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EU, Rome agree draft deal to soften bail-in rules on Italy banks: source

FILE PHOTO: Duomo's cathedral and Porta Nuova's financial district are seen in Milan
FILE PHOTO: Duomo's cathedral and Porta Nuova's financial district are seen in Milan, Italy, May 16, 2018. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini/File Photo

April 5, 2019

By Francesco Guarascio

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – The Italian government and the European Commission have reached a provisional agreement to reimburse some investors who bought shares in failed banks, an Italian official said, in an unprecedented move that would soften EU rules on bank rescues.

The bail-in rules devised after the last decade’s financial crisis were designed to make any given bank and its creditors – instead of taxpayers – financially responsible if it went bust, with shareholders first in line to pay up.

Since the regulations came into force in 2016, shareholders have been all but wiped out in all bank collapses, including Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena and two smaller north-eastern banks that Italian authorities intervened to save in 2017.

Losses have also been inflicted on bondholders in some cases, while depositors have always been spared.

But under the new provisional deal between Brussels and Rome, bondholders and shareholders of failed Italian banks could claim their money back, the official from the Italian finance ministry said.

“The Commission is in constructive contact with Italy on the proposed measures,” the EU commissioner for financial services Valdis Dombrovskis said, declining to comment further.

Under the agreement, shareholders with annual incomes below 35,000 euros ($39,280) and property worth less than 100,000 euros would be automatically compensated for their losses in past bank rescues, the official said.

The deal would notably benefit Italian savers forced to buy bank shares in exchange for mortgages in what appears to have been fraudulent transactions, but its critics say it is unlikely that all those entitled to claim compensation under the wealth criterion were victims of swindling.

In a March ruling that has been interpreted as a softening of the bail-in rules, EU judges overturned a decision the European Commission took in 2014 to block the rescue of Tercas, a small Italian bank, with money from the country’s depositor fund.

While Brussels could appeal that ruling, the deal with Italy would further weaken the legal framework.

The agreement would need to be approved by the two parties in Italy’s euroskeptic government, which is campaigning for EU elections in May.

The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement wants even softer terms to compensate those who were allegedly missold bank shares and bonds, an Italian official said. It and the co-ruling far-right League pressed for generous compensation for bank creditors before last year’s national elections in Italy.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; additional reporting by Valentina Za in Milan; editing by John Stonestreet)

Source: OANN

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The Latest: Runoff vote inevitable in North Macedonia

The Latest on the presidential election in North Macedonia (all times local):

9:55 p.m.

Returns from North Macedonia's presidential election are giving an indication of which of the three candidates will compete in a runoff early next month.

The May 5 runoff is inevitable because the small European country's election law requires a candidate to get 50% plus one of registered voters, not just voters who cast ballots for president, to be elected in the first round. The state electoral commission reported the turnout Sunday was 39.26%.

With about half of polling stations reporting, Stevo Pendarovski and Gordana Siljanovska Davkova were in a close contest for the most support. Pendarovski, the joint candidate of the ruling Social Democrats and 30 other parties, held a slight lead, with 42.4% of the partial vote to Siljanovska's 41.1%.

The main conservative opposition VMRO-DPMNE party backed Siljanovska, the first woman to run for president in the country. .

Blerim Reka, a candidate supported by two small ethnic Albanian political parties, had 12.3% of the early returns.

___

8:15 a.m.

Polls opened early Sunday in North Macedonia for a presidential election seen as a key test for the government following the country's changing its name to end a decades-old dispute with neighboring Greece over the use of the term "Macedonia".

More than 3,400 polling stations opened at 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) and will close at 7 p.m. (1700GMT).

Three university professors are vying for the largely ceremonial presidency post.

Gordana Siljanovska Davkova is backed by the main conservative opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, Stevo Pendarovski is a joint candidate of the ruling Social Democrats and 30 smaller parties, while Blerim Reka is supported by two small ethnic Albanian parties.

A candidate needs 50% plus one vote of the 1.8 million registered voters to win outright in the first round.

Source: Fox News World

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Trump Stops Taxpayer-Backed Mortgages for Illegals

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Trump lawyer calls on IRS to reject Dem demands for tax returns, says it would set ‘dangerous precedent’

A lawyer for President Trump said in a letter Friday that Democratic efforts to get the IRS to turn over the president’s tax returns are an attempt to harass a political opponent and that it would set a “dangerous precedent” for the agency to turn them over.

“For good reason, it would be a gross abuse of power for the majority to use tax returns as a weapon to attack, harass, and intimidate their political opponents. Once this Pandora’s box is opened, the ensuing tit-for-tat will do lasting damage to our nation,” William S. Consovoy said in a letter to the Treasury’s general counsel.

AOC REMINDS TRUMP IN TWEET ABOUT TAX RETURN REQUEST: 'WE DIDN'T ASK YOU'

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., formally asked the IRS on Wednesday to provide six years of Trump’s tax returns -- the latest of a yearslong effort by Democrats to get access to Trump’s financial documents.

Neal asked for Trump’s personal and business returns from 2013-18 and set April 10 as a deadline. Democrats say it is within their mandate of congressional oversight, but the unprecedented move has been opposed by Republicans and is likely to foreshadow a lengthy legal fight.

Trump has said repeatedly throughout the 2016 presidential campaign and his presidency that he can’t make public his tax returns as he is under audit.

In his letter, Consovoy said that Neal “cannot legally request” the information as the tax code guards taxpayer privacy with the exception of certain conditions -- which he says are not met.

“Even if Ways and Means had a legitimate committee purpose for requesting the President’s tax returns and return information, that purpose is not driving Chairman Neal’s request,” he wrote.

“His request is a transparent effort by one political party to harass an official from the other party because they dislike his politics and speech,” he added.

HOUSE DEMS RAMP UP EFFORTS TO GET TRUMP’S TAX RETURNS, WILL ‘TAKE ALL NECESSARY STEPS’

Consovoy also rejects Neal’s claim that the committee is seeking to assess how the IRS audits and enforces tax law against a president, asking why he did not request any other presidential tax returns.

“The answer, of course, is that Chairman Neal’s request is not about examining IRS policy. It is about scoring political points against President Trump,” he said.

“If the IRS acquiesces to Chairman Neal’s request, it would set a dangerous precedent,” he said.

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Trump was asked by reporters in California on Friday if he had any comment on the letter: "I'm under audit. When you're under audit you don't do it," he said.

Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin said in testimony to Congress last month that he will “protect the president as we would protect any taxpayer" regarding their right to privacy.

Fox News’ John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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China says Taiwan opposition’s peace proposal must include push for ‘reunification’

Wu Den-yih, newly elected chairman of Taiwan's opposition Nationalist Kuomintang Party (KMT), arrives at a news conference in Taipei
FILE PHOTO - Wu Den-yih, newly elected chairman of Taiwan's opposition Nationalist Kuomintang Party (KMT), arrives at a news conference in Taipei, Taiwan May 20, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

February 27, 2019

BEIJING (Reuters) – Any proposals from self-ruled Taiwan for a peace deal with China must include a push for “reunification”, Beijing said on Wednesday, after the island’s main opposition party said it could sign one if it wins a presidential election next year.

China claims proudly democratic Taiwan as its own and has vowed to bring the island, which it regards as sacred territory, under Chinese control, by force if necessary.

While China has not broached the idea of a peace deal in years, the chairman of the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang, Wu Den-yih, said earlier this month the party could sign a peace deal with China if it won the hotly contested election.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said the island will not accept any deal that destroys its sovereignty and democracy.

China’s policy-making Taiwan Affairs Office, in the government’s first official response to the Kuomintang’s peace agreement proposal, said anything that benefits the interests of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be promoted.

“As long as it benefits protecting the peace of the Taiwan Strait and increasing the peaceful development of relations, and pushes the peaceful reunification process of the motherland, it can be jointly investigated by both sides,” spokesman An Fengshan told a regular news briefing.

China translates the word “tong yi” as “reunification”, but it can also be translated as “unification”, a term in English preferred by supporters of Taiwan independence who point out that Beijing’s Communist government has never ruled Taiwan and so it cannot be “reunified”.

An said the DPP was seeking to stymie the wish of Taiwan’s people for peace across the Taiwan Strait, which would only harm the people of Taiwan’s interests and “ruin Taiwan’s prospects and future”.

Tsai’s party suffered stinging losses to the Kuomintang in mayoral and local elections in November.

Tsai, who says she wants to maintain the status quo, has said China must use peaceful means to resolve its differences with Taiwan and respect Taipei’s democratic values.

