Town Hall News

LONDON (Reuters) – A public inquiry into allegations that members of British special forces carried out dozens of extra-judicial killings during night raids in Afghanistan gets underway in London on Wednesday. Britain’s defence ministry ordered the inquiry after a BBC TV documentary last year reported that soldiers from the elite Special Air Service (SAS) had killed 54 people in suspicious circumstances. It also came after two families, who accuse the […]

KAMPALA (Reuters) – Uganda’s parliament on Tuesday passed a law that criminalises identifying as LGBTQ, handing authorities broad powers to target Ugandans who already face legal discrimination and mob violence. More than 30 African countries, including Uganda, already ban same-sex relations. The new law appears to be the first to outlaw merely identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ), according to rights group Human Rights Watch. Supporters of […]

(A) By Daniel Wiessner (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday seemed unlikely to revive a proposed class action lawsuit accusing the National Football League of allowing teams to over-prescribe painkillers to players so they could stay on the field while injured. Judges on a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Pasadena, California, repeatedly pressed a lawyer for the eight retired players who filed the lawsuit on […]

By Ernest Scheyder (Reuters) -The U.S. Forest Service plans to re-publish an environmental report before July that will set in motion a land swap between the U.S. government and Rio Tinto, allowing the mining giant to develop the controversial Resolution Copper project in Arizona. The move would be the latest blow to Native Americans who have long opposed the mine project, which would destroy a site of religious importance but […]

By Blake Brittain (Reuters) -The U.S. International Trade Commission said on Tuesday it would ban imports of SharkNinja Operating LLC robot vacuums that infringe a patent owned by Roomba maker iRobot Corp. The full commission upheld part of a trade judge’s October decision that SharkNinja violated two of its rival’s patents, affirming that SharkNinja’s devices mimicked iRobot navigation technology. President Joe Biden’s administration has 60 days to review the import […]

By Daniel Trotta and Brendan O’Brien (Reuters) – Some 30,000 education workers backed by the teachers’ union walked off the job for a three-day strike in Los Angeles on Tuesday, canceling school for nearly half a million students at the second-largest school district in the United States. The Service Employees International Union Local 99 seeks to increase what it calls poverty wages averaging $25,000 per year for many of their […]

(Reuters) -Shares of First Republic Bank tumbled 14% in extended trade on Tuesday following a report that a potential deal for the troubled bank could rely on government backing to encourage buyers. The steep drop partially reversed the nearly 30% rally in the stock during regular trade. The government could play a role in taking out assets that have eroded First Republic’s balance sheet, Bloomberg reported, citing people with knowledge […]

By Amy Tennery NEW YORK (Reuters) – United States defender Tim Ream said the national team had moved on from an ugly saga involving the federation and team mate Gio Reyna, ahead of Friday’s CONCACAF Nations League game against Grenada. U.S. Soccer was embroiled in turmoil after returning from the World Cup in Qatar when a bitter dispute broke out between former coach Gregg Berhalter, U.S. midfielder Reyna and his […]

By Blake Brittain (Reuters) -The U.S. International Trade Commission said on Tuesday it would ban imports of SharkNinja Operating LLC robot vacuums that infringe a patent owned by Roomba maker iRobot Corp. The full commission upheld part of a trade judge’s October decision that SharkNinja violated two of its rival’s patents, affirming that SharkNinja’s devices mimicked iRobot navigation technology. President Joe Biden’s administration has 60 days to review the import […]