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Nadal, Djokovic ease into Monte Carlo quarter-finals

ATP 1000 - Monte Carlo Masters
Tennis - ATP 1000 - Monte Carlo Masters - Monte-Carlo Country Club, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France - April 18, 2019 Spain's Rafael Nadal celebrates winning his third round match against Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

April 18, 2019

(Reuters) – Champion Rafael Nadal and top-ranked Novak Djokovic turned in impressive displays to reach the Monte Carlo Masters quarter-finals on Thursday.

Nadal, chasing a record-extending 12th Monte Carlo title, broke Grigor Dimitrov’s serve on four occasions to defeat the Bulgarian 6-4 6-1.

After recovering from two break points down in his opening service game, Nadal attacked Dimitrov’s backhand with power and precision to move into a 3-1 lead.

The 32-year-old Spaniard continued to extract errors from Dimitrov to claim the first set before racing to his 15th quarter-final on the Monte Carlo clay.

Nadal has now recorded 70 wins at the Monte Carlo Country Club. The only other tournament Nadal has achieved more victories is the French Open, where the 11-time winner holds an astonishing 86-2 match-win record.

Second seed Nadal was pleased to have negotiated two top 30 players — Dimitrov and Roberto Bautista Agut — and tricky playing conditions on Court Rainier III this week.

“The first two rounds I played more than well enough to win. I had two confident scores against two good players,” Nadal said.

“The second set (there) were a little bit more mistakes and the wind was even (greater) later in the match. These things are part of the game and just try to be ready for it… You have to adapt. You have to find solutions.”

After struggling to rediscover his rhythm in his opener against Philipp Kohlschreiber, Djokovic looked in complete control as he swept past Taylor Fritz 6-3 6-0.

The 31-year-old Serb quickly adjusted the pace on his groundstrokes to claim three consecutive service breaks and take the opening set.

Fritz failed to offer any kind of resistance in the second set and was ultimately undone by his 28 unforced errors.

It moves Djokovic within three wins of matching Nadal’s record haul of 33 ATP Masters 1000 titles and he will next face Russian Daniil Medvedev for a semi-final spot.

Medvedev defeated sixth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2 1-6 6-4, beating the Greek youngster for the fourth time in four matches.

“(Daniil) has improved his movement a lot, I think. Obviously his results are showing that he’s close to the top 10 rankings,” said Djokovic.

“He’s definitely in the form of his life. He’s had a good tournament so far here, winning quite comfortably in the first two matches and then now against Tsitsipas today.

“We have never faced each other on clay. We have faced each other in a close four-setter in Australia this year… I have seen him play. I have hit with him many times. I’m looking forward to it.”

Serb Dusan Lajovic pulled off the biggest upset of the day as he saved seven of the nine break points faced to knock out last year’s French Open runner-up Dominic Thiem 6-3 6-3.

(Reporting by Hardik Vyas in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

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Q-Poll: Majority of New Yorkers Would Not Vote for Trump

Sixty-four percent of New York voters say they definitely would not vote to re-elect Donald Trump as president, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.

Twenty-one percent say they would vote for him and 12 percent say they would consider it.

Here is how the New York survey breaks down:

  • 7 percent of Republicans said they definitely would not vote for Trump’s re-election. 67 percent said they would vote for him and 20 percent said they would consider it.
  • 93 percent of Democrats said they would not vote for his re-election, compared to 3 percent who definitely would cast their ballots for Trump. 2 percent said they would consider voting for him.
  • 60 percent of independents would not vote for Trump, while 16 percent definitely would. 17 percent would consider it.
  • 28 percent of all those polled have a favorable opinion of him, compared to 67 percent who view him unfavorably.
  • 62 percent view former Vice President Joe Biden favorably, compared to 24 percent who do not. Biden had the highest rating among those Democrats considered to be presidential hopefuls.

