Early Headlines: Conflicting Reports on Freddie Gray, Euro Bonds Sell Off, Prison for Malala Attackers, Nepal News and More

Early Bird Headlines 30 April 2015

Econintersect: Here are some of the headlines we found to help you start your day. For more headlines see our afternoon feature for GEI members, What We Read Today, which has many more headlines and a number of article discussions to keep you abreast of what we have found interesting.

Note: Early Bird was delayed several hours today due to ISP outage.

U.S.

• Pace, destination of rate hikes important: BlackRock (CNBC) BlackRock’s Rick Rieder says the pace of rate hikes and the final destination are much more important than when the first rate hike occurs.
• Air Force: Keeping A-10 means F-35 delays, F-16 cuts (Air Force News) Hat tip to Roger Erickson. If not allowed to retire the A-10, the Air Force says it will have to send F-16s to the boneyard and delay plans for the F-35 because there aren’t enough airmen to maintain both fighters.
• Prisoner in van said Freddie Gray was ‘trying to injure himself,’ document says (Washington Post) It is not clear whether any additional evidence backs up the prisoner’s version, which is just one piece of a much larger probe. Econintersect: There are a number of other rumors in this case which we are following and will include whenever any credible stories are published.
• Prisoner Was Wrong: Freddie Gray Didn’t Kill Himself (The Daily Beast)

Someone leaked a police document to the Washington Post claiming he was trying to hurt himself inside a police van-minutes after he asked for medical assistance. Before the second prisoner was even in the police van, Freddie Gray asked the police for medical assistance. So you have to wonder why on earth a man who had just asked for help would then try to hurt himself-as the second prisoner supposedly concluded after he was picked up at the next stop a few minutes later.

EU

• Recovery hopes drive Europe bond sell-off (Financial Times) A sell-off in European government bonds drove borrowing costs sharply higher on Wednesday, raising fears that the impact that eurozone quantitative easing has had in driving down yields could soon be thrown into reverse. Many bonds that were trading with negative yield are now back on the plus side.

Syria

• Islamist fighters seize southern Syria crossing: monitor (Reuters) The hardline Ahrar al-Sham group in Syria and other insurgents seized a crossing in the southwest frontier area near Israel on Thursday from a small group of rival Islamist fighters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said. If confirmed, the capture would represent a further advance for Ahrar al-Sham, one of the main jihadist groups in Syria alongside Islamic State and al Qaeda’s Syria wing Nusra Front.

Iran

• Exclusive: Britain told U.N. monitors of active Iran nuclear procurement – panel (Reuters) Britain has informed a United Nations sanctions panel of an active Iranian nuclear procurement network linked to two blacklisted firms, according to a confidential report by the panel seen by Reuters. The existence of such a network could add to Western concerns over whether Tehran can be trusted to adhere to a nuclear deal.
• Why Iran’s foreign minister is bullish on a nuclear pact (Al Jazeera) As drafting gets underway, Zarif believes a deal can be quickly implemented despite opposition in Congress. The final deadline is June 30.

Iraq

• Iraq poised to deploy Iran-backed Shi’ite militia in offensive in West (Reuters) Iraq is poised to deploy Shi’ite paramilitaries backed by Iran to Sunni tribal areas west of Baghdad, a move supporters say is needed to defeat Islamic State militants but opponents say could inflame more sectarian violence.

Pakistan

• Pakistani court jails 10 for role in Malala attack (Al Jazeera) Sentences are for 25 years to life. Al Jazeera calls the men “Taliban fighters“. They say: “The fighters targeted her because she advocated for education for women.” This is one of the first inaccurate characterizations we have seen from Al Jazeera. Econintersect believes the appropriate characterization for men who carry out an attempted lethal attack on a 15-year-old girl walking home from school is terrorists.

Nepal

• Nepal earthquake: Relief starts reaching remote villages (BBC News) Aid has begun to reach remote regions near the epicentre of Saturday’s devastating earthquake in Nepal. Fears are rising about epidemics that may spread because of the many dead bodies still not recovered and buried.

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