BBC News with David Austin

The United States presidential hopeful Herman Cain has in effect withdrawn from the race for the Republican Party nomination for next year's election. The Georgia businessman was a surprise front-runner in the Republican field in October. Marcus George reports from Washington.

Herman Cain made the announcement at what was supposed to be his new campaign headquarters in Atlanta. He thanked his supporters for what they'd achieved, but said he was

suspending

the campaign because of the continued distraction of false accusations. Without mentioning them, he said his family had paid a tremendous price. The lethal blow came earlier this week when allegations emerged of a 13-year affair.

Before that, there were a string of accusations of sexual harassment. But even before those damning revelations, there were unanswered questions about his

catchy

9-9-9 tax reform plan and his understanding of foreign policy.

Independent election monitors in Russia have said they are coming

under increasing pressure

from the authorities as the Russian people head to the polls for Sunday's parliamentary election. The complaint came after the director of the monitoring group Golos, Liliya Shibanova, was detained for 12 hours at a Moscow airport. Daniel Sandford reports.

One of the biggest issues in these elections to Russia's Duma will be whether or not the poll was fair. Golos is a non-party political election watchdog largely funded by the European Union and the United States. It has recorded more than 5,000 complaints that the rules have been broken. Most of the allegations have been against government officials. Perhaps because of that, it has received attention this week from the courts, from state-financed television and even from the Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who complained about foreign-funded organisations