Author Archives: Kevin

Ex-St. Louis policeman acquitted of murdering black motorist

By Valerie Volcovici

ST. LOUIS (Reuters) – A Missouri judge on Friday found a former St. Louis police officer not guilty of murder in the shooting death of a black man after a car chase in 2011, prosecutors said.

Officials feared the verdict could set off violent protests, as have similar deadly cases involving police and minorities around the United States in recent years.

Jason Stockley, 36, who is white, had been charged with first-degree murder, accused of intentionally killing Anthony Lamar Smith, 24, and planting a gun in his car. Stockley, who was arrested in May 2016, testified he acted in self-defense.

Judge Timothy Wilson’s highly anticipated ruling was announced Friday, more than five weeks after the bench trial ended.

Prosecutor Kimberly Gardner said in a statement she was disappointed with the verdict and believed she had presented proof that Stockley intended to kill Smith.

“However, in this case it was the judge’s duty to evaluate the evidence and deliver his findings,” she said. “That’s how our system works.”

Killings of unarmed black people by U.S. police in recent years triggered widespread protests and activists promised disruptive demonstrations if Stockley was acquitted.

St. Louis and state officials were braced for violent protests and racial tensions like those that followed the 2014 fatal shooting by police of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, near St. Louis.

Missouri Governor Eric Greitens on Thursday put the National Guard on standby. Some schools called off classes and some events were postponed, according to local media.

Christina Wilson, Smith’s fiancée, pleaded at a news conference on Thursday evening for protesters to avoid violence if they demonstrate.

The verdict in St. Louis follows high-profile mistrials or acquittals of police officers charged in shootings in Ohio and Minnesota this year.

Authorities say Smith tried to flee from Stockley on Dec. 20, 2011. During a pursuit, Stockley could be heard saying on an internal police car video that he was going to kill Smith, prosecutors said.

Stockley, riding in the passenger seat of a patrol vehicle with his personal AK-47 in one hand and department-issued weapon in the other, shot at Smith’s car, according to St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Susan Ryan and charging documents. Stockley and his partner chased Smith at speeds exceeding 80 miles per hour (129 kph), the documents said.

At Stockley’s direction, the driver of the police car slammed into Smith’s vehicle and they came to a stop. Stockley then approached Smith’s car and shot him five times, court documents said.

Stockley’s lawyers said he fired in self-defense because he believed Smith was reaching for a gun but prosecutors said the only gun recovered from the scene had only Stockley’s DNA on it.

Stockley, who maintained his innocence, waived his right to a jury trial, allowing the judge to decide. He left the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department in 2013, and additional evidence led to his arrest last year.

Smith’s family in 2013 settled a lawsuit filed against the city for $900,000, the family’s lawyer, Albert Watkins, said.

(Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales and Chris Kenning; Editing by Bill Trott)

Weak U.S. dollar means unexpected bargains for foreign tourists

By Peter Szekely

(Reuters) – Toshi Sugiyura and his wife Naka had a pleasant surprise awaiting them in San Francisco when the couple arrived from Japan on an anniversary trip, thanks to the U.S. dollar’s months-long slide against the yen.

The 37-year-old business owner from Nagoya said the stronger yen gave them more dollars to buy gifts for their children.

“If the dollar keeps going down, maybe we’ll go to Hawaii,” added Naka Sugiyura, 41.

The dollar’s declining value this year is giving foreign visitors like the Sugiyuras unexpected purchasing power and will likely increase how much they spend on their holidays, travel experts said.

Solid gains by the euro, British pound, Chinese yuan and other major currencies against the dollar since the start of this year have been too recent to affect most travel decisions. Tourists typically lock in vacations months or even years ahead of time, experts said.

But travelers who had already booked for this summer are finding their home currencies are stretching further than six months ago.

“We could see more spending by those who already planned to come,” said economist Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics in Philadelphia.

