Now On Air

Liberty #MAGAOne Mix

Via MAGA One Mix

6:00 am 8:00 am


Upcoming shows
Real News

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Liberty #MAGAOne Mix

Via MAGA One Mix

6:00 am 8:00 am



Maga First News

Upcoming Shows

Join The MAGA Network on Discord

0 0

Human rights groups highlight rise in Greek minority attacks

A report by human rights groups says the number of violent attacks on minorities in Greece increased in 2018, and the authors are expressing concern that divisive campaign rhetoric ahead of European and national elections this year could lead to a further rise.

The Racist Violence Recording Network, made up of 46 organizations including the Greek branches of the Red Cross and Amnesty International, reported 117 serious incidents last year.

Most of the attacks were carried out against migrants and refugees but also included violence motivated by homophobia, religious hatred, and the skin color of Greek citizens. The report was published Thursday.

The group recorded 102 serious incidents in 2017 and 95 the year before. In the last year of national elections, in 2015, there were 273 attacks.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

The Latest: Mom of teen shot by officer: Son was kind, funny

The Latest on the homicide trial of a white Pennsylvania police officer in the shooting of an unarmed black 17-year-old (all times local):

10:10 a.m.

The mother of an unarmed black teenager who was fatally shot by a white former police officer is urging prosecutors to show what a "kind, loving and funny" person her son was.

Michelle Kenney's letter to prosecutors was released Wednesday, as the second day of the trial of former East Pittsburgh Police Officer Michael Rosfeld resumes in a Pittsburgh courtroom.

In the letter, Kenney asks prosecutors to paint a picture of her son Antwon Rose II as the loving, exceptional person that he was. She says they must counter the defense's portrayal of the 17-year-old high school student as "just another thug."

She says he taught children in the neighborhood how to roller blade and skateboard and would give away his skates to kids in need. She calls him a "rose that grew from concrete."

In June, Rosfeld fired three bullets into Rose after pulling over an unlicensed taxicab suspected to have been used in a drive-by shooting minutes earlier.

Rose was shot as he fled the car.

___

3 a.m.

Video that showed a white police officer shooting to death an unarmed black teenager is among the evidence presented during the first day of the former cop's criminal homicide trial.

More testimony is expected Wednesday when the trial of former East Pittsburgh Police Officer Michael Rosfeld resumes in a Pittsburgh courtroom.

The 30-year-old Rosfeld is accused in the June death of 17-year-old high school student Antwon Rose II.

Rosfeld fired three bullets into Rose after pulling over an unlicensed taxicab suspected to have been used in a drive-by shooting minutes earlier.

Rose was a front-seat passenger in the cab and was shot as he fled.

A neighbor who recorded the confrontation said the tone of Rosfeld's voice is what got her attention.

Source: Fox News National

0 0

Syrian media: Militants hit government post, kill 3 troops

Syria state media say militants have attacked a military post belonging to the government forces in the country's northwest, setting off clashes that killed three soldiers.

The state-run Ikhbariya TV says the militants were disguised as farmers from the area in the attack early on Tuesday and approached the military post outside a de-militarized zone in Idlib province.

The TV says the soldiers clashed with the militants, who blew themselves up, killing three soldiers.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the attack. The Observatory and a media group, Idlib Correspondent, said the jihadi Ansar Tawheed group was behind the attack.

It's the latest breach of a months-old Russia-Turkey negotiated truce in Idlib and surrounding areas. Recent violence has strained the truce, which also includes a de-militarized zone.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

India’s trade ministry proposes delaying retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods

FILE PHOTO - A worker loads goods into a container at Thar Dry Port in Sanand
FILE PHOTO - A worker loads goods into a container at Thar Dry Port in Sanand in the western state of Gujarat, India, February 10, 2016. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo

March 29, 2019

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s trade ministry has proposed that the government delays by a month the imposition of retaliatory tariffs on some U.S. goods that were due to go into effect from April 1, a trade ministry spokeswoman told Reuters on Friday.

Trade friction between India and the United States escalated after President Donald Trump announced plans earlier this month to end preferential trade treatment for India that allows duty-free entry for up to $5.6 billion worth of its exports to the United States.

Indian officials believe India could lose its preferential treatment in early May. The Indian government has asked the U.S. administration to review its decision, two government officials with close knowledge of the matter said.

In June last year, India had announced it would increase import duties varying from 20 percent to 120 percent on a slew of U.S. farm, steel and iron products, angered by Washington’s refusal to exempt it from new steel and aluminum tariffs.

