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European shares snap three day winning streak; Air-France KLM, Beiersdorf sink

The trading floor of Frankfurt's stock exchange is pictured after the last trading day in Frankfurt
The trading floor of Frankfurt's stock exchange is pictured after the last trading day in Frankfurt, Germany December 28, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski

February 27, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – European shares were lower in early deals on Wednesday, snapping a three-day winning streak as a warning from Beiersdorf hammered consumer staples stocks and Air France-KLM sank on news the Dutch government would raise its stake in the airline.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.6 percent at 0857 GMT, snapping three days of gains after hitting its highest level since the beginning of October a day earlier. All continental bourses were in the red.

The export-heavy FTSE 100 lagged the broader market as sterling lingered near five-month highs against the dollar amid fresh hopes that a no-deal Brexit could be avoided.

There was little macro news to drive the markets, investors awaiting fresh news on China-U.S. trade talks, although sentiment was rattled by growing tensions between India and Pakistan.

The overall mood was gloomy. Healthcare was the only sector in positive territory in early deals, with travel, leisure, chemicals and retail notching up the biggest losses.

Among individual moves, shares in Air France KLM were on track for their worst day in more than a decade after the Dutch government said it would take a 14-percent stake in the airline, highlighting tensions between the Netherlands and its French partners in the company.

Investors also punished Beiersdorf, which plunged to two-year lows, after the Nivea skin cream maker warned its operating margins would fall this year, with the company’s new CEO declaring the consumer goods industry is “turmoil”.

Unilever, Henkel and Reckitt Benckiser were all dragged lower with it.

British retailer Marks & Spencer plunged 9 percent after announcing it will finance its $1 billion food delivery tie-up with Ocado by issuing shares and cutting its dividend. In contrast, Ocado bounced to the top of the FTSE 100, as the companies outlined details of the deal.

Bayer was a bright spot, rising 3.4 percent after delivering better-than-expected results boosted by its recent Monsanto acquisition.

(Reporting by Josephine Mason, editing by Danilo Masoni)

Source: OANN

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North Carolina man accused in wife's death appears in court

A North Carolina man accused of killing his wife has appeared in court to face a murder charge after being captured in Arizona.

WRAL-TV reports that 57-year-old Rexford Lynn Keel Jr. requested a court-appointed attorney and made no statements during a brief hearing on Tuesday.

Keel was arrested March 17 in Arizona on an arrest warrant accusing him of killing his 38-year-old wife.

Diana Alejandra Keel went missing March 9. Her body was found in another North Carolina county. Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone said it appears she died of multiple stab wounds, and that he wants to take a closer look at the 2006 death of Keel's first wife, which was ruled an accidental fall.

Keel's next hearing is scheduled for April 11.

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

Source: Fox News National

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Trump adviser to give remarks on Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua

National security adviser John Bolton said Friday that he will travel to Miami next week to outline steps the administration is taking to confront what he says are threats from the "troika of tyranny," Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

John Bolton said in a tweet that he is delivering a speech on Wednesday, the 58th anniversary of the United States' failed attempt to overthrow the Cuban government in the 1961 "Bay of Pigs" invasion. His speech will be at the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association, which endorsed Trump for president.

The administration is expected to announce on Wednesday its decision on whether to allow lawsuits against companies that profit from U.S.-linked properties confiscated after Cuba's 1959 socialist revolution.

Source: Fox News National

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Fed looks to avoid crossed signals at policy meeting

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell holds a news conference after a Federal Open Market Committee meeting in Washington
FILE PHOTO - Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during his news conference after a Federal Open Market Committee meeting in Washington, U.S., December 19, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

March 17, 2019

By Trevor Hunnicutt and Ann Saphir

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Only two things will really matter when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell strides to the podium for his press conference on Wednesday after the end of the U.S. central bank’s latest two-day policy meeting: Dots and bonds.

That Powell and his colleagues will leave the Fed’s benchmark overnight interest rate unchanged in a range of 2.25 percent to 2.50 percent and stick to their pledge of a “patient” approach to monetary policy is effectively a given.

