FILE - This undated photo provided by the Illinois Department of Corrections shows Thomas Kokoraleis. The convicted murderer who is suspected of being a member of the notorious "Ripper Crew" that brutally killed as many as 20 women in the 1980s is scheduled to be released on Friday, March 29, 2019. Kokoraleis was initially sentenced to life in prison for the 1982 slaying of 21-year-old Lorry Ann Borowski. But after his appeal request was granted, prosecutors allowed him to plead guilty in exchange for serving half of his 70-year prison term.(Illinois Department of Corrections via AP, File)
CANTON, Ill. – Authorities say a man convicted of murder as a suspected member of the notorious "Ripper Crew" that killed as many as 20 Chicago-area women in the 1980s has been released from prison.
An alert from Illinois' victim notification system was issued Friday saying 58-year-old Thomas Kokoraleis had been discharged from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Kokoraleis was initially sentenced to life in prison for the 1982 slaying of 21-year-old Lorraine "Lorry" Ann Borowski.
But prosecutors allowed him to plead guilty on appeal in exchange for a 70-year prison term. The deal allowed for his release this week.
Relatives of some victims were infuriated in 2017 when they learned of Kokoraleis' expected release and delayed his initial parole date.
Records show Kokoraleis was held at the Illinois River Correctional Center in Canton, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Peoria.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Apple is seen at a store in Zurich, Switzerland January 3, 2019. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo
April 15, 2019
By Stephen Nellis
(Reuters) – Apple Inc and its allies on Monday will kick off a jury trial against chip supplier Qualcomm Inc in San Diego, alleging that Qualcomm engaged in illegal patent licensing practices and seeking up to $27 billion in damages.
Qualcomm, for its part, alleges that Apple forced its longtime business partners to quit paying some royalties and is seeking up to $15 billion.
Filed by Apple in early 2017, the lawsuit in federal court revolves around the modem chips that connect devices like the iPhone or Apple Watch to wireless data networks. Qualcomm has spent the past two years mounting a pressure campaign of smaller legal skirmishes against Apple, seeking – and in some cases obtaining – iPhone sales bans for violating its patents.
The trial before Judge Gonzalo Curiel will play out on Qualcomm’s home turf of San Diego, where for decades the city’s National Football League team played in Qualcomm Stadium and nearly every business district hosts the mobile chip firm’s logo.
For Apple, the trial is about the freedom to determine its own technology path for blockbuster products by buying chips without having to pay what it calls a “tax” on its innovations in the form of patent licensing fees to Qualcomm that take a cut of the selling price of its devices.
For Qualcomm, the trial, along with similar allegations from U.S. regulators in a January court hearing, will determine the fate of its unique blend of selling chips and licensing more than 130,000 patents.
Licensing generates most of Qualcomm profits. The model propelled Qualcomm from a small contract research and development shop when founded in 1985 to a global chip powerhouse important enough to U.S. national security that President Donald Trump personally intervened to prevent a hostile takeover of the company last year.
“This is the day of reckoning that Qualcomm has been very fortunate to avoid for many years,” said Gaston Kroub, a patent attorney with Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov who is not involved in the case. “In Apple, they’ve finally come up against a potential licensee that has the resources and the will to put Qualcomm’s business model and licensing practices on trial.”
Qualcomm requires device makers to sign a license to its patents before it will supply chips, which it views as a commonsense measure to ensure it does not do business with companies violating its patents. But Apple and other device makers around the world have called the “no license, no chips” policy a form of “double dipping” – that is, charging for the same intellectual property once during licensing discussions, and then again in the price of the chips where the patents are embodied.
Apple and allies are asking for an end to that practice and a refund of about $9 billion – an amount that could be tripled if a jury finds in Apple’s favor for antitrust allegations – for contract factories such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd’s Foxconn, who paid the royalties and were reimbursed by Apple. Apple alleges the practices kept rivals like Intel Corp out of the market for years.
“Even very big companies like Intel have felt at a disadvantage,” said Michael Salzman, an antitrust attorney with Hughes Hubbard & Reed not involved in the case.
Qualcomm will argue that it had been working successfully with contract factories for years before Apple introduced its iPhone. But Apple used its heft in the industry to get those factories to break their longstanding contracts with Qualcomm, depriving it of at least $7 billion in royalties it was due, the chip supplier alleges.
