Chisinau - Exit polls showed Moldova's ruling Communist party was well ahead after voting stations closed in elections for a national parliament held Sunday.

The party was on track to capture 45.5 per cent of the popular vote, some 3 - 5 per cent more than pre-election polls had predicted, according to a poll conducted by the IMAS survey company with European Union and US support.

Skopje - The ruling nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party's candidate Georgi Ivanov was leading his rival from the opposition Social Democratic Union, Ljubomir Frckoski, by a large margin in the Sunday's presidential election run-off, the state election commission said.

According to preliminary figures, Ivanov had 200,000 votes to Frckoski's 102,000, accoring to the commission. The figures were in line with pre-election surveys, which predicted Ivanov' would win two votes for every one to Frckoski.

Prague - Czech rival party leaders agreed Sunday on a new caretaker premier, Czech Statistics Office chief Jan Fischer, whose interim government would complete the country's presidency of the European Union, local reports said, citing party leaders.

The Czech Republic holds the EU's six-month rotating presidency until June 30.

Fischer, 58, would be a newcomer to the world of top-level politics, following a statistics career mostly in public sector and academia.

Hyderabad, Apr. 5 : Even before registering its maiden political success in General Elections, actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi hopes that his party may have a role in giving birth to a ''Fourth Front''.

"My feeling is that why should a fourth front not be formed at the Centre. Those parties which are opposed to the current formations can join hands with us to from the fourth front," Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) Chief Chiranjeevi said on Sunday.

Bhagalpur, Apr 5 : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shahnawaz Hussain has said that he would focus more on development rather than playing caste politics.

Hussain had suffered defeat in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections from his home constituency Kishanganj. However, he contested again to win the by-elections from Bhagalpur, defeating the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Shakuni Chaudhury.

Hussain said he was confident enough to win the constituency again.

Harare - Tragedy has struck again at Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai with the death of an infant grandson, just days after Tsvangirai returned to work after grieving the recent death of his wife.

According to an official from Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change party, Tsvangirai's infant grandson died in a drowning accident Saturday at the family's Harare home. The property has a swimming pool.