FILE - This August 2010 photo provided by Reuben Ortiz, shows retired Catholic priest Jerome Coyle in Albuquerque, N.M. A Roman Catholic diocese in Iowa says it will release a list of 28 priests who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors over the last century. The diocese publicly promised in November 2018 that it would finalize the list and make it public. The vow came in response to an investigation by The Associated Press that exposed a 32-year cover-up of Coyle, who had allegedly confessed to abusing more than 50 boys. (Reuben Ortiz via AP, File)
IOWA CITY, Iowa – At least 28 priests are credibly accused of having sexually abused more than 100 boys and girls while working for a Roman Catholic diocese in Iowa, church officials announced Monday.
The Diocese of Sioux City identified those 28 priests as it published a long-awaited list of those who have been the subject of credible allegations of sexual abuse involving minors.
The list included about 5 percent of the priests who have worked for the diocese at some point since its inception in 1902. A 29th priest has been accused but his name is being withheld pending an appeal to the Vatican.
"Publishing this list is the beginning of a new chapter in the history of our diocese," said Bishop R. Walker Nickless, who released the list at a news conference. "We want it to usher in a climate of openness and transparency, resulting in the protection of our youth and accountability for clergy and church leaders."
He said releasing information about the church's "shameful history" might help some victims heal while reopening old wounds for others.
Advocates for abuse victims had long urged the diocese to release such a list, as two of Iowa's three other Roman Catholic dioceses have done. The diocese had promised to do so in November after an investigation by The Associated Press exposed its 32-year cover-up of the Rev. Jerome Coyle, who had allegedly confessed to abusing more than 50 boys over a 20-year period.
The diocese, which operates churches and schools throughout northwestern Iowa, urged victims to come forward at that time. Its review board has spent recent weeks reviewing files and weighing the credibility of allegations.
The diocese said the alleged abuse took place between 1948 and 1995 and involved 106 individuals who have come forward to make claims. Additional complaints of abuse have been made more recently, but none have been deemed credible by police or a church review board, the diocese said.
All but six of the priests on the list have died. Those who are still living are not involved in the ministry or active with youth, and have been stripped of their ability to celebrate mass or represent themselves as priests, the diocese said.
Diocese officials acknowledged the list is likely incomplete because additional victims have not come forward. For instance, the diocese said that it was aware of 13 victims of Coyle even though he allegedly confessed to abusing dozens more.
The list included 39 victims of the Rev. George McFadden, whose abuse has long been documented and spawned an array of civil lawsuits, and 11 victims of the Rev. Peter Murphy. More than half of the identified priests, however, only have one known accuser.
The list does not include former Sioux City Bishop Lawrence Soens even though he allegedly abused boys while he was a priest and principal. Soens, who retired as bishop in 1998, is not included on the list because the allegations date to when he worked for a different diocese.
The list also did not include a priest who was removed from the ministry in 2017 after being accused of improperly touching a girl's leg during confession, or an active priest who chased after an adult parishioner in 2013 while naked and yelling about raping her.
Still, the list represents a more comprehensive accounting than statistics that were released by now-Cardinal Daniel DiNardo when he was Sioux City bishop in 2004. DiNardo, who is now archbishop of Galveston-Houston and leads the church's response to the sexual abuse crisis, told Sioux City parishioners in 2004 that it was aware of 33 allegations against 10 priests since 1950.
The diocese says it had paid $4.7 million in legal settlements to 58 individuals since 2002.
In this photo taken from the Ethiopian Airlines Facebook page, the CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, Tewolde Gebremariam, looks at the wreckage of the plane that crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Sunday March 10, 2019. An Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed shortly after takeoff from Ethiopia's capital on Sunday morning, killing all 157 people thought to be on board, the airline and state broadcaster said, as anxious families rushed to airports in Addis Ababa and the destination, Nairobi. (Facebook via AP)
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – An Ethiopian Airlines flight crashed shortly after takeoff from Ethiopia's capital on Sunday morning, killing all 157 on board, authorities said, as grieving families rushed to airports in Addis Ababa and the destination, Nairobi. More than 30 nationalities are among the dead.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crash of the Boeing 737-8 MAX plane, which was new and had been delivered to the airline in November. The pilot sent out a distress call and was given clearance to return, the airline's CEO told reporters.
The state-owned Ethiopian Airlines, widely considered the best-managed airline in Africa, calls itself Africa's largest carrier and has ambitions of becoming the gateway to the continent. It is known as an early buyer of new aircraft as it assertively expands.
