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Human remains found in Utah canyon may be those of woman who vanished during run

A set of human remains discovered in Utah canyon on Sunday may be those of a woman who was last seen going for a run over a year ago, according to officials.

The Utah County Sheriff's Office said in a news release a man contacted authorities around 8:30 p.m. to report he discovered the remains while climbing in American Fork Canyon near the Swinging Bridge picnic site, located about 30 miles south of Salt Lake City.

"The man said he hikes regularly in that area but had never before hiked in this particular ravine," police said.

HUMAN REMAINS FOUND AT HOME OF DENNIS DAY, ORIGINAL MOUSEKETEER MISSING FOR MONTHS

Sgt. Spencer Cannon told FOX13 the area was "very difficult to get up" on the north side of the canyon, about 850 feet from the floor, and was not a place where people commonly go hiking.

"For whatever reason, this gentleman decided he wanted to go up this ravine," Cannon said

A set of human remains discovered in a Utah canyon on Sunday may be of Jerika Binks, 24, who was last seen in February 2018.

A set of human remains discovered in a Utah canyon on Sunday may be of Jerika Binks, 24, who was last seen in February 2018. (Utah County Sheriff's Office)

Investigators discovered several personal items located with the remains that are consistent with descriptions of property known to be owned by 24-year-old Jerika Binks, according to police.

Binks was last seen on Feb. 18, 2018 when she told her roommate that she was going for a run. Trail cameras picked her up as Binks ran down the Timpanogos Cave Trail, but that was the only sign of her, according to FOX13.

ARKANSAS STUDENT DISCOVERS HUMAN REMAINS ON HIGH SCHOOL CAMPUS, MAY HAVE BEEN THERE FOR YEARS

An extensive search of the canyon afterward by Utah County Search and Rescue turned up nothing until the discovery Sunday.

Cannon told FOX13 that Binks was a fit runner and hiker, and loved being outdoors.

"Based on what we know of her likes and her interests, it’s not a surprise," Cannon said.

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Police said while there was evidence of injury, there is "no evidence at this stage of the investigation" to suggest foul play was involved.

The remains were recovered by the sheriff's office on Monday, and have been taken to the medical examiner's office to identify them and determine a cause of death.

Source: Fox News National

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Attorney slams Engler for attending game amid Nassar probe

John Engler's front-row interest in Michigan State University basketball has led to a war of words over the former school president's availability to speak to investigators about the Larry Nassar scandal .

Things have become so nasty that Engler's attorney has advised him not to cooperate if state Assistant Attorney General Christina Grossi remains on the case.

The attorney general's office wants to talk to Engler about campus changes after the sexual-assault scandal involving Nassar, a sports doctor, an interview that could take less than an hour. Engler was interim president for about a year until Jan. 17.

Grossi said Engler was scheduled to be interviewed March 28 in Washington, where he works, because he didn't plan to be in Michigan earlier. But she suddenly scratched that date this week. Grossi was upset to learn that the former Michigan governor was in a courtside seat at a MSU basketball game on March 9.

She suggested Engler could have carved out time to meet in Michigan long before March 28.

"Your client's brazen disregard for this investigation and his willingness to lie about his whereabouts is not only appalling but does a terrible disservice to the university," Grossi told attorney Seth Waxman in an email Tuesday.

"As an alumna of Michigan State, I'm embarrassed that our university's former president can make time to attend basketball games but not to sit to discuss the largest sexual assault scandal in the history of higher education," Grossi wrote.

In response, Waxman said he never indicated that Engler was unwilling to travel to Michigan. The lawyer said he was unavailable during the week of March 4, not Engler.

Waxman told Grossi that he's advising Engler to decline to speak to investigators unless she is dropped from the Nassar investigation. He accused her of "unfounded attacks" and said her "biases and prejudices" are unethical.

"The fact that the underlying conduct involved unspeakable harms," Waxman said of Nassar's assaults, "does not give the attorney general's office and its agents the right to attack, manipulate and deceive innocent people, including Mr. Engler."

Separately, Attorney General Dana Nessel asked the head of MSU's governing board to demand that Engler cooperate, under terms of his contract. She also wants the university to release more than 6,000 documents related to Nassar.

