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FILE PHOTO: A Nokia logo is seen at the company’s headquarters in Espoo, Finland, May 5, 2017. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins
April 25, 2019
HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finnish telecom network equipment maker Nokia reported a surprise quarterly loss on Thursday, citing hard competition in its core business, the networks unit.
Having signaled back in January “a particularly weak Q1”, Nokia reported a fall to an operating loss (non-IFRS) of 59 million euros ($66 million) from a profit of 239 million euros in the first quarter a year ago.
That compared with analysts’ profit expectation of 305 million in a Reuters poll.
The networks industry – dominated by Nokia, Sweden’s Ericsson and China’s Huawei – has been battered by years of slowing demand since 4G network sales peaked in the middle of the decade.
It is now readying for a new cycle of network upgrades as operators have started to invest in 5G equipment.
(Reporting by Anne Kauranen, Tarmo Virki in Helsinki; editing by Gopakumar Warrier)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, speaks at a rally with striking Stop & Shop workers in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
April 25, 2019
By John Whitesides and James Oliphant
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former Vice President Joe Biden, a moderate Democrat who has made his appeal to the disaffected working-class voters who deserted the party in 2016 a key part of his political identity, is set to launch his third run for the White House on Thursday.
Biden will announce his bid by video, according to a source familiar with the plans. He then is expected to make his first public appearance as a candidate on Monday at an event in Pittsburgh featuring union members, a key constituency.
Biden, 76, had been wrestling for months over whether to run. His candidacy will face numerous questions, including whether he is too old and too centrist for a Democratic Party yearning for fresh faces and increasingly propelled by its more vocal liberal wing.
Still, he starts as the leader of the pack in opinion polls of a Democratic field that now will total 20 contenders seeking the chance to challenge President Donald Trump, the likely Republican nominee, in November 2020. [nL1N2260LS]
Critics say Biden’s standing in polls is largely a function of name recognition for the former U.S. senator from Delaware, whose more than four decades in public service includes eight years as President Barack Obama’s No. 2 in the White House.
As speculation about his bid mounted, Biden faced new questions about his longtime propensity for touching and kissing strangers at political events, with several women coming forward to say he had made them feel uncomfortable.
Biden struggled in his response to the concerns, at times joking about his behavior. But ultimately, he apologized and said he recognized standards for personal conduct had evolved in the wake of the #MeToo movement. [nL1N21L1HG]
Trump and his allies seized on the flap, attempting to weaken perhaps his top rival before Biden entered the race.
Even so, Biden was determined to push forward, arguing his background, experience and resume best positioned him to take on Trump next year.
In a speech to union members in April, Biden called Trump a “tragedy in two acts.”
“This country can’t afford more years of a president looking to settle personal scores,” he said.
Biden’s candidacy will offer early hints about whether Democrats are more interested in finding a centrist who can win over the white working-class voters who went for Trump in 2016, or someone who can fire up the party’s diverse progressive wing, such as Senators Kamala Harris of California, Bernie Sanders of Vermont or Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Biden’s long history in the Senate, where he was a leading voice on foreign policy, will give liberal activists plenty to criticize. As Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, he angered women’s rights activists with his handling of sexual harassment allegations against Clarence Thomas during the justice’s 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearings.
He also has been criticized for his ties to the financial industry, which is prominent in his home state of Delaware, and for his authorship of the 1994 crime act that led to increased incarceration rates.
Biden has been one of the party’s more aggressive Trump critics. Last year, he said he would “beat the hell” out of Trump if the two were in high school because of the way the president has talked about women. That prompted Trump to call him “Crazy Joe Biden” and claim on Twitter that Biden would “go down fast and hard, crying all the way” if they fought.
Biden later lamented the exchange, saying “I shouldn’t get down in the mosh pit with this guy.”
Known for his verbal gaffes on the campaign trail, Biden failed to gain traction with voters during his previous runs in 1988 and 2008.
He dropped his 1988 bid amid allegations he plagiarized some of his stump oratory and early academic work. But his experience and strong debate performances in 2008 impressed Obama enough that he tapped Biden as his running mate.
Biden decided against a 2016 presidential bid after a lengthy public period of indecision as he wrestled with doubts about whether he and his family were ready for a grueling campaign while mourning his son Beau, who died of brain cancer in May 2015. His son had urged him to run.
Biden faced some of the same family considerations this time around, as he is still coping with Beau’s death while his other son, Hunter, has gone through a divorce amid a reported relationship with Beau’s widow.
(Reporting by John Whitesides and James Oliphant; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Jonathan Oatis)
Source: OANN
Police keep watch outside the family home of a bomber suspect where an explosion occurred during a Special Task Force raid, following a string of suicide attacks on churches and luxury hotels, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
April 25, 2019
By Sanjeev Miglani
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lankan authorities swept up more people, including foreigners, for questioning on Thursday as they probed deeper into the Easter Sunday bombings, which killed 359 people in potentially the deadliest operation claimed by Islamic State.
Police said an Egyptian and several Pakistanis were among those detained overnight, although there was no immediate suggestion they had direct links to the attacks on three churches and four hotels that also wounded about 500 people.
An explosion occurred in a town east of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, on Thursday but there were no casualties, a police spokesman said, adding it was not a controlled explosion like other blasts in recent days and was being investigated.
A picture has emerged slowly since Sunday of a group of nine well-educated, home-grown Islamist suicide bombers, including a woman, who carried out the attacks in the Indian Ocean island country.
However, Sri Lankan and international authorities have also focused their investigations on international links to domestic Islamist groups – National Thawheed Jama’ut and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim – they believed carried out the attacks.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks but offered no firm information to back up its claim.
The Islamist group released a video on Tuesday that showed eight men, all but one with their faces covered, standing under a black Islamic State flag and declaring their loyalty to its leader, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.
The one man in the video with his face uncovered has been identified as Mohamed Zahran, a preacher from the east of Sri Lanka known for his militant views who officials believe was the attack’s mastermind.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday another of the bombers had lived in Australia with his wife and child on a student visa but left the country in 2013.
Morrison did not identify the man, although his family have said his name was Abdul Latheef Mohamed Jameel.
“I can confirm that the suicide bomber had been in Australia,” Morrison told reporters.
MORE PEOPLE DETAINED
Police said on Thursday 16 more people were detained for questioning overnight, taking the number detained since Sunday to at least 76. That number includes a Syrian national.
A police statement said one of those detained overnight was linked to a “terrorist organization” but gave no other details.
It said another was taken into custody after they investigated posts on the individual’s Facebook page and found what they described as “hate speech”.
“It was related to the spreading and preaching of terrorism,” a police spokesman said.
Others have also been caught up in the broader crackdown.
Police said they detained an Egyptian who was found not to have a valid visa or passport. The man taught Arabic in a school about 70 km (45 miles) from the capital, Colombo, and had been living in Sri Lanka for more than seven years.
A police spokesman also said that a group of Pakistanis had also been detained among an unspecified number of foreign nationals for overstaying their visas.
The bombings shattered the relative calm that has existed in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka since a civil war against mostly Hindu, ethnic Tamil separatists ended 10 years ago, and raised fears of a return to sectarian violence.
President Maithripala Sirisena will meet representatives of different faiths later on Thursday to address concerns of a sectarian backlash.
Sri Lanka’s 22 million people include minority Christians, Muslims and Hindus. Until now, Christians had largely managed to avoid the worst of the island’s conflict and communal tensions.
Hundreds of Muslims have fled the Negombo region on Sri Lanka’s west coast since scores of worshippers were killed in the bombing of the St. Sebastian church there on Sunday. Communal tensions have since flared.
Hundreds of Pakistani Muslims fled the port city on Wednesday, crammed into buses organized by community leaders after threats of revenge.
“Because of the bomb blasts and explosions that have taken place here, the local Sri Lankan people have attacked our houses,” Adnan Ali, a Pakistani Muslim, told Reuters as he prepared to board a bus.
Sri Lankan officials have said they believed the bombings were carried out in retaliation for the March 15 attacks by a lone gunman on two mosques in New Zealand that killed 50 people.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said she has seen no evidence to support that claim.
Most of the Easter Sunday victims were Sri Lankans, although authorities have confirmed at least 38 foreigners were also killed. These included British, U.S., Australian, Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Danish, Dutch and Portuguese nationals.
(Reporting by Sanjeev Miglani; Additional reporting by Shihar Aneez in COLOMBO, Alasdair Pal and Sunil Kataria in NEGOMBO and Will Ziebell in MELBOURNE; Writing by Paul Tait; Editing by Michael Perry)
Source: OANN
Apr 24, 2019; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez (57) throws a pitch against the Detroit Tigers in the first inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
April 25, 2019
Eduardo Rodriguez shined over six innings, and J.D. Martinez collected a season-high three hits to lead the Boston Red Sox to an 11-4 win over the visiting Detroit Tigers on Wednesday.
