Early returns and exit polls in a heated parliamentary election show that Georgian voters have turned against President Mikhail Saakashvili and the party that has been in power for almost nine years.

Voters in Georgia went to the polls in local elections today in the first ballot since President Mikhail Saakashvili led the country into a disastrous war with neighbouring Russia nearly two years ago.

A 12-year-old boy was killed today and six members of his family injured in one of two bomb blasts in the Pakistan port city of Karachi, police said.