Town Hall News

(Reuters) – Former International Biathlon Union (IBU) president Anders Besseberg has been indicted on charges of aggravated corruption, Norwegian prosecutors said on Monday. The Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (Okokrim) said the offences took place between 2009 and 2018. Their charges include “accepting bribes in the form of watches, hunting trips and trophies, prostitutes and a leased car which he enjoyed the use […]

By Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. law enforcement officials on Monday arrested two New York residents for allegedly operating a Chinese “secret police station” in Manhattan’s Chinatown, part of a crackdown on Beijing’s alleged targeting of U.S.-based dissidents. Lu Jianwang, 61, and Chen Jinping, 59, face charges of conspiring to act as agents of China’s government without informing U.S. authorities and obstruction of justice. They are expected to appear […]

By Clark Mindock NEW YORK (Reuters) – Berkeley, California, cannot ban natural gas hookups in new buildings because a U.S. federal law preempts its rule, a federal appeals court said Monday, siding with a challenge the state’s restaurant industry made. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Berkeley’s 2019 ban on new gas hookups effectively barred appliances that use the fuel, and that the U.S. Energy […]

By Clark Mindock NEW YORK (Reuters) – Berkeley, California, cannot ban natural gas hookups in new buildings because a U.S. federal law preempts its rule, a federal appeals court said Monday, siding with a challenge the state’s restaurant industry made. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Berkeley’s 2019 ban on new gas hookups effectively barred appliances that use the fuel, and that the U.S. Energy […]

PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday gave himself 100 days to heal the country after weeks of protests and anger at his unpopular plans to raise the retirement age, asking his government to open talks with unions on a wide range of issues. In a televised speech two days after signing into law plans to increase the retirement age by two years to 64, Macron said he […]

(Reuters) -Alphabet Inc shares fell as much as 4% on Monday following a report South Korea’s Samsung Electronics was considering replacing Google with Microsoft-owned Bing as the default search engine on its devices. The report, published by the New York Times over the weekend, underscores the growing challenges Google’s $162-billion-a-year search engine business face from Bing – a minor player that has risen in prominence recently after the integration of […]

By Clark Mindock NEW YORK (Reuters) – Berkeley, California, cannot ban natural gas hookups in new buildings because a U.S. federal law preempts its rule, a federal appeals court said Monday, siding with a challenge the state’s restaurant industry made. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Berkeley’s 2019 ban on new gas hookups effectively barred appliances that use the fuel, and that the U.S. Energy […]

By Stephanie Kelly NEW YORK (Reuters) -Oil prices turned lower on Monday as the U.S. dollar strengthened and as investors mulled over a possible May interest rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve, which could dampen economic recovery hopes. Brent crude futures fell $1.55, or 1.8%, to settle at $84.76 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude dropped $1.69, or 2.1%, at $80.83 a barrel. Both contracts notched their […]

PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday gave himself 100 days to heal the country after weeks of protests and anger at his unpopular plans to raise the retirement age, asking his government to open talks with unions on a wide range of issues. In a televised speech two days after signing into law plans to increase the retirement age by two years to 64, Macron said he […]