Town Hall News

(Reuters) – On April 10 it will be 25 years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement which largely ended three decades of conflict in Northern Ireland, known locally as the “Troubles”. Following are some of the violent events of the period: 1968 – A civil rights campaign by Catholics protesting against discrimination in the British-ruled province gathers momentum. Sectarian rioting erupts in Belfast, Londonderry and elsewhere. Jan. 30, […]

By Anne Kauranen and Essi Lehto HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finland’s left-wing Prime Minister Sanna Marin conceded defeat on Sunday in the Nordic country’s parliamentary election as the opposition right-wing National Coalition Party (NCP) claimed victory in a tightly fought contest. The pro-business NCP was expected to win 48 of the 200 seats in parliament, narrowly ahead of the nationalist Finns Party with 46 seats and Marin’s Social Democrats on 43 […]

By Padraic Halpin and Kate Holton DUBLIN/LONDON (Reuters) – A quarter of a century after unpalatable compromises ended decades of bloodshed in Northern Ireland, some of the architects of the Good Friday Agreement hope that deal can help inspire a route out of the region’s near-permanent political crisis. In April 1998, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern helped Irish nationalists and British unionists craft an […]

By Tom Westbrook and Stella Qiu SINGAPORE/SYDNEY (Reuters) – The end of China’s strict COVID-19 border controls is prompting pent-up cash to begin flowing abroad, real estate agents and property data from Australia to Singapore suggest. Chinese demand is helping boost Singapore property prices, Chinese students are snapping up apartments in Sydney and Melbourne, and agents say Chinese interest is ticking up in Thailand. Data on the early trickle of […]

BEIJING(Reuters) – China’s factory activity growth stalled in March, weighed by slowing production and weaker global demand and adding to uncertainty about a post-COVID recovery, a private sector survey showed on Monday. The Caixin/S&P Global manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) fell to 50.0 in March. That followed February’s reading of 51.6, which indicated the first monthly expansion in seven months. The reading far missed expectations of 51.7 in a Reuters […]

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is travelling to Saudi Arabia on Sunday, according to three diplomatic sources, as Cairo continues to seek financial inflows to ease pressure on its currency and bolster a faltering economy. Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has long provided financial support to Egypt but recently signalled it would no longer provide such backing without strings attached, which observers think may have sparked a rare media […]

By Ira Dugal and Ankur Banerjee MUMBAI (Reuters) – Mumbai resident Shivam Vahia cannot remember the last time he left home to shop. He spends about 30,000 rupees ($364) a month buying necessities like groceries, clothes and gadgets, all by tapping a few buttons on his mobile phone. “My only offline spends are bars and restaurants, when I go to meet friends,” said the 24-year-old engineering graduate. Vahia is one […]

By Jonathan Allen and Karen Freifeld NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York City police have thrown up metal barriers around Trump Tower and blocked roads near Manhattan Criminal Courthouse as they brace for potential protests ahead of Donald Trump’s expected surrender to prosecutors on Tuesday. The former president is due to be arraigned at the courthouse Tuesday afternoon, after his indictment in a grand jury probe over hush money paid […]

By Ira Dugal and Ankur Banerjee MUMBAI (Reuters) – Mumbai resident Shivam Vahia cannot remember the last time he left home to shop. He spends about 30,000 rupees ($364) a month buying necessities like groceries, clothes and gadgets, all by tapping a few buttons on his mobile phone. “My only offline spends are bars and restaurants, when I go to meet friends,” said the 24-year-old engineering graduate. Vahia is one […]