Reuters

By Liangping Gao and Clare Jim

BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) - A campaign by Chinese authorities to encourage people to replace their old apartments with new ones is attracting interest, but faces one major hurdle: the participants in the scheme are struggling to sell their current homes.

Flagged at a key political meeting last month, the campaign is meant to help cities across China offload their growing stock of new apartments and provide... (continue reading...)

BANSKA BYSTRICA, Slovakia (Reuters) - Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was in a "very serious" but stable condition in an intensive care unit on Thursday, a hospital official said, a day after being shot five times at close range in an assassination attempt.

Slovak police have charged Fico's suspected attacker with attempted murder, tvnoviny.sk reported on Thursday.

While much remains unclear about the attack, below are some details... (continue reading...)

By Devjyot Ghoshal

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Toyota Motor is testing the new battery-electric Hilux pickup truck to assess its performance in different conditions as the car maker prepares to manufacture the vehicle in Thailand by the end of 2025, an executive said on Thursday.

Pickup trucks make up more than half of total vehicle sales in Thailand, a critical market for Toyota that has been flooded by a wave of Chinese electric vehicle makers... (continue reading...)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Thursday upheld a head scarf ban at secondary schools in Flanders, Belgium's northern region.

Students at Flemish secondary schools are allowed to wear head scarves during religion classes but have to remove them during other classes.

The ban had been challenged by three young Muslim women but the court stated the Flemish education prohibits the wearing of any visible... (continue reading...)

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris' Fine Gael drew level with Sinn Fein in an opinion poll for the first time in almost three years on Thursday, a further potential setback to the opposition party's hopes of governing for the first time.

The Irish Times/Ipsos B&A survey taken three weeks before local polls and within a year of the next parliamentary election put Sinn Fein's support five percentage points lower at 23%, with Fine Gael... (continue reading...)