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JP Morgan gender pay gap in UK falls slightly to 34 percent in 2018

A pedestrian walks past the Canary Wharf offices of JP Morgan in London
FILE PHOTO: A pedestrian walks past the Canary Wharf offices of JP Morgan in London September 19, 2013. REUTERS/Neil Hall

March 27, 2019

LONDON (Reuters) – JP Morgan’s mean gender pay gap in Britain dropped slightly to 34.4 percent in 2018, from 35.7 percent a year earlier, an internal memo seen by Reuters on Wednesday shows.

The pay gap, in common with other banks, reflects average hourly pay and is the result of fewer women being in higher-paying senior roles rather than unequal pay for women and men at the same rank, the U.S. bank said.

A spokesman for JP Morgan confirmed the memo’s contents.

(Reporting by Lawrence White; Editing by Alexander Smith)

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Frank Cali, reputed Gambino crime boss, shook hands with killer before he was shot, report says

Francesco “Frank Boy” Cali, the reputed boss of the Gambino crime family, shook hands with his killer just before he was shot to death Wednesday night outside his New York City home, a report said Friday.

Authorities have been examining surveillance video that captured the 53-year-old Cali as he exited his home in the Todt Hill section of Staten Island around 9:15 p.m. after a man backed his vehicle into Cali’s parked Cadillac SUV. The accident appeared to have been a setup to draw Cali outside, police have said.

MAFIA KILLING IS FIRST NEW YORK MOB BOSS HIT EVER RECORDED ON VIDEO: REPORT

Cali and the man, believed to be between 25-30 years old, were seen talking for about a minute and shaking hands, a law enforcement source told Newsday on Friday. Cali was then seen picking up a fallen license plate when the gunman fired about 12 shots at close range, striking Cali six times, police said.

Police have not determined a motive for Cali’s killing. It was too early to judge whether the murder was mob-related, as investigators were also looking into Cali’s private and business affairs, NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said at a news conference Thursday.

Detectives were working to examine video from the area’s surveillance cameras to trace the gunman’s vehicle, which appeared to be a pickup truck, another law enforcement source told Newsday. But the cameras in that part of Staten Island weren’t connected to any network, making the job more difficult, the source said.

MOB POWER-STRUGGLE COULD BE BREWING, WILL BE 'ALL-OUT WAR': REPORTS

Meanwhile, the reputed Gambino boss’ murder continued to trigger speculation that the killing was part of an interfamily rivalry or even the “beginning of a mob war,” the Staten Island Advance reported.

“This is not common [anymore],” Christian Cipollini, organized crime historian and author, told the Advance. “It could be an internal strike or the beginning of a mob war.

“Going by history, this is not gonna be the last one,” he said, referring to possible retaliation for the killing of Cali.

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The last high-ranking Mafia figure killed in New York City was Paul Castellano, head of the Gambino family at the time. He was believed to have been assassinated at John Gotti’s direction while getting out of a black limousine outside Manhattan’s Sparks Steakhouse in 1985. Gotti then took control of the family.

Source: Fox News National

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Final decision on Netanyahu indictment to follow Israeli vote

FILE PHOTO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem
FILE PHOTO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, March 10, 2019. Gali Tibbon/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

March 11, 2019

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israelis will go the polls next month before a decision on whether to file a criminal indictment against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in three corruption cases, the Justice Ministry said on Monday.

Israel’s attorney-general announced on Feb. 28 he intended to indict Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust, though the actual filing of the charges would depend on the outcome of a required hearing.

Due to its proximity to the April 9 election, the hearing had been widely expected to happen after the vote.

“The attorney-general … decided to accept the request of the prime minister’s attorneys to delay the delivery of investigation materials in the cases related to the prime minister until after the election date,” the Justice Ministry said in a statement.

It said Netanyahu made the request out of concern that evidentiary material could leak to the media – and potentially affect public sentiment.

The hearing, the ministry said, will take place no later than July 10.

Netanyahu is suspected of wrongfully accepting $264,000 worth of gifts, which prosecutors said included cigars and champagne, from tycoons, and dispensing favors in alleged bids for improved coverage by an Israeli newspaper and a website.

The prime minister has denied any wrongdoing.

He could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of bribery and a maximum 3-year term for fraud and breach of trust.

Opinion polls show a tight race for Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, with gains for a center-left alliance led by Benny Gantz, an ex-armed forces chief who has vowed clean government.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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U.S. family tracking app Life360 seeks investors for Australia IPO

An investor is reflected in a window in front of a board displaying stock prices at the Australian Securities Exchange in Sydney, Australia
An investor is reflected in a window in front of a board displaying stock prices at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in Sydney, Australia, May 5, 2017. REUTERS/Steven Saphore

April 1, 2019

By Paulina Duran

SYDNEY (Reuters) – U.S. family tracking app operator Life360 has begun approaching potential investors for a listing in Sydney, fund managers said on Monday, valuing the company at up to $675 million in what could be Australia’s biggest technology IPO in three years.

Opting for an Australian listing, where the startup already has a number of institutional investors, Life360 plans to raise about $100 million via an initial public offering (IPO) by mid-year, current investors said.

That would be the largest amount since wealth management software provider Bravura Solutions Ltd raised $111 million when it listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) in 2016, Refinitiv data showed.

Life360 provides a free mobile app that allows family members to track each other, as well as “premium” services such as a panic button that sends location notifications. The firm did not respond to requests for comment.

“The ASX remains grossly underweight in terms of technology companies with global growth stories,” said Phillip King, chief investment officer at Regal Funds Management.

The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index features 11 tech firms. By comparison, United States’ S&P 500 index has 68 much larger tech names.

“We are already invested in the business after leading the pre-IPO round, and will be following our money into the IPO,” King said.

The app maker has about 18 million monthly users, half of whom are outside the United States – including about 300,000 in Australia – investors told Reuters, quoting from a Credit Suisse research note.

It is valued at about 9 to 11.5 times its 2019 forecast revenue of $58 million, they said, declining to be identified as they were not permitted to speak with media.

Last year, Life360 almost tripled organic revenue to $32 million, King said.

(Reporting by Paulina Duran; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

Source: OANN

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Belgium apologizes for colonial-era abduction of mixed-race children

Belgium's PM Michel reacts after delivering a speech at a plenary session of the Belgian Parliament in Brussels
Belgium's Prime Minister Charles Michel reacts after delivering a speech at a plenary session of the Belgian Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, April 4, 2019. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir

April 4, 2019

By Giulia Paravicini

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgium apologized on Thursday for kidnapping thousands of mixed-race children from Congo between 1959 and 1962, in a move to address the legacy of its often brutal 80 years of African colonization.

The apology was the first time Belgium has officially acknowledged responsibility for the policy of segregation under which ‘metis’ children were abducted from Congo and put in schools and orphanages in Belgium run by the Catholic Church.

“In the name of the federal government, I present my apologies to the metis of the Belgian colonial era and their families for the injustices and the sufferings they have endured,” Prime Minister Charles Michel told Parliament as dozens of former abductees looked on.

“I hope that this solemn moment will be an additional step toward an awareness and knowledge of this part of our national history.”

Belgium’s colonial-era segregation laws banned interracial marriage, and children born from a Congolese mother and Belgian father were considered to represent the abuse of those laws and shipped away.

Last year parliament unanimously adopted a resolution calling for the government to apologize and recognize the role played by Belgium and the Catholic Church during its colonial occupation of Burundi, Congo and Rwanda.

Belgium’s rule in what is now Democratic Republic of Congo was particularly cruel, especially between 1885 and 1908, when the country, then called the Congo Free State, was run as a private fiefdom by King Leopold II.

Slave labor to develop vast rubber reserves, maiming and torture cost the lives of between 10 million and 15 million people.

Many in Belgium are unaware of its complicated past, and last February a U.N. Security Council panel of experts said in a report that racial discrimination was “endemic” in Belgium’s institutions.

In December, Belgium reopened its Africa Museum after five years of renovations aimed at turning the institution from a pro-colonial exhibition into one critical of colonial rule.

Critics say more still needs to be done, but Thursday’s apology was an important step forward for some.

“I am very moved,” said metis Jeannot Cardinael who was present in parliament. “It is a recognition of what the Belgian state has done to us, in collaboration with the Church. They took away a part of our identity and now they admit that mistake.”

(Editing by Edward McAllister; editing by John Stonestreet)

Source: OANN

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Wastewater – private equity’s new black gold in U.S. shale

A wastewater injection well is seen at a facility operated by On Point Energy in Big Spring
A wastewater injection well is seen at a facility operated by On Point Energy in Big Spring, Texas U.S. February 12, 2019. Picture taken February 12, 2019. REUTERS/Nick Oxford

March 18, 2019

By Jennifer Hiller

BIG SPRING, Texas (Reuters) – Mike Christensen strides among rows of gleaming steel tanks, pointing to pipelines that arrive from miles around to this corner of former farmland near Midland, Texas, the heart of the largest oil patch in the United States.

His company is one of dozens opening sites like this one that handles, not the lucrative oil, but the shale industry’s dirty secret: wastewater.

While U.S. oil production has reached record levels on account of the shale revolution of the last decade, much of the supporting infrastructure has failed to keep up, including how to transport the large quantities of water used in the hydraulic fracturing process and the water that is produced from wells alongside oil and gas.

Once managed individually by energy producers, the job of supplying, collecting and disposing of water is a rising cost, and has spawned a $34 billion a year business in the U.S. that has lured investors including TPG Capital, Blackstone Energy Partners LP and Ares Management Corp to back these firms.

Oil production in the Permian basin that spans West Texas and southeastern New Mexico is expected to rise to rise 35 percent to 5.4 million barrels of per day (bpd) by 2023, requiring even more water supply and disposal, said analysts. In two New Mexico counties, firms produced 505 million barrels of oil from 2016-2018, and five times that in water, a Reuters analysis of state production data showed.

“You can’t bring production online until you have a solution for the water,” said James Lee of Riveron Consulting.

There are 5,500 Permian wells to be drilled, requiring 2.75 billion barrels, or 115 billion gallons to complete, a Morgan Stanley report estimated.

While much of the water in the Permian is transported for high fees by trucks, which also exacerbate traffic congestion around production sites, midstream companies build and use pipelines which energy producers pay to utilize.

Christensen’s company, On Point Oilfield Holdings, owns a water disposal network that this year will take up to 375,000 bpd of wastewater. Some of that water will be recycled, but millions of gallons will eventually be sunk deep underground in West Texas. “Water was always an afterthought for producers,” said Christensen, who stretches him arm and draws a 360-degree arc to show the locations of lines carrying oilfield bilge to the site. “Now it’s a business plan in itself.”

Raising cash at a time when the industry is under pressure to restrain spending and improve returns has also fueled the trend, prompting some producers to cash in on their water projects.

In December, Hess Corp got $225 million for some of its water handling assets from a joint venture with Global Infrastructure Partners, while Halcon Resources received $200 million in cash and up to another $125 million over five years from WaterBridge Resources LLC for its water infrastructure assets.

“When capital discipline is higher on the priority list, it’s very attractive to monetize” water management assets, said Benjamin Shattuck, an analyst at consultancy Wood Mackenzie.

$14 BILLION WATER BILL AND RISING

The average frack job now consumes 13 million gallons (49 million liters), up 40 percent in two years, according to a Reuters analysis of Permian producers’ data reported to FracFocus.org.

That translates to water bills in the Permian Basin soaring 17 percent this year to $14 billion, according to consultancy IHS Markit, more than three times what North American producers spent last year on sand to frack their wells.

That lure is attracting investors who once viewed oil and gas as the prize.

TPG last week agreed to pay $930 million for a majority stake in Goodnight Midstream’s water pipeline network, which consists of more than 420 miles (670 km) in three U.S. shale basins.

Other private equity firms, including ARM Energy Holdings and Ares Management, have committed $4 billion to buy or start water management firms over the last four years, according researcher Global Water Intelligence. {nFWN1UM0IP]

Water management at this scale is in its infancy compared with the business of moving oil and gas by pipeline, but more private equity firms are looking for investments, said Jim Summers, chief executive of Houston-based water company H20 Midstream.

A FRACTION OF THE COST

Acquiring and disposing of water costs between 50 cents and $4 per barrel, depending on whether it moves by pipelines or more expensive trucks, and can be a steep cost for producers when oil dips as low as $40 a barrel in the Permian, as it did late last year.

The cost has inspired some companies to shift gears.

ARM Energy formed a company, Salt Creek Midstream, to gather oil and gas and was quickly pulled into offering water management, said CEO Zach Lee. By hiring Salt Creek, shale producer Lilis Energy expects its water disposal costs to fall to 48.5 cents per barrel from $2.

Not all producers, however, want to let go of their water management.

Diamondback Energy Inc is considering selling shares in a subsidiary that manages its water, oil and gas transport, but would retain control of the subsidiary.

“If I have to wait on somebody to get a pipeline built or a saltwater disposal system put in place, that is going to be a bad day. I need to be in control of that, not the other way around,” said Diamondback’s CEO Travis Stice.

Parsley Energy Inc spent $150 million to develop a water system that can handle up to 1 million bpd, which helped cut its wastewater costs by two-thirds, to 50 cents per barrel, CEO Matt Gallagher said.

“If you want to be a good shale operator you have to be excellent at water sourcing and management,” said Gallagher. Otherwise, “the whole operation could come to a screeching halt,” he said.

(GRAPHIC: U.S. finishes 2018 as world’s top crude oil producer as shale output scales new highs – https://tmsnrt.rs/2R69s7G)

(GRAPHIC: In top U.S. shale field, output per-well falls, even as overall production rises – https://tmsnrt.rs/2VFD6iI)

(GRAPHIC: Rising shale production turns the United States into energy exporter – https://tmsnrt.rs/2EUmNsT)

(Reporting by Jennifer Hiller; editing by Gary McWilliams and Marguerita Choy)

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Wisconsin GOP Worried But Undaunted by 2020 Prospects

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Scott Walker made multiple calls when the Democratic National Committee decided on Milwaukee. He also called his sons. The former Wisconsin governor, himself a onetime presidential contender, suggested the boys check their lease. They live downtown. Maybe they – and their neighbors too -- could Airbnb their apartments. Make some extra cash next July.   

“I’m thrilled from an economic standpoint,” Walker told RealClearPolitics of the Democratic Party’s decision to bring its national convention  to the Badger State. “The money being spent in Milwaukee won’t be red money or blue money. It will be green money. That’s a good thing.”

Every flack and hack, politico and politician who spoke to RCP about the decision said something similar. Eminently practical, these midwestern Republicans are bright-eyed about the pluses and the minuses of Wisconsin as a battleground in 2020. They are excited about the economic stimulus. They are also preparing for the political fight of their lives.

“Oh, absolutely,” Walker said when asked if Democrats could win Wisconsin on their way back to the White House. “We have been a blue state for years. We had a temporary reprieve from that in recent years.”

It is easy to forget that after the outsized success of Wisconsin Republicans on the national stage in the last decade. Paul Ryan (Janesville) rose from relative obscurity to become speaker of House. Die-hard party activist Reince Priebus (Green Bay) became the GOP’s national chairman and later White House chief of staff. Walker (Delavan) was the first governor in U.S. history to survive a recall election. The three helped reshape conservative politics and the country.

Then the cheesehead juggernaut crumbled.

Priebus resigned. Ryan retired. And around 1:30 in the morning after last Election Day, when Walker narrowly lost the governor’s mansion to Democrat Tony Evers, Sen. Ron Johnson had a rude realization. He was “the last man standing.”

As the only Republican statewide office-holder left in Wisconsin, Johnson became the de facto head of the party. He began trying to rebuild the GOP political machine, first figuring out what worked well and what had gone wrong. His assessment? He thinks Democrats can “absolutely” win back Wisconsin in 2020. He fears they may have a 100,000 to 200,000 structural vote advantage. And he expects Democrats will make his state “Ground Zero.”

“For the GOP to win,” Johnson told RCP, “when Democrats are all fired up, we have to be firing on all cylinders. We need to be just about perfect.” Near-perfection is necessary after 2016 when Donald Trump pulled off a historically unlikely upset in Wisconsin, something no other Republican has achieved since Ronald Reagan. Democrats’ turnout was down. Trump’s opponent did not bother to visit the state during the general election campaign. Trump won by roughly 23,000 votes, less than a percentage point. Among other things, he got lucky.

“Whoever the Democrats nominate certainly isn’t going to make the same mistake as Hillary Clinton did, abandoning Wisconsin,” a Trump campaign official told RCP. “The problem is they aren't going to have the early advantages of time, resources and money. The Democratic nominee this time isn’t going to be able to truly begin organizing in Wisconsin until July or August of 2020.”  

