WORLD IN BRIEF

Social Democrats Gain Power in Austrian Vote

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VIENNA -- Austria's opposition Social Democrats won nationwide elections Sunday, swinging the country to the center-left after more than six years of influence by the extreme right, unofficial returns showed.

With all but absentee ballots counted, the center-left bloc had 35.7 percent of the vote and the People's Party trailed with 34.2 percent, Interior Minister Liese Prokop said.

Although Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel did not concede the election, he congratulated the leader of the Social Democrats, Alfred Gusenbauer, who is likely to become the country's next chancellor.

Among other things, the Social Democrats have promised to lower the number of unemployed by 100,000 and reduce salary differences between men and women.

The current governing coalition is made up of the People's Party and the rightist Alliance for the Future of Austria, which had vowed during the campaign to reduce the number of foreigners in Austria by 30 percent over the next three years.

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ASIA

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· BANGKOK -- Retired army commander Gen. Surayud Chulanont was sworn in as Thailand's interim prime minister, saying he wanted to settle a bloody Muslim insurgency and heal a country divided by his predecessor. The ruling military council running Thailand since a Sept. 19 coup appointed Surayud after ousting Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

· DANANG, Vietnam -- Tropical Storm Xangsane barreled across Vietnam, killing at least six people, injuring hundreds and damaging thousands of houses, officials said.

THE MIDDLE EAST

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· SANAA, Yemen -- Yemeni anti-terrorism forces killed Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeie, a suspected al-Qaeda member who was convicted of an attack on a French oil tanker and escaped from prison earlier this year.

· ANKARA, Turkey -- A bomb exploded outside a hospital in the Mediterranean port city of Mersin, wounding three people, police said. The explosion came on the first day of a unilateral cease-fire declared by autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels.