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Cycling: 2020 Tour de France to get off to hilly start

Nice mayor Estrosi, and Tour de France director Prudhomme attend a news conference for the official presentation of the 2020 Grand Depart of the Tour de France cycling race in Paris
Nice mayor Christian Estrosi, Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme,Thierry Gouvenou, the Tour de France Sporting Director, and Yann Le Moenner, CEO of Amaury Sport Organisation, attend a news conference for the official presentation of the 2020 Grand Depart of the Tour de France cycling race at the Opera de Nice in Nice, France, March 18, 2019. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

March 18, 2019

NICE, France (Reuters) – The 2020 Tour de France will get off to a hilly start with two stages around Nice, organizers said on Monday.

The opening stage will be a 170-km ride around the Azurean city but is expected to be decided in a bunch sprint finish.

It will serve as a warm-up for the 190-km trek featuring three climbs with the overall contenders expected to already be at their best.

The peloton will tackle the Col de Colmiane before the Col de Turini and the Col d’Eze.

The Col de Turini featured in this year’s edition of Paris-Nice while the Col d’Eze is a regular on the ‘Race to the Sun’.

The 2020 Tour will be held from June 27-July 19.

(Writing by Julien Pretot; Editing by Christian Radnedge)

Source: OANN

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Collins Asks Barr to Back Off Affordable Care Act

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, wrote to Attorney General William Barr on Monday asking him to reverse the Justice Department’s position on the Affordable Care Act, CNN reports.

Last Monday, in a filing with a federal appeals court, the DOJ sided with a federal judge in Texas who ruled that the ACA is invalid, a significant departure from the department’s position under former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

"Rather than seeking to have the courts invalidate the ACA, the proper route for the Administration to pursue would be to propose changes to the ACA or to once again seek its repeal. The Administration should not attempt to use the courts to bypass Congress," Collins wrote to Barr in a letter on Monday.

"It is implausible that Congress intended protections for those with pre-existing conditions to stand or fall together with the individual mandate, when Congress affirmatively eliminated the penalty while leaving these and other critical consumer protections in place," she continued. "If Congress had intended to eliminate these consumer protections along with the individual mandate, it could have done so. It chose not to do so."

The senator added that the DOJ’s position on the issue "puts at risk not only critical consumer provisions" like the pre-existing conditions rule and "the Medicaid expansion, dependent coverage for young adults over age 26, coverage for preventive services, and the regulatory pathway for FDA approval of biosimilars."

Source: NewsMax Politics

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Ex-Obama adviser David Axelrod condemns 'weird turn' in Jussie Smollett case

In a thread on Twitter, ex-Obama adviser David Axelrod condemned “this weird turn in the (Jussie) Smollett case.”

He tweeted Tuesday afternoon: “Unless some better explanation surfaces, here’s the lesson of this weird turn in the Smollett case: You can contrive a hate crime, make it a national news, get caught and-if you are a well-connected celebrity-get off for $10K and have your record expunged and files sealed.”

JUSSIE SMOLLETT'S ALLEGED HATE CRIME ATTACK: A TIMELINE OF EVENTS

In an astonishing reversal, prosecutors on Tuesday abruptly dropped all charges against Smollett, abandoning the case barely five weeks after the “Empire” actor was accused of lying to police about being the target of a racist, anti-gay attack in downtown Chicago.

Smollett’s attorneys said his record had “been wiped clean” of the 16 felony counts related to making a false report that he was assaulted by two men. The actor insisted that he had “been truthful and consistent on every single level since day one.”

Axelrod, who majored in political science at the University of Chicago and now is a political consultant and analyst, added on Twitter, “No. Sorry, folks. The brief statement offered by the prosecutor didn’t dispute the basic facts in the original charge. That’s why he was compelled to sacrifice his bond. They simply said that in light of his voluntary work in the community, this was a just resolution.”

