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Ship owners worry about clean fuel bill as ports ban ‘scrubbers’

Container cranes are pictured at the Port of Singapore
FILE PHOTO: Container cranes are pictured at the Port of Singapore, June 10, 2018. REUTERS/Feline Lim

March 19, 2019

By Jonathan Saul and Nina Chestney

LONDON (Reuters) – More ports around the world are banning ships from using a fuel cleaning system that pumps waste water into the sea, one of the cheapest options for meeting new environmental shipping rules.

The growing number of destinations imposing stricter regulations than those set by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) are expected to be a costly headache for cruise and shipping firms as they face tough market conditions and slowing world trade. They might have to pay for new equipment and extra types of fuel and adjust their routes.

Singapore, China and Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates have already banned the use of the cleaning systems, called open loop scrubbers, from the start of next year when the new IMO rules come into force.

Reuters has learned that individual ports in Finland, Lithuania, Ireland and Russia, have all banned or restricted such equipment, according to interviews with officials and reviews of documents by Reuters. One British port has occasionally imposed restrictions.

Norway is also working on open loop scrubber bans around its world heritage fjords, an official with the climate and environment ministry told Reuters. A ban on all types of scrubbers is also proposed, the official added.

The IMO rules will prohibit ships from using fuels with sulfur content above 0.5 percent, unless they are equipped with exhaust gas cleaning systems. The open loop scrubbers wash out the sulfur and some industry experts believe they are the cheapest way to meet the new global rules.

Companies that invested in open loop scrubbers will be unable to use them while sailing through those port waters. They also fear the IMO rules could change again and ban open loop scrubbers altogether.

The world’s top cruise operator Carnival Corporation has invested over $500 million to deploy the devices.

Carnival’s Mike Kaczmarek, senior vice president for marine technology and refit with oversight of the group’s scrubbers program, said the port moves were “very troubling”.

“The more ports that participate in this, the greater the (economic) impact,” he said.

“A lot of people out there…in good faith have made significant investments.”

Ships with open loop scrubbers docking or sailing through those ports would need to store waste in tanks until it could be discharged elsewhere or avoid the ports.

The other option is to use a scrubber with a “closed loop”, which stores the waste until it can be treated on land. There are also hybrid scrubbers with a loop that can be open or closed.

Ship owners could also choose another energy source such as low sulfur fuel or liquefied natural gas (LNG). Some experts say there will be enough low sulfur fuel available to avoid fitting scrubbers.

Data from Norwegian risk management and certification company DNV GL shows there will be a total of 2,693 ships running with scrubbers by the end of 2019 – based on current orders – and over 80 percent of them will be open loop devices, compared with 15 percent using hybrid scrubbers and 2 percent opting for closed loop scrubbers.

REGULATORY UNCERTAINTY

Initial research to date into the environmental impact of open loop scrubbers has produced a range of results. The ports and authorities that have banned them have acted in anticipation of studies that conclusively show the discharge is harmful, environmental groups say.

International regulation often lags local action and the IMO rules were agreed in 2016 after years of tense discussions.

An official with Sweden’s Gothenburg port said it recommended shipowners in their waters not to use open loop scrubbers as a precautionary principle to “avoid discharges of scrubber wash water in coastal waters and port areas”.

Businesses are waiting to see if the IMO rules will change.

“What is terrible for business is uncertainty in regulation and changes which are not broadcast well in advance,” said Hamish Norton, president of dry bulk shipping group Star Bulk Carriers, among the biggest investors in scrubbers.

Jurisdictions that have not imposed restrictions are also watching closely.

The IMO encouraged member states in February to research the impact of scrubbers on the environment. An IMO spokeswoman said it was up to countries to make any proposal to tighten scrubber regulation, which would need consensus approval by its 174 member states.

The 28 European Union countries submitted a paper to the IMO which said the use of open loop scrubbers was “expected to lead to a degradation of the marine environment due to the toxicity of water discharges”. It said it wanted to see “harmonization of rules and guidance”.

A separate paper submitted to the IMO, commissioned by Panama – the world’s top ship registration state – and conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said more scientific investigation was needed.

THE FRONT PAGE TEST

A number of jurisdictions without bans, including Gibraltar, South Korea and Australia said they were investigating.