Making the most of that head start, Republicans are gearing up their operation for a landscape that Trump completely tore to pieces in the last presidential campaign. His machine sputtered in the suburban counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington as those conservative hotspots cooled on the so-called chaos candidate. It more than roared back in the northern and western parts of the state as Trump flipped 23 counties from Democrat to Republican.

While he lost support among proverbial soccer moms in the wealthiest, most educated, and more Republican counties, he crushed it with rural voters. This was not an anomaly, said nonpartisan pollster Charles Franklin of Marquette University Law School. It is the new Republican normal.

Blue-collar voters, who voted for Barack Obama in 2012 before turning out for Trump four years later, mostly backed Walker in 2018. The two-term governor would also slip in the suburbs, gain traction beyond of the cities, and win more votes than ever, 1.29 million. Yet Walker still could not overcome a nationwide Democratic suburban surge.

“That shows this geographic pattern where areas that swung toward Trump seemed to move more in Walker’s direction than they had four years earlier,” Franklin told RCP.  Taken together, the gubernatorial and the presidential contests provide a rough rubric for the next presidential race.

“The Democrats’ formula for winning Wisconsin is relatively straightforward,” longtime Wisconsin talk show host Charlie Sykes wrote in the Atlantic. “They need to run up big margins in Milwaukee County and Dane County (home to Madison)” --  where the University of Wisconsin flagship campus is located -- “while holding down GOP margins in the Milwaukee suburbs and in the state’s rural areas.”

For Republicans, it is the converse. Revive the suburbs, build strength in the rural north and west, and cut losses in Milwaukee and Dane County. According to Johnson, “If we could somehow get those counties to secede into Illinois, we’d be in pretty good shape as Republicans.”

That will not happen, of course, so the senator says that on his watch, the GOP “isn’t going to ignore those [urban] areas.” Instead Republicans will try to thread the rural-urban needle, a job that will likely fall, in large part, to two congressmen.

Sean Duffy represents the rural 7th Congressional District in Trump-friendly north and northwest Wisconsin. Jim Sensenbrenner represents the 5th District in the Trump-skeptical Milwaukee suburbs. Both expressed confidence the president can win re-election, though neither is under any illusion it will be easy. Duffy told RCP that the bipartisan “State of the Union argument is the best argument” for Trump. Sensenbrenner seemed to agree, and asserted that the president should confine his tweeting to policy issues rather than slights. “We can win on the issues,” he said. “I’m not so sure we win on the personalities.”

Borrowing a phrase from the Bill Clinton era, Sensenbrenner continued: “It still is the economy, stupid. As long as that is going well and he is able to take credit for it, I think things will go very well.”

The economy, Duffy believes, will provide the crossover appeal between the blue-collar voters and the soccer moms that Trump needs to be successful. “Suburban moms care about their kids, and with this economy we have kids moving out of parents’ basements and getting jobs” he said. “Whether they are buying houses or renting their own apartments, they are out of the home.”

The Trump campaign echoed that economic sentiment and offered a preview of its Wisconsin strategy in a statement to RCP. “President Trump remembered the forgotten men and women in Wisconsin who were entirely ignored by the Democrat Party,” said Trump national press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.

“He reversed President Obama's failed manufacturing jobs record, adding 473,000 manufacturing jobs in just two years compared to the 210,000 lost in Obama's two terms,” she added. “President Trump replaced the job-killing NAFTA with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a better deal that protects manufacturing jobs and secures greater access to Canada's dairy market for farmers in Wisconsin and across the nation. He continues to fight for farmers to gain access to new markets across the globe.”

It is an understandable argument for Republicans to make in a state with an unemployment rate below 3 percent. It is not so different from the pitch

Scott Walker hoped would carry him to a third term. The difference Republicans are counting on this time: a leftward lurch in the opposition party.  

“I think if the president is a little more moderated in his tone, that’s helpful,” Duffy said after emphasizing the humming economy. “On the flip side of that coin,” he continued, “I think the president is going to punch really hard at the extremism coming from the left.”

Yet Wisconsin’s progressive roots run deep. The Republican Party was formed there, in the town of Rippon in the mid-19th century – as a progressive party opposed to slavery. Later, Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette, a Wisconsin governor and senator who decided that the GOP had drifted from its liberal traditions, helped formed the Progressive Party. Wisconsin voted for Franklin Roosevelt the first three times he ran for president before becoming something of a bellwether state in the mid-20th century.

