BBC News with David Austin.
Counting is underway in Ukraine in the first parliamentary election since the overthrow of the old pro-Russian leadership and the start of the conflict with Moscow-backed rebels in the east. Exit polls suggest pro-Western parties have won the majority and President Poroshenko's party has the greatest share. Mr. Poroshenko thanked voters for backing him.
“As recently as yesterday, I asked you to vote for a democratic, reform-minded, pro-Ukrainian and pro-European majority. I thank you for listening to me and supporting my call. A constitutional majority, more than three quarters of the people who cast votes strongly and irreversibly supported Ukraine's course towards Europe.”
Kurdish fighters defending the Syrian town of Kobani from Islamic State militants have called for more airstrikes on IS convoys carrying reinforcements. A Kurdish commander said IS was receiving tanks, artillery and shells from areas it controls. Cathrine Nagin reports.
“The top commander of the Kurdish fighters in Kobani says the Islamic State militants have stepped up their attacks. He says the situation has become critical. Acia Abdulla has urged the US-led coalition aircrafts to intervene to stop, as he says, reinforcements arriving in Kobani from the Syrian cities of Raka, Girablis and Membeji. Only last week, Kurdish fighters were saying that they had driven the IS militants out of the town.”
Voting is drawing to a close in Brazil in the tightest presidential election in decades. The left-leaning incumbent Dilma Rousseff whose welfare policies are popular with the poor is facing the central right politician Aecio Neves who's seen as being pro-business. Wyre Davies reports.
“Perhaps because there is so much to play for and things are so close, this has been a very divisive campaign with a lot of negative advertising. In the last couple of days, there have been allegations and counter allegations of corruption involving the state-owned oil company Petrobraz. Brazil has a well-tested and developed electronic voting system, so if they are gonna choose the incumbent President Dilma Rousseff, they put 13 and push a button. If they want the opposition candidate Aecio Neves, they press 45 on the button. That means we should know the results pretty soon after polling closes tonight.”
The Israeli president Reuven Rivlin has described a massacre in 1956 in an Israeli Arab village as a terrible crime. He is the first serving Israeli president to attend the annual ceremony in Kafr Qasim, commemorating the 49 civilians who were killed. Mr. Rivlin said he shared the pain of the memory of the crime that was committed. The killings at Kafr Qasim occurred when boarder police opened fire on a group of laborers returning from work.
World News from the BBC.
Tunisians have voted in parliamentary elections, one of the last milestones in the country's journey towards full democracy after the revolution in 2011 that set off what became known as the Arab Spring. More than 100 parties fielded candidates but the real battle was between just two - the Islamist Ennahda party and the secularist alliance Nidaa Tounes. The result won't be known for some days.
The Afghan authority has welcomed the transfer by the United States and Britain of a huge military complex at K. in Helmand Province. The move marked the end of combat operations in the Afghanistan for the US marines and British forces. An Afghan spokesman General Sajia Azimi said Afghan troops had the confidence, experience and expertise to defend the country.
A Senior American health official has criticized the decision by some US states to automatically quarantine anyone returning from a West African country affected by Ebola and whom had contact with those suffering from the disease. An American nurse who was quarantined on her return from Sierra Leone said on Saturday she was made to feel like a criminal. Doctor Angele Faltry of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said the prospect of the quarantine could deter health workers from going to West Africa.
“The idea of blanket quarantine for people who come back could possibly have a negative consequence of essentially disincentivizing people from wanting to go there and the reason that's important is because the best way to protect Americans is to stop the epidemic in Africa and we need those healthcare workers to do that.”
Activists campaigning for women's right to drive in Saudi Arabia are marking the first anniversary of a protest that saw dozens take to the wheel in defiance of the ban. There have been online calls for a similar protest today. The Saudi authorities have again issued strong warnings to all Saudis not to take part.