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Soccer: Racist abuse tarnishes England win in Montenegro

Euro 2020 Qualifier - Group A - Montenegro v England
Soccer Football - Euro 2020 Qualifier - Group A - Montenegro v England - Podgorica City Stadium, Podgorica, Montenegro - March 25, 2019 England's Raheem Sterling celebrates scoring their fifth goal Action Images via Reuters/Carl Recine TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

March 26, 2019

PODGORICA (Reuters) – England’s stunning 5-1 rout of Montenegro in their Euro 2020 qualifier on Monday was soured by racist abuse directed at some of their players leading to calls for stadium bans.

Defender Danny Rose was subjected to monkey chants and Raheem Sterling, scorer of England’s fifth goal, was also targeted, with racist abuse heard throughout the game.

Sterling called for Montenegro supporters to be banned from matches, while England manager Gareth Southgate said he would report the incidents to European soccer’s governing body UEFA.

“I definitely heard abuse of Danny Rose when he got booked at the end of the game,” said Southgate.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that happened and we’ll report it to UEFA. It’s not acceptable,” he added on ITV Sport.

Southgate said he had not had a chance to talk to Sterling, who gestured by cupping his hands to his ears toward a section of Montenegro fans when he scored late on.

Sterling told Sky Sports: “I didn’t hear (racist chanting) personally but Danny (Rose) made it clear and (made me) aware that’s what they were doing so I just wanted to show them that they were going to need more than that to upset us and stop us.

“It’s a shame to see this keep going on. We can only bring awareness to the situation. It’s now time for the people in charge to put a stamp on it. You can fine someone but what’s that going to do? You’ve got to make it a bit harder.

“You’ve got to punish the whole fans who can’t come to the games. You’ve got to do something that will really make them think twice because if their team can’t play with fans it’s going to be difficult for them.”

Sterling later wrote on Twitter: “Best way to silence the haters…(and yeah I mean racists)”

Southgate, whose side have now hit 10 goals in two Group A games, added of the incidents: “I know what I heard. We’ll definitely deal with it in the right way and we have to make sure we support our players.”

In a separate interview with beIN Sports, he said: “The irony of football is that the dressing room is so united. No matter what religion, no matter what color, but we still have these issues in society that overshadow that.”

MONKEY CHANTS

Southgate gave a first start to Chelsea’s 18-year-old Callum Hudson-Odoi, who also said he had heard the racist behavior.

The teenager, who became the second-youngest England player to start a competitive game, confirmed he heard monkey chants, marring what had been a memorable night in his career.

“You are trying to enjoy the moment but when you are hearing stuff like that from the fans, it’s not right, it’s unacceptable,” he told beIN Sports.

“I don’t think discrimination should be anywhere — we are equal. Me and Rosey heard it, the ‘oooh, oooh’ monkey stuff.

“You just have to keep your heads, keep a strong mentality. Hopefully UEFA will deal with it,” added Hudson-Odoi.

“Raheem has spoken to me about it and told me people will be rude and say things you don’t want to hear. You block it out of your head but at the same time it should not happen. It’s unacceptable.”

The anti-discrimination group Kick it Out tweeted: “Disgraceful to hear racist chants directed at black @England players this evening.

“As we’ve argued countless times, it’s time for @UEFA to take strong, decisive action – fines won’t do.

“Extended stadium bans or tournament expulsion are what’s needed.”

Former England striker Ian Wright, summarizing for ITV, also said UEFA had to get tougher.

“It will probably go to UEFA and they (Montenegro) will be fined a pittance and we’ll get the same thing again here the next time or somewhere else in Europe. It’s not going to stop them.”

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris)

Source: OANN

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Australia’s Myer department stores says to stop selling Apple products

Signs for one of Australia's Myer Holdings Ltd's retail stores is seen on the outside of the building in central Sydney
Signs for one of Australia's Myer Holdings Ltd's retail stores is seen on the outside of the building in central Sydney, Australia, February 19, 2018. REUTERS/David Gray

March 22, 2019

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australian department store Myer will stop selling Apple Inc products due to the sales being unprofitable, operator Myer Holdings said on Friday.

