Gun shop owner refuses sales to Democrats

                                                                       
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- An Arizona gun shop owner is reportedly refusing to sell guns to Democrats because they can't be trusted.

According to the Phoenix New Times newspaper, Southwest Shooting Authority owner Cope Reynolds last week posted a sign on his shop's door -- and took out an ad out in a local newspaper -- telling people who voted for President Barack Obama not to bother visiting his store.

"Effective immediately, if you voted for Obama, your money is no good here," reads the ad and door notice. "You have proven beyond a doubt that you are not responsible enough to own a firearm. We have just put a sign up on the front door to save you the trouble of walking all the way in here."

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/11/19/gun-shop-owner-refuses-sales-to-democrats

Israel ready to invade Gaza

Opinion poll shows weak Israeli support for a ground war

 

Israel bombed dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday and said that while it was prepared to step up its offensive by sending in troops, it preferred a diplomatic solution that would end Palestinian rocket fire.

Mediator Egypt said a deal for a truce to end the fighting could be close. T he leader of Hamas said it was up to Israel to end the new conflict it had started. Israel says its strikes are to halt Palestinian rocket attacks.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, touring the region in hopes of helping broker a peace arrived in Cairo, where he met Egypt’s foreign minister in preparation for talks with the new, Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, on Tuesday. He also plans to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

Israeli attacks on the sixth day of fighting raised the number of Palestinian dead to 101, the Hamas-run Health Ministry said, listing 24 children among them. Hospital officials in Gaza said more than half of those killed were non-combatants. Three Israeli civilians died on Thursday in a rocket strike.

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/11/19/israel-pounds-gaza-as-united-nations-chief-pushes-for-ceasefire 

   

Gay activists have met their match with Muslim barbers

So a lesbian walks into a Muslim barbershop, and asks for a “businessmen’s haircut”.

It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but it really happened, and now a government agency called the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario will hear her complaint.

Faith McGregor is the lesbian who doesn’t like the girly cuts that they do at a salon. She wants the boy’s hairdo.

Omar Mahrouk is the owner of the Terminal Barber Shop in Toronto. He follows Shariah law, so he thinks women have cooties. As Mahrouk and the other barbers there say, they don’t believe in touching women other than their own wives.

But that’s what multiculturalism and unlimited immigration from illiberal countries means. A central pillar of many immigrant cultures is the second-class citizenship of women and gays.

http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/11/16/gay-activists-have-met-their-match-with-muslim-barbers

Israel-Gaza fighting flares again

                                   Hundreds of sites in Gaza have been hit since Israel began its bombardment.

Israel has been shelling Gaza for a fifth day, killing at least six Palestinians, as PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ready to "significantly expand" its operation in Gaza. 

Rockets from Gaza have again landed in Israel. One rocket caused damage and injuries in the city of Ashkelon.

In Gaza, two media buildings were hit and eight Palestinian journalists hurt.

Sources on both sides have confirmed to the BBC that attempts to reach a ceasefire agreement are continuing.

At least six people were killed in Gaza on Sunday, doctors said, including two children from the same family.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20383001
                                                      

Egyptian Prime Minister Calls for End to Israeli 'Aggression' 16/11/2012

Speaking in Gaza Friday after a brief cease-fire that Israel put in place during his visit to the area collapsed, Egypt's prime minister Hesham Kandil has vowed to intensify his country's efforts to stop what he called Israeli "aggression" in Gaza and achieve a truce between Israelis and Palestinians.

Israel's military said it had not attacked Gaza during a two hour period, but Hamas said Israel had launched a bomb attack on northern Gaza Friday that killed two Palestinians. Attacks on both sides this week have killed 20 Palestinians and three Israelis.

Israel had said earlier it would suspend its military offensive against the Gaza Strip while Egypt's Prime Minister Kandil was there as long as Hamas militants also held their fire. The Egyptian prime minister arrived in Gaza early Friday and was expected to visit for about three hours.

http://www.tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=4&i=9498

US Lawmakers Voice Frustrations At House Foreign Affairs Committee Over Benghazi Consulate Attack 16/11/2012

After struggling for weeks to get answers on the Libya terror attack, Republican lawmakers in the US ripped into the Obama administration - with one congressman claiming officials "lied to the American people."

Fox News reported that tempers boiled over as the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing with several analysts, though none would be considered key figures in the administration's Benghazi attack response.

A few officials with inside knowledge were briefing select lawmakers behind closed doors Thursday; and in a win for lawmakers, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, announced that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will testify next month.

http://www.tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=1&i=9500

Opinion: The Syrian Civil War - by Gwynne Dyer 15/11/2012

Syria now has a new government-in-exile that allegedly unites all the groups seeking the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad’s murderous regime. But if this is the best that they can do, Assad will still be in power next year, and perhaps for a long time afterwards.

It took a week of haggling in Qatar to bring all the fractious Syrian rebel groups together, and it wouldn’t have happened at all without great pressure from the Gulf Arab countries and the United States. Basically, the Syrian rebels were told that if they wanted more money and arms, they had to create a united front.

So they did, kind of, but the fragility and underlying disunity of the new government-in-exile is implicit in its cumbersome name: the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces. It’s really just a loose and probably temporary collaboration between different sectarian and ethnic groups whose ultimate goals are widely divergent.

http://www.tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=5&i=9494

Tripoli After Gaddafi: Not All Peaches And Cream 16/11/2012

Fuad Gritla, the morning host on 100.7 FM, knows his listeners in Libya's capital, Tripoli, are grouchy, and he's trying to help.

Tripoli has not witnessed the change that many had hoped it would see a year after Gaddafi's fall Abigail Hauslohner observed in her article in the Washington Post. Political progress has been downright sluggish. There are lots of weapons and little security. And people are getting more and more anxious.

"The Libyan people are very cranky, so we're trying to cheer them up in the morning," Gritla said, turning the dial up on a track from the Bee Gees. "Our slogan is 'Your voice and your voice only.' We try to give people what they want."

Radio Zone 100.7 is just one of some two dozen new radio stations to hit Tripoli's airwaves since the former dictator Muammar Gaddafi's fall. And despite all the doom and gloom, residents say it's just one indicator that postwar Tripoli is not actually as bad as it may appear.

http://www.tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=1&i=9499

US Lawmakers Voice Frustrations At House Foreign Affairs Committee Over Benghazi Consulate Attack 16/11/2012After struggling for weeks to get answers on the Libya terror attack, Republican lawmakers in the US ripped into the Obama administration - with one congressman claiming officials "lied to the American people." Fox News reported that tempers boiled over as the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing with several analysts, though none would be considered key figures in the administration's Benghazi attack response. After struggling for weeks to get answers on the Libya terror attack, Republican lawmakers in the US ripped into the Obama administration - with one congressman claiming officials "lied to the American people." Fox News reported that tempers boiled over as the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing with several analysts, though none would be considered key figures in the administration's Benghazi attack response.

After struggling for weeks to get answers on the Libya terror attack, Republican lawmakers in the US ripped into the Obama administration - with one congressman claiming officials "lied to the American people."

Fox News reported that tempers boiled over as the House Foreign Affairs Committee held a hearing with several analysts, though none would be considered key figures in the administration's Benghazi attack response.

http://www.tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=1&i=9500

Human Rights Watch Urges New Libyan Government To Free Illegal Detainees 16/11/2012

Libya's new government headed by Prime Minister Dr Ali Zidan, a former human rights activist, that was sworn in on November 14, 2012, should put the illegal detention of more than 8,000 people atop its agenda, Human Rights Watch, HRW says.

About 4,000 detainees are in government custody, most without formal charges or access to a lawyer, and the rest are held outside government control by various armed groups who have no legal authority to detain anyone, according to HRW.

http://www.tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=1&i=9503

Petraeus knows better

  General David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell. (REUTERS)


Among the questions surrounding the Petraeus scandal, like “How did he think he’d get away with it?” and “Shouldn’t someone have told the president sooner?” a number of people seem puzzled by “When a man climbs macho mountain why shouldn’t he find another man’s wife naked at the top… especially if she’s hot?”

David Petraeus, to be sure, is not among them. As his resignation letter said, “Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours.” But the ponderously libertine Globe and Mail has devoted not one but two editorials to the idea that it’s silly to care if a brilliant married general grabs a likely wench on the side.

As for security issues like blackmail, they sniffed, “Couldn’t the national security director who reportedly told him to resign have said instead: Tell your wife, and then you’re no longer blackmailable?” Great. Just tell Old Dutch from now on it’s open marriage or divorce and it’s party time!

http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/11/17/petraeus-knows-better

Acanac News Sponsorship Quebec judge OKs tax on cocaine revenue

                                                  Vincenzo Armeni. (QMI Agency files)


MONTREAL -- Even though a judge said it seemed "absurd," he nonetheless allowed the provincial government to tax a notorious cocaine trafficker's drug revenues.

