Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner today of a disputed election with 54.27 per cent of votes, beating his rival Raila Odinga who scored 44.74 per cent, the election commission announced.
	"Having fulfilled the requirement by law... I therefore wish to declare Uhuru Kenyatta... As president elect," said polls commission chairman Wafula Chebukati, as cheers and singing broke out at the national tallying centre.
	Kenyatta took to the stage to thank Kenyans "for the confidence they have shown in me."
	He vowed to "continue the work that we have already started and re-dedicate ourselves toward serving this great nation and our people."
	Kenyatta also reached out to Odinga  -- who has rejected the vote due to alleged rigging -- and his supporters, to "work together... So that we can build this nation together".
	"We are not enemies. We are all citizens of one republic. As with any competition there shall always be winners and there shall be losers but we all belong to .

Kenya's Kenyatta wins second term with 54.27 pc of vote

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Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner today of a disputed election with 54.27 per cent of votes, beating his rival Raila Odinga who scored 44.74 per cent, the election commission announced.
	"Having fulfilled the requirement by law... I therefore wish to declare Uhuru Kenyatta... As president elect," said polls commission chairman Wafula Chebukati, as cheers and singing broke out at the national tallying centre.

Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta wins second term with 54.27%: official

Nine child soldiers were handed over today to UN peacekeepers in the Mali city of Kidal, which is controlled by a former rebel group, a UN spokesman announced in New York.
	"Good news from our colleagues in the peacekeeping mission in Mali.... Nine child combatants were handed over to the UN mission in Kidal this morning," the spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters.
	"The mission is organizing their transportation to Gao and making arrangements for their care by child protection officials pending reunification with their family," he added, without giving the ages of the children.
	Fighting between the ex-rebels of the Coordination of Movements of Azawad (CMA) and the pro-government Platform group has worsened in recent weeks in northern Mali, in repeated violation of a 2015 ceasefire.
	"We were able to establish that the armed groups had minors in their ranks," Guillaume Ngefa, director of the human rights division of the UN mission to Mali, said in a statement yesterday.
	"What 

UN says nine child soldiers handed over to peacekeepers in

A two-year-old girl is among 17 people killed in floods in Guatemala since the start of the Central American country's rainy season in April, authorities said today.
	The toddler drowned yesterday after heavy rain caused the Platanitos River to flood a poor district of Guatemala City, national disaster prevention coordinator David de Leon told reporters.
	Nearly 1,59,000 people have been displaced during this year's rainy season.

Toddler drowns in Guatemala floods: official

A UN rights expert voiced alarm today at a growing security operation in Myanmar's northwestern Rakhine State, where the government has been accused of widespread abuses against Rohingya Muslims.
	Reacting to reports that an army battalion was flown into Rakhine today to help local authorities boost security in the region, UN special rapporteur Yanghee Lee warned the development was "a cause for major concern."
	"The government must ensure that security forces exercise restraint in all circumstances and respect human rights in addressing the security situation in Rakhine State," she said in a statement.
	"I am particularly reminded of the allegations of serious human rights violations which followed security force operations in the aftermath of attacks against three border guard police facilities in Maungdaw and Rathedaung in October and further clashes in November," she added.
	Lee's comments came after a government-appointed commission on Sunday dismissed UN allegations of ...

Myanmar security operation in Rakhine 'major concern': UN

Iran hit back toay at Donald Trump's warnings on Tehran's ballistic missiles programme, accusing the US president of showing "bad faith" over the 2015 nuclear accord.
	"POTUS (president of the United States) always wanted to kill" the deal, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted. "To avoid isolation, he's trying to blame it on Iran."
	He charged that Trump was showing "bad faith on top of US violating the letter & spirit" of the deal.
	Yesterday, the president accused Iran of not "living up to the spirit" of the deal it struck with major powers including Washington, reiterating that he viewed it as a "horrible agreement".
	"I don't think Iran is in compliance," Trump said. "I don't think they're living up to the spirit of the agreement."
	The accord gave Iran relief from sanctions in exchange for accepting curbs on its ability to make material for nuclear weapons.
	Last month, Trump was forced to back down from a key campaign promise to withdraw from the agreement.
	Trump ...

