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The Collusion Lie Came at a Tremendous Cost

The collusion lie will go down in history as one of the strangest distortions of reality to dominate the American political scene. For more than two years, the national establishment and news media were fixated on a truth that turned out to be false.

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Trump wishes ‘no ill will’ with Tweet on Muslim lawmaker: White House

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) at an event in the U.S. Capitol building in Washington
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) at an event in the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo

April 14, 2019

By Humeyra Pamuk

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump did not wish any harm in his Twitter post criticizing Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s comments on the 9/11 attacks, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Sunday.

“Certainly President is wishing no ill will, certainly not violence towards anyone,” Sanders told broadcaster ABC News’ “This Week” show. “But the President is absolutely and should be calling out the congresswoman for her, not only one-time, but history of antisemitic comments,” she said.

Lawmakers from Trump’s Republican party have accused Omar of minimizing the 9/11 attacks, while critics of the president say he took Omar’s words out of context in order to stoke anti-Muslim sentiment.

On Saturday, Trump tweeted a video suggesting that Omar, a U.S. representative from Minnesota, had been dismissive of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The video spliced news footage of 9/11 with a clip from a speech Omar gave last month in which she described the attack as “some people did something.”

Several prominent Democrats, including presidential hopeful Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, condemned Trump’s tweet, saying he was inciting racism and violence towards Omar with the video. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Saturday criticized the president for using the “sacred” memory of 9/11 for a political attack.

In her speech before a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, Omar said Muslims had “lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen and, frankly, I’m tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it.”

Sarah Sanders called Omar’s comments “disgraceful and unbefitting,” and questioned what she sees as lack of action from Democrats on the issue. “I think it’s a good thing that the president is calling her out for those comments and the big question is why aren’t the Democrats doing it,” she said.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; editing by Michelle Price and Nick Zieminski)

Source: OANN

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Myanmar says 9 police killed in Arakan Army attack

Myanmar's Information Ministry says nine policemen were killed in an attack in the western state of Rakhine by the increasingly active Arakan Army rebel group.

The ministry's website said 60 Arakan Army insurgents on Saturday night attacked the police post, which was safeguarding question and answer sheets from the national high school matriculation examination.

The Arakan Army, which is aligned with Rakhine's Buddhist population, seeks autonomy for the region. Rakhine is better known as the site of a brutal counterinsurgency campaign by the military against the Muslim Rohingya minority, causing more than 700,000 to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. Attacks on police by Rohingya insurgents triggered the crackdown.

The government declared the Arakan Army a terrorist organization after it killed 13 police officers and wounded nine in Jan. 4 attacks.

Source: Fox News World

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Sri Lanka woman loses daughter, son, husband, sister-in-law and 2 nieces in Easter attacks

Before the undertakers could move in, Anusha Kumari wrested herself away from her sisters and flung herself on the three coffins, wailing. In an instant on Sunday, the 43-year-old woman was left childless and a widow when suicide bombers launched a coordinated attack on churches and luxury hotels in and near Sri Lanka's capital of Colombo.

The toll was highest at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo. Of the more than 350 people killed by the suicide bombings that the government blamed on Muslim extremists, about a third of them died at the church in the seaside fishing town while attending Easter Mass.

And perhaps no one lost more relatives than Kumari, whose daughter, son, husband, sister-in-law and two nieces were killed.

They were buried three days later near the church on some vacant land that has quickly become a cemetery for the victims.

SRI LANKA'S LEADER CALLS FOR OFFICIALS' FIRINGS AS EASTER SUICIDE BOMBERS REVEALED TO BE 'WELL-EDUCATED PEOPLE' WHO STUDIED ABROAD

Anusha Kumari, second from left, weeps during a mass burial for her husband, two children and three siblings, all victims of Easter Sunday's bomb attacks, in Negombo, Sri Lanka.

Anusha Kumari, second from left, weeps during a mass burial for her husband, two children and three siblings, all victims of Easter Sunday's bomb attacks, in Negombo, Sri Lanka. (AP)

Kumari, who is still injured from the blast, left the hospital to bury her family. Afterward, she reclined in a cane chair at her home, hooked up to an IV dangling from an open window. Gauze bandages covered the bridge of her nose and her right eye. There was still shrapnel in her face.

