Gambia poll gets nod

BANJUL: Gambia’s electoral commission chairperson says the party of new President Adama Barrow has won a majority in parliament.

Thursday’s vote overcomes two decades of domination by the party of former leader Yahya Jammeh. It also assures that Barrow can move ahead with promised transitions toward greater freedoms.

Independent electoral chairperson Alieu Momarr Njai yesterday called the vote free and fair. He said Barrow’s United Democratic Party won 31 seats in the 53-seat national assembly. – AP

‘Plotter’ arrested

MALÉ: Police in the Indian Ocean island nation of the Maldives arrested an opposition leader for “plotting to overthrow the government”, days after the opposition’s failed bid to oust the Speaker and take control of parliament.

The arrest of Qasim Ibrahim, the leader of the Jumhooree Party, comes ahead of another impeachment vote against the deputy Speaker, Abdullah Maseeh Mohamed, scheduled for Monday. – Reuters

‘Tithes’ jail term cut

SINGAPORE: The leader of a Singapore megachurch had his jail term cut yesterday following an appeal against his sentence for stealing millions of dollars of tithe money that helped fund the pop music career of his wife, Sun Ho.

Kong Hee, founder of City Harvest Church, had his eightyear jail term reduced to threeand-a-half years. Five other church leaders had their jail ter ms halved. The six were convicted of stealing church funds, mostly from tithes. – dpa

Hyundai, Kia recall

DETROIT: Hyundai and Kia are recalling 1.4 million cars and SUVs in the US, Canada and South Korea because the engines can fail and stall, increasing the risk of a crash.

The recall covers models in the US and Canada including 2013 and 2014 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport SUVs and Sonata cars.

The South Korean recall includes Hyundai’s Grandeur and Sonata sedans and Kia’s K5, K7 and Sportage with engines produced from 2009 to 2013. – AP

ETA gives up arms

MADRID: Basque militant separatist group ETA, which waged a bloody campaign for independence from Spain for over half a century, said yesterday it had given up all its arms and explosives.

A letter from ETA said it had handed all its weapons to civilian go-betweens and was now a disarmed organisation.

The move stops short of a full disbanding of the organisation that has killed more than 850 people in its quest for an independent state. – Reuters

Thai bomb blasts

BANGKOK: Bomb blasts were among 23 co-ordinated attacks that rocked Muslim-majority southern Thailand yesterday, a security officer said, just hours after King Maha Vajiralongkorn signed a new constitution as a step towards ending military rule.

Police reported no casualties in the region, site of an upsurge in a decades-old Muslim separatist insurgency that voted the most strongly against the new constitution at a referendum last year. – Reuters

Bank fraud payouts

LONDON: Lloyds Banking Group has apologised to victims of a high-profile fraud for which six people were jailed this year and said it had set up a £100 million (R1.7 billion) compensation scheme to be approved on a case-by-case basis.

Britain’s biggest mortgage lender has been under pressure to compensate the victims at its HBOS business, who say it reacted too slowly to their complaints, and will hope that this will draw a line under the controversy. – Reuters