But since then, New Delhi has repeatedly delayed the implementation of those enhanced duties.

The trade ministry spokeswoman said the government planned to send a delegation to Washington to address bilateral trade issues, and that the ministry was seeking to hold off imposing retaliatory tariffs until May.

“The Ministry of Commerce has requested the Department of Revenue to extend the deadline for imposition of tariffs on U.S. goods by another 30 days,” the spokeswoman said.

The revenue department falls within the finance ministry, and the two ministries need to consult over any decision to delay the tariffs.

India is the world’s largest beneficiary of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), which dates from the 1970s, and ending its participation would be the strongest punitive action the United States has taken against the country since Trump took office.

The timing of the U.S. decision to revoke the trade privileges is awkward for India as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is heading into a general election. Voting will take place between April 11 and May 19, and the results will be announced on May 23.

(Reporting by Neha Dasgupta; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani & Simon Cameron-Moore)

Source: OANN

0 0

Brazil wonders why after school shooters kill 8, themselves

A Sao Paulo suburb prepared to bury its dead Thursday while looking for reasons why two masked former students armed with a hand fun, knives, axes and crossbows killed five teenagers and two adults at a school before killing themselves as police closed in.

Authorities said the pair also fatally shot the owner of a used car business nearby before launching the attack Wednesday on the Professor Raul Brasil school in Suzano, a suburb of Brazil's largest city.

Brazil has the largest number of annual homicides in the world, but school shootings are rare. In 2011, 12 students were killed by a gunman who roamed the halls of a school in Rio de Janeiro.

Besides the five students killed Wednesday, the dead included a teacher and a school administrator, said Joao Camilo Pires de Campos, the state's public secretary. Nine others were wounded in the school attack, he said.

"This is the saddest day of my life," de Campos told reporters outside the school in the Sao Paulo suburb of Suzano.

The dead students were to be buried Thursday.

Authorities identified the attackers as 17-year-old Guilherme Taucci Monteiro and 25-year-old Henrique de Castro.

"The big question is: What was the motivation of these former students?" de Campos said.

Monteiro's mother, Tatiana Taucci, offered a possible answer, telling Band News while hiding her face from the camera that her son had been bullied at the school.

"Bullying, they call it. ... He stopped going to school ... because of this," she said.

She said she was surprised by his involvement and found out about the attack from the television like everyone else.

Minutes before the attack, Monteiro posted 26 photos on his Facebook page, included several with a gun and one that showed him giving the middle finger as he looked into the camera.

In some of the photos, he wore a black scarf with a white imprint of a skull and cross bones. No text accompanied the posts.

By Wednesday afternoon, Facebook had taken down Monteiro's page.

During the attack, Monteiro opened fire with a .38 caliber handgun and de Castro used a crossbow, de Campos said. He said forensics would determine how each of the victims died.

The attackers were also carrying Molotov cocktails, knives and small axes, authorities said.

"In 34 years as a policeman, it's the first time I see someone use a crossbow like that," police Col. Marcelo Salles said. "It is horrendous."

The assailants were trying to force their way inside a room at the back of the school where many students were hiding when police arrived. Instead of facing officers, Monteiro shot de Castro in the head and then shot himself, authorities said.

Students gathered outside the school recounted harrowing attacks and seeing several bodies lying in pools of blood.

Kelly Milene Guerra Cardoso, 16, said she and other students took refuge in the school's cafeteria, locked the door and lay on the floor.

"We stayed there until the door was opened. We thought it was the shooters coming to get us, but it was the police," she said. "They told us to start running."

Horacio Pereira Nunes, a retiree whose house is next to the school, said he heard shots around 10 a.m.

"Then a lot of kids started running out, all screaming," he said. "It didn't take long until police arrived."

The public school has more than 1,600 students from elementary to high school grades, teachers gathered outside said.

President Jair Bolsonaro ran on a platform that included promises to crack down on criminals, in part by expanding public access to guns. Soon after his Jan. 1 inauguration, Bolsonaro issued a decree making it easier to buy a gun.

"A monstrosity and cowardness without equal," Bolsonaro wrote in a tweet expressing his sympathies for the families of the victims of Wednesday's attacks.

Sen. Major Olimpio, a member of Bolsonaro's party and a proponent of loosening gun legislation, again made that argument hours after Wednesday's rampage.

"We can't let those who take advantage of this tragedy speak about how disarmament is the solution," he tweeted, adding: "Weak and shameful 'disarmament farce,' which gave guns to criminals and prevented self-defense."

