Opposition wins election in Sweden
A center-right opposition vowing to revamp Sweden’s famed welfare state ousted the Social Democratic government in a close parliamentary election Sunday.
Social Democratic Prime Minister Goran Persson, who had governed for 10 years, conceded defeat and said his government would resign after the party’s worst election showing in decades.
With 99 percent of districts counted, the four-party opposition alliance led by Fredrik Reinfeldt had 48 percent of the votes, compared to 46.2 percent for the Social Democrats and their two allied parties.
Persson said Sweden’s social model – a market economy blended with a high-tax welfare state – was at stake in the election. But the opposition led by Reinfeldt’s Moderate Party insisted it would not dismantle the system but help it survive by promoting jobs over welfare handouts.
TOKYO
Major typhoon targets Japan
A strong typhoon swept toward southwestern Japan with fierce winds and heavy rains Sunday, leaving at least five people dead or missing and injuring more than 100.
More than 300 flights were grounded, cars were blown over and strong winds were suspected in an express train derailment that injured five people, local media reported.
Although Typhoon Shanshan had weakened overnight, it was still lashing the region with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph. It was forecast to continue churning northeast toward Japan’s southwestern island of Kyushu, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said.
NANTES, France
WW II ordnance forces flight
About 20,000 residents of Nantes, one of the largest cities on France’s Atlantic coast, were evacuated from their homes Sunday while experts defused an unexploded Allied bomb from World War II.
The 550-pound bomb was discovered during construction at a medical school in the center of Nantes. It was successfully defused and taken by truck to a military base, where it was to be fully neutralized.
NABANGA, Sudan
Rebel keeps truce on track
Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony has turned up at a neutral camp in southern Sudan as part of a truce to end 19 years of conflict in the east African nation, a rebel official said Sunday.
Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, arrived at Ri-Kwangba camp, 550 yards north of the border with Congo, said Martin Ojul, the head of the rebel team negotiating a peace deal with the Ugandan government.
Under the truce, the rebels should gather at two points in southern Sudan by Tuesday.
Compiled from wire reports