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Bitcoin trading volume hits two-year low in March: report

FILE PHOTO: A bitcoin logo is seen at a facility of the Youth and Sports Ministry in Caracas
FILE PHOTO: A bitcoin logo is seen at a facility of the Youth and Sports Ministry in Caracas, Venezuela February 23, 2018. REUTERS/Marco Bello

April 4, 2019

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Bitcoin’s trading volume dropped to a two-year low in March, digital currency trading tool provider TradeBlock said in a report on Thursday, as investors remained spooked by increased regulatory scrutiny.

Bitcoin volume in the top five digital currency exchanges totaled $2.14 billion last month, the lowest since April 2017 when volume was just $845.7 million.

The original cryptocurrency, bitcoin has dropped more than 70 percent since hitting an all-time high of nearly $20,000 in December 2017, a slump that has spread to all digital currencies.

A global regulatory crackdown led by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has created concerns about greater oversight and acceptance of digital currencies as payments, taking the wind out of the once red-hot virtual assets.

Early this week, however, bitcoin recovered somewhat to hit a roughly five-month high of $5,345 on the Bitstamp platform, after a major order by an anonymous buyer set off a frenzy of computer-driven trading, analysts said.

TradeBlock said in its research that as bitcoin trading volumes fell, digital asset exchanges started increasing the number of assets listed. It cited Coinbase, which has historically listed fewer assets than its peers, taking on two new currencies – Ripple and Stellar Lumens – over the last few months.

Coinbase’s trading volume for March was $1.6 billion, a two-year low as well, TradeBlock data showed.

TradeBlock’s research also showed that as volumes declined, digital currency exchanges began raising trading fees in 2018 and 2019.

“An increase in trading fees is in line with expectations that exchanges are looking to protect revenues, amidst continually dampened trading volumes,” TradeBlock said.

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

Source: OANN

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Man pleads guilty to kidnapping girl, killing her parents

A Wisconsin man pleaded guilty Wednesday to kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs, killing her parents and holding her captive in a remote cabin for three months.

Jake Patterson, 21, pleaded guilty to two counts of intentional homicide and one count of kidnapping. A count of armed burglary was dropped. The intentional homicide counts carry a sentence of life in prison.

Patterson had said he would plead guilty in a letter sent earlier this month to a Minneapolis TV station, saying he didn't want the Closs family "to worry about a trial."

Patterson admitted kidnapping Jayme after killing her parents, James and Denise Closs, on Oct. 15 at the family's home near Barron, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northeast of Minneapolis. Jayme escaped in January, after 88 days in Patterson's cabin in near the small, isolated town of Gordon, some 60 miles (97 kilometers) from her home.

According to a criminal complaint , Patterson told authorities he decided Jayme "was the girl he was going to take" after he saw her getting on a school bus near her home.

Jayme told police that the night of the abduction, the family dog's barking awoke her, and she went to wake up her parents as a car came up the driveway. While her father went to the front door, Jayme and her mother hid in the bathroom, clutching each other in the bathtub, with the shower curtain pulled shut.

They heard Jayme's father get shot. Patterson then found Jayme and her mother. He told detectives he wrapped tape around Jayme's mouth and head, taped her hands behind her back and taped her ankles together, then shot her mother in the head. He told police he dragged Jayme outside, threw her in the trunk of his car, and took her to his cabin, the complaint said.

During Jayme's time in captivity, Patterson forced her to hide under a bed when he had friends over and penned her in with tote boxes and weights, warning that if she moved, "bad things could happen to her." He also turned up the radio so visitors couldn't hear her, according to the complaint.

Authorities searched for Jayme for months and collected more than 3,500 tips. On Jan. 10, Jayme escaped from the cabin while Patterson was away. She then flagged down a woman who was out walking a dog and pleaded for help. Patterson was arrested minutes later.

___

Associated Press writer Amy Forliti contributed from Minneapolis.

___

Check out AP's complete coverage of Jayme Closs' abduction and her parents' deaths.

Source: Fox News National

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Alaska white supremacist gang members face federal charges

Several members of a white supremacist prison gang operating in Alaska correctional facilities and two other states have been charged in a racketeering enterprise that includes counts of murder, assault, kidnapping and distribution of drugs and firearms.

Six men, including one who legally changed his name to Filthy Fuhrer, are charged in the Aug. 3, 2017, kidnapping and murder of another member, Michael Staton.

Bryan Schroder, Alaska's U.S. Attorney, said Wednesday two others have already pleaded guilty to the murder count.