Quebec Court Judge Antonio De Michele ruled last week that the province's tax authority may collect over $1 million from Vincenzo Armeni, 55, who was sentenced to 19 years in prison in 2007 for drug trafficking.

Armeni had taken Revenue Quebec to court arguing that the tax agency erroneously based its calculations on how much he owed on "claims of an informant" who collaborated with police against Armeni.

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/11/17/quebec-judge-oks-tax-on-cocaine-revenue

Only in Quebec...................
                                                                 

Five murdered in Montreal in last two days

  The most recent murder in Montreal happened early Saturday around 1 a.m. Police found a 47-year-old man, who they say had a criminal past, shot dead outside his home in the north part of the city. (PASCAL GIRARD/QMI Agency)

MONTREAL -- Five people have been murdered in Montreal in just over 48 hours.
Three men were shot dead and firefighters found two charred bodies in a building that police said was purposely set on fire. At least three of the victims were known to police.

The most recent murder happened early Saturday around 1 a.m. Police found a 47-year-old man, who they say had a criminal past, shot dead outside his home in the north part of the city. Police wouldn't give details about how the victim was known to them and said they do not have any suspects. The victim was the city's 30th murder of the year.

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/11/17/five-murdered-in-montreal-in-last-two-days

Petraeus: CIA blamed terrorists for Libya attack

 
WASHINGTON (AP) — Testifying out of sight, ex-CIA Director David Petraeus told Congress Friday that classified intelligence showed the deadly raid on the U.S. Consulate in Libya was a terrorist attack but the administration withheld the suspected role of al-Qaida affiliates to avoid tipping them off.

The recently resigned spy chief explained that references to terrorist groups suspected of carrying out the violence were removed from the public explanation of what caused the attack so as not to alert them that U.S. intelligence was on their trail, according to lawmakers who attended Petraeus' private briefings.

He also said it initially was unclear whether the militants had infiltrated a demonstration to cover their attack.

http://tehrantimes.com/world/103377-petraeus-cia-blamed-terrorists-for-libya-attack/ 

Egypt bus crash kills 50 children near Manfalut

                                                    

Fifty children aged four to six years old and the driver of the school bus they were on were killed when their vehicle was hit by a train in central Egypt on Saturday, officials said. 

The transport minister resigned in the wake of the crash near Manfalut, 350km (230 miles) south of Cairo.

The provincial governor said the man in charge of the crossing was asleep and had been arrested.
Egyptian roads and railways have a poor safety record.

An estimated 8,000 people die in car accidents each year in the country.
The head of the railway authority has also resigned.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20375395

Gaza crisis: Fresh fire exchanged as violence continues

                                          
The Israeli military released footage showing one of its air strikes on Gaza

The Israeli army and militants in Gaza are continuing to trade fire, with the round of violence that has followed Israel's killing of Hamas's military chief showing no sign of abating.

Israel hit 200 sites overnight, including PM Ismail Haniya's office.

Gaza militants fired dozens of rockets into Israel, including one at the city of Tel Aviv that was intercepted.
Egypt's president says there are "some indications" a truce could be reached but that there are "no guarantees".

Mohammed Mursi was speaking in Cairo after meeting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal is also in the Egyptian capital for talks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20378425

Dad gets over 8 years for maiming infant

A judge has sentenced a man who permanently maimed his infant daughter to more than eight years in prison for “an egregious breach of trust.”

Malcolm Ricketts’ daughter, “Heaven, is serving her own life sentence” after he shook her so hard she is developmentally delayed and unable to walk, talk or see properly, said Ontario Superior Court Justice Bonnie Croll.

She sentenced Ricketts to eight years and four months in prison, on Thursday, his daughter’s third birthday. After credit for pre-trial custody, he must serve five more years.

In July, Croll found Ricketts, 23, guilty of five counts of violence against his girlfriend, Christina Hammond, 21, and their then-infant daughter, Heaven Hammond-Ricketts.

http://www.thespec.com/news/ontario/article/838249--dad-gets-over-8-years-for-maiming-infant

David Petraeus: Broadwell affair was 'colossal mistake'

Former CIA director David Petraeus has acknowledged his extra-marital affair was a "colossal mistake", his former spokesman has told ABC News.