“We will study to find out how harmful it is to oceans and then consider what actions we can take,” said an official with South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.

“If the IMO sets out a guideline on this, we will comply.”

Others are pushing back. Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, said it concluded in research last year that there was little impact on the marine environment from scrubber water discharges.

Carnival said a study it commissioned concluded that scrubbers were safe and discharges were over 90 percent lower than maximum allowable levels in various waters.

Nevertheless, many in the industry expect the rules to change.

Ivar Hansson Myklebust, chief executive with Hoegh Autoliners, said at a recent Marine Money conference the vehicle transporter was not ordering any scrubbers.

“The (open loop) scrubbers have a hard time passing the front page test taking pollutants from the air and dumping it into the sea,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Gary McWilliams in Houston, Gederts Gelzis in Riga, Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Roslan Khasawneh in Singapore, Esha Vaish in Stockholm, Jane Chung in Seoul, Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo, Gus Trompiz in Paris, Gleb Stolyarov in Moscow and Anne Kauranen in Helsinki; editing by Anna Willard)

Source: OANN

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How Australian abuse victim’s ‘powerful’ testimony sank top Vatican official

Cardinal George Pell arrives at the County Court in Melbourne, Australia
Cardinal George Pell arrives at the County Court in Melbourne, Australia February 26, 2019. AAP Image/Erik Anderson/via REUTERS

February 26, 2019

(Please note graphic detail in paragraph 4.)

By Sonali Paul

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – “Guilty.”

There was a gasp in the Australian courtroom as the jury foreman read out the first verdict on child sex offences against Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s treasurer, then stunned silence as the same word was repeated for each of the four other charges he faced.

The jury of eight men and four women unanimously agreed on Dec. 11, after a four-week trial, to convict Pell of five sexual offences committed against two 13-year-old choir boys 22 years earlier in the priests’ sacristy of Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral.

They reached their decision after hearing lengthy testimony from a victim, who described how Pell had exposed himself to them, fondled their genitals and masturbated and forced one boy to perform a sex act on him. That complainant still lives in Melbourne. The other victim died in 2014.

The trial and verdict could not be reported until now due to a court-imposed suppression order, as Pell was due to face another trial on older historical child sex offence charges and the judge did not want the next jury to be prejudiced. Those additional charges were dropped on Tuesday and the judge lifted the reporting restrictions.

Each of the five offences carries a maximum 10 years in jail. Pell is due to be sentenced in early March, following a mitigation plea hearing on Feb. 27.

Pell, a burly 1.9 meters (6 foot and 3 inches) tall, had sat hunched in the dock at the back of the courtroom throughout the trial. He stared straight ahead when the jury foreman said “guilty” for the first time, then turned away.

As the next four verdicts were delivered, the man described by his own lawyer as the “Darth Vader” of the Catholic Church sat with his head bowed.

Pell, the No. 3 official in the Vatican hierarchy, is the most senior Roman Catholic cleric worldwide to be convicted of such offences. His downfall brings to the heart of the papal administration a scandal over clerical abuse that has ravaged the Church’s credibility in the United States, Chile, Australia and elsewhere over the last three decades.

Pope Francis, leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, ended a conference on sexual abuse on Sunday, calling for an “all-out battle” against a crime that should be “erased from the face of the earth”. [nL5N20J0AF]

POWERPOINT DEFENSE

The December verdict followed a re-trial. Three months earlier, a first trial of the same offences had ended in a deadlocked jury that left some jurors in tears.

Pell’s lawyer Robert Richter, a theatrical 72-year-old well-known in Australia after taking on the defense in some of the country’s most high-profile criminal cases, had been confident since the pre-trial hearings that this time he had a slam dunk defense.

Late in proceedings at the re-trial, Richter introduced a new witness, a fellow criminal barrister and former altar server, who had a possible alibi for Pell. The witness said he had served at a mass in late 1996 and afterwards he and his mother had chatted with Pell on the front steps of the cathedral, which the defense said meant he could not have been in the sacristy at the time of the alleged offences.

But under cross-examination, the former altar server could not remember the exact date, and his recall of other details was vague and partly contradicted another defense witness.

Richter brought out Pell’s heavy ceremonial robes, trying to demonstrate they could hardly be maneuvered to expose himself to the boys as the prosecution had alleged.

