AP, Qingdao
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says he would like to discuss the situation following the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin.Speaking at the start of his Saturday’s meeting with Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Qingdao, China, Rouhani hailed close ties between Russia and Iran. Iran has an observer status in the SCO, and Putin said that Moscow would support the full-fledged Iranian membership.
UN SC elects five members for two-year term
Reuters, United Nations
The United Nations General Assembly voted on Friday to elect Germany, Belgium, South Africa, the Dominican Republic and Indonesia for a two-year term in the Security Council starting on Jan. 1, 2019.
The council is the only U.N. body that can make legally binding decisions and has the power to impose sanctions and authorize the use of force.
Musharraf to run for Pak polls
AP, Islamabad
The party of Pakistan’s former military dictator Pervez Musharraf announced Saturday that he will run for a seat in parliament in July 25 national elections.
The move comes after the country’s Supreme Court conditionally allowed Musharraf to return from Dubai, where he has been living in self-exile to avoid arrest on criminal charges. Musharraf’s party said he will campaign for a seat representing the northern town of Chitral.
Bombs in Iraqi city of Kirkuk kill 1
AP, Baghdad
An Iraqi security official says three bombs have exploded in the northern city of Kirkuk killing a woman and wounding 18 others.
Brig. Gen. Ali Kamal said the blasts occurred late Friday night in three different places. He added that two of them did not inflict any casualties.
Kamal said Saturday that the blast in al-Quds street in central Kirkuk killed the woman and wounded 18 others.
China to launch broader environmental
inspections
Reuters, Beijing
China will expand environmental inspections to more cities and regions in a new round of checks from this month to April next year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) said in a statement on Friday, part of a three-year anti-pollution plan.
Apart from smog-heavy Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and nearby areas, the inspections – to run from June 11 to April 28, 2019 – will also target the Yangtze River Delta region, including Shanghai, and Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces, and some 11 cities in the northwestern provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi.