___

Associated Press writer Mauricio Savarese reported this story in Suzano and AP writer Anna Jean Kaiser reporter from Rio de Janeiro.

Source: Fox News World

0 0

Tiger shrugs off injury scare to stay in the Masters mix

Second round play of the Masters at Augusta National
Golf - Masters - Augusta National Golf Club - Augusta, Georgia, U.S. - April 12, 2019 - Tiger Woods of the U.S. tips his hat on the 18th green during second round play. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

April 13, 2019

By Frank Pingue

AUGUSTA Ga. (Reuters) – Tiger Woods was so determined to claw his way up the Masters leaderboard on Friday that not even a security guard who nearly knocked him over when he crashed into his foot could shake his steely-eyed focus.

Woods was in the midst of a decent second round when, moments after an impressive shot through the trees to reach the 14th green, a security guard who rushed in to control a swarming crowd slipped on the rain-soaked ground and into his right foot.

The former world number one winced and walked gingerly before trying to stretch it out for a few seconds and then got back to work as he fired a four-under-par 68 to sit one shot behind of the five co-leaders.

“I’m fine. It’s all good,” said four-times Masters champion Woods, who has had his remarkable career interrupted by a number of back and knee surgeries. “Accidents happen and move on.”

Woods went on to birdie the 14th and 15th to send familiar roars through the Georgia pines and could very well have grabbed the outright lead but sent an eight-foot birdie putt at 17 just past the hole and left a 14-footer at 18 just short.

Despite the missed opportunities, Woods said he was not going to lose any sleep over the missed putts, which he said were all due to bad reads rather than bad strokes.

“I missed a few putts out there but I’m not too bummed out about it because I hit them on my lines. So I can live with that,” said Woods. “I can live with days when I’m hitting putts on my line and they just don’t go in, that’s the way it goes.”

The 14-times major champion reached the turn at one under on the day and then, right after his tee shot at the par-three 12th stuck five feet from the hole, had to wait out a 30-minute suspension in play due to lightning in the area.

When play resumed Woods, who later said he was a little bit stiff as he started swinging again, failed to convert the birdie as his putt curled around the left edge of the cup.

Woods, who finished the first round four shots back of the co-leaders, had plenty of work to do by the time he teed off in the penultimate group on Friday as several players from the early groups had already moved up the leaderboard.

“I feel like I played my own way back into the tournament,” said Woods, who is seeking his first major victory since 2008. “I was just very patient today, felt very good to be out there doing what I was doing.

“This is now three straight majors that I’ve been in the mix and so it’s good stuff.”

(Editing by Peter Rutherford)

Source: OANN

0 0

US Navy vet fighting cancer gets 10-year prison sentence in Iran

A cancer-stricken U.S. Navy veteran from California who was first detained in Iran while visiting a girlfriend has been sentenced to 10 years in prison there on charges of insulting the country's supreme leader and posting a photo on social media, his lawyer said Friday.

U.S. State Department officials informed the family of Michael White about the sentence after receiving the information from the Swiss government, which represents U.S. interests in Iran, said Mark Zaid, White's attorney.

White, 46, of Imperial City, Calif., was sentenced to two years in prison for insulting the country’s top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and 10 years for posting a private photo, Zaid said. It appeared the sentences were to run concurrently, the lawyer said, according to the New York Times.

RELATIVES OF AMERICANS HELD IN IRAN TESTIFY BEFORE HOUSE SUBCOMMITTEE

White served in the Navy for 13 years and is believed to be the first American detained in Iran since President Trump took office. White's family told the paper he had traveled to Iran to visit a woman he had met online.

White’s mother, Joanne White, told the paper she fears that her son is in failing health. He suffers from an unspecified form of cancer and recently received chemotherapy, but requires access to further medical care, according to his mother, the Wall Street Journal reported.

U.S. government efforts to get White released could face difficulties given the fractured relationship between Washington and Tehran that sunk to a new low after the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal last year.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Other Americans have recently been imprisoned in Iran -- Siamak Namazi, since October 2015; his father Baquer Namazi, since February 2016; and Xiyue Wang, since August 2016 – on charges of spying and other activities. Another, Robert Levinson, has been missing in Iran since 2007.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

NOW ON AIR
Now On Air

Liberty #MAGAOne Mix

Via MAGA One Mix

6:00 am 8:00 am



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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
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)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
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)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
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)

Source: OANN

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
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

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!

Listen to https://magaoneradio.net and Listen Daily! Don't Forget to Share Click a Link Below!
Current track

Title

Artist