The chip supplier will also argue that its licensing practices have been consistent for decades and only came under fire when Apple, known in the electronics industry for pushing suppliers to contain costs, took issue with it. A victory would secure Qualcomm’s status as a major technology provider for 5G, the next generation of mobile data networks coming online this year.
“I don’t think (a Qualcomm victory) would be great for Apple, but if it’s about money, they’ve got plenty of money,” said Stacy Rasgon, an equity analyst for Bernstein who follows Qualcomm. “For Qualcomm, it’s an existential attack on the meat of their business model.”
(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Australian actor Geoffrey Rush reacts as he arrives at the Federal Court in Sydney, Australia, November 8, 2018. REUTERS/David Gray
April 11, 2019
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush on Thursday won initial damages of A$850,000 ($609,000) after a court ruled that the Australian arm of News Corp defamed him by saying he behaved inappropriately toward a co-star in a production of King Lear.
The Federal Court, which found News Corp’s Nationwide arm and reporter Jonathon Moran’s articles in the Daily Telegraph had failed to prove their allegations were true, will determine further damages later.
“This was in all the circumstances a recklessly irresponsible piece of sensationalist journalism of the worst kind, the very worst kind,” Judge Michael Wigney said in a decision read to a packed courtroom in Sydney.
News Corp had no immediate comment.
Rush, 67, and a star of Australian theater, sued News Corp’s Sydney tabloid over a series of articles that said he was the subject of a complaint to the Sydney Theatre Company regarding the 2015 King Lear production.
Under the headline “KING LEER,” and in later articles, the paper said the actor, in the title role, had been accused by a co-star of unspecified inappropriate conduct.
Rush, who won the Best Actor Oscar in 1997 for “Shine” and has since appeared in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films, said the stories implied he was a major pervert, or guilty of major depravity, and his lawyer sought “very substantial” damages.
“There are no winners in this case,” Rush told reporters outside the court. “It’s been extremely distressing for everyone involved.”
He thanked his wife and children for their support “during this harrowing time”.
($1=1.3965 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Four men were approached by a gunman at a gas station in Florida early Sunday, cops said. (Surveillance Footage)
Four Indiana pals on spring break in Florida were confronted by a gunman at a gas station early Sunday but managed to grab the gun and tackle the would-be robber to the ground, police say a surveillance video shows.
The alleged robbery attempt took place around 3:45 a.m. in Oakland Park, which is about 4 miles north of Fort Lauderdale, WPLG reported.
The four friends were getting gas when a gunman got out of a car, approached them and demanded money, Broward Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Gina Carter said.
The friends jumped into action, with one wrestling the gun out of the would-be robber’s hand while the others tackled him to the ground, police said.
A scuffle ensued and a shirtless man ran up to push the friends off of the gunman, police said. The gunman and his shirtless accomplice then fled the scene.
Kevin Campbell, the gunman’s alleged accomplice on Sunday, faces several charges including robbery with a firearm and resisting an officer.
The gunman’s accomplice, later identified by police as 33-year-old Kevin Campbell, was arrested shortly after the incident, WSVN 7News reported. Campbell faces multiple charges, including armed robbery and resisting another officer, the report said.
FILE PHOTO: Mar 14, 2019; Lakeland, FL, USA; Detroit Tigers infielder Miguel Cabrera (24) looks on prior to the game against the Boston Red Sox at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Douglas DeFelice-USA TODAY Sports
April 22, 2019
A Florida judge ruled that Detroit Tigers designated hitter Miguel Cabrera must support the two children he fathered out of wedlock the same way he does the children born to his wife, the Detroit Free Press reported Monday.
The decision is the latest turn in an 18-month battle between Cabrera and Belkis Rodriguez of Orlando, Fla. In her 2017 child support lawsuit, she contended her children deserve to have the same lifestyle his other three children have.
Orange County Circuit Court Judge Alan Apte agreed with Rodriguez.
“The court finds that the parties’ children should have the same opportunities as the opportunities that the father provides to his three other children that he and his wife share,” the judge wrote in his ruling.
“The court finds this to be a ‘good fortune’ case … and the children’s right to benefit from his good fortune,” Apte wrote.
