World Digest: Sept. 21, 2014

AFGHANISTAN

Presidential runoff results out Sunday

Afghanistan’s election commission on Saturday said it would announce final, audited results Sunday from a two-man presidential runoff held in June. U.N. and Afghan election officials have spent weeks auditing those results after allegations of vote fraud, a common occurrence over Afghanistan’s past two presidential elections.

But despite the recount and audit, the drawn-out race does not appear to be coming down to a precise vote tally. Instead, it is high-stakes negotiations that will settle the country’s power structure. Boiled down to their simplest formula, the talks pit the northern power brokers backing former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah against the southern and eastern Pashtun supporters of Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, a former finance minister and World Bank official.

As of mid-Saturday evening, a campaign aide to Ghani Ahmadzai said a meeting between the candidates had not yet begun and it wasn’t clear if one would be held. The two candidates have been negotiating a deal that would divide responsibilities between the president and the newly created office of chief executive.

 

 

 

— Associated Press

IRAN

Nuclear talks turn to uranium supply feed

With Iran refusing U.S. demands that it gut its uranium enrichment program, the two sides are now discussing a proposal that would leave much of Tehran’s enriching machines in place but disconnected from feeds of uranium, diplomats said Saturday.

The talks have been stalled for months over Iran’s opposition to sharply reducing the size and output of centrifuges that can enrich uranium to levels needed for reactor fuel or weapons-grade material. Time is running out before a Nov. 24 deadline to reach an agreement.

Ahead of the resumption of talks Friday, the New York Times reported that Washington was considering putting a new plan on the table that would focus on removing the supply piping, instead of cutting the number of centrifuge machines from 19,000 to no more than 1,500.

— Associated Press

Curfew ordered in Yemeni capital as Shiites take TV station:Yemen’s top security body imposed an overnight curfew in restive areas of the capital, Sanaa, on Saturday after Shiite rebels took over the state television building amid heavy clashes with Sunni militiamen. Meanwhile, the U.N. envoy to the country signaled that a deal had been reached to end the violence that has left more than 140 dead and prompted thousands to flee.

Dalai Lama praises China’s President Xi: The Dalai Lama praised Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday for being “more realistic” and principled than his predecessors, a day after Xi’s three-day visit to India ended. The Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, who has lived in exile for decades in India, said that since becoming president in March 2013, Xi has demonstrated “through his handling of problems, he is comparatively more realistic and with more principles” than his predecessors.

Pope creates commission to streamline annulments: Pope Francis has created a commission to study how to safeguard what the church calls the everlasting bonds of marriage while streamlining annulment procedures. The timing appears linked to a major Vatican gathering of bishops next month on family issues and appeals to allow divorced Catholics who remarry to receive Communion.

New Zealand’s ruling party wins election by wide margin: Prime Minister John Key won an emphatic victory Saturday in New Zealand’s general election to return for a third term, a result that will be seen as an endorsement of the way his National Party has handled the economy. Key’s party ended election night with 48 percent of the vote. The National Party’s closest rival, the Labor Party, won just 25 percent.

Fighting renews in South Sudan, mediators say: Mediators of the conflict in South Sudan say there is renewed fighting there between government and rebel troops. The mediators say the fighting is a purposeful act aimed at derailing the next phase of the peace process between troops loyal to former vice president Riek Machar and those supporting President Salva Kiir. There has been sporadic fighting between the government and rebels despite the signing of two peace agreements during the mediation process in Ethi­o­pia since the violence began in mid-December.

Venezuela transfers former police chief to house arrest: Ivan Simonovis, a former Caracas police chief whose decade-long imprisonment had rallied Venezuela’s opposition, has been released from jail to serve the remainder of his sentence at home. Simonovis had been jailed since 2004 in connection with the death of pro-government protesters who had rushed to the defense of then-President Hugo Chavez during a failed coup attempt two years earlier. In 2009, he was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison.