Colombia’s historic presidential election is heading into a runoff vote, with right-wing candidate Ivan Duque leading the race but failing to secure the majority needed to win outright.
With nearly all of the votes counted, Duque – who led opinion polls ahead of Sunday’s election – was first with 39.1 per cent.
He will now face leftist candidate Gustavo Petro, who finished second with 25.1 per cent, in the second round of voting on June 17.
Former Medellin Mayor Sergio Fajardo, a centre-left candidate, came third with 23.8 per cent.
Reports monitored from Aljazeera, said the prospect of Duque finishing first in an election headed to a runoff vote was widely anticipated.
The final outcome of the elections is expected to shape the future of a controversial 2016 peace deal between the government and FARC rebels.
Incumbent President Juan Manuel Santos, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for ending a decades-long conflict with FARC, was ineligible to run for re-election having served the maximum two terms permitted by Colombia’s constitution.
- Italy crisis worsens as PM-designate fails to form government
Giuseppe Conte, Italy’s prime minister-designate, has abandoned his mandate to form a new government, the presidential palace has said.
The announcement on Sunday came after a meeting between Conte and Italian President Sergio Mattarella to discuss a proposed list of cabinet members, in what would have been Italy’s first populist government.
Conte’s attempt at forming a government broke down after Mattarella refused to endorse Paolo Savona, a vocal critic of the European Union, for the post of minister of economy.
Conte told reporters he “gave the maximum effort, attention, to carry out his task with the full collaboration” of Five Star Movement and League political parties.
- Spain: Hundreds of people rescued from the Mediterranean sea
Spanish authorities have rescued more than 500 people attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea in a bid to reach Europe.
Spain’s maritime rescue service said it pulled 243 people from eight small boats on Sunday, a day after picking 293 others from nine vessels.
Three of the boats located on Sunday were in poor condition and sank shortly after those on board were removed from them.
The operations included airplane and helicopter searches, while those rescued were from various countries in north and sub-Saharan Africa.
At least 6,872 people have been rescued while trying to enter Spain by sea so far this year, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), while 218 others have died attempting to make the crossing from North Africa, known as the Western Mediterranean route.
While the number of refugees and migrants arriving in southern Europe by sea has dropped substantially since the height of the EU’s refugee crisis in 2016, the number of such arrivals in Spain has jumped during the same period, according to the IOM.
- US delegation travels to North Korea for potential summit preparation
A US delegation travelled to North Korea on Sunday for preparatory talks ahead of a potential meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to CNN.
The group included US Ambassador to the Philippines, Sung Kim, and is a clear sign the summit between the two leaders is back on track. Kim is meeting with Choe Son Hui, an experienced North Korean diplomat who specialises in the country’s relationship with Washington.
A team of US officials focused on the logistics of a summit left at the weekend for Singapore. The delegation that entered North Korea on Sunday is more focused on the substance of the talks, reports said.
Sung Kim, the US envoy to the Philippines, was previously an ambassador to South Korea and a special representative for North Korea policy.
He also represented the United States at the six-party talks, the failed diplomatic effort in which China, Russia, Japan, the US and South Korea negotiated with North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons.
Randall G. Schriver, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, and Allison Hooker, Director for Korea on the White House’s National Security Council, were also part of the US delegation that traveled to North Korea.
The summit, which was initially scheduled for June 12 in Singapore, was abruptly cancelled last week by Trump who, in a letter to Kim Jong Un, cited hostile comments from top North Korean officials — including Choe — and concern about the country’s commitment to giving up its nuclear weapons.
- Egypt arrests former Sisi campaigner turned critic
Egyptian police have arrested a one-time campaigner turned critic for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a police official said on Sunday.
The police official did not give a reason for the overnight arrest of Hazim Abdelazim, but a source told Reuters news agency that he was arrested on suspicion of publishing false news and inciting against the state.
Once a deputy telecoms minister under ousted Hosni Mubarak, Abdelazim later headed the youth committee in Sisi’s 2014 presidential election campaign.
He’s especially active on Twitter, where he has 752,000 followers and regularly criticises Sisi and his policies.
“I have been right and I have made mistakes, and my biggest mistake was accepting to join Sisi’s campaign,” Abdelazim’s Twitter profile reads.