Beijing has regularly sent military aircraft and ships to circle the island on drills in the past few years and has heaped pressure on Taiwan internationally, including whittling down its few remaining diplomatic allies.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has made Taiwan a key focus of his administration, and warned in a major new year’s speech that China reserves the right to use force to bring Taiwan under its control.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Gao Liangping; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: OANN

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Thousands more Central American migrants approach U.S.-Mexico border

Thousands more migrants are heading toward the U.S.-Mexican border, hoping to gain permanent residency here even as the Trump administration tightens rules on detention and obtaining political asylum.

Some 2,000 migrants arrived in Mexico this week, forcing officials of Chiapas state to declare an emergency. 5,000 more migrants had set out toward the U.S. on Monday, according to the Mexico News Daily.

Meanwhile, "Pueblos Sin Frontreras," a group often cited as being behind the caravans since last year, denied on its Facebook page in a post on Tuesday that it is organizing the large groups and leading them on the long journey to the U.S. border from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.

“Nonetheless, as defenders of human rights of the migrants we are in solidarity with the families, children, men and women that see as their only option to flee their communities and migrate.”

Pueblos Sin Frontreras assailed Mexican authorities for what the group says is their failure to honor previous promises to treat the migrants humanely by giving them visitor visas on humanitarian grounds, and are instead adopting a hard line to keep them from getting close to the United States.

BORDER PATROL OFFICIAL: CARAVAN-SIZE INFLUX OF MIGRANTS ARRIVING EVERY WEEK IN RIO GRANDE VALLEY

“Mexico is acquiescing to the U.S. and handling this in a law enforcement, rather than humanitarian, manner,” the group said.

Calls to Pueblos Sin Frontreras seeking comment were not returned.

Tensions have flared between the migrants and authorities in countries they pass through, including Mexico.

Central American migrants, part of a caravan hoping to reach the U.S. border, walk on the shoulder of a road in Frontera Hidalgo, Mexico on Friday.The group pushed past police guarding the bridge and joined a larger group of about 2,000 migrants who are walking toward Tapachula, the latest caravan to enter Mexico.

Central American migrants, part of a caravan hoping to reach the U.S. border, walk on the shoulder of a road in Frontera Hidalgo, Mexico on Friday.The group pushed past police guarding the bridge and joined a larger group of about 2,000 migrants who are walking toward Tapachula, the latest caravan to enter Mexico. (AP)

This week, they tried to push past police, who urged them to stay in makeshift shelters. Officials also told people to stay indoors, warning the migrants were a threat to safety. The town’s cold reception contrasts with the warm welcome it gave to caravans just last year.

More than 7,000 migrants are in Chiapas, according to the newspaper, waiting to receive documents that would allow them to work and live there while they try to apply for asylum in the United States.

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President Donald Trump has called the large numbers of migrants approaching the border an emergency, and has pushed the construction of a wall. U.S. Attorney General William Barr decided Tuesday that asylum seekers who clear a “credible fear” interview and are facing removal don’t have the right to be released on bond by an immigration court judge while their cases are pending. The attorney general has the authority to overturn prior rulings made by immigration courts, which fall under the Justice Department.

Trump also warned Mexico to step up efforts to deal with the groups of migrants trying to get to the U.S., or risk U.S. tariffs on auto imports.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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India auctions fugitive billionaire’s art, raises $8 million

A staff member speaks on his phone as artworks once part of billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi's collection are seen on display ahead of their auction at a gallery in Mumbai
A staff member speaks on his phone as artworks once part of billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi's collection are seen on display ahead of their auction at a gallery in Mumbai, India, March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui

March 26, 2019

By Sai Sachin Ravikumar

MUMBAI (Reuters) – Indian tax authorities raised about $8 million in an auction on Tuesday of rare oil paintings that were once part of fugitive billionaire jeweler Nirav Modi’s collection and seized by the government.

Tax authorities who are pursuing Modi in connection with the country’s largest bank fraud appointed auction house Saffronart to carry out the sale of 68 works.

The sale will be challenged in court on Wednesday by lawyers for a company controlled by Modi that owns the artwork.

Auctioneers say the sale, which was originally expected to raise up to $7.3 million, was the first of its kind in a country where tax authorities have usually auctioned property, gold and luxury items, but not art.

“Until a few years ago, the tax authorities really didn’t know the value of art,” said Farah Siddiqui, an art adviser who advised clients eyeing Modi’s collection.

The 48-year-old Modi, whose diamonds have sparkled on Hollywood stars, is one of the prime accused in a $2 billion loan fraud at state-run Punjab National Bank. Modi denies the charges and says they are politically motivated.

The auction comes just weeks before a national election and as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces pressure to bring back Nirav Modi (no relation), who fled the country last year and has been residing in Britain.

He was arrested last week by British authorities and remanded in custody after he appeared before a London court. India asked Britain last August to extradite Modi.

An oil painting by Raja Ravi Varma, a 19th century painter considered among India’s finest, fetched the taxman 161 million rupees ($2.3 million), while another by modernist V.S. Gaitonde raised $3.7 million.

Over 80 percent of the works on auction were sold, Saffronart Chief Executive Dinesh Vazirani said.

India Law Alliance, the law firm representing the company controlled by Modi that owned the art, is challenging the court order that allowed the auction. The case will be heard by the Bombay High Court on Wednesday, a lawyer at the firm told Reuters.

Vijay Aggarwal, a lawyer for Modi, declined to comment on the holding of the auction.

(Reporting by Sai Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Frances Kerry and Alison Williams)

Source: OANN

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The Wider Image: China's start-ups go small in age of 'shoebox' satellites
LinkSpace’s reusable rocket RLV-T5, also known as NewLine Baby, is carried to a vacant plot of land for a test launch in Longkou, Shandong province, China, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

April 26, 2019

By Ryan Woo

LONGKOU, China (Reuters) – During initial tests of their 8.1-metre (27-foot) tall reusable rocket, Chinese engineers from LinkSpace, a start-up led by China’s youngest space entrepreneur, used a Kevlar tether to ensure its safe return. Just in case.

But when the Beijing-based company’s prototype, called NewLine Baby, successfully took off and landed last week for the second time in two months, no tether was needed.

The 1.5-tonne rocket hovered 40 meters above the ground before descending back to its concrete launch pad after 30 seconds, to the relief of 26-year-old chief executive Hu Zhenyu and his engineers – one of whom cartwheeled his way to the launch pad in delight.

LinkSpace, one of China’s 15-plus private rocket manufacturers, sees these short hops as the first steps towards a new business model: sending tiny, inexpensive satellites into orbit at affordable prices.

Demand for these so-called nanosatellites – which weigh less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and are in some cases as small as a shoebox – is expected to explode in the next few years. And China’s rocket entrepreneurs reckon there is no better place to develop inexpensive launch vehicles than their home country.

“For suborbital clients, their focus will be on scientific research and some commercial uses. After entering orbit, the near-term focus (of clients) will certainly be on satellites,” Hu said.

In the near term, China envisions massive constellations of commercial satellites that can offer services ranging from high-speed internet for aircraft to tracking coal shipments. Universities conducting experiments and companies looking to offer remote-sensing and communication services are among the potential domestic customers for nanosatellites.

A handful of U.S. small-rocket companies are also developing launchers ahead of the expected boom. One of the biggest, Rocket Lab, has already put 25 satellites in orbit.

No private company in China has done that yet. Since October, two – LandSpace and OneSpace – have tried but failed, illustrating the difficulties facing space start-ups everywhere.

The Chinese companies are approaching inexpensive launches in different ways. Some, like OneSpace, are designing cheap, disposable boosters. LinkSpace’s Hu aspires to build reusable rockets that return to Earth after delivering their payload, much like the Falcon 9 rockets of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

“If you’re a small company and you can only build a very, very small rocket because that’s all you have money for, then your profit margins are going to be narrower,” said Macro Caceres, analyst at U.S. aerospace consultancy Teal Group.

“But if you can take that small rocket and make it reusable, and you can launch it once a week, four times a month, 50 times a year, then with more volume, your profit increases,” Caceres added.

Eventually LinkSpace hopes to charge no more than 30 million yuan ($4.48 million) per launch, Hu told Reuters.

That is a fraction of the $25 million to $30 million needed for a launch on a Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Pegasus, a commonly used small rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a high-flying aircraft and is not reusable.

(Click https://reut.rs/2UVBjKs to see a picture package of China’s rocket start-ups. Click https://tmsnrt.rs/2GIy9Bc for an interactive look at the nascent industry.)

NEED FOR CASH

LinkSpace plans to conduct suborbital launch tests using a bigger recoverable rocket in the first half of 2020, reaching altitudes of at least 100 kilometers, then an orbital launch in 2021, Hu told Reuters.

The company is in its third round of fundraising and wants to raise up to 100 million yuan, Hu said. It had secured tens of millions of yuan in previous rounds.

After a surge in fresh funding in 2018, firms like LinkSpace are pushing out prototypes, planning more tests and even proposing operational launches this year.

Last year, equity investment in China’s space start-ups reached 3.57 billion yuan ($533 million), a report by Beijing-based investor FutureAerospace shows, with a burst of financing in late 2018.

That accounted for about 18 percent of global space start-up investments in 2018, a historic high, according to Reuters calculations based on a global estimate by Space Angels. The New York-based venture capital firm said global space start-up investments totaled $2.97 billion last year.

“Costs for rocket companies are relatively high, but as to how much funding they need, be it in the hundreds of millions, or tens of millions, or even just a few million yuan, depends on the company’s stage of development,” said Niu Min, founder of FutureAerospace.

FutureAerospace has invested tens of millions of yuan in LandSpace, based in Beijing.

Like space-launch startups elsewhere in the world, the immediate challenge for Chinese entrepreneurs is developing a safe and reliable rocket.

Proven talent to develop such hardware can be found in China’s state research institutes or the military; the government directly supports private firms by allowing them to launch from military-controlled facilities.

But it’s still a high-risk business, and one unsuccessful launch might kill a company.

“The biggest problem facing all commercial space companies, especially early-stage entrepreneurs, is failure” of an attempted flight, Liang Jianjun, chief executive of rocket company Space Trek, told Reuters. That can affect financing, research, manufacturing and the team’s morale, he added.

Space Trek is planning its first suborbital launch by the end of June and an orbital launch next year, said Liang, who founded the company in late 2017 with three other former military technical officers.

Despite LandSpace’s failed Zhuque-1 orbital launch in October, the Beijing-based firm secured 300 million yuan in additional funding for the development of its Zhuque-2 rocket a month later.

In December, the company started operating China’s first private rocket production facility in Zhejiang province, in anticipation of large-scale manufacturing of its Zhuque-2, which it expects to unveil next year.

STATE COMPETITION

China’s state defense contractors are also trying to get into the low-cost market.

In December, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) successfully launched a low-orbit communication satellite, the first of 156 that CASIC aims to deploy by 2022 to provide more stable broadband connectivity to rural China and eventually developing countries.

The satellite, Hongyun-1, was launched on a rocket supplied by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the nation’s main space contractor.

In early April, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALVT), a subsidiary of CASC, completed engine tests for its Dragon, China’s first rocket meant solely for commercial use, clearing the path for a maiden flight before July.

The Dragon, much bigger than the rockets being developed by private firms, is designed to carry multiple commercial satellites.

At least 35 private Chinese companies are working to produce more satellites.

Spacety, a satellite maker based in southern Hunan province, plans to put 20 satellites in orbit this year, including its first for a foreign client, chief executive Yang Feng told Reuters.

The company has only launched 12 on state-produced rockets since the company started operating in early 2016.

“When it comes to rocket launches, what we care about would be cost, reliability and time,” Yang said.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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German drug and crop chemical maker Bayer holds annual general meeting
Werner Baumann, CEO of German pharmaceutical and chemical maker Bayer AG, attends the annual general shareholders meeting in Bonn, Germany, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

April 26, 2019

By Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger

BONN (Reuters) – Bayer shareholders vented their anger over its stock price slump on Friday as litigation risks mount from the German drugmaker’s $63 billion takeover of seed maker Monsanto.

Several large investors said they will not support aspirin investor Bayer’s management in a key vote scheduled for the end of its annual general meeting.

Bayer’s management, led by chief executive Werner Baumann, could see an embarrassing plunge in approval ratings, down from 97 percent at last year’s AGM, which was held shortly before the Monsanto takeover closed in June.

A vote to ratify the board’s actions features prominently at every German AGM. Although it has no bearing on management’s liability, it is seen as a key gauge of shareholder sentiment.

“Due to the continued negative development at Bayer, high legal risks and a massive share price slump, we refuse to ratify the management board and supervisory board’s actions during the business year,” Janne Werning, representing Germany’s Union Investment, a top-20 shareholder, said in prepared remarks.

About 30 billion euros ($34 billion) have been wiped off Bayer’s market value since August, when a U.S. jury found the pesticide and drugs group liable because Monsanto had not warned of alleged cancer risks linked to its weedkiller Roundup.

Bayer suffered a similar defeat last month and more than 13,000 plaintiffs are claiming damages.

Bayer is appealing or plans to appeal the verdicts.

Deutsche Bank’s asset managing arm DWS said shareholders should have been consulted before the takeover, which was agreed in 2016 and closed in June last year.

“You are pointing out that the lawsuits have not been lost yet. We and our customers, however, have already lost something – money and trust,” Nicolas Huber, head of corporate governance at DWS, said in prepared remarks for the AGM.

He said DWS would abstain from the shareholder vote of confidence in the executive and non-executive boards.

Two people familiar with the situation told Reuters this week that Bayer’s largest shareholder, BlackRock, plans to either abstain from or vote against ratifying the management board’s actions.

Asset management firm Deka, among Bayer’s largest German investors, has also said it would cast a no vote.

Baumann said Bayer’s true value was not reflected in the current share price.

“There’s no way to make this look good. The lawsuits and the first verdicts weigh heavily on our company and it’s a concern for many people,” he said, adding it was the right decision to buy Monsanto and that Bayer was vigorously defending itself.

This month, shareholder advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis recommended investors not to give the executive board their seal of approval.

(Reporting by Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Source: OANN

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Sudan’s military, which ousted President Omar al-Bashir after months of protests against his 30-year rule, says it intends to keep the upper hand during the country’s transitional period to civilian rule.

The announcement is expected to raise tensions with the protesters, who demand immediate handover of power.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, which is spearheading the protests, said Friday the crowds will stay in the streets until all their demands are met.

Shams al-Deen al-Kabashi, the spokesman for the military council, said late Thursday that the military will “maintain sovereign powers” while the Cabinet would be in the hands of civilians.

The protesters insist the country should be led by a “civilian sovereign” council with “limited military representation” during the transitional period.

The army toppled and arrested al-Bashir on April 11.

Source: Fox News World

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FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture
FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture, March 30, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

April 26, 2019

By Charlotte Greenfield

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – China’s Huawei Technologies said Britain’s decision to allow the firm a restricted role in building parts of its next-generation telecoms network was the kind of solution it was hoping for in New Zealand, where it has been blocked from 5G plans.

Britain will ban Huawei from all core parts of 5G network but give it some access to non-core parts, sources have told Reuters, as it seeks a middle way in a bitter U.S.-China dispute stemming from American allegations that Huawei’s equipment could be used by Beijing for espionage.

Washington has also urged its allies to ban Huawei from building 5G networks, even as the Chinese company, the world’s top producer of telecoms equipment, has repeatedly said the spying concerns are unfounded.

In New Zealand, a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network that includes the United States, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) in November turned down an initial request from local telecommunication firm Spark to include Huawei equipment in its 5G network, but later gave the operator options to mitigate national security concerns.

“The proposed solution in the UK to restrict Huawei from bidding for the core is exactly the type of solution we have been looking at in New Zealand,” Andrew Bowater, deputy CEO of Huawei’s New Zealand arm, said in an emailed statement.

Spark said it has noted the developments in Britain and would raise it with the GCSB.

The reports “suggest the UK is following other European jurisdictions in taking a considered and balanced approach to managing supplier-related security risks in 5G”, Andrew Pirie, Spark’s corporate relations lead, said in an email.

“Our discussions with the GCSB are ongoing and we expect that the UK developments will be a further item of discussion between us,” Pirie added.

New Zealand’s minister for intelligence services, Andrew Little, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday that he would report to parliament the conclusions of a government review of the 5G supply chain once they had been taken.

He added that the disclosure of confidential discussions on the role of Huawei was “unacceptable” and that he could not rule out a criminal investigation into the leak.

The decisions by Britain and Germany to use Huawei gear in non-core parts of 5G network makes it harder to prove Huawei should be kept out of New Zealand telecommunication networks, said Syed Faraz Hasan, an expert in communication engineering and networks at New Zealand’s Massey University

He pointed out Huawei gear was already part of the non-core 4G networks that 5G infrastructure would be built on.

“Unless there is a convincing argument against the Huawei devices … it is difficult to keep them away,” Hasan said.

(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The logo commodities trader Glencore is pictured in Baar
FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company’s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Glencore shares plunged the most in nearly four months on Friday after news overnight that U.S. regulators were investigating whether the miner broke some rules through “corrupt practices”.

Shares of the FTSE 100 company fell as much as 4.2 percent in early deals, and were down 3.5 percent at 310.25 pence by 0728 GMT.

On Thursday, Glencore said the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating whether the company and its units have violated some provisions of the Commodity ExchangeAct and/or CFTC Regulations.

(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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