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Austria’s Signa partners with RFR to buy New York’s Chrysler Building: sources

FILE PHOTO: New York City's iconic Chrysler Building is seen in Manhattan
FILE PHOTO: New York City's iconic Chrysler Building that was opened in 1930 on East 42nd Street is seen in Manhattan, New York, U.S., January 9, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

March 9, 2019

(This story corrects the name of Signa founder in paragraph 7)

By Greg Roumeliotis and Harry Brumpton

(Reuters) – Signa Holding GmbH, Austria’s largest privately owned real estate company, will buy the iconic Chrysler Building in New York City in partnership with property firm RFR Holding LLC for about $150 million, people familiar with the matter said.

Signa and RFR are equal partners in a joint venture that signed an agreement on Friday to buy the building from the Abu Dhabi Investment Council at a fraction of what it paid to own it, the sources said.

Abu Dhabi had splashed out $800 million to own a 90 percent stake in the Chrysler Building at the onset of the 2008 financial crisis. Property values subsequently crashed, and in some cases never fully recovered.

The sources asked not to be identified as they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Signa Holding and CBRE, which has handled the sale process of the asset, declined to comment. RFR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The art-deco tower, which was the world’s tallest building when completed in 1930 only to be eclipsed by New York’s Empire State Building, is considered a crown jewel of the city’s skyline. Its old age is fueling maintenance costs, however, and its historical status has often made modifications to the needs of its tenants difficult.

Weighing on the sale price was the rent that the Chrysler Building has to pay to the Cooper Union school, because it does not own the land underneath the property. The annual rent increased to $32.5 million in 2018 from $7.75 million in 2017. The lease will increase to $41 million in 2028, according to financial statements from Cooper Union.

The deal marks Signa’s debut in the U.S. property sector. Led by its founder René Benko, Signa has a sprawling real estate and retail portfolio in Europe. Its real estate assets are worth more than 14 billion euros ($16 billion), while its development projects have a gross asset value of over 8 billion euros, according to its website.

Signa is no stranger in investing in numerous landmark buildings in prime locations. Its holdings include KaDeWe and the Upper West Tower in Berlin, Goldenes Quarter with the Park Hyatt Hotel in Vienna, Alte Akademie in Munich, and Alsterhaus and Alsterarkaden in Hamburg.

Founded in 1991 by Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs, RFR made its name in real estate by owning and managing some of Manhattan’s most prestigious office properties, including the Seagram Building and Lever House, which are located on Park Avenue.

Signa and RFR have done deals together in the past, including in 2017, when Signa agreed to buy five landmark properties from RFR in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich for about 1.5 billion euros.

The Real Deal had earlier reported RFR’s role in the deal for the Chrysler Building.

(Reporting by Gregory Roumeliotis and Harry Brumpton in New York; Additional reporting by Herb Lash)

Source: OANN

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No survivors on crashed Ethiopian Airlines flight: state TV

An Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed shortly after takeoff from Ethiopia's capital on Sunday morning, killing all 157 people thought to be on board, the airline and state broadcaster said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the crash of the Boeing 737-8 MAX plane, which was new and had been delivered to the airline in November, records show.

The state-owned Ethiopian Airlines, widely considered the best-managed airline in Africa, calls itself Africa's largest carrier and has ambitions of becoming the gateway to the continent.

Its statement said 149 passengers and eight crew members were thought to be on the plane that crashed six minutes after departing Addis Ababa on its way to Kenya's capital, Nairobi. The crash occurred around Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Addis Ababa, at 8:44 a.m.

The plane showed unstable vertical speed after takeoff, air traffic monitor Flightradar 24 said in a Twitter post. Visibility appeared to be clear.

State broadcaster EBC reported all passengers were dead and that the passengers included 33 nationalities. An Ethiopian Airlines spokesman said 32 Kenyans and 17 Ethiopians were among the victims.

Greiving family members gathered at Bole Airport. A statement by the Ethiopian prime minister's office offered its "deepest condolences" to families.

