposed until Monday, which Hilaly said had upset Muslims whom he had visited in Auckland. Police continue to guard mosques across the country.

Philip Arps, 44, appeared in a Christchurch court Wednesday on two charges of distributing the killer's livestream video of the attack on the Al Noor mosque, the first mosque that was attacked, a violation of the country's objectionable publications law. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

Arps, heavily tattooed and dressed in a T-shirt and sweatpants, hasn't entered a plea. He remained expressionless during the hearing, his hands clasped behind his back.

Judge Stephen O'Driscoll denied him bail.

Charging documents accuse Arps of distributing the video on Saturday, one day after the massacre.

Bush said they believe they know where the gunman was going for a third attack when officers rammed his car off the road but won't say more because it's an active investigation.

In a 74-page manifesto he released before the attack, Tarrant said he was going to attack two mosques in Christchurch and then one in the town of Ashburton if he made it that far.

Bush also revised his timeline, saying officers rammed the suspect 21 minutes after the first emergency call rather than 36 minutes. Bush said FBI agents have traveled to New Zealand to help with the investigation.

Abizar Valibhai, of Christchurch, said Wednesday's burials marked an important moment.

"It's not only for the Muslim community, but for the whole of New Zealand, and the world as well," he said. "If we don't show our support at this time, when are we going to show it?"

He said there would be many waves of emotions to come for the families of the victims.

"They are fathers, they are mothers, they are brothers, they are sisters, they are wives," he said. "There are a lot of things that will be shattered."

Residents of this close-knit city have created makeshift memorials near the two targeted mosques and at the botanical gardens, where a mountain of flowers has grown by the day.

Janna Ezat, whose son, Hussein Al-Umari, was killed in the Al Noor mosque, visited the memorial at the gardens and became overwhelmed by the outpouring of love. She knelt amid the flowers and wept, grabbing at daisies and lilies as though she might find her boy in them.

Ezat is comforted by reports that Hussein confronted the killer, charging at him after surviving the first spray of bullets.

"I'm very happy. I'm wearing white. We normally wear black," she said. "But he is a hero and I am proud of him."

Source: Fox News World

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

April 26, 2019

By Hanna Rantala

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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

April 26, 2019

By Joshua Schneyer and M.B. Pell

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Editing by Ronnie Greene)

Source: OANN

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

April 26, 2019

By Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reuters was not immediately able to contact Zhevago.

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

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

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

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

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

Source: OANN

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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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