Rodriguez (2-2) struck out seven while allowing one run on two hits and three walks. He kept the Tigers hitless over his first 4 1/3 innings as the Red Sox rebounded from a doubleheader sweep on Tuesday.
After Brandon Workman struck out the side for Boston in the seventh, Matt Barnes did the same in the eighth, though Detroit had loaded the bases with two outs while down 4-1. Barnes fanned Ronny Rodriguez on three pitches to escape the jam.
The Red Sox sent 12 men to the plate and scored seven runs in the bottom of the eighth to make it a blowout. Three came home on bases-loaded walks.
Astros 7, Twins 1
Justin Verlander gave up four hits and a run over eight innings to pick up his fourth win, and Michael Brantley, Carlos Correa and Josh Reddick each homered to lead Houston to victory over visiting Minnesota.
It was the seventh straight victory for Verlander (4-0) dating back to last season. He struck out eight and didn’t walk a batter while improving to 20-9 all-time against the Twins and becoming the first Houston starter to pitch past the seventh inning this season.
Brantley, Reddick and Robinson Chirinos each had two hits for Houston, which won the series 2-1. Jorge Polanco homered for Minnesota. Kohl Stewart (0-1), recalled from Triple-A Rochester earlier in the day, took the loss.
Phillies 6, Mets 0
Vince Velasquez combined with four relievers on a six-hit shutout for visiting Philadelphia, which blew open a close game by scoring three times in the eighth inning to beat New York.
The Phillies, who were outscored 14-1 in losing the first two games of the three-game series, won for just the second time in the last seven games.
Velasquez (1-0) danced around trouble all night and had just one 1-2-3 inning, but he stranded seven baserunners in his five innings, including five in scoring position. The right-hander allowed three hits and three walks while striking out six.
Padres 1, Mariners 0
Rookie right-hander Chris Paddack allowed one hit over seven shutout innings and Ian Kinsler homered on the first pitch he saw from Felix Hernandez as San Diego defeated visiting Seattle.
Paddack and relievers Trey Wingenter and Kirby Yates combined on a two-hit shutout and retired 24 of the last 25 Mariners they faced — with the only baserunner during the stretch erased on a game-ending double play turned by rookie shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr.
Paddack (1-1) picked up his first major league win in a pitching duel with Mariners veteran Hernandez (1-2). The 6-foot-5, 23-year-old Paddack retired the last 19 Mariners he faced after working out of a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the first.
Cardinals 5, Brewers 2
Marcell Ozuna and Yadier Molina homered in a four-run fourth inning, and St. Louis completed a three-game sweep of visiting Milwaukee as the Cardinals won their fifth straight overall.
Ozuna, Paul Goldschmidt, Lane Thomas and Paul DeJong had two hits each for St. Louis. Brewers first baseman Eric Thames homered for the Brewers in the 10th meeting between these teams already this season. St. Louis right-hander Adam Wainwright (2-2) went six innings, allowing one run and four hits with three strikeouts and a walk.
Brewers starter Jhoulys Chacin (2-3) did not allow a hit through the first three innings, but he gave up back-to-back singles to Goldschmidt and DeJong to open the fourth before Ozuna lined a three-run homer over the fence in left for a 3-1 lead.
Royals 10, Rays 2
Kansas City snapped a five-game overall losing streak — and a 10-game skid against Tampa Bay — with a victory in St. Petersburg, Fla. It was the first time this season the Royals have scored 10 runs.
Adalberto Mondesi homered and had four RBIs for the Royals, who went 6-13 in a 19-day stretch without a day off. Kansas City is off Thursday.
Jakob Junis (2-2) pitched five solid innings, allowing one run on four hits with six strikeouts and two walks. But he had to leave after taking a line drive off his pitching hand to end the fifth, suffering a contusion. Blake Snell (2-2) took the loss for Tampa Bay in his first start after coming off the 10-day injured list due to a broken toe on his right foot.
Athletics 6, Rangers 5
Chad Pinder dumped a game-winning single into shallow right-center field that scored Stephen Piscotty with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, as host Oakland took advantage of a Texas defensive miscue to complete a three-game sweep.
