Town Hall News

(Reuters) -Russia has begun exercises with its Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system and several thousand troops, its defence ministry said on Wednesday, in what is likely to be seen as another attempt by Moscow to show off its nuclear strength. President Vladimir Putin has aimed to make the Yars missile system, which replaced the Topol system, part of Russia’s “invincible weapons” and the mainstay of the ground-based component of its […]

Desmond Bane scored 31 points and Xavier Tillman added a career-high 20 as the Memphis Grizzlies extended the NBA’s longest active winning streak to seven games with a 113-108 victory over the visiting Orlando Magic on Tuesday. Jaren Jackson Jr. added 16 points and 10 rebounds for Memphis, which led by as many as 23 in the third quarter before Orlando stormed back in the fourth. Luke Kennard scored 16 […]

LIMA (Reuters) – Peruvian prosecutors are investigating President Dina Boluarte and former president Pedro Castillo for allegedly laundering money as part of a criminal organization, the attorney general’s office said on Twitter on Tuesday. The probe into the alleged crimes by Boluarte and Castillo is part of an ongoing investigation into alleged campaign finance crimes committed during Peru’s 2021 presidential race. The announcement comes after a former adviser to Castillo […]

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s wife, Yuko Kishida, is planning to visit to Washington in April to meet U.S. first lady Jill Biden, broadcaster TBS reported on Wednesday, citing Japanese government sources. Yuko accompanied her husband to Washington in January but she was not able to meet Jill Biden then because the U.S. first lady was undergoing medical treatment. TBS also said that if scheduling permitted, Yuko […]

By Steve Keating TORONTO (Reuters) – Cyle Larin scored a three-minute brace to lead Canada past Honduras 4-1 at BMO Field and into the CONCACAF Nations League semi-finals on Tuesday. Canada’s all-time leading scorer wasted no time in putting Honduras to the sword, slotting home the first in the ninth minute and then driving a header home in the 12th to bring his international tally to 28 goals. Larin could […]

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia coach Graham Arnold said his youthful team were taught a valuable lesson after being outmuscled by Ecuador in a 2-1 friendly loss in Melbourne. The Socceroos beat the South Americans 3-1 in the first match of the double-header in Sydney last week but two second-half goals from the visitors at Docklands Stadium on Tuesday put paid to their hopes of sweeping the series. “If there’s one […]

HONG KONG (Reuters) – China’s commercial capital Shanghai saw its population fall in 2022 in the first decline in five years, official data showed, after authorities imposed draconian COVID-19 lockdowns and more than 250,000 migrant workers departed. The data, published by Shanghai’s statistics bureau on Tuesday, showed the densely-packed hub had 24.76 million people last year, compared with 24.89 million people in 2021. Shanghai’s figures came after Beijing also posted […]

By Bernard Orr and Ben Blanchard BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) – China threatened to retaliate on Wednesday if U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy meets Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen during her planned transit of the United States next month, saying any such move would be a “provocation”. China, which claims democratically-ruled Taiwan as its own territory, has repeatedly warned U.S. officials not to meet Tsai, viewing it as support for the island’s desire […]

(Reuters) -Shares in Alibaba Group and other leading Chinese tech firms jumped on Wednesday, as investors cheered an unprecedented revamp of the Jack Ma-founded company as heralding the beginning of the end to Beijing’s crackdown on the sector. Alibaba said on Tuesday it was planning to split into six units and explore fundraisings or listings for most of them, in the biggest restructuring of the technology conglomerate in its 24-year […]