The big reveal, though, will be whether policymakers will have sufficiently lowered their interest rate forecasts to more closely align their notorious “dot plot,” a diagram showing individual policymakers’ rate views for the next three years in little blue-shaded circles, with that pledge of patience.

And, just as importantly, what new details will they share on a plan to stop culling the Fed’s holdings of nearly $3.8 trillion in bonds?

“It’s going to be new information for the market to trade whether it’s the Fed’s intention or not,” said Ben Jeffery, a strategist at BMO Capital Markets.

Dissatisfaction with Powell’s remarks in December regarding the balance sheet threw markets for a spin and helped lead to the Fed’s pause on rates a month later. Since then, the Fed chief has explicitly said one of his aims is to avoid “needless market disruptions.”

Traders currently expect there will be no rate hikes this year, and are even building in bets for a rate cut in 2020. Any gap between that view and the Fed’s could send markets lower. So too could a sharp drop in policymakers’ rate-hike expectations, especially if coupled with a softer economic outlook.

(Graphic: Federal Open Market Committee target rate projections – https://tmsnrt.rs/2UCRTe1)

Wrong or confusing signals on either the rate forecasts or the Fed’s bond portfolio could upend the market calm the central bank in large part has engineered despite nosediving economic forecasts.

Making Powell’s task even harder: A jumble of economic data, including a sharp slowdown in jobs growth last month that was accompanied by rising wages.

Uncertainty on the outlook for the world economy and global trade as well as a sharp U.S. growth slowdown expected by a range of forecasters mean that markets are on a hair trigger for signals from the Fed.

FED’S GUIDANCE

In January, the Fed pivoted from hiking rates quarterly to pledging patience before making more moves. Powell has also said the central bank could stop shedding bonds this year.

The central bank’s last official policy statement https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/monetary20190130a.htm offered no hint about whether rates will rise or fall. The statement from the March 19-20 meeting is likely to do the same.

Asked if they would support rate hikes this year, Fed policymakers have been offering less information.

“Patience is basically saying we’re not going to give a lot of guidance to what we’re expecting down the road because there’s enough uncertainty that we just have to see how things evolve,” Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren told a National Association of Corporate Directors chapter on March 5.

But guidance is exactly what the Fed offers in its Summary of Economic Projections slated for release alongside the policy statement on Wednesday. That document could show the central bank expecting a rate hike if the economy delivers the strong 2019 growth most policymakers still forecast.

Some Fed officials voiced concern at the Jan. 29-30 policy meeting that the projections could send a misleading statement about what the central bank is doing, according to the records https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomcminutes20190130.htm from that meeting. Powell warned on March 8 https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/powell20190308a.htm against reading too much into the forecasts.

So far, the Fed’s on-guard and guarded communication has given markets new confidence. A gauge of swings expected in U.S. government bond prices over three months hit its lowest levels in 17 years. Stock markets have reacted as well, with the S&P 500 index up more than 12 percent this year.

With little sign of an inflation pickup, there would seem to be no urgency to raise U.S. borrowing costs, and investors have all but written off the possibility of a hike this year, especially with signs that slowing European and Chinese growth might weigh on the United States.

BALANCE SHEET

Meanwhile, the Fed faces pressure to elaborate on piecemeal statements that it will stop cutting bond holdings this year.

The Fed bulked up its books with bank reserves in order to buy trillions of bonds and further stimulate the economy once rates neared zero in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. To restore policy to normal, the Fed began shrinking its balance sheet in late 2017 by not replacing as many bonds when they mature.

Now, with the central bank ending that process, Fed policymakers face a number of questions. Some, for instance, have said they would not want the balance sheet policies, which might tighten financial conditions, to work at cross-purposes with the more cautious rate policy.

(Graphic: Federal Reserve bond holdings – https://tmsnrt.rs/2UD2oOr)

New York Fed President John Williams told Reuters earlier this month that “there is no clear answer” to exactly how large the balance sheet needs to be. Investors will be looking for answers as soon as this week. Powell is likely to be pressed on the subject at his press conference on Wednesday.

