WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republicans seeking a comeback from recent losses may pick up the governor’s seats in Virginia and New Jersey on Tuesday in campaigns that tested the limits of President Barack Obama’s influence.

Democrats were bracing for the unhappy possibility they could go down to defeat not just in those two states but in a congressional district in upstate New York where a conservative candidate was leading.

The election outcome could give some clues as to the national mood a year after Obama was elected president and a year before 2010 congressional elections that will represent the first clear referendum on Obama’s time in office.

While local factors influenced all three races, the weak state of the U.S. economy was an overarching issue that played a role in each state.

In Virginia, Republican Bob McDonnell was leading Democrat Creigh Deeds by double digits in opinion polls as Virginians went to the polls — an opportunity for Republicans a year after Obama became the first Democratic presidential nominee to win the state since 1964.

Two appearances on Deeds’ behalf by Obama appeared to have little impact on the race, as Democrats suffered a lack of enthusiasm without Obama on the ticket and Republicans were energized by the chance to take back the governor’s seat, held by Democrats the past eight years. Voting ends at 7 p.m. EST (0000 GMT) and the winner could be known a few hours later.

OBAMA CAMPAIGNS FOR CORZINE

In New Jersey, Republican Chris Christie has been running neck and neck with Democratic Governor Jon Corzine, the former Wall Street executive who has pumped $23 million of his own money into his campaign. A poll released on Monday gave the Republican a slight lead.

Independent candidate Chris Daggett trailed, and a key question concerned how many of Daggett’s supporters would abandon him for Christie or Corzine and sway the race.

Obama campaigned with Corzine on Sunday and made a last-ditch appeal for the Democrat, trying to generate more enthusiasm for him.

“We will not lose this election if all of you are as committed as you were last year,” he said. “So I want everybody in this auditorium to make a pledge that in these next 48 hours, you will work just as hard for Jon as you worked for me.”

New Jersey polls close at 8 p.m. EST (0100 GMT Wednesday) but it could be some hours before the outcome is clear.

While a Virginia loss for the Democrats could be considered fairly predictable in a state long considered a Republican stronghold, a defeat in New Jersey would be seen as a bigger blow to the party because the state is heavily Democratic. Obama won it by 16 points last year.

“If the Democrats win New Jersey and lose Virginia, I would basically say, no harm, no foul,” said Democratic strategist Doug Schoen. “The only real adverse impact is if the administration loses two campaigns, especially one they’re heavily invested in New Jersey.”

In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared headed to victory over Democrat Bill Thompson after engineering a rules change to allow him to run for a third term and spending millions of his own money on his campaign. As of last month, the billionaire mayor had spent $85 million to Thompson’s $6 million.

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LUCKNOW: An FIR was on Thursday lodged against SP general secretary Amar Singh and his wife Pankaja Kumari Singh in Kanpur for alleged financial
fraud amounting to about Rs 500 crore, a senior police official said here. ( Watch Video )

The case was lodged at Babupurwa police station, charging the leader with amalgamating companies for converting black money into white, Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Brij Lal told PTI.

Shiv Kant Tiwari, in his 14-page complaint, alleged that between 2003-2008 the couple amalgamated their companies with other holdings and had amassed nearly Rs 500 crore in the process, DIG (Kanpur) Neera Rawat said.

The companies named in the FIR included Energy Development Company Limited, EDCL Power Limited, Pankaja Art and Credit Limited, Sarvottam Cap Limited, EDCL Infrastructure Limited and Eastern India Company, all owned or run by the Singh couple.

“The complainant alleged that small utilities were amalgamated in these companies. For instance, he claimed that 25 companies were amalgamated in Sarvottam Cap Limited,” the ADG said.

He said that name of actor Amitabh Bachchan had also been mentioned in the complaint.

“The FIR has been lodged under various sections of IPC, Prevention of Corruption Act and Prevention of Laundering Act,” he said.

Islamabad: The anti-terror law in Pakistan has been amended allowing authorities to act against members of outlawed groups that set up new outfits with different names, a move which may have ramifications for Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) whose founder Hafiz Saeed floated Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) after it was banned.

An ordinance promulgated on Saturday by President Asif Ali Zardari amending the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 stated that if “office bearers, activists or associates of a proscribed organisation form a new organisation under a different name, upon suspicion about their involvement in similar activities, the said organisation shall also be deemed to be a proscribed organisation.”

The government may then “issue a formal notification” about the proscription of the new group formed by members of a banned organisation, it said.

Soon after the LeT was banned in Pakistan in the wake of the 2001 attack on Indian Parliament, its founder Saeed floated the JuD, describing it as a charitable organisation. The UN Security Council declared the JuD a front for the LeT after last year’s Mumbai terror attacks and imposed restrictions on Saeed.

The Pakistan government has said on several occasions that the JuD has been banned, though no formal written notification has been issued in this regard.

NEW DELHI (Dow Jones)–Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. has restructured the company in an attempt to renew its focus on sales and distribution, a senior executive said.

“We have restructured BSNL…earlier we used to focus on networks, now we will be focused on customer care, sales and distribution,” Kuldeep Goyal, BSNL chairman, said at a press conference.

Goyal said the state-run telecom company has created a new marketing unit, which currently has 4,000 employees.

The company plans to raise staff at its new sales unit to 10,000 by the end of the current fiscal year, Goyal said.

-By R Jai Krishna, Dow Jones Newswires

Pope: materialism, extremism harm Africa’s future

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict opened a special meeting of bishops on Africa on Sunday by praising the continent as the world’s spiritual center but lamenting that it risks being afflicted by materialism and religious fundamentalism.

A Congolese choir — with bongo drums, electric guitars and swaying, ululating singers — filled St. Peter’s Basilica with African hymns as Benedict formally opened the synod, a three-week gathering of some 300 prelates to discuss the church’s problems in Africa.

Benedict praised Africa’s rich cultural and spiritual treasures, saying they were the “spiritual lung” for a world increasingly in a crisis of faith and hope.

But he said Africa has also been afflicted by materialism — the “toxic spiritual garbage” exported by developed countries. “In this sense, colonialism — while finished in the political sphere — hasn’t really ended,” he said.

As a result, Africa is also at risk for increasing religious fundamentalism.

Groups claiming to be from religious backgrounds are spreading across the continent. “They are doing so in the name of God, but with a logic that is opposed to divine logic: teaching and working not with love and respect for freedom, but with intolerance and violence,” he said.

He urged the Catholic Church in Africa to be a voice of reconciliation, justice and peace among the continent’s various ethnic and religious groups.

The Catholic Church is growing enormously in Africa; between 1978 and 2007, the number of Catholics grew from 55 million to 146 million. Vatican statistics show that more than 17 percent of Africa’s population is Catholic.

But at the same time, the region’s poverty, conflicts and AIDS have posed challenges for the church. Among the thorny issues that bishops might raise at the synod is the Vatican’s ban on condom use. Many say condoms could help prevent the spread of AIDS on the continent.

During the meeting, several outside experts will be addressing the prelates, including the head of the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force for Darfur, Sudan, and the head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.