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Vivendi asks for further investigation into TIM auditor’s report

FILE PHOTO: Telecom Italia new logo is seen at the headquarter in Rozzano neighbourhood of Milan
FILE PHOTO: Telecom Italia new logo is seen at the headquarter in Rozzano neighbourhood of Milan, Italy, May 25, 2016. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini//File Photo

March 15, 2019

MILAN (Reuters) – France’s Vivendi, which is Telecom Italia (TIM) top shareholder, urged Italian market watchdog and TIM’s auditors to further investigate what it called governance issues at the Italian group.

The French media group and activist investor Elliott, which owns just under 10 pct of TIM, are at loggerheads over the Italian group’s governance and management.

Vivendi is seeking the removal of TIM Chairman Fulvio Conti and four other board members and cites the fact that TIM’s auditors said in a report they found irregularities in the way information was shared with the company’s board members in the run-up to the ousting of Chief Executive Amos Genish.

TIM’s board on Thursday rejected the report issued by the group’s auditors.

(Reporting by Francesca Landini, editing by Louise Heavens)

Source: OANN

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‘Targeted’ shootings that left 4 dead in Canada may have stemmed from reported neighbor dispute

Four people were shot dead in 3 separate locations across a city in western Canada in a series of "targeted" attacks on Monday that may have all been sparked by a neighborhood dispute, according to a wife of one of the victims.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Supt. Ted De Jager said at a news conference the killing spree began around 10:30 a.m. outside a home in downtown Penticton, British Columbia.

As authorities were responding to the initial shooting, a second call of another incident came in from the south end of the city. When authorities went to the home involved in the second shooting, they discovered the bodies of 3 people in two locations.

By 11:30 a.m., a 60-year-old man turned himself in at the front desk of an RCMP station in the city, CBC News reported.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHARGED IN 5 DEATHS IN MISSOURI, KANSAS FOUND DEAD IN JAIL CELL, SHERIFF SAYS

“We’re still trying to find the motive for this whole incident, so that’s part of the ongoing investigation," De Jager said. "Indications right now are that all four were targeted.”

Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers work outside a scene in Penticton, British Columbia, Monday, April 15, 2019.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers work outside a scene in Penticton, British Columbia, Monday, April 15, 2019. ((Jeff Bassett/The Canadian Press via AP)

The four victims -- two men and two women -- were all killed within a 3-mile radius.

Renate Winter, the wife of the first victim – 71-year-old Rudi Winter – told the Vancouver Sun she believed the shootings were likely linked to a neighborhood dispute.

Winter said that she and her husband lived next to the estranged wife of the alleged gunman and had a contentious relationship.

“We cut a tree down in our yard and she had a fit, so anytime we did anything she had a fit, so we don’t talk to her,” she told the Vancouver Sun. “She called the cops because my husband was putting rocks in between our properties, and maybe his big toe went on her property.”

CANADIAN PROVINCE CONSIDERS MANDATORY ANNUAL MATH TESTS FOR ALL PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS: REPORTS

De Jager, who called the shootings a "deeply troubling incident," offered no additional details on how the victims knew each other or a possible motive. Charges are still pending against the man who turned himself in.

Canadian police said a 60-year-old man is in custody after shootings that left several dead in Penticton, British Columbia on Monday.

Canadian police said a 60-year-old man is in custody after shootings that left several dead in Penticton, British Columbia on Monday. (Jeff Bassett/The Canadian Press via AP)

He did confirm that neither of the female victims was the alleged gunman's ex-wife, the Penticton Western News reported.

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Such gun violence is rare in Canada. The shootings on Monday were the deadliest killings in city history, and the sixth deadliest in modern province history, according to the Penticton Western News.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News World

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Soybean exports help to shrink U.S. trade deficit in January

A trailer is filled with soybeans at a farm in Buda, Illinois
FILE PHOTO: A trailer is filled with soybeans at a farm in Buda, Illinois, U.S., July 6, 2018. REUTERS/Daniel Acker

March 27, 2019

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. trade deficit narrowed by the most in 10 months in January likely as China boosted purchases of soybeans, leading to a rebound in exports after three straight monthly declines.

