Town Hall News

By Alan Baldwin MONACO (Reuters) – Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz lapped fastest in first practice for the Monaco Formula One Grand Prix on Friday with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso second on the timesheets. Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton set the third quickest lap, in a new-look Mercedes with significant upgrades to the sidepods and suspension, with last year’s winner Sergio Perez fourth for Red Bull. Perez had warned before the start […]

(Reuters) – Moscow’s city court will hold a hearing on May 31 in a new case against jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, according to official documents posted online, on charges that could keep him in prison for decades. Navalny, who rose to prominence by lampooning President Vladimir Putin’s elite and alleging vast corruption, said last month that an “absurd” terrorism case had been opened against him that could see him […]

By Fatos Bytyci ZVECAN, Kosovo (Reuters) – Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic placed the country’s army on full combat alert and ordered its units to move closer to the border with Kosovo on Friday, after protesters and police clashed in a majority Serb town in Kosovo. “An urgent movement (of troops) to the Kosovo border has been ordered,” defence minister Milos Vucevic said in a live TV broadcast. “It is clear […]

By Makiko Yamazaki and Daniel Leussink TOKYO (Reuters) – Proxy adviser Glass Lewis has recommended that shareholders of Toyota Motor Corp vote against the re-election of Chairman Akio Toyoda as a board director at an upcoming meeting, citing his responsibility for the lack of a sufficiently independent board. The recommendation against the chairman of Japan’s largest company by market capitalisation comes as board independence has been under greater scrutiny from […]

By Chavi Mehta and Casey Hall (Reuters) – PDD Holdings Inc beat analysts’ estimates for first-quarter revenue on Friday as more price conscious customers turned to its discount e-commerce platforms including Pinduoduo. The company’s U.S.-listed shares rose 14% in trading before the bell. Chinese consumer spending has gained some momentum since the country abandoned strict zero-COVID policies late last year. Retail sales in the country rose 5.8% in the January-March […]

By Makiko Yamazaki and Daniel Leussink TOKYO (Reuters) – Proxy adviser Glass Lewis has recommended that shareholders of Toyota Motor Corp vote against the re-election of Chairman Akio Toyoda as a board director at an upcoming meeting, citing his responsibility for the lack of a sufficiently independent board. The recommendation against the chairman of Japan’s largest company by market capitalisation comes as board independence has been under greater scrutiny from […]

By Wendell Roelf CAPE TOWN (Reuters) -Former Rwandan police officer Fulgence Kayishema, accused of ordering the killing of some 2,000 Tutsis who were seeking refuge in a church during the 1994 genocide, appeared briefly in a South African court on Friday and was remanded in custody. According to a charge sheet seen by Reuters, Kayishema faces five charges in South Africa, including two of fraud. The fraud counts relate to […]

By Asif Shahzad ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Thirty-three supporters of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan have been handed over to the army to face trial in military courts on charges of attacking armed forces’ installations, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said on Friday. The 33 accused are among the thousands detained since Khan’s May 9 arrest sparked violent protests across Pakistan. Those handed over to army authorities are accused of trespassing […]

By Olena Harmash and Max Hunder KYIV (Reuters) – A Russian missile hit a clinic in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Friday, killing at least two people and wounding 23 in an attack that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described as a crime against humanity. Video footage showed a devastated building with smoke pouring out of it and rescue workers looking on. Much of the upper floor of what appeared […]