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Turkey’s Albayrak meets Trump, discusses Russian missile defense issue: NTV

FILE PHOTO: Turkish Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak attends a news conference in Istanbul
FILE PHOTO: Turkish Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak attends a news conference in Istanbul, Turkey, April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo

April 16, 2019

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish Finance Minister Berat Albayrak said on Tuesday he met U.S. President Donald Trump and broadcaster NTV reported him as saying Trump took a reasonable point of view regarding Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400 missile defense systems.

CNN Turk cited Albayrak as telling reporters that there was agreement at his meetings in Washington to increase bilateral trade between the United States and Turkey to $75 billion annually.

(Reporting by Nevzat Devranoglu; Editing by Daren Butler)

Source: OANN

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‘Basil,’ the alarm specialist, jailed over huge UK diamond heist

FILE PHOTO: Handout photo of the hole that robbers drilled through the concrete vault during the Hatton Garden heist in London
FILE PHOTO: The hole that robbers drilled through the concrete vault during the Hatton Garden heist in London, Britain is seen in this undated handout photo released to Reuters by the Metropolitan Police on January 14, 2016. REUTERS/Metropolitan Police/Handout via Reuters

March 15, 2019

By Stephen Addison

LONDON (Reuters) – A 58-year-old man nicknamed “Basil” was jailed for 10 years on Friday after being found guilty of being the final member of a gang of aging criminals who carried out one the most audacious robberies in the annals of British crime.

The gang ransacked 73 deposit boxes at the Hatton Garden Safety Deposit building in London’s jewelry district over the Easter weekend of 2015, stealing gold, silver, diamonds and jewelry worth 13.5 million pounds ($18 million).

Disguised as workmen, they abseiled down a lift shaft over the Easter weekend and used a diamond-tipped drill to cut through the vault wall. It was Britain’s biggest-ever robbery and much of the haul was never recovered.

On Friday, Michael Seed was jailed at Woolwich Crown Court in London after the jury accepted prosecution evidence that he was the man, nicknamed Basil by the rest of the gang, who had remained at large.

“(We) were able to … prove he was not only involved but was one of the ringleaders,” said Kate Mulholland of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). “He was the only member of the group with the technical knowledge to defeat complex alarm systems.”

Basil was seen on closed-circuit TV inside the building wearing a ginger wig and a face-covering as a disguise.

The rest of the ringleaders: Brian Reader, 77 at the time, Terry Perkins, 67, Daniel Jones, 61, and John ‘Kenny’ Collins, 75, were identified in the weeks after and eventually jailed. Others who helped them were also convicted.

But Basil remained unidentified, having last been seen on CCTV walking away from Hatton Garden with a large plastic bag over his shoulder.

Three years later, police raided Seed’s one-bedroom flat in north London and found items stolen from Hatton Garden including jewelry and gold ingots. Seed told police he was an amateur jeweler and had come by the items innocently, the CPS said.

Burglar alarm technical manuals were also found along with signal blockers for alarms, and a machine for melting precious metals.

When the other ringleaders were sentenced in 2016, Judge Christopher Kinch said: “It is clear that the burglary … stands in a class of its own in the scale of the ambition, the detail of the planning, the level of preparation and the organization of the team carrying it out.”

Like Britain’s Great Train Robbery of 1963 with which the Hatton Garden raid was inevitably compared, it was later the subject of books and films.

(Reporting by Stephen Addison; editing by Michael Holden)

Source: OANN

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Futures muted with U.S.-China trade negotiations in focus

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) shortly after the opening bell in New York
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) shortly after the opening bell in New York, U.S., March 26, 2019. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

March 28, 2019

By Shreyashi Sanyal

(Reuters) – U.S. stock index futures treaded water on Thursday, as investors awaited more details on the progress in U.S.-China trade negotiations amid lingering fears of slowing economic growth.

A Reuters report said China has made unprecedented proposals on a range of issues including forced technology transfer, though sticking points still remained and there was no definite timetable for a deal.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer looked forward to “productive meetings” as they arrived in Beijing leading a delegation for trade talks.

