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The Latest: Police standoff on Atlanta-area freeway ends

The Latest on a freeway standoff outside Atlanta (all times local):

11:50 a.m.

Video from a TV news helicopter showed police pulling a man from a car — the apparent end to a lengthy standoff that played out in the middle of an Atlanta freeway.

More than a dozen police officers with guns drawn had filled four lanes of I-75 near Atlanta, bringing Friday morning traffic to a standstill.

Marietta police said an armed driver had stopped on the freeway and wasn't cooperating with officers. Police had followed the vehicle to I-75 since it matched the description from an armed robbery nearby.

Police said all southbound lanes of Interstate 75 were shut down as they tried to negotiate with the man by phone.

News photos showed that the man was alive as he was carried away by police. No injuries have been reported.

___

10:55 a.m.

More than a dozen police cars and officers standing outside with their guns drawn filled four lanes of a freeway near Atlanta, bringing traffic to a standstill as they confronted an armed motorist.

Marietta police said in a brief statement that a driver stopped on the freeway was armed and not cooperating with police Friday morning.

The southbound lanes of Interstate 75 were shut down just northwest of Atlanta. Police described the motorist as a "non-compliant driver."

Few other details were immediately available, and no injuries were immediately reported.

Traffic was backed up for miles. The standoff comes on a particularly busy day on Atlanta highways as people are traveling through the city on their way to spring break destinations.

The situation was unfolding near SunTrust Park, the home of the Atlanta Braves, but no game was planned Friday.

Source: Fox News National

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N. Korea calls for investigation into Madrid embassy attack

North Korea says it wants an investigation into an attack on its embassy in Spain last month, calling it a "grave terrorist attack" and an act of extortion that violates international law.

The incident occurred ahead of President Donald Trump's second summit with leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi on Feb. 27-28. A mysterious group calling for the overthrow of the North Korean regime has claimed responsibility.

The North's official media quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying that an illegal intrusion into and occupation of a diplomatic mission and an act of extortion are a grave breach of the state sovereignty and a flagrant violation of international law, "and this kind of act should never be tolerated."

He claimed an armed group tortured the staff and stole communications gear.

Source: Fox News World

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Donald Trump Administration: Abortion Is Not Family Planning

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Source: InfoWars

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Thomas Cook approached by potential bidders: Sky News

Illustration photo of a Thomas Cook logo
The Thomas Cook logo is seen in this illustration photo January 22, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration

April 20, 2019

(Reuters) – Thomas Cook has been tentatively approached about a takeover of its tour operating unit, or the entire company, by several parties as its lenders prepare for crunch talks over the state of its finances, Sky News reported on Saturday.

The company, which has put its airline business up for sale, last month announced a review of its money division to help focus on its core holiday business after a rough 2018.

Citing unnamed sources, Sky News reported https://news.sky.com/story/bidders-try-to-land-thomas-cook-as-lenders-chart-new-course-11698817U.S. private equity firm KKR & Co and Swedish buyout group EQT Partners were potential bidders for the group, while China’s Fosun International was understood to be among those to have lodged a preliminary interest in the tour business.

Thomas Cook, the world’s oldest tour operator, has brought in advisers from AlixPartners to work on its balance sheet and cost-reduction plans, while its syndicate of more than a dozen lenders has hired FTI Consulting to advise on their financial exposure to the company, the report added.

Thomas Cook and KKR said they won’t be commenting on the report. EQT declined to comment, while Fosun could not be immediately reached for comment.

(Reporting by Sathvik N in Bengaluru; Editing by David Holmes)

Source: OANN

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Mormon church won't oppose gay conversion therapy ban

The Mormon church says it won't stand in the way of a proposal to ban gay conversion therapy for minors in its home base of Utah, a position that advocates heralded as a milestone in the conservative state.

Troy Williams with the group Equality Utah said Wednesday the stance is important because LGBT members have historically reported that church leaders encouraged them to attend therapy aimed at changing their sexual orientation.

The faith has now denounced conversion therapy or other practices that subject people to abuse. Marty Stephens, a lobbyist for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, says counseling in line with church teachings on marriage and sexuality won't come under the proposed ban.

LGBT conversation therapy has been banned in fifteen states and the District of Columbia.

Source: Fox News National

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Caravan Migrant from Viral Video Arrested In Texas on Assault Charges

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More than 50 dead in South Africa after heavy rains

People move their belongings from damaged houses after heavy rains caused flooding in Marianhill
People move their belongings from damaged houses after heavy rains caused flooding in Marianhill, South Africa, April 23, 2019. REUTERS/Rogan Ward

April 24, 2019

By Rogan Ward

DURBAN (Reuters) – Rescue workers were digging through collapsed buildings along South Africa’s eastern coast, where more than 50 people were killed when heavy rain caused flooding and mudslides, authorities said on Wednesday.

Hundreds have been displaced, mainly in the port city of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal province. Flooding also killed at least three people in Eastern Cape province, state broadcaster SABC said on Wednesday.

Victor da Silva, a resident in the coastal town of Amanzimtoti, said his family managed to evacuate before the floods destroyed their home and cars.

“On Monday, the water was just crazy. And yesterday morning I got here, everything was fine, my garage was still here, the other part of the house was still here, and it just couldn’t stop raining,” Da Silva said. “And then an hour and half later, everything poof (vanished) because the rain just hasn’t stopped.

Johan Fourie told eNCA television that he escaped his home in Amanzimtoti just before part of it collapsed.

“I nearly lost my life, and my neighbor, I believe, is in hospital,” Fourie said.

The region had been hit by heavy rains for days, but authorities did not foresee the downpour late on Monday, said Lennox Mabaso, a spokesman for the provincial Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs department.

“As a result, there was flooding and some structures were undermined and collapsed on people,” Mabaso said. Some people were swept away by the water, he said.

Multiple dwellings collapsed in the mudslides, said Robert McKenzie, a KwaZulu-Natal Emergency Medical Services spokesman.

South African Weather Service forecaster Edward Engelbrecht said the heavy rainfall occurs “from time to time, especially during this time of the year.”

He said the rain should start to clear by Thursday.

President Cyril Ramaphosa visited affected communities in KwaZulu-Natal and is scheduled to go to the Eastern Cape in the next few days.

“This is partly what climate change is about, that it just hits when we least expect it,” he said, adding that funds would be provided by the government to assist those hit by the floods.

Last week, 13 people were killed during an Easter service in KwaZulu-Natal when a church wall collapsed after days of heavy rains and strong winds.

(Additional reporting by Tanisha Heiberg and Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo in Johannesburg; editing by James Macharia, Larry King)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: An aerial photo looking north shows shipping containers at the Port of Seattle and the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle
FILE PHOTO: An aerial photo looking north shows shipping containers at the Port of Seattle and the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington, U.S. March 21, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photo

April 26, 2019

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. economic growth is running at a 1.1% pace in the second quarter as the gains in exports and inventories recorded in the first quarter are expected to reverse, Morgan Stanley economists said on Friday.

“Our preliminary expectations for growth in the second quarter sees large drags from net exports and inventories after their contributions in 1Q,” they wrote in a research note.

Gross domestic product increased at a 3.2% annualized rate in the first three months of the year, driven by a smaller trade deficit and the largest accumulation of unsold merchandise since 2015, the Commerce Department said earlier Friday.

(Reporting by Richard Leong)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The Deutsche Bank headquarters are pictured in Frankfurt
FILE PHOTO: The Deutsche Bank headquarters are pictured in Frankfurt, Germany, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Tom Sims

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Within hours of the collapse of merger talks with Commerzbank, Christian Sewing scrambled to convince investors and employees that Deutsche Bank can stand on its own two feet.

The Deutsche Bank chief executive told staff, many of whom opposed a merger because of significant job losses, that while he had not been “skeptical” about the Commerzbank talks, he was cautious about the chances of success from the start.

And another top Deutsche Bank executive said on Friday that it had been Commerzbank that initiated the talks, suggesting there was no desperation on their part for a deal.

Commerzbank denied that version of events, ending the apparent truce between the normally highly competitive cross-town Frankfurt rivals over the past six weeks.

German hopes of creating a national banking champion able to challenge global competitors were finally dashed on Thursday when Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank ended their talks due to the risks of doing a deal, restructuring costs and capital demands.

For Sewing, the failure to clinch a deal has left the 49-year-old chief executive of Germany’s largest bank, who took over just over a year ago, with his back to the wall.

Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, which downgraded Deutsche Bank last year, said on Friday that Deutsche Bank “will remain under strain”, adding that it “seems to have acknowledged the need to adjust its strategy”.

Under Sewing, a new leadership has tried to revive Deutsche Bank’s fortunes, but it has faced money laundering allegations and failed stress tests, as well as ratings downgrades.

At the heart of the debate over its future is whether it should focus its business on Germany and draw a line under its costly global ambitions to take on Wall Street’s big guns.

“MARKET PLAY”

Without a deal, Deutsche Bank now finds itself back at the mercy of equity and debt markets, with UBS analysts warning that in a “stress scenario” it could again “be forced into a ‘debt-driven capital increase’ even with solid capital ratios”.

“Deutsche remains a levered market play vulnerable to external events,” the UBS analysts said in a note.

Sewing, along with many analysts, believes Deutsche Bank can go it alone in the short-term, but will be counting on a turnaround in market conditions to do so in the long-run given its dependence on volatile investment bank earnings.

“To reach our return objective, we also need to see a revenue recovery in our more market-sensitive business,” Sewing said on Friday after reporting results.

“These revenues are available to us in better market conditions given our leading positions in many of these businesses, but we need to capture them,” he added.

Revenue at Deutsche Bank’s bond trading division fell 19 percent in the first quarter, it said on Friday, underscoring weakness at its investment bank.

If those earnings do not improve, Berlin’s desire to keep its biggest bank out of foreign hands may start to wane.

“Germany’s globally active companies need competitive financial institutions that can support them around the world,” German finance minister Olaf Scholz said on Thursday.

(Writing by Alexander Smith; Editing by Keith Weir)

Source: OANN

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Panama's former president Ricardo Martinelli yells to the media while arriving to the Electoral Court in Panama City
Panama’s former president Ricardo Martinelli reacts to the media while arriving to the Electoral Court in Panama City, Panama April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Erick Marciscano

April 26, 2019

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) – Panama’s electoral tribunal has ruled that former President Ricardo Martinelli, who is awaiting trial on wiretapping charges, cannot take part in elections on May 5 in which he was running for mayor of Panama City and a seat in Congress, a spokesman for Martinelli said on Friday.

“The ruling of the electoral tribunal has disqualified him as candidate,” said the spokesman, Eduardo Camacho, calling the court’s ruling a “political decision.”

Officials at the tribunal did not immediately confirm the ruling, which also was reported in local media in Panama.

Martinelli, a supermarket tycoon who ran the Central American country from 2009 to 2014, was extradited to Panama last June from the United States and charged with spying on 150 people, including politicians, union leaders and journalists.

A judge had previously cleared Martinelli to run for mayor of the capital. His critics vowed to appeal that decision.

(Reporting by Elida Moreno and Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Amazon boxes are seen stacked for delivery in the Manhattan borough of New York City
FILE PHOTO: Amazon boxes are seen stacked for delivery in the Manhattan borough of New York City, January 29, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Shares of Walmart, Target and other U.S. retailers fell on Friday as Amazon.com Inc unveiled a one-day delivery plan for its Prime members in a move to further disrupt the fiercely competitive retail landscape.

The e-commerce giant’s announcement on Thursday could cause other brands, manufacturers, retailers, and logistics companies to have to invest more aggressively to compete with Amazon and its delivery, analysts said.

Retailers in recent years have poured billions into ecommerce and faster shipping options and are trying to close the gap with Amazon.

“This is about making it more expensive to catch up and affirms our world view that only the largest and smartest will survive,” Bernstein analyst Brandon Fletcher said.

The move is expected to heighten consumer expectations on e-commerce delivery just like Amazon did with its two-day shipping option for members of its loyalty club Prime, noted analysts.

“The faster you ship, the more people buy,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney said.

The challenge for non-Amazon players was that very few of the existing logistics and parcel delivery players now have the ability to do nationwide one-day delivery, Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak said.

“And even fewer can do it at the vast scale and reasonable cost that AMZN would need for Prime delivery,” Nowak said in a note.

Walmart Inc’s shares fell about 3 percent, while Target Corp dropped about 5 percent in morning trade.

Shares of Kohl’s Corp, Macy’s Inc and Nordstrom Inc fell about 1 percent. Grocer Kroger Co was nearly 3 percent lower, while consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Inc dropped 2.1 percent.

(Reporting by Soundarya J and Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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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