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Former NYPD officer, special education aide wife sold drugs out of their home, police say

A former officer with the New York Police Department and his wife have been arrested after police discovered a large stash of drugs and cash at their home, which is located across the street from an elementary school, police said.

Kenneth Riggio, 59, and his wife, Faith Riggio, 53, have been hit with multiple drug charges after police found 200 oxycodone pills, as well as a stash of cocaine, heroin, Xanax and over $146,000 in cash in their New Merrick, Long Island home, authorities said. Police also confiscated a cashier's check for $85,000, a switchblade, envelopes and scales.

The Riggio home was reportedly the source of a number of community complaints, as residents claim cars were constantly coming and going from the house, across the street from a Bellmore-Merrick school.

"We went through the house recovering, as you just heard, $146,000 in cash that was lined up and in certain packages, obviously money that was received from the sale of narcotics,' Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said at a news conference on Thursday, according to the Daily Mail. "The alarming part was that it was done across the street from a daycare center, the Bellmore-Merrick administrative building and an alternative learning school where kids attended daily."

Kenneth Riggio was an officer with the New York Police Department in the 1980s before being dismissed for "unknown reasons" in 1985. Since then, he has amassed a lengthy criminal record, having been arrested for driving under the influence, narcotics possession and assault.

KANSAS DOCTOR GETS LIFE IN PRISON FOR SELLING OPIOIDS THAT LED TO A PATIENT'S DEATH

Faith Riggio was working as a special education aide at Camp Avenue Elementary School at the time of her arrest

Faith Riggio was working as a special education aide at Camp Avenue Elementary School at the time of her arrest (Google )

GAMBINO CRIME FAMILY BOSS GUNNED DOWN OUTSIDE STATEN ISLAND HOME

Faith, however, was working as a special education aide at Camp Avenue Elementary School at the time of her arrest. She has since been placed on administrative leave.

'Please know that prior to the hiring of all of our employees, a thorough background check is conducted by the district. However, due to the arrest, this employee was immediately placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the legal investigation,' North Merrick superintendent Cynthia Seniuk said in a statement.

Kenneth has reportedly been charged with 11 counts of criminal substance possession, three counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance with the intent to sell and one count of criminal possession of a weapon.

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His wife has been charged with one count of fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance. She is being held on a $50,000 bail, while her husband is under $500,000 bond.

The Riggio's lawyer, Michael Degarabedian, said that Kenneth has a legal prescription for oxycodone and that the large amounts of cash were a result of a recent personal injury lawsuit settlement, Newsday reports. He added that he believes Faith will be "absolved" of the charge against her.

"The highest form of ignorance is forming an opinion without knowing both sides of the story," he said.

Source: Fox News National

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US pushes NATO allies to join observer force in Syria

President Donald Trump's decision authorizing about 200 U.S. troops to remain in northeast Syria indefinitely is a key step in creating a larger multinational observer force that can keep the peace and prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State group, administration and defense officials said Friday, as U.S. leaders press NATO allies to join.

The president also agreed to allow the Pentagon to keep about 200 troops at the al-Tanf garrison in southern Syria, where they train local forces and help root out remaining IS militants in the region.

Trump's decision endorses a plan pressed by U.S. military leaders for some time, calling for an international force of 800 to 1,500 troops that would monitor a safe zone along Syria's border with Turkey. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to provide details about a troop deployment before details are finalized.

Trump in December announced he was pulling all 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria quickly, but has gradually reversed course. He made this decision Thursday after being told European allies insisted on some U.S. forces remaining on the ground as part of the observer force.

His sudden order to pull all U.S. troops from Syria had shocked U.S. allies and angered the Kurds in Syria, who are vulnerable to attack by Turkey. It also contributed to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis's decision to resign, and drew fierce criticism in Congress. Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, called the decision a "betrayal of our Kurdish partners."

Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been leading discussions with allies on assembling the observer mission. He told reporters Friday he is confident they will step up and commit troops.

"I'm confident we can maintain the campaign" in Syria, Dunford said.

Asked about the decision to keep 400 U.S. troops in Syria, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan described it as "good progress." He spoke to reporters shortly before meeting with Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar in the Pentagon. He said the meeting with Akar would be about "next steps."

Officials said the number of U.S. troops assigned to the safe zone could change, but that roughly 200 is an informed number. They said U.S. troops would remain in the area indefinitely to keep the U.S.'s Kurdish allies and Turkish forces from clashing, prevent forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad from seizing the territory and minimize the risk of a resurgence of the Islamic State. A defense official said Turkish and Syrian opposition forces would not be allowed in the safe zone.

Turkey views Kurdish members of the Syrian Democratic Forces who have fought alongside the U.S. against the Islamic State as terrorists.

The SDF is currently involved in a standoff over the final sliver of land held by IS in eastern Syria, close to the Iraq border.

The U.S. is not seeking a United Nations mandate for the deployment and currently does not envision asking NATO to sponsor the mission, an administration official said, adding that the troops would not be "peacekeepers," a term that carries restricted rules of engagement. The current goal is to have the force stood up by the end of April.

___

AP writers Deb Riechmann and Bob Burns contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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Southwest to keep Boeing 737 MAX off schedules through May instead of April 20: company memo

FILE PHOTO: A number of grounded Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft are shown parked at Victorville Airport in Victorville, California
FILE PHOTO: A number of grounded Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft are shown parked at Victorville Airport in Victorville, California, U.S., March 26, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake

March 30, 2019

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Southwest Airlines Co said on Friday it was pulling its Boeing Co 737 MAX jets from flight schedules through May, extending its earlier timeline from April 20, according to a company memorandum seen by Reuters.

“This will impact the lines in May, but, now that the decision has been made, we can construct our schedule without those flights well in advance in hopes to minimize the daily disruptions,” the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association and the company said in the joint memorandum.

Boeing’s top-selling 737 MAX jetliner has been grounded in the wake of two deadly crashes involving that model in five months, one in Indonesia last October and another on March 10 in Ethiopia.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; editing by Grant McCool)

Source: OANN

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Colombia: Even Maduro's relatives seeking relief from outage

The blackout engulfing Venezuela is forcing many to seek refuge — even, as it turns out, President Nicolas Maduro's own relatives.

Authorities in neighboring Colombia said the leader's cousin, Argimiro Maduro, along with his spouse, children and extended relatives, approached a border checkpoint leading into Colombia on Monday seeking relief from the power outage.

According to officials, the group of 10 complained that the heat was unbearable as the blackout dragged on and said they wanted to spend five days in Riohacha, a city in northern Colombia with easy access to turquoise beaches along the Caribbean Sea.

But their plans were dashed when migration authorities found their names on a list of over 300 people with close ties to Maduro who should be denied entry.

"While the people of Venezuela die in hospitals because of the lack of electricity, we're not going to allow those close to the Maduro regime to vacation in Colombia, evading the reality of a people in agony," Colombia Migration Director Christian Kruger said.

Photos released by Colombian migration official show the group seeking access in baseball caps and shorts. One man wore a T-shirts with palm trees.

Maduro did not comment on the report that his family was seeking access to Colombia, though he has told Venezuelans in statements broadcast on state television that he has been suffering through the blackout alongside them.

Colombia's government has recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's rightful president and recently began denying entry to close Maduro associates as a way of increasing pressure on his administration to hold new elections.

Maduro severed diplomatic relations with Colombia in late February after opposition leaders tried to bring international humanitarian aid collected in the Colombian border city of Cucuta across two bridges into Venezuela. The bridges remain closed except for access to students and patients.

Thousands of Venezuelans enter Colombia each day seeking food and medical care and sometimes they come with the goal of leaving permanently. The United Nations estimates at least 3.4 million Venezuelans have fled their homeland in recent years.