A photo of her children was on the wall, while on the shelf were small statues of Jesus, Mary and St. Sebastian, an early Christian martyr riddled with wounds from Roman arrows.

She could see her son's drum kit on the upstairs landing, a gift from his father after doing well on exams, and a school portrait of her daughter. All day, relatives, neighbors and nuns wandered in and out of the large house, offering food, consolation and prayer.

"You won't believe it, but I had the perfect family," Kumari said. "In 24 years of marriage, my husband and I never argued. All four of us slept in the same room. Now I have lost everything."

Tears mixed with blood from her bandaged right eye.

"All these people, they have their own families. They'll go home and I'll be alone," she said.

CLERIC 'MASTERMIND' BEHIND SRI LANKA ATTACKS KNOWN FOR HATE-FILLED ONLINE SERMONS, POSSIBLE ISIS TIES

Anusha Kumari holds portraits of her daughter Sajini Venura Dulakshi and son Vimukthi Tharidu Appuhami, both victims of Easter Sunday's bomb blasts.

Anusha Kumari holds portraits of her daughter Sajini Venura Dulakshi and son Vimukthi Tharidu Appuhami, both victims of Easter Sunday's bomb blasts.

A brother-in-law, Jude Prasad Appuhami, said his extended family, one of the oldest and most prominent in Catholic-majority Negombo, marked all the religious holidays and rituals at St. Sebastian's, a Gothic-style church patterned after Reims Cathedral in France.

On Easter, though, he wasn't in church with his 15 relatives because he had to drive a vehicle carrying a statue of Christ for a parade after Mass.

Appuhami arrived midway through the service and heard the blast from the parking lot. He rushed in and was overwhelmed by the sight of so much blood. One of his sisters-in-law, who survived, shouted for him to help their niece.

He found her with her eyes open, picked her up and rushed to the hospital, only to realize she was dead.

Appuhami's wife and 10-year-old daughter, sitting in an alcove to the left of the altar, escaped with minor injuries. His 17-year-old daughter, Rusiri, who was sitting at the front of the church because she was going to do a reading from Scripture, also survived, but she was left with nerve damage that makes eating painful.

On Wednesday, she struggled to grasp what she has seen.

"I don't know how to think of it. It's like a dream," she said.

During the funeral at the makeshift cemetery near St. Sebastian's, where mourners had to pass through security checks, a military drone buzzed overhead as the Rev. Niroshan Perera led prayers for the dead.

Perera, who grew up with Kumari's husband, Dulip Appuhami, and his siblings, recalled going as a boy with his friends and family to the church's well, where the faithful believed the water could cure them of diseases.

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When the funeral ended, Perera encouraged everyone to go home quickly, fearing another attack.

Perera, who lost 16 relatives and friends in the blast, said he no longer trusted the Sri Lankan government to protect his flock.

Source: Fox News World

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Georgia man convicted of concealing death of teacher, ex-beauty queen

A Georgia jury on Thursday convicted a man accused of helping to conceal the 2005 murder of a high school teacher and onetime beauty queen and lying to law enforcement about her death.

Bo Dukes, 34, was convicted on two counts of making a false statement, one count of hindering the apprehension of a criminal, and one count of concealing the death of another. He is due to be sentenced at 9 a.m. Friday and faces up to 25 years in prison.

Dukes is the first of two suspects to stand trial in the death of Tara Grinstead, who was last seen alive in October 2005. Her fate was a mystery in her hometown of Ocilla, about 90 miles southeast of Macon, until Dukes and his best friend, Ryan Duke, were arrested in February 2017.

Prosecutors said Dukes confessed in 2006 to an old Army buddy, John McCullough, that he helped dispose of Grinstead's body but lied to a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent who interviewed him about the case a decade later in 2016.

FILE - Tara Grinstead was last seen alive in October 2005. (AP Photo/Elliott Minor, File)

FILE - Tara Grinstead was last seen alive in October 2005. (AP Photo/Elliott Minor, File)

John Fox, Dukes' defense attorney, said during closing arguments that prosecutors had not proved that Dukes intentionally lied to the GBI agent.

