Briefly

VENEZUELA

Maduro declared election winner

Venezuela's National Electoral Council said on Monday President Nicolas Maduro has won the presidential election and will govern the country from 2025 to 2031. The result indicated an irreversible trend in favor of Maduro and the voter turnout was 59 percent, said the electoral council's President Elvis Amoroso. The bulletin for Maduro's victory was issued after counting had been completed in 80 percent of the polling stations. In total, Maduro received 5,150,092 valid votes, representing 51.2 percent of the counted votes, the council said. China congratulated Maduro on his reelection, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a regular briefing. "China stands ready to enrich our all-weather strategic partnership and better benefit the peoples of both countries," he said.

PAKISTAN

Death toll in tribal feud rises to 42

At least 42 people have been killed in a land feud between tribes in northwestern Pakistan, officials said on Monday, during days of fighting with machine guns and mortars. The Sunni Muslim Madagi and Shiite Mali Khel tribes have been fighting since Wednesday, when a gunman opened fire at a council negotiating a decadeslong dispute over farmland, local police official Murtaza Hussain said. That attack reignited long-standing religious tensions between the clans. A senior official from the provincial interior ministry in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who requested anonymity, said local police had put the death toll at 42 with 183 wounded since Wednesday.

INDONESIA

Widodo starts work from new capital

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo started work on Monday from the new presidential palace in his country's ambitious new capital, where he intends to spend the last few months of his presidency. "Today I have started receiving officials for meetings here, in the president's office," Widodo told reporters, as authorities race to complete other key infrastructure projects before Independence Day celebrations next month. The capital is due to move from traffic-clogged and sinking Jakarta to the planned city of Nusantara in East Kalimantan Province, but the project is months, even years, behind schedule.

UNITED STATES

Progress made in battling wildfires

Firefighters made progress and were aided by improving weather on Sunday in the battle against wildfires covering massive areas and leaving a trail of damage in western United States, but further evacuations and resources have been necessary as thousands of personnel tackle the flames. The Park Fire, the largest wildfire in California this year, was one of more than 100 blazes burning in the US on Sunday, the National Interagency Fire Center said. It had scorched an area greater than the city of Los Angeles as of Sunday, darkening the sky with smoke and engaging thousands of firefighters.

Agencies - Xinhua