Town Hall News

By Josh Arslan, Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard FUZHOU, China/TAIPEI (Reuters) -Seventy-one Chinese military aircraft crossed the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait on Saturday as China began drills around Taiwan in anger at President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. The three-day drills, announced the day after Tsai returned from the United States, had been widely expected after Beijing condemned her Wednesday […]

By Frank Pingue AUGUSTA, Georgia (Reuters) – The weather-interrupted second round of the Masters resumed under steady rain on Saturday with Spaniard Jon Rahm looking to catch clubhouse leader Brooks Koepka at Augusta National where tournament officials hope to get the major back on track. When second round action was suspended for the day on Friday after a storm moved into the area and knocked three pine trees over near […]

LONDON (Reuters) – Russia or pro-Russian elements are likely behind a leak of classified U.S. military documents that offer a partial snapshot of the war in Ukraine, three U.S. officials told Reuters, while the Justice Department said it was probing the leak. FIGHTING * A missile fired from Ukrainian-held territory was shot down over the Black Sea town of Feodosia in Russian-controlled Crimea, the Moscow-installed head of Crimea’s administration said […]

KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday said he had canceled his trip to Washington for the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank on the orders of the prime minister due to the political situation in the country. Dar said he would attend important attend bilateral and multilateral meetings virtually and a Pakistani delegation would be present in Washington. The minister played […]

(Reuters) – In a further attempt to rein in increasing numbers of women defying the compulsory dress code, Iranian authorities are installing cameras in public places and thoroughfares to identify and penalise unveiled women, the police announced on Saturday. After they have been identified, violators will receive “warning text messages as to the consequences”, police said in a statement. The move is aimed at “preventing resistance against the hijab law,” […]

HANOI (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Vietnam next week, Senator Jeff Merkley told a news conference in Hanoi on Saturday, as part of Washington’s efforts to move diplomatic relations with Hanoi on to a higher level this year. Blinken’s visit, which has not yet been officially announced, would come after U.S. President Joe Biden had a phone call last week with the chief of Vietnam’s […]

By Cheney Orr NASHVILLE (Reuters) -U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris flew to Nashville on Friday in a show of support for Tennessee state lawmakers expelled for staging a rule-breaking demonstration for gun control on the statehouse floor after a recent school shooting. Republicans who control the Tennessee House of Representatives on Thursday expelled two young Black lawmakers who last week led protesters into the well of the House floor, while […]

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Chinese search engine giant Baidu has filed lawsuits against “relevant” app developers and Apple Inc over fake copies of its Ernie bot app available on Apple’s app store. The company’s artificial intelligence powered Ernie bot, launched last month, has been touted as China’s closest answer to the U.S.-developed chatbot ChatGPT. Baidu said it had lodged lawsuits in Beijing Haidian People’s Court against the developers behind the counterfeit […]

By Ardo Hazzad BAUCHI, Nigeria (Reuters) – Gunmen abducted at least 80 people, mostly women and children, in Nigeria’s Zamfara state, a hotspot for kidnappings for ransom by armed gangs targeting remote villages, residents said on Saturday. Gangs of armed men have attacked hundreds of local communities across northwestern Nigeria in recent years, while Islamist militants continue to stage attacks in the northeast. The latest kidnapping took place on Friday […]