Russian oppn leader Navalny barred from presidential poll

MOSCOW: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has declared his intention to run in next year’s presidential elections , is ineligible to be a candidate, the country’s central electoral commission said on Friday.

“Currently Alexei Navalny is not eligible to stand for office,” the commission said, citing the fact that he is serving a five-year suspended sentence for embezzlement, which falls into the category of a serious crime. Someone who is convicted of a serious crime cannot stand for public office for 10 years after their sentence ends, the panel said.

Navalny and his erstwhile business partner were convicted of embezzlement in 2013.

In a legal confusion that Navalny hopes to exploit, the Russian Constitution says anyone who is not in prison can stand for election.The 41-yearold lawyer argues that he is eligible to stand for election because he is serving a suspended sentence and is not a prisoner. ISLAMABAD: Thirty-eight people were killed and more than 100 injured in two terror attacks in Pakistan on Friday, with suicide bombers targeting the capital of Balochistan province and the Shia-majority Parachinar town days before the end of the holy month of Ramzan.

Thirteen people, including seven policemen, were killed when a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden car in front of the provincial police chief’s office at Shuhada Chowk in Quetta’s Gulistan Road area. Twenty others were injured.

Balochistan government spokesperson Anwarul Haq Kakar said the blast occurred when police guards stopped the car to search it near a checkpoint. Local officials said the bomber may have been planning to target another site but was forced to detonate when he was stopped by police.

“It’s possible the assailants were trying to enter the (Army) cantonment which is close by,” Kakar told the media.

The blast, which was heard across Quetta, blew out the windows of nearby buildings and damaged several cars. Officials said an estimated 75 kg of explosives was packed into the car.

At least 25 people were killed and 100 others injured when two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a densely populated area of Parachinar in the Kurram tribal region in Pakistan’s restive northwest.

The blasts occurred near a bus terminal at Turi Market in the Shia-majority region.

The second explosion targeted people who had rushed to help the victims of the first blast, witnesses said. The area was packed with people shopping for the Eid festival and heading out of Parachinar for the holiday season.

Officials were quoted by the local media as saying that the explosions targeted people who had participated in the Youm-ulQuds procession.