He said the men were members of the white supremacist gang known as the 1488s. Its members are serving in Alaska prisons, and some were sent to facilities in Arizona and Colorado.

The indictment says all gang members are required to "be white, look white and act white."

Source: Fox News National

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Sen. Kennedy: FBI ‘Clearly’ Investigated Trump, Clinton Campaigns

There were "clearly" people in the FBI who were investigating both the Trump campaign and the Clinton campaign during the 2016 election, Sen. John Kennedy said Friday, adding that he believes Attorney General William Barr will get to to the bottom of what was going on.

"When Bill Barr issued his [Robert Mueller report]  summary, you would have thought according to some of my Democratic friends it was the second coming of the Apocalypse," the Louisiana Republican told Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "It is clear to me that there were a handful of people at the FBI and maybe Justice who acted on their political beliefs in 2016. I think some of them put their thumb on the scale against (Donald) Trump. I think some might have put their thumb on the scale against (Hillary) Clinton."

The FBI is not supposed to act on political beliefs, Kennedy added. "and they don't need a hug and a cup of hot cocoa and told 'don't do it again,'" said Kennedy. "They need to be fired, and if necessary, prosecuted. You had a handful of bubbleheads that decided they were smarter and more virtuous than the American people and they were going to try to influence the election."

Meanwhile, Kennedy called on Democrats to leave Barr alone and let him do his job and release a redacted version of Mueller's report, but he warned that if "every third word is redacted and you can't make any sense out of it, I'll join them raising fresh hell. But that's not going to happen."

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Confusion, grief as hunt for remains from Ethiopia crash halted

Ethiopians search for remains at the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash before a commemoration ceremony at the scene of the of the crash, near the town of Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa
FILE PHOTO: Ethiopians search for remains at the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash before a commemoration ceremony at the scene of the crash, near the town of Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Baz Ratner

March 22, 2019

By Maggie Fick

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – A child’s foot. Fingers. A passport.

Body parts and personal effects were still strewn across the crash site of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 15, a witness told Reuters, five days after the disaster and the day before recovery efforts were halted.

With the site now fenced off, bereaved families are worried the remains of their loved ones may be left at the scene, compounding their anguish.

Citizens of 35 nations were aboard when the Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet nosedived into a field on March 10 six minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 people onboard.

Families of those who perished complain of a lack of information about recovery efforts, which saw Ethiopian workers using metal parts of the aircraft to dig in the soil.

Religions such as Islam and Judaism require quick burials, but authorities said last week that identifying remains – many burned or in small pieces – might take six months.

“At the beginning, (the Ethiopian authorities) should have blocked off that place and sent an organized team to search, instead of just leaving it open. I’m unhappy about that. It’s supposed to be easier if it’s in the government’s hands,” said Milka Yimam, a dual Ethiopia-Israeli citizen whose 26-year-old son Sidrak died.

Relatives of the victims who visited the site on Monday said it had been cordoned off and the ground leveled, apart from the impact crater. The dead included a grand-niece of consumer advocate and former U.S. presidential candidate Ralph Nader.

Excavation was halted last Saturday, ministry of transport spokesman Musie Yehyies told Reuters.

“Excavation has ended for the moment since we have got everything we think we need at the moment. The site has been enclosed and can be revisited,” he said on Friday.

Global attention has mostly shifted to an investigation into the cause of the disaster, and similarities with the crash of a Lion Air 737 MAX plane in Indonesia last October that killed 189 people. Pilots of both aircraft reported control problems and crashed minutes after take-off.

The world’s entire 737 MAX fleet was grounded after the Ethiopia crash, with Boeing losing about 12 percent – or $28 billion – of its market value since the disaster.

But as headlines focus on the investigation and its financial fallout, families fear the spotlight has shifted from recovery efforts.

DIPLOMATIC PRESSURE

Israelis whose bodies are not recovered are officially listed at home as “disappeared” rather than “dead” – a status that can cause complications for relatives in matters ranging from inheritance to remarrying.

Some Jewish traditions also require a piece of the body be buried before mourning can begin, with the soul not able to rest until then, giving the families’ quest an agonizing urgency.

So the Israeli embassy has been working hard to retrieve the remains of its two citizens who died in the crash, families told Reuters.

But it hasn’t been easy. After being bounced between various government ministries, the ambassador eventually wrote to the airline to get access to the crash site, a source familiar with matter said. He got no reply – until the Israeli prime minister intervened by phoning his Ethiopian counterpart.

The two leaders spoke to exchange condolences for the lives lost in the crash, a spokeswoman for Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office told Reuters on Friday.

