With more than 28 million Americans having already voted for the US presidential polls that is described as too close to call, the Obama and Romney campaigns have started claiming that the numbers are favouring them.      

In a conference call with reporters, top officials of President Barack Obama's campaign insisted that they were building a lead in key states that Romney would have difficulty overcoming.    

"Our opponent is losing among early voters in nearly every public poll in every battleground state," Jeremy Bird, the Obama campaign's field director, said.       Romney would have to win the election-day vote with majorities as large as 60 per cent in some states in order to prevail, Bird said, citing polling figures.      

So far, Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio -- five states that could decide the election, if they voted the same way. Republicans have the edge in Colorado, which Obama won in 2008, the Chicago Tribune reported.      

Meanwhile, Romney campaign officials counter that Obama's margins have fallen below those that he achieved in 2008, suggesting that makes the president vulnerable to an election-day push by the Republicans.

Chhattisgarh Police have booked three Naxals for allegedly subjecting two minor girls to repeated sexual assaults after abducting them from their villages in Bijapur district.       

A case has been registered against Kudiam Gujja, Nagesh and Shivaji on the complaint of two girls who were allegedly raped by them in Muded area in the district, Bijapur SP Prashant Agarwal told PTI/Bhasha today.       

A CRPF team came across the girls -- one of them a 12-year-old and another 11-year-old -- during the combing operation on November 1, he said.  

The girls alleged that the ultras forcibly picked them up from their houses and make them work as Bal Sangham members and forced them to have physical relations, the SP added.

The Election Commission has said there has been 74 per cent polling in Himachal Pradesh on Sunday.  

The electorate comprises 46.08 lakh voters, including 22.31 lakh women. Counting of votes will take place on December 20.

Lokayuktas today demanded more teeth to probe graft cases against public functionaries and emphasised that the anti-graft watchdogs across the states should be considered as an ally in good governance than an obstacle.    

At the end of their three-day conference in New Delhi, the Lokayuktas adopted a number of resolutions which included demand for giving adequate financial and administrative autonomy to them.     

The Lokayuktas must be provided with adequate financial and administrative autonomy necessary for their independent functioning," Delhi Lokayukta Justice Manmohan Sarin said.

Sri Lankan naval personnel allegedly damaged 30 boats of Indian fishers who were near the International Maritime Boundary Line today, officials said.          No fisherman was injured in the incident, they said.        

The naval personnel allegedly surrounded the boats, pelted stones, threw bottles and iron pieces and damaged about 20 fishing nets, they said.         

The fishers were also warned not to venture near Katchathivu, an islet ceded to Sri Lanka by India in 1974, they added.

  Arvind Kejriwal-led India Against Corruption today alleged that Congress pushed the country into a ditch but is now making a hue and cry about saving the nation.        

Senior IAC leader Manish Sisodia alleged those who were sent to Parliament to serve the country were "actually selling" it. "They don't do anything in Parliament but is making a hue and cry in Ramlila Maidan," he said, referring to the Congress rally in New Delhi in support of FDI in multi-brand retail.        

"You were in power for eight years. Instead of saving the country, you destroyed it," he said.       

Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy tweeted, "what a flop show...The speeches were disastrous. Most of all there was no enthusiasm in the crowd. Rent a crowd."

Days after Narendra Modi took potshots at his wife, Union Minister Shashi Tharoor today said he was "gratified" that a large number of people, including BJP leaders, "deplored" the Gujarat chief minister's conduct.        

"When this little business (Modi's attack on his wife) happened, I was gratified by the enormous number...large number of BJP people including some former ministers reached out to me to say how much they regretted the deplorable conduct of one of their own, which they would not say publicly," Tharoor told Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN's Devil's Advocate programme.        

Speaking at an election rally in Shimla last month, Modi had taken potshots at Tharoor's personal life, saying his wife Sunanda Pushkar was once his "Rs 50 crore girlfriend".

One person was missing after a country boat capsized in the Brahmaputra river in Dhubri district of Assam, near the Indo-Bangladesh border this morning.      Police said 12 other persons who were in the boat have been rescued. The incident happened at Shukh Char near Mankachar, close to the Indo-Bangladesh border.       

The boat, on way from Kadamtali to Atund Char, capsized after hitting sand bars at around 10 am.   The missing person has been identified as Sohrab Ali (75).

The BJP has reacted promptly to Sunday's Congress mega rally at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi, terming it 'anti-people.'  

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley also says that BJP will oppose the wrong policies of the UPA government.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi vowed to give a befitting reply to the opposition, and also said that those who are accusing Congress of corruption are themselves neck-deep in corrupt activities.  

She was the last speaker at the Congress mega rally at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi, followed by Rahul Gandh and PM Singh.

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, while addressing a huge gathering of supporters at the party's mega rally in Ramlila Maidan on Sunday, said that the party has done its best for the aam admi.  

The Nehru Gandhi scion also blasted the opposition saying that mere opposing doesn't help, and one should instead try to show the way.  

PM Singh and Sonia Gandhi will address the rally after Rahul's speech.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi have arrived for the Congress mega rally at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi.  

The mega rally is expected to discuss the party's achievements and moves like bringing in FDI in retail.

SpiceJet has been directed by a consumer forum in New Delhi to pay a compensation of Rs 22,000 to a visually-challenged man for over a four-hour delay of his flight from Kathmandu to Delhi.        

The South West District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum said the Chennai-based low-cost airline had given no evidence to support its contention that the delay was due to heavy air traffic and held SpiceJet guilty of being negligent and deficient in service to Delhi resident Jaikishan Aggarwal.        

"In the instant case, the opposite party (SpiceJet) took the defence that the flight was delayed due to heavy air traffic. Since no evidence has been given in support of the defence, we hold it guilty of negligence and deficiency in service," said the forum presided by Narendra Kumar.        

The bench ordered the airlines to pay Aggarwal Rs 20,000 as compensation and Rs 2,000 as litigation cost.

Polling in the hill state of Himachal Pradesh started on a slow note with about 10 per cent of the voters exercising their franchise in the first two hours today.        

Polling to elect the 68-member assembly is likely to pick up as the day progresses, said election officials.        

"Aleast seven EVMs were replaced due to malfunctioning, four of them in Kullu and one each on Shimla and Bilaspur," Himachal's Chief Electoral Officer Narinder Chauhan said.        

The electorate comprises 46.08 lakh voters, including 22.31 lakh women. Counting of votes will take place on December 20.        

As many as 7253 polling stations have been set up, including in Hikkim in Lahaul and Spiti at a height of over 15,000 feet.        

In all, 459 candidates are in the fray for the election, 27 of them women. In the 2007 poll, BJP had won 41 as against Congress 23, while the independents and BSP had bagged 3 and one seats respectively. The poll percentage in the last election was 71.61 per cent.        

The main contest is between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress which are contesting all the 68 seats. Led by Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, the incumbent BJP is hoping to script history in Himachal by going the Punjab way, where the Akali-BJP combine returned to power.