U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs to visit storm-hit areas of Alabama from the White House in Washington, U.S., March 8, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
March 13, 2019
By Alex Dobuzinskis
(Reuters) – Political grudges and racial animosity have divided students at U.S. high schools and President Donald Trump has exacerbated the problem with his rhetoric, a study released on Wednesday showed.
Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) surveyed 505 high school principals for the study. More than 60 percent of them reported some of their students had made derogatory remarks about immigrants.
More broadly, more than 80 percent of principals said some of their students had disparaged other ethnic groups.
The UCLA study is called “School and Society in the Age of Trump,” but its author said the Republican president is not solely responsible for tensions at secondary schools.
“The report is a story of this particular time, not narrowly a story of the actions of this one president, although this president’s actions contribute to it,” John Rogers, a professor of education at UCLA, said by phone.
A White House representative declined to comment.
The UCLA report described a charged environment at high schools, with most principals having to deal with students who make hateful or hostile remarks about other people’s ethnic background or political beliefs.
Groups of white students at some schools have chanted “Build the wall!” to demean students of color, according to accounts from several principals to researchers.
RISE IN HATE CRIMES
Those and other instances of racial hostility at high schools bear a resemblance to Trump’s rhetoric on immigration, the study said.
To bolster their contention that some hostility at schools is due to Trump’s positions, the study points to a 17 percent rise in hate crimes across American society in 2017, the first year of Trump’s presidency.
Some conservative students have also encountered venom from classmates.
Nearly half of principals told their students to respect students with unpopular political views, and one third emphasized the importance of tolerating the views of conservatives.
In Wisconsin, one principal reported a small group of his students arrived at school one day wearing Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” hats, which offended some liberal teenagers and led to a fistfight.
In another episode, some students in Connecticut made demeaning comments to a white student after she showed support for Trump, a principal told researchers, and the pupil felt her teacher did not defend her right to express herself.
The report also found high schools are affected by other social problems, such as opioid addiction and firearms violence.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
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FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., April 4, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
April 12, 2019
LONDON (Reuters) – Following are five big themes likely to dominate thinking of investors and traders in the coming week and the Reuters stories related to them.
1/BRACE, BRACE
The focus is on the hotly anticipated U.S. results: First-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to fall 2.5 percent on the year in what would be the first quarterly decline since 2016. But revenue is expected to rise 4.8 percent.
Those earnings will be crucial to see if the bull market can keep running. Some have argued the Federal Reserve’s patience on rate increases this year as well as stock buybacks will add fuel to the S&P’s rally. Also boosting the S&P 500 Index are the recent performance of the banks and financials, which had suffered more than the broader market in the fourth quarter, when recession fears scared investors away.
First out of the blocks was JPMorgan, which reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as higher interest income and gains in its advisory and debt underwriting business offset weakness in trading.
Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are all scheduled to release their results in days to come. Large banks have indicated that muted capital market activity at the start of the year caused by sluggish trading volumes will be a drag on overall results. Financials are expected to deliver 1.8 percent earnings growth, according to I/B/E/S Refinitiv.
Share performance may boil down to valuation. For the next 12 months, Goldman Sachs appears the cheapest, with investors paying $8.30 for every dollar in expected earnings, compared with $11.80 for Bank of New York Mellon. The former is the worst-performing stock over the last two years among U.S. banks.
For a graphic on First-Quarter Earnings, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2D73sU4
2/ARE YOU OK?
April manufacturing activity data will give a glimpse of the economic health of the United States and the euro zone. Chinese GDP data will provide an update on the health of the world’s second-largest economy.
Dismal March PMIs for the United States and euro zone sent shivers through markets. They were taken as ominous signs for the global economy as international trade tensions hurt factory output.
But robust factory data from Beijing offered hope that efforts to shore up China’s economy are kicking in, which injected further fuel to the global equity rally.
The IHS Markit flash Purchasing Managers’ Index due on April 18 should indicate if that optimism was justified — and if stocks have further upward momentum. China’s first-quarter GDP data is out on April 17.
Many investors say low expectations for first-quarter earnings, dovish central bank policies and hopes for Chinese stimulus and a trade truce between Washington and Beijing are largely priced into equity markets. With all that baked in and investors still scrambling for consensus on what happens over the rest of 2019, there’s a lot riding on that data.
