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Brussels area close to EU cleared after bomb alert

Some 40 people were preventively evacuated from a building near to European Union headquarters in Brussels after a bomb threat was sent to a company linked to the EU.

Police spokeswoman Ilse Van de Keere said a "telephone bomb threat" was made Tuesday morning to a consulting office linked to the EU's executive Commission and that it has been taken seriously.

Part of the street has been sealed off and sniffer dogs have been sent to the scene.

The operation was still ongoing around noon local time (1100 GMT).

Source: Fox News World

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Exclusive: India trade ministry says no legal basis to ban e-cigarette imports – document

FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a Juul e-cigarette while walking in New York
FILE PHOTO: A woman holds a Juul e-cigarette while walking in New York, U.S., September 27, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

April 10, 2019

By Aditya Kalra and Neha Dasgupta

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s trade ministry says it cannot impose a ban on electronic cigarette imports as there is no legal basis for doing so, an internal government memo viewed by Reuters shows, in a boost for those looking to tap into the country’s growing vaping market.

This comes amid repeated calls for a ban from the country’s health ministry, which urged states and government agencies last year in an “advisory” to step up efforts to halt sales and imports, warning vaping devices pose a “great health risk”.

The country has 106 million adult smokers, second only to China, making it a lucrative market for firms such U.S.-based Juul Labs and Philip Morris International that plan to launch e-smoking devices in the country.

India’s Jubilant group, one of whose units has the franchisee for Domino’s Pizza and Dunkin’ Donuts outlets in the country, is already exploring importing Juul’s vaping device, a company letter shows.

Halting imports of e-cigarettes into India will be against multilateral commitments with the World Trade Organization, according to the internal government memo dated March 18.

The country must first prohibit local sales through federal regulations that “can stand the scrutiny of law”, the memo adds.

Once that is done, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) can announce an “import ban”, the memo said.

As of now, the health ministry’s “advisory” cannot be a legal basis for a ban, the trade ministry, which has the power to impose import bans, said in the memo that is not yet public.

The DGFT did not respond to a request for comment.

A health ministry official said the ministry will work with the DGFT to explore how a ban can be imposed.

JUBILANT & JUUL

India’s $12 billion cigarette market is dominated by companies such as ITC and Godfrey Phillips, both of which also sell e-cigarettes.

Its vapor-products market was valued at $15.6 million in 2017 and is seen growing nearly 60 percent annually in the next few years, Euromonitor International estimates.

Keen to tap into this growth, Juul has hired new executives in India and plans to launch its products in the country by late 2019, Reuters has previously reported.

But India’s health ministry has called to block Juul’s entry, saying its product was “harmful” and could undermine India’s tobacco-control efforts.

A Jubilant unit, however, said in a letter to the health ministry dated Jan. 11, that it had identified Juul as a “highly safe” product which has “benefited millions of consumers”.

Jubilant Offshore said in the letter it was in “advanced stages” of importing and selling e-cigarettes in the country.

A Jubilant spokesman said “we believe there is demonstrable scientific evidence” that such products are a viable alternative to cigarettes and that the group is “exploring the category”.

Juul said it was in the process of evaluating India by having conversations with stakeholders.

The benefits of e-cigarettes, most of which vaporize a liquid containing nicotine, have been a topic for much debate in the global public health community.

Some say it helps shift smokers to less harmful products, but others argue it could create a new generation of addicts.

As of 2016, e-cigarettes were banned in 30 of World Health Organization’s 195 member states. In India, about a third of its 29 states currently ban e-cigarette sales.

The country, home to the world’s second-largest population at 1.3 billion, has tough laws to deter tobacco use, which the government says kills more than 900,000 people annually.

(Editing by Euan Rocha and Himani Sarkar)

Source: OANN

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Rain stops play: UK parliament forced to close after water leak

FILE PHOTO: A general view of The Houses of Parliament in London
FILE PHOTO: A general view of The Houses of Parliament in London November 9, 2006. REUTERS/Kieran Doherty/File Photo

April 4, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s parliament was forced to close early on Thursday after a leak in the 19th century Gothic palace caused water to rain down into the debating chamber.

Lawmakers were debating tax policy when water began cascading into the press area overlooking lawmakers’ seats, forcing Deputy Speaker Lindsay Hoyle to suspend the session.

Speaking over the noise of pouring water, Member of Parliament Justin Madders, said: “I hope I can complete my speech before rain stops play. I think there is probably some kind of symbol, about how many people view how broken parliament is, going on there.”

Thursday’s sitting in the lower chamber, the House of Commons, was then ended more than two hours early. The upper chamber, the House of Lords, continued to debate Brexit in a separate part of the building.

The Palace of Westminster – parts of which date back to 1097 – has been slipping into disrepair for decades, requiring frequent repairs and upgrades. Much of the crumbling limestone exterior is clad in scaffolding.

Plans are being made for a multi-billion pound restoration program which could require parliament to be temporarily relocated to a separate building, but the process has been delayed, with many lawmakers opposed to giving up their traditional setting.

(Reporting by William James and Kylie MacLellan; editing by Stephen Addison)

Source: OANN

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Starved infants, wounded women crowd Syrian hospitals after IS defeat

A wounded girl sits at a clinic at al-Hol displacement camp in Hasaka governorate
A wounded girl sits at a clinic at al-Hol displacement camp in Hasaka governorate, Syria April 2, 2019. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho

April 7, 2019

By John Davison

HASAKA, Syria (Reuters) – The paramedics’ log at al-Hol camp in eastern Syria lists the injuries and ailments of infants rushed from the battlefield to its crowded, dirty clinic: malnourishment, stunted growth, broken leg.

Those in critical need – mostly emaciated babies born in war to the wives of dead Islamic State militants – are taken to the nearest hospital, a bumpy two-hour drive away. Other people cram into a waiting room with a tin roof in a growing queue for basic medical treatment.

At the hospital, staff have had to build two portacabins on the roof that serve as a makeshift ward for the treatment of malnourished babies, crammed sometimes two or three to a cot.

Lower floors are filled with teenagers missing limbs and women with shrapnel and bullet wounds.

The exodus during intense fighting of more than 60,000 people from Islamic State’s final redoubt of Baghouz is overwhelming medical staff in eastern Syria who struggle to cope at the camp and ill-equipped hospitals.

Scores of people, mostly children, have died on the 150-mile (240-kilometer) journey to al-Hol or soon after arriving, aid groups say.

“My son has a dislocated hip. He needs an operation urgently,” said Umm Mohammed, a veiled 33-year-old woman holding an expressionless six-month-old boy at the camp.

“Medics keep saying they have more urgent cases to deal with – wounds and shrapnel injuries.”

In the waiting area, dozens of people who mostly left Baghouz during a brief truce last month, arranged for civilians and surrendering militants to evacuate, sit on wooden benches or the concrete floor. Children in wheelchairs watch while babies scream as they are bandaged or given injections.

U.S.-backed forces declared the defeat in March of Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate – the territory it once held in Iraq and Syria – after militants were driven out of the village of Baghouz where they made a months-long last stand.

The intense bombardment and fighting to dislodge the Sunni Islamist extremist group cost countless lives and wounded many more people, including the wives of fighters, their children, IS supporters and other civilians trapped by the militants in the enclave.

Those who evacuated in recent weeks have strained healthcare in Kurdish-run areas of eastern Syria beyond capacity.

In the clinic at al-Hol, which is hosting more than 70,000 people displaced by violence, many people wore crude casts. One woman said she did not have enough painkillers for a wound to her hand – a long metal rod from the explosion that wounded her and killed three relatives was still lodged in her knuckle.

“I just want an X-ray at the hospital,” she said, giving her name as Umm Ahmed.

STARVING CHILDREN OF ISLAMIC STATE

But local hospitals can take only the most severe cases.

In one room at the hospital in the nearby town of Hasaka, 19-year-old Baraa al-Kurdi, the wife of a Syrian Islamic State member, lay motionless next to a boy with third-degree burns covering his head.

“I was hit in the head by shrapnel,” Kurdi said quietly. “We were next to a car packed with ammunition and explosives, including suicide belts ready for fighters to use.

“My husband was killed. My daughter is one month old – she’s upstairs in the babies’ ward.”

Kurdi’s daughter was one of the few non-foreign infants in the ward.

Others, many blond or with Asian features, lay quietly in their cots with cheekbones showing and eyes sunken into their sockets from malnutrition. The patients’ register listed the names their mothers gave the hospital – Ali Azerbaijani, Ali al-Uzbeki, Mohamed Skramo, a Norwegian name.

Many who remained in Baghouz until the end of the fighting were die-hard supporters of Islamic State who flocked from all over the world to support its violent interpretation of Islam.

A number of European countries have refused to take back citizens who joined IS, putting additional strain on local authorities to deal with prisoners and patients.

“Children from the camp are arriving night and day. We currently have more than 70 babies being treated for malnutrition,” a nurse in the ward said.

She and other hospital staff declined to be named or for the hospital to be identified, fearing reprisals for treating the children of IS fighters.

“Most cases are treated and then returned to the camp. A few have died. We’re doing out best but had limited resources even before this influx.”

More than 200 people have died on their way to al-Hol or after arriving in the camp in recent months, according to the International Rescue Committee. It said this week that around 30 to 50 cases every day were referred to local hospitals.

“We get 30 ambulances arriving each day,” a local health official said, also declining to be named.

“There’s aid from international organizations for those from Baghouz. They’re mostly foreign. We can barely provide healthcare for our own.”

(Reporting by John Davison; Editing by Tom Perry/Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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White House rips Omar for calling Stephen Miller a ‘white nationalist,’ highlights her ‘history of anti-Semitic comments’

The White House on Wednesday slammed Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., for calling White House adviser Stephen Miller a white nationalist, describing her remarks as “completely ignorant” and accusing her of “wildly” attacking a Jewish member of the administration.

“Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has a well-documented history of anti-Semitic comments, social media posts and relationships – so it’s not surprising that she would wildly attack a Jewish member of the Administration,” Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley said in a statement.

CRENSHAW CALLS OUT OMAR FOR DESCRIBING 9/11 ATTACKS AS 'SOME PEOPLE DID SOMETHING'

“It is completely ignorant to slander a Jewish man as a White Nationalist, and it dishonors the Jewish victims of anti-Semitic persecution across the globe.” he said.

Omar had sparked controversy Monday when she branded Miller, known for his hardline views on immigration, a white nationalist and said that “the fact that he still has influence on policy and political appointments is an outrage.”

Her remarks came after the resignation of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and a Wall Street Journal report that said Trump had told Miller “you’re in charge” of the administration’s immigration policy

Omar has her own history of controversy, particularly relating to her criticism of Israel and U.S. support of the Middle East democracy. In March she suggested that supporters of Israel were pushing for U.S. politicians to declare "allegiance" to that nation.

“I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country," Omar said. "I want to ask why is it OK for me to talk about the influence of the NRA, of fossil fuel industries, or big pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobbying movement that is influencing policy?"

TRUMP SAYS DEMS HAVE LET ANTI-SEMITISM 'TAKE ROOT' IN THEIR PARTY

That came after she apologized for suggesting in February that some members of Congress were being paid by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to support Israel: “It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” she tweeted.

President Trump has repeatedly criticized Omar and,  speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition (RCJ) on Saturday, “thanked” her and then feigned surprise when the audience booed the reference.

“Oh, oh, I forgot, she doesn’t like Israel, I forgot, I’m so sorry, no, she doesn’t like Israel, does she?” he said.

On Tuesday, he quoted strategist Jeff Ballabon, who said it was unacceptable for Omar to “target Jews, in this case Stephen Miller.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Asked by reporters on Wednesday about Miller, Trump called him a “brilliant man” but added that there’s “only one person that’s running [immigration policy].”

“You know who that is? It’s me,” he said.

Fox News' Blake Burman contributed to this report

Source: Fox News Politics

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25 years after genocide, Rwanda’s Kagame is praised, feared

A quarter-century after Rwanda's brutal genocide, President Paul Kagame remains a constant figure atop the country's politics, feted by those who say it needs his visionary leadership and loathed by others who see a firm authoritarian with a malicious streak.

Kagame is so little-questioned that he speaks openly about the apparent assassinations of opponents. That fear factor keeps him in power, critics say, even as he embraces a global reputation as the man who helped bring an end to the mass killings of some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus, and who has brought stability to the East African nation.

In a speech last month, Kagame spoke dismissively of the crime that launched his reputation as a hard-liner: The 1998 killing of exiled opposition leader Seth Sendashonga, a fierce Kagame critic, who was gunned down in the streets of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

Referring to the assassination, widely believed to have been carried out by a Rwandan hit squad at Kagame's orders, Kagame said he had little to say. "But I am also not apologetic about it," he added.

It was vintage Kagame, who has been Rwanda's de facto leader since his rebel group seized power by force, ending the 100-day genocide that began on April 7, 1994. He has been president since 2000, and could rule until 2034 following changes to the constitution.

Now 61, Kagame shows no signs of giving up power.

A darling of the development community, Kagame is lauded by some as a driver of economic growth that has lifted many Rwandans from poverty, bringing improved health care and education. He has also pushed for more women in political office, and 64% of the lawmakers in Rwanda's parliament are women, the highest percentage of any country in the world.

But for many others he is the architect of an authoritarian regime that has stamped out virtually all opposition in Rwanda as opponents are jailed, flee, disappear, or are killed under mysterious circumstances.

"There is absolutely no room for dissent within Rwanda," said British writer Michela Wrong, who is researching a book on the country. "You agree, you accept Kagame's supreme power, or you leave."

Rights groups decry what they describe as rampant violations that include the arbitrary detentions of street children and other poor people as part of an unofficial government program to hide "undesirable" citizens from view, according to Human Rights Watch. Street vendors, many of them women, have been among the main targets, it said.

Civic groups, journalists, rights watchdogs and political opponents "cannot operate independently or criticize government policy," Human Rights Watch said in its most recent assessment of conditions in Rwanda.

Amnesty International cited a "climate of fear" before Kagame was re-elected to a third term in 2017, a vote that the president described as "a formality" after the most serious challenger was prevented from running and later jailed.

Even government programs ostensibly aimed at forging national unity are criticized by opponents as tools to more tightly control society.

The U.S. State Department, which describes Rwanda as "a constitutional republic dominated by a strong presidency," also cites the problem of impunity among civilian authorities and the security forces.

Still, Rwanda's government remains a major recipient of U.S. and other foreign aid despite persistent allegations of abuses — a fact that has been sharply criticized by Kagame's opponents. Some analysts have long noted that Western remorse over failure to stop the genocide allows Rwanda a measure of goodwill from benefactors who would act tougher with a similarly repressive regime.

Olivier Nduhungirehe, Rwanda's deputy minister of foreign affairs, told The Associated Press that those complaining about human rights "should keep quiet," as Rwanda marks 25 years since the genocide.

"We can't say that everything is perfect, of course," he said, of concerns voiced by some exiles, who say they are afraid to return home. "But reconciliation is a reality for the past 25 years."

Some critics who have fallen out with the president, including senior ruling party members once seen as Kagame allies, have fled into exile, where safety isn't always guaranteed.

British police have warned two prominent Rwandan dissidents of the threats to their lives posed by Rwanda's government. Similar warnings have been issued to dissidents elsewhere in Europe.

In South Africa, an inquest continues into the death of former Rwandan spy chief and Kagame critic Patrick Karegeya, who was found strangled in a Johannesburg hotel in 2014. Kagame has denied his government had anything to do with the killing but warned that those who betray their country will "pay the price."

Jean-Marie Micombero, a former army major who broke with the Kagame government and who has lived in exile in Belgium since 2011, said that 25 years after Rwanda's genocide, the country has yet to truly heal from its violent past.

"Under Kagame's leadership Hutus and Tutsis are forced to live together," said Micombero, a Tutsi. He called for new leadership that would "work in the areas of truth and justice in the context of a broken society. ... There cannot be reconciliation without truth and justice."

One group in exile that is leading the opposition against Kagame includes former members of Rwanda's ruling party.

Outlawed in Rwanda as a terrorist group and accused of running rebel cells in eastern Congo, the Rwanda National Congress denies the allegations and says it is working toward "a united, democratic, and prosperous nation inhabited by free citizens."

The group's Johannesburg-based leader, former Rwandan army chief Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa, has been the target of multiple assassination attempts that he blames on Kagame.

Rwanda's government dismisses charges it runs hit squads abroad. Nduhungirehe, the deputy foreign affairs minister, accused the Rwanda National Congress of "walking hand in hand with those who committed genocide," something the group strongly denies.

But, says Wrong, the British author and journalist: "The level of invective Kagame dedicates to the Rwanda National Congress, the amount of energy he has expended trying to get Uganda and South Africa to expel or extradite or close down these players, suggests he sees them as a real threat."

"These individuals were once incredibly close to Kagame, they know exactly what makes him tick," Wrong said. "I think it's a case of fearing no one quite so much as a former brother-in-arms."

___

Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa

Source: Fox News World

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Meghan to shun London hospital famed for royal births: The Sun

FILE PHOTO: Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, leaves after an International Women's Day panel discussion at King's College London
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, leaves after an International Women's Day panel discussion at King's College London, in London, Britain, March 8, 2019. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo

March 31, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – Meghan Markle has broken a four-decade tradition by shunning the London hospital where many royal babies, including her husband Britain’s Prince Harry, were born, The Sun newspaper reported.

Meghan and Harry, who married last year, are expecting their first child this spring.

But the former actress has opted not to give birth at the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital, favored by British royalty since 1977, the newspaper said, citing an unidentified source.

Princess Diana gave birth to Harry at St Mary’s in 1984 and Kate, the wife of Harry’s elder brother William, gave birth to all three of her children, George, Charlotte and Louis, there.

Meghan, 37, has opted for a maternity hospital closer to their new home in the ancient town of Windsor, The Sun said under the headline “Meghan snubs Kate & Di hospital.”

“The child will not be born at the Lindo,” the newspaper quoted the source as saying.

“She and Harry have decided that rather than go somewhere as public as the Lindo, they will allow Meghan to recover somewhere more private,” the source was quoted as saying.

Kensington Palace could not be immediately reached for comment on the report.

The child will be seventh in line to the British throne, though the birth is set to grab headlines across the globe.

There has long been fascination with the British royal family, particularly in the United States, and William, Kate, Harry and Meghan are regularly greeted by large crowds and feted like film stars.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian)

Source: OANN

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Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont are taking aim at latest entry into the 2020 nomination race – Joe Biden.

Campaigning in Iowa hours after the former vice president officially announced his candidacy, Warren contrasted on Thursday her longtime record of taking on Wall Street with that of Biden.

JOE BIDEN OFFCIALLY LAUNCHES LONG AWAITED 2020 BID

“At a time when the biggest financial institutions in this country were trying to put the squeeze on millions of hard-working families who were in bankruptcy because of medical problems, job losses, divorce and death in the family, there was nobody to stand up for them,” said the populist senator who’s producing progressive policy proposal after another as she runs for the White House.

“I got in that fight because they just didn’t have anyone,” she said. “And Joe Biden was on the side of the credit card companies.”

The comments reignited a nearly two decades old fight between the two over the country’s bankruptcy laws.

Fox News reached out to the Biden campaign for reaction to Warren’s words but had yet to receive a response at the time this article was published.

WARREN NOT WORRIED ABOUT POLLS: ‘IT’S EARLY.. I’M RUNNING THE CAMPAIGN ITHAT I WANT TO RUN’

It’s not just Warren. The head of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee – which has backed the senator from Massachusetts – also took aim at Biden, who enters the race as the front runner in most national polls and early primary and caucus voting state surveys, slightly atop of Sanders and well ahead of the rest of the large field of 20 contenders.

“With billionaires deciding not to run, progressive candidates have been in need of a foil. If Joe Biden positions himself as the political insider from yesteryear who says big ideas like universal child care, student debt relief, and a wealth tax on ultra-millionaires are not possible, he would be an easy foil, Adam Green, the co-founder of PCCC, told Fox News.

BIDEN LAUNCH SETS UP 2020 NOMINATION FIGHT WITH FELLOW FRONT-RUNNER SANDERS

Sanders’ campaign also jabbed at Biden.

The former vice president spent Thursday evening raising campaign cash at the suburban Philadelphia home of David Cohen, a senior executive of the Comcast Corp. and a former Democratic operative.

In a fundraising email to supporters around the same time, Sanders’ campaign manager Faiz Shakir wrote that “it’s a big day in the Democratic primary and we’re hoping to end it strong. Not with a fundraiser in the home of a corporate lobbyist, but with an overwhelming number of individual donations in response to today’s news.”

Earlier in the day, a rising progressive group called Justice Democrats that has championed Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York called Biden “out of touch” and stressed that “we can’t let a so-called ‘centrist’ like Joe Biden divide the Democratic Party and turn it into the party of ‘No, we can’t.’”

Biden, of course, is considered to be more moderate than many of the current contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, especially Warren and Sanders, who describes himself as a democratic socialist.

These kind of jabs from the candidates, their campaigns and outside groups could be foreshadow a building clash between the progressive and establishment sings of the party.

Biden has pushed back against the perception that he’s a moderate in a party that’s increasingly moving to the left. Earlier this month he described himself as an “Obama-Biden Democrat.”

Former President Barack Obama, Biden’s boss for eight years, remains extremely popular with Democrats.

BIDEN SAYS HE ASKED OBAMA NOT TO ENDORSE HIM

And Biden said he’d stack his record against “anybody who has run or who is running now or who will run.”

Highlighting his early public push for same-sex marriage, he said, “I’m not sure when everybody else came out and said they’re for gay marriage.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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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)

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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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Kosovo’s parliament has called the country’s president into a hearing on the secret deportation of six Turkish men who Turkey claims were supporters of an alleged 2016 coup attempt.

President Hashim Thaci on Friday questioned the credibility of the parliamentary investigative committee for involving an international expert. He declined to answer questions before clarifying the expert’s legality.

In 2018, five Turkish teachers and a Turkish doctor in Kosovo were deported to Turkey. Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj dismissed his interior minister and intelligence chief for making the move without his permission.

Turkey accuses U.S-based cleric Fethullah Gulen of masterminding the 2016 failed coup. He denies the accusations. Those deported from Kosovo worked in schools and clinics supported by Gulen’s movement.

The deportations were criticized by rights groups in Kosovo and abroad.

Source: Fox News World

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