The decision will apply to Myer’s department stores and online sales, it said.

“Myer has made it clear that it will not chase unprofitable sales and has made this decision as we could not reach acceptable commercial terms that were in the best interests of the Company and shareholders,” a spokesman said in an emailed comment to Reuters.

(Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Source: OANN

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Worried about nickel supply, China battery maker BYD welcomes JV discussions

FILE PHOTO: Women walk in front of the logo of Chinese car manufacturer BYD Auto stage before the opening of the 15th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition
FILE PHOTO: Women walk in front of the logo of Chinese car manufacturer BYD (Build Your Dreams) Auto stage before the opening of the 15th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition in Shanghai April 19, 2013. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

April 11, 2019

By Tom Daly

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Securing enough nickel is a major worry for electric vehicle firms, an executive from Chinese electric car and battery maker BYD Co Ltd said on Thursday, adding that the company would welcome joint ventures that help guarantee supply.

Nickel is one of several metals that are key components of electric vehicle (EV) batteries. A shift in battery chemistry toward higher nickel content, which would allow cars to go further on a single charge, is expected to boost demand further.

“The supply of nickel going forward is a big concern in everybody’s mind,” said Coco Liu, procurement director at BYD, at the Fastmarkets Battery Materials conference. BYD counts Warren Buffet among its investors and is also German automaker Daimler AG’s partner in China.

Analysts had earlier told the conference that the market would be short of nickel if Chinese-led projects in Indonesia fail to deliver.

BYD looks not only for suppliers who can provide high-quality products but also those who have experience in setting up joint ventures covering the whole EV value chain from upstream mining to precursor battery materials and finished products, Liu said.

Joint ventures are “a good way to go forward” and can save costs, she said, adding that BYD prefers to have diversity in its supplier base to reduce risks.

Liu said buying shares in a mine requires a large investment and entails risks, despite a potential rise in demand for raw materials for battery.

“We hope despite the volatility we can have a secure, stable supply with a relatively steady price. Then it will help with our final product sales and development,” she said.

(Reporting by Tom Daly; editing by Christian Schmollinger)

Source: OANN

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Popularity sky-high, Mexico’s president runs a one-man show

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gestures during his daily news conference at National Palace in Mexico City
Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gestures during his daily news conference at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico February 15, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Romero

March 10, 2019

By Dave Graham

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Three months into his presidency, Mexico’s Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has already spent more time facing the press corps than his predecessor did in his entire six-year term.

And the people love it.

Standing at the center of a stage for his news conferences at 7 a.m. every weekday, Lopez Obrador has used the platform to swat at initial skepticism from financial markets and cement his hold on Mexico after a landslide election win last summer.

The president’s approval rates are soaring. But if in time things go wrong, he will still be out in front on his own.

Dictating debate much as U.S. President Donald Trump has via Twitter, the news conferences have muscled aside breakfast news programming and reduced other political leaders, including his own cabinet, to bystanders at Lopez Obrador’s parade.

“There’s nothing between him and the people, not even oxygen,” said Jesus Ortega, an erstwhile ally who ran the 2006 presidential campaign that Lopez Obrador lost by a whisker.

As promised, the veteran leftist has slashed public sector pay, given up presidential perks and launched one welfare program after another at rallies around the country, replacing existing social security schemes with more direct transfers.

Throughout, he has kept a steady stream of verbal fire trained on dissenting voices or checks on his power, including critical media, civil society groups or independent regulatory bodies – while reaffirming his belief in free speech and transparency.

Relentlessly hammering home his commitment to end Mexico’s chronic inequality, he has often used his media gatherings to denounce previous “neo-liberal” administrations he accuses of ruining Mexico, such as that of his predecessor Enrique Pena Nieto, who very rarely faced reporters at live news conferences.