Brian Yong, a 45-year-old information technology engineer from Shanghai, said the yuan-friendly exchange rate made his two-week stay in San Francisco a better bargain and would let him to do more shopping.

“Lots of Chinese come here because of the exchange rate,” Yong said.

Foreign visitors make a big contribution to the U.S. economy, with 75.6 million of them spending $244.7 billion last year, the Commerce Department said. Foreigners spent nearly $84 billion more than Americans spent in other countries.

MORE TO SPEND

In New York City, by far the most popular U.S. destination for foreigners, officials hope stronger foreign currencies will translate into extra dollars for shopping, even if only at the margins.

“It could be the difference between buying an extra pair of shoes or not, is what it comes down to,” said Chris Heywood, spokesman for the city’s tourism agency, NYC & Company.

Since the beginning of the year, the dollar has lost 9 to 13 percent of its value against the euro, Mexican peso and Australian dollar. It has weakened more modestly against the British pound, Chinese yuan, Japanese yen, Brazilian real and Canadian dollar.

The trend means that a $300 hotel room, for example, would now cost a European about 256 euros, as opposed to 285 euros in early January.

That said, the “feel good” factor is often subjective and currency-specific.

“I’ve noticed the euro has been getting stronger but it seems like it was stronger when I was here almost seven years ago,” said Vera, a 25-year-old from Cologne, Germany, who is spending the summer in New York and declined to give her surname.

In fact, the euro was stronger seven years ago. It has lost about 14 percent of its value against the dollar since Oct. 1, 2010, despite its rise since January.

Regardless, Vera said she had spent more money on jeans than she anticipated, “because clothes are so much cheaper here.”

Although foreign travelers make up only one in five of New York’s visitors, they accounted for about half of the $43 billion the city reaped from visitors in 2016, Heywood said.

“The international visitor stays longer and spends more when they’re here,” he added.

Mauro Antico, 49, of Turin, Italy, said he planned his week-long visit to New York with his family four months ago without regard to the exchange rate, but was pleasantly surprised by the savings after he arrived.

“We are planning to buy many things,” he said.

(Reporting by Peter Szekely in New York; Additional reporting by Alissa Greenberg in San Francisco and Taylor Harris in New York; Editing by Frank McGurty)

Pimco’s Ivascyn says firm has built ‘above average’ cash position

The offices of Pacific Investment Management Co (PIMCO) (L) are shown in Newport Beach, California August 4, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake/Files

By Jennifer Ablan

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Pacific Investment Management Co, which oversees more than $1.6 trillion of assets, has built up an above-average cash position firmwide and has held S&P put options as geopolitical and military risks mount, Dan Ivascyn, group chief investment officer at Pimco, said on Friday.

President Donald Trump issued a new threat to North Korea on Friday, saying what he called U.S. military solutions were “locked and loaded” as Pyongyang accused him of driving the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war.

Ivascyn said Pimco has been taking profits in high-valued corporate credits and built cash balances for when better opportunities arise.

Pimco has also been a holder of put options on the Standard & Poor’s 500 as the CBOE Volatility Index, better known as the VIX and the most widely followed barometer of expected near-term stock market volatility, remains historically low.

“We’re getting liquidity higher,” Ivascyn said in a phone interview. “If we see actual military altercation, markets can go a lot lower. And at the same time, volatility has been so low for so long that it doesn’t take much for markets to get worked up.”

Though the market has yet to panic, “you will certainly see panic if all of this turns into a sustained military encounter,” he added.

Ivascyn also oversees the Pimco Income Fund, which attracted inflows of $2.65 billion in July, bringing the fund’s total net assets to $92 billion, Morningstar data showed on Thursday.

Pimco is owned by German insurer Allianz SE.

(Reporting By Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)

Reports suggest North Korea treating foreign detainees inhumanely: U.N.

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA (Reuters) – Foreign detainees in North Korea are reportedly being denied due process in court and being held in inhumane conditions, a United Nations investigator said on Friday.

Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in North Korea, also said that military threats being exchanged by Washington and Pyongyang were diverting attention from the needs of ordinary North Koreans.

He welcomed the release this week of Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim on humanitarian grounds after serving more than two years of a sentence of hard labour for life on charges of plotting to overthrow the regime. Lim’s family said on Thursday that he was not in critical condition.

But at least nine other foreigners — three Americans and six citizens of South Korea — remain in custody in North Korea, the U.N. expert said.

Otto Warmbier, a U.S. student held for 17 months after being sentenced to 15 years hard labour for trying to steal a propaganda item from his hotel, was released in a coma in June and died within days. The circumstances of his death remain unclear.

“I am concerned by reports that detainees are not receiving due legal process and are being held in inhumane conditions,” Ojea Quintana said in a statement issued in Geneva.

North Korean authorities are obliged to provide foreign detainees with access to consular support and an interpreter, “but these entitlements cannot be taken for granted, based on the information I have been receiving”, he said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which visits detainees worldwide, does not have access to political prison camps in North Korea, believed to hold some 100,000 people.

U.S. President Donald Trump issued a new threat to North Korea on Friday, saying American weapons were “locked and loaded” as Pyongyang accused him of driving the Korean Peninsula to the brink of nuclear war.

“These threats divert attention from the situation of ordinary North Koreans, whose subsistence and protection needs should be treated as an absolute priority,” said Ojea Quintana, an Argentine lawyer who took up the independent U.N. post last year.

A 2014 U.N. report catalogued massive violations in North Korea — including large prison camps, starvation and executions — that it said should be brought to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The landmark report, strongly rejected by Pyongyang, said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un might be personally responsible for crimes against humanity.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

Indonesia arrests alleged recruiter for Marawi siege

By Tom Allard and Stefanno Reinard

JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesian police on Friday arrested an alleged recruiter and fundraiser for pro-Islamic State (IS) militants locked in a bloody battle for control of the southern Philippine city of Marawi.

Nearly 700 people, 120 soldiers among them, have been killed in the conflict after an alliance of militant groups launched an audacious assault to capture the Philippine city on May 23.

Philippine military and police have yet to regain control of all of Marawi, a city of about 200,000 people, amid ferocious urban fighting that has destroyed most of its center.

The man detained at a residential complex on the outskirts of Jakarta is believed to be a member of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an Indonesian radical group that has pledged allegiance to IS, police spokesman Inspector General Setyo Wasisto said.

“He finds people to send to Marawi and Syria,” Wasisto said in a text message to Reuters. “How many is still unclear.”

Police also suspect he raised funds for recruitment.

Indonesian counter-terrorism authorities believe at least 20 Indonesians were among the fighters, along with some from Malaysia and the Middle East, who flocked to Marawi, on the island of Mindanao, long afflicted by Islamist insurgencies.

Indonesian JAD members make up most of the senior leadership of the Southeast Asian military unit fighting for IS in Syria known as Katibah Nusantara.

Two of the leaders, Bahrumsyah and Bahrun Naim, have directed and inspired a series of militant attacks in Indonesia, Indonesian police say.

Members of Katibah Nusantara have also organized funding and international recruits for the Marawi assault, the Jakarta-based Institute of Policy Analysis of Conflict said in a report.

Southeast Asian nations have vowed to step up law enforcement and intelligence cooperation to fight the rising threat of violent Islamist extremism in the wake of the Marawi siege.

Fuelling concern is the possible return to Southeast Asia of hundreds of hardened IS fighters from the Middle East as its self-styled caliphate collapses.

(Editing by Ed Davies and Clarence Fernandez)

British gang jailed for running big cannabis farm in nuclear bunker

LONDON (Reuters) – Three Britons were jailed on Friday for running a huge cannabis farm inside a former Cold War nuclear bunker in an isolated area of southwest England.

