In brief: Left-wing Syriza wins vote in Greece

ATHENS, Greece – A jubilant Alexis Tsipras vowed to continue fighting for his country’s pride and to quickly form a coalition government after his left-wing Syriza party comfortably won Greece’s third national vote this year on Sunday.

The result was a resounding success for Tsipras’ high-risk gamble when he resigned as prime minister last month and triggered an early election, barely seven months into his four-year term, in order to face down an internal Syriza rebellion over his policy U-turn to accept painful austerity measures in return for Greece’s third international bailout.

With 66 percent of the vote counted, Syriza stood at 35.4 percent of the vote and 145 seats in the 300-member parliament, followed by the conservative New Democracy with 28.3 percent and the Nazi-inspired Golden Dawn in third place with 7 percent.

Abstention was particularly high, at nearly 45 percent in an election-weary country with a traditionally high voter turnout.

U.N. nuclear chief visits Iran site

VIENNA – The head of the U.N. nuclear agency paid what Iran’s official news agency described as a ceremonial visit Sunday to an Iranian nuclear site that he suspects may have been used to develop explosive triggers for nuclear weapons.

Neither Iranian reports of Yukiya Amano’s visit to the Parchin site nor its confirmation by the U.N’s International Atomic Energy Agency gave substantial details.

But they appeared to jibe with the terms of a draft agreement between Iran and the IAEA, which Amano heads. Seen by the Associated Press, that confidential draft speaks of a visit by Amano not as a participant in any IAEA probe but as a “courtesy” granted by Iran.

Three explosions hit Nigerian state capital

ABUJA, Nigeria – Extremists detonated three explosive devices in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, in Nigeria’s northeast, a military official said Sunday.

Details on casualties were not readily available, said military spokesman Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the initial suspicion has fallen on the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram.