Washington, Nov. 3 : It''s hard to find a political pro who really believes John McCain can turn the presidential vote around on November 4, 2008.

Though the numbers are tightening in the battleground states, a pragmatic senior McCain strategist gave his boss only a 15 percent chance of pulling it off.

The New York Daily News quoted GOP guru Karl Rove, the architect of President Bush’s 2000 and 2004 victories, as saying that McCain faced a “very, very steep, uphill climb”.

New York, Nov 3 : A 100 dollar wager placed on Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama on October 30, 2007 when he was just another Democratic hopeful traversing Iowa - was worth 1,278 dollar on Sunday at Intrade. com, one of the most popular online bookies.

That same 100 dollar on Wall Street has plummeted some 35 percent over the same period, not to mention fall at the Dow Jones.

Arkansas (US), Nov. 3 : A Ku Klux Klan leader has warned of a “race war” in the United States if Barack Obama wins his White House bid.

Describing African-Americans as aliens who have “invaded” the United States to destroy “Christian culture”, Thomas Robb, 62, who styles himself as the Grand Knight of the Ku Klux Klan, warned: “We’re in the middle of a race war.”

Washington, Nov. 3: Barack Obama and the Democrats hold a commanding position ahead of Tuesday's election, with the Illinois senator leading in states whose electoral votes total nearly 300.

Obama’s Republican rival and Arizona senator John McCain has not been in front in any of the 159 national polls conducted over the past six weeks. His slender hopes for winning the White House now depend on picking up a major Democratic stronghold or fighting off Obama''s raids on most of the five states President Bush won four years ago that now lean toward the Democrat.

He also must hold onto six other states that Bush won in 2004 but are considered too close to call.

Nairobi - US presidential election favourite Barack Obama's life is being depicted in musical form in his ancestral homeland Kenya in the last days before the US election.

Obama the Musical opened Sunday at the Kenyan National Theatre in Nairobi on Sunday and will run until Wednesday.

The performance uses a mixture of song, dance and narration to follow the senator's life so far.

"I want to use the show not only to tell Obama's story but also to unite Kenyans," George Orido, the playwright and director of the musical, told The Daily Nation.