Meanwhile, Wall Street continued to be in the grip of global growth worries in the face of weak economic data and the Federal Reserve’s decision last week to abandon projections for any interest rate hikes this year.

Wall Street’s main indexes came under pressure on Friday when the U.S. Treasury yield curve inverted for the first time since 2007. If it remains inverted for long, it could indicate that a recession is likely in one to two years. [US/]

Treasury prices continued its rally on Thursday, pushing the benchmark 10-year yields to fresh 15-month lows.

At 7:15 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 4 points, or 0.02 percent. S&P 500 e-minis were down 0.25 points, or 0.01 percent and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 0.25 points, or 0 percent.

Credit rating agency S&P Global became the latest to cut its 2019 euro zone growth forecast to 1.1 percent from 1.6 percent.

Investors will look to gauge the pace of economic growth in the United States from the Commerce Department’s final estimate of fourth-quarter gross domestic product. The report is set to be released at 8:30 a.m. ET and is expected to show the economy grew at an annualized rate of 2.4 percent.

Energy stocks fell in premarket trading as crude prices dropped, extending losses into a second consecutive session, following a surprise rise in U.S. crude inventories.

Boeing Co edged up 0.2 percent, extending the previous day’s gains, after the planemaker unveiled software fixes to defend its 737 MAX airliners.

Nielsen Holdings Plc fell 9.9 percent in light volumes after a report that private equity firm Blackstone Group backed out of an auction to buy the ratings company.

Lululemon Athletica Inc rose 12.3 percent after company forecast full-year profit above analysts’ estimates.

(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal and Amy Caren Daniel in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

Source: OANN

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Paul Manafort ‘repeatedly and knowingly’ violated federal law, Mueller says in court filing

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Special Counsel Robert Mueller said that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort ‘repeatedly’ and ‘brazenly’ violated federal statutes in a redacted court filing.

“Manafort committed an array of felonies for over a decade, up through the fall of 2018,” the Special Counsel’s office said.

“His criminal actions were bold, some of which were committed while under a spotlight due to his work as the campaign chairman and, later, while he was on bail from this Court,” federal investigators added. “The crimes he engaged in while on bail were not minor; they went to the heart of the criminal justice system, namely, tampering with witnesses so he would not be held accountable for his crimes.”

In this April 19, 2018, file photo Paul Manafort departs Federal District Court after a hearing in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, FILE)

“Even after he purportedly agreed to cooperate with the government in September 2018, Manafort, as this court found, lied to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), this office, and the grand jury,” prosecutors continued. “His deceit, which is a fundamental component of the crimes of conviction and relevant conduct, extended to tax preparers, bookkeepers, banks, the Treasury Department, the Department of Justice National Security Division, the FBI, the Special Counsel’s Office, the grand jury, his own legal counsel, Members of Congress, and members of the executive branch of the United States government.”

They added: “The sentence in this case must take into account the gravity of this conduct, and serve both to specifically deter Manafort and generally deter those who would a similar series of crimes.”

Mueller's Sentencing Me... by on Scribd

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Syrian ‘Refugee’ Gang Rape Leader Charged as Child Despite Being 22 Years Old

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The reason for the case taking place in juvenile court, rather than an adult court, is due to claims that the 22-year-old was under the age of 21 when the gang rape occurred. New reports also reveal that he is being charged with eight more crimes including the suspect rape of a 19-year-old in 2017 German tabloid BILD reports.

Majd H. who came to Germany in 2014 from Syria and is believed to have links to Kurdish militia groups, is said to have been the leader of the gang rape of a German teen alongside eight other men aged between 19 and 30 outside of a local nightclub over a period of around four hours.

The spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s office Martina Wilke has revealed that Majd H. is currently being charged with a total of eight different crimes including another gang rape in a Freiburg apartment in September 2017 along with two other men aged 22 and 23-years-old.

