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Masters patrons a rare breed in wild world of sport

Golf patrons enjoy drinks and snacks during the final day of practice for the 2019 Master golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, U.S.
Golf patrons enjoy drinks and snacks during the final day of practice for the 2019 Master golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, U.S., April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Segar

April 11, 2019

By Frank Pingue

AUGUSTA Ga. (Reuters) – Augusta National patrons have proven for decades to be a different breed from fans at any other sporting event, providing a sort of golfing oasis for the world’s best players each year during the Masters.

At Augusta National, where the Masters began on Thursday after three heavily-attended practice days, one might have better luck booking a tee time at the exclusive course than finding anyone doing things like shouting out of line or using a cell phone.

Augusta National has essentially managed to maintain a remarkable sense of civility and respect among those attending the Masters, despite operating in a time where sporting events often produce excessive fan behavior.

“It’s quite refreshing to have everything in control,” said twice major champion Martin Kaymer of Germany. “You know what you are going to get here. It’s a very peaceful place.

“Everybody behaves perfectly fine, it’s very respectful and I think sometimes we miss that in sport. So that’s why it’s a good week to come to.”

Augusta National prides itself on tradition and while the club’s strictly-enforced rules may not make sense to everyone who attends the year’s biggest golfing event the list of no-nos are, for the most part, followed to a tee.

And so it is no surprise that the first page of the Masters Spectator Guide begins with a passage written by club co-founder Robert Jones in 1967 that addresses conduct, customs and etiquette.

“In golf, customs of etiquette and decorum are just as important as rules governing play,” Jones wrote, going on to add that “most distressing to those who love the game of golf is the applauding or cheering of misplays or misfortunes of a player.”

NO RUNNING

In many ways, Augusta National operates in a world of its own and has created an aura about itself that has appeared to permeate almost anyone who walks through its gates.

As such, you are unlikely to see people sprawled out on the course’s luscious grass, and if you do it will not be for long as they will quickly be asked to sit up properly. Running is also considered unacceptable.

“There’s something about Augusta National when someone walks through the gates, they know that it’s a place of respect, of beauty, and honoring traditions and values of the game,” said Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley.

“It’s something … I certainly hope never changes.”

One member of the media at this year’s Masters was asked to remove his New York Mets baseball cap while eating breakfast in the Press Building’s dining room.

Even 2018 Masters runner-up Rickie Fowler fell foul of the hat rule when, as a 22-year-old Masters rookie, he showed up to a 2011 news conference at Augusta National wearing his cap backwards until a club member asked him to turn it around.

When it comes to cell phones, they are prohibited on the course and violation of that rule will subject the ticket holder to removal from the grounds and the ticket purchaser to the permanent loss of credentials.

And gone are the random shouts of “mashed potato” directed at golfers the moment after hitting their tee shots during other PGA Tour events.

WELL-INFORMED PATRONS

At Augusta National, such behavior is mostly absent among a cast of spectators that competitors say are well-informed of the intricacies of the game, respective and reserved.

“If every week (on the PGA Tour) was like this week it would be awesome,” world number 10 Xander Schauffele told Reuters.

Those lucky enough to get tickets to the Masters do so not as a “fan” but as a “patron”, and while the difference in the two is mostly semantic it is one Augusta National is adamant about as it considers each attendee a valued customer.

So polite are the patrons that many arrive early to set up chairs at their preferred viewing areas and return hours later knowing their seat will still be there waiting for them.

“It’s a good thing,” former FedExCup champion Billy Horschel said when asked about what it is like knowing there will be little to no outside distraction while playing the Masters.

“Fans need to have fun but they need to understand that we are still trying to make a living for ourselves out here.”

(Reporting by Frank Pingue; Editing by Toby Davis)

Source: OANN

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Kim Jong Un fancies caviar, foie gras, lobster, had staff taste food for safety at Vietnam summit, chef says

Kim Jong Un loves luxury cuisine but would have his North Korean staff taste dishes as a safety precaution during the Vietnam summit with President Trump, the executive chef at Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel in Hanoi said.

Chef Paul Smart opened up about serving the North Korean despot and President Trump during the leaders' second summit in Vietnam, telling state-run China News Weekly on Sunday that both leaders brought their own kitchen staff to Hanoi, South China Morning Post reported.