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Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwhiteap

Source: Fox News National

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Rabbis: ‘Not kosher’ to patron grocery store during strike

As thousands of Stop & Shop workers remain on strike in New England, some Jewish families are preparing for Passover without the region's largest supermarket chain, which has deep roots in the local Jewish community.

A number of rabbis in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island have been advising their congregations not to cross picket lines to buy Jewish holiday essentials at the store that one analyst says has the highest sales of kosher products among New England grocery stores. More than 30,000 Stop & Shop workers walked off the job April 11 over what they say is an unfair contract offer, a claim the company disputes.

"The food that you're buying is the product of oppressed labor and that's not kosher," said Rabbi Barbara Penzner, of Temple Hillel B'nai Torah, a reconstructionist synagogue in Boston. "Especially during Passover, when we're celebrating freedom from slavery, that's particularly egregious."

Rabbi Jon-Jay Tilsen, of Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel, a conservative synagogue in New Haven, Connecticut, cited ancient Jewish law prohibiting artisans from taking the livelihood of fellow artisans.

Tilsen said that ban is akin to the use of replacement workers by companies during labor strikes, which Stop & Shop has employed. "I am not making any judgment about the current strike," he stressed. "I am stating that we, local Jews, must respect the workers' action."

But at Temple Shalom, a reform synagogue in the Boston suburb of Newton, Rabbis Allison Berry and Laura Abrasley said it's ultimately a personal decision, though one they suggest should be framed within the American Jewish community's long history of supporting organized labor.

"Jewish law is interpreted in different ways," they said via email. "We encourage our members to celebrate the upcoming holiday in a manner that honors both the Jewish value of freedom and workers' dignity."

Penzner and other rabbis acknowledge their call to avoid the ubiquitous grocer can be challenging for some, especially in more remote communities where Stop & Shop is the most affordable — and sometime the only — kosher food supplier for miles.

New haven resident Rachel Bashevkin said she stocked up on Passover essentials before the strike. And for anything else, she won't be turning to Stop & Shop, which she said stocks harder to find items that make the Passover Seder extra special, like specialty baked goods, desserts, sweets and teas.

"The message of Passover is to me totally (that) you don't celebrate your holiday at the expense of other people," she told the New Haven Register earlier this week.

The dilemma isn't unique to Jews, either.

Rev. Laura Goodwin, of Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, in Sutton, Massachusetts, said she had ordered the church's Easter flower arrangements from the nearby Stop & Shop weeks ago. But when it became clear the strike wasn't going to end before the holiday, she scrambled to purchase enough tulips, hyacinths and daffodils from other stores.

"I just personally wasn't comfortable crossing the picket line," Goodwin said. "Flowers are nice, but they're not as important as people's livelihood."

The religious protests could have significant consequences for the bottom line of the Quincy, Massachusetts-based chain, said Burt Flickinger, a grocery industry analyst for the Strategic Research Group, a New York-based retail consulting firm.

Stop & Shop, which operates about 400 stores in New England, New York and New Jersey, is owned by the Dutch supermarket operator Ahold Delhaize but was founded in the 1900s by a Boston Jewish family whose descendants remain major philanthropists and civic leaders in New England.

Flickinger estimates the company has been losing about $2 million a day since the strike started, a financial hit that will only magnify in the coming days. Passover and the Christian holiday of Easter typically represent about 3% of the company's annual sales.

"They'll see big inventory loses, especially on profitable products like produce, flowers, meat and seafood that will go unsold," he said, projecting the losses for the company could be as much as $20 million for the time period.

Flickinger said competitors are already reaping the windfall, as can be seen in packed parking lots and long lines at many of Stop & Shop's regional rivals, including Shaw's and Market Basket, in recent days. He estimates competitors could see as much as a 20 percent bump in sales during the holiday season with the market leader largely sidelined.

Stop & Shop declined to comment on Flickinger's projections but apologized to customers for the inconvenience. The company has kept most of its 240 stores in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut open, but bakery, deli and seafood counters have been shuttered. The company's New York and New Jersey locations aren't affected by the strikes.

"We are grateful for members of the Jewish community who rely on our stores for kosher and Passover products," the company said in an emailed statement. "We're doing everything we can to minimize disruptions ahead of the holiday."

Source: Fox News National

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Ecuador says ex-leader trying to destabilize government

Officials in Ecuador say Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro's administration gave ex-President Rafael Correa $281,000 intended to help destabilize the government of the man who replaced him as head of the small South American nation.