The poll, conducted March 13-18, surveyed 1,216 voters in the state of New York. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Breakdancing among sports given provisional green light for Paris 2024

Bach President of the IOC attends a news conference after an Executive Board meeting in Lausanne
Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) attends a news conference after an Executive Board meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, March 27, 2019. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

March 27, 2019

By Karolos Grohmann

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) – Breakdancing was among four sports given a provisional green light for inclusion in the Paris 2024 Games by the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday, IOC President Thomas Bach said.

The Paris 2024 organizing committee in February proposed surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing as well as breakdancing for inclusion in the Games.

“We decided to recommend the four sports (for ratification) to the IOC session in June in Lausanne,” Bach told a news conference. “It is a provisional inclusion because the final decision should only be taken at the end of 2020.”

Surfing, climbing and skateboarding will be part of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and their performance as new sports there will be key for their final inclusion in Paris.

“There will be a meeting in November 2020 and a board meeting in December where the final decision should be taken. In the meantime there is a monitoring program… to see how they perform, to look at governance, integrity of competitions, refereeing and judging system,” Bach said.

The Paris Games organizers have said they want to deliver a program that will be “in keeping with the times and inspire new audiences and attract young people … and which can be played anywhere and anytime in urban and other environments.”

Under new IOC rules first introduced for the Tokyo Games, Olympic host cities can hand-pick sports and propose them for inclusion in those Games if they are popular in that country and add to the Games’ appeal.

The IOC is eager to refresh the Games’ sports program to remain relevant to sponsors, broadcasters and fans.

(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Toby Davis)

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Remains found on Blackfeet reservation appear historical

Federal agents say human remains found on the Blackfeet Indian reservation in Montana appear to be of historical origin.

Friday's announcement by FBI spokeswoman Sandra Yi Barker ends speculation that the remains could have been those of Ashley HeavyRunner Loring.

She disappeared in 2017 at age 20. Her case has become emblematic of what authorities call a silent crisis involving the deaths and disappearance of hundreds of Native American women.

Barker says the remains found Dec. 13 are believed to be those of a Native American male who was between 45 and 60.

She says results of a laboratory analysis did not list a possible cause of death.

The FBI plans to turn over the remains to the Blackfeet Tribal Historic Preservation Office.

Source: Fox News National

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California dad charged with murder of missing boy

A father jailed on a child abuse charge is now facing a murder count in the death of his missing 8-year-old son, California prosecutors said Thursday.

Bryce McIntosh, 32, was charged with first-degree murder with the special circumstance of torture in the death of Noah McIntosh, said Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin.

Police in the city of Corona, 40 miles (64 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, said they are still looking for the boy but after searching three locations found evidence that Noah McIntosh was killed.

"There is no more trust a child should have than in their parents," Police Chief George Johnstone told reporters. "It truly is saddening. And it truly tears at our hearts to see this type of case."

Police said the boy's mother Jillian Godfrey reported on March 12 that she couldn't reach her son. Authorities say they searched the father's apartment and found enough evidence to arrest him and Godfrey and charge both with child abuse.

Police have asked residents to contact them if they saw either parent or a black BMV in the weeks before the boy disappeared.

Residents held a vigil last weekend and hung blue ribbons throughout the community to honor Noah.

McIntosh and Godfrey are both in jail and due to appear in court on April 8. A message seeking comment was left with the public defender's office.

Source: Fox News National

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Ocasio-Cortez, at SXSW, blasts FDR, Reagan and capitalism, says political moderates are 'meh'

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez slammed political moderates at the South by Southwest Conference & Festivals in Austin, Texas, calling their views “misplaced” as she defended her progressive politics in a room full of supporters.

“Moderate is not a stance. It's just an attitude towards life of, like, ‘meh,’” the New York Democrat said Saturday during an interview with Briahna Gray, senior politics editor for the Intercept. “We’ve become so cynical, that we view ‘meh,’ or ‘eh’ — we view cynicism as an intellectually superior attitude, and we view ambition as youthful naivete when ... the greatest things we have ever accomplished as a society have been ambitious acts of visions, and the ‘meh’ is just worshipped now, for what?”

