World datelines

Uruguay: Vote runoff

MONTEVIDEO — A blunt-talking former guerrilla seeking to maintain the left's hold on power in Uruguay easily got the most votes in presidential elections Sunday but failed to win the majority needed to avoid a runoff. Jose "Pepe" Mujica got about 48 percent of the votes compared to 30 percent for former president Luis Alberto LaCalle, a free-marketeer who wants to cut government and taxes and reduce alliances with Latin American leftists. Mujica and his vice-presidential candidate, Danilo Astori, conceded that a runoff would be necessary. The second round of voting is set for Nov. 29.

Tunisia: Re-elected

TUNIS — Authorities announced mass participation in Tunisia's presidential and legislative elections Sunday and braced for another triumphant re-election for President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who warned opponents they would face legal retaliation if they questioned the vote's fairness. Ben Ali's Constitutional and Democratic Rally, or RCD, had prepared balloons with the party colors to let out when preliminary results were to be released. Small crowds of supporters with brass bands cheered in the streets of the capital in anticipation of a party victory.

Russia: Activist killed

NAZRAN — A prominent opposition and rights activist in Russia's southern province of Ingushetia was shot dead Sunday in at least the third killing of a human rights defender in the volatile North Caucasus region in just over three months. Maksharip Aushev worked to publicize human rights abuses and organize rallies against Ingushetia's deeply unpopular former president, Murat Zyazikov. Aushev died when several assailants sprayed his vehicle with automatic gunfire from a passing car. Aushev's murder follows the killing in July of Natalya Estemirova, a prominent human rights activist who was found shot in Ingushetia after being kidnapped in Chechnya. And in August, Zarema Sadulayeva, a Chechen woman who helped injured children, and her husband were kidnapped and killed.

Venezuela: 10 slain

CARACAS — Ten men who belonged to the same soccer team were slain execution-style nearly two weeks after being abducted in a crime that Venezuela said Sunday could be the work of warring factions in neighboring Colombia. Venezuelan troops stepped up security patrols in the area near the Colombian border after the bodies of 10 men, most of them Colombians, were found in multiple spots in western Tachira state Saturday, Vice President Ramon Carrizalez said. The victims were among a group of 12 men who authorities say were kidnapped Oct. 11.