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Sri Lanka's former wartime defence chief Gotabaya Rajapaksa established a lead over his main rival in a presidential election months after deadly militant attacks in the island, early results showed on Sunday. Rajapaksa, who oversaw the military defeat of Tamil separatists under his brother and then president Mahinda Rajapaksa 10 years ago, has promised strong leadership to secure the island of 22 million people, the majority of whom are Sinhalese Buddhists. With a quarter of total votes counted, Rajapaksa had 48.2 percent, while his main rival government minister Sajith Premadasa stood at 45.3 percent, the election commission said.

Sat, 16 Nov 2019 23:03:04 -0500

Samoa declared a state of emergency this weekend, closing all schools and cracking down on public gatherings, after several deaths linked to a measles outbreak that has spread across the Pacific islands. The island state of just 200,000, south of the equator and half way between Hawaii and New Zealand, declared a measles epidemic late in October after the first deaths were reported. Since then, at least six deaths, mostly infants under the age of two, have been linked to the outbreak, the health ministry said in a statement late last week.

Sat, 16 Nov 2019 22:46:09 -0500

A trove of leaked Chinese government documents reveals details of its clampdown on Uighurs and other Muslims in the country's western Xinjiang region under President Xi Jinping, the New York Times reported on Saturday. United Nations experts and activists say at least 1 million Uighurs and members of other largely Muslim minority groups have been detained in camps in Xinjiang in a crackdown that has drawn condemnation from the United States and other countries. The documents, which the newspaper said were leaked by "a member of the Chinese political establishment," show how Xi gave a series of internal speeches to officials during and after a 2014 visit to Xinjiang following a stabbing attack by Uighur militants at a train station that killed 31 people.

Sat, 16 Nov 2019 22:17:31 -0500

Parliamentary elections being held in Belarus on Sunday will be closely watched by the West to see how much leeway President Alexander Lukashenko will allow opposition candidates while keeping his grip on power. Lukashenko, 65, has ruled the east European country with an iron fist for a quarter of a century, but has begun allowing some opposition in a bid to foster ties with the West as relations with Moscow stutter. In September, the U.S. and Belarus announced they would resume ambassadorial relations for the first time since 2008.

Sat, 16 Nov 2019 22:00:00 -0500

China and United States had "constructive talks" on trade in a high-level phone call on Saturday, state media Xinhua said. China's Vice Premier Liu He, U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin were on the call. The two sides discussed each other's core issues for the first phase of an initial trade agreement, and agreed to maintain close communication, according to Xinhua.

Sat, 16 Nov 2019 21:55:22 -0500