Town Hall News

By Fransiska Nangoy and Angie Teo JAKARTA (Reuters) -A magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck west of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island on Tuesday, Indonesia’s geophysics agency (BMKG) said, triggering a tsunami warning for around two hours. The tsunami warning, asking local authorities to immediately instruct residents of the affected area to move away from shores, has since been lifted. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) earlier pegged the quake at 6.9 magnitude. The quake, […]

Soup Kitchen Feeds Thousands, Ensuring That No One Starves in Hebron  Hebron’s Takiat Ibrahim soup kitchen provides a lifeline to struggling Palestinians, serving thousands of people daily during Ramadan and throughout the year  By Mohammad Al-Kassim/ The Media Line Every day during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and throughout the year, a group of Palestinian chefs gathers in a soup kitchen to prepare food for needy families in the West […]

(Reuters) – New Zealand troops deployed to the Middle East, South Sudan, Britain and elsewhere are participating in dawn services on Tuesday alongside thousands at home as the country honours military personnel on Anzac Day. The public holiday in New Zealand and Australia commemorates the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during World War One. On April 25, 1915, thousands of troops from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) were […]

Jordanians Call for Return of Lawmaker Detained in Israel Israel alleges that lawmaker Imad Adwan was smuggling weapons and gold into the West Bank but has refused to confirm the veracity of a video apparently documenting the event By Daoud Kuttab/The Media Line [Amman] Jordanian officials have sharply criticized Israel’s detention of Jordanian lawmaker Imad Adwan, whom Israel accuses of smuggling weapons into the West Bank. Adwan was arrested on […]

By Mai Shams El-Din CAIRO (Reuters) – Rawan al-Waleed was expecting to fly from Khartoum to Cairo last week for a wedding. Instead, she ended up travelling from Sudan to Egypt in a bus her family chartered to escape a war. The family left after a rocket hit Waleed’s family home in Khartoum’s Al Amarat district on April 18, destroying the bathroom, as fighting raged between Sudan’s army and the […]

By Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Guests at President Joe Biden’s and first lady Jill Biden’s state dinner with their South Korean counterparts will feast on Maryland crab cakes and braised beef short ribs followed by banana splits for dessert, the White House said on Monday. The Bidens are hosting South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and his wife Kim Keon Hee for a state visit on Wednesday that will conclude […]

(Reuters) -U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Gutterres told a meeting chaired by Russia’s foreign minister that the invasion of Ukraine is “causing massive suffering and devastation” while Moscow warned global risks were possibly worse than during the Cold War. DIPLOMACY * Finland said Russia could benefit from the crisis in Sudan and the European Union should do more to try to resolve it. * Security will be a key issue at a […]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Comic actor Richard Lewis, a longtime regular on the HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” says he is under a doctor’s care for Parkinson’s disease but that despite giving up his standup act “everything is cool” as he focuses on writing and acting. Lewis, 75, disclosed his diagnosis in a brief video posted to Twitter on Sunday, saying he learned he had Parkinson’s, a chronic degenerative disorder […]

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission has tweaked draft patent rules to make it easier for patent holders to sue companies over royalty disputes following criticism that an earlier draft favoured users while restricting patent owners from seeking injunctions. The EU executive, which will announce the draft rules on Wednesday, is hoping the move will end costly legal spats over patents essential to key technologies for […]