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Former Barclays chairman ‘not aware’ of Qatar fee document, court told

Former Barclays' CEO John Varley arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London
Former Barclays' CEO John Varley arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London, Britain, January 23, 2019. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

February 20, 2019

By Kirstin Ridley

LONDON (Reuters) – Barclays’ former chairman, giving evidence in a landmark London fraud trial, said he first saw a document detailing agreed fees for Qatari investors in the British bank four years after the payment was agreed.

Former Barclays chief executive John Varley and some of his most senior former colleagues – Roger Jenkins, Tom Kalaris and Richard Boath – are charged with conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation over side deals struck with Qatar during an 11 billion pound-plus emergency fundraising over a decade ago.

Marcus Agius, the bank’s former chairman, told the trial on Wednesday that he did not know how 280 million pounds ($365 million) of extra fees for Qatar were negotiated or how the figure was arrived at in October 2008 at the height of the financial crisis.

“Not only did I not see the document, I was not aware of its existence,” the veteran banker, who is giving evidence for the prosecution, told Southwark Crown Court on his second day in the witness box. He said he first saw the document in 2012.

Agius was not cross examined by the defense.

Qatari investors plowed around 4.0 billion pounds into Barclays during two fund raisings at the height of the credit crisis in 2008 that allowed the bank to avoid a state bailout.

The Serious Fraud Office, which is prosecuting the case, alleges the four former Barclays’ executives misled shareholders, the market and other investors by not disclosing that Barclays paid an extra 322 million pounds to Qatar through two “advisory service agreements” over a decade ago.

The former executives – the most senior bankers to face a jury trial in Britain over credit crisis-era conduct – deny wrongdoing.

Varley and Agius had been jointly handed full authority to carry out a second capital raising after a meeting of a board finance committee, established by Barclays on Oct. 28, 2008. This included approving fees that were “fair and reasonable”, according to documents presented to the court.

“Matters were moving almost on an hourly basis,” Agius said, noting that a smaller decision-making group was more practical to secure strategic investors as markets gyrated in the credit crunch.

Agius, the first prosecution witness to give evidence, said he had been aware of underwriting fees and a 66 million pound payment for Qatar for helping bring on board Abu Dhabi investors in the October fundraising.

Qatari investors have not been accused of wrongdoing.

The trial is scheduled to last for up to six months.

(Reporting by Kirstin Ridley, editing by Sinead Cruise and Jane Merriman)

Source: OANN

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Brazil’s vice president to visit China, top trading partner, next month

Brazil's Vice President Hamilton Mourao delivers a speech during the opening of LAAD, the biggest military industry expo in Latin America, in Rio de Janeiro
Brazil's Vice President Hamilton Mourao delivers a speech during the opening of LAAD, the biggest military industry expo in Latin America, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil April 2, 2019. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

April 24, 2019

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s Vice President Hamilton Mourao said on Wednesday he will travel to China on May 16, staying for 10 days with stops in Beijing and Shanghai.

Mourao, a former general who is seen as a moderate in the far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro, has recently become embroiled in a nasty war-of-words with the president’s sons, who are both influential lawmakers.

In comparison with Bolsonaro, who often criticized China’s large role in Brazil’s economy during his presidential campaign, Mourao has taken a more pragmatic approach toward his country’s top trading partner, seeking to maintain commercial ties.

Mourao’s visit to the world’s second-largest economy should mark the reactivation of the Sino-Brazilian Bilateral Cooperation Commission. Additionally, there is also hope that new meat export permits may be announced during the visit, according to Chinese Ambassador to Brazil Yang Wanming.

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Editing by Tom Brown)

Source: OANN

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ACLU: Black man detained while moving into his own home

The American Civil Liberties of Kansas has asked for a state investigation after a black man was detained by local police while moving into his own home.

The ACLU said Thursday that Karle Robinson was held at gunpoint and handcuffed as he moved into a home he had purchased in Tonganoxie, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) west of Kansas City.

