New Delhi - India's ruling Congress Party was leading Monday in three of the five state elections that are seen as a political barometer for the country's upcoming general elections against the backdrop of terrorist attacks and the economic slowdown.

Early results from the Election Commission showed the Congress Party on the verge of ousting the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the north-western state of Rajasthan, while it looked set to retain power in national capital New Delhi for a third five-year term.

Baghdad  - The Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) in Iraq announced a nine-day ceasefire with Turkey in honour of the Muslim Eid al-Adha festival, it was reported Monday.

"We want thereby to open the door to dialogue with Turkey," the news agency Aswat al-Iraq quoted PKK spokesman Ahmet Deniz as saying.

Deniz added that in the coming days PKK fighters would only resort to arms when attacked by Turkish troops.

Bharti Airtel, India's top integrated telecom services provider, has been awarded 'Best Content Service' for the Airtel IFFCO Farmer Information Dissemination platform and 'Best Project Management' for the Gujarat E-GRAM project at the World Communication Awards held at London.

The Airtel-IFFCO Farmer Information Dissemination Platform project was granted the best content service for its originality and being capable of providing rural clients granular information about their livelihood conditions.

Islamabad  - Pakistani insurgents on Monday torched more than 50 trucks carrying supplies for US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, police said.

The pre-dawn attack took place on the periphery of Peshawar city, where hundreds of militants on Sunday raided two parking bays for NATO-bound lorries and set ablaze around 150 vehicles and cargo containers, some loaded with armoured Humvees for the US military.

Indian Stock markets were trading positive at 2 pm IST with BSE Sensex higher by 200 points, backed by Capital Goods, Metals, PSU and Banking Stocks. NSE Nifty was up by 70 points at 2785. Among major gainers were Real Estate majors DLF and Unitech. Tata Steel gained further ground. The stock was trading 7.4% higher at 196.

Among losers were BPCL (down by 4.1%), HCL Tech (down by 1.35%) and M&M (down by 1.2%). Technology stocks were trading marginally lower. Satyam Computers and Infosys Technologies were marginally lower.

Indian ADRs ended positive on Monday. Tata Communications, Sterlite, Wipro, HDFC Bank and MTNL were among major gainers.

Hanoi  - A Hanoi court Monday convicted eight parishioners of a Catholic church of damaging property and causing public disorder.

The eight parishioners, ranging in age from 21 to 63 years, took part in vigils over the past year at Hanoi's Thai Ha church, which is involved in a property dispute with the government.

Protestors erected crosses and shrines, and knocked down a brick wall on land belonging to a state-owned company adjacent to and previously owned by the church.