The airline said 149 passengers and eight crew members were thought to be on the plane. Kenyans, Canadians, Chinese, Americans, Ethiopians, Italians, French, British, Egyptians, Indians, Slovakians and others were among the dead, said the airline's CEO, Tewolde Gebremariam.
The plane crashed six minutes after departing Addis Ababa on its way to Kenya's capital, plowing into the ground at Hejere near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Addis Ababa, at 8:44 a.m.
The airline later published a photo showing its CEO standing in the wreckage. Little of the plane could be seen in the freshly churned earth, under a blue sky.
"Tewolde Gebremariam, who is at the accident scene now, regrets to confirm that there are no survivors," the post on social media said. "He expresses his profound sympathy and condolences to the families and loved ones of passengers and crew who lost their lives in this tragic accident."
The plane had showed unstable vertical speed after takeoff, air traffic monitor Flightradar 24 said in a Twitter post. Visibility was clear.
State broadcaster EBC reported that 33 nationalities were among the victims. The airline's CEO said those included 32 Kenyans and nine Ethiopians. Authorities said other victims include 18 Canadians; eight each from China, the United States and Italy; seven each from France and Britain; six from Egypt; five from the Netherlands and four each from India and Slovakia.
The airline has said 157 people were thought to be on board.
The Ethiopian prime minister's office offered its "deepest condolences" to families. "My prayers go to all the families and associates of those on board," Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta said.
The Addis Ababa-Nairobi route links East Africa's two largest economic powers and is popular with tourists making their way to safari and other destinations. Sunburned travelers and tour groups crowd the Addis Ababa airport's waiting areas, along with businessmen from China and elsewhere.
At the airport in Nairobi, worried families gathered.
"I came to the airport to receive my brother but I have been told there is a problem," Agnes Muilu said. "I just pray that he is safe or he was not on it."
"Why are they taking us round and round, it is all over the news that the plane crashed," said Edwin Ong'undi, who had been waiting for his sister. "All we are asking for is information to know about their fate."
The Boeing 737-8 MAX was new, delivered to Ethiopian Airlines in mid-November, the airline's CEO said. Its last maintenance was on Feb. 4 and it had flown just 1,200 hours. The pilot was a senior one, joining the airline in 2010, he said.
In a statement, Boeing said it was "deeply saddened" to hear of the crash and that a technical team was ready to provide assistance at the request of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.
In October, another Boeing 737-8 MAX plunged into the Java Sea just minutes after taking off from Jakarta, Indonesia's capital, killing all 189 people on board the plane Lion Air flight. The cockpit data recorder showed that the jet's airspeed indicator had malfunctioned on its last four flights, though Lion Air initially claimed that problems with the aircraft had been fixed.
The last deadly crash of an Ethiopian Airlines passenger plane was in 2010, when the plane crashed minutes after takeoff from Beirut killing all 90 people on board.
Sunday's crash comes as the country's reformist prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, has vowed to open up the airline and other sectors to foreign investment in a major transformation of the state-centered economy.
Ethiopian Airlines' expansion has included the recent opening of a route to Moscow and the inauguration in January of a new passenger terminal in Addis Ababa to triple capacity.
Speaking at the inauguration, the prime minister challenged the airline to build a new "Airport City" terminal in Bishoftu — where Sunday's crash occurred.
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Ambulances transporting injured German tourists involved in a bus accident, arrive at a German Air Force medical airplane at Cristiano Ronaldo Airport in Funchal, on the island of Madeira, Portugal April 20, 2019. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante
April 20, 2019
CANICO, Portugal (Reuters) – An air force medical plane from Germany landed on the Portuguese island of Madeira on Saturday to take home the injured survivors of a bus crash that killed 29 German tourists earlier this week.
The bus veered off a steep road in the coastal town of Canico on Wednesday. The Portuguese driver and tour guide were among the 27 people hurt in the accident, which prosecutors are investigating.
Eleven of the injured Germans have already been discharged from hospital and 12 will be flown home on the medical plane on Saturday. Another was transferred to Germany on Friday and one will stay in hospital in Funchal, Madeira’s capital, a hospital spokesman said.
The driver and tour guide will also remain under observation in hospital, the spokesman added.
Images taken by Reuters photographers on Saturday showed some of the injured being carried inside the plane on stretchers.
The company that owned the bus said it was cooperating with authorities investigating the crash, which killed 17 women and 12 men. Many of them were pensioners, German newspaper Bild reported.
Autopsies and post-mortem examinations have been concluded, Portugal’s Justice Ministry said in a statement and authorities are waiting for data including fingerprints and dental records in order to confirm the victims’ identities.
(Reporting by Rafael Marchante and Miguel Pereira in Canico and Catarina Demony in Lisbon; Editing by Helen Popper)
The measure would effectively halt the president’s declaration, which would have been used to justify spending on wall construction along the southern US border.
The bill next heads to the Senate, where it’ll be voted on within the next 18 days.
Democrats need at least four Republican Senate votes to secure a simple majority of 51.
At least two Republican senators, Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), have indicated they plan to back the bill.
The resolution would next head to the president’s desk where he’s expected to issue a veto.
As the legal battle over the president’s emergency declaration plays out, the Los Angeles Times notes bulldozers are sitting idle at the border waiting to start wall construction.
CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan security forces are deploying in large numbers in Caracas ahead of planned demonstrations by supporters of opposition leader Juan Guaido.
Police units and members of the National Guard gathered Saturday at some intersections in the Venezuelan capital wearing helmets and carrying shields and other anti-riot gear.
Several columns of security forces moved through the city on motorcycles.
Meanwhile, backers of President Nicolas Maduro planned to hold a rival demonstration as power returned to many parts of Venezuela after the country's worst blackout.
The blackout started late Thursday, intensifying a deepening economic and political crisis.
National Assembly leader Guaido is staging protests as part of his campaign to oust Maduro and hold elections. Maduro says he is the target of a U.S.-backed coup plot.
MEXICO CITY – The environmentalist group Sea Shepherd says it found the badly decomposed body of what appeared to be a vaquita porpoise, one of perhaps only 10 that remain in the world.
The group said Thursday the remains were too badly decomposed for immediate identification, but had been turned over to authorities for further study.
Two Sea Shepherd patrol boats found the animal in a net Tuesday in the Gulf of California, the only place the critically endangered vaquita marina lives.
The vaquitas get caught in nets set illegally for totoaba, a fish whose swim bladder is considered a delicacy in China.
An international commission of experts estimated this month that only 10 Vaquita remain, and almost certainly no more than 22.
FILE PHOTO: Malta-flagged Iranian crude oil supertanker "Delvar" is seen anchored off Singapore March 1, 2012. REUTERS/Tim Chong/File Photo
April 12, 2019
By Nidhi Verma
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India imported about 5 percent more oil from Iran in the last fiscal year through March as companies raised purchases ahead of U.S. sanctions against Tehran from November, preliminary tanker arrival data obtained from shipping and industry sources showed.
Despite Washington restricting India’s purchases from Tehran, refiners shipped in about 479,500 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian oil in 2018/19 compared with about 458,000 bpd a year before, according to the data.
The United States introduced sanctions in November but gave a six-month waiver to eight nations, including India, which allowed them to import some Iranian oil.
India was allowed by Washington to continue to buy about 300,000 bpd oil until early May.
In March India’s oil imports from Iran rose to about 405,000 bpd, about 56 percent higher than February, the data showed. March volumes were however about 6 percent lower than the purchase in the same month a year earlier.
A lack of ships delayed lifting of some cargoes to end-February, leading to higher arrivals in March, sources said. BPCL could not lift a cargo from Iran as tanker was not available, a company source said.
Since November, when India received the sanctions waiver, only state-run Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp, Hindustan Petroleum and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals have been buying Iranian oil.
India’s overall imports from Iran in 2018/19 were lower than the 500,000 bpd that Iran was hoping to sell to its second-biggest oil client after China. Indian refiners raised purchases from Iran in April-October 2018, drawn to almost free shipping and extended credit offered by Tehran to boost sales.
In the first quarter of 2019, India shipped in about 40 percent less oil from Iran at about 313,400 bpd, the data showed.
The sources declined to be identified as they were not authorized to speak with media.
Indian refiners have not yet placed orders to lift Iranian oil in May pending clarity on whether Washington will extend a the sanctions waiver.
India wants to keep buying Iranian oil at a level of 300,000 bpd, Indian sources said last month.
Refiners placed orders to buy 8 million barrels in April but India would receive higher volumes as some delayed cargoes of March arrive at Indian ports this month.
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by David Holmes)
FILE PHOTO: An aerial photo looking north shows shipping containers at the Port of Seattle and the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington, U.S. March 21, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photo
April 26, 2019
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. economic growth is running at a 1.1% pace in the second quarter as the gains in exports and inventories recorded in the first quarter are expected to reverse, Morgan Stanley economists said on Friday.
