Around the world
MEXICO ELECTION: Mexico's ruling party, trying to halt a string of stinging election losses suffered during this year's economic meltdown, took an early but slim lead Monday in the Michoacan governor's race. But exit polls and preliminary results suggested the conservative opposition National Action Party (PAN) was leading in the mayoral races for the state capitals of Puebla, Culiacan and Oaxaca. Support for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has declined since an economic crisis shook Mexico three weeks after President Ernesto Zedillo took office Dec. 1, with pledges to allow full democratic reform.
GUATEMALA VOTE: A power failure darkened Guatemala City and most of the nation early Monday as a reform-minded businessman claimed victory in the third presidential election since 30 years of military rule ended in 1985. Incomplete figures from Sunday's balloting showed a turnout of only about 40 percent, disappointing government officials who had campaigned hard for a larger show of support for this Central American country's 10-year-old experiment in democratic elections. Unless businessman Alvaro Arzu garners an absolute majority - 51 percent of Sunday's vote - he will face the second-place finisher in a Jan. 7 runoff.
YELTSIN: Russian President Boris Yeltsin has significantly increased his workload, meeting with several key officials Monday at the hospital where he is recuperating from a heart ailment, an aide said. The Kremlin has released few details of Yeltsin's ailment. But earlier this month, the 64-year-old president began receiving officials and issuing orders from his hospital bed.
Across the nation
LANDING: Elvira Mahony started praying as the American Airlines jet, battling dangerous winds and engine problems, clipped a row of trees and an airport antenna during an emergency landing. "I thought, `Whatever God wanted.' I put my life in his hands," Mahony, 36, said after the landing early Sunday at Windsor Locks, Conn. Some of the 72 passengers on Flight 1572 from Chicago said they heard an explosion just before landing, and the cabin started to fill with smoke. They slid down chutes to evacuate and only one passenger suffered a minor injury. The Federal Aviation Administration said the pilot of the MD-80 jet declared an emergency just before landing at Bradley International Airport at 12:57 a.m.
FARE INCREASE: New York commuters shelled out 20 percent more for their ride to work Monday on the first workday with new bus and subway fares. "I'm not too happy," said Brian Bello, an insurance worker, as he waited, seventh in line, to buy the new $1.50 tokens at a subway station in Manhattan. But at least his line was relatively short. And the 25-cent increase still faces a legal challenge.
DISMAY: Mike Wallace told viewers of his CBS news show in a "personal note" that he was dismayed at restraints his network imposed on his reporting on the tobacco industry. He and his "60 Minutes" colleagues "were dismayed that the management at CBS had seen fit to give in to perceived threats of legal action," Wallace said Sunday.
ACCIDENT: A man showing his girlfriend the sawed-off shotgun in his pants accidentally shot himself in the genitals, police said. Police called to the scene in Bridgeport, Conn., found Kevin Hall lying on a street corner clutching his groin. His pants, which had a large hole, were still smoking. Hall, 18, told police he had been hit in a drive-by shooting, but his girlfriend said he had been showing her the gun when it went off. Hall was treated at a hospital. Police then arrested him on several charges, including possession of a sawed-off shotgun.
Other news
A MAN went to his girlfriend's apartment in Lowell, Mass., and shot her four children, stabbing one boy with a machete as well, authorities said. All four were in critical condition. . . . A JAPANESE tourist is missing in Kashmir, the disputed northern Indian region where militants are holding four Westerners hostage, the Japanese Embassy said Monday. . . . ISRAELI WARPLANES screaming in from the Mediterranean pounded radical Palestinian guerrilla targets in hills south of Beirut Monday, security sources and witnesses said.