For a graphic on PMI services, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2X3sX04
For a graphic on PMI manufacturing, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2VEEWR9
3/TRY-ING TIMES
For all the relief in emerging markets that the Federal Reserve doesn’t expect to raise interest rates anytime soon and that commodity prices are hot again, there are still the troublesome twosome: The Turkish lira and Argentine peso.
The peso has slumped to fresh lows in the past 10 days, although the International Monetary Fund’s unlocking a $10.8 billion tranche of funds helped the battered currency to regain some of its footing.
Meanwhile, nine weeks of losses in the last 10 have the lira sliding back toward six to the dollar, the level that set alarm bells ringing last year.
Ankara’s economic reform plans — announced on Wednesday — failed to impress markets and investor meetings with Finance Minister Berat Albayrak at the IMF and World Bank spring meetings did little to change that. Ankara’s row with Washington over plans to buy a Russian missile defense system and declines in its FX reserves have only added to the concern of investors still smarting from last month’s pre-election move to temporarily freeze the London lira market.
For a graphic on Lira volatility, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2X4U1vO
4/POLLS, PINS AND NEEDLES
The world’s largest and third-largest democracies are going to the polls. Indonesia holds parliamentary and presidential elections on April 17. India’s elections are spread over seven phases and 39 days.
Both countries face similar issues around anti-incumbency and flailing economic growth. Betting on continuity, investors have pumped money into their markets, driving up bonds and stocks.
Polls in Indonesia suggest President Joko Widodo, or Jokowi, who faces his opponent from 2014 once again, will not only win re-election but will also emerge with a stronger coalition. Indonesian markets have also always scored well in election years.
So it’s India that investors should be sweating over. Even if the February tensions with neighbor Pakistan have given Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his coalition an edge, the risks are that he will lose his majority and may cobble together a new partnership that could slow down reforms.
For a graphic on JKSE in election years, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2CFzUMY
5/TRUNCATED TRADING
It’s the start truncated trading – the first of four consecutive shortened trading weeks, as a series of public holidays in Europe begins with Easter. Japanese markets will also be closed for a string of holidays in late April.
The truncated weeks come just as volatility in financial markets has slumped. In equities, the VIX, known as the “fear index”, is close to its lowest levels since October. Foreign exchange price swings have fallen to their lowest for several years, according to the Deutsche Bank Currency Volatility Index.
Even the British pound, long the vent for Brexit-related angst, has turned increasingly calm — and traders are not expecting many big moves for sterling in the months ahead after this week’s six-month Brexit delay.
Caught between mixed economic data releases of recent weeks, a postponement to figuring out how Britain will extricate itself from the European Union until as late as October and elusive progress in the Sino-U.S. trade war have left markets treading water.
But with fewer traders at their desks on fewer days, the rest of April will see heightened risks of a spike in volatility, or even flash crashes, should a surprise hit markets just as calmness descends.
For a graphic on Market volatility, see – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DaIljM
(Reporting by Karin Strohecker, Tommy Wilkes and Marc Jones in London, Jennifer Ablan in New York, Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; editing by Larry King)
PRINCETON, W.Va. – A West Virginia man who told police he sexually abused a 3-year-old girl by accident must serve at least 50 years in prison before he is eligible for parole.
The Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports Mercer Circuit Court Judge Derek Swope on Tuesday noted problems the child could suffer later in life before sentencing 27-year-old Henry Vincent Bennett of Bluefield to 25 to 100 years for each of two first-degree sexual assault charges. A jury convicted Bennett of sexual assault and other charges last year.
Prosecutors said Bennett told detectives that he twice mistook the toddler for his wife after she climbed into his bed.
Bennett's lawyers said his admission to Bluefield police was coerced.
Swope says Bennet will be in prison "for the rest of his effective life."
___
Information from: Bluefield Daily Telegraph, http://www.bdtonline.com
Some of these are battles he should be engaging in, despite what much of the media say. And some are the kind he would be better off avoiding.
Take, for instance, Trump’s involvement in the decision to ground the Boeing plane that has been involved in two fatal crashes, the 737 Max 8.
