In the still-to-be-decided race for a US Senate seat in Minnesota, an Associated Press analysis of votes indicates that most ballots lacking a Senate vote were cast in counties won by Democrat Barack Obama.

The 25,000-vote difference in presidential and Senate race tallies could be due to different reasons - either some of the voters might have intentionally bypassed the Senate race, or others might have mismarked their ballot, or optical scanning machines might have misread them.

As such, a recount of the votes will begin November 19, and will use manual inspection to detect such ballots.

At his first news conference in Chicago, since his victory over Senator John McCain on Tuesday, President-elect Barack Obama said that the economic hardships many Americans are suffering are an “urgent reminder” that swift action is needed to stabilize the financial industry.

Surrounded by a large group of economic advisers, Obama pledged to confront the country’s economic crisis “head on” the moment he is sworn in on January 20. He asked his transition team to work on ideas to help the auto industry in particular.

Speaking to reporters from several news organizations, including the Anchorage Daily News, the Sarah Palin defended herself from a slew of criticisms that have been aimed at her from unnamed McCain aides.

The Alaska governor, having resumed work at her office in Anchorage on Friday, called her critics “jerks”, and said it was “immature” and “cowardly” for McCain staffers to be making sly allegations about her.

The movie ‘EMI’ dealing with the theme of credit cards and bank loans couldn’t have had more apposite release timing during global recession. In spite of that it fails to create interest for its juvenile attitude towards the subject.

The new $1 billion Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center was opened for patients with approximately 450 patients expected to move in two days, a hospital spokeswoman said. The old facility was destroyed in the 1994 Northridge earthquake and construction delays and scheduling difficulties delayed the proposed move for months.

This week audience voted out Diana Hayden from the house of Bigg Boss 2.

Other member in the dumping zone was Ashutosh Kaushik.

The former Miss World Diana Hayden was the ‘most adoring’ participant of the show. She grabbed eyeballs with her nearness with another challenger in the house, Aushutosh Kaushik that added ‘colour’ and ‘drama’ to the reality show.

Diana was one of the late celebrity contestants to join the reality show.
 
The last eviction took place before Diwali when singer Singer ‘Debojit Saha’ was shown the door.