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Judge, attorneys excuse 6 jurors from ex-cop’s murder trial

Attorneys and the judge on Tuesday excused six potential jurors from the murder trial of a former Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot an unarmed Australian woman who called 911 to report a possible sexual assault behind her home.

Mohamed Noor, 33, is charged in the July 2017 death of 40-year-old Justine Ruszczyk Damond, a life coach who was engaged to be married. Attorneys and the judge said they had examined the questionnaires filled out by roughly half of the potential 75 jurors, and they agreed to excuse six of them based on their written answers.

One of the excused jurors wrote that he or she has negative feelings toward Somalis and believed Noor was a fast-track police hire. Noor is Somali-American.

Another potential juror said he had already decided that Noor is innocent.

Earlier, Hennepin County District Judge Kathryn Quaintance heard arguments on whether jurors at Noor's trial should see a "fly through" exhibit of the shooting scene.

The prosecution wants to introduce a 3D scan of the Minneapolis neighborhood where Damond was shot. Authorities say Noor fired his gun once across his partner through the open driver's side window, striking and killing Damond.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension used the scanner to document the scene. In court, the prosecution played a video showing where Noor's squad car was in relation to Damond's body in the alley where she died.

The BCA also inserted lines showing potential bullet trajectories. But Noor's attorneys contend the video is inadmissible because it "inaccurately and prejudicially depicts what a person would actually see."

Prosecutor Patrick Lofton told the judge that the videos will help jurors "understand what the scene is like." But defense attorney Thomas Plunkett argued that the evidence was novel in Minnesota and that the position of Damond's body had changed over the seven hours that the BCA took the images.

Jury selection began Monday and resumes Wednesday.

Source: Fox News National

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Experts doubt turbulence caused crash of cargo jet in Texas

Aviation experts expressed doubt Wednesday that turbulence could have caused the deadly February crash of a cargo plane in Texas, suspecting human error or a massive malfunction as more likely culprits.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating why Atlas Air Flight 3591 suddenly dropped during its approach to a Houston airport and has not issued a cause of the crash. The federal agency has said cockpit audio and flight data suggest the pilots lost control and the plane hit turbulence in its final moments.

The Boeing 767 struck Trinity Bay while traveling at hundreds of miles an hour — an impact that killed the three men aboard and sprayed debris through the swampy area 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

The bay's deep mud slowed investigators, and aviation safety specialists see the details already released as too little to solve the mysteries of the crash. But they think it's enough to rule out choppy air as a likely cause.

"Airplanes operate in situations like that all the time," John Cox, an accident investigator and retired pilot, said of turbulence the plane hit a minute before it entered its fatal drop.

NTSB data show turbulence hasn't caused a fatal accident on an American cargo or passenger jet in the last decade. Cox and others couldn't recall a large plane being downed by rough weather since the 1960s.

Rather than precipitation the Atlas Air pilots had maneuvered to avoid, experts said NTSB investigators are likely focused on three events in the plane's final moments: an engine surge, a small drift up and sharp turn down.

These events are being scrutinized as countries around the world are grounding a different model of Boeing aircraft after two were involved in fatal crashes less than five months apart. On Wednesday, the United States and Canada joined some 40 other nations in ordering all Boeing 737 Max jets grounded amid suspicions about a new automated anti-stall system.

Beyond brand, however, there appear to be limited links between the crashes.

The 767 that crashed in Texas is much older than the 737 Maxs that are being grounded. And no Atlas Air planes are equipped with the anti-stall system that's come into question, a company spokeswoman told The Associated Press.

Atlas Air Flight 3591 was carrying packages from Miami for Amazon and the U.S. Postal Service, as well as giving a ride to a pilot from another airline.

In their last minutes, the plane's crew dropped altitude to avoid some precipitation and then leveled off around 6,200 feet, according to the NTSB's analysis of flight data.

Seconds later, the plane's engines surged to "maximum thrust" and it briefly pointed its nose 4 degrees up. The jet then rapidly swung to point 49 degrees down.

The NTSB said the dramatic turn came in response to a shift in the fins near the rear of the plane that control its pitch, but that the underlying cause of this movement is still being investigated.

Todd Curtis, a former Boeing safety engineer who runs AirSafe.com, said the plane's slight upward tilt might have been the pilots compensating for a hard down draft. But there would be no reason to suddenly drop the plane's nose, he said.

The plane's dive was either caused by a major mechanical or computer malfunction, by a pilot's error or it was a deliberate act, Curtis said. But this last option is unlikely, he said, as it would have led the FBI to take over the investigation as a criminal probe.