The Washington Post says "it was extraordinary for a president to intervene in matters typically left to the FAA or the Department of Transportation." And the story quotes a former DOT secretary as saying Barack Obama was never involved in such safety decisions.
Rather than simply being briefed by the FAA, the Post reports, "Trump played an active role, participating in phone calls with Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg and other stakeholders, and offering his thoughts about the aviation industry."
I don't know about you, but that's what I would want a president doing — not substituting his judgment for that of the experts but taking a hands-on role in crisis management. Aviation safety is a crucial issue. And if a Max 8 had crashed in the U.S., Trump would have shouldered enormous political blame.
Now there's an argument to be made that the president waited too long to ground the planes, acting after other major industrialized countries. Maybe he was too solicitous toward Boeing. And maybe the FAA should have more tightly regulated the airline giant. Recent reports about Boeing dragging its feet on pilot training for the planes' new software — and a sensor that may have been sending the wrong signals to prevent stalling — suggest that the two crashes may have been avoidable.
But I'd argue Trump's personal involvement is a good thing.
I also have no problem with Trump doing what used to be called jawboning to keep auto jobs in America. But he's taking some flak for blaming the latest plant closure on the United Auto Workers.
After GM shut down a factory in Lordstown, Ohio, Trump tweeted: "Democrat UAW Local 1112 President David Green ought to get his act together and produce. G.M. let our Country down, but other much better car companies are coming into the U.S. in droves. I want action on Lordstown fast. Stop complaining and get the job done! 3.8% Unemployment!"
Trump said he also called GM's CEO, Mary Barra: "I am not happy that it is closed when everything else in our Country is BOOMING. I asked her to sell it or do something quickly. She blamed the UAW Union — I don't care, I just want it open!"
But ultimately this was a business decision (though not final) by the automaker, which is moving away from small sedans like the Chevrolet Cruze, made at that plant, in favor of bigger cars. The Lordstown plant workers agreed more than a decade ago that newly hired workers would be paid $20 an hour, not the standard $30. So the president's criticism seems like deflection.
And then there is John McCain. He and Trump couldn't stand each other. But Trump unloaded on him over the weekend, despite the fact that McCain died last August.
First, he lambasted the late Arizona senator for giving the uncorroborated Steele dossier to the FBI. Trump quoted Ken Starr as saying this was "unfortunately a very dark stain against John McCain." Trump added:
"He had far worse 'stains' than this, including thumbs down on repeal and replace after years of campaigning to repeal and replace!" And there was another shot against "'last in his class' (Annapolis) John McCain."
Those tweets prompted stinging personal criticism from McCain's former aides and from his daughter Meghan.
McCain, who often joked about being a poor student at the Naval Academy, was a controversial figure in the GOP. The onetime nominee was a maverick who often took on his own party, starting with George W. Bush. He did cast that late-night thumbs-down against abolishing ObamaCare, but that was the third repeal attempt that, if not for divisions among Republicans, would never have come down to one vote.
But whether Trump's grievances against McCain are justified is beside the point. He was a war hero who served his country for decades. He is no longer with us. Perhaps it's time for the president to let it go.
MOSCOW – An official of Russia's main criminal investigative body says it is probing allegations that its officers tortured members of the banned Jehovah's Witnesses.
The religious denomination says seven of its adherents were beaten, given electrical shocks and suffocated during interrogation this month at the Investigative Committee office in the city of Surgut. Russia banned the Jehovah's Witnesses in 2017, declaring the group an extremist organization.
The committee initially denied the torture claim. But the Interfax news agency on Friday cited regional committee official Oleg Menshikh as saying it had decided to probe the claim "given the agitation that has arisen after publication of this information in the media."
The torture claim came about a week after a Russian court sentenced a Danish Jehovah's Witness to six years in prison.
Michelle Obama was sipping wine as she watched the Notre Dame cathedral fires from a Paris dinner cruise, paparazzi photos appear to show.
In one photo of the Ducasse sur Seine dinner attended by the former First Lady, smoke clouds and the church inferno appear to reflect off her wine glass as she looks on.
“Michelle Obama enjoying the fire of Notre Dame on a Paris cruise sipping some fine champagne shows the decadence of our time…AMEN,” wrote Illuminati researcher and author Leo Zagami.
