Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/91386
Friday, November 2, 2012 – Daily News WORLD BRIEFING Romney seeks 'candidate of change' banner — Five days before the election, Republican chal- lenger Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama vied forcefully for the mantle of change Thurs- day in a country thirsting for it after a painful reces- sion and uneven recovery, pressing intense closing arguments in their unpre- dictably close race for the White House. Early vot- ing topped 20 million bal- lots. DOSWELL, Va. (AP) neither man could be con- fident of success in the competition for the 270 electoral votes that will decide the winner. Penn State's ex-president accused of followed Superstorm Sandy ended abruptly, the president campaigning briskly across three bat- tleground states and Rom- ney piling up three stops in a fourth. Romney also attacked with a tough new Spanish-language televi- sion ad showing Venezuela's leftist leader, Hugo Chavez, and Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela, saying they would vote for Obama. The storm intruded once again into the race, as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsed the president in a statement that also said Sandy, which devastated his city, could be evidence of climate change. Of the two White A three-day lull that House rivals, Bloomberg wrote, ''One sees climate change as an urgent prob- lem that threatens our planet; one does not. I want our president to place scientific evidence and risk management above electoral politics.'' The ever-present polls charted a close race for the popular vote, and a series of tight battle- ground surveys suggested perjury HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The ''conspiracy of silence'' that protected Jerry Sandusky extended all the way to the top at Penn State, prosecutors said Thursday as they charged former university President Graham Spanier with hushing up child sex- ual abuse allegations against the former assis- tant football coach. Prosecutors also added counts against two of Spanier's former under- lings, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, who were already charged with lying to a grand jury. ''This was not a mis- take by these men. This was not an oversight. It was not misjudgment on their part,'' said state Attorney General Linda Kelly. ''This was a con- spiracy of silence by top officials to actively con- ceal the truth.'' Spanier's lawyers issued a statement that asserted his innocence and described the new charges as an attempt by Gov. Tom Corbett to divert attention from the three-year investigation that began under his watch as attorney gener- al. work of a vindictive and politically motivated gov- ernor working through an unelected attorney gener- al ... whom he appointed to do his bidding,'' ''These charges are the four defense lawyers wrote. Increase in consumer confidence and spending WASHINGTON (AP) — A flurry of data issued Thursday sketched a brightening view of the U.S. econo- my in the final days before a presidential election that will pivot on the strength of the recovery. Israel acknowledges killing Arafat Cheaper gas, rising home prices and lower unemployment have given consumers the confidence to spend more. And retailers, auto dealers and manufactur- ers are benefiting. many employers remain anxious about the econo- my, which is why only modest hiring gains are forecast for Friday's jobs report for October. It will be the last major report on the economy before Election Day. Both presidential can- didates pressed their arguments Thursday for why President Barack Obama's economic stew- ardship should or should not earn him another four-year term. Cam- paigning in Roanoke, Va., Mitt Romney argued that under Obama, household incomes have fallen behind inflation and poverty has wors- ened. At the same time, Syrian opposition figures bristle BEIRUT (AP) — Members of Syria's opposition-in-exile bris- tled Thursday at the Obama administration's suggestion that Wash- ington will handpick more representative leaders at a crucial con- ference in Qatar next week. the Obama, in a speech in Green Bay, Wis., con- tended that Romney's proposals are the same ''top-down policies that crashed our economy.'' The president said his own economic approach was similar to Bill Clin- ton's in the 1990s, when the U.S. economy gener- ated tens of millions of jobs and incomes surged. deputy JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel acknowledged Thursday it killed Pales- tinian leader Yasser Arafat's deputy in a 1988 raid in Tunisia, lifting a nearly 25-year veil of secrecy and allowing a rare glimpse into the shadowy world of its secret operations. was disguised as a woman on a romantic vacation, and one of the weapons was hidden in a box of chocolates. Khalil al-Wazir, who One of the commandos 3B The new U.S. push appears aimed at creat- ing a unified leadership that could work more closely with the West. But there are signs of resistance among deeply fractured opposition groups wary of attempts by foreign backers to dictate strategy in the civil war against Presi- dent Bashar Assad. ''This direct tutelage and these dictates are not acceptable to the Syrian people anymore,'' said Zuhair Salem, the Lon- don-based spokesman for Syria's banned Mus- lim Brotherhood opposi- tion group. The Brother- hood is part of the main political opposition group, the Syrian National Council, which is dominated by exiles. Syrians and the U.S. administration have grown increasingly frus- trated as the opposition proved unwilling or unable to coalesce. The U.S. and its allies have long bemoaned the lack of a cohesive leadership, and there is little doubt that this has held back more robust foreign aid and involvement to bol- ster the opposition in its fight. With the battle for control of Syria almost certainly to be decided on the battlefield, the political opposition led by exiles is being further sidelined. was better known by his nom de guerre Abu Jihad, founded Fatah, the domi- nant faction in the Pales- tinian Liberation Organi- zation, with Arafat and was blamed for a series of deadly attacks against Israelis. Two of those involved in the operation that killed al-Wazir now hold high political office in Israel — Defense Minis- ter Ehud Barak and Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon. At the time, Barak was deputy military chief, and Yaalon was head of the elite commando unit Say- eret Matkal. Their precise roles in the operation were not divulged, and both men's offices declined comment. Israel has long been suspected of assassinat- ing al-Wazir. But only now has the country's military censor cleared the Yediot Ahronot daily to publish the informa- tion, including an inter- view with the commando who killed him, at least 12 years after the newspa- per obtained the informa- tion.