Voters have lapped it up.

“He’s doing well,” said Joel Carrillo, a 52-year-old car valet in Mexico City who supports Lopez Obrador. “He’s taking away lots of privileges from the politicians.”

In his July election, Lopez Obrador triumphed with 53 percent of the vote. Now, as his administration reaches the 100-day mark on Sunday, the president has the support of almost four out of five Mexicans, according to one recent opinion poll.

“For the moment, he is completely invulnerable and completely indestructible,” said Agustin Barrios Gomez, a former lawmaker and board member of the Mexican Council on Foreign Relations (COMEXI). “He owns the country.”

Financial markets are not impressed.

Rating agencies have issued a series of warnings that Mexico’s creditworthiness may be downgraded if Lopez Obrador cannot turn around state oil firm Pemex, which ended 2018 with more than $100 billion of financial debt.

Lopez Obrador said the agencies were punishing Mexico for failed policies from the “neo-liberal” era. Still, a government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the president was more concerned than he let on about the agencies’ views.

If economic problems do arise, Lopez Obrador would struggle to evade blame, said car valet Carrillo.

“He’s not taking help from his ministers,” he said. “He’s taking all the responsibility on himself.”

ACHILLES’ HEEL

Diplomats, politicians and members of his own government tend to agree the economy is Lopez Obrador’s Achilles’ heel.

The president has pushed consumer confidence to its highest level since at least 2001. But that has yet to translate into tangible gains for the economy. Forecasters are paring back their growth expectations for 2019.

Car sales dropped in February by over 5 percent. By Friday, Mexico’s main share index had fallen for 10 consecutive days. Meanwhile, the latest data for Mexican retail sales and fixed capital investment showed significant declines in December.

Business leaders were furious when Lopez Obrador scrapped a part-built, $13 billion new Mexico City airport and triggered billions of dollars of losses on Mexican markets. His steps to undo measures by Pena Nieto aimed at luring private capital to the oil and gas industry further soured sentiment.

Lopez Obrador argued the airport was tainted by corruption. And he has long espoused the belief Mexico must keep its own oil – even if he has yet to entirely rule out continuing the auctions of oil and gas fields that Pena Nieto started.

The problem for Mexico, said Barrios Gomez at COMEXI, is that the rhetoric of Lopez Obrador and his more ideological allies have almost made investment a dirty word.

“When somebody says investment, in their minds they translate it as bourgeoisie getting rich,” he said.

And the more moderate aides were unlikely to pick a fight with Lopez Obrador over the economy because they owed him their jobs, noted Ortega, his former campaign chief.

For now, the president would continue to blame previous governments for economic difficulties, he added. But in due course, others would pay the price.

“When something goes wrong, he won’t hesitate to make heads roll,” said Ortega.

(Reporting by Dave Graham; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Andrea Ricci)

Source: OANN

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McGill University drops ‘Redmen’ name from sports teams

McGill University has dropped the name Redmen from its varsity sports teams after receiving complaints that the name is a racial slur.

Principal Suzanne Fortier said in a statement Friday that the name had caused pain and alienation for indigenous students at the Canadian university. The change took effect immediately.

"Today, 'redmen' is widely acknowledged as an offensive term for Indigenous peoples, as evidenced by major English dictionaries," Fortier said.

In recent years, American sports teams at amateur, college and professional levels have faced similar criticisms.

Last year, the Cleveland Indians baseball team removed Chief Wahoo as its logo. Stanford, Illinois and Dartmouth are also among the colleges and universities that have dropped Native American nicknames or symbols for their teams.

However, longstanding pressure to change the name of the Washington Redskins NFL team has so far been unsuccessful.

McGill's decision comes after an internal report revealed deep divisions between students and alumni over the nearly century-old name.

