|  |  |  | | | | | The Guardian World News | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Experts warn Sandy could contribute to a storm of 'historic proportions' expected to strike US coastline as early as Monday A state of emergency was declared in some areas along the US east coast on Friday as experts warned Hurricane Sandy could contribute to a storm of "historic" proportions. The hurricane left 41 people dead as it passed through the Caribbean and headed north. Sandy could strike the US coastline anywhere between Virginia and Massachusetts as early as Monday. Meteorologists warned that weather conditions could be complicated as Sandy is expected to meet two separate weather systems somewhere over the north-east United States, resulting in high winds, heavy rain, extreme tides and perhaps even snow. "It's looking like a very serious storm that could be historic," said Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the forecasting service Weather Underground. He compared the convergence of weather systems to the so-called "perfect storm" that struck off the coast of New England in 1991, although that storm hit a less populated area. On Friday afternoon, the centre of the hurricane was moving slowly north around 430 miles south-southeast off the coast of South Carolina. Sandy was moving at 7mph with maximum sustained winds near 75mph. Forecasters said there was a 90% certainty that storm would make landfall on the east coast, althought it was too early to predict where it would come ashore. Parts of Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba were left devastated as the hurricane swept over on Thursday and Friday, leaving at least 41 people dead. In Cuba, 11 people were killed in eastern Santiago and Guantanamo provinces, as authorities said Sandy was Cuba's deadliest storm since July 2005. One person died as Sandy passed through Jamaica and 16 were left dead in Haiti, where heavy rains from the storm's outer bands caused flooding in the impoverished and deforested country. A 66-year-old man died in the Bahamas after falling from his roof in upscale Lyford Cay late Thursday, as he attempted to repair a window shutter. New York, Virginia and Maryland declared states of emergency on Friday. In Virginia, where Mitt Romney cancelled a rally planned for Sunday night, Governor Bob McDonnell told people to prepare ahead of the storm's arrival, warning that the state "could see severe weather lasting for 48 hours or more". "In that scenario, saturated soil coupled with high winds could lead to major tree damage and extensive power outages," McDonnell said. "Virginians should make sure their family members, friends and neighbours are prepared for this extended weather event. I encourage all Virginians to gather batteries, blankets, water, canned goods, and other necessities prior to the anticipated onset of storm conditions late Saturday and early Sunday." New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg said he would wait until Saturday before potentially issuing an evacuation order, but warned that the storm was moving at such a rate that "we're still not going to have a good sense of when and where it's going to hit land". The last major storm to threaten the northeast coast was Hurricane Irene which caused an estimated $15.8bn in damage in August last year, making it one of the costliest storms in history. Bloomberg said that bridges may have to be closed in New York. The MTA suspends subway, bus and other transit services in advance of the arrival of sustained winds at 39mph or higher, he said, while power outages are also a possibility. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday that wherever the storm comes ashore, there will be 10in (254mm) of rain and extreme storm surges. Up to 2ft (0.6m) of snow should fall on West Virginia, with lighter snow in parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania. "It's going to be a long-lasting event, two to three days of impact for a lot of people," said James Franklin, forecast chief for the National Hurricane Center.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Democrats worry GDP figures may be arriving too late to have an impact as Romney and Obama locked in a tie in the polls Barack Obama received a pre-election boost on Friday when the latest economic figures showed a higher-than-expected rise in growth as both the Democratic and Republican teams stepped up efforts to break the deadlock before November 6. The growth was fuelled by rising consumer confidence, the fledgling recovery in the housing market and an uptick in government spending. The worry for Democrats is that the favourable figures may be arriving too late to have a big impact on the election. Obama and Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney are stuck on 47% each in the polls, according to the average of polls on Real Clear Politics, and looking for an issue that will tip the balance in their favour in the final days of the campaign. There are big variations between individual polls, with the latest Gallup daily tracking poll putting Romney back up five points, on 51% to Obama's 46%. A CNN poll in Ohio, which has emerged as the pivotal state of the election, attracting more visits by the candidates than any other, shows Obama is on 50% to Romney's 46%. Republican senator Rob Portman, who is co-chair of Romney's campaign, admitted on NBC that it would be hard for Romney to win the White House without Ohio. Romney delivered a speech in Ames, Iowa, another swing state, what his aides had billed as a major address on the economic but in fact contained nothing new in terms of policy. He had one fresh rhetorical line, rehearsed by the Romney campaign in an ad earlier in the week, in which he accused Obama of focusing on trivial issues because he had no record worth fighting the election on. "This is an election of consequence. Our campaign is about big things, because we happen to believe that America faces big challenges. We recognise this is a year with a big choice, and the American people want to see big changes. And together we can bring real change to this country," Romney said. "Four years ago, candidate Obama spoke to the scale of the times. Today, he shrinks from it, trying instead to distract our attention from the biggest issues to the smallest, from characters on Sesame Street and silly word games to misdirected personal attacks he knows are false." He then returned to what is basically his stump speech. Although the election has been largely dominated by the economy, it has broadened to encompass social issues, mainly abortion and rape, and, more recently, racial tensions. On abortion and rape, the Obama campaign put out a new web page with a clock marking how long Romney has maintained his endorsement of Indiana senate candidate Richard Mourdock who on Tuesday said that that pregnancies from rape are "something that God intended". It follows a claim by another Republican senate candidate, Todd Akin, in Missouri, who used the phrase "legitimate rape". On race, the former governor of New Hampshire, John Sununu – a leading Romney surrogates – was forced to go into reverse after suggesting that Colin Powell, a secretary of state in the George W Bush administration, had endorsed Obama simply because he is black. Democrats claimed this was not an off-the-cuff remark but part of a deliberate strategy on the part of the Romney campaign to make race an issue. A Washington Post poll this week showed fewer whites supporting Obama in this election than in 2008. Obama's 2008 opponent John McCain beat him among white voters by 12 points. According to the Washington Post poll, Obama is trailing Romney among whites by 23 points. On Friday, Sununu backtracked over his remark about Powell's endorsement. "Colin Powell is a friend and I respect the endorsement decision he made and I do not doubt that it was based on anything but his support of the president's policies," Sununu, a former White House chief of staff, said. On Thursday night, speaking on CNN, Sununu had said: "Frankly, when you take a look at Colin Powell, you have to wonder if that's an endorsement based on issues, or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring president Obama?" Asked what reason that might be, Sununu said: "Well, I think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the United States, I applaud Colin for standing with him." Tad Devine, a senior adviser to the Gore campaign in 2000 and Kerry in 2004, saw this as part of a Republican strategy aimed at making race part of the campaign. "I believe there is a systematic effort on the part of the Republican party to introduce a racial component into this election … I don't think this is accidently shooting off at the mouth." Obama, speaking to Democratic campaign workers in his hometown Chicago on Thursday night before flying back to Washington, acknowledged that the race is close and that he might lose, while adding he still expected to win. "This is going to be a close election, so we just got to work really hard over these next 12 days. If we let up and our voters don't turn out, we could lose this election," Obama said:."Now the good news is, if our voters do turn out, we will definitely win the election." The president spent Friday in the White House doing 10 interviews, mainly with media from the swing states that will decide the outcome on November 6, while Romney continued his campaign tour in Iowa and Ohio. The White House welcomed the news from the department of commerce on economic growth. Although the economy remains sluggish, this was the 13th straight month of growth. Alan Krueger, chairman of the White House council of economic advisers, said that over those 13 months the economy had expanded by 7.2% overall. "While we have more work to do, together with other economic indicators, this report provides further evidence that the economy is moving in the right direction.," he said. The figures on growth, the last from the commerce department before the election, come after unemployment statistics released earlier this month showed a drop below the symbolically important 8%. The next unemployment figures are due just before polling day. Romney described the growth figures as discouraging. "Slow economic growth means slow job growth and declining take-home pay. This is what four years of president Obama's policies have produced. Americans are ready for change — for growth, for jobs, for higher take-home pay," he said in a statement. In spite of the increase in consumer confidence, businesses are reining themselves in, worried about the so-called 'fiscal cliff" at the end of the year when Bush-era tax cuts are due to expire and massive spending cuts scheduled to kick in unless there is a political compromise. With 10 days left to the election, the Obama campaign claims to have a slight edge in the swing states and to have stopped the momentum that Romney built up after his debate victory in Denver on December 3. The Romney campaign insisted that the momentum is still with them, bringing into play more states, such as Wisconsin.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Ray Kelly said Yoselyn Ortega tried to kill herself as Marina Krim entered her bathroom and saw children's dead bodies The nanny suspected of killing a Manhattan couple's two young children began stabbing herself as the mother entered the bathroom and began screaming when she saw the dead bodies in the bathtub, New York's police commissioner said on Friday. The nanny, Yoselyn Ortega, had been employed by the family of Kevin and Marina Krim for two years before police said she killed their children and attempted suicide on Thursday in the family's luxury apartment, police commissioner Ray Kelly said. Ortega, who lived with her son and sister near the Krims' apartment off Central Park, has been a naturalized US citizen for a decade, Kelly said, adding that she had been referred to the Krims by another family. New York police were hoping to interview the critically wounded nanny later on Friday, said an NYPD official who requested anonymity. Ortega, 50, has not been charged because police have not been able to interview her. "We know now that the nanny began to stab herself as the woman entered the bathroom," Kelly said. "We initially thought it had already been done, but now information is coming out that she did it as the mother entered the room." Ortega remains the prime suspect in the stabbing death of the two children, Leo, two, and Lulu, six, Kelly said. Marina Krim had entered the apartment at about 5.30pm Thursday with her three-year-old daughter, returning home after Ortega failed to meet her as planned at a local dance studio with the two other children. Krim saw that the apartment was dark and returned to the lobby to ask the doorman if the nanny and kids had gone out, Kelly said. The doorman said no, and she returned to the apartment and went into the bathroom, he said. A neighbor heard the mother's screams and called 911, police said. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said the children suffered "multiple stab wounds," and were pronounced dead after being rushed to a nearby hospital. Kevin Krim, the children's father and an executive with CNBC, had been heading home from a business trip, He was met by police at the airport and notified of the killings, police said. A spokesman for CNBC released a statement Friday expressing the "sadness we all feel" for Krim and his wife. The couple's "unimaginable loss ... is without measure." Neighbors said the children's mother was a pediatrician. The final entry in an online blog that Marina Krim maintained to document her daily life with her children was dated Thursday, three hours before the discovery. "Leo speaks in the most adorable way possible," she wrote. "And he does things like, "(I) want a fresh bagel" and "Lito (what he calls himself) wants cold milk" and most adorable of all, "No thank you" - he never uses "No" alone, it's always paired with "thank you." A source at NBC News confirmed that the blog – which contains pictures of the Krim family – as Krim's.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Failure of The Master to wow box office has critics bemoaning the state of the industry, but Tom Shone thinks things are fine There's been a lot of death-of-film talk recently, as there often is when the first leaves of fall bid their first, golden adieus. "I'm made crazy by the way the business structure of movies is now constricting the art of movies," fumed David Denby in The New Republic after a summer which steamrolled one action blockbuster after another into a single strip of blurry, brazen fury. In the same magazine, David Thomson also found himself haunted by thoughts of cinema's imminent demise, after careful examination of the Sight & Sound top 10 had revealed not a single film released after 1968. "If they are not quite dead, the cinema and the movies sink deeper than ever into their preoccupation with dying," he wrote, his one caveat the result of having actually enjoyed a few "humane pictures made modestly on absorbing stories with a feeling for fictional lives that can be overwhelming", including Winter's Bone, The Arbor, A Prophet and Inception. Is Thomson aware that all four of those films were released in a single time year? Four! If I can count two or three humane, overwhelming movies in any one year, I count myself a lucky man. I am, of course, one of those attention-addled jarheads reared on Jaws and Star Wars who Denby and Thomson fear most, my expectations systematically lowered by a succession of THX-stereo laser blasts to the side of the head. But even Thomson, compiling his golden age list for the '30 and '40s – His Girl Friday, The Lady Eve; The Grapes of Wrath, The Ox-bow Incident, Meet Me in St Louis, Casablanca, To Have and Have Not, Citizen Kane, Laura, Double Indemnity, The Best Years of Our Lives – is entirely satisfied with a strike rate of only one great film every two years. So if one great film every two years makes for a "golden age", what kind of funeral do four "humane, overwhelming" films every year make? Can we have a rule that if you need most of the fingers of one hand to count the number of films whose virtues briefly dispel the funereal gloom like a Vermeer candle lighting up the valley of the shadow of death, then strictly speaking you oughtn't be talking about the death of film at all? Strictly speaking, the number of films you will find chasing away the blues every year ought to be "zero." Maybe one or two, if you think cinema is not quite at deaths door yet, but four? In one sense I feel their pain. I get it. Nobody is making films like Hiroshima Mon Amour any more. Watching Resnais' these days is like taking a dive to a ghostly and beautiful shipwreck containing artefacts of a civilization that has long since disappeared. If you were a 16-year- old male with Sartre wedged in your back pocket when Hiroshima Mon Amour came out, and fell in love with Emmanuelle Riva in that film – it being the single smartest decision of the art-house grand masters to have prefaced their thoughts on nuclear annihilation, societal alienation, and the like with a series of great-looking Frenchwomen who only went to bed with you after you promised not to get emotionally entangled – then the modern-day multiplex must seem a vivid horror show. Not only are they getting older, but cinema is getting younger, thus subjecting 60-something film critics to a kind of cultural Doppler effect that must sound ghastly. They're like Cate Blanchett in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, ageing as her beloved rejuvenates. That is not how they present their argument, however. They don't say "the death of my kind of film", they say "the death of film", period, as if they were the only audience, or the only audience that mattered: literate, well-educated, middle-aged men, fond of moral ambiguity and narrative obliquety and great looking Frenchwomen who will only go to bed with you if you renounce emotional attachment. The idea that these are tastes and that a brand of movies have sprung up to cater to these tastes, just as artfully as Wall-E maps the concerns of eight-year-olds is not countenanced. If kids had film critics, and film magazines, and film blogs, I'm pretty certain that they would all be penning articles about the renaissance in moviemaking for under-eights these days. They'd be stood around the water-coolers, sucking on sherbet fizzes, tracing the geneaology that runs from Night of the Hunter to Dr Seuss's The Lorax, or Pixar's debt to Walt Disney. They don't, of course, having better things to do like stick crayons up each other's nose. All the arguments about film are left to those with the platforms to make them, like Thomson and Denby. So film is dying, apparently. "At this writing, Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood), one of the most talented men in Hollywood, has finished his Scientology movie, The Master, but it took years of pleading to get the money to do it. (An heiress came to his rescue", writes Denby, scandalized, of a movie that was made for $45m and has now taken just $14m at the box office, despite rapturous reviews from critics. If there exists a film that could have benefited less from the ministrations of an heiress and more from being put through the Hollywood production mill than The Master I do not know what it is. For all it's acting pyrotechnics and feedback loops and wah-wah-pedal effects – Anderson riffs on his actors the way Hendrix did on his guitar strings – the story stubbornly refuses to let its characters develop Anderson's conception of character is almost entirely static, entropic. "They start the same and they end the same," he told CBS news the other week, as if delighted with his thumbing of the nose towards the notion of Hollywood character "arcs". Mock that idea all you like, it underpins everything from King Lear to Wall-E. The movies are not dying, of course, except in the same way they've been dying since their inception – "an invention without a future," the Lumiere brothers told George Melies – which is to say, hammy stage deaths involving much clutching of the stomach and writhing on the ground. Two or three – or even four – overwhelming movies every year seems like a good strike rate. Personally, I'm, grateful to be around for the heyday of Pixar, and the prime of filmmakers like David Fincher, Wes Anderson and David O Russell, whose new film, Silver Lings Playbook, is one of the best reasons to be going to the movies this year, a giddy cantankerous hymn to crazy-making families and the restorative powers of bellowing at the top of your lungs. It's a film to shame those gathered around the medium with tape measures, making funeral arrangements. As the old horror-movie posters put it: It's Alive!