A power outage that struck last Thursday at the evening rush hour left almost the entire nation in the dark. Venezuela's information minister said Tuesday that the power grid had been almost completely restored, though there were still some pockets reported without power.

Venezuelan authorities are blaming the outage on a cyberattack, but engineers with knowledge of the grid's operating system say that was essentially impossible because the computers used have no internet connection and communicate only with each other.

Venezuelans have been taking extreme measures to find relief from the outage, parking their cars alongside the road wherever they can find a cellphone signal and collecting buckets of water from the badly polluted Guaire River in capital city Caracas.

Source: Fox News World

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Hungarian university offered German help to defuse EU conflict

The exterior of the Budapest-based Central European University, founded by U.S. billionaire George Soros, is seen in Budapest
The exterior of the Budapest-based Central European University, founded by U.S. billionaire George Soros, is seen in Budapest, Hungary, December 3, 2018. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

March 13, 2019

By Marton Dunai

BUDAPEST (Reuters) – Hungary’s Central European University could receive a helping hand from one of Europe’s top technical colleges to continue its international degree programs, which may begin to defuse a growing conflict among Europe’s conservatives.

CEU has emerged as an unlikely subject in a dispute that has swirled around Orban’s anti-immigrant stance and anti-EU campaigns and which has prompted 13 of the European People’s Party 80 member parties to ask for Fidesz to be expelled.

For nearly three decades it has been a gateway to the West for thousands of students from ex-communist eastern Europe, offering U.S.-accredited degree programs in an academic climate that celebrates free thought.

In December, the university, founded by Hungarian-born U.S. liberal philanthropist and Orban nemesis George Soros, said it had been forced out of Hungary.

The leader of the EPP Manfred Weber spoke about the idea of helping CEU using the network of the Technical University of Munich during talks with Orban on Tuesday to try to resolve their differences.

“We are looking for a new perspective,” Weber told journalists in Budapest after the talks. “I’m sure that such a model can overcome today’s problem that American diplomas cannot be offered today at the (CEU).”

A Hungarian government spokesman said it considered the CEU issue resolved with the university continuing Hungarian degree programs only in Budapest.

The EPP is the strongest group in the European Parliament and is trying to beat emerging populist forces to retain that spot, which would enable it to nominate the president of the European Commission, the top executive job in the bloc.

The EPP’s candidate for commission president is Weber, whose headquarters is in Munich. The EPP is due to vote next week on whether to keep Fidesz in the group.

A Weber spokesman said it was the German politician’s idea to enlist a Bavarian university to help CEU retain access to international degrees, but they would leave the details to the schools involved.

He said there was no political guarantee that CEU would be able to recreate the status quo it had lost.

TUM confirmed that it would be in talks with CEU “very soon” about starting a cooperation, including international teaching programs and three new professorships, and also the possibility of awarding American degrees.

“Our interest is directed toward the CEU, and we are working toward an alliance between TUM and CEU,” TUM spokesman Ulrich Marsch said.

Discussions with CEU would take place in Munich in April.

Marsch noted that TUM had several cooperation agreements with American colleges such as Georgia Tech and UC Davis.

CEU welcomed TUM’s collaboration offer but said it could only remain in Budapest and collaborate with TUM if it could offer U.S. accredited degrees.

(Reporting by Marton Dunai; Editing by Alison Williams)

Source: OANN

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Indian diamond tycoon arrested in London over alleged role in $2 billion banking scandal

An Indian diamond tycoon well known amongst Bollywood stars has been arrested in London over his alleged involvement in a $2 billion banking fraud scandal.

Nirav Modi was detained Tuesday in central London at the request of Indian authorities, and was held overnight in custody, the Metropolitan Police Service said.

Modi is set to appear at London's Westminster Magistrates' Court for a bail hearing later Wednesday.

Modi is wanted in India over allegations he defrauded the state-run Punjab National Bank. The Associated Press is calling the case one of the largest-ever of its kind there.

