World in brief

Mexican vote deals a setback to Fox

MEXICO CITY - Final vote counts Thursday in congressional elections confirmed setbacks for President Vicente Fox and showed that, against all odds, Mexico's former ruling party is very much alive three years after Fox ended its 71-year grip on power.

Sunday's election strengthened the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party's position as power broker in Mexico's lower house of Congress, and party leaders immediately signaled their willingness to negotiate with Fox's party to pass long-delayed reforms.

"The Mexican people have told the government and political parties to buckle down and get to work," said Carlos Jimenez of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, also known as the PRI. "We have to translate this vote of confidence into action, and pass the reforms this country needs."

It was unclear how many seats each party had, but a quick count shortly after the vote found gains for the PRI and losses for Fox's conservative National Action.

Three-hundred of Congress' 500 seats are directly elected, and electoral officials said Thursday that 163 of those seats would go to the former ruling party. National Action received 79 spots and the leftist Democratic Revolution Party had 56.

There were no results in two congressional races, which were being contested.

The final 200 seats - assigned to at-large candidates depending on the support their party received in the elections - were expected to be announced Sunday.

VATICAN CITY - Donations from the United States to the Vatican increased last year despite fears that the sex abuse scandal rocking the American church would lead to a cutback in contributions, Vatican officials said Thursday.

Worldwide contributions - from dioceses, institutions and individuals - more than doubled from the previous year, with the United States the No. 1 source, said Cardinal Sergio Sebastiani, the Vatican's economic chief.

Vatican officials elaborated on the annual financial report released Wednesday that listed a deficit, about $15-million, for the second straight year.

AMERICAN HURT IN BULL RUN: Bulls gored three Spaniards and cut or bruised at least 10 other people, including an American teenager, on the fourth day of Pamplona's San Fermin Fiesta. None of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.

WOMAN SWALLOWS COACKROACH, THEN FORK: An Israeli woman swallowed a cockroach and then a fork she used to try to remove the insect from her throat.

Dr. Nikola Adid, a surgeon at the Poria Hospital in Tiberias, removed the fork with laparoscopic surgery. The woman was recovering well.

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