A spokesman in the FBI's Houston office, Connor Hagan, said Thursday that the NTSB is continuing to lead the investigation.

Source: Fox News National

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Three more women accuse Biden of improper contact, say his video wasn’t enough

Just hours after former Vice President Joe Biden appeared on video to promise he'd be "more mindful" about others' personal space, three more women have gone public claiming he touched them inappropriately -- and all three said Biden's video didn't go far enough.

In an article published late Wednesday in The Washington Post, Vail Kohnert-Yount charged that when she was an intern in the White House in 2013, Biden approached her to introduce herself.

“He then put his hand on the back of my head and pressed his forehead to my forehead while he talked to me," Kohnert-Yount told The Post. "I was so shocked that it was hard to focus on what he was saying. I remember he told me I was a ‘pretty girl.'"

Although Kohnert-Yount said she did not consider Biden's behavior to be "sexual assault or harassment,” she added that "it was the kind of inappropriate behavior that makes many women feel uncomfortable and unequal in the workplace.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Biden -- who is widely expected to enter the 2020 presidential race soon -- responded to a series of other misconduct allegations leveled against him by promising to “be more mindful about respecting personal space in the future.”

BIDEN IS 'READY TO KILL BERNIE,' AMID ALLEGATIONS SANDERS TEAM MAY BE LEAKING ALLEGATIONS TO SABOTAGE HIM

Biden also acknowledged the allegations in a tweeted video.

“Social norms are changing. I understand that, and I’ve heard what these women are saying," Biden tweeted. "Politics to me has always been about making connections, but I will be more mindful about respecting personal space in the future. That’s my responsibility and I will meet it."

Responding to Biden's comments, Kohnert-Yount told The Post: “I appreciate his attempt to do better in the future, but to me this is not mainly about whether Joe Biden has adequate respect for personal space. It’s about women deserving equal respect in the workplace.”

A second woman, Sofie Karasek, told The Post that Biden acted inappropriately when he placed his forehead against hers following the Oscars ceremony in 2016. Karasek had appeared on-stage with 51 other people who said they had experienced sexual assault. A photograph of the incident is widely available online.

In his comments Monday, Karasek said Biden “still didn’t take ownership in the way that he needs to.”

Biden "emphasized that he wants to connect with people and, of course, that’s important," Karasek said. "But again, all of our interactions and friendships are a two-way street. . . . Too often it doesn’t matter how the woman feels about it or they just assume that they’re fine with it."

Finally, Ally Coll said Biden squeezed her "for a beat too long" while she was a staffer organizing a reception for Democrats in 2008. She now runs the Purple Campaign, a nonprofit devoted to combating sexual harassment.

On its website, the Purple Campaign stated: "Courageous women have broken the silence by sharing their experiences with sexual harassment in the workplace, exposing a systemic problem that exists across every industry. Now we must work together to create lasting change."

Vice President Joe Biden with customers at a diner in Seaman, Ohio, in September 2012. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Vice President Joe Biden with customers at a diner in Seaman, Ohio, in September 2012. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

The page continued: "The Purple Campaign’s mission is to end workplace sexual harassment by implementing stronger corporate policies, establishing better laws and empowering people to create lasting change within their own workplaces and communities."

Coll told The Post that while Biden's behavior didn't concern her at first, over time she came to realize it was inappropriate.

She told The Post that Biden's video illustrated "a continued lack of understanding about why these stories are being told and their relevance in the #MeToo era.”

FILE - In this March 13, 2017, file photo, former Vice President Joe Biden, right, embraces University of Delaware President Dennis Assanis during an event to formally launch the Biden Institute, a research and policy center focused on domestic issues at the University of Delaware, in Newark, Del. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

FILE - In this March 13, 2017, file photo, former Vice President Joe Biden, right, embraces University of Delaware President Dennis Assanis during an event to formally launch the Biden Institute, a research and policy center focused on domestic issues at the University of Delaware, in Newark, Del. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Other allegations against Biden surfaced Tuesday from two women who spoke to The New York Times. One of the claims dated from 2012, while the other encounter was said to have taken place a few years later.

In the 2012 incident, writer D.J. Hill said Biden put his hand on her shoulder, then dropped it down her back in a way that made her "very uncomfortable" while Hill and her husband posed for pictures with him at a fundraiser in Minneapolis. Hill said her husband noticed the movement and made a joke about it.

In the second incident, former college student Caitlyn Caruso told the paper that Biden "rested his hand on her thigh — even as she squirmed in her seat to show her discomfort — and hugged her 'just a little bit too long' at an event on sexual assault at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas," as the paper reported. Caruso, now 22, said she was 19 at the time and had just recounted her own story of sexual assault.

On Monday, Amy Lappos, a former aide to Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., told the Hartford Courant that Biden touched her face with both hands and rubbed noses in 2009. Late last week, former Nevada politician Lucy Flores -- who campaigned for Bernie Sanders and served on the board of an activist group aligned with Sanders -- wrote that Biden had grabbed her shoulders, smelled her hair and kissed her on the back of her head at a campaign event in 2014.

FILE - In this May 22, 2013 file photo, Newly commissioned officer Erin Talbot, left, poses for a photograph with Vice President Joe Biden during commencement for the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

FILE - In this May 22, 2013 file photo, Newly commissioned officer Erin Talbot, left, poses for a photograph with Vice President Joe Biden during commencement for the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

A former Sanders staffer told Fox News on Wednesday that Flores is a "racist" and a "fraud."

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In his Twitter video, Biden discussed the "gestures of support and encouragement" that he said he's made to both men and women which "have made them uncomfortable."

"In my career, I’ve always tried to make a human connection," Biden said. "That’s my responsibility, I think. I shake hands, I hug people, I grab men and women by the shoulders and say ‘you can do this.’ And whether they’re women, men, young, old, it’s the way I’ve always been. It’s the way I’ve tried to show I care about them and I’m listening."

Fox News' Elizabeth Zwirz contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Japan not to submit U.N. resolution condemning North Korean rights abuses

U.S. President Trump and Japan's Prime Minister Abe hold bilateral meeting on sidelines of 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, U.S., September 26, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

March 13, 2019

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan has decided for the first time in years not to submit to the United Nations a joint resolution condemning North Korea’s human rights abuses, given U.S. efforts to end North Korea’s weapons program and other factors, Japan said on Wednesday.

Japan and the European Union have submitted a motion condemning North Korea’s rights record to the United Nations every year since 2008. North Korea has repeatedly rejected accusations of rights abuses.

“The decision was made taking into consideration various factors comprehensively, such as results of the summit meeting between the United States and North Korea and the situation of Japan’s abduction issue,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held their second summit last month on U.S. demands that North Korea dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for security guarantees and the lifting of sanctions.

But the talks in Vietnam broke down without agreement.

Staunch U.S. ally Japan is keeping a wary eye on the dialogue between the United States and North Korea amid concern a deal between those old foes could lead to a scaling back of U.S. commitments in East Asia.

Japan also worries that its crucial issue of the fate of its citizens abducted by North Korean agents will take a back seat to nuclear and missile issues in U.S.-North Korean talks.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Trump had raised the issue of kidnapped Japanese citizens in his summit with Kim.

Abe has said Japan was committed to normalizing diplomatic relations with North Korea but several issues, including North Korea’s kidnapping of its citizens, must be resolved first.

North Korea admitted in 2002 it had kidnapped 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to train as spies, and five of them returned to Japan. Japan suspects that hundreds more may have been taken.

(Reporting by Kaori Kaneko; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Source: OANN

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Ilhan Omar Gaslights America On 9/11 Terror Attacks

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Source: InfoWars

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Rosenstein says America should trust Barr's handling of Mueller report

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said Monday he was confident Attorney General Bill Barr would make the right decision about how much of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's final report on the FBI investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials should be made public.

"I think Attorney General Barr is going to make the right decision," Rosenstein said during an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "We can trust him to do that. He has a lot of experience with this … I think we can count on him to do the right thing."

Rosenstein pointed out that the Justice Department was required by law to inform Congress if the special counsel "proposes to take an action and is overruled by the attorney general or the acting attorney general," but added that "the special counsel is a subordinate employee who reports to the attorney general or the acting attorney general and who complies with department policies ... just like an acting United States Attorney, for example, would need to do."

Rosenstein spoke one day after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said he was willing to take the Justice Department to court "if necessary" to obtain the full Mueller report.

"We will obviously subpoena the report," Schiff told ABC News' "This Week." "We will bring Bob Mueller in to testify before Congress ... And in the end, I think the department understands they're going to have to make this public."

SCHIFF: DEMS 'ABSOLUTELY' WILL TAKE DOJ TO COURT OVER MUELLER REPORT IF NECESSARY

However, Rosenstein -- who has overseen much of Mueller's day-to-day work since the special counsel's appointment in May 2017 -- appeared to strike a different tone on Monday, saying that "there are a lot of reasons not to be transparent about what we do in government."

"Just because the government collects information doesn’t mean that information is accurate and it can be really misleading if you’re overly transparent about information that the government collects," Rosenstein said. "My view is, the Department of Justice is best served when people are confident that we’re going to operate, when we’re investigating American citizens in particular, we’re going to do it with appropriate sensitivity to the rights of uncharged people."

Justice Department legal opinions have argued that a sitting president cannot be indicted, suggesting prosecutors would not be able to pursue charges against President Trump even if they uncover wrongdoing. That could mean investigators do not make public information they collected on Trump, in deference to the Justice Department's protocol of not disclosing negative information about people it does not have enough evidence to charge or that, for other reasons, it decides against prosecuting.

MUELLER'S RUSSIA INVESTIGATION: WHAT TO KNOW

"The guidance I always gave my prosecutors and the agents I worked with during my tenure on the front lines of law enforcement were, if we aren't prepared to prove our case beyond a reasonable doubt in court," Rosenstein said, "then we have no business making allegations against American citizens."

In response to Rosenstein, Schiff tweeted Monday that the Justice Department had a "double standard," alluding to documents made public following the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, as well as information Republicans demanded last year during inquiries into the early stages of the FBI's Russia investigation.

"For two years, I sounded the alarm about DOJ’s deviation from just that principle as it turned over hundreds of thousands of pages in closed or ongoing investigations," Schiff wrote. "I warned that DOJ would need to live by this precedent. And it will."

Also Monday, two prominent Republicans on the House Oversight Committee requested that Rosenstein appear before the panel later this week alongside Michael Cohen, the president's onetime personal attorney. In a letter to Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Mark Meadows of North Carolina said Rosenstein should testify in order to give information "about the [Justice] Department's views of Cohen's crimes and conduct."

Jordan and Meadows also said they wanted to question Rosenstein about claims from former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe that Rosenstein suggested secretly recording Trump in the Oval Office and canvassing Cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment in order to remove Trump from office. Rosenstein has denied both claims.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Monday's appearance is expected to be one of Rosenstein's last as deputy attorney general. He is expected to step down in March and Trump has nominated Deputy Transportation Secretary Jeffrey Rosen to replace him.

When asked about his time as deputy attorney general, Rosenstein acknowledged that it had been "politically challenging," but added that he was "very confident that when we look back in the long run on this era of the Department of Justice, we'll be proud of the way the Department's conducted itself and the president will deserve credit for the folks that he appointed to run the department."

Fox News' Jason Donner, Catherine Herridge, Bree Tracey and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Spain prosecutors target Catalan chief in disobedience case

Prosecutors in Spain are bringing charges of disobedience against Catalan regional president Quim Torra after he allegedly failed to comply with orders from the country's electoral board.

Prosecutors said in a statement Wednesday the charges relate to Torra's alleged failure to remove eye-catching pro-independence symbols from the regional government's headquarters in Barcelona before Spain's April 28 general election.

The electoral board deemed the yellow ribbon symbols to be an unacceptable "tool of political propaganda." Elected officials and public institutions are prohibited from expressing support for one particular party or ideological position during a campaign period.

Torra argued it was a matter of free speech and requested a postponement of the deadline to remove the symbols.

A judge will assess the prosecutors' evidence before deciding whether to go to trial.

Source: Fox News World

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FILE PHOTO: The Credit Suisse logo is pictured on a bank in Geneva
FILE PHOTO: The Credit Suisse logo is pictured on a bank in Geneva, Switzerland, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

April 26, 2019

ZURICH (Reuters) – Shareholders approved Credit Suisse’s 2018 compensation report with an 82 percent majority on Friday, overriding frustrations expressed at its annual general meeting over jumps in executive pay during a year its share price plummeted.

Three shareholder advisers had recommended investors vote against Switzerland’s second-biggest bank’s remuneration report, while a fourth backed the report but expressed reservations about whether management pay matched performance.

The approval marked a slight increase over the 80.8 percent support garnered for the bank’s 2017 compensation report.

(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Michael Shields)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the trading floor of Barclays Bank at Canary Wharf in London
FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the trading floor of Barclays Bank at Canary Wharf in London, Britain December 7, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Simon Jessop and Sinead Cruise

LONDON (Reuters) – Activist investor Edward Bramson is likely to fail in his attempt to get a board seat at Barclays’ annual meeting next week, even though shareholders are dissatisfied with performance of the group’s investment bank.

New York-based Bramson’s Sherborne Investors and the board of the British bank have been sparring for months over Barclays’ strategy.

