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Mueller reveals Trump’s staff, associates sometimes ignored him

FILE PHOTO: FBI Director Mueller testifies at a security threat hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington
FILE PHOTO: Robert Mueller, as FBI director, testifies before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington March 12, 2013. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

April 18, 2019

By Ginger Gibson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page report released on Thursday detailed more than just Oval Office arguments and Trump Tower meetings.

It also revealed that Trump’s staff and associates frequently ignored the president – disregarding his orders and hoping he just wouldn’t ask again.

FIRING MUELLER

Trump called White House Chief Counsel Don McGahn twice and told him to tell Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that Mueller should be removed.

“Call Rod, tell Rod that Mueller has conflicts and can’t be the Special Counsel,” McGahn recalled Trump telling him.

But McGahn didn’t do it.

“To end the conversation with the President, McGahn left the President with the impression that McGahn would call Rosenstein,” Mueller wrote in his report. “McGahn recalled that he had already said no to the President’s request and he was worn down, so he just wanted to get off the phone.”

MESSAGE TO SESSIONS

Trump frequently attempted to use staff and associates to deliver messages. But frequently, his attempts to send messages via a third party were ignored.

On June 19, 2017, Trump met in the Oval Office with his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Trump told Lewandowski to deliver a message to then Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he wanted the Mueller investigation limited to just potential interference in future elections.

Lewandowski told Trump he would handle it, but instead he asked White House official Rick Dearborn to deliver the message.

“(Dearborn) recalled later telling Lewandowski that he had handled the situation, but he did not actually follow through with delivering the message to Sessions,” Mueller wrote.

‘PART OF THE TEAM’

On Feb. 14, 2017, Trump had lunch with then-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. During the lunch, the president asked Christie if he could deliver a message to then-FBI Director James Comey.

Trump wanted Christie to tell Comey that the president “really like(s) him. Tell him he’s part of the team,” the governor later told Mueller.

A month later, Trump fired Comey.

“Christie had no intention of complying with the president’s request that he contact Comey,” Mueller wrote. “He thought the president’s request was ‘nonsensical’ and Christie did not want to put Comey in the position of having to receive such a phone call. Christie thought it would have been uncomfortable to pass on that message.”

‘UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THE TASK’

Long before Sessions resigned, Trump began searching for a new attorney general.

In July 2017, Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand came to Trump’s attention and he asked his then White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter to contact Brand to see if she was interested in becoming attorney general.

“Later, the president asked Porter a few times in passing whether he had spoken to Brand, but Porter did not reach out to her because he was uncomfortable with the task,” Mueller wrote.

Porter ignored the president because he was concerned the inquiry was an attempt by Trump to fire Mueller, the special counsel’s office surmised.

“Porter did not contact Brand because he was sensitive to the implications of that action and did not want to be involved in a chain of events associated with an effort to end the investigation or fire the Special Counsel,” the report said.

(Reporting by Ginger Gibson; editing by Ross Colvin and Grant McCool)

Source: OANN

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Tencent-backed live-streaming firm DouYu files for $500 million U.S. IPO

FILE PHOTO: A girl broadcasts live from a phone as she holds a selfie stick with a sign of the live-streaming platform DouYu during an event celebrating the new year in Wuhan
FILE PHOTO: A girl broadcasts live from a phone as she holds a selfie stick with a sign of the live-streaming platform DouYu during an event celebrating the new year in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, December 31, 2018. Picture taken December 31, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer

April 23, 2019

By Julia Fioretti

HONG KONG (Reuters) – China’s largest live-streaming platform DouYu International Holdings Limited, backed by social media and gaming giant Tencent Holdings Ltd, has filed for a U.S. initial public offering (IPO) of up to $500 million.

DouYu, which primarily focuses on the live-streaming of games, is one of several Chinese start-ups in the growing market for live-streaming in China, along with U.S.-listed rival Huya Inc and Huajiao.

The rapid growth of the live-streaming sector has seen China’s tech heavyweights – Tencent, Alibaba Group Holding and Baidu Inc – open their wallets to back a slew of firms in the hope it can boost existing services in e-commerce, social networking and gaming.

DouYu has exclusive streaming rights to 29 major tournaments in China, including League of Legends, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and DOTA2, according to the draft prospectus which was uploaded to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission website overnight on Monday.

DouYu was the largest game-streaming platform by average total monthly active users (MAUs) on both mobile and PC during the fourth quarter of 2018, according to the prospectus. The company had 159.2 million MAUs in the first quarter of 2019, representing year-on-year growth of 25.7 percent.

It set a placeholder sum of $500 million for the IPO, which is used to calculate registration fees. The final IPO size could be different, though sources have previously told Reuters DouYu was looking to raise around $500 million.

DouYu’s IPO could be one of the largest this year by a Chinese company in the United States, together with that of Starbucks challenger Luckin Coffee which also filed overnight.

Chinese companies have raised $271 million through U.S. IPOs so far this year, with the biggest deal being that of Ruhnn Holding Limited which raised $125 million, Refinitiv data showed.

LOSS MAKING

China is the world’s largest game streaming market, with approximately 4.9 times the monthly active users of the U.S. market in 2018, the prospectus said.

DouYu’s active users spent an average of 54 minutes per day on the platform in the fourth quarter of 2018.

DouYu is still loss-making and reported a net loss of $127.4 million in 2018, up from $91.33 million in 2017. Revenues jumped 94 percent to $531.5 million last year.

The company significantly increased its sales and marketing expenses – which jumped 73 percent in 2018 – as well as its research and development expenses which increased 55 percent.

Most of DouYu’s revenues come from live-streaming through the sale of virtual gifts, accounting for 86.1 percent of its revenues, with the rest coming from advertisements and some revenue sharing with game developers and publishers, the prospectus showed.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are the underwriters for DouYu’s IPO.

(Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

Source: OANN

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Pelosi calls Barr's letter on Mueller probe 'condescending'

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., doesn’t like William Barr’s tone.

Pelosi on Thursday slammed the attorney general’s four-page letter on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation as “condescending” and demanded to see the entire report.

“No thank you Mr. Attorney General,” Pelosi said. “I don’t need your interpretation.”

“Show us the report,” she added. “We have to see the facts.”

TOP DEMS WANT REPORT, NOW SUBMITTED, MADE PUBLIC ASAP

Pelosi called Barr's decision to write the letter "arrogant." Congress, she said, doesn't need Barr "to be our interpreter of something that he should just show us."

The Democratic chairmen of six House committees have demanded that Barr release the Mueller report to Congress by Tuesday.

Pelosi also defended House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who faced calls Thursday from Republicans to resign his chairmanship over comments that there was significant evidence the president and his associates conspired with Russia.

Pelosi said the Republicans are "scaredy cats" afraid of a "patriotic leader."

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Barr’s letter on the special counsel’s report said that Mueller found no evidence of coordination with Russia, but the report did not make a determination on whether Trump committed obstruction of justice in the Russia probe. Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein determined that evidence gathered by Mueller was insufficient on that front.

Trump has maintained since the announcement of the special counsel’s investigation that he never colluded with Russia during the 2016 campaign. He has long decried the probe as a "witch hunt" while attacking the FBI figures who launched the original Russia probe that was eventually taken over by Mueller in 2017.

Fox News’ Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Nancy Pelosi Rips 'Scaredy Cats' Republicans on Schiff

Amid calls for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., to resign, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., ripped Republicans as "scaredy cats."

"I think they are just scaredy cats," Rep. Pelosi told reporters during her weekly briefing. "They just don't know what to do, so they have to make an attack. They did the wrong thing, the American people know that.

"It's their own insecurity, their own fear of the truth, their fear of the facts."

President Donald Trump has led the chorus against Rep. Schiff, who has long been a vocal critic of the president and is leading investigations into the administration and the Trump campaign on the back of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

"They're just plain afraid," Pelosi continued. "They're afraid of the truth, they're afraid of competence, they're afraid of a leader who is recognized in our country for being calm, professional and patriotic."

