BRAZIL ELECTION: BOLSONARO DEFEATED AS LULA MAKES COMEBACK

Brazil has taken a turn to the left as former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the presidential election.

After a divisive campaign which saw two bitter rivals on opposite sides of the political spectrum go head to head, Lula won 50.9% of the votes.

It was enough to beat Jair Bolsonaro, whose supporters had been confident of victory.

But the division which this election has highlighted is unlikely to vanish.

It is a stunning comeback for a politician who could not run in the last presidential election in 2018 because he was in jail and banned from standing for office.

He had been found guilty of receiving a bribe from a Brazilian construction firm in return for contracts with Brazil's state oil company Petrobras.

Lula spent 580 days in jail before his conviction was annulled and he returned to the political fray.

"They tried to bury me alive and here I am," he said, kicking off his victory speech.

Da Silva’s inauguration is scheduled to take place on Jan. 1. He last served as president from 2003-2010.

KREMLIN ACCUSED OF ‘WEAPONIZING FOOD’ IN HALT OF UKRAINE GRAIN DEAL

The United States called Russia’s announcement that it would withdraw from an agreement to allow the export of grain from Ukrainian ports “outrageous” on Saturday and said Moscow was using food as a weapon.

“It’s really outrageous to increase starvation,” President Biden said on Saturday, in remarks to reporters in Delaware after he cast his ballot in the US midterm elections.

His secretary of state, Antony J Blinken, said Russia’s move would take an outsize toll on lower-income countries that were depending on Ukrainian products like wheat, corn and sunflower oil. “In suspending this arrangement, Russia is again weaponizing food in the war it started, directly impacting lowand middle-income countries and global food prices, and exacerbating already dire humanitarian crises and food insecurity,” Blinken said. “We urge all parties to keep this essential, lifesaving initiative functioning. ”

The grain deal, which was brokered by the UN and Turkey in July, allowed commercial vessels carrying agricultural products to leave Ukraine and cross the Black Sea to Turkey. Russia said on Saturday that it would suspend its participation in the deal indefinitely because Ukrainian attacksagainst its Black Sea Fleet’s ships and infrastructure — including drone strikes that damaged a mine-sweeping vessel in the port of Sevastopol — threatened the security of its ships involved in the initiative.

AT LEAST 26 FOREIGN NATIONALS FROM 14 COUNTRIES KILLED IN SEOUL’S HALLOWEEN STAMPEDE

At least 26 foreign nationals from 14 countries were killed in Saturday’s crowd crush in Itaewon, Seoul, South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a press release on Sunday.

The ministry said another 15 foreigners were injured. Most of them have returned home, while six are still being treated in the country, reported CNN.

The ministry said it is taking all measures to provide support to bereaved relatives of the foreigners killed in the disaster, such as allowing entry into South Korea and helping with funeral arrangements.

Two US citizens were among those killed in Saturday’s Halloween disaster in Itaewon, the popular nightlife district in South Korea’s capital Seoul, the US embassy told CNN.

“Our staff in Seoul and colleagues in the United States are working tirelessly to provide consular assistance to the victims of last night’s incident and their families,” an embassy statement read Sunday.

At least 153 people were killed in a crush, with another 133 injured, when crowds of people celebrating Halloween swelled in narrow alleys of Seoul’s popular nightlife district.

The identities of 150 people killed have been confirmed, police told CNN on Sunday. The death toll from the disaster stands at 153.

The three bodies who have yet to be identified are all young women whose nationalities have yet to be verified, they added.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government had said they had received 4,024 missing persons reports as of 5 pm local time (4 a.m. ET), though some of these reports could relate to the same people.

Police said there is no active search for those reported missing as they believe no one went missing from the scene. They said thousands of missing person reports have been used to help identify those killed in the incident.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has declared a period of national mourning.

IMRAN HALTS MARCH AFTER JOURNALIST CRUSHED TO DEATH

A woman journalist covering former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s long march died on Sunday after being crushed under his container, an incident that forced him to halt the march for the day.

The deceased was identified as Sadaf Naeem, a reporter for Channel Five.

The reporter was run over by Mr. Khan’s container after she fell from it near Sadhoke. After the incident, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman called off activities for the day.

“We are ending today’s march due to an accident. We have decided to stop here,” Mr. Khan said. He also sent his condolences to the family of the deceased

The long march would start from Kamoke on its fourth day on Monday. Earlier, it was planned to reach Gujranwala by the end of its third day.

RUSSIA RECOVERS DRONES USED IN BLACK SEA FLEET ATTACK IN CRIMEA

Moscow : Russia’s defence ministry Sunday said it had recovered and analysed the wreckage of drones used to attack ships of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea the day before, finding the drones had Canadian-made navigation.

The ministry said Ukraine attacked the fleet near Sevastopol with 16 drones Saturday, and that British navy “specialists” helped coordinate what it called a terrorist attack, a claim Britain has denied.

Russia said it had repelled the attack but that the ships targeted were involved in ensuring the grain corridor out of Ukraine's Black Sea ports. Ukrainian officials suggested Russia itself may have been responsible, which it has used as apretext to pull out of a UNbrokered grain deal.

REPORT: LIZ TRUSS PHONE HACKED BY ‘PUTIN AGENTS’ WHEN SHE WAS FOREIGN MIN

London : Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss’s personal phone was hacked by suspected agents working for Russian President Vladimir Putin when she was foreign minister, the Daily Mail reported on Saturday.

Those agents gained access to “top-secret details” of negotiations with international allies in addition to private messages exchanged with Truss’s close friend Kwasi Kwarteng, who later became finance minister, it said. The messages are believed to have included discussions with senior international foreign ministers about the war in Ukraine, including details about arms shipments, it added.

Up to a year’s worth ofmessages were downloaded, the Mail said.

“The government has robust systems in place to protect against cyber threats. That includes regular security briefings for ministers, and

advice on protecting their personal data and mitigating cyber threats,” a government spokesperson said. The hack was found during the Conservative leadership campaign. The Mail said the messages that fell into foreign hands included criticisms of Johnson by Truss and Kwarteng, “leading to a potential risk of blackmail”.

Opposition parties demanded an independent investigation into the hack, and into the leak of the information to a newspaper.

2 CAR BOMBS AT SOMALIA MARKET KILL 100, AL-SHABAAB CLAIMS ATTACK

Mogadishu : The two car bombs that exploded at Somalia’s education ministry, next to a busy market intersection, killed at least 100 people and wounded 300, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said on Sunday, warning the death toll could rise. Mogadishu’s K5 intersection is normally teeming with people buying and selling everything from food, clothing and water to foreign currency but it was quiet on Sunday, when emergency workers were still cleaning blood from the streets and buildings.

Saturday’s attack was the deadliest since a truck bomb exploded at the same intersection in October 2017, killing more than 500 people.

The al-Qaida-linked Islamist group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility, saying the ministry was at the centre of a “war on minds” that teaches Somali children using a Christian-based syllabus. Members of the security forces were among the dead and injured, its statement said.

The chairperson of the African Union Commission,Moussa Faki Mahamat, urged the international community to “redouble its efforts to ensure robust international support to Somalia’s institutions in their struggle to defeat terrorist groups”. The first of the explosions hit the education ministry at around 2pm. The second hit as ambulances arrived and people gathered to help the victims. President Mohamud said some of the wounded were in serious condition.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted his organisation was ready to provide support. Al-Shabaab militants are seeking to topple the government and establish their own rule based on an extreme interpretation of Islamic law