Editors Pick

Besieged Aleppo residents quit city in ceasefire deal | Reuters

By Laila Bassam, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Tom Perry | ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT ALEPPO, Syria/BEIRUT An operation to evacuate thousands of civilians and fighters from the last rebel bastion in Aleppo began on Thursday, part of a ceasefire deal that would end years of fighting for the city and mark a major victory for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. A convoy of ambulances and buses with nearly 1,000 people aboard drove out of the devastated rebel-held area of Aleppo, which was besieged and bombarded for months by Syrian government forces, a Reuters reporter on the scene said

Incoming U.N. chief appoints Nigeria's Amina Mohammed as deputy | Reuters

UNITED NATIONS Incoming United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Thursday appointed Nigeria's Environment Minister Amina Mohammed as his deputy secretary-general and Brazilian diplomat Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti as chef de cabinet, a U.N. spokesman said. Before her appointment as environment minister a year ago, Mohammed was outgoing U.N.

ICRC expects to evacuate 2,000 from Aleppo on Thursday | Reuters

By Stephanie Nebehay | GENEVA GENEVA Close to 1,000 civilians and 26 wounded, including several children, were evacuated from east Aleppo on Thursday, in an operation the International Committee of the Red Cross expects to double by day's end, a senior official told Reuters."Many more" rotations of the buses and ambulances would be needed in coming days, said Robert Mardini, ICRC regional director for the Near and Middle East, in an interview in his Geneva office after being briefed by ICRC's Syria delegation chief Marianne Gasser in Aleppo."This for us is the first step, it was a positive one," Mardini told Reuters. "We were able so far to evacuate 26 wounded persons from east Aleppo and close to 1,000 civilians, who were transferred from east Aleppo to western rural Aleppo"."There is another rotation under way and we hope to be able to evacuate almost the same number of wounded and civilians." The first evacuees were escorted on buses and 13 ambulances through government-held west Aleppo to opposition-controlled areas, where they will choose where they want to go.A team of 14 ICRC staff and nearly 100 volunteers from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) took part in the operation, for which they needed a crane to remove debris and burned buses to clear the way into "volatile and unpredictable" east Aleppo, Mardini said.

India infused $74 billion of cash into banking system post Nov. 8 - Shaktikanta Das | Reuters

NEW DELHI The Reserve Bank of India has infused more than 5 trillion rupees ($73.66 billion) of currency notes into the banking system since Nov. 8, Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das told reporters on Thursday.This is a fraction of the 15.44 trillion rupees in 500- and 1,000-rupee notes that were circulating before Prime Minister Narendra Modi abolished them last month, in a surprise move targeting counterfeiters and people holding undeclared wealth.

Chinese ambassador to U.S. - sovereignty not a 'bargaining chip' | Reuters

WASHINGTON In a veiled warning to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, China's ambassador to the United States on Wednesday said that China would never bargain with Washington over issues involving its national sovereignty or territorial integrity.Ambassador Cui Tiankai, speaking to executives of top U.S

South Korea's powerful business lobby group dealt big blow by Park scandal | Reuters

By Christine Kim | SEOUL SEOUL Long the voice of the conglomerates that form the engine of South Korea's economy, the Federation of Korean Industries could become another casualty of the scandal that is poised to cost President Park Geun-hye her job, as key members flee.The FKI, whose board is made up of the chiefs of the country's conglomerates, or chaebol, has been the nexus for close ties between government and big business. It formed the two non-profit foundations, Mir and K-Sports, backing Park initiatives that are central to the current political crisis.Prosecutors have charged Park's friend Choi Soon-sil with colluding with the president into pressuring conglomerates such as the Samsung Group [SAGR.UL] to pay funds to the foundations.Last week, Jay Y.

Wall Street to Fed: Not so fast; dealers see only two hikes in 2017 - Reuters poll | Reuters

By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed | NEW YORK NEW YORK Wall Street's top banks were not immediately swayed Wednesday by signals from the Federal Reserve that the pace of interest rate hikes could pick up significantly next year, sticking instead to a view that the U.S. central bank will lift borrowing costs no more than twice in 2017, according to a Reuters poll.The poll of primary dealers - the 23 banks that do business directly with the Fed - also showed that a majority of the participants expect U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's economic plans to boost business investment, a notably absent factor in the current economic expansion.

Lotte duty-free ambitions hinge on South Korea store licence | Reuters

By Joyce Lee | SEOUL SEOUL Five bidders covet three lucrative downtown duty free licences to be issued by South Korea on Saturday, and arguably none is more desperate for a win than Lotte Duty Free.The world's No.3 duty-free retailer's ambitions to one day become the world’s biggest operator were thwarted this year by a criminal investigation that forced its parent Lotte Group to scrap a multi-billion-dollar IPO.A win on Saturday would allow the beleaguered South Korean conglomerate to reopen a Seoul mega-store and revive its goal of global duty-free dominance. Failure would not only keep the store shuttered, it would curb enthusiasm for the planned $4.5 billion initial public offering of Lotte Group's hotel business, designed in part to help fund expansion in duty free

Asia stocks, bonds to struggle as Fed flags more hikes | Reuters

By Wayne Cole | SYDNEY SYDNEY Asian markets were set for a rough ride on Thursday after the Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in a year and hinted at the risk of a faster pace of tightening than investors were positioned for.Yields on short-term U.S. debt surged to the highest since 2009, sending the dollar to peaks not seen in almost 14 years.Wall Street suffered its biggest percentage decline since before the Nov. 8 U.S.

New oversight for Voice of America, Radio Free Europe raises concerns | Reuters

By Patricia Zengerle | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON A defence policy bill that President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law this month will give President-elect Donald Trump greater influence over U.S. foreign broadcasting entities.The National Defense Authorization Act passed by Congress last week includes a provision abolishing the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an independent body that oversees government-backed media outlets such as the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, and replaces it with a chief executive nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.The election victory of Republican businessman Trump, who has had a stormy relationship with some media outlets he accuses of being biased against him, has raised concerns among some officials about whether the media outlets can maintain their editorial independence under a Trump-appointed CEO.It is not clear, however, if the change is intended to give the president greater influence over news, information and fact-checking that U.S.