The nine Republican members of the Schiff-led House Intelligence Committee signed a letter accusing the Democratic leader of being "at the center of a well-orchestrated media campaign claiming, among other things, the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government."

Attorney General William Barr has summarized Mueller's report with a four-page letter Sunday, concluding there is no criminal conspiracy nor obstruction of justice on behalf of President Trump, despite Schiff's continued claims to the contrary.

The Mueller investigation was looking into Russia's attempts to sow discord in the U.S. democracy, something Schiff's ongoing claims actually are doing, the GOP argues.

"Your willingness to continue to promote a demonstrably false narrative is alarming," the GOP letter read by Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, claimed. "The findings of the special counsel conclusively refute your past and present assertions and have exposed you as having abused your position to knowingly promote false information, having damaged the integrity of this committee, and undermined faith in U.S. government institutions."

Source: NewsMax Politics

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The Latest: NYC cathedral suspect had booked flight to Italy

The Latest on a man with gas cans arrested at St. Patrick's in New York City (all times local):

1 p.m.

Police say a man arrested after entering St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York with two cans of gasoline, lighter fluid and butane lighters had booked a flight to Italy and had also been arrested at a New Jersey cathedral a few days ago.

Deputy New York Police Commissioner John Miller says 37-year-old Marc Lamparello is facing charges including attempted arson and reckless endangerment for after his arrest Wednesday night at the New York City landmark. It happened just days after flames ravaged the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Lamparello remains in police custody.

Police say Lamparello, of Hasbrouck Heights, was confronted by a cathedral security officer when he entered the church and was told he couldn't bring the items inside.

The security officer notified officers from the counterterrorism bureau who were standing outside.

It isn't immediately clear whether Lamparello has an attorney who can comment on his behalf.

___

8:10 a.m.

The New York Police Department says a New Jersey man is in custody after he entered St. Patrick's Cathedral carrying two cans of gasoline, lighter fluid and butane lighters, just days after the Notre Dame cathedral fire in Paris.

Deputy Commissioner John Miller says cathedral security notified officers from the counter-terrorism bureau who were standing outside on Wednesday night.

The New Jersey man said his car ran out of gas and that he was trying to cut through the cathedral to get to Madison Avenue. Police determined the vehicle was not out of gas.

The man was being held at a police station on Thursday while prosecutors worked to determine the charges against him.

Source: Fox News National

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The Game of Thrones effect: Central European film industry on a roll

Visitors walk on the
Visitors walk on the "Hellboy 2" movie set at the Korda Studios in Etyek, Hungary April 5, 2019. Picture taken April 5, 2019. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo

April 10, 2019

By Michael Kahn

PRAGUE (Reuters) – It’s the kind of maneuvering that might make the Game of Thrones’ shrewdest operator Tyrion Lannister feel right at home.

As streaming giants Amazon, Netflix and Hulu prepare to splash out on their next fantasy blockbusters and dystopian dramas, Central European countries are slugging it out to get a grab a slice of their bumper production budgets.

Experienced crews, lower labor costs and generous production incentives have long attracted international filmmakers to the Czech Republic and Hungary but other countries in the region are now getting into the game.

The Czechs and Hungarians are both considering raising their incentives after Romania approved a production rebate of up to 45 percent in 2018 and Poland introduced a 30 percent cash rebate in February to keep pace with its neighbors.

A new European Union directive due to come in this year is also expected to spur investment as it will require video-on-demand platforms selling to European audiences to ensure at least 30 percent of their catalogs are European works.

“This is a new era,” said Agnes Havas, chief executive of the Hungarian Film Fund told Reuters, noting that the Netflix series “The Crown” and Amazon Prime Video’s “Hanna” were shot in Hungary.

“What we see is we started at 30 percent (incentives) and now we are looking at the other countries in Europe and we will evaluate the situation and see whether we should potentially think about raising it again in the future.”