Cliff Corso, executive chairman at investment manager Insight North America LLC, said markets are looking for “confirmation and comfort” about their assumptions about the size and composition of the Fed’s assets. “Any deviations around that might create a little bit of volatility,” he said.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in New York and Ann Saphir in San Francisco; Editing by Paul Simao)

Source: OANN

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Florida student shoots, kills herself in school auditorium after asking to use the bathroom

A Florida high school student committed suicide early Wednesday morning in her school's auditorium after asking permission to use the bathroom, officials said.

The 17-year-old junior, who was not identified, reportedly asked her teacher at Lake Mary High School near Orlando if she could be excused to use the restroom around 7:45 a.m. About five minutes later, the teacher said she heard a gunshot come from the auditorium.

The school was briefly placed on a lockdown which has since been lifted, and students were allowed to go home for the day after news of the incident spread, WESH reported.

OLYMPIC CYCLIST KELLY CATLIN FOUND DEAD AT 23

Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma said during a press conference that there were no staff or students in the auditorium when the shooting took place. After hearing the gunshot, the school's nurse attempted to revive the young woman. It's not known how the student got access to the handgun.

Victims advocates have reportedly notified the girl's father, and are attempting to get in contact with her mother, who lives outside the state of Florida.

Now, investigators are trying to find out how she was able to obtain the gun and bring it into the school.

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Lemma highlighted the community's mental health resources and encouraged those experiencing depressive or suicidal thoughts to get in touch.

“What a horrible tragedy," he said, according to My13 News. "We want to remind the public if there are signs of depression...there are services, love, guidance and faith.”

Source: Fox News National

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California man challenges federal law refusing ‘immoral’ trademark for clothing brand

A California man whose company carries a provocative name is hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court will rule against a trademark law that he says restricts his First Amendment rights.

A lawyer for Erik Brunetti, owner of the “FUCT” clothing brand, will appear before the Supreme Court on Monday to challenge a federal trademarking law that allows officials to refuse trademarks that they deem “scandalous” or “immoral.”

Brunetti called the provision an unconstitutional restriction of speech that should be struck down. He also said that the underlying process is arbitrary, and that trademarks more offensive than his could be approved depending on who handles the case.

John R. Sommer, Brunetti’s lawyer, makes the argument that an attorney from the South might find something “not nice” that wouldn’t faze a lawyer from the Bronx.

That means “you can register profanity if you’re lucky” and you get assigned a lawyer who allows it, he continued.

OLIVIA JADE’S TRADEMARK APPLICATION WAS REJECTED FOR PUNCTUATION BEFORE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS SCANDAL

The Los Angeles-based clothing brand at issue, which started in 1991, can still operate under Brunetti’s chosen name without a trademark, but doing so could be costly. For instance, Brunetti wouldn't be able to go after counterfeiters who knock off his designs.

The government is defending the century-old trademarking provision, arguing in court documents that the law encourages trademarks that are appropriate for all audiences. The U.S. position is that the measure isn’t restricting speech, but rather declining to promote it.

But there have been workarounds in the past that could help Brunetti’s case.

Two years ago, the justices unanimously invalidated a related provision of federal law that told officials not to register disparaging trademarks. In that case, an Asian-American rock band sued after the government refused to register its band name, “The Slants,” because it was seen as offensive to Asians.

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The office, which also refuses to trademark something too similar to existing ones, refused to register “FUK!T” for being scandalous and immoral -- but also confusingly similar to the already-registered “PHUKIT.” ″MIDDLEFINGER” was denied after “JONNY MIDDLEFINGER” was registered, and “Ko Kane” was rejected after “Kokanee” was registered.

If Brunetti wins, the public is unlikely to notice a whole lot of change, his lawyer said. Retailers will decide what products are appropriate for their customers, and Target and Walmart aren’t going to carry Brunetti’s brand, Sommer said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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French national faces Myanmar court on drone flying charge

A French national has appeared in court in Myanmar after being arrested two weeks ago for allegedly flying a drone close to the country's vast parliament complex.

Arthur Desclaux faces a charge under the Illegal Export-Import Act and could be jailed for up to three years if convicted. He was driven into the court compound in the back of a police vehicle, past waiting media.

