New York  - A public opinion poll conducted in 25 countries showed "remarkable" support for the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights 60 years after it entered into effect, WorldPublicOpinion. org said Tuesday.

A majority of residents in all the countries polled, including those ruled by authoritarian regimes, endorsed the human rights of their citizens to have freedom opinion, including the right to criticize governments, to demonstrate peacefully and to have a media free of government control.

Washington  - US president-elect B

Vilnius  - More than a month after it triumphed in a general election, a new government coalition took charge of the Baltic country of Lithuania Tuesday evening, following a swearing-in ceremony at the national parliament, the Seimas.

Now the new Lithuanian government can begin to tackle a worsening economic situation in the largest of the Baltic states, under the leadership of 52-year-old Andrius Kubilius. Kubilius previously served as prime minister during 1999-2000.

Kiev  - Ukraine's long-running political crisis took a step towards resolution on Tuesday as the previously warring parliament factions elected a compromise candidate to lead the legislature.

A total of 244 members of the 450-seat parliament supported Volodymyr Litvin, head of the tiny Litvin Block Party, as parliament's new speaker, the Interfax news agency reported.

London - British opposition leader David Cameron on Monday called for early elections to act as a type of referendum on the different economic programmes of the country's major parties.

Cameron, head of the British Conservative party, criticized the government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown for creating massive public debt in pursuit of an economic stimulus package.

Washington - Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff were arrested Tuesday on charges of trying to sell US president-elect Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat.

Court-appointed wiretaps last month intercepted Blagojevich conspiring to sell the Senate seat that Obama resigned on November 16, according to US Attorney Patrick J Fitzgerald. In return, as recorded in various conversations, he sought a cabinet post, an ambassadorship or a seat on a corporate board for his wife.