Town Hall News

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s fiscal revenue rose 11.9% in the first four months of 2023 from the same period a year earlier, accelerating sharply from a 0.5% rise in January-March, official data showed, as the economy stages a gradual but uneven post-COVID recovery. Fiscal revenue totalled 8.32 trillion yuan ($1.20 trillion)in the first four months while fiscal expenditure grew 6.8% to 8.64 trillion yuan, the ministry said in a statement […]

By Sam Nussey TOKYO (Reuters) -Sony Group Corp on Thursday said it is examining a partial spin off of its financial business just three years after taking full control, as the conglomerate doubles down on entertainment and image sensors. Sony said it is considering a time frame of two to three years to spin off Sony Financial Group – whose operations include life insurance and banking – with a eye […]

BANGKOK (Reuters) – The leader of the Move Forward Party that won Thailand’s election this week on Thursday said he was confident of being able to form a government that would be stable and balanced. Leader Pita Limjaroenrat was speaking at a press conference as part of an alliance of eight parties worth about 312 lower house seats, short of the 376 votes needed from the 750-member bicameral legislature to […]

ROME (Reuters) -Holger Rune sent an off-colour Novak Djokovic tumbling out of the Italian Open on Wednesday as the young Dane prevailed 6-2 4-6 6-2 in an epic battle against the defending champion to secure his place in the semi-finals. For the first time since 2004, neither Djokovic nor the injured Rafa Nadal will be in the Rome final. Rune outlasted Djokovic in three sets in last year’s Paris Masters […]

By Praveen Menon SYDNEY (Reuters) – Two of Australia’s top football codes on Thursday backed a proposal to constitutionally recognise the country’s Indigenous population in a referendum, as latest opinion polls show public support for the government-backed plan dipping. In a full page statement published in The Sydney Morning Herald, Rugby Australia (RA) said the proposed referendum is “too important a contest to watch in silence”. “If we are ever […]

ROME (Reuters) – Novak Djokovic said the long awaited “shift of generations” has finally come to men’s tennis after the world number one lost to 20-year-old Dane Holger Rune in the Italian Open quarter-finals. The ‘Big Three’ of Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer have dominated the ATP Tour for nearly two decades but age and injury have been catching up with them in recent years. Top seed Djokovic’s 6-2 […]

(Reuters) -Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing division of Amazon.com Inc, said on Thursday it plans to invest 1.06 trillion rupees ($13 billion) in India by 2030, doubling down on its past investments to cater to an ever-growing demand. The latest investment will be used to build its cloud infrastructure in India and it will support over 100,000 full- time jobs annually, AWS said. The company runs two data […]

By Andrew Hayley XIAN, China (Reuters) – Central Asian heads of state converged in China’s historic city of Xian on Thursday for one-on-ones with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to seal pledges of “enduring” friendship, and paving the way for a summit expected to result in a regional pact with Beijing. The bilateral talks will set the stage for a group meeting on Friday, the first in-person gathering of the six […]

(Reuters) – Falling debris during an air raid early on Thursday triggered two fires in the eastern districts of Kyiv, officials said. Mayor Vitaly Klitschko, writing on Telegram, said one fire had broken out in a garage facility in the Darnitsya region of the capital. He said there were no casualties. The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko, said on Telegram that a fire had broken out in non-residential […]