Under the order, Cabrera must give Rodriguez $20,000 per month in unallocated support, which means she can spend the money however she wants. Additionally, he must pay for specific expenses, such as private school, medical care and extracurricular activities.
Cabrera also must provide: annual passes to Walt Disney World and other local amusements; a $5 million life insurance policy with both children named as beneficiaries until the youngest one turns 18; a check to pay off the mortgage of Rodriguez’s nearly $1 million house; and back child support of nearly $90,000.
A final hearing on the order, which Cabrera can appeal, is scheduled for April 30.
Cabrera, 36, is about halfway through an eight-year, $248 million contract extension he signed in 2014. Spotrac estimated his career earnings to date at nearly $277 million. He will make $30 million this season.
An AutonomouStuff Automated Research Development Vehicle drives on the race track during a self-racing cars event at Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, California, U.S., April 1, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Lam
April 1, 2019
By Paul Lienert and Maria Caspani
(Reuters) – Half of U.S. adults think automated vehicles are more dangerous than traditional vehicles operated by people, while nearly two-thirds said they would not buy a fully autonomous vehicle, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll.
In the same poll, about 63 percent of those who responded said they would not pay more to have a self-driving feature on their vehicle, and 41 percent of the rest said they would not pay more than $2,000.
The poll results outline the challenges that face car and truck makers, delivery companies, technology companies and ride services operators such as Uber Technologies Inc and Lyft Inc. All are plowing capital into developing self-driving vehicles and related hardware. Developers of the technology are making progress, but polls indicate the industry’s efforts to build public trust and commercial demand lag behind.
The findings are similar to those in a 2018 Reuters/Ipsos poll. They are consistent with results in surveys by Pew Research Center, the American Automobile Association and others. In March 2018, after the 2018 Reuters/Ipsos poll, an Uber vehicle operating in self-driving mode struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona.
Relatively few U.S. residents have seen or ridden in a self-driving vehicle, and experts said suspicion of unknown technology can give way to acceptance once it becomes more familiar.
“People are comfortable with things they know,” said investor Chris Thomas, co-founder of Fontinalis Partners and Detroit Mobility Lab. “When everybody understands the game-changing attributes of automated vehicles, how they can give you back all that time to read or work or sleep, they will start to ask about the value of that recaptured time.”
For companies investing in autonomous vehicles, public mistrust and the unwillingness to pay for self-driving systems are an increasingly urgent problem.
But widespread deployment of fully self-driving vehicles is some years away, industry officials and experts said. Alphabet Inc’s Waymo unit has deployed a small fleet of self-driving vans to provide rides for customers in Arizona, and other companies have self-driving vehicles on public streets in test fleets.
“At the moment, those responses are largely based on zero knowledge and zero experience, so it’s mostly a visceral reaction to something they read about, like the (2018) Uber crash in Arizona,” said Dan Sperling, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, and the author of several books on future transportation.
Autonomous vehicle companies have been trying for more than two years to get the U.S. Congress to enact legislation that would give a regulatory green light to self-driving cars. So far, opposition has bottled up the industry friendly bills. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration meanwhile has yet to act on proposals to exempt autonomous vehicles from conventional vehicle safety standards.
Two-thirds of survey respondents said self-driving cars should be held to higher government safety standards than traditional vehicles driven by humans.
“Somebody needs to be held accountable,” said survey respondent Carla Ross, 62, a teacher from Norfolk, Virginia. “Those cars shouldn’t even go on the road until they can guarantee a certain percentage of safety.”
The poll’s findings that most consumers would not pay for self-driving vehicle capability underscores concerns within the vehicle industry about the high costs of the technology, such as lidar sensors and high-powered onboard computers. Lidar is similar to radar but uses laser light instead of radio waves.
“I’m concerned that even when we get the technology absolutely right, we will not have the business,” said investor and corporate adviser Evangelos Simoudis, managing director of Synapse Partners, which invests in autonomous vehicle technology startups.
Self-driving expert Bryant Walker Smith, a law professor at the University of South Carolina, said a number of companies “don’t actually want to sell people these cars — they want to rent us these services. They want us to pay every month, every trip.”
For many Americans, “$2,000 is a lot of money,” he said. “If you’d asked people if they’d pay $15,000 for an advanced safety package or even $10,000 for a luxury trim package, the answer in a lot of cases is going to be no.”
The challenges of turning over critical safety systems to robots are now a central issue in debate over how regulators should respond to a pair of deadly crashes involving Boeing 737 MAX airliners. Investigators trying to determine the causes of crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia are focusing on evidence that an automated flight control system on the jets put the planes into nose dives, and pilots were unable to override the systems.
“If there’s one (airplane) crash a year, it creates huge backlash — and airplanes are far, far safer than cars,” said Sperling.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed 2,222 people online in English across the United States and it has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 2 percent.
(Reporting by Paul Lienert in Detroit and Maria Caspani in New York)
The campaign of socialist Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) responded to their action of ejecting Infowars reporter Kaitlin Bennett from an Ohio rally Sunday, saying that she worked for a “white supremacist platform.”
When asked by local media why Bernie’s campaign removed Bennett from a rally that was “supposed to be public” in Youngstown, Ohio, they responded on Monday with the following statement (in all caps, no less):
“WE ARE DISAPPOINTED THE PEOPLE OF THE YOUNGSTOWN COMMUNITY ARE BEING SHOWN ON THE LOCAL BROADCAST NEWS CONTENT FROM INFOWARS, A WHITE SUPREMACIST PLATFORM THAT HAS BEEN BANNED FROM YOUTUBE, APPLE AND FACEBOOK FOR HATE SPEECH AND TARGETING THE PARENTS OF CHILDREN WHO DIED IN SANDY HOOK.”
Bennett says she would have asked Sanders if he supports free health care for illegal immigrants. Instead she says she was told to leave the public event, which she did, with no explanation as to why. She says she’s never been a disturbance at any event she’s covered.
“I asked them, did I violate any rules, did I do anything, am I a disturbance? I was just scrolling on facebook. They simply didn’t want me there because they know who I am and I believe that event was staged they had plants in the audience who were supposed to ask the questions. Bernie was scripted with the responses and they didn’t want anyone else to try and ask questions,” said Bennett.
Even WFMJ acknowledged that the Bernie Sanders campaign refused to directly explain why Bennett was removed.
“We called the Sanders campaign to ask specifically why they had her removed and they wouldn’t answer the question directly,” they reported.
Members of The Cranberries, bassist Mike Hogan, drummer Fergal Lawler and guitarist Noel Hogan speak to Reuters during an interview in London, Britain, April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Gerhard Mey
April 26, 2019
By Hanna Rantala
LONDON (Reuters) – Irish rockers The Cranberries are saying goodbye with their final album released on Friday, a poignant tribute to lead singer Dolores O’Riordan who died last year.
“In the End” is the eighth studio album from the band that rose to fame in the early 1990s with hits likes “Zombie” and “Linger”, and includes the final recordings by O’Riordan, who drowned in a London hotel bath in January 2018 due to alcohol intoxication.
Work on the album began during a 2017 tour and by that winter, O’Riordan and guitarist Neil Hogan had penned and demoed 11 tracks.
With O’Riordan’s vocals recorded, Hogan, bassist Mike Hogan and drummer Fergal Lawler completed the album in tribute to her.
“When we realized how strong the songs were, that was the deciding factor really… There was no point… trying to ruin the legacy of the band,” Noel Hogan said in an interview.
“It was obvious that Dolores wanted this album done because when you hear the album, you hear the songs and how strong they are, and she was very, very excited to get in and record this.”
The Cranberries formed in Limerick in 1989 with another singer. O’Riordan replaced him a year later and the group went on to become Ireland’s best-selling rock band after U2, selling more than 40 million records.
O’Riordan, known for her strong distinctive voice singing about relationships or political violence, was 46 when she died.
“She was actually in quite a good place mentally. She was feeling quite content and strong and looking forward to a new phase of her life,” Lawler said.
“A lot of the lyrics in this album are about things ending… people might read into it differently but it was a phase of her personal life that she was talking about.”
The group previously announced their intention to split after the release of “In The End”.
“We are absolutely gutted we can’t play (the songs) live because that’s something that’s been a massive part of this band from day one,” Noel Hogan said.
“A few people have said to us about maybe even doing a one off where you have different vocalists… as kind of guests of ours. A year ago that’s definitely something we weren’t going to entertain but I don’t know, I think it’s something we need to go away and take time off for the summer and have a think about.”