The ambassador and representatives of Israeli volunteer rescue and recovery organization ZAKA were finally able to access the site last Friday. They have not been allowed back.

The embassy said on Thursday ZAKA had been told it could not return to retrieve remains due to a “procedural matter” and that Ethiopia did not want to grant access for other nations.

The Ethiopian ministries of transport and foreign affairs did not respond to a request for comment.

CONFUSION OVER PASSENGERS

An Interpol-led group of nations including Germany and Canada are supporting the DNA testing, three Addis Ababa-based diplomatic sources said. Ethiopia has also contracted British firm Blake Emergency Services to recover and return the remains. The firm did not respond to requests for comment.

Remains recovered so far have been bagged and stored in an out-of-the-way area of Addis Ababa’s Bole airport, in refrigeration units usually used to store roses destined for export, before being moved to the capital’s St. Paul’s Hospital, two sources told Reuters.

Halting excavations could complicate matters for many countries, some of which are still unsure how many of their citizens were lost.

Although 18 of the victims have been identified as Canadian, others had connections to Canada, meaning its embassy has been supporting more families, said Canada’s ambassador to Ethiopia, Antoine Chevrier. Some were also dual nationals.

Ethiopian Airlines has not published the full passenger list with names and dates of birth. It did not respond to questions over when the list might be published.

Until that is done, confusion remains over dual nationals, and the citizenship of seven people onboard the flight is still not public, diplomats told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Jason Neely in Addis Ababa and Katharine Houreld in Nairobi; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Mark Potter)

Source: OANN

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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."

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

Source: Fox News World

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EU watchdog told to step up work on share price tool to tackle market fragmentation

FILE PHOTO: Valdis Dombrovskis attend a news conference at the Finance Ministry in Athens
FILE PHOTO: Valdis Dombrovskis attend a news conference with Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos (not pictured) at the Finance Ministry in Athens, Greece, June 15, 2018. REUTERS/Costas Baltas/File Photo

April 2, 2019

By Huw Jones

LONDON (Reuters) – The European Union’s financial services chief has told regulators to prioritize work on an instrument to collect share prices for investors to find the cheapest deals.

The instrument, known as a “consolidated tape”, has long been a cherished goal for users of Europe’s fragmented stock markets currently faced with about 20 trading venues, some offering the same stocks.

The tape distributes real time trade and quotes from trading venues in the market. The United States introduced such a tape decades ago to bolster efficiency in trading by knitting together platforms.

The EU’s revised “MiFID II” securities rules, introduced in 2018, gave Brussels powers to appoint a provider if a private sector tape for a reasonable cost remains elusive.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is reviewing how MiFID II is working, but it told the EU’s financial services chief Valdis Dombrovskis last week that due to Brexit, this work is being delayed by 6-24 months.

“We are currently assessing those delays by ESMA,” Dombrovskis told the European Parliament’s economic affairs committee on Tuesday.

“We will assess whether it’s time to consider establishing more market transparency by means of a consolidated tape. We would like ESMA to prioritize this report. The U.S. markets have such a tape, so we would consider to introduce one in the EU.”

He wants ESMA’s report on a tape by early 2020.

It is part of a wider battle between exchanges and their biggest customers over the price of share trading data, with big funds asking Brussels to intervene.

FESE, Europe’s exchanges industry body, published a report last month which it said showed bourses were not gouging customers with high charges.

The report also said that data vendors were already offering a de facto tape for prices on the bulk of the so-called “lit” exchanges, where prices and trades are instantly visible.

Dombrovskis said initial lessons could be drawn from MiFID.

“We intend to look at consumer protection issues, as well as take a deeper look at the operation of equities and bond markets,” he told EU lawmakers.

Asset managers have become less willing to pay as much for research for picking stocks to buy following MiFID II, which forces some brokers to scale back their coverage of small- and medium-sized (SME) companies.

“We will assess how the unbundling of investment research from brokerage has worked out, and whether we need to adjust this unbundling rule. We have been receiving a lot of complaints, especially on the SME side in this area,” Dombrovskis said.

(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Source: OANN

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Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during the inauguration of the newly-elected parliament in Kabul
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani speaks during the inauguration of the newly-elected parliament in Kabul, Afghanistan April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

April 26, 2019

By Rupam Jain and Hameed Farzad

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani encouraged newly-elected lawmakers to participate in the peace process with the Taliban as he opened on Friday the first session of parliament since a controversial election.

Ghani has invited thousands of politicians, religious scholars and rights activists to an assembly known as a loya jirga next week to discuss ways to end the 17-year war.

