US slaps sanctions on Iranian, Chinese targets over Tehran’s missile, military programs

By Daphne Psaledakis WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States imposed sanctions on Tuesday on more than a dozen people and entities in China, Hong Kong and Iran, including Iran’s defense attache in Beijing, over accusations they helped procure parts and technology for key actors in Iran’s ballistic missile development. Earlier on Tuesday, the official IRNA news…

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OpenAI CEO has no IPO plan due to ‘strange’ company structure

By Supantha Mukherjee STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Microsoft-backed OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has no plans to go public any time soon, Chief Executive Sam Altman said at a conference in Abu Dhabi. “When we develop super intelligence, we are likely to make some decisions that most investors would look at very strangely,” Altman said. “I…

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Five nations elected to U.N. Security Council, but Belarus denied

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The United Nations General Assembly elected Algeria, Guyana, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and South Korea to the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday for two-year terms starting on Jan. 1, 2024, while Belarus – allied with Russia in its invasion of Ukraine – was denied a spot. Algeria, Guyana, Sierra Leone and South…

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UN climate talks in Germany kick off with no final agenda

By Riham Alkousaa BERLIN (Reuters) – United Nations climate talks in Germany kicked off on Monday without an agreed final agenda for technical discussions, a senior negotiator said, clouding optimism that the 10-day meeting would result in a clear programme for the COP28 conference in Dubai. The Bonn Climate Change Conference, designed to prepare decisions…

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Analysis-Egypt faces external debt reckoning after borrowing spree

By Patrick Werr CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt faces an increasingly tough task raising cash for foreign debt repayments after external borrowing quadrupled over the past eight years to help fund a new capital, build infrastructure, buy weapons and support an overvalued currency. Few of its grand projects are generating additional hard currency inflows, while foreign…

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Ports in China’s oil hub Shandong scrutinizing old tankers -sources

By Muyu Xu SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Ports in China’s Shandong province are demanding more detailed information about oil tankers that are more than 15 years old that call at their terminals, sources with knowledge of the matter said, potentially delaying the unloading of crude shipments in the world’s biggest oil importer. Last week, the maritime safety…

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US senator presses for declassified report on Al Jazeera reporter’s killing

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen called on Monday for declassifying a government report on the death of Al Jazeera’s Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist who was shot and killed while covering an Israeli army raid last year. One of the most recognizable journalists covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for two decades, Abu…

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