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Co-chair of Romney campaign has tried to distance himself from statement that Colin Powell endorsed Obama because of race The fallout from a claim by a prominent Romney supporter that former Bush secretary of state Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama on racial grounds showed no sign of abating on Friday. John Sununu, who is the co-chair of Mitt Romney's campaign, said on Thursday that Powell endorsed the president because both men are black. He told CNN: "When you take a look at Colin Powell, you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring President Obama". Sununu, a former governor of New Hampshire, added: "I think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the United States. I applaud Colin for standing with him". Sununu later issued a statement attempting to distance himself from the remarks, but Democratic mayor of Newark, Cory Booker, said Sununu's comments were "disrespectful" in an interview on CNN. "Whatever he meant or not, it was a statement that is unfortunate and just reflects a lack of understanding and sensitivity," Booker said. "He's gotten himself in a jam, and he's going to wear that jam for a while." Booker said Sununu's claims were "unfortunate, and we should talk about those issues and presumptions that still often exist" but added that in "these last days, let's focus on the candidates themselves, what their plans and platforms are". The row comes as the Romney campaign is still under pressure to distance itself from Richard Mourdock, the Senate candidate who is personally endorsed by Mitt Romney but has been the subject of intense criticism after claiming that pregnancies from rape are "something that God intended to happen". In his statement on Thursday, Sununu did not apologise for his remarks, although he appeared to row back somewhat. "Colin Powell is a friend and I respect the endorsement decision he made and I do not doubt that it was based on anything but his support of the president's policies. Piers Morgan's question was whether Colin Powell should leave the party, and I don't think he should," Sununu said. Colin Powell endorsed Obama in 2008 and announced his support for a second term on Thursday, praising the president's handling of the economy. "I think, generally, we've come out of the dive and we're starting to gain altitude," Powell told CBS This Morning, adding that "housing is now starting to pick up" and "consumer confidence is rising". The former secretary of state also criticised Romney's malleable positions on foreign policy. "The governor who was speaking on Monday night at the debate was saying things that were quite different from what he said earlier," Powell said. "I'm not quite sure which Governor Romney we would be getting with respect to foreign policy." It is not the first time Sununu has been criticised for comments about Obama. After the first presidential debate in Denver, Sununu described Obama as "lazy" on MSNBC, leaving host Andrea Mitchell visibly shocked. "What people saw last night, I think, was a president who revealed his incompetence – how lazy and detached he is and how he has absolutely no idea how serious the economy problems of the country are and how he has failed to even address them," Sununu said. In July he told Fox News that Obama has "no idea how the American system functions". Sununu added: "And we shouldn't be surprised about that, because he spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something, spent the next set of years in Indonesia, another set of years in Indonesia, and frankly, when he came to the US, he worked as a community organizer, which is a socialized structure."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Ziauddin Yousafzai says daughter shot by Taliban for daring to want to go to school has provided a turning point for Pakistan She has been adopted as an emblem of peace in a region beset by violence and has provided a voice of quiet protest in a sea of angry rhetoric. Now Malala Yousafzai, the 15-year-old who was shot in the head by the Taliban for daring to want to go to school, could provide a turning point in Pakistan's history, according to her father. Ziauddin Yousafzai, speaking after arriving in Britain to visit Malala with his wife and two sons, said his daughter would not be beaten by the Taliban but would "rise again". Clearly moved by the support his family and daughter have received, he said the attack, in which Malala was shot by a Pakistan Taliban gunman while making her way home on a school bus, had united his nation in approbation. "When she fell, Pakistan stood and the world rose," Yousafzai told a press conference in Birmingham, where his daughter is being treated after being flown to the UK from Pakistan. "This is a turning point. In Pakistan, for the first time, all political parties, Urdus, Christians, Sikhs, all religions prayed for my daughter." He added: "She is not just my daughter, she is everybody's daughter." He thanked all those who supported her cause of "peace and education" (video) and condemned the violence that had been inflicted upon her. "An attacker, who could be called the agent of Satan, he attacked," he said. "But after that I found angels on my side, everywhere, all around me, until this time and this place […] I'm thankful to all the people all over the world. They condemned the attack and prayed for my daughter." Malala had gained global influence and respect since starting a blog documenting her desire to get an education in her home city of Mingora in the Swat Valley. She wrote compellingly for the BBC about the daily struggles of getting an education in a region where the Taliban has occasionally banned girls from attending school. Gradually she became a more public figure, promoting education for girls in interviews and advising local authorities on education. But her own schooling was violently interrupted on 9 October: she was shot at point blank range and two other girls were injured in the attack which the Taliban said was punishment for "promoting secularism". The bullet hit her just above the back of her left eye and came within inches of killing her. But as her father put it: "When she fell, the person who attacked her wanted to kill her … She fell temporarily, she will rise again, she will stand again. She can stand now." Immediately after the attack surgeons in Pakistan battled to save the teenager's life, performing an emergency operation to remove a bullet lodged in her neck. But with the threat of further retribution hanging over the family, the decision was taken to airlift Malala to Britain, where it was hoped she could recover in peace. Her father spoke of the joy of seeing his daughter alive again when they were reunited this week at the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham. The reunion was particularly emotional, he explained, because the family had started to mentally prepare themselves for her funeral. "A time came … when, God forbid, I told my brother that you should make preparations for her funeral," he said. "To be very short, I can say that she got the right treatment, at the right place, at the right time." He added: "I love her. Last night when we met her there were tears in our eyes out of happiness. For some time we all cried a bit." Yousafzai paid special tribute to Dr David Rosser, who is treating Malala, and thanked him for keeping the lines of communication between the UK and Pakistan open since Malala was transferred. Rosser said Malala was continuing to make good progress and was now able to eat, talk and walk with only a little help. He added that her short and long-term memory seemed to be fine. "We're very much in a phase of her care that is about her recovery, both physical and psychological," he said. "She's very tired but she managed a big smile for her mum and dad and her brothers." Since the attack Malala has been nominated for the International Children's peace prize by Desmond Tutu and has won Pakistan's first National Youth peace prize. Despite promises from the Taliban to kill Malala if she goes back to Pakistan, Yousafzai insisted the family would return home: Malala has already started preparing for her exams.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Sandy passing over Bahamas after 21 people died as the storm hit Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti. Follow live developments here
