Town Hall News

By Phuong Nguyen and Francesco Guarascio HANOI (Reuters) – Vietnamese property giant No Va Land Investment Group Corp is in talks with creditors to restructure part of its $1 billion foreign debt, according to two people familiar with the matter, amid turmoil in one of the country’s top industries. Those creditors include Credit Suisse, according to one of the people. The country’s fifth-largest developer by market value has been badly […]

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The Alliance for Open Media (AOM), whose members include Alphabet unit Google, Amazon, Apple and Meta, on Tuesday dodged a possible fine after EU antitrust regulators closed an investigation into its video licensing policy. The European Commission, which acts as the competition enforcer for the 27-country bloc, had been investigating alleged anti-competitive behaviour related to the licence terms of AOM’s new standard software for […]

By Emma Farge GENEVA (Reuters) – The head of the World Health Organization urged countries on Monday to carry out reforms needed to prepare for the next pandemic, hailing their “historic” decision to accept a major budget hike at the U.N. agency’s annual assembly. Speaking at the assembly weeks after ending the global emergency status for the COVID-19 pandemic, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was time to advance negotiations on […]

By Mohamed Nureldin and Khalid Abdelaziz KHARTOUM (Reuters) -Artillery fire could be heard in parts of Khartoum, armoured vehicles were patrolling and warplanes flew overhead, residents said, putting in jeopardy a one-week ceasefire that raised the most hope to date that Sudan’s warring factions would halt fighting. Some other residents reported relative calm early on Tuesday, the first full day of the ceasefire that is being monitored by Saudi Arabia […]

By Mohamed Nureldin and Khalid Abdelaziz KHARTOUM (Reuters) -Artillery fire could be heard in parts of Khartoum, armoured vehicles were patrolling and warplanes flew overhead, residents said, putting in jeopardy a one-week ceasefire that raised the most hope to date that Sudan’s warring factions would halt fighting. Some other residents reported relative calm early on Tuesday, the first full day of the ceasefire that is being monitored by Saudi Arabia […]

(Reuters) – Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) such as Microsoft-backed OpenAI’s ChatGPT are complicating governments’ efforts to agree laws governing the use of the technology. Here are the latest steps national and international governing bodies are taking to regulate AI tools: AUSTRALIA * Seeking input on regulations The government is consulting Australia’s main science advisory body and is considering next steps, a spokesperson for the industry and science minister […]

By David Milliken LONDON (Reuters) -The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday that it no longer expects Britain’s economy will fall into a recession this year, upgrading forecasts that it published last month, but it also warned that the outlook remains subdued. The IMF said British gross domestic product was set to grow by 0.4% in 2023. In April, it forecast a contraction of 0.3%. The Fund said the improved […]

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Thousands of people demonstrated on Tuesday in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region to demand the return home of people displaced by a two-year war there and the withdrawal of outside forces that have remained since the conflict ended. The war between government troops and their allies from neighbouring Eritrea and the Amhara region on one side and Tigrayan forces on the other concluded with a truce last […]

MADRID (Reuters) -Spanish police detained four men on Tuesday in connection with an incident in which an effigy representing Brazilian soccer star Vinicius Jr was hung from a bridge in January, a day after a senior official said Spanish football had a racism problem. A hate crime investigation was opened after the effigy wearing winger Vinicius Jr’s No. 20 shirt was hung from a bridge in front of the training […]