Re-election extends Kazakh president’s quarter-century rule

Astana: Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev extended his quarter-century rule over the oil-rich, ex-Soviet republic with a crushing 97.7 per cent of ballots in an election where opposition parties did not field a candidate. Sunday's election gives another five-year term to the 74-year-old former steelworker, who has ruled the oil-producing nation since rising to the post of its Soviet-era Communist Party boss in 1989. Central Election Commission data showed turnout was 95.22 per cent. AFP

UK schoolgirl joins ISIS, posts picture from Syria

London: One of the schoolgirls who had disappeared from her here to travel to Syria has tweeted a picture that appears to confirm she has joined terror group ISIS. Amira Abase, (15), Shamima Begum (15), and Kadiza Sultana (16), have been missing for more than two months and are believed to be in the city of Raqqa. The picture, posted by Amira earlier this month, shows a huge take-out feast. She described the meal as "dawla takeaway". Dawla is a term often used to refer to ISIS-controlled territory. PTI

Ukraine marks 29 years since Chernobyl disaster

Slavutych: Ukrainians have marked 29 years since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, placing wreaths and candles near the plant where work to lay a new seal over the reactor site has been delayed. The explosion of reactor number four on April 26, 1986, spewed poisonous radiation over large parts of Europe, particularly Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Slavutych was built to rehouse Chernobyl workers who had lived near the plant and were forced to move further away after the disaster. AFP

Baloch nationalist leader Talal Akbar Bugti dead

Karachi: Senior Pakistani politician and Baloch nationalist leader Nawabzada Talal Akbar Bugti passed away in Quetta on Monday after suffering from cardiac arrest. Talal Bugti, 63, the son of former chief minister of Balochistan and Baloch nationalist leader late Nawab Akbar Bugti, was a senior leader of the Jamhoori Watan Party. His fathe was killed in a military operation in Balochistan during former dictator Pervez Musharraf's regime. PTI