Punjab National Bank, according to Reuters, claimed last year that two jewelry groups operated by Modi and his uncle, Mehul Choksi, defrauded it by working with rogue staff. It reported that the groups raised credit from other Indian banks through the use of illegal guarantees issued by the employees.

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Both Modi and Choksi fled the country before details of the case emerged, and have denied wrongdoing, Reuters added.

Interpol issued a "red notice" for Modi’s arrest last year, as well. This month, Britain's Daily Telegraph said it had tracked him down to a luxury apartment in London's Centre Point tower.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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Covington Catholic student's lawsuit against Washington Post: A 'significant case' or not? Experts weigh in

An attorney in the $250-million lawsuit filed by a Covington Catholic High School student and his family against The Washington Post told Fox News the colossal damages being sought are “appropriate in this circumstance” – and hinted liberal comedian Bill Maher could soon be served.

The comments from Todd McMurtry last week on "America’s Newsroom" come as law experts are calling the suit – filed on behalf of 16-year-old Nicholas Sandmann "by and through his parents" Ted and Julie Sandmann – everything from a “significant case” to one bound to be thrown out.

“Other commentators have sought to say that our damages are too high, but when you think about that those damages never go away and live on the Internet forever, I think they are appropriate in this circumstance,” McMurtry said.

Sandmann was at the center of a January firestorm when a viral video emerged showing a confrontation between Covington high schoolers wearing "Make America Great Again" hats and Native American activist Nathan Phillips at the March for Life in Washington, D.C. Footage that later emerged and showed a more complete record of the encounter revealed the standoff didn't unfold as many had initially assumed.

TRUMP CHEERS COVINGTON STUDENT’S LAWSUIT AGAINST WASHINGTON POST: ‘GO GET THEM NICK’

Earlier this month, Sandmann's attorneys sent preservation letters to more than 50 media organizations, celebrities and politicians – including The New York Times, CNN, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and actors Alyssa Milano and Jim Carrey -- the first step in possible libel and defamation lawsuits.

The Washington Post lawsuit is the first of its kind. It was filed on behalf of Sandmann by attorneys Lin Wood and McMurtry, with the latter saying more “will continue to roll out over the next 30 to 60 days.” But the novel litigation also has many observers raising questions about the team's chance for success.

SANDMANN PLACED INTO NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT

One of the key issues threatening the suit's survival is whether or not Sandmann is a private figure, as his attorneys claim, or a limited-purpose public figure. That type of public figure was described by the Supreme Court in a 1974 ruling as someone who “thrust themselves to the forefront of particular controversies in order to influence the resolution of the issues involved” and therefore “invite attention and comment.”

The designation is important because, if Sandmann is ruled to be the latter, his attorneys will have to clear a higher bar and prove The Washington Post acted with actual malice against him when it published a “series of false and defamatory print and online articles” about the Covington incident, as opposed to simply proving the newspaper's negligence.

“First, Nick Sandmann is a private individual so we only have to prove negligence,” McMurtry said. “However, if a ruling were to be different and they were to consider him an involuntary public figure and we had to prove malice, we would be able to do that because the Washington Post is a weaponized news outlet that used its power and strength to destroy Nick Sandmann’s reputation."

He added: “And they did that without adequate and appropriate levels of journalistic integrity and reporting and that in itself is malicious. So, I feel comfortable with either standard.”

HOWARD KURTZ: FROM RUSSIA PROBE TO COVINGTON KIDS, NEW SCRUTINY FOR JOURNALISM

The lawsuit, filed in a Kentucky district court this week, accuses the newspaper of fanning the flames of the controversy, claiming it “effectively provided a worldwide megaphone to Phillips and other anti-Trump individuals and entities to smear a young boy who was in its view an acceptable casualty in their war against the President."

Legendary lawyer Alan Dershowitz, currently a Felix Frankfurter professor of law, emeritus, at Harvard Law School, told The Hill on Wednesday he agrees Sandmann is a private individual.