Critics have generally given positive reviews of the album; NME described it as “(seeing) the band’s career go full-circle” while the Irish Times called it “an unexpected late career high and a remarkable swan song for O’Riordan”.
Their early songs still play on the radio. This week, “Dreams” was performed at the funeral of journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot dead in Londonderry last week as she watched Irish nationalist youths attack police following a raid.
“We wrote them as kids, as a hobby and 30 years later they are on radio and on TV, like all the time… That’s far more than any of us ever thought we would have,” Noel Hogan said.
“That would make Dolores really happy because she was very precious about those songs. Her babies, she called them and to have that hopefully long after we’re gone… that’s all any band can wish for.”
(Reporting by Hanna Rantala; additoinal reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Susan Fenton)
2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston, Texas, U.S. April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Loren Elliott
April 26, 2019
By Joshua Schneyer and M.B. Pell
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Senator Elizabeth Warren will introduce a bill Friday that offers new protections for U.S. military families facing unsafe housing, following a series of Reuters reports revealing squalid conditions in privately managed base homes.
The Reuters reports and later Congressional hearings detailed widespread hazards including lead paint exposure, vermin infestations, collapsing ceilings, mold and maintenance lapses in privatized base housing communities that serve some 700,000 U.S. military family members.
(View Warren’s military housing bill here. https://tmsnrt.rs/2Dy5aht)
(Read Reuters’ Ambushed at Home series on military housing here. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/usa-military)
The Massachusetts Democrat’s bill would mandate both regular and unannounced spot inspections of base homes by certified, independent inspectors, holding landlords accountable for quickly fixing hazards. The military’s privatization program for years allowed real estate firms to operate base housing with scant oversight, Reuters found, leaving some tenants in unsafe homes with little recourse against landlords.
The bill would also require the Department of Defense and its private housing operators to publish reports annually detailing housing conditions, tenant complaints, maintenance response times and the financial incentives companies receive at each base. The provisions aim to enhance transparency of housing deals whose finances and operations the military had allowed to remain largely confidential under a privatization program since the late 1990s.
The measure would also require private landlords to cover moving costs for at-risk families, and healthcare costs for people with medical conditions resulting from unsafe base housing, ensuring they receive continuing coverage even after they leave the homes or the military.
“This bill will eliminate the kind of corner-cutting and neglect the Defense Department should never have let these private housing partners get away with in the first place,” Warren said in a statement Friday.
The proposed legislation comes after February Senate hearings where Warren, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2020 U.S. presidential election, slammed private real estate firms for endangering service families, and sought answers about why military branches weren’t providing more oversight.
Her legislation would direct the Defense Department to allow local housing code enforcers onto federal bases, following concerns they were sometimes denied access. Warren’s office said a companion bill in the House of Representatives would be introduced by Rep. Deb Haaland, Democrat of New Mexico.
In response to the housing crisis, military branches are developing a tenant bill of rights and hiring hundreds of new housing staff. The branches recently dispatched commanders to survey base housing worldwide for safety hazards, resulting in thousands of work orders and hundreds of tenants being moved. The Defense Department has pledged to renegotiate its 50-year contracts with private real estate firms.
Congress has been quick to take its own measures. Earlier legislation proposed by senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris of California, along with Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia, would compel base commanders to withhold rent payments and incentive fees from the private ventures if they allow home hazards to persist.
FILE PHOTO: Offices of Deloitte are seen in London, Britain, September 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hannah McKay/File Photo
April 26, 2019
By Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar
(Reuters) – Deloitte quit as Ferrexpo’s auditor on Friday, knocking its shares by more than 20 percent, days after saying it was unable to conclude whether the iron ore miner’s CEO controlled a charity being investigated over its use of company donations.
Blooming Land, which coordinates Ferrexpo’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, came under scrutiny after auditors found holes in the charity’s statements.
Ferrexpo on Tuesday said findings of an ongoing independent investigation launched in February indicated some Blooming Land funds could have been “misappropriated”. It did not provide any details or publish its findings.
Shares in Ferrexpo, the third largest exporter of pellets to the global steel industry, were 23.4 percent lower at 206.1 pence at 1022 GMT following news of Deloitte’s resignation.
“Ferrexpo’s shares are deeply discounted vs peers … following the resignation of Deloitte, we expect downside risks to dominate Ferrexpo’s shares near term.” JP Morgan analyst Dominic O’Kane said in a note on Friday.