In a game that featured five home runs — including a three-run shot by the A’s Marcus Semien in the second inning and a pair of solo shots by the Rangers’ Nomar Mazara — Oakland’s winning rally was the product of a pair of singles sandwiching a stolen base, which occurred when Texas forgot to cover second base on Piscotty’s steal attempt.
Pinder then hit the next pitch by the Rangers’ fourth pitcher, Chris Martin (0-2), for the walk-off single. A’s closer Blake Treinen (1-1), who escaped a two-on, one-out situation in the top of the ninth by inducing a double-play grounder, got the win.
Cubs 7, Dodgers 6
Javier Baez and Jason Heyward each hit three-run home runs in a six-run sixth inning, and Anthony Rizzo also doubled and drove in a run for Chicago, which won for the seventh time in eight games.
Cody Bellinger and Alex Verdugo homered for Los Angeles. The Dodgers have dropped three of four.
Cubs right-hander Brad Brach (2-0) earned the win in relief, retiring the only two batters he faced to close out the sixth inning. He replaced Cole Hamels, who gave up three runs on three hits with six walks and seven strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings. Dodgers left-hander Scott Alexander (1-1) drew the loss after giving up three runs in one-third of an inning.
Rockies 9, Nationals 5
Charlie Blackmon homered, Raimel Tapia had two doubles and three RBIs, and Colorado beat Washington in Denver as Trevor Story doubled and tripled to extend his hitting streak to 13 games, which ties his career high.
David Dahl had three hits, and Nolan Arenado drove in three runs for the Rockies. German Marquez (3-1) allowed three runs on eight hits and struck out seven over seven innings. He bounced back after pitching with an infected tooth in his previous start. Marquez had the tooth pulled.
Wade Davis got the final out for his third save. Juan Soto homered and Matt Adams had three hits for the Nationals. Jake Noll’s first career hit was an RBI double in the second inning that gave the Nationals a 1-0 lead.
Giants 4, Blue Jays 0
Left-hander Drew Pomeranz pitched six innings, Pablo Sandoval hit a home run and visiting San Francisco defeated Toronto to complete a quick two-game sweep.
Pomeranz (1-2) gave up two hits and two walks while striking out five as the Giants swept the two-game series. Two Giants relievers retired the final nine Toronto batters of the game. Toronto starter Clay Buchholz (0-1) gave up six hits and four runs in five-plus innings, striking out two and not walking a batter.
After the game, Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo told reporters that Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the top-ranked prospect in baseball, will be called up from Triple-A Buffalo to make his major league debut Friday at home against Oakland.
Braves 3, Reds 1
Mike Soroka enhanced his case to remain in the Atlanta rotation by posting his second straight strong effort to help the visiting Braves to a win over Cincinnati.
Soroka (1-1) pitched 5 2/3 innings and allowed only one run on five hits — all singles and two of those infield hits — with seven strikeouts in his first career start against the Reds. The effort helped Atlanta even the three-game series, which concludes on Thursday.
Soroka, the team’s first-round draft choice in 2015, has now worked 10 2/3 innings and allowed two runs in his two starts since being recalled from Triple-A Gwinnett.
Diamondbacks 11, Pirates 2
Ketel Marte drove in four runs with two homers as visiting Arizona beat Pittsburgh for the third straight night.
Nick Ahmed also homered, Eduardo Escobar was 3-for-4 with a triple and a double, David Peralta was 2-for-5 with two RBIs and Christian Walker was 2-for-5 with an RBI for Arizona, which has won nine in a row at PNC Park. The Diamondbacks can sweep the four-game series with a win Thursday.
Arizona starter Merrill Kelly (2-2) went seven innings, giving up two runs and six hits, with five strikeouts and two walks. Josh Bell and Jung Ho Kang homered for Pittsburgh, which has lost a season-worst four straight. Jordan Lyles (2-1) took the loss.
Orioles 4, White Sox 3
John Means pitched five strong innings, and the offense produced a series of timely hits, lifting host Baltimore to victory against Chicago.
Baltimore earned a win in the rubber game of the three-game series thanks in part to Means’ solid return to the rotation, which was prompted by the club’s doubleheader over the weekend. The left-hander, who has operated as a swingman in the early season, improved to 3-2 by showing effectiveness with his changeup, scattering one run and four hits with one walk and six strikeouts.
Mychal Givens allowed a run in the ninth but recovered to leave the potential tying run at third base and close out a two-inning save, his first of the season. Givens struck out James McCann and retired Yoan Moncada on a groundout to second base to end the game.
Indians 6, Marlins 2
Jose Ramirez homered and drove in four runs as host Cleveland snapped a three-game losing skid by beating Miami as Jake Bauers and Francisco Lindor each had an RBI single before Ramirez ripped a two-run double to cap a four-run eighth inning.
After Miami’s Martin Prado belted a solo homer to forge a tie at 2 with two outs in the eighth inning, Cleveland went to work against reliever Adam Conley (0-3) in the bottom of the frame.
Carlos Gonzalez worked a lead-off walk and advanced to second on Jason Kipnis’ single to center field. Bauers followed two batters later by slapping a low fastball through the shift and into left field to plate Gonzalez to give the Indians a 3-2 lead.
–Field Level Media
Source: OANN
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Oh, how their heads hurt. After two intoxicating years, the Mueller Investigation & Media Tequila Party is over. Morning has come, and Democrats have opened their eyes to a pounding headache. Liquor bottles held high the night before now litter the floor: Democrats even ate the Michael Cohen worm.
Inconveniently, the special prosecutor found no collusion. Those who imbibed most have been left stumbling, trying to explain how Donald Trump covered up the crime no one committed. But the feast was moveable, and the partygoers celebrated each other. They are convinced it was not overindulgence that caused their hangover; merely that they stopped drinking. A little hair-of-the dog is all we need. Pour us another Margarita, and let’s get this party started again.
In the confusion, more sober leaders reasserted control. Old pro Nancy Pelosi determined Democrats are not going to raise the flag of impeachment now, understanding it will become even less likely as the 2020 election grows closer. Delay, delay, delay, Pelosi believes, until the mystic chords of impeachment become memories that never again swell.
Pelosi did have to throw her caucus’s fine young radicals a bone: Madam Speaker gave them impeachment without impeachment. Democrats will be allowed to hold hearings and pursue investigations. That will keep Trump in the spotlight, Democratic activists motivated, and MSNBC fed.
Pelosi has even gotten most of her 2020 presidential candidates on board. With the notable exceptions of Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, most Democratic contenders are calling it closing time. It is a remarkable display of the speaker’s power, considering the Democratic field has expanded to 20 candidates, requiring at least two clown cars. Poor Joe Biden is just entering the race.
Sen. Harris, who tells us she is not a socialist, just another Democrat who supports Bernie Sanders’ socialist agenda, would like to party on. She has said, “I believe Congress should take the steps toward impeachment.” California’s junior senator is sinking in the polls despite or, perhaps, because of her powerful socialist/impeachment one-two punch. She has dropped 6 points in New Hampshire, falling to 4% support, the survey’s margin of error. Technically, Harris may have erased herself.
Warren, who has been defined by her war with Trump over her illusory Native American heritage, has also worked her way down to near nothing in the same survey, notching only 5%. The Massachusetts senator, too, would like to extend impeachment festivities and she embraces every possible radical orthodoxy, including reparations for oppressed minorities, confiscating billionaires’ wealth, and canceling student debt. How would you like to be the last generous soul to pay off his or her student loan, just before Warren erases everyone else’s?
Harris and Warren provide lessons for Democrats who hear “Hail to the Chief” every time they rouse crowds with molten, anti-Trump rhetoric: Voters who don’t support Donald Trump aren’t looking for a Democratic Trump replica. They are looking for an alternative. Hot Democrats who balance Trump’s fire with their own aren’t different from our current president. They are just the other side of Trump’s coin. One of his great gifts is magnetism: The Donald drags his adversaries into no-rules-barred combat on the muddy turf where he fights best.
Yet, the Democrat gaining momentum is not a rabid, anti-Trump fanatic, nor a radical, collectivist zealot. Pete Buttigieg is the calm to Trump’s storm, the still waters to this president’s tempest. As others have noted in the now obligatory veneration, the gay, 37-year-old, left-handed Mayor of Smallville is an articulate polymath who speaks numerous languages, quotes Scripture, plays piano, and has studied history, philosophy, and ethics. If Buttigieg’s resume is a contrast to the president’s, so is his joyful maturity, which stands in staggering contrast to the cheerless and substanceless knife fights that pass for Republican and Democrat debate these days, ravenously merchandized by our sensationalist news media. When Bernie Sanders flies into space, for example, endorsing the right of convicted terrorists, rapists, and pedophiles to vote while in prison, it is the young mayor who plays grown-up, elegantly distancing himself from Sanders’s enflamed radicalism by saying, simply, “No, I don’t think so.”
