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☆ China declares 'decisive victory' over COVID-19
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Jennifer LorenziniBEIJING, Feb 17 (Reuters) - China's top leaders declared a "decisive victory" over COVID-19, claiming the world's lowest fatality rate, although experts have questioned Beijing's data as the coronovirus tore across the country after largely being kept at bay for three years. China abruptly ended its zero-COVID policy in early December, with 80% of its 1.4 billion population becoming infected, a prominent government scientist said last month. Though there were widespread reports of packed hospital wards and mortuaries, China recorded only about 80,000 COVID deaths in hospitals in the two months after dropping its curbs. "With continuous efforts to optimise COVID-19 prevention and control measures since November 2022, China's COVID-19 response has made a smooth transition in a relatively short time," China's Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) said in a meeting on Thursday. The meeting stressed that China will increase the vaccination rate for the elderly, and strengthen the supply and production of medical goods.

☆ China imposes sanctions on Lockheed Martin, Raytheon over Taiwan arms sales
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] The logo of Lockheed Martin is seen at Euronaval, the world naval defence exhibition in Le Bourget near Paris, France, October 23, 2018. REUTERS/Benoit TessierBEIJING, Feb 16 (Reuters) - China's commerce ministry on Thursday said it put Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) and Raytheon Technologies Corp (RTX.N) onto an "unreliable entities list" over arms sales to Taiwan, its latest sanctions against the two U.S. defense contractors. The regulations prohibit Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Missile and Defense Corporation, a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies, from "engaging in import and export activities related to China", according to the commerce ministry statement. China previously sanctioned the two firms in Feburary last year over a $100-million arms sale to Taiwan, a self-ruled island which Beijing views as a breakaway province. China's foreign ministry at the time said the sale "undermined China's security interests, seriously undermined China-U.S. relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait".

☆ Sony chip unit sees limited impact from recent export curbs to China
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

TOKYO, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Sony Group Corp's (6758.T) semiconductor division will likely see a limited impact from chip export curbs to China by the United States, Japan and the Netherlands, Sony Semiconductor Solutions Chief Executive Terushi Shimizu said on Thursday. Sony is the world's largest maker of image sensors widely used in smartphones and autos. Shimizu said shipments of its security camera-related products could be affected by export curbs introduced by the United States in October, saying negative impact to its sales will likely exceed one billion yen ($7.47 million), but below 10 billion yen. In comparison, the chip division expects its total sales to come to 1.42 trillion yen for the year ending March 31, 2023. ($1 = 133.8700 yen)Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka Editing by Raissa KasolowskyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

BEIJING, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Hundreds of retirees took to the streets in the Chinese cities of Wuhan and Dalian on Wednesday to protest cuts to medical benefits, according to residents and social media posts, following widespread demonstrations last year over COVID curbs. Reuters could not immediately verify images from Dalian and some others from Wuhan widely shared on social media. The retirees were protesting local reforms including a recent cut to the monthly personal medical benefit allowance for retirees, from 260 yuan ($38) per month to 83 yuan, according to Wuhan residents. In China's health benefit system, some money goes to a personal medical allowance and other funds are pooled. Wednesday's protests in Wuhan and in Dalian in China's northeast attracted a heavy security presence, according to videos and pictures on social media.

☆ On the road from Donetsk, evacuation ends in heartbreak
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Marko Djurica | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

But there was more tragedy ahead: Raissa Akusova, 75-year-old grandmother and matriarch of the family, died on the road. A Reuters team including photographer Marko Djurica had accompanied volunteers from a charity to Chasiv Yar that day. The charity workers carried with them addresses of residents who sought help evacuating as Russian troops neared. When they arrived outside the family’s home, Djurica said it was clear that Akusova was feeling very unwell. She leaned on her son-in-law’s arm and had to take rests as she made her way slowly to the charity’s waiting minibus.

The combined death toll in Turkey and Syria has climbed to more than 41,000, and millions are in need of humanitarian aid, with many survivors having been left homeless in near-freezing winter temperatures. It asked Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to open more border crossing points with Turkey to allow aid to get through. "I shouted, shouted and shouted. Civil war hostilities have obstructed at least two attempts to send aid to the northwest from elsewhere in Syria, but an aid convoy reached the area overnight. "The children and I, by some miracle, we ended up in this small space that I had left empty."