Kenya's transport minister, James Macharia, told reporters that authorities had not yet received the passenger manifest. He said an emergency response had been set up for family and friends.

"My prayers go to all the families and associates of those on board," Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta said, as many Kenyans braced for the worst.

Records show that the plane was new. The Planespotters civil aviation database shows that the Boeing 737-8 MAX was delivered to Ethiopian Airlines in mid-November.

In October, another Boeing 737-8 MAX plunged into the Java Sea just minutes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, killing all 189 people on board the plane Lion Air flight. The cockpit data recorder showed that the jet's airspeed indicator had malfunctioned on its last four flights, though Lion Air initially claimed that problems with the aircraft had been fixed.

The last deadly crash of an Ethiopian Airlines passenger plane was in 2010, when the plane crashed minutes after takeoff from Beirut killing all 90 people on board.

Sunday's crash comes as the country's reformist prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, has vowed to open up the airline and other sectors to foreign investment in a major transformation of the state-centered economy.

Ethiopian Airlines has been expanding assertively, recently opening a route to Moscow and in January inaugurating a new passenger terminal in Addis Ababa to triple capacity.

Speaking at the inauguration, the prime minister challenged the airline to build a new "Airport City" terminal in Bishoftu — where Sunday's crash occurred.

___

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

Source: Fox News World

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Police: Anti-Semitic graffiti worse than at first thought

Police now say 59 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in Massachusetts were defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti, about twice as many as initially thought.

Fall River police said Thursday in a Facebook post that they came up with the higher number after a row-by-row inspection of Hebrew Cemetery. Of those 59, two had been knocked over.

The stones were defaced with swastikas and phrases including "Expel the Jew" and "Hitler was right" in what appeared to be black marker.

Police were alerted on Sunday by a cemetery maintenance worker.

Police are treating it as a hate crime.

No arrests have been made. The Herald News reports that rewards totaling $12,500 are being offered for information that leads to an arrest, including $10,000 given anonymously to Congregation Adas Israel, a city synagogue.

Source: Fox News National

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Spain orders Franco’s body be exhumed from mausoleum

FILE PHOTO: A man walks underneath a huge Franco-era coat of arms at the Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen) monument where over 30,000 fighters from both sides of Spain's civil war are buried, in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, outside Madrid
FILE PHOTO: A man walks underneath a huge Franco-era coat of arms at the Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen) mausoleum and basilica which serves as a tomb for former dictator Francisco Franco and where over 30,000 fighters from both sides of Spain's civil war are buried, in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, outside Madrid, Spain, June 19, 2018. REUTERS/Susana Vera/File Photo

March 15, 2019

MADRID (Reuters) – Spain will exhume the body of dictator Francisco Franco to remove it from a state mausoleum seen by many as a monument to fascism, the Socialist government announced on Friday, in one of its last moves before a snap election due on April 28.

The plan to move divides opinion in a country conflicted about the dictatorship that ended with his death in 1975. The exhumation has been delayed several times, but the government said on Friday it would go ahead on June 10.

Franco will be taken from the Valley of the Fallen mausoleum to be reburied next to his wife, Carmen Polo, in the family tomb at Mingorrubio El Pardo, a state cemetery where various political figures are buried, in a ceremony without media coverage, Deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo said.

His family opposes the exhumation and has taken the issue to courts, but the Supreme Court has been silent so far.

“The dictator’s family and those around them have made use of every available legal instrument … forcing delays in the process,” Calvo said after cabinet agreed to push ahead.

She added that if a new government emerging from next month’s election were to try to cancel the reburial, it would first have to change the so-called historical memory law, approved in 2007, that condemns the Franco regime and orders the removal of its symbols.

El Independiente newspaper quoted Luis Felipe Utrera-Molina, a lawyer for the Franco family, as dismissing the decision as “fireworks” and saying the government could not legally access Franco’s burial place to exhume the remains.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez promised to remove Franco’s remains before the end of his term, one of several high-profile measures intended to appeal to left-wing voters.

The Socialists have long sought to transform the Valley of the Fallen into a memorial to victims of the civil war in which 500,000 combatants and civilians were killed.