The gang used the bunker, built in the 1980s to house local government officials in the event of a nuclear attack, to cultivate more than 4,000 cannabis plants capable of producing 2 million pounds ($2.6 million) worth of drugs a year.

The bunker, located in Chilmark near Salisbury, was no longer owned by the Ministry of Defence but was still intact with its nuclear blast doors in place which made it almost impenetrable, police said.

The men, who were arrested in a midnight raid in February but only after they had left the site, also locked workers inside so they could tend to the plants 24 hours a day.

The farm was thought to have been running since 2013. To keep it operating, the gang bypassed the mains supply and instead siphoned power from a pylon outside, illegally using about 650,000 pounds worth of electricity.

“This was without doubt the largest cannabis factory we have seen here in the county, with almost all of the 20 rooms inside the bunker converted for the wholesale production of cannabis,” said Detective Inspector Simon Pope of Wiltshire Police in a statement outside the court in Salisbury.

The men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to produce class B drugs and conspiracy to abstract electricity.

Martin Fillery, 45, was jailed for eight years and his accomplices Ross Winter, 30, and Plamen Nguyen, 27, for five years each.

Take cover, avoid bomb flash. Guam issues nuclear guidelines

Tourists frolic on the waters overlooking posh hotels in Tumon tourist district.

By Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Guam posted emergency guidelines on Friday to help residents prepare for any potential nuclear attack after a threat from North Korea to fire missiles in the vicinity of the U.S. Pacific territory.

Pyongyang’s state-run KCNA news agency said on Thursday its army would complete plans in mid-August to fire four intermediate-range missiles over Japan to land near Guam as North Korea and the United States engaged in increasingly heated rhetoric this week over the North’s nuclear weapons program.

North Korea did not threaten Guam with a nuclear attack, but the crisis between Pyongyang and the United States has stirred fears that a nuclear conflict could break out in the region.

While the governor of Guam shrugged off the North’s missile warning and said there was no heightened threat, the government has issued a preparedness fact sheet.

In language that evoked the specter of nuclear conflict during the Cold War, the guidelines cover what to do before, during and after a nuclear attack.

“Do not look at the flash or fireball – It can blind you,” it said. “Take cover behind anything that might offer protection.”

“Remove your clothing to keep radioactive material from spreading. Removing the outer layer of clothing can remove up to 90% of radioactive material,” read the guidelines of what to do if caught outside.

They suggest having an emergency plan and supply kit and making a list of potential concrete structures near home, work and school to serve as fallout shelters.

“Fallout shelters do not need to be specifically constructed for protecting against fallout,” it said. “They can be protected space, provided that the walls and roof are thick and dense enough (i.e. concrete) to absorb radiation given off by fallout particles.”

The fact sheet advises people on how to wash: do not scrub or scratch the skin, use soap, shampoo and water but do not put not conditioner on your hair because it binds radioactive material.

It offers advice for parents who are away from their children during a strike.

“Stay where you are, even if you are separated from your family,” it said. “Listen to the news. Do not call the school. Be patient. Wait for instructions to pick up your child.”

The information on the fact sheet was gathered from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security website www.ready.gov, a Guam Homeland Security spokeswoman told the Pacific Daily News.

Guam is home to about 163,000 people and a U.S. military base that includes a submarine squadron, an air base and a Coast Guard group. (For a graphic on North Korean missile trajectories, ranges click http://tmsnrt.rs/2hIzZHG)

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday warned North Korea against threatening Guam and said on Friday that the U.S. military was “locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely.”

Asked about Trump’s tough posture, Guam Governor Eddie Calvo said he agreed with sending a clear message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has ramped up his country’s tests of missiles and nuclear bombs.

“Though I don’t want the temperature to get any higher, I think it’s important also that there is clarity and that if there is an attack on any American soil including Guam, that it will be met with overwhelming response,” Calvo told reporters on Friday. “I don’t have any problem with that.”

