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Thailand plans $630 million in economic measures to boost growth: Finance Minister

FILE PHOTO: Workers work at a construction site in central Bangkok
FILE PHOTO: Workers work at a construction site in central Bangkok, Thailand, September 26, 2016. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha

April 19, 2019

BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand will introduce economic measures worth about 20 billion baht ($629.52 million) to spur its slowing economy, the finance minister said on Friday.

The measures will be aimed at boosting consumption, tourism and helping low-income earners, and will be submitted to cabinet within two weeks, Apisak Tantivorawong told reporters.

Thailand’s economic growth is expected to slow to about 3 percent in the first and second quarters of the year, Apisak said, cooling from 3.7 percent in the last quarter of 2018.

Official first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) will be released on May 21.

Thailand’s trade-dependent economy has been affected by slowing global demand, while the country is waiting for the next government to be formed after a March 24 general election.

($1 = 31.7700 baht)

(Reporting by Kitiphong Thaichareon; Writing by Orathai Sriring; Editing by Kim Coghill)

Source: OANN

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Red Sox activate second baseman Pedroia from IL

MLB: Spring Training-Boston Red Sox at Chicago Cubs
Mar 26, 2019; Mesa, AZ, USA; Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia against the Chicago Cubs during a spring training game at Sloan Park. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

April 9, 2019

The Boston Red Sox reinstated second baseman Dustin Pedroia from the injured list on Tuesday ahead of the team’s home opener against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The club optioned infielder Tzu-Wei Lin to make room for Pedroia on the active roster.

Pedroia, 35, began the season on the IL while battling inflammation in his surgically repaired left knee. He played in just three games in 2018 with 13 plate appearances. His last major league game was May 29, 2018, against the Blue Jays.

Pedroia appeared in three rehab games with Class A Greenville, going 3-for-9 in 23 innings.

The four-time All-Star and 2008 American League MVP is in his 14th season with the Red Sox. He has a career .300 average in 1,506 games.

–Field Level Media

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In post-coup election, Thai rice, rubber farmers rethink old divide

Farmer holds rice in his hand in Khon Kaen province
A farmer holds rice in his hand in Khon Kaen province in northeastern Thailand March 12, 2019. REUTERS/Patpicha Tanakasempipat

March 22, 2019

By Patpicha Tanakasempipat and Panu Wongcha-um

KHON KAEN/SONGKHLA, Thailand (Reuters) – In the rice-growing heartland of Thailand’s northeast, Kamol Suanpanya, 80, meets in the off season with fellow farmers at a community center, where they discuss Sunday’s election, the first after nearly five years of military rule.

Like most in the area, Kamol will vote for Thailand’s largest party, Pheu Thai, whose government was overthrown in 2014. He is loyal because of policies like subsidies and low-cost health care pioneered by ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

“I can tell you I will vote for Pheu Thai again,” said Kamol. “I haven’t changed my mind and I never will.”

Some 1,400 km (870 miles) to the south, a longtime stronghold of the anti-Thaksin Democrat party, rubber farmer Gorneena Pae-arlee isn’t so sure about her vote.

She has voted for the Democrats in the past, but says she will not do so again. Nor does she want junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha to remain prime minister, as the new pro-military Palang Pracharat party is campaigning for.

“I want to vote for change,” said Gorneena, 52, who owns a big rubber plantation in Songkhla province.

Sunday’s general election has been cast as a struggle between democracy and military rule, with Thaksin’s Pheu Thai leading the charge for a “democratic front” against Palang Pracharat, the party backing Prayuth.

The pro-establishment Democrats are seen as a possible kingmaker.

But from north to south, farmers complain about hard times and growing mountains of debt since the military took over.

Many look to the election as a way out for what they say is an economy that seems to be growing but leaving them behind.

NORTH AND SOUTH

Thailand is the world’s largest exporter of rubber and second-largest of rice. Farming accounts for 30 percent of the work force, though only about 10 percent of the economy.

The rice-growing northeast and rubber-tapping south reflect the deep divide in Thailand’s polarized politics of the last 15 years.

Thaksin’s “red-shirt” supporters are mostly from the rice-growing northeast and north, whereas southern rubber farmers have come up to Bangkok at different times over the years to join anti-Thaksin “yellow-shirt” protests of middle-class voters who support the military and royalist establishment.

The unrest has led to bloodshed and two military coups, the first toppling former telecoms tycoon Thaksin in 2006, and the last one overthrowing a government that had been led by his sister, Yingluck.

The siblings live in self-exile to avoid convictions – corruption for Thaksin and negligence for Yingluck – handed down after they were ousted. They denied wrongdoing and said the charges were politically motivated.

After almost five years under a junta led by former army chief Prayuth, the rice-and-rubber divide still exists.

But while the north and northeast remain as pro-Thaksin as ever, some southerners said their support for the Democrat Party may be wavering.

LOW CROP PRICES

With new political parties on the scene and the price of rubber languishing, some farmers, like Gorneena, are considering the options.

“Rubber prices have suffered a lot, and nothing has improved under the military. I really want the new government to help fix this,” Gorneena said.

Thai benchmark rubber smoked sheets were trading at around 56.60 baht per kilogram this week, a far cry from a record 198.55 baht in 2011, according to Refinitiv data.

While the south’s rubber farmers are generally better off than their rice-growing counterparts, monthly income in the south declined by 2 percent to 26,913 baht ($850) per household from pre-coup 2013 to 2017.

That contrasts with average national income that grew roughly 7 percent, government data showed.

While several other rubber farmers interviewed said they would stick by the Democrats, a poll by Prince of Songkla University published last week signaled a weakening of their grip.

The poll showed 27 percent preferring the new, progressive Future Forward Party, compared with 24 percent for the Democrat Party, with Pheu Thai coming in at 19 percent and Palang Pracharat at 12 percent. It provided no margin of error.

HIGH DEBT

The plight of farmers from north to south comes as a stark contrast with Thailand’s top 1 percent, who own 66.9 percent of the country’s wealth, according to Credit Suisse’s 2018 Global Wealth Databook.

That makes Thailand the most unequal country in the world.

Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy expanded 4.1 percent in 2018, the fastest in six years. This year, the state planning agency predicts growth of 3.5-4.5 percent.

At the same time, household debt soared to a record 12.56 trillion-baht in the third quarter of 2018, or 77.8 percent of gross domestic product, central bank data showed.

For many Pheu Thai supporters, hard times have led to borrowing and left them pining for the party’s populist policies.

In the northeastern city of Khon Kaen, June Kit-Udom, who at 61 is the sole provider for her family of three, said she quit rice farming a few years ago because prices plunged following the 2014 coup.

She now works seven days a week at a recycling factory for 325 baht ($10.26) a day, but she says the tough work has resulted in spiking hospital bills.

“Life was better under Yingluck’s government. She helped us a lot with cash subsidy. This government gave us nothing,” June said.

Some 3.6 million households in the northeast are in debt, accounting for more than a third of the total, according to data by the National Statistics Office.

The northeast has the highest average debt per household of 179,923 baht ($5,680), and the lowest average income per capita at 6,656 baht ($210) per month.

Addressing inequality should be high on the agenda of the next government, said Thomas Parks, country representative of the Asia Foundation, a non-profit group focusing on development.

“Inequality and regional disparities are one of Thailand’s most fundamental challenges,” he said.

“We expect that any government, regardless of the election outcome, will make this a serious priority.”

(Additional reporting by Orathai Sriring in BANGKOK; Writing by Patpicha Tanakasempipat; Editing by Kay Johnson and Robert Birsel.)

Source: OANN

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Saudi rights official says pursuing justice for Khashoggi murder

FILE PHOTO: A demonstrator holds a poster with a picture of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi outside the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul
FILE PHOTO: A demonstrator holds a poster with a picture of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi outside the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Turkey October 25, 2018. REUTERS/Osman Orsal -/File Photo

March 14, 2019

GENEVA (Reuters) – The head of the Saudi human rights commission said on Thursday that the kingdom had brought perpetrators of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to justice and rejected any international role in the probe.

Bandar bin Mohammed Al-Aiban told the U.N. Human Rights Council that those accused of the “heinous crime” and “unfortunate accident” at its Istanbul consulate on Oct 3 had attended three hearings so far with their lawyers present, but gave no names or details.

“Therefore what is being conveyed by certain media regarding the need for us to internationalize some of these matters is something we do not accept because such demands amount to interference in our domestic affairs and in our domestic judicial system,” he told the Geneva forum.

(Reporting by Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay)

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Florida mom accused when daughter, 2, dies in hot car

Authorities say a 36-year-old Florida woman slept as her 2-year-old daughter died in a car parked outside her apartment.

The Pensacola News Journal reports Jessica Monell faces charges of homicide-neglect manslaughter, child neglect and possession of a controlled substance.

Escambia County Sheriff's Maj. Andrew Hobbs says Monell arrived at the Aqua Porta Apartments around 6 a.m. Wednesday and went inside. She left Joy Monell in the car until she woke up shortly before 4 p.m.

Hobbs says investigators found three bags containing suspected crystal meth and other drugs in Monell's home.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recorded a heat index of 82 degrees in Pensacola on Wednesday.

A lawyer wasn't listed for Morell.

___

Information from: Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com

Source: Fox News National

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Dershowitz says 'shame on Mueller,' calls Russia probe findings bad news for CNN

Alan M. Dershowitz, the attorney and Harvard Law professor emeritus, slammed Robert Mueller on Sunday, saying the special counsel engaged in a “cop out” by stating that his report neither exonerated President Trump nor concluded he'd committed a crime related to obstruction of justice.

Dershowitz said Mueller seemed to try having it both ways. “It sounds like a law-school exam,” he said, adding that the report sounded wishy-washy. “Shame on Mueller.”

The special counsel “did not draw a conclusion” as to whether obstruction of justice took place, according to a letter with the key findings released Sunday by Attorney General William Barr.

