Updated Jul 28, 2018

Iraqi Prime Minister sacks five election officials with corruption

Michael Sykes

An Iraqi official examining a ballot. Photo: Haidar Hamdani/AFP via Getty Images

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi charged five election officials on Saturday with corruption following a manual recount of the ballots from the the May 12 parliamentary election, reports Reuters.

The state of play: Abadi appointed a special committee to investigate claims of vote rigging in regions around the country. Local election chiefs in Kirkuk, Anbar and Salahuddin, Judge Laith Jabr Hamza as well as officials overseas election offices in Turkey and Jordan were all dismissed.

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Coronavirus kills 2 Diamond Princess passengers and South Korea sees first death

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and China's Health Ministry. U.S. numbers include Americans extracted from Princess Cruise ship.

Two elderly Diamond Princess passengers have been killed by the novel coronavirus — the first deaths confirmed among the more than 600 infected aboard the cruise ship. South Korea also announced its first death Thursday.

The big picture: COVID-19 has now killed more than 2,200 people and infected over 75,465 others, mostly in mainland China, where the National Health Commission announced 118 new deaths since Thursday.

Go deeperArrowUpdated 7 mins ago - Health
Ina Fried

SoftBank to cut its stake to get T-Mobile's Sprint deal done

Illustration: Rebecca Zisser/Axios

T-Mobile and Sprint announced a revised merger agreement that will see SoftBank getting a smaller share of the combined company, while most shareholders will receive the previously agreed upon exchange rate. The companies said they hope to get the deal as early as April 1.

Why it matters: The amended deal reflects the decline in Sprint's business, while leaving most shareholders' stake intact and removing another hurdle to the deal's closure.

Go deeperArrow3 hours ago - Technology
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Keep ReadingArrowUpdated 3 hours ago - Politics & Policy