Iran accuses Trump of 'bad faith' on nuclear deal

Kenya's opposition coalition refused to take part in the announcement of election results tonight, slamming the process as a "charade" and accusing the election commission of ignoring their concerns.
	The National Super Alliance (NASA) has alleged massive rigging from shortly after the end of Tuesday's election, and had earlier asked the election commission (IEBC) to hold off on announcing results until their concerns could be addressed.
	However as the IEBC prepared to announce the result, top NASA leader Musalia Mudavadi said: "We are not going to be party to it, out issues have not been addressed."
	"We have raised some very serious concerns, they have not responded to them. The chairman told us ... They will respond to us after the event," said Mudavadi.
	Another top NASA official James Orengo denounced the counting process as "an entire charade, this is a disaster."
	Orengo also rejected calls from foreign observers to turn to the courts with their grievances. In 2013 their ...

Kenya opposition slams polls 'charade', results process

A Bangladeshi bride who posted a picture of herself on social media wearing her grandmother's cotton sari with no make-up or jewellery has sparked a heated debate about the high expense of weddings in the impoverished country.
	Tasnim Jara, who runs a charity providing medical care for the poor, said she wanted to challenge the widely held view that a bride must be dripping in gold on her wedding day.
	"Personally, I feel that we need to change this mindset," she wrote in a Facebook post that has been liked by more than 91,000 people and shared nearly 24,000 times by today.
	"A girl should not need a whitening lotion, a gold necklace or an expensive saree to be accepted as a bride or to make her feel confident."
	Jara said she had faced opposition over her choice, including from relatives, some of whom refused to have their picture taken with her.
	"I was troubled by the singular image of a bride that our society has -- with tons of make-up, a weighty dress and mounds of jewellery ...

Bangladesh bride stirs social media storm

England captain Joe Root has warned not to expect too much from Mason Crane after the leg-spinner received his first call-up into a Test squad.
     The 20-year-old Hampshire rising star was something of a surprise inclusion in a 13-man squad announced Thursday for next week's first Test against the West Indies at Edgbaston -- the first floodlit and pink ball Test to be staged in Britain.
     England come into this three-Test campaign on the back of a 3-1 series win over South Africa.
     For Crane to play at Edgbaston, it would likely mean England reverting to the two spinner policy they employed early in the South Africa campaign rather than sticking with Moeen Ali -- man of the series against the Proteas -- as their specialist slow bowler following the Worcestershire all- rounder's starring role in wins at The Oval and Old Trafford.
     But that Crane, who last year became the first overseas player to appear for Australia's New South Wales in more than 30 years, is in the ...

England skipper Root warns against Crane hype

Former world number one Victoria Azarenka and sixth-ranked defending men's champion Marin Cilic withdrew today from next week's ATP and WTA Cincinnati hardcourt event, a key US Open tuneup.
     The move came as TMZ Sports reported Azarenka will skip this year's US Open because of a custody battle over eight- month-old son Leo following a split last month with the boy's father, Billy McKeague.
     The website said a judge in Los Angeles, where McKeague filed custody papers, will not allow the boy to leave California until the matter is settled, not expected until October.
     That would prevent him from joining his mother in Cincinnati or at the US Open, which begins on August 28 in New York.
     Azarenka, a 28-year-old from Belarus, cited personal reasons for skipping Cincinnati.
     "I am disappointed to have to pull out of the Western and Southern Open due to a family matter," she said. "I look forward to coming back to Cincinnati and playing in front of its great fans for many 

Azarenka, Cilic withdraw from key US Open tuneup event

Israeli Holocaust survivor Yisrael Kristal, certified last year by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest man, died today aged 113, Israeli media reported.
	Since he was an observant Jew, his family could not be reached this evening, the onset of the Jewish sabbath.

