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Fed’s Mester says she favors slower balance sheet trimming

Loretta Mester, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, speaks during an interview in Manhattan, New York
Loretta Mester, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, speaks during an interview in Manhattan, New York, U.S., August 15, 2017. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

February 19, 2019

By Jason Lange

NEWARK, Del. (Reuters) – Cleveland Federal Reserve President Loretta Mester on Tuesday said she favored slowing down the U.S. central bank’s unwinding of its bond holdings this year although she thinks the economy might need higher interest rates.

Mester, who has long favored higher rates, said the Fed has time to assess how the economy is doing before tightening borrowing conditions.

But she said the time was nearing when the Fed should slow down the pace at which the Fed reduces its bond holdings.

“If I were making the decision on my own, I would need slowing,” she said while speaking on a panel at an event at the University of Delaware.

The Fed’s balance sheet ballooned to over $4 trillion in the wake of the 2007-09 recession but policymakers began trimming its bond holdings in the final months of 2017.

Fed Governor Lael Brainard said earlier this month she supported ending the unwinding process this year.

Mester does not have a vote on the Fed’s policy-setting committee this year although she participates in the central bank’s deliberations. She said she would prefer the Fed only hold Treasury securities, and would favor a portfolio weighted toward shorter-term maturities.

Mester has supported the Fed’s recent shift to a wait-and-see stance on rate policy. The Fed, in its policy statement last month, removed guidance on whether its next move was likely to be raising or lowering rates.

“Monetary policy does not appear to be far behind or far ahead of the curve,” Mester said in a speech at the event. “This environment gives us the opportunity to continue to gather information on the economy.”

Mester said the dropping of the guidance was part of the Fed’s shift to what she called more “normal” policy and made clear she still thinks the Fed’s next more is likely to be a tightening of borrowing conditions.

Mester said economic growth was likely to continue in 2019 albeit at a slower pace than last year and that job growth would also slow. She said inflation was likely to stay near the Fed’s 2 percent target.

“The fed funds rate may need to move a bit higher than current levels,” Mester said, adding that there were also risks to the outlook such as slower economic growth in Europe and China as well as ongoing trade negotiations between the United States and China.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Omar raises $830K for re-election despite Trump backlash

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, who's engaged in an intensifying feud with President Donald Trump, has raised nearly $830,000 in the first quarter for her re-election campaign, according to campaign finance reports filed this week.

The Minnesota Democrat — a Somali American and one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress — drew many out-of-state contributions and had just over $600,000 cash on hand as of March 31.

Omar won election in November to a reliably liberal Minneapolis-area seat. Her remarks in recent months on Israel and the power of Jewish influence in Washington have drawn intense criticism and accusations of anti-Semitism, and prompted speculation that she might face a primary challenge. But no challenger has emerged, and progressives across the country have rallied to her side.

Trump told KSTP-TV during a visit to Minnesota on Monday that he has no regrets about tweeting a video Friday that attacked her for remarks she made last month that supposedly offered a flippant description of the Sept. 11 attacks and the terrorists who killed nearly 3,000 people.

"Look, she's been very disrespectful to this country," Trump said. "She's been very disrespectful, frankly, to Israel.... She's got a way about her that's very, very bad, I think, for our country. I think she's extremely unpatriotic and extremely disrespectful to our country."

Neither Trump's tweet nor the video included Omar's full quote or the context. She told the Council on American-Islamic Relations on March 23 that many Muslims saw their civil liberties eroded after the Sept. 11 attacks and were tired of being treated as second-class citizens.

"CAIR was founded after 9/11, because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties," she said. While CAIR was founded in 1994, according to its website, its membership skyrocketed after the attacks.

Omar said Sunday that it's more than a rhetorical squabble and that lives, including hers, are at stake. She spoke after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she has taken steps to ensure Omar's safety. Pelosi also urged Trump to take down the video, but it was still in his Twitter feed Tuesday.

Source: Fox News National

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Take Five: Panic over? World markets themes for the week ahead

FILE PHOTO: People shop at Macy's Department store in New York
FILE PHOTO: People shop at Macy's Department store in New York City, U.S., March 11, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

April 5, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Following are the five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.

1/ THE I WORD

As the U.S. yield curve makes up its mind whether to invert or not, investors seeking reassurance that we are in a Goldilocks era of non-inflationary growth will get to scour two monthly price gauges this week.

On Wednesday, the Labor Department is expected to report that its March Consumer Price Index rose 0.3 percent on the month and 1.8 percent over the year – a reading that would reinforce subdued underlying inflation and validate the Fed’s almost about-face after four hikes last year.

CPI – a proxy for overall inflation that factors into cost of living adjustments for Social Security – rose 1.5 percent year to February, the smallest increase since September 2016. The latest reading of the Fed’s favorite inflation measure rose 1.8 percent in the year to January, below its 2 percent target.

Fed officials have started alluding to a new economic reality of slowish growth and little upward price pressure. Even as wages creep higher, improved productivity curbs firms’ costs.

Minutes of the March Fed policy meeting, to be released on Wednesday, will be cross checked for references to the new “patient” approach and “muted” inflation. The March producer price index, a glimpse of pipeline price pressures, is scheduled for Thursday.

For a graphic on U.S. Core CPI and PCE, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2CYPJ1h

2/ MARIO TO THE RESCUE

Just a month since the European Central Bank put plans to normalize policy on hold and delayed a rate hike into 2020, further signs of weakness in the economy and a whiff of panic among investors puts the spotlight back on the central bank.

A woeful set of German industrial orders data this week pushed German Bund yields back into negative territory and though a U.S.-China trade deal could be in sight, it looks like difficult times ahead for Europe.

No policy changes are expected at Wednesday’s ECB meeting, especially since some board members are traveling to Washington for the International Monetary Fund’s spring meetings.

But talk of tiered rates to ease pressure on banks, global recession fears, Brexit, and a sense of panic that has pushed 10-year German bond yields back below zero percent, all suggest ECB chief Mario Draghi’s news conference may prove lively.

Investors will also keep an eye out for further details on cheap loans known as the targeted long-term refinancing operations (TLTROs) — one of the few policy tools left in the kit after the end of QE — and what the ECB will do to incentivize banks to take it up.

For a graphic on German Bund yields hover around zero, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2HYkJ5L

3/ WATCH YOUR CHINA

An unexpected recovery in China factory activity surveys offered investors a glimmer of hope the stimulus injected in one of the world’s major growth engines may be yielding results.

Trade data due out on Friday could provide the next clue that could help investors regain confidence as they gauge whether the slowdown is bottoming out.

That said, the recovery remains feeble and analysts believe it is still highly-dependent on how the trade negotiations with Washington go.

Markets took some hope from an announcement by U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday that Washington and Beijing could announce a trade deal within four weeks while Chinese President Xi Jinping was reported as saying progress was being made. But Trump also warned Beijing it would be difficult to allow trade to continue without a pact.

Many believe the Chinese economy may still need more stimulus either way. Looking at the pattern of past decisions by the People’s Bank of China, a decision to cut bank reserve requirements may be announced by mid-April, economists say.

For a graphic on China reserve requirement ratios and the yuan, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2CXO8c7

4/ THE LONG GOODBYE

After British Prime Minister Theresa May’s request to the European Council to delay Brexit until up to June 30, focus now shifts to a meeting next week where EU leaders will discuss a proposal to offer Britain a flexible extension of up to a year.

After the British parliament failed to approve a withdrawal agreement, May started talks this week with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the hope of breaking the Brexit deadlock, but markets are not getting too excited about it.

While one-month risk reversals for the pound, a gauge of demand for the British currency in the derivatives market, have rebounded from a 2-1/2 year low hit last month, they still remained far below levels seen earlier this year, indicating overall sentiment remained bearish.

Implied volatility measures also indicated caution with one-month gauges for the pound remaining elevated despite a dip this week compared to the euro and the Japanese yen.

For a graphic on GBP implied vol curve, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2WNbJUi

5/ IS IT SPRING YET?

It is that time of year, when central bank governors, finance ministers, policy makers and investors from around the globe gather in Washington for the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. A Group of 20 central bankers and finance ministers meeting takes place on the sidelines.

There is no shortage of topics to talk about. Concerns over the health of the global economy amid trade wars and other political uncertainties such as Brexit have sent jitters through markets.

Major central banks’ efforts to navigate their way back to normal after years of low interest rates and easy money following the 2008 financial crisis have not been without bumps. Central bank independence has been questioned in many countries.

Speaking in the run up to the gathering of the great and good of policy making and finance, IMF chief Christine Lagarde has called the outlook for growth “precarious” and warned that years of high public debt and low interest rates over the past decade have left many countries with limited room to act when the next downturn arrives.

For a graphic on IMF April Outlook, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2WL1ekz

(Reporting by Karin Strohecker, Abhinav Ramnarayan and Saikat Chatterjee in London, Alden Bentley in New York and Marius Zaharia in Hong Kong; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

Source: OANN

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Americans arrested in Haiti with weapons: media

A man rides a bike in front of a main Haitian police station, where a group of foreign nationals including Americans are detained after finding them armed with semi-automatic weapons after a week of anti-government protests in Port-au-Prince
A man rides a bike in front of a main Haitian police station, where according to local media a group of foreign nationals including Americans armed with semi-automatic weapons were detained, after anti-government protests, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, February 18, 2019. REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado

February 18, 2019

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – Haitian police arrested a group of foreign nationals including Americans armed with semi-automatic weapons, Haitian newspapers reported on Monday, adding to uncertainty in the poor Caribbean country after more than a week of anti-government protests.

Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste reported that seven foreigners and a Haitian were in the group that was picked up by the police on Sunday night. Police found rifles, pistols, drones and satellite phones in their vehicle, the paper said.

Other media said several of the men were U.S. citizens and one was Serbian.

Since Feb. 7, thousands of demonstrators have called for President Jovenel Moise to resign and for an independent probe into the whereabouts of funds from the PetroCaribe agreement, an alliance between Caribbean countries and OPEC member Venezuela.

(Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Tom Brown)

Source: OANN

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Officer fired for seeking sex in Arkansas now in Mississippi

A Mississippi state board is reviewing a police officer's professional certification after WMC-TV raised questions about his firing in Arkansas for behavior described as "grossly unprofessional."

Roderick Brown Jr. was fired in 2017 in Forrest City, Arkansas, because an investigation showed he tried to extort sex from women while on duty, the television station reported. He's now a police sergeant in the north Mississippi town of Holly Springs.

A May 2017 termination letter from Forrest City says body camera recordings supported a woman's claim that Brown sought sex in exchange for leniency when he arrested her. The letter says two other women earlier accused Brown of inappropriate comments and sexual advances while on duty in exchange for help.

Brown was found to have violated department policies including intimidation, harassment and compromising criminal cases.

He surrendered his law enforcement certification in Arkansas in October after Forrest City asked for a decertification hearing.

Holly Springs officials and Brown referred requests for comment to the city's attorney, who hasn't responded.

Mississippi's Board on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Training says it's reviewing Brown's certification.

Brown previously worked as a police officer in the Arkansas towns of Marianna and Gallaway. He resigned as interim chief in Gallaway after an "employee warning" about overtime management.

It's unclear when Brown went to work in Holly Springs, but a Facebook post shows he was promoted to sergeant in April 2018.

Forrest City's police chief said Holly Springs never called to check Brown's background.