“This kid is not a public figure,” he told the website. “He didn’t choose to run for office, he’s a kid in school who is applying for colleges and his reputation has been diminished in the eyes of some, and I think you have to distinguish between a high school kid and somebody who is the President of the United States, or a governor of a state or a justice of the Supreme Court.

Dershowitz added he believes Sandmann’s attorneys “have a significant case” and that he is “interested to see what the Post says and how it justifies reporting that turned out to be less than accurate.”

But if it came down to having to prove actual malice, then Sandmann’s legal team faces a tougher road, experts say.

“They got a big, big hurdle to overcome and that is the standard of proving actual knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth,” Frederick M. Lawrence, a distinguished lecturer at Georgetown Law and secretary and CEO of The Phi Beta Kappa Society, told Fox News.

“My hunch on this… even if [The Washington Post] got it wrong, they did not recklessly get it wrong and, as a result, they will prevail,” Lawrence added.

He compared discussion about the Covington lawsuit to the 1964 New York Times v. Sullivan case, in which, the Bill of Rights Institute says, the Supreme Court “held that the First Amendment protects newspapers even when they print false statements, as long as the newspapers did not act with ‘actual malice.’"

“The whole reason we have this heightened standard is this is not supposed to be a ‘tie goes to the runner’ proposition,” Lawrence told Fox News.

STATEMENTS OF OPINION VS. FACTS

Many celebrities wasted little time taking to the Internet to tear into the Covington students as the viral video circulated in January. A particular target was Sandmann, whom Maher on his HBO show labeled a “smirk-face kid.”

“I don’t blame the kid, the smirk-face kid. I blame lead poisoning and bad parenting. And, oh yeah, I blame the f---ing kid,” he said.

Others soon joined in on the criticism, with "Will and Grace" actress Debra Messing sharing an image of Sandmann with the caption “mocking, condescending, disrespecting, A—HOLE” and comedian Kathy Griffin urging her followers to “name these kids” and “shame them."

Only some of the celebs – such as film producer Jack Morrissey, who initially posted a gory cartoon with the caption “#MAGAkids go screaming, hats first, into the woodchipper” – issued apologies and deleted their messages.

McMurtry told Fox News that “certainly CNN and Bill Maher did things that we consider to have crossed the line."

“We think that the statements they made are defamatory, they’re not humorous and so certainly Bill Maher is somebody we are looking at very carefully and HBO for allowing him to make those defamatory statements,” he said.

However, if Sandmann’s attorneys pursue lawsuits against these organizations and other institutions similar to The Washington Post, what judges deem as fact and what they decide is opinion could end up making or breaking the case.

“Opinions are not statements of falsity,” Lawrence told Fox News. “If I say ‘my neighbor is a creep’ it may not be nice… but it’s an opinion.”

Ben Zipursky, a professor at Fordham Law School, also says defendants would likely raise questions as to whether the statements are defamatory at all, and that The Washington Post lawsuit might wade into the opinion vs. fact debate, too.

“Those are the kinds of issues that the Washington Post lawyers are going to want to push on early because they provide an opportunity to get rid of the case entirely,” he told Fox News.

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The newspaper, in its only comment so far on the lawsuit, said earlier last week it is “reviewing a copy of [it], and we plan to mount a vigorous defense.”

Ultimately, Wood says: “things have got to change and there has got to be accountability.”

Fox News' Lucia I. Suarez Sang contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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The Wider Image: China's start-ups go small in age of 'shoebox' satellites
LinkSpace’s reusable rocket RLV-T5, also known as NewLine Baby, is carried to a vacant plot of land for a test launch in Longkou, Shandong province, China, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

April 26, 2019

By Ryan Woo

LONGKOU, China (Reuters) – During initial tests of their 8.1-metre (27-foot) tall reusable rocket, Chinese engineers from LinkSpace, a start-up led by China’s youngest space entrepreneur, used a Kevlar tether to ensure its safe return. Just in case.

