‘Flynn planned to rip up sanctions against Russia’
WASHINGTON: As President Donald Trump was taking the oath of office, his then national security adviser Michael Flynn messaged a business associate the Russia sanctions would be ripped up as one of the first acts of the new administration.
This account from a whistleblower, said to be the strongest evidence the Trump administration was prepared to revoke sanctions imposed on Russia by president Barack Obama in December 2016, was given to Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings.
It also identifies a financial motive behind the administration’s readiness to remove the sanctions. Till June 2016, Flynn was part of a business venture that was to partner Russia in building nuclear plants across West Asia.
“Our Committee has credible allegations that President Trump’s National Security Advisor sought to manipulate the course of international nuclear policy for the financial gain of his former business partners,” Cummings wrote in a letter. KATHMANDU: Nepal recorded over 67% turnout in the final round of parliamentary elections on Thursday, moving closer to a decade-long democratic transition after the abolition of monarchy and the end of a civil war.
Contestants on Thursday included top leaders such as Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and former prime ministers Pushpa Kamal Dahal, K P Oli, Baburam Bhattarai, Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalanarh Khanal.
Voting was held in 45 districts and scuffles were reported in some polling booths.
Thursday’s poll was to elect 128 representatives for federal assembly and 256 for provincial assemblies, according to election commission of Nepal.
Counting of votes for the first phase of polls started on Thursday and the rest of the votes will be counted from Friday. Thursday’s round took place in lower hilly areas including Tarai region, from where top Madhesi leaders are also contesting.
Incidents of booth capturing and scuffles, mainly between Nepali Congress and CPN-UML, were reported in some districts, according to the local media.
Apart from first-past-the-post elections, another 110 members of parliament will be elected from various communities under proportional representation. Similarly, 220 representatives will be elected under the proportional representation to provincial parliament.
The first phase of the election was held on November 26, with final results not expected for about another 10 days because of the cumbersome vote-counting procedure, officials said.
More than 200,000 soldiers and police were deployed to maintain security at polling centres after one person was killed and dozens wounded in a series of small blasts in the run-up to the polls.
“Hundreds of activists, including from a splinter group of Maoists opposed to the election, have been detained for creating trouble,” army spokesman Nain Raj Dahal said.
More than 15 million people were eligible to vote for the 275member parliament.
Voters will also choose representatives to seven state assemblies for the first time since Nepal became a federal democracy under the first republican constitution in 2015.
“The country will achieve political stability after the election ... and will move ahead solidly on the path of economic and social prosperity,” President Bidhya Devi Bhandari said in a statement.
Nepal has seen 10 government changes in as many years. Instability has given rise to corruption, retarded growth and slowed recovery from a 2015 earthquake that killed 9,000 people. The election pits the centrist Nepali Congress party of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba against a tight-knit alliance of former Maoists and the moderate Communist UML party.