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Czech PM says government plans digital tax on multinationals: Lidove Noviny

Extraordinary European Union leaders summit in Brussels
Czech Republic's Prime Minister Andrej Babis arrives at an extraordinary European Union leaders summit to discuss Brexit, in Brussels, Belgium April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman

April 13, 2019

PRAGUE (Reuters) – The Czech government is planning to prop up state budget revenues by introducing a special tax on multinationals, Prime Minister Andrej Babis was quoted by a daily newspaper as saying on Saturday.

Its central budget plans for this year and next show expected deficits of 40 billion crowns ($1.76 billion), or 0.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), a year, versus a broadly even balance or surpluses in recent years.

Weaker growth is forcing the center-left government to cut spending and find new income to reach that goal.

“We will implement a digital tax for multinational firms which do business in the Czech Republic but don’t reside here,” Babis said in an interview published by the daily Lidove Noviny.

Babis did not name any company that would be affected by the tax or say at what level it should be set, as this was still being negotiated with Finance Minister Alena Schillerova.

The government is also looking for savings after the Finance Ministry cut the GDP outlook for the coming years.

It even signaled that the country may see its public finances – which include the central and regional budgets, plus other funds – plunge into deficit for the first time since 2015.

(Reporting by Robert Muller; Editing by Jan Harvey)

Source: OANN

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Canadian conservative stars cast shadow over Trudeau rival’s hopes

FILE PHOTO: Supporters react to polling results at the UCP election night headquarters in Calgary
FILE PHOTO: Supporters react to polling results at the United Conservative Party (UCP) provincial election night headquarters in Calgary, Alberta, Canada April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Wattie/File Photo

April 22, 2019

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Right-leaning Canadian politicians have won important elections over the last year, but it may do Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau more good in October’s national vote than his little-known Conservative Party challenger.

Andrew Scheer, 39, has struggled to become a household name since taking over as leader of the federal Conservatives in 2017, a problem not shared by the telegenic Trudeau, whose father led the country for more than 15 years.

Last week, Alberta’s United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney, a former federal minister, won a landslide victory in the energy-rich province.

Kenney’s election follows that of Ontario populist firebrand Doug Ford, who ended 15 years of Liberal rule in the country’s most populous province in 2018.

While those victories signal that conservative momentum is building, the experienced and better-known Kenney and Ford could steal Scheer’s thunder as he tries to make himself more widely known ahead of the Oct. 21 election.

“Andrew Scheer is not the conservative leader. Andrew Scheer may be leader of the federal Conservative Party of Canada, (but) the conservative leaders are Jason Kenney and Doug Ford,” said Duane Bratt, a political science professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary.

Though Scheer has experience in Ottawa, his role as speaker of the House of Commons from 2011 to 2015 was a back-room job which required him to be impartial and did not allow him to build up a public image. Kenney, on the other hand, was a high-profile Cabinet minister from 2008 to 2015.

Ford is the Canadian politician most-often compared to U.S. President Donald Trump, and he has not shied away from pushing controversial policies – like cutting spending on healthcare and education – that likely would not help Scheer in a national fight.

Damaged by a scandal over allegations of interference in a corporate corruption case, Trudeau, 47, is trailing Scheer in the polls and risks becoming the first prime minister since the 1930s to lose power after a single majority mandate.

Liberal insiders say Trudeau might prefer to turn the campaign into a fight against Ford and Kenney, which would shift attention away from Scheer while linking the Conservatives to right-wing policies associated with Trump, who is deeply unpopular in Canada.

“Conservative politicians like Doug Ford don’t seem to believe in investing for the future … sadly, Andrew Scheer takes his cues from the Ontario premier on a whole host of fronts,” Trudeau said at a Liberal rally last Friday.

“Trudeau can run against Trumpism with (Kenney and Ford) as the embodiment of Trumpism in Canada, and he can be the champion of Canadian values,” said Peter Donolo, who was a spokesman for former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

One well-placed Conservative said another challenge was that Scheer’s affable personality and ability to connect with people in a room did not always translate onto the big screen. Instead, he can sometimes come across as flustered.

Scheer’s chief spokesman Brock Harrison dismissed such concerns, saying he was happy with efforts to cut the recognition gap with Trudeau.

“The leader of the opposition is never going to be a household name until they become the prime minister of Canada,” Harrison said in a phone interview.

“We feel like we’ve done everything we need to do, or that we should be doing, to increase his profile.”

While Kenney and Ford would not formally be involved in campaign planning, they were likely to make appearances as part of a Conservative push against Trudeau’s plan to fight climate change by imposing a carbon tax, Harrison added.

Jonathan Malloy, a political science professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, said that while Kenney’s election last week showed conservative support was getting stronger, Scheer still does not grab the public imagination.

“There isn’t a huge groundswell of personal following for him,” Malloy said.

(Additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa; Editing by Steve Scherer and Paul Simao)

Source: OANN

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Hyundai Motor first-quarter net profit up 24 percent; beats forecast

FILE PHOTO: A Hyundai Motor's booth is seen near the Pyeongchang Olympic Plaza in Pyeongchang
FILE PHOTO: A Hyundai Motor's booth is seen near the Pyeongchang Olympic Plaza in Pyeongchang, South Korea, February 11, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji/File Photo

April 24, 2019

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s Hyundai Motor <005380.KS> posted a 24 percent rise in net profit for the January-to-March quarter on improving sales at home and the United States, although weak business in China reined in the pace of growth.

Hyundai Motor posted a first-quarter net profit of 829 billion won ($721.81 million), versus 668 billion won a year earlier. This was above an average estimate of 758 billion profit from 15 analysts, according to I/B/E/S Refinitiv data.

Its operating profit rose 21 percent to 825 billion won, while its revenue was up 7 percent to 23.99 trillion won.

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Christopher Cushing)

Source: OANN

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Sri Lanka’s wartime defense chief to give up U.S. citizenship

Sri Lanka's former defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa greets his supporters after his return from the United States, in Katunayake
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 12, 2019

By Shihar Aneez

COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s controversial former defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has launched legal proceedings to renounce his U.S. citizenship, he said on Friday, ahead of a probable candidacy in a presidential election.

Gotabaya, brother of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, oversaw the crushing of Tamil Tiger rebels a decade ago, but has faced accusations of war crimes, including extra judicial killings.

Soon after his return from a trip to the U.S., Gotabaya, who has citizenship of both the United States and Sri Lanka, told reporters he had begun the process with U.S. authorities.

“I went to the U.S. to initiate the legal process to renounce my U.S. citizenship. I have done it successfully,” said Gotabaya, who was welcomed home by hundreds of supporters gathered at the airport.

His spokesman, Milinda Rajapaksha, said Gotabaya was considering plans to run for president later this year.

But a possible obstacle to his political ambitions could prove to be lawsuits filed by activists seeking compensation for his alleged role in the civil war.

Gotabaya has rejected the accusations, ascribing a political motive to them.

The South Africa-based International Truth and Justice Project, in partnership with U.S. law firm Hausfeld filed a civil case in California this week 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 on April 4 in the same U.S. District Court in California for allegedly instigating and authorizing the extrajudicial killing of her father.

“I have been in the U.S. more than ten times. But these people never asked me for compensation. So this is done ahead of the presidential poll,” said Gotabaya.

Gotabaya and his brother Mahinda have rejected calls for an international probe into alleged war crimes in the final phase of the 26-year war.

(Reporting by Shihar Aneez; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Clarence Fernandez)

Source: OANN

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The Latest: Longest round of Afghan peace talks concludes

The Latest on peace talks in Qatar between the Taliban and the U.S. (all times local):

8:20 p.m.

The longest round of Afghanistan peace talks yet between the U.S. and the Taliban have ended in Qatar, with both sides saying progress has been made.

U.S. peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad tweeted Tuesday night that "conditions for peace have improved."

He added: "It's clear all sides want to end the war. Despite ups and downs, we kept things on track and made real strides."

The Taliban in a statement said "the conditions for #peace have improved."

Khalilzad said the two sides made two "draft agreements" on troop withdrawal and "counterterrorism assurances." He said he'd travel to Washington and consult with others.

The militant group said: "For now, both sides will deliberate over the achieved progress, share it with their respective leaderships and prepare for the upcoming meeting, the date of which shall be set by both negotiation teams."

___

Pakistan's foreign minister says "progress has been made" at ongoing peace talks in Qatar between the Taliban and the U.S. that have stretched over two weeks.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi spoke on Tuesday at a news conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Islamabad.

Qureshi didn't elaborate, though he added: "Pakistan has encouraged all factions within Afghanistan to sit together and have a meaningful intra-Afghan dialogue."

The talks between U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban representatives have gone on days longer than initially expected in Doha, the Qatari capital.

The U.S. had asked Pakistan to assist in its efforts to find a negotiated peace with the Taliban to end the longest war in American history.

The Taliban refuse to negotiate with Kabul, which isn't taking part in the Qatar talks.

Source: Fox News World

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Kim Jong-Un Departs For Hanoi As Second Meeting With Trump Looms

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un boarded his armored train on Saturday afternoon (around 5 pm local time, 8 am in London) and departed for Hanoi, where he will meet President Trump and a team of American diplomats during a two day summit beginning on Wednesday.

The summit will occur against a backdrop of detente with North Korea’s puppetmaster, China – though the uneasy trade truce could very well collapse between now and then, potentially complicating Trump’s negotiations with the Koreans.

Since Kim abruptly announced more than a year ago that he would consider surrendering his nuclear stockpiles, end his anxiety-provoking missile and nuclear tests, and seek an agenda of rapproachment with his southern capitalist neighbors, handing Trump his first major geopolitical “win”, intelligence analysts have warned that almost no progress has been made during their periodic negotiations with the Koreans.

