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Police searching for man wanted for murder of his second wife, reinvestigating death of first wife

Authorities are on the hunt for a man who is wanted for murder after his wife was found dead 30 miles from the couple's North Carolina home.

The whereabouts of Rexford Lynn Keel Jr., 57, are currently unknown and a warrant has been issued for his arrest for first-degree murder. His wife, 38-year-old Diana Alejandra Keel, was reported missing by her daughter on March 9 after learning she had not showed up for her job as an emergency room nurse for several days. Her body was discovered three days later by Department of Transportation employees who were working along a remote road about 30 minutes away from Nashville, N.C.

Police say they are now reinvestigating the death of Keel's first wife, Elizabeth Edward Keel, who died in 2006 at the same house Keel lives in today. Her death was ruled as an accident and thought to be the result of a fall on the corner of the concrete steps in front of the house.

It is not yet known how Diana Keel died, but an autopsy was conducted on Wednesday and her death was ruled as a homicide.

NORTH CAROLINA MAN CHARGED IN QUADRUPLE COLD CASE MURDERS FROM 2008

The body of Diana Alejandra Keel, 38, was discovered 30 miles from her home three days after she was reported missing 

The body of Diana Alejandra Keel, 38, was discovered 30 miles from her home three days after she was reported missing  (Nash County Sheriff’s Office)

NORTH CAROLINA WOMAN KILLED IN MYSTERIOUS ANIMAL ATTACK, POLICE SAY

Keel was questioned on Tuesday in connection with the discovery of his wife's body. He said that he had not seen her since Friday and that it wasn't uncommon for her to leave their home for long periods of time. He was released without charge.

As authorities continue to search for Keel, they have advised that he is driving a gold 1998 Chevy pickup truck with the North Carolina license plate BBM-9232.

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“The most difficult aspect of this case is a 10-year-old son and an 18-year-old daughter are without their mother,” Sheriff Keith Stone said during a press conference on Wednesday.

Detectives are reportedly working with the FBI to find Keel and find out the truth about what happened to his wives.

Fox News' Elizabeth Zwirz contributed to the reporting of this story.

Source: Fox News National

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Fox News Poll: Immigration, economy top list of voter concerns

Immigration is a top priority for Republicans, but there are divisions within the party on some recent policy proposals. For example, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says President Trump’s idea of closing the southern border to pressure Mexico to stop the flow of migrants would have a “potentially catastrophic economic impact” on the country.  Yet the latest Fox News Poll finds 75 percent of Republicans think shutting the border is a good idea.

Overall, by a 12-point margin, voters say closing the border is a bad idea (41 good vs. 53 bad), and by a 24-point spread they believe immigration helps rather than hurts the country (48-24 percent).

CLICK HERE TO READ THE POLL RESULTS

When asked the most important issue facing the country, 21 percent of voters cite immigration and 10 percent the economy.  Those are the only issues garnering double-digit mentions.  Health care (9 percent), climate change (6 percent) and race relations (5 percent) round out the top five.

Republicans’ views are pushing immigration to the top spot, as 38 percent say it is the most important problem, followed by the economy at 10 percent.  Only 7 percent of Democrats prioritize immigration, as their top issues are health care (13 percent) and climate change (11 percent).

A third of voters (33 percent) have a favorable view of sanctuary cities, while nearly half, 45 percent, view them negatively.

The president says he is considering putting illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities.

On the administration’s treatment of illegal immigrants, 41 percent say it is being “too tough,” while 25 percent say “not tough enough,” and 27 percent say it is “about right.”

The largest portion of voters, 43 percent, believes the administration is “too tough” in dealing with migrants seeking asylum, while 17 percent say it is “not tough enough” and 32 percent say “about right.”

Republicans, though, feel differently: almost half feel Trump is “not tough enough” on illegal immigrants (46 percent) and striking the right balance with asylum seekers (55 percent).

