World in brief

Egypt tries to save Arab talks

TUNIS, Tunisia - Egypt offered Sunday to host a summit of Arab leaders, trying to resurrect a meeting that collapsed because of deep divisions over how to bring more democracy to the Middle East and tackle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Arab League leaders had planned to use the summit, which was slated to start today, to submit proposals for political reforms in response to U.S. calls for greater freedoms in the region. But Israel's March 22 assassination of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin provoked widespread outrage in the Arab world, making it politically risky for some states to pursue a peace initiative or take a stand on a reform plan championed by the Americans.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - A whirling storm battered the coast of southern Brazil on Sunday, killing two people, injuring at least 39 others and destroying hundreds of homes, civil defense officials said Sunday.

American meteorologists said winds exceeded 74 mph, making the storm the first hurricane on record in the South Atlantic. Brazilian scientists originally disagreed, but on Sunday they said the winds could have been as high as 94 mph - well above hurricane strength.

FRANCE: President Jacques Chirac and his ruling conservative party suffered a crushing defeat in regional midterm elections Sunday, with the opposition Socialists, and their Green and Communist allies seizing control of the vast majority of regional councils. The results marked a sharp rebuke for the government's attempts to reform France's costly health care, pension and education systems. Results being tallied Sunday night showed the Socialists and their allies taking control of at least 21 of 26 regional governments. Nationally, the Socialists and their allies were winning almost 50 percent of the vote, compared with 37 percent for the government and about 13 percent for the anti-immigration National Front party.

AFGHANISTAN: President Hamid Karzai postponed the first post-Taliban national elections by three months Sunday, heeding U.N. warnings that neither security nor logistics were in place for a quicker vote.

GEORGIA: Voters appeared to hand a landslide victory in parliamentary elections Sunday to parties allied with recently inaugurated President Mikheil Saakashvili, according to exit polls.

TURKEY: The governing Justice and Development Party won a sweeping victory in local elections on Sunday.

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