Town Hall News

By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) -The Solomon Islands has awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to a Chinese state company to upgrade an international port in Honiara in a project funded by the Asian Development Bank, an official of the island nation said on Wednesday. The China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) was the only company to submit a bid in the competitive tender, Mike Qaqara of the infrastructure development ministry told […]

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s trade ministry said on Wednesday that the United States’ proposed rules to prevent $52 billion in chip funding from being used by “countries of concern” will not force recipients to shut down their China factories. The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday proposed limits for recipients of U.S. chip manufacturing and research funding, including limits on investing in expansion in countries such as China and Russia. […]

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s trade ministry said on Wednesday that the United States’ proposed rules to prevent $52 billion in chip funding from being used by “countries of concern” will not force recipients to shut down their China factories. The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday proposed limits for recipients of U.S. chip manufacturing and research funding, including limits on investing in expansion in countries such as China and Russia. […]

By Howard Schneider WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, a decision that will land amid a brewing political storm over the U.S. central bank’s oversight of collapsed Silicon Valley Bank and with the financial world hanging on the words of one man: Jerome Powell. In the second institutional crisis faced by Powell during his five-year […]

By Howard Schneider WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point on Wednesday, a decision that will land amid a brewing political storm over the U.S. central bank’s oversight of collapsed Silicon Valley Bank and with the financial world hanging on the words of one man: Jerome Powell. In the second institutional crisis faced by Powell during his five-year […]

(Reuters) -Shohei Ohtani struck out Mike Trout in a showdown between two of the game’s best players to seal Japan’s 3-2 victory over the United States in a riveting World Baseball Classic (WBC) final at Miami’s LoanDepot Park on Tuesday. Baseball is the United States’ national pastime but Japan’s win over the defending WBC champions means they have won three of five editions of the global showcase. They were a […]

By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) -The Solomon Islands has awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to a Chinese state company to upgrade an international port in Honiara in a project funded by the Asian Development Bank, an official of the island nation said on Wednesday. The China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) was the only company to submit a bid in the competitive tender, Mike Qaqara of the infrastructure development ministry told […]

By Hyonhee Shin SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean and U.S. forces will hold their largest-ever live-fire exercises in June in a show of force to North Korea, which has ratcheted up tension with numerous missile launches, South Korea’s defence ministry said on Wednesday. The exercises are part of a series of events marking the 70th anniversary of the alliance between the two countries this year. “We’ve planned various anniversary programmes […]

By Uditha Jayasinghe COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka has received the first tranche of an IMF bailout programme, President Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament on Wednesday. The crisis-ridden island nation was scheduled to receive a $330 million tranche, the first part of a nearly $3 billion bailout approved by the International Monetary Fund on Monday. “This sets the stage for Sri Lanka to have better fiscal discipline and improved governance,” Wickremesinghe […]