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Responding to Macron, Merkel protege warns against centralized EU

CDU's traditional Ash Wednesday meeting in Demmin
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, leader of Germany's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), speaks during the traditional Ash Wednesday party meeting in Demmin, Germany, March 6, 2019. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

March 9, 2019

BERLIN (Reuters) – The leader of Germany’s ruling Christian Democrats (CDU) has responded to French President Emmanuel Macron’s ideas for a “European renaissance” by offering some overlap with his vision, while also warning against too much centralization.

Under the title “Doing Europe Right”, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer echoed Macron by calling for a reform of the European Union’s migration policy, but rejected his idea for a European minimum wage and cautioned against collective debts.

Kramp-Karrenbauer’s response to Macron fills a void left by Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is under pressure from her party to engage with him more fully after leaving her spokesman to simply say Germany supports discussions about the EU’s future.

“Our Europe needs to become stronger,” Kramp-Karrenbauer, who succeeded Merkel as CDU leader in December, wrote in an opinion piece for the Welt an Sonntag weekly newspaper.

But she added: “European centralism, European statism, the collectivization of debts, a Europeanization of social systems and the minimum wage would be the wrong way.”

That appeared to counter Macron’s call for a European minimum wage, adapted to each country, and also highlighted the entrenched resistance in Berlin to any moves that could make Germany liable for other countries’ debts.

Macron’s proposals, unveiled in an open letter to citizens of Europe that was published this week in newspapers across the EU, aim to protect and defend Europe’s citizens while giving the 28-nation bloc new impetus in the face of global competition.

Since winning election as French president in 2017, Macron has championed EU reform, but wariness in Berlin of increased burdens on German taxpayers has left him short of big-bang measures.

Presenting her ideas, Kramp-Karrenbauer, who is Merkel’s protege and in pole position to succeed her as chancellor, called for an internal European banking market to ensure that Europe’s businesses can secure financing in the EU.

She also said a joint EU innovation budget should fund new technologies, tax loopholes should be closed in the bloc and a digital tax introduced based on an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) model.

Kramp-Karrenbauer, like Macron, called for a reform of migration policy, but stressed that tackling migration at its source, protecting Europe’s external borders and absorbing asylum seekers were roles that should be shared fairly.

She added: “In future, the EU should be represented with a common permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.”

(Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Helen Popper)

Source: OANN

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Thousands of Albanian protesters call for govt to step down

Albanian opposition supporters are holding a protest against the government which they accuse of being corrupt and linked to organized crime.

Thousands of supporters of the center-right Democratic Party-led opposition have gathered on Saturday in front of Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama's office to demand his resignation.

The opposition, whose lawmakers have relinquished their seats in parliament, declines to dialogue with Rama, asking for a transitory Cabinet without him to prepare early elections.

The United States and European Union have warned the opposition against using or inciting violence and to sit down for talks.

Recent rallies have turned violent, with police deploying tear gas.

Albania hopes to get the EU's approval in June on launching membership negotiations.

Source: Fox News World

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Minority Hazaras in Pakistan protest for third day after Quetta attack

People hold a sign to condemn the Friday's blast at vegetable market in Quetta, during a protest in Karachi
Pakistani Shi'ite supporters of Imamia Students Organization (ISO) hold a sign to condemn the Friday's blast at vegetable market in Quetta, during a protest in Karachi, Pakistan April 14, 2019. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro

April 14, 2019

By Gul Yousafzai

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Minority Shi’ite Hazaras blocked traffic in a sit-in protest for a third day in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta on Sunday after a suicide bomb killed 19 people in an outdoor market, many of them ethnic Hazaras.

Dozens were wounded in the blast on Friday on the outskirts of Quetta, capital of resource-rich Baluchistan province, officials said. Islamic State claimed responsibility.

