Chicago - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama may have been raised largely by his white grandparents in distant Hawaii, but when he wanted to connect with his community as a black man he came to Chicago.

Now with the White House in reach, Obama is returning to Chicago on Tuesday to mark election day in the city where his rise to prominence began. City officials expect up to a million people could gather in Grant Park to watch election results and hear from Obama after votes are tabulated in his race against Republican John McCain.

Though polls show the Democrat ahead, McCain's down-to-the-wire campaigning has taken aim to key swing states that could push him over the top in the state-by-state winner-takes-all electoral college.

Washington, Nov 4: Taking a note of the pathetic condition of the quake-hit in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, the US is learnt to have announced an additional relief of 1.5 billion dollars.

The quake victims have been demanding relief and aid, especially when the winters have already set in. More than 200 people were killed and thousands left homeless when an earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter Scale hit Balochistan last Wednesday.

Announcing the additional aid, the United States’ Organization for International Aid said in a statement that the US will provide this emergency 1.5-billion-dollar aid to Pakistan government immediately. With this the total US aid would aggregate to 2.5 billion dollars.

Hamburg - Workers in Germany's engineering sector were on a rolling strike for a fourth day Tuesday, underlining their union's calls for an 8-per-cent pay rise.

According to the IG Metall union, hundreds of workers participated in the strikes in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state. With the beginning of the morning shift at 5 am (0400 GMT) about 400 workers laid down work at Wadan Yards in Rostock-Warnemunde.

The union wants to expands its strikes to all of Germany, idling a number of plants for several hours, increasing pressure on employers to improve income offers.

New York - A record sale of a work by Russian abstract painter Kazimir Malevich soothed frayed nerves at New York's autumn art auctions this week, but the world financial crisis is spreading gloom in the art market.

The auction houses Christie's and Sotheby's are hoping for record prices for some exemplary art works, but all in all, the mood is getting darker.

Prices for all investments - shares, gold, oil, real estate - have been falling, Mark Porter, head of Christie's America told the New York Times. It would be "unrealistic" to think that art was immune against the pressures of the market, he said.

The art market has been dismal, as wealthy collectors have been hit by tumbling stock markets.

Washington - In a departure from 40 years of Republican loyalty, 21 voters in remote northern New Hampshire gave a resounding yes to Democrat Barack Obama early Tuesday.

With 15 votes for Obama and six for McCain reported by broadcasters, the opening of the Dixville Notch polling station Tuesday just after midnight marked the opening of US elections that could put produce the first-ever African-American president.

According to a new study, a person needs at least 8 hours sleep in a day to keep himself healthy & to avoid all health problems specially related to the heart.

The study led by researchers in Sweden found that the risk of a heart attack dropped during the first week after the clocks were set back and people have an extra hour of sleeping.
 
The research, based on heart attacks in Sweden, shows that sleep deprivation has adverse effects on one’s cardiovascular health.