November 29, 1995
Web posted at: 3:45 p.m. EST (2045 GMT)
CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- Voting irregularities and violence were reported Wednesday as Egyptians began voting for a new parliament. Opposition representatives could not enter some polling stations, police have arrested hundreds of Islamist campaigners and some ballot boxes were not empty when voting started, the opposition said. One journalist also reported seeing children of 16, two years below voting age, casting ballots. At least one person was killed in election-related violence.
The opposition claimed the government of President Hosni
Mubarak has engaged in a campaign of arrests and vote-rigging
against its chief challenger, the Muslim Brotherhood. Nearly
4,000 candidates, mostly independents but including hundreds
from the opposition parties that boycotted the last elections
in 1990, are competing for 444 parliamentary seats.
MINSK, Belarus (CNN) -- Six months after apathetic voters failed to elect enough legislators to open parliament in the former Soviet republic of Belarus, turnout again was low on Wednesday as a second round of elections was held. President Alexander Lukashenko said he would rule by decree if voters do not finish electing parliament. About 860 candidates representing more than 30 political parties are running for the 141 remaining parliamentary seats. At least 50 percent of voters must cast ballots to make an election official.
Belarus, a nation of 10.4 million people on Russia's western border, has reluctantly welcomed independence since the collapse of the Soviet Union. According to election pollsters, the Communists are in the lead, trailed by the nationalist Belarussian Popular Front; the Agrarian party, made up of state farm directors; and the moderate Social-Democratic Union.
SRINAGAR, India (CNN) - Separatist guerrillas have again sought medical help for four Western hostages in Kashmir, and two of the captive tourists, including an American, may be seriously ill, an Indian official said Wednesday. American Donald Hutchings from Spokane, Washington, German Dirk Hasert and Britons Keith Mangan and Paul Wells were kidnapped by Al-Faran militants in early July while on a hiking holiday. A fifth hostage, Norwegian Hans Christian Ostroe, was beheaded in August. "We have reports that Hutchings and Wells are seriously ill, and Mangan and Hasert are suffering from fever," said the official, who asked not to be identified.
The Westerners are known to have suffered stomach and eye
ailments, and Hutchings is believed to have frostbitten feet.
Al-Faran have sought medical aid for the captives at least
twice before during the nearly five-month-old ordeal,
officials said. Al-Faran, a shadowy outfit unknown before
the kidnappings, has demanded the release of 15 jailed
separatists, including three Pakistanis from the
Harkat-ul-Ansar militant group. India has refused to bow to
the militants' demands and ruled out a rescue raid for fear
of harming the hostages. More than 12,000 people have died
in Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, since 1989 in
violence linked to the anti-Indian rebellion.
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