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Suspect arrested in Paris for anti-Semitic hate speech

Paris officials say that an individual has been arrested for a torrent of hate speech directed at Jewish philosopher Alain Finkielkraut during a Saturday march by yellow vest protesters.

The Paris prosecutor's office said Wednesday that the person was taken into custody Tuesday evening after a police inquiry was opened into a suspected public insult based on origin, ethnicity, nation, race or religion.

On Tuesday, thousands attended rallies across France to decry an uptick in anti-Semitic acts in recent months, including an attack on a cemetery where about 80 gravestones were spray-painted with swastikas. French President Emmanuel Macron observed a moment of silence with parliament leaders at the Holocaust museum in Paris.

France is home to the world's largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States.

Source: Fox News World

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Late Brazil cane harvest may catch sugar traders off-guard

A combine harvester cuts sugar cane in a field at the Sao Martinho sugar mill in Pradopolis
FILE PHOTO: A combine harvester cuts sugar cane in a field at the Sao Martinho sugar mill in Pradopolis, Brazil September 13, 2018. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker

March 26, 2019

By Marcelo Teixeira

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – A likely delay in the start of Brazil’s center-south cane harvest may catch some New York sugar futures players on the wrong foot, forcing those operators to cover positions, according to analysts and commodity traders.

Although Brazil’s 2019/20 center-south cane crop officially starts in April, many mills begin crushing earlier if their cane is ready. However, fields this year are developing late, after a dry spell in December and January, followed by ample March rain.

The late rainfall may lead some mills to hold off crushing to let the cane turn that moisture into better agricultural yields.

“If that happens, we will see traders running to deal with that lack of available sugar,” said Arnaldo Corrêa, a sugar industry analyst at Archer Consulting.

Last Friday, U.S. government data showed speculators had reduced their net short position in raw sugar on the ICE futures exchange, surprising many in the market.

Brazil is a big swing factor in the global sugar market due to the flexibility of its mills, which manage to go quicker or slower on processing, or direct more cane to ethanol versus sugar production, depending on prices.

“If there is a delay in crushing, then the supply of raw sugar that can be tendered against the May futures may be severely restricted,” an analyst at a large European trading house told Reuters.

“There will be a lot of debate about specifically how much cane will be crushed in the second half of March and in April,” said the analyst, requesting anonymity to speak openly.

The start to Brazil’s cane harvest has varied dramatically in recent years. In 2016, Brazilian mills crushed 80 million tonnes from mid-March to the end of April, but the crush in the same period of 2017 fell below 50 million tonnes.

Last year Brazil’s center-south crushed 67.7 million tonnes in that six-week stretch, producing 2.41 million tonnes of sugar. Analysts are forecasting less this year.

Datagro, a leading sugar and ethanol consultancy in Brazil, sees most mills pushing their first crush back by two weeks due to high ethanol inventories and slow cane development.

Brazilian cane industry group Unica said on Tuesday that just 27 center-south mills were operating in the first half of March, down from 50 at the same time last year.

If processing continues to lag, mills and traders that have already sold sugar in New York might roll their positions to July instead of delivering the sugar. That could leave buyers scrambling to find new supplies.

To be sure, a sunny forecast for early April in center-south Brazil could help to jumpstart crushing season, bringing sugar to the market as expected.

Dib Nunes, a Brazilian cane expert, said major cane areas near Presidente Prudente and Araçatuba are likely to see delays, but other parts of Sao Paulo state may not.

Not all of Brazil’s cash-strapped mills can afford to wait.

“A potential delay would be 15 or 20 days maximum, not more, because many mills also need to make cash,” he said.

(Reporting by Marcelo Teixeira; Editing by Brad Haynes and Susan Thomas)

Source: OANN

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Montenegrin authorities seize drugs on navy training ship

Montenegrin naval training ship
FILE PHOTO: Montenegrin naval training ship "Jadran" in Perast, Montenegro May 6, 2006. REUTERS/Stevo Vasiljevic

April 19, 2019

PODGORICA (Reuters) – Montenegrin military police have seized around 50 kilograms of drugs on board a naval training ship, hours before it was scheduled to take students on a training cruise, the defence ministry and local media said on Friday.

In a pre-dawn raid prompted by a tip-off, the military police found “tens of kilograms of matter that appears to be a psychoactive substance” inside Jadran, a sailing ship which was moored in the Adriatic port of Tivat, the ministry said.

