Elections, President | featured news

Billionaire Sebastian Pinera was elected president of Chile yesterday, after a runoff election against former president Eduardo Frei. Pinera, who was a senator for eight years and ran unsuccessfully for president in 2005, ranked 701st among the world's billionaires in March 2009 with a net worth of $1 billion. He is likely worth much more than that now thanks to the soaring value of his most valuable holding, a 26% stake in Chile's national airline LAN, which was recently worth $1.5 billion.

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan accused the United Nations on Saturday of intervening in the formation of President Hamid Karzai's next cabinet, less than a week into his new term.

Voting has ended in Indonesia's presidential election, with exit polls suggesting the incumbent, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has a clear lead.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sought to put the turmoil over the disputed presidential elections behind him and declared on national television that the contests were clean, fair and were the start of a new era.

Indonesia's president, whose popular economic policies and corruption-free image boosted him to the top of pre-election polls, is counting on a single-round victory next Wednesday.

It's a first for Iran: a series of debates televised live ahead of the upcoming presidential elections next week.

President Hugo Chavez holds a slim lead in opinion polls ahead of Sunday's referendum, which would allow him to run for re-election, but many Venezuelans remain undecided how to vote, pollsters said.

Former President Mohammad Khatami, who pushed for detente with the West when in office from 1997 to 2005, said on Sunday he would run in Iran's June presidential election.