Town Hall News

By Ank Kuipers PARAMARIBO (Reuters) – Suriname’s fugitive ex-President Desi Bouterse has died aged 79, the country’s government said on Wednesday, almost a year after he fled authorities to avoid jail following his conviction over the murder of 15 political activists in 1982. “The government has been informed through the family and its own investigations of the passing of Mr. D. Bouterse, ex-President of the Republic of Suriname,” Foreign Minister […]

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian companies have begun using bitcoin and other digital currencies in international payments following legislative changes that allowed such use in order to counter Western sanctions, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Wednesday. Sanctions have complicated Russia’s trade with its major partners such as China or Turkey, as local banks are extremely cautious with Russia-related transactions to avoid scrutiny from Western regulators. This year, Russia permitted the […]

By Joshua McElwee VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis in his Christmas message on Wednesday called for talks between Ukraine and Russia to end the war that followed Moscow’s full-scale invasion two years ago and has killed tens of thousands. In his Christmas Day “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and world) address, Francis mentioned the Ukraine conflict directly and called for “the boldness needed to open the door to […]

SARAJEVO (Reuters) – Lawmakers in Bosnia’s Serb Republic regional parliament on Wednesday ordered Serb representatives in state institutions to block decision-making and reform laws needed for the Balkan country’s integration into the European Union. An emergency session of parliament was called on Tuesday evening to discuss a “degradation of a legal system” in relation to the ongoing trial of the region’s president Milorad Dodik at Bosnia’s state court. Dodik, a […]

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Kurdish militants in Syria will either lay down their weapons or “be buried”, amid hostilities between Turkey-backed Syrian fighters and the militants since the fall of Bashar al-Assad this month. Following Assad’s departure, Ankara has repeatedly insisted that the Kurdish YPG militia must disband, asserting that the group has no place in Syria’s future. The change in Syria’s leadership […]

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Falling debris from a Ukrainian drone that was shot down caused an explosion and a fatal fire in a shopping centre in the city of Vladikavkaz in Russia’s North Ossetia region, the local governor said on Wednesday. Sergei Menyailo, the regional governor, wrote on his official Telegram account that air defence systems had shot down the drone at 0828 Moscow time (0528 GMT). One woman was reported […]

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia launched a massive missile and drone barrage targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Wednesday, striking a thermal power plant and prompting Ukrainians to take shelter in metro stations on Christmas morning. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said over 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and over 100 attack drones were used to strike Ukraine’s power sources, in a statement on X. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said one […]

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Local Afghans and the Pakistani Taliban said Wednesday that civilians, including women and children, were killed after Pakistan launched rare airstrikes inside neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistani security officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with regulations, told The Associated Press that Tuesday’s operation was to dismantle a training facility and kill insurgents in the province of Paktika, bordering Afghanistan. Residents in the area told an […]

(Reuters) – Democratic Republic of Congo has freed 14 of the 17 Chinese men arrested on suspicion of running an illegal gold mine in the country, authorities said late on Tuesday. The men, who are travelling back to China, were detained last week along with others from Congo and neighbouring Burundi after failing to produce the required documents during a crackdown on unlicensed extraction of the minerals in the central […]