Kim and Trump traveled to Vietnam for their second summit on Feb. 27 that was unexpectedly cut short the next day after talks over denuclearization collapsed.

Australian chef Paul Smart inside the Metropole Hotel's kitchen in Hanoi.

Australian chef Paul Smart inside the Metropole Hotel's kitchen in Hanoi. (Getty Images)

Smart said the North Korean staff members were “mysterious, but very professional” and brought their own ingredients — which included Wagyu beef, kimchi, foie gras, ginseng and persimmon punch — for the meals.

PRESIDENT TRUMP, KIM JONG UN DINED ON PEAR KIMCHI, CHOCOLATE LAVA CAKE AT 'SOCIAL DINNER'

They also hinted that Kim enjoyed other delicacies such as caviar and lobster.

“He really likes to dine and experience cuisine for what it is,” Smart said of Kim.

During the summit, Smart prepared the “social dinner” between Trump, Kim and other officials at the Sofitel Legend Metropole. The menu that Smart created included grilled sirloin with pear kimchi, chocolate lava cake and dried persimmon punch. Smart told China News Weekly he debated on placing Vietnamese flavors in the dishes, but opted to keep it more Western cuisine to after “careful consideration.”

“I tried to keep the taste neutral and make delicious, simple foods that suited both tastes,” the chef said.

Kim Jong Un and President Trump during the "social dinner" on Feb. 27.

Kim Jong Un and President Trump during the "social dinner" on Feb. 27. (AP)

Smart previously told the AFP News Agency that Trump asked for his steak well done, but Kim preferred it rarer.

“President Trump wanted his steak well done, but Kim preferred his steak medium-rare to rare, very rare,” Smart said.

NORTH KOREA AIRS DOCUMENTARY GLORIFYING KIM-TRUMP SUMMIT -- BUT FAILS TO MENTION TALKS COLLAPSED

About an hour before the dinner, Kim’s staff would taste each dish to make sure the food was safe to eat, according to the chef.

Smart was expected to serve foie gras and snow fish at lunch on Feb. 28 before it was canceled when negotiation talks were cut short, South China Morning Post reported. He told China News Weekly he was disappointed the meal didn’t happen, but noted the American and North Korean chefs had “very pleasant cooperation. It went well.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Kim has been previously rumored to have a sophisticated palate. He reportedly tried to send three North Koreans to France to learn how to make Emmental, one of his favorite type of cheese, in 2014.

A North Korean defector also claimed in 2017 that Kim would indulge in $2,700 “bird’s nest soup,” caviar and other imported dishes despite the country’s food shortage due to poverty and sanctions.

Source: Fox News World

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Pompeo, in Kuwait, again urges resolution to Gulf crisis

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is renewing calls for a resolution to a festering dispute between Qatar and four other Arab nations, all America's Mideast partners.

On a visit to Kuwait, Pompeo says the crisis that has roiled the Gulf Cooperation Council for almost two years is hindering efforts to combat regional threats posed by Iran, the Islamic State group and others.

Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates began a boycott of Qatar in June 2017, alleging that Qatar funds extremists and has too-cozy ties to Iran. Qatar has long denied funding extremists, but Doha shares a massive offshore natural gas field with Tehran.

Pompeo is in Kuwait on the first leg of a Mideast tour that will take him next to Israel and Lebanon.

Source: Fox News World

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U.S.-backed SDF hand Iraqi, foreign Islamic State fighters to Iraq

A fighter from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) gives bread to children near the village of Baghouz
A fighter from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) gives bread to children near the village of Baghouz, Deir Al Zor province, Syria February 20, 2019. REUTERS/Rodi Said

February 21, 2019

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) handed over more than 150 Iraqi and other foreign Islamic State fighters to Iraq on Thursday.

The handover was the first of several, two Iraqi military sources told Reuters, under an agreement brokered to handover a total of 502 fighters.

“The majority of the fighters are Iraqi,” said a military colonel whose unit is stationed at the Syrian border. “But we have a few foreigners.”

The mayor of Iraqi border town Al-Qaim, Ahmed al-Mahallawi, said some fighters’ families were also transferred.

