Chile elects first female president; analysts see big change for region

Jack Chang,… Chile elects first female president; analysts see big change for region

Jack Chang, Knight Ridder Newspapers

SANTIAGO, Chile – Voters in this booming Andean country elected their first woman president, Michelle Bachelet, in a Sunday run-off victory that added to a rising wave of women leaders in Latin America.

The 54-year-old physician, who served as health and then defense minister under popular outgoing President Ricardo Lagos, won 53.51 percent of votes, based on results from 97.52 percent of voting sites.

Billionaire businessman Sebastian Pinera won 46.48 percent of votes and conceded defeat early Sunday night.

Speaking to thousands of people who filled the Alameda, Santiago’s main street, Bachelet thanked Chileans for making history Sunday night and promised to use her mandate to usher in “a new style of government” marked by a “new relationship between the representatives and the represented.”

Israel OKs voting in East Jerusalem, arrests Hamas candidates

Dion Nissenbaum, Knight Ridder Newspapers

JERUSALEM – The Israeli government gave the green light on Sunday for Palestinians in East Jerusalem to vote in next week’s legislative elections, but then arrested four candidates from the Islamic group Hamas hours later.

The actions underscored the delicate balance Israel is trying to find in allowing Palestinians to hold a free and fair election without providing support to Hamas, a militant group that seeks Israel’s destruction.

Early Sunday, the Israeli Cabinet approved a proposal by acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that will allow Palestinians in East Jerusalem to cast ballots.

Voting in East Jerusalem has been a delicate issue. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made voting in the city a prerequisite for holding the Jan. 25 election as scheduled. Israel, which annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 war and has declared the entire city its unified capital, didn’t want to sanction anything that would undercut that disputed claim.

By allowing what is essentially absentee voting, Israel is following a model used in previous Palestinian elections. The Cabinet has refused to allow Hamas politicians to campaign in East Jerusalem.

Stardust capsule lands with comet dust sample

Glennda Chui, Knight Ridder Newspapers

SAN JOSE, Calif. – After an epic journey of 2.9 billion miles, the Stardust capsule landed in the Utah desert Sunday morning with a thimbleful of comet dust – the first samples from a comet ever brought back to Earth.

Researchers on a NASA DC-8 research plane whooped with delight as the capsule appeared at 1:57 a.m., midway between Mars and the constellation Pleiades. It flared into a brilliant white fireball that turned reddish-gold and sprouted a long, thin tail of glowing vapor.

“Isn’t it gorgeous?” said Peter Jenniskens, a meteor expert with the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence Institute in Mountain View, Calif., and lead scientist for the airborne mission. “It’s a meteor – a man-made meteor.”

The capsule streaked into the atmosphere at nearly 29,000 mph, faster than any human-made object before it, and was expected to reach nearly 5,600 degrees Fahrenheit – about 25 times as much heat as the space shuttle endures.

California State University bans alcohol at games

Becky Bartindale, Knight Ridder Newspapers

Drinking beer at Spartan football games is now a thing of the past under a California State University decision to ban alcohol sales at college athletic events at its 23 campuses.

A CSU spokeswoman estimated about a half-dozen of the system’s 23 campuses – including San Jose State – had been selling alcohol at games in the past year.

Alcoholic beverages have traditionally been sold to adults over 21 at Spartan Stadium, where the football team plays home games. But under the new rule, it can no longer be sold there, said University spokeswoman Nancy Stake. Stake said she had no information about alcohol sales at basketball games, which are played at the campus Event Center.

The baseball team plays a majority of its home games at San Jose Municipal Stadium, and beer apparently will continue to be sold there because the facility is not owned or operated by the University.