Between the period of April to August of 2018, the 22-year-old Syrian is accused of several crimes including several cases of dangerous bodily harm, assault, acquisition and trafficking of narcotics, attempted sexual assault, and acts of exhibitionism.

The gang-rape case caused widespread condemnation in Germany from various figures including populist Alternative for Germany co-chair Alice Weidel who reacted to the case saying, “The brutalisation of our country by these scum can no longer be endured!”

The case is the second major rape to involve asylum seekers and follows the rape and murder of student Maria Ladenburger in 2017 who was raped and strangled then left to drown in a river by Afghan asylum seeker Hussein Khavari.

Initially, Khavari too sought to claim he was underage, but tests, along with witness testimony from his own father, revealed that he had been an adult. Like Majd H. he had also been accused of crimes in the past including attempted murder of a girl in Greece before coming to Germany.

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Michael Cohen testimony before House Oversight Committee rescheduled for Feb. 27

Michael Cohen, President Trump's onetime personal attorney, will testify publicly before the House Oversight and Reform Committee next week, the panel's chairman announced late Wednesday.

"I am pleased to announce that Michael Cohen’s public testimony before the Oversight Committee is back on, despite efforts by some to intimidate his family members and prevent him from appearing," Rep Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said in a statement. "Congress has an obligation under the Constitution to conduct independent and robust oversight of the Executive Branch, and this hearing is one step in that process."

Cohen was originally scheduled to appear before the committee on Feb. 7, but postponed that appearance last month, citing what his attorney Lanny Davis described as "ongoing threats against his family from President Trump and [Trump attorney Rudolph] Giuliani ... as well as Mr. Cohen's continued cooperation with ongoing investigations." Cohen will now appear before the Oversight Committee on Feb. 27, one day before he is scheduled to be interviewed behind closed doors by the House Intelligence Committee.

MICHAEL COHEN PRISON REPORT DATE PUSHED BACK TO MAY 6

Cohen's attorneys say he will also testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee sometime this month, but a date has not been formally set.

"The schedule has now been set," Cohen tweeted Wednesday evening. "Looking forward to the #American people hearing my story in my voice!"

According to a memo sent out by committee staff, Cohen's appearance before the oversight panel will concern various financial issues related to the 2016 presidential campaign, including payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal that federal prosecutors in New York say were directed by Trump. The hearing will also examine whether Trump has complied with campaign finance and tax laws, his ties to the Trump International Hotel in Washington and "potential and actual conflicts of interest."

Cohen will not be questioned about the ongoing investigations by Special Counsel Robert Mueller or the House and Senate Intelligence Committees into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.

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Earlier Wednesday, a federal judge approved Cohen's request to push back the date he is scheduled to report to federal prison by two months. Cohen's attorney's had pushed for the postponement, saying he had recently undergone shoulder surgery and needed the extra time to complete physical therapy as well as his congressional testimony.

Cohen was originally scheduled to report to jail on March 6 to begin serving a three-year sentence after he pleaded guilty to campaign finance and other violations last year. He is now scheduled to report to jail May 6.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Woman, Alleged Columbine Stalker Sol Pais/Sunshine is Dead

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Source: InfoWars

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Venezuela's Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Arreaza talks to the media during a news conference in Caracas
Venezuela’s Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Arreaza talks to the media during a news conference in Caracas, Venezuela April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Manaure Quintero

April 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday imposed sanctions on Venezuela’s foreign minister and a Venezuelan judge, according to a statement on the department’s website.

Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza and a judge, Carol Padilla, were targeted over the ongoing crisis in Venezuela, the Treasury Department said, the latest in a list of officials blacklisted by U.S. authorities for their role in President Nicolas Maduro’s government.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Makini Brice and Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Avengers fans gather at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood to attend the opening screening of
Avengers fans gather at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood to attend the opening screening of “Avengers: Endgame” in Los Angeles, California, U.S., April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake

April 26, 2019

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Marvel Studios superhero spectacle “Avengers: Endgame” hauled in a record $60 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices during its Thursday night debut, distributor Walt Disney Co said.