Retired Army Col Steve Boylan said Gen Petraeus' wife Holly was "not exactly pleased" by the revelation, adding that "furious would be an understatement".

The former general resigned over a relationship with Paula Broadwell, his biographer and a former army officer.

It was discovered after a second woman, Jill Kelley, reported harassing emails.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20302306

Peer Khairi convicted of second-degree murder in killing of wife Randjida

     
TORONTO - With Peer Khairi’s conviction for second-degree murder, there is justice at last for his invisible victim.

The jury was never shown any photos of Randjida when the Afghan immigrant’s long-suffering wife was still alive. They would be shown plenty of graphic pictures of her in death: her slain body, limp and twisted like a rag doll on a cot soaked through with her blood, her long black hair tangled over her face, the brutal gash to her neck that sliced through to her spine, the ugly puncture wounds to her chest and back, the bruises on her brown skin.

But her family wouldn’t give Randjida’s photo to the prosecution. Even in death, it was as if the wife and mother wasn’t considered a worthy person in her own right.

It took the jury three days to reject Khairi’s bizarre claim that he should be found guilty of manslaughter, that he’d been provoked because his 86-pound wife hurled heinous, culturally-sensitive insults and came at him brandishing a knife.

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/11/11/peer-khair-convicted-of-second-degree-murder-in-killing-of-wife-randjida

Rob Ford says he's been bullied over his weight

Mayor advises kids to report bullying

TORONTO - Mayor Rob Ford says he’s been bullied in the past.
Ford admitted Monday he’s been picked on for his weight as he kicked off Bullying Awareness Week at City Hall.
“When you’re overweight like I’ve been my whole life, (you get) made fun of, and it’s not good growing up,” Ford told press conference.
“There are many different types of bullying but being called fat, all that stuff, it bothers you but you have to deal with it.”
The mayor said he addresses bullying on the high school football team he coaches.
“We won’t tolerate that,” he said.
As for any advice to children being bullied, Ford was blunt.

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/11/12/rob-ford-says-hes-been-bullied-over-his-weight

Elmo star, Kevin Clash, accused of sex with teen boy

 



An actor who voices Sesame Street’s beloved Elmo character has taken a leave of absence from the hit children's show as he battles allegations he had a sexual relationship with a teenage boy.

Kevin Clash, who provides the voice of the lovable puppet, has been accused of becoming involved with a 16 year old male seven years ago, when he was aged 45.

The accuser, now 23, has met with lawyers for the Sesame Street show and TV bosses have given the actor a leave of absence.

Clash denies allegations he had underage sex with the boy and insists the relationship was between "two consenting adults".

A statement from Sesame Workshop bosses, obtained by TMZ.com, reads, "In June of this year, Sesame Workshop received a communication from a young man who alleged that he had a relationship with Kevin Clash beginning when he was 16 years old.

"This was a personal relationship, unrelated to the workplace. We took the allegation very seriously and took immediate action...

"Kevin insists that these allegations are false and defamatory and he has taken actions to protect his reputation. We have granted him a leave of absence to do so... Elmo is bigger than any one person and will continue to be an integral part of Sesame Street to engage, educate and inspire children around the world."
Clash tells the website, "I had a relationship with (the accuser). It was between two consenting adults and I am deeply saddened that he is trying to make it into something it was not."
 http://www.torontosun.com/2012/11/12/elmo-star-accused-of-sex-with-teen-boy

Accused left child at home for drug deal: Toronto Police

TORONTO - An accused drug dealer faces more than a dozen charges after allegedly leaving his seven-year-old son home alone in the Upper Beaches while he peddled dope to an undercover cop.

Toronto Police say the man was among those arrested during a recent undercover operation by a Drug Squad Enforcement Team in the area of Coxwell Ave. and Gerrard St. E.

“It is alleged that during this operation an undercover officer made drug purchases from the accused,” police said Monday.

The accused allegedly arranged to sell drugs to the undercover copper again on Nov. 8. and police claim he walked close to 300 metres away from his home to complete the deal.

“The accused was arrested and found in possession of an automatic (switchblade) knife,” police allege.
Officers searched the man’s home “immediately afterward” and allegedly found his child “unattended.”
A stash of dope and drug paraphernalia were also allegedly discovered.