Several opposition leaders have said they will boycott the four-day assembly in Kabul, saying it was pulled together without their input and is being used by Ghani as he seeks a second term in a September presidential election.

“We have presented the peace plan on a regular basis and we are committed to it,” Ghani said in the first session since parliamentary elections marred by technical problems, militant attacks and accusations of voting fraud last year.

“Based on this plan, there will be no peace deal and negotiation that does not have the green card of the parliament,” he added.

Officials from the United States and the Taliban have held several rounds of talks to end the Afghan war.

U.S. negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, has reported some progress toward an accord on a U.S. troop withdrawal and on how the Taliban would prevent extremists from using Afghanistan to launch attacks as al Qaeda did on Sept. 11, 2001.

The insurgents have so far rejected U.S. demands for a ceasefire and talks on the country’s political future that would include Afghan government officials.

The loya jirga, a centuries-old institution used to build consensus among competing tribes, factions and ethnic groups, is an attempt by Ghani to influence the peace talks and cement his position for a second term, Afghan politicians and Western diplomats say.

Amid growing political divisions in Kabul, opposition politicians have demanded that Ghani step down when his mandate ends next month, and give way to an interim government to oversee peace talks with the Taliban. Ghani has ruled that out.

The country’s top court said last week Ghani can stay in office until the presidential election in September.

(Reporting by Hameed Farzad, Rupam Jain, Editing by Darren Schuettler)

Source: OANN

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Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein Thursday defended special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation while slamming former President Barack Obama’s administration for being slow to take action on Russian interference in U.S. elections and ex-FBI Director James Comey for telling Congress the agency was investigating collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“Our nation is safer, elections are more secure, and citizens are better informed about covert foreign influence schemes,” Rosenstein said in a speech to the Armenian Bar Association, marking his first public remarks after the Mueller report was released, reports CBS News.

He also pointed out that the investigation revealed a pattern of computer hacking and the use of social media to undermine elections as “only the tip of the iceberg of a comprehensive Russian strategy to influence elections, promote social discord, and undermine America, just like they do in many other countries,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

The Obama administration also made “critical decisions,” including choosing not to publicize the full story about Russian hackers and social media trolling, “and how they relate to a broader strategy to undermine America,” said Rosenstein.

He noted that the Mueller probe began after Comey disclosed during a hearing before Congress that President Donald Trump “pressured him to close the investigation and the president denied that the conversation occurred.”

Rosenstein said two years ago, when he was confirmed, he was told by a Republican senator that he would be in charge of the probe and that he’d report the results to the American people.

However, he said he didn’t promise to do that, because it is “not our job to render conclusive factual findings. We just decide whether it is appropriate to file criminal charges.”

Source: NewsMax Politics

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FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei's factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province
FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured outside its Huawei’s factory campus in Dongguan, Guangdong province, China, March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) – Britain must get to the bottom of the leak of confidential discussions during a top-level security meeting about the role of China’s Huawei Technologies in 5G network supply chains, British finance minister Philip Hammond said on Friday.

News that Britain’s National Security Council, attended by senior ministers and spy chiefs, had agreed on Tuesday to bar Huawei from all core parts of the country’s 5G network and restrict its access to non-core elements was leaked to a national newspaper.

The leak of secret discussions has sparked anger in parliament and amongst Britain’s intelligence community. Britain’s most senior civil servant Mark Sedwill has launched an inquiry and written to ministers who were at the meeting.

“My understanding from London (is) that an investigation has been announced into apparent leaks from the NSC meeting earlier this week,” said Hammond, speaking on the sidelines of a summit on China’s Belt and Road initiative in Beijing.

“To my knowledge there has never been a leak from a National Security Council meeting before and therefore I think it is very important that we get to the bottom of what happened here,” he told Reuters in a pooled interview.

British culture minister Jeremy Wright said on Thursday he could not rule out a criminal investigation. The majority of the ministers at the NSC meeting have said they were not involved, according to media reports.

Hammond said he was unaware of any previous leak from a meeting of the NSC.

“It’s not about the substance of what was apparently leaked. It’s not earth-shattering information. But it is important that we protect the principle that nothing that goes on in national security council meetings must ever be repeated outside the room.”

Allowing Huawei a reduced role in building its 5G network puts Britain at odds with the United States which has told allies not to use its technology at all because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

There have been concerns that the NSC’s conclusion, which sources confirmed to Reuters, could upset other allies in the world’s leading intelligence-sharing network – the Five Eyes alliance of the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

However, British ministers and intelligence officials have said any final decision on 5G would not put critical national infrastructure at risk. Ciaran Martin, head of the cyber center of Britain’s main eavesdropping agency, GCHQ, played down any threat of a rift in the Five Eyes alliance.