World's oldest man dead in Israel at 113: media

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today cautioned that the risks of escalation of tensions between the United States and North Korea were "very high" following the recent war of words between Washington and Pyongyang.
	"I believe the risks are very high, especially considering this rhetoric, when direct threats of using force are voiced," Lavrov said at a youth forum in the Vladimir region east of Moscow.
	Lavrov did not refer to President Donald Trump's most recent remark that the US military is "locked and loaded" in the event of a misstep by North Korea, but said Moscow is "very alarmed" at Washington's rhetoric of preemptive military action.
	He added that the United States, as a more powerful state than North Korea, should take the first step to cool tensions.
	"When a fight has nearly broken out, the first step away from the dangerous threshold should be taken by the side that is stronger and smarter," Lavrov said.
	Moscow has joined China to push an initiative that would ..

Russia's Lavrov warns risk of N. Korea escalation 'very high'

A German court today convicted three Syrians of human trafficking after a boat they used to smuggle people to Europe capsized in 2015, killing 13.
	The court in the southern German state of Bavaria, where one of the defendants lived, handed down sentences of up to four years to the group, a spokesman told AFP.
	The judges found that the 27-year-old, who lived in Bavaria and whose name was not released, smuggled mainly Syrians from the Turkish city of Izmir to Greece five separate times.
	He and a 34-year-old accomplice, also from Aleppo, recruited the third man, 24, to steer the boat on one of these occasions, promising him free passage on the vessel.
	In September 2015, the third man was steering an inflatable dinghy with at least 46 people on board towards the Greek island of Lesbos when it collided with a freighter and capsized.
	Thirteen of the passengers died, including an unknown number of children.
	The presiding judge called the tragedy "foreseeable and avoidable" as he handed 

German court jails three Syrians over deadly migrant trip

Wayde van Niekerk says he is building his own "image and brand" and doesn't want to be tagged as the successor to track and field legends Usain Bolt and Michael Johnson.
     The 25-year-old South African 400 metres world record holder just missed out on emulating Johnson's feat of the 200/400m world championship double, which the American achieved in the 1995 championships, when he took silver in the 200 metres on Thursday behind surprise winner Ramil Guliyev of Turkey.
     He had successfully defended his 400m world title earlier in the week.
     Nevertheless, van Niekerk, who was unusually emotional after the race, raising his arms in celebration when he heard he had finished second, said he believed his effort had been "successful".
     However, he dismissed comparisons with either Johnson -- whose 400m world record the South African shattered when he won the Olympic title last year -- or 100/200m world record holder Bolt, who is competing in his final global championships.
    

I'm my own man, insists Van Niekerk

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said today that she opposed any use of force to resolve the conflict with North Korea, after President Donald Trump said the US military was "locked and loaded".
	"I don't envision a military solution to this conflict but rather consistent work as we've observed at the United Nations Security Council," Merkel told reporters.
	"Germany will very intensively take part in the options for resolution that are not military but I consider a verbal escalation to be the wrong response," she said when asked about Trump's latest tweets on North Korea.

Merkel rejects use of force in N Korea and verbal 'escalation'

The Dutch government has acknowledged that "errors have been made" in managing the growing scandal around eggs contaminated by fipronil but it strongly refuted allegations of negligence.
	"Mistakes are made in any crisis and it was absolutely also the case in this one," Dutch Health Minister Edith Schippers told viewers on a late night talk show yesterday on the NPO public broadcaster.
	But Schippers reiterated that the Dutch government could not reveal information about fipronil, an insecticide used to clean chicken pens, "because it was part of a criminal probe".
	The Netherlands has come under heavy fire from other European neighbours who accused the country of not timely revealing information about eggs tainted with fipronil, which can be harmful to humans.
	"We were well aware of a report of the presence of fipronil in the pens of egg-laying hens in November 2016, but there was no indication at the time that fipronil itself was found in the eggs," said Schippers, speaking ...

