Briefly

ECUADOR

Voters giving verdict on final 2 candidates

Ecuadorians were going to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president. They faced a runoff between socialist Andres Arauz and conservative Guillermo Lasso. Economist Arauz, 36, topped February's first round of voting on the back of support from his mentor and former president Rafael Correa. Guillermo Lasso, 65, a seasoned politician, edged into the final by finishing about half a percentage point above environmentalist and indigenous candidate Yaku Perez. A recent poll predicted a "technical draw" with Arauz garnering 50 percent and Lasso getting 49 percent.

UNITED STATES

Boy, 3, shoots dead brother, say police

Police believe an infant was fatally shot on Friday by his 3-year-old brother after the older boy got hold of a gun inside a Houston apartment. The infant was shot in the abdomen on Friday morning, said Houston Police Department Assistant Chief Wendy Baimbridge. Several adults drove the 8-month-old boy to a hospital, where he died. Investigators initially were unable to locate the gun used in the shooting but found it later inside the vehicle used to take the infant to the hospital. Investigators are still determining if any charges will be filed in the case.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Gulf's first female astronaut named

The United Arab Emirates has named the next two astronauts in its space program, including the country's first female astronaut. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai who also serves as the country's prime minister and vice-president, named the two astronauts on Twitter. He identified Noura al-Matroushi as the UAE's first female astronaut, with her male counterpart as Mohammed al-Mulla. A later government promotional video described Matroushi, born in 1993, as an engineer at National Petroleum Construction in Abu Dhabi. The two will undergo training at NASA.

AUSTRALIA

Cyclone prompts shelter warning

Tropical cyclone Seroja strengthened off Western Australia on Sunday, with emergency services broadening a warning for residents to immediately take shelter to several towns given high winds and the prospect of coastal flooding. Five coastal towns were put on red alert by Sunday afternoon, including residents in Denham, Shark Bay, 500 kilometers north of Perth, while sandbags were made available to those in Geraldton, further down the coast, due to potential storm surge. The cyclone, which was upgraded in severity to category 3 on Sunday, was rapidly moving southeast but was likely to weaken to category 2 before making landfall later in the evening.

Agencies via Xinhua