Washington, Oct 25: A handful of tycoons, who control the gambling industry in America, are playing an unprecedented role by putting all their money behind Senator John McCain in Nevada, a key batt

New York, Oct 25: Tran Trong Duyet, a former Vietnamese prison director who held Republican presidential candidate John McCain in Hanoi as a prisoner of war (PoW) after his plane was shot down 41 years ago, has contradicted the latter’s claim that he was tortured in jail for four years.

Duyet said that McCain’s torture version was only to bag a few more votes in the US presidential poll.

Washington, Oct 25: Results of two recent polls have revealed that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will get
75-80 percent of Jewish votes in the Nov 4 polls.

The Jewish community has been traditionally voting for Democratic candidates.

A Gallup tracking poll of 564 Jewish registered voters, taken over the first three weeks of October, found Obama leading Republican John McCain by a 74-22 percent margin, a 13-point increase for the Democratic nominee since July when he led 61-34 percent.

Washington - President George W Bush and his wife Laura may have cast their election ballots early, but apparently there was some skepticism as to just which candidate they voted for.

"Today the President and Mrs Bush cast their ballots for the 2008 election during the early voting process. The ballots will be mailed back to Texas today," White House press secretary Dana Perino wrote in an emailed statement Friday.

Berlin - Two of Germany's 16 states were on the verge Friday of gaining new premiers, with politicians striking coalition deals to set up new governments in Bavaria and Hesse.

Both moves, which will require confirmation in the states' legislatures, could usher in a more fractious period in the final year of Chancellor Angela Merkel's federal coalition government before September 2009 elections.

The two state coalitions are likely to be viewed by voters as test subjects for the next federal government.

San Francisco - Democratic candidate Barack Obama was visiting his ailing grandmother in Hawaii on Friday, and told reporters he feared that the woman who raised him after his mother died would not live until election day.

"Without going through the details too much, she's gravely ill," Obama told ABC's Good Morning America on Friday. "You know, we weren't sure, and I'm still not sure, whether she makes it to election day. We're all praying and we hope she does."