Polls have closed in an Irish referendum on abortion. Voters turned out in large numbers on Friday to have their say on whether to repeal the country’s Eighth Amendment, which outlaws abortion by giving equal rights to the unborn.
An exit poll, conducted for the Irish Times by Ipsos/MRBI, suggested that the country voted by a landslide margin to change the constitution so that abortion can be legalised.
The vote to repeal the constitutional ban was predicted to win by 68 percent to 32 percent, according to the poll of 4,000 voters, the Irish Times said.
Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, in favour of change, has called the referendum a “once in a generation decision.”
If the proposal to repeal the Eighth Amendment is defeated, the country will not have a second referendum and it could be another 35 years before voters have their say on the matter again, Varadkar said, according to the Irish Times.
- Malaysia police seize $28m cash in raids linked to ex-PM Najib
Malaysian police said on Friday that cash worth 114 million ringgit ($28.6m) and over 400 luxury handbags were seized from several apartments as part of an anti-corruption probe into a state fund founded by former Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Malaysian police revealed on Friday that 72 bags of luggage – 35 of which were stuffed with $28.6m of cash in 26 different currencies – as well as jewellery and luxury watches were found from an empty apartment in a series of separate raids last week.
A total of 284 boxes containing expensive designer handbags were also seized from the vacant premises, which police declined to say who it belonged it to.
Two other residences occupied by Najib’s son and daughter were also raided among the 12 locations. “What I can confirm is that we did confiscate about approximately 150 bags from the premises where the daughter is staying,” Amar Singh, commercial crime chief, said at a news conference on Friday.
Singh added that police are still assessing the value of jewellery and watches in the rest of the 37 items of luggage.
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Najib, who was defeated by veteran politician Mohamed Mahathir, is being investigated by the new government over a corruption scandal at the state-owned investment fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), from which officials are alleged to have stolen more than $4.5bn.
- Iran seeks guarantees as JCPOA signatories meet to save deal
The remaining signatories of a multinational nuclear deal with Iran met for the first time on Friday, in a bid to save the pact after the US unilaterally withdrew and re-imposed sanctions on Tehran.
At Iran’s request, delegates from China, Russia, France, Britain, Germany and the European Union gathered in Austria’s capital, Vienna, where they reaffirmed their commitment to the 2015 deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, told reporters in Vienna that Tehran was negotiating with the other signatories to “to see if they can provide us with a package which can give Iran the benefits of sanctions lifting.
“The next step is to find guarantees for that package,” he said, adding that Iran needed specifics on how that would happen by the end of May.
Washington has not only promised to impose “the strongest sanctions in history” on Tehran, but also threatened to punish companies that trade with it. Some Western companies have already quit Iran or said they may have to leave because of the new US sanctions.
For Iran to stay in the deal, Araghchi said “specific mechanisms and practical solutions” were required to convince companies to continue doing business with Tehran, and address its concerns over its oil exports and banking flows.
- Trump: US talking to N.Korea about putting summit back on track
US President Donald Trump has said his highly-anticipated summit with North Korea’s leader might still go ahead, a day after abruptly cancelling the meeting.
Trump suggested on Friday that the summit – initially planned for June 12 in Singapore – could still happen after welcoming a conciliatory statement from North Korea which said that it remained open to talks despite the cancellation.
“It was a very nice statement they put out,” Trump said at the White House.
“We’re talking to them now. They very much want to do it. We’d like to do it,” he added.
“We’ll see what happens – it could even be the 12th.”
His comments marked the latest developments in a long-running saga over a summit – the culmination of nearly six months of intense diplomacy – which would have been the first between a sitting US president and a North Korean leader.
