Romney, Obama fight for an edge

REACHING for the finish line, Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama embarked on the final 72-hour haul of their long, grinding quest for victory, swatting at one another over what should motivate Americans to vote and making closing arguments that offer dueling pictures of what the next four years can and should bring.

The candidates began the day swatting at one another over what should motivate Americans to vote and making closing arguments that offer dueling pictures of what the next four years can and should bring.

Mr Romney opened a three-state campaign day in New Hampshire by faulting Mr Obama for telling supporters a day earlier that voting would be their "best revenge"

"Vote for revenge?" Mr Romney asked, oozing incredulity.

"I'd like to tell him what I'd tell you: Vote for love of country. It's time to lead America to a better place."

The Republican candidate released a TV ad carrying the same message

Mr Obama tended to presidential business before politics as he led a briefing at the government's disaster relief agency on the federal response to Superstorm Sandy.

The recovery effort still has a long way to go but pledging a "120 per cent effort" by all those involved, Mr Obama said. Then he began his own three-state campaign day in Ohio, the biggest battleground of Campaign 2012.

After holding mostly small and midsize rallies for much of the campaign, Mr Obama's team is planning a series of larger events this weekend aimed at drawing big crowds in battleground states.

Still, the campaign isn't expecting to draw the massive audiences Mr Obama had in the closing days of the 2008 race, when his rallies drew more than 50,000.

Mr Obama's closing weekend also includes two joint events with former President Bill Clinton: a rally at night in Virginia and an event Sunday in New Hampshire.

The two presidents had planned to campaign together across three states earlier this week, but that trip was called off because of Sandy. And, of course, there is always Ohio.

In a whiff of 2008 nostalgia, some of Mr Obama's traveling companions from his campaign four years ago were planning to join him on the road for the final days of his last campaign. Among them are Robert Gibbs, who served as Mr Obama's first White House press secretary, and Reggie Love, Mr Obama's former personal aide who left the White House earlier this year.

Likewise, virtually Mr Romney's entire senior team has left the campaign's Boston headquarters to travel with Mr Romney for the contest's final three days. Most will connect with Mr Romney at his morning New Hampshire event.

Their presence for the campaign's waning hours is an admission that the strategy and planning is largely complete. His schedule has been set, the ads have been placed, and Mr Romney's message has been decided.

The tight inner circle that has worked with him for several years in most cases plan to enjoy the final moments on the campaign trail as Mr Romney's side.

"It's been a long road," Ann Romney told reporters aboard the campaign plane, offering breakfast pastries to Secret Service agents and reporters alike. After campaigning on her own for the past month, she hooked up with her husband for the final swing.

Mr Romney hosted a massive rally Friday night in West Chester, Ohio, drawing more than 10,000 people to the Cincinnati area for an event that featured rock stars, sports celebrities and dozens of Republican officials. It was a high-energy event on a cold night designed to kick off his own sprint to the finish.

Mr Romney arrived in New Hampshire close to midnight after an 18-hour day on the campaign trail that took him from Virginia to Wisconsin to Ohio.

After his morning rally on the New Hampshire seacoast, he was making an afternoon appearance in Iowa, and two more in Colorado. He shifted an original plan to campaign in Nevada in favour of a schedule likely to bring him back to Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

On Saturday, Mr Obama's first stop was in Mentor, Ohio, then he was campaigning in Milwaukee and Dubuque, Iowa, and ending the day in Bristow, Va. On Sunday, he was taking his campaign to New Hampshire, Florida, Colorado and, yes, Ohio.

Polling shows the race remains a toss-up heading into the final days. But Mr Romney still has the tougher path; he must win more of the nine most-contested states to reach 270 electoral votes: Ohio, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, Nevada, Wisconsin, Iowa and New Hampshire.

Mr Romney has added Pennsylvania to the mix, hoping to end a streak of five presidential contests where the Democratic candidate prevailed in the state.

Mr Obama won Pennsylvania by more than 10 per centage points in 2008; the latest polls in the state give him a 4- to 5-point margin. Mr Romney will campaign in the Philadelphia suburbs on Sunday.

Mr Obama aides scoff at the Romney incursion, but they are carefully adding television spending in the state and are sending Clinton to campaign there Monday.

In crucial early voting, Mr Obama holds an apparent lead over Mr Romney in key states. But Mr Obama's advantage isn't as big as the one he had over John McCain four years ago, giving Mr Romney hope that he could make up that gap in Tuesday's election.

About 25 million people already have voted in 34 states and the District of Columbia.

No votes will be counted until Election Day, but several battleground states are releasing the party affiliation of people who have voted early. So far, Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio. Republicans have the edge in Colorado.

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Three police shot dead in Egypt's Sinai

GUNMEN have killed three Egyptian policemen and seriously wounded a fourth in El-Arish, in the Sinai Peninsula, state television says.

"Armed men who might belong to a jihadist group attacked a police vehicle and fired on its passengers before fleeing," a security source said on Saturday.

The dead and wounded were taken to the general hospital in El-Arish, where one of the policemen died from serious wounds," a medic said.

A civilian was also wounded.

Security forces threw up a cordon around the city in an attempt to capture the gunmen.

Security in the desert and mountainous region collapsed after an uprising ousted president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.

Since then, several militant attacks in the Sinai, which borders Israel and the Gaza Strip, have targeted police and soldiers, including a brazen August 5 ambush on an army outpost that killed 16 soldiers.

On Friday, Bedouin tribesmen attacked a police post in the central Sinai city of Nakhl, attempting to free one of their number who was in detention.

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Syrian tanks enter Golan, Israel says

ISRAEL'S military says three Syrian tanks have entered the demilitarised zone in the Golan Heights.

A military spokeswoman says Israel complained to the UN peacekeeping force in the area after the tanks entered the area on Saturday.

The spokeswoman, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military protocol, did not elaborate. The relatively low-key response suggested Israel did not see the armour as an immediate threat.

The Israeli news site Ynet said the tanks and two armoured personnel carriers drove a few kilometres away from Israeli military positions.

There are concerns in Israel that violence from Syria's civil war could spill over a long-quiet frontier. Misfired Syrian shells have exploded inside Israel on several occasions. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it.

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Euro debt crisis will take 5 years: Merkel

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel says Europe's sovereign debt crisis will last at least five more years.

Merkel says the continent is on the right path to overcome the crisis but "whoever thinks this can be fixed in one or two years is wrong".

Two years ago some heavily indebted European countries were dragged into the turmoil that first gripped global financial markets in 2007.

Greece in particular has been struggling with the austerity conditions imposed on it by countries such as Germany.

But Merkel told a regional meeting of her Christian Democratic Party on Saturday that the time had come for "a bit of strictness".

Otherwise, she says, Europe won't be able to attract international investment.

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Puppets march to protest Romney

SEVERAL hundred supporters of US public broadcasting marched on Capitol Hill in a "Million Puppet March" in favor of ongoing federal funding for non-commercial programming.

The good-humoured protest was prompted by Republican challenger Mitt Romney's threat, in a televised debate with President Barack Obama a month ago, to halt government funding to public media if he wins the White House on Tuesday.

Marching alongside "Sesame Street" characters such as Big Bird and Kermit the Frog, were a protester in a latex Romney mask and a Halloween-themed ensemble that billed itself as "the finest skeletons from the national closet."

"It's not just 'Sesame Street'," co-organizer Michael Bellavia told AFP prior to the march, citing the long-running PBS educational television show tailored to young children.

"We're saying we want to support the whole ecosystem of public media -- everything from the TV side, to radio, to all the Internet media that gets produced," he said.

Fifteen percent of the overall public broadcasting budget in the United States comes from Washington. Contributions from foundations and individuals makes up the rest.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, established by Congress in the 1960s to channel federal funds to PBS, National Public Radio and other non-commercial broadcasters, was not involved in Saturday's protest.

But in a brief statement to AFP, it noted: "We appreciate the recent outpouring of support and affirmation for value of public broadcasting.

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NYC power supply up, but fuel rationed

THE lights have finally come back on in Manhattan, but a severe shortage of petrol continue to hamper efforts to get the New York area back on its feet after Hurricane Sandy.

Power was restored to nearly all of Manhattan on Saturday after flooding plunged the lower half of New York's most densely populated borough into darkness.

"By and large there is enough light and activity certainly to get a lot of people out into the street and get rid of that movie set look, as if we're in some sort of ghost town or horror movie," Bob McGee, a spokesman for utiliy company Con Edison, told NY1 television.

Crews were working to restore supplies both to schools that reopen on Monday and for polling places to be used in Tuesday's presidential election.

Much of the rest of New York, however, continued to experience widespread power outages that could last for as long as another week.

As New Jersey police raised the state's death toll to 22, increasing the overall US total to at least 103, the biggest hurdle to recovery continued to be a severe lack of petrol.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie announced rationing of fuel to curtail the long lines and growing frustration outside gas stations.

Starting on Saturday, drivers with licence plates ending in an even number will be allowed to fill up on even-numbered dates and those with number plates ending in odd numbers plates on odd-number dates.

"This system will ease the strain on those gas stations still operating, while we work to bring more online for the public to access fuel, in a manner that is fair, easy to understand, and less stressful," he said.

New York officials meanwhile announced the deployment of military fuel trucks that will give 10 gallons of petrol to drivers free of charge.

State Governor Andrew Cuomo said the critical situation should ease rapidly as delays in the arrival of fuel ships had been remedied.

"Eight million gallons of fuel have been delivered," he said. "Twenty eight million gallons will be delivered over the next two days, so you will see quickly an abatement of the pressure on the fuel system."

"You don't have to panic," he added.

Some areas of life in New York were almost back to normal following one of the most damaging storms in US history.

The city subway system was 80 per cent up and running, Cuomo said. The transit authority ended the suspension of fares that had allowed New Yorkers to ride free during the immediate aftermath of the calamity.

However, Sunday's annual New York marathon was abruptly cancelled late on Friday after Mayor Michael Bloomberg reversed his earlier position and bowed to public pressure.

Critics said the huge sporting event, to be attended by 47,000 runners from all over the world, would divert police and other resources when hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers were still without heat or light.

Bloomberg relented, saying "we would not want a cloud to hang over the race."

Organisers say that those who were meant to compete this year will be offered spots in next year's race.

Other than getting fuel supplies going, restoring electricity throughout the New York metro area remained a top priority.

Cuomo said 60 per cent of people who lost power in the storm on Monday and Tuesday are now back online. That meant that "less than 900,000" people were left without electricity in the city area, he added.

On Long Island, another 550,000 people were without power, down from 1.2 million people initially.

"We still have a long way to go to make sure that the people of New Jersey, Connecticut, New York and some of the surrounding areas get their basic needs taken care of and we get back to normalcy," President Barack Obama said.

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Kenya bull fight: Obama trounces Romney

IF the US presidential election were to be determined by a bull fight in Kenya then US President Barack Obama would defeat Mitt Romney.

On Saturday villagers from western Kenya town of Khayega held a bull fighting contest between, a 410kg black bull they named Obama and a black and white 460kg bull they named Mitt Romney. Both are cattle breeds indigenous to Kenya.

Despite being lesser in size Obama was the overwhelming favourite having won six of his last fights and he did not disappoint.

After close to half an-hour the bulls were separated and Obama was declared winner.

Most Kenyans consider Obama, the son of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya, as one of their own.

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Northern Ireland officer's funeral set

THE funeral for an off-duty Northern Ireland prison officer killed in a rare slaying will take place next week.

A gunman in a passing car shot a 52-year-old prison guard, David Black, as he drove to work on Thursday on Northern Ireland's main highway.

Police have arrested three suspected IRA militants, including Colin Duffy, a prominent Irish republican who has successfully defended himself against a series of murder charges dating back to 1993.

All three men remain in police custody.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is among those to have condemned the slaying, the first killing of a prison officer in the British territory since 1993.

"There is no justification for this outrageous and cowardly act," she said.

"I offer my sincere condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of officer Black, who had a long and distinguished record of service.

"The United States remains resolute in support of the people of Northern Ireland, who have condemned violence and embraced the path to peace and reconciliation."

Police said on Saturday that Black's funeral would take place Tuesday at Molesworth Presbyterian Church in Cookstown.

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