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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: Hungary premier wins third term

From Wire Reports

BUDAPEST, Hungary – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party won parliamentary elections Sunday and narrowly secured a new two-thirds majority, but gains by a far-right party were a cause for concern.

With over 98 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Office said Fidesz had won 133 seats in the 199-seat legislature. Fidesz, a right-wing populist party, and its small ally, the Christian Democrats, received 44.5 percent of the list votes, good for 37 seats, and also won 96 of the 106 individual constituencies.

“Every doubt and uncertainty has dissipated. We have won,” Orban told supporters after securing a third term. “Hungary again is a place where it is worth living, working and starting a family. We have declared that we are not turning back.”

A coalition of left-wing groups led by the Socialist Party was projected to have 38 seats on the back of 26 percent of the list votes, plus the 10 remaining individual constituencies.

Attacks across Iraq kill at least 15

BAGHDAD – Gunmen near Iraq’s capital kidnapped and later shot to death six men, the deadliest of a series of attacks Sunday that killed at least 15 people across the country, authorities said.

The gunmen broke into the homes at dawn Sunday in the town of Latifiyah, a mainly Sunni town 20 miles south of Baghdad, a police officer said. Authorities later found the bodies, all with gunshot wounds to the head, in remote, rural farmland near the capital, the officer said.

No one immediately claimed the slayings and the motive behind the killing was unclear. Shiite militiamen could be seeking revenge for the ongoing Sunni insurgent attacks against Shiite neighborhoods. Militants with al-Qaida’s local branch target Sunnis in attacks as well or it also could be a personal vendetta.

Elsewhere on Sunday, a suicide bomber rammed a fuel tanker into a police headquarters in the northern city of Tikrit, killing three police officers and wounding 13, another officer said.