The North, they have warned, has continued work on its nuclear program – Kim’s public shuttering of a nuclear facility last year was merely a charade. And at times, North Korean diplomats have failed to contain their frustrations with the US and warned that they would abandon their commitments unless the US agrees to gradually remove sanctions.

But Trump has brushed aside these concerns. Instead, he has gushed about he and Kim – whom he once derided as “rocket man” – have “fallen in love”, and joked that the North Korean economy will take off “like a rocket” once the negotiations have been completed. The president has even boasted about how his handling of North Korea earned him a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize (the nomination was reportedly submitted by Japanese leader Shinzo Abe), and that, if he had not been elected, the two countries “would be at war right now.”

Amid widespread skepticism about the North’s motives persists, former CIA official Andrew Kim said Friday during a talk at Stanford that Kim told then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo during a visit to Pyongyang last year that he didn’t want his children to “shoulder the burden” of nuclear weapons, Reuters reported.

“‘I’m a father and a husband. And I have children’,” Andrew Kim quoted the North Korean leader as telling Pompeo, when asked whether he was willing to end his nuclear program.

“‘And I don’t want my children to carry the nuclear weapon on their back their whole life.’ That was his answer,” Andrew Kim told a lecture on Friday at Stanford University’s Asia Pacific Research Center, where he is a visiting scholar.

In the US, North Korea has been out of the headlines for a while (the tensions from the summer of 2017, when Americans feared a war with the rogue state might be imminent, seem like a distant memory). But that doesn’t mean the second summit (following the “very successful”, as Trump described it, meeting in Singapore) can’t have an impact on markets and/or the national psyche.

Markets could latch on to any progress (perhaps movement toward formally ending the Korean War) as one more reason to cheer stocks higher. While signs of difficulty could be interpreted as a proxy for the US’s relationship with China (Trump said Friday that Beijing had been “very helpful” in the US’s dealings with North Korea).

Feel-good rhetoric aside, international sanctions are hampering the North Korean economy (though it continues to find ways, like clandestine at-sea oil shipments) to meet its basic needs. But unless something truly unexpected happens, with so much happening back home in the US next week (between Q4 GDP, Jerome Powell’s testimony and the approaching tariff deadline, to name a few), it’s unlikely that Trump’s second meeting with Kim will generate the same cycle-dominating headlines that their last meeting did.

That is, unless Trump accomplishes something that would be truly worthy of a Nobel Prize.


Thanks to a booming economy polls show Trump is still favored to win 2020. Paul Joseph Watson breaks down the path to keeping America great.

Source: InfoWars

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Acting ICE Director Vitiello: Border Situation In a Meltdown

The border security system is in a "meltdown" that is getting worse day-by-day as more immigrants pour in, acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Ron Vitiello said Thursday, while denying contentions from critics who call the matter a manmade crisis that's being overstated to politically benefit President Donald Trump.

"It is an absolute crisis down there," Vitiello told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "It has humanitarian aspects, border security aspects. This policy can't continue."

He noted that on Wednesday, Customs and Border Patrol reported that there are currently more than 12,000 people in custody.

"We're maxed out in ICE capacity and looking for more detention beds across the country," said Vitiello. "The system is overflowing. As an example, statistically nearly 130,000 families were released into the interior of the United States just since December of last year."

Vitiello said the nation's immigration laws must change for relief to occur, as because of court rulings, children or families can't be held while their immigration proceedings continue.

"If they're in detention while going through proceedings, if they get asylum, we welcome them; if not, then they get removed," said Vitiello."If you can cycle these cases fast enough, people will stop coming because there is no upside to it."

When Trump visits the border Friday, he'll see all resources that are in play, but he'll also see there is no way to legally address the "unbelievable flow" at the border without Congress acting, said Vitiello.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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FILE PHOTO: Naqvi Founder and Group Chief Executive of Abraaj Group attends the annual meeting of the WEF in Davos
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.

(Editing by Jane Merriman)

Source: OANN

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Former Vice President Joe Biden announces his 2020 candidacy
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)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The logo of Tesla is seen in Taipei
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.

(GRAPHIC: Tesla’s cash – https://tmsnrt.rs/2DyJjX6)

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)

Source: OANN

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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.

SWALWELL NOT CERTAIN TRUMP ISN’T A ‘RUSSIAN ASSET’

“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.

TRUMP ASSESSES 2020 DEMS; TAKES SWIPES AT BIDEN, SANDERS; DISMISSES HARRIS, O’ROURKE; SAYS HE’S ROOTING FOR BUTTIGIEG 

“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.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Ultimately, Huckabee argued, if Americans “took their partisan hats off,” they would see that President Trump was exonerated by the investigation.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Sri Lanka's former defense secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa greets his supporters after his return from the United States, in Katunayake
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)

Source: OANN

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