Public prosecutors in Japan’s southernmost prefecture of Okinawa have indicted a 21-year-old US Marine on charges of yet another non-consensual sexual intercourse resulting in injury.

On Friday, the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office said that they filed charges against Lance Corporal Jamel Clayton on June 17, reports Xinhua news agency.

According to the indictment, Clayton tightened a woman’s head with sexual intent in the village of Yomitan on May 26, causing subconjunctival haemorrhage and other injuries that required about two weeks to heal.

The news follows the revelation earlier this week that a US Air Force member has been indicted for allegedly kidnapping a girl under the age of 16 and committing non-consensual sexual intercourse.

Okinawa hosts 70 per cent of all the US military bases in Japan while accounting for only 0.6 per cent of the country’s total land area. Crimes committed by US service members and non-military personnel have been a constant source of grievance for locals.

The latest incident is expected to further inflame local opposition to the US military presence in the prefecture. AGENCIES

Mongolia’s ruling party, the Mongolian People’s Party (MPP), declared victory in the parliamentary elections held after provisional results from the General Election Commission (GEC) showed that the party had won a majority. “I would like to thank all the voters who actively participated and voted in the ninth parliamentary elections. According to preliminary results, the MPP won at least 68 seats,” Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene, chairman of the MPP, told media early Saturday.

A total of 1,341 candidates from 19 political parties and two coalitions, along with 42 independents, competed for 126 seats in the State Great Khural, the country’s Parliament reported by Xinhua news agency.

Official results of the parliamentary elections are expected to be announced after all paper ballots are counted by hand to prevent misrepresentations and disputes associated with voting machines.

In May 2023, the State Great Khural passed amendments increasing the number of legislators from 76 to 126.

The elections was conducted under a mixed electoral system, with 78 legislators elected through majority representation and 48 through proportional representation.

The Asian country’s Parliament operates under a unicameral system with a four-year term. AGENCIES

Russia needs to start the production of intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) strike systems in response to the actions of the US, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

“In 2019, we announced that we would not produce these missiles, and we would not deploy them until the US completes the deployment of these systems in some regions of the world,” Putin said on Friday at a meeting of the Russian Security Council as reported by Xinhua news agency.

However, the US now not only produces these missile systems, but has already brought them to Europe for military exercises, he added.

“Apparently, we need to start manufacturing these systems and then, based on the actual situation, make decisions about where, if necessary to ensure our safety, to deploy them,” Putin stressed.

The US and the Soviet Union signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987, which prohibited possessing, developing and testing ground-based ballistic missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 km.The US officially announced its withdrawal from the INF treaty in 2019. AGENCIES

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Saturday said his social media platform X saw record usage as US President Joe Biden and his challenger, former President Donald Trump, attended their first presidential debate on TV. According to X, the minute-by-minute conversation, about the US presidential debate spiked by “19 times from the start of the broadcast to its peak 90 minutes in.”

The company said the scale of the global conversation on X was staggering during the debate.

“We’ve tracked over 2 billion impressions with over 242 million video views and 2 million posts,” said the social media platform.

The tech billionaire stated that there was a “record usage of X during the US presidential debate.”

A user posted, “X was going crazy during the debate. X live streams during the debate also had huge audiences.”

“Amazing result of allowing people to speak about it freely, without the ban hammer of the ‘Censorship Complex’ hovering over them,” another X user commented.

Meanwhile, President Biden said he “did well” at the debate with ex-President Trump and dismissed the likelihood of him stepping aside, as being demanded by some Democrats disappointed by his performance.

“I think we did well,” President Biden told a reporter. Many Democrats, however, were concerned President Biden may not be able to beat former President Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee. AGENCIES

Seven people were killed in two landslides in western Nepal on Saturday, local officials said.

Five members of one family died after their house was swept away in a landslide in Malika Rural Municipality of Gulmi District.

Devi Ram Aryal, Chairman of the municipality, told Xinhua news agency that heavy rain triggered the fatal landslide, and all the bodies had been recovered.

In Phedikhola Rural Municipality of Syangja District, a mother and daughter were killed in a landslide, according to Indra Bahadur Rana, spokesperson for the district police, reports Xinhua news agency.

The monsoon season set in Nepal on June 10, and with fresh fatalities, the death toll in rain-related incidents has reached 34. AGENCIES

 South Korea’s exports of pharmaceutical and biotechnologies surged from a year earlier in the first half of the year, data showed on Saturday.

In the first six months of the year, the country exported 4.5 trillion won ($3.26 billion) worth of pharmaceutical and biotechnologies, up 55 per cent from 2.9 trillion won (about $2.09 billion) for the same period last year, according to the data from the Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-Pharma Manufacturers Association.

The number of export deals dropped to seven from 12 over the cited period, but the amount of each deal grew sharply, the association noted, adding that each of the three deals signed this month was worth over 500 billion won, reports Yonhap News Agency.

At the current rate, the country’s annual total is expected to reach 8 trillion won, according to the association.

“This means the competitiveness of our country’s pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical technologies have significantly improved,” an association official said. AGENCIES

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani has condemned recent “meddlesome” remarks by a US official about Iran’s 14th presidential election.Kanaani made the remarks on Friday on social media platform X, reacting to a series of posts by US Deputy Special Envoy for Iran Abram Paley on his X account on Wednesday.

Paley claimed that Iran’s elections were “not fair and free” or conducive to any “fundamental change in the country’s direction,” hurling a number of accusations against the Iranian government, Xinhua news agency reported.