The former political writer for the Chicago Tribune concluded: “Hate crimes are loathsome. Faking them is insidious and shouldn’t be excused. Despite Smollett’s denials, nothing the prosecutor said in dismissing the case supports that. If prosecutors have evidence that contradicts the indictment THEY brought, they should share it today.”

The mayor and police chief blasted the decision and stood by the investigation that concluded Smollett staged a hoax. A visibly angry Mayor Rahm Emanuel called it “a whitewash of justice” and lashed out at Smollett, asking, “Is there no decency in this man?”

Emanuel, who is in his final weeks in office after two terms, said the city saw its reputation “dragged through the mud” by Smollett’s alleged plan to promote his career. The hoax, the mayor said, could endanger other gay people who report hate crimes.

“Now this casts a shadow of whether they’re telling the truth, and he did this all in the name of self-promotion,” he said.

Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson stood by the department’s investigation and said Chicago is “is still owed an apology.”

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It was not immediately clear what prompted the decision to dismiss the case. In a statement, the Cook County prosecutors’ office offered no detailed explanation. The city will keep the $10,000 in bail money that Smollett paid to get out of jail after his arrest.

“After reviewing all of the facts and circumstances of the case, including Mr. Smollett’s volunteer service in the community and agreement to forfeit his bond to the City of Chicago, we believe this outcome is a just disposition and appropriate resolution to this case,” said the statement from spokeswoman Tandra Simonton.

Typically, a minimum condition of dropping cases is some acceptance of responsibility.

Outside court, neither Smollett nor his legal team appeared to concede anything about his original report.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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NYC subway rider killed after clothing gets caught on train, report says

A New York City subway rider was killed at Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday after being dragged underneath a train, according to a report.

The victim, identified only as being 39 years old, apparently had a piece of clothing caught on the train, law enforcement sources told New York City’s WNBC-TV.

ALLEGED NYC SUBWAY SHOOTER, A SUSPECTED MS-13 MEMBER, WAS IN US ILLEGALLY, ICE SAYS

The victim was later found in the East River tunnel used by the No. 7 train line, which connects Manhattan and Queens. Service on the line was interrupted for several hours, the report said.

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The train also experienced “a mechanical problem as a result of the impact,” subway officials said in a Twitter message.

No further information was immediately available.

Source: Fox News National

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Schumer rails against 'ancient poison' of anti-Semitism in AIPAC remarks

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer lamented what he called the "ancient poison" of anti-Semitism Monday evening during a speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) annual conference in Washington, in which he criticized both President Trump and a fellow Democrat, freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, without mentioning either one by name.

"When someone says that being Jewish and supporting Israel means you’re not loyal to America, we must call it out. When someone looks at a neo-Nazi rally and sees some 'very fine people' among its company, we must call it out," Schumer, D-N.Y., said, referencing Trump's statements after the deadly violence at an August 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

"When someone suggests that money drives support for Israel, we must call it out," the 68-year-old New Yorker said, later adding: "You can be a Jew and care about Israel and it doesn’t make you any less of an American. You can be a Jew and lobby for Israel and it doesn’t make you any less of an American. It makes you a better American ... You can be, all at once, completely Jewish, completely pro-Israel, and completely American, and we are."

Those remarks referenced statements made by Omar earlier this year, when the congresswoman from Minnesota accused pro-Israel politicians of leading a "push for allegiance to a foreign country." That inflammatory statement came just a few weeks after she implied on Twitter that supporters of the Jewish state were "all about the Benjamins, baby."

Schumer also fired back at Trump's recent criticism in which the president claimed that the Democrats had become an "anti-Jewish" party, saying the claim was "demonstrably false" and "hurts the Israel-U.S. relationship."

"Plain and simple, the Democratic party supports Israel and we will continue to do so and we will maintain that bipartisan relationship through thick and thin. Israel depends on it," said Schumer, who also added that "it will always be wrong to use anti-Semitism as a political weapon, always."