Swiss-headquartered Ferrexpo did not provide a reason for the resignation of Deloitte, which declined to comment, while Blooming Land did not respond to a request for comment.
Funding for Blooming Land’s CSR activities is provided by one of Ferrexpo’s units in Ukraine and Khimreaktiv LLC, an entity ultimately controlled by Ferrexpo’s CEO and majority owner Kostyantin Zhevago, Ferrexpo said on Tuesday.
Ferrexpo’s board has found that Zhevago did not have significant influence or control over the charity, but Deloitte said it was unable reach a conclusion on this.
Reuters was not immediately able to contact Zhevago.
In a qualified opinion, a statement addressing an incomplete audit, Deloitte said it had been unable to conclude whether $33.5 million of CSR donations to Blooming Land between 2017 and 2018 was used for “legitimate business payments for charitable purposes”.
Deloitte said on Tuesday that total CSR payments made to Blooming Land by Ferrexpo since 2013 total about $110 million.
Ferrexpo, whose major mines are in Ukraine, has said that the investigation was ongoing and new evidence pointed to potential discrepancies.
Zhevago, 45, who ranked 1,511 on Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires for 2019 with a net worth of $1.4 billion, owns the FC Vorskla soccer club and has been a member of Ukraine’s parliament since 1998.
(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain and Tanishaa Nadkar in Bengaluru and additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev; editing by Gopakumar Warrier, Bernard Orr)
Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba, Mozambique April 26, 2019 in this still image obtained from social media. SolidarMed via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS – THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES
April 26, 2019
By Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer
JOHANNESBURG/LUANDA (Reuters) – Cyclone Kenneth killed at least one person and left a trail of destruction in northern Mozambique, destroying houses, ripping up trees and knocking out power, authorities said on Friday.
The cyclone brought storm surges and wind gusts of up to 280 km per hour (174 mph) when it made landfall on Thursday evening, after killing three people in the island nation of Comoros.
It was the most powerful storm on record to hit Mozambique’s northern coast and came just six weeks after Cyclone Idai battered the impoverished nation, causing devastating floods and killing more than 1,000 people across a swathe of southern Africa.
The World Food Programme warned that Kenneth could dump as much as 600 millimeters of rain on the region over the next 10 days – twice that brought by Cyclone Idai.
One woman in the port town of Pemba died after being hit by a falling tree, the Emergency Operations Committee for Cabo Delgado (COE) said in a statement, while another person was injured.
In rural areas outside Pemba, many homes are made of mud. In the main town on the island of Ibo, 90 percent of the houses were destroyed, officials said. Around 15,000 people were out in the open or in “overcrowded” shelters and there was a need for tents, food and water, they said.
There were also reports of a large number of homes and some infrastructure destroyed in Macomia district, a mainland district adjacent to Ibo.
A local group, the Friends of Pemba Association, had earlier reported that they could not reach people in Muidumbe, a district further inland.
Mark Lowcock, United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, warned the storm could require another major humanitarian operation in Mozambique.
“Cyclone Kenneth marks the first time two cyclones have made landfall in Mozambique during the same season, further stressing the government’s limited resources,” he said in a statement.
FLOOD WARNINGS
Shaquila Alberto, owner of the beach-front Messano Flower Lodge in Macomia, said there were many fallen trees there, and in rural areas people’s homes had been damaged. Some areas of nearby Pemba had no power.
“Even my workers, they said the roof and all the things fell down,” she said by phone.
Further south, in Pemba, Elton Ernesto, a receptionist at Raphael’s Hotel, said there were fallen trees but not too much damage. The hotel had power and water, he said, while phones rang in the background. “The rain has stopped,” he added.
However Michael Charles, an official for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said heavy rains over the next few days were likely to bring a “second wave of destruction” in the form of flooding.
“The houses are not all solid, and the topography is very sandy,” Charles said.
In the days after Cyclone Idai, heavy inland rains prompted rivers to burst their banks, submerging entire villages, cutting areas off from aid and ruining crops. There were concerns the same could happen again in northern Mozambique.
Before Kenneth hit, the government and aid workers moved around 30,000 people to safer buildings such as schools, however authorities said that around 680,000 people were in the path of the storm.
