‘ YES’ HOPES FOR AUSTRALIA GAY MARRIAGE AS VOTE EXPOSES DIVISIONS

SYDNEY: Australians will finally learn the result of a controversial national poll on same-sex marriage on Wednesday, with an expected “yes” vote set to unleash a divisive debate over how then to enshrine marriage equality into law. The Australian Bureau of Statistics is due to announce how the estimated 12.6 million Australians who participated in the poll have voted. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, a moderate who supports marriage equality, has pledged that if a majority vote “yes,” his government will quickly introduce a bill to change the marriage laws. But he must battle conservative elements within his ruling coalition who are demanding “religious freedom” exemptions in any new law to protect the rights of those who oppose gay marriage on faith grounds. The postal vote was designed to end more than a decade of political wrangling in Australia over the marriage equality issue.

BLAST HITS SECURITY POST IN YEMEN GOVT BASTION

ADEN: A bombing hit a security post in Yemen’s government bastion of Aden on Tuesday, killing and wounding several people, witnesses and police sources said. Witnesses said they heard a loud explosion followed by gunfire at the main office of UAE- trained security forces in charge of guarding state- owned facilities. They said 10 people had been killed in the attack and more wounded. The number of casualties could not be confirmed by government sources. It was not immediately clear how the bombing was carried out. One police source said it appeared that explosives in a vehicle had been remotely detonated during the attack. Another said there had been a suicide bomber inside the car.

FIFTH WOMAN ACCUSES US REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT

NEW YORK: A fifth woman on Monday accused Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexual misconduct, claiming he assaulted her when she was a teenager, as the evangelical conservative came under mounting party pressure to quit the Alabama election. Beverly Young Nelson claimed the now 70- year- old grandfather sexually assaulted her when she was a 16- year- old waitress and he was a county district attorney twice her age around January 1978. Nelson, who is now a 55- year- old businesswoman in Alabama, told reporters in New York that Moore, a regular in the restaurant where she worked, one night offered to drive her home after she finished her shift but instead parked between a dumpster at the back of the restaurant. Moore then groped her and squeezed her neck, attempting to force her head onto his crotch. “I was terrified. He was also trying to pull my shirt off. I thought that he was going to rape me. I was twisting and struggling and begging him to stop,” Nelson said, speaking through tears. She alleged that Moore eventually gave up and drove off, leaving her behind “on the cold concrete in the dark.”