Oil prices up amidst higher global demand, Nigeria instability

A worker at an oil field owned by Bashneft, Bashkortostan, Russia, January 28, 2015. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo

By Julia Simon

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices rose slightly on Friday in volatile trading as the market weighed lower U.S. crude stocks, Nigerian instability and strong global demand growth against a persistently slow rebalancing.

Brent crude <LCOc1> settled up 20 cents or 0.39 percent to $52.10 a barrel.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude <CLc1> was up 23 cents or 0.47 percent to $48.82 a barrel.

U.S. crude was down 1.5 percent on the week, while Brent was down 0.6 percent.

The International Energy Agency said it had revised historic demand data for 2015-2016, meaning a lower demand base in 2017-2018 combined with unchanged high supply numbers could lead to lower stock draws than initially anticipated.

On Friday Baker Hughes data showed U.S. drillers added oil rigs for a second time in the last three weeks. However, the pace of additions has slowed in recent months as firms cut spending plans in reaction to declining crude prices.

Drillers added three oil rigs in the week to Aug. 11 bringing the total count to 768, the most since April 2015.

U.S. crude inventories <USOILC=ECI> fell 6.5 million barrels last week, according to the Energy Information Administration.

“As long as we continue to see declining inventories the more we’ll continue to think the OPEC-led cuts are tightening the supply-demand balance,” said Gene McGillian, manager of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.

However market watchers caution that declining inventories for gasoline coincide with seasonal draws.

“We may see some headwinds ahead of us with slowing demand as summer driving comes to an end,” said Mark Watkins, regional investment manager at U.S. Bank.

“We’re slowly taking supply out of the marketplace. It isn’t at an accelerated pace,” he said, “This rebalancing is going to take an extremely long time.”

Money managers cut their net long U.S. crude futures and options positions in the week to Aug. 8, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday.

In Nigeria hundreds stormed a crude oil facility and gas plant owned by Royal Dutch Shell Plc <RDSa.L> in the Niger Delta on Friday demanding jobs and infrastructure development, a Reuters witness said.

Nigerian oil exports were scheduled to hit a 17-month high in August, but fell back under 2 million barrels per day (bpd) after Shell declared force majeure on Bonny light.

In the United States, President Donald Trump again stepped up his rhetoric against North Korea again, saying what he called U.S. military solutions were “locked and loaded” as Pyongyang accused him of driving the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war.

(Reporting by Julia Simon in New York and Dmitry Zhdannikov in London; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Lisa Shumaker)

Trump says U.S. is ‘locked and loaded’ in North Korea confrontation

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks about North Korea during an opioid-related briefing at Trump's golf estate in Bedminster, New Jersey, U.S., August 8, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

By James Oliphant and Dahee Kim

BEDMINSTER, N.J./SEOUL (Reuters) – President Donald Trump issued a new threat to North Korea on Friday, saying the U.S. military was “locked and loaded” as Pyongyang accused him of driving the Korean peninsula to the brink of nuclear war and world powers expressed alarm.

The Pentagon said the United States and South Korea would proceed as planned with a joint military exercise in 10 days, an action sure to further antagonize North Korea. Meanwhile, Russia, China and Germany voiced dismay at the escalating rhetoric from Pyongyang and Washington.

Trump, vacationing at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf resort, kept up the war of words and again referenced North Korea’s leader in his latest bellicose remarks toward Pyongyang this week. “Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely,” he wrote on Twitter. “Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!”

The term “locked and loaded,” popularized in the 1949 war film “Sands of Iwo Jima” starring American actor John Wayne, refers to preparations for shooting a gun.

Asked later by reporters to explain the remark, “Those words are very, very easy to understand.”

Again referring to Kim, Trump added, “If he utters one threat … or if he does anything with respect to Guam or any place else that’s an American territory or an American ally, he will truly regret it, and he will regret it fast.”