The river cruise, which sails the Seine River, was set to pass the historic cathedral, but the boat’s captain reportedly changed course when notified of the fire that evening, writes The Daily Mail.
TMZ also reported: “We’re told the boat’s captain ultimately made the decision to take a different route than planned for the cruise to avoid the Notre Dame fire… dinner was still served.”
An itinerary of the route taken by the Ducasse sur Seine dinner tour shows the cruise typically circles back to the Eiffel Tower boarding point near the cathedral.
Other Facebook users claimed the necklace worn by the First Lady during the event appears to say the word, “burning,” but it likely says, “Becoming,” since the First lady was in town for her book tour.
Obama later tweeted about her visit to Paris.
“Being here in Paris tonight, my heart aches with the people of France,” Obama wrote, adding, “Yet I know that Notre Dame will soon awe us again.”
The majesty of Notre Dame—the history, artistry, and spirituality—took our breath away, lifting us to a higher understanding of who we are and who we can be. Being here in Paris tonight, my heart aches with the people of France. Yet I know that Notre Dame will soon awe us again. https://t.co/p1mIDMbwe1
The photo was published in a UK Daily Mail article, which featured several photos from the celebrity news agency Backgrid. The article is archived, and the photo has also been saved.
FILE PHOTO: Arif Naqvi, Founder and Group Chief Executive of Abraaj Group attends the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, January 17, 2017. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich/File Photo
April 26, 2019
By Tom Arnold
LONDON (Reuters) – A London court case to extradite Arif Naqvi, founder of collapsed private equity firm Abraaj Group, to the United States on fraud charges was adjourned until May 24, a court official said on Friday.
Naqvi was remanded in custody until that date, the official said. A former managing partner of Dubai-based Abraaj, Sev Vettivetpillai, was released on conditional bail to appear again at Westminster Magistrates Court on June 12, the official said.
Under the U.S. charges, both men are accused of defrauding U.S. investors by inflating positions held by Abraaj in order to attract greater funds from them, causing them financial loss, the official said.
Vettivetpillai could not be reached for a comment.
Naqvi, in a statement released through a PR firm, has pleaded innocent.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleges that Naqvi and his firm raised money for the Abraaj Growth Markets Health Fund, collecting more than $100 million over three years from U.S.-based charitable organizations and other U.S. investors.
Naqvi and Vettivetpillai were arrested in Britain earlier this month. Another executive, Mustafa Abdel-Wadood was arrested at a New York hotel, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Griswold said at a hearing in Manhattan federal court on April 11.
Abdel-Wadood appeared at the Manhattan hearing and pleaded not guilty to securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy charges.
Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden announces his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination in this still image taken from a video released April 25, 2019. BIDEN CAMPAIGN HANDOUT via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES
April 26, 2019
By James Oliphant
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, in his first interview as a Democratic presidential candidate, said on Friday that he does not believe he treated law professor Anita Hill badly during the 1991 confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
Biden had joined the burgeoning 2020 Democratic field a day earlier.
Biden’s conduct during those hearings, when he was chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, became a renewed subject of controversy after the New York Times reported that Biden had called Hill earlier this month in the run-up to his presidential bid and that Hill was dissatisfied with Biden’s expression of regret.
Appearing on ABC’s “The View,” Biden largely defended his actions as a senator almost 30 years ago, saying he believed Hill’s allegations of sexual harassment levied at Thomas and tried to derail his confirmation.
Activists have long been unhappy that Hill was questioned in graphic detail by the all-white, all-male committee chaired by Biden.
“I’m sorry she was treated the way she was treated,” Biden said, but later, he asserted, “I don’t think I treated her badly. … How do you stop people from asking inflammatory questions?”
“There were a lot of mistakes made across the board and for those I apologize,” he said.
Biden praised Hill as “remarkable” and said she is “one of the reasons we have the #MeToo movement.”
Asked why he had not reached out to Hill earlier, Biden said he had previously publicly stated he had regrets about her treatment and that he “didn’t want to quote invade her space.”
That seemed to be a reference to another controversy that looms over Biden’s presidential run: allegations by several women that he made them uncomfortable by touching them at political events.