Even though the Redmen name was not initially adopted as a reference to indigenous people, the association was made in the 1950s when men's and women's teams came to be nicknamed the "Indians" and "Squaws." Some teams later adopted a logo with an indigenous man wearing a headdress.

The student who led the fight against the name told The Canadian Press he was "ecstatic" at the news.

"I had expected the name change," Tomas Jirousek said in an interview from Prague. "I think if the principal had been actually listening to indigenous community members and students, I think it was the only possible option after, as she said in her email, 'the depth of pain' we feel as indigenous students at the Redmen name."

Meanwhile, a group of alumni who opposed the name change said they would never again donate to McGill and would discourage their children from applying to the school.

Source: Fox News World

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Bond market dog fight: An upstart takes on China’s official rating agencies

FILE PHOTO: An investor looks at an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai
FILE PHOTO: An investor looks at an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai, China September 7, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo

March 14, 2019

By Andrew Galbraith

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – By day, Yao Yu heads up risk control for an investment firm in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen. By night, he goes on the prowl for his own business, Ratingdog, sniffing out data that could bring clarity to China’s notoriously opaque bond market.

Yao and a team of about a dozen part-time analysts scour information from China’s exchanges and clearing houses to produce ratings, analyses and pricing models for new bonds. Their findings are then posted to a public WeChat account that bears Ratingdog’s logo – a smiling, sunglasses-wearing border collie.

Since Yao founded the service in 2017, Ratingdog’s free YY Rating, YY Valuation and YY Pricing products have become widely used points of reference for investors and analysts wary of unreliable credit ratings provided by official agencies in the world’s third-largest bond market.

“In China, for fixed income, we need these kinds of services,” said Shen Yi, chief executive officer of Shanghai ShenYi Investment Co, referring to companies such as Ratingdog. “There’s a lot of space in the market for good information.”

Two defaults this year highlight the gap between official ratings and the Shenzhen upstart, which investors say is the country’s leading provider of free, independent credit research.

(For a graphic on ‘China corporate bond defaults’ click https://tmsnrt.rs/2ChVjf7)

On Jan. 29, China’s state-backed Minsheng Investment Group, a private investment conglomerate, missed a deadline for a maturing 3 billion yuan onshore bond, belying its rock-solid AAA rating from Shanghai Brilliance Credit Rating, one of China’s four big agencies.

Ratingdog, however, had flagged Minsheng’s heavy debt burden and limited profit potential as early as 2017.

Then on Feb. 22, Qinghai Provincial Investment Group (QPIG), rated AA by three agencies including Dagong Global Credit Rating Co Ltd, became the first state-owned enterprise in decades to miss a deadline for an offshore bond coupon payment.

Ratingdog, however, had warned in 2017 of QPIG’s “very large susceptibility” to a downturn, giving it a speculative-grade rating of 7 out of 10.

Both Minsheng and QPIG subsequently made delayed payments.

(For a graphic on ‘Investors demand more from riskier debt’ click https://tmsnrt.rs/2ChWLOB)

IMPLICIT SUPPORT

While quantifying Ratingdog’s reach is difficult, Josh Sheng, chief investment officer at Shanghai Tongshengtonghui Asset Management, said a “large proportion” of domestic mutual funds and securities companies refer to its ratings and pricing. In contrast, many investors all but ignore official ratings, which rank most issuers as AA or higher, implying little default risk and giving little guidance on pricing.

That is despite efforts by Beijing to improve the quality of ratings and strengthen oversight, including freezing Dagong’s core ratings business last August for violating industry rules.

One reason for the preponderance of highly rated firms in China is an implicit assumption of state backing.

Jean-Charles Sambor, deputy head of emerging market debt at BNP Paribas Asset Management, said analysis of issuing companies has tended to focus on the likelihood of government support, rather than balance sheets.

“We basically don’t use official ratings for our investment decisions, and they’re not even very meaningful as a reference,” said Liu Xiaofang, head of investment research at Shanghai Fengshi Asset Management Ltd.

