San Salvador, El Salvador  - A former leftist guerrilla group that fought for power in El Salvador in a bloody civil war in the 1980s has now taken power in a presidential election marking the first peaceful transition of power between left and right in the Central American nation.

The party's candidate, Mauricio Funes, won Sunday's ballot with over 51 per cent of the votes, according to preliminary official results. The rise of the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) put an end to a 20-year rule by right-wing party ARENA.

Antananarivo - Firing was heard coming from the palace of Madagascar's embattled President Marc Ravalomanana Monday evening following a threat by mutinous soldiers to break through barricades erected by the president's supporters.

Around 1,000 people have rallied round the president after the opposition at the weekend took over government buildings and announced the establishment of an interim two-year government.

The president fears an attack on the palace, which is located 14 kilometres south of the capital Antananarivo.

Amman - Iraqi Transport Minister Amer Abdul Razzak said Monday that his government would shortly declare Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba as the only conduit for Egyptian goods imported to Iraq.

Abdul Razzak, who is currently on a visit to Aqaba, told the official Petra news agency that the step was taken because of the "plausible transport costs" through the Jordanian port and as a way of increasing trade between the two countries.

Islamabad - The reinstatement of the Pakistan's sacked top judge is a healthy sign for the fragile democracy but a bad omen for President Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, analysts said Monday.

Pakistan's judiciary, under the reinstated and independent-minded Iftikhar Chaudhry, plus re-energised opposition parties with massive street power, is expected to curtail Zardari's tendency to amass powers and run the country by himself.

"He is definitely cornered and probably he is going to remain there," said a political analyst Ayesha Siddiqa.

Kiev  - Manufacturing in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine is down by nearly a third over 2008 indicators, but recent data gives hope an economic turnaround is in sight, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said Monday.

"Practically in all sectors with the exception of energy we already are registering positive growth, and some industries are up as much as 20 per cent," she claimed, in comments reported by Interfax.

Antananarivo/Johannesburg  - Madagascar's opposition continued to ratchet up pressure on President Marc Ravalomanana to resign on Monday, rubbishing his proposal for a referendum and ordering his arrest for alleged constitutional violations.

But the embattled president of seven years was refusing to quit, despite losing control of the government and the army.

A defiant Ravalomanana emerged from his palace Sunday to tell supporters he still had a mandate to govern after being re-elected in 2006 and proposing that the attempt to oust him be put to a vote.