“Early this morning, 10 trucks loaded with Daesh fighters and their families were handed over by SDF forces to the Iraqi army,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

“The majority of them are Iraqis and the convoy was under maximum security protection headed to the Jazeera and Badiya military headquarters.” Both bases are located in Anbar province.

The SDF and the U.S.-backed coalition could not immediately be reached for comment.

News of the handover came as U.S.-backed forces were readying for an assault on the militant group’s final enclave in eastern Syria. The last civilians are expected to be evacuated on Thursday, to clear the way for the assault, the SDF said.

Around 800 of foreign jihadist fighters who joined Islamic State, including many Iraqis, are being held in Syria by the SDF, the group said. More than 2,000 family members are also in camps, with dozens more arriving each day.

Their fate has become more pressing in recent days as U.S.-backed fighters planned their assault to capture the last remnants of the group’s self-styled caliphate.

On Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said Iraq was carefully monitoring the situation at its Syrian border amid concerns that the remaining Islamic State fighters could stream across the border.

The militant group still poses a threat in Iraq and some western officials believe that the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, may still be hiding there.

(Reporting by Ahmed Rasheed; additional reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut and Raya Jalabi in Erbil; Writing by Raya Jalabi; Editing by Gareth Jones and Alison Williams)

Source: OANN

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Algerian opposition figures hope to find joint candidate

Sectors of Algeria's diverse political opposition are meeting to secure a joint candidate to face incumbent President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in the April 18 presidential election.

Abdallah Djaballah, president of Algeria's Justice and Development Front, an Islamist party, called for Wednesday's opposition meeting to devise a common political platform for the opposition groups.

Former heads of government Ali Benflis and Ahmed Benbitour, as well as moderate Islamist party leader Abderrazak Makri, are set to attend alongside representatives from some smaller political parties.

Many senior opposition figures, however, will be noticeably absent from the meeting. Some plan to boycott the poll altogether amid accusations that the political deck is already stacked in favor of Bouteflika, who's been in power since the 1990s.

Source: Fox News World

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EU copyright revamp targeting Google, Facebook set for approval on Monday

FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of Facebook logo in this illustration picture
FILE PHOTO: Small toy figures are seen in front of Facebook logo in this illustration picture, April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

April 12, 2019

By Foo Yun Chee

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU countries are set to agree an overhaul of the bloc’s two-decade old copyright rules next week, requiring Google to pay publishers for news snippets and Facebook to filter out protected content, despite increasing opposition from some governments.

EU lawmakers at the European Parliament gave the European Commission’s proposal a thumbs up last month, wanting to protect Europe’s creative industry which is worth 915 billion euros ($1 trillion) annually and employs 11.65 million people.

The revamp has been marked by intense lobbying from tech companies worried about the administrative burden and the hit to their revenues and by artists, publishers and performers seeking fair compensation.

The new rules would force Google and other online platforms to sign licensing agreements with musicians, performers, authors, news publishers and journalists to use their work online.

Google’s YouTube, Facebook’s Instagram and other sharing platforms will also have to install filters to prevent users from uploading copyrighted materials. Critics say this could hit cash-strapped small companies rather than the tech giants.

Finland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden have said they will vote against the reforms on Monday, a move unlikely to derail the proposal unless a major EU country weighs in to form a blocking minority.

“We regret that the directive does not strike the right balance between the protection of rights holders and the interests of EU citizens and companies,” the countries, with the exception of Sweden, said in a statement.

Belgium and Slovenia will abstain while Estonia said it was not able to have a view because its government had only just come to power.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)

Source: OANN

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Oil firms as Saudis trim exports, U.S. output forecast reduced

FILE PHOTO: An oil pump is seen operating in the Permian Basin near Midland
FILE PHOTO: An oil pump is seen operating in the Permian Basin near Midland, Texas, U.S. on May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Ernest Scheyder

March 13, 2019

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Oil prices edged higher on Wednesday, supported by planned cuts to Saudi exports and a reduced forecast for U.S crude output.

International Brent crude oil futures were at $66.93 a barrel at 0039 GMT, up 26 cents, or 0.4 percent, from their last close. Brent touched $67.39 a barrel on Monday, its highest since Feb. 25.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $57.17 per barrel, up 30 cents, or 0.5 percent, from their last settlement.