Hazaras have been frequently targeted by Taliban and Islamic State militants and other Sunni Muslim militant groups in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“We’ve lost hundreds of our loved ones in the last 10 years,” Tahir Hazara, leading the sit-in, told Reuters. “The government failed to protect our community. Terrorists are free to target us.”

“Stop killing Hazaras,” the crowd chanted. “Down with terrorism and sectarianism.”

The protesters, who include many women and children, have set up camps and burn wood to keep warm at night. One police official said there were about 200 people taking part on Sunday, blocking the key arterial Western Bypass leading into Quetta.

About 50 Hazaras gathered in the southern city of Karachi, some holding signs saying “Shi’ite lives matter”.

Friday’s bloodshed came two days after authorities freed Ramzan Mengal, a top leader of a banned sectarian group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Quetta police chief Abdul Razzaq Cheema said.

Mengal had been detained for three months suspected of public order offences, he said.

The LeJ has worked both with al Qaeda and Islamic State in Pakistan and has claimed several coordinated attacks in Baluchistan against what it terms Shi’ite heretics.

In 2013, three bombings killed more than 200 people in Hazara neighborhoods, prompting security forces to escort Hazara buses to the market. The same practice was followed on Friday, but the bomb exploded inside the market.

(Reporting by Gul Yousafzai, Asif Shahzad and Akhtar Soomro; Writing by Nick Macfie; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

Source: OANN

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U.S. antitrust scrutiny tests T-Mobile’s $26 billion bet on Sprint

FILE PHOTO: A smartphones with Sprint logo are seen in front of a screen projection of T-mobile logo, in this picture illustration
FILE PHOTO: A smartphones with Sprint logo are seen in front of a screen projection of T-mobile logo, in this picture illustration taken April 30, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

April 18, 2019

By Carl O’Donnell and Liana B. Baker

(Reuters) – T-Mobile US Inc’s $26 billion deal to buy Sprint Inc banked on changes in wireless technology and media streaming to win U.S. antitrust approval, but the bet now looks precarious.

Growing skepticism from the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust staff over the impact of the merger on competition in the market will test the resolve of the companies to complete the deal that would see the top U.S. wireless carriers shrink to three from four.

While the Department of Justice has yet to reach a decision on whether to approve the deal, it is pushing Sprint and T-Mobile for evidence that the merger would be in the interest of U.S. consumers, people familiar with the matter said this week.

The deal would be the third major attempt in less than a decade to consolidate the U.S. wireless market, after AT&T Inc’s $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile in 2011 was blocked, and Sprint and T-Mobile abandoned a previous attempt to negotiate a merger in 2014 following regulatory opposition.

If completed, the deal would create a carrier with 127 million customers that will be a more formidable competitor to the No.1 and No.2 wireless players, Verizon Communications Inc and AT&T, respectively.

“It is time to acknowledge that the odds of the deal are less than a coin toss,” said Craig Moffett, a senior analyst at Moffett Nathanson, in a note.

Sprint shares are down more than 6 percent after the Wall Street Journal reported the merger is unlikely to be approved as currently structured, despite T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeting that the premise of the story was “simply untrue”.

Sprint and T-Mobile are arguing that the U.S. wireless telecommunications industry has changed substantially since 2014, when they last attempted to merge.

The changes include the development of ultra-fast 5G networks, Sprint’s struggles to operate on its own given its swelling debt load, and the marriage of telecommunications infrastructure with media production, as epitomized in AT&T’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc.

These changes, as well as the companies’ belief that the current Department of Justice antitrust chief, Makan Delrahim, will take a more generous view of the deal than past leadership did, gave the two companies the confidence to take another shot at merging last year, they added.

Antitrust staff at the Department of Justice have taken a skeptical stance, however. They have been asking for more information about the extent of Sprint’s challenges as a standalone company, the two companies’ plans to merge their wireless network, and the benefits of the merger for the companies’ planned 5G network buildout, the sources said.

T-Mobile has also been very efficient in cutting prices for consumers, and there are questions within the Department of Justice whether this would continue after a merger with Sprint, the sources added.