The better-than-expected improvement in the trade deficit reported by the Commerce Department on Wednesday offered some good news for the economy after a raft of weak data, including retail sales, manufacturing and homebuilding, left economists anticipating a sharp slowdown in growth in the first quarter.

Still, the trade deficit remains large despite President Donald Trump’s “America First” policies to significantly shrink it. The White House’s protectionist trade tariffs have left the United States mired in a bruising trade war with China and provoked retaliatory tariffs from other trading partners.

The Commerce Department said the trade deficit declined 14.6 percent, the largest drop since March 2018, to $51.1 billion also as increased domestic oil production and lower crude prices curbed the import bill.

Data for December was revised slightly down to show the trade gap widening to $59.9 billion instead of the previously reported $59.8 billion. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the trade gap narrowing to $57.0 billion in January.

Washington last year imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of goods imported from China, with Beijing hitting back with duties on $110 billion worth of American products, including soybeans and other commodities.

Trump has delayed tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports as negotiations to resolve the eight-month trade war continue, with Beijing pledging to resume bulk purchases of soybeans after cancellations at the height of the trade fight.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are in China this week for another round of talks with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He.

The politically sensitive trade deficit with China fell 6.4 percent to $34.5 billion in January.

U.S. financial markets were little moved by the trade data.

LOW GDP ESTIMATES

When adjusted for inflation, the goods trade deficit decreased $7.8 billion to $83.8 billion in January. The drop in the so-called real goods trade deficit could see economists bump up their very low first-quarter gross domestic product growth estimates.

The Atlanta Federal Reserve is forecasting GDP rising at a 1.3 percent annualized rate in the January-March quarter. The government reported last month that the economy grew at a 2.6 percent pace in the fourth quarter.

But that estimate is likely to be lowered when the government publishes a revision on Thursday as some economic data for December was weaker than had been previously assumed.

The trade deficit in January was pushed down by a 0.9 percent increase in exports to $207.3 billion. Soybean exports rose by $0.9 billion in January. Exports of motor vehicles and parts increased by $1.2 billion.

Export growth, however, continues to be constrained by slowing global demand and the dollar’s strength last year, which is making U.S.-made goods less competitive on foreign markets.

In January, exports of capital goods decreased by $0.8 billion, led by a $1.3 billion decline in civilian aircraft shipments. Despite the rise in soybean shipments, exports to China were the smallest since September 2010.

Imports fell 2.6 percent to $258.5 billion in January, the lowest level since last June. Imports previously had surged, likely as businesses stocked up in anticipation of further duties on Chinese imports.

Capital goods imports dropped by $3.0 billion in January, led by a $0.9 billion decline in imports of computer accessories. There were also decreases in imports of semiconductors and civilian aircraft.

The weakness in capital goods imports likely suggests a slowdown in business spending on equipment. A drop in imports normally suggests cooling domestic demand. There were, however, increases in imports of consumer goods, as well as motor vehicles and parts in January.

Crude oil imports dropped by $1.4 billion, reflecting both lower volumes and prices. Imported oil prices averaged $42.59 per barrel in January, the cheapest since December 2016.

Graphic: U.S. trade balance DataStream Chart – http://tmsnrt.rs/2eiMEKv

Graphic: Trade interactive – http://tmsnrt.rs/2fuSPiB

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

Source: OANN

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AOC Predicts Socialist Utopia In Delusional Video Promoting Green New Deal, Medicare For All

Freshman congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) released a bizarre promo touting the hypothetical success of her socialist revolution, including implementing the Green New Deal and Medicare For All in the U.S.

The video, narrated by AOC and accompanied with watercolor painted scenes, explains a naive scenario where Democrats have taken control of all three branches of government, and have started to push their socialist vision for America.

“The wave began when Democrats took back the House in 2018,” she says. “And then the Senate and the White House in 2020, and launched the Decade of The Green New Deal.”

“A flurry of legislation that kicked off our social and ecological transformation to save the planet. It was the kind of swing-for-the-fence ambition we needed.”

“Finally! We were entertaining solutions on the scale of the crises we faced, without leaving anyone behind. That included Medicare For All: the most popular social program in American history,” she adds.

Despite the fact the estimated cost for Medicare For All would cost around $32 trillion, and the Green New Deal would cost about $93 trillion (more than the entire global money supply), AOC then explains how her plan to retrofit every single building with solar panels and construct trains all over the country would fix America.

“Funnily enough, the biggest problem in those early years was a labor shortage!” Ocasio-Cortez says. “We were building a national smart grid, retrofitting every building in America, putting trains like this one all across the country – we needed more workers.”

AOC then talks about an imaginary person named Iliana, a “child of the Green New Deal” who starts out as a solar engineer before working for the “Universal Childcare Initiative” that helps lower “carbon” emissions.

The delusional and out-of-touch nature of the video didn’t just concern some on social media, it genuinely scared them.

Notable tenets of the disastrous Green New Deal, which has already been overwhelmingly rejected in the Senate, include elimination of air travel, total overhaul of every single building in the U.S., trains all over the country, and the elimination of cows.


Twitter: 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is now being criticized for changing her tone while speaking to a group of African Americans. Alex Jones calls in from the road to break down the condescending attitude now common on the left.

Source: InfoWars

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Romania files charges against former chief anti-corruption prosecutor

Romania's former chief anti-corruption prosecutor Kovesi arrives to attend a hearing in Bucharest
Laura Codruta Kovesi, Romania's former chief anti-corruption prosecutor, arrives to attend a hearing at the Section for the Investigation of Criminal Offences in the judiciary in Bucharest, Romania, February 15, 2019. Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea via REUTERS

March 29, 2019

BUCHAREST (Reuters) – A Romanian agency tasked with investigating magistrates has filed criminal charges against former chief anti-corruption prosecutor Laura Codruta Kovesi and banned her from leaving the country for two months, it said on Friday.

Kovesi is a frontrunner to become the European Union’s first fraud prosecutor, despite opposition from Romania’s ruling Social Democrats who forced her out of the country’s anti-corruption prosecuting unit DNA last year.

The SIIJ was set up by the Social Democrats last year among a slew of judicial system changes, prompting a European Commission warning that Romanian magistrates – judges and prosecutors – were vulnerable to political intimidation.

On Friday, the SIIJ said it has charged Kovesi with taking a bribe, abuse of office and giving false testimony, without providing details of the case.

It banned Kovesi, who has denied any wrongdoing, from discussing the case in public. She also cannot leave the country without express permission and must regularly check in with police officials.

“I am not allowed to tell you anything of what happened here today,” she told reporters late on Thursday after an hours-long hearing at SIIJ. “I think this is a measure to shut me up, of not saying what is going on, a measure to keep harassing all of us in the justice system who have done our jobs.”

During Kovesi’s five-year tenure at the helm of Romania’s DNA anti-corruption office, conviction rates for high-level graft jumped across the political spectrum, drawing praise from Brussels, civil society groups and private investors.

But Kovesi was reviled by the Social Democrat government before being forced out last year on the order of Justice Minister Tudorel Toader. She has challenged her dismissal at the European Court of Human Rights.

Transparency International ranks Romania as one of the EU’s most corrupt states and Brussels has kept its judicial system under special monitoring since it joined the bloc in 2007.

The European Commission criticized Romania on Friday for backsliding on the rule of law and called on Bucharest to treat Kovesi fairly.

“It is crucial that all candidates put forward by an independent selection panel are treated fairly in the course of this process,” Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas told a regular news briefing.

