WORLD IN BRIEF

Monday, October 2, 2006

Social Democrats Gain Power in Austrian Vote

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

· 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

· 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.

THE AMERICAs

· BRASILIA -- Authorities said there were no survivors among the 155 people aboard the Brazilian jetliner that crashed deep in the Amazon jungle Friday.

· LAVAL, Quebec -- At least five people were killed in their cars when an overpass near Montreal collapsed Saturday, police said.

· BUENOS AIRES -- The smoky bars and cafes of Argentina's capital, where tango lyrics celebrate the "sensual pleasure" of a cigarette, may never be the same now that a tough ban has taken effect prohibiting smoking in public spaces smaller than 1,100 square feet.

· OAXACA, Mexico -- Military helicopters stepped up flyovers Sunday above Oaxaca, where activists who have seized parts of the city fear a government offensive to expel them.

AFRICA

· KANO, Nigeria -- Families were swept away in a torrent of water and as many as 40 people were feared dead after a dam collapsed in the country's northwest, officials said.

· EL FASHER, Sudan -- European Commission President José Manuel Barroso urged Sudan's president to help the African Union keep peace in the troubled Darfur region and end the obstacles for humanitarian groups. He also pledged more than $50 million in aid from Europe.

· LUSAKA, Zambia -- President Levy Mwanawasa, whose policies have helped boost economic growth in the southern African country, consolidated his lead in the election vote count, as police used tear gas against rioters who protested the results.

With votes counted in 120 of the country's 150 constituencies, Mwanawasa has won 42 percent of the votes, while Democratic Alliance leader Hichilema Haikande has 28 percent and the Patriotic Front's Michael Sata has 27 percent, according to the Electoral Commission.

EUROPE

· BELGRADE -- A reformist party pulled out of Serbia's ruling coalition because of the government's failure to capture war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic, which led to the suspension of talks on joining the European Union. Mladjan Dinkic, the leader of the G17 Plus party who is also Serbia's finance minister, said he and several other party members who ran key ministries had submitted their resignations to Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.

The move was not expected to lead to a collapse of the government, which might hold early general elections after parliament changed the country's constitution Saturday.

· BUDAPEST -- Opposition parties made big gains in municipal elections following two weeks of protests over Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany's admission that he lied about the economy.

-- From News Services