The party is ahead in opinion polls but well short of parliament majority. [nE8N1YJ02O]

Support for far-right party Vox, which wants Franco’s remains to stay where they are, has been growing since it won seats in an Andalusian election in 2018 – in the first electoral success for a far-right party since Spain’s return to democracy.

Franco’s family had said that if his remains are removed, he should be reinterred at the Almudena Roman Catholic Cathedral in central Madrid, where his daughter is buried.

(Reporting by Paul Day and Jose Elias Rodriguez; writing by Andrei Khalip; Editing by Ingrid Melander and Robin Pomeroy)

Source: OANN

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Report: Witness says gate blocked when lion killed intern

A witness told authorities a gate blocked by a ball at a North Carolina animal preserve allowed a lion to reach three people cleaning an enclosure and begin a fatal attack, biting one intern's ankle and pulling her into the enclosure, according to a medical examiner's report.

Lt. Eugene Riddick of the Caswell County Sheriff's Department advised that animal trainer Ashley Watts reported separating the 14-year-old lion named Matthai into a section of an enclosure at the Conservators Center in Burlington on Dec. 30, according to the report first reported on by WRAL-TV. But Watts said the gate that secures that section was blocked by a large ball and the lion entered the area that Watts, 22-year-old intern Alex Black and a second intern were cleaning and attacked Black, the report states. Watts tried to separate them, but before she could close the gate, Matthai bit Black's ankle and pulled her into the enclosure.

Riddick advised that fire department personnel used a firehose to separate the lion and Black without success, according to the report. The lion dragged Black around the enclosure by her neck "for an extended amount of time." After attempts to sedate the lion with darts failed, deputies shot the lion eight times, killing the animal and ensuring Black's body could be safely recovered, the report said.

The initial assessment showed Black died from multiple deep lacerations to the neck with significant blood loss, according to the report. It lists the probable cause of death as "Mauling by Animal."

In a statement provided to WFMY-TV, the center disputes reports that the gate was obstructed by a ball, saying that is "neither accurate nor plausible." However, the center does not explain how the lion was able to reach the three.

The attack occurred less than two weeks after Black, a recent college graduate from New Palestine, Indiana, had begun working at the nonprofit wildlife facility. The center, described recently as a "community zoo" by its executive director, was founded in 1999.

USDA inspections in 2017 and 2018 found no problems at the center, according to government reports. A government inspector counted 16 lions among 85 total animals in 2018.

The center stresses in its statement that as an intern, Black wasn't responsible for the accident and that "all credible evidence" indicates that she was "killed almost instantly" and first responders were "conducting a recovery not a rescue." The center reviewed safety policies and procedures and re-trained staff, and said it's confident that, when followed, those existing policies and procedures are sufficient.

Lt. Darrell McLean, a spokesman for the Caswell County Sheriff's Office, declined comment Wednesday.

___

Information from: WRAL-TV, http://www.wral.com

Source: Fox News National

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R Kelly Charged With 10 Counts of Aggravated Sexual Abuse

R. Kelly was charged Friday with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse, after decades of lurid rumors and allegations that the R&B star was sexually abusing women and underage girls.

Tandra Simonton, spokeswoman for the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, confirmed to The Associated Press the charges had been filed against the 52-year-old Grammy winner but declined to say the specific number. Media reports said there were 10 counts, all involving underage victims.

Over the years, he has consistently denied any sexual misconduct.

Kelly, whose legal name is Robert Kelly, is one of the top-selling recording artists of all time, with hits such as "I Believe I Can Fly," and his arrest sets the stage for another #MeToo-era celebrity trial. Bill Cosby went to prison last year, and former Hollywood studio boss Harvey Weinstein is awaiting trial.

Kelly was charged a week after Michael Avenatti, the attorney whose clients have included porn star Stormy Daniels, said he recently gave Chicago prosecutors new video evidence of the singer having sex with an underage girl. It was not immediately clear if the charges were connected to that video.

