Town Hall News

(Reuters) -CIBC reported a decline in second-quarter profit on Thursday, as the Canadian lender set aside higher provisions to prepare for soured loans due to a challenging economy. The results follow those of peers Bank of Montreal and Bank of Nova Scotia on Wednesday that missed expectations, weighed down by higher provisions, slower top-line growth and higher expenses. CIBC, Canada’s fifth largest bank by market capitalization, said it set aside […]

By Khalid Abdelaziz DUBAI (Reuters) – Sporadic clashes between Sudan’s army and a powerful paramilitary force spilled over into Thursday, puncturing the relative calm in the capital Khartoum and raising the risk that a week-long truce would crumble. The ceasefire, monitored by Saudi Arabia and the United States, was reached after five weeks of warfare in Khartoum and outbursts of violence in other parts of Sudan, including the western region […]

SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korean and U.S. forces began their largest-ever joint live-fire exercises on Thursday, simulating a “full-scale attack” from North Korea, South Korea’s defence ministry said. Some 2,500 troops from the South and the United States took part as the five-day exercise began in Pocheon near the border with the North, the ministry said. Multiple tanks, howitzers and fighter jets were also involved, it said. “The exercise demonstrated our […]

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan scrambled jet fighters after spotting Russian military planes over the Pacific Ocean and Sea of Japan on Thursday, the defence ministry said. It detected one Russian information-gathering aircraft IL-20 flying round-trip from the Sea of Okhotsk to the Pacific and another IL-20 flying toward the waters near Sado Island before turning toward the continent, the ministry said. (Reporting by Kantaro Komiya, Editing by William Maclean) Brought […]

CAIRO (Reuters) – Tugboats refloated a large ship that had been stranded for several hours in the Suez Canal on Thursday, and sources said shipping traffic through one of the world’s busiest waterways had returned to normal. Two canal sources said traffic was back to normal by around 11:00 am local time (0800 GMT), around six hours after the incident began and three-and-a-half hours after the vessel was refloated. Shipping […]

BANGKOK (Reuters) – The United States has declined to sell its F-35 stealth fighter jets to Thailand over issues with training and technical requirements, the Southeast Asian country’s air force said on Thursday. Thailand, which was designated a Major Non-NATO Ally by the United States in 2003, had last year set aside a 13.8 billion baht ($407.68 million) budget for new jets to replace its aging, mostly U.S.-made F-5 and […]

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Some offshore users of an official Chinese website providing economic and demographic data on the southeastern province of Fujian across from Taiwan say their access has been restricted, as Beijing sharpens its focus on information security. The reason for the step was not immediately clear, but it comes after similar blocking of access for offshore users of some Chinese financial and academic databases and Beijing targeted […]

SYDNEY (Reuters) – A massive blaze gutted an abandoned hat factory in central Sydney and forced emergency services to evacuate people from nearby apartment buildings before firefighters brought the inferno under control, without any casualties reported. Over thirty firetrucks and 120 firefighters fought the fire in the seven-story building close to Sydney’s central railway station on Thursday afternoon, according to New South Wales Fire and Rescue Acting Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell. […]

BANGKOK (Reuters) – The United States has declined to sell its F-35 stealth fighter jets to Thailand over issues with training and technical requirements, the Southeast Asian country’s air force said on Thursday. Thailand, which was designated a Major Non-NATO Ally by the United States in 2003, had last year set aside a 13.8 billion baht ($407.68 million) budget for new jets to replace its aging, mostly U.S.-made F-5 and […]