More than a month after Minsheng Investment’s technical default, and with the yield on a Shanghai-traded 4.88 percent Minsheng bond hovering above 13 percent, the company continues to boast an untarnished AAA issuer rating.

Ratingdog has rated Minsheng bonds at 7/10 since December, a level indicating “many credit issues” and a recommendation to avoid.

Shanghai Brilliance and Dagong did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

ISSUER-PAY

Drawn in part by the imminent inclusion of Chinese bonds in global indexes, foreign rating agencies have been racing to set up shop in China.

S&P Global Ratings recently became the first global agency to receive a license to rate Chinese onshore bonds. Fitch Ratings, which has established a domestic entity, and Moody’s Investors Service have also applied for licenses.

Some investors hope that the international agencies will encourage greater ratings transparency.

However, S&P Global will follow an “issuer-pay” model in China, similar to the one that domestic agencies currently use. Many investors in China have been wary of the practice, whereby ratings are given to issuers enlisting the agency’s services.

S&P provides issuer-pay ratings in other markets and says it has measures in place to guard against potential conflicts of interest. Its ratings of some Chinese issuers of both onshore and offshore debt, including QPIG, are notably different from those of domestic agencies.

But, says Ratingdog’s Yao: “There’s a problem here, and it’s a problem with overseas agencies, too, and that is: In the end, who are you serving? Is it investors or issuers?”

‘DIFFERENT ROAD’

While interest is high for Ratingdog’s products, monetizing that demand may prove difficult.

Only companies officially licensed to rate securities are permitted to charge for rating services in China.

But Yao plans to press ahead anyway, by introducing investor-paid customised research alongside its free analysis.

“Charging for services is meant to help speed up our development and expansion, but it’s also to understand real market demand,” he said. “After all, the only real demand is demand that’s willing to pay.”

Ratingdog’s growth could pose problems for it in what Hayden Briscoe, head of Asia Pacific fixed income at UBS Asset Management, calls “a very licensed regime”.

“I would suspect that he wouldn’t last for very long unless he had a proper license,” Briscoe said of Yao.

A senior rating industry source, who follows Ratingdog on WeChat, said that regulatory requirements are “very strict”, including annual audits with on-site checks conducted by regulators.

“If you give a rating, you also need to bear responsibility for it,” he said.

Yao said he is following a “different road” and not seeking a rating license, but how to operate legally is “a long-term consideration.”

BOTTOM-UP SHIFT

Ratingdog is not alone in looking to feed the market’s hunger for information. Domestic brokerages and investment banks offer sell-side credit research, often bundled for free alongside equity research.

One bank even uses a Ratingdog-like canine theme for bond analysis in its proprietary app.

BNP’s Sambor said the rise of these alternatives indicates a broader shift.

“What policymakers are trying to achieve is to make sure that investors are looking at credit research from a bottom-up perspective rather than a top-down perspective,” he said.

A “massive repricing” of onshore corporate bonds in the past 18 months has followed attempts to introduce more credit risk into the market, encouraging differentiation and better price discovery, Sambor said.

The spread of riskier 5-year AA corporate debt over AAA debt of the same tenor was 101 basis points on March 12, 56 basis points wider than at the end of 2017.

Still, even after 2018 saw a record level of corporate defaults, Chinese issuers remain relatively unlikely to default.

The marginal default rate – the proportion of the value of defaulting bonds to that of total outstanding credit bonds – was just 0.07 percent in December, according to China Central Depository and Clearing Co.

With defaults comparatively rare, developing reliable ratings will take time, said Yao, noting that global agencies and markets have had more than a century of competition and experience.