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Top Romney supporter John Sununu retracts 'own race' slur aimed at Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Bomb explodes near Damascus mosque as three-day truce called for Islamic holiday falters across country A car bomb has exploded near a Damascus mosque in a serious blow to a mooted three-day truce that was already struggling to take hold across Syria. The explosion late on Friday is reported to have caused scores of casualties. It took place as the ceasefire called to mark the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha was already faltering in parts of the country, with regime forces and rebel groups blaming each other for the violations. Car bombs have been increasingly used by rebel groups, including the Islamist Jabhat al-Nusraf organisation, which has some ideological links to the global jihad movement. However, such groups have largely targeted security bases. This bomb hit Daff al-Shouk square, where families were celebrating Eid, on the southern outskirts of the capital. No group had claimed responsibility for the blast by nightfall. Earlier, the truce brokered by the UN-Arab League peace envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, had done little to stem the violence in parts of Syria, including parts of Damascus and ravaged districts of Aleppo. The Local Co-ordination Committees, which monitor violence daily, reported 110 breaches of the truce and around 48 deaths, a toll that is sharply down on any other day in recent months. Other areas of the country, such as the cities of Homs and Hama, were quieter than in recent months. Activists there reported that families had taken to the streets of some neighbourhoods to celebrate one of the holiest occasions in the Islamic calendar. In Aleppo, the centre of violence since rebels stormed the city in mid-July, gains made by opposition fighters in three districts on Thursday were partially clawed back by the army. Rebels had moved into the districts, reporting little resistance from a Kurdish militia in one of the areas and Syrian troops in two others. Little ground had previously changed hands in Aleppo despite more than two months of fighting. Syrian forces retain control of much of the west of the city and strategic points on the outskirts, such as the airport. However, they remain unable to secure the east of the city, despite near constant aerial bombardment of rebels in some districts. On Thursday Turkey denied a Human Rights Watch claim that it was preventing thousands of Syrian refugees from crossing into its territory. Turkey is hosting about 103,000 Syrian refugees and says it expects thousands more as winter closes in. Refugee groups claim some of those fleeing have been unable to cross from Syria since late August. Lebanon and Jordan are sheltering similar numbers to Turkey. All three states say they are under-prepared for an expected influx in the last weeks of autumn. Human Rights Watch senior refugee researcher Gerry Simpson said: " General assurances [from Turkey] alone will not open borders. Thousands of desperate Syrians remain stuck inside Syria on the Turkish and Iraqi borders amidst mounting insecurity and with winter fast approaching. "Human Rights Watch calls on the UN refugee agency to report publicly on which border crossings are closed and how many Syrians are stuck inside Syria as a result."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Sandy passing over Bahamas after at least 40 died when the storm hit Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti. Follow developments here
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Sandy passing over Bahamas after at least 40 died when the storm hit Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti. Follow developments here
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rise higher than the 1.8% analysts expected, but figures show signs that businesses are concerned by 'fiscal cliff' uncertainty US economic growth rose by 2% in the third quarter, higher than expected and fueled by rising consumer confidence, the fledgling recovery in the housing market and an increase in government spending. The latest figures from the commerce department are the last before November's election and come as US economic recovery – or the lack of it – has dominated the 2012 election cycle. The third-quarter GDP figures contain good and bad news for Barack Obama as he fights to defend his economic record against challenger Mitt Romney. Romney called the rise "discouraging". "Slow economic growth means slow job growth and declining take-home pay. This is what four years of president Obama's policies have produced. Americans are ready for change — for growth, for jobs, for higher take-home pay," he said in a statement. The rise was higher than the 1.8% economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected. The economy has now grown for 13 consecutive quarters. But at 2% growth remains extremely weak and the latest report contained worrying signs that business is cutting back, fearing a worsening of economic conditions. Consumer spending accounted for most of the rise in GDP. Personal consumption expenditures rose 2% in the quarter, up from 1.5% in the previous quarter. Purchases of long-lasting goods soared 8.5%. The news came as the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer confidence index rose to its highest level since September 2007. But while consumers are spending again, business confidence seems to be weakening. Non-residential fixed investment, which includes business spending on structures and equipment, fell 1.3% during the third quarter, compared with a 3.6% gain in the prior period. The pullback suggests businesses are reigning in spending ahead of the election and the uncertainty over the so-called "fiscal cliff" – the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts and imposition of massive spending cuts scheduled for the end of the year unless political compromise is found. Paul Dales, a senior US economist at Capital Economics, said it was clear that the fiscal cliff was proving a drag on business investment. Capital Economics calculates that Europe's economic woes have knocked another 0.5% off US GDP. "Things aren't too bad in the US. Growth remains weak but it is still growth," he said. But he said there were worrying signs ahead, and that consumers could become less confident if the fiscal cliff debate is not addressed soon. "Personally I don't think we will go off the fiscal cliff, but I also imagine a deal will not be done until the last minute, which could prove very worrying to consumers," Dales said. The GDP figures come a week before next Friday's nonfarm payroll jobs number – the last before polling day. The nonfarm payroll figures have become a monthly flashpoint in the election. Last month, jobs growth rose 114,000, higher than expected, the figures remain weak but the move was enough to send the unemployment rate down to a three-and-a-half-year low of 7.8%.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Rise higher than the 1.8% analysts expected, but figures show signs that businesses are concerned by 'fiscal cliff' uncertainty US economic growth rose in the third quarter to reach an annualized rate of 2%, higher than expected and fueled by rising consumer confidence, the fledgling recovery in the housing market and an increase in government spending. The latest figures from the commerce department are the last before November's election and come as US economic recovery – or the lack of it – has dominated the 2012 election cycle. The third-quarter GDP figures contain good and bad news for Barack Obama as he fights to defend his economic record against challenger Mitt Romney. Romney called the rise "discouraging". "Slow economic growth means slow job growth and declining take-home pay. This is what four years of president Obama's policies have produced. Americans are ready for change — for growth, for jobs, for higher take-home pay," he said in a statement. The rise was higher than the 1.8% economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected. The economy has now grown for 13 consecutive quarters. But at 2% growth remains extremely weak and the latest report contained worrying signs that business is cutting back, fearing a worsening of economic conditions. Consumer spending accounted for most of the rise in GDP. Personal consumption expenditures rose 2% in the quarter, up from 1.5% in the previous quarter. Purchases of long-lasting goods soared 8.5%. The news came as the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan consumer confidence index rose to its highest level since September 2007. But while consumers are spending again, business confidence seems to be weakening. Non-residential fixed investment, which includes business spending on structures and equipment, fell 1.3% during the third quarter, compared with a 3.6% gain in the prior period. The pullback suggests businesses are reigning in spending ahead of the election and the uncertainty over the so-called "fiscal cliff" – the expiration of Bush-era tax cuts and imposition of massive spending cuts scheduled for the end of the year unless political compromise is found. Paul Dales, a senior US economist at Capital Economics, said it was clear that the fiscal cliff was proving a drag on business investment. Capital Economics calculates that Europe's economic woes have knocked another 0.5% off US GDP. "Things aren't too bad in the US. Growth remains weak but it is still growth," he said. But he said there were worrying signs ahead, and that consumers could become less confident if the fiscal cliff debate is not addressed soon. "Personally I don't think we will go off the fiscal cliff, but I also imagine a deal will not be done until the last minute, which could prove very worrying to consumers," Dales said. The GDP figures come a week before next Friday's nonfarm payroll jobs number – the last before polling day. The nonfarm payroll figures have become a monthly flashpoint in the election. Last month, jobs growth rose 114,000, higher than expected, the figures remain weak but the move was enough to send the unemployment rate down to a three-and-a-half-year low of 7.8%.
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Yoselyn Ortega, 50, in hospital with apparently self-inflicted injuries after two young children were found dead on Thursday A nanny suspected of stabbing two young children to death in a luxury apartment in New York City was in critical condition Friday with apparently self-inflicted injuries. The children's mother returned home Thursday evening to find two of her small children dead in a bathtub and the nanny, with self-inflicted stab wounds, lying near them, police said. The nanny, Yoselyn Ortega, was found near a knife. She remained in police custody, and authorities said she is suspected of killing the children. The couple's apartment building sits in one of the city's most idyllic neighbourhoods, a block from Central Park, where the news of the double killing was met with shock and disbelief. The neighbourhood is home to many affluent families, and seeing children accompanied by nannies is an everyday part of life. Music therapist Rima Starr, who lives on the same floor as the Krim family, said she heard screams coming from the family's apartment at around 5.30pm.
"There was some kind of screaming about, 'You slit her throat!'" she said. "It was horrible." The children's mother, Marina Krim, had entered the dark apartment with her three-year-old and initially thought her other two children were out with the 50-year-old nanny, police commissioner Raymond Kelly said. She went downstairs and asked the doorman at her building whether he'd seen them leave. When he said no, she went back upstairs and discovered her two-year-old son, Leo, and her six-year-old daughter, Lucia, known as LuLu, in the bathroom, Kelly said. It's unclear how many times the children were stabbed. The nanny was found on the bathroom floor with stab wounds to her neck, and a kitchen knife was close by, police said. There was no water in the bathtub, they said. Kelly said it's unclear how long the nanny had worked for the family, and the police investigation was ongoing. No charges had been filed. Starr, the family's neighbour, said she believed the nanny had been hired just recently. "I met her in the elevator, the day before yesterday, and was making small talk," she said. After police arrived, she said, the mother remained in the building's lobby, screaming hysterically and clutching her surviving child. The children's father, CNBC digital media executive Kevin Krim, who had been away on a business trip, was met by police at the airport on his return and was given an escort to the hospital where his loved ones had gathered. On a webpage devoted to a recent family wedding, the eldest of the children, LuLu, is described as loving "art projects, ballet, and all things princess." The youngest, Leo, was said to be just learning how to walk. Fernando Mercado, the superintendent of the building where Ortega lives, told The Wall Street Journal that she is "a very nice woman" and "very religious."
"To me, she has always been very, very stable," he said. The family had moved to New York from San Francisco within the last few years. The children's father was named general manager of CNBC's digital media division in March, after working previously in digital media at Bloomberg. Their mother had a cooking blog and taught art classes to young children. The family lived in a stately, late 19th-century apartment building where one three-bedroom unit currently available for rent has an asking price of $10,000 per month. They had a greyhound, retired from racing, named Babar.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | • 1999-2005 Tour titles will not be reallocated
• UCI will examine its own role in Armstrong affair Cycling's global governing body has ruled the seven consecutive Tour de France races won by Lance Armstrong should remain forever without a champion as a warning from history, as the disgraced Texan confirmed he would not appeal against the decision to strip him of his titles. Armstrong has not responded to the United States Anti-Doping Agency's accusation that he led "the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen", but his Texas-based lawyer Tim Herman told the Guardian on Friday that the 41-year-old would not appeal against the International Cycling Union's ratification of Usada's verdict this week. The UCI management committee also called on Armstrong and others who have been caught doping to return their prize money, set up an independent commission to look into its own role in the affair and suspended its legal action against the journalist Paul Kimmage while that investigation is carried out. Despite the UCI announcing on Monday that it would ratify Usada's damning verdict that Armstrong was a "serial cheat", its president, Pat McQuaid, came in for further criticism after questioning aspects of the report in a series of supporting documents later released online. The decisions taken by the UCI's management committee in Geneva will be seen as an attempt to regain the initiative but could backfire on McQuaid and the honorary president, Hein Verbruggen, if the independent commission finds that they did not do enough to tackle doping. Faced with the reality that 20 of the 21 top-three finishers between 1999 and 2005 were implicated in doping, the UCI ruled that Armstrong's victories would not be awarded to any other rider, nor other placings upgraded. Instead, the Tour de France will enter the year of its hundredth staging with a roll call of 92 winners. "The UCI management committee acknowledged that a cloud of suspicion would remain hanging over this dark period – but that while this might appear harsh for those who rode clean, they would understand there was little honour to be gained in reallocating places," it said in a statement. While it "called on Armstrong and other affected riders to return the prize money they had received", the UCI did not say what action if any it would take to recover it. Armstrong is already facing potential legal action from SCA Promotions over the £6.9m bonus it was forced to pay in 2005 after Armstrong insisted in a tribunal that he had never used performance-enhancing drugs. The independent commission will look into the UCI's role in the Armstrong affair, including claims – which it denies – that it hushed up a suspicious test result in return for donations totalling $125,000, as well as finding ways to "ensure that persons caught for doping were no longer able to take part in the sport, including as part of an entourage". A rule brought in by the UCI in June last year already bars anyone convicted of doping after that date from working as an official or coach. But the commission, the make-up and remit of which will be announced in the week of 5 November, will be tasked with looking into the practicalities of a more wide-ranging ban. The commission, to be appointed by an "independent sports body", will deliver its report no later than 1 June. McQuaid again tried to draw a distinction between the depth of the problem before and after he took over as president in 2005, despite the Usada report claiming there was evidence that Armstrong continued doping following his comeback in 2009. "As I said on Monday, UCI is determined to turn around this painful episode in the history of our sport," he said. "We will take whatever actions are deemed necessary by the independent commission and we will put cycling back on track. "Today, cycling is a completely different sport from what it was in the period 1998 to 2005. Riders are now subject to the most innovative and effective anti-doping procedures and regulations in sport. Nevertheless, we have listened to the world's reaction to the Lance Armstrong affair and have taken these additional decisive steps in response to the grave concerns raised." On Monday McQuaid insisted the defamation case against Kimmage, who accused the UCI of taking a six-figure donation from Armstrong to turn a blind eye to doping suspicions, would go ahead. But the UCI, McQuaid and Verbruggen have suspended their action while the independent commission reports.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Italian former prime minister, who also faces accusations of sex with underage prostitute, can appeal twice more against ruling An Italian court has sentenced Silvio Berlusconi to four years in jail for tax fraud in connection with the purchase of broadcasting rights by his Mediaset television company. The former Italian prime minister has the right to appeal against the ruling two more times before the sentence becomes definitive and will not be jailed unless the final appeal is upheld. Prosecutors had asked for a jail sentence of three years and eight months. The court also ordered damages provisionally set at €10m to be paid by Berlusconi and his co-defendants to tax authorities. The ruling comes two days after Berlusconi, 76, confirmed he would not run in next year's elections as the leader of his centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) party. A separate trial over accusations that Berlusconi paid for sex with an underage prostitute is currently being heard in Milan. He denies all charges against him. The four-time prime minister and other Mediaset executives stood accused of inflating the price paid for TV rights via offshore companies controlled by Berlusconi, and skimming off part of the money to create illegal slush funds. Angelino Alfano, secretary of the PDL, said the ruling proved once again "judicial persecution" of the media-magnate, while a political rival, Antonio Di Pietro, a former magistrate, hailed the decision, saying: "The truth has been exposed." The court acquitted the Mediaset chairman and long-term Berlusconi friend Fedele Confalonieri, for whom prosecutors had sought a sentence of three years and four months.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Departure of Carroll after months of pressure from mining group's shareholders leaves two female bosses in FTSE 100 Anglo American's chief executive, Cynthia Carroll, is stepping down next year after months of intense pressure from shareholders amid wildcat strikes in South Africa. This will leave only two female bosses in FTSE 100 companies. Armed with degrees in geology, American-born Carroll, now 55, became the first non-South African, the first woman and the first outsider to take the reins at Anglo when she became CEO in March 2007. Carroll will stay in the job until a successor is found, which could take up to nine months. Potential candidates include Alex Vanselow, the Brazilian former chief financial officer of BHP Billiton; Aaron Regent, the former boss of Barrick Gold; and Mick Davis, South African-born and the outgoing chief executive of Xstrata. Anglo's chairman, Sir John Parker, said the company would conduct a global search but "could not afford Davis". One of Anglo's largest shareholders, South Africa's Public Investment Corporation, said the company had missed opportunities in Africa and criticised Carroll's "poor decision making". It called for a swift replacement. Carroll has been under pressure since her appointment, with some investors unhappy about the miner's share performance and Anglo's exposure to South Africa, where a series of mining disputes have hit output. Anglo American Platinum, a subsidiary, sacked 12,000 workers in early October. Other recent challenges include cost overruns at the Minas-Rio iron ore project in Brazil, as well as a legal battle with Codelco, Chile's state-owned miner. Carroll said: "It is a very difficult decision to leave, but next year I will be entering my seventh year as chief executive and I feel that the time will be right to hand over to a successor who can build further on the strong foundations we have created." Shares in Anglo rose 3.6% in London to £19.26 – making them the biggest riser in the leading index. Dismissing suggestions that Carroll had been forced out by shareholders, Parker said her decision to leave was her own as she started her seventh year in a "very gruelling and demanding role". Cailey Barker, an analyst at Numis, said: "Given the challenges and pressures to the business it may not come as a surprise to some, but we believe overall she has done a good job of transforming the company since taking the helm in 2007. Only in the recent year or so have things started to falter, mainly around the platinum sector and the recent industry problems endemic in South Africa. In our view, she should leave with her head held high." Anglo lauded Carroll's achievements, saying that under her leadership the group "successfully weathered the global financial crisis" and again achieved record profits last year. Despite drastic cost cuts that resulted in 26,000 job losses to streamline a sprawling consortium, analysts at Macquarie said this week that Anglo had lost a third of its value since Carroll became CEO, while its peers are worth at least the same as in 2007. The company is now worth some $25bn less. South Africa's Public Investment Corporation and Government Employees Pension Fund, which hold 7% of Anglo's shares, said that "shareholders should observe some sympathy for Ms Carroll", but notes that "poor capital allocation, poor project management and poor operational performance have contributed the bulk of the observed underperformance of Anglo." Cynthia Carroll took home £2.17m in salary and bonuses in 2011, plus a payout of £445,000 from share-based bonus plans that vested during the year. She has significant share interests remaining as part of long-term incentive plans, which have yet to pay out. The company said it was too early to say how much of these the company would pay of these. Typically, departing bosses are compensated according to how far into the plan they work. Following Dame Marjorie Scardino's departure from the helm of publisher Pearson, also announced this month, there will be only two female chief executives in the FTSE 100: Angela Ahrendts, at fashion group Burberry since 2006, and Alison Cooper, at Imperial Tobacco since 2010. Fiona Hotson Moore, partner at City accountancy Reeves and a campaigner for quotas to put more women in boardrooms, said Carroll's departure "further highlights the extraordinary absence of women at the top of FTSE 100 companies. Women count, and can count and can manage massive multinationals. Why are men and the search companies they use so resistant?" This loss comes in the week that the European commission put off a decision about establishing quotas.
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Interactive: US secretary of state Hillary Clinton turns 65 Friday. Few women (or men) in politics can rival her career – for its longevity or its controversy
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Candidates' wives are criss-crossing battleground states to humanise their husbands – and win over a key demographic The voice was strong and passionate. The "fired up" catchphrase was familiar. The two-thousand strong Florida crowd of Democrats was adoring as they were urged to get to the polls. But the Obama on the stage was not Barack. It was Michelle. In a fiery piece of oratory given in a sports hall at Broward College in Davie, Florida, the first lady was a natural campaigner getting the full rock star treatment every bit as much as her spouse does. "Yeahhhh!" she said as she took to the podium. "This is what I call a rally!" She looked out at the roaring crowd. "I can tell you all seem pretty fired up and ready to go. And that's a good thing because I am really fired up and ready to go myself," she said. But Michelle Obama does not have the field to herself when it comes to the fierce and increasingly tight election battle of 2012. Ann Romney, wife of Republican challenger Mitt, has also emerged as a powerful advocate for her husband. She, too, is criss-crossing the battleground states, enthusiastically rallying Republican foot soldiers for her spouse's cause. Both candidates' wives have the same role: energise the base and humanise their husbands with warm tales of character and family life. But now, as the neck-and-neck election draws to a close, each is also seen as a vital advocate for what is emerging as the most important demographic in the contest: women voters. A new poll, published on Thursday, showed that Obama's long-held lead among women voters had all but vanished as Romney's campaign has enjoyed a remarkable national surge and brought the overall race to a virtual dead heat. After months of leading by double digits among female voters, the AP-GfK survey showed the candidates now tied at 47% among women. Just a month ago Obama's lead had been a huge 16 points. "Often the Democrats have taken the female vote for granted. But this is four years into an economic crisis and the Republicans have hoped to siphon off some of that female support on economic issues," said Katherine Jellison, an expert on women's history at Ohio University. Michelle Obama and Ann Romney are now a key part of each campaign's fight for women voters. But they are making their pitches to wildly different audiences and in significantly different ways. They are also very different people. One is a black ex-lawyer who once earned far more than her husband. The other is a blonde housewife, devout Mormon and mother of five boys. Mirroring their husbands' polarised campaigns, the efforts of Ann Romney and Michelle Obama are also studies of opposites even as they share the goal of winning the White House. At Broward, Michelle Obama hammered away at a mixed-race crowd gathered at a community college in a lower-middle class neighbourhood of small homes and strip malls lined with fast food joints. She gave an impassioned speech for about 45 minutes, heavy on her husband's policy achievements from the past four years. She came across as a natural speaker, mixing in anecdotes of family life with a stern lecture on the importance of volunteering for the campaign. "I don't care what's going on, sign up to do something before election day," she insisted. Meanwhile, near Orlando, Florida, Ann Romney made her own pitch this week. She spoke outdoors in a bucolic city park in Winter Park, one of the wealthiest communities in Florida. Just off a street lined with expensive restaurants and fashionable boutiques she spoke to an overwhelmingly white crowd of locals. She emerged on stage clutching the hands of two young boys. "I have brought some special friends with me," she gushed. "These are two of my 18 grandchildren." Her speech, with a heavy emphasis on Romney family stories, was largely policy free and lasted just 15 minutes. But her image was flawless: that of a proud churchgoing mother and wife concerned for the future of America. At one stage she talked in folksy tones of her spouse's decision to run for president. She said she had asked her husband if it was "too late" to save America. "Mitt said: "It's growing late. It's getting very late. But it's not too late yet." I said: "That's all I need to know. Go save America!"," she explained. Despite – or in fact because of – their hugely different styles, both candidates' wives are popular with their party's grassroots. "I feel like I won a million dollars. She's very boisterous. She is active. When she speaks it's more heartfelt," said Shanovia Brown, 33, a corrections officer at Michelle Obama's Broward rally. But in Winter Park, Ann Romney was hitting the spot, too. "She is very elegant, very classy. She will be a beautiful representative of America," said Beth Young, a 54-year-old flight attendant. Indeed, both Michelle Obama and Ann Romney are more popular than their husbands. In one recent poll, Michelle Obama's favourability rate was 69%, with Ann Romney at 52% - a jump of 12 points since April as her public profile has grown. So far Michelle Obama has been the more active spouse. She has been a fundraising powerhouse, bringing in more than $17m since the start of the year. At one event having a photo taken with the first lady cost $5,000. Michelle Obama has also been on edgy late-night talk shows, like Jimmy Kimmel, and appeared at Hollywood fundraisers with stars like Will Smith. "With Michelle, Barack Obama can double the territory and double the number of donors reached," said Robert Watson, a professor of American studies at Lynn University. Meanwhile, Ann Romney has been a little more reticent. She frequently appears alongside her husband on television, but less so by herself. Some experts believe that is a mistake. "She is not as naturally comfortable as Michelle. She has been under utilised," Watson said. But being a first lady, or a would-be first lady, is an entry into a strange and tradition-bound corner of American politics. It is essentially a subordinate role whose main aim is to tell a husband's story. Michelle Obama, once a distinguished lawyer, calls herself a "mom-in-chief" and does not shy away from schmaltz. It is seen as "humanising" Obama, who is often viewed as aloof. "Although my husband is handsome and charming and incredibly smart – yes indeed – that is not why I married him. Listen closely. What truly made me fall in love with Barack Obama is something you all see every day – it's his character. It's his decency and his honesty," she said in Broward. Ann Romney, too, lays it on thick. In Winter Park she spoke of how her husband tended to a dying boy in hospital, visiting him regularly, telling him about heaven and helping him with his final wishes. She spoke of pride of her husband's performance in the television debates. "To have Mitt Romney defining who he is and what kind of a person he is, I loved it," she said. Telling these homely stories is seen as vital by campaign strategists, not for the spouse's own image, but for their husbands'. "We don't elect first ladies. Instead we think: this is the kind of spouse that he has chosen to marry and so her world view must line up with his," said Jellison. "Religious conservatives will hear Ann Romney's message and feel comfortable that she is a traditionally-minded woman and that her husband will champion that mindset." Yet in the end their campaigning reduces both Michelle Obama and Ann Rommey to playing a subservient, traditionally "female" role in the election. Both tout their domestic credentials and experiences of motherhood. They talk about favoured recipes, their fashion choices are endlessly analysed and they do a whole parade of "softball" magazine and newspaper interviews. They chat to Elle, Home Journal, Parade and appear on Oprah Winfrey's show. "It is a guaranteed win-win. You get soft ball questions and they tend to be more popular than their husbands. You would be a fool not to send them out there," said Watson. The crowds flocking to see them were not complaining. Mary Faro, a local academic, had waited for three hours to the see the First Lady come to Broward. "And I'd do it again. Happily," she explained. Supporters at the Ann Romney rally felt the same. "When she speaks, she speaks from the heart. You can sense a phoney, and Ann Romney is very genuine," said Hib Theriault, a retired army colonel. All of which explains why the candidates' wives have been so active as the election enters it final and fiercest phase. They are both succeeding at the part of politics that is more a high school contest popularity contest than a policy debate. "Not all voters like policy. It's like the prom king and queen, and no one tells a person's story as well as their spouse," said Watson.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Last snapshot of economic growth before Americans go to the polls shows consumer and government spending helped boost GDP Growth in the US economy picked up in the third quarter as Americans went on a shopping spree and government spending surged, with less than two weeks to go before the election. GDP rose by an annualised rate of 2%, up from 1.3% in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said. Wall Street economists had expected growth of 1.9%. However, a growth rate of more than 2.5% is needed over several quarters to bring the unemployment rate down. European shares erased losses after the figures were released. They are the last snapshot of economic growth before Americans go to the polls on 6 November. Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics, said: "Thankfully GDP growth came in a little higher than we had feared, largely because of the big jump in federal spending, but the economy is still not growing rapidly enough to create sufficient jobs to reduce the unemployment rate." Encouraged by higher share prices and an improving housing market, consumers splashed out on a range of goods including cars and the iPhone 5. Consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of economic activity, grew by 2% compared with 1.5% in the second quarter. The pick-up came despite higher inflation, squeezed incomes and impending cuts in government spending and tax hikes. The worry is that with 23 million Americans out of work or underemployed, this pace of spending will not be sustained. The largest increase in defence spending in more than three years pushed government expenditure up by 3.7% following eight quarters of declines. Federal spending surged 9.6%, adding 0.7% to overall growth. However, companies cut back, with business investment dropping 1.3%, the first decline since the recession ended. The equipment and software industries posted a flat outturn, the weakest performance since mid-2009. Economic growth was also held back by the first drop in exports in more than three years. ING economist Rob Carnell said: "In the end, what saved this figure from being much, much worse, was a somewhat freakish surge in government spending, driven by a 13% gain in national defence spending. In short, a decent headline, but a fairly poor background picture for domestic demand. The Fed will not be persuaded to trim their quantitative easing purchases on the back of this data, and instead will see further ammunition to expand QE3 to include Treasuries at the December meeting."
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Speech to overflowing crowd of 12,000 in Defiance caps Republican's dash across the swing state in search of votes Mitt Romney came to the battleground state of Ohio on Thursday and brazenly stole Barack Obama's clothes. He presented himself as the agent of "big change" and repeatedly accused the president of being the candidate of the status quo. In the final stop of a single day's three-point dash from the south-west to the north-west of the state, Romney echoed the message that Obama had brought to this electoral ground zero just four years ago. "Paul Ryan and I represent a big change for America," he told a high school football stadium filled in the north-west town of Defiance, his voice growing hoarse. "We're finally going to tackle the problems politicians have spoken about for years but haven't been willing to deal with," he said. With further parallels to the Obama message of 2008, he added that to get the job done in Washington he would "reach across the aisle". There was no sign of any waning in the momentum that the Republican nominee has enjoyed since the Denver TV presidential debate. The stadium was packed to overflowing, supporters having queued for two hours in a line that snaked right around the high school – another striking '08 echo. The official tally for the event was 12,000 people, which was impressive given that the population of Defiance is 16,000. "This is a big event for a small town," said Jason Tackett, 26, attending the rally. "I've never seen anything like it in all my life here." The town takes its name from the way General Anthony Wayne described a fort built here in the war against the Native Americans: "I defy the English, Indians and all the devils of hell to take it." Romney came here with more than a little of that spirit. It took defiance to come to Defiance because not two miles out of the town is a massive General Motors plant, an iron and aluminium foundary that makes engine blocks. The Obama re-election campaign has been pounding the area with TV and radio adverts reminding voters that in the 2008 crash Romney argued that the auto industry should be allowed to go bankrupt. The $87bn in federal loans that the Obama administration extended to GM and Chrysler, located just up the road in Toledo, have provided one of the great fault lines of the election this year, with Obama presenting himself as the savior of the auto industry and Romney on the defensive. Unemployment in Defiance is 6.7%, well below the national average of 7.8%. A small demonstration of Obama supporters at the entrance to Defiance high school included several workers from the GM plant. "If GM had gone bankrupt this town would have been destroyed. Hospital, schools, lawyers, restaurants, you name it, everything would have gone down," said Veronica Estrada, 43. But there were also several GM workers, and other employees of subsidiaries dependant on the GM plant, inside the stadium supporting Romney. John Vogel, 29, who works for a sub-contractor of GM, dismissed Obama's claim to having saved the industry. "It's the people that do the work that saved GM, not the politicians," he said. A contractor who works for all of the large car companies called Jim, 52, (he declined to give his last name) disputed that Romney would have let GM go bankrupt in any case. "He had a plan to reorganise it, he wanted to see GM go through a managed rebuilding." In Jim's opinion, unionised companies like GM were starting to wish they'd done more to restructure themselves. "A lot of them are beginning to realise they are hanging on but not getting stronger." Rob Portman, the Republican senator for Ohio who was a contender for vice-presidential nominee before Romney chose Ryan to be his running mate, addressed the auto bailout head on in his speech to the Defiance crowd. He began by admitting that he had supported the auto bailout, but then went on to accuse Obama of lying about Romney's position. "There is no question in my mind that Mitt Romney's policies for the future are going to be better for our auto companies, for the workers, for communities like Defiance. Folks, if you are an auto worker here tonight I can tell you this – we need to elect Mitt Romney as next president of the United States." The latest polls on Ohio vary slightly with two – CBS News / Quinnipiac and Time showing Obama with a still robust five point lead but all the others recording an effective tie between the presidential rivals. The crucial importance of the state comes down to the fact that unless Romney wins its crop of 18 electoral votes out of the 270 needed to win, he will find it virtually impossible to win the presidency. Victory for Romney without Ohio would require him to sweep other swing states and take either Nevada or Wisconsin. Part of the attraction of Romney for the Defiance crowd was on religious grounds. The town is heavily Catholic, with a strong socially conservative bent. Debra Scheub, 55, said that watching the presidential debates had given new energy to the Republican campaign. "Everybody got to see the man for themselves. They saw he was a viable candidate, and we learned a lot about his character and how he carries himself as a disciplined man."