Montenegrin navy divers have also searched the hull of the ship, it said in a statement.

The Podgorica-based daily Vijesti said authorities had seized as much as 50 kilograms of cocaine on board the vessel but that no arrests had been made.

Teachers and students of Montenegro’s Naval Faculty were not on board the vessel during the raid, the ministry said. They were expected to board the ship later and depart on a training cruise.

“Operatives of the police department and the military police … are taking steps to uncover the culprits,” the ministry said in a statement.

Jadran, once the main training ship of the now-defunct Yugoslav Naval Academy, was taken over by Montenegro’s navy after the country declared independence from Belgrade in 2006. It is used solely for training purposes.

Montenegro, a member of NATO, also aspires to join the European Union but it must first do more to tackle organized crime and corruption and to improve the rule of law.

(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Source: OANN

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Big phone bill? New car? Wealthier Egyptians lose subsidies, prompting complaints

A worker sells subsidized food commodities at a government-run supermarket in Cairo
FILE PHOTO: A worker sells subsidized food commodities at a government-run supermarket in Cairo, Egypt, February 14, 2016. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

March 28, 2019

By Nadine Awadalla

CAIRO (Reuters) – Many of the Egyptians crammed into a tent in a Cairo suburb have been told they are about to be kicked off the government’s food subsidy program because they are too wealthy.

The reason may be a good job, a newish car, a big phone or electricity bill or expensive school fees.

Some people have traveled across the country to reach the tent – the only place where they have the opportunity to convince officials in person that there has been a mistake.

If they fail, they will no longer be able to use a smart card that gives them access to subsidized rice, pasta and other food staples.

Pensioner Gamal Abdel Shakour, one of hundreds of people gathered in and around the tent during a recent visit by Reuters, said he’d been wrongly identified as spending more than 800 Egyptian pounds on his monthly phone bill.

“How can I be spending more than 800 pounds on my cellphone when my entire pension is roughly 650 pounds? Am I not going to eat?” said Shakour.

Changes to food support are highly sensitive in Egypt, where a decision to cut bread subsidies led to deadly riots across the country in 1977.

The latest effort to reform the 86 billion Egyptian pounds ($4.95 billion) a year food subsidy program does not touch bread, the country’s most important staple, and so far has only targeted one section of society – the better off.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has also cracked down on dissent, including public gatherings, making a repeat of the events more than 40 years ago unlikely.

But complaints over the implementation of the scheme are an early sign that Sisi’s bid to rein in generous state subsidies used by more than 60 million Egyptians may not be easy.

The officials involved in the latest reforms relocated from an office in a smarter part of the capital after the crowds made locals nervous.

The changes to the subsidy program that caused bread riots in 1977 were agreed as part of former President Anwar Sadat’s IMF loan deal. Sisi’s government has also turned to the IMF. In 2016, it signed a $12 billion loan.

The lender has specified that food subsidies should only reach those most in need. The loan program also involved raising fuel and electricity prices and a currency float.

This has contributed to soaring inflation that has eroded consumer spending power. Cheap food has helped ease the pain.

“With another round of steep energy subsidy cuts to be implemented this summer, the authorities would be mindful of not going overboard and risking food or hunger riots,” Naeem Brokerage head of research Allen Sandeep said.

The government has said there will be two more phases of the subsidy card reform, but it has not said who will be targeted.

CHAIRMEN AND GENERALS

The supply ministry made the first phase of changes to the program in November when it removed people who were dead or living overseas and then said in February its next target would be those with higher incomes.

“We’re talking about board chairmen, board members, head judges and generals, people like that,” Supply Minister Ali al- Moselhy told Reuters.

The holders of around 400,000 subsidy cards received the notice at the bottom of their food receipts in March to say they would be removed from the program in April, a spokesman for the ministry said.

Along with the 800-pound cellphone bill limit, anyone who spends 30,000 Egyptian pounds ($1,727.12) per child on school fees annually, uses an average of 650 KW of electricity per month, drives a car made in 2014 or later or has a high-paying job, would be automatically removed.

The ministry said it would accept complaints until the middle of April and they should be filed online. Many people were so worried that they wanted to do it in person instead.

“I don’t even have an electricity meter, how did they know my name and remove me for electricity consumption?” said Mahmoud Hassan, an older man from Cairo in the tent.

One woman in the queue that snaked around the outer wall was complaining about Sisi’s policies.