Bramson wants to scale back Barclays’ investment bank to reduce risk and boost shareholder returns. Barclays Chief Executive Jes Staley remains staunchly committed to growing the business out of trouble.

After failing to persuade Staley to change course since he began building a 5.5 percent stake in the bank in March last year, Bramson hopes a board seat will rachet up the pressure.

Both sides have written to shareholders pitching their case and Bramson has courted investors in one-on-one meetings, although none have publicly backed him yet.

Interviews by Reuters with five institutional investors in Barclays suggest Bramson has failed to persuade them.

Sherborne declined to comment.

Mirza Baig, head of investment stewardship at top-40 shareholder Aviva Investors, said Bramson was welcome on the bank’s register but the boardroom was a step too far.

“He has created a lot of value at other businesses, but, generally, when he has come in as executive chair and taken full control. This would be a different case where he would just be one lone voice on the board,” he said.

A second Barclays shareholder said he backed Bramson’s goal of improving returns but via an “evolutionary” approach.

“If you look at banks that have tried to restructure their operations in investment banking – you look at Natwest Markets, Deutsche Bank – I struggle to think of an example where a roughshod restructuring has been accretive to shareholder value.”

A third, top-30 investor said he had been impressed by incoming Chairman Nigel Higgins’ grasp of the challenge in hand, and felt investors would give him time.

“Management know they have to execute and deliver improved returns… [Higgins] will continue to re-shape the board but obviously he didn’t feel that having someone with a diametrically opposed view on it would be helpful.”

A fourth, top-30 investor agreed: “We voted for the chairman to come in and it would be crazy to allow an activist to join the board (at this time).”

Jupiter Fund Management, the 24th largest investor, said it also planned to vote against Bramson.

Barclays has nearly 500 institutional shareholders, Refinitiv data showed.

Since Staley joined Barclays in 2015, the investment bank returns relative to capital invested have increased but are still underperforming the overall business.

Barclays’ first-quarter figures showed the investment bank posted a 6 percent drop in income from its markets business and a 17 percent fall in banking advisory fees.

Returns in the investment bank fell to 9.5 percent from 13.2 percent a year ago.

Famed for successful campaigns against smaller British companies in sectors from chemicals to advertising, Bramson’s board seat pitch has been rebuffed by shareholder advisory firms.

Institutional Shareholder Services, the world’s biggest, said Bramson’s proposal “falls short of what can reasonably be expected from a shareholder trying to address issues at a 28 billion pounds, systemically important bank”.

Glass Lewis also flagged concern about Bramson’s lack of banking experience and “questionable” shareholding structure, referring to Sherborne’s use of derivative contracts to hedge losses should its strategy fail.

Critics said the arrangement meant his interests are not truly aligned with those of other long-term shareholders.

British advisory firm Pirc, however, said it recommended that investors abstain in the vote on Bramson’s proposal as a challenge to the board to do better in the year ahead – or face a similar contest in 2020.

(Editing by Jane Merriman)

Source: OANN

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https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2019/04/918/516/02_2.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

After an over 15-month pregnancy, “Akuti,” a 7-year-old Greater One Horned Indian Rhinoceros, gave birth as a result of induced ovulation and artificial insemination at Zoo Miami, April 23, 2019.

Ron Magill/Zoo Miami

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Source: Fox News World

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FILE PHOTO: File photo of a Chevron gas station sign in Del Mar, California
FILE PHOTO: A Chevron gas station sign is seen in Del Mar, California, in this April 25, 2013 file photo. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – U.S. oil and natural gas producer Chevron Corp reported a 27 percent fall in quarterly earnings on Friday, hit by lower crude prices and weaker margins in its refining and chemicals businesses.

Net income attributable to the company fell to $2.65 billion, or $1.39 per share, for the first quarter ended March 31, from $3.64 billion, or $1.90 per share, a year earlier.

Earlier in the day, larger rival Exxon Mobil Corp reported earnings well below analysts’ estimates, as margins in its refining business were hurt by higher Canadian prices and heavy scheduled maintenance.

(Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Ford logo is seen at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan
FILE PHOTO: The Ford logo is seen at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., January 15, 2019. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Ford Motor Co said on Friday the U.S. Department of Justice had opened a criminal investigation into the automaker’s emissions certification process in the United States.

The potential concern does not involve the use of defeat devices, the company said in a regulatory filing. (https://bit.ly/2VqjHpl)

Ford had voluntarily disclosed the matter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board in February.

(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by James Emmanuel)

Source: OANN

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