W O R L D

Romney wants a repeat, Prez Obama a reversal
Hempstead, October 16
President Barack Obama is under heavy pressure in his debate rematch with Mitt Romney on Tuesday to turn in a more forceful performance that restores his momentum and draws sharper policy differences with his Republican challenger.

Watch live debate at Hofstra University in New York beginning at 6.30 am on Wednesday on CNN Supporters of US President Barack Obama display placards during a campaign rally at the Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware. — AFP

Attack on pak teen activist
Malik announces $1 mn bounty
Washington, October 16
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has announced a million dollar bounty on the leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan who claimed responsibility for the attack of teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai and has alleged that the plan was hatched in Afghanistan.

Romney wants a repeat, Prez Obama a reversal
SECOND DEBATE Polls show race deadlocked with 3 weeks left

Hempstead, October 16
President Barack Obama is under heavy pressure in his debate rematch with Mitt Romney on Tuesday to turn in a more forceful performance that restores his momentum and draws sharper policy differences with his Republican challenger.

Obama will try to make amends for his listless and heavily criticised showing in the first debate when the rivals square off in a nationally televised town hall setting that gives undecided voters in the audience the opportunity to question the candidates.

With just three weeks left in a deadlocked race for the White House, the Democratic president cannot afford to fumble another chance to make the case for his re-election and to blunt the rise of Romney.

"Almost all of the pressure will be on Obama this time, given how poorly he performed in the first debate and how much that seemed to help Romney and change the race," said Andrew Taylor, a political scientist at North Carolina State University. Obama's passive performance in the October 3 debate launched a Romney surge that now has the two candidates running virtually even in most national polls before the November 6 election.

A Reuters/Ipsos online tracking poll on Monday showed Obama with a two-point lead over Romney, 47 per cent to 45 per cent. That means they are essentially tied.

Obama and his campaign advisers have promised that a more engaged candidate will show up in the 90-minute debate at Hofstra University in New York. For Obama this time around, the challenge will be to confront Romney on the issues without seeming nasty or too personal.

Romney, a former private equity executive often accused of failing to connect with ordinary people, would be happy with a steady performance to keep up his momentum. Not only have his overall poll numbers improved since the last debate, but personal approval ratings have also crept up.

Both men will have to deal with the more intimate town hall format, which often inhibits political attacks as the candidates focus on connecting with the individual voters who ask the questions.

Obama was criticised after the last debate for failing to challenge Romney on his policies on taxes, healthcare and jobs, and particularly on what Democrats said were efforts by Romney to soft-pedal his most conservative stances. Campaign aides said Obama was ready to take on Romney this time.

Romney have taken time off the campaign trail to prepare for the showdown, the second of three presidential debates. The final one will be next Monday, October 22, in Boca Raton, Florida, and will focus on foreign policy issues. — Reuters

Attack on pak teen activist
Malik announces $1 mn bounty

Pakistani students shout slogans during a protest in Lahore. — AFP

Washington, October 16
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik has announced a million dollar bounty on the leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan who claimed responsibility for the attack of teenage rights activist Malala Yousufzai and has alleged that the plan was hatched in Afghanistan.

"This conspiracy assassination plan was made across the border in Afghanistan. Of course, Mullah Fudrullah, who had fled away when we took action in Malakand Swat. And this was transpired there; four people came from there," Malik told the CNN in an interview.

"At that point of time, we did not do exactly know what it was their objective and what kind of action they were going to take, till such time they had hit Malala. Of course, one other guy we have identified and few of his associates have been arrested," he said, adding that one of the financers of one of the terrorists have been detained.

Malik announced $1 million as bounty for the leader of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan who claimed that TTP was responsible for her shooting.

Appearing on the CNN, the top Pakistani official asserted that the Government of Pakistan us taking strong action against extremist and terrorist in the country. "Let me tell you we must know that Pakistan is fighting a war, a war which was imposed on Pakistan," he said. — PTI

Bravery award for Malala

Sitara-e-Shujaat, one of Pakistan's highest civilian awards for bravery, will be given to 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai, who was shot by the Taliban last week for speaking out against the militants, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said.

Pakistani students shout slogans during a protest in Lahore. — AFP

US considered killing Osama with ‘magic bullet’

Washington, October 16
The US considered slaying terror mastermind Osama bin Laden with a just developed minute missile "magic bullet" among the options to breach his hideout deep inside Pakistan, a new book has revealed.

The magic missile with a length and breadth of a strong man's forearm was recently developed by Raytheon GPS and was fitted to be fired from a tiny drone.

The option of using the magic missile on the elusive Al-Qaida chief was mooted by President Barack Obama's favourite General James Cartwright, the then Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The use of the new technology was considered days before Obama ordered the raid on bin Laden's Abbottabad hideout in Pakistan, as his National Security Team considered a commando-style operation, a high-risk option.

Gen Cartwright told the team that the missile could strike an individual or a single vehicle without damaging anything nearby, wrote Mark Bowden in his book 'The Finish: The Killing of Osama bin Laden' which hit the stores today.

"Called simply an STM (small tactical munition), it weighed just thirteen pounds, carried a five-pound warhead, and was fired from under the wing of a drone that itself was no larger than a model air plane, small enough to escape the notice of any country's air defences.

"It was a 'fire-and-forget' missile, which meant you could not guide it once it was released. It would find and explode on the precise coordinates it had been given," the book said.

Since bin Laden, according to intelligence, "tended to walk in the same place every day, Cartwright believed the missile would kill him, and likely him alone. It placed no American forces at risk, the book said. — PTI