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Atta Mills named winner of Ghana run-off

ACCRA, Ghana, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Opposition candidate John Atta Mills has won a close presidential runoff election in Ghana, electoral officials said Saturday.

The country's electoral commission stated that Atta Mills had posted a narrow win with 50.23 percent of the votes, while rival Nana Akufo-Addo garnered 49.77 percent, the BBC reported.

Both sides have alleged vote-rigging in the election, and the commission's head told the British broadcaster he had considered allegations by both sides before announcing the result.

The win for Atta Mills was announced after results from the final constituencies to cast ballots showed him extending his lead over Akufo-Addo. Outgoing President John Kufuor had earlier urged both candidates to respect the final result.

Atta Mills, 64, of the National Democratic Congress, is a former Ghanian vice-president. Akufo-Addo, also 64, of the ruling New Patriotic Party won the first round in the general election but not by enough to avoid the runoff, the BBC said.

Australia rejects Gitmo detainee request

CANBERRA, Australia, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Australia will not be among the nations accepting terror suspects now held at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the government has announced.

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard, in the second such rejection within a year, said Saturday the latest decision was based on "stringent national security and immigration considerations," the BBC reported.

Gillard said the Bush administration had also asked Canberra to resettle "a small group of detainees" in early 2008, which was similarly turned down.

"Assessing those requests from a case-by-case basis, they had not met our stringent national security and immigration criteria and have been rejected," said Gillard, filling in for the vacationing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to shut down controversial detention facility holding 255 "illegal combatants" in the U.S. war on terror. They include about 60 prisoners Washington has cleared for release.

One Australian Guantanamo detainee, David Hicks, the first to be convicted of supporting terrorism, was allowed to return home in May 2007 after pleading guilty, the BBC said.

Kim Jong Il makes New Year's appearance

SEOUL, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has made his first public appearance of 2009 by inspecting a military unit, North's state-run Korean Central News Agency said.

In a report monitored in Seoul, Kim was said to have paid on-site visit to the "Guard Seoul Ryu Kyong Su Tank Division 105," although details or the exact timing of Kim's visit were not revealed, Yonhap, the South Korean news agency, reported.

KCNA said Kim "congratulated (the unit's) service persons on the New Year" in a report that has added to a string of recent official assertions of public appearances by the reclusive leader amid speculation that his health was failing after at least one recent stroke.

The latest report from Pyongyang said Kim was accompanied by a number of generals and he offered New Year's greetings to soldiers, expressing his appreciation for their revolutionary and martial spirit. The news agency did not directly quote Kim in the report, Yonhap said.

Burris won't be seated by Congress' start

CHICAGO, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Roland Burris' appointment to the U.S. Senate likely won't be certified by Illinois state officials in time for the start of the 111th Congress, analysts say.

Burris, a former Illinois attorney general, was appointed by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to serve out the remaining two years of the Senate term of President-elect Barack Obama. But because Blagojevich has been charged by federal prosecutors with trying to sell the seat in return for political favors, Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White has refused to certify Burris' appointment, the Washington publication Politico reported Saturday.

Burris in turn has filed suit to force White to grant the certification, but the state attorney general's office, which is representing White, does not have to respond to the lawsuit until next Wednesday, a day after the beginning of the 111th Congress, Politico reported.

Officials also said Friday the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has revoked Blagojevich's access to classified federal security information, a move that Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero told the Chicago Tribune was a "pretty standard procedure."

Also Friday, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan said he is calling lawmakers back to Springfield, Ill., next week for a possible vote on impeaching Blagojevich, the newspaper said.

Even Nevada sees drop in gambling revenue

MESQUITE, Nev., Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Residents of Mesquite, Nev., say their city's health thrived and then died as the U.S. economy stalled and gambling revenues disappeared.

"It seemed to be one of those things that 'Geez, it's just going great. It's never going to end,' " said Victor Kotalion, a 60-year-old laid off card dealer.

Mesquite rose from the desert 20 years ago when real estate mogul Randy Black opened the first of four casinos in Mesquite, which straddles Interstate 15 on the Arizona border.

In the last year, however, Mesquite's gross gambling revenue fell 11 percent while the average daily hotel rate fell 35.4 percent, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. Last month, Black laid off 347 workers and closed much of his Oasis casino.

Mesquite's problems mirror those of other cities and states that bet on gambling as an unending revenue source, the Times reported, noting casinos have laid off workers in Las Vegas and in gambling venues in California, Michigan, Oregon, Connecticut and New York.