“Our preliminary expectations for growth in the second quarter sees large drags from net exports and inventories after their contributions in 1Q,” they wrote in a research note.
Gross domestic product increased at a 3.2% annualized rate in the first three months of the year, driven by a smaller trade deficit and the largest accumulation of unsold merchandise since 2015, the Commerce Department said earlier Friday.
FILE PHOTO: The Deutsche Bank headquarters are pictured in Frankfurt, Germany, April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski/File Photo
April 26, 2019
By Tom Sims
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Within hours of the collapse of merger talks with Commerzbank, Christian Sewing scrambled to convince investors and employees that Deutsche Bank can stand on its own two feet.
The Deutsche Bank chief executive told staff, many of whom opposed a merger because of significant job losses, that while he had not been “skeptical” about the Commerzbank talks, he was cautious about the chances of success from the start.
And another top Deutsche Bank executive said on Friday that it had been Commerzbank that initiated the talks, suggesting there was no desperation on their part for a deal.
Commerzbank denied that version of events, ending the apparent truce between the normally highly competitive cross-town Frankfurt rivals over the past six weeks.
German hopes of creating a national banking champion able to challenge global competitors were finally dashed on Thursday when Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank ended their talks due to the risks of doing a deal, restructuring costs and capital demands.
For Sewing, the failure to clinch a deal has left the 49-year-old chief executive of Germany’s largest bank, who took over just over a year ago, with his back to the wall.
Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, which downgraded Deutsche Bank last year, said on Friday that Deutsche Bank “will remain under strain”, adding that it “seems to have acknowledged the need to adjust its strategy”.
Under Sewing, a new leadership has tried to revive Deutsche Bank’s fortunes, but it has faced money laundering allegations and failed stress tests, as well as ratings downgrades.
At the heart of the debate over its future is whether it should focus its business on Germany and draw a line under its costly global ambitions to take on Wall Street’s big guns.
“MARKET PLAY”
Without a deal, Deutsche Bank now finds itself back at the mercy of equity and debt markets, with UBS analysts warning that in a “stress scenario” it could again “be forced into a ‘debt-driven capital increase’ even with solid capital ratios”.
“Deutsche remains a levered market play vulnerable to external events,” the UBS analysts said in a note.
Sewing, along with many analysts, believes Deutsche Bank can go it alone in the short-term, but will be counting on a turnaround in market conditions to do so in the long-run given its dependence on volatile investment bank earnings.
“To reach our return objective, we also need to see a revenue recovery in our more market-sensitive business,” Sewing said on Friday after reporting results.
“These revenues are available to us in better market conditions given our leading positions in many of these businesses, but we need to capture them,” he added.
Revenue at Deutsche Bank’s bond trading division fell 19 percent in the first quarter, it said on Friday, underscoring weakness at its investment bank.
If those earnings do not improve, Berlin’s desire to keep its biggest bank out of foreign hands may start to wane.
“Germany’s globally active companies need competitive financial institutions that can support them around the world,” German finance minister Olaf Scholz said on Thursday.
(Writing by Alexander Smith; Editing by Keith Weir)
Panama’s former president Ricardo Martinelli reacts to the media while arriving to the Electoral Court in Panama City, Panama April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Erick Marciscano
April 26, 2019
PANAMA CITY (Reuters) – Panama’s electoral tribunal has ruled that former President Ricardo Martinelli, who is awaiting trial on wiretapping charges, cannot take part in elections on May 5 in which he was running for mayor of Panama City and a seat in Congress, a spokesman for Martinelli said on Friday.
“The ruling of the electoral tribunal has disqualified him as candidate,” said the spokesman, Eduardo Camacho, calling the court’s ruling a “political decision.”
Officials at the tribunal did not immediately confirm the ruling, which also was reported in local media in Panama.
Martinelli, a supermarket tycoon who ran the Central American country from 2009 to 2014, was extradited to Panama last June from the United States and charged with spying on 150 people, including politicians, union leaders and journalists.
A judge had previously cleared Martinelli to run for mayor of the capital. His critics vowed to appeal that decision.
(Reporting by Elida Moreno and Stefanie Eschenbacher; Editing by Bill Trott)
FILE PHOTO: Amazon boxes are seen stacked for delivery in the Manhattan borough of New York City, January 29, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
April 26, 2019
(Reuters) – Shares of Walmart, Target and other U.S. retailers fell on Friday as Amazon.com Inc unveiled a one-day delivery plan for its Prime members in a move to further disrupt the fiercely competitive retail landscape.