But in the run-up to the 2016 race, the Democratic nominee had carried Wisconsin in seven consecutive presidential elections. And even in the cliffhanger last time, progressives could hold their heads high: Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described Democratic socialist, had defeated Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin’s Democratic primary. And Milwaukee has made three different socialists mayor.

All the same, Republicans argue that the current crop of candidates is too extreme — too far left, too anti-industry, too anti-agriculture — for the state. More than one expressed the hope that the Democrats will let Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic socialist who co-authored the Green New Deal, speak during the 2020 convention.

“You've got candidates talking about getting rid of cows,” Walker said in reference to the Ocasio-Cortez climate change legislation, which much of the 2020 crowd has already endorsed.

“That's kind of funny anywhere, but in Wisconsin messing with cows is not funny business,” he noted. “We’ve got an $80 billion agriculture industry and about half of that is dairy.”

This, then, is the Republican strategy in Wisconsin. Plug the economy. Paint the opposition as extreme. Hope, as Walker does, that after ignoring the state in 2016, Democrats’ bringing the convention to Milwaukee in 2020 will amount to “the ultimate overplay.” Bank on “radicalism coming to our backyard,” as Duffy does, energizing the GOP base.

Control of the White House, Republicans admit, could hinge on Trump hanging on in the state. “As Wisconsin went in 2016,” Johnson said, “so went the nation.”

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Police secure the area where the body of a woman was discovered near the village of Orounta
Police secure the area where the body of a woman was discovered near the village of Orounta, Cyprus, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Stefanos Kouratzis

April 26, 2019

NICOSIA (Reuters) – Cypriot police searched on Friday for more victims of a suspected serial killer, in a case which has shocked the Mediterranean island and exposed the authorities to charges of “criminal indifference” because the dead women were foreigners.

The main opposition party, the left-wing AKEL, called for the resignation of Cyprus’s justice minister and police chief.

Police were combing three different locations west of the capital Nicosia for victims of the suspected killer, a 35-year-old army officer who has been in detention for a week.

The bodies of three women, including two thought to be from the Philippines, have been recovered. Police sources said the suspect had indicated the location of the third body, found on Thursday, and had said the person was “either Indian or Nepali”.

Police said they were searching for a further four people, including two children, based on the suspect’s testimony.

“These women came here to earn a living, to help their families. They lived away from their families. And the earth swallowed them, nobody was interested,” AKEL lawmaker Irene Charalambides told Reuters.

“This killer will be judged by the court but the other big question is the criminal indifference shown by the others when the reports first surfaced. I believe, as does my party, that the justice minister and the police chief should resign. They are irrevocably exposed.”

Police have said they will investigate any perceived shortcomings in their handling of the case.

One person who did attempt to alert the authorities over the disappearances, a 70-year-old Cypriot citizen, said his motives were questioned by police.

The bodies of the two Filipino women reported missing in May and August 2018 were found in an abandoned mine shaft this month. Police discovered the body of the third woman at an army firing range about 14 km (9 miles) from the mine shaft.

Police are now searching for the six-year-old daughter of the first victim found, a Romanian mother who disappeared with her eight-year-old child in 2016, and a woman from the Phillipines who vanished in Dec. 2017.

The suspect has not been publicly named, in line with Cypriot legal practice.

A public vigil for the missing was planned later on Friday.

(Reporting By Michele Kambas; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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An employee looks up at goods at the Miniclipper Logistics warehouse in Leighton Buzzard
FILE PHOTO: An employee looks up at goods at the Miniclipper Logistics warehouse in Leighton Buzzard, Britain December 3, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson

April 26, 2019

LONDON, April 26 – British factories stockpiled raw materials and goods ahead of Brexit at the fastest pace since records began in the 1950s, and they were increasingly downbeat about their prospects, a survey showed on Friday.

The Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) quarterly survey of the manufacturing industry showed expectations for export orders in the next three months fell to their lowest level since mid-2009, when Britain was reeling from the global financial crisis.

The record pace of stockpiling recorded by the CBI was mirrored by the closely-watched IHS Markit/CIPS purchasing managers’ index published earlier this month.

