AP News in Brief

By The Associated Press | Clanton Advertiser

Published Friday, October 31, 2008

Presidential rivals focus on economy, crisscross battlegrounds in campaign's final weekend

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — Barack Obama and John McCain head into the final weekend of the presidential campaign focused tightly on the economy. Obama is looking to expand his base while McCain is fighting to hold GOP-leaning bastions.

McCain was to spend Friday, his second straight day, rumbling across Ohio by bus, telling voters he feels their economic pain and hoping to lay claim to its 20 electoral votes. Aides say the campaign believes he probably has to win Ohio to be elected, and they didn't rule out returning to the state before Tuesday.

McCain was campaigning in Hanoverton, and then in Columbus with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Obama was scheduled to spend Friday on a campaign crush across the Midwest, with a quick stop home in Chicago to see his kids. He makes his first stop back where his run began, in Des Moines, Iowa, where he upset Hillary Rodham Clinton in the first electoral test of the year.

Independent polling in Iowa shows Obama consistently ahead in the race for the state's seven electoral votes, but McCain's campaign maintains the race is actually tighter than it appears.

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Thousands of Congo refugees try to reach home in take to the streets again in eastern Congo

KIBUMBA, Congo (AP) — Thousands of war-weary refugees returned to the the road Friday, taking advantage of a rebel-called cease-fire to try to reach home beyond the front lines of this week's battles in eastern Congo.

Rebels from Laurent Nkunda's renegade movement manned checkpoints outside the city, which were littered with plastic and metal canisters from rocket launchers.

Associated Press reporters followed the flood of misery, past bodies of several soldiers on the outskirts of Goma, the rebel-besieged provincial capital of eastern Congo. Women whose faces streamed with sweat carried bundles of belongings on their backs and toddlers on their necks.

Nkunda began a low-level rebellion three years ago claiming Congo's transition to democracy had excluded the Tutsi ethnic group. Despite agreeing in January to a U.N.-brokered cease-fire, he resumed fighting in August.

He alleges the Congolese government has not protected ethnic Tutsis from the Rwandan Hutu militia that escaped to Congo after helping slaughter half a million Rwandan Tutsis in 1994.

Congo has charged Nkunda himself with involvement in war crimes, and Human Rights Watch says it has documented summary executions, torture, and rape committed by soldiers under Nkunda's command in 2002 and 2004.

Rights groups have also accused government forces of atrocities and widespread looting.

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Asian markets mixed; Japan's Nikkei falls despite first rate cut in 7 years

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Asian markets were mixed Friday as Japanese stocks fell despite the first rate cut in seven years while shares in India soared to catch up with a previous day's global market rally after a holiday there. European markets opened lower.

Investors were also digesting data overnight that confirmed the U.S. economy — a major export market — had contracted in the third quarter.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index sank 5 percent to 8,576.98 amid persistent worries about earnings. Investor sold shares after the previous day's 10 percent surge and ahead of a three-day weekend in Japan. They didn't react much to the Bank of Japan's rate cut, which was widely expected, even if it was a bit less than the typical quarter-point move.

South Korea's market extended the previous session's 12 percent rally with the Korea Composite Stock Price Index gaining 2.6 percent to 1,113.06. Australia's key index climbed out of negative territory to close 0.4 percent higher.

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Credited with mastering Iraq, Petraeus takes new post with Pakistan — arguably his hardest job

WASHINGTON (AP) — David Petraeus knows Iraq and he's learning Afghanistan. But the biggest test facing the four-star general as he takes charge of Central Command is probably Pakistan — threatened with financial ruin, torn by an Islamic extremist insurgency and armed with nuclear weapons.

Although most of the troops under his command are in Iraq or Afghanistan, Petraeus plans to visit Pakistan on his first trip after being sworn in Friday as the Central Command chief. Pakistan's leaders are struggling to balance their own domestic pressures with Washington's demands that they do much more to stamp out Taliban and al-Qaida havens in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is to preside at the change-of-command ceremony at Central Command headquarters along the shores of Florida's Tampa Bay. Less than two months ago Gates was in Baghdad to see Petraeus hand off to Gen. Ray Odierno as the top American commander in Iraq.

Petraeus spent 20 months leading a turnaround in Iraq, from what many saw as the brink of all-out civil war to the beginnings of a perilous peace. He also led troops in the initial invasion in 2003 and spent more than a year heading the organization responsible for training Iraqi security forces.

Iraq will be a key part of Petraeus' broader responsibilities at Central Command, which manages U.S. military relations with nearly two dozen countries in an area stretching from Egypt, across the Middle East to Central Asia. The region is at the heart of the American-led war on terror.

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Pentagon inspector general gives little aid to military whistle-blowers in reprisal cases

WASHINGTON (AP) — Military whistle-blowers might want to save their breath. The Pentagon inspector general, the internal watchdog for the Defense Department, hardly ever sides with service members who complain that they were punished for reporting wrongdoing, according to a review of cases by The Associated Press.

The inspector general's office rejected claims of retaliation and stood by the military in more than 90 percent of nearly 3,000 cases during the past six years. More than 73 percent were closed after only a preliminary review that relied on available documents and sources — often from the military itself — to determine whether a full inquiry was warranted.

