Finland’s leftist president re-elected in close runoff
Helsinki, Finland – Leftist President Tarja Halonen won another six-year term Sunday after her conservative challenger conceded defeat in the presidential runoff election.
With 99.9 percent of votes counted, Halonen had 51.8 percent against Sauli Niinisto’s 48.2 percent. Voter turnout was 77 percent.
“The man has lost,” Niinisto said, kissing Halonen’s hand.
Halonen, 62, described her victory as historic, as she was the Nordic country’s first head of state to be re-elected in a direct ballot.
“It’s back to work on Monday,” she said, then complimented Niinisto on his stronger-than-expected challenge.
In their final debates, the contenders presented similar visions for neutral Finland’s foreign policy – the president’s primary domain.
Both advocate close ties with NATO, but Niinisto is considered to be more open to membership in the Western alliance, a sensitive issue in a country that shares an 800-mile border with former enemy Russia.
The Finnish head of state is not involved in day-to-day politics, and there is wide agreement on the other main issues, including satisfaction with Finland’s European Union membership since 1995, fostering good ties with Russia and maintaining close cooperation with NATO.
LAKE FOREST, Calif.
Ex-wife’s grandma, 81, allegedly kills man
A man who police said was gunned down by his ex-wife’s grandmother died early Sunday, as investigators worked to piece together a possible motive.
The grandmother, 81-year-old Jeane E. Allen, was booked on suspicion of murder Sunday after Alex L. Reyes died around 1 a.m. PST at Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Department officials.
She shot the 26-year-old in the head and thigh Saturday morning as he attempted to visit his toddler son, who lives with Allen and her granddaughter in Lake Forest, about 75 miles south of Los Angeles, witnesses and officials said.
Sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said investigators don’t know why Allen shot Reyes.
“That’s the big question,” Amormino said.
Allen is being held in lieu of $1 million bail and is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.
According to neighbors, Reyes, who visited his 18- month-old son, Anthony, on Saturdays, was talking on the porch with his ex-wife, Leslie Bieg, 24, and Allen while his parents waited in a car at the curb. The court-appointed observer who normally monitored the visits had not yet arrived, and authorities said they didn’t know why the monitoring had been required.
Witnesses described the conversation as casual with no arguments, Amormino said Saturday. Then Allen pulled a revolver and opened fire, he said.
CARACAS, Venezuela
Sheehan plans new protest at Bush ranch
Cindy Sheehan, the peace activist who has announced that she is weighing a run for the U.S. Senate in California, plans to protest again outside President Bush’s Texas ranch, Venezuela’s president said Sunday with Sheehan by his side.
Hugo Chavez, his arm around Sheehan’s shoulders, told a group of activists that Sheehan had told him that during Holy Week, in April, “she is going to put up her tent again in front of Mr. Danger’s ranch.”
It was the final day of the World Social Forum, a gathering of anti-war and anti-globalization activists.
Sheehan, whose 24-year-old soldier son, Casey, was killed in Iraq in 2004, thanked Chavez for “supporting life and peace” and said she was impressed by his sincerity.
Sheehan, who lives in Berkeley, Calif., said Saturday she is considering challenging Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
VATICAN CITY
Pope’s speech targets poverty, leprosy
Pope Benedict XVI called Sunday for world leaders to unite in the fight against poverty and sent two doves flying into St. Peter’s Square in a symbol of peace, continuing the tradition of his predecessor, John Paul II.
From his studio window overlooking the square, Benedict offered a greeting to those who suffer from leprosy, a disfiguring condition also known as Hansen’s disease that affects hundreds of thousands of people.
Noting that Sunday was World Leprosy Day, the pontiff lauded missionaries, health-care personnel and volunteers working against the scourge.
DOMELI, Pakistan
3 die, 40 injured in train derailment
A Pakistani express train with up to 600 passengers aboard derailed Sunday, killing at least three people and injuring as many as 40.
The diesel train went partly off the tracks, throwing several cars onto their sides and sending one tumbling 100 yards to the bottom of a gorge in a rural area of the eastern province of Punjab.
Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said the cause of the derailment was being probed.
An intelligence official told reporters that the track was damaged before the train passed, causing the accident.
ANNECY, France
Avalanches kill 5 in Alps; 2 others missing
Avalanches swept away skiers and at least one hiker in the French Alps, killing five people over the weekend, police said Sunday. Two hikers were missing near the Mont Blanc tunnel linking France and Italy.
A skier was killed in a snowslide in Val d’Isere, and a group of nine skiers in the neighboring station of Tignes were swept up by an avalanche that killed one of them, a Polish man. The other eight skiers survived.
In the nearby Les Arcs station, the body of a skier who disappeared was found Sunday.
About 30 miles to the northeast, near Chambery, a hiker was slammed into a rock by an avalanche and killed, police said.
In Bernex, south of Lake Geneva, a 30-year-old man was killed in an avalanche.