OMAR'S 'ANTI-SEMITIC TROPES' PROMPT JEWISH NEW YORK DEM TO APOLOGIZE TO CONSTITUENTS 

"If you only care about anti-Semitism coming from your political opponents, you are not fully committed to fighting anti-Semitism," he said.

Schumer was the final speaker of the convention's second day, taking the stage hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo -- who was on hand as Trump signed a proclamation earlier in the day recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights 52 years after Israel seized the strategic highlands along the Syrian border during the Six-Day War.

In his remarks, Pompeo described anti-Semitism as "the world's oldest bigotry ... taking on an insidious new form in the guise of 'anti-Zionism.'"

"Don’t get me wrong, criticizing Israel’s policies is an acceptable thing to do in a democracy," the secretary of state said, "but criticizing the very existence of Israel is not acceptable. Anti-Zionism denies the very legitimacy of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people ... Let me go on record: Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism."

TOP 2020 DEMS SNUB AIPAC CONFERENCE WITH LITTLE OR NO EXPLANATION, MARKING FAR-LEFT SHIFT ON ISRAEL

Earlier Monday, Vice President Mike Pence addressed the most recent outbreak of violence in the Middle East, in which the Israeli military struck Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket attacks by the militant group, which Pence said "proves that Hamas is not a partner for peace."

"Hamas is a terrorist organization that seeks the destruction of Israel, and the United States will never negotiate with terrorist Hamas," said the vice president, who also criticized four Democrats running to unseat Trump in 2020 for skipping the event.

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"Anyone who aspires to the highest office in the land should not be afraid to stand with the strongest supporters of Israel in America," Pence said. "It is wrong to boycott Israel and it is wrong to boycott AIPAC."

The vice president also criticized Omar without naming her, saying: "Anti-Semitism has no place in the Congress of the United States, and any member who slanders those who support the historic alliance between the United States and Israel with such rhetoric should not have a seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Blind man reportedly first to run New York City Half marathon with team of guide dogs

A blind man ran the New York City Half Marathon on Sunday with help from a team of three guide dogs.

Thomas Panek, the president and CEO of Guiding Eyes for the Blind, ran the 13.1-mile marathon in what the organization called a record-setting situation. Guide dogs Westley, Waffle and Gus — the Running Guides Relay Team — led Panek on his run.

NEW YORK MAN AND HIS DOG RESCUE 2 DOGS WHO FELL INTO ICY WATER, VIDEO SHOWS

Panek told WABC-TV before the event that he believed "the biggest obstacle is just getting it done at a faster pace, moving with the dog, and keeping our footwork together."

"Dogs are running creatures. They love to move and run," he said. "A lot of times when we're walking our dogs we're holding them back — they want to get out there and have fun."

Westley, a black Labrador Retriever, joined the CEO during the first five miles of the race. Next, Waffle, a yellow Labrador Retriever, took the reins, and Gus, also a Labrador Retriever, helped Panek across the finish line.

Westley, according to the group, is a "social, loveable oaf who doesn’t realize how big he is," and his sister, Waffle, is the fastest member of the guide dogs running team "and the only girl!"

Gus was front and center after the race to accept the team medal with Panek, who finished the half marathon in 2 hours and 20 minutes.

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The race was seemingly Gus's final run, as Guiding Eyes wrote on Instagram Monday that he "has gracefully entered retirement." He'll be living out his days with Panek and his family "as a cherish pet," according to the organization.

And as for Waffle and Westley, the duo "will now wait to be matched with a handler who is blind or visually impaired."

Source: Fox News National

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Dems' conference call grapples with Mueller report's unknowns

A top Senate Democrat on the Judiciary Committee conceded in a conference call with party leaders Saturday that when the special counsel's principal findings are released by Attorney General William Barr, there may well be cause for celebration among President Trump's supporters -- many of whom have stood by the president for more than two years amid a torrent of unproven allegations that the Trump campaign illegally conspired with Russia in the 2016 election.

"It's the end of the beginning but it's not the beginning of the end," Delaware Democrat Sen. Chris Coons said, echoing his party's strategy of moving forward on to other investigations, including probes into Trump's financial dealings. "Once we get the principal conclusions of the report," he added later, "I think it's entirely possible that that will be a good day for the president and his core supporters."

The timing of that potentially good day now seems to be shifting toward Sunday, after sources said a disclosure Saturday of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's primary conclusions in his now-concluded Russia investigation wasn't expected. A personal lawyer for President Trump said that information was now expected about noon Sunday, though it had earlier been expected on Saturday and the timing remains fluid.

Mueller is not recommending any further indictments as part of his inquiry, which effectively ended Friday, according to a senior Justice Department official.

Fox News is told that Barr may run the conclusions past White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Emmett Flood, who were in Mar-a-Lago, before they are released -- but that Trump's personal attorneys are unlikely to be notified. It will likely take longer for the facts supporting the conclusions to come out, Fox News is told, because there may be materials that are either classified, or subject to executive privilege in the factual material.

WATCH THE MEDIA MELTDOWN: RACHEL MADDOW BECOMES VISIBLY EMOTIONAL AFTER MUELLER REPORT DROPPED, WITH NO NEW INDICTMENTS

House Democrats planned meetings by phone on Saturday to share what they know about the probe and to discuss how to move forward. Some prominent Democrats are floating the idea of issuing a subpoena to Mueller himself if his report is not made public.

People with signs supporting President Trump are seen from the media van in the motorcade accompanying the president in West Palm Beach, Fla., Friday. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

People with signs supporting President Trump are seen from the media van in the motorcade accompanying the president in West Palm Beach, Fla., Friday. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Fox News is told that impeachment was not mentioned on the Democrats' conference call. Fox News is told that part of the purpose of the discussion was to signal that just because the Mueller probe is over, that doesn’t mean that the House’s work is over. Democrats also discussed Congress' oversight role given that a sitting president, under DOJ guidelines, cannot be indicted.

Both parties have pushed the Justice Department to allow lawmakers to publicly discuss the report's conclusions, once lawmakers have received them from Barr.

The conclusion of Mueller's probe comes as House Democrats have launched several of their own into Trump and his personal and political dealings.

JEROME CORSI CELEBRATES END OF RUSSIA PROBE, SAYS HE'S VINDICATED IN DECISION TO RESIST MUELLER BULLYING

"It's the end of the beginning but it's not the beginning of the end."

— Delaware Democrat Sen. Chris Coons

Democrats have said they have to see the full report from Mueller, including underlying evidence, before they can assess it. Those demands for information are setting up a potential tussle between Congress and the Trump administration that federal judges might eventually have to referee.

Six Democratic committee chairmen wrote in a letter to Barr on Friday that if Mueller has any reason to believe that Trump "has engaged in criminal or other serious misconduct," then the Justice Department should not conceal it.

"The president is not above the law and the need for public faith in our democratic institutions and the rule of law must be the priority," the chairmen wrote.

Attorney General William Barr leaves his home in McLean, Va., on Saturday morning, March 23, 2019. Special counsel Robert Mueller closed his long and contentious Russia investigation with no new charges, ending the probe that has cast a dark shadow over Donald Trump's presidency. (AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz)

Attorney General William Barr leaves his home in McLean, Va., on Saturday morning, March 23, 2019. Special counsel Robert Mueller closed his long and contentious Russia investigation with no new charges, ending the probe that has cast a dark shadow over Donald Trump's presidency. (AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz)

It's unclear what Mueller has found related to the president, if anything. In his investigation of whether Trump's campaign coordinated with Russia to sway the 2016 election, Mueller has brought charges against 34 people, including six aides and advisers to the president, and three companies.

But Mueller did not charge any Americans with illegally conspiring with Russians on any matter, including election interference -- a foundational reason for the launch of his high-profile probe nearly two years ago.

Supporters of President Donald Trump are seen from the media van in the motorcade accompanying the president in West Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, March 23, 2019, en route to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Supporters of President Donald Trump are seen from the media van in the motorcade accompanying the president in West Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, March 23, 2019, en route to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Barr testified at his confirmation hearings that he wants to release as much information as he can about the inquiry.

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But anything less than the full report won't be enough for Democrats -- who on Saturday warned that they may soon set their sights on Mueller.

"If the AG plays any games, we will subpoena the report, ask Mr. Mueller to testify, and take it all to court if necessary," said Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y. "The people deserve to know."

Fox News' Ed Henry, Mike Emanuel, Brooke Singman, Chad Pergram, Jake Gibson, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers stand guard in front of a mosque as a Muslim man walks past him during the Friday prayers at a mosque, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Easter Sunday, in Colombo
FILE PHOTO: Sri Lankan Special Task Force soldiers stand guard in front of a mosque as a Muslim man walks past him during the Friday prayers at a mosque, five days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on Catholic churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Dinuka Liyanawatte/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Tom Lasseter and Shri Navaratnam

KATTANKUDY, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran was 12 years old when he began his studies at the Jamiathul Falah Arabic College. He was a nobody, with no claim to scholarship other than ambition.

Zahran and his four brothers and sisters squeezed into a two-room house with their parents in a small seaside town in eastern Sri Lanka; their father was a poor man who sold packets of food on the street and had a reputation for being a petty thief.

“His father didn’t do much,” recalled the school’s vice principal, S.M. Aliyar, laughing out loud.

The boy surprised the school with his sharp mind. For three years, Zahran practiced memorizing the Koran. Next came his studies in Islamic law. But the more he learned, the more Zahran argued that his teachers were too liberal in their reading of the holy book.

“He was against our teaching and the way we interpreted the Koran – he wanted his radical Islam,” said Aliyar. “So we kicked him out.”

Aliyar, now 73 with a long white beard, remembers the day Zahran left in 2005. “His father came and asked, ‘Where can he go?’.”

The school would hear again of Mohamed Zahran. And the world now knows his name. The Sri Lankan government has identified him as the ringleader of a group that carried out a series of Easter Sunday suicide bombings in the country on April 21.

The blasts killed more than 250 people in churches and luxury hotels, one of the deadliest-ever such attacks in South Asia. There were nine suicide bombers who blew apart men, women and children as they sat to pray or ate breakfast.

Most of the attackers were well-educated and from wealthy families, with some having been abroad to study, according to Sri Lankan officials.

That description does not, however, fit their alleged leader, a man said to be in his early 30s, who authorities say died in the slaughter. Zahran was different.

INTELLIGENCE FAILINGS

Sri Lanka’s national leadership has come under heavy criticism for failing to heed warnings from Indian intelligence services – at least three in April alone – that an attack was pending. But Zahran’s path from provincial troublemaker to alleged jihadist mastermind was marked by years of missed or ignored signals that the man with a thick beard and paunch was dangerous.

His increasingly militant brand of Islam was allowed to grow inside a marginalized minority community – barely 10 percent of the country’s roughly 20 million people are Muslim – against a backdrop of a dysfunctional developing nation.

The top official at the nation’s defense ministry resigned on Thursday, saying that some institutions under his charge had failed.

For much of his adult life, Zahran, 33, courted controversy inside the Muslim community itself.

In the internet age, that problem did not stay local. Zahran released online videos calling for jihad and threatening bloodshed.

After the blasts, Islamic State claimed credit and posted a video of Zahran, clutching an assault rifle, standing before the group’s black flag and pledging allegiance to its leader.

The precise relationship between Zahran and Islamic State is not yet known. An official with India’s security services, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that during a raid on a suspected Islamic State cell by the National Investigation Agency earlier this year officers found copies of Zahran’s videos. The operation was in the state of Tamil Nadu, just across a thin strait of ocean from Sri Lanka.

