NEWS OF THE DAY

1 _ Belarus protests: Police in the capital of Minsk detained dozens of demonstrators Saturday as medical workers and women held separate marches to denounce violence against antigovernment demonstrators and to call on the country’s authoritarian leader to step down. President Alexander Lukashenko reiterated that he would not give in to the threemonthlong wave of daily protests spurred by his disputed election to a sixth term. Doctors and medical workers marched holding photographs of people injured by police rubber bullets, stun grenades and water cannons during previous demonstrations. Hundreds of people also took part in the separate women’s protest. Human rights organization Viasna said at least 47 people were detained.

2 _ Brazil outage: A fire at an electricity substation has caused days of blackouts in most of northern Brazil’s Amapa state, disrupting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The outage began Tuesday when a fire damaged a transformer, interrupting the power supply to 13 of the state’s 16 municipalities, including the capital Macapa, the state government said. A senior official said full restoration of power may take as long as 10 days. Brazil’s government has opened an investigation.

3 _ Egypt election: Egyptians began voting Saturday in the second and final stage of the country’s parliamentary elections, after a relatively low turnout in the first round that embarrassed the government of President AbdelFattah elSissi. Critics say the 596seat legislature will largely resemble the previous one, which was little more than a rubber stamp for the president’s policies, leaving the former military general with almost unchecked powers. 4 _ Ivory Coast tensions: Authorities arrested opposition leader Pascal Affi N’Guessan as part of a growing crackdown on those who challenged the president’s recent reelection to a third term. N’Guessan was arrested in the city of Akoupe, according to a statement Saturday from his party, the Ivorian Popular Front. The arrest comes after authorities detained a topranking official from another opposition party, Maurice Kakou Guikahue. The opposition has referred to President Alassane Ouattara’s reelection as an “electoral coup d’etat.” It tried to challenge the legality of his candidacy before the Oct. 31 vote, maintaining the president had already served two terms in power. Ouattara maintained he could run again because of a constitutional referendum in 2016. Opposition leaders boycotted the vote and said shortly afterward they considered Ouattara’s mandate to be finished. The government called the declaration “an act of sedition.” Public prosecutor Adou Richard said N’Guessan would be prosecuted on charges of terrorism and attacking state authority.

5 _ Storm toll: Searchers in Guatemala dug through mud and debris looking for an estimated 100 people believed buried by a landslide, as Tropical Storm Eta gained strength Saturday and churned toward Cuba and Florida. Eta struck Nicaragua on Tuesday as a Category 4 hurricane before weakening and heading back to sea. Authorities from Panama to Mexico are still surveying the damage from flooding and landslides following days of torrential rains. The death toll was in the dozens. Tropical storm warnings were issued for central Cuba, southern Florida and the Florida Keys. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency Saturday for eight counties. The storm could near the state by late Sunday or Monday.