VIENNA, Austria -- Austria's far-right parties made huge gains in yesterday's parliamentary elections, according to preliminary results, while the Social Democrats took the most votes but saw their worst results in decades.

Interior Minister Maria Fekter said the center-left Social Democrats had 29.71 percent of the vote, followed by the conservative People's Party with 25.61 percent. The two parties had been part of a so-called grand coalition that fell apart in July, triggering the early election.

The election's biggest winners were the far-right parties, whose performance together was close to the count for the Social Democrats. The Freedom Party received 18.01 percent of the vote, while the Alliance for the Future of Austria had 10.98 percent, preliminary results indicated.

The results did not yet include absentee ballots or those turned in at polling stations outside the voter's home district. A final tally is not expected before Oct. 6.

MINSK, Belarus -- Belarusians voted yesterday in parliamentary elections that opposition leaders insisted were already rigged, despite promises by the country's authoritarian leader that international voting standards were followed.

President Alexander Lukashenko welcomed more than 400 election monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to prove his country is embracing democratic reforms. In national elections four years ago, the opposition wasn't even allowed to run.

A total of 263 candidates, including 70 from the opposition, were competing in yesterday's elections for 110 parliamentary seats. As soon as the polls closed, about 500 opposition supporters turned out on the central square of the capital to protest the vote.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Two Taliban assassins on a motorbike shot and killed a senior policewoman as she left for work in Afghanistan's largest southern city yesterday and gravely wounded her son.

Malalai Kakar, 41, who led Kandahar city's department of crimes against women, was leaving home yesterday when she was killed, said Zalmai Ayubi, spokesman for the Kandahar provincial governor. Her 18-year-old son was wounded, he said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility.

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's official news agency says the head of the country's nuclear department has canceled his participation in the annual general conference of the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

Yesterday's report by IRNA did not say why Gholam Reza Aghazadeh would not attend today's meeting, saying only his deputy will attend the event.

The body is investigating Iran's nuclear program.

Iran is under three sets of sanctions by the U.N. Security Council over its refusal to suspend its nuclear activities, which the West says is to obtain a nuclear weapon. Tehran denies the charge.

The meeting of the 145 member nations could turn into a showdown between the West and Islamic nations angry over Israel's nuclear program.