Washington - Election day finally arrived Tuesday for the record throngs of US voters planning to cast their presidential ballots for either Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain.

Obama held a significant lead in opinion polls as state officials braced for an unprecedented turnout and massive lines at polling places in an election widely considered the most important in a generation.

Baghdad - Unknown gunmen killed a policeman on Tuesday and injured another two in eastern Baghdad, a security source said.

Nov 4 : At least

New Delhi, Nov 4 : Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil will hold a meeting with top police officials from the North Eastern here on November 5 to review the emerging security threat in that region.

According to police sources, Patil is expected to chalk out a fresh security strategy to deal with the terror threat from across the border and within the states.

The meeting will review the overall security scenario in the region vis--vis the recent serial blasts in Assam, Tripura and Manipur.

New York, Nov. 4 : Republican presidential candidate John McCain has managed to narrow the electoral gap with Democratic rival Barack Obama in key battleground states, according to the latest Fox News/Rasmussen Reports poll.

But the overall results still leave Obama in a better position on the eve of the election.

Obama now leads in two of the battleground states while the candidates are tied or within a point of each other in four.

The Alaska Personnel Board report on Monday cleared the Alaska Governor and Republican vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, of wrongdoing in an abuse-of-power investigation into the firing of the state’s public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan.

This report ran contrary to findings from a legislative inquiry that concluded in October that Palin had abused the power of her office by pressuring subordinates to fire a state trooper, her former brother-in-law Michael Wooten, involved in a feud with her family.