Romney presses foreign policy criticism anew

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney arrives for services at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Belmont, Mass., Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney arrives for services at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Belmont, Mass., Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama, center, appears with the musical group Mana at campaign event at Desert Pines High School on Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012 in Las Vegas. Obama is spending three days in Henderson, Nevada to prepare for the first presidential debate on Oct. 3 in Denver against GOP challenger Mitt Romney. (AP Photo/David Becker)

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leaves his campaign headquarters in Boston, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama greets supporters on the tarmac upon his arrival at McCarran International airport, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012 in Las Vegas. Obama traveled to Las Vegas for a campaign rally then will be staying in Henderson, Nev., to prepare for the first Presidential debate against Republican rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

BURLINGTON, Mass. (AP) ? Amid violent flare ups in the Middle East, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is trying to prove his own readiness to be commander in chief and force President Barack Obama to answer for turmoil in places like Libya, where terrorists killed the U.S. ambassador on the anniversary of 9/11.

Romney advisers argue that the stepped-up foreign policy criticism dovetails with a key piece of his central argument: Obama is in over his head, and the country will be worse off if he gets a second term.

Yet, there's a disconnect between what Romney and his team are talking about nationally and what he is running on in the states, where his TV advertising is largely focused on the economy and jobs ? voters' No. 1 issue ? ahead of Wednesday's presidential debate. All that's leaving Romney open to criticism that his campaign is searching for a winning pitch just one month before the election and with voting under way in many states.

"Our country seems to be at the mercy of events rather than shaping them. We're not moving them in a direction that protects our people or our allies. And that's dangerous," Romney wrote in a column published Monday in the Wall Street Journal.

The Obama campaign reacted forcefully, calling Romney's foreign policy stances "incoherent" and "reckless, erratic and irresponsible."

Romney running mate Paul Ryan piled on, telling radio host Laura Ingraham that Obama's administration hasn't given the public the full story on the circumstances that led to the death of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens in Benghazi.

"It's really indicative of a broader failure of this administration's foreign policy and the crisis that is taking place across the Middle East," Ryan said. "It is clear the administration's policy unraveled."

Romney's intense focus on foreign policy is intended to undercut what the Obama campaign has seen as the president's ironclad international affairs credentials ? and send a message to voters that they can trust the Republican on foreign policy despite limited experience. To that end, Romney's advisers said he's planning a major foreign policy speech, to be delivered sometime after Wednesday's debate.

Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki was dismissive.

"There is no op-ed or no speech which we've heard he may or may not give at some point that is going to change the view of the American people that he has been reckless, erratic and irresponsible on foreign policy issues every time he has had an opportunity to speak to them," Psaki told reporters in Henderson, Nev., where Obama is preparing for Wednesday's debate.

Foreign policy is the latest in a series of political openings that Romney has tried to exploit in recent weeks, as he has fallen behind the president in polls both in key battleground state. National surveys show the president ahead in a tight contest. In recent weeks, Romney also has castigated Obama on the coal industry, defense cuts, wealth redistribution and the president's comment that it's not possible to change Washington from the inside.

But unlike some of those issues, Romney's campaign hasn't put serious money behind the foreign policy line of criticism.

Paid TV ads in key states don't largely mention international affairs. The third-party group American Crossroads has a produced a Web video assailing Obama's foreign policy, but it's not on the air. Polls show foreign policy far down on the list of voters' concerns and Obama leads Romney on the issue.

Romney's campaign had spent much of the year focusing its argument against Obama's handling of the economy.

Then came Sept. 11, and as unrest flared in the Middle East, Romney issued a late-night statement assailing Obama before it was clear that Stevens and three other Americans had been killed in the terrorist attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The timing of Romney's initial response prompted heartburn within the GOP. Yet, Romney pressed ahead with his criticism that Obama was a weak leader whose posture abroad was hurting U.S. interests, and congressional Republicans have piled on about the administration's changing statements on the Libya attack.

Romney campaign aides said internal polls showed the criticism of Obama's foreign policy resonating with voters in the days after Stevens' death. But any traction Romney was getting on that front was stunted when a video surfaced of Romney telling donors that 47 percent of Americans believe they are victims entitled to government assistance. Obama has highlighted that comment repeatedly in TV ads and at campaign rallies, building on his post-convention momentum.

Since then, the administration's statements on Libya have evolved, with officials struggling to explain just what happened in Benghazi.

White House adviser David Plouffe seemed to struggle Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" when pressed on the matter.

"This was an event obviously, a complex event. We're only talking about a matter of weeks here," Plouffe said. "So as information was arrived at, as determinations were made, that was shared with the American people. And I think again the focus needs to be how do we make sure that our facilities and our ambassadors and our personnel are secure going forward."

Republicans have looked to capitalize, raising questions about why the consulate in Benghazi wasn't better protected and why the ambassador wasn't traveling with more security.

"It was either willful ignorance or abysmal intelligence to think that people come to spontaneous demonstrations with heavy weapons, mortars, and the attack goes on for hours," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told CNN on Sunday.

__

AP White House Correspondent Ben Feller, AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius and Associated Press writer Steve Peoples in Washington and Associated Press writer Julie Pace in Henderson, Nev., contributed to this report.

__

Follow Kasie Hunt on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/kasie

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-10-01-Presidential%20Campaign/id-0d96fe9dc44648a6a4f6ddb641eef421

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Syria's foreign minister accuses US of promoting 'terrorism'

At the UN General Assembly, Syria's foreign minister?lashed out at Washington, accusing extremists of prolonging the crisis, and denouncing other neighboring Middle Eastern countries.

By Diaa Hadid and Edith M. Lederer,?Associated Press / October 1, 2012

Walid al-Moallem, Foreign Minister of Syria, is guided to the podium before speaking at the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, Monday.

Jason DeCrow/AP

Enlarge

Syria's foreign minister brought his regime's case before the world Monday, accusing the US and its allies of promoting "terrorism" and blaming everyone from neighbors and extremists to the media for escalating the war ? except the Syrian government.

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Addressing ministers and diplomats from the United Nation's 193 member states as fighting spread in the historic Old City of Aleppo, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem lashed out at calls in Washington and in Arab and European capitals for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down as interference in Syria's domestic affairs.

Al-Moallem accused extremists of prolonging the crisis and denounced countries such as the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey for supporting the opposition's "terrorism."

"This terrorism which is externally supported is accompanied by unprecedented media provocation based on igniting religious extremism sponsored by well-known states in the region," he told the U.N. General Assembly.

Members of the opposition said it was common knowledge that these neighboring Arab countries were supporting and financing the rebels, but said the Assad government had brought it upon itself after cracking down on protests that began peacefully 18 months ago.

"It is the regime's mindless, brutal and criminal, military crackdown that pushed the Syrian people to ask for help from the international community, from NATO and from the devil himself if necessary to protect them," Haitham Manna, a Paris-based veteran Syrian dissident who heads the external branch of the National Coordination Body opposition group, told The Associated Press.

Al-Moallem's speech followed his meeting with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in which the U.N. chief "raised in the strongest terms the continued killings, massive destruction, human rights abuses, and aerial and artillery attacks committed by the government," according to a statement by his press office. "He stressed that it was the Syrian people who were being killed every day, and appealed to the Government of Syria to show compassion to its own people."

The Syrian foreign minister in his address invited the opposition to "work together to stop the shedding of Syrian blood" and said that a Syrian-led dialogue could produce a "more pluralistic and democratic" country.

The opposition called the speech a classic case of regime "propaganda," and dismissed his calls for dialogue as not genuine.

"While the brutal and delusional Syrian regime continues to pay lip service to diplomacy, its actions over the past 18 months have demonstrated beyond any doubt that they have no interest in meaningful reform or dialogue" Radwan Ziadeh, a US-based spokesman for the chief opposition group, the Syrian National Council, said in a statement.

Underscoring how deeply the Syrian foreign minister felt that conspiratal hands were playing in the war-ridden country, he said that armed groups were inciting civilians in border areas to flee to neighboring countries "to fabricate a refugee crisis."

Up to 3,000 Syrians are leaving the country every day, said Vincent Cochetel of the U.N. refugee agency. Some 300,000 Syrians are registered, or waiting to register with the U.N. in Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon and the agency expects the number to grow to 700,000 by the year's end.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/faZGyGyODHM/Syria-s-foreign-minister-accuses-US-of-promoting-terrorism

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A's win, back in playoffs for 1st time in 6 years

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? This time, it was manager Bob Melvin who took a whipped cream pie in the face.

All those walk-off wins from guys hardly known beyond the Bay Area until now, all those moving parts and the long list of injury reports day after day, Melvin has had as big a hand in Oakland's return to the playoffs as anybody ? and his players will swear by it.

So, fittingly, it was his turn to be celebrated.

Josh Reddick planted the pie in the skipper's face moments after a 4-3 win over the Texas Rangers on Monday night.

The upstart, scrappy, no-fear A's are now the playoff-bound A's.

They still hope to be AL West champions, too. Two more wins against the two-time reigning AL champion Rangers would do it.

Coco Crisp's latest big hit helped put the A's in the playoffs for the first time in six years, and they remained in contention for a division crown.

