World Briefs: Saudi Arabia abolishes flogging

RIYADH • Saudi Arabia has abolished flogging as a punishment, the state human rights commission said yesterday, hailing a "major step forward" in the reform programme launched by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his powerful son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Court-ordered floggings in Saudi Arabia - sometimes extending to hundreds of lashes - have long drawn condemnation from human rights groups.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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Boeing cancels $6b deal with Embraer

PARIS • Boeing yesterday said it had cancelled a US$4.2 billion (S$6 billion) deal to buy the commercial jets division of Embraer, unravelling years of work on what the Brazilian plane-maker expected to be a transformative move.

Boeing said Embraer had failed to meet certain conditions for the deal to go through, although it did not specify which ones.

In July 2018, Boeing agreed to buy 80 per cent of Embraer's commercial jet unit to challenge Airbus directly in the market for mid-sized planes of up to 150 seats.

REUTERS

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Extend arms embargo on Iran, US urges UN

WASHINGTON • US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called yesterday for the United Nations to extend its conventional arms embargo on Iran beyond its scheduled end in October, citing Teheran's recent launch of a military satellite.

The lifting of the embargo was stipulated in the multi-nation Iranian nuclear deal concluded in 2015. But the United States, under President Donald Trump, unilaterally renounced the deal in 2018.

Mr Pompeo said Iran's announcement on Wednesday that it had orbited its first military satellite demonstrated that its space programme was "neither peaceful nor entirely civilian".

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE