Town Hall News

BANGKOK (Reuters) – The United States has declined to sell its F-35 stealth fighter jets to Thailand over issues with training and technical requirements, the Southeast Asian country’s air force said on Thursday. Thailand, which was designated a Major Non-NATO Ally by the United States in 2003, had last year set aside a 13.8 billion baht ($407.68 million) budget for new jets to replace its aging, mostly U.S.-made F-5 and […]

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Some offshore users of an official Chinese website providing economic and demographic data on the southeastern province of Fujian across from Taiwan say their access has been restricted, as Beijing sharpens its focus on information security. The reason for the step was not immediately clear, but it comes after similar blocking of access for offshore users of some Chinese financial and academic databases and Beijing targeted […]

SYDNEY (Reuters) – A massive blaze gutted an abandoned hat factory in central Sydney and forced emergency services to evacuate people from nearby apartment buildings before firefighters brought the inferno under control, without any casualties reported. Over thirty firetrucks and 120 firefighters fought the fire in the seven-story building close to Sydney’s central railway station on Thursday afternoon, according to New South Wales Fire and Rescue Acting Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell. […]

BANGKOK (Reuters) – The United States has declined to sell its F-35 stealth fighter jets to Thailand over issues with training and technical requirements, the Southeast Asian country’s air force said on Thursday. Thailand, which was designated a Major Non-NATO Ally by the United States in 2003, had last year set aside a 13.8 billion baht ($407.68 million) budget for new jets to replace its aging, mostly U.S.-made F-5 and […]

PARIS (Reuters) – The president of the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF), Brigitte Henriques, has resigned from her position a little over a year before the Paris 2024 Summer Games, the CNOSF said on Thursday. “At the opening of the CNOSF general assembly held today at the Maison du Sport Français, Brigitte Henriques announced her decision to step down as president of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee,” the CNOSF […]

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Some offshore users of an official Chinese website providing economic and demographic data on the southeastern province of Fujian across from Taiwan say their access has been restricted, as Beijing sharpens its focus on information security. The reason for the step was not immediately clear, but it comes after similar blocking of access for offshore users of some Chinese financial and academic databases and Beijing targeted […]

By Joe Cash BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao will meet U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Thursday, his ministry said, having traveled to the U.S. to attend the 2023 APEC Ministers Responsible for Trade Meeting from Thursday to Friday. “The Chinese side will exchange views on China-U.S. relations and issues of common concern,” Shu Jueting, Chinese commerce ministry spokesperson, told a regular press conference in Beijing. […]

By M. Sriram MUMBAI (Reuters) -India’s Ola Electric is planning a stock market listing by the end of 2023, and has appointed investment bank Goldman Sachs and domestic bank Kotak to manage the share sale, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Ola Electric, which makes electric scooters, is backed by investors such as SoftBank Group Corp and Tiger Global Management, and was valued at $5 billion […]

BERLIN (Reuters) -German Economy Minister Robert Habeck’s constituency office said on Thursday it had received an envelope containing a white substance, prompting a large-scale police operation. After a preliminary examination police believe the substance was merely finely-ground sand, a spokesperson said, pending a full investigation of the incident. Employees of Habeck’s office in Flensburg, near the northern border with Denmark, brought the envelope on Wednesday afternoon to police who subsequently […]