Kanaani said Paley’s remarks were a “flagrant interference and absurd,” adding the US officials would achieve nothing by making such “worthless” statements.

He stressed that “the Iranian people in this election will respond firmly to such meddlesome remarks through their effective participation and spirited presence at the polling stations”.

Kanaani added that people worldwide had witnessed the impacts and results of the “American diplomacy” inside the US and in other parts of the world and have tasted its “bitter flavour”.

He said that the people’s “direct and genuine” role in deciding their political fate in Iran had always been proved in practice, stressing that the validity and health of the elections in Iran had been proved in the country’s previous voting processes.

Iran’s 14th presidential election, initially set for 2025, was rescheduled following the unexpected death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his entourage in a helicopter crash on May 19.

Paley claimed the candidates in Iran’s election had been “hand-picked” by the country’s Constitutional Council and the Iranian people “lack access to even the most basic freedoms; necessary features of any democracy”.

The four candidates competing in the election are Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the parliamentary speaker; Saeed Jalili, the former top negotiator for nuclear talks; Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a former Interior Minister and Justice Minister; and Masoud Pezeshkian, a former Health Minister. AGENCIES

 The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said it has provided critical support for more than 4,800 Sudanese refugees in Libya so far this year.

“Critical support such as access to medical assistance, hygiene kits, kitchen sets, solar lamps, and cash assistance has been provided to over 4,800 Sudanese refugees so far this year,” UNHCR said on Friday in a statement, adding that care arrangements have been offered to 80 unaccompanied children from Sudan, Xinhua news agency reported.

“As more refugees continue to arrive, UNHCR and its partners are stepping up efforts to support those in need,” the statement noted.

It confirmed that more than 40,000 Sudanese refugees are now registered with UNHCR in Libya.

A large number of displaced Sudanese people have been seeking protection and assistance in Libya since the onset of a civil war in their country in mid-April 2023. AGENCIES

The UN is set to facilitate a new round of negotiations between the Yemeni government and the Houthi group representatives concerning prisoner and detainee exchanges, a government official told the media.

The local government official, who asked to remain anonymous, said on Friday that the talks are scheduled to commence on Sunday in Muscat, Oman, to address the ongoing humanitarian crisis surrounding prisoners in the conflict-ridden nation.

He clarified that the negotiations will proceed under the auspices of the UN and with oversight from the International Committee of the Red Cross, Xinhua news agency reported.

Meanwhile, the Yemeni Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) convened an extraordinary meeting to discuss the preparations for the forthcoming prisoner exchange negotiations.

In an official statement released through the state-run Saba News Agency, the PLC reaffirmed its dedication to resolving the humanitarian crisis surrounding detainees, abductees, and forcibly disappeared individuals.

The PLC advocated for a comprehensive “all-for-all” exchange principle, with particular emphasis on securing the release of prominent politician Mohamed Qahtan, whose case is specifically addressed in a UN Security Council resolution.

During the meeting, the PLC also addressed the recent surge in abductions of UN agency employees and NGO workers by Houthis in Sanaa, condemning these actions as violations of national and international laws and calling for intensified pressure on the Houthis to unconditionally release all captives.

This upcoming negotiation round follows a series of UN-sponsored talks between the Yemeni government and Houthis over the years. The most recent discussions, held in Amman in June 2023, ended without an agreement.

However, a previous round in Switzerland in March 2023 led to a successful exchange in April 2023, resulting in the release of more than 800 prisoners and detainees from both warring Yemeni sides.

As Yemen continues to grapple with a protracted conflict that began in late 2014, these negotiations represent a crucial step towards alleviating the humanitarian crisis and potentially paving the way for broader peace talks. AGENCIES

Voting for Iran’s 14th presidential election ended at Friday midnight after 16 straight hours, said Spokesman of Iran’s Election Headquarters Mohsen Eslami.He made the remarks in a live interview with Iran’s state-run IRIB TV, noting that though the polling stations’ doors were closed, those people who had come before the end of the voting process and were waiting for their turns, could still cast their ballots.

The voting began at 8 a.m. Friday local time at about 58,640 polling stations across the country, with four candidates vying for the top position at the country’s executive branch, Xinhua news agency reported.

The candidates were Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the Parliamentary Speaker; Saeed Jalili, the former top negotiator for nuclear talks; Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a former Interior Minister and Justice Minister; and Masoud Pezeshkian, a former Health Minister.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei cast the first ballot at a polling station and made a brief speech calling for the unity of the Iranian people during the election.

The voting was initially scheduled to end at 6 p.m. local time, but was extended three times, with each extension lasting for two hours.

More than 61 million people were eligible to vote in the election, according to Iranian authorities.

A total of 344 polling stations were also set up in more than 95 foreign countries for Iranians to cast their votes, the official news agency IRNA reported.

Eslami said the counting process at the stations would begin upon making sure that the very last voter had cast his vote, adding the winner should collect an absolute majority of the votes, or at least 50 per cent plus one vote, otherwise the run-off would be held next Friday between the two top candidates.

In remarks at a televised interview on Thursday, Mohammad-Taqi Shahcheraghi, head of Iran’s Election Headquarters, said efforts would be made to announce the election’s results before Saturday noon.

Iran’s 14th presidential election, initially set for 2025, was rescheduled following the unexpected death of President Ebrahim Raisi and his entourage in a helicopter crash on May 19. AGENCIES