- Mozambique elects new president in tense vote
- The US economy is solid: Why are voters gloomy?
- Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine
- New stadium gives Real Madrid a headache
- Alonso, Manaea shine as 'Miracle Mets' blitz Phillies
- Harris, Trump trade blows in US election media blitz
- Harry's Bar in Paris drinks to US straw-poll centenary
- Osama bin Laden's son Omar banned from returning to France
- Afghan man arrested for plotting US election day attack
- Brazil lifts ban on Musk's X, ending standoff over disinformation
- Harris holds slight edge nationally over Trump: poll
- Chelsea edge Real Madrid in Women's Champions League, Lyon win
- Japan PM to dissolve parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- 'Diego Lives': Immersive Maradona exhibit hits Barcelona
- Brazil Supreme Court lifts ban on Musk's X
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
- Six-year-old girl among missing after Brazil landslide
- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Mexico president rules out new 'war on drugs'
- Israeli defense minister postpones trip to Washington: Pentagon
- Europe skipper Donald in talks with Garcia over Ryder return
- Kenya MPs vote to impeach deputy president in historic move
- Former US coach Berhalter named Chicago Fire head coach
- New York Jets fire head coach Saleh: team
- Australia crush New Zealand in Women's T20 World Cup
- US states accuse TikTok of harming young users
- 'Evacuate now, now, now': Florida braces for next hurricane
- US Supreme Court skeptical of challenge to 'ghost guns' regulation
- Sparks fly as Orban berates EU 'elites' in parliament trip
- US finalizes rule to remove lead pipes within a decade
- Solanke hungry for second England cap after seven-year wait
- Gilded canopy restored at Vatican basilica
- Zverev scrapes through, Djokovic cruises to Shanghai Masters last 16
- Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Putin: Bob Woodward book
- Gauff answers critics: 'It's hard to win all the time'
- Neural networks, machine learning? Nobel-winning AI science explained
- China says raised 'serious concerns' with US over trade curbs
- Boeing delivers 27 MAX jets in September despite strike
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of other sex crimes
- Italy seek Nations League consistency as Germany continue rebuild
- From boom to budgeting as reality bites for Saudi football
- Stock markets diverge as Hong Kong sinks, oil prices fall
- US trade gap narrowest in five months as imports slip
- Stay and 'you are going to die': Florida braces for next hurricane
- England 96-1 after Salman's century lifts Pakistan to 556
- Hollywood star Idris Elba champions African cinema in Ghana
- Djokovic rolls Cobolli to make Shanghai Masters last 16
- Milan's Hernandez receives two-game suspension after referee rant
- Geoffrey Hinton, soft-spoken godfather of AI
- Ex-Barcelona and Spain great Iniesta retires aged 40
Son of Colombian paramilitary chief elected to special seat for victims of conflict
Colombian officials said Monday that the son of a notorious paramilitary leader has won an election to be a special member of Congress representing victims of the conflict.
On Sunday, Columbia held elections for both the Senate and its lower House of Representatives in which the left finished ahead.
For the first time, victims of the conflict between the government and the ex-guerilla FARC group -- who signed a peace deal in 2016 -- will have their own representatives in Congress.
For the next two legislatures, until 2030, 16 seats will be reserved specifically for victims in the regions most impacted by the conflict.
Those regions in northern Colombia have seen a rise in violence recently, as armed groups battle for control of prized narcotrafficking corridors.
Jorge Tovar, the son of the former paramilitary chief known as "Jorge 40," has been elected to one of those seats.
The lawyer-by-training celebrated his victory on Twitter: "The moment has come to change history."
His father was the leader of a right-wing paramilitary group known as the Northern Block, which wreaked havoc in the 1990s in its battle against left-wing guerillas.
He returned to Bogota in 2020 after serving a prison sentence in the United States for drug trafficking.
While currently living freely, he still faces dozens of lawsuits for massacres and forced displacement.
His son's election drew sharp criticism, especially from victims' organizations such as the Movement of Victims of State-Sponsored Crimes, which alleged "corruption and paramilitarism have taken over" the region, and echoed allegations of vote-buying.
"The son of Jorge 40 is now the representative of the victims left by his father," said leftist Senator Gustavo Bolivar.
Sunday's legislative elections also marked a new setback for the Comunes (Commons) party, which was formed by the former Marxist guerrilla group FARC.
The 2016 peace agreement guarantees the party 10 seats until 2026 regardless of its vote total, but it only received 50,000 votes on Sunday, 35,000 fewer than in 2018.
"The numbers in the legislative elections were not what we expected. As a party, we will make the corresponding analyses," said the far-left party.
B.Finley--AMWN