In the News

WORLD

MANAGUA, Nicaragua – Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, a former Marxist revolutionary who fought off a U.S.-backed insurgency in the 1980s, won back the Nicaraguan presidency Tuesday and promised to work to eliminate poverty and reassure investors.

After near-complete results showed Ortega with a 9-percentage point lead, chief rival Eduardo Montealegre conceded defeat.

Ortega said he would fight poverty, encourage investment in Nicaragua and “create a new political culture” that would “set aside our differences and put the Nicaraguan people, the poor, first.”

With 91 percent of the votes tallied, Ortega had 38 percent of the votes from Sunday’s election compared to 29 percent for Montealegre. Under Nicaraguan law, the winner of Sunday’s election must have 35 percent of the vote and a 5 percentage-point lead to avoid a runoff.

The former Marxist revolutionary spent most of the 1980s fighting a U.S.-backed Contra insurgency. He lost the presidency in the 1990 election, ending Sandinista rule and years of civil war. He’s spent the past 16 years trying to get his old job back.

The United States, which had warned against an Ortega win, has declined to comment on the results.

NATION

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stepped down as Secretary of Defense on Wednesday, one day after midterm elections in which opposition to the war in Iraq contributed to heavy Republican losses.

President Bush said he would nominate Robert Gates, a former CIA director, to replace Rumsfeld at the Pentagon.

Bush lavished praise on Rumsfeld, who has spent six stormy years at his post. The president disclosed he met with Gates last Sunday, two days before the elections in which Democrats swept control of the House and possibly the Senate.

Last week, as he campaigned to save the Republican majority, Bush declared that Rumsfeld would remain at the Pentagon through the end of his term.

Rumsfeld, 74, was in his second tour of duty as defense chief. He first held the job a generation ago, when he was appointed by President Ford.

The Pentagon offered no date for Rumsfeld’s departure.

STATE & LOCAL

RICHMOND – The FBI said Tuesday that it is looking into complaints that callers tried to intimidate or confuse Virginia voters in the hard-fought race between GOP Sen. George Allen and Democratic challenger Jim Webb.

State Board of Elections Secretary Jean Jensen said her office had forwarded several reports to the FBI of voters receiving phone calls intended to discourage them from voting or directing them to the wrong polling place.

Voters in several cities and counties across the state reported getting deceptive telephone calls in the days before the election informing them falsely that their voting places had changed, Jensen said.

According to a sworn statement filed with the Board of Elections, a man said he got a phone message from the “Virginia Elections Commission” telling him that he was registered to vote in New York and would be “charged criminally” if he voted in Virginia.

Another man said in an affidavit that he got a call from a woman claiming to be helping Webb. He said the woman gave him an incorrect polling place address after he told her he planned to vote for Webb.