Global ticket sales for the film about Iron Man, Hulk and other popular characters reached $305 million for the first two days, Disney said.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Funeral of journalist Lyra McKee in Belfast
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn attends the funeral service for murdered journalist Lyra McKee at St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast, Northern Ireland April 24, 2019. Brian Lawless/Pool via REUTERS

April 26, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – The leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, said on Friday he had turned down an invitation to a state dinner which will be part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Britain in June.

“Theresa May should not be rolling out the red carpet for a state visit to honor a president who rips up vital international treaties, backs climate change denial and uses racist and misogynist rhetoric,” Corbyn said in a statement.

He said maintaining the relationship with the United States did not require “the pomp and ceremony of a state visit” and he said he would welcome a meeting with Trump “to discuss all matters of interest.”

(Reporting by Andy Bruce; Writing by William Schomberg)

Source: OANN

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A bedridden 67-year-old woman and more than a dozen animals were rescued Thursday after a welfare check found that they were living in a home filled with trash, urine, and feces, Florida police said.

Pinellas County sheriff’s deputies said when they arrived at the home in Dunedin around 7:20 p.m. Thursday, they could smell the odor of rotting trash and animal feces as they walked up to the driveway.

“Inside the residence, the odor of feces and urine was so overwhelming that deputies had to don masks,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement.

FLORIDA SHERIFF ON BORDER CRISIS AFTER MAJOR DRUG BUST: ‘IT MAKES ME ABSOLUTELY CRAZY’

Walking throughout the residence, the deputies found 10 emaciated dogs and puppies living in bins filled with their own feces, five large Macaw birds flying freely, rats, bugs and overall squalor.

Puppies discovered living in their own feces inside a Florida home that was filled with trash, urine, and feces.

Puppies discovered living in their own feces inside a Florida home that was filled with trash, urine, and feces. (Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office)

Deputies said due to the large amounts of trash in the home, they had to clear a path to reach the victim’s bedroom.

“None of the home’s toilets were working and all were found to be overflowing with feces,” deputies said. “The only working sink was located on the opposite end of the house from the victim’s bedroom.”

They said there was no food or water for the victim or the animals.

FLORIDA MAN IN EASTER BUNNY COSTUME CAUGHT IN VIRAL BRAWL IS WANTED IN NEW JERSEY, HAS HISTORY OF ARRESTS

The victim was transported to a local hospital for injuries that were non-life threatening, while the animals were transported to shelters.

The woman’s caretaker, Richard Lawrence Goodwin, 65, was arrested and charged with abuse and neglect of an elderly person, disabled person, and cruelty to animals.

Richard Goodwin, 69, was arrested for abuse and neglect of an elderly and disabled person after deputies found she was living in deplorable conditions.

Richard Goodwin, 69, was arrested for abuse and neglect of an elderly and disabled person after deputies found she was living in deplorable conditions. (Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office)

The sheriff’s department said this was Goodwin’s second arrest for abuse and neglect of the same victim. He was previously arrested in May 2018.

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Neighbor Victoria Muenzerbeer told FOX 13 that Goodwin and the victim were hoarders and the conditions inside the home were horrible years ago when she visited once.

“I went in and it was absolutely, a human being couldn’t live there,” she said. “The kitchen wasn’t usable and part of the wall was falling in.”

Source: Fox News National

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Libyan Minister of Economy Ali Abdulaziz Issawi speaks during an interview with Reuters in Tripoli
Libyan Minister of Economy Ali Abdulaziz Issawi speaks during an interview with Reuters in Tripoli, Libya April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Hani Amara

April 26, 2019

By Ulf Laessing

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libya’s U.N.-recognized government has budgeted up to 2 billion dinars ($1.43 billion) to cover costs of a three-week-old war for control of the capital, such as treatment for the wounded, to be funded without new borrowing, the economy minister said.

