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Romney extends lead over Obama in presidential race: Reuters/Ipsos poll - Reuters

Posted: 11 Oct 2012 08:54 AM PDT

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney speaks during a town hall campaign stop at Ariel Corporation in Mount Vernon, Ohio October 10, 2012. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

WASHINGTON | Thu Oct 11, 2012 11:54am EDT

(Reuters) - Republican challenger Mitt Romney has extended his lead over President Barack Obama to 3 percentage points, according to a Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll released on Thursday, ahead of a high-stakes debate between the two candidates' running mates.

Romney now leads the Democrat by 47 percent to 44 percent among likely voters in the online poll, with less than a month before the November 6 election. The Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll released on Wednesday had shown Romney with a one-point lead over Obama, his first lead in the survey in more than a month.

Romney has been enjoying one of his best runs of the campaign after handily winning the first presidential debate last week, partially due to Obama's passive performance in that contest.

(Reporting By Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Vicki Allen)

Russia drawn into Turkey-Syria plane row – live updates - The Guardian

Posted: 11 Oct 2012 08:48 AM PDT

Here's a summary of the latest developments:

Syria-Turkey tensions

• A Syrian passenger plane from Moscow has arrived in Damascus after being grounded in Ankara over suspicions that it was carrying arms. Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said the cargo contained "elements ... that are not legitimate in civilian flights".

• The incident has created a diplomatic spat between Moscow and Ankara, as well as further escalating Syrian-Turkish tensions. Russia accused Turkey of endangering the lives of 30 passengers, including 17 Russians. Turkey summoned Russia's ambassador.

• Syria accused Turkey of "air piracy" over the incident and claimed passengers were traumatised. A Syrian Airlines engineer who was on board claimed armed Turkish officials boarded the plane and handcuffed the crew before inspecting packages that contained electrical equipment

• Iraq's prime minster, Nouri al-Maliki, has warned Turkey not to draw Nato into the Syrian conflict. Speaking on a visit to Moscow before the plane incident, he said: "Turkey is being presumptuous, you could say, as if it were taking responsibility for solving the Syrian conflict instead of the Syrian people and wants to impose its own solution."

Syria

• A female army officer has become the first Alawite woman to defect from the Syria army, according to activists. In a video defection statement, Zubaidah al-Miqi, said the conflict has never been about religious sects.

• The Syria security forces have conducted raids on houses in previously calm neighbourhoods of Damascus as they consolidate gains across the city and beyond, according to a witness. Majd Arar told the Guardian: "Everyone here understands that the time for the government offensive has come."

• A Syrian opposition conference that was due to have taken place in the Qatari capital Doha has now been postponed until November to encourage wider representation at the urging of western governments, diplomats say. Plans are afoot to include a Turkmen bloc and Nasserists as well as representatives from activist groups involved in the uprising inside Syria.

• The foreign supply of weapons to the Free Syrian Army is drying up because of regional anxiety about arms proliferation, US nervousness about funding jihadis ahead of the US presidential election, and divisions between the rebels' main backers Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Martin Chulov and Ian Black report. One well placed source said: "The Qataris are much more proactive than the Saudis. The Saudis are not interested in democracy, they just want to be rid of Bashar. They would be happy with a Yemeni solution that gets rid of the president and leaves the regime intact." Mustafa Alani of the Saudi-financed Gulf Research Centre in Abu Dhabi, added: "The Saudis fear that there will be blowback from Syria like there was from Iraq and Afghanistan. They don't want chaos. They want the Syrian military to take over. The whole region wants that, including the Israelis. Everyone wants an organised structure of army officers who will keep weapons under control and make sure that they are handed in."

• Ian Black profiles Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who has taken over the Syria "file" after rumours of inefficiency at the Saudi Arabia intelligence agency.

Bandar's reputation as an inveterate networker and hawk have fuelled anticipation about how he will handle the bloodiest crisis of the Arab spring ... He is famously hostile to Iran, the Saudi kingdom's great rival, and is said to advocate links with Israel, seeing it as a lesser threat than the Islamic republic.

• The joint UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, has arrived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on the first stop of his second regional tour, AFP reports. His spokesman said Brahimi will hold wide-ranging talks on the crisis in Syria. He is expected to visit Damascus as part of the tour.

• Britain has sent military personnel to Jordan, according to the Times after it confirmed it had sent troops to the Jordan-Syrian border to as part of a taskforce aimed at stopping the Syrian conflict spreading south. A foreign office spokesman told the Times: "We are working with international partners and countries neighbouring Syria to improve border controls to reduce the risk of weapons proliferating to third parties. We have made clear to Assad, directly and through other parties, that any use or proliferation of CBW [chemical and biological weapons] would be completely unacceptable."

• Two British nationals arrested by counter-terrorism police at Heathrow on Tuesday night are being questioned in connection with the abduction and attempted murder of a Sunday Times photographer in Syria during the summer. Scotland Yard confirmed that one line of police inquiry was a possible connection with the capture and detention of a war photographer, John Cantlie, in August.

Libya

• Two former heads of US diplomatic security in Libya have told a congressional hearing that requests for additional agents to protect diplomats from the growing threat of armed militias were rejected by the state department ahead of the killing of ambassador Chris Stevens and three others in Benghazi. Republicans painted a picture of an incompetent state department failing to heed warnings of a growing terrorist threat or to prepare for a possible attack on the anniversary of 9/11, and then covering up the circumstances of the full scale militia assault that killed Stevens.

Egypt

• The authority of Egypt's president will be curbed by parliament, according to a partial draft of the new constitution released on Wednesday, the Egypt Independent reports. Kamal Gibril, head of the political systems committee, said the committee felt that a mixed system that divides power between the president and a prime minister who represents the parliamentary majority is best suited to Egypt.

• A court has acquitted all 25 former senior Egyptian officials accused of sending men on horseback and camels to attack protesters during the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak, Ahram Online reports. Infamous lawyer Mortada Mansour, who allegedly recorded a speech the night before the battle inciting thugs to attack Tahrir Square, was among the accused. Blogger Zeinobia expresses her disgust at the verdict: "I can not believe it !! I am so angry. Who killed those protesters ??"

Kredit: www.nst.com.my

Khamis, 11 Oktober 2012