In a sign of the regulatory challenges facing the deal, T-Mobile and Sprint did not agree to any breakup fee should regulators scuttle the merger.

KEEPING UP WITH RIVALS

Sprint, which is majority owned by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp, has struggled to keep pace with rivals, hemorrhaging cash and losing subscribers despite price cuts designed to keep pace with T-Mobile, which has been steadily gaining market share from rivals. T-Mobile is majority owned by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom AG.

At the same time, China has poured vast amounts of money into the development of 5G networks, prompting U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to prioritize the rollout of the technology in the United States.

Meanwhile, AT&T’s Time Warner deal, and Comcast Corp and Charter Communications Inc, which developed wireless offerings to compete with T-Mobile and Sprint, increased some telecommunication companies’ ability to bundle wireless plans with other offerings, including streaming video content.

That has increased pressure on T-Mobile and Sprint to increase investment in their own networks, which they can afford to do more if they gain scale through the merger.

T-Mobile acquired cable company Layer3 TV in 2017 and rolled out its own television service in 2018. That combination of content and wireless plans, the companies have argued to regulators, could position a combined company as a more serious competitor to companies such as AT&T that offer bundled services.

(Reporting by Carl O’Donnell and Liana B. Baker in New York; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Source: OANN

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Chicago Mayor-elect Lightfoot says she’d welcome immigrants if Trump sends them

Chicago Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot said illegal immigrants are always welcomed to her city, even if President Trump is the one sending them there.

TRUMP DOUBLES DOWN ON PLAN TO SHIP MIGRANTS TO SANCTUARY CITIES

On Friday, Trump confirmed reports that he was seriously considering relocating asylum seekers who exceeded their 20 days in custody to Democratically controlled sanctuary cities nationwide.

Lightfoot, who was recently elected mayor, appeared on CNN and reaffirmed the sanctuary policies in her city.

She dismissed Trump as being “provocative” and told CNN anchor

Anderson Cooper that her city has been dealing with asylum seekers for decades. Trump's threats are “much ado about nothing.”

When asked if she agrees with Chicago’s departing mayor, Rahm Emanuel, about welcoming migrants under such circumstances, she replied, “Of course.”

“We have people who are routinely coming to this city. We have a whole infrastructure that’s built up to make sure that their rights are protected while the city of Chicago has, under the current administration, provided funding for various groups to help support asylum seekers and other people that are going through the immigration court system. I expect it will continue, if not expand upon, those kinds of resources,” Lightfoot said.

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“So you have no problem with the president of the United States using migrants, using undocumented immigrants as, in his opinion, a weapon against political opponents,” anchor Cooper said.

“No, no," she answered. "Look, don’t get me wrong. What I’m saying is I don’t think we should take the bait every time the president puts out a provocative tweet. What I think we need to do is make sure that we are being very clear and speaking our values.

"She continued: "We are a city that is a sanctuary city. We have immigrants from all over the world who call Chicago their home. They’ll continue to do that, and we’re going to continue to make sure that this is truly a welcoming community for those immigrants and we want them to come to the city of Chicago.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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British PM May says Honda plant closure can’t be blamed on Brexit

A lorry with car carrier trailer leaves the Honda car plant in Swindon
A lorry with car carrier trailer leaves the Honda car plant in Swindon, Britain, February 18, 2019. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

February 20, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May said Honda’s announcement that it would close its factory in England in 2021 was deeply disappointing, but could not be blamed on the country’s upcoming departure from the European Union.

“The decision this week by Honda is one that is deeply disappointing. They have made absolutely clear this is not a Brexit-related decision. This is a decision about the change that is taking to the global car market,” May told lawmakers.

Honda said on Tuesday that the move was not related to Brexit and that it needed to focus manufacturing in regions where it expects to sell most cars, after struggling in Europe.

