Moscow - At least three counter-demonstrators were arrested during opposition rallies Saturday, the Interfax agency reported.

Opposition groups which are not represented in the national parliament, the Duma, staged demonstrations for political and social reforms held under the motto "day of rage," with some 400 people participating in a rally in Moscow and around 150 in St. Petersburg.

Prague - Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek's party lost the Senate run-off elections Saturday in a defeat that could reshape the Czech Republic's EU presidency in the first half of next year.

The loss could topple the premier and empower vocal European Union critic President Vaclav Klaus, just weeks before the country takes over at the helm of the 
27-member EU bloc on January 1.

Analysts said a boost to the followers of the eurosceptic president could weaken the Czech presidency.

Harare - Zimbabwe's prime minister-designate Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday said former South African president and mediator Thabo Mbeki had to show impartiality or the political power- sharing deal being negotiated would not materialize.

Addressing a Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rally in a farming town of Marondera, about 70 kilometres east of Harare, Tsvangirai said: Mr Mbeki, there is only one message: when you have started a job finish it well."

Washington, Oct 25: Seventy percent of voters say that the media wants Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama to win the presidential election while just nine percent said the press favored McCain.

According to a Pew Research Center survey of 1,003 adults conducted from October 17-20, among Republican respondents, the figure was 90 percent, and even 62 percent of Democratic respondents agreed with the idea that “most journalists are pulling for Obama.”

Hamburg - Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey scolded a German leader in an interview published Saturday and denied Switzerland was a tax haven.

In remarks to Der Spiegel, the German weekly, she said Switzerland was "astonished" at the tone of remarks Tuesday by German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, who grumbled Berne was not tipping Germany off about tax evaders.

She warned him not to try to place Switzerland on an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) black-list of nations that assist foreigners to evade taxes.

This would be a breach of a German-Swiss taxation treaty, she charged. "It would not be the approach one expects from a state bound by the rule of law," added Calmy-Rey.