But when the Beijing-based company’s prototype, called NewLine Baby, successfully took off and landed last week for the second time in two months, no tether was needed.

The 1.5-tonne rocket hovered 40 meters above the ground before descending back to its concrete launch pad after 30 seconds, to the relief of 26-year-old chief executive Hu Zhenyu and his engineers – one of whom cartwheeled his way to the launch pad in delight.

LinkSpace, one of China’s 15-plus private rocket manufacturers, sees these short hops as the first steps towards a new business model: sending tiny, inexpensive satellites into orbit at affordable prices.

Demand for these so-called nanosatellites – which weigh less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and are in some cases as small as a shoebox – is expected to explode in the next few years. And China’s rocket entrepreneurs reckon there is no better place to develop inexpensive launch vehicles than their home country.

“For suborbital clients, their focus will be on scientific research and some commercial uses. After entering orbit, the near-term focus (of clients) will certainly be on satellites,” Hu said.

In the near term, China envisions massive constellations of commercial satellites that can offer services ranging from high-speed internet for aircraft to tracking coal shipments. Universities conducting experiments and companies looking to offer remote-sensing and communication services are among the potential domestic customers for nanosatellites.

A handful of U.S. small-rocket companies are also developing launchers ahead of the expected boom. One of the biggest, Rocket Lab, has already put 25 satellites in orbit.

No private company in China has done that yet. Since October, two – LandSpace and OneSpace – have tried but failed, illustrating the difficulties facing space start-ups everywhere.

The Chinese companies are approaching inexpensive launches in different ways. Some, like OneSpace, are designing cheap, disposable boosters. LinkSpace’s Hu aspires to build reusable rockets that return to Earth after delivering their payload, much like the Falcon 9 rockets of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

“If you’re a small company and you can only build a very, very small rocket because that’s all you have money for, then your profit margins are going to be narrower,” said Macro Caceres, analyst at U.S. aerospace consultancy Teal Group.

“But if you can take that small rocket and make it reusable, and you can launch it once a week, four times a month, 50 times a year, then with more volume, your profit increases,” Caceres added.

Eventually LinkSpace hopes to charge no more than 30 million yuan ($4.48 million) per launch, Hu told Reuters.

That is a fraction of the $25 million to $30 million needed for a launch on a Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Pegasus, a commonly used small rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a high-flying aircraft and is not reusable.

(Click https://reut.rs/2UVBjKs to see a picture package of China’s rocket start-ups. Click https://tmsnrt.rs/2GIy9Bc for an interactive look at the nascent industry.)

NEED FOR CASH

LinkSpace plans to conduct suborbital launch tests using a bigger recoverable rocket in the first half of 2020, reaching altitudes of at least 100 kilometers, then an orbital launch in 2021, Hu told Reuters.

The company is in its third round of fundraising and wants to raise up to 100 million yuan, Hu said. It had secured tens of millions of yuan in previous rounds.

After a surge in fresh funding in 2018, firms like LinkSpace are pushing out prototypes, planning more tests and even proposing operational launches this year.

Last year, equity investment in China’s space start-ups reached 3.57 billion yuan ($533 million), a report by Beijing-based investor FutureAerospace shows, with a burst of financing in late 2018.

That accounted for about 18 percent of global space start-up investments in 2018, a historic high, according to Reuters calculations based on a global estimate by Space Angels. The New York-based venture capital firm said global space start-up investments totaled $2.97 billion last year.

“Costs for rocket companies are relatively high, but as to how much funding they need, be it in the hundreds of millions, or tens of millions, or even just a few million yuan, depends on the company’s stage of development,” said Niu Min, founder of FutureAerospace.

FutureAerospace has invested tens of millions of yuan in LandSpace, based in Beijing.

Like space-launch startups elsewhere in the world, the immediate challenge for Chinese entrepreneurs is developing a safe and reliable rocket.

Proven talent to develop such hardware can be found in China’s state research institutes or the military; the government directly supports private firms by allowing them to launch from military-controlled facilities.

