NEWS IN brief

Slovakia elects first female president

Afp, Bratislava

The election of Zuzana Caputova as Slovakia's first female president was greeted yesterday as a vote for change, with the anti-graft activist expected to provide a check on a government tarnished after last year's murder of a journalist. The 45-year-old environmental lawyer's clear victory Saturday over the ruling party's candidate was a blow to the populist-left Smer-SD.