Ecuadoreans vote in elections marked by violence

Ecuadoreans go to the polls today (Sunday) in the first round of presidential elections. Last week, Fernando Villavicencio, a presidential candidate who was very outspoken about the growing violence in the country from drugs cartels - was shot dead while campaigning and security has been tightened as a result.

Around thirty thousand people have been told to leave their homes in the western Canadian province of British Colombia as enormous wildfires continue to intensify. We'll have the latest from the area.

And the international trade in stolen art - how best to catch the sophisticated thieves who run this lucrative racket.

Joining Gary O'Donoghue to discuss all this and more are Lauren Frayer, London correspondent for the US National Public Radio network, and Fuad Musallam, assistant professor of social anthropology at the University of Birmingham, here in the UK.

(Photo: Soldiers stand guard as workers load ballot boxes and voting materials into a military truck to transport them to polling stations, ahead of the presidential election, in Quito, Ecuador August 19. Credit: Reuters)