BITG media analyst Rich Greenfield estimates Amazon will spend $5 billion to $6 billion in 2019 on content with Netflix laying out about $15 billion – and a significant portion of the Netflix budget will flow overseas.

“We are aware there is a shift in global production and you can’t ignore the big streaming companies,” Anna Dziedzic of the Film Commission Poland told Reuters. In 2018 Netflix filmed “1983” in the country, the company’s first original Polish Netflix series.

“They are one of the biggest players now. You have to adjust to the changing environment and you have to have them in mind,” Dziedzic told Reuters.

Amazon and Netflix declined to comment on their plans in the region.

GAME OF THRONES EFFECT

A landscape dotted with castles and rolling countryside makes central Europe a versatile setting for increasingly popular historical and fantasy shows looking to cash in on the success of series such as “Game of Thrones”.

“The types of shows being shot have dramatically changed,” said David Minkowski, head of production at Stillking Films, which co-produced Amazon’s neo-noir fantasy “Carnival Row” and Hulu’s historical series “Das Boot”, in the Czech Republic.

“Call it the Game of Thrones effect. A lot of it is fantasy or historical that naturally gravitates to this part of the world,” he told Reuters, adding that the company was now working on fantasy drama “The Witcher” for Netflix. “The typical production centers are bursting at the seams.”

Dziedzic at the Film Commission Poland said she has also received requests from international companies wanting to use post-Soviet locations and brutalist Communist architecture for science fiction series.

This has helped push international investment in regional production to record highs, leaving studios booked a year in advance and crews forced to turn away work, industry professionals say.

“There is now an ever increased premium on local crew relationships and good access to infrastructure and studios which need to be planned up to 12 months in advance of production,” added Stillking’s Managing Director Matthew Stillking.

“It’s a boom time … likely to last several years as the sector becomes more competitive with a perfect storm of increased consumer viewing demand and more platforms needing content to compete for customers.”

‘IT WILL ROCKET’

Foreign investment in the Czech film industry leapt nearly 1.2 billion crowns to a record 4.8 billion ($210 million) on 1,072 shooting days for 38 foreign series and films in 2018, according to the Czech Film Commission.

Investment is expected to remain at that level or higher this year, though Czech plans to increase cash rebates on offer for film makers from 20 percent now could be a game changer.

“It will rocket once the incentives are raised,” Pavlina Zipkova, head of the Czech Film Commission, told Reuters. “The government has not increased it yet but we strongly believe it will happen later this year.”

In Hungary, spending on a total of 333 productions last year amounted to 110 billion forints (385 million), with 84 percent of the investment coming from international productions including Hollywood blockbusters “Terminator: Dark Fate” and “Gemini Man.”

This was up from 108 billion in 2017, when “Red Sparrow” and “Colette” were made in Hungary but Havas at Hungary’s Film Fund expects the new EU rules to accelerate the streaming-fueled production boom.

The rise of streaming services has also shifted the types of productions in the region. Hungary attracts more blockbuster films these days while episodic series tend to gravitate towards the Czech Republic, said Tomas Krejci, founder of Milk and Honey Pictures and Prague Studios.

This helped Prague Studio’s turnover jump more than 50 percent in 2018 – and Krejci predicts demand will remain strong as top notch crews shooting historical shows are more than a third cheaper than in rival countries such as Spain.

“The demand for historical shows is getting stronger,” Krejci said whose company has produced “Haunted” for Netflix and Amazon’s “Patriot” and the second season of “Lore.”

“Here it’s not just the phenomenal historic architecture but also the vast amount of props, costumes and local talent that make it cheaper and easier to make these kinds of shows.”

