Pro-Russian rebels vote in eastern Ukraine
Donetsk, November 2
Pro-Russian rebels voted in an election to set up a separatist leadership in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, taking the war-torn region closer to Russia and defying Kiev and the West, as shelling continued across the territory.

Washington, November 2
Republicans are poised to pick up seats and could win control of the US Senate on Tuesday in mid-term elections heavily influenced by deep voter dissatisfaction with President Barack Obama's job performance.

Concern about the strength of the US economy, coupled with worries about Ebola and Islamic State militants, are driving the dour mood of a restive electorate. Democrats could pay the price when voters elect 36 senators, all 435 members of the House of Representatives and 36 state governors.

Obama's name is not on the ballot, but his low job approval rating reflects a lack of confidence in his leadership during the sixth year of his presidency. Polls indicate Democrats have less enthusiasm for voting than Republicans, and history shows the party that is in power in the White House in midterm elections usually loses seats.

In the House of Representatives, Republicans are expected to build on their majority of 233 seats to 199 for Democrats. They also will likely retain their majority in the number of governors' seats they hold in state capitals.

But the heavy campaign action has been in the 100-member Senate, where Republicans need to pick up six seats to reclaim the majority from Democrats and control both chambers of Congress for the first time since the 2006 election. While Republicans are expected to gain seats, as many as eight to 10 Senate races are still considered toss-ups that could go either way.

If Republicans do take control of the Senate, Obama's last two years in office would be complicated by the prospect of even more partisan gridlock, although it could force him to make more compromises with his political opponents. — Reuters

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of things for people to feel good about. It may not be fair, but they tend to take those kinds of feelings out on the White House, and as a practical matter I think the Senate goes Republican. —David Yepsen, A Pollster

Washington, November 2
A record 30 Indian-Americans are contesting Tuesday's US elections that will determine the course of power politics in the last two years of President Barack Obama's term in office.

Nearly three million people of Indian descent with an ever growing number of officials in high places, are better educated, earn more than other Americans, but haven't had much of an impact on national politics though they have two state governors and a lawmaker in the House.

No Indian-American is running for any of the 36 seats, including three special elections, up for ballot in the 100-member Senate. But four of them are vying for a two-year term in the House where all 435 seats are up for election.

Prominent among Desi contestants to the House are Democrat Amerish 'Ami' Bera and a former Obama administration official Rohit 'Ro' Khanna.

In the States, Republican Nikki Haley, seeking a second four-year term as South Carolina Governor, was considered a virtual shoo in even before her Democratic opponent Vincent Sheheen called her a "whore" at a campaign rally. Born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa, has also received the backing of Louisiana governor, Piyush "Bobby" Jindal.

A score other Indian-Americans - nine Republicans, 10 Democrats and one Independent - are eyeing legislative seats in 15 states in a bid to win a rightful place in the political arena for the community. — IANS

Donetsk, November 2
Pro-Russian rebels voted in an election to set up a separatist leadership in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, taking the war-torn region closer to Russia and defying Kiev and the West, as shelling continued across the territory.

The United States and European Union have denounced the vote as illegitimate, which is sure to stoke tensions further between the West and Russia.

The separatists' election of a leader and People's Council is the latest twist in a face-off between Russia and the West that started with Ukraine's ouster of a Moscow-backed president in February and the installation of a pro-European leadership.

In Donetsk, eastern Ukraine's former industrial capital and the separatists' political and military stronghold, Soviet music blared out of speakers in front of a central voting station carrying the separatist's red black and blue flag.

Across the region suffering from years of neglect and months of war between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels, people stood in freezing temperatures to cast their vote in some places near the remains of shrapnel from mortar bombings.

"We are citizens of Donetsk, and we don't want to live under the Kiev government that has turned its back on us," said Sergei Kovalenko, 58, a private security guard who came to vote with his wife at a polling station set up at an elementary school.

People brought truck loads of carrots, potatoes and cabbages to polling stations where they were sold off for pennies to those waiting in line. Some of the heaviest artillery shelling of the past few weeks could be heard in the predominantly Russian-speaking area hours before voting was to begin. Rebels said more artillery was heard in a northern district of Donetsk during the vote. — Reuters

Beirut, November 2
Iraqi Kurdish fighters have joined the fight against Islamic State militants in Kobani, hoping their support for fellow Kurds backed by US-led air strikes will keep the ultra-hardline group from seizing the Syrian border town.

Idriss Nassan, deputy minister for foreign affairs in Kobani district, said Iraqi Kurds using long-range artillery had joined the battle on Saturday night against Islamic State, which holds parts of Syria and Iraq as part of an ambition to redraw the map of the Middle East, "The Peshmerga joined the battle late yesterday and it made a big difference with their artillery. It is proper artillery," he told Reuters.

"We didn't have artillery we were using mortars and other locally made weapons. So this is a good thing." Nassan did not elaborate and it was not immediately possible to verify that progress against Islamic State had been made. — Reuters