Town Hall News

By Erwin Seba HOUSTON (Reuters) – A fire burned for a third day on Sunday at Shell Plc’s chemical plant in the Houston suburb of Deer Park, Texas, a company spokesperson said. The fire initially ignited on Friday afternoon in an explosion in an olefins unit, used to make plastics and rubber. The fire was extinguished for a few hours on Saturday morning before it reignited around 3 p.m. CDT […]

KHARTOUM (Reuters) -Fighting could be heard in south Khartoum on Sunday as envoys from Sudan’s warring parties met in Saudi Arabia for talks that international mediators hope will bring an end to a three-week-old conflict that has killed hundreds and triggered an exodus. The U.S.-Saudi initiative is the first serious attempt to end fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that has turned parts of the […]

By Roushni Nair (Reuters) -Australia’s Westpac Banking Corp on Monday warned of “intense” mortgage competition pressuring its margins in the current half, and said it was dropping a cost target to instead focus on relative peer performance because of high inflation. Westpac, which previously benefited from a bold cost-cutting strategy, disclosed plans to move away from an absolute expense target and to focus more on improving its expense-to-income ratio in […]

(Reuters) -Russia’s Wagner mercenary group appeared on Sunday to ditch plans to withdraw from Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, saying they had been promised more arms by Moscow and suggesting they may keep up their assault on what Russia sees as a stepping stone to other cities in the Donbas region. Ukraine’s general in charge of the defence of the besieged city said late on Sunday that Russia had intensified shelling, […]

By Aidan Lewis and Sarah El Safty CAIRO (Reuters) -The Arab League readmitted Syria on Sunday after more than a decade of suspension, consolidating a regional push to normalise ties with President Bashar al-Assad in a move criticised by Washington. The decision said Syria could resume its participation in Arab League meetings immediately, while calling for a resolution of the crisis resulting from Syria’s civil war, including the flight of […]

By Maria Caspani (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday called on Congress to pass gun control bills in the wake of yet another mass shooting that left nine people dead, including the gunman, at a Texas mall on Saturday. The Democratic president renewed calls for Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as to enact universal background checks and end immunity for gun manufacturers. There is […]

(Reuters) – Some 1,679 people, including 660 children, have been evacuated from areas near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, a Moscow-installed official in the Russia-controlled parts of the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine said late on Sunday. The head of the U.N.’s nuclear power watchdog warned on Saturday that the situation around the plant has become “potentially dangerous” as Moscow-installed officials began evacuating people from nearby areas. Ukraine is expected to start […]

(Reuters) -Russia has intensified shelling of Bakhmut hoping to take it by Tuesday, Ukraine’s top general in charge of the defence of the besieged city said late on Sunday, vowing to do everything to prevent it. Victory Day in Russia is May 9, one of the country’s most commemorated public holidays marking the anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany. Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Ukrainian commander of ground forces, said […]

(Reuters) -Paris St Germain moved a step closer to retaining the Ligue 1 title with a 3-1 win at second-bottom Troyes thanks to goals from Kylian Mbappe, Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz on Sunday. The win took PSG to 78 points from 34 games, six points clear of Lens and eight in front of Olympique de Marseille with four more rounds of games remaining this season. Lens beat Marseille 2-1 to […]