Robinson says police harassed him and that Tonganoxie's police chief stopped him from filing a racial bias complaint.

Police Chief Greg Lawson says he had not seen the ACLU's allegations and would comment later.

ACLU alleges a pervasive culture of racial bias exists in the Tonganoxie Police Department. The organization asked Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt to investigate or refer the group's complaint to the Kansas Commission on Officers Standards and Training.

Source: Fox News National

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House sues members of Trump administration over ‘sham’ border-emergency declaration

The U.S. House of Representatives is suing members of President Trump’s administration over his national emergency declaration at the U.S.-Mexico border to divert funds for his signature border wall.

The suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Washington, alleges the administration “flouted the fundamental separation-of-powers principles and usurped for itself legislative power specifically vested by the Constitution in Congress,” Politico reported.

The complaint names as defendants Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and the departments they oversee. Trump is not named as a defendant.

WHAT IS A 'NATIONAL EMERGENCY,' AND HOW CAN TRUMP USE IT TO FUND BORDER WALL?

"The House has been injured, and will continue to be injured, by defendants' unconstitutional actions, which usurp the House's appropriations authority and mean that the relevant funds are no longer available to be spent on the purposes for which they were appropriated," the complaint says.

Trump declared a national emergency in February, a move that came after a partial government shutdown and was met with outcry from members of both parties who claimed he was interfering with Congress.

The declaration allows Trump to divert extra funds needed to build his long-promised border wall. He had requested $5.7 billion for construction, but Congress has granted only a fraction of that.

House Speak Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced her intention to sue the administration Thursday, the Politico reported.

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"The President’s sham emergency declaration and unlawful transfers of funds have undermined our democracy, contravening the vote of the bipartisan Congress, the will of the American people and the letter of the Constitution,” Pelosi said in a statement.

In March, Congress passed a measure to block Trump’s emergency declaration, prompting him to issue his first veto. Attempts by House Democrats to override the veto failed.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Trump: McCabe Has Made 'Fool Out of Himself'

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe has made "a fool out of himself" over the past few days sharing guarded and private processes on national television, President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday.

"He really looks to me like a poor man's J. Edgar Hoover," added the president.

McCabe on Sunday during a bombshell interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" said he started the obstruction of justice and counterintelligence investigations involving Trump and his ties to Russia because he wanted to ensure the probe was on "solid ground" in case he was fired. He took the action following James Comey's firing.

"I was speaking to the man who had just run for the presidency and won the election for the presidency and who might have done so with the aid of the government of Russia, our most formidable adversary on the world stage," McCabe said. "And that was something that troubled me greatly."

McCabe, who was fired after an inspector general report found he lied to FBI agents and Comey about his decision to authorize a leak to the news media, also asserted in his interview it is possible Trump is a Russian agent.

"What he was trying to do was terrible," Trump said. "He was caught. I'm very proud to say we caught him. So, we'll see what happens. But he is a disgraced man. He was terminated, not by me. He was terminated by others."

Source: NewsMax America

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Police: 81-year-old woman killed in bus crash

Authorities say a New York woman is one of two people killed when a bus overturned on an Interstate 95 exit in Virginia.

Virginia State Police announced Wednesday that 81-year-old Janetta Cumberbatch of Jamaica, New York, was killed in the crash early Tuesday. Police say they're still trying to reach relatives of a man who was also killed.

State police say the Tao's Travel Inc. bus was traveling from Florida to New York with 57 people aboard when it entered the exit ramp. The bus ran off the left side and overturned. Police say investigators consider speed a factor. The surviving passengers' injuries ranged from minor to serious.

The bus driver, 40-year-old Yui Man Chow of Staten Island, New York, is charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter.

Source: Fox News National

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U.N. to hold conference in Libya in April to discuss conflict solution

The U.N. Envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame, speaks during a news conference in Tripoli
The U.N. Envoy for Libya, Ghassan Salame, speaks during a news conference in Tripoli, Libya March 20, 2019. REUTERS/Hani Amara

March 20, 2019

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – The United Nations will hold a conference in the Libyan town of Ghadames on April 14-16 to discuss solutions to the country’s conflict, the United Nations’ Libya envoy said on Wednesday.

“We hope it will be a new opening for the country for stability,” Ghassan Salame told reporters.

(Reporting by Ahmed Elumami; Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Source: OANN

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Joe Biden’s brain surgeon said his former patient is “totally in the clear” as speculation over the candidate’s health — with Biden possibly becoming the oldest president in U.S. history — is likely to become a campaign issue.

The former vice president, who had been perceived by many as the strongest potential contender for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination, formally announced his candidacy Thursday.

But Biden’s age – 76 – is expected to become a source of attacks from a younger generation of Democrats not because of obvious generational differences, but possibly for actual health concerns if Biden gets into office.

WHY THE MEDIA ARE CONVINCED JOE BIDEN WILL IMPLODE

Biden himself agreed last year that “it’s totally legitimate” for people to ask questions about his health if he decides to run for president, given his medical history — which has included brain surgery in 1988.

“I think they’re gonna judge me on my vitality,” Biden told “CBS This Morning.” “Can I still run up the steps of Air Force Two? Am I still in good shape? Am I – do I have all my faculties? Am I energetic? I think it’s totally legitimate people ask those questions.”

“I think they’re gonna judge me on my vitality. …  I think it’s totally legitimate [that] people ask those questions.”

— Joe Biden

But Dr. Neal Kassell, the neurosurgeon who operated on Biden for an aneurysm three decades ago, told the Washington Examiner that Biden appears to be “totally in the clear” — and even joked that the operation made Biden “better than how he was.”

“Joe Biden of all of the politicians in Washington is the only one that I’m certain has a brain, because I have seen it,” Kassell said. “That’s more than I can say about all the other candidates or the incumbents.”

“Joe Biden of all of the politicians in Washington is the only one that I’m certain has a brain, because I have seen it.”

— Dr. Neal Kassell

BIDEN’S CLAIM HE DIDN’T WANT OBAMA TO ENDORSE TRIGGERS MOCKERY

At the same time, however, Biden hasn’t been forthcoming about his health at least since 2008 when he released his medical records as a vice presidential candidate. The disclosure that time revealed some fairly minor issues such as an irregular heartbeat in addition to detailing previous operations, including removing a benign polyp during a colonoscopy in 1996, the outlet reported.

It remains unclear if Biden had more aneurysms. Some medical experts say that people who have had an aneurysm can have another one.

An aneurysm, or a weakening of an artery wall, can lead to a rupture and internal bleeding, potentially placing a patient’s life in jeopardy.

Biden won’t be the only Democrat grappling with old age. Sen. Bernie Sanders, another 2020 frontrunner, is currently 77 years old and agreed with Biden last year that their ages will be an issue in the race.

“It’s part of a discussion, but it has to be part of an overall view of what somebody is and what somebody has accomplished,” Sanders told Politico.

“Look, you’ve got people who are 50 years of age who are not well, right? You’ve got people who are 90 years of age who are going to work every day, doing excellent work. And obviously, age is a factor. But it depends on the overall health and wellbeing of the individual.”

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Sanders released his medical records in 2016, with a Senate physician saying in a letter that the senator was “in overall very good health.”

Source: Fox News Politics

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Cambodian authorities have ordered a one-hour reduction in the length of school days because of concerns that students and teachers may fall ill from a prolonged heat wave.

Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said in an announcement seen Friday that the shortened hours will remain in effect until the rainy season starts, which usually occurs in May. The current heat wave, in which temperatures are regularly reaching as high as 41 Celsius (106 Fahrenheit), is one of the longest in memory.

Most schools in Cambodia lack air conditioning, prompting concern that temperatures inside classrooms could rise to unhealthy levels.

School authorities were instructed to watch for symptoms of heat stroke and urge pupils to drink more water.