“LIKE A SPOILED CHILD”

Back in 2005, Zahran was looking to make his way in the world. His hometown of Kattankudy is some seven hours’ drive from Colombo on the other side of the island nation, past the countless palm trees, roadside Buddha statues, cashew hawkers and an occasional lumbering elephant in the bush. It is a town of about 40,000 people, a dot on the eastern coast with no clear future for an impoverished young man who’d just been expelled.

Zahran joined a mosque in 2006, the Dharul Athar, and gained a place on its management committee. But within three years they’d had a falling out.

“He wanted to speak more independently, without taking advice from elders,” said the mosque’s imam, or spiritual leader, M.T.M. Fawaz.

Also, the young man was more conservative, Fawaz said, objecting, for instance, to women wearing bangles or earrings.

“The rest of us come together as community leaders but Zahran wanted to speak for himself,” said Fawaz, a man with broad shoulders lounging with a group of friends in a back office of the mosque after evening prayers. “He was a black sheep who broke free.”

Mohamed Yusuf Mohamed Thaufeek, a friend who met Zahran at school and later became an adherent of his, said the problems revolved around Zahran’s habit of misquoting Islamic scriptures.

The mosque’s committee banned him from preaching for three months in 2009. Zahran stormed off.

“We treated him like a spoiled child, a very narrow-minded person who was always causing some trouble,” said the head of the committee, Mohamed Ismail Mohamed Naushad, a timber supplier who shook his head at the memory.

Now on his own, Zahran began to collect a group of followers who met in what Fawaz described as “a hut”.

At about that time, Zahran, then 23, married a young girl from a small town outside the capital of Colombo and brought his bride back to Kattankudy, according to his sister, Mathaniya.

“I didn’t have much of a connection with her – she was 14,” she said.

Despite being “a bit rough-edged”, Zahran was a skilled speaker and others his age were drawn to his speeches and Koranic lessons, said Thaufeek. He traveled the countryside at times, giving his version of religious instruction as he went.

Also, Zahran had found a popular target: the town’s Sufi population, who practice a form of Islam often described a mystical, but which to conservatives is heresy.

Tensions in the area went back some years. In 2004, there was a grenade attack on a Sufi mosque and in 2006 several homes of Sufis were set afire. Announcements boomed from surrounding mosques at the time calling for a Sufi spiritual leader to be killed, said Sahlan Khalil Rahman, secretary of a trust that oversees a group of Sufi mosques.

He blamed followers of the fundamentalist Wahhabi strain of Islam that some locals say became more popular after funding from Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Wahhabism, flowed to mosques in Kattankudy.

It was, Rahman said, an effort “to convert Sufis into Wahhabis through this terrorism”. Rahman handed over a photograph album showing charred homes, bullet holes sprayed across an office wall and a shrine’s casket upended.

ONLINE RADICAL

It was an ideal backdrop for Zahran’s bellicose delivery and apparent sense of religious destiny.

He began holding rallies, bellowing insults through loudspeakers that reverberated inside the Sufis’ house of worship as they tried to pray.

In 2012, Zahran started a mosque of his own. The Sufis were alarmed and, Rahman said, passed on complaints to both local law enforcement and eventually national government offices. No action was taken.

The then-officer in charge of Kattankudy police, Ariyabandhu Wedagedara, said in a telephone interview that he couldn’t arrest people simply because of theological differences.

     “The problem at the time was between followers of different Islamic sects – Zahran was not a major troublemaker, but he and followers of other sects, including the Sufis, were at loggerheads,” Wedagedara said.

Zahran found another megaphone: the internet. His Facebook page was taken down after the bombings, but Muslims in the area said his video clips had previously achieved notoriety.

His speeches went from denouncing Sufis to “kafirs”, or non-believers, in general. Zahran’s sister, Mathaniya, said in an interview that she thought “his ideas became more radical from listening to Islamic State views on the Internet”.

