Town Hall News

By Stanley Widianto JAKARTA (Reuters) – The United States will announce further sanctions against entities inside Myanmar in the coming days, a senior State Department official said on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters in Jakarta, U.S. State Department Counselor Derek Chollet said the sanctions will make it more difficult for Myanmar’s junta to generate revenue to buy weapons. “We’re committed to ratchet up the pressure on the junta and make it […]

By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -TikTok’s chief executive will tell lawmakers the Chinese-owned short video app with more than 150 million American users has never, and would never, share U.S. user data with the Chinese government amid growing U.S. national security concerns. “TikTok has never shared, or received a request to share, U.S. user data with the Chinese government. Nor would TikTok honor such a request if one were ever […]

By Deisy Buitrago CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday named the head of state oil company PDVSA, Pedro Rafael Tellechea, as the new oil minister, a day after his predecessor resigned amid an extensive corruption investigation focused on the company. Former minister Tareck El Aissami resigned on Monday after the arrest of several government officials and judges in connection with graft investigations. Sources with knowledge of the […]

(Reuters) – Shohei Ohtani struck out Mike Trout in a showdown between two of the game’s best players to seal Japan’s 3-2 victory over the United States in a riveting World Baseball Classic (WBC) final at Miami’s LoanDepot Park on Tuesday. Baseball is the United States’ national pastime but Japan’s win over the defending WBC champions means they have won three of five editions of the global showcase. The contest […]

By Deisy Buitrago CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Tuesday named the head of state oil company PDVSA, Pedro Rafael Tellechea, as the new oil minister, a day after his predecessor resigned amid an extensive corruption investigation focused on the company. Former minister Tareck El Aissami resigned on Monday after the arrest of several government officials and judges in connection with graft investigations. Sources with knowledge of the […]

By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) -The Solomon Islands has awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to a Chinese state company to upgrade an international port in Honiara in a project funded by the Asian Development Bank, an official of the island nation said on Wednesday. The China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) was the only company to submit a bid in the competitive tender, Mike Qaqara of the infrastructure development ministry told […]

By Joey Roulette WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit plans to return on Thursday a small group of employees from a near company-wide furlough to work on rocket upgrades, three people familiar with the matter said, with the company confirming it had recalled some team members. The number of employees due to return to work at the cash-strapped company was not immediately clear. The furlough of nearly all of Virgin […]

By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) – The Solomon Islands has awarded a Chinese state company a multi-million dollar contract to upgrade an international port in Honiara in a project funded by the Asian Development Bank, an official from the island nation said on Wednesday. The China Civil Engineering Construction Company was the only company to submit a bid in the competitive tender, Mike Qaqara, from the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, […]

By Tim Hepher, Aditi Shah and Tanvi Mehta NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Tensions over plans to transform Air India into a global airline with hundreds of new jets rippled across the aviation sector on Tuesday as foreign carriers clamoured for more access to the world’s fastest-growing economy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government faces growing demands to ease a near-freeze on capacity that can be deployed on many routes to and from […]