AFGHANISTAN

China-donated quake relief materials arrive

The first batch of earthquake relief supplies donated by the Chinese government arrived at Afghanistan's Herat International Airport on Sunday morning and was handed over to the Afghan side. Relief materials, including tents and rollaway beds, were unloaded from two Chinese cargo planes at the airport. Two deadly quakes, each with a magnitude of 6.3, followed by several aftershocks, rocked western Afghanistan with an epicenter in the Zanda Jan district of Herat Province earlier this month, leaving at least 1,000 dead and thousands more injured.

UNITED STATES

House prepares to vote in chaotic speaker race

The US House of Representatives, paralyzed for the past two weeks amid a leadership fight among Republicans, will vote on Tuesday in its latest attempt to elect a speaker, members were told on Sunday. Representative Jim Jordan won the Republican nomination to lead the House on Friday, but the hard-line conservative appeared to be well short of the support he would need to seize the speaker's gavel. Members have grown increasingly frustrated as the absence of a speaker has prevented action on key spending measures and kept the chamber from reacting to domestic and international crises.

ECUADOR

Noboa wins presidency, pledges to rebuild nation

Daniel Noboa, a presidential candidate of Ecuador, consolidated his position as president-elect, the National Electoral Council, or CNE, said, citing preliminary results of the presidential runoff held on Sunday. With 90.78 percent of the ballots counted, the CNE announced that Noboa won the presidential elections in Ecuador. CNE President Diana Atamaint affirmed that the results were "irreversible", declaring Noboa to be president-elect of the South American country. On Sunday, Noboa told supporters in his hometown Olon in the southwest that his goal was "to restore peace ... to bring back education to the youth" and create jobs.

GREECE

3 dead after migrant boat sinks off island

Two men reported missing after a migrant dinghy sank off the coast of an eastern Greek island on Monday were found alive, Greece's coast guard said, bringing the total number of survivors to 10. The bodies of a woman and two men had been recovered earlier from the sea after the dinghy sank overnight off the coast of the small island of Symi, which lies near Turkiye. Survivors told authorities the boat had been carrying a total of 13 people. Although no further people were reported to be missing, the coast guard said it would continue a search and rescue operation in the area for several hours as a precaution until all survivors had completed their testimonies. The nationalities of those on board were not immediately known.

POLAND

Opposition looks set to oust ruling nationalists

Poland's ruling nationalists appeared on Monday to have lost their parliamentary majority in the nation's most pivotal election in decades, potentially opening the way for opposition parties to seize power in what would be a huge political shift. An Ipsos exit poll published early on Monday gave the Law and Justice party 36.6 percent of the vote, which would translate into 198 lawmakers in the 460-seat lower house of parliament. Opposition parties, led by former European Council president Donald Tusk's liberal grouping Civic Coalition, were projected to win a combined 248 seats, with Civic Coalition seen winning 31.0 percent of ballots cast.