On voters’ second priority, the economy, 44 percent say it is in excellent or good shape.  That’s up 11 points from 33 percent at the 100-day mark of the Trump administration (April 2017).

Still, there is work to do.  A majority, 54 percent, thinks the economy is in negative condition.

“There are massive rifts with certain groups feeling much better about the economy than others,” says Democratic Pollster Chris Anderson, who conducts the Fox News Poll with Republican Daron Shaw.

“Men, whites, high-income voters and, most notably, Republicans, are very positive on the economy, while on the other side, women, non-whites, lower-income households, Democrats, and independents are negative.”

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In addition, a growing number are dissatisfied with how things are going in the country:  58 percent are unhappy, up from 55 percent last April and 53 percent two years ago (April 2017).

About equal numbers think the economy will get better (27 percent) during the next year as expect it will get worse (25 percent).  The highest share, 42 percent, think it will stay the same.

Conducted April 14-16, 2019 under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company (R), this Fox News Poll includes interviews with 1,005 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide who spoke with live interviewers on both landlines and cellphones.  The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all registered voters.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Democratic Field Of Morons

The field of anti-Trump presidential campaign buffoonery is upon us as a field of 18 hubris-riddled lecturers of hypocrisy currently take the national stage to whine about half-baked propaganda cooked to a burnt crisp by their cohorts in the mainstream media.

Their speeches, aside from the whimpering lies and politically correct pandering, fall short of what Americans expect on the campaign trail.

For example, “Bull Moose” Teddy Roosevelt, who had once given a 90-minute speech after being shot in the chest at close range, said this about America’s immigration quandary.

“….. we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American and nothing but an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.

Roosevelt would be appalled at the foreign interests of George Soros and at the handful of money changers actually supporting this lackluster buffet of windbags.

Trump rose above the competition in 2016 because he spoke directly to the people.

The Democrats have tied themselves to a message of socialism, U.S. Constitutional loathing and division.

Foolishly, the Democrats assume millions of Americans are willing to swallow their rhetoric blaming average Americans for the Democrats’ path towards certain doom.

Source: InfoWars

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BOJ may ease further, say small but growing number of economists: Reuters poll

A security guard walks out from the Bank of Japan headquarters building as petals of cherry blossoms are seen on the ground in Tokyo
FILE PHOTO: A security guard walks out from the Bank of Japan headquarters building as petals of cherry blossoms are seen on the ground in Tokyo April 8, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino

February 21, 2019

By Kaori Kaneko

TOKYO (Reuters) – The Bank of Japan’s next move will be to loosen its already super-easy monetary policy, a small but growing contingent of economists say, amid risks of a slowdown and skepticism inflation will hit the central bank’s target.

Most economists polled by Reuters — 29 of 38 — still expect the BOJ’s next step would be to scale back its massive stimulus program.

But nine analysts — up from five in last month’s poll — said the central bank would instead boost stimulus with steps such as buying even more assets to flood the financial system with cash and tweaking the wording in forward guidance.

U.S.-China trade friction and an upcoming sales tax hike in October are casting a pall over the economy.

“If the risk of a recession rises, the BOJ will likely ease further,” said Hiroshi Ugai, chief economist at JPMorgan Securities Japan, one of the nine.

Nearly all economists polled — 33 of 36 — said they disagreed with the BOJ’s insistence that inflation was maintaining momentum toward reaching 2 percent. The latest Reuters poll was taken Feb 7-20.

Last month, the central bank cut its inflation forecasts but maintained the status quo in its massive stimulus program as Governor Haruhiko Kuroda warned of growing economic risks from trade protectionism and faltering global demand.

Many economists who forecast the central bank will scale back stimulus said that will happen sometime in 2020 or later.

Shigeto Nagai, head of Japan economics at Oxford Economics, said the BOJ has already missed a chance to normalize policy, before the sales tax hike, due to rising global uncertainty.

“The BOJ will stick to the current yield curve target at least until they confirm the impact of consumption tax hike is limited as expected,” he said.

Among possible steps for normalization, the BOJ could expand its 10-year Japanese government bond yield fluctuation from a 0.2 percentage point band and raise its yield target from around zero percent, economists said.

The median in the poll projected the nationwide core consumer price index, which includes oil products but not fresh food costs, would rise 0.8 percent in both fiscal 2019, which starts in April, and fiscal 2020.

That’s lower than the BOJ, which sees core CPI rising to 1.1 percent in the coming fiscal year and 1.5 percent in fiscal 2020.

The BOJ will place emphasis on core CPI projections to include the effects from the planned sales tax hike when the bank releases its next outlook report in April, the Nikkei business daily reported earlier this month.

Previously the central bank focused on core CPI excluding the tax hike effects but policymakers think those will be offset by government measures such as free education, the report said.

Economists projected Japan’s economy will contract 2.5 percent in the October-December quarter due to the sales tax hike but eke out 0.7 percent growth in all of fiscal 2019.

For the following fiscal year, growth is expected to slow to 0.5 percent, the poll showed.

(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko, Polling by Khushboo Mittal; Editing by Malcolm Foster and Jonathan Cable)

Source: OANN

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Elizabeth Smart talks to Wisconsin high school about Jayme Closs, her own abduction

Kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart visited a Wisconsin high school Friday night to discuss her own abduction with the region that was coping after teenager Jayme Closs was found after a three-month disappearance.

Smart, 31, spoke at Barron High School in Barron, Wis., to a crowd of more than 1,300 people. Smart, who was 14 when she was kidnapped from her Salt Lake City home in 2002, said after she was found that she could not go anywhere without being recognized. She called her abduction “the most terrifying experience of my entire life.”

“I was a very similar age to Jayme when I was kidnapped and it was the most terrifying experience of my entire life,” Smart said.

Smart was discovered nine months later while walking with Wanda Barzee and her husband, Brian Mitchell, in the suburb of Sandy; people had recognized the couple from media reports. The couple was arrested in 2003. Mitchell is serving a life sentence while Barzee was released from Utah State Prison in September.

JAYME CLOSS' KIDNAPPER ANSWERS NAGGING QUESTIONS IN STUNNING LETTER: 'I DON'T THINK LIKE A SERIAL KILLER'

“I really wondered if people would ever be able to have anything to do with me ever again,” Smart told the crowd. “I really did wonder if I still had value.”

Smart talked about how she found it hard to return to public life following her abduction.

“I want you to understand what it is to be a victim so that as we move on and we talk about moving forward and how you interact and what’s appropriate and what’s not appropriate and you understand what it’s like to be in the victim’s shoes,” Smart said.

Jayme Closs was found alive in January after she disappeared in October.

Jayme Closs was found alive in January after she disappeared in October. (FBI)

She told residents to give Closs “space” and to smile instead of staring if they see the teen.

Prosecutors have accused Jake Patterson, 21, of breaking into Closs’ home just outside Barron in October, killing her parents with a shotgun and abducting her. They say he held her in a cabin for three months before the 13-year-old escaped in January.

NO NEW CHARGES FOR JAYME CLOSS KIDNAPPING SUSPECT, WISCONSIN PROSECUTOR SAYS

Smart said she has spoken to Closs and called her “extraordinary” and a “survivor.”

“Despite the horrors that she saw, despite the terrible things that she suffered that are hers and hers alone to share, she still escaped ... she is a survivor,” Smart said.

The Barron County Sheriff’s Department thanked Smart for speaking to the community.

“Again this community showed the world how great we are and that we will come out in force and will do anything for a member and her family in our community,” Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald wrote on Facebook.

Fox News’ Lucia Suarez and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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No-deal Brexit will hit eastern Europe, Turkey trade: EBRD

FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is seen in London
FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London, November 22, Britain 2016. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth/File Photo

March 29, 2019

By Tom Arnold

LONDON (Reuters) – Trade in a host of Europe’s emerging economies and nearby Turkey will be hit if Britain crashes out of the European Union without a transition deal in place, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said on Friday.