Anti-Corruption Secretary Ivan Granda presented a formal complaint to prosecutors on Wednesday alleging that Maduro's government funneled the money through a foundation run by Correa in August. He didn't give details of the foundation's alleged actions.

Granda said the revelation was particularly upsetting considering Venezuela's worsening economic and humanitarian crisis.

Correa denied the charges on Twitter, while the foundation put out a statement insisting all its activities are legal.

Current President Lenin Moreno was a protégé of Correa, but the two have waged an increasingly bitter feud.

Source: Fox News World

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Australia to boost national security funding by $400 million: newspaper

The new Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison attends a news conference in Canberra
FILE PHOTO: The Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison attends a news conference in Canberra, Australia August 24, 2018. REUTERS/David Gray

March 30, 2019

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australia’s budget for the 2019/20 fiscal year will include an additional A$570 million ($404.36 million) for national security to boost counter-terrorism and anti-espionage operations, The Weekend Australian newspaper reported on Saturday.

The extra spending package for domestic spy agency the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) will fund programs such as anti-drone technology for the police and intelligence gathering in offshore conflict zones.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will unveil a budget on Tuesday that is expected to feature an avalanche of spending in an effort to arrest his conservative government’s slide in popularity.

The delivery of the budget for the year beginning July 1 will be a launching pad for a general election due in May.

The killing of 50 people in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 15 has sparked debate about Australia’s readiness to fight extremism.

An Australian man, a suspected white supremacist, has been charged with one count of murder and is expected to face more charges at his next court appearance on Friday.

Morrison said the extra money for security was not a response to concerns Australia had let extremists slip through its net.

“No, no. What this is is a recognition of the growing threat of extremist terrorism in so many different terms,” he said in televised remarks.

The Weekend Australian reported that the majority of the new spending would go to the AFP. The agency was expected to receive a A$512 million increase over the next five years to cope with a seven-fold increase in counter-terrorism operations and an eight-fold increase in the number of people being monitored under a security watch list, it said.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Paul Tait)

Source: OANN

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Mixed blessing for cycling from Pope Francis

Pope Francis has praised cycling for the value it places on discipline, selflessness and courage but warned that the sport can become tainted by doping, dishonesty and corruption.

Francis met Saturday with European and African cycling federations during their annual assembly in Rome.

The Argentine Jesuit cited the team spirit often seen in cycling but warned that it can become distorted when profit and prestige take over. He cited "doping, dishonesty, disrespect for oneself and one's opponents, and corruption."

Francis, a known soccer fan, has long promoted sport as an example of solidarity to be nurtured, especially among the young.

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More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Source: Fox News World

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MLB notebook: Judge may be next Yankee headed to IL

MLB: Kansas City Royals at New York Yankees
Apr 20, 2019; Bronx, NY, USA; New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge (99) rounds second base after hitting a solo home run in the first inning against the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

April 21, 2019

New York Yankees right fielder Aaron Judge exited Saturday’s game against the Kansas City Royals with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning with a left oblique injury.

Already with a home run in the first inning — his fifth of the season — Judge singled to right field in the sixth but appeared to feel something on the swing. He gingerly ran to first base and was lifted from the game after a brief consultation from trainer Steve Donahue.

Manager Aaron Boone told reporters afterward that Judge was getting an MRI exam. Asked if Judge could avoid a trip to the injured list, Boone replied, “Probably not. No.”

New York began the game with 12 players on the injured list, including Giancarlo Stanton (strained left biceps), Gary Sanchez (strained left calf) and Luis Severino (right rotator cuff inflammation).

–The Cleveland Indians activated All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor from the 10-day injured list ahead of his team’s doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves and designated veteran Hanley Ramirez for assignment.

Lindor, who suffered a right calf strain before spring training play began and later sprained his left ankle, hit .417 with two home runs, a double and two RBIs in three games in a rehab stint with Triple-A Columbus.

Lindor is a career .288 hitter who delivered career bests with 38 home runs and 92 RBIs last season. The three-time All-Star finished second in the voting for Rookie of the Year in 2015. Ramirez was hitting just .184 with a double and two home runs in 49 at-bats this season.

–The Boston Red Sox placed right-hander Nathan Eovaldi on the 10-day injured list with a loose body in his right elbow, a move retroactive to Thursday.