But it’s still a high-risk business, and one unsuccessful launch might kill a company.

“The biggest problem facing all commercial space companies, especially early-stage entrepreneurs, is failure” of an attempted flight, Liang Jianjun, chief executive of rocket company Space Trek, told Reuters. That can affect financing, research, manufacturing and the team’s morale, he added.

Space Trek is planning its first suborbital launch by the end of June and an orbital launch next year, said Liang, who founded the company in late 2017 with three other former military technical officers.

Despite LandSpace’s failed Zhuque-1 orbital launch in October, the Beijing-based firm secured 300 million yuan in additional funding for the development of its Zhuque-2 rocket a month later.

In December, the company started operating China’s first private rocket production facility in Zhejiang province, in anticipation of large-scale manufacturing of its Zhuque-2, which it expects to unveil next year.

STATE COMPETITION

China’s state defense contractors are also trying to get into the low-cost market.

In December, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) successfully launched a low-orbit communication satellite, the first of 156 that CASIC aims to deploy by 2022 to provide more stable broadband connectivity to rural China and eventually developing countries.

The satellite, Hongyun-1, was launched on a rocket supplied by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the nation’s main space contractor.

In early April, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALVT), a subsidiary of CASC, completed engine tests for its Dragon, China’s first rocket meant solely for commercial use, clearing the path for a maiden flight before July.

The Dragon, much bigger than the rockets being developed by private firms, is designed to carry multiple commercial satellites.

At least 35 private Chinese companies are working to produce more satellites.

Spacety, a satellite maker based in southern Hunan province, plans to put 20 satellites in orbit this year, including its first for a foreign client, chief executive Yang Feng told Reuters.

The company has only launched 12 on state-produced rockets since the company started operating in early 2016.

“When it comes to rocket launches, what we care about would be cost, reliability and time,” Yang said.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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German drug and crop chemical maker Bayer holds annual general meeting
Werner Baumann, CEO of German pharmaceutical and chemical maker Bayer AG, attends the annual general shareholders meeting in Bonn, Germany, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

April 26, 2019

By Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger

BONN (Reuters) – Bayer shareholders vented their anger over its stock price slump on Friday as litigation risks mount from the German drugmaker’s $63 billion takeover of seed maker Monsanto.

Several large investors said they will not support aspirin investor Bayer’s management in a key vote scheduled for the end of its annual general meeting.

Bayer’s management, led by chief executive Werner Baumann, could see an embarrassing plunge in approval ratings, down from 97 percent at last year’s AGM, which was held shortly before the Monsanto takeover closed in June.

A vote to ratify the board’s actions features prominently at every German AGM. Although it has no bearing on management’s liability, it is seen as a key gauge of shareholder sentiment.

“Due to the continued negative development at Bayer, high legal risks and a massive share price slump, we refuse to ratify the management board and supervisory board’s actions during the business year,” Janne Werning, representing Germany’s Union Investment, a top-20 shareholder, said in prepared remarks.

About 30 billion euros ($34 billion) have been wiped off Bayer’s market value since August, when a U.S. jury found the pesticide and drugs group liable because Monsanto had not warned of alleged cancer risks linked to its weedkiller Roundup.

Bayer suffered a similar defeat last month and more than 13,000 plaintiffs are claiming damages.

Bayer is appealing or plans to appeal the verdicts.

Deutsche Bank’s asset managing arm DWS said shareholders should have been consulted before the takeover, which was agreed in 2016 and closed in June last year.

“You are pointing out that the lawsuits have not been lost yet. We and our customers, however, have already lost something – money and trust,” Nicolas Huber, head of corporate governance at DWS, said in prepared remarks for the AGM.

He said DWS would abstain from the shareholder vote of confidence in the executive and non-executive boards.

Two people familiar with the situation told Reuters this week that Bayer’s largest shareholder, BlackRock, plans to either abstain from or vote against ratifying the management board’s actions.