“Instead of spending his money on the poor, he keeps spending it on his men,” she said.

“They keep spending until the people will come and beat them with their shoes.”

“MORE NEEDY PEOPLE”

Sisi came to power after ousting former Islamist president Mohamed Mursi in 2013.

He hoped to repair the business environment and attract money back to Egypt after a 2011 uprising and the political turmoil that followed drove investors and tourists away.

The three-year IMF loan, which will be completed in the second half of 2019, unlocked badly needed funds that were tied to strict economic reforms.

While the government has yet to spell out the next phases of the food subsidy reform, the IMF has stressed that it should be aimed at helping the less well off.

“The food subsidy program remains poorly targeted and inefficient,” IMF staff wrote in a regular review of Egypt’s economy in January last year.

“Improving targeting could free up resources and reduce poverty among the low and middle income groups.”

The government has also been careful to say that the reforms are not aimed at shrinking the food subsidy bill, rather at targeting those most in need.

“We are here to provide social justice and social peace … We have to maintain our subsidy budget and manage it in a precise manner and to tell people, ‘please there are real needs for people who are more needy’,” Moselhy said on television.

Despite the complaints in the Cairo suburb, some poorer Egyptians support the food subsidy move. In a working class district of Cairo, one middle-aged woman was shopping for cooking oil.

“It was the first time I’ve heard… that there are people who can spend 30,000 pounds on school fees,” she said.

“What do they need our subsidy for?”

(Editing by Anna Willard)

Source: OANN

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U.S. services, private payrolls data highlight slowing economy

FILE PHOTO: A healthcare worker prepares for a patient at an onsite health clinic at the Intel corporate campus in Hillsboro
FILE PHOTO: A healthcare worker prepares for a patient at an onsite health clinic at the Intel corporate campus in Hillsboro, Oregon, U.S., April 25, 2018. REUTERS/Caroline Humer/File Photo

April 3, 2019

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. services sector activity hit a more than 19-month low in March and private payrolls grew less than expected, underscoring a loss of momentum in the economy that supports the Federal Reserve’s move to suspend interest rate hikes this year.

The reports on Wednesday came on the heels of some modestly upbeat data earlier in the week, including retail and motor vehicle sales and manufacturing. Investors are worried about a sharp slowdown in economic growth in the first quarter.

The Fed last month ended its three-year campaign to tighten monetary policy, dropping projections for any interest rate increases this year. The U.S. central bank lifted borrowing costs four times in 2018.

“The yin and yang of the numbers makes it clear that the year of tax-induced solid growth is over,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pennsylvania. “But growth is still decent.”

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its non-manufacturing activity index fell 3.6 percentage points to 56.1, the lowest since August 2017. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.

Last month’s sharp slowdown in services industry activity reflected a 7.3 points drop in the production subindex. Activity was also weighed down by decreases in new and export orders measures. A gauge of service sector employment rose. But many industries continued to believe that their inventories were too high, a potential hurdle for increased production.

The ISM said while businesses in the services sector remained mostly optimistic about overall business conditions and the economy, “they still have underlying concerns about employment resources and capacity constraints.”

It said 16 industries, including utilities, real estate, finance and insurance, healthcare and social assistance, information, and professional, scientific and technical services reported growth last month. The two industries reporting contraction were education services and retail trade.

WORKER SCARCITY

Businesses in the accommodation and food services industry complained that “labor is tight and in short supply.” Similar complaints were also voiced by businesses in the transportation and public administration sectors.

Miners said activity “held flat,” while businesses in the professional, scientific and technical services reported that an “initial surge in business at the beginning of the year has peaked and settled to a more stable level.”

The economy is losing speed as stimulus from the Trump administration’s $1.5 trillion in tax cuts diminishes. It is also facing headwinds from slowing global growth, Washington’s trade war with China and uncertainty over Britain’s exit from the European Union.

Growth estimates for the first-quarter range from as low as a 1.4 percent annualized rate to as high as a 2.1 percent pace. The economy grew at a 2.2 percent pace in the fourth quarter.

“For the most part, GDP source reports have firmed lately following some very weak readings around the turn of the year,” said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York. “The timelier survey data signal that the recent firming may be temporary.”

The dollar was trading lower against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury prices fell, while stocks on Wall Street rose.

The shortage of workers could be curbing job growth. The ADP National Employment Report on Wednesday showed private employers added 129,000 jobs in March, the fewest since September 2017, after creating 197,000 positions in February.

