Town Hall News

Pakistan Denies Trade Relations with Israel After Export Claim Normalization is off the table ‘until the Palestine issue is resolved,’ Pakistani official says By Arshad Mehmood/The Media Line [Islamabad] Pakistan reaffirmed its policy against trade with Israel following a tweet from a Jewish Pakistani businessman in which he claimed to have exported food products to Israel. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Trade and Commerce in Pakistan […]

By Tom Hals (Reuters) -When Donald Trump walks into Justice Juan Merchan’s courtroom on Tuesday to face criminal charges, it will be a first for a former U.S. president but familiar territory for the veteran judge who serves on Manhattan’s criminal court. Merchan last year oversaw a criminal trial of the Trump Organization that ended with the real estate company convicted by a jury of tax fraud and hit with […]

By Karolina Tagaris THESSALONIKI, Greece (Reuters) – A month after 12 students at Greece’s largest university were killed in a train crash, messages of grief across the campus are tinged with rage. “This crime will not be forgotten,” a note on a makeshift memorial at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki reads. Fifty-seven people died in the country’s deadliest rail disaster on Feb. 28, when a passenger train and a cargo […]

GENEVA (Reuters) – Mining magnate Beny Steinmetz said he would appeal against a guilty verdict for corruption upheld by a Swiss appeals court on Tuesday, saying the decision was “unfair and politically motivated”. The Geneva court upheld a guilty verdict for corruption made by a lower court in 2021. But it acquitted him of forgery and reduced his sentence to three years’ imprisonment of which 18 months must be served. […]

By Brendan O’Brien CHICAGO (Reuters) – Crime is the central issue in Tuesday’s mayoral runoff in Chicago, where voters are choosing between two candidates with contrasting approaches to public safety. Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas calls for more cops; Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson calls for more mental health support and opportunities for young people. The two are squaring off to run the third-largest U.S. city after incumbent […]

By Maiya Keidan TORONTO (Reuters) – TD Bank Group should abandon or renegotiate its $13.4 billion acquisition of U.S. lender First Horizon as the regional banking crisis has unearthed unknown risks, some small shareholders told Reuters. Regional lenders in the U.S. face a crisis of confidence after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank last month. First Horizon shares are trading almost 30% below TD’s offer price of […]

By Ariba Shahid KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) -Pakistan’s central bank raised its key interest rate by 100 basis points to its highest-ever level on Tuesday, as the cash-strapped country bids to curb soaring consumer prices. The key rate of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) now stands at a record 21% but consumer price inflation is also at its highest level recorded to date. Investors polled by Reuters had mostly expected […]

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has achieved the opposite of his Ukraine war aims by triggering Finland’s “historic” accession to NATO later on Tuesday, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said, declaring Sweden would also join soon. “President Putin had as a declared goal of the invasion of Ukraine to get less NATO,” he told reporters at NATO’s Brussels headquarters, speaking hours before Finland was officially to become a member […]

By Toby Sterling VOORSCHOTEN, Netherlands (Reuters) -A passenger train in the Netherlands rammed into a maintenance crane on the railway tracks early on Tuesday, killing the equipment operator and injuring dozens of passengers as the train derailed, officials and local media said. The maintenance work was planned and standard, but “we have no idea how the crane got on the track which was still open for traffic”, John Voppen, the […]