U.S. crude oil production is expected to grow slower than previously expected in 2019 and average about 12.30 million barrels per day (bpd) the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia plans to cut its crude oil exports in April to below 7 million barrels per day (bpd), while keeping its output well below 10 million bpd, a Saudi official said on Monday, as the kingdom seeks to drain a supply glut and support oil prices.

On Sunday, Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih said it would be too early to change OPEC+ output policy at the group’s meeting in April.

(Reporting by Colin Packham; editing by Richard Pullin)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad, California, U.S., April 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Amit Dave and Mayank Bhardwaj

AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – PepsiCo Inc has sued four Indian farmers for cultivating a potato variety that the snack food and drinks maker claims infringes its patent, the company and the growers said on Friday.

Pepsi has sued the farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, exclusively grown for its popular Lay’s potato chips. The FC5 variety has a lower moisture content required to make snacks such as potato chips.

PepsiCo is seeking more than 10 million rupees ($142,840.82) each for alleged patent infringement.

The farmers grow potatoes in the western state of Gujarat, a leading producer of India’s most consumed vegetable.

“We have been growing potatoes for a long time and we didn’t face this problem ever, as we’ve mostly been using the seeds saved from one harvest to plant the next year’s crop,” said Bipin Patel, one of the four farmers sued by Pepsi.

Patel did not say how he came by the PepsiCo variety.

A court in Ahmedabad, the business hub of Gujarat, on Friday agreed to hear the case on June 12, said Anand Yagnik, the lawyer for the farmers.

“In this instance, we took judicial recourse against people who were illegally dealing in our registered variety,” A PepsiCo India spokesman said. “This was done to protect our rights and safeguard the larger interest of farmers that are engaged with us and who are using and benefiting from seeds of our registered variety.”

PepsiCo, which set up its first potato chips plant in India in 1989, supplies the FC5 potato variety to a group of farmers who in turn sell their produce to the company at a fixed price.

The All India Kisan Sabha, or All India Farmers’ Forum, has asked the Indian government to protect the farmers.

The farmers’ forum has also called for a boycott of PepsiCo’s Lay’s chips and the company’s other products.

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

PepsiCo is the second major U.S. company in India to face issues over patent infringement.

Stung by a long-standing intellectual property dispute, seed maker Monsanto, which is now owned by German drugmaker Bayer AG, withdrew from some businesses in India over a cotton-seed dispute with farmers, Reuters reported in 2017. (reut.rs/2ncBknn)

(Reporting by Amit Dave in AHMEDABAD and Mayank Bhardwaj in NEW DELHI; Editing by Martin Howell and Louise Heavens)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the NYSE in New York
FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 3, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By P.J. Huffstutter and Shradha Singh

CHICAGO/BENGALURU (Reuters) – Archer Daniels Midland Co said on Friday it was considering spinning off its ethanol business after slim biofuel margins and Midwestern floods slammed the U.S. grains merchant’s profit, which tumbled 41 percent in the first quarter.

ADM said it was creating an ethanol subsidiary, which will include dry mills in Columbus, Nebraska; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Peoria, Illinois.

The ethanol subsidiary will report as an independent segment, the company said, allowing options “which may include, but are not limited to, a potential spin-off of the business to existing ADM shareholders.”

Results were hit by the “bomb cyclone” blizzards that devastated the Midwest and Great Plains this year, causing massive flooding across Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, washing out rail lines and wreaking havoc in the moving and processing of corn, soybeans and wheat. One-sixth of U.S. ethanol production was halted.

In March, ADM warned Wall Street that flooding and severe winter weather in the U.S. Midwest would reduce its first-quarter operating profit by $50 million to $60 million.

“The first quarter proved more challenging than initially expected,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Juan Luciano, with earnings down in its starches, sweeteners and bioproducts unit. Luciano said impacts of the severe weather ultimately “were on the high side of our initial estimates”.

Ongoing problems in the ethanol industry added to the problems and “limited margins and opportunities” for ADM, Luciano said.

The ethanol industry has been in the midst of a historic downswing due to the U.S.-China trade war, excess domestic supply and weak margins.

ADM, which had been an ethanol pioneer, signaled to Wall Street in 2016 that it was hunting for options and considering sales of its U.S. dry ethanol mills. Luciano told Reuters this year that offers ADM had received for the mills were too low.