The new hours cut 30 minutes off the beginning of the school day and 30 minutes off the end.

School authorities instituted a similar measure in 2016.

Source: Fox News World

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Explosions have rocked Britain’s largest steel plant, injuring two people and shaking nearby homes.

South Wales Police say the incident at the Tata Steel plant in Port Talbot was reported at about 3:35 a.m. Friday (22:35 EDT Thursday). The explosions touched off small fires, which are under control. Two workers suffered minor injuries and all staff members have been accounted for.

Police say early indications are that the explosions were caused by a train used to carry molten metal into the plant. Tata Steel says its personnel are working with emergency services at the scene.

Local lawmaker Stephen Kinnock says the incident raises concerns about safety.

He tweeted: “It could have been a lot worse … @TataSteelEurope must conduct a full review, to improve safety.”

Source: Fox News World

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The Wider Image: China's start-ups go small in age of 'shoebox' satellites
LinkSpace’s reusable rocket RLV-T5, also known as NewLine Baby, is carried to a vacant plot of land for a test launch in Longkou, Shandong province, China, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

April 26, 2019

By Ryan Woo

LONGKOU, China (Reuters) – During initial tests of their 8.1-metre (27-foot) tall reusable rocket, Chinese engineers from LinkSpace, a start-up led by China’s youngest space entrepreneur, used a Kevlar tether to ensure its safe return. Just in case.

But when the Beijing-based company’s prototype, called NewLine Baby, successfully took off and landed last week for the second time in two months, no tether was needed.

The 1.5-tonne rocket hovered 40 meters above the ground before descending back to its concrete launch pad after 30 seconds, to the relief of 26-year-old chief executive Hu Zhenyu and his engineers – one of whom cartwheeled his way to the launch pad in delight.

LinkSpace, one of China’s 15-plus private rocket manufacturers, sees these short hops as the first steps towards a new business model: sending tiny, inexpensive satellites into orbit at affordable prices.

Demand for these so-called nanosatellites – which weigh less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and are in some cases as small as a shoebox – is expected to explode in the next few years. And China’s rocket entrepreneurs reckon there is no better place to develop inexpensive launch vehicles than their home country.

“For suborbital clients, their focus will be on scientific research and some commercial uses. After entering orbit, the near-term focus (of clients) will certainly be on satellites,” Hu said.

In the near term, China envisions massive constellations of commercial satellites that can offer services ranging from high-speed internet for aircraft to tracking coal shipments. Universities conducting experiments and companies looking to offer remote-sensing and communication services are among the potential domestic customers for nanosatellites.

A handful of U.S. small-rocket companies are also developing launchers ahead of the expected boom. One of the biggest, Rocket Lab, has already put 25 satellites in orbit.

No private company in China has done that yet. Since October, two – LandSpace and OneSpace – have tried but failed, illustrating the difficulties facing space start-ups everywhere.

The Chinese companies are approaching inexpensive launches in different ways. Some, like OneSpace, are designing cheap, disposable boosters. LinkSpace’s Hu aspires to build reusable rockets that return to Earth after delivering their payload, much like the Falcon 9 rockets of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

“If you’re a small company and you can only build a very, very small rocket because that’s all you have money for, then your profit margins are going to be narrower,” said Macro Caceres, analyst at U.S. aerospace consultancy Teal Group.

“But if you can take that small rocket and make it reusable, and you can launch it once a week, four times a month, 50 times a year, then with more volume, your profit increases,” Caceres added.

Eventually LinkSpace hopes to charge no more than 30 million yuan ($4.48 million) per launch, Hu told Reuters.

That is a fraction of the $25 million to $30 million needed for a launch on a Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Pegasus, a commonly used small rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a high-flying aircraft and is not reusable.

(Click https://reut.rs/2UVBjKs to see a picture package of China’s rocket start-ups. Click https://tmsnrt.rs/2GIy9Bc for an interactive look at the nascent industry.)

