Lithuania: President upset in runoff election

The Lithuanian president’s popularity ratings neared 80 percent, and he could tout invitations to NATO and the European Union as achievements, but in a stunning upset Sunday, Valdas Adamkus was unseated by a former prime minister with an aggressive campaign and a vow to improve living standards in the former Soviet republic.

With virtually all of the votes counted, Rolandas Paksas had a commanding lead Sunday night, with 55 percent of the vote compared to 45 percent for Adamkus, a former Chicagoan.

Like Adamkus, Paksas favors a Western-oriented approach toward foreign policy. And like the incumbent, he had a track record in office he could sell to voters. As mayor of the country’s capital, Vilnius, Paksas was praised for reviving the city’s medieval quarter, which had fallen into disrepair under Soviet rule.

Algeria: Weekend of attacks kills more than 50

Islamic militants ambushed a military convoy in northeast Algeria and attacked families near the capital, Algiers, in a bloody weekend of killings that claimed at least 56 lives, Algerian media reported Sunday.

The ambush Saturday night reportedly killed 43 soldiers and seriously wounded 19, the deadliest assault suffered by the Algerian military in at least five years.

In the other attack, Islamic militants killed 13 people from two families overnight Saturday in Zabana, 30 miles south of the capital, the official news agency APS reported, citing security services. It attributed the attack to the Armed Islamic Group, the north African country’s most radical insurgency.

Japan: Avalanche leaves scores stranded

An avalanche Sunday buried over a dozen cars under yards of snow, blocking a road in central Japan and forcing more than a hundred people to take refuge on the mountain overnight, officials said. No injuries were reported.

Sixteen vehicles were covered in the midmorning slide along a well-traveled mountain road in Azumi village in Nagano prefecture (state), said a Matsumoto city fire department official on condition of anonymity.

Rescue crews pulled 12 people unhurt from their cars after digging them out from drifts up to 6 feet deep. Meanwhile, snow continued to fall into Sunday evening, the official said.

About 150 people were stranded in buses and cars trapped on the mountain road made inaccessible to traffic by the heavy snowfall. Emergency crews helped transfer them to a nearby mountain hotel, while work continued to clear a pathway for the vehicles by this morning.

Singapore: Hopes fading for missing sailors

Two Singapore navy sailors were confirmed dead and two others were missing Sunday, more than a day after their ship collided with a cargo vessel off Malaysia’s southern coast.

The RSS Courageous, a 500-ton Singaporean anti-submarine patrol boat, was rammed by a Dutch cargo vessel just before midnight on Friday, severely damaging the warship, which lost part of its rear section.

The body of Sgt. Heng Sock Ling, 24, was found washed ashore at an Indonesian beach resort Sunday, a statement from the Singapore Defense Ministry said. Weapons specialist Cpl. Goh Hui Leng, 22, was found dead in the rear sleeping quarters of the wrecked ship on Saturday.

Two other navy specialists remained missing Sunday, but officials had little hope of finding them alive.

“It doesn’t look good,” Defense Ministry spokesman Bernard Toh said. “We should expect the worst.”