In brief: Banned party victor in Tunisia

Tunis, Tunisia – Tunisia’s moderate Islamist party Ennahda, banned for decades, emerged the official victor in the nation’s first free elections, taking 41.47 percent of the vote and 90 of 217 seats in an assembly that will write a new constitution, the electoral commission announced Thursday.

The announcement of final results in Sunday’s landmark voting capped an ebullient period for this small North African country, which inspired the Arab Spring as it moves toward democracy after more than a half-century under one-party systems.

However, protests linked to the party placing fourth in Sunday’s voting erupted in and around Sidi Bouzid, the town where the uprising that drove this North African nation’s strongman from power. The leader of Areedha Chaabiya, or Popular Petition party, Hachemi Hamdi, announced on national television that he was withdrawing the 19 seats his party won after the electoral commission invalidated six of its lists.

Boy found alive days after quake

Ercis, Turkey – Rescuers, working under floodlights, pulled a 13-year-old boy alive from the rubble of a collapsed apartment building early today, more than 100 hours after a massive earthquake leveled many buildings in eastern Turkey, killing at least 550 people.

A picture by the state-run Anatolia news agency showed a rescue team carrying, Ferhat Tokay, out of the debris, wearing a neck brace. In other pictures from a field hospital, he appeared conscious and looking at his rescuers.

Tokay’s rescue came 108 hours after Sunday’s 7.2-magnitude earthquake, the agency said.

The agency said the boy was injured but did not give further details.