Main News of November 6

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Tens of millions of Americans are voting in an election to decide whether President Barack Obama keeps his job for another four years or turns the keys to the White House over to his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney

* As Americans headed to the polls to vote for their next president, they were met by a range of obstacles and hassles, including long lines, technical snafus, and shortages of personnel and voting machines at polling stations

* The oldest leader of the world's unruly family of fully independent Orthodox Churches and the only patriarch to survive both the Communist era and the post-Communist government's attempt to oust him, Patriarch Maxim of Bulgaria, has died

* The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has become irrelevant, because it is unable to perform its functions, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said

* Greece’s leading trade unions announced a 48-hour nationwide strike against austerity measures

RUSSIA

* The public sacking of Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, a member of President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, was an unprecedented outburst of turf war in the Kremlin, Russian analysts said

* A Russian investigative journalist who was savagely beaten in a Moscow side-street two years ago said he had identified one of his attackers as a security guard at an annual pro-Kremlin youth camp

* The Syrian authorities have assured Moscow that there will be no use of chemical weapons against rebel forces, Russia’s foreign minister said

* President Vladimir Putin relieved Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov of his duties, and appointed Sergei Shoigu as his replacement

* Russia calls on the United Nations to improve the international mechanism of nuclear disaster notification, Russia’s envoy to the UN Vitaly Churkin said at a UN General Assembly session

SPORTS

* Roger Federer broke another record in his sensational career, beating Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic in London to post the most wins at the World Tour Finals

* President Vladimir Putin said Russia's "high expectations" of success at the London Olympics went unmet, and ordered officials to draw lessons from the experience

* Novak Djokovic won his opening match at the $8.85 million World Tour Finals in London, defeating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in two sets

BUSINESS

* Greece auctioned 1.3 billion euros ($1.6 billion) in short-term debt on Tuesday, with the yield slightly easing from a previous auction, the Public Debt Management Agency reported

* Gazprom has signed a revised gas price deal with Poland’s PGNiG, bringing the terms of its natural gas deliveries into line with trends on spot gas markets, the gas monopoly said

DEFENSE

* India and Russia have signed two contracts for the delivery of Russian antitank missiles, a source close to the Indian Defense Ministry said