KINSHASA, Congo — Battles between forces loyal to President Joseph Kabila and those of his main campaign rival raged for second day Monday, and the U.N. sent scores of peacekeepers to evacuate foreign diplomats who were trapped inside the challenger's besieged home when gunfire broke out.
The fighting in the Central African nation came after election officials announced Sunday that President Joseph Kabila had failed to win an outright majority in Congo's first balloting in more than four decades and would face former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba in a second round in October.
U.N. spokesman Jean-Tobias Okala said 150 U.N. troops in 20 armored personnel carriers were to take the foreign envoys from Bemba's home, where they were meeting the candidate when fighting erupted outside his compound. The head of the world body's 17,500-troop peacekeeping mission, William Swing, was inside, along with envoys from the United States, France, China and other countries.
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Kabila won 45 percent of the 16.9 million votes cast in the July 30 balloting; Bemba had 20 percent, Electoral Commission Chairman Apollinaire Malu Malu said. The rest of the votes cast were shared among 31 other candidates. Voter turnout was about 70 percent.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4131143.html
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