Washington/Chicago - Tens of thousands of US voters waited patiently in serpentine queues Tuesday to vote in the country's historic election. Many had started lining up before dawn, some braved pouring rain to cast their ballot.

Officials were prepared for an unprecedented turnout as voters delivered their verdict on Democrat Barack Obama, 47, and his Republican rival John McCain, 72, after the longest and most expensive campaign in US history.

Wednesday Nairobi/Kogelo - US presidential favourite Barack Obama's Kenyan family were gathering for an election night party in the western village of Kogelo Tuesday as US voters went to the polls.

Around 20 family members had shown up at the senator's ancestral home in Kogelo, where his grandmother Sarah Obama still lives.

Journalists and well-wishers were locked out of the Obama household as the party got under way.

Rio de Janeiro - British driver Lewis Hamilton, the youngest-ever Formula 1 world champion, said in Brazil that he would have supported Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama, if he could vote in Tuesday's elections in the United States.

"I wish both candidates the best, but I really like Obama, and if I were (a citizen of) the United States I would have done my best to help him," the McLaren driver said, in comments that the Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo published Tuesday.

Obama is seeking to become the first-ever black president of the United States.

Chicago - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama returned to Chicago, the city where his rise to prominence began, Tuesday and cast his vote at 8:45 am (1345 GMT) at the Shoesmith School gymnasium.

Obama arrived at the polling station with his wife Michelle and daughters Malia and Natasha.

The Democratic candidate took his time, pausing to explain the process to his daughters at the booth, and prompting television commentators to joke: "Is he undecided?"

Obama, 47, who would be the first African American president in US history if elected, was the strong favourite heading into Tuesday's vote.

London, Nov. 4 : The Republicans had all the advantages with them to sweep this year’s presidential polls in the United States, but wasted it with sleaze, the editor of The Economist, John Micklethwait, claimed.

On Friday, The Economist endorsed Barack Obama. “It’s time,” runs the leader in the current edition of the magazine that still likes to be known as a “newspaper”.

“America should take a chance and make Obama the next leader of the free world,” it says.

Washington - Voting started at 6 am (1100 GMT) in several states Tuesday in historic US elections to elect the country's 44th president.

Officials braced for an unprecedented turnout and massive lines at polling places as voters delivered their verdict on Democrat Barack Obama, 47, and his Republican rival John McCain, 72, after the longest and most expensive campaign in US history.