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The Latest: California parents of 13 plead guilty to torture

The Latest on the case of a couple charged with the torture and abuse of most of their 13 children (all times local):

9:35 a.m.

A California couple who shackled some of their 13 children to beds and starved them have pleaded guilty to torture and other abuse.

David and Louise Turpin pleaded guilty Friday in Riverside County Superior Court in the case dubbed a "house of horrors."

The couple was arrested in January 2018 when their 17-year-old daughter called 911 after escaping from the family's home in the city of Perris, southeast of Los Angeles.

The children, who ranged in age from 2 to 29 at the time, were severely underweight and hadn't bathed for months and the house reeked of human waste.

Investigators said some of the children had stunted growth and wasted muscles and described being beaten, starved and put in cages.

___

6:52 a.m.

A Southern California district attorney will address the case of a couple charged with the torture and abuse of most of their 13 children.

A Friday morning court hearing is set for lawyers to discuss preparations for a Sept. 3 trial for David and Louise Turpin. The Turpins have pleaded not guilty to dozens of felony counts — including torture, willful child cruelty and false imprisonment.

Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin plans a press conference to follow the court proceedings. His office didn't reveal what Hestrin plans to say.

The Turpins were arrested in January when a daughter escaped from the family's Perris home and called 911.

Investigators said some of the children had stunted growth and wasted muscles and described being beaten, starved and put in cages.

Source: Fox News National

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Russia says 3 of its soldiers killed in Syria

The Russian military says three of its servicemen have been killed in an ambush in Syria.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement Monday that the three soldiers died when militants ambushed their vehicle in late February in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour.

The ministry says the military tracked down a group of more than 30 militants involved in the ambush and "destroyed" them in a joint operation by the Russian air force and a special operations unit. It did not say when the raid took place.

The report brings the number of Russian soldiers killed in Syria to 115, according to official data. Russia intervened in Syria starting in 2015, and has helped President Bashar Assad's forces retake large areas of the country.

Source: Fox News World

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Alabama Senator Gets More Large Donations From California, NY Than Own Residents

Senator Doug Jones (D-Ala.) raised more large donations from Californians and New Yorkers than he did from Alabama residents, according to campaign finance reports on large individual contributors.

Only 12% of Jones’ first quarter fundraising came from large donors from his home state; in comparison, 17% came from California and 16% from New York, both of which combined account for a third of his funding by large donors, according to Alabama outlet Yellowhammer News.

“Another stark comparison to his paltry home-state percentage is the fact that $425,360 of Jones’s $1.6 million in total receipts came from PACs,” the outlet reported. “The PACs giving the most to Jones included Hawaii PAC, Follow the North Star Fund and Vermont’s Green Mountain PAC, along with many other leadership PACs of Democrat elected officials.”

“Out-of-state corporations and special interest groups were also prevalent throughout the list of PACs.”

Sen. Jones, who defeated Roy Moore in a wild 2017 special election, is considered the most vulnerable Senate Democrat up for re-election in 2020.

Interestingly, Jones raised more money from the UK than he did from Alabama in the fourth quarter of last year, Yellowhammer News also reported last month.

“Senator Doug Jones (D-Ala.) might just have more support in Birmingham, England, than Birmingham, Alabama,” the outlet quipped. “As first reported by Alabama Media Group, Jones raised more last reporting period from Americans overseas than from Alabamians.”

“In fact, he almost raked in more from people in the United Kingdom alone than Alabama.”

In February, the senator’s re-election committee apparently excluded Alabama votes from a Facebook ad that opposed President Trump’s border declaration, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

“As denoted by Facebook’s ad archives, Jones’s campaign was programmed to specifically target the news feeds of older individuals in Texas as well as the heavily liberal states of California, Massachusetts, and New York,” the outlet reported. “…The divergent ads showcase the tightrope Jones has to walk between the Democratic Party’s liberal base and his conservative state ahead of his 2020 reelection race.”



Norm Pattis joins Alex Jones and Paul Joseph Watson to give his take on the recent arrest of Julian Assange.

Source: InfoWars

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China central bank likely to pause reserve cuts, but policy easing on track: sources

FILE PHOTO: Headquarters of the PBOC, the central bank, is pictured in Beijing
FILE PHOTO: Headquarters of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank, is pictured in Beijing, China September 28, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo

April 23, 2019

By Kevin Yao

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s central bank is likely to pause to assess economic conditions before making any further moves to ease lenders’ reserve requirements, after better-than-expected growth data reduced the urgency for action, policy insiders said.