But the announcement about the plant in Swindon in southern England comes after a series of warnings from Japan that it would pull investments if they are no longer economically viable after Britain leaves the bloc.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, writing by David Milliken. Editing by Andrew MacAskill)

Source: OANN

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U.S. to wrap case against drug company executives tied to opioid crisis

FILE PHOTO: John Kapoor, the billionaire founder of Insys Therapeutics Inc., leaves the federal courthouse in Boston
FILE PHOTO: John Kapoor (R), the billionaire founder of Insys Therapeutics Inc., leaves the federal courthouse during the trial accusing Insys executives of a wide-ranging scheme to bribe doctors to prescribe an addictive opioid medication, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., March 13, 2019. Picture taken March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

April 4, 2019

By Nate Raymond

BOSTON (Reuters) – Prosecutors on Thursday will present their closing arguments in the trial of the wealthy founder of pharmaceutical company Insys Therapeutics Inc and four colleagues accused of contributing to the U.S. opioid epidemic by bribing doctors to prescribe an addictive fentanyl spray.

John Kapoor, who served as the Arizona-based drugmaker’s chairman, and his co-defendants are the first executives of a painkiller manufacturer to face trial for conduct that authorities say was tied to the deadly opioid crisis.

Prosecutors say Kapoor oversaw a wide-ranging scheme to bribe doctors nationwide by retaining them to act as speakers at poorly-attended sham events at restaurants ostensibly meant to educate clinicians about its fentanyl spray, Subsys.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has only approved Subsys for use in treating severe pain in cancer patients. Yet prosecutors says doctors who took bribes often prescribed Subsys to patients without cancer, helping boost sales at Insys.

Prosecutors said Kapoor also sought to defraud insurers into paying for Subsys. He is alleged to have had help from 2012 to 2015 from his co-defendants, former Insys executives and managers Michael Gurry, Richard Simon, Sunrise Lee and Joseph Rowan.

All five have pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy. Lawyers for Kapoor acknowledge that Insys paid doctors but contend that he believed they really were being paid to talk up the product’s benefits.

Beth Wilkinson, Kapoor’s lead attorney, told jurors at the trial’s start in January that he had no idea about any “side deals” that were being cut with doctors.

Kapoor’s 2017 arrest came the same day U.S. President Donald Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. In 2017, a record 47,600 people died of opioid-related overdoses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Two top former executives – Michael Babich, Insys’ chief executive from 2011 to 2015, and Alec Burlakoff, its ex-vice president of sales – testified against Kapoor after pleading guilty to carrying out the scheme at his direction.

Babich, who joined Insys in 2007 after helping manage investments for Kapoor at the pharmaceutical industry veteran’s family office, told jurors Kapoor wanted a “return on investment” from paying doctors to act as speakers.

Much of the trial’s testimony focused on how Insys marketed Subsys to doctors. One witness testified that Lee, a former stripper who became a regional sales director, gave a doctor a lap dance at a Chicago club one time while promoting Subsys.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Tom Brown)

Source: OANN

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Venezuela's Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Arreaza talks to the media during a news conference in Caracas
Venezuela’s Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Arreaza talks to the media during a news conference in Caracas, Venezuela April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Manaure Quintero

April 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s foreign minister and a Venezuelan judge, according to a statement on the department’s website.

Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza and a judge, Carol Padilla, were targeted over the ongoing crisis in Venezuela, the Treasury Department said, the latest in a list of officials blacklisted by U.S. authorities for their role in President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Makini Brice and Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Avengers fans gather at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood to attend the opening screening of
Avengers fans gather at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood to attend the opening screening of “Avengers: Endgame” in Los Angeles, California, U.S., April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake

April 26, 2019

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Marvel Studios superhero spectacle “Avengers: Endgame” hauled in a record $60 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices during its Thursday night debut, distributor Walt Disney Co said.