“A quantity of heroin and approximately 30 to 40 used needles were located in the home,” police claim.
The Toronto man is charged with five counts each of trafficking in heroin and proceeds of trafficking in morphine, as well as one count each of possession for the purpose heroin, possession for the purpose morphine and possession of a prohibited weapon.

Police are not releasing the name of the accused in order to protect the identity of the boy.

Remembrance Day services in Toronto 9

                                                                              
TORONTO - To honour Canadians who served during two world wars, the Korean War and on more recent peacekeeping missions, on Sunday doff your hat, stop work, pull your vehicle to the roadside, and glimpse into the past at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
At 11 a.m., all TTC vehicles will pause for two minutes.
There are also special events in Toronto at which you can celebrate Remembrance Day, including:

• Sunrise Service — Prospect Cemetery, 1450 St. Clair Ave. W.
• 10:15 a.m. — Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, 2075 Bayview Ave., Warriors Hall, K Wing.
• 10:45 a.m. — Kew Gardens cenotaph, 2075 Queen St. E.
• 10:45 a.m. — Province of Ontario service on front lawn of Queen’s Park, University Ave. north of College St.
• 10:45 a.m. — Royal Canadian Legion, Scarborough Cenotaph at Kingston Rd. and Danforth Ave.
• 10:45 a.m. — Swansea Town Hall, 95 Lavinia Ave.
• 10:55 a.m. — Toronto Zoo, Meadowvale Rd. north of Sheppard Ave. E.
• 10:45 a.m. — City of Toronto services at Old City Hall cenotaph, Queen and Bay Sts., which is broadcast live on Citytv, CP24 and broadcast live on the CFRB radio station Newstalk 1010.
• 10:45 a.m. — Services at the following civic centres across the city: East York, memorial gardens, 850 Coxwell Ave.; Etobicoke cenotaph. 399 The West Mall; North York, George Weston Recital Hall at Toronto Centre for the Arts, 5040 Yonge St.; York Civic Centre, York Memorial Collegiate Auditorium, 2690 Eglinton Ave. W NOTE: Scarborough’s service was last Sunday.
• 10:45 a.m. — Fort York Strachan Avenue Military Cemetery, 250 Fort York Blvd., northwest of Bathurst St. and Lake Shore Blvd.
• 11 a.m. — The CN Tower, south of 301 Front St. W., will be alight in poppy red, flying its flags at half-staff, followed by a reading of In Flanders Fields and playing of the Last Post.
• 7 p.m. — Royal Canadian Legion — Stan Lister Hall, 100 Salome Dr.

— Source: City of Toronto website

Afghanistan Repatriation Memorial unveiled

 
 


  
TRENTON, Ont. -- Families of Canadian soldiers gathered here for a moving ceremony, as the Afghanistan Repatriation Memorial was unveiled Saturday.

A bell tolled as Air Cadets read the names of the 158 soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Their names are engraved on the memorial, located just a few metres from the Highway of Heroes.


For many family members, it was the first time they returned to Trenton since attending their loved ones’ repatriation ceremonies, which take place here. There were about 250 family members in attendance.

Dozens of soldiers who served in Afghanistan were also at the ceremony to remember their fallen comrades. They joined the ranks of about 2,500 people at the event.

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/11/10/afghanistan-repatriation-memorial-was-unveiled

US set for final campaigning day

US presidential rivals Barack Obama and Mitt Romney face a final sprint across swing states for undecided voters, on their last day of campaigning.

Mr Romney is in Florida, where polls suggest he has the edge, and will head to Virginia, New Hampshire and Ohio.

Mr Obama is scheduled to appear in Madison, Wisconsin, accompanied by Bruce Springsteen, before going on to Iowa and Ohio.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20201713

Anxious Bo

Bush and Obama Portrait

Jobs and Obama's Reelection

 

How Romney Hears Things:

                                       
Ok but it's funny.............

Obama Speech vs. Clinton Speech:

 

Reaction to Obama Speech:

 

Obama's Debate Performance:

 

Clint Was Right:

 

Great Debaters:

 

Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller

 

Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller

Ummm.........

Gene Weingarten: Electile dysfunction

By Gene Weingarten, Published: October 31

What I remember of each of the presidential elections in my lifetime.

 1956, Eisenhower vs. Stevenson. I was 5. Like all Jews, my parents loved Stevenson because he was practically one of us — given to tortured, guilt-drenched soliloquies, such as, “The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning.” He was trounced, of course.

