IRAN
Presidential runoff held
Iranians yesterday went to vote in a presidential runoff amid voter apathy and heightened regional tensions. The run-off follows a June 28 ballot with historic low turnout, when more than 60 percent of Iranian voters abstained from the snap election for a successor to Ebrahim Raisi, following his death in a helicopter crash. The low participation is seen by critics as a vote of no confidence in the Islamic republic. Yesterday’s vote was seen as a tight race between low-key lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian, the sole moderate in the original field of four candidates, and hardline former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili. Polls opened at 8am and were to close at 6pm, but they are usually extended until as late as midnight. The final result is to announced today.
SOUTH KOREA
Stabber gets 15 years
A man who stabbed an opposition leader in the neck earlier this year was yesterday sentenced to 15 years in prison, court officials said. The knife-wielding man attacked Lee Jae-myung, head of the liberal Democratic Party, the nation’s biggest political party, in January after approaching him asking for his autograph at an event in Busan. After being detained by police, he told investigators that he wanted to kill Lee to prevent him from becoming the president. The Busan District Court said the man was handed the prison term after being found guilty of attempted murder and a violation of an election law. The court said the man and prosecutors have one week to appeal. The attack happened ahead of the parliamentary elections in April, which ended with the Democratic Party and other opposition parties winning a massive victory against President Yoon Suk-yeol’s conservative governing party.
UNITED STATES
Diddy sued for sex assault
Superstar rapper and music industry mogul Sean Combs has been sued by a former adult film star for sexual assault and sex trafficking, court filings showed. Combs is the target of several civil lawsuits that characterize him as a violent sexual predator who used alcohol and drugs to subdue his victims, and his homes were raided this year by federal agents. The hip-hop artist, known as both Puff Daddy or Diddy, used actress Adria English as a “sexual pawn for the pleasure and financial benefit of others” during his lavish “White Parties” in the Hamptons and Florida between 2004 and 2009, the complaint alleged. The latest lawsuit, filed in Manhattan on Wednesday, brings to nine the number of claims against Combs since November last year.
? PAKISTAN
Paraglider falls to death
A Brazilian paraglider plummeted to his death in northern Pakistan, an official said yesterday, the fourth foreign adventurer to die in the area since last month. Northern Pakistan, home to towering peaks including K2, the world’s second-highest mountain, attracts tourists from across the globe with its breathtaking scenery. Chaddad Raineri Rodrigo, 55, was part of a seven-member team trekking to the base camp of K2, but was the only one who chose to paraglide. “When he started paragliding his parachute burst and he fell,” local police spokesman Muhammad Nazir said by phone from Shigar, where the accident happened. The man’s body has been recovered and would be returned to Brazil after consultations with his family, Nazir said. Three Japanese climbers also died in two separate incidents earlier this summer climbing season.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
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