Town Hall News

(Reuters) – President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday that the hijab was the law in Iran after a viral video showed a man throwing yoghurt at two unveiled women in a shop near a holy Shi’ite Muslim city. Growing numbers of women have defied authorities by discarding their veils after nationwide protests that followed the death in September of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman in the custody of the morality […]

By Crispian Balmer VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis led a Palm Sunday service the day after he was discharged from hospital following a bout of bronchitis, and urged the world to take better care of the poor, the lonely and the infirm. Thousands of people waved palm and olive branches as Francis was driven into St. Peter’s Square sitting in the back of a white, open-topped vehicle before the […]

By Aziz El Yaakoubi and Maya Gebeily RIYADH/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia is planning to invite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to an Arab League summit that Riyadh is hosting in May, three sources familiar with the plans said, a move that would formally end Syria’s regional isolation. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan will travel to Damascus in coming weeks to hand Assad a formal invitation to attend the […]

BEIJING (Reuters) – China should accelerate legislation of the Financial Stability Law and improve other legal arrangements designed to prevent and dispose of financial risks, three officials from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) wrote in China Finance, a publication affiliated to the central bank. Financial authorities should strengthen supervision of financial institutions’ date accuracy to prevent risks, the article said, saying if any enlightment should be drawn from the […]

DUBAI (Reuters) – A second Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps member who served as a military adviser in Syria has died after an Israeli air strike near Damascus, Iranian state media reported on Sunday. “Meqdad Mehghani Jafarabadi, a member of the Revolutionary Guards, was wounded in a criminal attack of the Zionist regime on Friday and was martyred due to the severity of his injuries,” the Revolutionary Guards said in a […]

PODGORICA (Reuters) – Montenegrins went to the polls on Sunday in a run-off presidential election pitting incumbent Milo Djukanovic against a Western-educated economist pledging to lift the nation out of a crisis marked by no-confidence votes in two governments. Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) and will close at 8 p.m. (1800 GMT). First unofficial results by pollsters, based on a sample of the electorate, are expected about […]

By Tom Hals (Reuters) – When Donald Trump walks into Justice Juan Merchan’s courtroom on Tuesday to face criminal charges, it will be a first for a former U.S. president but familiar territory for the veteran judge who serves on Manhattan’s criminal court.     Merchan last year oversaw a criminal trial of the Trump Organization that ended with the real estate company convicted by a jury of tax fraud and […]

By Ian Ransom MELBOURNE (Reuters) – It’s fair to say McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri will never forget his first Australian Grand Prix, having survived a carnage-filled race and the drama of three red flags to collect his first championship points in Formula One in front of home fans. The talented 21-year-old, who grew up a few miles down the coast from Albert Park, was thrilled to finish eighth as eight […]

(Reuters) – Norges Bank Investment Management will vote against the re-election of Credit Suisse Chair Axel Lehmann and six other directors at the Swiss lender’s annual general meeting on Tuesday, the Norwegian wealth fund said on its website. Credit Suisse was acquired last month by rival UBS in a $3.23 billion deal engineered by the Swiss government, central bank and market regulator to avoid its collapse and possible contagion across […]