(Writing by Michael Holden; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: OANN

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President Trump on Friday said “no money” was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, after reports that the U.S. received a $2 million hospital bill from Pyongyang for the late American prisoner’s care.

“No money was paid to North Korea for Otto Warmbier, not two Million Dollars, not anything else. This is not the Obama Administration that paid 1.8 Billion Dollars for four hostages, or gave five terroist[sic] hostages plus, who soon went back to battle, for traitor Sgt. Bergdahl!” Trump tweeted Friday.

NORTH KOREA GAVE US $2M HOSPITAL BILL OVER CARE OF AMERICAN OTTO WARMBIER, SOURCES SAY

The Washington Post first reported that North Korean authorities insisted the U.S. envoy sent to retrieve Warmbier, 21, who was a student of the University of Virginia, sign a pledge to pay the bill before allowing Warmbier’s comatose body to return to the United States. Sources confirmed the bill and the amount to Fox News on Thursday.

Sources told the post that the envoy signed an agreement to pay the medical bill on instructions from the president, but a source told Fox News that the U.S. did not ever pay money to North Korea.

The White House declined to comment when asked on the bill, with Press Secretary Sarah Sanders saying in a statement that: “We do not comment on hostage negotiations, which is why they have been so successful during this administration.”

Meanwhile, the president added: “’President[sic] Donald J. Trump is the greatest hostage negotiator that I know of in the history of the United States. 20 hostages, many in impossible circumstances, have been released in last two years. No money was paid.’ Cheif[sic] Hostage Negotiator, USA!”

Warmbier was on tour in North Korea when he allegedly stole a propaganda sign from a hotel. He was arrested in January 2016 and sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor in March 2016. Warmbier, for unknown reasons, fell into a coma while in custody and was held in that condition for an additional 17 months.

North Korean officials did not tell American officials until June 2017 that Warmbier had been unconscious the entire time. He died less than a week after he returned to the U.S. North Korean officials, though, have repeatedly denied accusations that Warmbier was tortured, instead claiming that he had suffered from botulism and then slipped into a coma after taking a sleeping pill.

AMERICAN PRISONERS HELD IN NORTH KOREA ON THEIR WAY HOME AFTER POMPEO VISIT, TRUMP SAYS

Fred and Cindy Warmbier sued North Korea over their son’s death and in December were awarded $501 million in damages – money that the Hermit Kingdom will probably never pay.

While the Warmbiers blamed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Trump has said he believes Kim’s claims that he did not know about the student’s treatment.

Trump and Kim have met in two separate summits. The most recent, held in February, ended without an agreement on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, told Fox News: “Otto Warmbier was mistreated by North Korea in so many ways, including his wrongful conviction and harsh sentence, and the fact that for 16 months they refused to tell his family or our country about his dire condition they caused.  No, the United States owes them nothing. They owe the Warmbier family everything.”

Last year, the Trump administration was also able to save three American prisoners held by North Korea. Kim Dong Chul, Tony Kim, and Kim Hak Song were all detained in North Korea. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo brought the three Americans home last May, and said they were all in “good health.”

Fox News’ John Roberts, Rich Edson, Nicholas Kalman, and Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon
Park Yoo-chun, a K-pop idol singer, arrives at the Suwon district court in Suwon, South Korea, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

April 26, 2019

SEOUL (Reuters) – K-pop and drama star Park Yu-chun was arrested on Friday on charges of buying and using illegal drugs, a court said, the latest in a series of scandals to hit the South Korean entertainment business.

Suwon District Court approved the arrest warrant for Park, 32, due to concerns over possible destruction of evidence and flight risk, a court spokesman told Reuters.

Park is suspected of having bought about 1.5 grams of methamphetamine with his former girlfriend earlier this year and using the drug around five times, an official at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said.

Park has denied wrongdoing, saying he had never taken drugs, and he again denied the charges in court, Yonhap news agency said.

Park’s contract with his management agency had been canceled and he would leave the entertainment industry, Park’s management agency, C-JeS Entertainment, said on Wednesday.

Park was a member of boyband TVXQ between 2003 and 2009 before leaving the group with two other members, forming the group JYJ.

A scandal involving sex tapes, prostitutes and secret chat about rape led at least four other K-pop stars to quit the industry earlier this year.

The cases sparked a nationwide drugs bust and investigations into tax evasion and police collusion at night clubs and other nightlife spots.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: OANN

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