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>> america decides. after an 18-month campaign, americans go to the poles. go to the polls. this is scene live from columbus, ohio. for governor mitt romney, the campaigning continues in two key battleground states. >> president obama promised change. but he couldn't deliver it. i promised change and i have a record of achieving it. >> and planning to play basketball and have a family dinner having issued his final rallying call. >> our work is not done. our fight for change goes on. because we know this nation cannot succeed. >> hello and welcome to gmt. i'm tim wilcox.

also coming up in the program, more on the murder of the man who brought down -- and claims neil hayward supplied information about him and his family to britain's secret service. and the blockbuster with game members queuing around the block. hello, it's midday here in london and 7:00 a.m. in beijing and 7:00 a.m. in washington where after the campaign, the polls have opened. let's go live to jane hill there. >> hello. and welcome to washington, d.c. millions of americans are going to the polls today to decide who will be their president for the next four years. the race between the democratic president, barack obama and governor mitt romney is one of the tightest in decades and may well be decided in a handful of key states.

president obama appears to have the lead in a number of those key states but governor romney is campaigning right up to the wire and taking part in rallies in ohio and pennsylvania. more from adam brooks. ♪ >> opening for the president of the united states. it's jay-z revving up the crowd during last-minute campaigning in ohio. [applause] >> mr. obama needs all the star power he can get. this election is very, very close. americans are deeply divided on mr. obama's record and not sure they believe that america's economy is mending. >> we have made real progress, ohio, but the reason why we're sheer because we have got more work to do. >> the republican challenger was in ohio, too. mitt romney's supporters are

energizesed. but do voters trust his pitch of markets to heal the american economy or sound a bit like the economics that caused the crash? >> talk is cheap but a record is real and it's earned. change can't be measured in speeches. it's measured in results. >> so the political future of barack obama now hangs in the balance. has he done enough to persuade voters he deserves another four years in the big house behind me or will he find his name added to the sorry list of one-term presidents. >> mr. obama has argued furiously for his second term and seems now to hold a narrow lead in the polls but the challenger, mitt romney says he is confident he can snatch the presidency from obama and return america to a

conservative road. >> to a quick look. the morning papers give you the sense of decision day. perhaps an element of slight relief if you can imagine the headlines written. decision day, "the wall street journal." >> decision day in america, and the "new york times," state-by-state, the battle for the president goes to the voters. i have absolutely lost count in the last 48 hours or so. of every pundit i have heard and spoken to that said above everything what they want is a decisive result one way or the other. it is the voters' turn to speak. >> and the huge amounts of early voting. we talked about polling day. they do allow early voting. in the states that do, we have seen quite a remarkable turnout. it is voting day. it is the scene in ohio, one of

the closest states as we have been saying. fur staying up, watching the election coverage. also arlington, virginia another key state. just a sense of people out and about. of course it's only 7:00 a.m. in the morning the polls generally open at 6:00 so people have been queuing already for some time in places. our correspondent zoey conway is there. what sort of turnout is there in madison, zoey? >> well, i amp standing in front of one of the polling stations in the center of madison. the city in wisconsin. and we're expecting the polling station here to open in about an hour's time. they are expecting record turnout. that's because this state has just gotten so much attention from the two campaigners. they have had star power and

katy perry and bruce springsteen campaigning for president obama but also because mitt romney's running mate, paul ryan, is from wisconsin and was born here and grew up here and he has been doing a lot of campaigning here. but also the two campaigners are saying they have never been more organized in getting the vote out than here in wisconsin. >> abc lootly vital. and what's interesting about that is we know the obama campaign has a really sophisticated expert way of doing things. so it's the techniques they honed back in 2008. i know as the romney camp would say, they have the enthusiasm and want to encourage people to vote. i guess we can't overemphasize how crucials that. in lots of places, including where you are. >> absolutely. and what the republican party

would say here, why they are confident in taking the this state is because they have been doing so much over the last couple of years to get the republican votes out. just two years ago they managed to capture the governorship here. the republican governor came in two years ago. and just a year ago there was an effort to try to get rid of him. a recall vote is what it's called, but that vote failed partly because the republicans were so good at mobilizing its support base so that's another reason why they say they could still capture wisconsin despite fact that president obama won this state by a resounding 14 points he beat john cane. and that state hasn't voted for a republican president since 1984 when they voted for ronald regan here. so it is a steep mountain climb

for the republicans but they are fairly confident today. >> it's interesting. thank you very much zoey conway in madison, wisconsin. a lot of talk here about individual voting blocks in some areas, these are groups of voters that parties have deliberately targeted or in some instances you could argue left sit back -- maria, good morning to you. thank you for being with us. i'm wary of general liesing. but it's an interesting voting block for the latino vote, because it is growing and growing. for instance there are many more hispanic voters eligible to vote, aren't there? >> yes. but also they are in different

parts of the country. the electoral map was written in 2010 where the weight was no longer in the coast. no longer just new york, south carolina and florida. now it's in colorado, is obama or romney going to take it? you find too often that people don't realize the latino vote is undersampled when it comes to polling. i think we'll see a lot of surprises tonight. >> well that's surprising, because you have rattled off a bit about the states. and there's a state with more than a million latino voters. on election day you have 2.4 million latinos that have come

to -- of age to vote. that's three electoral seats. also because there's such an extreme view that's been taken by republicans that latinos feel like they have no choice but to go democratic. because of the tone republican party has taken in the last year and a half over the latino voter, they feel they have no choice but to go to the democratic party. let's not forget that president bush realized he had to have a tempered tone when it came to the latino people, so he won

with a very heavy support by latinos. >> and he has been all over the networks, >> right behind his mom. >> the whole biden family. voting in delaware. we're talking to maria. the president and c.e.o. of voter latino. forgive me. we were touching on the immigration issue. is it your contention that, i mean you were talking about the republican party not reaching out to the latina voters. it's a section of voters neither party can take for granted right now. >> correct.

they are very much a swing voter and just getting into the political process because they are so young so it's ripe for parties to go after them and right now i bet karl rove is shaking his head and saying what did he do? if he would have talked to voters about homes and the opportunity. >> there's an assumption that if you're not white you're going to vote for barack obama? >> well, there's misconception that the latino vote represents democrats but somebody in florida is going to have a different life experience than someone in california. it's a lot easier to blink at someone with a message and figure they are in one camp or another and that's often what happens with the latino vote.

>> let's say mitt romney is the to the children of people who cross into the country? >> well, president obama did a stopgap measure allowing folks to stay here and come out of the shadows for the next two years for him to say he is going to repeal it has people not only nervous and scared but part of his family values willing to separate families? begs the question if that's actually going to happen >> anyway, thank you very much. voting continues across the u.s.a. still early here in washington. much more to come here. overlooking the white house, who will be living there come the next couple of days?

back to you in london. >> thank you very much. there will be a special u.s. election hosted by david here on "bbc world news." that's at 23:35 this gmt tuesday and extensive reactions from across the let's go back to them now the vice president of the united states voting in this, his state. he has been living there since 1993. the united states -- k see there. with his wife. jill. and also his son is there as well. one of his four sons. joseph. joseph is there as well.

he's been doing a lot of campaigning for his father. and joe biden casting his vote on this election day. of course many people have already cast their votes by post or in person. they will be going to the polls today. just shaking hands with a foo officials there just before he gets up to the voting booth himself. >> much more. the american elections are today but still to come on gmt a new twist to the death of neil hayward in china. was he an informant for spy agent? >> hundreds of ukrainian reporters have reported in kiev claiming the results were

rigged by his ruling party. kimberly reports. >> an uneasy standoff in the capital of kiev. supporters rallied outside the election headquarters chanting and then this led to pushing and shoving. they said the delayed vote count is being rigged in favor of pro government candidates. >> there were a lot of falsifications. both from parties and individual constituencies. >> our pensions were robbed except the ruling party's. >> void by their supporters

outside, the ukrainians went to the election . the chief rival, former prime minister is in prison and was barred from running altogether. but authorities deny claims of vote-rigging and say the opposition is only trying to intimidate election officials. kimberly. "bbc news." >> a quick reminder. you can follow all the latest information. our reporters working across the world in 27 different languages on bbc.com/world service/world languages. >> you're watching g.m. place from "bbc world news" with me tim wilcox. our main story this hour.

