Town Hall News

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States imposed sanctions on the former president of Haiti’s Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday under a program focused on human rights abuse and corruption, the Treasury Department said on its website. The former official, Gary Bodeau, had been sanctioned by Canada in November, along with two other Haitian politicians. Ottawa accused them of aiding gang leaders and laundering their illicit earnings. Haiti’s gangs have expanded […]

(Reuters) -Exxon Mobil Corp has ended a major campaign to find oil in Brazil, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.  Exxon said in an e-mail to Reuters its initial exploration drilling program in Brazil is now complete and that it is “still engaged in Brazil and continues to pursue exploration activity in the country”.    The oil and gas giant suffered a sequence of […]

By Marek Strzelecki and Max Hunder WARSAW (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited neighbouring Poland on Wednesday and thanked the country for its “historic” help, saying it should become a key partner in the vast reconstruction effort needed once Russia’s invasion ends. Warsaw has positioned itself as one of Kyiv’s staunchest allies, playing a leading role in persuading sometimes reluctant allies to provide it with heavy weaponry. On Wednesday President […]

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Russia’s announcement that it will station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus shows that a Russia-China joint statement days earlier amounted to “empty promises”, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement came just days after Russia and China jointly declared countries should not deploy nuclear weapons outside their borders, Stoltenberg told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels. He said this showed such […]

By Stephen Nellis (Reuters) – Apple Inc on Wednesday said that more of its supply chain is committing to use renewable energy in producing the company’s iPhones, Macs and other products. Apple said suppliers are supporting 13 gigawatts of active renewable energy projects, up from 10 gigawatts last year. Apple suppliers have made commitments to support an eventual total of 20 gigawatts of projects, up from a total of 16 […]

By Katie Paul (Reuters) – Facebook-owner Meta published an artificial intelligence model on Wednesday that can pick out individual objects from within an image, along with a dataset of image annotations that it said was the largest ever of its kind. The company’s research division said in a blog post that its Segment Anything Model, or SAM, could identify objects in images and videos even in cases where it had […]

By Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat BANGKOK (Reuters) – Two generals involved in coups, a pro-cannabis health minister and a businesswoman whose father and aunt fled into exile after being forced from power could be Thailand’s next premiers, as political parties finalise their picks for the top job. Thailand holds an election on May 14 and parties have until Friday to name their prime ministerial candidates, one of which will […]

By Michael Holden and James Pearson LONDON (Reuters) -International law enforcement agencies have seized a sprawling dark web marketplace popular with cybercriminals, Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Wednesday, in a multinational crackdown dubbed ‘Operation Cookie Monster’. A banner plastered across Genesis Market’s site late on Tuesday said domains belonging to the organisation had been seized by the FBI. Logos of other European, Canadian, and Australian police organizations were […]

By Noele Illien BASEL (Reuters) – UBS executives sought to assure investors on Wednesday that Switzerland’s largest bank can make its unexpected takeover of Swiss rival Credit Suisse work and pay off for its shareholders. While describing the biggest bank rescue since the global financial crisis as a milestone for the industry and a major challenge for the bank, Chairman Colm Kelleher told UBS shareholders it also meant “a new […]