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan imposed the VPN ban through Thursday, when he will hold a hearing to consider additional restrictions to Bankman-Fried's $250 million bail package. The judge on Tuesday extended that ban by three days, to Feb. 24. Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried cheated customers and improperly diverted assets, causing billions of dollars in losses. In a Monday night filing, prosecutors said Bankman-Fried used a VPN to access the internet on Jan. 29 and Feb. 12. Defense lawyers responded that Bankman-Fried used a VPN to watch National Football League playoff games on Jan. 29 and the Super Bowl on Feb. 12.

NATO has just completed an extraordinary survey of the remaining munition stocks, a NATO official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "Those NATO (munitions targets) that we set, and each ally has a specific target, those were not being met for the most part (before the Ukraine war)," the official said. "I would be absolutely gobsmacked if the targets…were not increased," said the NATO official. After the Cold War, the production of ammunition had turned "quite artisanal", said the NATO official. "I don't necessarily think that within the next year our stockpile levels will increase massively," the NATO official said.

☆ Town in North Cyprus buries last of high school volleyball team killed in quake
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 12 (Reuters) - Mourners from a town in North Cyprus on Sunday buried the last of 39 people, including 24 children, who were killed in last week's earthquake while in Turkey for a school volleyball tournament. The team from Turkish Maarif College in Famagusta, in Turkish Cypriot-controlled North Cyprus had travelled to Adiyaman for a match together with their trainers, teachers and parents. They were caught in the devastating quake that hit southern Turkey and Syria in the early hours last Monday. Mourners, among them high school students, prayed and wept over the two coffins, between which lay a volleyball. The death toll in Turkey and Syria from the earthquake and major aftershocks rose above 33,000 on Sunday and looked set to keep growing.

☆ After quake, Syrian schools silent as teachers, students perish
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Khalil Ashawi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Some of those children and teachers would not be coming back, Suleiman said. For years, schools would regularly shut because of fighting, mortar fire by rebel groups or air strikes by the Syrian government or Russia. The earthquake destroyed more than 115 schools in Syria and damaged hundreds more, according to a United Nations update published Saturday. Suleiman has been trying to track down some of the nursery children from whose families he has not heard. "I went around to buildings where I know some of the students live - and 90% of them were destroyed.

☆ Children among those pulled from destroyed buildings in Turkey's Hatay
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Turkish Health Ministry/ Handout via REUTERSFeb 12 (Reuters) - A father and daughter, a toddler and a 10-year-old girl were among survivors pulled from the ruins of collapsed buildings in the southern Turkish province of Hatay on Sunday. Video released by the Istanbul Municipality showed rescuers in Hatay pulling a 10-year-old girl through a hole in the floor of a damaged building before carrying her out on a stretcher. Also in Hatay, rescuers pulled a small child from the rubble of a collapsed building. In central Hatay, a man and his five-year-old daughter Emira were also recovered alive from a destroyed building. Video released by the Kocaeli Municipality on Sunday showed rescuers talking to Emira and her father while they were still trapped under debris.

☆ Turkey orders arrests over collapsed buildings in earthquake
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Daren Butler | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/7] Rescuers carry survivor Muzeyyen Ofkeli in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake, in Hatay, Turkey February 12, 2023. Environment Minister Murat Kurum said that 24,921 buildings across the region had collapsed or were heavily damaged in the quake, based on assessments of more than 170,000 buildings. Rescuers were still looking for survivors in the earthquake rubble six days after the disaster, which hit parts of Syria and Turkey. The upmarket 12-storey residential complex was completed a decade ago and contained 249 apartments. The arrested man told prosecutors he did not know why the complex collapsed and that his desire to go to Montenegro was unrelated, Anadolu reported.

☆ Children among those pulled from destroyed buildings in Turkey
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Time was running out to reach trapped victims alive under the rubble, but emergency crews were still finding survivors on Sunday. Also in Hatay, rescuers pulled a small child from the rubble of a collapsed building. In central Hatay, a man and his five-year-old daughter Emira were also recovered alive from a destroyed building. Video released by the Kocaeli Municipality on Sunday showed rescuers talking to Emira and her father while they were still trapped under debris. CNN Turk showed rescue workers carrying her to an ambulance as she waved, strapped into a stretcher and wearing a neck brace.

