Tory PM Key wins poll for 3rd term

New Zealand: Conservative Prime Minister John Key won the general elec-

Tion at the weekend for his third term in office.

“This is a victory for those who refused to be distracted and who knew that a vote for National was a vote for a brighter future for all New Zealanders,” the National Party leader told cheering crowds in Auckland.

Defeated Labour leader David Cunliffe said: “We will need to reflect upon why” Labour won only 25 per cent of votes.

Six arrested after drug gang battle

China: Police announced the arrest of six people yesterday following a gunfight between police and drug-trafficking suspects that killed two people in the city of Guangzhou.

They said that a gang leader and a police informant had been shot dead when police raided a drug production site.

Two suspects in the gunfight and four people accused of helping one of them try to escape were arrested.

Obama backs Secret Service

United States: President Barack Obama insisted at the weekend that he still had confidence in Secret Service ability to protect him and his family.

His declaration followed the apprehension of a man with a knife who jumped the fence and entered the presidential residence.

Secret Service director Julia Pierson ordered enhanced officer patrols and surveillance along the north fence of the compound.

10 dead after days of assassinations

Libya: Targeted assassinations in recent days have left 10 human rights activists, journalists, and members of the security forces dead, security officials said at the weekend.

Among the slain were two activist bloggers and four current and former military and police officers. Three other people survived assassination attempts in Benghazi.

Chinese warship docks in B Abbas

Iran: A Chinese destroyer had docked in the southern port of Bandar Abbas in the first such visit by the Chinese navy, state TV reported yesterday.

Naval base commander Admiral Hossein Azad said that the four-day visit had seen the two navies sharing marine rescue expertise.

The destroyer was accompanied by a logistics ship. Both were on their way to the Gulf of Aden as part of an international mission to combat piracy.

Cairo to host talks on Palestinian stability

Egypt: Cairo will host a brief round of indirect talks tomorrow between Israelis and Palestinians on a sustained ceasefire deal, as well as negotiations between Hamas and Fatah over governing Gaza.

Palestinian presidential aide Azzam al-Ahmed said: “We will say this government needs to govern Gaza the way it governs the West Bank. We can’t have two political regimes, one in Gaza and one in the West Bank.”

Assad help on Isis ‘desirable for US’

Syria: Parliamentary speaker Mohammad Jihad Lahham lashed out yesterday at Washington’s efforts to exclude Damascus from the coalition fighting against the Islamic State (Isis) extremist group.

Working with Syria would be preferable to co-operating with those who support terrorism, he said, referring to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states that encourage jihadi militants.

US President Barack Obama recently authorised illegal strikes against Isis in Syria without the Assad government’s agreement.

German MH17 death families to sue Kiev

Germany: Three German families announced yesterday that they plan to sue Ukraine for negligence in the downing of Malaysia Airline Flight 17.

Lawyer Elmar M Giemulla will file a suit at the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of the three families, who lost relatives when the plane was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17.

The aviation law specialist says that Ukraine should have closed its airspace if it could not guarantee the security of planes within it.