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MANAUS, Brazil -- In most democracies, citizens go to the polls. But in Brazil’s sparsely populated Amazon region, the polls often go to the voters. Most people in the vast rainforest live in urban areas, but thousands reside in tiny villages several days from the nearest city by boat. Amazonas, Brazil’s biggest state, is triple the size of California yet has only about one-third the population of greater Los Angeles. More than half its cities can’t be reached at all by road, and some are hundreds of kilometers from the state capital, Manaus. Logistics pose a challenge even in Manaus, a sprawling municipality of 2.2 million people. On Saturday, The Associated Press accompanied election workers setting up a voting place in the Bela Vista do Jaraqui community, a three-hour boat trip from t...

SOFIA, Bulgaria -- An exit poll in Bulgaria suggested Sunday that the center-right GERB party of ex-premier Boyko Borissov, a party blamed for presiding over years of corruption, will be the likely winner of Bulgaria’s parliamentary election. The poll conducted by Gallup International showed the GERB party earning 24.6% support, apparently edging out the reformist We Continue the Change pro-Western party of former Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, which is expected to capture 18.9%. Still, the predicted percentage won’t be enough for Borissov’s party to form a one-party government, and the chances for a GERB-led coalition are slim. The exit poll also predicted that eight parties could pass the 4% threshold to enter a fragmented parliament with populist and pro-Russia groups showing increased ...

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the leftist Workers’ Party got the most votes in Brazil’s presidential election Sunday, but not enough to avoid a runoff vote against his far-right rival, incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. With 97% of the votes tallied, da Silva had 47.9% support and Bolsonaro 43.6%. Since neither candidate received more than 50% of the valid votes, which exclude spoiled and blank ballots, a second round vote between them will be scheduled for Oct. 30. Brazil's election authority announced late Sunday that a second round was a mathematical certainty. The highly polarized election will determine whether the country returns a leftist to the helm of the world’s fourth-largest democracy or keeps the far-right leader in office for another four years. ...

Florida Sen. Rick Scott, a member of Republican leadership in the upper chamber, said Sunday that he does not "condone violence" after Donald Trump lashed out at Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell and suggested McConnell had a "death wish"-- but Scott stopped short of condemning the former president. Trump, in a post on his Truth Social website last week, wrote that McConnell must have a "death wish" after supporting a continuing resolution to fund the federal government. Trump went on to criticize McConnell's wife in racist terms, writing that he should "seek help and advise [sic] from his China loving wife, Coco Chow!" Trump was referring to Elaine Chao, who is Taiwanese. Chao served as Trump's transportation secretary until she resigned after Jan. 6 Scott, who leads the Senate GOP's c...

MEXICO CITY -- Hurricane Orlene lost some punch, but remained a dangerous Category 3 storm on Sunday as it headed toward Mexico's northwest Pacific coast between the tourist towns of Mazatlan and San Blas. After growing into a hurricane Saturday, Orlene quickly added power, peaking as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 kph) early Sunday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. But winds slipped back to 115 mph (185 kph) by midday. The storm was moving over or near the Islas Marias, a former prison colony being developed as a tourist draw. The island is sparsely populated by government employees and buildings there are made of brick or concrete. Orlene was forecast to hit Mexico's Pacific coast sometime Monday along a sparsely populated, lagoon-d...

A key Russian gas pipeline to Europe has been closed indefinitely because of leaks, meaning gas supplies to the continent will remain tight heading into winter. Nord Stream 1, an underwater pipeline running across the Baltic Sea to Germany, had been supplying EU states with 35% of all the gas they imported from Russia. EU leaders suspect the leaks were created deliberately, but have stopped short of blaming Russia for them. How did the leaks occur? Operators noticed leaks in Nord Stream 1 in a stretch of pipe near the Island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. There were also leaks in a parallel pipeline called Nord Stream 2, which is not yet in use. Seismologists in Denmark said there had been explosions under the sea in the same are...