PHOTO: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters. Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky received more than 70% of the votes according to exit polls.
Exit polls suggest that Ukrainian comedian Volodymyr Zelensky has won a landslide victory in the country’s presidential election. According to exit polls, Zelensky received more than 70% of the votes.
"I will never let you down," Mr Zelensky told celebrating supporters on Sunday.
"I'm not yet officially the president," he added. "But as a citizen of Ukraine I can say to all countries in the post-Soviet Union: Look at us. Anything is possible!"
If the exit polls are correct, Zelensky will be elected to a 5-year term. Official results are expected to come in throughout Sunday night.
Incumbent president Petro Poroshenko has admitted defeat. Although 37 candidates were removed from the ballot paper from the first round, the president only picked up 9% more votes this time, whereas Zelensky gained almost 45%.
"The outcome of the election leaves us with uncertainty [and] unpredictability," he said after exit polls were released.
He added: "I will leave office but I want to firmly stress - I will not quit politics."
PHOTO: Getty Images/BBC. The site at Bien Hoa airport is considered most contaminated in Vietnam.
The US has launched a multi-million dollar clean-up operation at an air base in Vietnam it used to store the notorious chemical Agent Orange.
The ten-year program, unveiled more than four decades after the end of the Vietnam War, will cost $183m (£141m).
Agent Orange was a defoliant sprayed by US forces to destroy jungles and uncover the enemy's hiding places. It contained dioxin, which is one of the most toxic chemicals known to man and has been linked to increased rates of cancers and birth defects.
Vietnam says several million people have been affected by Agent Orange, including 150,000 children born with severe birth defects.
A statement from the US development agency United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is behind the clean-up, described the Bien Hoa airport as the "largest remaining hotspot" of dioxin in Vietnam.
"The fact that two former foes are now partnering on such a complex task is nothing short of historic," US ambassador to Vietnam, Daniel Kritenbrink, said at Saturday's program launch.
PHOTO: Al Arabiya English. Iraq’s parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi makes his opening remarks at the one-day parliamentary summit in Baghdad.
Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Saturday hosted a one-day conference where parliamentary speakers from the Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Kuwait, Syria, and Jordan discussed security in the Middle East, diplomacy, and economic issues. Iran was represented by a "senior official” according to an Iraqi parliamentary spokesman.
Iraq’s Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi chaired the meeting. Halbousi said in a statement that the delegations reassured their support for the reconstruction and development of Iraq following the years-long war against the so-called Islamic State.
“What binds us to our neighbors is our common geographical destiny and common interests,” he said in the statement.
This conference is seen by many as Iraq’s effort to bolster its relations with the states around it and act as a mediator between rivaling countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran who support opposing sides in ongoing wars across the Middle East.
BY MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr)
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