Violence punctuates Togo poll

Gangs ransacked polling stations in three Togolese constituencies, preventing voting in a run-off for the country's first multi-party parliament, Reuter reports from Lome. The vote, for a seat in each of 24 districts where no candidate won a first-round majority, should put in place a parliament to share power with the military president Gnassingbe Eyadema, head of state since 1967. His Togolese People's Assembly and the opposition Togolese Union for Democracy are neck-and-neck in the race to control the 81- seat parliament.