1. Hard-talking mayor wins Philippine vote

    Millions of Filipinos lined up on Monday in blazing* heat to elect a new president in a race whose front-runner* is a brash mayor known for his sex jokes, pledges to kill criminals and a promise to end corruption within six months.

    Weary of poverty, crime, corruption and insurgencies* in the hinterlands*, voters are looking for a radical change at the top, and hope the man to lead it is Rodrigo Duterte, the 71-year-old mayor of the southern city of Davao who has held a lead over rivals in all opinion polls.

    An ex-prosecutor, Duterte peppered his campaign speeches with boasts about his Viagra-fueled sexual prowess and jokes about rape. But he also successfully tapped into discontent, and voters appear willing to overlook his unashamedly crude language.

    2. North Korea expels BBC reporter

    A BBC reporter in North Korea was detained, interrogated for eight hours and eventually expelled over his reporting in the run-up to a rare ruling party congress, the British broadcaster said on Monday.

    The BBC reporter, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, was about to board a plane departing Pyongyang airport with two other BBC staff on Friday when he was stopped and taken into detention, the BBC said.

    3. Greece passes pension, tax reform bill

    Greek lawmakers on Monday passed a package of unpopular pension and tax reforms that the country’s leftist-led government hopes will persuade official creditors to unlock bailout cash.

    The approval came just hours before eurozone finance ministers were due to discuss Greece’s reform progress and whether it had met terms of a multi-billion euro bailout. A positive signoff* on the reform review will unlock more than 5 billion euros (US$5.8 billion) to ease Greece’s squeezed finances and make debt repayments maturing in June and July.

    4. Kim says Pyongyang won’t use nukes first

    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said during a critical ruling party congress that his country will not use its nuclear weapons first unless its sovereignty* is invaded, state media reported on Sunday.

    Kim also said he is ready to improve ties with “hostile” nations in a diplomatic overture in the face of international pressure over its recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch. He also called for more talks with rival South Korea to reduce misunderstanding and distrust between them and urged the United States to stay away from inter-Korean issues.

    5. London has its 1st Muslim mayor

    Sadiq Khan, the son of a bus driver, became London’s first Muslim mayor on Saturday, seeing off a Conservative challenger who attempted to link him to extremism* and securing a much-needed win for his opposition Labor Party.

    Khan’s victory, which also makes him the first Muslim to head a major Western capital, was confirmed shortly after midnight inside London’s futuristic* glass and steel city hall following a day of mixed news for Labor in elections elsewhere in the country.

    6. Canada wildfire explodes in size

    A raging Canadian wildfire grew explosively on Saturday as hot, dry winds pushed the blaze across the energy heartland of Alberta and threatened to burn close to an oil sands project.

    The fire that has already prompted the evacuation* of all 88,000 people who lived in the city of Fort McMurray was set to double in size. It is expected to be the costliest natural disaster in Canada’s history.

    Provincial officials praised evacuees for their patience. The cities of Calgary and Edmonton said many hundreds of kilometers to the south were the best place to receive longer-term support such as medical care and emergency payments.(SD-Agencies)