(Reporting by Andy Bruce, editing by David Milliken)

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Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaks at the opening ceremony for the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad speaks at the opening ceremony for the second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, China April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo

April 26, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Fewer than half of Malaysians approve of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, an opinion poll showed on Friday, as concerns over rising costs and racial matters plague his administration nearly a year after taking office.

The survey, conducted in March by independent pollster Merdeka Center, showed that only 46 percent of voters surveyed were satisfied with Mahathir, a sharp drop from the 71 percent approval rating he received in August 2018.

Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan coalition won a stunning election victory in May 2018, ending the previous government’s more than 60-year rule.

But his administration has since been criticized for failing to deliver on promised reforms and protecting the rights of majority ethnic Malay Muslims.

Of 1,204 survey respondents, 46 percent felt that the “country was headed in the wrong direction”, up from 24 percent in August 2018, the Merdeka Center said in a statement. Just 39 percent said they approved of the ruling government.

High living costs remained the top most concern among Malaysians, with just 40 percent satisfied with the government’s management of the economy, the survey showed.

It also showed mixed responses to Pakatan Harapan’s proposed reforms.

Some 69 percent opposed plans to abolish the death penalty, while respondents were sharply divided over proposals to lower the minimum voting age to 18, or to implement a sugar tax.

“In our opinion, the results appear to indicate a public that favors the status quo, and thus requires a robust and coordinated advocacy efforts in order to garner their acceptance of new measures,” Merdeka Center said.

The survey also found 23 percent of Malaysians were concerned over ethnic and religious matters.

Some groups representing Malays have expressed fear that affirmative-action policies favoring them in business, education and housing could be taken away and criticized the appointments of non-Muslims to key government posts.

Last November, the government reversed its pledge to ratify a UN convention against racial discrimination, after a backlash from Malay groups.

Earlier this month, Pakatan Harapan suffered its third successive loss in local elections since taking power, which has been seen as a further sign of waning public support.

Despite the decline, most Malaysians – 67 percent – agreed that Mahathir’s government should be given more time to fulfill its election promises, Merdeka Center said.

This included a majority of Malay voters who were largely more critical of the new administration, it added.

(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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The German share price index DAX graph at the stock exchange in Frankfurt
The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Staff

April 26, 2019

By Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh

(Reuters) – European shares slipped on Friday after losses in heavyweight banks and Glencore outweighed gains in healthcare and auto stocks, while investors remained on the sidelines ahead of U.S. economic data for the first quarter.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was down 0.1 percent by 0935 GMT, eyeing a modest loss at the end of a holiday-shortened week. Banks-heavy Italian and Spanish indices were laggards.

The banking index fell for a fourth day, at the end of a heavy earnings week for lenders.

Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland tumbled after posting lower first quarter profit, hurt by intensifying competition and Brexit uncertainty, while its investment bank also registered poor returns.

Weakness in investment banking also dented Deutsche Bank’s quarterly trading revenue and sent its shares lower a day after the German bank abandoned merger talks with smaller rival Commerzbank.

“The current interest rate environment makes it challenging for banks to make proper earnings because of their intermediary function,” said Teeuwe Mevissen, senior market economist eurozone, at Rabobank.

Since the start of April, all country indexes were on pace to rise between 1.8 percent and 3.4 percent, their fourth month of gains, while Germany was strongly outperforming with 6 percent growth.

“For now the current sentiment is very cautious as markets wait for the first estimates of the U.S. GDP growth which could see a surprise,” Mevissen said.

U.S. economic data for the first-quarter is due at 1230 GMT. Growth worries outside the United States resurfaced this week after South Korea’s economy unexpectedly contracted at the start of the year and weak German business sentiment data for April also disappointed.

Among the biggest drags on the benchmark index in Europe were the basic resources sector and the oil and gas sector, weighed down by Britain’s Glencore and France’s Total, respectively.

Glencore dropped after reports that U.S authorities were investigating whether the company and its subsidiaries violated certain provisions of the commodity exchange act.

Energy major Total said its net profit for the first three months of the year fell compared with a year ago due to volatile oil prices and debt costs.

Chip stocks in the region including Siltronic, Ams and STMicroelectronics lost more than 1 percent after Intel Corp reduced its full-year revenue forecast, adding to concerns that an industry-wide slowdown could persist until the end of 2019.

Meanwhile, healthcare, which is also seen as a defensive sector, was a bright spot. It was helped by French drugmaker Sanofi after it returned to growth with higher profits and revenues for the first-quarter.

