Election Fraud

MOSCOW - Thousands of demonstrators took over government buildings, blocked roads and airports and staged demonstrations across Kyrgyzstan yesterday to protest alleged fraud in recent elections in the impoverished Central Asian nation that is the site of a major United States air base. Government officials and eyewitnesses agree that the government no longer appears to be in control of Osh and Jalalabad, two of Kyrgyzstan's largest urban centers, in the face of escalating protests. Protesters demanding the resignation of President Askar Akayev took to the streets of those cities to find them deserted of police or troops.

LIMA, Peru -- President Alberto Fujimori appeared to be on his way to a landslide re-election victory yesterday, but the balloting was questioned by opposition candidates who alleged massive fraud leading up to Peru's presidential vote.Mr. Fujimori, who imposed one-man rule three years ago but also succeeded in crushing hyperinflation and a violent rebel insurgency, won 62 percent of the vote, according to an exit poll by the CPI firm. He took 60 percent, according to a poll by the Apoyo firm.

MOSCOW - Fifteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the crisis in Ukraine has left Russia feeling more besieged and isolated than at any other time in its post-Soviet history. Television viewers here yesterday watched scenes from the Ukraine that were reminiscent of those that flickered around the world when the Soviet Union and the governments of its eastern bloc allies collapsed in the late 1980s. Flag-waving protesters were again besieging government buildings. Workers were walking off their jobs.

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- International envoys assigned to inspect Serbian election fraud arrived in Belgrade yesterday amid indications that President Slobodan Milosevic is prepared to re-stage municipal voting for the capital.Already hit by more than a month of street demonstrations against his government, Milosevic is also facing increasing turmoil within his ruling party that further isolates him and could weaken his hold on power.The signals from the embattled regime were mixed yesterday: Milosevic's influential wife accused the generally peaceful demonstrators of taking Serbia to civil war, while the government staged old-style Communist rallies in a clumsy attempt to show that it still enjoys popular support.

A state constitutional amendment to allow early voting in Maryland was the first bill to be introduced in the Maryland Senate yesterday. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller is the chief sponsor of the amendment, which would allow the General Assembly to set additional days besides Election Day for in-person voting. Similar legislation is expected in the House of Delegates. Last year, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled that the General Assembly did not have the power to enact early voting by any manner other than a constitutional amendment.

Political consultant Julius Henson on Friday was released a month early from the Baltimore City Detention Center, officials said. Henson was released early because he received jail credits, which inmates can earn for good behavior and for sharing a cell, said Melvin Easley, a jail spokesman. On Tuesday, Henson's attorney, Edward Smith Jr. filed a motion asking jail officials to allow him to visit his elderly mother before she dies. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail on June 13 for his role in a 2010 Election Day robocall that prosecutors said was designed to suppress black votes.

The state prosecutor's office has dismissed a complaint by a former county commissioner candidate alleging election fraud in September's Republican primary.At issue were 13,000 pink sample ballots, distributed by a group of local Republicans, that highlighted in bold-face type the names of GOP gubernatorial candidate Ellen R. Sauerbrey, comptroller candidate Michael Steele and eight local Republican candidates.In a complaint filed Oct. 28, George W. Murphy III, who finished last in a field of 14 candidates in the Republican primary, said that the GOP group had not received permission to use Sauerbrey's authority line on the flier.

CAIRO, Egypt -- Thousands of riot police officers sealed off access to the High Court yesterday, beating and arresting protesters who had turned out to support two judges facing a disciplinary panel because they had accused the government of election fraud. The huge show of force, appearing larger even than what was deployed in the Sinai after four bombings there this week, seemed to signal that President Hosni Mubarak's government had reached a breaking point over dissent. The focus was a relatively small demonstration over the treatment of the two judges and in support of more than 80 judges who had been staging a sit-in for more than a week at the stately old Judge's Club to demand an independent judiciary.

CAIRO, Egypt -- Thousands of cane-wielding riot police clubbed and arrested protesters and journalists yesterday as the Egyptian government clamped down bloodily on a demonstration to support two pro-reform judges. Toting shields and sticks, police and plain-clothes security men flooded the streets of the capital in the morning, sealing off roads, closing subway stations and waiting for protesters. As chanting bands of demonstrators attempted to coalesce into a street protest, the riot police swarmed.

ON THE SITE... Suggs says Achilles injury 'not as bad as some thought' : Ravens linebacker expects a four- to six-month recovery from partial tendon tear after undergoing successful surgery Tuesday. Closing arguments expected in election fraud trial :  Julius Henson is accused of orchestrating a 2010 Election Day robocall that prosecutors say attempted to trick black voters into staying home from the polls. Baltimore area has high share of high-tech manufacturing jobs :  A Brookings Institution report classifies 27 percent of the region's manufacturing jobs as "very high-tech," compared with 16 percent nationwide.