☆ U.S. Senator Fetterman hospitalized but did not have a new stroke -spokesman
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Senator John Fetterman, who suffered a stroke last year, was taken to a hospital late on Wednesday after feeling lightheaded but tests show he did not have a new stroke, his office said in a statement on Thursday. The 53-year-old Pennsylvania Democrat asked his staff to take him to a hospital in Washington after feeling lightheaded at a Senate Democratic retreat, his spokesman Joe Calvello said. "The results of the MRI, along with the results of all of the other tests the doctors ran, rule out a new stroke," Calvello said. Fetterman remains at George Washington Hospital for observation, the spokesman said. Fetterman had a stroke last year while campaigning for one of the key political swing state's two U.S. Senate seats.

☆ Morning Bid: Powell confesses 'This time it's different'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Any fear of a radical Fed rethink on the back of the jobs numbers seemed wide of the mark. "This cycle is different from other cycles...it has just confounded all sorts of attempts to predict," Powell admitted. And many think last week's jobs report should similarly be treated with care. They included a minimum tax for billionaires and a quadrupling of the tax on corporate stock buybacks. Brands, Eaton Corp, etcUS terminal rateReuters GraphicsReuters GraphicsReuters GraphicsBy Mike Dolan, Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky <a href="mailto:mike.dolan@thomsonreuters.com" target="_blank">mike.dolan@thomsonreuters.com</a>.

☆ Thousands protest against animal rights bill in Spain for excluding hunting dogs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Demonstrators take part in a protest against hunting amidst amendment proposals that seek to leave hunting dogs and other animals involved in traditional rural activities out of the country's proposed animal welfare bill, in Madrid, Spain, February 5, 2023. REUTERS/Violeta Santos MouraMADRID, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Thousands of people marched through central Madrid on Sunday to protest against a bill aimed at strengthening animal rights for excluding hunting dogs which opponents say are being exploited. The protest comes four days before parliament is due to vote on the new animal rights bill proposed by the ruling Socialist part. The party submitted a last-minute amendment to exclude hunting dogs and other animals involved in traditional rural activities. In Spain, dogs are used to track or catch animals such as deer, wild boar and rabbits.

☆ Swiss prosecutors launch case over Credit Suisse dirty money data leak -reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 3 (Reuters) - Swiss federal prosecutors have launched criminal proceedings targeting the perpetrators of a 2022 leak of information on thousands of Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) accounts, Swiss media reported on Friday. The leak covered more than 18,000 accounts, including human rights abusers, fraudsters and businessmen subject to sanctions, thereby plunging Switzerland's biggest bank into a dirty money scandal. Prosecutors launched the case, for violation of banking secrecy laws and damage caused to Credit Suisse, after receiving a formal complaint, Swiss daily Tagesanzeiger reported. Asked whether Credit Suisse had submitted the complaint, a spokeswoman said the bank did not comment on ongoing proceedings. Spokespeople for federal prosecutors did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation that proceedings in the case were active.

☆ Turkey inflation higher than expected at nearly 58%
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ISTANBUL, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Turkish annual inflation dipped to 57.68% in January, official data showed on Friday, but was well above forecasts despite a favourable base effect that is expected to carry on until President Tayyip Erdogan seeks re-election in May. Month-on-month, consumer prices rose 6.65%, the Turkish Statistical Institute said, nearly twice a Reuters poll forecast of 3.8%. Annually, consumer price inflation (TRCPIY=ECI) was forecast to be 53.5%. The annual price measure is now easing relative to that run-up, which included an 11% surge from December 2021 to January 2022. Economists expect annual inflation to dip to around 40% by the time of the May elections, which are expected to be tight according to polls.