(Reporting by Emma Rumney and Stephen Eisenhammer; Writing by Emma Rumney; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Alexandra Zavis)
FILE PHOTO: A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai, India, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas
April 26, 2019
By Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Surging global oil prices will pose a first big challenge to India’s new government, whoever wins an election now under way, especially as domestic prices have been allowed to lag, meaning consumers are in for a painful surge as they catch up.
For oil-import dependent India, higher global prices could lead to a weaker rupee, higher inflation, the ruling out of interest rate cuts and could further weigh on twin current account and budget deficits, economists warned.
But compounding the future pain, state-run fuel suppliers and retailers have held off passing on to consumers the higher prices during a staggered general election, which began on April 11 and ends on May 23, according to sources familiar with the situation.
That delay is expected to be unwound once the election is over. And there could be additional price increases to make up for losses or profits missed during the period of delayed increases, the sources said.
In some major Asian countries, such as Japan and South Korea, pump prices are adjusted periodically so they move largely in tandem with international crude prices.
That was what was supposed to happen in India but the election means there have been many days when pump prices have been unchanged.
In New Delhi, for example, while crude oil prices have gone up by nearly $9 a barrel, or about 12 percent, in the past six weeks, gasoline prices have only risen by 0.47 rupees a liter, or 0.6 percent.
State-controlled fuel suppliers and retailers declined to say why they had delayed price increases, or discuss whether there has been any pressure from the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A government spokesman declined to comment.
The opposition Congress party said Modi’s government was violating its own policy of daily price revision by advising the state oil companies to hold prices steady.
“The government should cut fuel taxes otherwise consumers will have to pay much higher oil prices once the elections are over,” said Akhilesh Pratap Singh, a senior leader of the Congress party.
Nitin Goyal, treasurer at the All India Petroleum Dealers Association, representing fuel stations in 25 states, said prices were similarly held down for 19 days in the southern state of Karnataka last year, when it held state assembly elections.
Only for them to surge after the vote.
“Consumers should be ready for a rude shock of a massive jump in retail prices, similar to the level we have seen in the Karnataka state election,” Goyal said.
‘CREDIT NEGATIVE’
Sri Paravaikkarasu, director for Asia oil at Singapore-based consultancy FGE, said retail prices of gasoline and gasoil prices would have been up to 6 percent, or about 4 rupee, higher if they had been allowed to rise in line with global prices.
“Indian pump prices have failed to keep up with the recent uptrend in crude prices,” Paravaikkarasu said.
“With the country’s general elections underway, the incumbent government has been keeping pump prices relatively unchanged.”
India had switched to a daily price revision in June 2017 from a revision every two weeks, as the government allowed retailers to set prices.
But the government faced protests last October when retailers raised prices by up to 10 rupees a liter after the crude oil price went above $80 a barrel, forcing it to cut fuel taxes.
Global prices rose to their highest level in 2019 on Thursday, days after the United States announced all Iran sanction waivers would end by May, pressuring importers including India to stop buying Tehran’s oil. [O/R]
Higher oil prices will mean Asia’s third largest economy is likely to see growth of less than 7 percent rate this fiscal year, economists said. Growth slowed to 6.6 percent in the October-December quarter, the slowest in five quarters.
Rating agency CARE has warned that a 10 percent rise in global oil prices could increase demand for dollars, putting pressure on the rupee and widening the current account deficit.
India’s oil import bill rose by nearly one-third in the fiscal year ending March 31 to $140.5 billion, against $108 billion the previous year.
“The increase in international oil prices is a credit negative for the Indian economy,” ICRA, the Indian arm of the Fitch rating agency, said in a note.
“Every $10/ bbl increase in crude oil prices increases the fiscal deficit by about 0.1 percent of GDP.”
Any big price rise would also build a case for the central bank to keep rates steady, or even raise them.
The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee, which cut the benchmark policy repo rate by 25 basis points this month, warned that rising oil and food prices could push up inflation.
Policymakers are worried that a sustained increase in the oil price in the range of $70-75/barrel or higher can move the rupee down by 3-4 percent on an annual basis.
The rupee has depreciated by 1.24 percent against the dollar since a year high in mid-March.
($1 = 70.1800 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Manoj Kumar and Nidhi Verma; Editing by Martin Howell and Rob Birsel)
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