NEWS,11.05.2013

Turkey car blast death toll rises to 43

The death toll of twin car bombs in a Turkish town near the Syrian border rose to 43 and wounded many more on Saturday and the government said it suspected Syrian involvement.

The bombing increased fears that Syria's civil war was dragging in neighbouring states despite renewed diplomatic moves towards ending two years of fighting in which more than 70 000 people have been killed.

The bombs ripped into crowded streets near Reyhanli's shopping district in the early afternoon, scattering concrete blocks and smashing cars in the town in Turkey's southern Hatay province, home to thousands of Syrian refugees.

Restaurants and cafes were destroyed and body parts were strewn across the streets. The damage went at least three blocks deep from the site of the blasts.

President Bashar Assad's administration was the "usual suspect" in the attacks, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said.

"We know that the people taking refuge in Hatay have become targets for the Syrian regime," Arinc said in comments broadcast on Turkish television. "We think of them as the usual suspects when it comes to planning such a horrific attack."

Condemned

Another deputy prime minister, Besir Atalay, was quoted by NTV as saying initial findings suggested the attackers came from inside Turkey, but had links to Syria's intelligence agency.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Nor was there any comment from Damascus.

The United States strongly condemned the attacks and vowed support in identifying those responsible, while Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius voiced "full solidarity" with Turkey.

Nato member Turkey supports the uprising against Assad and violence has crossed the border before, but not on the same scale. The bombings were the bloodiest incident on Turkish soil since Syria's conflict began more than two years ago.

War fears

Turkey is far from alone in fearing the impact of Syria's war, which is already helping inflame the Middle East's tangle of sectarian, religious and nationalist struggles.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said it was no coincidence the bombings came as diplomatic moves to end the Syrian conflict intensify.

"There may be those who want to sabotage Turkey's peace, but we will not allow that," Davutoglu told reporters during a trip to Berlin. "No one should attempt to test Turkey's power."

Prospects appeared to improve this week for diplomacy to try to end the civil war, now in its third year, after Moscow and Washington announced a joint effort to bring government and rebels to an international conference.

But a Russian official said on Saturday that there was already disagreement over who would take part and he doubted whether a meeting could happen this month.

As well as disputes over who would represent the rebels and government at any talks, there have also been questions over possible participation by Assad's Shi'ite ally Iran. The rebels are backed by the largely Sunni Gulf states.

Diplomats in New York said the Syria meeting would likely slip into June and it was unclear who would participate.
Death toll may rise

In Reyhanli, smoke poured from charred ruins after the blasts outside administrative buildings.

"My children were so scared because it reminded them of the bombings when we were in Aleppo. God help us," said one refugee from the northern Syrian city, a mother of three who gave her name as Kolsum.

Atalay said 43 people had been killed, while Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warned the toll could rise. Officials said more than 100 people were injured, many of them critically.

Erdogan said the bombings might have been related to Turkey's own peace process with Kurdish militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who began a withdrawal this week to end a three decade conflict.

Syrian refugees

But the PKK's main area of operation was hundreds of kilometres further east and Erdogan said the blasts could also have been aimed at provoking sensitivities in a region that is home to so many Syrian refugees.

Turkey is sheltering more than 300 000 Syrians, most of them in camps along the 900km frontier, and is struggling to keep up with the influx.

Protests erupted in Reyhanli after the blasts, with some locals blaming Syrian there for bringing violence over the frontier and smashing their car windows, while others railed against Turkey's foreign policy, chanting for Erdogan to resign.

The main opposition Syrian National Coalition said the attacks were a failed attempt to "destroy the brotherhood" between Syrians and Turks and were intended as a punishment for Turkey's support of the uprising.

Erdogan said this week Turkey would support a US-enforced no-fly zone in Syria and warned that Damascus crossed President Barack Obama's "red line" on chemical weapons use long ago.

A no-fly zone to prohibit Syrian military aircraft from hitting rebel targets has been mentioned by American lawmakers as one option the United States could use to pressure Assad.

Erdogan is due to meet Obama in Washington on May 16.

Violence also crossed the border in February, when a minibus blew up at a border crossing near Reyhanli, killing 14 people.

The Syrian opposition said one of its delegations appeared to have been the target of that attack, but there has been no confirmation of this from the Turkish authorities.

In October, five Turkish civilians were killed in Akcakale when a mortar bomb fired from Syria landed on their house, prompting Turkey to fire back across the frontier.

Sharif claims victory in Pakistan vote

Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif late on Saturday declared victory for his centre-right opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) party and invited other parties to work with him.

"We should thank Allah that he has given PML-N another chance to serve you and Pakistan," he said in a speech to jubilant supporters, who shouted "prime minister Nawaz Sharif" in his powerbase Lahore.

"Whatever promises we made with our youth, I assure you that we fulfil each of them. Results are still coming but there is a confirmation that PML-N will emerge as the largest party," Sharif said.

According to the unofficial, partial results it appeared that no single party would win a simple majority of 172 seats in the national assembly, raising the prospect of protracted talks to form a coalition government.

