KABUL, Afghanistan – U.S. forces in Afghanistan say three U.S. service members and a contractor have been killed in a roadside bombing near the main American air base in the country. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
The U.S. and NATO Resolute Support mission says the four Americans were killed on Monday near the Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul.
The statement also says three American soldiers were wounded in the explosion and are receiving medical care.
It says that in accordance with U.S. Department of Defense policy, the name of the service members killed in action are being withheld until 24 hours after notification of next of kin.
The Taliban said a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vehicle near the NATO base in Bagram district, in Parwan province.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka has banned drones and unmanned aircraft as authorities continue controlled detonations of suspicious items four days after a series of suicide bombing attacks killed more than 350 people in and around the capital of Colombo.
Sri Lanka's civil aviation authority said Thursday that it was taking the measure "in view of the existing security situation in the country."
Hobby drones have been used by militants in the past to carry explosives.
Iraqi forces learned that they are difficult to shoot down while driving out the Islamic State group from northern Iraq, where the extremists loaded drones with grenades or simple explosives to target their forces.
Also Thursday Sri Lankan authorities detonated a suspicious item in a garbage dump in Pugoda, about 35 kilometers (22 miles) east of Colombo.
ATHENS, Greece – Bolivia's left-wing president on Thursday compared Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to an erstwhile colonial viceroy and spoke out against any military intervention in the troubled country.
"Are we returning to colonial times?" Evo Morales said in a speech in Athens, during a rare trip to Europe. "Like Juan Guaido ... has he been recognized as the viceroy of Latin America? I don't understand that."
"Any armed intervention won't solve social, or political, problems," Morales said of Venezuela, which has been battered by hyperinflation and widespread shortages of food and medicine. "I salute the resistance of the Venezuelan people, despite the economic blockade, the energy blackouts, the threats of intervention."
His talks with Greece's left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday are expected to include the political and economic crisis in Venezuela.
Guaido, the leader of Venezuela's opposition-controlled congress, is seeking to oust socialist President Nicolas Maduro, with whom Morales has maintained his alliance throughout the crisis.
Tsipras' Syriza party has friendly ties with left-wing parties in South America. In late January, the party expressed "full support and solidarity" with Maduro, in contrast with the major European Union members that along with the U.S. are among 50 nations that have expressed support for Guaido.
Morales arrived in Greece on Thursday for a two-day visit after travelling from Austria, where he attended a United Nations conference on combatting drug trafficking and abuse globally.
An elderly French woman who suffered skull fractures and brain hemorrhaging when riot police stormed a crowd at 'Yellow Vest' demonstrations was scolded and discredited by President Macron and the mayor of Nice, according to reports.
Genevieve Legay, 73, who has been described as an anti-capitalist activist, was reportedly waving a rainbow-colored "flag of peace" when police in riot gear and shields charged into a group of protestors, seeming to knock her violently to the pavement.
Video footage of the fray shows Legay lying apparently unconscious on the ground, blood pouring from her face as officers surround her and one checks her vital signs.
When asked to comment on the episode during an interview with Nice-Matin, French president Emmanuel Macron responded, "I wish her a quick recovery, and I also wish her more wisdom. A fragile person, who is at risk of being pushed down, shouldn’t go to unauthorized marches or put themselves in such a situation."
French television hosts later analyzed "information distortion" about the incident delivered to reporters by Nice mayor Christian Estrosi, who claimed Legay had fallen on her own and only suffered minor injuries.
"Yes, I know, it’s a shame, since I know that it wasn’t in a clash with the police; she stumbled," Estrosi said. "Of course every person who is wounded today, whether in these circumstances or others – it's always unfortunate, but I think that those are superficial wounds."
According to Legay's daughter and follow-up reports, she suffered skull fractures, brain hemorrhaging, and five broken ribs in the melee and is recovering in hospital.
Paul Joseph Watson breaks down how the European Union has officially voted to adopt the Article 13 provision into law which would govern the production and distribution of online content under the presumption of copyright protections, but what this really means is no more creative memes.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next week on whether the World War I Bladensburg, Maryland memorial, known as the “Peace Cross,” should survive or be torn down in what could be a landmark First Amendment case that could impact memorials across the country.
In 2014, atheists filed a lawsuit claiming the memorial’s design violates the First Amendment, is “offensive,” and should be altered, moved, or destroyed. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the cross violates the Establishment clause in the Constitution, which prohibits the government establishment of religion.
First Liberty Institute and Jones Day are jointly representing The American Legion against the American Humanist Association in the monumental “church and state” case scheduled for February 27.
President Trump on Thursday said he was giving Mexico a "one-year warning" to stop the flows of migration and drugs into the U.S., or he would slap tariffs on cars made there and close the southern border.
