SHANGHAI/HONG KONG, May 15 (Reuters) - China's clampdown on its consultancy and due diligence sector has driven companies to review their operations after some tested the limits of the laws and Beijing's patience to meet surging demand as China emerged from its COVID-lockdowns.

These consultancies thrived by providing investors - from global hedge funds to private equity firms - access to industry experts and investigators who could obtain valuable corporate information.

14 May 2023; MEMO: Egypt's government sold a 9.5% stake in state-controlled Telecom Egypt ETEL.CA for 3.75 billion Egyptian pounds ($121.6 million), the finance ministry said in a statement on Sunday, breathing life into a privatisation programme that had seemingly stalled, Reuters reports.

Telecom Egypt's is the second sale of state assets since Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly promised on April 29 to press ahead with the sales programme and sell assets worth $2 billion by the end of June.

11 May 2023; AA: Germany's retail sector is set to shrink with 9,000 shops and small businesses expected to close in 2023, according to the Handlesverband Deutschland, the national retail association of Germany.

According to figures from 2021, the country's retail sector is Germany’s third-largest – accounting for 17% of its gross domestic product.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbian authorities on Sunday displayed many of around 13,500 weapons they say people have been handed over since this month’s mass shootings, including hand grenades, automatic weapons, and anti-tank rocket launchers.

The authorities have declared a one-month amnesty period for citizens to hand over unregistered weapons or face prison sentences as part of a crackdown on guns following the two mass shootings that left 17 people dead, many of them children.

by Dr Ramzy Baroud

In anticipation of next month's United Nations Security Council talks on reforming the inherently archaic and dysfunctional political body, China's Foreign Policy chief, Yang Yi stated his country's demands.

14 May 2023; AA: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday sought support for his peace proposal as he held talks with Pope Francis in Rome and met Italian leaders in his first visit to Italy since the start of the war.

In an interview on Italian state TV RAI wrapping up his visit, Zelenskyy said he had been honored to meet the pope, who has repeatedly offered to play a role in possible negotiations to stop the war started by Russia’s offensive in Ukraine a year ago.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany will provide Ukraine with additional military aid worth more than 2.7 billion euros ($3 billion), including tanks, anti-aircraft systems and ammunition, the government said Saturday.

The announcement came on the eve of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s first visit to Germany since Russia invaded his country last year.

Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that Berlin wanted to show with the latest package of arms “that Germany is serious in its support” for Ukraine.

WASHINGTON, May 14 (Reuters) - U.S. border patrol agents have seen a 50% drop in the number of migrants crossing the border since the pandemic-era immigration policy known as Title 42 expired at midnight on Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on CNN's "State of the Union" program on Sunday.

"Over the past two days, the United States Border Patrol has experienced a 50% drop in the number of encounters versus what we were experiencing earlier in the week before Title 42 ended at midnight on Thursday," Mayorkas said.

IDLIB, Syria (AP) — The leader of an insurgent group that rules much of northwest Syria rose to notoriety over the past decade by claiming deadly bombings, threatening revenge against Western “crusader” forces and dispatching Islamist religious police to crack down on women deemed to be immodestly dressed.

Today the man known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani is trying hard to distance his group, Hayat Tahrir al Sham, known as HTS, from its al-Qaida origins, spreading a message of pluralism and religious tolerance.

Lahore, May 14 (PTI) Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan hit out at the country's powerful army in his first address after an Islamabad court set him free, saying it should be ashamed of jumping into politics and could form its own political party.

Addressing the nation from his Lahore home on Saturday, Khan took strong exception to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) allegations against him and said the spokesperson of the army's military wing was not even born when he represented Pakistan in the world.

NEW YORK (AP) — The historic Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan shuttered three years ago, but it will soon be bustling again — reopening to accommodate an anticipated influx of asylum seekers just as other New York City hotels are being converted to emergency shelters.

13 May 2023; AA: Germany will provide Ukraine with a new €2.7 billion ($2.97 billion) military aid package, local media reported on Saturday.

The biggest military aid package to date will include 30 Leopard 1 battle tanks, 20 Marder infantry fighting vehicles, 15 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks, and around 100 armored vehicles, according to the weekly Der Spiegel.