Thousands of miles from India, the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 have become a factor in the campaign of the lone Indian-American member of the US Congress to retain his seat.

Americans voted in midterm elections on Tuesday that are widely expected to give the Republican Party control of the US Senate and strengthen its majority in the US House of Representatives. Republican control of the US Congress will guarantee that President Barack Obama's last two years in office will be marked by even greater political gridlock.

All 435 seats in the US House of Representatives, 36 in the US Senate, most of the state legislatures and the job of governor in 36 states are up for grabs.

Ami Bera, an Indian-American and the Democratic congressman from California's 7th Congressional District, has been accused by some Sikh-Americans of refusing to acknowledge the alleged involvement of the Indian government in the riots in 1984 that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 Sikhs.

Bera, a physician whose parents immigrated to the US from Gujarat in the 1950s, did not answer questions from the American Sikh Committee to Evaluate Congressional Candidates on whether the Indian government was complicit in the deaths of Sikhs in the riots.

Bera told The Sacramento Bee that he could not dictate how the Indian government should respond to what he acknowledged was a tragedy. He said in a statement to The Associated Press that he was hopeful that the Indian government "has learned from the past."

All this has done little to satisfy a group of Sikhs which, under the banner American Sikhs for Truth, has spent more than $2,500 trying to defeat Bera, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

There are about 6,000 Indian-American voters in Bera's district, according to Political Data Inc., a California firm that provides detailed breakdowns of voting districts.

Despite the fact that both the highest-elected Indian-Americans in the US — South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal — are Republicans, the Indian-American community leans heavily toward the Democratic Party.

Every vote will count as Bera is facing a tough challenge from his Republican opponent, Doug Ose.

Ose is backed by conservative donors with deep pockets. The Bera-Ose race is believed to be one of the most expensive congressional contests in the US with more than $4 million being spent by outside interest groups.

Besides Bera, the fate of a handful of other Indian-American candidates will also be on ballots across the US.

Other prominent races for the Indian-American community include Haley's re-election campaign in South Carolina, Republican Neel Kashkari's longshot bid for governor of California, and Democrat Ro Khanna's attempt to unseat fellow Democrat Mike Honda from his House seat in California.

Haley's re-election contest pits her against Vincent Sheheen, a half-Lebanese and half-Italian Democrat.

Freetown, November 4
A doctor in Sierra Leone has died of Ebola, the fifth local doctor to die of the disease there, authorities have said, as UNICEF announced it was doubling its staff in the three West African nations hard hit by the deadly virus.

The death of Dr Godfrey George, medical superintendent of Kambia Government Hospital in northern Sierra Leone, was a blow to efforts to keep desperately needed health workers safe in a country ravaged by the world's worst Ebola outbreak.

At the United Nations in New York, Ebola coordinator Dr. Peter Salama of UNICEF said the U.N. children's agency would double its staff from 300 to 600 in Guinea, Liberia and in Sierra Leone, where children make up 20 percent of all Ebola cases. About 4,000 children have been orphaned by Ebola, he said.

"Schools are closed, children are confined to their homes and discouraged to play with other children," he said. "Death is all around them," Salama added.

The World Health Organisation says the disease has killed some 5,000 people and infected more than twice as many.

Sierra Leone's health care system was already fragile before the Ebola epidemic because of past conflict and a lack of resources. The country had two doctors for every 100,000 people in 2010, compared to about 240 doctors for the same number of people in the United States, according to WHO. — AP

Lahore, November 4
In a gruesome incident, a Christian couple was today thrashed and burnt alive by a group of angry Muslims in Pakistan's Punjab province for allegedly desecrating the Quran. The horrific crime was reported from the villages of Kot Radha Kishan of Kasur district, some 50 km from here.

A large number of police personnel were deployed in the villages to provide security to the minority community.

Emaneul Sarfraz, a relative of the deceased couple, told PTI that his cousins - Shahzad Masih, 35, and his wife Shamah, 31, - had been working in the kiln of Muhammad Yousuf Gujjar for sometime near Chak (village) 59.

"The couple along with their four children wanted to leave the kiln as Yousuf was not paying their remuneration. He demanded Rs 5,00,000 from them, if they wanted to quit.

"Two days ago, after an exchange of words Yousuf locked the couple along with their children in a room," Emaneul said.

He further said that an announcement was made today from two mosques of Chak 59 that Shahzad Masih and his wife had committed blasphemy by burning the pages of Quran.

"A large number of Muslims led by area clerics reached the kiln and dragged the couple out of the room after breaking into it. — PTI

Donetsk, November 4
The leader of separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine has been officially sworn in after an election that has been roundly condemned by the West as destabilizing.

Alexander Zakharchenko was inaugurated today in a heavily guarded theater in the main rebel stronghold of Donetsk.

Zakharchenko's election was largely a formality as no strong viable candidates opposed him, but separatist authorities have held up the vote as a mandate to pursue their secessionist goals.

Ukraine and Western government say the polls gravely endangered a cease-fire deal agreed early September. In fact, although fighting attenuated after the truce, hostilities have continued almost daily.

That cease-fire agreement signed by rebel leaders, and Ukrainian and Russian officials envisioned local elections being held across the whole of the east, but under Ukrainian law. — AP

London, November 4
British lawmakers today voted overwhelmingly in favour of a motion declaring sex-selection abortion illegal, ending uncertainty over whether doctors can be prosecuted for the practice.

They voted 181 to 1 for a motion brought forward by a cross-party alliance of lawmakers in the House of Commons. It will now have a second reading in January.

Confusion over the law was exposed last year by a decision not to bring charges against two Indian-origin doctors caught on camera agreeing to arrange abortions of baby girls purely because of their sex, revealed by an undercover investigation by The Telegraph. — PTI