The EBRD, which pumps in billions of euros into eastern Europe and Turkey each year, said 6.8 percent of the combined region’s domestic value-added exports would be affected by any potential disruptions to trade linkages.

The share would be highest for Cyprus, Turkey and Poland, for which the British market accounts for 7.9 to 9.1 percent of total export volume, it added.

“In absolute terms, both Turkey and Poland would face the highest exposure to trade disruptions with domestic value-added exports of around $12 billion being directly and indirectly exported to the UK in 2015,” an EBRD report said.

European Union diplomats believe Britain is more likely than ever to crash out of the EU, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing EU sources.

Britain will leave the EU on May 22 with a deal if Prime Minister Theresa May manages to push her withdrawal agreement through the UK parliament this week.

British politicians have overwhelmingly rejected the deal twice already, and May submitted a stripped-down version of her Brexit divorce deal to a vote in parliament on Friday in an attempt to break the impasse over the process.

A no-deal Brexit could cause pain not only via direct trade but also indirect exports through Europe’s interlinked value chain, the EBRD report said.

It cited the example of car parts exported from Slovakia to Germany, where they are assembled and exported as a final product to Britain.

Affected trade volume is still likely to be relatively small though. On average it amounted to just 0.9 percent of total output of the EBRD countries in 2015, the report said.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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Exclusive: EU draws up list of 20 billion euros of U.S. imports to hit over Boeing – diplomats

U.S. and EU flags are pictured during the visit of Vice President Pence to the European Commission headquarters in Brussels
U.S. and European Union flags are pictured during the visit of Vice President Mike Pence to the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium February 20, 2017. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

April 12, 2019

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission has drawn up a list of U.S. imports worth around 20 billion euros ($22.6 billion) that it could hit with tariffs over a transatlantic aircraft subsidy dispute, EU diplomats said.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to impose U.S. tariffs on $11 billion worth of European Union products over what Washington sees as unfair subsidies given to European planemaker Airbus.

The EU measures would relate to the European Union’s World Trade Organization complaint over subsidies to Boeing.

A WTO adjudicator still has to set a final amount of potential countermeasures.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; editing by Robin Emmott)

Source: OANN

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A Chinese woman adjusts a Chinese national flag next to U.S. national flags before a Strategic Dialogue expanded meeting, part of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) in Beijing
A Chinese woman adjusts a Chinese national flag next to U.S. national flags before a Strategic Dialogue expanded meeting, part of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, July 10, 2014. REUTERS/Ng Han Guan/Pool (CHINA – Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS)

April 26, 2019

By April Joyner

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Even as the lift from optimism over prospects for U.S.-China trade detente shows signs of wearing off for the wider U.S. stock market, upbeat sentiment around China’s economy could bolster shares of materials companies.

Shares of S&P 500 industrial and technology companies, which were buffeted by last year’s tit-for-tat tariffs as well as slowing global demand, have been very responsive to progress in U.S.-China trade relations and a strengthening Chinese economy. This year, those sectors have outpaced the ascent in the S&P 500, which reached a record closing high on Tuesday.

Materials stocks have not been as sensitive, however, even though they also stand to benefit as a stronger Chinese economy lifts global consumption and industrial output. As China has taken measures to stimulate its economy, its economic data have turned more upbeat. That in turn could aid global growth, which has flagged as a result of China’s cooldown.

“What we’re seeing is China spending more on stimulus: fiscal stimulus and monetary stimulus,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco in New York. “That’s likely to be a positive for materials.”

The People’s Bank of China has cut banks’ reserve requirement ratio five times over the past year and is widely expected to ease policy further to spur lending and reduce borrowing costs. The stimulus appears to have boosted Chinese economic data, with factory activity growing in March for the first time in four months.

