Town Hall News

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa’s presidential security advisor said on Saturday the country was “actively non-aligned” in Russia’s war against Ukraine, after U.S. allegations that it had supplied weapons to Moscow led to a diplomatic crisis this week. The U.S. ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety said on Thursday he was confident that a Russian ship under U.S. sanctions had collected weapons from a naval base near Cape Town when […]

By Ali Kucukgocmen ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan held his last election rallies in Istanbul on Saturday, accusing the opposition of working with U.S. President Joe Biden to topple him while making a final appeal ahead of the biggest challenge to his 20-year rule. Polls show Erdogan trailing the main opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu a day ahead of one of the most consequential elections in Turkey’s modern history. […]

By Julia Harte (Reuters) -North Carolina Democratic Governor Roy Cooper on Saturday vetoed a bill that would ban most abortions after 12 weeks, a move the Republican supermajority in the state legislature is expected to quickly override, allowing the bill to become law. The measure would cut the window for most abortions in the state back from 20 weeks and curtail access to the procedure for millions of women across […]

SHAKAHOLA FOREST, Kenya (Reuters) – Searchers for survivors and victims of a doomsday cult in Kenya’s Shakahola forest discovered 22 more bodies on Saturday, according to a regional governmental official. The discoveries bring the death toll of one of the country’s worst tragedies to 201. “Our forensic team was able to exhume 22 bodies today but we have not reported any rescue,” Rhodah Onyancha, a regional commissioner, told journalists in […]

(Reuters) – The head of Russia’s federal crime agency on Saturday suggested that key sectors of the economy should be returned to state ownership to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Moscow has already seized assets or acquired them at a heavy discount from some Western firms that have quit Russia or scaled back their activities since the invasion. “We are essentially talking about economic security in a war,” Alexander Bastrykin, […]

By Ariba Shahid KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) -Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Saturday gave authorities 72 hours to identify and arrest all those involved in violent acts after former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s arrest this week sparked deadly unrest. Sharif said the cases would be tried by anti-terrorism courts. “All available resources including technological aid and intelligence are being deployed to chase down these elements. Bringing these people to justice […]

(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc has overhauled its logistics network to reduce how far a package travels, in a push to move goods faster and more profitably, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The online retailer’s efforts have helped reduce delivery times, transformed inventory management and changed the search results customers see on its flagship e-commerce website, the report added citing executives, analysts and sellers who list their items on […]

By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Dan Williams GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel on Saturday ruled out an immediate truce in Gaza, saying the onus was on Palestinian militants to stop launching rockets from an arsenal it suggested could be depleted within days, while its aircraft kept up strikes in the enclave. “We’re not holding ceasefire talks,” National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi told a municipal event near Jerusalem, adding that Israel’s top priority […]

(Reuters) – Rheinmetall has founded a joint venture with Ukrainian state-owned conglomerate Ukroboronprom to build and repair tanks in Ukraine, the company said on Saturday. Closing of the agreement to set up the joint venture is scheduled for late June with operations to begin from mid-July. The venture will begin by maintaining and repairing vehicles transferred to Ukraine by Germany, but will later seek to jointly produce some Rheinmetall products […]