The ADP figures came ahead of the Labor Department’s more comprehensive non-farm payrolls report on Friday, which includes both public- and private-sector employment.

The ADP report, which is jointly developed with Moody’s Analytics, has a poor record predicting the private payrolls component of the government’s employment report. But job growth has slowed from last year’s 223,000 monthly average pace.

Economists polled by Reuters are looking for private payroll employment to have grown by 170,000 jobs in March, up from 25,000 the month before. Total non-farm employment is expected to have increased by 180,000 jobs after a paltry 20,000 gain in February.

“There is sure to be a bounce back in the official data given how weak February was, the only question is how big it will be?” said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.

According to the ADP report, employment in the goods producing sector fell by 6,000 jobs in March, with manufacturing payrolls shrinking 2,000 and construction shedding 6,000 positions. The services sector added 135,000 jobs last month, concentrated in professional and education and health services.

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Additional reporting by Dan Burns in New York; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Andrea Ricci)

Source: OANN

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Brexit compromise may rest on odd couple Corbyn and May

She is the strait-laced daughter of an Anglican priest who has championed conservative values all her life; he has for decades campaigned on issues dear to left-wingers all round the world.

Prime Minister Theresa May and Labour Party chief Jeremy Corbyn are poles apart, and there have been precious few signs of the two sharing any warmth for one another — but political reality has bound them together as Britain struggles to escape its Brexit agony.

May has infuriated more than 100 of her Conservative Party legislators by turning to Corbyn and the Labour Party for key votes in Parliament, just days before the country is due to leave the European Union.

Her pivot has led many to believe that she is ready to back a much softer version of Brexit — one that would keep Britain closely aligned economically with the EU. Their talks are ongoing, but given their history few think they will be able to find common ground.

May and Corbyn are ideological opponents representing different ends of the political spectrum.

However, they have similar problems: Both party leaders are perilously out of sync with many of their party's legislators.

May is viewed with suspicion by many of her lawmakers in part because she campaigned to remain in the EU during the 2016 referendum and is now reaching out to Corbyn for help getting her Brexit plan passed. Many argued this week that she should just take Britain out of the EU, even without a deal.

For Corbyn, the problem is similar: Many Labour legislators are still determined to keep Britain inside the EU via a second referendum, and they view Corbyn's pursuit of a so-called "soft Brexit" as a betrayal of that cherished goal. And they are angered by his acceptance that Brexit will mean an end to freedom of movement for Britons and EU citizens alike.

But that may be all they have in common.

May served a long apprenticeship in a variety of posts before becoming Conservative Party chairwoman in 2002. She moved into a senior Cabinet position as Home Secretary when the party took power in 2010.

She rose to prime minister not through an election but by outsmarting a number of rivals to emerge as party leader after David Cameron's resignation in 2016 — and she performed badly in an ill-timed general election that cost her party its majority in Parliament.

Corbyn's path to his party's top job was not as traditional. Elected to Parliament in 1983, he didn't take a job in government during the 13 years when Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were prime ministers. He was a serial opponent of many of their policies, notably the 2003 Iraq War.

He seemed destined to remain outside the mainstream, until Labour Party members surged his way in the 2015 leadership contest. He built on this startling triumph by doing unexpectedly well in the 2017 general election. He has taken the party far to the left of where it was in the Blair/Brown governments.

Some of his positions have infuriated the British establishment. He has, for example, ruled out the use of nuclear weapons under any circumstances if he becomes prime minister — a policy that defense chiefs believe ruins the effectiveness of Britain's costly nuclear deterrent.

At times he has also seemed weak on etiquette. Some commentators complained he looked scruffy in a casual hooded raincoat on Remembrance Sunday in November, one of the most solemn events on the British calendar.

May, in contrast, wore an elegant black overcoat and a matching hat, looking every inch the leader as she placed a wreath on the Cenotaph monument to honor Britain's war dead.

Both at times seem wearied by the political combat. May has acknowledged her weakened position by promising to step down once Brexit is delivered — which will open the way for a fierce Conservative Party succession battle. Some allies have suggested that Corbyn, too, is thinking about retirement after 36 years in Parliament.

