AP, New Orleans
Democrat John Bel Edwards won the runoff election for Louisiana governor Saturday, defeating the once-heavy favorite, Republican David Vitter, and handing the Democrats their first statewide victory since 2008.
Edwards, a state lawmaker, will take over the office from term-limited Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal in January.
Voters’ rejection of Vitter was a stunning turn of events for the U.S. senator, who has been a political powerhouse in the state for years and started his campaign nearly two years ago as the race’s front-runner. Edwards’ win offered a rare pick-up of a governor’s seat for Democrats in the conservative Deep South.
Gunmen kill Pakistan TV journalist
AFP, Peshawar
Unidentified gunmen on Sunday killed a Pakistani TV journalist, police said, the second such murder this month in the insurgency-hit northwest.
Atrackers riding a motorcycle fired on 42-year-old Hafeez Ur Rehman near his home on the outskirts of Kohat, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
“He was hit by three bullets and died on the spot,” Fazal Naeem, a police spokesman in Kohat, told AFP.
Emergency declared in Crimea over power crisis
Reuters, Moscow
A state of emergency has been declared in Crimea after pylons carrying electricity from Ukraine were blown up cutting off power to almost two million people, media and the Russian government said on Sunday.
The Russian Energy Ministry didn’t say what had caused the outages, but Russian media reported that two pylons in the Kherson region of Ukraine north of Crimea had been blown up by Ukrainian nationalists.
UN chief asks India to lift Nepal blockade
Dawan.com, United Nations
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday expressed concern over India’s blocking of essential supplies on the Nepal-India border and the adverse impact on the humanitarian operations.
“The secretary-general is alarmed by reports of the obstruction and destruction of life-saving medical supplies and the continued impact on humanitarian operations,” a statement issued by his spokesperson said.
Hong Kong goes to polls after protests
AFP, Hong Kong
Hong Kong went to the polls today for the first time since huge pro-democracy protests gripped the city, in a key test of public sentiment.
The spotlight is on the district elections to gauge whether support for the democracy movement can translate into votes and bring change to the political landscape.
Hong Kong is semi-autonomous after being handed back by Britain to China in 1997, but there are fears that Beijing’s influence is growing.
