GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Early results in Guatemala’s presidential election point to a businesswoman in the lead in a nation where tens of thousands have fled poverty and gang violence to seek a new life in the United States.Three hours after polls closed, but with votes tallied from just 13% of polling centers, former first lady Sandra Torres had captured more than 22% of the vote, followed by four-time presidential candidate Alejandro Giammattei with 16%. There were 19 candidates and early results were in line with expectations.
At this rate no candidate will win the more than 50% of votes needed to assume the post after a first round, with a second vote likely to take place in August. Presidents are limited to a single, four-year term.

The next president of this Central American country will be tasked starting in January with attempting to stem growing violence, poverty and outward migration. An estimated 1 percent of Guatemala’s population of some 16 million people has left the count..

Activists and striking students gathered outside Hong Kong’s Legislative Council on Monday to listen to freed democracy campaigner Joshua Wong on the day he was released from prison—and one day after massive protests forced an abject climb down from the government over highly contentious legislation.

From mid-morning, protesters braved the stormy weather in their push for the withdrawal of a divisive extradition bill and the ouster of the semi-autonomous enclave’s leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, whose championing of the bill has proven to be a disastrous miscalculation.

Wong began addressing the cheering crowd at around 2:30 p.m. local time.

“Just this morning, I left prison,” he told the crowd in Cantonese. “I regret that I was not able to participate in [Sunday’s] protest. But in my prison clothes, I watched it all happen.

“Our demand is that the government totally withdraw the bill, and retract [its depiction of] the demonstrations as a riot, and condemn police violence.”

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The international face of Hong Kong’s democracy movement, Joshua Wong was released from prison in Hong Kong Monday at a critical juncture in the city’s fight for political freedom. Just the day before, a huge demonstration in the heart of the city forced Hong Kong’s leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, to issue an apology for her handling of a bill that would allow for the extradition of fugitives to mainland China.

Sunday’s march was the second massive demonstration in a week to call for the withdrawal of a bill that has united virtually all segments of society—from teens to grandparents, student radicals to conservative business figures—in opposition to it. While the government says the bill is necessary to stop Hong Kong from becoming a haven for criminals, critics say it will be used by China to apprehend dissidents and political opponents, thereby threatening the semi-autonomous enclave’s cherished freedoms.

Wong was in prison for both demonstrations, completing a sentence for hi..