Ali Abdulaziz Issawi suggested the government hoped for business to continue more or less as usual despite the assault on Tripoli, in the country’s northwest, by forces tied to a parallel administration based in the eastern city of Benghazi.

Once Africa’s third largest producer of oil, Libya has been riven by factional conflict since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with the country now broadly split between eastern-based forces under Khalifa Haftar and the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli, in the west, under Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj.

Still, with Haftar’s Libyan National Army forces unable so far to pierce defenses in Tripoli’s southern suburbs, normal life and business activities continue in much of the capital and western coastal towns.

Issawi, in an interview with Reuters in his Tripoli office, also said Libya’s commercial ports and wheat imports were still functioning normally, although some roads have been blocked.

He said the Serraj government estimates it will spend up to 2 billion dinars extra on medical treatment for wounded, aid for displaced people and other “emergency” war costs.

He said this was not military spending but analysts believe that the sum will also cover expenditures such as pay for allied armed groups or food for fighters.

“We could actually spend less,” he added, in comments that gave the first insight into the economic impact of the fighting.

Issawi said the Tripoli government, which controls little territory beyond the greater capital region, would not incur new debt to fund the war costs, sticking to a plan to post a 2019 budget without a deficit.

Tripoli derives revenue largely from oil and natural gas production, interest-free loans from local banks to the central bank, and a 183 percent surcharge on foreign exchange transactions conducted at official rates.

But with centralized tax collection greatly diminished, public debt has piled up – to 68 billion dinars in the west, including unpaid state obligations such as social insurance.

Some analysts expect Serraj’s government will be forced to raise new debt if the war for control of Tripoli drags on.

With much of Libya dominated by armed factions that also act as security forces, the public wage bill for both the western and eastern administrations has soared as fighters have been made public employees in efforts to buy their loyalty.

The east has sold bonds worth 35 billion dinars outside the official financial system as the Tripoli central bank does not fund the parallel government apart from some wages.

Despite its limited reach, the Tripoli government still runs an annual budget of around 46.8 billion dinars, mainly for public salaries and fuel subsidies.

“This year we cannot finance via debt…we will not borrow (by agreement with the central bank),” Issawi said.

According to International Monetary Fund data, Libya’s central government debt-to-GDP ratio is 143 percent, making it one of the most heavily indebted in the world on that measure.

Issawi declined to say what parts of the budget would be trimmed to support the extra outlay for war costs.

However, with some 70 percent of the budget allocated to public wages, fuel subsidies and other welfare benefits, a portion devoted to infrastructure is most likely to be axed.

Widespread lawlessness has meant there have been no major infrastructural projects since 2011, when a NATO-backed uprising overthrew dictator Muammar Gaddafi, leaving schools, hospitals and roads in acute need of restoration.

FOREX SURCHARGE

Issawi said the government planned to raise as much as 30 billion dinars by the end of 2019 from hard currency deals after imposing in September a 183 percent surcharge on commercial and private transactions done on the official rate of 1.4 to the U.S. dollar. That fee has effectively devalued the official rate to 3.9, much closer to the black market equivalent.

Some 17 billion dinars have been raised since then, with hard currency allocated for import credit letters now issued without delays, Issawi said. The forex fee has helped the government forecast a budget in the black for 2019.

Despite the narrowing spread between the two rates, the black market continues to thrive. Dozens of traders remained at their favorite spot behind the central bank headquarters in Tripoli when Reuters reporters visited it last week.

But traders said it could take time for the Serraj government to register the extra forex receipts as official banking channels were taking up to six months to approve import financing, keeping the black market in play for dealers.

Issawi said authorities planned to lower the forex fee from 183 percent, without saying when. The black market rate has dropped from 6 to around 4.1 since September but it has hardly moved of late as demand for black market cash remains high.

The Tripoli government has stopped subsidizing food and bread, which used to be cheaper than drinking water in Libya. Wheat imports are now being arranged by private traders and there are surplus stocks of flour at the moment, Issawi said.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing in Tripoli with additional reporting by Karin Strohecker in London; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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