(Reporting by Andrew Galbraith; Additional reporting by Samuel Shen; Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Philip McClellan)

Source: OANN

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A vow to rebuild after #NotreDameFire ravages Cathedral Plus Old 1% #BernieSanders cornered on his wealth – #MagaFirstNews with @PeterBoykin

A vow to rebuild after #NotreDameFire ravages Cathedral Plus Old 1% #BernieSanders cornered on his wealth - #MagaFirstNews with @PeterBoykin

'WE WILL REBUILD': The world is united in grief over the fire that destroyed much of Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral Monday as French President Emmanuel Macron vows the historical cathedral will be rebuilt ... Investigators are treating the fire as an accident for now, the local prosecutor's office said. Paris police will investigate the ... See More disaster as "involuntary destruction caused by fire" and have ruled out arson and potential terror-related motives for starting the blaze, officials said.

Officials were optimistic that the cathedral's world-famous bell towers had been saved , and that the main structure of the building remained intact. Fire chief Jean-Claude Gallet confirmed that firefighters had managed to stop the fire spreading to the northern belfry, the stomping ground of the fictional hunchback Quasimodo in Victor Hugo's 1831 novel "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." However, the blaze collapsed the cathedral's spire, which had been shrouded in scaffolding as part of a 6 million-euro ($6.8 million) renovation project. Macron announced the launch of an international fundraising drive to begin raising the millions of dollars necessary to restore the Notre Dame Cathedral to its former glory.

SANDERS UNAPOLOGETIC IN COMBATIVE FOX NEWS TOWN HALL: Sparks flew almost immediately at Fox News' town hall with Bernie Sanders as the 2020 presidential candidate refused to explain why he would not voluntarily pay the massive new 52-percent "wealth tax" that he advocated imposing on the nation's richest individuals -- even though his tax records show that he is a millionaire ... Just minutes before the town hall began, Sanders released 10`years of his tax returns. Sanders later admitted outright that "you're going to pay more in taxes" if he became president.

According to the returns, Sanders and his wife paid a 26 percent effective tax rate on $561,293 in income, and made more than $1 million in both 2016 and 2017. Sanders donated $10,600 to charity in 2016 and $36,300 in 2017, the records showed, followed by nearly $19,000 in 2018. But pressed by anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum as to why he was holding onto his wealth, Sanders laughed and asked the anchors to pressure Trump on his taxes and challenged the president to make his tax records public.

MUELLER TIME THIS THURSDAY: The buzz in Washington, D.C. is at a fever pitch as Special Counsel Robert Mueller's much-anticipated Russia report is set to be released to the public and Congress on Thursday morning, the Justice Department has announced ... Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec told Fox News on Monday the report would be made available -- with redactions -- Thursday morning to lawmakers and to the public. The news comes despite mounting calls from Democrats to first release the report to Congress without redactions.

AOC'S NOT FOND OF NETANYAHU: Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez raised eyebrows during an interview Sunday when she said the possibility of cutting military or economic aid to Israel is "on the table" after the election of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ... Ocasio-Cortez was on Yahoo News’ “Skullduggery” podcast when she said Netanyahu's election comes during a disturbing trend of "authoritarianism across the world" and called the leader a "Trump-like figure."

BOSTON STRONG: A Marine who ran the Boston Marathon in honor of three men he served alongside crawled across the finish line on Monday as his body almost gave up — but his mind didn't. ... Micah Herndon, 31, ran the race in 3 hours and 38 minutes, according to race results. But to hit that mark, he had to physically drag his body along the pavement to finish the race. Herndon, of Ohio, served several deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Record-Courier reported. During a tour in Afghanistan in 2010, three people he was with were killed when they were targeted by an IED.

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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday said his government must make men aware of the dangers of poor hygiene after expressing dismay over the 1,000 penis amputations that apparently occur in his country each year.

“In Brazil, we have 1,000 penis amputations a year due to a lack of water and soap,” he said while speaking to reporters in Brasilia after visiting the Education Ministry. “We have to find a way to get out of the bottom of this hole.”

The far-right leader called the figure “ridiculous and sad,” Reuters reported. A spokeswoman for the Brazilian urology society told the news agency the number is based on its official data for penis amputations.

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The amputations were conducted out of necessity over untreated infections, along with complications from HIV and various cancers, she said.