Asset management firm Deka, among Bayer’s largest German investors, has also said it would cast a no vote.

Baumann said Bayer’s true value was not reflected in the current share price.

“There’s no way to make this look good. The lawsuits and the first verdicts weigh heavily on our company and it’s a concern for many people,” he said, adding it was the right decision to buy Monsanto and that Bayer was vigorously defending itself.

This month, shareholder advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis recommended investors not to give the executive board their seal of approval.

(Reporting by Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Source: OANN

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Sudan’s military, which ousted President Omar al-Bashir after months of protests against his 30-year rule, says it intends to keep the upper hand during the country’s transitional period to civilian rule.

The announcement is expected to raise tensions with the protesters, who demand immediate handover of power.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, which is spearheading the protests, said Friday the crowds will stay in the streets until all their demands are met.

Shams al-Deen al-Kabashi, the spokesman for the military council, said late Thursday that the military will “maintain sovereign powers” while the Cabinet would be in the hands of civilians.

The protesters insist the country should be led by a “civilian sovereign” council with “limited military representation” during the transitional period.

The army toppled and arrested al-Bashir on April 11.

Source: Fox News World

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FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture
FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of a displayed Huawei and 5G network logo in this illustration picture, March 30, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

April 26, 2019

By Charlotte Greenfield

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – China’s Huawei Technologies said Britain’s decision to allow the firm a restricted role in building parts of its next-generation telecoms network was the kind of solution it was hoping for in New Zealand, where it has been blocked from 5G plans.

Britain will ban Huawei from all core parts of 5G network but give it some access to non-core parts, sources have told Reuters, as it seeks a middle way in a bitter U.S.-China dispute stemming from American allegations that Huawei’s equipment could be used by Beijing for espionage.

Washington has also urged its allies to ban Huawei from building 5G networks, even as the Chinese company, the world’s top producer of telecoms equipment, has repeatedly said the spying concerns are unfounded.

In New Zealand, a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network that includes the United States, the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) in November turned down an initial request from local telecommunication firm Spark to include Huawei equipment in its 5G network, but later gave the operator options to mitigate national security concerns.

“The proposed solution in the UK to restrict Huawei from bidding for the core is exactly the type of solution we have been looking at in New Zealand,” Andrew Bowater, deputy CEO of Huawei’s New Zealand arm, said in an emailed statement.

Spark said it has noted the developments in Britain and would raise it with the GCSB.

The reports “suggest the UK is following other European jurisdictions in taking a considered and balanced approach to managing supplier-related security risks in 5G”, Andrew Pirie, Spark’s corporate relations lead, said in an email.

“Our discussions with the GCSB are ongoing and we expect that the UK developments will be a further item of discussion between us,” Pirie added.

New Zealand’s minister for intelligence services, Andrew Little, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday that he would report to parliament the conclusions of a government review of the 5G supply chain once they had been taken.

He added that the disclosure of confidential discussions on the role of Huawei was “unacceptable” and that he could not rule out a criminal investigation into the leak.

The decisions by Britain and Germany to use Huawei gear in non-core parts of 5G network makes it harder to prove Huawei should be kept out of New Zealand telecommunication networks, said Syed Faraz Hasan, an expert in communication engineering and networks at New Zealand’s Massey University

He pointed out Huawei gear was already part of the non-core 4G networks that 5G infrastructure would be built on.

“Unless there is a convincing argument against the Huawei devices … it is difficult to keep them away,” Hasan said.

(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The logo commodities trader Glencore is pictured in Baar
FILE PHOTO: The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company’s headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Glencore shares plunged the most in nearly four months on Friday after news overnight that U.S. regulators were investigating whether the miner broke some rules through “corrupt practices”.

Shares of the FTSE 100 company fell as much as 4.2 percent in early deals, and were down 3.5 percent at 310.25 pence by 0728 GMT.

On Thursday, Glencore said the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating whether the company and its units have violated some provisions of the Commodity ExchangeAct and/or CFTC Regulations.

(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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