($1 = 22.8160 Czech crowns)

($1 = 285.6800 forints)

(Reporting by Michael Kahn; editing by David Clarke)

Source: OANN

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Threat allegations keep Coast Guard officer jailed

A Coast Guard officer suspected of drawing up a hit list of top Democrats and network TV journalists spent hours on his work computer researching the words and deeds of infamous bombers and mass shooters while also stockpiling weapons, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

Lt. Christopher Paul Hasson, 49, was ordered held without bail on drug and gun charges while prosecutors gather evidence to support more serious charges involving what they portrayed as a domestic terror plot by a man who espoused white-supremacist views.

Hasson, a former Marine who worked at Coast Guard headquarters in Washington on a program to acquire advanced new cutters for the agency, was arrested last week. Investigators gave no immediate details on how or when he came to their attention.

Federal agents found 15 guns, including several rifles, and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition inside his basement apartment in Silver Spring, Maryland.

In court papers this week, federal prosecutors said he compiled what appeared to be a computer-spreadsheet hit list that included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and presidential hopefuls Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris. Also mentioned were such figures as MSNBC's Chris Hayes and Joe Scarborough and CNN's Chris Cuomo and Van Jones.

In arguing against bail Thursday, federal prosecutor Jennifer Sykes said Hasson would log onto his government computer during work and spend hours searching for information on such people as the Unabomber, the Virginia Tech gunman and anti-abortion bomber Eric Rudolph.

Sykes said the charges so far are just the "tip of the iceberg" and called Hasson a "domestic terrorist" who appeared to be planning attacks inspired by the manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian right-wing extremist who killed 77 people in a 2011 bomb-and-shooting rampage.

Public defender Julie Stelzig accused prosecutors of making inflammatory accusations against her client without providing the evidence to back them up. "It is not a crime to think negative thoughts about people," she said.

She also questioned whether the government is trying to make an example out of Hasson, given criticism that authorities have overlooked domestic terrorists.

"Perhaps now they can say, 'Look, we're not targeting only Muslims,'" she said.

Stelzig said Hasson doesn't have a criminal record and has served 28 years in the Coast Guard. She described him as a "committed public servant" and a loving husband and father.

Hasson spent about $14,000 on weapons, survival gear and other equipment, Sykes said. However, Hasson's public defender argued that the number of firearms found in Hasson's apartment is "modest, at best" for many gun collectors in other parts of the country.

"There is nothing I'm seeing in here that would show he was stockpiling weapons," Stelzig said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Day agreed to keep Hasson behind bars but said he is willing to revisit his decision in 14 days if prosecutors haven't brought more serious charges by then.

Hasson was previously an aircraft mechanic in the Marines, serving from 1988 to 1994.

Court papers detail a 2017 draft email in which he wrote that he was "dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth."

Also, Hasson sent himself a draft letter in 2017 that he had written to a neo-Nazi leader and "identified himself as a White Nationalist for over 30 years and advocated for 'focused violence' in order to establish a white homeland," prosecutors said.

Stelzig identified that neo-Nazi leader as white separatist Harold Covington. The Southern Poverty Law Center reported that Covington died last July.

Last February, Hasson searched the internet for the "most liberal senators" and also asked, "Do senators have ss (Secret Service) protection" and "Are supreme court justices protected," according to the court filing.

Bob Davis, who rents a house from Hasson in coastal Currituck County, North Carolina, and met him a few times, said he was "absolutely shocked" by the allegations.

"He was a very stern military guy. That's how I saw him. I truly nothing but respected him. There are people in life who are not 100 percenters. He was a 100 percenter," Davis said, meaning Hasson worked hard and didn't slack off. "He portrayed in a very professional manner. He was honorable. ... He was a good man."

___

Balsamo reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Ben Finley in Currituck County, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday said his government must make men aware of the dangers of poor hygiene after expressing dismay over the 1,000 penis amputations that apparently occur in his country each year.

“In Brazil, we have 1,000 penis amputations a year due to a lack of water and soap,” he said while speaking to reporters in Brasilia after visiting the Education Ministry. “We have to find a way to get out of the bottom of this hole.”

The far-right leader called the figure “ridiculous and sad,” Reuters reported. A spokeswoman for the Brazilian urology society told the news agency the number is based on its official data for penis amputations.

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The amputations were conducted out of necessity over untreated infections, along with complications from HIV and various cancers, she said.

Source: Fox News World

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A top Russian diplomat says Russia is willing to negotiate a new nuclear weapons treaty with the United States and China.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters on Friday Moscow is closely following reports in the United States that the U.S. would like to reach a nuclear weapons deal with both Russia and China, and is “willing” to negotiate. The story was reported by CNN earlier Friday.

Ryabkov also said that Russia “would like to convince” the U.S. to adopt a joint statement that would condemn any use of nuclear weapons.

Ryabkov’s comments come just months after the U.S. withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a cornerstone of the post-Cold War security, and Russia followed suit. Each claims breaches by the other.

Source: Fox News National

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Government dysfunction and an intelligence failure that preceded the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka are traced to simmering divisions between the president and prime minister after a weekslong political crisis that crippled the country last year.

The government has admitted to a “lapse of intelligence” after officials failed to act upon near-specific information received from foreign agencies. Suicide bombers exploded themselves last Sunday in three churches and three luxury hotels, killing 253 people and wounding 400 more. Authorities said eight Muslim militants blew themselves up at their targets while the wife of one of the attackers blasted herself on being rounded up by police.

The carnage has brought forth arguments that worshippers and holidaymakers fell victim to the rivalry and a lack of communication between the country’s two leaders — President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The Cabinet led by Wickremesinghe says neither he nor his ministers were informed of the intelligence received by the defense authorities. Sirisena is the head of state, defense minister, minister in charge of the police and head of the armed forces. He also chairs the National Security Council, which includes the heads of security agencies and departments. Traditionally the prime minister also plays an important role on the council.

According to Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, Sirisena has not included Wickremesinghe in national security affairs since a dispute between them came into the open in October last year. This is an unusual departure from the protocol, he said.

Senaratne said that Sirisena was overseas when the attacks took place and even after that, the National Security Council refused to meet with Wickremesinghe as he tried to give them instructions.

Sirisena has also said that he was not informed of the intelligence received and vowed to overhaul the leadership of the defense forces.

The top bureaucrat at the Defense Ministry, Hemasiri Fernando, has resigned at Sirisena’s insistence.

“It is a major factor,” said Jehan Perera, the head of local activist group National Peace Council, referring to the alleged lack of coordination between the leaders contributing to the failure to prevent the attacks.

“The primary responsibility has to be taken by the president, he did not give the information and he did not act,” Perera said. “He had the Ministry of Defense, took the police from the prime minister, chaired the National Security Council meetings and did nothing,” Perera said.

Kusal Perera, a journalist and political commentator, says security and intelligence officials should have acted on the information whether or not they received orders from politicians.

“If they (Wickremesinghe and his party) were not invited to the National Security Council, why did not they say in Parliament that they were not responsible for the security of the country any longer,” said Perera, who is not related to Jehan Perera.

“Saying that now is taking political advantage, not taking responsibility,” he said.

Sirisena and Wickremesinghe belong to different political parties but came together for Sirisena’s presidential campaign in 2015. Their relationships broke down and their differences exploded last year when Sirisena suddenly sacked Wickremesinghe as prime minister and appointed in his place former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa, whom he defeated in the presidential election. The crisis crippled the country for more than seven weeks to the point of not being able to pass this year’s national budget on time.

A court decision compelled Sirisena to reappoint Wickremesinghe, but the two leaders have been rivals within the same government.

Rajapaksa, who is the minority leader in Parliament, blames the government for weakening intelligence and dropping its guard, which he had maintained to defeat the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels 10 years ago to end the 26-year-old civil war. He also criticized the government for the detention of intelligence officers accused of extrajudicial killings and abductions during the closing days of the war, which he said crippled the security apparatus before the bombings. According to conservative U.N estimates, some 100,000 people were killed in Sri Lanka’s conflict.