Source: Fox News World

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Volkswagen’s Skoda Auto posts 2.9 percent drop in first-quarter deliveries

FILE PHOTO: Skoda's logo is seen on a car after a presentation of the company's annual results in Mlada Boleslav
FILE PHOTO: Skoda's logo is seen on a car after a presentation of the company's annual results in Mlada Boleslav March 20, 2013. REUTERS/David W Cerny/File Photo

April 11, 2019

PRAGUE (Reuters) – Czech carmaker Skoda Auto, a unit of Volkswagen, posted a 2.9 percent drop in global deliveries in the first quarter, pulled down by a decline in the Chinese car market, it said on Thursday.

Deliveries fell to 307,600 vehicles in the first three months of 2019, although Skoda said it recorded growth in Europe and Russia.

For March alone, deliveries worldwide fell 5.0 percent to 114,200, Skoda said.

(Reporting by Jason Hovet)

Source: OANN

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Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner said Tuesday that a detailed plan for a merit-based immigration system will be presented to President Trump, giving priority to skilled immigrants rather than those with family ties to the U.S.

“I do believe that the president’s position on immigration has been maybe defined by his opponents by what he’s against as opposed to what he’s for,” Kushner said at the Time 100 Summit in New York City. “What I’ve done is I’ve tried to put together a very detailed proposal for him.”

KUSHNER: RUSSIA INVESTIGATION HAD ‘HARSHER IMPACT’ ON US THAN ELECTION MEDDLING

Kushner announced that the new immigration proposal, which Trump will receive this week or next, will resemble the point-based systems in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and will unify people by ensuring strong wages and secure borders while protecting humanitarian values.

“We want to protect our country’s humanitarian values. We want to make sure we’re reunifying families, and we want to do this in a way that allows our country to be competitive long term,” he said. “And my hope is we can really do something that unifies people around what we’re for on immigration.”

“We want to protect our country’s humanitarian values. We want to make sure we’re reunifying families, and we want to do this in a way that allows our country to be competitive long term. And my hope is we can really do something that unifies people around what we’re for on immigration.”

— Jared Kushner

JARED KUSHNER RESPONDS AFTER HASAN MINHAJ CALLS OUT HIS TIES TO SAUDI PRINCE

Kushner denied in the same talk that he has clashed with White House staffer Stephen Miller, who’s seen as tougher on immigration than others, adding that the plan was concocted with the help of Miller and Kevin Hassett, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers.

“And I say that If that if I can get Stephen Miller and Kevin Hassett to agree on an immigration plan, then Middle East peace will be easy by comparison,” Kushner joked, referring to the Israel-Palestine peace plan he’s working on.

“And I say that If that if I can get Stephen Miller and Kevin Hassett to agree on an immigration plan, then Middle East peace will be easy by comparison.”

— Jared Kushner

After the plan gets presented to Trump, it will likely undergo some changes and then he will decide when to proceed with it, Kushner said.

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“It’s very, very complicated, but it’s a very interesting issue, and if we can solve it, I do think it’s a critical component for America’s long-term competitive advantage,” he added.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday said his government must make men aware of the dangers of poor hygiene after expressing dismay over the 1,000 penis amputations that apparently occur in his country each year.

“In Brazil, we have 1,000 penis amputations a year due to a lack of water and soap,” he said while speaking to reporters in Brasilia after visiting the Education Ministry. “We have to find a way to get out of the bottom of this hole.”

The far-right leader called the figure “ridiculous and sad,” Reuters reported. A spokeswoman for the Brazilian urology society told the news agency the number is based on its official data for penis amputations.

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The amputations were conducted out of necessity over untreated infections, along with complications from HIV and various cancers, she said.

Source: Fox News World

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A top Russian diplomat says Russia is willing to negotiate a new nuclear weapons treaty with the United States and China.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters on Friday Moscow is closely following reports in the United States that the U.S. would like to reach a nuclear weapons deal with both Russia and China, and is “willing” to negotiate. The story was reported by CNN earlier Friday.

Ryabkov also said that Russia “would like to convince” the U.S. to adopt a joint statement that would condemn any use of nuclear weapons.

Ryabkov’s comments come just months after the U.S. withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a cornerstone of the post-Cold War security, and Russia followed suit. Each claims breaches by the other.

Source: Fox News National

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Government dysfunction and an intelligence failure that preceded the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka are traced to simmering divisions between the president and prime minister after a weekslong political crisis that crippled the country last year.

