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Britain's Prince Philip underwent surgery Friday for a blocked coronary artery after suffering chest pains.
Britain's Prince Philip underwent surgery Friday for a blocked coronary artery after suffering chest pains.Read moreAssociated Press, Pool

Islamists cement Egypt vote gains

CAIRO - Islamist parties consolidated earlier gains in Egypt's multistage parliamentary elections, winning nearly 70 percent of the seats determined so far, according to results announced Saturday.

Election commission chief Abdel-Moez Ibrahim announced results from the second of three rounds, which was held Dec. 14 and 15, followed by a runoff last week. The second round was held in nine provinces, and Ibrahim said turnout reached 65 percent.

Based on the results he gave, the Muslim Brotherhood says it won about 86 of an estimated 180 seats up for grabs in the round, or 47 percent. The Al-Nour Party, the political arm of the ultraconservative Salafi movement, won about 20 percent of the vote. The secular and liberal forces that largely drove Egypt's uprising early this year were trounced.

A third round of voting is to be held Jan. 3 and 4. The election is the first since Hosni Mubarak's Feb. 11 ouster. - AP

Queen visits her ailing husband

LONDON - Prince Philip received visits Saturday from his wife, Queen Elizabeth II, and their four children at a hospital where he is recovering from a heart procedure, palace officials said Saturday.

Philip, 90, had a coronary stent put in late Friday to fix a blocked artery. The palace has declined to say whether he had a heart attack.

Philip was admitted Friday to Papworth Hospital after experiencing chest pains at the queen's Sandringham estate in Norfolk. The illness cast a shadow over the royal family's traditional Christmas gathering at Sandringham. Buckingham Palace said that Philip was not expected to attend church Sunday with his family, but that the service would go on as planned.

Philip is "in good spirits, but he is eager to leave," the palace said. It said it did not know when he would be discharged. - AP

Fraud complaint set over implants

PARIS - France's national health insurance agency will file a criminal complaint in a breast-implant scandal, an official said Saturday, after authorities recommended that the estimated 30,000 French women with potentially faulty implants have them removed and agreed to pay for the procedure.

The agency will file the complaint for deception and fraud in the coming days, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. It will most likely not name specific people or the company behind the implants, though specific targets could be added later. He said a civil suit was likely to follow.

The implants, made by now-defunct French company Poly Implant Prothese, were pulled from the market last year in countries around Europe and South America amid fears they could rupture and leak silicone into the body. The state health system has estimated that the removals could cost $78 million. The implants in question are not sold in the United States. - AP

Elsewhere:

For the first time in more than four decades, Libyans on Saturday celebrated the anniversary of the country's 1951 independence from Italy and France. During the late Moammar Gadhafi's rule, only the 1969 date of his coup was marked.