Town Hall News

FREETOWN (Reuters) -Sierra Leone’s leading opposition candidate has called for the country’s electoral commissioners to resign a week before a presidential poll, saying his party did not believe in their ability to hold free and fair elections. Samura Kamara, head of the All People’s Congress (APC) party, said he wanted the chief electoral commissioner and all regional commissioners of the national election body to be replaced by “an independent internationally […]

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The head of the U.N. atomic energy agency visited the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine on Thursday and said it was unrealistic to expect Moscow and Kyiv to sign a document on the site’s security while fighting raged nearby. Rafael Grossi, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was inspecting the state of the nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, following last week’s devastating breach in […]

By Max Hunder and Olena Harmash HRUSHIVKA, Ukraine (Reuters) – Tetyana Tarasevych remembers how life got better in Ukraine’s southeast nearly 70 years ago after the vast Kakhovka water reservoir was built near her home in the village of Hrushivka. As the vast reservoir has lost around three-quarters of its volume since the destruction of the Kakhovka dam last week, she is now using glass jars to catch rainwater. Her […]

(Reuters) – Haiti has made “significant progress” on governance issues such as transparency, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday, as its management wrapped up a final review of an informal agreement to monitor its economic program. In a second and final review of its Staff-Monitored Program (SMP), approved in June last year, the IMF said that despite worsening conditions domestically and in the global economy, authorities had adopted […]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani arrived in Baghdad on Thursday on an official visit to discuss regional political matters and enhance bilateral relations, the government said in a statement. Qatar’s Emir is visiting Baghdad on an invitation by the Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, said a government spokesman, Basim al-Awadi. During the emir’s visit, Iraq and Qatar will sign memorandums of understanding (MOUs) to expand […]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The National Retail Federation on Thursday said its members were “relieved” that U.S. West Coast seaport employers and the union representing 22,000 workers had reached a tentative deal, and urged both to quickly ratify the tentative agreement. Retailers account for about 50% of container traffic that enters U.S. ports. Many shifted a portion of their cargo to ocean trade gateways on the East Coast and Gulf […]

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union hosted an international conference on Thursday to collect money for Syria where an earthquake earlier this year aggravated the already dire plight of people who have been caught in war since 2011. “Humanitarian funding for Syria is not keeping pace with rapidly increasing needs,” said Janez Lenarcic, the conference host and the EU’s top official for humanitarian aid and crisis management. Three United Nations agencies […]

By Martin Quin Pollard BEIJING (Reuters) -Lionel Messi delighted Argentina fans in Beijing when he scored the fastest goal of his international career, netting after 79 seconds as the world champions beat Australia 2-0 in a friendly at a raucous Workers’ Stadium on Thursday. Fans immediately got their money’s worth when Argentina won the ball in Australia’s half in the second minute and Enzo Fernandez found Messi, who sidestepped two […]

By Anirban Sen (Reuters) – English football club Manchester United is negotiating granting exclusivity to the consortium led by Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani in the talks to sell itself for more than $6 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Members of the Glazer family, which own minority stakes in Manchester United and control it thanks to a dual-class share structure, would be cashing out as […]