Biden also addressed that criticism, saying he was now more “cognizant” about a woman’s “private space.” But he maintained that he had been “trying to bring solace.”
He suggested he was still trying to sort out the guidelines for his conduct going forward.
“I should be able to read better,” he said. “I have to be more careful.”
Pressed by the show’s panel for an apology to his accusers, Biden would not entirely capitulate.
“So, I invaded your space,” he replied. “I mean, I’m sorry this happened. But I’m not sorry in a sense that I think I did anything that was intentionally designed to do anything wrong or be inappropriate.”
Biden, 76, served as former President Barack Obama’s vice president for two terms. He is competing with 19 others for the Democratic presidential nomination and the chance to likely face President Donald Trump next year in the general election.
His first public event as a presidential candidate is scheduled for Monday in Pittsburgh.
(Reporting by James Oliphant; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Tesla is seen in Taipei, Taiwan August 11, 2017. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo
April 26, 2019
By Noel Randewich
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Tesla Inc’s stock slumped over 4% on Friday to its lowest price in two years, rounding out a rough week that included worse-than-expected quarterly results and a pitch by Chief Executive Elon Musk on autonomous cars that failed to win over investors.
With investors betting Tesla will soon raise capital, the stock has fallen 13% for the week to its lowest level since January 2017, before the launch of the Model 3 sedan aimed at making the electric car maker profitable.
One positive development for Tesla: a U.S. District Court judge on Friday granted a request by Musk and the Securities and Exchange Commission for a second extension to resolve a dispute over Musk’s use of Twitter.
On Wednesday, Tesla posted a worse-than-expected loss of $702 million for the March quarter. Musk said Tesla would return to profit in the third quarter and that there was “some merit” to raising capital.
Musk is still battling to convince investors that demand for the Model 3, the company’s first car aimed at the mass consumer market, is “insanely” high, and that it can be delivered efficiently to customers around the world.
Tesla ended its first quarter with $2.2 billion, down from $3.7 billion in the prior quarter, and the company is planning expansions including a Shanghai factory, an upcoming Model Y SUV, and other projects.
On Monday, Musk hosted a self-driving event, where he predicted Tesla would have over a million autonomous vehicles by next year. Some analysts perceived the presentation as a way to deflect attention from questions about demand, margin pressure, increasing competition and even Musk’s ongoing battle with U.S. regulators.
Tesla’s stock has now fallen 29 percent in 2019 and the company’s market capitalization has declined to $41 billion from $63 billion in mid-December.
(GRAPHIC: Tesla’s declining market cap – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dwd62r)
Analysts now expect Tesla’s revenue to expand 19% in 2019, compared with 83% growth in 2018 and 68% growth in 2017, according to Refinitiv.
Following Tesla’s quarterly report, 12 analysts recommend selling the stock, while 11 recommend buying and eight are neutral. The median analyst price target is $275, up 16% from the stock’s current price of $236. Berenberg analyst Alexander Haissl has the most optimistic price target, at $500, while Cowen and Company’s Jeffrey Osborne has the lowest, at $160, according to Refinitiv.
(Reporting by Noel Randewich; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said Friday that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s rare public criticism of the Obama administration was a “soft” way of accusing the previous administration of covering up Russia’s attempts at hacking the 2016 presidential election.
While speaking Thursday in New York at the Public Servants Dinner of the Armenian Bar Association, Rosenstein said that the Obama administration “chose not to publicize the full story about Russian computer hackers and social media trolls and how they relate to Russia’s broader strategy to undermine America.”
During an appearance on “America’s Newsroom” Friday morning, Huckabee called the comments an “unusually candid moment for Rosenstein.”
“I thought it was a soft way of him saying there was a cover-up,” Huckabee said. “They knew the Russians were attempting to influence the election and attempting to hack the election but they didn’t fully disclose that to the American people and certainly didn’t disclose it to the Trump campaign.
“Instead they tried to set a trap for them. It failed. The Trump team did not take the bait. And that’s the one conclusion that we can certainly come away with from the $35 million worth of investigation,” Huckabee continued.
