World datelines

Kyrgyzstan: Election win

BISHKEK — Election officials in Kyrgyzstan said early Friday that partial results from the presidential election give incumbent Kurmanbek Bakiyev an overwhelming lead of around 90 percent of votes counted.

The Central Election Commission released the results based on returns from 587 of the 2,330 polling districts, around 25 percent of votes cast in this mountainous Central Asian nation. The main opposition candidate, Almazbek Atambayev, has dismissed Thursday's election as fraudulent and called for a rerun.

Argentina: Nuclear worry

BUENOS AIRES — If Iran develops nuclear capabilities, it will start an arms race in the Middle East that would threaten the world, Israel's foreign minister said Thursday.

Avigdor Lieberman said at the start of his four-day trip to Argentina that "Iran is the biggest sponsor of world terror organizations such as Hamas, (Islamic) Jihad and Hezbollah. If Iran would achieve nuclear capacity, we'll see a crazy nuclear-armed race in our region that will be a threat not only to Israel but to the rest of the world."

Iran: Brother arrested

TEHRAN — The wife of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said Thursday that her 62-year-old brother is among the hundreds arrested in Iran's postelection crackdown, as Mousavi warned that the country is becoming "more militarized" amid the turmoil.

Mousavi implicitly accused the security forces of exceeding their powers under Iran's constitution, suggesting that the "near-coup d'etat atmosphere" was a danger to Iran's Islamic Republic.

Italy: Berlusconi scandal

ROME — An Italian magazine released more tapes Thursday of purported conversations between Silvio Berlusconi and a high-class prostitute, keeping up the pressure in the sex scandal engulfing the Italian premier.

L'Espresso, a leftist news weekly, has been releasing the recordings of the alleged conversations between Berlusconi and the escort over several days in an apparent effort to embarrass the conservative premier. Berlusconi's lawyer disputed the authenticity of the tapes when the first batch came out.

Mauritania: Final results

NOUAKCHOTT — The man who led last year's coup in Mauritania has officially won the presidency in weekend elections, the Constitutional Court said late Thursday — just hours after the head of the election commission resigned over doubts about the ballot.