Cool as an after-dinner mint, Buttigieg uncommonly resorts to reason to explain his positions, avoiding name-calling, charges of senility, or accusations of treason. “Part of the punishment when you are convicted of a crime and you’re incarcerated is you lose certain rights. You lose your freedom,” Buttigieg told a town-hall audience. “And I think during that period, it does not make sense to have an exception for the right to vote.”
Often, voters want in their next president what they didn’t find in their last one. That’s trouble for Sanders who, in many ways, parallels Trump, a fellow radical, white-hot populist who aims to overthrow the corrupt Washington establishment. Sanders, we might argue, is Donald Trump with a smaller balance sheet, no experience leading anything, and a college sophomore’s naïveté.
Joe Biden is calmer than Donald Trump, but the dead often are. Having lost twice, Biden 2020 is the sequel to movies no one went to see in 1988 and 2008. He is #YesterdaysCandidate, the old, white male that today’s Democrats crave to run against. Biden still owns a 1967 Corvette. It is an antique everyone admires, but no one would drive today.
No Democratic candidate provides a brighter alternative to Donald Trump than Pete Buttigieg. Could he give the incumbent a real run for his billions? Maybe, but Trump is still the odds-on favorite for re-election.
First, he’s doing a good job delivering growth, jobs, and higher wages, and Democrats admit as much when they openly hope the economy won’t be in as good a shape in 2020. Desperate prayers for an economic downturn do not usually evolve into promising strategy. Second, Buttigieg is a self-described democratic capitalist and a voice of reason, but only in comparison to the rest of his left-lurching party. He is at home in a party that has swallowed Sanders’ socialist agenda whole. Behind his moderate appearance, he embraces the tenets of the global elite, including a carbon tax. That is the tax that alienated the working class from the cognoscenti in Emmanuel Macron’s France. Third, Buttigieg is young and untested, and newbie challengers often get beat when the economy is doing well. Adversaries don’t have to persuade people to vote against them, just to put them back in the pantry until they have time to ripen. Lastly, Democrats have control of the House and a reasonable shot of taking the Senate in 2020, when Republicans will defend 22 of the 34 seats contested.
A turbulent Donald Trump may make the case that he is actually the candidate of stability and restraint, the indispensable counterbalance to a rabid and socialist Democratic Party, proving that God does have a sense of irony, if not humor. So party on, Democrats. As someone once wrote, “There is a great independence, and a confident immunity to risk, in all drinks made out of cactus.”
Security forces stand guard at St. Antony shrine, days after a string of suicide bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels across the island on Easter Sunday, in Colombo, Sri Lanka April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
April 25, 2019
By Alasdair Pal and Sunil Kataria
NEGOMBO, Sri Lanka (Reuters) – As mourners buried the remains of Christian worshippers killed by the Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks in Sri Lanka, hundreds of Muslim refugees fled Negombo on the country’s west coast where communal tensions have flared in recent days.
At least 359 people perished in the coordinated series of blasts targeting churches and hotels. Church leaders believe the final toll from the attack on St Sebastian’s Church in Negombo could be close to 200, almost certainly making Negombo the deadliest of the six near-simultaneous attacks.
On Wednesday, hundreds of Pakistani Muslims fled the multi-ethnic port an hour north of the capital, Colombo. Crammed into buses organized by community leaders and police, they left fearing for their safety after threats of revenge from locals.
“Because of the bomb blasts and explosions that have taken place here, the local Sri Lankan people have attacked our houses,” Adnan Ali, a Pakistani Muslim, told Reuters as he prepared to board a bus. “Right now we don’t know where we will go.”
Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attacks, yet despite Islamic State being a Sunni jihadist group, many of the Muslims fleeing Negombo belong to the Ahmadi community, who had been hounded out of Pakistan years ago after their sect was declared non-Muslim.
The fallout from Sunday’s attacks appears set to render them homeless once more.
Farah Jameel, a Pakistani Ahmadi, said she had been thrown out of her house by her landlord.
“She said ‘get out of here and go wherever you want to go, but don’t live here’,” she told Reuters, gathered with many others at the Ahmadiyya Mosque, waiting for buses to take them to a safe location.
“I HAVE NOTHING NOW”
Sri Lanka’s government is in disarray over the failure to prevent the attacks, despite repeated warnings from intelligence sources.