Next week, Attorney General William Barr will testify before Congress and is expected to answer questions about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of President Trump, which found that there was not adequate evidence to conclude that President Trump and his administration colluded with Russia, though the president could not be exonerated in terms of the possibility that he obstructed justice.
Barr will testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee next Wednesday and to the House Judiciary Committee the following day.
“It is going to be a theater, an absolute show,” Huckabee said of the hearings. “Just like the Kavanaugh hearings were and like everything else is in Congress. We ought to close the curtain on them and can’t come back until after the election. They aren’t doing their job anyway. We aren’t paying them because they’re doing a wonderful service to the country and spare us the hypocrisy of thinking they’re interested in getting to the bottom of the facts,” he continued.
Sri Lanka’s former defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa greets his supporters after his return from the United States, in Katunayake, Sri Lanka April 12, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte
April 26, 2019
By Sanjeev Miglani and Shihar Aneez
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s former wartime defense chief, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, said on Friday he would run for president in elections this year and would stop the spread of Islamist extremism by rebuilding the intelligence service and surveilling citizens.
Gotabaya, as he is popularly known, is the younger brother of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and the two led the country to a crushing defeat of separatist Tamil rebels a decade ago after a 26-year civil war.
More than 250 people were killed in bomb attacks on hotels and churches on Easter Sunday that the government has blamed on Islamist militants and that Islamic State has claimed responsibility for.
Gotabaya said the attacks could have been prevented if the island’s current government had not dismantled the intelligence network and extensive surveillance capabilities that he built up during the war and later on.
“Because the government was not prepared, that’s why you see a panic situation,” he said in an interview with Reuters.
Gotabaya said he would be a candidate “100 percent”, firming up months of speculation that he plans to run in the elections, which are due by December.
He was critical of the government’s response to the bombings. Since the attacks, the government has struggled to provide clear information about how they were staged, who was behind them and how serious the threat is from Islamic State to the country.
“Various people are blaming various people, not giving exactly the details as to what happened, even people expect the names, what organization did this, and how they came up to this level, that explanation was not given,” he said.
On Friday, President Maithripala Sirisena said the government led by premier Ranil Wickremesinghe should take responsibility for the attacks and that prior information warning of attacks was not shared with him.
Wickremesinghe said earlier he was not advised about warnings that came from India’s spy service either, presenting a picture of a government still in disarray since the two leaders fell out last October.
Gotabaya is facing lawsuits in the United States, where he is a dual citizen, over his role in the war and afterwards.
The South Africa-based International Truth and Justice Project, in partnership with U.S. law firm Hausfeld, filed a civil case in California this month against Gotabaya on behalf of a Tamil torture survivor.
In a separate case, Ahimsa Wickrematunga, the daughter of murdered investigative editor Lasantha Wickrematunga, filed a complaint for damages in the same U.S. District Court in California for allegedly instigating and authorizing the extrajudicial killing of her father.
Gotabaya said the cases were baseless and only a “little distraction” as he prepared for the election campaign. He said he had asked U.S. authorities to renounce his citizenship and that process was nearly done, clearing the way for his candidature.
‘DISMANTLE THE NETWORKS’
He said that if he won, his immediate focus would to be tackle the threat from radical Islam and to rebuild the security set-up.
“It’s a serious problem, you have to go deep into the groups, dismantle the networks,” he said, adding he would give the military a mandate to collect intelligence from the ground and to mount surveillance of groups turning to extremism.
Gotabaya said that a military intelligence cell he had set up in 2011 of 5,000 people, some of them with Arabic language skills and that was tracking the bent towards extremist ideology some of the Islamist groups were taking in eastern Sri Lanka was disbanded by the current government.
“They did not give priority to national security, there was a mix-up. They were talking about ethnic reconciliation, then they were talking about human rights issues, they were talking about individual freedoms,” he said.
President Sirisena’s government sought to forge reconciliation with minority Tamils and close the wounds of the war and launched investigations into allegations of rights abuse and torture against military officers.
Officials said many of these secret intelligence cells were disbanded because they faced allegations of abuse, including torture and extra judicial killings.
Muslims make up nearly 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s population of 22 million, which is predominantly Buddhist.
(Reporting by Sanjeev Miglani; Editing by Frances Kerry)
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