“We call on the Romanian government and on the Romanian authorities to fully respect the principle of sincere cooperation as enshrined in the treaty regarding the selection procedure of the European chief prosecutor,” he said.

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie in Bucharest and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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Dems Making Trump Tax Returns a 2020 Election Issue

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Source: InfoWars

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North Macedonia police find 22 migrants trying Balkans route

Police in North Macedonia say two vehicles carrying 22 migrants who allegedly planned to enter Serbia illegally and travel on to European Union countries were stopped in separate weekend incidents.

Police said Sunday that nine Pakistanis were found in a car in the country's south late Saturday, near the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. The driver was arrested and placed in custody.

They say 13 Syrians were discovered Sunday, but their driver ran away.

Authorities said both groups would be deported to Greece, where they had been before.

North Macedonia police said they also broke up a migrant trafficking ring Saturday in which a police officer allegedly was involved.

A 2016 deal between the EU and Turkey was meant to close off the Balkans land route from Greece to western Europe.

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FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei's factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei’s factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China, March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) – Britain must get to the bottom of the leak of confidential discussions during a top-level security meeting about the role of China’s Huawei Technologies in 5G network supply chains, British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Friday.

News that Britain’s National Security Council, attended by senior ministers and spy chiefs, had agreed on Tuesday to bar Huawei from all core parts of the country’s 5G network and restrict its access to non-core elements was leaked to a national newspaper.

The leak of secret discussions has sparked anger in parliament and amongst Britain’s intelligence community. Britain’s most senior civil servant Mark Sedwill has launched an inquiry and written to ministers who were at the meeting.

“My understanding from London (is) that an investigation has been announced into apparent leaks from the NSC meeting earlier this week,” said Hammond, speaking on the sidelines of a summit on China’s Belt and Road initiative in Beijing.

“To my knowledge there has never been a leak from a National Security Council meeting before and therefore I think it is very important that we get to the bottom of what happened here,” he told Reuters in a pooled interview.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday he could not rule out a criminal investigation. The majority of the ministers at the NSC meeting have said they were not involved, according to media reports.

Hammond said he was unaware of any previous leak from a meeting of the NSC.

“It’s not about the substance of what was apparently leaked. It’s not earth-shattering information. But it is important that we protect the principle that nothing that goes on in national security council meetings must ever be repeated outside the room.”

Allowing Huawei a reduced role in building its 5G network puts Britain at odds with the United States which has told allies not to use its technology at all because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

There have been concerns that the NSC’s conclusion, which sources confirmed to Reuters, could upset other allies in the world’s leading intelligence-sharing network – the Five Eyes alliance of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

However, British ministers and intelligence officials have said any final decision on 5G would not put critical national infrastructure at risk. Ciaran Martin, head of the cyber center of Britain’s main eavesdropping agency, GCHQ, played down any threat of a rift in the Five Eyes alliance.

(Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon
Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon, South Korea, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

April 26, 2019

SEOUL (Reuters) – K-pop and drama star Park Yu-chun was arrested on Friday on charges of buying and using illegal drugs, a court said, the latest in a series of scandals to hit the South Korean entertainment business.

Suwon District Court approved the arrest warrant for Park, 32, due to concerns over possible destruction of evidence and flight risk, a court spokesman told Reuters.

Park is suspected of having bought about 1.5 grams of methamphetamine with his former girlfriend earlier this year and using the drug around five times, an official at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said.

Park has denied wrongdoing, saying he had never taken drugs, and he again denied the charges in court, Yonhap news agency said.

Park’s contract with his management agency had been canceled and he would leave the entertainment industry, Park’s management agency, C-JeS Entertainment, said on Wednesday.

Park was a member of boyband TVXQ between 2003 and 2009 before leaving the group with two other members, forming the group JYJ.

A scandal involving sex tapes, prostitutes and secret chat about rape led at least four other K-pop stars to quit the industry earlier this year.

The cases sparked a nationwide drugs bust and investigations into tax evasion and police collusion at night clubs and other nightlife spots.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight taxis after landing at Reagan National Airport in Washington
FILE PHOTO: An American Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 flight from Los Angeles taxis after landing at Reagan National Airport shortly after an announcement was made by the FAA that the planes were being grounded by the United States over safety issues in Washington, U.S. March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – American Airlines Group Inc cut its 2019 profit forecast on Friday, saying it expected to take a $350 million hit from the grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX planes after cancelling 1,200 flights in the first quarter.

The company said it now expects its 2019 adjusted profit to be between $4.00 per share and $6.00 per share.

Analysts on average had expected 2019 earnings of $5.63 per share, according to Refinitiv data.

The No. 1 U.S. airline by passenger traffic said net income rose to $185 million, or 41 cents per share, in the first quarter ended March 31, from $159 million, or 34 cents per share, a year earlier.

Total operating revenue rose 2 percent to $10.58 billion.

(Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru)

Source: OANN

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2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg speaks at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., April 16, 2019. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

April 26, 2019

By James Oliphant

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (Reuters) – Four years ago, Donald Trump campaigned in small towns like Marshalltown, Iowa, vowing to restore economic prosperity to the U.S. heartland.

In his bid to replace Trump in the White House, Pete Buttigieg is taking a similar tack. The difference, he says, is that he can point to a model of success: South Bend, Indiana, the revitalized city where he has been mayor since 2012.

The Democratic presidential contender has vaulted to the congested field’s top tier in recent weeks, drawing media and donor attention for his youth, history-making status as the first openly gay major presidential candidate and a resume that includes military service in Afghanistan.

But Buttigieg’s main argument for his candidacy is that he is a turnaround artist in the mold of Trump, although the Democrat does not expressly invoke the comparison with the Republican president.

“I’m not going around saying we’ve fixed every problem we’ve got,” Buttigieg, 37, said after a house party with voters in Marshalltown. “But I’m proud of what we have done together, and I think it’s a very powerful story.”

Critics argue improving the fortunes of a Midwestern city of 100,000 people does not qualify Buttigieg, who has never held national office, for the presidency of a country of 330 million. Others say South Bend still has pockets of despair and that minorities, in particular, have failed to benefit from its growth.

Buttigieg has told crowds in Iowa and elsewhere that his experience in reviving a struggling Rust Belt community allows him to make a case to voters that other Democratic candidates cannot. That may give him the means to win back some of the disaffected Democratic voters who turned their backs on Hillary Clinton in 2016 to vote for Trump.

Watching Buttigieg at a union hall in Des Moines last week, Rick Ryan, 45, a member of the United Steelworkers, lamented how many of his fellow union workers voted for Trump. The president turned in the best performance by a Republican among union households since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Ryan said he hoped someone like Buttigieg could return them to the Democratic fold.

“He’s aware of the decline in the labor force in America, not just in Indiana or Des Moines or anywhere else,” Ryan said. “Jobs are going overseas. We need a find to way to bring that back.”

Randy Tucker, 56, of Pleasant Hill, Iowa, a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said Trump appealed to union members “desperate for somebody to reach out to them, to help them, to listen to their voice.”

Buttigieg could do the same, he said. “In my heart right now, he’s No. 1.”

PAST VS. FUTURE

Buttigieg stresses a key difference in his and Trump’s approaches.

Trump, he tells crowds, is mired in the past, promising to rebuild the 20th century industrial economy. Buttigieg argues the pledge is misleading and unrealistic.

Buttigieg says his focus is on the future, and he often talks about what the country might look like decades from now.

“The only way that we can cultivate what makes America great is to look to the future and not be afraid of it,” Buttigieg said in Marshalltown.

Buttigieg knows his sexual preference may be a barrier to winning some blue-collar voters. But he notes that after he came out as gay in 2015, he won a second term as mayor with 80 percent of the vote in conservative Indiana.

Earlier this month, he announced his presidential bid at the hulking plant in South Bend that stopped making Studebaker autos more than 50 years ago. After lying dormant for decades, the building is being transformed into a high-tech hub after Buttigieg and other city leaders realized it would never again attract a large-scale industrial company.

“That building sat as a powerful reminder. We hoped we would get back that major employer that would fix our economy,” said Jeff Rea, president of the regional Chamber of Commerce.

Buttigieg is praised locally for spurring more than $100 million in downtown investment. During his two terms, unemployment has fallen to 4.1 percent from 11.8 percent.

But a study released in 2017 by the nonprofit group Prosperity Now said not all of the city’s residents had shared in its rebound. The median income for African-Americans remained half that of whites, while the unemployment rate for blacks was double.

Regina Williams-Preston, a city councilor running to replace Buttigieg as mayor, credits him for the revitalized downtown. But she said he had a “blind spot” when it came to focusing on troubled neighborhoods like the one she represents and only grew more engaged after community pressure.

“He understands it now,” she said. “The next step is figuring out how to open the doors of opportunity for everyone.”

‘ONE OF US’

Trump touts the fact that the United States added almost 300,000 manufacturing jobs last year as evidence he made good on his promise to restore the industrial sector. But that growth still left the country with fewer manufacturing jobs than in 2008.

The robust U.S. economy is likely the president’s greatest asset in his re-election bid, particularly in states he carried in 2016 such as Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. He won Buttigieg’s home state by 19 points over Clinton in 2016.

Sean Bagniewski, chairman of the Democratic Party in Polk County, Iowa, said Buttigieg would be well positioned to compete with Trump in the Midwest.

“People love the fact that he’s a mayor,” said Bagniewski, who has not endorsed a candidate in the nominating contest. “If you can talk about a positive future, and if you actually have experience that can do it, that’s a compelling vision in Iowa.”

Nan Whaley, the mayor of Dayton, Ohio, which faces many of the same challenges as South Bend, agreed.

“He’s one of us,” Whaley said. “That helps.”

(Reporting by James Oliphant; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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A man looks out at a flooded residential area in Gatineau
A man looks out at a flooded residential area in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Chris Wattie

April 26, 2019

MONTREAL/OTTAWA (Reuters) – Rising waters were prompting further evacuations in central Canada on Thursday, with the mayor of the country’s capital, Ottawa, declaring a state of emergency and Quebec authorities warning that a hydroelectric dam was at risk of breaking.

Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared the emergency in response to rising water levels along the Ottawa River and weather forecasts that called for significant rainfall on Friday.

In a statement on Twitter, Watson asked for help from the Ontario provincial government and the country’s military.

He warned that “flood levels are currently forecasted to exceed the levels that caused significant damage to numerous properties in the city of Ottawa in 2017.”

Spring flooding had killed one person and forced more than 900 people from their homes in Canada’s Quebec province as of 1 p.m. on Thursday, according to a government website.

Ottawa has received 80 requests for service related to potential flooding such as sandbagging, a city spokeswoman said.

The prospect of more rain over the next 24 to 48 hours triggered concerns on Thursday that the hydroelectric dam at Bell Falls in the western part of Quebec could be at risk of failing because of rising water levels.

Quebec’s provincial police said 250 people were protectively removed from homes in the area as of late afternoon in case the dam on the Rouge River breaks.

The dam is now at its full flow capacity of 980 cubic meters per second of water, said Francis Labbé, a spokesman for the province’s state-owned utility, Hydro Quebec. He said Hydro Quebec expected the flow could rise to 1,200 cubic meters per second of water over the next two days.

“We have to take the worst-case scenario into consideration, since we`re already at the maximum capacity,” Labbé said by phone.

The dam is part of a power station that no longer produces electricity, but is regularly inspected by Hydro Quebec, he said.

(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and David Ljunggren and Julie Gordon in Ottawa; Editing by James Dalgleish and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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