NEED FOR CASH

LinkSpace plans to conduct suborbital launch tests using a bigger recoverable rocket in the first half of 2020, reaching altitudes of at least 100 kilometers, then an orbital launch in 2021, Hu told Reuters.

The company is in its third round of fundraising and wants to raise up to 100 million yuan, Hu said. It had secured tens of millions of yuan in previous rounds.

After a surge in fresh funding in 2018, firms like LinkSpace are pushing out prototypes, planning more tests and even proposing operational launches this year.

Last year, equity investment in China’s space start-ups reached 3.57 billion yuan ($533 million), a report by Beijing-based investor FutureAerospace shows, with a burst of financing in late 2018.

That accounted for about 18 percent of global space start-up investments in 2018, a historic high, according to Reuters calculations based on a global estimate by Space Angels. The New York-based venture capital firm said global space start-up investments totaled $2.97 billion last year.

“Costs for rocket companies are relatively high, but as to how much funding they need, be it in the hundreds of millions, or tens of millions, or even just a few million yuan, depends on the company’s stage of development,” said Niu Min, founder of FutureAerospace.

FutureAerospace has invested tens of millions of yuan in LandSpace, based in Beijing.

Like space-launch startups elsewhere in the world, the immediate challenge for Chinese entrepreneurs is developing a safe and reliable rocket.

Proven talent to develop such hardware can be found in China’s state research institutes or the military; the government directly supports private firms by allowing them to launch from military-controlled facilities.

But it’s still a high-risk business, and one unsuccessful launch might kill a company.

“The biggest problem facing all commercial space companies, especially early-stage entrepreneurs, is failure” of an attempted flight, Liang Jianjun, chief executive of rocket company Space Trek, told Reuters. That can affect financing, research, manufacturing and the team’s morale, he added.

Space Trek is planning its first suborbital launch by the end of June and an orbital launch next year, said Liang, who founded the company in late 2017 with three other former military technical officers.

Despite LandSpace’s failed Zhuque-1 orbital launch in October, the Beijing-based firm secured 300 million yuan in additional funding for the development of its Zhuque-2 rocket a month later.

In December, the company started operating China’s first private rocket production facility in Zhejiang province, in anticipation of large-scale manufacturing of its Zhuque-2, which it expects to unveil next year.

STATE COMPETITION

China’s state defense contractors are also trying to get into the low-cost market.

In December, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) successfully launched a low-orbit communication satellite, the first of 156 that CASIC aims to deploy by 2022 to provide more stable broadband connectivity to rural China and eventually developing countries.

The satellite, Hongyun-1, was launched on a rocket supplied by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the nation’s main space contractor.

In early April, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALVT), a subsidiary of CASC, completed engine tests for its Dragon, China’s first rocket meant solely for commercial use, clearing the path for a maiden flight before July.

The Dragon, much bigger than the rockets being developed by private firms, is designed to carry multiple commercial satellites.

At least 35 private Chinese companies are working to produce more satellites.

Spacety, a satellite maker based in southern Hunan province, plans to put 20 satellites in orbit this year, including its first for a foreign client, chief executive Yang Feng told Reuters.

The company has only launched 12 on state-produced rockets since the company started operating in early 2016.

“When it comes to rocket launches, what we care about would be cost, reliability and time,” Yang said.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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At least one person is reported dead and homes have been destroyed by a powerful cyclone that struck northern Mozambique and continues to dump rain on the region, with the United Nations warning of “massive flooding.”

Cyclone Kenneth arrived just six weeks after Cyclone Idai tore into central Mozambique, killing more than 600 people and displacing scores of thousands. The U.N. says this is the first time in known history that the southern African nation has been hit by two cyclones in one season.

Forecasters say the new cyclone made landfall Thursday night in a part of Mozambique that has not seen such a storm in at least 60 years.

Mozambique’s local emergency operations center says a woman in the city of Pemba was killed by a falling tree.

Source: Fox News World

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