He had his star witness, a priest who had helped Pell conduct services, demonstrate how elaborately and tightly knotted the robe was around the archbishop’s waist.

There was also debate over whether the wine that the boys were caught swigging in the sacristy by Pell immediately before four of the offences took place was red, as the accuser said, or white, as the court heard was preferred by the dean of the cathedral at the time, as the defense tried to pick holes in the victim’s account.

For his closing argument, Richter rolled out a PowerPoint presentation with dozens of bullet points spelling out why, he said, it would have been almost impossible for the alleged events to have occurred.

He reminded the jury of Pell’s strenuous denials.

“What a load of absolute disgraceful rubbish. Completely false. Madness,” the jury heard Pell tell police in a recording of an interview in a hotel room near Rome airport in 2016 played earlier in the trial.

“You could scarcely imagine a place that was more unlikely for committing pedophilia crimes than the sacristy of the Cathedral after mass,” Pell, who did not testify at either trial, said in the recording.

CLOSED DOOR TESTIMONY

The jury was unswayed, returning a verdict of guilty on all five charges after hearing a prosecution case based entirely on the evidence given by Pell’s surviving accuser.

That testimony was the crux of both trials.

Reporters, Pell’s supporters and abuse survivors who had filled the small court for most of the trial did not see or hear the complainant’s two-and-a-half days of testimony and cross-examination by Richter, which was conducted by video link for the jury behind closed doors. It was later outlined to the court in comments by the prosecutor.

In his closing argument to the jury, prosecutor Mark Gibson, in a quiet voice, called the accuser’s evidence “powerful and persuasive”.

“He was not a person indulging in fantasy or imagining things to the point where he now believed his own imaginative mind, but was simply telling it as it was and is,” Gibson told the court.

Pell had appeared relaxed through most of his trial. Every day he sat in the dock, usually wearing a white shirt with a clerical collar, black pants and a beige jacket, writing on a large notepad and taking occasional sips of water. During breaks in proceedings he would chat with supporters.

But in the nine months since pre-trial hearings began, Pell’s health had clearly deteriorated.

Judge Peter Kidd extended bail after Pell was convicted so he could have double knee surgery in Sydney on Dec. 14, which had been postponed after the first trial.

Pell’s lawyers will now be counting on an appeal filed last week to keep him out of jail.

(Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Source: OANN

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Eichel, Voracek face NHL hearings

NHL: Buffalo Sabres at Colorado Avalanche
Mar 9, 2019; Denver, CO, USA; Buffalo Sabres center Jack Eichel (9) attempts a shot in the third period against the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

March 10, 2019

The NHL’s Department of Player Safety has a busy Sunday ahead.

Buffalo Sabres center Jack Eichel and Philadelphia Flyers forward Jakub Voracek are both facing hearings over actions from their respective games on Saturday.

Eichel faces potential discipline for an illegal check to the head of forward Carl Soderberg during a game against the Colorado Avalanche. Eichel received a minor penalty for the incident at the time.

Soderberg remained in the game for the 3-0 Avalanche victory.

Voracek is being brought in for a major interference penalty that resulted in New York Islanders defenseman Johnny Boychuk leaving the game. The Flyers won that game 5-2.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Victory Over ISIS in Syria to Be Announced After Search of Enclave

U.S.-backed Syrian forces were sweeping on Thursday through the final enclave that had been held by Islamic State fighters, and said they would declare the group defeated once a search for hidden mines and jihadist holdouts was complete.

"Our forces are still conducting combing and search operations and as soon as they are finished we will announce the liberation," Mustafa Bali, spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces, said in a note to journalists.

Bali told Reuters the operation included sweeping for mines and combing for fighters still hidden in trenches and tunnels dug beneath Baghouz, the last patch of Islamic State territory.

The last clashes reported by the SDF were on Tuesday, indicating that major fighting is over in the last big battle of a five year international campaign against a self-proclaimed caliphate that once comprised a third of both Iraq and Syria.

The SDF, backed by U.S. air power, swept on Tuesday into a camp where hundreds of fighters had been making their last stand with thousands of civilians, many their own wives and children.

The situation in Baghouz appeared calm for a second consecutive day, a Reuters journalist in Baghouz said. Warplanes with the U.S.-led coalition, including drones, could be seen overhead.

