Cruz and Kasich strike pact to stop Trump

Latest update : 2016-04-25

Republican hopefuls Ted Cruz and John Kasich announced a deal Sunday not to compete with one another in certain state primaries in an effort to put the brakes on fellow Republican White House rival Donald Trump’s march towards the party’s nomination.

Cruz’s campaign said in a statement that the Texas Senator would focus his efforts on the May 3 primary in Indiana and “in turn clear the path for Governor Kasich to compete in Oregon and New Mexico”, which hold their primaries on May 17 and June 7 respectively.

Kasich’s campaign put out a similar statement saying he would allow Cruz a clear path to victory against Trump in Indiana.

The move is designed to prevent controversial billionaire Trump from gaining the 1,237 delegates required to secure the nomination outright and instead force the nomination contest to go a second ballot at the Republican National Convention in July, where delegates would be allowed to switch sides.

“Our goal is to have an open convention in Cleveland, where we are confident a candidate capable of uniting the party and winning in November will emerge as the nominee,” Kasich’s campaign strategist John Weaver said in a statement.

Too little, too late?

Some of the extreme views espoused by Trump during his campaign – including building a wall along the Mexican border and blocking Muslims from entering the country – have caused consternation among the Republican hierarchy who fear the impact him winning the presidential nomination could have on the party's image and their chances of securing the White House in November's election.

“Having Donald Trump at the top of the ticket in November would be a sure disaster for Republicans. Not only would Trump get blown out by [Hillary] Clinton or [Bernie] Sanders, but having him as our nominee would set the party back a generation," Cruz’s campaign manager, Jeff Roe, said in a statement Sunday.

Some Republican strategists have been packing a united effort to thwart Trump for some time, but with the New York-born businessman's already substantial lead in the race for delegates, it could be a case of too little, too late for Cruz and Kasich.

With 845 pledged delegates, Trump is currently just 392 short of the magic number of 1,237. Cruz, his closest rival, has 559 delegates to his name, while Kasich lags well behind with 148.

Trump's easy victory in the key New York primary earlier this month swung momentum in the race for the presidential nomination firmly back in his favour after a string of defeats, notably to Cruz.

He is also expected to do well in a string primaries across five northeastern states – Maryland, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Delaware – all voting on Tuesday.

Trump's reaction to the news of the pact between the two was to ridicule them on Twitter.

"Wow, just announced that Lyin' Ted and Kasich are going to collude in order to keep me from getting the Republican nomination. DESPERATION!," he said.

There may be some truth to Trump's comments. Cruz's campaign has previously dismissed approaches by Kasich’s team to form an anti-Trump alliance. Doing so now is an admission that Cruz has almost no chance of securing more delegates than Trump while both he and Kasich are acknowledging that time is rapidly running out to turn the tide.

But their newfound spirit of cooperation could prove pivotal, particularly in Indiana where there are a potentially significant 57 delegates up for grabs in a winner-takes-all vote.

Both Cruz and Kasich had both been targeting Indiana as a potential turning point in the race. A recent Fox survey in Indiana suggested Trump had 41 percent of support compared to 33 percent for Cruz and 16 percent for Kasich. The pact now potentially gives Cruz enough votes to deny Trump victory in the state.

Contested convention

If Cruz and Kasich's gamble pays off it would see the Republican domination go down to a vote at the July Convention where, thanks to the complicated rules of the Republican primary race, Trump may go in with the most delegates but come away the loser.

The convention sees delegates vote to select the party's presidential nominee. In the first round of voting nearly all are bound to vote according to the primary result of their respective state. But if there is no outright winner in the first vote – likely, if Trump fails to reach 1,237 pledged delegates in the primary – voting then goes to a second round where delegates can switch their votes to another candidate.

Votes can be switched for a variety of reasons, from what delegates think is best for the party's electoral prospects to the outcome of a flurry of back-channel deals and negotiations.

Such a scenario could put Cruz, who has long been canvassing delegates to switch their votes to him in the event of a second ballot, in a strong position to beat Trump to the nomination.

There is even a possibility the nomination could go to none of the current candidates.

A current Republican party rule dictates that a candidate must have the support of a majority of delegates from eight different states in order to win the nomination.

But there is nothing to stop the party scrapping the rule, introduced in 2012 and known as Rule 40, before the convention, allowing delegates to vote for someone else entirely.

House Speaker Paul Ryan and former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney have both been mentioned as possible last-minute candidates.

Trump, meanwhile, has been focusing on making sure such a scenario remains purely theoretical.

"We want to put it (nomination) away," Trump said at a campaign rally in Hagerstown, Maryland, on Sunday. "I only care about the first ballot. We're not going for the second and third and fourth and fifth."

26 April 2016 - 00H05 US detaining more migrants at Mexico border: officials

WASHINGTON (AFP) - 

The number of people caught trying to enter the United States illegally from Mexico rose in the first months of this year compared to the same period last year, officials said Monday.

The US authorities detained 33,335 people in March, up 11 percent from the same month in 2015, the US Border Patrol said, providing no explanation for why.

Detentions in October and November were similar to levels in the same months of 2013, when the number of attempted entries spiked, especially by unaccompanied minors.

That wave triggered an outpouring of concern for the children among Americans, prompting the government to take emergency measures to look after them in mid-2014.

Many of the migrants come from Central America, a region plagued by poverty, street gangs and drug-related violence.

Countries there are due to receive 750 million dollars in US aid this year to boost security and living standards and discourage people from embarking on dangerous trips through Mexico to the United States.

Trudeau confirms Canadian hostage decapitated by Philippine extremists

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed that the decapitated head of a Caucasian male recovered Monday night in the southern Philippines belongs to one of two Canadians taken hostage by Abu Sayyaf militants in September.

Trudeau identified the victim as John Ridsdel of Calgary, Alberta and said his government will work with the government of the Philippines and international partners to pursue those responsible for this “heinous act.”

Two men on a motorcycle left Ridsdel’s head, placed inside a plastic bag, along a street in Jolo town in Sulu province and then fled, Jolo police chief Supt. Junpikar Sitin said.

Abu Sayyaf militants had threatened to behead one of three men - two Canadians and a Norwegian - they kidnapped last September from a marina on southern Samal Island if a large ransom was not paid by 3 p.m. Monday (0800 GMT).

Jolo Mayor Hussin Amin condemned the beheading, blaming Abu Sayyaf militants, who have been implicated in past kidnappings, beheadings and bombings.

“This is such a barbaric act by these people and one would be tempted to think that they should also meet the same fate,” Amin said by telephone.

Philippine forces were moving to rescue the abductees, also including a Filipino woman who was kidnapped with them, as the Abu Sayyaf’s deadline for the ransom payment lapsed, the military said.

The militants reportedly demanded 300 million pesos ($6.5 million) for each of the foreigners, a reduction from their earlier demands.

The hostages were believed to have been taken to Jolo Island in Sulu, a jungled province where the militants are thought to be holding a number of captives, including 14 Indonesian and four Malaysian crewmen who were abducted at gunpoint from three tugboats starting last month.

“Maximum efforts are being exerted ... to effect the rescue,” the military and police said in a joint statement, without divulging details of the rescue operation, which was ordered by President Benigno Aquino III.

About 400 Abu Sayyaf militants were involved in the kidnappings, it said.

In militant videos posted online, Ridsdel and fellow Canadian Robert Hall, Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad and Filipino Marites Flor were shown sitting in a clearing with heavily armed militants standing behind them. In some of the videos, a militant positioned a long knife on Ridsdel’s neck. Two black flags hung in the backdrop of lush foliage.

The abductions highlight the long-running security problems hounding the southern Philippines, a region with bountiful resources that also suffers from poverty, lawlessness and decades-long Muslim and communist insurgencies.

The Abu Sayyaf began a series of large-scale abductions after it emerged in the early 1990s as an offshoot of a separatist rebellion by minority Muslims in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation’s south.

It has been weakened by more than a decade of Philippine offensives but has endured largely as a result of large ransom and extortion earnings. The United States and the Philippines have both listed the group as a terrorist organization.

Harriet Tubman to replace Andrew Jackson on $20 bill

Anti-slavery crusader Harriet Tubman will become the first African-American to be featured on the face of U.S. paper currency when she replaces President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill, the U.S. Treasury Department announced on Wednesday. 

She will also be the first woman on U.S. paper currency in more than a century.

The redesigned $20 bill will move Jackson to the back of the bill alongside an image of the White House, Treasury officials said.

A new $10 bill will keep founding father Alexander Hamilton on the front, while adding images of five women, all leaders of the women’s suffrage movement, to the back.

The reverse of a new $5 note will honor events held at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., including former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, Jr., officials said.

The slew of changes give the Treasury “a chance to open the aperture to reflect more of America’s history,” Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told reporters on a conference call.

The decision to replace the seventh president of the United States with Tubman, who was born a slave and helped hundreds of slaves escape using the network of safe-houses known as the Underground Railroad, followed public outreach by the Treasury Department regarding which woman should be featured on a bill after they announced plans in June to feature one on the $10 note.

While no depictions of African-Americans have appeared on U.S. currency, the signatures of five African-Americans have been on it. Four were Registers of the Treasury and included Blanche K. Bruce, Judson W. Lyons, William T. Vernon and James C. Napier, and one was U.S. Treasurer Azie Taylor Morton.

Native American Sacagawea has been featured on the gold dollar coin since 1999, and suffragist Susan B. Anthony has appeared on the silver dollar coin since 1979. Deaf-blind author and activist Helen Keller is on the back of the Alabama quarter, which was first issued in 2003.

Prompted partly by a young girl’s letter to President Barack Obama about the lack of women on U.S. currency, a social media campaign last year called “Women on 20s” began pushing for a woman to replace Jackson.

On Wednesday, the movement’s leaders said they were “ready to claim victory” but only if the bill was issued by 2020 to mark the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote.

“What was to be a celebration of female American heroes ... cannot be postponed,” the group’s founder Barbara Ortiz Howard said in a statement.

U.S. Treasury spokesman Rob Runyan could not say when the redesigned bill would be issued.

The women last depicted on U.S. bills were first lady Martha Washington on the $1 silver certificate from 1891 to 1896, and Native American Pocahontas in a group photo on the $20 bill from 1865 to 1869.

Harriet Tubman became the top-trending hashtag on Twitter shortly after the news broke on Wednesday, with more than 100,000 tweets and mentions online.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams (@BPEricAdams) tweeted, “Having #HarrietTubman on the new $20 bill is a #milestone for our nation, a powerful acknowledgment of great #women and #AfricanAmericans.”

Other users applauded Treasury’s decision to keep Hamilton on the $10 bill, which is a decision many say resulted from the influence of the popular, Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical “Hamilton,” created by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Actress Mara Wilson (@MaraWritesStuff) tweeted Miranda on Wednesday stating, “@Lin_Manuel First you win a Pulitzer, now you’re affecting US currency. Get some rest!”

In pictures: Ecuador races to find quake survivors

The death toll from Ecuador’s worst earthquake in decades rose to at least 413 on Monday while traumatized survivors slept amid the rubble of their homes and rescuers dug for survivors in the Andean nation’s shattered coastal region. 

"Sadly we have to inform you that there are about 350 people killed. The number of people injured has also risen" from an earlier toll of 2,068, Security Minister Cesar Navas said on television Monday.

Saturday’s 7.8 magnitude quake ripped apart buildings and roads, knocked out power, and injured thousands in the largely impoverished country.