Sirisena summoned an all-party conference Thursday to which Wickremesinghe was also invited. At the conference, Sirisena stressed “setting aside all the political beliefs and difference (so that) everybody should collectively commit towards building a peaceful environment within the country,” a statement from his office said.

“It is not a secret that the disagreements between me and the government aggravated over the past two years,” Sirisena told the country’s media executives Friday. “One of the reasons for that is weakening of military intelligence and arresting military officials unnecessarily and my speaking up against it within and outside the government.”

Jehan Perera said that the security threat could prove politically advantageous to Rajapaksa and his family, with a presidential election scheduled at the end of this year. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, a younger brother of Mahinda, was the powerful defense secretary during his brother’s reign and has expressed his interest to join the contest.

“People are saying we want a stronger leader and they are talking about Gotabhaya. It (the blasts) has worked to their benefit,” Perera said.

Source: Fox News World

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Cyprus police are intensifying a search for the remains of more victims at locations where an army officer, who authorities say admitted to killing five women and two girls, allegedly had dumped their bodies.

Police said Friday’s search will concentrate on a military firing range, a reservoir and a man-made lake near an abandoned mine approximately 32 kilometers (20 miles) west of the capital Nicosia.

On Thursday, the 35-year-old suspect told investigators that he had killed four more people than he had previously admitted to. All the suspect’s alleged victims are foreign nationals.

Police have already found the bodies of a 38-year-old Filipino woman and two as yet unidentified women.

Search crews are now looking for the daughter of the 38-year-old, a Romanian mother and daughter and another Filipino woman.

Source: Fox News World

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A California man who allegedly fatally shot his ex-girlfriend in broad daylight last month before fleeing the country has been returned to the U.S. following his arrest in Mexico on Wednesday, authorities said.

Julio Cesar Rocha, 25, of Montlcair, is accused of shooting his 25-year-old ex-girlfriend Thalia Flores and a second unidentified male victim March 21 around 2:45 p.m. while the two were sitting in a vehicle in the parking lot of a discount store in Chino. Both communities are about 36 miles east of Los Angeles.

ARREST MADE IN DOUBLE HOMICIDE OF EX-PRO HOCKEY PLAYER, COMMUNITY ADVOCATE, POLICE SAY

Julio Cesar Rocha, 25, of Montlcair, Calif. was located in Mexico Wednesday and returned to California where he faces murder and attempted murder charges related to the death of his ex-girlfriend, Thalia Flores.

Julio Cesar Rocha, 25, of Montlcair, Calif. was located in Mexico Wednesday and returned to California where he faces murder and attempted murder charges related to the death of his ex-girlfriend, Thalia Flores. (City of Chino Police Department)

Flores died at the scene. The man, whose name was not released, walked to a nearby hospital where he’s recovering from his gunshot wounds.

Rocha allegedly fled the scene and remained at large for more than a month, the Daily Bulletin reported. He was formally arrested at 4:30 p.m. after arriving at Los Angeles International Airport from Mexico, KTLA-TV reported.

The suspect was booked at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga on murder and attempted murder charges, the City of Chino Police Department said on Facebook.

Flores ended her seven-year relationship with Rocha just two months before her death and still lived in fear of him until that point, a sister of the victim, Bernice Flores, told the Daily Bulletin.

“He said himself so many times to other people, ‘If I can’t have her, no one will.’ ” Flores said, adding that her sister stayed in the relationship longer that she would have liked in fear that Rocha would hurt her or her family if they broke up.

Rocha was convicted on misdemeanor battery in 2016 and sentenced to 60 days in prison. He was originally charged with misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon, but the charges were lowered in a plea deal, the Daily Bulletin reported.

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Rocha was convicted of misdemeanor resisting or obstructing a peace officer in 2014. A second charge of misdemeanor battery was dropped in a plea deal, and Rocha was ordered to complete a 26-week anger management course, according to San Bernardino County Superior Court records. Rocha was later arrested and sentenced to 10 days behind bars for failing to complete the course.

Source: Fox News National

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