In 2008, a jury acquitted Kelly of child pornography charges over a graphic video that prosecutors said showed him having sex with a girl as young as 13. He and the young woman allegedly depicted with him denied they were in the 27-minute video, even though the picture quality was good and witnesses testified it was them, and she did not take the stand. Kelly could have gotten 15 years in prison.

Legally and professionally, the walls began closing in on Kelly more recently after the release of a BBC documentary about him last year and, last month, the multipart Lifetime documentary "Surviving R. Kelly." Together they detailed allegations he was holding women against their will and running a "sex cult."

After the latest documentary, Chicago's top prosecutor, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, said she was "sickened" by the allegations and asked potential victims to come forward.

#MeToo activists and a social media movement using the hashtag #MuteRKelly called on streaming services to drop Kelly's music and promoters not to book any more concerts. And protesters demonstrated outside Kelly's Chicago studio.

Kelly's attorney, Steve Greenberg, said earlier this year that his client was the victim of a TV hit piece and that Kelly "never knowingly had sex with an underage woman, he never forced anyone to do anything, he never held anyone captive, he never abused anyone."

Avenatti said his office was retained last April by people regarding allegations of sexual assault of minors by Kelly. He said the video surfaced during a 10-month investigation. He told the Associated Press that the person who provided the VHS tape knew both Kelly and the female in the video.

Despite accusations that span decades, the singer and songwriter who rose from poverty on Chicago's South Side has retained a sizable following. He has written numerous hits for himself and other artists, including Celine Dion, Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga. His collaborators have included Jay-Z and Usher.

Kelly broke into the R&B scene in 1993 with his first solo album, "12 Play," which produced such popular sex-themed songs as "Bump N' Grind" and "Your Body's Callin'."

Months after those successes, the then-27-year-old Kelly faced allegations he married 15-year-old Aaliyah, the R&B star who later died in a plane crash in the Bahamas. Kelly was the lead songwriter and producer of Aaliyah's 1994 debut album.

Kelly and Aaliyah never confirmed the marriage, though Vibe magazine published a copy of the purported marriage license. Court documents later obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times showed Aaliyah admitted lying about her age on the license.

Jim DeRogatis, a longtime music critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, played a key role in drawing the attention of law enforcement to Kelly. In 2002, he received the sex tape in the mail that was central to Kelly's 2008 trial. He turned it over to prosecutors. In 2017, DeRogatis wrote a story for BuzzFeed about the allegations Kelly was holding women against their will in Georgia.

Source: NewsMax America

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Volkswagen boss says U.S. tariffs could cost up to 2.5 billion euros: Financial Times

Diess, Volkswagen's new CEO, poses during the Volkswagen Group's annual general meeting in Berlin
FILE PHOTO: Herbert Diess, Volkswagen's new CEO, poses during the Volkswagen Group's annual general meeting in Berlin, Germany, May 3, 2018. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt

February 21, 2019

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The biggest threat to Volkswagen’s 2019 profit is potential tariffs from the United States, Chief Executive Herbert Diess told the Financial Times.

“It’s becoming tense once again,” Diess told the FT. “You know it’s a pity because we can’t solve it from the car industry [alone]. It’s more of a tariffs negotiation between Europe and the United States.”

Analysts at London-based Evercore ISI said tariffs could cost Volkswagen 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion) a year, about 13 percent of expected earnings.

“In the worst-case situation, that would probably be close to the real figure,” Diess said of the Evercore projection.

(Reporting by Edward Taylor; Editing by David Goodman)

Source: OANN

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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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Well, Joe Biden didn’t exactly clear the field.

I don’t think it matters much that Biden waited until yesterday to become the 20th Democrat vying for the nomination, even though it exposed him to weeks of attacks while he seemed to be dithering on the sidelines.

A much greater warning sign, in my view, is the largely negative tone surrounding his debut. He is, after all, a former vice president, highly praised by Barack Obama, who has consistently led in the early primary polls, and beating President Trump in head-to-head matchups. Yet much of the press is acting like he’s an old codger and it’s just a matter of time before he keels over politically.

This is all the more remarkable in light of the fact that the vast majority of journalists and pundits know and like Joe Biden and his gregarious personality.

The reason is that Biden, after a half-century in politics, lacks excitement, and the press is magnetically attracted to novel and unorthodox types like Beto and Mayor Pete. You don’t see Biden on the cover of Vanity Fair, and a grind-it-out win by a conventional warrior doesn’t set journalistic hearts racing.

JOE BIDEN ANNOUNCES 2020 PRESIDENTIAL BID: 3 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE FORMER VICE PRESIDENT

For many in the media, Biden isn’t liberal enough, at least not for the post-Obama era. He doesn’t promise free college and free health care and has a history of working with Republicans, such as John McCain (whose daughter Meghan loves him, and Biden will hit “The View” today.)

What’s more, Biden’s campaign style — speak at rallies, rack up union endorsements — seems hopelessly old-fashioned when we measure popularity by Instagram followers. News outlets are predicting he’ll have trouble getting in the online fundraising game, leaving him reliant on big donors, which used to be standard practice.

And then there’s the age thing. Biden would be the oldest president to be inaugurated, at 78, and he looked a step slow in encounters with reporters yesterday and a few weeks ago.

But what if the journalists are in something of a Twitter bubble, and the actual Democratic Party is much more moderate? We saw that with the spate of allegations by women of unwanted touching, which dominated news coverage until polls showed that most Dem voters weren’t concerned. In that wider world, the Scranton guy’s connection to white, working-class voters could help him against Trump in the industrial Midwest.

SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE’S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF OF THE DAY’S HOTTEST STORIES

Biden denounced the president’s term as an “aberrant moment” in his launch video, saying four more years would damage the country’s character and “I cannot stand by and watch that happen.”

But first, he’d have to win the nomination in the face of an unenthusiastic press corps.

A New York Times news story said Biden would be “marshaling his experience and global stature in a bid to lead a party increasingly defined by a younger generation that might be skeptical of his age and ideological moderation.”

The Washington Post quoted Democratic strategists as saying that Biden faces an “uphill battle” and “isn’t necessarily the heir apparent to Obama, despite being his No. 2 in the White House for eight years. They argue voters will judge Biden by the span of his decades-long career and are worried the veteran pol hasn’t yet found a winning formula for his own candidacy.”

The liberal Slate said the ex-veep’s rivals view him as a “paper tiger”:

“Biden is something more like a 2016 Jeb Bush: a weak establishment favorite whose time might be past … Biden’s biggest challenge in the primary will be a compromised past spanning nearly 50 years.”

“Compromised” suggests a history of scandal, yet what Slate means is political baggage, such as his backing of a Clinton-era crime bill unpopular with black voters today. Yet I think the rank and file isn’t as concerned about a vote back in 1994, or even the Anita Hill hearings, as the chattering classes.

BIDEN’S SENATE RECORD, ADVOCACY OF 1994 CRIME BILL WILL BE USED AGAINST HIM, EX-SANDERS STAFFER SAYS

One of the few left-leaning pundits to suggest the press is underestimating Biden is data guru Nate Silver at 538:

“Media coverage could nonetheless be a problem for Biden. Within the mainstream media, the story of Biden winning the nomination will be seen as boring and anticlimactic. That tends not to lead to favorable coverage. Meanwhile, some left-aligned media outlets may prefer candidates who are some combination of more leftist, more wonkish, more reflective of the party’s diversity, and more adept on social media.

“If Biden is framed as being out of touch with today’s Democratic Party and that narrative is repeated across a variety of outlets, it could begin to resonate with voters who don’t buy it initially. If he’s seen as a gaffe-prone candidate, then minor missteps on the campaign trail could be blown up into big fumbles.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Look, it’s entirely possible that Biden could stumble, get lapped in fundraising and just be outclassed by younger and savvier rivals. He was hardly a great candidate in 1987 and in 2008.

But if the former vice president finds his footing and the field narrows, the press will be forced to change its tune, and we’ll see a spate of stories about how Joe Biden has “grown.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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South Africa's 400m Olympic gold medallist and world record holder Wayde van Niekerk looks on as he attends South African Championships in Germiston
South Africa’s 400m Olympic gold medallist and world record holder Wayde van Niekerk looks on as he attends South African Championships in Germiston, South Africa, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

April 26, 2019

GERMISTON, South Africa (Reuters) – Olympic 400 meters champion Wayde van Niekerk has backed South African compatriot Caster Semenya in her battle with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which now appears to have taken a new twist.

Semenya, a double 800 meters Olympic gold medalist, is waiting for the outcome of her appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to halt the introduction of new regulations by governing body IAAF that would require her to take medicine to limit her natural levels of testosterone.

The IAAF wants female athletes with differences of sexual development who run in events from 400 meters to a mile, to reduce their blood testosterone level to below five (5) nmol/L for a period of six months before they can compete, saying they have an unfair advantage.

“She’s fighting for something beyond just track and field, she’s fighting for woman in sports, in society and I respect her for that,” Van Niekerk told reporters.

“I will support her and with the hard work and talent that she’s been putting into the sport. With what she believes in and what she’s dreaming for, I’ve got a lot of respect for her.

“I really hope and pray that everything just goes from strength to strength for her.”

Semenya has sprung a surprise at the on-going South African Athletics Championships though, ditching the 800 meters and instead competing over 1,500 and 5,000-metres – the latter one would not require her to medically lower her testosterone level.

She stormed to victory in the 5,000-metres final in a modest time of 16:05.97, but looked to have lots left in the tank as she passed the finish line.

Semenya beat fellow Olympian and defending national 5,000m champion Dominique Scott in Thursday’s final but the latter admitted she is unsure whether the 800m specialist could be a serious Olympic contender over the longer distance.

“Honestly‚ I have no idea‚” Scott said. “Before today I probably would have said no. It’s hard to compare a 5,000 at altitude to a 5,000 at sea level.

“But I think she’s an amazing runner and I don’t think there’s any limit or ceiling on what she can do.”

Van Niekerk, the 400m world record holder, had to abort his comeback from a knee injury, that had sidelined him for 18 months, following a combination of cold weather and a wet track.

“We are trying to take the correct decisions now early in the year so as not to put myself in any harm,” he said.

“It was a bit chilly this entire week prepping and coming through here as well it was quite cold and it caused bit of tightness in my leg. We decided to not risk it.

“My recovery is going well and I would like to be back in competition this year, but will only do so if I can deliver a good performance.

“I am a competitor and respect my opponents, so I need to be at my best when I return.”

(Reporting by Nick Said, additional reporting by Siyabonga Sishi; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)

Source: OANN

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The suspected leader of the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka died in the Shangri-La hotel, one of six hotels and churches targeted in the attacks that killed at least 250 people, authorities said.

Police said Mohamed Zahran, leader of the National Towheed Jamaat militant group, had been killed in one of the bombings. The group’s second in command was also arrested, police said.

Zahran amassed an online following for his hate-filled sermons. Some were delivered before a banner depicting the Twin Towers.

Sri Lankan authorities said Friday that Islamic cleric Mohammed Zahran died in the blast at the Shangri-La hotel during the Easter Sunday atatcks that killed at least 250 people. 

Sri Lankan authorities said Friday that Islamic cleric Mohammed Zahran died in the blast at the Shangri-La hotel during the Easter Sunday atatcks that killed at least 250 people.  (YouTube)

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday that the attackers responsible for the bombings were supported by the Islamic State group. Around 140 people in Sri Lanka had connections to ISIS, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said.

“We will completely control this and create a free and peaceful environment for people to live,” he said.

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Investigators determined the attackers received military training from someone called “Army Mohideen.” They also received weapons training overseas and at some locations in Sri Lanka, according to authorities.

A copper factory operator arrested in connection with the bombings helped Mohideen make improvised explosive devices, police said. The bombings have led to increased security throughout the island nation as authorities warned of another attack.

Source: Fox News World

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