Although the central bank’s easing bias remains unchanged, it sees less room this year for cutting reserve requirement ratios (RRRs) – the share of cash banks must hold as reserves – as fiscal stimulus plays a bigger role in spurring growth, according to government advisers involved in internal policy discussions.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is also worried that pumping too much cash into the economy could reignite bubbles over time, the policy insiders said, and wants to save some of its policy ammunition.

“In the short term, it’s not necessary to use RRR cuts to boost economic growth,” one policy adviser told Reuters. “Monetary policy should leave some room – if economic uncertainties rise or economic conditions deteriorate, the central bank could ease policy.”

The chance of a cut in benchmark interest rates, meanwhile, has further diminished, as the central bank focuses on reforming its interest rate regime this year, the policy insiders said.

LESS ROOM FOR RRR CUTS

China’s economy grew a steady 6.4 percent in the first quarter, defying expectations of a further slowdown, with factory output, retail sales and investment in March all growing faster than expected following a raft of expansion-boosting measures in recent months.

Still, economists do not expect a sharp recovery in the world’s second-largest economy, as many private firms grapple with high funding costs, while external demand may weaken in the coming months as the world economy loses steam.

Optimism is rising, however, that China and the United States will reach a trade deal in coming weeks.

“The possibility of seeing big policy changes is not big. We may maintain the strength of policy support but it could become more structural,” said a second policy source.

The PBOC did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

The PBOC has cut RRRs five times since the start of 2018, lowering the ratio to 13.5 percent for big banks and 11.5 percent for small-to medium-sized lenders.

Central bank Governor Yi Gang said in March that there was still some room to cut RRRs, but less so than a few years ago.

The PBOC is likely to cut RRRs for small banks to encourage more lending to small and private firms – which are vital for economic growth and job creation – said the policy insiders, who have penciled in at least one such “targeted” RRR cut this year.

“Monetary policy will maintain counter-cyclical adjustments and keep liquidity ample as interest rates should go lower for the real economy,” said one of the policy insiders.

A Reuters poll, conducted before the first-quarter data release on April 17, showed economists expected the central bank to deliver three more RRR cuts of 50 basis points in each of the remaining three quarters of 2019.

But the stronger-than-expected growth data compelled some economists to trim their forecasts for RRR cuts. UBS now expects another 100 bps cuts this year, with the next one likely in June-July, instead of the 200 bps it had forecast earlier.

ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTIES LINGER

A statement on Friday from the Politburo, a key decision-making body of the ruling Communist Party, said China would maintain policy support for the economy, which still faced “downward pressure” and difficulties.

Authorities would strike a balance between stabilizing economic growth, promoting reforms, controlling risks and improving livelihoods, the Politburo said, adding that China would move forward with structural efforts to control debt levels and prevent speculation in the property market.

First-quarter economic growth was backed by record new bank loans of 5.81 trillion yuan ($865.61 billion) and local government special bond issuance of 717.2 billion yuan, which rocketed ninefold from a year earlier.

Beijing has ramped up fiscal stimulus, unveiling tax and fee cuts amounting to 2 trillion yuan to ease burdens on firms, while allowing local governments to issue 2.15 trillion yuan of special bonds to fund infrastructure projects.

Chinese leaders have pledged to ensure economic stability in a year that will mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic, while vowing not to adopt “flood-like” stimulus that could worsen debt and structural risks.

The government’s target range for 2019 growth is 6-6.5 percent but growth of about 6.2 percent is seen needed this year and the next to meet the party’s longstanding goal of doubling GDP and incomes in the decade to 2020.

China’s growth slowed to a 28-year low of 6.6 percent last year, and further cooling is expected this year.

(Reporting by Kevin Yao; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Source: OANN

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Golf: British Open returns to Hoylake for 151st edition in 2022

FILE PHOTO: Hideki Matsuyama of Japan hits out of a bunker during a practice round ahead of the British Open Championship at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake
FILE PHOTO: Hideki Matsuyama of Japan hits out of a bunker on the fifth hole during a practice round ahead of the British Open Championship at the Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, northern England July 16, 2014. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

February 26, 2019

(Reuters) – The British Open championship will return to Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake for its 151st edition in 2022, organizers the R&A said on Tuesday.

The tournament was last held at the venue in 2014 when four-times major winner Rory McIlroy lifted the Claret Jug prize.

More than 230,000 fans watched Tiger Woods triumph at Hoylake in 2006, a then record attendance for a British Open held outside of St Andrews.