The government has admitted to a “lapse of intelligence” after officials failed to act upon near-specific information received from foreign agencies. Suicide bombers exploded themselves last Sunday in three churches and three luxury hotels, killing 253 people and wounding 400 more. Authorities said eight Muslim militants blew themselves up at their targets while the wife of one of the attackers blasted herself on being rounded up by police.

The carnage has brought forth arguments that worshippers and holidaymakers fell victim to the rivalry and a lack of communication between the country’s two leaders — President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The Cabinet led by Wickremesinghe says neither he nor his ministers were informed of the intelligence received by the defense authorities. Sirisena is the head of state, defense minister, minister in charge of the police and head of the armed forces. He also chairs the National Security Council, which includes the heads of security agencies and departments. Traditionally the prime minister also plays an important role on the council.

According to Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne, Sirisena has not included Wickremesinghe in national security affairs since a dispute between them came into the open in October last year. This is an unusual departure from the protocol, he said.

Senaratne said that Sirisena was overseas when the attacks took place and even after that, the National Security Council refused to meet with Wickremesinghe as he tried to give them instructions.

Sirisena has also said that he was not informed of the intelligence received and vowed to overhaul the leadership of the defense forces.

The top bureaucrat at the Defense Ministry, Hemasiri Fernando, has resigned at Sirisena’s insistence.

“It is a major factor,” said Jehan Perera, the head of local activist group National Peace Council, referring to the alleged lack of coordination between the leaders contributing to the failure to prevent the attacks.

“The primary responsibility has to be taken by the president, he did not give the information and he did not act,” Perera said. “He had the Ministry of Defense, took the police from the prime minister, chaired the National Security Council meetings and did nothing,” Perera said.

Kusal Perera, a journalist and political commentator, says security and intelligence officials should have acted on the information whether or not they received orders from politicians.

“If they (Wickremesinghe and his party) were not invited to the National Security Council, why did not they say in Parliament that they were not responsible for the security of the country any longer,” said Perera, who is not related to Jehan Perera.

“Saying that now is taking political advantage, not taking responsibility,” he said.

Sirisena and Wickremesinghe belong to different political parties but came together for Sirisena’s presidential campaign in 2015. Their relationships broke down and their differences exploded last year when Sirisena suddenly sacked Wickremesinghe as prime minister and appointed in his place former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa, whom he defeated in the presidential election. The crisis crippled the country for more than seven weeks to the point of not being able to pass this year’s national budget on time.

A court decision compelled Sirisena to reappoint Wickremesinghe, but the two leaders have been rivals within the same government.

Rajapaksa, who is the minority leader in Parliament, blames the government for weakening intelligence and dropping its guard, which he had maintained to defeat the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels 10 years ago to end the 26-year-old civil war. He also criticized the government for the detention of intelligence officers accused of extrajudicial killings and abductions during the closing days of the war, which he said crippled the security apparatus before the bombings. According to conservative U.N estimates, some 100,000 people were killed in Sri Lanka’s conflict.

Sirisena summoned an all-party conference Thursday to which Wickremesinghe was also invited. At the conference, Sirisena stressed “setting aside all the political beliefs and difference (so that) everybody should collectively commit towards building a peaceful environment within the country,” a statement from his office said.

“It is not a secret that the disagreements between me and the government aggravated over the past two years,” Sirisena told the country’s media executives Friday. “One of the reasons for that is weakening of military intelligence and arresting military officials unnecessarily and my speaking up against it within and outside the government.”

Jehan Perera said that the security threat could prove politically advantageous to Rajapaksa and his family, with a presidential election scheduled at the end of this year. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, a younger brother of Mahinda, was the powerful defense secretary during his brother’s reign and has expressed his interest to join the contest.

“People are saying we want a stronger leader and they are talking about Gotabhaya. It (the blasts) has worked to their benefit,” Perera said.

Source: Fox News World

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Cyprus police are intensifying a search for the remains of more victims at locations where an army officer, who authorities say admitted to killing five women and two girls, allegedly had dumped their bodies.

Police said Friday’s search will concentrate on a military firing range, a reservoir and a man-made lake near an abandoned mine approximately 32 kilometers (20 miles) west of the capital Nicosia.

On Thursday, the 35-year-old suspect told investigators that he had killed four more people than he had previously admitted to. All the suspect’s alleged victims are foreign nationals.

Police have already found the bodies of a 38-year-old Filipino woman and two as yet unidentified women.

Search crews are now looking for the daughter of the 38-year-old, a Romanian mother and daughter and another Filipino woman.

Source: Fox News World

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