Police have detained an unspecified number of people were detained in western Sri Lanka, the scene of anti-Muslim riots in 2014, in the wake of the attacks, and raids were carried out in neighborhoods around St Sebastian’s Church.
Police played down the threats to the refugees, but said they have been inundated with calls from locals casting suspicion on Pakistanis in Negombo.
“We have to search houses if people suspect,” said Herath BSS Sisila Kumara, the officer in charge at Katara police station, where 35 of the Pakistanis that gathered at the mosque were taken into police custody for their own protection, before being sent to an undisclosed location.
“All the Pakistanis have been sent to safe houses,” he said. “Only they will decide when they come back.”
Two kilometers away, makeshift wooden crosses marked the new graves at the sandy cemetery of St Sebastian’s Church, as the latest funerals on Wednesday took the number buried there to 40.
Channa Repunjaya, 49, was at home when he heard about the blast at St Sebastian’s. His wife, Chandralata Dassanaike and nine-year-old daughter Meeranhi both died.
“I felt like committing suicide when I heard that they had died,” he told Reuters by the open graves. “I have nothing now.”
Meeranhi’s grandmother, with her head still bandaged after being wounded in the attack, was held by a relative as the first handfuls of earth were scattered upon her child-sized coffin.
Most of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people are Buddhist, but the Indian Ocean island’s population includes Muslim, Hindu and Christian minorities. Until now, Christians had largely managed to avoid the worst of the island’s conflict and communal tensions.
There were signs of some religious communities pulling together following Sunday’s outrage.
Saffron- and scarlet-robed Buddhist monks from a nearby monastery handed out bottled water to mourners who gathered under a baking afternoon sun.
But the town, which has a long history of sheltering refugees – including those made homeless by a devastating tsunami in 2004 – may struggle to recover from Sunday’s violence, said Father Jude Thomas, one of dozens of Catholic priests who attended Wednesday’s burials.
“Muslims and Catholics lived side by side,” he said. “It was always a peaceful area, but now things have come to the surface we cannot control.”
(Editing by John Chalmers & Simon Cameron-Moore)
Source: OANN
North Korea employs a fleet of ghost ships sailing around the globe to evade sanctions and buy and sell goods such as coal and oil, according to an in-depth report.
The Washington Post published a lengthy look Wednesday evening about North Korea’s actions, which involve meeting other ships in the middle of the ocean to transfer cargo, carrying and transmitting false ship identification numbers, and conducting backroom deals.
“It’s anarchy,” Hugh Griffiths, the outgoing coordinator of United Nations sanctions monitors, told the Post. “These massive gaps in maritime and financial governance will provide Chairman Kim [Jong Un] with an economic lifeline for months, if not years, to come.”
North Korea has resorted to the illicit actions because sanctions from the UN and the United States have crippled its ability to conduct international trade. Kim will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.
The Post report provided several examples of how Kim’s regime gets around sanctions. In many cases, ships that do business with North Korean ships are registered in countries that do not conduct full oversight, such as Panama, Togo, and Dominica — called a “flag of convenience,” according to the Post.
The UN monitors work near the UN headquarters in New York City and keep tabs on North Korean ships via photos and satellite images.
Source: NewsMax Politics
Former Vice President Joe Biden hours ahead of launching his presidential campaign urged top donors and supporters to contribute heavily in the first 24 hours and first week following his announcement.
Biden said world leaders had called him, “almost begging me to do this, to save our country, save the world,” according to three sources who spoke with Politico.
“The money’s important. We’re going to be judged by what we can do in the first 24 hours, the first week,” Biden said Wednesday during a conference call with top donors and supporters.
“People think Iowa and New Hampshire are the first test,” Biden said. “It’s not. The first 24 hours. That’s the first test. Those [early states] are way down the road. We’ve got to get through this first.”
Per The Washington Post, Biden, 76, is set to announce his run for president Thursday in a video. He is expected to travel to Pittsburgh, Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina over the next week for campaign events.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., topped Democrats in the fundraising race in the first quarter, bringing in $18.2 million, followed by Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. (nearly $12 million), former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke ($9.4 million) and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (nearly $7 million).
Source: NewsMax America
Former Vice President Joe Biden’s access to the email list used by the Obama-Biden campaign in 2012 will come in handy during Biden’s expected presidential campaign, according to a new report.
The Daily Beast reported Wednesday that Biden — who is likely to enter the 2020 race Thursday — has already sent messages to the millions of addresses in the coveted list.