“We know there will be tremendous excitement at the prospect of its return to Royal Liverpool,” R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers said in a statement on the 2022 tournament that will be held from July 10-17.

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)

Source: OANN

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U.S. government posts $147 billion deficit in March

FILE PHOTO: A guard walks in front of a Federal Reserve image before press conference in Washington
FILE PHOTO: A security guard walks in front of an image of the Federal Reserve following the two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) policy meeting in Washington, DC, U.S. on March 16, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

April 10, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. federal government posted a $147 billion budget deficit in March, according to data released on Wednesday by the Treasury Department.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a $180 billion deficit for the month.

The Treasury said federal spending in March was $376 billion, down 10 percent from the same month in 2018, while receipts were $229 billion, up 9 percent compared with March 2018.

The deficit for the fiscal year to date was $691 billion, compared with $600 billion in the comparable period the year earlier.

When adjusted for calendar effects, the deficit remained at $691 billion for the fiscal year to date but was $603 billion for the comparable year-ago period.

Source: OANN

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Kraft Heinz sees ‘step backwards’ in 2019, gets SEC subpoena

FILE PHOTO - Bottles of Heinz tomato ketchup of U.S. food company Kraft Heinz are offered at a supermarket of Swiss retail group Coop in Zumikon
FILE PHOTO - Bottles of Heinz tomato ketchup of U.S. food company Kraft Heinz are offered at a supermarket of Swiss retail group Coop in Zumikon, Switzerland December 13, 2016. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo

February 22, 2019

(Reuters) – Kraft Heinz Co reported disappointing quarterly results, including a $15 billion charge related to the value of its marquee Kraft and Oscar Mayer trade marks, and said it had received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about its accounting practices.

The company’s shares fell 11 percent in extended trading on Thursday.

The Chicago-based company, which owns the Velveeta cheese and Heinz ketchup brands, also cut its dividend and its chief financial officer said he expected the company to “take a step backwards in 2019,” setting a bleak tune for 2019.

Kraft said it expects adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization between $6.3 billion and $6.5 billion in 2019, lower than analysts’ estimates of $7.47 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

The company also cut its quarterly dividend to 40 cents per share from around 63 cents per share, saying the industry would remain challenged from cost inflation in the near term .

Kraft’s results underscore the challenges of an industry that is already struggling with rising raw material and operational costs.

“Profitability fell short of our expectations due to a combination of unanticipated cost inflation and lower-than-planned savings,” Chief Executive Officer Bernardo Hees said.

Additionally, the company said the SEC subpoena received in October was related to an investigation into the company’s accounting policies, procedures and internal controls related to its procurement function.

Kraft said it had taken a $25 million increase to costs sold and did not expect the matter to be material to the current or past quarters. But it said it has launched an investigation into its processes following the subpoena.

“The company is in the process of implementing certain improvements to its internal controls to mitigate the likelihood of this occurring in the future and has taken other remedial measures,” the company said.

The tater tots maker also took a $15.4 billion goodwill impairment related to its U.S. Refrigerated and Canada Retail units, and certain brands, meaning the company views those assets as less valuable than when H.J. Heinz Co and Kraft Foods Group merged in 2015 to create the third-largest North American food company.

The charge pushed Kraft to a net loss of $12.6 billion attributable to shareholders in the quarter ended Dec. 29. It earned 84 cents per share on an adjusted basis, missing Wall Street estimates of 94 cents, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Nearly every major consumer goods company in the United States struggled with sky-rocketing commodity and transportation costs last year, exacerbated by a shortage of truck drivers.

Net sales of $6.89 billion fell short of analysts’ estimates of $6.94 billion in the reported quarter.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc and Brazil’s 3G Capital control Kraft Heinz. 3G handles day-to-day operations, though Berkshire owns a slightly larger, nearly 27 percent stake.

(Reporting by Uday Sampath and Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

Source: OANN

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Members of The Cranberries, bassist Mike Hogan, drummer Fergal Lawler and guitarist Noel Hogan speak to Reuters during an interview in London
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)

Source: OANN

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2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren participates in the She the People Presidential Forum in Houston
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.

(Editing by Ronnie Greene)

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FILE PHOTO: Offices of Deloitte are seen in London
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)

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Children walk past a damaged building in the aftermath of the Cyclone Kenneth in Pemba
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)

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A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai
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.

(GRAPHIC: India Polls: Fuel price hike lags crude surge – https://tmsnrt.rs/2XLlxik)

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)

Source: OANN

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