Prague - Czechs began voting Friday in Senate run-off elections that have become a key test for Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek ahead of his country's EU presidency in the first half of next year.

The run-offs came a week after Topolanek's senior ruling Civic Democrats lost a regional election to their arch-rivals, the main opposition Social Democratic Party.

The weakened premier hoped to mitigate the defeat in the run-offs ending Saturday.

To focus on political hurdles at home, Topolanek, one of the most pro-US leaders in eastern Europe, decided to cancel next week's US trip, including a White House visit with US President George W Bush, his spokeswoman said.

Hanoi- Vietnam's trade deficit in the first ten months of the year hit a record 16.3 billion dollars, up 77 per cent from a year earlier, local media report on Friday.

While the country's exports did rise, with total revenues of 53.8 billion dollars, up 36.7 per cent year-on-year, it spent 70.1 billion dollars on imports, up 42.6 per cent over the same period last year.

These preliminary figures were issued by the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Beijing  - Asian and European leaders plan to call for new goals to fight climate change up to 2012 to be agreed by the end of next year, according to a draft summit statement seen Friday.

"Leaders welcomed the substantial progress made at the climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007," said the draft "chair's statement" from the biannual Asia-Europe Meeting, which opened Friday.

"They confirmed their commitment to securing an ambitious, effective and comprehensive agreed outcome now, up to and beyond 2012, by the end of 2009 on the basis of the Bali road map," said the draft, which is scheduled to be issued on Saturday at the close of the summit.

Amsterdam -Stocks on the Amsterdam exchange dropped dramatically Friday. By noon local time (1000 GMT) the main AEX index stood at 234 points, down 9.25 per cent on the day.

Shares of bank and insurance company ING Group, which on Sunday received 10 billion euros (12.87 billion euros) in government aid in exchange for securities, dropped the most, 14.38 per cent.

Steel manufacturer Arcelor Mittal was not far behind, down 12.96 per cent.

Similar negative developments could be seen in Amsterdam in shares across all economic sectors - from banking and insurance to electronics and construction.

Employment agency USG People dropped 12.55 per cent, while oil company Royal Dutch Shell dropped 11.85 percent.

Washington, Oct 24 : With Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama all set to become the first ever African-American president in the Nov 4 polls, as suggested by various polls and surveys, his campaign managers are planning a grand party, setting up a huge stage at Chicago''s Grant Park, from where Obama would declare his victory, reported foxnews. com.

The victory celebration is expected to cost a whopping two million dollars (Rs 1000 lakhs)!

So far, Obama’s campaign is staying mum on the expected crowd count, but it is assumed that it would well cross 80,000 figure that congregated at the Democratic convention, added the report.

Beijing, Oct 24 : Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir has said that his country’s President Asif Ali Zardari’s statement describing the Kashmiri fighters as “terrorists” was not exactly what he meant, as the definition of terrorism was not satisfactorily resolved yet.