  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Government reiterates its current opposition to military action against Iran after revelation US has requested use of UK bases The UK government has reiterated that it does not believe military action against Iran would be appropriate at the moment, following the disclosure that Britain has rebuffed US requests to use UK military bases to support the buildup of forces in the Gulf. Downing Street said: "We are working closely with the US with regard to UK bases" but "the government does not think military action is the right course at this point of time". David Cameron made a lengthy speech last week urging Israel to show restraint, and pointing to the way in which sanctions are having an impact on the Iranian economy. The Guardian has been told that US diplomats have also lobbied for the use of British bases in Cyprus, and for permission to fly from US bases on Ascension Island in the Atlantic and Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, both of which are British territories. The US approaches are part of contingency planning over the nuclear standoff with Tehran, but British ministers have so far reacted coolly. On Friday, Downing Street said such contingency planning was something that was done as a matter of routine. They have pointed US officials to legal advice drafted by the attorney general's office and which has been circulated to Downing Street, the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence. It states that providing assistance to forces that could be involved in a pre-emptive strike would be a clear breach of international law on the basis that Iran, which has consistently denied it has plans to develop a nuclear weapon, does not currently represent "a clear and present threat". "The UK would be in breach of international law if it facilitated what amounted to a pre-emptive strike on Iran," said a senior Whitehall source. "It is explicit. The government has been using this to push back against the Americans." Sources said the US had yet to make a formal request, and that they did not believe an acceleration towards conflict was imminent or more likely. The discussions so far had been to scope out the British position, they said. "But I think the US has been surprised that ministers have been reluctant to provide assurances about this kind of upfront assistance," said one source. "They'd expect resistance from senior Liberal Democrats, but it's Tories as well. That has come as a bit of a surprise." The situation reflects the lack of appetite within Whitehall for the UK to be drawn into any conflict, though the Royal Navy has a large presence in the Gulf in case the ongoing diplomatic efforts fail. The Guardian has been told that a British military delegation with a strong navy contingent flew to US Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida, this summer to run through a range of contingency plans with US planners. The UK, however, has assumed that it would only become involved once a conflict had already begun, and has been reluctant to commit overt support to Washington in the buildup to any military action. "It is quite likely that if the Israelis decided to attack Iran, or the Americans felt they had to do it for the Israelis or in support of them, the UK would not be told beforehand," said the source. "In some respects, the UK government would prefer it that way." British and US diplomats insisted that the two countries regarded a diplomatic solution as the priority, but this depends on the White House being able to restrain Israel, which is nervous that Iran's underground uranium enrichment plant will soon make its nuclear programme immune to any outside attempts to stop it. Israel has a less developed strike capability and its window for action against Iran will close much more quickly than that of the US, explained another official. "The key to holding back Israel is Israeli confidence that the US will deal with Iran when the moment is right." With diplomatic efforts stalled by the US presidential election campaign, a new push to resolve the crisis will begin in late November or December. Six global powers will spearhead a drive that is likely to involve an offer to lift some of the sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy in return for Tehran limiting its stockpile of enriched uranium. The countries involved are the US, the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China. Iran will be represented by its chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | By dealing with the question of Tony Stark's relationship with his suit, the third Iron Man instalment might prove the best so far If you had a set of superhero top trumps, Iron Man would probably not represent one of the very strongest cards. IGN rated Tony Stark's alter ego the 12th greatest comic book hero in a recent rundown, below Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash and even Dick Grayson, aka Robin. Yet somehow Iron Man punches above his weight on the big screen: 2008's debut Jon Favreau-directed venture delivered a modern-day superhero in the form of a reformed arms dealer and scientific genius who uses technology to reinvent himself. A comic book movie which took note of contemporary geopolitics may have been been a slightly unwieldy proposition, but it at least gave us a hero to root for who felt of his time (rather than eternally stuck in 1940s or 50s golden age purgatory). Stark arguably survived a slight dip in form for Iron Man 2 but was centre stage for The Avengers, which promptly became the highest-grossing comic book film of all time earlier this year. All of this means that the stakes have been upped considerably for Iron Man 3, for which thedebut trailer arrived this week. Bloggers have pored over the teaser in intense detail as they vie to glean the tiniest snippets of information about Shane Black's forthcoming movie, and it's fair to say that fanboy interest has reached unprecedented levels for the series. The giant sex bunny in Stark's home (which cannot have appeared for longer than a second of the trailer) already has its own Twitter account. Early signs are that the film might just represent the best Iron Man instalment so far because it poses the one question Robert Downey Jr's wisecracking billionaire has really struggled to answer: if Tony Stark and his alter ego are one and the same, why is it that all their powers appear to reside not in the man, but the suit? Before we rake over the trailer, let's remind ourselves of the movie's synopsis, published last week by Marvel/Disney. Marvel Studios' Iron Man 3 pits brash-but-brilliant industrialist Tony Stark/Iron Man against an enemy whose reach knows no bounds. When Stark finds his personal world destroyed at his enemy's hands, he embarks on a harrowing quest to find those responsible. This journey, at every turn, will test his mettle.
With his back against the wall, Stark is left to survive by his own devices, relying on his ingenuity and instincts to protect those closest to him. As he fights his way back, Stark discovers the answer to the question that has secretly haunted him: does the man make the suit or does the suit make the man? A couple of shots in the trailer lend credence to this sense of a personality crisis: there's a snatch of a scene in which the Iron Man suit looms over Stark as if possessed with its own volition: later, we see the suit waking Stark and Pepper Potts from bed with a sense of urgency. Has it been compromised, or is it just doing its best to protect its masters? And if the suit is bright enough to act as guard dog, why does it even need Stark to function? The trailer also offers evidence that Iron Man, for all his usual insouciant arrogance, is struggling to come to terms with the aftermath of his debut Avengers mission. And with the arrival of a powerful new nemesis in the form of Ben Kingsley's Mandarin, it really does seem to be bad timing for a fit of identity-linked navel gazing. What of the Anglo-Indian Kingsley's casting as a villain who is usually of oriental extraction in the comics? Marvel overlord Kevin Feige has said the film gives us a different Mandarin, one who apart from anything else did not learn his skills from a long-dead alien dragon, so it seems reasonable also to switch the character's ethnicity. On the other hand, why bother calling him the Mandarin at all? And what of Kingsley's strange rolling "r"s? Could this be the weirdest brogue since Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood? Personally I'm pleased to see an actor of this stature playing one of the iconic Iron Man villains on the big screen, and there have been hints that the new iteration was behind the terrorist gangs who troubled Stark in the first film (which ties the whole trilogy together rather nicely). I'm also intrigued by the whole suit/man split, provided it's not thrown in as an afterthought like the misguided Venom subplot in Spider-Man 3. It seems likely that the walking suit storyline has been borrowed from the Extremis chapter of Iron Man's history (which incidentally also gave us the Asia-set origins story borrowed by Favreau for the first film). Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian and Rebecca Hall's Dr Maya Hansen have both been described by Marvel as creators of a new nanotechnology named Extremis, which Stark was able to use to fuse more fully with his suit in the comics. We've seen in the Avengers (and in the new trailer) how Iron Man is increasingly able to snap his suit on to his body remotely: might the ultimate extension of that ability be the transformation of the suit into a semi-sentient life form capable of defending its owner even when unconscious? Or did we all go out drinking with Thor last night? It's worth mentioning that Extremis is also a dangerous virus that the Mandarin has used as part of his evil machinations in the comics, so we can probably expect both iterations to manifest in Iron Man 3. One thing is for certain: with Superman still a year away from returning in the unorthodox-looking Man of Steel and Batman currently in retirement until someone at Warner Bros works out how to trump Christopher Nolan's trilogy, Marvel's Iron Man is coming off the back of The Avengers with a genuine shot of stealing the comic book crown. Are you expecting the character's third solo outing to soar above the stratosphere, or fall to Earth faster than Felix Baumgartner?
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