Dutch govt admits 'errors made' in egg scandal

The death toll from an earthquake that scarred a scenic region of southwest China's Sichuan province rose to 23 today as authorities found three more bodies.
	The Aba prefecture emergency response office said in a statement that the bodies were found inside a bus in a river valley in Zhangzha. It did not give more details about what had happened to the vehicle.
	The statement said at least 493 were injured in Tuesday's 6.5-magnitude earthquake, which struck Jiuzhaigou, a popular tourist destination with a national park, forested mountains and over 140 lakes that has been recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
	More than 70,000 people have been evacuated from quake- hit towns and villages, state media reported.
	The tremor evoked memories of a devastating 8.0-magnitude earthquake in the region in 2008 that left 87,000 people dead or missing.

China earthquake death toll rises to 23

Cambodia's prime minister today issued a six-day ultimatum to Laos to pull back troops who have allegedly trespassed into a border area or face a military response.
	Around 30 Laos soldiers have been stationed in Cambodia's northern Stung Treng province since April despite repeated requests by Phnom Penh for them to leave, according to strongman premier Hun Sen.
	"I appeal to Laos Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith to withdraw troops from Cambodian territory without any conditions," Hun Sen said during a ceremony in Phnom Penh.
	Military commanders have been ordered to deploy troops along with multiple rocket launchers to the border area, he said, giving Laos the "ultimatum" of pulling out by August 17.
	"We are friends, but a friend cannot step on (our) head," said the mercurial leader, who often leans on ultra- nationalist rhetoric to drum up support, especially ahead of election season.
	"We are not waging war, but we just want our land back," he said, adding that he was running ...

Cambodia PM gives ultimatum to Laos over 'border invasion'

The EU today called an emergency meeting to stop "blaming and shaming" over the insecticide- tainted eggs scandal as it emerged for the first time that the crisis had spread to Asia.
	Hong Kong, Switzerland and 15 European Union countries have all received eggs contaminated with the chemical fipronil, which can harm human health, the European Commission said.
	With concern going global, the commission said it had now called a meeting of ministers and food safety chiefs from affected EU countries, setting a provisional date of September 26.
	"Blaming and shaming will bring us nowhere and I want to stop this," Vytenis Andriukaitis, the European Commissioner for health and food safety, told AFP as he announced the meeting.
	Andriukaitis urged the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany -- the countries at the epicentre of the crisis -- to stop trading accusations about who is responsible for the scare.
	Dutch Health Minister Edith Schippers, speaking publicly about the matter for the first ...

EU calls eggs talks as scandal spreads to Asia

Australia's 2012 Olympic champion Sally Pearson's bid to put behind her two years of injury hell got off to a good start on Friday as she coasted into the 100 metres hurdles semi-finals.
     The 30-year-old -- the 2011 world champion -- missed both the 2015 world championships and 2016 Olympics because of serious injuries, losing out on the former after suffering a "bone explosion" in her wrist in a terrible fall at a meet.
     The perils of this event were evident in the heats when Trinidadian Deborah John crashed into the fifth obstacle requiring medical attention for over 10 minutes before being fitted with a neck brace and stretchered off the track.
     Pearson looked in determined mood right from the outset, dominating her heat to take it in 12.71sec from America's 2008 Olympic champion Dawn Harper-Nelson.
     Pearson will reappear later on Friday for the semi-finals where she will face stiffer opposition and be able to measure herself against American world record holder ...

Aussie great Pearson eases into 100m hurdles semis

Nigerian forces conducted an unauthorised search of the UN's main operating base in the town of Maiduguri in the country's northeast in the early hours of today, the UN said.
	"Members of the Nigerian security forces entered a United Nations base for humanitarian workers in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, without authorisation," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Nigeria said by email.

AFP

AFP

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