A news outlet with close ties to the Syrian Kurdish-led authorities, Hawar, reported that the operation was now finished and Islamic State defeated. But an SDF denial swiftly made clear it was not quite prepared to declare victory yet.

A propaganda video carrying the mark of an Islamic State news outlet and distributed among online followers of the group on Thursday showed footage from inside Baghouz and a fighter calling for Muslims in Western countries to stage attacks.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said another 2,000 women and children had arrived late on Wednesday at the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria that has received tens of thousands of people who have poured out of the shrinking Islamic State territory.

"These women and children are in the worst condition we have seen since the crisis first began. Many have been caught up in the fighting and dozens have been burnt or badly injured by shrapnel," Wendy Taeuber, IRC’s Iraq and northeast Syria country director, said in a statement.

"We are expecting another 3,000 to arrive soon and we are very worried that they may be in even worse shape."

A report issued by the United Nations' population fund, the UNFPA, on Thursday said "it is estimated that around 7,000 people are still inside" Baghouz, without elaborating.

The al-Hol camp is now holding more than 72,000 people, including more than 40,000 children, IRC said. The total number of deaths on the way to it or shortly after arriving now stood at 138, the overwhelming number of them babies and infants.

Of the 1,248 pregnant women and girls in the camp, up to 15 percent were younger than 18, the UNFPA said.

Though the defeat of Islamic State at Baghouz ends its grip over populated territory, it remains a threat, with fighters operating in remote territory elsewhere and capable of mounting insurgent attacks.

The U.S. military has warned that Islamic State may still count tens of thousands of fighters, dispersed throughout Iraq and Syria, with enough leaders and resources to present a menacing insurgency.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on a visit to Jerusalem, told reporters victory was "close."

He was proud of "the work that the United States did, the Department of Defense did, that the folks fighting down in the Euphrates river valley did," he said. "The threat from radical Islamic terrorism remains. We need to finish out the last few square meters there, in Syria. Still work to do."

The Pentagon's internal watchdog released a report last month saying Islamic State remained an active insurgent group and was regenerating functions and capabilities more quickly in Iraq than in Syria. The group could resurge in Syria within 6-12 months and regain limited territory without sustained pressure.

The United States believes Iraq is the location of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who stood at the pulpit of the great medieval mosque in Mosul in 2014 to declare himself caliph, sovereign over all Muslims.

Source: NewsMax America

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Ex-Obama White House Counsel expects to be charged over Ukraine work: statement

USA-TRUMP-RUSSIA-CRAIG
Gregory Craig, a former White House Counsel in the Obama administration, is seen in an April 2000 photo. REUTERS/Files

April 11, 2019

By Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Gregory Craig, a former White House Counsel in the Obama administration, expects to be indicted this week on charges stemming from work for Ukraine in 2012, his lawyers said on Wednesday.

“We expect an indictment by the DC US Attorney’s Office at the request of the (Justice Department’s) National Security Division,” Craig’s lawyers William Taylor and William Murphy said in a statement.

Craig, White House Counsel for President Barack Obama for one year from January 2009, is expected to be charged with making false statements to the Justice Department but other charges could also be brought, sources familiar with the case said.

“Mr. Craig is not guilty of any charge and the government’s stubborn insistence on prosecuting Mr. Craig is a misguided abuse of prosecutorial discretion,” his lawyers said.

They said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York “thoroughly investigated” the case and decided not to pursue charges.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Craig’s case is one of several that originated in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and were later referred by Mueller to other U.S. prosecutors for further investigation.

Craig has been accused of lying to the Justice Department about his promotion of a 2012 report aimed at justifying the prosecution of a political enemy of Viktor Yanukovych, the Russian-aligned president of Ukraine at the time.

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, the New York law firm that produced the report, settled with the Justice Department in January by promising to retroactively register as a foreign agent for Ukraine and agreeing to disgorge the $4.6 million it was paid for the work.

That settlement implicated Craig as the law firm partner who made “false and misleading” statements to the Justice Department unit that enforces the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), increasing the likelihood that Craig would be charged.

Skadden relied on those false statements in deciding not to register under FARA as it should have, the settlement says.

