IN India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has secured another five-year term after winning a landslide general election victory yesterday.
Results so far show his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to win about 300 of the 543 seats in parliament. The main opposition alliance, which is led by Rahul Gandhi’s Congress party, has admitted defeat.
More than 600 million people voted in a six-week process.
THE Pentagon yesterday presented plans to the White House to send up to 10,000 more troops to the Middle East in a move to beef up defences against potential Iranian threats, US officials said.
No final decision has been made and it is not clear if the White House will approve sending all or just some of the requested forces.
Officials said the move was not in response to any new threat from Iran, but was aimed at reinforcing security in the region.
THE government of Botswana has lifted its ban on elephant hunting, a decision that is likely to bring protests from wildlife protection groups.
The southern African nation is home to more elephants than any other country, with an estimated 130,000. The government’s statement on social media says the change comes after consultations with stakeholders. It said hunting will resume “in an orderly and ethical manner” but does not say how it will be regulated.
The hunting ban had been in effect since 2014.
MORE than 30 people are dead after a militia attacked in Central African Republic.
The government has issued an ultimatum to the leader of a militia group known as 3R, calling on him to hand over those responsible.
The bloodshed took place in several villages in the volatile country’s northwest near the border with Chad.
Government spokesman Ange-Maxime Kazagui said the group retaliated against several communities in the Ouham Pende prefecture after an incident in which one man was killed.
A POLICE department in the US has reached a deal with a fugitive that would have him surrender if enough people “like” a wanted poster on Facebook.
Jose Simms, 29 (above), who is believed to be somewhere in New York, has seven arrest warrants and is being sought as a fugitive after failing to appear in court on a range of charges.
Brett Johnson, of Torrington police in Connecticut, posted on the department’s Facebook page that Simms had contacted him through the site and agreed to turn himself in if the post containing his wanted poster gets 15,000 likes.
Johnson said he negotiated Simms down from 20,000 likes.
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