TEHRAN (FNA)- The Principlist camp won the first major rivalry with the reformists at the Iranian parliament after their nominee Ali Larijani was once again elected as the speaker of the legislature on Sunday.
Larijani won the post after earning 173 votes and defeated the reformists' candidate Mohammad Reza Aref who could win 103 votes. 5 lawmakers abstained.
Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) Sunday have released a number of graduates of the University of Khartoum after nearly two months of detention without charge.
The EU on Friday (May 27) extended for another year sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime over its "violent repression" of civilians, maintaining an oil embargo and a freeze on Syrian central bank assets.
The European Council, which groups the 28-member bloc, rolled over existing sanctions in line with a decision it took in December 2014 to continue sanctions "as long as repression continues," it said in a statement.
"The Council extended EU restrictive measures against the Syrian regime until 1 June 2017," the statement said.
The representative of the Arab League in South Sudan, Mohammed Munsif, confirmed their commitment to the return of stability in the country.
Munsif made this statement after a meeting with South Sudan foreign affairs minister Deng Alor on Wednesday.
He added that Egypt and Arab League are reiterating their commitment to the return of stability in South Sudan.
For his part, the minister of foreign affairs Deng Alor said it is important for South Sudan to have a relationship with the Arab League.
The leader of a Pakistani Islamic council has proposed a bill that allows husbands to "lightly beat" their wives as a form of discipline.
Albania's main opposition Democratic Party again has decided to boycott Parliament in response to the legislature's suspension of its former leader, Sali Berisha.
The Democrats on Saturday said they would boycott Parliament for 10 days after Parliament suspended Berisha for 10 days for accusing Prime Minister Edi Rama of direct links to criminals, a charge Rama has denied.
Last month Berisha was sued by the governing Socialist Party for calling on citizens to arm themselves.
Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Saturday that President Abdel Fattah El Sisi called for intensifying efforts to settle the Palestinian issue and revive peace talks as well as end the inter-Palestinian division.
China wants deeper military ties with Indonesia and will strengthen cooperation on bilateral and multilateral issues, China's defense minister told his Indonesian counterpart, after a recent diplomatic spat in the South China Sea.
In March, Indonesia attempted to detain a Chinese trawler it accused of fishing in its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, prompting the Chinese coastguard to intervene.
China has said its vessels were operating in "traditional fishing grounds".
The deadline for Albania to complete judicial reforms needed to open European Union accession negotiations is close to expiring, with only one month left before the constitutional changes required for the reform can pass through parliament.
June is last month when parliament - before the recess in July - can vote to pass the amendments that require 93 out of 140 MPs to vote and so open the way for EU bodies to assess Albania's request to open membership negotiation.
However, the political situation remains in deadlock.
Geneva/United Nations: There will be no new round of Syria talks for at least two or three weeks, the office of UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said in a statement on Thursday, after he consulted the UN Security Council for about two and a half hours.
“He briefed on his intention to start the next round of talks as soon as feasible but certainly not within the next two/three weeks,” said the statement.
It said de Mistura wanted to see progress on the ground, particularly relating to the cessation of hostilities and humanitarian access.
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah does not acknowledge any claim by the Philippines on the state and will maintain the stand, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman.
He said Sabah has never recognised or acknowledged any such claim and will continue to be a part of the Malaysian federation.
"Let me clearly state that Sabah is in Malaysia and has chosen to be and will continue to be a part of this sovereign nation since its formation," he said in a statement Friday in response to Philippines incoming President Rodrigo Duterte's intention to pursue the Sabah claim.
Lebanon has officially completed two years of vacuum in the presidency with no end in sight to the dispute that has crippled the country's top post since May 2014.
An Nahar daily on Wednesday marked the occasion by surveying the opinion of major Lebanese political leaders, with Free Patriotic Movement founder MP Michel Aoun, Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea, and head of Hizbullah's Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Mohammed Raad abstaining from the interview.
In April 2016, government security forces, including national security and riot police, clamped down on student demonstrations against the sale of Khartoum University buildings, as well as the earlier detention of protesters and a range of other issues at campuses across Sudan.
According to HRW, some have been held for more than a month in unknown locations without access to lawyers or contact with their families.
The Deputy Director for HRW's Africa Division, Leslie Lefkow, told DW that the victims were at increased risk of torture.
Political donations from foreign and government-linked sources will be banned, said a committee set up last year to ensure such funds are not used to influence elections.
Committee chairman Paul Low, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, said these will be among the recommendations to be submitted to the Malaysian Cabinet in August.
The National Consultative Committee on Political Funding (JKNMPP) was formed by Prime Minister Najib Razak last August following a controversy in which more than US$700 million (S$966 million) was found in his private banking accounts.
Vojislav Seselj is hoping to pick up his political career where he left off when he went to The Hague to stand trial at the UN war crimes tribunal in 2003.
Seselj's Serbian Radical Party, which has been active in Serbia and Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity of Republika Srpska throughout the past two decades, has been weakened by his prolonged absence.
Its political space in both countries has meanwhile been occupied by mainstream parties which have moved to the right and assumed positions based on Serb nationalist and patriotic sentiments.
