Nairobi/Accra  - The European Union's election monitoring team Tuesday said that Ghana's elections were open, transparent and competitive as the ruling party's candidate maintained a slim lead while vote counting continued.

"While the process is still ongoing, the 2008 elections have so far helped to strengthen the democratic institutions of Ghana, and Ghana's democratic credentials in the region, Africa and the world at large," EU Chief Observer Nickolay Mladenov said in a statement.

Some were worried that Sunday's simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections could spark the kind of violence witnessed in Kenya, Zimbabwe and Nigeria earlier this year. But with a large chunk of the votes counted, the fears seem unfounded.

Berlin -  Key members of the cast of the fantasy movie Inkheart attended its premiere Tuesday in Berlin as distributors prepared for worldwide release of the juvenile-fiction story.

The US lead, Brendan Fraser, was there, along with Eliza Hope Bennett, the British actress who plays his daughter in the film.

Director Iain Softley, also British, also took plaudits, but much of the attention at the cinema on the prestigious Potsdamer Platz went to Cornelia Funke, the Los Angeles-based author of the book the movie is based on.

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.

Los Angeles - With the Detroit Pistons failing to click on all cylinders recently, help has returned in an effort to get them charged up again.

Antonio McDyess has re-signed with the Pistons for the remainder of the season, the club announced on Tuesday.

On November 3, McDyess, along with starting point guard Chauncey Billups and Cheikh Samb were dealt to the Denver Nuggets in exchange for high-scoring guard Allen Iverson.

Nairobi/Mogadishu  - The crew of a hijacked Ukrainian ship failed in a bid to escape their Somali captors Tuesday, according to media reports.

The BBC, quoting a pirate spokesman, reported that several crew members attacked two of their guards, but were quickly overpowered.

The MV Faina, which was captured in late September, is carrying a cargo of 33 tanks and other military equipment.

The ship was the pirates' highest-profile capture until the seizure of a Saudi supertanker carrying crude oil worth 100 million dollars in November.

Washington/Los Angeles  - Rescuers resumed their search Tuesday through the tangled rubble of a San Diego home and the F/A-18 fighter jet that crashed into it Monday, searching for a toddler missing since the accident.

The toddler's sibling, mother and grandmother were killed when the fighter jet appeared to lose all power as it attempted an emergency landing at the nearby Miramar Naval Air Station, after taking off on a routine training exercise from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. The father was at work when the accident occurred.