In the devastated beach town of Pedernales, shaken survivors curled up for the night on mattresses or plastic chairs next to the rubble of their homes. Soldiers and police patrolled the hot, dark streets while pockets of rescue workers ploughed on.

Late on Sunday, firefighters entered a partially destroyed house to search for three children and a man apparently trapped inside, as a crowd of 40 gathered in the darkness to watch.

“My little cousins are inside, before there were noises, screams. We must find them,” pleaded Isaac, 18, as the firemen combed the debris.

Pedernales Mayor Gabriel Alcivar estimated that there were up to 400 more dead yet to be confirmed, many buried under the rubble of collapsed hotels.

"Pedernales is devastated. Buildings have fallen down, especially hotels where there are lots of tourists staying. There are lots of dead bodies," he told local media.

Tents sprung up in the town’s still-intact stadium to store bodies, treat the injured, and distribute water, food and blankets to survivors. People wandered around with bruised limbs and bandaged cuts, while patients with more serious injuries were evacuated to hospitals.

Death toll ‘will certainly rise’

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, who cut short a visit to Italy, surveyed the damage in the coastal province of Manabi on Sunday night. 

Ecuador has been hit tremendously hard,” Correa said in a televised address, his voice breaking.

Correa warned that the death toll "will certainly rise and probably in a considerable way" in the hours ahead.

"There are still lots of bodies in the rubble," he said. "These are extremely difficult times, the biggest tragedy in the last 67 years."

Correa made reference to the August 1949 earthquake near the central Ecuadoran city of Ambato that killed some 5,000 people and caused widespread destruction.

While the full extent of the damage remains unclear, the disaster will likely worsen the OPEC nation’s economic performance this year.

The small, oil-dependent country has already been battered by the tumble in crude prices.

Its crucial energy industry appears largely intact after the quake, though its main refinery of Esmeraldas was closed as a precaution. However, exports of bananas, flowers, cacao and fish could be slowed by ruined roads and delays at ports.

The quake could also alter political dynamics ahead of next year’s presidential election.

After the aftershocks

About 230 aftershocks have rattled survivors who, huddled in the streets, worried the flow of tremors could topple their already cracked homes.

In the hard-hit city of Portoviejo, the stench of decaying bodies began to fill the tropical air as rescuers raced to find survivors.

“We’re scared of being in the house,” said Yamil Faran, 47, surrounded by some 30 people in the middle of a street in the city. “When this improves and the aftershocks stop we’re going to see if we can repair it.”

The destruction caused by the quake to the country’s infrastructure was further hampering rescue efforts, said FRANCE 24’s correspondent in Quito, Carolina Loza-Leon.

“A lot of the roads have been completely destroyed in the hardest hit areas,” she said. “[There is] Inadequate infrastructure to reach the people who need help the most.”

Some 130 inmates in Portoviejo took advantage of the quake’s destruction and chaos to climb over the collapsed walls of the low-security El Rodeo prison. More than 35 prisoners had been recaptured, authorities said on Sunday night.

About 13,500 security personnel were mobilised to keep order. Beyond a handful of unconfirmed reports of theft and looting, the country appeared calm.

Some $600 million in credit from multilateral lenders was immediately activated for the emergency, the government said.

Domestic aid funds were being set up and Venezuela, Chile and Mexico were sending personnel and supplies. The Ecuadorean Red Cross mobilised more than 800 volunteers and staff, and medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said it was sending a team from Colombia.

The tremor followed two large and deadly quakes that struck Japan since Thursday.

Both countries are located on the seismically active “Ring of Fire” that circles the Pacific, but according to the US Geological Survey large quakes separated by such distances are probably not related.

Brazil’s leader vows long battle against impeachment

Embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff vowed Monday to wage a ”long” fight against impeachment as Congress moved closer to putting her on trial in a deepening political crisis. 

The 68-year-old leftist leader was in a combative mood in her public response since the lower house of Congress overwhelmingly voted late Sunday to send her case to the Senate.