The high rejection rates suggest scores of complaints aren't valid, that many whistle-blowers are whiners who are prone to exaggeration. But critics, including a Republican senator, wonder whether many valid cases are dismissed before being carefully examined because of attitudes in the inspector general's office.

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American consumers clobbered by housing, credit and financial fallout

WASHINGTON (AP) — Beaten down and watching their wealth shrink, Americans are burrowing ever deeper — cutting back on spending and spelling more trouble for the sinking economy.

One of the biggest problems saddling the country is damage from the housing market's collapse. Mounting foreclosures, falling home prices and soured mortgage investments are taking their toll on both individuals and businesses alike.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who is scheduled to speak via satellite Friday at a Berkeley, Calif., conference on the mortgage meltdown, is likely to call on government officials and lawmakers to keep working on ways to provide more relief.

The Bush administration is considering a plan that would help around 3 million struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure by having the government guarantee billions of dollars worth of distressed mortgages. The plan also could include loan modifications that would lower interest rates for a five-year period.

Fallout from the housing meltdown has spurred the worst global credit and financial crisis in more than a half century. To combat the problems, the government has taken a flurry of bold steps. The Treasury Department is pouring $250 billion into banks in return for partial ownership and the Fed this week started buying mounds of debt from companies. It also slashed interest rates to 1 percent, a level seen only once before in the last half century.

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Texas officials try to navigate FEMA paperwork to house Ike refugees aboard cruise ship

HOUSTON (AP) — An aging cruise ship could become temporary housing for Hurricane Ike refugees if Texas officials can navigate through the federal government's paperwork.

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials said they had not received a formal request for funds to use the ship and that a state agency's e-mail to a FEMA administrator did not follow protocol for making such a request.

Simon Chabel, a spokesman in FEMA's joint field office in Austin, said the request must go through the state's department of emergency management and be made on a specific form.

"This process exists so we can ensure that the state is speaking with one voice when they asked us for things," Chabel said.

The 1950s-era Regal Empress, with up to 1,200 available beds, left port in Galveston on Thursday and dropped anchor about 10 miles offshore, said Jim Bourke, the ship's agent. A port official said the ship had to leave to make room for others arriving this weekend.

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Rare, prehistoric-age reptile nesting on New Zealand mainland for first time in 200 years

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A rare reptile with lineage dating to the dinosaur age has been found nesting on the New Zealand mainland for the first time in about 200 years, officials said Friday.

Four leathery, white eggs from an indigenous tuatara were found by staff at the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in the capital, Wellington, during routine maintenance work Friday, conservation manager Rouen Epson said.

"The nest was uncovered by accident and is the first concrete proof we have that our tuatara are breeding," Epson said. "It suggests that there may be other nests in the sanctuary we don't know of."

Tuatara, dragon-like reptiles that grow to up to 32 inches, are the last descendants of a species that walked the earth with the dinosaurs 225 million years ago, zoologists say.

They have unique characteristics, such as two rows of top teeth closing over one row at the bottom. They also have a pronounced parietal eye, a light-sensitive pineal gland on the top of the skull. This white patch of skin — called its "third eye" — slowly disappears as they mature.

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Bravo to air design-competition series 'Fashion Show'; will it make up for 'Project Runway'?

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bravo isn't letting a court battle over "Project Runway" diminish its fashion sense.

The cable channel said Thursday it has ordered a design-competition series called "The Fashion Show," in which viewers pick the winner and the prize includes a retail deal.

Casting calls will be held starting next month and are set for Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and New York, with potential contestants required to bring examples of their work, Bravo said. The series' air date was not announced.

Missing from that list was "Project Runway," the hit program that is caught in a struggle involving NBC Universal, which owns Bravo, the Weinstein Co. and the Lifetime channel.

NBC Universal sued Weinstein after the production company made a reported $150 million deal with Lifetime for the series that features model Heidi Klum as host.

In September, a New York Supreme Court justice issued a temporary injunction barring Weinstein from taking "Project Runway" or any spinoff to Lifetime and contended that evidence showed that Weinstein violated NBC's "right of first refusal" for the show.

Weinstein said there was no right of first refusal in the contract and that NBC Universal was offered the deal and was outbid.

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Chris Paul leads Hornets to 108-95 win over Suns, spoiling Terry Porter's home coaching debut

PHOENIX (AP) — Chris Paul had 20 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds and the New Orleans Hornets held off a rally, then pulled away to beat Phoenix 108-95 Thursday night and spoil the home debut of new Suns coach Terry Porter.

The Hornets, who never trailed, improved to 2-0 on the heels of a season-opening victory at Golden State on Wednesday night.

Peja Stojakovic added 20 points before leaving the game with a sprained right ankle in the first few seconds of the fourth quarter. New Orleans already was without starting center Tyson Chandler, who sprained his right ankle against the Warriors.

Morris Peterson added 21 and David West 18 for New Orleans. James Posey scored 13, including three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, as the Hornets beat Phoenix for the fifth time in a row. They were 4-0 against the Suns last season.

Steve Nash had 24 points and nine assists, and Amare Stoudemire added 21 points and 12 rebounds for Phoenix. The Suns committed 24 turnovers, resulting in 21 New Orleans points, after only 10 in their victory at San Antonio the previous night.

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