A French consular official told reporters outside the court Friday that Desclaux said he had been well-treated, but expressed disappointment that the 27-year-old was still kept in custody.

Frederic Inza says: "We regret he is still in prison. We were hoping for a rapid solution.'

The court in the capital Naypyitaw set its next hearing for Feb. 27, when witness testimony is expected to begin.

Source: Fox News World

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Maria Butina, the Russian woman who was accused of being a secret agent for the Russian government, was sentenced to 18 months in prison Friday by a federal judge in Washington after pleading guilty last year to a conspiracy charge.

Butina, who has already served nine months behind bars, will get credit for time served and can possibly get credit for good behavior, the judge said. She will be removed from the U.S. promptly on completion of her time, the judge added, and returned to Russia.

MARIA BUTINA, ACCUSED RUSSIAN SPY, PLEADS GUILTY TO CONSPIRACY

An emotional and apologetic Butina said in court Friday she is “truly sorry” and regrets not registering as a foreign agent.

“I feel ashamed and embarrassed,” she said, adding that her “reputation is ruined.”

Butina has been jailed since her arrest in July 2018. She entered the court Friday wearing a dark green prison jumpsuit and spoke in clear English, with a slight Russian accent.

“Please accept my apologies,” Butina said.

Butina’s lawyer, Robert Driscoll, said after the sentencing they had hoped for a “better outcome,” but expressed a desire for Butina to be released to her family by the fall.

Prosecutors had claimed Butina used her contacts with the National Rifle Association and the National Prayer Breakfast to develop relationships with U.S. politicians and gather information for Russia.

Prosecutors also have said that Butina’s boyfriend, conservative political operative Paul Erickson, identified in court papers as “U.S. Person 1,” helped her establish ties with the NRA.

WHO IS MARIA BUTINA, THE RUSSIAN WOMAN ACCUSED OF SPYING ON US?

In their filings, prosecutors claim federal agents found Butina had contact information for people suspected of being employed by Russia’s Federal Security Services, or FSB, the successor intelligence agency to the KGB. Inside her home, they found notes referring to a potential job offer from the FSB, according to the documents.

Investigators recovered several emails and Twitter direct message conversations in which Butina referred to the need to keep her work secret and, in one instance, said it should be “incognito.” Prosecutors said Butina had contact with Russian intelligence officials and that the FBI photographed her dining with a diplomat suspected of being a Russian intelligence agent.

Fox News’ Jason Donner, Bill Mears, Greg Norman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers stand guard in front of a mosque as a Muslim man walks past him during the Friday prayers at a mosque, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Easter Sunday, in Colombo
FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers stand guard in front of a mosque as a Muslim man walks past him during the Friday prayers at a mosque, five days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Catholic churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Tom Lasseter and Shri Navaratnam

KATTANKUDY, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran was 12 years old when he began his studies at the Jamiathul Falah Arabic College. He was a nobody, with no claim to scholarship other than ambition.

Zahran and his four brothers and sisters squeezed into a two-room house with their parents in a small seaside town in eastern Sri Lanka; their father was a poor man who sold packets of food on the street and had a reputation for being a petty thief.

“His father didn’t do much,” recalled the school’s vice principal, S.M. Aliyar, laughing out loud.

The boy surprised the school with his sharp mind. For three years, Zahran practiced memorizing the Koran. Next came his studies in Islamic law. But the more he learned, the more Zahran argued that his teachers were too liberal in their reading of the holy book.

“He was against our teaching and the way we interpreted the Koran – he wanted his radical Islam,” said Aliyar. “So we kicked him out.”

Aliyar, now 73 with a long white beard, remembers the day Zahran left in 2005. “His father came and asked, ‘Where can he go?’.”

The school would hear again of Mohamed Zahran. And the world now knows his name. The Sri Lankan government has identified him as the ringleader of a group that carried out a series of Easter Sunday suicide bombings in the country on April 21.

The blasts killed more than 250 people in churches and luxury hotels, one of the deadliest-ever such attacks in South Asia. There were nine suicide bombers who blew apart men, women and children as they sat to pray or ate breakfast.

