Srinagar, Apr 3: Preparations for the forthcoming parliamentary election for the Srinagar constituency in Jammu and Kashmir are in full swing.

New Delhi, Apr 2: The notification for the third phase of Lok Sabha elections will be issued today.

In this phase, polling will take place on April 30.

The states which will go to the polls are Bihar (11), Gujarat (26), Jammu and Kashmir (1), Karnataka (11), Madhya Pradesh (16), Maharashtra (10), Sikkim (1), Uttar Pradesh (15), West Bengal (14), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (1), Daman and Diu (1).

Ankara - Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) swept local elections on Sunday but saw its primary vote fall, with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan disappointed at the party losing a number of provinces and failing to win others it had targeted.

With around 99 per cent of the vote counted as of Monday morning, the AKP had registered 39 per cent of the vote, compared to 23.2 per cent for the main opposition Republican People's Party and 16.1 per cent for the Nationalist Movement Party.

Podgorica  - Montenegro's parliamentary election Sunday was marked by low turnout, with just around a third of the country's 500,000 registered voters casting their ballots halfway through the day, the CDT monitoring agency reported in Podgorica, the nation's capital.

In voting in September 2006, 4 per cent more voters had shown up by 2 pm, six hours into the election. Polling stations are to close at 9 pm (1900 GMT).

Skopje - Georgi Ivanov, the candidate of Macedonia's ruling party in the country's presidential elections, is heading to the second-round vote with a huge lead over his opposition rivals, results released one day after the first round of voting showed Monday.

With some 40 per cent of the ballots counted, Ivanov, nominated by the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party, had more than twice as many votes than his nearest challenger, the Social Democrats' candidate Ljubomir Frckovski.

Frckovski overcame a surprisingly strong showing by former interior minister and VMRO official Ljube Boskoski, now an independent candidate.

The incumbent, Social Democrat Branko Crvenkovski, did not seek re-election in Sunday's polls.

New Delhi, Mar 23: President Pratibha Patil on Monday issued the notification for the first phase of the five phased Lok Sabha elections.

Notifications were also issued by respective Governors for 154 of the 294 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh and 70 of the 147 Assembly seats in Orissa, going to polls along with the Lok Sabha elections in the first phase.

As many as 124 out of the total 543 constituencies will go to polls in the first phase, which is scheduled to be held on April 16 covering 15 states and two Union Territories.