”I am outraged by the decision,” Rousseff told a news conference carried live on television.

Rousseff invoked her survival story under Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s, when she was tortured as a young member of a violent guerrilla group.

”I have strength, spirit and courage. I will not be beaten, I will not be paralyzed. I will continue to fight and I will fight as I did all my life,” she said.

”This is not the beginning of the end. The battle has begun. This fight will be very long and memorable,” she said.

Rousseff faces charges of illegally manipulating government accounts during her 2014 reelection to mask the scale of budget holes.

But Rousseff said that deputies in the house had failed to provide any evidence that she’d committed an impeachable crime, calling the process instead a “coup d’etat.”

She branded her Vice President, Michel Temer, a traitor who had conspired against her. He would take over if she’s impeached.

Monday’s newspapers printed pictures of him smiling as he watched the vote.

Senate battle looms

The president spoke after House Speaker Eduardo Cunha personally delivered the impeachment documents to the Senate.

Senators are expected to vote by mid-May on whether to open the proceedings and suspend Rousseff for up to six months.

The political showdown comes as Latin America’sbiggest economy is mired in a deep recession and a corruption scandal at state oil giant Petrobras, with the Rio Olympics approaching in August.

After meeting with Cunha, Senate President Renan Calheiros said the upper chamber would begin reading the impeachment documents on Tuesday but that there would be no rush.

”There are requests to speed up the process, but we won’t be able to accelerate it in a way that appears hurried. We can’t put it off either. We will defend the legal process,” Calheiros said.

Calheiros said Rousseff requested a meeting with him later Monday.

Cunha, on the other hand, wants the process to move quickly.

”Today we have a half-government and that’s not good for anybody,” said Cunha, who like Temer and Calheiros is a member of the center-right PMDB party that abandoned Rousseff’s coalition.

All three face various allegations of misdeeds themselves.

Lindbergh Farias, a senator from Rousseff’s Workers’ Party, said the initial Senate vote should take place on May 11 and warned that his group would go to the Supreme Court if there’s pressure to speed things up.

Farias described the rowdy debate in the lower house of Congress as a ”horror show.”

The opposition threw celebratory confetti after getting well over two thirds of the majority needed to move the case forward, with 367 of 513 deputies voting “yes.”

Surveys by Brazilian media indicate that the opposition has the simple majority necessary to open the trial in the 81-member Senate.

A two-thirds majority would be needed for her definitive ouster.

”Dilma Rousseff yesterday started to say goodbye to the presidency of Brazil,” wrote the leading newspaper O Globo.

Carla Selman, an analyst at IHS Country Risk, a consultancy, said that events could move quickly given the decisive nature of the lower house vote.

”This is likely to accelerate a vote in the Senate, where the
pro-impeachment camp is also expected to win,” Selman said.

VP eyes big job

Financial markets have been betting heavily on Rousseff’s exit and the advent of a more business-friendly government to kickstart Brazil’s economy.

The worst recession for decades and political paralysis in the capital has prevented reforms that might attract back foreign investors, scared off by Brazil’s junk credit ratings.

While Temer is already eyeing his potential presidency, he would inherit a country wallowing in economic disarray and a dysfunctional political scene where Rousseff’s Workers’ Party vows revenge.

”It will not be easy” for Temer, said Andre Cesar, an independent political analyst. “It will be a nightmare.”

Rousseff’s backers also point out that Temer could face impeachment himself because he backed her policies as vice president, while his PMDB party’s other heavyweights, Cunha and Calheiros, also face corruption allegations.

Huge opposition rallies in recent months have played a big role in turning pressure against Rousseff into an unstoppable avalanche.

Now anger on the streets could again play a role as the stakes in the crisis rise even higher.

”Whoever loses will keep protesting in the streets,” said Sylvio Costa, who heads the specialist politics website Congresso en Foco. ”What’s certain is that the crisis will not end today.”