☆ China regrets the airship strays into the U.S. - Foreign Ministry
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

HONG KONG, Feb 3 (Reuters) - China said on Friday that a balloon that is flying over the United States is for civilian meteorological and other scientific purposes and that it regrets that the airship strayed into U.S. airspace. In a statement late on Friday, China's foreign ministry also said that it will continue to maintain communications with the United States to properly handle the unexpected situation. Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Raissa KasolowskyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Fed seen hiking policy rate above 5% as hiring surges
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve is likely to need at least two more interest-rate hikes, lifting the benchmark rate to above 5%, to slow an unexpectedly strong labor market seen as contributing to high inflation. The Fed earlier this week increased its benchmark rate by a quarter-of-a-percentage-point to 4.5%-4.75%. Interest-rate futures prices, initially skeptical of that view, now reflect that expectation, with a better than even chance seen that the Fed will continue get its policy rate to the 5%-5.25% range by June, if not by May. The Fed targets 2% inflation, now running at 5% by the Fed's preferred measure, the personal consumption expenditures price index. Friday's Labor Department report did show slower growth in average hourly earnings to a 4.4% pace, from an upwardly revised 4.8% in December.

☆ ING profits grow, bad loans fall, CEO sees margins improving
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Core lending growth was a modest 3.1 billion euros, down from 13.4 billion euros in the fourth quarter of 2021. Interest margins were 1.36% versus 1.37% a year ago, but Van Rijswijk said they should improve in 2023. Analysts had forecast net profit at 1.03 billion euros according to data from Refinitiv, up from 945 million euros in the fourth quarter of 2021. Loan loss provisions of 269 million were down 22% from 346 million euros a year ago. Total income rose 5% to 4.87 billion euros thanks to higher rates, offset by lower fees and commissions.

☆ Djokovic played Australian Open with 3cm tear in hamstring, says Tiley
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 1 (Reuters) - Novak Djokovic played with a three-centimetre (1.2 inches) tear in his hamstring during his run to a record-extending 10th Australian Open title, tournament director Craig Tiley said on Wednesday. "This guy I did see, he had a three-centimetre tear in his hammy," Tiley told SEN Sportsday. "He's so focused on everything he does, with every single minute of the day," Tiley added. He's been through a lot and to win 10 Australian Opens, I don't think that's ever going to be repeated... He'll hold a significant place in the history of the Australian Open."

☆ Two foreign skiers killed in avalanche in Indian Kashmir, police say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Fayaz Bukhari | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Security force personnel carry the body of a foreign skier, who was killed after an avalanche hit in the Affarwat area, in the ski resort of Gulmarg, in Kashmir region, February 1, 2023. REUTERS/StringerSRINAGAR, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Two foreign skiers were killed and nearly 20 others rescued in Indian Kashmir on Wednesday after an avalanche swept through the popular ski resort of Gulmarg, police said. The skiers are all foreign nationals but the police has yet to make their nationalities public. Another 19 foreign nationals have been rescued by authorities, local police said on Twitter, adding that the bodies of the two deceased skiers have been shifted to a hospital. A video of the avalanche shared on social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed a wall of snow roaring down a mountainside, sending skiers and other onlookers scurrying for safety.

☆ French labour minister says raising pensions age is 'non-negotiable' despite mass protests
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Benoit TessierPARIS, Feb 1 (Reuters) - French Labour Minister Oliver Dussopt said on Wednesday that raising the retirement age to 64 was "non-negotiable", a day after more than a million people marched in protest at the proposed measure and a union leader called for rolling strikes. "If we do not go to 64, the pension system will not break even. What is not negotiable is the issue of returning to break-even," Dussopt told France 2 Television. "I believe in rolling strikes. They are playing the tug of war," he told France Inter radio.

☆ U.S. woman detained in Russia after walking calf on Red Square
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 1 (Reuters) - A U.S. woman was detained and fined by a Russian court on Wednesday for walking a calf on Moscow's Red Square that she said she had bought to save from slaughter, Russian state media reported. Alicia Day, 34, was fined 20,000 roubles ($285) for obstructing pedestrians in an unauthorised protest and sentenced to 13 days of "administrative arrest" on a separate charge of disobeying police orders. "I bought the calf so that it wouldn't be eaten," TASS news agency quoted her as saying. Video shared by state media showed Day explaining that she had got a driver to bring the calf to Red Square by car. ($1 = 70.15 roubles)Reporting by Caleb Davis Editing by Raissa KasolowskyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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