Kiev, Ukraine – Orange Revolution allies made a strong combined showing in Sunday’s parliamentary elections and looked poised to win a majority that could unseat the prime minister and steer the country more firmly onto a pro-Western course, an exit poll showed.
The election was called early in an attempt to end a standoff between Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and President Viktor Yushchenko.
The independent poll showed Yanukovych’s bloc was the top vote-getter with 35.2 percent, but Yulia Tymoshenko, the fiery Orange Revolution heroine, followed closely with 31.5 percent. Yushchenko’s party was trailing a distant third with 13.4 percent.
Tymoshenko said she would meet with Yushchenko today to formalize their alliance.
The exit poll was done by a team of Ukraine’s three leading polling agencies and had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
The vote will either boost Ukraine’s hopes to integrate more closely into Europe or stir more infighting.
“Nazi” bedspreads anger India’s Jews
Mumbai, India – Leaders of India’s Jewish community expressed outrage Sunday over a new line of bedspreads called “The Nazi Collection” from a Mumbai-based home-furnishing company that used swastikas in its promotional material.
The furnishing dealer said the name stands for “New Arrival Zone for India” and was not meant to be anti-Semitic.
But Jewish groups said they would file a lawsuit against the company.
About 5,500 Jews live in India, a predominantly Hindu nation of 1.1 billion people.
The swastika, which was appropriated by the Nazis, was originally an ancient symbol used in Hinduism, Buddhism and other religions and is still displayed all over India in hopes of bringing luck.
Militants cross from Egypt into Gaza
Jerusalem – In a surprise move, about 80 Palestinians, including Hamas members and militants from other factions wanted by Israel, crossed from Egypt into the Gaza Strip before dawn Sunday, according to Hamas and Israeli officials. The entry, through the closed Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border, was the result of what Hamas said was an agreement it made with Egypt.
The Rafah crossing was closed in June after Hamas seized control of Gaza. The closure was meant in part to prevent militants from moving freely into Gaza.
News-agency reports quoted Hamas as saying it had reached an agreement with Egypt, and The Associated Press reported that Egypt’s Interior Ministry had confirmed that.
But Shlomo Dror, a spokesman for the Israeli government department that oversees crossings, said Israel had heard from the Egyptians that those who crossed Sunday had broken through the fence at the border, which Egypt patrols.
9 missing after volcano erupts
Toronto – A volcano has erupted on a tiny island off the coast of Yemen, spewing lava and ash hundreds of feet into the air, a Canadian naval vessel near the island in the Red Sea reported Sunday. There were no reports of deaths, but at least nine people were missing. The Yemeni government asked NATO to help search for survivors on Jabal al-Tair island, which lacks a settled population but includes military installations.