Deadly explosion hits Mexico oil plant

A massive explosion rocked a major petrochemical facility of Mexican national oil company Pemex in the Gulf state of Veracruz on Wednesday, killing at least three people, injuring dozens more, and pumping a cloud of noxious chemicals into the sky.

Luis Felipe Puente, head of federal emergency services, told Reuters that three people had died in the blast. Pemex confirmed that three of its workers had died, and said another 136 were injured, of which 88 were still in the hospital.

The firm said the explosion, which sent a huge, dark plume of smoke billowing upwards, occurred just after 3 p.m. (2000 GMT) at the facility's chlorinate 3 plant near the port of Coatzacoalcos, one of the company's top oil export hubs.

Local emergency officials said hundreds of people had been evacuated from the site. Television footage showed an initial burst of flames followed by a tower of thick smoke. A company official said local oil exports were unaffected.

What caused the blast was unclear, but Pemex initially warned local residents to keep away from the site due to what it described as a dissipating cloud of toxic fumes. TV footage showed rain clouds gathering above the plant as evening fell.

"The current situation at the plant... is under control and there is no risk to the population," Pemex said later in the evening on its official Twitter account.

Pemex Chief Executive Jose Antonio Gonzalez traveled to Coatzacoalcos late on Wednesday to oversee the response.

Petroquimica Mexicana de Vinilo, or PMV, a vinyl petrochemical plant that is a joint venture between Pemex's petrochemical unit and Mexican plastic pipe maker Mexichem was the facility hit by the blast.

Operated by Mexichem, the plant lies within Pemex's larger Pajaritos petrochemical complex. Mexichem said in a statement the explosion occurred in an ethylene unit at the plant. The company could not be immediately reached for further comment.

In February, a fire killed a worker at the PMV plant, which makes vinyl chloride monomer, also known as chloroethene, an industrial chemical used to produce plastic piping.

The incident occurred just weeks after three workers were killed and seven injured when a fire broke out on a Pemex oil-processing platform in the Gulf of Mexico.

It also came as Pemex implements deep cost cuts to cope with the rout in oil prices, and seeks to stem a slide in output. 

Mexico is in the midst of a historic push to lure private investors to revive its oil industry.

Pemex, which enjoyed a decades-long monopoly over Mexico's oil and gas industry until an energy reform opened up the sector in 2014, has experienced a series of high-profile accidents.

In 2013, at least 37 people were killed by a blast at its Mexico City headquarters, and 26 people died in a fire at a Pemex natural gas facility in northern Mexico in September 2012.

A 2015 fire at its Abkatun Permanente platform in the oil-rich Bay of Campeche affected oil output and cost the company up to $780 million.

Pemex said last year it had reduced its annual accident rate in 2014 by more than 33 percent. But a Reuters investigation found that Pemex was reducing its accident rate by including hours worked by office staff in its calculations. 

Venezuela to cut power for four hours a day amid electricity crisis

Recession-hit Venezuela will turn off the electricity supply in its 10 most populous states for four hours a day for 40 days to deal with a severe power shortage, the government said Thursday. 

It is the latest drastic measure to alleviate a severe electricity crisis which President Nicolas Maduro and his government blame on a drought caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon.

Critics say it is the result of years of economic mismanagement.

"Each user will have a temporary suspension of four hours a day. The plan will last approximately 40 days" to ease pressure on the country's largest hydroelectric dam, said Electricity Minister Luis Motta.

Maduro is under growing pressure from the center-right opposition, which vowed to oust him when it took control of the legislature in January after winning a landslide election victory, blaming him for the crippling economic crisis.

Venezuela's economy has plunged along with the price of the oil which it relies on for foreign revenues. Shortages of medicines and goods such as toilet paper and cooking oil are widespread.

Maduro blames the collapse on an "economic war" by capitalists.

Last week, his government said it was shifting its time zone forward by 30 minutes to save power.

Other measures include giving government workers an extra day off each week for the next two months, and Maduro has urged Venezuelan women to stop using their hairdryers.

Motta had warned Wednesday that mandatory power cuts were imminent as he toured the Guri hydroelectric plant, where officials say the water level is approaching the critical limit.

The dam supplies 70 percent of the country's electricity. Seventeen other hydroelectric dams are also near critical levels, and citizens regularly suffer blackouts and water rationing.

Venezuela has the world's largest proven oil reserves, but the government has resisted using crude to generate electricity, calling it inefficient.

Beer cuts, too

Maduro's other measures to cut electricity use include reducing the workday to six hours for ministries and state companies and ordering them to lower their electricity consumption by 20 percent.

He has also ordered shops and hotels to ration electricity, obliging them to generate their own power for several hours a day.

Shopping centers have cut back their hours since that plan was introduced.

Analysts, however, warn the measures will further damage productivity.

Maduro reached the halfway point of his six-year term this week. Under Venezuela's constitution he can now be removed from office in a recall referendum -- one of the options the opposition has vowed to pursue to oust him.

He has vowed to hold on to power and press on with the socialist "revolution" launched by his late predecessor Hugo Chavez.

In another bit of bad economic news, the country's largest brewery said it will stop producing beer because of a barley shortage.

Cerveceria Polar, maker of the country's best-known brands of beer, said it will run out of the key ingredient on April 29 and is unable to get more because it can not access dollars to pay importers under Maduro's tight currency controls.

The brewery is part of Venezuela's largest corporation, Empresas Polar, whose chief executive, Lorenzo Mendoza, has repeatedly clashed with Maduro as the economy has veered into a deep recession.

Maduro accuses the billionaire businessman of sabotaging the economy by slowing production, which the leftist leader blames for crippling shortages of food and basic goods.

But Polar said Thursday the government's policies left it no choice but to stop making beer.

"We have warned the country about the grave situation we are facing and we have exhausted all options to run debts with our international suppliers, all the while waiting for the government to address the debt problem."

Venezuela's cash-strapped government is unable to meet business demand for the dollars they need to buy goods and materials abroad.

The import-dependent economy contracted 5.7 percent last year, its second year of recession, and inflation came in at more than 180 percent.

(AFP)

Obama defends EU-US trade deal on Germany visit

US President Barack Obama delivered a strong defense of international trade deals Sunday in the face of domestic and foreign opposition, saying it's "indisputable" that such agreements strengthen the economy.

Obama, on a farewell visit to Germany as president, is trying to counter public skepticism about a trans-Atlantic trade deal with Europe, while also facing down criticism from the 2016 presidential candidates of a pending Asia-Pacific trade pact.

Despite all that, Obama said, "the majority of people still favor trade. They still recognize, on balance, that it's a good idea."

"It is indisputable that it has made our economy stronger," Obama said about international trade. He said he was confident the trans-Atlantic trade deal could be completed by the end of year, to be presented for ratification. And he said that once the U.S. presidential primary season is over and politics settle down, the trans-Pacific pact can "start moving forward."

WHAT EXACTLY IS THE TTIP TRADE DEAL?

Obama, at a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, made a strong public show of support for her handling of the migrant issue, saying she was "on the right side of history on this."

Her decision to allow the resettlement in Germany of thousands fleeing violence in Syria and other Mideast conflict zones has created an angry domestic backlash. Merkel recently helped European countries reach a deal with Turkey to ease the flow, but she and the other leaders are now under pressure to revisit it.

Obama said Merkel was "giving voice to the kinds of principles that bring people together rather than divide them," and credited her with taking on some tough politics.

But the president reiterated U.S. opposition to the idea of establishing a "safe zone" in Syrian territory, saying it would difficult to put in place.

"As a practical matter, sadly, it is very difficult to see how it would operate short of us essentially being willing to militarily take over a chunk of that country," he said.

