Town Hall News

By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis on Wednesday spoke to a top member of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) days after the pontiff made an intriguing though puzzling comment about the Vatican being involved in a mission to try to end the war in Ukraine. Metropolitan (bishop) Anthony, effectively the ROC’s number two, was given pride of place at Francis’s general audience in St. Peter’s Square and […]

By Ivana Sekularac and Aleksandar Vasovic BELGRADE (Reuters) -A boy gunned down fellow pupils in a Belgrade school on Wednesday morning in a pre-planned attack, shooting dead eight plus a security guard and wounding seven others, Serbian officials said. Using two handguns that belonged to his father, the 14-year-old fired first at the guard and three girls in the hallway and then entered a history class and shot the teacher […]

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s antitrust regulator was on Wednesday refused permission to appeal against a ruling that it had no power to open an investigation into Apple Inc’s mobile browser and cloud gaming services. Apple won an appeal in March against the decision by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to open a full investigation into the dominance of Apple and Alphabet Inc’s Google in mobile browsers. The Competition Appeal Tribunal […]

By Anne Kauranen and Max Hunder HELSINKI/KYIV (Reuters) -President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday Ukraine would launch a counteroffensive against Russian forces soon, and that he was sure the West would supply Kyiv with modern warplanes afterwards. Speaking at a news conference in Finland, NATO’s newest member, Zelenskiy said that one of the reasons he had travelled to Helsinki was that Kyiv wanted to become a fully fledged member of […]

(Reuters) -Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta has supplanted Sicily’s Cosa Nostra as the country’s most powerful mafia organisation, and has spread across Europe and the rest of the world. Here are a few facts about the fearsome group. ORIGIN, CELEBRITY KIDNAPPING AND COCAINE The ‘Ndrangheta originates from Calabria, the impoverished southern region at the tip of Italy’s boot. Its name is believed to come from the ancient Greek words “andros” and “agathos”, meaning […]

By Chris Prentice (Reuters) – Massachusetts’ highest court on Wednesday will consider whether to revive a state fiduciary duty rule that was central to an enforcement action securities regulators filed against the online brokerage Robinhood. A subsidiary of Robinhood Markets Inc and Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin will argue before the state’s Supreme Judicial Court about a 2020 state regulation that placed a fiduciary duty on broker-dealers. Robinhood has […]

By Divya Rajagopal TORONTO (Reuters) -Barrick Gold Corp is not interested in bidding for the copper assets of Teck Resources Ltd as there are fewer synergies between the companies, CEO Mark Bristow said in an interview with Reuters. Bristow’s comments come at a time when Canadian mining company Teck has rebuffed a $22.5 billion unsolicited bid from Swiss mining company Glencore Plc and said it is exploring its own simplified […]

By Ross Kerber (Reuters) – Median pay for top U.S. CEOs rose 7.7% last year to a record $22.3 million, a new study found, as big stock awards helped the group stay ahead of inflation while U.S. workers’ pay fell behind. Among those receiving big pay increases were the CEOs of Jefferies Financial Group and Prologis Inc according to the study being released on Wednesday by research firm Equilar. The […]

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s antitrust regulator was on Wednesday refused permission to appeal against a ruling that it had no power to open an investigation into Apple Inc’s mobile browser and cloud gaming services. Apple won an appeal in March against the decision by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to open a full investigation into the dominance of Apple and Alphabet Inc’s Google in mobile browsers. The Competition Appeal Tribunal […]