The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Third Presidential Debate — Foreign Policy Prez Obama on attack, but Romney steady Debate veers often to domestic policy Boca Raton, October 23 President Barack Obama scolded challenger Mitt Romney for being "all over the map" on foreign policy in their final presidential debate on Monday, but the Republican appeared to have passed the "commander-in-chief" test of looking authoritative on national security issues. With two weeks left until election day, the high-stakes debate strayed frequently into domestic policy, with Romney seeking to bolster his argument that Obama had bungled the US economic recovery. Running neck and neck in polls, neither man threw a knockout punch or made a noticeable gaffe as they clashed over Israel, Iran, Russia and the size of the US Navy in the encounter at Lynn University in Boca Raton. While tamer than the second debate last week in New York state, the match-up had its share of zingers and putdowns, most of them doled out by an aggressive president eager to stop a surge in polls by the former Massachusetts governor. "I know you haven't been in a position to actually execute foreign policy, but every time you've offered an opinion, you've been wrong," said Obama. "Attacking me is not an agenda," was Romney's frequent retort, alluding to Republican accusations that Obama had not laid out enough of a policy plan for a second term. Snap polls declared Obama the winner, but 60 per cent of people in a CNN survey said Romney was capable of being commander in chief, accomplishing a key goal set out by his advisers. A CBS News poll said 53 per cent believed Obama won the debate, versus 23 per cent for Romney and 24 per cent calling it a draw. The CNN poll put Obama as the winner by 8 percentage points. With foreign policy a low priority in a campaign focused on the economy, it was unclear what impact the debate would have on the race. Respondents in the CNN poll were split over whether it would influence their votes in the November 6 election. The campaign now enters its decisive phase with two weeks of campaign rallies across battleground states. Polls show a tied race, after Romney clawed back from a deficit by outdueling Obama in their first debate on October 3. The Boca Raton showdown was one last chance for the candidates to appeal to millions of voters watching on television and Obama was the aggressor from start to finish. — Reuters Trust deficit over Pak The final US Presidential debate raised questions over Pakistan, with Republican contender Mitt Romney apprehending that with 100 nuclear warheads if the country becomes a "failed state", it would be an extraordinary danger to Afghanistan and America. President Barack Obama exhibited his own trust deficit over Pakistan when he disclosed that had Islamabad been consulted on the commando operation to eliminate Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, the US would not have succeeded. In the third and final debate which polls gave to incumbent President, 65-year-old Romney said Pakistan "is important to the region, to the world and to us" because it had 100 nuclear warheads and was rushing to build a lot more. "They'll have more than Great Britain sometime in the relatively near future," Romney said. "They also have the Haqqani network and Taliban existent within their country. And so a Pakistan that falls apart, becomes a failed state would be of extraordinary danger to Afghanistan and us. Romney argued that despite a strained relationship with Pakistan, the United States cannot afford to "divorce" Pakistan, which is a nation of over 100 nuclear weapons. "No, it's not time to divorce a nation on earth that has a hundred nuclear weapons and is on the way to double that at some point," he said. — PTI
	Fighting flares up in Lebanese city over Syria loyalties Tripoli, October 23 Four persons were killed and 15 wounded in overnight gun battles in the Lebanese city of Tripoli in a second night of fighting between Sunni and Alawite gunmen loyal to different sides in the war in neighbouring Syria, a military source said on Tuesday. In the capital Beirut, tension eased after troops fanned out across the city to clear the streets of gunmen who had clashed on Sunday night. The violence flared after Friday's assassination in central Beirut of senior Lebanese security official Wissam al-Hassan, who was opposed to the Syrian leadership. The bombing and the ensuing clashes brought the civil war in Syria into the heart of Lebanon and triggered a political crisis, with the opposition demanding the resignation of the mostly pro-Damascus cabinet of Prime Minister Najib Mikati. The fighting in Tripoli, Mikati's hometown, took place between the neighbouring areas of Bab al-Tabbaneh, a Sunni Muslim stronghold, and Jebel Mohsen, an Alawite district. Three Sunnis and one Alawite were killed and 15 persons were wounded, a military medical source told Reuters. Tripoli's Sunni Muslims support the Syrian rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, who are mostly from Syria's Sunni majority. Assad is a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. He can count on the support of Hezbollah, a powerful Shi'ite Islamist armed group that is part of the Mikati government, as well as other Shi'ites and Alawites in Lebanon's complex sectarian and political mix. — Reuters
	Fresh clashes erupt in Myanmar Yangon, October 23 Fresh clashes between Muslims and Buddhists have broken out in volatile western Myanmar, leaving at least three persons dead and hundreds of homes burned to the ground, authorities said today. The unrest, which erupted on Sunday night, is some of the worst reported between Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists since skirmishes swept the region in June, leaving around 70,000 people displaced. Rakhine state Attorney-General Hla Thein said the latest violence took place in Minbyar township, about 25 km north of the coastal state capital, Sittwe. It later spread farther north to Mrauk-U township. Both areas are remote, reachable only by foot, Hla Thein said. Authorities imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the townships on Monday and both areas were calm Tuesday, Hla Thein said. The unrest comes four months after the two communities turned on one another across Rakhine state in June after the alleged rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by three Muslim men in late May. That violence left at least 90 people dead and more than 3,000 homes destroyed, along with dozens of mosques and monasteries. The two communities are almost now completely segregated in towns like Sittwe, where the Rakhine are able to roam freely while the Rohingya live mostly confined to a series of displaced camps outside the city center. — AP
	Panel clears Pak govt, military of protecting Osama Afzal Khan in Islamabad An independent commission set up to probe the May 2, 2011, US raid on Abbottabad that killed Osama bin Laden has concluded that Pakistan's government and security establishment did not know about the Al-Qaida chief's presence in the country. The five-member judicial commission set up by the apex court spent the past year and a half questioning military officers, bin Laden's wives and residents of Abbottabad. The commission submitted its final report to the government last week but has yet not been made public. The revelation clears the Pakistan Government and the military establishment of involvement, a verdict that will prompt accusations of a cover-up and infuriate Western diplomats, reports The Telegraph.
	BBC chief grilled over Savile sex abuse scandal London, October 23 The head of the BBC said today that the scandal over alleged sex abuse by late star Jimmy Savile is "a very grave matter" that will affect the organisation's reputation for trust and integrity. Director-General George Entwistle, facing tough questioning from British lawmakers, said the BBC was doing everything in its power to find out how Savile was apparently able to carry out widespread abuse. But he denied that the world's biggest public broadcaster put pressure on the flagship current affairs television show "Newsnight" to drop an investigation into the sex abuse claims late last year. Savile was one of the biggest stars of BBC television and radio from the 1960s and 1980s, died last October aged 84. — PTI