"I appeal for all parties to come to the table and sit with me and solve the country's problems," Sharif said.

"I'm doing this only because of you. If it had been only myself, I would not talk to them but it's for you and for the survival of your future generations," he added.

Iran ex-leader Rafsanjani to stand again

Iran's moderate conservative former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Saturday registered his candidacy to stand for the office again in the election on 14 June, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

Rafsanjani, who will be 79 in August, filed his papers at the interior ministry during the final minutes of the five-day registration process which wrapped up on Saturday.

"I came to serve. It is the right of the people to choose me or not," Iranian media quoted him as saying.

Rafsanjani has been isolated since the 2009 presidential election, which saw massive street protests against the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

He then called for the release of people rounded up during the demonstrations.

Rafsanjani, president between 1989 and 1997, currently chairs the Expediency Council, the highest political arbitration body, whose members are appointed by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Heavyweight

Also on Saturday, Saeed Jalili, Iran's top nuclear negotiator and close figure to all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, unexpectedly showed up at the ministry and registered his candidacy.

A veteran of the 1980s war with Iraq in which he lost his lower right leg, Jalili, 47, did not speak to reporters, an AFP correspondent said.

Jalili heads the team in negotiations with world powers over Tehran's controversial atomic activities which the West fears are aimed at developing a military capacity, a claim denied by Iran.

According to the interior ministry, more than 450 people have registered, including 14 women. Approved candidates will have three weeks to campaign before polling day on 14 June.

Milan: Man kills 1 in pickaxe rampage

An immigrant from Ghana went on a rampage with a pickaxe in Milan at dawn on Saturday, killing a passerby and wounding four others in an apparently random attack, police said.

Carabinieri paramilitary police in Milan said the 21-year-old attacker was taken into custody shortly after the attacks in a residential area on the northern outskirts of the city.

People working in cafes and other businesses near the attack told Sky TG24 TV that the man wildly swung a pickaxe, running down streets and ferociously striking passersby, mainly on the head. Pools of blood stained the streets.

A 40-year-old man died after being struck on the head with the pickaxe and suffering further blows to the abdomen while he lay on the ground, police said. The victim was described as an unemployed man who was heading to a cafe near his home.

Among those wounded was a man in his 20s who was helping his father deliver newspapers to newsstands; another was a man walking his dog.

Motive

At first it appeared five people had been wounded, but police later said the sixth person the attacker swung at darted into a doorway in the nick of time and escaped injury.

Two of the wounded were in critical condition.

Police said the motive was unclear.

"Police blocked him with difficulty. He was in an evident state of marked psychological stress," Colonel Biagio Storniolo told reporters. Asked about the motive, Storniolo said the suspect "was not being co-operative. He says only that he is hungry and has no home".

The man, identified as Mada Kabobo, 21, was jailed while he is investigated for murder and two counts of attempted murder for the two persons who were most critically wounded, police said.

Previous arrest

First media reports said the man had ignored a 2011 expulsion order because he was not legally in the country, but police later clarified that the expulsion papers had not yet been issued because legal proceedings in southern Italy were pending.

Police said they identified the suspect, who had no documents on him, from fingerprints.

Police said he was in the country illegally, and had previously been arrested in the Puglia region for alleged, theft, robbery, property damage and resisting public authorities.

Milan Mayor Giuliano Pisapia said the entire city was shocked that a man would go on such a rampage, "killing one and wounding several, even gravely, just because he ran into them on his path".

Cleveland women face long road to healing

Year after year, the clock ticked by and the calendar marched forward, carrying the three women further from the real world and pulling them deeper into an isolated nightmare.

Now, for the women freed from captivity inside a Cleveland house, the ordeal is not over. Next comes recovery - from sexual abuse and their sudden, jarring re-entry into a world much different from the one they were snatched from a decade ago.

Therapists say that with extensive treatment and support, healing is likely for the women, who were 14, 16 and 21 when they were abducted. But it is often a long and difficult process.

"It's sort of like coming out of a coma," says Dr Barbara Greenberg, a psychologist who specialises in treating abused teenagers. "It's a very isolating and bewildering experience."

In the world the women left behind, a gallon of gas cost about $1.80. Barack Obama was a state senator. Phones were barely taking pictures. Things did not "go viral". There was no YouTube, no Facebook, no iPhone.

Adolescence taken

Emerging into the future is difficult enough. The two younger Cleveland women are doing it without the benefit of crucial formative years.

"By taking away their adolescence, they weren't able to develop emotional and psychological and social skills," says Duane Bowers, who counsels traumatised families through the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.

"They're 10 years behind in these skills. Those need to be caught up before they can work on reintegrating into society," he says.

That society can be terrifying. As freed captive Georgina DeJesus arrived home from the hospital, watched by a media horde, she hid herself beneath a hooded sweatshirt. The freed Amanda Berry slipped into her home without being seen.

"They weren't hiding from the press, from the cameras," Bowers says. "They were hiding from the freedom, from the expansiveness."

