Paris - Lille Mayor Martine Aubry was on Tuesday officially named the new head of the French Socialist Party after a bitter election that badly split the party.
The party's national council officially named the 58-year-old Aubry the first-ever female party head after a party commission investigating claims of election irregularities had determined that she won Friday's election over former presidential candidate Segolene Royal by 102 votes out of nearly 135,000 cast.
Originally Aubry had been credited with a winning margin of only 42 votes, or 0.04 per cent. The closeness of the contest and reports of irregularities in several voting districts, including in Lille, had moved Royal supporters to charge that the election had been stolen.
Baghdad - Two Iraqi lawmakers made a final call on fellow MPs Tuesday to vote for the US security pact that would allow US forces to remain another three years - while Sunni opponents threatened to boycott the vote.
New York - Half of Zimbabwe's 12 million people would require food assistance and some households have already cut back on the number of meals a day, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday.
New York - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon ordered Tuesday an accelerated reconfiguration of the organization's mission in Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia earlier this year and is now recognized by more than 40 countries.
Paris - A French Socialist Party commission charged with investigating claims of election irregularities has determined that former presidential candidate Segolene Royal has lost the race to become party leader.
Amman - Most Middle East stock markets rebounded on Tuesday, propelled by a US plan to rescue the Citigroup conglomerate, a 30- billion-dollar British stimulus plan and improving oil prices, financial analysts said.