Yet so far in 2019, the S&P 500 materials index has underperformed the S&P 500 at large, rising just 11.9% compared with 16.7% for the benchmark index. Moreover, it is among the biggest decliners in the period since the S&P’s previous record closing level on Sept. 20. The materials index has fallen 7% over those seven months, versus a 5.2% gain for technology and a 3% loss for industrials. Only the energy index has dropped more over that period.

A trade agreement could serve as a catalyst for a bump in materials shares as a drag on China’s economy is lifted, some market strategists say. Some commodity prices, including those for copper and oil, have ascended this year as the prospects for the global economy have somewhat brightened.

“It all goes back to the global growth outlook,” said Andrea DiCenso, portfolio manager for alpha strategies at Loomis Sayles in Boston. “With the front run in hard data, we’re beginning to see a pretty significant rally.”

Additionally, a trade agreement is expected to include commitments from China to purchase higher quantities of U.S. products such as soybeans, which could benefit companies that make agricultural chemicals, including DowDuPont Inc and CF Industries Holdings Inc.

CF Industries is scheduled to report quarterly results after the bell on Wednesday, and DowDuPont is scheduled to report before the market open on Thursday.

To be sure, even with a trade agreement, some materials companies could face price pressures. Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc fell 10.1% on Thursday after the copper mining company posted a lower-than-expected profit as its production slipped and its costs rose.

A rollback of tariffs on Chinese imports, particularly aluminum and steel, would likely prompt a fall in some commodity prices, which could hurt prospects for certain materials companies, said Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera Investment Management in El Segundo, California.

Even so, those drawbacks may be outweighed by the support for global demand fostered by a U.S.-China trade agreement.

“You could see a number of companies with lowered expectations bring them back up as they talk favorably about the impact that a trade deal would have on them,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York.

(Reporting by April Joyner; additional reporting by Sinéad Carew; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

Source: OANN

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Cyprus police on Friday widened their search for more victims of a suspected serial killer after the 35-year-old national guard captain told investigators he killed four more people that he previously admitted to on the small Mediterranean nation.

The count now has climbed to seven.

CYPRUS FEARS POSSIBLE SERIAL KILLER AFTER BODIES OF TWO WOMEN ARE DISCOVERED IN MINESHAFT

Authorities said they are focusing on a military firing range, a man-made lake and an abandoned mine about 20 miles west of the capital Nicosia.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades expressed “deep sorrow and concern” at the slayings and said he shared the public’s revulsion at “murders that appear to have selectively targeted foreign women who are in our country to work.”

“Such instincts are contrary to our culture’s traditions and values,” he said in a statement from China, where he was on an official visit. He urged calm so police can complete their investigation.

The scale of the alleged crimes by a Cypriot National Guard captain has horrified the small nation of over a million people, where multiple killings are rare. Five British law enforcement officials — including a coroner, a psychiatrist and investigators who specialize in multiple homicides — have been dispatched to help with the investigation.

On Thursday, the 35-year-old suspect, who can’t yet be named because he hasn’t been formally charged, told investigators that he had killed four more people than he had previously admitted to. Police said the suspect will appear in court Saturday for another custody hearing.

Cypriot investigators and police officers search a flooded mineshaft where two female bodies were found, outside of Mitsero village, near the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, April 22, 2019. Police on the east Mediterranean island nation, along with the help of the fire service, are conducting the search Monday in the wake of last week's discovery of the bodies in the abandoned mineshaft and the disappearance of the six-year-old daughter of one of the victims. 

Cypriot investigators and police officers search a flooded mineshaft where two female bodies were found, outside of Mitsero village, near the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, April 22, 2019. Police on the east Mediterranean island nation, along with the help of the fire service, are conducting the search Monday in the wake of last week’s discovery of the bodies in the abandoned mineshaft and the disappearance of the six-year-old daughter of one of the victims.  (AP)

The victims — all foreigners— include Marry Rose Tiburcio, 38, from the Philippines, whose bound body was found April 14 in a flooded mineshaft. She and her six-year-old daughter had been missing since May of last year.

