World News from the BBC
Egypt has held a second round of parliamentary elections a week after a first round that was marked by allegations of widespread fraud. From Cairo, Jon Leyne.
With most opposition candidates boycotting, the second round of voting seems to have gone much more smoothly than the first. Most of the run-off votes were between rival candidates from the ruling party of President Mubarak. It's not clear yet what the
turnout
was, but it's widely expected to be very low. Many Egyptians have long since lost faith in the democratic process. An overwhelming victory for the ruling party is already assured. The question now is what this result means for the presidential election next year, in which President Mubarak will either stand for re-election, aged 83, or look to
install
a successor.
Shipping officials in Bangladesh say a vessel sailing under their flag has been hijacked by pirates off southern India. They say the ship was attacked after a long pursuit by suspected Somali pirates near the Lakshadweep group of islands, 200-300km from the Indian coast.
A rocket carrying three Russian satellites has crashed into the Pacific Ocean. The Proton-M
stray
ed off course after being launched from Kazakhstan. Iain MacKenzie reports.
The rocket took off from the Baikonur cosmodrome on Sunday but crashed into the Pacific Ocean, around 1,500km northwest of Hawaii. Its cargo was three Glonass-M navigation satellites, each weighing 1.4 tonnes. They were intended as