BELARUS
Loyalists sweep elections
Candidates loyal to President Alexander Lukashenko have swept to victory in parliamentary elections, results showed yesterday, with the opposition failing to take a single seat. Critics had already denounced Sunday’s vote as a fraud and said it was rife with violations. Official results showed parties loyal to Lukashenko taking all 110 seats in the House of Representatives. The opposition had previously held two seats in the lower chamber. Lukashenko said he understood that Western countries would be watching the parliamentary vote, but that it was Belarusians who would have the last word. “We hold this vote in our country for our people, to make things better, and we hold it in the way we understand,” he said.
LEBANON
Nation like ‘Titanic’: speaker
The country is like a sinking ship that will go under unless action is taken, Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri was quoted as saying yesterday, referring to its deep economic and political crisis. “The country is like a ship that is sinking little by little,” al-Joumhuria newspaper cited him as telling visitors. “If we don’t take the necessary steps, it will sink entirely.” An-Nahar newspaper quoted him as likening the situation of the Lebanese to that of passengers on the Titanic that sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg.
BOLIVIA
UN urges talks on crisis
UN special envoy Jean Arnault is urging the government of interim president Jeanine Anez and supporters of former president Evo Morales to begin talks on peacefully resolving a crisis that has already claimed 23 lives, an official said on Sunday. The negotiations proposed by Arnault would involve lawmakers from Morales’ political party, mobilized groups and representatives of Anez, and be mediated by the UN and the Roman Catholic Church, Minister of the Presidency Jerjes Justiniano said. No date had been set for talks. Pro-Morales lawmakers have called a session today to demand the withdrawal of the military, Chamber of Deputies President Sergio Choque said. Members of the interim government fear pro-Morales legislators will reject Morales’ resignation as president, paving the way for him home.
UNITED STATES
Four killed at Fresno party
Four people were shot dead and six wounded while watching a football game in the backyard of a Fresno, California, home on Sunday, police said. Police were called to the scene after at least one person opened fire into a crowd of about 35 people gathered outside the house. “Three people died on scene,” Fresno Deputy Police Chief Michael Reed told reporters, adding that a fourth was rushed to hospital in critical condition and succumbed to his injuries there. The four dead and the six treated for “non life-threatening” gunshot wounds were men aged 25 to 35, Reed said.
ARGENTINA
Fernandez pushes abortion
President-elect Alberto Fernandez has promised he will move to legalize abortion after taking office on Dec. 10. He is to send a bill to Congress which, if passed, would make the country the first the first major Latin American nation with legalized abortion. “I am an activist for putting an end to the criminalization of abortion,” he said in an interview with the daily Pagina. “There’s going to be a bill of law sent by the president.” A bill presented by women’s rights activists was rejected by the Senate by 38 votes to 31 last year, after then-president Mauricio Macri refused to endorse it.
JAPAN
Abe sinks in monthly poll
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s approval rating has taken a hit in the past month, amid opposition accusations that his office may have violated political spending laws, a monthly Yomiuri Shimbun found. The poll conducted late last week showed an approval rating of 49 percent for Abe’s Cabinet, down 6 percentage points from last month’s poll, and falling below 50 percent for the first time since February. The disapproval rating rose to 36 percent from 34 percent last month, with 45 percent of respondents citing “lack of trust in the prime minister” over the party-funding allegations. Abe yesterday confirmed that 800 guests attended the dinner reception at the Hotel New Otani in Tokyo in April, which he and his wife attended, adding that attendees each paid a ￥5,000 (US$45.86) admission fee. “Neither my office nor the party’s supporters organization contributed funding towards admission for guests or myself at the dinner event,” Abe said. Opposition parties say the admission price was much lower than that of other receptions at the hotel.
CAMBODIA
Dance-loving princess dies
Princess Norodom Bopha Devi, a former minister of culture who helped revive traditional Apsara dance after the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime nearly wiped it out, has died at age 76, the royal palace said yesterday. The princess died of natural causes in a hospital in Thailand, the palace wrote on Facebook. She studied Cambodian ballet as a child and rebuilt the royal troupe when she returned home in early 1990s.
AFGHANISTAN
Four hurt in grenade attack
Attackers yesterday threw a pair of grenades at the gate of the Military Training Center in Kabul, wounding at least four soldiers and a civilian, Ministry of the Interior spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said. The grenades were hurled at about 7:30am as recruits were arriving for classes and training. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
INDIA
New push on citizenship bill
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is set to push ahead with another effort to pass controversial bill to grant citizenship to non-Muslim illegal migrants from neighboring countries, a move that is expected to lead to heated debates in parliament. The legislation seeks to provide citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Muslims are excluded. Modi’s critics say the move to shelter non-Muslim refugees is a way to keep for his Bharatiya Janata Party to push its Hindu nationalist ideology. This amendment to the Citizenship Bill passed in the lower house of parliament in January, but lapsed as the upper house did not take it up.
INDONESIA
Tiger kills one, mauls one
An endangered Sumatran Tiger mauled to death a farmer and seriously injured a local tourist on Sumatra, a conservation official said yesterday. The 57-year-old coffee grower was attacked on Sunday while he was cutting a tree, said Genman Hasibuan, head of the Aceh branch of the Natural Resources Conservation Agency. The mauling came a day after the same tiger attacked a group of local tourists who were camping at a tea plantation in the Mount Dempo region. The animal, which remains loose in the protected-forest area, is believed to be one of just 15 critically endangered tigers in South Sumatra, Hasibuan said.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
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