NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Globe
1Sierra _ Leone election: Voters chose Saturday between an incumbent president, Ernest Bai Koroma, and eight challengers to lead the war-scarred nation. Koroma’s APC party is expected to draw strong support in the north and in the capital of Freetown, but it’s unclear whether he can garner the 55 percent of ballots needed to win outright and avert a runoff. The leading opposition figure, Julius Maada Bio, is a retired brigadier general. Official results are expected Monday. 2Same- _ sex marriage: Groups opposing President François Hollande’s plan to legalize same-sex marriage and adoption protested across France on Saturday. Several thousand people marched in Paris, while demonstrations also took place in Toulouse and Lyon. A recent survey found that most French favor same-sex marriage, while support for adoption by gay couples hovers at around 50 percent.
3Flooding: _ Spain’s meteorological agency placed the southern region bordering the Mediterranean on alert because of torrential rain that has submerged the downtown area of the region’s capital city. Malaga, on the Costa del Sol, received almost 5 inches of rain from midnight to midday Saturday, the agency said. Torrents of water flooded the city’s main shopping quarter.
4Congo _ fighting: U.N. attack helicopters fired on M23 rebels in eastern Congo on Saturday after fighting resumed from a monthslong lull in violence, a local official said. Two army officers and 151 rebels were killed in a battle beginning Thursday that the United Nations called the worst clash between the M23 group and the military since July. Reports by U.N. experts have accused Rwanda and Uganda of supporting the rebels, but both countries deny any involvement.
5Japan _ politics: Outspoken leaders from Japan’s two biggest cities formed a national political party Saturday, seeking to become a third force to lure undecided voters and challenge the country’s main parties. Nationalist Shintaro Ishihara, who resigned as Tokyo governor, said he is joining the Japan Restoration Party formed in September by the young and brash mayor of Osaka, Tôru Hashimoto. The announcement came the day after Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda dissolved the lower house of parliament, paving the way elections next month.
6Massacre _ remembered: Veterans from opposite sides of the brutal Balkan wars of the 1990s paid their respects Saturday to the victims of the worst massacre in Europe since World War II. The former fighters from Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia laid flowers at the memorial dedicated to more than 8,000 Muslim Bosnian men and boys who were executed in 1995 by Serb forces in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica.
7Hindu _ leader dies: Bal Thackeray, a Hindu extremist leader linked to waves of mob violence against Muslims and migrant workers in India, died Saturday after an illness of several weeks. Thackeray, 86, formed Shiv Sena — which means Shiva’s Army — in 1966 in Maharashtra. The party’s main aim has been to keep people who are not from Maharashtra out of the state and stem the spread of Islam and western values. Thackeray’s Sena is among the most xenophobic of India’s Hindu right-wing political parties and held power in Mumbai from 1995 to 2000. His supporters often called him Hindu Hriday Samrat, or emperor of Hindu hearts.