The girl remains missing and authorities believe she was also slain by the suspect. Divers have entered the reservoir to search for her but have not found her body yet.

CYPRUS: GROUND NOT YET READY FOR PEACE TALKS RESUMPTION 

Authorities tracked down the officer last week by scouring Tiburcio’s online messages.

Six days later, police discovered another body April 20 in the same mineshaft, identified by Cypriot media as 28-year-old Arian Palanas Lozano, also from the Philippines.

A third alleged victim, also of Filipino descent, is 31-year-old Maricar Valtez Arquiola, who had been missing since December 2017. The suspect initially denied killing Arquiola but reversed himself after a court hearing Thursday, a police official said.

The suspect on Thursday also pointed investigators to a military firing range, where they discovered another unidentified body, which according to the suspect belongs to a woman of either Nepalese or Indian descent.

SERIAL KILLER WHO MAY HAVE COMMITTED 90 MURDERS IS LINKED TO YET ANOTHER KILLING 

Cypriot police are also looking for a Romanian mother and daughter. Cypriot media identified them as Livia Florentina Bunea, 36, and eight-year-old Elena Natalia Bunea, who are believed to have been missing since September 2016.

The man-made lake remains off-limits to a manned search because of high levels of toxic heavy metals from the copper pyrite mine, Fire Service Chief Marcos Trangolas said, adding that authorities will use other means to scour the lake.

Chief of Cypriot police Zacharias Chrysostomou, center, walks with Cypriot investigators and police officers at a flooded mineshaft where two female bodies were found, outside of Mitsero village, near the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, April 22, 2019.

Chief of Cypriot police Zacharias Chrysostomou, center, walks with Cypriot investigators and police officers at a flooded mineshaft where two female bodies were found, outside of Mitsero village, near the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, April 22, 2019. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Cyprus police have faced criticism from immigrant activists who said they didn’t act fast enough to investigate the whereabouts of some of the victims, many of them domestic workers. The island nation has 80 unsolved missing persons cases, going back to 1990.

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Police chief Zacharias Chrysostomou said a three-member panel has been assigned to probe whether police followed all the correct protocol in recent missing persons cases.

According to the state-run Cyprus News Agency, an investigator had told the court at an earlier hearing that the suspect admitted to killing one woman he met online after having sex with her.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Source: Fox News World

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Venezuelan opposition lawmaker Gilber Caro is seen delivering a speech at a forum on human rights in Caracas
Venezuelan opposition lawmaker Gilber Caro is seen delivering a speech at a forum on human rights in Caracas, Venezuela June 12, 2018 in this still image taken from a video. REUTERS TV/ via REUTERS

April 26, 2019

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s opposition-run National Assembly said on Friday that opposition lawmaker Gilber Caro was detained, which it described in a Twitter post as a violation of diplomatic immunity.

Caro had previously spend a year and a half in jail, before being freed in June 2018. The arrest comes as Juan Guaido, the National Assembly’s leader, mounts a challenge to President Nicolas Maduro, arguing his 2018 re-election was illegitimate. Guaido in January invoked the country’s constitution to assume an interim presidency.

(Reporting by Caracas newsroom; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Customers shop in a Sainsbury's store in Redhill
FILE PHOTO: Customers shop in a Sainsbury’s store in Redhill, Britain, March 27, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By James Davey

LONDON (Reuters) – With Sainsbury’s dream of creating Britain’s biggest supermarket group in tatters, its chastened CEO Mike Coupe needs to reassure investors he has the plan to arrest a sales decline when he presents annual results next week.

Britain’s competition regulator blocked Sainsbury’s 7.3 billion pound ($9.4 billion) takeover of Walmart’s Asda on Thursday, saying the deal would increase prices. Sainsbury’s shares fell 5 percent and are down 22 percent over the last three months.

For Sainsbury’s fourth quarter to March 9 analysts are on average forecasting a 1.6 percent fall in like-for-like sales, which would follow 1.1 percent decline over the Christmas period.

Monthly industry data from researcher Kantar has also shown Sainsbury’s as the weakest performer of the big four grocers this year and this month it lost its status as Britain’s No. 2 supermarket group by market share to Asda.

While Sainsbury’s has struggled, market leader Tesco has gained momentum, this month reporting a 34 percent jump in full year profit.

Prohibition of the deal was a major blow to Coupe, its architect and Sainsbury’s boss since 2014.

Martin Scicluna became Sainsbury’s chairman last month and when bedded-in may decide that if the group needs a major shake-up it is best carried out by a new leader.

Much will depend on the attitude of 22 percent shareholder the Qatar Investment Authority, which has so far declined to comment, as well as Coupe’s own appetite to continue after 15 years at the group.

THE RIGHT STRATEGY?

Coupe said on Thursday he was confident Sainsbury’s was pursuing the right strategy.

That was a clear indication that Wednesday’s results statement will not include radical changes to the group’s plans, such as a big margin reset — sacrificing profit to drive sales.

However, sources connected to Sainsbury’s said Coupe would likely acknowledge that more needs to be done on prices, so the supermarket business can better compete with its big four rivals – Tesco, Asda and No. 4 Morrisons – as well as German-owned discounters Aldi and Lidl.

Coupe’s strategy is based on differentiating Sainsbury’s food offer, growing its general merchandise, clothing business and bank, while investing in convenience and online channels.

Some analysts believe major change is needed.

HSBC analyst David McCarthy reckons Sainsbury’s needs a margin reset, should allocate more space for core lines and needs to drive better store standards. He said Sainsbury’s might consider closing down space in some of its larger stores and reducing its non-food offer.

For the full 2018-19 year analysts are on average forecasting a pretax profit of 626 million pounds, up from 589 million pounds in 2017-18 – a second straight year of profit growth. A full year dividend of 10.5 pence per share is forecast versus 10.2 pence last time.

Bank and lawyer fees related to the proposed combination with Asda were 17 million pounds in the first half and have reportedly jumped to around 50 million pounds.

(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Keith Weir)

Source: OANN

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Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey rejected demands from a secular group to remove posts on social media where he sent Easter greetings and cited a Bible verse, offering to provide copies of the Constitution to his critics.

Ducey, who’s a practicing Catholic, has been bombarded with calls from Secular Communities for Arizona to remove the post, which included a cross, a Bible verse, and the phrase, “He is risen.”

ARIZONA’S GOP GOVERNOR WAGING WAR AGAINST OCCUPATIONAL LICENSING LAWS

The group argued the posts crossed a line into government sponsorship of religious messages and was unconstitutional.

The governor fired back at the group, saying in a tweet that he will never remove the posts or other religious ones.

“We won’t be removing this post. Ever. Nor will we be removing our posts for Christmas, Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah, Palm Sunday, Passover or any other religious holiday,” he tweeted. “We support the First Amendment, and are happy to provide copies of the Constitution to anyone who hasn’t read it.”

Dianne Post, an attorney for the secular group, told the Arizona Republic “elected officials should not use their government position and government property to promote their religious views.”

LICENSE REQUIRED TO REPAIR DOORS? REGS SPARK HEATED DEBATE IN ARIZONA

She added the courts have repeatedly “struck down symbolism that unites government with religion,” adding that Ducey’s office must “represent and protect the rights of all residents of Arizona, including those who do not believe in a monotheistic God or any gods at all.”

Many congratulated Ducey for not backing down amid the pressure, though some Facebook users sided with the secular group and criticized the governor on his original post.

“Why do you use a government platform to bring up your personal religion?” asked one person. “Are there no citizens in your jurisdiction that believe differently from you?”

Another stipulated that the post was somewhat discriminatory. “Great sensitivity, Doug. That’s the last time this Jew votes for you,” one person wrote.

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Ducey wished in a statement Arizonans last week a “blessed and joyful Easter and Passover weekend.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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