The Red Sox called up left-hander Bobby Poyner from Triple-A Pawtucket in a corresponding move. They face the Rays in Tampa Bay on Saturday night.

Eovaldi has yet to get a decision and sports a 6.00 ERA in four starts this season, the first of a four-year deal he signed with Boston in the offseason. The 29-year-old was 6-7 with a 3.81 ERA in 22 games (21 starts) in 2018 but was 3-3 with a 3.33 ERA after being acquired by the Red Sox from Tampa Bay in late July and turned in a superb postseason for the eventual champions.

–A day after the New York Mets placed ace Jacob deGrom on the injured list, he threw in the outfield and told reporters he “felt completely normal.”

He played catch from 120 feet in the outfield at Busch Stadium in St. Louis and reported a positive outcome.

The team announced Friday that deGrom would undergo an MRI exam on Monday, but that is now up in the air, manager Mickey Callaway told reporters. DeGrom will meet with team medical director Dr. David Altchek in New York, who will make the call on the MRI.

–The Pittsburgh Pirates placed center fielder Starling Marte and shortstop Erik Gonzalez on the injured list, one day after the two were hurt in a fierce collision chasing after a pop fly.

Marte suffered a bruised abdominal wall while Gonzalez fractured his left clavicle in the collision during Friday’s win over San Francisco. Marte was placed on the 10-day IL and Gonzalez went on the 60-day IL.

Pittsburgh recalled shortstop Cole Tucker and outfielder Bryan Reynolds from Triple-A Indianapolis. Both players started Saturday’s game against the Giants in their major league debuts.

–Pitcher Gio Gonzalez opted out of his contract with the Yankees and intends to become a free agent, MLB.com reported.

Per the terms of Gonzalez’s contract, the Yankees have 48 hours to grant his release or add him to the roster. If he is put on the roster, Gonzalez will be paid a $3 million base salary, along with $300,000 per start.

In three starts at Triple A-Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, he as a 2-1 record with an ERA of 6.00.

–Field Level Media

Source: OANN

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Cambodian authorities have ordered a one-hour reduction in the length of school days because of concerns that students and teachers may fall ill from a prolonged heat wave.

Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said in an announcement seen Friday that the shortened hours will remain in effect until the rainy season starts, which usually occurs in May. The current heat wave, in which temperatures are regularly reaching as high as 41 Celsius (106 Fahrenheit), is one of the longest in memory.

Most schools in Cambodia lack air conditioning, prompting concern that temperatures inside classrooms could rise to unhealthy levels.

School authorities were instructed to watch for symptoms of heat stroke and urge pupils to drink more water.

The new hours cut 30 minutes off the beginning of the school day and 30 minutes off the end.

School authorities instituted a similar measure in 2016.

Source: Fox News World

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Explosions have rocked Britain’s largest steel plant, injuring two people and shaking nearby homes.

South Wales Police say the incident at the Tata Steel plant in Port Talbot was reported at about 3:35 a.m. Friday (22:35 EDT Thursday). The explosions touched off small fires, which are under control. Two workers suffered minor injuries and all staff members have been accounted for.

Police say early indications are that the explosions were caused by a train used to carry molten metal into the plant. Tata Steel says its personnel are working with emergency services at the scene.

Local lawmaker Stephen Kinnock says the incident raises concerns about safety.

He tweeted: “It could have been a lot worse … @TataSteelEurope must conduct a full review, to improve safety.”

Source: Fox News World

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The Wider Image: China's start-ups go small in age of 'shoebox' satellites
LinkSpace’s reusable rocket RLV-T5, also known as NewLine Baby, is carried to a vacant plot of land for a test launch in Longkou, Shandong province, China, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

April 26, 2019

By Ryan Woo

LONGKOU, China (Reuters) – During initial tests of their 8.1-metre (27-foot) tall reusable rocket, Chinese engineers from LinkSpace, a start-up led by China’s youngest space entrepreneur, used a Kevlar tether to ensure its safe return. Just in case.

But when the Beijing-based company’s prototype, called NewLine Baby, successfully took off and landed last week for the second time in two months, no tether was needed.

The 1.5-tonne rocket hovered 40 meters above the ground before descending back to its concrete launch pad after 30 seconds, to the relief of 26-year-old chief executive Hu Zhenyu and his engineers – one of whom cartwheeled his way to the launch pad in delight.