According to the report, the Biden-aligned American Possibilities PAC sent out an email blast this week to people on the list. A Biden spokesman then told The Daily Beast the PAC was given the green light to use the list.
“It is a lane to compete for,” the 2012 campaign’s press secretary Ben LaBolt told The Daily Beast. “Talking about expanding upon strengthening healthcare, making the economy work for families regardless of their income level, returning to a government of dignity and normalcy, restoring alliances abroad, that would be an attractive message for a lot of voters.”
Former White House director of communications Jennifer Palmieri, meanwhile, said the list is just one piece of the equation.
Palmieri said the list is “certainly helpful. I don’t know if it is a golden ticket.”
Rumors about Biden running for president — which he has done unsuccessfully on two previous occasions — have swirled for months. He has also been accused of inappropriate conduct with women in public settings, for which he said he would be “much more mindful” about crossing into people’s personal space.
Source: NewsMax America
A worker smiles as she shows cannabis plants at the Tilray factory in Cantanhede, Portugal April 24, 2019. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante
April 25, 2019
By Catarina Demony and Rafael Marchante
CANTANHEDE, Portugal (Reuters) – Famous for its roasted suckling pig and wines, the Portuguese city of Cantanhede now hosts the country’s first medical cannabis production farm – a budding European hub of efforts to meet growing demand for the flowering herb.
Portugal’s California-like weather caught the eye of Canada-based Tilray as its CEO Brendan Kennedy roved around Europe from 2015 to 2017 in search of the perfect spot for a new production site.
Kennedy said Portugal had the ideal climate for cannabis cultivation and the country’s young, educated workforce and its major agricultural sector were further attractions.
Covering 2.4 hectares (5.9 acres) in a biotechnology park just outside Cantanhede, Tilray’s site was given the green light by Portugal’s regulator Infarmed in 2017. The company then rushed to import its first baby plants and recently reported its first two successful cannabis harvests.Kennedy opened the site to visitors for the first time at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday.
“Some of our competitors are located in Denmark and northern Germany, where there isn’t that much sun – so we think we can produce a more environmentally-friendly product here,” he told Reuters.
Portugal also offers tariff-free entry to the rest of the European Union, a market Tilray wants to explore further at a time when an increasing number of governments are legalising medical marijuana.
FROM PROHIBITION TO LEGALISATION
“The paradigm is shifting from prohibition to legalisation,” Kennedy said, with demand for the product growing. “I’m fairly optimistic that over the next two years we will see every country in Europe legalising it.”
Last year Portugal’s parliament approved a bill to legalise marijuana-based medicines, following in the footsteps of EU countries such as Italy and Germany as well as Canada and parts of the United States. Britain made a similar move in July 2018.
Tilray’s 20-million-euro ($22.29 million) facility includes indoor, outdoor and greenhouse cultivation sites, as well as research labs, processing, packaging and distribution sites for medical cannabis and cannabinoid-derived products.
Tilray supplies medical cannabis products with CBD and THC to patients in a number of countries, through subsidiaries in Australia, Canada, Germany and Latin American, and through agreements with pharmaceutical distributors.
Earlier this year, the European Parliament called for an EU-wide policy on medical cannabis and properly funded scientific research.
“We are at point where almost every doctor around the world recognises the medical benefits of cannabis,” Kennedy said.
The World Health Organization has stated that several studies have demonstrated cannabinoids provide therapeutic effects for nausea and vomiting in the advanced stages of illnesses such as cancer and AIDS.
Moreover, a handful of regulated pharmaceuticals use chemicals derived from cannabis, such as GW Pharmaceuticals’ Sativex which is approved for treating symptoms of multiple sclerosis.
BOOST EXPORTS
From Canada, where Tilray has six facilities, the company already sells medical cannabis products to 13 countries. Portugal will help Tilray boost exports further, Kennedy said.
“Our business plan for this facility is focused on exporting products from Portugal to other countries around the world.”
In Europe, Tilray products are already available in Germany, Croatia, Cyprus and the Czech Republic but it expects to start exporting to the United Kingdom – and potentially to France, Italy and Greece – in the next 12 months.
Kennedy said Tilray hopes this summer to expand exports to countries such as South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
According to analysis firm Prohibition Partners, the EU cannabis market will be worth 123 billion euros by 2028.
Kennedy did not confirm how much medical marijuana Tilray plans to produce.
($1 = 0.8973 euros)
(Reporting by Catarina Demony and Rafael Marchante; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Source: OANN
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