 1960, Kennedy vs. Nixon. I remember noticing that Mrs. Kennedy was very attractive. This was not my first crush on a girl, but it was my first crush on a grown-up girl, with an actual shape. I resembled a worm, with glasses. It was all very confusing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/gene-weingarten-electile-dysfunction/2012/10/26/1af2fcce-1484-11e2-bf18-a8a596df4bee_story.html?hpid=z4

State Department emails from day of Libya attack show militant group on radar

A series of internal State Department emails obtained by Fox News shows that officials reported within hours of last month's deadly consulate attack in Libya that militant group Ansar al-Sharia had claimed responsibility.

The emails provide some of the most detailed information yet about what officials knew in the initial hours after the attack. And it again raises questions about why U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice, apparently based on intelligence assessments, would claim five days after the attack that it was a "spontaneous" reaction to protests over an anti-Islam film.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/23/state-dept-emails-from-day-libya-attack-show-al-qaeda-tied-group-on-radar/

Five myths about the electoral college:

George C. Edwards III is the Winant professor of American government at Oxford University in Britain, and the university distinguished professor of political science at Texas A&M.
 

Could Mitt Romney win the popular vote on Tuesday while President Obama captures a majority of the 538 electoral votes and a return trip to the White House? Recent polling results have raised just that possibility, reminding Americans once again that they cast ballots, but they don’t elect presidents directly. That job falls to the electoral college, a system that requires candidates to win states, not just votes. Let’s take a look at the main justifications for maintaining the electoral college and see how they stand up to scrutiny.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-the-electoral-college/2012/11/02/2d45c526-1f85-11e2-afca-58c2f5789c5d_story.html?hpid=z3 

 Syrian tanks enter demilitarized zone bordering Israel, first time in 4 decades

BEIRUT — Syrian activists say rebels and government troops are fighting for control of a key airbase in the country’s north.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the rebels have launched a dawn offensive to take Taftanaz air base, a day before a crucial opposition conference in Qatar.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/activists-rebels-syrian-troops-battle-for-control-of-key-airbase/2012/11/03/e359e142-259f-11e2-92f8-7f9c4daf276a_story.html?hpid=z3

The Ohio Ground Game

In the final days of the presidential race, Ohio voters are being courted and pestered on the airwaves, on the phone and at their homes.

 http://www.nytimes.com/video/2012/11/03/us/politics/100000001883360/the-ohio-ground-game.html?hp

After Getting Back to Normal, Big Job Is Facing New Reality

      

The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel was flooded. The waters surrounding New York City have been rising an inch a decade, and the pace is picking up. 

 First, life has to be rewound to Friday, Oct. 26 — the last weekday before Hurricane Sandy crippled and disoriented the New York area. To make that happen, repairs to damaged power grids, transportation networks and housing will grind on for weeks, if not months, at a staggering cost.

But the bigger question is what occurs after that. 

Basic restoration leaves everything just as vulnerable to the next monster storm. Hurricane Sandy is now a gauge of the region’s new fragility. Climate change and extreme weather are presenting government — and the public — with some overwhelming choices.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/04/nyregion/after-getting-back-to-normal-the-big-job-is-to-face-a-new-reality.html?hp 

Too close to call: Obama, Romney hit swing states as polls show them tied

           

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney embarked Saturday on the final stretch of their long, grinding presidential campaign, making their closing arguments in the handful of battleground states that will decide the outcome of a tight race that is going down to the wire.

National opinion polls showed a race for the popular vote so close that only a statistically insignificant point or two separated the two rivals. Soundings in the nine battleground states tightened after Obama’s poor performance in the first presidential debate, on Oct. 3, and stayed that way.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/03/too-close-to-call-obama-romney-hit-swing-states-as-polls-show-them-tied/

Rejection of Palestinian right to return by Mahmoud Abbas ‘courageous’: Shimon Peres

JERUSALEM — Israel’s president on Saturday welcomed as “courageous” a strong public show of willingness by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to make concessions on a core issue in peace talks — that of Palestinian refugees.
Abbas told Israeli channel 2 TV on Friday that he does not want to live in his birthplace Safed, a city in northern Israel.
His words drew anger from some Palestinians because they were viewed as relinquishing a long held Palestinian aspiration for the return of those who fled their homes during the fighting between Arab countries and Israel in the wake of the Jewish state’s 1948 independence.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/11/03/rejection-of-palestinian-right-to-return-by-mahmoud-abbas-courageous-shimon-peres/