___

Information from: WMC-TV, http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/

Source: Fox News National

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Democrats Outraged a Terrorist Can’t Vote

But if that is really true, why are they working so hard to sabotage their own chances of replacing him? Why are Democrats suddenly saying things that would guarantee Trump's re-election as president?

In just the past few months, Democrats have said things that are so out of the mainstream that it is very hard to imagine voters will back them. On Monday night on CNN, Bernie Sanders, the frontrunner, endorsed allowing felons who are currently behind bars to vote.

"If somebody commits a serious crime -- sexual assault, murder -- they are going to be punished. They may be in jail for 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, their whole lives. That is what happens when you commit a serious crime," he said. "But I think the right to vote is inherent to our democracy. Yes, even for terrible people."

"Terrible people." So how terrible is Sanders talking about? Cannibals? Convicted spies? How about terrorists who kill children? Oh, yes, said Bernie Sanders, they should get to vote, too. Unlike the First or Second amendments, that is in the Constitution.

Sen. Kamala Harris seemed to initially agree with that in an interview with CNN's Don Lemon, saying, "I think we should have that conversation" about allowing prisoners to vote.

Okay, let's have a conversation. Best to do it right now, actually, because whenever the left tells you they want a conversation about something, you can be certain that any dissent on that subject will be banned a year from now. In 2020, questioning whether imprisoned terrorists should vote could earn you a trip to the HR department and a lifetime ban from PayPal and Twitter.

So while we still can, consider the story of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Tsarnaev first came to the United States, you'll remember, on a tourist visa with the rest of his family from Kyrgyzstan. All of them promptly claimed asylum here, and they were given it. Over time, the Tsarnaevs collected more than $100,000 in taxpayer-financed government benefits.

In 2012, Tsarnaev received U.S. citizenship. And less than a year later, he murdered three people and maimed hundreds with a pressure cooker bomb at the Boston Marathon. Now, he is on death row.

So Democrats hear that story, and they feel outraged. It's not that immigrants repaid our generosity with a terror attack -- that might bother you, but it doesn't bother them. The injustice they are enraged by is that a convicted terrorist might not be allowed to help pick our next president. That is outrageous, in their view.

It's just the kind of institutionalized bigotry that Kyrgyzstani refugees like the Tsarnaevs have faced historically in this country. Maybe they need reparations, too. They definitely need a voice.

So do the convicts of West Feliciana Parish, La.. Of the 15,000 people who live in that parish, fully one-third of them are inmates at the maximum-security Angola State Prison Farm. They are the single largest bloc of voters in the area.

According to Bernie Sanders, this is bad because they are being denied democracy. That is racist and once Bernie Sanders is president, they will be able to elect the city council and the sheriff, maybe the warden, too. That is the kind of "progress" we are talking about here.

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Trump declares ‘Russia hoax’ dead, rips Democrats and FBI at Michigan rally as he eyes 2020 3.29.19 #MagaFirstNews with @PeterBoykin

Trump declares 'Russia hoax' dead, rips Democrats and FBI at Michigan rally as he eyes 2020 3.29.19 #MagaFirstNews with @PeterBoykin TRUMP VICTORY LAP: President Trump, fired-up in his first major rally since Special Counsel Robert Mueller cleared him of any collusion with Russia, ripped the FBI and Democrats and accused his political foes of trying to defraud the public with "ridiculous bulls--t" ... Declaring the "Russia hoax" dead, Trump predicted that the ... See More former Department of Justice and FBI officials who pushed the collusion theory and authorized secret surveillance warrants against members of his campaign would soon have "big problems." TRUMP CAN'T WAIT TO CAMPAIGN AGAINST AOC'S GREEN NEW DEAL: At his rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., Thursday night, President Trump also took the time to mock the Democrats' Green New Deal in perhaps a preview of his 2020 re-election campaign ..."I'd rather not talk about it tonight, Trump told his audience, "because I don't want to talk them out of it too soon. Because I love campaigning against the Green New Deal. I want them to make that a big part of their platform."

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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)

Source: OANN

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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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