Luxembourg-based satellite operator SES led media stocks higher after it maintained its full-year outlook on the back of the company’s Networks division.

Automakers in the region rose 0.4 percent, led by Valeo’s 6 percent jump as the French parts maker said its performance would improve in the second half of the year.

Continental AG advanced after it backed its outlook for the year despite reporting a fall in first-quarter earnings.

Renault rose more than 3 percent as it clung to full-year targets and pursues merger talks with its Japanese partner Nissan.

(Reporting by Medha Singh and Agamoni Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Gareth Jones and Elaine Hardcastle)

Source: OANN

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U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs up to his audience as he hosts Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

April 26, 2019

By Jan Wolfe and Richard Cowan

(Reuters) – The “i word” – impeachment – is swirling around the U.S. Congress since the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted Russia report, which painted a picture of lies, threats and confusion in Donald Trump’s White House.

Some Democrats say trying to remove Trump from office would be a waste of time because his fellow Republicans still have majority control of the Senate. Other Democrats argue they have a moral obligation at least to try to impeach, even though Mueller did not charge Trump with conspiring with Russia in the 2016 U.S. election or with obstruction of justice.

Whether or not the Democrats decide to go down this risky path, here is how the impeachment process works.

WHAT ARE GROUNDS FOR IMPEACHMENT?

The U.S. Constitution says the president can be removed from office by Congress for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” Exactly what that means is unclear.

Before he became president in 1974, replacing Republican Richard Nixon who resigned over the Watergate scandal, Gerald Ford said: “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”

Frank Bowman, a University of Missouri law professor and author of a forthcoming book on the history of impeachment, said Congress could look beyond criminal laws in defining “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Historically, it can encompass corruption and other abuses, including trying to obstruct judicial proceedings.

HOW DOES IMPEACHMENT PLAY OUT?

The term impeachment is often interpreted as simply removing a president from office, but that is not strictly accurate.

Impeachment technically refers to the 435-member House of Representatives approving formal charges against a president.

The House effectively acts as accuser – voting on whether to bring specific charges. An impeachment resolution, known as “articles of impeachment,” is like an indictment in a criminal case. A simple majority vote is needed in the House to impeach.

The Senate then conducts a trial. House members act as the prosecutors, with senators as the jurors. The chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court presides over the trial. A two-thirds majority vote is required in the 100-member Senate to convict and remove a president from office.

No president has ever been removed from office as a direct result of an impeachment and conviction by Congress.

Nixon quit in 1974 rather than face impeachment. Presidents Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 were impeached by the House, but both stayed in office after the Senate acquitted them.

Obstruction of justice was one charge against Clinton, who faced allegations of lying under oath about his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Obstruction was also included in the articles of impeachment against Nixon.

CAN THE SUPREME COURT OVERTURN?

No.

Trump said on Twitter on Wednesday that he would ask the Supreme Court to intervene if Democrats tried to impeach him. But America’s founders explicitly rejected making a Senate conviction appealable to the federal judiciary, Bowman said.

“They quite plainly decided this is a political process and it is ultimately a political judgment,” Bowman said.

“So when Trump suggests there is any judicial remedy for impeachment, he is just wrong.”

PROOF OF WRONGDOING?

In a typical criminal court case, jurors are told to convict only if there is “proof beyond a reasonable doubt,” a fairly stringent standard.

Impeachment proceedings are different. The House and Senate “can decide on whatever burden of proof they want,” Bowman said. “There is no agreement on what the burden should be.”

PARTY BREAKDOWN IN CONGRESS?

Right now, there are 235 Democrats, 197 Republicans and three vacancies in the House. As a result, the Democratic majority could vote to impeach Trump without any Republican votes.

In 1998, when Republicans had a House majority, the chamber voted largely along party lines to impeach Clinton, a Democrat.

The Senate now has 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and two independents who usually vote with Democrats. Conviction and removal of a president would requires 67 votes. So that means for Trump to be impeached, at least 20 Republicans and all the Democrats and independents would have to vote against him.

WHO BECOMES PRESIDENT IF TRUMP IS REMOVED?

A Senate conviction removing Trump from office would elevate Vice President Mike Pence to the presidency to fill out Trump’s term, which ends on Jan. 20, 2021.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe and Richard Cowan; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney)

Source: OANN

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