Town Hall News

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece reopened some train routes on Wednesday, three weeks after a deadly train crash forced authorities to suspend all rail service across the country over safety concerns. All passenger and freight services have been halted since a passenger and a cargo train carrying more than 350 people collided head-on on Feb. 28 on the same track near the city of Larissa, killing 57. The rail disaster on […]

PESHAWAR/KABUL (Reuters) -At least 13 people were killed and more than 90 injured in Pakistan and Afghanistan after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck late on Tuesday, government officials said. At least nine people were killed and 44 injured in northwest Pakistan, a Pakistani government official said, and hospitals in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were put into a state of emergency overnight. At least four people were killed and 50 injured […]

By Alexandra Alper and David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration is under pressure to ban popular Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, but any such move likely hinges on passage of a new law that bolsters the government’s authority to regulate speech, experts said. Pressure is mounting from lawmakers and national security hawks to ban TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, over fears the app could censure content, […]

By Ananya Mariam Rajesh (Reuters) -Nike raised its full-year revenue outlook on Tuesday after reporting quarterly results that beat estimates, but warned of margin pressures as it continues to get rid of excess inventory through heavy discounts. The company saw strong demand for its sneakers, including classic styles such as Jordan Retro and newer franchise launches such as LeBron 20, that helped grow its market share. Nike said its apparel […]

By Jeffrey Dastin (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc’s palm-scanning or cashier-less checkout technology is in more than 200 establishments in and outside the company, a vice president told Reuters. The e-commerce and cloud-computing giant is widening deployment of its contactless technology with existing customers, Vice President Dilip Kumar said in an interview. Amazon declined to provide growth figures, but in June 2022 the company said more than 69 locations in the […]

By John Revill and Julie Zhu ZURICH/HONG KONG (Reuters) -Swiss agrichemicals and seeds group Syngenta’s $9.5 billion flotation has moved a step closer after the Shanghai Stock Exchange said it would review the plan next week. Syngenta, which competes with U.S. company Corteva and Germany’s BASF and Bayer, was bought in 2017 for $43 billion by ChemChina, which was folded into Sinochem Holdings Corp in 2021. The parent company plans […]

By Alexandra Alper and David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration is under pressure to ban popular Chinese-owned social media app TikTok, but any such move likely hinges on passage of a new law that bolsters the government’s authority to regulate speech, experts said. Pressure is mounting from lawmakers and national security hawks to ban TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, over fears the app could censure content, […]

(Reuters) – Last week’s banking sector turmoil had at least one silver lining for U.S. home buyers: lower mortgage interest rates. Interest rates on the most popular U.S. home loan tumbled by the most in four months last week after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and emergency measures taken to shore up the wider banking system drove a mad dash by investors to the safety of government bonds, the […]

By Yoruk Bahceli and Akriti Sharma (Reuters) -UBS Group said on Wednesday it would buy back 2.75 billion euros ($2.96 billion) worth of debt it sold just days ago, seeking to boost confidence among investors rattled by its $3 billion rescue of rival Credit Suisse at the weekend. The bonds in question are senior unsecured bail-in notes that were sold on March 9: a 1.5 billion-euro 4.625% fixed-rate note due […]