Source: Fox News World

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A top Russian diplomat says Russia is willing to negotiate a new nuclear weapons treaty with the United States and China.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters on Friday Moscow is closely following reports in the United States that the U.S. would like to reach a nuclear weapons deal with both Russia and China, and is “willing” to negotiate. The story was reported by CNN earlier Friday.

Ryabkov also said that Russia “would like to convince” the U.S. to adopt a joint statement that would condemn any use of nuclear weapons.

Ryabkov’s comments come just months after the U.S. withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a cornerstone of the post-Cold War security, and Russia followed suit. Each claims breaches by the other.

Source: Fox News National

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Government dysfunction and an intelligence failure that preceded the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka are traced to simmering divisions between the president and prime minister after a weekslong political crisis that crippled the country last year.

The government has admitted to a “lapse of intelligence” after officials failed to act upon near-specific information received from foreign agencies. Suicide bombers exploded themselves last Sunday in three churches and three luxury hotels, killing 253 people and wounding 400 more. Authorities said eight Muslim militants blew themselves up at their targets while the wife of one of the attackers blasted herself on being rounded up by police.

The carnage has brought forth arguments that worshippers and holidaymakers fell victim to the rivalry and a lack of communication between the country’s two leaders — President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The Cabinet led by Wickremesinghe says neither he nor his ministers were informed of the intelligence received by the defense authorities. Sirisena is the head of state, defense minister, minister in charge of the police and head of the armed forces. He also chairs the National Security Council, which includes the heads of security agencies and departments. Traditionally the prime minister also plays an important role on the council.

According to Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, Sirisena has not included Wickremesinghe in national security affairs since a dispute between them came into the open in October last year. This is an unusual departure from the protocol, he said.

Senaratne said that Sirisena was overseas when the attacks took place and even after that, the National Security Council refused to meet with Wickremesinghe as he tried to give them instructions.

Sirisena has also said that he was not informed of the intelligence received and vowed to overhaul the leadership of the defense forces.

The top bureaucrat at the Defense Ministry, Hemasiri Fernando, has resigned at Sirisena’s insistence.

“It is a major factor,” said Jehan Perera, the head of local activist group National Peace Council, referring to the alleged lack of coordination between the leaders contributing to the failure to prevent the attacks.

“The primary responsibility has to be taken by the president, he did not give the information and he did not act,” Perera said. “He had the Ministry of Defense, took the police from the prime minister, chaired the National Security Council meetings and did nothing,” Perera said.

Kusal Perera, a journalist and political commentator, says security and intelligence officials should have acted on the information whether or not they received orders from politicians.

“If they (Wickremesinghe and his party) were not invited to the National Security Council, why did not they say in Parliament that they were not responsible for the security of the country any longer,” said Perera, who is not related to Jehan Perera.

“Saying that now is taking political advantage, not taking responsibility,” he said.

Sirisena and Wickremesinghe belong to different political parties but came together for Sirisena’s presidential campaign in 2015. Their relationships broke down and their differences exploded last year when Sirisena suddenly sacked Wickremesinghe as prime minister and appointed in his place former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa, whom he defeated in the presidential election. The crisis crippled the country for more than seven weeks to the point of not being able to pass this year’s national budget on time.

A court decision compelled Sirisena to reappoint Wickremesinghe, but the two leaders have been rivals within the same government.

Rajapaksa, who is the minority leader in Parliament, blames the government for weakening intelligence and dropping its guard, which he had maintained to defeat the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels 10 years ago to end the 26-year-old civil war. He also criticized the government for the detention of intelligence officers accused of extrajudicial killings and abductions during the closing days of the war, which he said crippled the security apparatus before the bombings. According to conservative U.N estimates, some 100,000 people were killed in Sri Lanka’s conflict.

