Ireland starts vote in ‘three horse race’ to form next govt
AFP, Dublin
Ireland began voting in a general election on Saturday, with Prime Minister Leo Varadkar hoping to secure a new term on the back of Brexit but voters likely to judge him more on his domestic record.
Polls opened across the country at 0700 GMT, although a small number of islands off the west coast voted on Friday to allow for rough seas that could disrupt the transport of ballots by boat.
18 militants killed in eastern Afghan province
Xinhua, Mehtarlam
Eighteen insurgents including a Taliban commander had been killed in operations in the eastern Laghman province over the past two weeks, an army statement said here Saturday. Mullah Bradar, commander of the so-called Red Unit of the Taliban outfit, is among those killed during the operations in the Alishing district of the province, according to the statement.
More than a dozen others including Qari Merajudin, shadow governor for the Alishing district, had been wounded, it said, adding that the operations were backed by fighting planes and several villages were also liberated.
8 killed in southern Kazakhstan clashes
AFP, Nur-Sultan
Eight people died and dozens were hurt in clashes involving hundreds of villagers in Kazakhstan’s south, Interior Minister Yerlan Turgumbayev said Saturday.
“Several dozen people were injured, eight died,” Turgumbayev said after clashes Friday in the Jambyl region, some three hours drive from Kazakhstan’s largest city Almaty
Wichita woman convicted of beheading ex-boyfriend’s mother
AP, Wichita
A Wichita woman was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder in the decapitation death of her ex-boyfriend’s mother, whose head she left in the kitchen sink.
Prosecutors said Rachael Hilyard cut off the head of 63-year-old Micki Davis using two steak knives on April 9, 2017. Davis had gone to Hilyard’s home with her 9-year-old grandson to collect her son’s belongings, at Hilyard’s insistence.
The child ran away before his grandmother was beheaded and called for help.
