Aaron's Daily WWW Newspaper

WASHINGTON - Democrats reached for a blowout at the polls Tuesday in heavy early congressional balloting that could add more than 20 seats to their House majority.

BAGHDAD - Bombs exploded at a bus station and a small market in Baghdad, killing 15 people and wounding 29 others Tuesday, police and hospital officials said.

NEW YORK - Wall Street was raring for an Election Day rally Tuesday, sending stock futures soaring as millions of Americans battered by tumbling home prices, tight credit and an uncertain job market headed to the polls.

NEW YORK - Election viewership on television and online could approach records Tuesday night — provided some suspense holds.

LANDOVER, Md. - Byron Leftwich led two touchdown drives after Ben Roethlisberger reinjured his throwing shoulder and the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Washington Redskins 23-6 on Monday night.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain faced the verdict of U.S. voters on Tuesday after a long and bitter struggle for the White House, with Obama holding a decisive edge in national opinion polls.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain in five of eight key battleground states as Americans prepare to vote in the White House race, according to a series of Reuters/Zogby polls released on Tuesday.

LONDON/SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia cut interest rates sharply on Tuesday, presaging expected reductions in Europe later this week, and EU leaders pressed for an overhaul of global market rules.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Riding a wave of resentment against Republican President George W. Bush, Democrats headed toward winning possibly their biggest majorities in the U.S. Congress in decades in Tuesday's elections, polls showed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some of the earliest returns in Tuesday's presidential election could provide big clues about the outcome.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian female student, who was arrested in Tehran last month while visiting from the United States, is accused of acting against national security, the judiciary said on Tuesday.

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Senior Vatican and Islamic scholars launched their first Catholic-Muslim Forum on Tuesday to improve relations between the world's two largest faiths.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's parliament sacked the interior minister on Tuesday in a blow to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ahead of next year's presidential election.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Americans crowded polling stations on Tuesday to vote in their historic election, with front-running Democrat Barack Obama seeking to become the first black US president and Republican rival John McCain battling for a comeback.

GOMA, DR Congo, (AFP) - Rebels in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo accused the government of declaring "war on its people" by refusing to negotiate in a conflict that has driven more than a million people from their homes.

TAIPEI (AFP) - Taiwan and China Tuesday signed a range of deals aimed at bringing the two sides closer economically, after almost 60 years of hostilities that often took them to the brink of war.

TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese scientists said Tuesday they had created a mouse from a dead cell frozen for 16 years, taking a step in the long impossible dream of bringing back extinct animals such as mammoths.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Trials of a once-promising experimental HIV vaccine were cut short in 2007 because the drug may have increased the likelihood of HIV infection rather than preventing it, according to a new study.

LONDON (AFP) - European stocks rose on Tuesday, after gains in Asia, as voting began in the United States amid hope the next president will give new impetus to action on the financial crisis, analysts said.

FRANKFURT (AFP) - BMW on Tuesday became the latest auto giant to feel the pain of the financial crisis, announcing production cuts and a huge drop in profits, as EU finance ministers gathered amid recession stormclouds.