Global ticket sales for the film about Iron Man, Hulk and other popular characters reached $305 million for the first two days, Disney said.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Funeral of journalist Lyra McKee in Belfast
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn attends the funeral service for murdered journalist Lyra McKee at St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, Northern Ireland April 24, 2019. Brian Lawless/Pool via REUTERS

April 26, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – The leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, said on Friday he had turned down an invitation to a state dinner which will be part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Britain in June.

“Theresa May should not be rolling out the red carpet for a state visit to honor a president who rips up vital international treaties, backs climate change denial and uses racist and misogynist rhetoric,” Corbyn said in a statement.

He said maintaining the relationship with the United States did not require “the pomp and ceremony of a state visit” and he said he would welcome a meeting with Trump “to discuss all matters of interest.”

(Reporting by Andy Bruce; Writing by William Schomberg)

Source: OANN

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A bedridden 67-year-old woman and more than a dozen animals were rescued Thursday after a welfare check found that they were living in a home filled with trash, urine, and feces, Florida police said.

Pinellas County sheriff’s deputies said when they arrived at the home in Dunedin around 7:20 p.m. Thursday, they could smell the odor of rotting trash and animal feces as they walked up to the driveway.

“Inside the residence, the odor of feces and urine was so overwhelming that deputies had to don masks,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement.

FLORIDA SHERIFF ON BORDER CRISIS AFTER MAJOR DRUG BUST: ‘IT MAKES ME ABSOLUTELY CRAZY’

Walking throughout the residence, the deputies found 10 emaciated dogs and puppies living in bins filled with their own feces, five large Macaw birds flying freely, rats, bugs and overall squalor.

Puppies discovered living in their own feces inside a Florida home that was filled with trash, urine, and feces.

Puppies discovered living in their own feces inside a Florida home that was filled with trash, urine, and feces. (Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office)

Deputies said due to the large amounts of trash in the home, they had to clear a path to reach the victim’s bedroom.

“None of the home’s toilets were working and all were found to be overflowing with feces,” deputies said. “The only working sink was located on the opposite end of the house from the victim’s bedroom.”

They said there was no food or water for the victim or the animals.

FLORIDA MAN IN EASTER BUNNY COSTUME CAUGHT IN VIRAL BRAWL IS WANTED IN NEW JERSEY, HAS HISTORY OF ARRESTS

The victim was transported to a local hospital for injuries that were non-life threatening, while the animals were transported to shelters.

The woman’s caretaker, Richard Lawrence Goodwin, 65, was arrested and charged with abuse and neglect of an elderly person, disabled person, and cruelty to animals.

Richard Goodwin, 69, was arrested for abuse and neglect of an elderly and disabled person after deputies found she was living in deplorable conditions.

Richard Goodwin, 69, was arrested for abuse and neglect of an elderly and disabled person after deputies found she was living in deplorable conditions. (Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office)

The sheriff’s department said this was Goodwin’s second arrest for abuse and neglect of the same victim. He was previously arrested in May 2018.

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Neighbor Victoria Muenzerbeer told FOX 13 that Goodwin and the victim were hoarders and the conditions inside the home were horrible years ago when she visited once.

“I went in and it was absolutely, a human being couldn’t live there,” she said. “The kitchen wasn’t usable and part of the wall was falling in.”

Source: Fox News National

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Libyan Minister of Economy Ali Abdulaziz Issawi speaks during an interview with Reuters in Tripoli
Libyan Minister of Economy Ali Abdulaziz Issawi speaks during an interview with Reuters in Tripoli, Libya April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Hani Amara

April 26, 2019

By Ulf Laessing

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libya’s U.N.-recognized government has budgeted up to 2 billion dinars ($1.43 billion) to cover costs of a three-week-old war for control of the capital, such as treatment for the wounded, to be funded without new borrowing, the economy minister said.

Ali Abdulaziz Issawi suggested the government hoped for business to continue more or less as usual despite the assault on Tripoli, in the country’s northwest, by forces tied to a parallel administration based in the eastern city of Benghazi.