Control

In the house owned by Ariel Castro, who is charged with kidnapping and raping the women, claustrophobic control ruled.

Police say Castro kept them chained in a basement and locked in upstairs rooms, that he fathered a child with one of them, and that he starved and beat his captives into multiple miscarriages.

In all those years, they only set foot outside of the house twice - and then only as far as the garage.

"Something as simple as walking into a Target is going to be a major problem for them," Bowers says.

Jessica Donohue-Dioh, who works with survivors of human trafficking as a social work instructor at Xavier University in Cincinnati, says the freedom to make decisions can be one of the hardest parts of recovery.

"'How should I respond? What do they really want from me?'" Donohue-Dioh says, describing a typical reaction. "They may feel they may not have a choice in giving the right answer."

Kidnap survivors

That has been a challenge for Jaycee Dugard, who is now an advocate for trauma victims after surviving 18 years in captivity - "learning how to speak up, how to say what I want instead of finding out what everybody else wants," Dugard told ABC News.

Like Berry, Dugard was impregnated by her captor and is now raising the two children. She still feels anger about her ordeal.

"But then on the other hand, I have two beautiful daughters that I can never be sorry about," Dugard says.

Another step toward normalcy for the three women will be accepting something that seems obvious to the rest of the world: They have no reason to feel guilty.

"First of all, I'd make sure these young women know that nothing that happened to them is their fault," Elizabeth Smart, who was kidnapped at age 14 and held in sexual captivity for nine months, told People magazine.

Guilt
Donohue-Dioh says that even for people victimised by monstrous criminals, guilt is a common reaction. The Cleveland women told police they were snatched after accepting rides from Castro.

"They need to recognise that what happened as a result of that choice is not the rightful or due punishment. That's really difficult sometimes," Donohue-Dioh says.
Family support will be crucial, the therapists say. But what does family mean when one member has spent a decade trapped with strangers?

"The family has to be ready to include a stranger into its sphere," Bowers says. "Because if they try to reintegrate the 14-year-old girl who went missing, that's not going to work. That 14-year-old girl doesn't exist anymore. They have to accept this stranger as someone they don't know."

Natascha Kampusch, who was kidnapped in Austria at age 10 and spent eight years in captivity, has said that her 2006 reunion with her family was both euphoric and awkward.

"I had lived for too long in a nightmare, the psychological prison was still there and stood between me and my family," Kampusch wrote in 3096 Days, her account of the ordeal.

Kampusch, now 25, said in a German television interview that she was struggling to form normal relationships, partly because many people seem to shy away from her.

"What a lot of these people say is, what's more important than what happened is how people react," says Greenberg, the psychologist.

Sympathy, support

The world has reacted to the Cleveland women with an outpouring of sympathy and support. This reaction will live on, amplified by the technologies that rose while the women were locked away.

Yet these women are more than the sum of their Wikipedia pages. Dugard, Smart and other survivors often speak of not being defined by their tragedies - another challenge for the Cleveland survivors.

"A classmate will hear their name, or a co-worker, and will put them in this box: This is who you are and what happened to you," Donohue-Dioh says. "Our job as society is to move beyond what they are and what they've experienced."

"This isn't who they are," Dugard told People. "It is only what happened to them."

Still, for the three Cleveland women, their journey forward will always include that horrifying lost decade.

"We can't escape our past," Donohue-Dioh says, "so how are we able to manage how much it influences our present and our future?"

NEWS,05.11.2012

'King-maker' Ohio final stop before poll

President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney stormed into the final day of campaigning before Election Day, on 6 November, once again visiting the toughest battleground state of all - Ohio. The industrial Midwestern state has picked the winner of the last 12 electionNationwide polls show the two locked in one of the closest, and most expensive, presidential races in recent US history.But a majority of polls in the battleground states especially in Ohio and other Midwestern states of Iowa and Wisconsin show Obama with a slight advantage. That gives him an easier path to the 270 electoral votes needed for victory. No Republican has won the White House without carrying Ohio, and it was possible that Romney would make a last-minute visit to the state on Election Day.Under the US system, the winner is not determined by the nationwide popular vote but in state-by-state contests, making nine "battleground" states that don't consistently vote Republican nor Democratic extremely important in such a tight race. Winning a state gives Romney or Obama that state's electoral votes, which are apportioned to states based on a mix of population and representation in Congress.This year's tight race raises the possibility of a replay of the chaotic 2000 election, when Republican George W Bush won the presidency with an electoral vote majority while Democrat Al Gore had a narrow lead in the nationwide popular vote.Both Obama and Romney say this year's winner will be determined by which of their campaigns can get the most supporters to the polls. "This is going to be a turnout election," the president declared in an interview airing on Monday. Obama needs the support of blacks and Hispanics to counter Romney's support among while men, but his campaign knows that the feeling of making history by electing America's first black president that fired up the 2008 campaign, has cooled.Rock legend Bruce Springsteen and rapper Jay-Z were joining Obama for Ohio events on Monday."We have one job left," and that's getting people out to vote, Romney told a Florida crowd on Monday morning. The crowd chanted, "One more day!"The cost of the presidential campaign has surged past $2bn.Romney, who described himself as "severely conservative" during the Republican primary campaign, has shifted sharply in recent weeks to appeal to the political centre and highlights what he says was his bipartisan record as governor of Democratic leaning Massachusetts. He continues to insist that his experience as a businessman would help fix the still-weak US economy a top issue with voters.Obama has come back from a weak performance in his first of three debates with Romney last month and hammered at Romney's shifting positions.The final national Wall Street Journal Poll, released on Sunday, showed Obama with the support of 48% of likely voters, with Romney receiving 47%. The poll had a margin of error of 2.55 percentage points.The final national poll from the Pew Research Centre found Obama with a three-point edge over Romney, 48% to 45% among likely voters, an improved showing that indicates the president may have benefited from his handling of the response to last week's Superstorm Sandy. Obama suspended three full days of campaigning to deal with the East Coast disaster. The Pew poll had a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.If the election were held now, an Associated Press analysis found that Obama would be all but assured of 249 electoral votes by carrying 20 states that are solidly Democratic or leaning his way and the District of Columbia. Romney would lay claim to 206, from probable victories in 24 states that are strong Republican ground or tilt toward the Republicans.Up for grabs are 83 electoral votes spread across Colorado, Florida, Ohio, New Hampshire, Virginia and Wisconsin. Of those, Republicans and Democrats alike say Obama seems in slightly better shape than Romney in Ohio and Wisconsin, while Romney appears to be performing slightly better than Obama or has pulled even in Virginia and Florida.With Obama sustaining his lead in Ohio, Romney has made a surprise, last-minute move in neighbouring Pennsylvania. The state has voted Democratic in the last five presidential elections and has long been counted in the Obama column. Romney made his first visit of the fall campaign on Sunday.The theme from the movie Rocky blared from the loudspeakers as he stepped to the podium in a Philadelphia suburb. "The people of America understand we're taking back the White House because we're going to win Pennsylvania," Romney told a large crowd on a cold night.Obama's campaign said Romney's move in Pennsylvania showed the Republican's desperation over his diminished chances in Ohio. And the Obama campaign announced that former president Bill Clinton Obama's most powerful surrogate would make four campaign stops in Pennsylvania on Monday.About 30 million people have already cast ballots in 34 states and the District of Columbia, although none will be counted until Election Day on Tuesday.Storm-hit New York and New Jersey hurried to make voting accessible in a region where more than 1 million remain without power. The states, however, are considered by both campaigns to be heavily for Obama.

 

Obama and Romney in final voter appeals

The Democratic incumbent, appearing in Madison, Wisconsin, drew a large crowd that was warmed up by Bruce Springsteen."Wisconsin, tomorrow you have a choice to make," he said. "It is a choice between two different visions for America."On the defensive throughout the year for presiding over persistently high unemployment, Obama said the choice was between the Republicans' "top-down policies that crashed our economy" and his own approach to moving the country forward.Romney was in Lynchburg, Virginia, telling voters: "One final push is going to get us there."We're only one day away from a fresh start, one day away from the start of a new beginning," he said.Obama was making stops in three swing states and Romney was hitting four.Their goal was to piece together the 270 Electoral College votes needed for victory in the state-by-state battle for the presidency.All eyes were on the Midwestern state of Ohio, whose 18 electoral votes could be decisive.After voting early in his home state of Massachusetts, Romney was considering a last-second visit to Ohio on election day to try to drive turnout, aides said.The election's outcome will impact a variety of domestic and foreign policy issues, from the looming "fiscal cliff" of spending cuts and tax increases that could kick in at the end of the year to questions about how to handle illegal immigration or Iran's nuclear ambitions.The balance of power in Congress also will be at stake, with Obama's Democrats now expected to narrowly hold their Senate majority and Romney's Republicans favoured to retain control of the House of Representatives.In a race where the two candidates and their party allies raised a combined $US2 billion , the most in US history, both sides have pounded the heavily contested battleground states with an unprecedented barrage of ads.The close margins in state and national polls suggested the possibility of a cliffhanger that could be decided by which side has the best turnout operation and gets its voters to the polls.In the final days, both Obama and Romney focused on firing up core supporters and wooing the last few undecided voters in battleground states.Romney reached out to dissatisfied Obama supporters from 2008, calling himself the candidate of change and ridiculing Obama's failure to live up to his campaign promises."He promised to do so very much but frankly he fell so very short," Romney said at a rally in Cleveland on Sunday.Obama, citing improving economic reports on the pace of hiring, argued in the final stretch that he has made progress in turning around the economy but needed a second White House term to finish the job."This is a choice between two different versions of America," Obama said in Cincinnati.Obama will close his campaign with a final blitz across Wisconsin, Ohio and Iowa - three Midwestern states that, barring surprises elsewhere, would be enough to get him more than the 270 electoral votes needed for victory.Polls show Obama has slim advantages in all three. His final stop on Monday night will be in Iowa, the state that propelled him to the White House in 2008 with a victory in its first-in-the nation caucus.Romney will visit his must-win states of Florida and Virginia where polls show he is slightly ahead or tied along with Ohio before concluding in New Hampshire, where he officially started his presidential run last year.The only state scheduled to get a visit on Monday US time from both candidates is Ohio, the most critical of the remaining battlegrounds - particularly for Romney. He has few paths to victory if he cannot win in Ohio, where Obama has kept a small but steady lead in polls for months.One in every eight jobs in Ohio is tied to car manufacturing and Obama has been buoyed in the state by his support for a federal bailout of the auto industry.Ohio also has a strong state economy with an unemployment rate lower than the 7.9% national rate.That has undercut Romney's frequent criticism of Obama's economic leadership, which has focused on the persistently high jobless rate and what Romney calls Obama's big-spending efforts to expand government power.Romney, who would be the first Mormon president, has centered his campaign pitch on his own experience as a business leader at a private equity fund and said it made him uniquely suited to create jobs.Obama's campaign fired back with ads criticising Romney's experience and portraying the multimillionaire as out of touch with everyday Americans.Obama and allies said Romney's firm, Bain Capital, plundered companies and eliminated jobs to maximize profits. They also made an issue of Romney's refusal to release more than two years of personal tax returns.