Friday’s tweet by the Republican president, a wealthy businessman and former reality television personality, came after the North Korean state news agency, KCNA, put out a statement saying “Trump is driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war.”

Guam, the Pacific island that is a U.S. territory, posted emergency guidelines on Friday to help residents prepare for any potential nuclear attack after a threat from North Korea to fire missiles in its vicinity.

“Do not look at the flash or fireball – It can blind you,” the guidelines stated. “Take cover behind anything that might offer protection.”

Guam is home to a strategically located U.S. air base, a Navy installation, a Coast Guard group and roughly 6,000 U.S. military personnel. KCNA said on Thursday the North Korean army would complete plans in mid-August to fire four intermediate-range missiles over Japan to land in the sea 18 to 25 miles (30-40 km) from Guam.

The United States, which is technically still at war with North Korea after the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with only a truce, wants to stop Pyongyang from developing nuclear missiles that could hit the United States.

North Korea, a reclusive nation with an underdeveloped economy and few allies, sees its nuclear arsenal as protection against the United States and its partners in Asia.

‘BACK CHANNELS’

Trump said he did not want to talk about diplomatic “back channels” with North Korea after U.S. media reports that Joseph Yun, the U.S. envoy for North Korea policy, has engaged in diplomacy for several months with Pak Song Il, a senior diplomat at Pyongyang’s U.N. mission, on the deteriorating relations and the issue of Americans imprisoned in North Korea.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged Pyongyang and Washington to sign up to a previously unveiled joint Russian-Chinese plan under which North Korea would freeze missile tests and the United States and South Korea would impose a moratorium on large-scale military exercises. Neither the United States nor North Korea has embraced the plan.

Lavrov said the risks of a military conflict over North Korea’s nuclear program are very high and Moscow is deeply worried by the threats from Washington and Pyongyang.

“Unfortunately, the rhetoric in Washington and Pyongyang is now starting to go over the top,” Lavrov said on live state television at a forum for Russian students. “We still hope and believe that common sense will prevail.”

The annual joint U.S.-South Korean military exercise, called Ulchi-Freedom Guardian, is expected to proceed as scheduled starting on Aug. 21, said Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Logan, a Pentagon spokesman.

Trump’s latest comments were a continuation of days of incendiary rhetoric, including his warning on Tuesday that the United States would unleash “fire and fury” on Pyongyang if it threatened the United States.

Amid the heated words, South Koreans are buying more ready-to-eat meals that could be used in an emergency and the government is planning to expand nationwide civil defense drills planned for on Aug. 23. Hundreds of thousands of troops and huge arsenals are arrayed on both sides of the tense demilitarized zone between the two Koreas.

Tension in the region rose when North Korea staged two nuclear bomb tests last year and increased further when it launched two intercontinental ballistic missile tests in July in defiance of world powers.

The United Nations this month tightened sanctions on Pyongyang after it tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles designed to carry nuclear warheads to the United States.

The damage inflicted on world stocks this week by the tensions topped $1 trillion by Friday, as investors again took cover in the yen, the Swiss franc, gold and government bonds.

U.S. financial markets took the rhetorical escalation in stride on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.06 percent while the S&P 500 gained 0.12 percent and the Nasdaq Composite was up 0.64 percent.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there is no military solution to the dispute, adding that “an escalation of the rhetoric is the wrong answer.”

“I see the need for enduring work at the U.N. Security Council … as well as tight cooperation between the countries involved, especially the U.S. and China,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin.

Trump said hours later, “Let her speak for Germany.”

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has called a meeting of EU member states next week to discuss what action they will take regarding North Korea

There were no changes as of Friday morning in the U.S. military status in the continental United States or in the Pacific military command readiness or alert status, U.S. officials said.

China, North Korea’s most important ally and trading partner, hopes all sides can do more to help ease the crisis and increase mutual trust, rather than taking turns in shows of strength, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. Trump on Thursday again urged China to do more to resolve the situation.