The e-commerce giant’s announcement on Thursday could cause other brands, manufacturers, retailers, and logistics companies to have to invest more aggressively to compete with Amazon and its delivery, analysts said.
Retailers in recent years have poured billions into ecommerce and faster shipping options and are trying to close the gap with Amazon.
“This is about making it more expensive to catch up and affirms our world view that only the largest and smartest will survive,” Bernstein analyst Brandon Fletcher said.
The move is expected to heighten consumer expectations on e-commerce delivery just like Amazon did with its two-day shipping option for members of its loyalty club Prime, noted analysts.
“The faster you ship, the more people buy,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney said.
The challenge for non-Amazon players was that very few of the existing logistics and parcel delivery players now have the ability to do nationwide one-day delivery, Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak said.
“And even fewer can do it at the vast scale and reasonable cost that AMZN would need for Prime delivery,” Nowak said in a note.
Walmart Inc’s shares fell about 3 percent, while Target Corp dropped about 5 percent in morning trade.
Shares of Kohl’s Corp, Macy’s Inc and Nordstrom Inc fell about 1 percent. Grocer Kroger Co was nearly 3 percent lower, while consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Inc dropped 2.1 percent.
(Reporting by Soundarya J and Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
A Chinese woman adjusts a Chinese national flag next to U.S. national flags before a Strategic Dialogue expanded meeting, part of the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, July 10, 2014. REUTERS/Ng Han Guan/Pool (CHINA – Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS)
April 26, 2019
By April Joyner
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Even as the lift from optimism over prospects for U.S.-China trade detente shows signs of wearing off for the wider U.S. stock market, upbeat sentiment around China’s economy could bolster shares of materials companies.
Shares of S&P 500 industrial and technology companies, which were buffeted by last year’s tit-for-tat tariffs as well as slowing global demand, have been very responsive to progress in U.S.-China trade relations and a strengthening Chinese economy. This year, those sectors have outpaced the ascent in the S&P 500, which reached a record closing high on Tuesday.
Materials stocks have not been as sensitive, however, even though they also stand to benefit as a stronger Chinese economy lifts global consumption and industrial output. As China has taken measures to stimulate its economy, its economic data have turned more upbeat. That in turn could aid global growth, which has flagged as a result of China’s cooldown.
“What we’re seeing is China spending more on stimulus: fiscal stimulus and monetary stimulus,” said Kristina Hooper, chief global market strategist at Invesco in New York. “That’s likely to be a positive for materials.”
The People’s Bank of China has cut banks’ reserve requirement ratio five times over the past year and is widely expected to ease policy further to spur lending and reduce borrowing costs. The stimulus appears to have boosted Chinese economic data, with factory activity growing in March for the first time in four months.
Yet so far in 2019, the S&P 500 materials index has underperformed the S&P 500 at large, rising just 11.9% compared with 16.7% for the benchmark index. Moreover, it is among the biggest decliners in the period since the S&P’s previous record closing level on Sept. 20. The materials index has fallen 7% over those seven months, versus a 5.2% gain for technology and a 3% loss for industrials. Only the energy index has dropped more over that period.
A trade agreement could serve as a catalyst for a bump in materials shares as a drag on China’s economy is lifted, some market strategists say. Some commodity prices, including those for copper and oil, have ascended this year as the prospects for the global economy have somewhat brightened.
“It all goes back to the global growth outlook,” said Andrea DiCenso, portfolio manager for alpha strategies at Loomis Sayles in Boston. “With the front run in hard data, we’re beginning to see a pretty significant rally.”
Additionally, a trade agreement is expected to include commitments from China to purchase higher quantities of U.S. products such as soybeans, which could benefit companies that make agricultural chemicals, including DowDuPont Inc and CF Industries Holdings Inc.
CF Industries is scheduled to report quarterly results after the bell on Wednesday, and DowDuPont is scheduled to report before the market open on Thursday.
To be sure, even with a trade agreement, some materials companies could face price pressures. Shares of Freeport-McMoRan Inc fell 10.1% on Thursday after the copper mining company posted a lower-than-expected profit as its production slipped and its costs rose.
A rollback of tariffs on Chinese imports, particularly aluminum and steel, would likely prompt a fall in some commodity prices, which could hurt prospects for certain materials companies, said Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera Investment Management in El Segundo, California.
Even so, those drawbacks may be outweighed by the support for global demand fostered by a U.S.-China trade agreement.
“You could see a number of companies with lowered expectations bring them back up as they talk favorably about the impact that a trade deal would have on them,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York.
(Reporting by April Joyner; additional reporting by Sinéad Carew; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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