FARA is a law requiring a person lobbying or doing public relations for foreign interests to disclose that work to the Justice Department. It has rarely been prosecuted since it was enacted in 1938 with the aim of countering Nazi propaganda.

That changed with the May 2017 appointment of Mueller, who employed FARA to prosecute a number of people including U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

The Skadden report examined efforts by the Ukrainian government to prosecute Yulia Tymoshenko, the country’s former head of government, who was convicted in 2011 of embezzlement and corruption charges and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Yanukovych’s government used the report to justify to the European Court of Human Rights Tymoshenko’s pretrial detention.

Craig becomes the second former Skadden lawyer who worked on the report to face charges.

Alex van der Zwaan, the Dutch son-in-law of one of Russia’s richest men, served 30 days in prison last year for lying to FBI agents about his communications with two former business partners of Manafort. Van der Zwaan’s case was brought by Mueller.

(Reporting by Mark Hosenball; additional reporting by Nathan Layne; editing by Grant McCool)

Source: OANN

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U.S. diplomat for North Korea to discuss denuclearization with Russia

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during the 4th Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during the 4th Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) in Pyongyang in this April 10, 2019 photo released on April 11, 2019 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). KCNA via REUTERS

April 16, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun will visit Moscow this week to discuss Pyongyang’s denuclearization, the U.S. State Department said in a statement on Tuesday.

Biegun will meet with Russian officials in Moscow on Wednesday and Thursday, the department said.

(Reporting by David Alexander Susan Heavey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Report: Laughs, Loyalty in Sen. Graham's Mar-a-Lago Speech

Without a mention of John McCain after breaking from the president's criticism of his late friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham delivered loyalty and laughs in a light-hearted, GOP fundraiser speech Friday as President Donald Trump looked on, Politico reported.

"If Lindsey's speaking, I want to come down here for two reasons," President Trump said, per a video posted by a Politico reporter. "No. 1: He's a great speaker; and No. 2, I know if I'm here, he's not going to say anything bad about me."

The media was shut out of attending the annual Lincoln Day Dinner, a Palm Beach County Republican Party fundraiser, per the report. President Trump had not planned to attend, but he did announce Sen. Graham after having dinner with the first lady Melania and his son Barron, according to attendees.

"We found a lot in common: I like him and he likes him," a jovial Graham joked in a light-hearted speech, those in attendance told Politico.

Among the other one-liners from Graham, who spoke "off the cuff," according to Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop:

  • On hailing the move of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem: "There will be a Trump hotel there in 10 years," he cracked.
  • Graham jokingly asked the crowd if they wanted to see former Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., on the Supreme Court. Gowdy was in attendance and "mingling with the president," according to Politico.
  • After the crowd started a "lock her up" chant about Hillary Clinton, Graham quipped: "Don't lock her up! We want her to run again."

"Pretty typical Lindsey," one attendee told Politico of the 30-minute speech, which President Trump arrived for and left when it was done.

The following from the Trump inner-circle and Florida GOP were in attendance, per the report.

  • Emcee ex-Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
  • Donald Trump Jr. and girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle.
  • Florida Lt. Gov Jeanette Núñez.
  • Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla.
  • Former Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla.
  • Republican National Committee co-chair Tommy Hicks, Jr.
  • Conservative activist James O'Keefe.

One topic that was not broached, as the Mueller report was delivered to the Justice Department, was the Russia investigation.

"Nobody mentioned anything, other than all of us saw our phones and knew the report dropped," an attendee told Politico.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during the inauguration of the newly-elected parliament in Kabul
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during the inauguration of the newly-elected parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

April 26, 2019

By Rupam Jain and Hameed Farzad

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani encouraged newly-elected lawmakers to participate in the peace process with the Taliban as he opened on Friday the first session of parliament since a controversial election.

Ghani has invited thousands of politicians, religious scholars and rights activists to an assembly known as a loya jirga next week to discuss ways to end the 17-year war.

Several opposition leaders have said they will boycott the four-day assembly in Kabul, saying it was pulled together without their input and is being used by Ghani as he seeks a second term in a September presidential election.

“We have presented the peace plan on a regular basis and we are committed to it,” Ghani said in the first session since parliamentary elections marred by technical problems, militant attacks and accusations of voting fraud last year.