"Dukes told the GBI that he did not recall having a conversation with John McCullough," Fox said. "He didn't tell them he did not have a conversation with John McCullough."

He added: "Considering how intoxicated he was, based on McCullough's own testimony, does that seem unreasonable to you?"

After his a few months later, Dukes said Duke had broken into Grinstead's home and strangled her in her bed, then used a pickup truck he'd borrowed from Dukes to move her body to a pecan orchard owned by Dukes' uncle.

Ryan Alexander Duke will stand trial in Tara Grinstead's murder next month. (Georgia Bureau of Investigation via AP)

Ryan Alexander Duke will stand trial in Tara Grinstead's murder next month. (Georgia Bureau of Investigation via AP) (The Associated Press)

Dukes said his friend took him to Grinstead's body and together they moved it deeper into the woods, built a bonfire atop the corpse and burned it for two days.

Wilcox District Attorney Brad Rigby said Duke and Dukes set fire to the remains of a woman who had "a smile that won beauty pageants" and ensured she was "reduced to bits of skull, vertebra and teeth." He added that Dukes had inflicted "more pain" on the missing woman's family when he lied to authorities in 2016.

"He had the opportunity to make the right decision and tell the truth, but he went in a different direction and he abused honor and he abused trust," Rigby said.

Dukes did not testify in his own defense and his legal team did not present any witnesses.

Ryan Duke has been charged with Grinstead's murder and is scheduled to stand trial in nearby Irwin County, Ga. beginning April 1. Dukes is also scheduled to face trial on charges related to the burning of Grinstead's body in a neighboring county.

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GBI agent Jason Shoudel testified at a pretrial court hearing that Duke confessed to killing Grinstead and burning her body. He said DNA from both Duke and Grinstead was found on a latex glove recovered outside her home.

But Duke's defense attorneys say Duke gave a false confession while he was under the influence of drugs. They have said in court documents that Duke was at home asleep the night Grinstead was killed.

Click for more from Fox5Atlanta.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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Death toll in Mozambique cyclone, flooding rises above 200: president

A general view shows destruction after Cyclone Idai in Beira
A general view shows destruction after Cyclone Idai in Beira, Mozambique, March 16-17, 2019 in this still image taken from a social media video on March 19, 2019. Care International/Josh Estey via REUTERS

March 19, 2019

MAPUTO (Reuters) – The number of people killed after a powerful cyclone and flooding hit Mozambique has risen to above 200, President Filipe Nyusi said on Tuesday after a cabinet meeting on the disaster.

Cyclone Idai tore through Mozambique and inland neighbors Malawi and Zimbabwe after making landfall last week, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. The number of people confirmed dead in Mozambique previously stood at 84.

(Reporting by Manuel Mucari; writing by Emma Rumney; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Source: OANN

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Castro warns Cubans to brace for shortages

Communist Party leader Raul Castro is warning Cubans to brace for shortages and other economic problems due to Trump administration policies, but says the island won't repeat the extreme deprivation of the post-Soviet period.

In his first speech to the nation in more than three months, Castro said Wednesday that U.S. pressure on Venezuela and Cuba could lead to already notable shortages increasing sharply in coming months.

It has become hard to find basic goods such as chicken, cooking oil, eggs and flour in recent months and state-run newspapers cut their page count last week due to shortages of newsprint.

Castro said, "We need to be aware of growing problems, and the situation could grow worse in the next few months."

Source: Fox News World

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

April 26, 2019

By Hanna Rantala

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

April 26, 2019

By Joshua Schneyer and M.B. Pell

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Editing by Ronnie Greene)

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

April 26, 2019

By Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reuters was not immediately able to contact Zhevago.

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

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

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

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

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

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

April 26, 2019

By Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FLOOD WARNINGS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

April 26, 2019

By Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A government spokesman declined to comment.

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

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

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

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

Only for them to surge after the vote.

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

‘CREDIT NEGATIVE’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

($1 = 70.1800 Indian rupees)

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

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