GREECE: New Democracy suffered a setback in Sunday’s run-off elections for regional governors and mayors, losing the country’s two largest cities and five of the six regional contests.

In the capital Athens, socialist-backed academic Haris Doukas beat incumbent Kostas Bakoyannis with nearly 56 per cent of the vote. 

In Thessaloniki, socialist Stelios Angeloudis, who was not his party’s official candidate, because of fighting among local party officials, easily defeated incumbent Konstantinos Zervas, 67 per cent to 33 per cent.

SOUTH KOREA: Unions and management at Kia, Korea’s second largest car-maker, said on Sunday that they had failed to reach an agreement in pay talks, raising the possibility of a strike later this week.

The two sides will need to reach an agreement by the end of Tuesday to stave off a likely strike lasting until Thursday and another walkout on October 20.

UGANDA: Police officers foiled a bomb attack on churches by a notorious Islamist militant group, President Yoweri Museveni said today.

Mr Museveni wrote on the X social media site that the Allied Democratic Forces were planning to detonate two bombs in churches in Kibibi on Sunday, about 30 miles from the capital Kampala. 

He added the devices “were reported to police and defused.”

AFGHANISTAN: A new earthquake hit western Afghanistan on Sunday, just days after two large tremors in the region killed at least 1,000 people.

The US Geological Survey said that the new magnitude 6.3 quake struck near the city of Herat at a depth of four miles.

At least one person is reported to have been killed.