Harare - A month-long standoff between Zimbabwe's political parties over the implementation of a power-sharing deal appeared to be at an end Thursday, with sources saying President Robert Mugabe and his arch-rival Morgan Tsvangirai had agreed on a composition of a unity government.

"An acceptable compromise has been reached," a senior official from Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on condition of anonymity, on leaving the talks at an hotel in Harare.

Moscow - The head of Europe's election-monitoring mission to Azerbaijan said Thursday there was a "lack of robust competition" on the ballot and President Ilham Aliyev's landslide re-election feel short of democratic norms.

With the only real opposition boycotting the vote, Aliyev sailed to an easy win on Wednesday, sealing near 90 per cent of the Caspian states 4.7 million votes.

"The election did not reflect all principals of a meaningful democratic election," Boris Frlec, the head of the OSCE's election observer mission, told journalist in Baku one day after the balloting.

New Delhi, Oct 16 : The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for moving necessary amendments to the Prevention and Control of Infectious and Contagious Diseases in Animals Bill, 2005 pending in Rajya Sabha.

The bill will help to prevent spread of economically important infectious and contagious diseases from one part of the country to another.

It will help to establish "Controlled" and "Eradicated areas" within the country in order to reduce economic losses on account of major economically important infectious and contagious diseases of livestock.

New Delhi, Oct 16 : The Union Cabinet today gave its approval for inclusion of maternity benefit in the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana subject to the condition that the premium is within the existing limit of Rs. 750 per beneficiary.

The modification would be applicable with immediate effect.

This would encourage institutional delivery of infants among the Below Poverty Line'' (BPL) workers.

Washington, Oct. 16: A fast-growing anti-Republican wave threatens to significantly shrink the party''s ranks in Congress.

According to the Washington Times, nearly a dozen Senate Republicans are locked in tight races with Democrats.

Analysts and operatives agree that such a change could put Democrats within reach of a filibuster-proof, 60-vote majority.

Democrats also are poised to make significant gains in the House, where they now have a 36-seat majority in the 435-member chamber.

Analysts are predicting that Republicans could lose as many as 30 additional seats, which are nearly double recent expectations for net losses.

Brussels - The French government on Thursday was pushing for a European Union deal on fighting climate change in December, despite persistent opposition from Poland, official documents revealed.

Poland on Wednesday threatened to veto a draft EU summit statement if it involved a pledge to approve a sweeping package of laws on fighting climate change in December.

But after a night of intensive negotiations, the French government, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, set out a new draft summit statement insisting that EU member states "reaffirm that (their) objective is to reach agreement in December."