Paris - If the informal straw poll at Harry's New York Bar in Paris is a reliable indicator, as it has been most of the time, Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States.

On Monday, one day before polling at Harry's Bar closes, the Democratic candidate had a lead of 248 to 154 votes, or 61.6 to 38.4 per cent, over his opponent, Republican John McCain.

Kabul - A group of unknown gunmen abducted a French aid worker Monday in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and shot dead an Afghan driver who tried to rescue him, police said.

The Frenchman was kidnapped as he was walking to his office with a colleague, said Zemarai Bashary, an interior ministry spokesman.

The two men, who were working with a nongovernmental organization in the country, were walking to their office in the Kart-e-Parwan neighbourhood when three gunmen snatched the Frenchman and took him to an unknown location by car, said a senior police official who requested anonymity.

"An Afghan driver for the intelligence service who tried to stop the abduction was killed by the kidnappers," the official said.

Islamabad - Islamabad on Monday asked the new head of US central command, General David Petraeus, to halt airstrikes inside Pakistan, saying these were harming its efforts to fight international terrorism.

"Continuing drone attacks on our territory, which result in loss of precious lives and property, are counterproductive and difficult to explain by a democratically elected government. It is creating a credibility gap", President Asif Ali Zardari told the commander of US forces in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Kolkata, Nov 3 : The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has claimed that the blast at Salboni was an attempt to kill West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as part of a design to stall industrial and development activities in the state.

Budapest - Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany on Monday proposed a 3.9-billion-euro (5-billion-dollar) crisis plan to boost Hungary's economy.

The move comes after international lenders pitched in over the last week to help the eastern European nation stave off financial collapse.

Gyurcsany has called the 1-billion-forint plan a stabilization and stimulus package designed to protect jobs and export markets.

Wiesbaden, Germany - Plans for a provincial alliance between Germany's co-ruling Social Democrats (SPD) and the small opposition Left party foundered Monday, with four dissenting legislators in the state of Hesse withdrawing their support.

The fragile link-up, drafted by the state SPD leader Andrea Ypsilanti, had been described by opponents as possibly a model for a federal government after a general election in September next year.