KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — An alliance of Malaysian opposition parties led by the country’s 92-year-old former authoritarian leader Mahathir Mohamad won a fiercely contested general election, ending the 60-year rule of the Malay-dominated National Front.

The result is a political earthquake for Muslim-majority Malaysia, sweeping aside the government of Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose reputation was tarnished by a corruption scandal and the imposition of a sales tax that hurt many of his coalition’s rural supporters.

It is also a surprising exception to backsliding on democratic values in Southeast Asia, a region of more than 600 million people where governments of countries including Cambodia, the Philippines and Thailand have swung toward authoritarian rule.

Official results show the opposition parties, which banded together as the Alliance of Hope, surpassed the 112 seats needed for a majority in Parliament.

Mahathir in a televised address said a representative of Malaysia’s constitutional monarchy had contacted the opposition to acknowledge its win. A prime minister would be sworn in within a day, he said, which would make Mahathir the world’s oldest elected leader.

He said Thursday and Friday would be public holidays, another slap at Najib, who had promised holidays if his coalition won.

3 bikers indicted on murder charges in 2015 Waco shooting

FORT WORTH, Texas — Three members of the Bandidos motorcycle club were indicted on murder charges Wednesday stemming from a chaotic 2015 shooting that involved police and members of another biker club outside a restaurant in Waco, Texas.

The indictments mark the first murder charges in the case, and more than 20 other bikers were re-indicted on new charges ranging from rioting to tampering with evidence. The lesser charges come eight days before the statute of limitations on such crimes runs out.

Police arrested nearly 200 bikers following the shooting at a Twin Peaks restaurant that left nine people dead and 20 injured. Investigators say the incident was sparked by rivalries between the Bandidos and Cossacks motorcycle clubs. Waco police officers monitoring the gathering also fired on the bikers.

Study finds little bang for the buck in blood testing for Zika

NEW YORK — Screening blood donations for the Zika virus netted only a few infections at a cost of over $5 million for each positive test result, according to research.

The study was the first large look at the impact of guidelines set two years ago, when the Zika epidemic was an unfolding menace in the U.S. and health officials were scrambling to prevent new infections.

The study, published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the blood donation testing requirements offered little bang for the buck. It also raised questions about whether a cheaper testing method should be used.

In over 4 million blood donations checked in the U.S., nine tested positive for the Zika virus. Of those, three were considered an infection threat.

Aide: Civil rights activist Young being moved to Ga. after illness

ATLANTA — Civil rights activist Andrew Young is being transferred to a hospital in Atlanta after falling ill over the weekend in Tennessee.

Young’s executive assistant, Patra Marsden, said in an email Wednesday that Young, 86, was hospitalized Sunday. He was in Nashville at the time for the baccalaureate service at Fisk University.

Marsden said Young would move to Emory University Hospital on Wednesday or Thursday. Young’s daughter, Andrea Young, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution her father “had a minor infection and ran a fever” and “is recovering well.”

Young was a confidant of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and went on to become a congressman, United Nations ambassador, Atlanta mayor and international businessman.

Spanish court blocks election of ex-Catalan chief

MADRID — Plans by Catalan separatists to re-elect their region’s former president in absentia were blocked Wednesday by Spain’s Constitutional Court.

The court agreed to consider Spain’s challenge of a legal change approved by Catalonia’s Parliament that paved the way for Carles Puigdemont’s election while he fights extradition from Germany to Spain.

By accepting the case, the court effectively ended Puigdemont’s chances of being re-elected. A ruling will take months, but pro-independence parties in Catalonia need to elect a new chief by May 22 or risk a new election.

In a separate development, a judge upheld Puigdemont’s indictment on rebellion and misuse of public funds, the charges for which Spain wants the former politician to be extradited from Germany.

Paraguay takes step to move its embassy

to Jerusalem

ASUNCION, Paraguay — Paraguay’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Wednesday that the country will shift its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, following the U.S. and Guatemala in a change long sought by Israel’s government.

The ministry said it “has begun the process” of carrying out the order by President Horacio Cartes.

A spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry said this week that Cartes would attend the opening ceremony, which would occur by the end of May. However, a Paraguay spokeswoman said no date has been determined.

Cartes is expected to resign within weeks so that he can be sworn into a seat to which he was elected in Paraguay’s Senate. His presidential term ends Aug. 15.

The U.S opens its embassy Monday in Jerusalem.

Yehiyeh Sinwar, the Gaza leader of the Hamas militant group, said Wednesday that protests along the Israeli border next week will be “decisive.” He said the protests will climax Monday, when the U.S. moves its embassy to Jerusalem and Palestinians mark 70 years of displacement from homes in what is now Israel.

Yemen’s Shiite rebels fired ballistic missiles at the Saudi capital, according to the Saudi military, which said its air defenses intercepted missiles over Riyadh and the city of Jizan. The attack by the Iran-allied rebels came amid regional tensions after the U.S. withdrew from the 2015 nuclear agreement with Tehran.