States that will decide White House race

The White House race has narrowed to a fight over less than 10 states ahead of Tuesday's tight election between President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.Obama's strategy, with a final day of campaigning to go, is to solidify his last line of defence in the industrial Midwest, and to try to pluck away several insurance states from Romney's target list elsewhere.The Republican challenger trails the president in polls in many of the battleground states but retains a narrow and plausible path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.Romney's camp also argues that the challenger may not even be behind, claiming that state polls are based on unrealistic assumptions of the size of the Democratic slice of the electorate and underplay Republican enthusiasm.Here is the state of play in swing states that will decide whether Obama wins a second term, or Romney recaptures the White House for Republicans.

The number of electoral votes each state has is in brackets.

Obama's last line of defence

If Obama wins Ohio, Wisconsin and Iowa, and avoids any upsets on his turf, he is all but certain to become only the second Democrat to win two White House terms since World War II.

Romney spent months trying to tear the president's Midwestern "firewall" but was hampered by an Obama advertising blitz hammering him as a wealthy plutocrat who disdains the middle class.

-    Ohio (18)

In most recent polls, Obama led Ohio between two and five points, an ominous sign for Romney, as no Republican since the Civil War has lost the state and gone on to win the White House.

Obama touts his bailout of the indebted auto industry in 2009 and Romney's opposition to it, as one-in-eight jobs in the state are linked to the sector.

His team believes that Romney has undermined his hopes in Ohio by running an ad warning that Chrysler will outsource production of its Jeep vehicles to China, a charge the company's CEO has said is false.

Obama leads an average of polls in Ohio by the  website by 2.8%.

-    Wisconsin (10)

Wisconsin has been solid Democratic territory for years: the last time a Republican won the state was Ronald Reagan in 1984.

But Republicans, who managed to repel an attempt by Democrats to oust Governor Scott Walker in a recall election this year, have a solid ground game in the state, and Romney's running mate Paul Ryan is a local boy.

The president leads average by 4.2%.

-    Iowa (6)

Where it all started for Obama. The president built his grass roots operation in the agricultural heartland state and believes that after carving out an advantage in early voting, he has the edge on Romney.

Obama leads average in Iowa by 2.5%.

Up for grabs

-    Florida (29)

The Sunshine State, the largest electoral battleground, is often decisive in presidential elections, but may not be the kingmaker this time. But Obama is competing fiercely there because if he wins, it is all but impossible for Romney to take the White House.
A punishing foreclosure crisis and an unemployment rate higher than the national average have many analysts expecting Florida to swing to Romney.

Obama has led several recent polls however, and if he can get a bumper turnout in Democratic strongholds in the southern part of the state, he could pull off a surprise.

Romney leads average by 1.4%.

-    Virginia (13)

Neither side seem to know whether the state will revert to Republicans after Obama became the first Democrat to win there since 1964. Obama needs to maximize turnout among students, and African American voters around the cities of Richmond and Norfolk.

Romney will count on old school conservatives in rural areas of the state and look to cut down on Obama's margins with educated middle class voters in the Washington DC suburbs.

Currently, Romney leads average by 0.3%.

-    North Carolina (15)

The most likely state to move from Democratic to Republican because Obama won it by only 14 000 votes in 2008. Romney aides are certain their man will win, but the Obama camp has mobilised a massive early voting effort, which it says will keep the president competitive into election day.

Romney is up 3.8% in scoreboard.

-    Colorado (9)

Romney's best chance to grab a western swing state. Obama is relying on women and Hispanic voters to keep him in the game here and currently heads the RCP average by 0.6%.