“Based on this plan, there will be no peace deal and negotiation that does not have the green card of the parliament,” he added.

Officials from the United States and the Taliban have held several rounds of talks to end the Afghan war.

U.S. negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, has reported some progress toward an accord on a U.S. troop withdrawal and on how the Taliban would prevent extremists from using Afghanistan to launch attacks as al Qaeda did on Sept. 11, 2001.

The insurgents have so far rejected U.S. demands for a ceasefire and talks on the country’s political future that would include Afghan government officials.

The loya jirga, a centuries-old institution used to build consensus among competing tribes, factions and ethnic groups, is an attempt by Ghani to influence the peace talks and cement his position for a second term, Afghan politicians and Western diplomats say.

Amid growing political divisions in Kabul, opposition politicians have demanded that Ghani step down when his mandate ends next month, and give way to an interim government to oversee peace talks with the Taliban. Ghani has ruled that out.

The country’s top court said last week Ghani can stay in office until the presidential election in September.

(Reporting by Hameed Farzad, Rupam Jain, Editing by Darren Schuettler)

Source: OANN

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Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Thursday defended special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation while slamming former President Barack Obama’s administration for being slow to take action on Russian interference in U.S. elections and ex-FBI Director James Comey for telling Congress the agency was investigating collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“Our nation is safer, elections are more secure, and citizens are better informed about covert foreign influence schemes,” Rosenstein said in a speech to the Armenian Bar Association, marking his first public remarks after the Mueller report was released, reports CBS News.

He also pointed out that the investigation revealed a pattern of computer hacking and the use of social media to undermine elections as “only the tip of the iceberg of a comprehensive Russian strategy to influence elections, promote social discord, and undermine America, just like they do in many other countries,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

The Obama administration also made “critical decisions,” including choosing not to publicize the full story about Russian hackers and social media trolling, “and how they relate to a broader strategy to undermine America,” said Rosenstein.

He noted that the Mueller probe began after Comey disclosed during a hearing before Congress that President Donald Trump “pressured him to close the investigation and the president denied that the conversation occurred.”

Rosenstein said two years ago, when he was confirmed, he was told by a Republican senator that he would be in charge of the probe and that he’d report the results to the American people.

However, he said he didn’t promise to do that, because it is “not our job to render conclusive factual findings. We just decide whether it is appropriate to file criminal charges.”

Source: NewsMax Politics

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FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei's factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei’s factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China, March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) – Britain must get to the bottom of the leak of confidential discussions during a top-level security meeting about the role of China’s Huawei Technologies in 5G network supply chains, British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Friday.

News that Britain’s National Security Council, attended by senior ministers and spy chiefs, had agreed on Tuesday to bar Huawei from all core parts of the country’s 5G network and restrict its access to non-core elements was leaked to a national newspaper.

The leak of secret discussions has sparked anger in parliament and amongst Britain’s intelligence community. Britain’s most senior civil servant Mark Sedwill has launched an inquiry and written to ministers who were at the meeting.

“My understanding from London (is) that an investigation has been announced into apparent leaks from the NSC meeting earlier this week,” said Hammond, speaking on the sidelines of a summit on China’s Belt and Road initiative in Beijing.

“To my knowledge there has never been a leak from a National Security Council meeting before and therefore I think it is very important that we get to the bottom of what happened here,” he told Reuters in a pooled interview.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday he could not rule out a criminal investigation. The majority of the ministers at the NSC meeting have said they were not involved, according to media reports.

Hammond said he was unaware of any previous leak from a meeting of the NSC.

“It’s not about the substance of what was apparently leaked. It’s not earth-shattering information. But it is important that we protect the principle that nothing that goes on in national security council meetings must ever be repeated outside the room.”

Allowing Huawei a reduced role in building its 5G network puts Britain at odds with the United States which has told allies not to use its technology at all because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

There have been concerns that the NSC’s conclusion, which sources confirmed to Reuters, could upset other allies in the world’s leading intelligence-sharing network – the Five Eyes alliance of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

However, British ministers and intelligence officials have said any final decision on 5G would not put critical national infrastructure at risk. Ciaran Martin, head of the cyber center of Britain’s main eavesdropping agency, GCHQ, played down any threat of a rift in the Five Eyes alliance.

(Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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President Trump on Friday said “no money” was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, after reports that the U.S. received a $2 million hospital bill from Pyongyang for the late American prisoner’s care.

“No money was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, not two Million Dollars, not anything else. This is not the Obama Administration that paid 1.8 Billion Dollars for four hostages, or gave five terroist[sic] hostages plus, who soon went back to battle, for traitor Sgt. Bergdahl!” Trump tweeted Friday.

NORTH KOREA GAVE US $2M HOSPITAL BILL OVER CARE OF AMERICAN OTTO WARMBIER, SOURCES SAY

The Washington Post first reported that North Korean authorities insisted the U.S. envoy sent to retrieve Warmbier, 21, who was a student of the University of Virginia, sign a pledge to pay the bill before allowing Warmbier’s comatose body to return to the United States. Sources confirmed the bill and the amount to Fox News on Thursday.

Sources told the post that the envoy signed an agreement to pay the medical bill on instructions from the president, but a source told Fox News that the U.S. did not ever pay money to North Korea.

The White House declined to comment when asked on the bill, with Press Secretary Sarah Sanders saying in a statement that: “We do not comment on hostage negotiations, which is why they have been so successful during this administration.”

Meanwhile, the president added: “’President[sic] Donald J. Trump is the greatest hostage negotiator that I know of in the history of the United States. 20 hostages, many in impossible circumstances, have been released in last two years. No money was paid.’ Cheif[sic] Hostage Negotiator, USA!”

Warmbier was on tour in North Korea when he allegedly stole a propaganda sign from a hotel. He was arrested in January 2016 and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor in March 2016. Warmbier, for unknown reasons, fell into a coma while in custody and was held in that condition for an additional 17 months.

North Korean officials did not tell American officials until June 2017 that Warmbier had been unconscious the entire time. He died less than a week after he returned to the U.S. North Korean officials, though, have repeatedly denied accusations that Warmbier was tortured, instead claiming that he had suffered from botulism and then slipped into a coma after taking a sleeping pill.

AMERICAN PRISONERS HELD IN NORTH KOREA ON THEIR WAY HOME AFTER POMPEO VISIT, TRUMP SAYS

Fred and Cindy Warmbier sued North Korea over their son’s death and in December were awarded $501 million in damages – money that the Hermit Kingdom will probably never pay.

While the Warmbiers blamed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump has said he believes Kim’s claims that he did not know about the student’s treatment.

Trump and Kim have met in two separate summits. The most recent, held in February, ended without an agreement on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, told Fox News: “Otto Warmbier was mistreated by North Korea in so many ways, including his wrongful conviction and harsh sentence, and the fact that for 16 months they refused to tell his family or our country about his dire condition they caused.  No, the United States owes them nothing. They owe the Warmbier family everything.”

Last year, the Trump administration was also able to save three American prisoners held by North Korea. Kim Dong Chul, Tony Kim, and Kim Hak Song were all detained in North Korea. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brought the three Americans home last May, and said they were all in “good health.”

Fox News’ John Roberts, Rich Edson, Nicholas Kalman, and Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon
Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon, South Korea, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

April 26, 2019

SEOUL (Reuters) – K-pop and drama star Park Yu-chun was arrested on Friday on charges of buying and using illegal drugs, a court said, the latest in a series of scandals to hit the South Korean entertainment business.

Suwon District Court approved the arrest warrant for Park, 32, due to concerns over possible destruction of evidence and flight risk, a court spokesman told Reuters.

Park is suspected of having bought about 1.5 grams of methamphetamine with his former girlfriend earlier this year and using the drug around five times, an official at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said.

Park has denied wrongdoing, saying he had never taken drugs, and he again denied the charges in court, Yonhap news agency said.

Park’s contract with his management agency had been canceled and he would leave the entertainment industry, Park’s management agency, C-JeS Entertainment, said on Wednesday.

Park was a member of boyband TVXQ between 2003 and 2009 before leaving the group with two other members, forming the group JYJ.

A scandal involving sex tapes, prostitutes and secret chat about rape led at least four other K-pop stars to quit the industry earlier this year.

The cases sparked a nationwide drugs bust and investigations into tax evasion and police collusion at night clubs and other nightlife spots.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

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