In one undated video, Zahran, in a white tunic and standing in front of an image of flames, boomed in a loud voice: “You will not have time to pick up the remains of blown-up bodies. We’ll keep sending those insulting Allah to hell.”

“HARD TO TAKE”

Zahran spoke in Tamil, making his words available to young Muslims clicking on their cellphones in Kattankudy and other towns like it during a period when, in both 2014 and 2018, reports and images spread of Sinhalese Buddhists rioting against Muslims in Sri Lanka.

In 2017, Zahran’s confrontations boiled over. At a rally near a Sufi community, his followers came wielding swords. At least one man was hacked and hospitalized. The police arrested several people connected to Zahran, including his father and one of his brothers. Zahran slipped away from public view.

That December, the mosque Zahran founded released a public notice disowning him. Thaufeek, his friend from school, is now the head. He counted the places that Zahran had been driven away from – his school, the Dharul Athar mosque and then, “we ourselves kicked him out, which would have been hard for him to take”.

The next year, a group of Buddha statues was vandalized in the town of Mawanella, about five hours drive from Kattankudy. There, in the lush mountains of Sri Lanka’s interior, Zahran had taken up temporary residence.

“He was preaching to kill people,” said A.G.M. Anees, who has served as an imam at a small mosque in the area for a decade. “This is not Islam, this is violence.”

Zahran went into hiding once more.

On the Thursday morning before the Easter Sunday bombings, Zahran’s sister-in-law knocked on the door of a neighbor who did seamstress work near Kattankudy. She handed over a parcel of fabric and asked for it to be sewn into a tunic by the end of the day.

“She said she was going on a family trip,” said the neighbor, M.H. Sithi Nazlya.

Zahran’s sister says that her parents turned off their cellphones on the Friday. On Sunday, when she visited their home, they were gone.

She does not know if Zahran arranged for them to be taken somewhere safe. Or why he would have carried out the bombing.

But now in Kattankudy, and in many other places, people are talking about Mohamed Hashim Mohamed Zahran.

(Reporting by Tom Lasseter and Shri Navaratnam; Additional reporting by Sanjeev Miglani, Shihar Aneez and Alasdair Pal; Editing by John Chalmers and Alex Richardson)

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A Wells Fargo logo is seen in New York City
FILE PHOTO: A Wells Fargo logo is seen in New York City, U.S. January 10, 2017. REUTERS/Stephanie Keith

April 26, 2019

By Jessica DiNapoli and Imani Moise

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wells Fargo & Co’s board has retained executive search firm Spencer Stuart to hunt for a new chief executive, ideally a woman who can tackle its regulatory and public perception issues, two people familiar with the matter said.

Wells Fargo’s ambition to become the only major U.S. bank with a female CEO underscores the need to restore its image with a wide range of constituents, including customers, shareholders, regulators and politicians, after it became mired in a scandal in 2016 for opening potentially millions of unauthorized accounts.

Former CEO Tim Sloan left abruptly last month, becoming the second CEO to leave the bank in the scandal’s fallout.

The board plans to approach Citigroup Inc’s Latin America chief Jane Fraser, one of the sources said. During Fraser’s 15-year tenure at Citigroup, she has gained experience running consumer and commercial businesses as well as its private bank.

Fraser could not be immediately reached for comment.

The board also discussed approaching JPMorgan Chase & Co’s Marianne Lake, but after the bank named her to run JPMorgan’s consumer lending business last week, that option became less viable, the source added. The board wants someone who can convince regulators, employees, investors and customers that the bank has fixed problems underpinning the sales scandal, the sources said.

The bank’s board feels that choosing a woman might please lawmakers in Washington who have been critical not only of Wells Fargo’s misbehavior, but of the broader banking industry for a lack of diversity and gender equality, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

It also believes that such a move could bolster Wells Fargo’s image with the households of customers where women play a leading role in managing finances, one of the sources added.

The new CEO will also have to resolve litigation and regulatory matters. There are 14 outstanding consent orders with government entities, as well as probes by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Labor and the Department of Justice.

To be sure, Spencer Stuart will approach and consider several male candidates for the CEO job as well, one of the sources said. The top priority is to find an external candidate who can navigate the bank’s regulatory issues, the source added.

Finding an outsider who meets all those qualifications and wants the job will be difficult, the sources said. There are few people with the necessary experience, even fewer of those who are women, and it is not clear if any of the obvious candidates would be open to taking the role.

The sources asked not to be identified because Wells Fargo’s board deliberations are confidential.

Spokespeople for Wells Fargo and Spencer Stuart declined to comment.

Wells Fargo’s board has not made any public statements about its requirements for a new CEO, beyond Chair Betsy Duke saying the job should attract the “top talent in banking.”

The board wants to complete the search within the next three to six months, one of the sources said.

STALLED SHARES

After Sloan’s ouster, Wells Fargo’s board appointed Allen Parker, who had been general counsel, as interim CEO. The board has said it is looking for an external candidate as a permanent replacement. It is not clear whether Parker will stay at the bank.

Others whose names have been mentioned by analysts, recruiters and industry sources as perspective CEO candidates include Alphabet Inc finance chief Ruth Porat and Bank of America Corp’s chief technology officer Cathy Bessant.

Wells Fargo shares have stalled since Sloan’s departure on March 29th, while the KBW Bank index has rallied more than 7 percent.

Wells Fargo would be “the best stock on earth to buy” if it had the right CEO, said Greg Donaldson, chairman of Donaldson Capital Management in Indiana.

Donaldson held about 50,000 Wells Fargo shares, but sold the stake last year as problems mounted. The CEO change could convince him to re-invest, depending on who it is, he told Reuters.

“It would be very smart for them to get a woman,” he said.

(Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli and Imani Moise in New York; Editing by Lauren Tara LaCapra, Greg Roumeliotis and Susan Thomas)

Source: OANN

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A worker walks on the roof of a new home under construction in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: A worker walks on the roof of a new home under construction in Carlsbad, California September 22, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake

April 26, 2019

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. economy is growing at a 2.08% annualized pace in the second quarter based on upbeat data on durable goods orders and new home sales in March, the New York Federal Reserve’s Nowcast model showed on Friday.

This was faster than the 1.92% growth rate calculated by the N.Y. Fed model the week before.

(Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Source: OANN

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Extraordinary European Union leaders summit in Brussels
FILE PHOTO: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte arrives at an extraordinary European Union leaders summit to discuss Brexit, in Brussels, Belgium April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Friday he had assured China’s Huawei Technologies that it would not face discrimination in the rollout of Italy’s 5G telecoms network.

Conte was speaking on a visit to China where he said he met Huawei’s chief executive, Ren Zhengfei. The prime minister’s comments were carried in Italy by TV broadcaster Sky Italia.

“I told him that we have adopted some precautions, some measures to protect our interests that demand very high levels of security … not only from Huawei but any company entering into the 5G arena,” he said.

Huawei, the world’s biggest producer of telecoms equipment, is under intense scrutiny after the United States told allies not to use its technology because of fears it could be a vehicle for Chinese spying. Huawei has categorically denied this.

(Writing by by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Angelo Amante)

Source: OANN

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U.S. President Trump departs for travel to Indianapolis from the White House in Washington
U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs for travel to Indianapolis, Indiana from the White House in Washington, U.S., April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

April 26, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Friday was expected to announce his intention to revoke the United States’ status as a signatory of the Arms Trade Treaty, which was signed in 2013 by then-President Barack Obama but never ratified by Congress, two U.S. officials said.

Trump was expected to announce the decision in a speech in Indianapolis, to the National Rifle Association, the officials said. The NRA, a powerful gun lobby group, has long been opposed to the treaty, which was negotiated at the United Nations.

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: OANN

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