Monday, December 16, 2013
Bachelet regains Chile presidency
SANTIAGO, Chile
Chile’s once and future leader Michelle Bachelet easily won Sunday’s presidential runoff, returning center-left parties to power by promising profound social changes in response to years of street protests.
Bachelet won 62 percent of the vote, the most-decisive victory in eight decades of Chilean elections. Her conservative rival, Evelyn Matthei got only 37 percent of the vote and conceded defeat in the worst performance for the right in two decades.
Bachelet, a 62-year-old pediatrician, ended her 2006-10 presidency with 84 percent approval ratings despite failing to achieve any major changes.
Joan Fontaine dies at age 96
CARMEL, Calif.
Oscar-winning actress Joan Fontaine has died at age 96.
Longtime friend Noel Beutel says she died in her sleep in her Carmel home Sunday morning.
Fontaine won an Academy Award as a naive wife in Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller “Suspicion” and also starred in Hitchcock’s “Rebecca,” which won the Oscar for best picture. Her other films included “The Women,” ‘’Jane Eyre” and “Born to be Bad.”
Fontaine was the sister of fellow actress Olivia de Havilland.
Israeli soldier killed
JERUSALEM
An Israeli soldier was killed by a Lebanese army sniper late Sunday as he drove along the border, the Israeli military said, drawing Israeli threats of retaliation.
The shooting near Rosh Hanikra raised the possibility of renewed fighting in the volatile area, which has remained mostly quiet since a monthlong war in the summer of 2006. Hezbollah, the guerrilla group that waged the war seven years ago, did not appear to be involved in Sunday’s incident.
Militia: Oil terminals to remain closed
TRIPOLI, Libya
The head of a Libyan militia that has shut down most of the country’s oil terminals for months said Sunday they will remain closed because the government has failed to meet his group’s demands— mainly a share of revenues for their eastern region.
Ibrahim Jedran, leader of the militia in eastern Libya, had promised to reopen the oil terminals Sunday after mediation from influential tribal leaders. Jedran accused the government of corruption and of “watering down” his group’s demands.
Many college heads make $1M or more
WASHINGTON
Presidents at 42 private colleges scaled the $1 million annual mark in total pay and benefits in 2011 — a slight bump from the year before, according to a survey based on the latest federal tax information from the 500 private schools with the largest endowments.
Total median compensation was $410,523, or 3.2 percent more.
Associated Press