READ THE MUELLER REPORT FINDINGS

Dershowitz also said it was a great day for Trump and a “very bad day for CNN” given how many of the left-leaning cable network's personalities and guests predicted the probe would lead to a slew of indictments for collusion and obstruction. “They should be hanging their heads in shame.”

Barr's four-page letter, addressed to top Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, offered key insight into the nearly two-year-long investigation, the results of which were submitted to the Justice Department on Friday.

Dershowitz said the job of the prosecutor is to make a binary decision, yes or no: yes means indictment and no means “shut up.”

He also said Mueller failed to have the "guts" to say yes or no, despite all the time and money spent on the probe.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Mueller was assigned to the job in May 2017 by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw much of his work. Mueller's office "issued more than 2,800 subpoenas" and executed nearly 500 search warrants throughout the duration of the investigation, which lasted close to two years.

The office also "obtained more than 230 orders for communication records, issued almost 50 orders authorizing use of pen registers, made 13 requests to foreign governments for evidence, and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses" during the probe.

Source: Fox News Politics

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In divided America, Mueller report hardens the most strident

The Muller Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election is pictured in New York
The Mueller Report on the Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election is pictured in New York, New York, U.S., April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

April 19, 2019

By Letitia Stein and Tim Reid

CLEARWATER, Florida/LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – After months as volunteer activists demanding that President Donald Trump be impeached, Eileen and Michael O’Brien sat on their couch on Thursday, cracked open a laptop and began to read the 448-page special counsel report that liberals have dreamed would make impeachment a reality.

“Hmm, seems like there’s a lot of gray area here,” said Eileen O’Brien, 65, of Clearwater, Florida, reading aloud a line about the findings falling short of a criminal case. “Legally wrong and morally wrong are two different things.”

The release of the long-anticipated report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller on his inquiry into Russia’s role in the 2016 election landed in a stridently divided America: one side convinced Trump acted improperly, the other adamant that the investigation was a politically driven farce.

Mueller built an extensive case that Trump committed obstruction of justice but stopped short of concluding he had committed a crime, though he did not exonerate the president.

For those like the O’Briens who have been pining for impeachment, the report renewed a resolve to oust the president. For those who want to see the president reelected, there was a sense of vindication.

“The White House is going to put out their own version of things, which is basically fish wrapper,” said Michael O’Brien, formerly a service technician who now works on houses. His wife, who a day earlier delivered a can of “impeaches” peaches to a lawmaker, looked up with a quizzical expression.

“It’s worthless,” he explained. “You can use it to wrap fish.”

“ONE BATTLE IN A WAR”

Lee Mueller and his wife, Michele Mueller, no relation to Robert Mueller, also paused their Thursday to read through the special counsel’s report. They printed out the table of contents for both volumes along with the executive summaries.

“I view the Mueller report as being one battle in a war against the United States of America’s founding principles and against Donald Trump,” Michele Mueller, 61, said in a suburb of Las Vegas.

After Attorney General William Barr released his four-page summary of the Mueller report late last month, Americans were dug in on their views. Nearly half of all Americans still believe Trump worked with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, despite the report’s saying no collusion had occurred, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted shortly after the Barr summary was released.

Among those familiar with Barr’s summary, only 9 percent said it had changed their thinking about Trump’s ties to Russia, the poll found.

Ahead of Thursday’s release of the Mueller report, Trump ramped up his insistence that he was the victim, not the perpetrator, of crimes.

James Stratton, 65, of Clearwater, Florida, caught snippets of the news about the report from conservative commentators Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. He looked up Barr’s news conference, held Thursday morning before the report was released online, on YouTube.

“Nobody on our side is going to change,” the Republican president of the local Tampa Bay Trump Club said in a phone interview, adding that liberals will grow tired of hearing predictions about Trump’s downfall that never materialize. “We stay focused on the issues. How do we stop socialism? How do we protect our borders?”

“IT WILL ONLY AFFIRM”

For the most invested, though, Mueller’s report offered hope for further investigation, but by Democrats in Congress this time.

Tom Steyer, a billionaire activist who has spent millions of his own dollars directing pressure at Congress to impeach Trump, said while he thinks the contents of the report implicate the president, he acknowledges the findings alone are unlikely to convince Americans to change their minds.

“I think the only way to get voters to notice is to directly publicize, televised hearings,” Steyer said. “We’re all for public hearings so the American people can see and can react themselves.”

In Florida, Margo Hammond, 69, who considers herself an independent voter, gleaned highlights by toggling through the coverage of MSNBC, CNN and Fox News. She was unimpressed with Barr.

“It’s kind of an insult to the American people that we can’t decide for ourselves,” she said while in an art class. She planned to read as much as she could of the report.

“I think it will only affirm what I originally thought,” she said. Then she repeated something she had heard earlier from a news commentator: “There was a whole lot of cheating going on.”

(Reporting by Letitia Stein in Clearwater, Florida and Tim Reid in Las Vegas; Writing by Ginger Gibson; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Source: OANN

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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)

Source: OANN

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