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Islamist candidates and those supported by religious groups have won the majority of seats in the first round of Bahrain's national parliament elections in nearly three decades.

Five months after the voters shunned all female candidates in the local municipal elections, two Bahraini women have managed to upset predictions of a similar drubbing in Thursday's parliamentary elections.

Bahraini Islamists who won the majority of municipal seats in last May's local elections may not do so well in tomorrow's national polls, as the country's most influential religious groups are boycotting the elections, according to local analysts.

Opposition strongholds boycott elections

Inter-religious meeting concludes in Bahrain

The Philippine government will not allow U.S. troops, that are holding wargames with Philippine army men near the base of the hostage-taking Abu Sayyaf in southern Philippines, to target the communist New People's Army (NPA) nationwide, a peace negotiator said.

Crew members of the Abu Dhabi Television covering the U.S.-Philippine war games in the southern Philippines were placed under surveillance because they could not present accreditation from the International Press Centre (IPC) in Manila, according to a television report.

Malaysian national, Azmi Salleh, 42, arrested for carrying 104 passports, was a visa-fixer and not a terrorist with links to the Al Qaida network of Osama bin Laden, said Immigrations Chief Andrea Domingo.

Arab foreign ministers were engaged in preliminary talks last night in Manama on the roadmap to peace in the Middle East.

'I thank U.S. media for making me a celebrity'

The Saudi government yesterday challenged statements by a Saudi official who had said on Friday that the dismissal of a number of imams and preachers in the kingdom was linked to the May 12 terrorist attacks in Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia has proposed a detailed plan to reform the Arab political order that would enable the Arab League to deal with the new regional realities imposed by the war on Iraq and the American engagement in peace making in the Middle East, officials said.