u.s. polling station vs opened on the east coast and americans will choose their president for the next four years. >> covering every moment of that election throughout the morning. the latest business news, because greece holding another general strike, the third in six weeks. but they seem to be close if they can get this austerity package threw. >> the hope is that they can cut more out of the budget. trillions. obviously that's not gone down well with the general population. we have not only public sector workers who you would imagine to be more militant but also private sector workers meaning general strikes happening. >> i'm sorry. we'll go back to wilmington and delaware.

there we go. joe biden just nipping in to that booth there. and he needs a bit of prive circus because he is not sure which way he is going to vote. so he needs to be alone while he makes that decision. >> the other people queuing for voting. >> thank you. now it's time for his wife, jill. not quite clear whether -- which way she is voting, either. i think you can guess, though. and joe biden now just going to the back of the polling station there. waiting for his wife and family to come out. having cast their vote. now i so rudely interrupted business. but you were going to talk to me about the bankers and the

greece. >> with the kurtens and his feet sticking out. ominous. but what exactly one makes of the greek situation. >> the greek debt is owned by the german and french government, and that is back on track with what is the case in the past. with the first with the fear owned by private investors, banks, and insurance companies and so on. now it's own bid taxpayers money. so now it's much more politically sensitive. >> now the big games market. it's earning huge revenues for these companies? >> yes. halo 4 came out last night. it's a huge game series. i was telling you earlier about the sheer size of this. if you put together the entire james bond franchise in its 30 or 40 years, around $57.3

billion. yes. >> about $5.3 billion. >> halo has already earned $3 billion. they estimate the total worldwide for computer games will be $7 billion. it dwarves every other entertainment market. best known as the dad of lara croft. here's what he had to say. >> well, the gaming industry is growing year after year. it's to set be worth $90 billion by 2015. consoles and their christianmatic approach to making games. but everybody is carrying a mobilizing device with them, angry birds, which has a billion downloads. people playing games on facebook.

>> and that's your business news. >> angry birds on a lot of people's phones. now let's november on, because neil hayward, the businessman who was murdered had been supplying spying services to britain before his death and now one of the most powerful politicians, his wife was sentenced to 15 years in prison for poisoning mr. hayward. well, earlier this year britain's foreign secretary responded to news he was working for mi 6 and it was exceptionally appropriate for me to confirm he was not an combree of the newspaper says while he was there he passed

information >> well, it seemed there was an informal relationship with someone who he may have started off thinking was a foreign official but then revealed himself to be an mi 6 employee but then the relationship continued and what it appears what was happening was this was a relationship in which information was passed. but sources i spoke to said mr. hayward was never formally an agent of mi 6. so he was never paid money or tasked. that's the difference when mi 6 says we want you get this secret information for us so if there was a relationship and information passed, it was very informal or discussions you

might inspect -- suspect he knew and the wall street journal was saying the individual said he was with mi 6 and the relationship continued to there was a passing of information but there was never a formal payment for information more like social. william hague said he was never a employee of the british government. that's a clear statement but it leaves room for a much more informal relationship, a kind of social relationship which may well have occurred. >> his death resulting in his body being purged and his wife was sentenced to 15 years or more for his life but did

british agencies follow up after his zpheath >> well, i think one of the interesting questions. he died a year ago in november but it took quite a while for there to be a focus on his death and the suspicious nature of it. at first it was accepted that this was an innocent, if you like, no foul play involved. and it was only when a police chief fled to the american conscience laft and started saying it was something theals it started to change. so if he did sh >> good. >> americans are going to the polls after an 18-month campaign. these are scenes live as americans cast their votes. that's it for me, bye-bye.

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