In addition, ADM said it planned to repurpose its corn wet mill in Marshall, Minnesota, to produce higher volumes of food and industrial-grade starches.

Other major traders are alsy trying to distance themselves from struggling ethanol businesses. Louis Dreyfus Company BV spun off its Brazilian sugar and ethanol business Biosev in 2013. Rival Bunge sold its sugar book and has sought a buyer for its Brazilian mills since 2013.

ADM, which makes money trading, processing and transporting crops, such as corn, soybeans and wheat, has been looking to strengthen its core business. Last month it said it would seek voluntary early retirements of some North American employees and cut jobs as part of a restructuring effort.

The company expects to lower 2019 capital spending by 10 percent to between $800 million and $900 million.

Net earnings attributable to the company fell to $233 million, or 41 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, from $393 million, or 70 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $15.30 billion from $15.53 billion. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 46 cents per share, while analysts on average had estimated 60 cents, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

(Reporting by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)

Source: OANN

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The Slack app logo is seen on a smartphone in this illustration
FILE PHOTO: The Slack app logo is seen on a smartphone in this picture illustration taken September 15, 2017. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Slack Technologies Inc, operator of the popular workplace instant-messaging app, reported a loss of $140.7 million in the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2019, the company said on Friday in a regulatory filing ahead of its planned public market debut.

The company said its daily active users exceeded 10 million in the three months ended Jan. 31, 2019.

Slack expects to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “SK”, it said.

The San Francisco-based company is seeking to go public via a direct listing, making it the second big technology company after Spotify Technology SA to bypass the traditional route of listing shares through an initial public offering.

A direct listing is a cheaper way of becoming a public company as the process requires fewer investment banks and therefore lower fees.

In a direct listing, however, a company does not sell any new shares to raise money. Instead, it gives existing shareholders the opportunity to cash out.

Slack is the latest in a string of high-profile technology companies looking to go public this year. Lyft Inc, Pinterest and Zoom Video Communications have completed IPOs so far in 2019.

The company is hoping for a valuation of more than $10 billion in the listing, Reuters had previously reported. Some early investors and employees have been selling the stock at around $28, valuing the company close to $17 billion, Kelly Rodriques, CEO of Forge, a brokerage company, told CNBC on Thursday.

Slack set a placeholder amount of $100 million to indicate the size of the IPO. The amount of money a company says it plans to raise in its first IPO filings is used to calculate registration fees. The final size of the IPO could be different.

Its competitors include Microsoft Teams, a free chat add-on for Microsoft’s Office365 users.

(Reporting By Aparajita Saxena and Joshua Franklin in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Anil D’Silva)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Candidate Zelenskiy reacts following the announcement of an exit poll in Ukraine's presidential election in Kiev
FILE PHOTO: Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy reacts following the announcement of the first exit poll in a presidential election at his campaign headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine April 21, 2019. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Matthias Williams

KIEV (Reuters) – Russia’s decision to make it easier for residents of rebel-controlled eastern Ukraine to obtain a Russian passport is meant to test Ukraine’s new leader and the West should not recognize the documents, Lithuania’s foreign minister said on Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the order on facilitating passports on Wednesday, three days after comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a political novice, won a landslide victory in Ukraine’s presidential election.

Linas Linkevicius, whose own country also has strained relations with Moscow, told Reuters in an interview that the West should consider imposing new sanctions on Russia.

“This is a blatant violation of international law. And basically also a kind of test to the new (Ukrainian) leadership, which is also a usual game,” Linkevicius said.

“The least we can do (is) we shouldn’t recognize these passports. How to do that technically, it’s another issue to discuss. Also (we need) to look at additional sanctions,” said Linkevicius, whose small Baltic nation is a member of NATO and the European Union.

Western nations imposed sanctions on Russia over its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region and its support for armed separatists battling Kiev’s forces in eastern Ukraine. Some 13,000 people have been killed in that conflict despite a notional ceasefire signed in Minsk in 2015.

Linkevicius, who in Kiev on Friday became the first minister of an EU country since Ukraine’s election to meet President-elect Zelenskiy, said they had discussed the passport issue.

Zelenskiy also raised the possibility of resetting the Minsk ceasefire agreement without giving any concessions to Russia, Linkevicius said.

“DANGEROUS CANCER” OF GRAFT

The minister urged Zelenskiy to deliver on his electoral promise of tackling corruption, which he described as the “most dangerous cancer” facing Ukraine, which hopes one day to join the EU.

Last month, Lithuania’s own relations with Russia came under renewed strain after a Vilnius court found former Soviet defense minister Dmitry Yazov, in absentia, guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in a 1991 crackdown against Lithuania’s pro-independence movement.

Russia branded the verdict “extremely unfriendly and essentially provocative” and opened a probe into the judges involved.

Linkevicius accused Russia of seeking to politicize the judicial process by trying to take revenge on the judges, adding: “This is lamentable.”

(Editing by Gareth Jones)

Source: OANN

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A Cook County judge recently called out embattled State Attorney Kim Foxx for upholding a double standard by prosecuting a woman for filing a false police report — but dropping similar charges against embattled “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett.

Foxx has faced intense criticism over her office’s decision to drop a 16-count indictment against Smollett, just weeks after bringing the charges against the high-profile TV star. Foxx’s deal with Smollett, which did not require him to admit guilt, drew ire from the public, the city’s top cop and the former mayor who called it a “whitewash of justice.”

JUSSIE SMOLLETT CHICAGO PROSECUTOR KIM FOXX CHIDED BY NATIONAL ATTORNEYS GROUPS AFTER JUSSIE SMOLLETT CHARGES DROPPED 

Cook County Judge Marc Martin, who was presiding over an unrelated case, chastised Foxx and her office for creating a situation where anyone charged with filing a false report would expect the same leniency her office afforded Smollett.

Candace Clark, 21, is facing one felony count of making a false report. Prosecutors accused her of giving a friend access to her bank account and then telling authorities the money had been stolen. She denies the charges and claims she’s the victim of Foxx’s double standard — something the judge weighed in on.

“Well, Ms. Clark is not a movie star, she doesn’t have a high-price lawyer, although, her lawyer’s very good. And this smells, big time,” Martin said to prosecutors during a recent hearing, Fox 32 reported. “I didn’t create this mess, your office created this mess. And your explanation is unsatisfactory to this court. She’s being treated differently.”

The judge continued, “There’s no publicity on this case. She doesn’t have Mark Geragos as her lawyer or Ron Safer or Judge Brown. It’s not right. And (if) I proceed in this matter, you’re just digging yourselves further in a hole. (If the) press gets a hold of this, it’ll be in a newspaper. Why is Ms. Clark being treated differently than Mr. Smollett?”

Foxx recused herself from the Smollett case in February but continued to oversee the investigation through text messages with her assistant Joseph Magats.

The text messages revealed Foxx called Smollett a “washed up celeb who lied to cops.” They also show she cautioned Magats about throwing the book at Smollett.

“Sooo……I’m recused, but when people accuse us of overcharging cases…16 counts on a class 4 becomes exhibit A,” Foxx wrote to Magats on March 8.

“Pedophile with 4 victims 10 counts. Washed up celeb who lied to cops, 16. On a case eligible for deferred prosecution I think it’s indicative of something we should be looking at generally. Just because we can charge something doesn’t mean we should,” she added, referring to the case of R&B singer R. Kelly, who was indicted on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse in connection with four women, three of whom were underage.

KIM FOXX’S CHIEF ETHICS OFFICER RESIGNS FOLLOWING SMOLLETT CONTROVERSY

President Trump said last month he asked for a federal review of Foxx’s decision to drop the charges against Smollett. He also called the actor “an absolute embarrassment to our country.”

The Smollett case garnered national attention and threatened to tear Chicago apart. It pit the police department and mayor against prosecutors and underscored the idea that wealthy people are somehow above the law.

Smollett told police he was attacked on Jan. 29 around 2 a.m. as he was returning home from a sandwich shop in Chicago. He said two masked men shouted racial and anti-gay slurs, poured bleach on him, beat him and tied a rope around his neck. He claimed they shouted, “This is MAGA country” — a reference to President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan.

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After an intense investigation, police said Smollett staged the entire incident to drum up publicity for his career.

Smollett has strongly denied the accusations.

Source: Fox News National

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