ISLAMABAD (Al Jazeera) – Protests have been held in major cities across Pakistan to denounce what they called a “theft” of the mandate of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party in the Punjab provincial assembly. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Friday lost a key vote in the local assembly in Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province, despite winning a by-election there earlier this week. The vote was held to determine whether the province’s sitting chief minister – Hamza Sharbaz Sharif, the son of the country’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif – enjoyed the backing of the majority of legislators in the local parliament. Sharif retained his post in another blow to Khan, whose PTI party and its allies had hoped to form a new provincial government in Punjab. “They have stolen the mandate of Imran Khan. They have betrayed the nation. People won’t tolerate this. We have tolerated this for too long,” protester Shazia Imran told the Associated Press in Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi. Twenty seats were up for grabs in the Punjab by-election, which was seen as a popularity test for the former international cricket star dismissed by a no-confidence vote in April.

 

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TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Armed clashes erupted on Saturday on the outskirts of the Libyan city of Misrata between rival factions near the junction of the main coastal highway leading to Tripoli. Rival forces allied to the two main sides in a political standoff over control of the Libyan government have mobilized in the city in recent days, according to residents. They exchanged fire in a central district where several government and international agencies, along with diplomatic missions, are based, and clashes spread to the areas of Ain Zara and Asbaa. The United Nations Libya mission UNSMIL said it had received reports of civilian casualties and demanded an investigation. The clashes occurred between two armed groups with major clout in the west of the war-torn country: the Al-Radaa force and the Tripoli Revolutionaries Brigade. Another brigade called “444” intervened to mediate a truce, deploying its armed vehicles in a buffer zone east of Tripoli, noted an AFP photographer.

 

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SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea on Saturday condemned remarks by a senior White House official about Pyongyang’s cyberattack capabilities and said it would continue to stand against U.S. aggression towards it. A Foreign Ministry spokesperson said that branding North Korea as a “group of criminals” revealed the true nature of Washington’s hostile policy towards North Korea. Anne Neuberger, the U.S. deputy national security advisor for cyber and emerging technology, reportedly said on Wednesday that the North Koreans were a criminal syndicate pursuing revenue “in the guise of a country”. “After all, the U.S. administration has revealed the true picture of its most vile hostile policy, once covered under the veil of ‘dialogue with no strings attached’ and ‘diplomatic engagement’,” state news agency KCNA said, citing the foreign ministry spokesperson. “In a similar fashion, the DPRK will face off the U.S., the world’s one and only group of criminals.”

 

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ATHENS (Reuters/AFP) – Residents were evacuated on Saturday as a wildfire which started in mountainous forests in the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos threatened properties at the beach resort of Vatera. Thick billowing smoke fanned by strong winds could be seen in the area. One fleeing resident told state TV ERT that her home was on fire. “We are battling to save homes,” Taxiarchis Verros, mayor of western Lesbos, told the broadcaster. Vatera, an 8 km (five miles) long sandy beach in the southern part of Lesbos, is a popular tourist attraction. A wildfire in mountains near Athens earlier this week damaged homes and forced hundreds of people to flee, with authorities calling this summer one of the toughest in the Mediterranean. Last year, wildfires ravaged about 300,000 acres (121,000 hectares) of forest and bushland across Greece during the country’s worst heatwave in 30 years. The ferocious heatwave that brought record temperatures to parts of Europe has resulted in the deaths of over 1,700 people on the Iberian peninsula alone, according to the World Health Organization’s European office. “Heat kills. Over the past decades, hundreds of thousands of people have died as a result of extreme heat during extended heatwaves, often with simultaneous wildfires,” WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge said in a statement.

 

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TOKYO (AFP) – The man who assassinated Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe is set to undergo an examination of his mental condition around the time of the incident, local media reported Saturday. Abe was gunned down on the campaign trail on July 8 in the western city of Nara, two days before the country’s upper house elections. His accused killer Tetsuya Yamagami is in custody and reportedly targeted Abe because he believed the former leader was linked to the Unification Church. On Friday, the Nara District Court approved a request by the local public prosecutors office for a psychiatric examination of 41-year-old Yamagami, the Asahi Shimbun and other local media reported, citing unnamed investigative sources. The examination is expected to wrap up in late November, the reports said. Investigative questioning of the suspect will be halted during the mental examination. Prosecutors will determine whether Yamagami can bear criminal liability based on the examination before making a decision on whether to indict him, the reports said.