Most of the attackers were well-educated and from wealthy families, with some having been abroad to study, according to Sri Lankan officials.

That description does not, however, fit their alleged leader, a man said to be in his early 30s, who authorities say died in the slaughter. Zahran was different.

INTELLIGENCE FAILINGS

Sri Lanka’s national leadership has come under heavy criticism for failing to heed warnings from Indian intelligence services – at least three in April alone – that an attack was pending. But Zahran’s path from provincial troublemaker to alleged jihadist mastermind was marked by years of missed or ignored signals that the man with a thick beard and paunch was dangerous.

His increasingly militant brand of Islam was allowed to grow inside a marginalized minority community – barely 10 percent of the country’s roughly 20 million people are Muslim – against a backdrop of a dysfunctional developing nation.

The top official at the nation’s defense ministry resigned on Thursday, saying that some institutions under his charge had failed.

For much of his adult life, Zahran, 33, courted controversy inside the Muslim community itself.

In the internet age, that problem did not stay local. Zahran released online videos calling for jihad and threatening bloodshed.

After the blasts, Islamic State claimed credit and posted a video of Zahran, clutching an assault rifle, standing before the group’s black flag and pledging allegiance to its leader.

The precise relationship between Zahran and Islamic State is not yet known. An official with India’s security services, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that during a raid on a suspected Islamic State cell by the National Investigation Agency earlier this year officers found copies of Zahran’s videos. The operation was in the state of Tamil Nadu, just across a thin strait of ocean from Sri Lanka.

“LIKE A SPOILED CHILD”

Back in 2005, Zahran was looking to make his way in the world. His hometown of Kattankudy is some seven hours’ drive from Colombo on the other side of the island nation, past the countless palm trees, roadside Buddha statues, cashew hawkers and an occasional lumbering elephant in the bush. It is a town of about 40,000 people, a dot on the eastern coast with no clear future for an impoverished young man who’d just been expelled.

Zahran joined a mosque in 2006, the Dharul Athar, and gained a place on its management committee. But within three years they’d had a falling out.

“He wanted to speak more independently, without taking advice from elders,” said the mosque’s imam, or spiritual leader, M.T.M. Fawaz.

Also, the young man was more conservative, Fawaz said, objecting, for instance, to women wearing bangles or earrings.

“The rest of us come together as community leaders but Zahran wanted to speak for himself,” said Fawaz, a man with broad shoulders lounging with a group of friends in a back office of the mosque after evening prayers. “He was a black sheep who broke free.”

Mohamed Yusuf Mohamed Thaufeek, a friend who met Zahran at school and later became an adherent of his, said the problems revolved around Zahran’s habit of misquoting Islamic scriptures.

The mosque’s committee banned him from preaching for three months in 2009. Zahran stormed off.

“We treated him like a spoiled child, a very narrow-minded person who was always causing some trouble,” said the head of the committee, Mohamed Ismail Mohamed Naushad, a timber supplier who shook his head at the memory.

Now on his own, Zahran began to collect a group of followers who met in what Fawaz described as “a hut”.

At about that time, Zahran, then 23, married a young girl from a small town outside the capital of Colombo and brought his bride back to Kattankudy, according to his sister, Mathaniya.

“I didn’t have much of a connection with her – she was 14,” she said.

Despite being “a bit rough-edged”, Zahran was a skilled speaker and others his age were drawn to his speeches and Koranic lessons, said Thaufeek. He traveled the countryside at times, giving his version of religious instruction as he went.

Also, Zahran had found a popular target: the town’s Sufi population, who practice a form of Islam often described a mystical, but which to conservatives is heresy.

Tensions in the area went back some years. In 2004, there was a grenade attack on a Sufi mosque and in 2006 several homes of Sufis were set afire. Announcements boomed from surrounding mosques at the time calling for a Sufi spiritual leader to be killed, said Sahlan Khalil Rahman, secretary of a trust that oversees a group of Sufi mosques.

He blamed followers of the fundamentalist Wahhabi strain of Islam that some locals say became more popular after funding from Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Wahhabism, flowed to mosques in Kattankudy.

It was, Rahman said, an effort “to convert Sufis into Wahhabis through this terrorism”. Rahman handed over a photograph album showing charred homes, bullet holes sprayed across an office wall and a shrine’s casket upended.

ONLINE RADICAL

It was an ideal backdrop for Zahran’s bellicose delivery and apparent sense of religious destiny.

He began holding rallies, bellowing insults through loudspeakers that reverberated inside the Sufis’ house of worship as they tried to pray.

In 2012, Zahran started a mosque of his own. The Sufis were alarmed and, Rahman said, passed on complaints to both local law enforcement and eventually national government offices. No action was taken.

The then-officer in charge of Kattankudy police, Ariyabandhu Wedagedara, said in a telephone interview that he couldn’t arrest people simply because of theological differences.

     “The problem at the time was between followers of different Islamic sects – Zahran was not a major troublemaker, but he and followers of other sects, including the Sufis, were at loggerheads,” Wedagedara said.

Zahran found another megaphone: the internet. His Facebook page was taken down after the bombings, but Muslims in the area said his video clips had previously achieved notoriety.

His speeches went from denouncing Sufis to “kafirs”, or non-believers, in general. Zahran’s sister, Mathaniya, said in an interview that she thought “his ideas became more radical from listening to Islamic State views on the Internet”.

In one undated video, Zahran, in a white tunic and standing in front of an image of flames, boomed in a loud voice: “You will not have time to pick up the remains of blown-up bodies. We’ll keep sending those insulting Allah to hell.”

“HARD TO TAKE”

Zahran spoke in Tamil, making his words available to young Muslims clicking on their cellphones in Kattankudy and other towns like it during a period when, in both 2014 and 2018, reports and images spread of Sinhalese Buddhists rioting against Muslims in Sri Lanka.

In 2017, Zahran’s confrontations boiled over. At a rally near a Sufi community, his followers came wielding swords. At least one man was hacked and hospitalized. The police arrested several people connected to Zahran, including his father and one of his brothers. Zahran slipped away from public view.

That December, the mosque Zahran founded released a public notice disowning him. Thaufeek, his friend from school, is now the head. He counted the places that Zahran had been driven away from – his school, the Dharul Athar mosque and then, “we ourselves kicked him out, which would have been hard for him to take”.

The next year, a group of Buddha statues was vandalized in the town of Mawanella, about five hours drive from Kattankudy. There, in the lush mountains of Sri Lanka’s interior, Zahran had taken up temporary residence.

“He was preaching to kill people,” said A.G.M. Anees, who has served as an imam at a small mosque in the area for a decade. “This is not Islam, this is violence.”

Zahran went into hiding once more.

On the Thursday morning before the Easter Sunday bombings, Zahran’s sister-in-law knocked on the door of a neighbor who did seamstress work near Kattankudy. She handed over a parcel of fabric and asked for it to be sewn into a tunic by the end of the day.

“She said she was going on a family trip,” said the neighbor, M.H. Sithi Nazlya.

Zahran’s sister says that her parents turned off their cellphones on the Friday. On Sunday, when she visited their home, they were gone.

She does not know if Zahran arranged for them to be taken somewhere safe. Or why he would have carried out the bombing.

But now in Kattankudy, and in many other places, people are talking about Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran.

(Reporting by Tom Lasseter and Shri Navaratnam; Additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani, Shihar Aneez and Alasdair Pal; Editing by John Chalmers and Alex Richardson)

Source: OANN

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A Wells Fargo logo is seen in New York City
FILE PHOTO: A Wells Fargo logo is seen in New York City, U.S. January 10, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith

April 26, 2019

By Jessica DiNapoli and Imani Moise

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wells Fargo & Co’s board has retained executive search firm Spencer Stuart to hunt for a new chief executive, ideally a woman who can tackle its regulatory and public perception issues, two people familiar with the matter said.

Wells Fargo’s ambition to become the only major U.S. bank with a female CEO underscores the need to restore its image with a wide range of constituents, including customers, shareholders, regulators and politicians, after it became mired in a scandal in 2016 for opening potentially millions of unauthorized accounts.

Former CEO Tim Sloan left abruptly last month, becoming the second CEO to leave the bank in the scandal’s fallout.

The board plans to approach Citigroup Inc’s Latin America chief Jane Fraser, one of the sources said. During Fraser’s 15-year tenure at Citigroup, she has gained experience running consumer and commercial businesses as well as its private bank.

Fraser could not be immediately reached for comment.

The board also discussed approaching JPMorgan Chase & Co’s Marianne Lake, but after the bank named her to run JPMorgan’s consumer lending business last week, that option became less viable, the source added. The board wants someone who can convince regulators, employees, investors and customers that the bank has fixed problems underpinning the sales scandal, the sources said.

The bank’s board feels that choosing a woman might please lawmakers in Washington who have been critical not only of Wells Fargo’s misbehavior, but of the broader banking industry for a lack of diversity and gender equality, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

It also believes that such a move could bolster Wells Fargo’s image with the households of customers where women play a leading role in managing finances, one of the sources added.

The new CEO will also have to resolve litigation and regulatory matters. There are 14 outstanding consent orders with government entities, as well as probes by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Labor and the Department of Justice.

To be sure, Spencer Stuart will approach and consider several male candidates for the CEO job as well, one of the sources said. The top priority is to find an external candidate who can navigate the bank’s regulatory issues, the source added.

Finding an outsider who meets all those qualifications and wants the job will be difficult, the sources said. There are few people with the necessary experience, even fewer of those who are women, and it is not clear if any of the obvious candidates would be open to taking the role.

The sources asked not to be identified because Wells Fargo’s board deliberations are confidential.

Spokespeople for Wells Fargo and Spencer Stuart declined to comment.

Wells Fargo’s board has not made any public statements about its requirements for a new CEO, beyond Chair Betsy Duke saying the job should attract the “top talent in banking.”

The board wants to complete the search within the next three to six months, one of the sources said.

STALLED SHARES

After Sloan’s ouster, Wells Fargo’s board appointed Allen Parker, who had been general counsel, as interim CEO. The board has said it is looking for an external candidate as a permanent replacement. It is not clear whether Parker will stay at the bank.

Others whose names have been mentioned by analysts, recruiters and industry sources as perspective CEO candidates include Alphabet Inc finance chief Ruth Porat and Bank of America Corp’s chief technology officer Cathy Bessant.

Wells Fargo shares have stalled since Sloan’s departure on March 29th, while the KBW Bank index has rallied more than 7 percent.

Wells Fargo would be “the best stock on earth to buy” if it had the right CEO, said Greg Donaldson, chairman of Donaldson Capital Management in Indiana.

Donaldson held about 50,000 Wells Fargo shares, but sold the stake last year as problems mounted. The CEO change could convince him to re-invest, depending on who it is, he told Reuters.

“It would be very smart for them to get a woman,” he said.

(Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli and Imani Moise in New York; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra, Greg Roumeliotis and Susan Thomas)

Source: OANN

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A worker walks on the roof of a new home under construction in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: A worker walks on the roof of a new home under construction in Carlsbad, California September 22, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake

April 26, 2019

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. economy is growing at a 2.08% annualized pace in the second quarter based on upbeat data on durable goods orders and new home sales in March, the New York Federal Reserve’s Nowcast model showed on Friday.

This was faster than the 1.92% growth rate calculated by the N.Y. Fed model the week before.

(Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Extraordinary European Union leaders summit in Brussels
FILE PHOTO: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte arrives at an extraordinary European Union leaders summit to discuss Brexit, in Brussels, Belgium April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Friday he had assured China’s Huawei Technologies that it would not face discrimination in the rollout of Italy’s 5G telecoms network.

Conte was speaking on a visit to China where he said he met Huawei’s chief executive, Ren Zhengfei. The prime minister’s comments were carried in Italy by TV broadcaster Sky Italia.

“I told him that we have adopted some precautions, some measures to protect our interests that demand very high levels of security … not only from Huawei but any company entering into the 5G arena,” he said.

Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecoms equipment, is under intense scrutiny after the United States told allies not to use its technology because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

(Writing by by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Angelo Amante)

Source: OANN

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