Elections update

The latest: Thousands of Kenyans enraged over delays in announcing the country's next president burned down homes and attacked political rivals with sticks and machetes Saturday, tainting a vote that initially was praised by international observers as a beacon of hope for democracy in Africa. In early results, challenger Raila Odinga had led President Mwai Kibaki by several hundred thousand votes, but by late Saturday, Odinga's lead had dwindled.

The scene: Columns of black smoke boiled up from the slums ringing Nairobi, the capital, as supporters of Odinga poured into the streets to protest what they said was a government plot to steal the election. Also in Nairobi, hundreds of Odinga supporters marching on the electoral commission were beaten back by police using tear gas. Three people were shot dead during protests in Migori, and violence also was reported in Kisumu, Mombasa and other towns.

The count: By late Saturday, the electoral commission put Odinga ahead of Kibaki by 38,000 votes, with 191 of 210 constituencies counted.

The history: Kenya's last presidential election, in 2002, was seen by analysts as its first real democratic vote. If Kibaki loses, it would be the first time an incumbent president has been voted out in Kenya, and one of only a few cases in sub-Saharan Africa.

The candidates: In the past five years, Kibaki has delivered economic stability, free primary education and 5 percent growth on average, but opponents say he has failed to fight corruption. Odinga, a businessman who styles himself as the champion of the poor, has promised to distribute wealth more equally.

The latest: Chinese officials announced Saturday that Hong Kong would have to wait at least another decade for democratic elections to select its leader and for more than 12 years to have the right to directly elect the entire Legislature.

What does it mean? The decision is the latest in a series of setbacks for the democracy aspirations of Hong Kong residents and another sign that Beijing's current leaders have scant appetite for experimenting with greater public participation in political decisionmaking.

The background: Presently, only half of the 60-seat Legislature is elected, and the territory's top leader, or chief executive, is chosen by an 800-strong committee full of Beijing loyalists. The Basic Law, the mini-constitution imposed by China on Hong Kong after Britain returned the city to Chinese rule in 1997, raises the prospect of choosing Hong Kong leaders starting in 2007 by the principle of one person, one vote. In 2004, universal suffrage was postponed until at least 2012, and Saturday's actions have added at least five years after that.

The reaction: Hundreds of people marched through central Hong Kong in protest, saying they had been cheated out of their right to full democracy. "We are extremely disappointed -- you could say we are furious -- about this decision in ruling out 2012," Democrat Party chairman Albert Ho told Hong Kong government-run RTHK radio station. "The wishes of the Hong Kong people have been totally ignored."

The latest: A mission to retrieve three rebel-held hostages from Colombia's jungles was on standby Saturday, with observers from eight countries waiting for the guerrillas to give Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez the exact location in a France-size section of Colombia's eastern jungle where the hostages were to be fetched.

The operation: Colombia's U.S.-allied government agreed to allow the helicopters into its territory to pick up former Congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez, hostage Clara Rojas and her young son, Emmanuel, the result of a relationship with a guerrilla father. The women have been held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, for about six years.

The surreal factor: Filmmaker Oliver Stone joined Chavez, wearing the red beret from his paratrooper days, as he dispatched two helicopters to the central Colombian city of Villavicencio, where they're now idled awaiting GPS coordinates from the rebels. Stone, an admirer of Chavez, said he plans to accompany the mission. "It's wonderful. I've never been in such a thing," he said Friday.

The background: The FARC rebels announced this month they would release the three hostages to Chavez in appreciation of his attempts to broker a wider swap of 44 hostages -- including three U.S. defense contractors and former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt -- for hundreds of jailed rebels.

NEWS SERVICES