Once Africa’s third largest producer of oil, Libya has been riven by factional conflict since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with the country now broadly split between eastern-based forces under Khalifa Haftar and the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, in the west, under Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj.

Still, with Haftar’s Libyan National Army forces unable so far to pierce defenses in Tripoli’s southern suburbs, normal life and business activities continue in much of the capital and western coastal towns.

Issawi, in an interview with Reuters in his Tripoli office, also said Libya’s commercial ports and wheat imports were still functioning normally, although some roads have been blocked.

He said the Serraj government estimates it will spend up to 2 billion dinars extra on medical treatment for wounded, aid for displaced people and other “emergency” war costs.

He said this was not military spending but analysts believe that the sum will also cover expenditures such as pay for allied armed groups or food for fighters.

“We could actually spend less,” he added, in comments that gave the first insight into the economic impact of the fighting.

Issawi said the Tripoli government, which controls little territory beyond the greater capital region, would not incur new debt to fund the war costs, sticking to a plan to post a 2019 budget without a deficit.

Tripoli derives revenue largely from oil and natural gas production, interest-free loans from local banks to the central bank, and a 183 percent surcharge on foreign exchange transactions conducted at official rates.

But with centralized tax collection greatly diminished, public debt has piled up – to 68 billion dinars in the west, including unpaid state obligations such as social insurance.

Some analysts expect Serraj’s government will be forced to raise new debt if the war for control of Tripoli drags on.

With much of Libya dominated by armed factions that also act as security forces, the public wage bill for both the western and eastern administrations has soared as fighters have been made public employees in efforts to buy their loyalty.

The east has sold bonds worth 35 billion dinars outside the official financial system as the Tripoli central bank does not fund the parallel government apart from some wages.

Despite its limited reach, the Tripoli government still runs an annual budget of around 46.8 billion dinars, mainly for public salaries and fuel subsidies.

“This year we cannot finance via debt…we will not borrow (by agreement with the central bank),” Issawi said.

According to International Monetary Fund data, Libya’s central government debt-to-GDP ratio is 143 percent, making it one of the most heavily indebted in the world on that measure.

Issawi declined to say what parts of the budget would be trimmed to support the extra outlay for war costs.

However, with some 70 percent of the budget allocated to public wages, fuel subsidies and other welfare benefits, a portion devoted to infrastructure is most likely to be axed.

Widespread lawlessness has meant there have been no major infrastructural projects since 2011, when a NATO-backed uprising overthrew dictator Muammar Gaddafi, leaving schools, hospitals and roads in acute need of restoration.

FOREX SURCHARGE

Issawi said the government planned to raise as much as 30 billion dinars by the end of 2019 from hard currency deals after imposing in September a 183 percent surcharge on commercial and private transactions done on the official rate of 1.4 to the U.S. dollar. That fee has effectively devalued the official rate to 3.9, much closer to the black market equivalent.

Some 17 billion dinars have been raised since then, with hard currency allocated for import credit letters now issued without delays, Issawi said. The forex fee has helped the government forecast a budget in the black for 2019.

Despite the narrowing spread between the two rates, the black market continues to thrive. Dozens of traders remained at their favorite spot behind the central bank headquarters in Tripoli when Reuters reporters visited it last week.

But traders said it could take time for the Serraj government to register the extra forex receipts as official banking channels were taking up to six months to approve import financing, keeping the black market in play for dealers.

Issawi said authorities planned to lower the forex fee from 183 percent, without saying when. The black market rate has dropped from 6 to around 4.1 since September but it has hardly moved of late as demand for black market cash remains high.

The Tripoli government has stopped subsidizing food and bread, which used to be cheaper than drinking water in Libya. Wheat imports are now being arranged by private traders and there are surplus stocks of flour at the moment, Issawi said.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing in Tripoli with additional reporting by Karin Strohecker in London; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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