Merkel, in contrast, has endorsed the notion of creating areas that could provide safe haven for the thousands of migrants fleeing the violence, and said such zones would improve access to humanitarian aid. She insisted the proposal would not require outside intervention, saying safe areas should be part of the Geneva peace negotiations that involve the Syrian government and moderate opposition groups.

Obama, looking to project a united front with a leader he referred to as his "trusted partner," said making safe zones controlled by moderate opposition part of the peace talks shows that "here there's no space between us."

Obama spoke after Merkel rolled out the red carpet for him at Hannover's Herrenhausen Palace, a rebuilt version of the former summer royal residence destroyed in World War II. After reviewing German troops in a palace garden, they climbed a spiral staircase and stepped inside for private talks.

Search for missing Virginia firefighter suspended after body found

(CNN)A search for missing Virginia firefighter Nicole Mittendorff was suspended Thursday after a woman's remains were found in Shenandoah National Park, authorities said.

A search team of National Park Service and Virginia State Police officers discovered the remains in a remote location more than a mile from the Whiteoak Canyon parking area and about 330 yards from the trail in treacherous rocky terrain, the two agencies said.

Mittendorff's 2009 Mini Cooper was found Saturday night in that parking area, authorities said. She was reported missing the day before.

Nicole Mittendorff, 31, was last heard from in text messages on Wednesday, family and friends have said on social media.

Authorities have not identified the body. A posting on the family's Find Nicole Facebook page said, "Our hearts are broken. We thank you for your support and ask that you keep our family in your prayers in the challenging days ahead."

Relatives and colleagues of Mittendorff had appealed to the public for help in finding her.

"As you can imagine, the pain of not knowing where a loved one is can be unbearable," Mittendorff's husband, Steve, said in tears during a news conference Tuesday at a Fairfax County firehouse.

Mittendorff, 31, was last heard from in text messages last Wednesday, family and friends have said on social media.

She was reported missing Friday after failing to show up at work, her father, Robert Clardy, said in a Facebook post.

State, federal, and volunteer search and rescue teams had combed the national park.

There's "no evidence to indicate that her disappearance is suspicious in nature," Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said before the remains were found.

Nicole Mittendorff was reported missing on Friday after failing to show up for work.

At the news conference Tuesday, Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Chief Richard Bowers called for the public's help in locating Mittendorff -- a "motivated and dedicated" firefighter and paramedic for three years who was "respected and well-liked" by her colleagues.

"It has been almost a week and we are saddened that Nicole is not back with us," he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/21/us/virginia-missing-firefighter/index.html

FBI paid more than $1 million to hack San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, Comey says

Washington (CNN)The FBI paid more than $1 million to the company that gained access to San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook's iPhone for their hacking services, FBI Director James Comey said Thursday.

When asked how much the agency spent on gaining access to the device, Comey, who was speaking at the Aspen Security Forum in London, said, "A lot. Let's see, more than I will make in the remainder of this job, which is seven years and four months, for sure."

The FBI director's annual salary is $181,500, so that's roughly $1,331,000.

With all the attention the FBI's litigation of Apple garnered, Comey remarked that the court case "stimulated a bit of a marketplace around the world which didn't exist before then."

Earlier this month, Comey revealed that the FBI had purchased "a tool" from a private company but would not elaborate on the company or the services provided.

Comey also said the FBI had no intentions off crowdsourcing more tools for various versions of the iPhone, saying the method would not be scalable due to the costs.

Recognizing that the FBI may need more help in the future cracking various encryption techniques on cell phones, Comey said it will be "a feature of our work" over the "months and years to come."

Instead, Comey said he hopes the FBI can find a sensible solution that does not involve hacking or doling out large amounts of money each time they encounter a new encryption challenge.

Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, killed 14 people in December. The couple, radical Islamists who supported ISIS, later died in a shootout with police.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/21/politics/san-bernardino-iphone-apple-hacking/index.html