US Democratic challenger John Kerry refused to surrender to George W. Bush in the decisive state of Ohio, throwing the presidential election into gridlock. US Barack Obama, a rising African-American star of the Democratic Party and Ken Salazar, a newly-minted Hispanic senator-elect, toasted their historic elections to the US Senate, traditionally a bastion of white male patricians. Australia Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said US President George W. Bush was headed for re-election and it would take a miracle for Democratic challenger John Kerry to win. US President George W. Bush's Republican Party retained control of Congress and was poised to strengthen its grip on the two chambers when all the ballots are counted from Tuesday's congressional elections. Iraq A US-Lebanese man working for Iraq's transport ministry was kidnapped overnight from his house in the smart Baghdad neighbourhood of Mansour, the second time a foreign civilian has been snatched from his home in just 48 hours, police said. Iraq Five Jordanians, including four truck drivers, have been kidnapped in Iraq, officials and their relatives said, as Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi visited the kingdom. Afghanistan Incumbent leader Hamid Karzai was officially declared the winner of Afghanistan's first presidential election by a spokesman for the election commission. Afghanistan Taliban splinter group claiming to hold three foreign UN workers in Afghanistan extended a deadline for their killing as an Afghan official expressed optimism at obtaining the hostages' release. Mideastl Israel must prepare for the death of veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who is suffering from a mysterious illness in a Paris hospital, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said. Japan Charles Jenkins was dishonorably discharged from the US army 39 years after he deserted to North Korea, tearfully telling a tribunal he was a young man scared of war and was kept in the enemy state through fear and beatings. Iran Thousands of Iranians gathered outside the former American embassy in Tehran to mark the 25th anniversary of the US hostage crisis after the mission was stormed by militant Islamic students.