News

Nearly one hundred migrants who had been stranded on the Open Arms rescue ship off the coast of Lampedusa disembarked on the Italian island on Tuesday night, ending a prolonged stand-off between the Spanish charity operating the boat and the government in Rome.

Five EU states agreed to take in scores of migrants stranded for weeks on board a crowded rescue ship, EU authorities said on Wednesday, ending a prolonged standoff with Rome over their fate.

Target Corp raised its annual profit forecast on Wednesday after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results as higher investments to remodel stores and beef up digital business drew in more shoppers, sending shares up 17%.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella begins two days of talks with parties on Wednesday to seek a way out of a political crisis that will lead to the formation of the country's 67th government since World War Two or to early elections.

A Chinese national working at Britain's Hong Kong consulate has been detained in China's border city of Shenzhen for violating the law, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Wednesday, likely worsening already strained ties between Beijing and London.

A major bank warned on Wednesday that weeks of protests in Hong Kong could hit the economies of the Chinese-ruled city and mainland China itself as demonstrators prepared a sit-in at a subway and site of a mid-summer mob attack.

Separatist leaders in Indian Kashmir have urged people to defy a ban and join a mass march after Friday prayers this week, the first such call since the federal government revoked the region's autonomy, stirring anger in the region and beyond.

Iran's semi-official ILNA news agency said on Wednesday the Adrian Darya 1 tanker, which was released after being detained in Gibraltar, is currently leased to an Iranian shipping company.

Japan has upgraded its estimate of North Korea's nuclear weapons capability in an upcoming annual Defence White Paper, saying it seems Pyongyang has achieved the miniaturization of warheads, the Yomiuri newspaper said in an unsourced report on Wednesday.

China's biggest e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has delayed its up to $15 billion listing in Hong Kong amid growing political unrest in the Asian financial hub, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Former Vatican treasurer Cardinal George Pell will remain in prison for at least another three years after losing an appeal against his conviction for sexually abusing two 13-year-old choir boys, an Australian court ruled on Wednesday.

The Chinese territory of Macau is set to elect as leader the only candidate for which it is allowed to vote: a Beijing-backed former legislator who is expected to cement China's control over the special administrative region and distance it from escalating protests in neighboring Hong Kong.

The Vatican on Wednesday acknowledged the Australian court decision to uphold Cardinal George Pell's conviction on sexual abuse but said he has a right to another appeal.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken to his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, about violent demonstrations over Kashmir outside the Indian embassy in London, the foreign ministry said.

Limiting marriage to a relationship between a man and a woman will remain China's legal position, a parliament spokesman said on Wednesday, ruling out following neighboring Taiwan in allowing same-sex marriage, despite pressure from activists.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday called off a visit to Denmark scheduled for early September after the country's prime minister rebuffed his idea of purchasing Greenland.

Asian shares flatlined on Wednesday as worries about global recession and endless trade wars wrestled with hopes for more monetary and fiscal stimulus to keep growth going.

Japan and the United States will seek to narrow gaps on trade when their top negotiators meet this week, but hopes for a deal in September are fading as both sides fail to make concessions on agriculture and automobiles, sources say.

On the morning of Feb. 26, executives from a Washington consultancy presented a strategy paper to some of the most powerful officials in the Malaysian palm oil industry.

Healthcare giant Philips was warned of suspicious sales of its medical equipment to the Brazilian government, and failed to halt them, nearly a decade before an alleged bribery racket was exposed in the company's Brazil operations last year, Reuters has learned.