BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — More than three weeks after losing a reelection bid, President Jair Bolsonaro has blamed a software bug and demanded the electoral authority annul votes cast on most of Brazil’s nation’s electronic voting machines, though independent experts say the bug doesn’t affect the reliability of results. Such an action would leave Bolsonaro with 51% of the remaining valid votes — and a reelection victory, Marcelo de Bessa, the lawyer who filed the 33-page request on behalf of the president and his Liberal Party, told reporters.

 

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BEIJING (AFP) -Violent protests have broken out around Foxconn’s vast iPhone factory in central China, as workers clashed with security personnel over pay and living conditions at the plant. In videos shared on Weibo and Twitter that AFP has verified, hundreds of workers can be seen marching on a road in daylight. Some were confronted by riot police and people in hazmat suits. A Foxconn worker shared live footage from the ongoing protest at the Zhengzhou factory. He said workers had marched out from their dorms this morning to demand compensation, now they are facing riot police. China’s unrelenting zero-COVID policy has caused fatigue and resentment among wide swaths of the population, some of whom have been locked down for weeks at factories and universities or been unable to travel freely. 

 

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KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia’s king met with lawmakers Wednesday and will next consult other royal families in a continuing search for a prime minister. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan, or Alliance of Hope, topped Saturday’s poll with 82 parliamentary seats, but failed to reach the 112 needed for a majority. Former Prime Minister Muhyiddin’s Malay-centric Perikatan Nasional, or National Alliance, won 73 seats. The hung parliament renewed a leadership crisis in Malaysia that saw three prime ministers since 2018.

 

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LONODN (Reuters) - Strikes by British postal workers in the run up to Christmas look set to go ahead after Royal Mail’s largest labor union rejected the latest pay offer from the company on Wednesday. The post and parcel company said it would increase wages by up to 9% over 18 months, instead of the previously planned two years, in its “best and final” offer, as it urged workers to call off strikes. However, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) said industrial action planned for Thursday and Friday - Thanksgiving and Black Friday, respectively - would go ahead after talks ended without an agreement.

 

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BERLIN (AP) — A huge horde of ancient gold coins dating back to around 100 B.C. has been stolen from a museum in southern Germany, police said. Bavarian state police said it was stolen early Tuesday from the Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching, 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Munich. The 483 coins were discovered in 1999 during excavations of an ancient settlement in Manchning and are considered the biggest trove of Celtic gold found in the 20th century. The German news agency dpa reported that authorities estimate the value of the coins, which together weighed about 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds), at several million euros (dollars).