Sirisena summoned an all-party conference Thursday to which Wickremesinghe was also invited. At the conference, Sirisena stressed “setting aside all the political beliefs and difference (so that) everybody should collectively commit towards building a peaceful environment within the country,” a statement from his office said.

“It is not a secret that the disagreements between me and the government aggravated over the past two years,” Sirisena told the country’s media executives Friday. “One of the reasons for that is weakening of military intelligence and arresting military officials unnecessarily and my speaking up against it within and outside the government.”

Jehan Perera said that the security threat could prove politically advantageous to Rajapaksa and his family, with a presidential election scheduled at the end of this year. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, a younger brother of Mahinda, was the powerful defense secretary during his brother’s reign and has expressed his interest to join the contest.

“People are saying we want a stronger leader and they are talking about Gotabhaya. It (the blasts) has worked to their benefit,” Perera said.

Source: Fox News World

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Cyprus police are intensifying a search for the remains of more victims at locations where an army officer, who authorities say admitted to killing five women and two girls, allegedly had dumped their bodies.

Police said Friday’s search will concentrate on a military firing range, a reservoir and a man-made lake near an abandoned mine approximately 32 kilometers (20 miles) west of the capital Nicosia.

On Thursday, the 35-year-old suspect told investigators that he had killed four more people than he had previously admitted to. All the suspect’s alleged victims are foreign nationals.

Police have already found the bodies of a 38-year-old Filipino woman and two as yet unidentified women.

Search crews are now looking for the daughter of the 38-year-old, a Romanian mother and daughter and another Filipino woman.

Source: Fox News World

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A California man who allegedly fatally shot his ex-girlfriend in broad daylight last month before fleeing the country has been returned to the U.S. following his arrest in Mexico on Wednesday, authorities said.

Julio Cesar Rocha, 25, of Montlcair, is accused of shooting his 25-year-old ex-girlfriend Thalia Flores and a second unidentified male victim March 21 around 2:45 p.m. while the two were sitting in a vehicle in the parking lot of a discount store in Chino. Both communities are about 36 miles east of Los Angeles.

ARREST MADE IN DOUBLE HOMICIDE OF EX-PRO HOCKEY PLAYER, COMMUNITY ADVOCATE, POLICE SAY

Julio Cesar Rocha, 25, of Montlcair, Calif. was located in Mexico Wednesday and returned to California where he faces murder and attempted murder charges related to the death of his ex-girlfriend, Thalia Flores.

Julio Cesar Rocha, 25, of Montlcair, Calif. was located in Mexico Wednesday and returned to California where he faces murder and attempted murder charges related to the death of his ex-girlfriend, Thalia Flores. (City of Chino Police Department)

Flores died at the scene. The man, whose name was not released, walked to a nearby hospital where he’s recovering from his gunshot wounds.

Rocha allegedly fled the scene and remained at large for more than a month, the Daily Bulletin reported. He was formally arrested at 4:30 p.m. after arriving at Los Angeles International Airport from Mexico, KTLA-TV reported.

The suspect was booked at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga on murder and attempted murder charges, the City of Chino Police Department said on Facebook.

Flores ended her seven-year relationship with Rocha just two months before her death and still lived in fear of him until that point, a sister of the victim, Bernice Flores, told the Daily Bulletin.

“He said himself so many times to other people, ‘If I can’t have her, no one will.’ ” Flores said, adding that her sister stayed in the relationship longer that she would have liked in fear that Rocha would hurt her or her family if they broke up.

Rocha was convicted on misdemeanor battery in 2016 and sentenced to 60 days in prison. He was originally charged with misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon, but the charges were lowered in a plea deal, the Daily Bulletin reported.

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Rocha was convicted of misdemeanor resisting or obstructing a peace officer in 2014. A second charge of misdemeanor battery was dropped in a plea deal, and Rocha was ordered to complete a 26-week anger management course, according to San Bernardino County Superior Court records. Rocha was later arrested and sentenced to 10 days behind bars for failing to complete the course.

Source: Fox News National

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