The self-declared Democratic socialist also criticized the treatment of minorities throughout American history, from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal, which she claimed was racist, to Ronald Reagan's policies, which she said "pitted" white working class people against minorities in order "to screw over all working-class Americans,” particularly African-Americans and Hispanics.

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ SLAMS FELLOW DEMOCRATS AGAIN OVER 'RACIST AND FALSE' IMMIGRATION TROPES

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, right, D-N.Y., speaks with Briahna Gray, a senior politics editor at the Intercept, during South by Southwest on Saturday, March 9, 2019, in Austin, Texas. (Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, right, D-N.Y., speaks with Briahna Gray, a senior politics editor at the Intercept, during South by Southwest on Saturday, March 9, 2019, in Austin, Texas. (Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

"So you think about this image of welfare queens and what he was really trying to talk about was ... this like really resentful vision of essentially black women who were doing nothing, that were 'sucks' on our country," she said.

"So you think about this image of welfare queens and what [Reagan] was really trying to talk about was ... this like really resentful vision of essentially black women who were doing nothing, that were 'sucks' on our country."

— U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

"And it's this whole tragedy of the commons type of thinking where it's like because ... this one specific group of people, that you are already kind of subconsciously primed to resent, you give them a different reason that's not explicit racism but still rooted in a racist caricature," Ocasio-Cortez continued. "It gives people a logical reason, a 'logical' reason to say, 'Oh yeah, no, toss out the whole social safety net.'"

CAPITOL GRAPPLES WITH COMPLICATED HISTORY ON RACE

Other topics Ocasio-Cortez discussed included the Green New Deal and capitalism, which she said could not be redeemed because it puts profit “above everything else.”

“The most important thing is the concentration of capital, and it means that we prioritize profit and the accumulation of money above all else, and we seek it at any human and environmental cost… But when we talk about ideas like democratic socialism, it means putting democracy and society first, instead of capital first; it doesn’t mean that the actual concept of capitalistic society should be abolished,” she said.

"When we talk about ideas like democratic socialism, it means putting democracy and society first, instead of capital first; it doesn’t mean that the actual concept of capitalistic society should be abolished."

— U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

During a Q&A session with the audience, television host and author Bill Nye the Science Guy stepped up to the microphone.

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“I’m a white guy,” Nye said. “I think the problem on both sides is fear. People of my ancestry are afraid to pay for everything as immigrants come into this country. People who work at the diner in Alabama are afraid to ask for what is reasonable. So do you have a plan to work with people in Congress that are afraid? That’s what’s going on with many conservatives especially when it comes to climate change. People are afraid of what happens when we try to make these big changes.”

“One of the keys to dismantling fear is dismantling a zero-sum mentality,” Ocasio-Cortez replied. “It means the rejection outright of the logic that says someone else’s gain necessitates my loss and that my gain must necessitate someone’s loss. We can give without a take. We’re viewing progress as a loss instead of as an investment. When we choose to invest in our system, we are choosing to create wealth. When we all invest in them, then the wealth is for all of us too.”

"When we choose to invest in our system, we are choosing to create wealth. When we all invest ... then the wealth is for all of us."

— U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

The nine-day music and media festival has attracted many political figures this year. Several 2020 presidential candidates made appearances Saturday, including Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, who is also considering a presidential bid, also made the pilgrimage.

Ohio's former Republican Gov. John Kasich -- a potential GOP challenger to President Trump -- also spoke at the festival Saturday.

Source: Fox News Politics

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NATO keeps Jens Stoltenberg as its chief until 2022

NATO has extended the mandate of its top civilian official, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, for two years, making the former Norwegian premier one of the longest-serving heads of the military alliance.

Stoltenberg said Thursday he is "honored" by the decision made by the 29 allies and "I thank them for putting their trust in me."

He said: "We face the biggest security challenges in a generation and I look forward to continue working with all allies to adapt and modernize NATO."

Stoltenberg, who assumed office in 2014, will now hold the post until Sept. 30, 2022.

Only former Dutch foreign minister Joseph Luns, who spent 13 years in office from 1971, will have served in the post longer if Stoltenberg sees out his term.

Source: Fox News World

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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)

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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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