|
|
|
|
|
Romney needs a win in Denver duel
FACE-OFF: Clay-head moulds of US presidential candidates Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama in a photo
unveiled by Madame Tussauds in Washington. — Reuters
Car bombs kill 48 in Aleppo
The scene of car bomb explosions that hit the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Wednesday. — AFP |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Dual nationality
|
|
Romney needs a win in Denver duel
Denver, October 3 The 90-minute encounter offers the chance to reach more than 60 million people on television, a far greater audience than watched either candidate speak at the Democratic and Republican conventions. While that has potential dividends in attracting undecided voters, there is also the risk that one or the other will make a major mistake that can overshadow the campaign in the last five weeks before the November 6 election. Running behind in the polls, Romney is more in need of a victory than Obama at the University of Denver debate, the first of three such face-offs scheduled in the next four weeks. "I think he's got to have a pretty convincing win," said David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University. "He's had a bad few weeks and he needs to change the narrative of the campaign." The Republican was damaged by a secretly taped video from a private fundraiser in which he said 47 per cent of voters are dependent on government and unlikely to support him. It was only one of several recent stumbles by the former Massachusetts Governor in his second presidential bid. At the Denver debate, Romney needs not only to repair some of the damage from the video. He must raise questions about Obama's handling of the US economy and explain how his own plan would create more jobs and cut the budget deficit. Romney must get through the debate without losing his cool and without appearing to be disrespectful to Obama, who many Americans like personally despite his struggle to create jobs. And the often robotic Republican could do with showing some personality to make voters feel more comfortable with him. "Americans who are thinking about voting for Romney need to hear from him about how he would change the country for the better," said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean. "They're leaning toward the devil they know, which is President Obama. Romney has to knock it out of the park by showing the contrast between himself and Obama." The Democrat has the challenge of answering why Americans should consider themselves better off now than they were four years ago, a key measure in every presidential election. He needs to explain what he would do to rekindle job creation in a second term. The US jobless rate has been above 8 per cent for 43 straight months and is the top priority of voters. Obama is considered far more likable than Romney and leads him on many attributes in opinion polls. He has the edge over Romney in many battleground states such as Ohio where the election will be decided.
— Reuters
|
|
|
Obama marks 20 years of marriage
with romantic tweet
President Barack Obama marked 20 years of marriage to his wife Michelle today with a romantic tweet sent to the First Lady, and to his 20 million followers on Twitter.
"Twenty years ago today, I married the love of my life and my best friend. Happy anniversary, Michelle. -bo" read the message sent by the president from his @BarackObama Twitter account. The Obamas were married exactly 20 years ago Wednesday, on October 3, 1992. Dinner by candlelight was not in the cards for the first couple however, since their anniversary falls on the same day as the critically important first debate in Colorado between Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
— PTI
|
|
|
Aleppo, October 3 "Most of the dead and wounded are regime troops," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, citing medical sources. A local official reported an initial toll of 37 dead and dozens wounded, many of them critically. "The toll could rise because many people were badly injured," a city official told AFP, shortly after three bombs exploded around Saadallah al-Jabiri Square, near a military officers' club and a hotel. Two of the blasts hit the area near the club within a minute of each other. A third car bomb then exploded some 150 metres away in the Bab Jnein district, at the entrance of the Old City neighbourhood of Aleppo. Near the officers' club, part of the facade of a hotel was destroyed by the force of the blasts, an AFP correspondent at the scene said, adding that a two-storey cafe collapsed completely. "We heard two enormous explosions, as though the gates of hell were opening," Hassan, a 30-year-old man who works in a nearby hotel, told AFP. "I saw thick smoke, and I helped a woman on the pavement whose arms and legs were completely dislocated," said Hassan. A shopowner whose store is located a block away from the officers' club said: "I pulled out from the rubble a child less than 10 years old who has lost a leg." All government buildings in the area were closed, he added. Official television channel Al-Ikhbariya showed massive destruction in the square. At least two buildings collapsed completely, and bloody corpses were laid out on the rubble, the broadcaster showed.
— AFP
|
|
|
Dual nationality Islamabad, October 3 The order to suspend Shehnaz Sheikh's membership of the National Assembly was issued by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. The Chief Justice remarked that the fact that no one had appeared on Sheikh's behalf implied that she was not interested in pursuing her case. The bench subsequently directed Sheikh to submit a reply within three days. It also directed Rai Ghulam Mujtaba Kharral, a lawmaker of the Pakistan People's Party, to reply to an allegation that he has Canadian citizenship. The same bench had earlier disqualified 11 federal and provincial lawmakers and said that Interior Minister Rehman Malik stands to lose his membership of the Senate or upper house of parliament as he had made a false declaration during elections held in 2008.
— PTI
|
Two men banned at all-you-can-eat UK joint for eating too much Hunt on for da Vinci’s Mona Lisa model Design for Titanic II to be unveiled
|
||||||
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
Republican candidate Mitt Romney is under pressure to produce a strong performance at his first face-to-face debate with President Barack Obama to try to turn around a race for the White House that has been edging away from him.
At least 48 persons were killed and nearly 100 wounded, most of them soldiers, in a spate of car bombs that blasted the heart of Syria's second city Aleppo today.