“We’re going to give them a one-year warning and if the drugs don’t stop or largely stop, we’re going to put tariffs on Mexico and products, in particular cars,” he told reporters at the White House. “And if that doesn’t stop the drugs, we close the border.”
He said that Mexico had "unbelievable" and "powerful" immigration laws and that such a threat would be a "powerful incentive" for it to act.
The warning is a step back from the threat he issued last week, when he threatened to close the border this week unless Mexico stopped “all illegal immigration” into the U.S.
On Tuesday, his stance appeared to soften, when he told reporters that Mexico had started taking further measures to stop migrants travelling into the U.S., and White House officials said that closing the border was one of a number of options on the table.
“So Mexico has, as of yesterday, made a big difference. You’ll see that -- because few people, if any, are coming up,” he said Tuesday. “And they say they’re going to stop them. Let’s see.”
Trump also faced opposition from members of his own party, including Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who had warned that closing the border would have "unintended consequences."
On Thursday, Trump said he fully intended to carry out his threat, but added the one-year delay, as well as the additional threat to put tariffs on cars.
“You know I’ll do it, I don’t play games,” he said.
Trump’s remarks came as the administration struggles to get a grip on the escalating crisis on the southern border, with Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) saying last week they were on track to apprehend more than 100,000 border crossers in March.
Trump declared a national emergency on the border in February after Congress granted only a fraction of the $5.6 billion he had sought for funding for a wall on the border. That move, which was opposed by both Democrats and some Republicans, allows the administration to access more than $3 billion extra in funding for the wall.
"If we don't make a deal with Congress...or if Mexico doesn't do what they should be doing...then we're going to close the border, that's going to be it, or we're going to close large sections of the border, maybe not all of it," he said on Tuesday.
Trump will travel to Calexico, California on Friday where he will visit a recently completed part of the barrier on the border, as well as participate in a roundtable with local law enforcement officials.
LAS VEGAS – A father and son from Japan can be freed from federal custody to live with relatives in a rented Las Vegas apartment pending trial on fraud charges in what prosecutors call a $1.5 billion international Ponzi scheme, a judge decided Wednesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Cam Ferenbach acknowledged a federal prosecutor's argument that former MRI International Inc. executives Junzo Suzuki and his son, Paul Suzuki, had the money to flee the country before trial and could be motivated to avoid trial and the possibility of spending the rest of their lives in prison.
Ferenbach also was told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could deport the two men if they're freed.
But the judge said that wouldn't make sense after the 70-year-old father and 40-year-old son were extradited from Japan to the U.S. They arrived in custody in Las Vegas last week and pleaded not guilty to charges against them.
Prosecutor Danny Nguyen told Ferenbach the Suzukis reaped a combined $22.5 million in four years of a scheme that led a jury to find company chief Edwin Fujinaga guilty in November of 20 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering.
In court documents, U.S. attorneys compare Fujinaga to the biggest-ever U.S. Ponzi schemers: Bernard Madoff in New York, Allen Stanford in Houston, Scott Rothstein in Miami and Thomas Petters in Minnesota. Prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence the 72-year-old Fujinaga to 50 years in prison. He's due for sentencing May 23.
Prosecutors said that from about 2009 to early 2013, more than $1 billion from more than 10,000 Japanese investors was wired to bank accounts in Las Vegas under Fujinaga's control. Investors were told they were buying claims from a medical collection business.
Fujinaga was found guilty of using new investors' money to pay off previous investors while he lived a lavish lifestyle in Las Vegas, California and Hawaii.
Nguyen said the Suzukis could face a theoretical sentence of up to 300 years in prison if they're convicted of all charges.
Defense attorney Junji Suzuki, representing Junzo and Paul Suzuki, told Ferenbach they were in Japan and "didn't have an idea what Fujinaga was doing here in the United States."
Paul Suzuki also spent several years living and working in Hawaii, his lawyer said.
Junji Suzuki is not related to his clients. He said they have few financial assets remaining after settling a civil lawsuit related to the MRI International scheme.
"We are sincerely trying to make a resolution before this case reaches trial," the attorney said.
FILE PHOTO – Otto Frederick Warmbier (C), a University of Virginia student who was detained in North Korea since early January, is taken to North Korea’s top court in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this photo released by Kyodo March 16, 2016. Mandatory credit REUTERS/Kyodo/File Photo
April 26, 2019
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said the United States did not pay any money to North Korea as it sought the release of comatose American student Otto Warmbier.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Trump had approved payment of a $2 million bill from North Korea to cover its care of the college student, who died shortly after he was returned to the United States after 17 months in a North Korean prison.
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)
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.
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)
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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