Town Hall News

By William Schomberg and David Milliken LONDON (Reuters) – British consumer price inflation unexpectedly rose to 10.4% in February, pushed up by drinks prices in pubs and restaurants, official data showed on Wednesday, a day before the Bank of England announces its latest decision on interest rates Economists polled by Reuters had forecast that the annual CPI rate would drop to 9.9% in February from January’s 10.1% and move further […]

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea appears to have fired multiple cruise missiles off its east coast on Wednesday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported. It was not immediately clear how many projectiles were fired but Yonhap said they could be the North’s long-range strategic cruise missiles. North Korea has been ramping up its military tests in recent weeks, firing an intercontinental ballistic missile last week and conducting a nuclear counterattack […]

(Reuters) -China’s President Xi Jinping and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin set their sights on shaping a new world order as the Chinese leader left Moscow on Wednesday, having made no direct support for Putin’s war in Ukraine during his two-day visit. Xi made a strong show of solidarity with Putin against the West, but he barely mentioned the Ukraine conflict and said on Tuesday that China had an “impartial position”. […]

KYIV (Reuters) – Three people were killed in an overnight Russian drone strike on civilian infrastructure in the Kyiv region, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday morning. The State Emergency Service said on the Telegram messaging app that two dormitories and an educational facility in the city of Rzhyshchiv had been partially destroyed in the attack. It said two people had been wounded and one had been rescued but that four […]

(Reuters) – The United States has offered to sell Slovakia 12 new Bell AH-1Z Viper helicopters at a two-thirds discount after Bratislava sent its retired MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad said on Wednesday. Nad said his government still had to approve the deal under which it would pay $340 million over three to four years for a package worth more than $1 billion. The remainder would […]

BERLIN (Reuters) – Novartis said on Wednesday that it had decided not to move forward with ORION-17, the UK-based primary prevention trial originally planned as part of its partnership with NHS England to investigate the potential of the anti-cholesterol drug Leqvio. “After careful evaluation, we have decided not to move forward with ORION-17,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We continue to have very high ambitions for Leqvio and […]

By William Schomberg and David Milliken LONDON (Reuters) – British consumer price inflation unexpectedly rose to 10.4% in February, pushed up by drinks prices in pubs and restaurants, official data showed on Wednesday, a day before the Bank of England announces its latest decision on interest rates Economists polled by Reuters had forecast that the annual CPI rate would drop to 9.9% in February from January’s 10.1% and move further […]

By John O’Donnell and Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich VIENNA (Reuters) – Russia will always remain important for Europe, Austria’s foreign minister said, saying that to think otherwise was delusional. Alexander Schallenberg also defended the country’s second-biggest bank, Raiffeisen Bank International, saying it was unreasonable to single out the lender for doing business in Russia while so many other Western firms did the same. “To think that there won’t be Russia anymore and […]

(Reuters) -China’s President Xi Jinping left Russia on Wednesday after a grandiose display of solidarity with President Vladimir Putin against the West, that ended with the two autocrats pledging to work together to shape a new world order. During his two-day visit Xi barely mentioned the Ukraine conflict and said on Tuesday in final remarks that China had an “impartial position”. There was no sign that Xi’s efforts to play […]