-    New Hampshire (4)

The flinty northeastern state with an independent streak knows Romney well after he served as governor of neighbouring Massachusetts.

Obama won this state, in 2008 and leads average this year by 1.5%.

May be over

-    Nevada (6)

The Obama campaign says it has a substantial lead after early voting which means Romney needs to win big in election day voting.
Obama has a powerbase among Hispanic voters, and his trip to the bowels of a vast Las Vegas casino hotel to greet culinary workers a few weeks ago looks to have paid off.

Obama leads Nevada by 2.8% in average.

Romney's last stand

-    Pennsylvania (20), Michigan (16), Minnesota (10)

Romney will make a late swoop into Pennsylvania on Sunday after ignoring the Keystone State for much of the campaign. Democrats say his move shows desperation and recognition that he cannot get to 270 electoral votes elsewhere. Obama leads the RCP average by 3.9%.

Republicans have also made big advertising buys in Democratic states Minnesota, where Obama is up by 5.8 five points, according to RCP and in Michigan where Obama leads by 3.8% in the averages.

Obama aide David Axelrod is so confident that he has offered to shave his trademark moustache if Romney wins any of the trio.

NEWS,24.10.2012

Obama and Israel: The Record, the Facts

 

President Obama has been criticized for being wrong for Israel. Even in the third debate of the Presidential campaign, a lovefest toward Israel, which was mentioned 31 times by the candidates, Governor Romney managed to get in a couple jibes against Obama's Israel policy. "I think the tension that existed between Israel and the United States was very unfortunate." He went on to complain that Obama had not visited Israel, inferred that Obama had a poor relationship with the Jewish State, and accused Obama of wanting "to create daylight between ourselves and Israel." Others opposed to the president have even been known to claim that Obama is the worst president for Israel in American history. But history emphatically tells us otherwise. Many presidents saw Israel as a burden and acted accordingly. Truman recognized Israel's existence six minutes after its birth, but also embargoed arms before and during Israel's War of Liberation. Eisenhower, who doubted whether Israel should have even been created, forced Israel to return its gains in the Sinai and Gaza in 1956 by making a variety of threats, including ending tax-deductible gifts to Israel. Ford set up a reassessment of America's Middle East policy in 1975 because he was angry at the Israelis for refusing a proposed disengagement agreement with Egypt. Carter brokered the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, but otherwise endlessly clashed with Israel. George H.W. Bush's secretary of state told Israeli Prime Minister Shamir publicly to phone the White House when he was ready to talk peace, and later denied Israel critical loan guarantees when refugees from the Soviet Union were arriving. There are no similar episodes in Obama's record. Instead, he established the closest working military and intelligence relationship with Israel in the country's history: joint exercises and training, increased security assistance every year, unprecedented advanced technology transfers, doubling of funding for Israel's missile defense system, and assistance in funding for the Iron Dome system that today intercepts rockets headed for Israel. Indeed, in the debate he was emphatic that Israel "is a true friend and our greatest ally in the region," and went on to say later, "I will stand with Israel if they are attacked. And this is the reason why, working with Israel, we have created the strongest military and intelligence cooperation between our two countries in history."More facts. The Obama administration has opposed efforts to boycott or divest from Israel. It backed Israel on the infamous Goldstone Report, the anti-Israel Durban Conference, the Gaza flotilla incident, Palestinian effort to gain recognition as a state, and others. And the U.S. voted with Israel at the UN 100 percent of the time under this administration, a first in modern history.So what's the problem? Certainly, the poor personal relationship between the Israeli and American leaders does not help. But this is not the first time that an American president found an Israeli leader frustrating, yet managed to enhance U.S.-Israeli relations. Ronald Reagan had a number of diplomatic conflicts with Israel the peace process, the U.S. sale of AWACS jets to Saudi Arabia, Israel's attacks against Iraq's nuclear reactor and the Lebanon War yet strengthened security ties with Israel. Like Reagan, Obama has exponentially enhanced U.S.-Israel security cooperation. But unlike Reagan, Obama did not suspend arms transfers to Israel because of a disagreement with its leaders.Recently, the Israeli-American discord has centered on Iran. The president and prime minister disagreed over setting a red line delineating when military action would be taken. But few noticed when the U.S. and Israel quietly resolved the issue, with Netanyahu agreeing to delay action until next year at the earliest and praising the president at the UN for his efforts.In fact, Obama has supported the toughest sanctions on Iran in history, in pursuit of the goal of preventing Teheran for gaining nuclear weapons. In the foreign policy debate, he stated categorically that "...as long as I'm president of the United States Iran will not get a nuclear weapon. I made that clear when I came into office."His statements and actions are far tougher than anything provided by President George W. Bush. Standing with Prime Minister Olmert in Jerusalem in January 2008, Bush could only offer, "I believe it's incumbent upon the American Presidents to solve problems diplomatically. And that's exactly what we're in the process of doing. I believe that pressure economic pressure, financial sanctions will cause the people inside of Iran to have to make a considered judgment about whether or not it makes sense for them to continue to enrich.''For Obama, opposing Iran's nuclear weapons is part of his longstanding opposition to nuclear proliferation. In 2004, even as he opposed the war in Iraq, Obama told The Chicago Tribune editorial board: "The big question is going to be, if Iran is resistant to these pressures, including economic sanctions, which I hope will be imposed if they do not cooperate, at what point are we going to, if any, are we going to take military action?" Admitting that attacking Iran might hurt America's image in the Arab world, he concluded, "On the other hand, having a radical Muslim theocracy in possession of nuclear weapons is worse." Obama's Iran policies have been working, with intensifying sanctions helping to cause accelerating economic chaos, and protests, in Iran, which is today weaker than four years ago. Tehran may have made advances toward a nuclear force, but the costs of that movement are clearer than ever, and the worldwide opposition more determined and tougher. Iran is paying a heavy price for its pursuit of nuclear weapons, and that price will grow higher. There is no argument between Israel and the U.S. on that score.The critics are simply wrong. Obama has been an exceptional supporter of Israel where it counts on the hard-core security and diplomatic issues that provide assistance and protection in a very dangerous region.

Obama, Romney plunge into final 2 weeks

President Barack Obama set off on a marathon, two-day campaign journey on Wednesday  touching down in five states and making an appearance on a popular late-night television programme as he tries to break out of the neck-and-neck race with Republican challenger Mitt Romney with just 13 days left before voters cast their ballots on 6 November.Obama is hammering Romney over his sudden shift to moderate positions both at home and abroad after months of campaigning as a hard-right conservative. Romney, looking to sustain momentum that grew out his overwhelming victory in the first presidential debate three weeks ago, is bashing Obama as a leader who has failed to bring the economy back to full speed after the Great Recession and warning that re-electing the president is a prescription for continuing hard times.Both men are making extraordinary efforts to sway the small pool of undecided voters while imploring their millions of supporters to vote, particularly in key battleground states such as Ohio and Iowa where early voting is already under way.Casting own voteObama planned a short stop in Chicago on Thursday to cast his own vote - the first time an incumbent president has opted for early voting.In remarks to an Iowa newspaper that were released Wednesday, Obama predicted he'll reach agreement with lawmakers to reduce the US deficit in the first six months and overhaul immigration law within the first year of a second term if he's re-elected.His comments to The Des Moines Register were originally off the record, but Obama's campaign agreed to release a transcript under pressure from the newspaper.On immigration, Obama said he'd be blunt since the interview was off the record. He said if he wins a second term, "a big reason" will be because Republicans have "so alienated the fastest-growing demographic group in the country, the Latino community".Battleground statesThe election map has shrunk to no more than nine of the 50 US states, and that's where both candidates will be spending virtually all of their time in the final days before the election.Residents in those so-called battleground states do not reliably vote either Republican or Democrat. The states assume outsized importance because the president is chosen according to state-by-state contests, not the national popular vote.Obama was planning to cover 8 500km on Wednesday in the most-travelled single day of his re-election bid. He was going from Washington to Iowa, Colorado, California and Nevada, and then overnight to Florida. It was the first time Obama was spending the night flying on Air Force One for a domestic trip but far from unprecedented by incumbents scrambling to keep their job.Obama will break for an appearance on the widely watched The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and make calls to voters from the plane.Pace picking upRomney, too, was picking up the pace. He was campaigning on Wednesday in Nevada and Iowa before a three-stop campaign in Ohio on Thursday.Romney told a crowd of 10 000 supporters on Tuesday that Obama's promise of more of the same is "why he's slipping and it's why we're gaining".Obama's campaign insisted that the president was holding on to a slight lead in most of the nine battleground states - Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida and New Hampshire"We have the ball, we have the lead," Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod insisted.Obama's challenge is to convince voters who may be hurting financially that he is better qualified to lead the country back to economic prosperity than Romney, who made a fortune as the head of a private equity firm.TrustworthinessObama is trying to capitalise on polls that show voters see him as more trustworthy than Romney. A Washington Post/ABC News poll last week showed 55% of likely voters said Obama is "honest and trustworthy" compared to 47% who felt that way about Romney.The president has spiced his rhetoric with humour to temper his underlying charge - that Romney is lying about what he would do as president."You know me. You know I say what I mean, and I mean what I say," Obama told an Iowa crowd on Wednesday. "With your help, I've kept the commitments that I made."Obama's remarks came after Monday night's third and final presidential debate, where Romney revealed dramatic shifts to the centre on foreign policy and largely expressed agreement with how Obama has conducted US foreign policy.The Obama campaign responded this week to the complaint that the president had, after more than a year of speeches, failed to articulate his second-term vision.
The campaign produced a 20-page booklet called the Blueprint for America's Future outlining his proposals, including spending more on education, boosting US manufacturing jobs and raising taxes on the wealthy.

Berlusconi calls it a day

Italy's Silvio Berlusconi said on Wednesday that he would not run in elections early next year and hand his People of Freedom party over to a successor, ending months of uncertainty over his candidacy."I will not be presenting my candidacy but I will remain at the side of younger people who can play and score goals," said the media magnate, who founded the party in 2009 and is famous for talking politics in football terms.The 76-year-old tycoon, who owns AC Milan football club and three national television channels as well as several private villas, said in a statement that his successor would be appointed by the end of December following a party vote."I still have good muscles and a head on my shoulders, but my role will be to give advice", he said, adding that the vote may take place on 16 December."For the love of Italy one can do crazy and wise things. Eighteen years ago I came onto the scene, a mad move that did not lack wisdom: I now take a step back," the billionaire said, putting to an end speculation over his return.The move came as his scandal-hit PDL party tries to boost its credibility following a series of investigations into misuse of party funds.The former prime minister had retreated from the political frontlines after handing over power in November 2011 to former European competition commissioner Mario Monti amid a parliamentary revolt and a wave of financial market panic.There had been speculation since then as to whether he would try a comeback.The PDL has suffered a series of local election setbacks and is riven by infighting, and many supporters had been urging Berlusconi to return to lead the party in the upcoming elections, set for April next year.Ruby the Heart StealerBerlusconi said it was now up to the party secretary Angelino "Alfano and a new generation of young people to reproduce the miracle of 1994", when the man famed for his love of wild parties was first appointed prime minister.His decision to step aside revealed fears that he could not hope to muster enough support to lead Italy's centre-right to victory.The former premier, who was seen as a blast of fresh air when he burst onto the scene in the 1990s after a period of political corruption and scandal, has been hit hard by his own fraud and sex scandals and has lost many supporters.The PDL has been unable to persuade smaller centrist parties to join forces with them for the upcoming elections despite several attempts at deal-making.Berlusconi will be hoping that a fresh face at the head of the party can help it regain ground in the polls.The former premier has been fighting legal battles for 20 years. Despite some initial convictions for fraud and lingering accusations of alliances with convicted crooks, all cases against him were won on appeal or have expired.He is currently on trial for fraud, bribery and paying for sex with a 17-year-old prostitute nick-named "Ruby the Heart Stealer".The sex trial was one of the last in a series of scandals that helped precipitate the media tycoon's downfall.

NEWS.04.03.2012.

Putin always wins

Vladimir Putin has won a resounding victory in Russia's presidential election, exit polls show. He has secured a new six-year term in the Kremlin and a mandate to deal with opposition protests after a vote that opponents said was marred by fraud. Two television exit polls, released after voting ended on Sunday, forecast the former KGB spy would win 59.3% and 58.3% of the votes, enough to make a runoff against the second-placed candidate unnecessary. His nearest rival, communist Gennady Zyuganov, fell short of 20% in both polls.Putin's opponents said voting in many parts of the vast country was skewed to help him return to the presidency after four years as prime minister and vowed to step up the biggest protests since he rose to power 12 years ago. But although they portray him as an authoritarian ruler who is out of touch, his victory had not been in any doubt. The main challenge for Putin, credited by many Russians credit with rebuilding the country's image and overseeing an economic boom, was to win outright in the first round.” I think the elections will be legitimate, fair, and Putin will win in the first round, unless the court rules otherwise," Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, was shown saying on internet and cable television channel TV Dozhd before voting ended.Putin was likely to portray the victory as strong backing against the opposition protesters, although he has promised not to crack down on them. He is also expected to return to the Kremlin with tough fighting talk against the West, a trademark of his first presidency and election campaign. Some voters expressed anger at being offered no real choice in a vote pitting Putin against four others - communist Zyuganov, nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, ex-parliamentary speaker Sergei Mironov and billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.Others said Putin, 59, who has portrayed himself as a man of action and guardian of stability, was the tough national leader the world's biggest country and energy producer needed.” I voted for Putin because he was a good president and our children were looked after and that's all. That's how I feel," said Maria Fedotova, a 92-year-old grandmother wrapped up in fur coat and hat, flanked by relatives.

 Putin has remained Russia's dominant leader and its most popular politician since stepping aside in 2008 to make way for his ally, Dmitry Medvedev, because he was barred from a third straight term by the constitution. But some voters are tired of his macho antics, such as horse riding bare chested, and a system that concentrates power in his hands. They fear he could win two more terms, ruling until 2024 - almost as long as Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Vote monitors from the opposition and bloggers posted allegations of election rigging across the country of 143 million. Golos, an independent monitoring group, said it had registered at least 2,283 reports of violations nationwide. An Interior Ministry spokesman denied there had been any major violations. Election officials also dismissed reports of widespread fraud in a parliamentary election on December 4 which triggered the opposition protests. Thousands of opposition activists as well as an international observer mission were also monitoring the polls. The opposition protests were sparked by the disputed Dec. 4 election, but anger was focused at Putin, who bungled the September 24 announcement of his presidential bid by appearing simply to inform Russians that he would rule for another six years..