Japan's ultra-conservative Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is poised to significantly increase her power after an exit poll indicated a substantial majority win in the lower house election, while in Hong Kong, pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai was sentenced to 20 years in prison on national security charges. Additionally, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi received a sentence of over seven additional years in prison, according to her supporters.
Exit polls suggested that Takaichi's coalition is projected to secure between 302 and 366 of the 465 seats in the lower house, surpassing the 233 needed for a majority, according to national broadcaster NHK, as reported by Sky News. This potential victory could reshape Japan and the surrounding region, with analysts noting that "China is watching" the developments, as stated by Sky News Asia correspondent Helen-Ann Smith.
In Hong Kong, the sentencing of Jimmy Lai, a British citizen and media tycoon, followed his conviction on two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one count of publishing seditious materials in December of the previous year, as reported by Sky News. The 78-year-old had denied all charges.
Meanwhile, in Iran, Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, received an additional prison sentence of over seven years after initiating a hunger strike on February 2nd, according to her supporters, as reported by Euronews. Her lawyer, Mostafa Nili, confirmed the sentence, which was handed down by a Revolutionary Court in Mashhad.
In other news, the face of a "vampire" whose remains were mutilated to prevent them from rising from the dead was revealed for the first time in over 400 years, according to Sky News. The body, discovered in a fortress in eastern Croatia, had been exhumed, beheaded, and reburied face down.
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