LinkSpace, one of China’s 15-plus private rocket manufacturers, sees these short hops as the first steps towards a new business model: sending tiny, inexpensive satellites into orbit at affordable prices.

Demand for these so-called nanosatellites – which weigh less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and are in some cases as small as a shoebox – is expected to explode in the next few years. And China’s rocket entrepreneurs reckon there is no better place to develop inexpensive launch vehicles than their home country.

“For suborbital clients, their focus will be on scientific research and some commercial uses. After entering orbit, the near-term focus (of clients) will certainly be on satellites,” Hu said.

In the near term, China envisions massive constellations of commercial satellites that can offer services ranging from high-speed internet for aircraft to tracking coal shipments. Universities conducting experiments and companies looking to offer remote-sensing and communication services are among the potential domestic customers for nanosatellites.

A handful of U.S. small-rocket companies are also developing launchers ahead of the expected boom. One of the biggest, Rocket Lab, has already put 25 satellites in orbit.

No private company in China has done that yet. Since October, two – LandSpace and OneSpace – have tried but failed, illustrating the difficulties facing space start-ups everywhere.

The Chinese companies are approaching inexpensive launches in different ways. Some, like OneSpace, are designing cheap, disposable boosters. LinkSpace’s Hu aspires to build reusable rockets that return to Earth after delivering their payload, much like the Falcon 9 rockets of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

“If you’re a small company and you can only build a very, very small rocket because that’s all you have money for, then your profit margins are going to be narrower,” said Macro Caceres, analyst at U.S. aerospace consultancy Teal Group.

“But if you can take that small rocket and make it reusable, and you can launch it once a week, four times a month, 50 times a year, then with more volume, your profit increases,” Caceres added.

Eventually LinkSpace hopes to charge no more than 30 million yuan ($4.48 million) per launch, Hu told Reuters.

That is a fraction of the $25 million to $30 million needed for a launch on a Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Pegasus, a commonly used small rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a high-flying aircraft and is not reusable.

(Click https://reut.rs/2UVBjKs to see a picture package of China’s rocket start-ups. Click https://tmsnrt.rs/2GIy9Bc for an interactive look at the nascent industry.)

NEED FOR CASH

LinkSpace plans to conduct suborbital launch tests using a bigger recoverable rocket in the first half of 2020, reaching altitudes of at least 100 kilometers, then an orbital launch in 2021, Hu told Reuters.

The company is in its third round of fundraising and wants to raise up to 100 million yuan, Hu said. It had secured tens of millions of yuan in previous rounds.

After a surge in fresh funding in 2018, firms like LinkSpace are pushing out prototypes, planning more tests and even proposing operational launches this year.

Last year, equity investment in China’s space start-ups reached 3.57 billion yuan ($533 million), a report by Beijing-based investor FutureAerospace shows, with a burst of financing in late 2018.

That accounted for about 18 percent of global space start-up investments in 2018, a historic high, according to Reuters calculations based on a global estimate by Space Angels. The New York-based venture capital firm said global space start-up investments totaled $2.97 billion last year.

“Costs for rocket companies are relatively high, but as to how much funding they need, be it in the hundreds of millions, or tens of millions, or even just a few million yuan, depends on the company’s stage of development,” said Niu Min, founder of FutureAerospace.

FutureAerospace has invested tens of millions of yuan in LandSpace, based in Beijing.

Like space-launch startups elsewhere in the world, the immediate challenge for Chinese entrepreneurs is developing a safe and reliable rocket.

Proven talent to develop such hardware can be found in China’s state research institutes or the military; the government directly supports private firms by allowing them to launch from military-controlled facilities.

But it’s still a high-risk business, and one unsuccessful launch might kill a company.

“The biggest problem facing all commercial space companies, especially early-stage entrepreneurs, is failure” of an attempted flight, Liang Jianjun, chief executive of rocket company Space Trek, told Reuters. That can affect financing, research, manufacturing and the team’s morale, he added.

Space Trek is planning its first suborbital launch by the end of June and an orbital launch next year, said Liang, who founded the company in late 2017 with three other former military technical officers.

Despite LandSpace’s failed Zhuque-1 orbital launch in October, the Beijing-based firm secured 300 million yuan in additional funding for the development of its Zhuque-2 rocket a month later.

In December, the company started operating China’s first private rocket production facility in Zhejiang province, in anticipation of large-scale manufacturing of its Zhuque-2, which it expects to unveil next year.

STATE COMPETITION

China’s state defense contractors are also trying to get into the low-cost market.

In December, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) successfully launched a low-orbit communication satellite, the first of 156 that CASIC aims to deploy by 2022 to provide more stable broadband connectivity to rural China and eventually developing countries.

The satellite, Hongyun-1, was launched on a rocket supplied by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the nation’s main space contractor.

In early April, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALVT), a subsidiary of CASC, completed engine tests for its Dragon, China’s first rocket meant solely for commercial use, clearing the path for a maiden flight before July.

The Dragon, much bigger than the rockets being developed by private firms, is designed to carry multiple commercial satellites.

At least 35 private Chinese companies are working to produce more satellites.

Spacety, a satellite maker based in southern Hunan province, plans to put 20 satellites in orbit this year, including its first for a foreign client, chief executive Yang Feng told Reuters.

The company has only launched 12 on state-produced rockets since the company started operating in early 2016.

“When it comes to rocket launches, what we care about would be cost, reliability and time,” Yang said.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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At least one person is reported dead and homes have been destroyed by a powerful cyclone that struck northern Mozambique and continues to dump rain on the region, with the United Nations warning of “massive flooding.”

Cyclone Kenneth arrived just six weeks after Cyclone Idai tore into central Mozambique, killing more than 600 people and displacing scores of thousands. The U.N. says this is the first time in known history that the southern African nation has been hit by two cyclones in one season.

Forecasters say the new cyclone made landfall Thursday night in a part of Mozambique that has not seen such a storm in at least 60 years.

Mozambique’s local emergency operations center says a woman in the city of Pemba was killed by a falling tree.

Source: Fox News World

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German drug and crop chemical maker Bayer holds annual general meeting
Werner Baumann, CEO of German pharmaceutical and chemical maker Bayer AG, attends the annual general shareholders meeting in Bonn, Germany, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

April 26, 2019

By Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger

BONN (Reuters) – Bayer shareholders vented their anger over its stock price slump on Friday as litigation risks mount from the German drugmaker’s $63 billion takeover of seed maker Monsanto.

Several large investors said they will not support aspirin investor Bayer’s management in a key vote scheduled for the end of its annual general meeting.

Bayer’s management, led by chief executive Werner Baumann, could see an embarrassing plunge in approval ratings, down from 97 percent at last year’s AGM, which was held shortly before the Monsanto takeover closed in June.

A vote to ratify the board’s actions features prominently at every German AGM. Although it has no bearing on management’s liability, it is seen as a key gauge of shareholder sentiment.

“Due to the continued negative development at Bayer, high legal risks and a massive share price slump, we refuse to ratify the management board and supervisory board’s actions during the business year,” Janne Werning, representing Germany’s Union Investment, a top-20 shareholder, said in prepared remarks.

About 30 billion euros ($34 billion) have been wiped off Bayer’s market value since August, when a U.S. jury found the pesticide and drugs group liable because Monsanto had not warned of alleged cancer risks linked to its weedkiller Roundup.

Bayer suffered a similar defeat last month and more than 13,000 plaintiffs are claiming damages.

Bayer is appealing or plans to appeal the verdicts.

Deutsche Bank’s asset managing arm DWS said shareholders should have been consulted before the takeover, which was agreed in 2016 and closed in June last year.

“You are pointing out that the lawsuits have not been lost yet. We and our customers, however, have already lost something – money and trust,” Nicolas Huber, head of corporate governance at DWS, said in prepared remarks for the AGM.

He said DWS would abstain from the shareholder vote of confidence in the executive and non-executive boards.

Two people familiar with the situation told Reuters this week that Bayer’s largest shareholder, BlackRock, plans to either abstain from or vote against ratifying the management board’s actions.

Asset management firm Deka, among Bayer’s largest German investors, has also said it would cast a no vote.

Baumann said Bayer’s true value was not reflected in the current share price.

“There’s no way to make this look good. The lawsuits and the first verdicts weigh heavily on our company and it’s a concern for many people,” he said, adding it was the right decision to buy Monsanto and that Bayer was vigorously defending itself.

This month, shareholder advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis recommended investors not to give the executive board their seal of approval.

(Reporting by Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Source: OANN

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