"We want to come out here and compete way above our means," Crisp said of the low-budget franchise. "We're going to enjoy it right now."

Crisp had a go-ahead double in the fifth inning as the A's (92-68) pulled within one game of Texas (93-67) in the AL West with two to go and moved into a tie with Baltimore for the American League's top wild card.

Oakland's victory also eliminated the Los Angeles Angels and Tampa Bay Rays from playoff contention.

This youthful bunch of A's partied like they'd never done this before ? and that's because most of them haven't.

Cuban defector Yoenis Cespedes ? hat on backward, goggles on, bottle in hand ? danced in the middle of the clubhouse as others quickly joined the fun.

"It's getting beyond believable at this point," said opening day starter Brandon McCarthy, sidelined after getting hit in the head by a line drive Sept. 5 and undergoing surgery. "There's no reason we should be here at this point. Every single person keeps coming in and stepping up and filling in."

Pinch-hitter Brandon Moss delivered a sacrifice fly for insurance and Josh Reddick added an RBI single for the resurgent A's, who must sweep this season-ending series against the two-time reigning AL champions to capture the West title.

"Absolutely amazing," Melvin said. "We don't get this done unless everybody believes in everybody and everybody plays selflessly."

Michael Young and Mike Napoli each homered against Jarrod Parker, who was otherwise solid in beating the Rangers for the third time in as many career chances ? all this year.

Crisp followed the double by stealing his 39th base, then scored on Moss' fly ball to shallow center. Center fielder Josh Hamilton hesitated ever so slightly before making the throw home, just enough for Crisp to slide in safely.

The reliable leadoff man returned Friday after missing nine starts with an infection in both eyes. Crisp is batting .529 (9 for 17) with seven runs, three doubles, three stolen bases and two RBIs in four games since coming back.

Playing to chants of "Let's go Oakland!" from the crowd of 21,162, the gutsy A's won their fourth straight game and sixth in seven with the very formula that has been working so well: forget the scoreboard-watching and just control their part in the playoff picture. Fans were on their feet chanting as closer Grant Balfour finished it out by striking out the side.

Moments later, players brought bottles of bubbly onto the field and began spraying them into the stands. Outside the aging Coliseum, car horns honked as this blue-collar city enjoyed its big moment on the baseball stage.

"Awesome! Unbelievable," Balfour said mid-celebration. "I want to keep doing it."

This Oakland team has surprised everyone from owner Lew Wolff to general manager Billy Beane and Melvin with its knack for late-inning drama from a long list of players who had barely been heard of before this season.

"I never thought we'd be here this time of year," Wolff said. "The youth of this group is so amazing. The last time we did this we had a pretty mature group. Here we've got guys who will be with us a long time. I'm excited for this year and next year and the year after. We're in the best shape we've ever been for the future."

Parker pitched the A's back to the postseason for the first time since they were swept by Detroit in the 2006 AL championship series. He matched teammate Tommy Milone for the Oakland rookie record of 13 wins.

"Sky high," Parker said of his team's confidence. "This is a team that knows it can do a lot of things. It's no surprise to me. It might be a surprise to everybody else."

The right-hander is the latest in a rotation of rookies to come through for an Oakland staff that in trades last winter lost Gio Gonzalez to Washington, Trevor Cahill to Arizona and All-Star closer Andrew Bailey to the Boston Red Sox. Dependable catcher Kurt Suzuki was shipped to the Nationals during the season, and starter Bartolo Colon was suspended in August for testing positive for testosterone.

Melvin emerged as a Manager of the Year candidate with the way he mixed and matched and kept running out a winning club despite injuries to so many players and new faces arriving in the clubhouse seemingly every day for the small-budget A's.

Oakland moved a season-high 24 games over .500 for its best mark since ending that '06 season at 93-69.

"They play with no conscious. They're not afraid of nobody right now," said Rangers manager Ron Washington, Oakland's longtime third-base coach before leaving to manage Texas. "I'm never surprised what happens over in that clubhouse with the Oakland A's. They've always got pitching, and when you've got pitching, you never know what can happen."

This one sure had the feel of a fall October playoff game despite the unseasonably warm 82-degree temperature at first pitch.

The Rangers now must wait at least one more day as they try to clinch their third straight division title. Texas won the second game of Sunday's doubleheader at home against the Angels to secure a third straight playoff appearance for the first time in franchise history and sixth overall.

"I'm not sending any message. My team knows what needs to be done," Washington said. "The message was sent yesterday."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/win-back-playoffs-1st-time-6-years-062357313--mlb.html

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Finns claim $2.3B from Areva-Siemens for delay

HELSINKI (AP) ? Finnish utility TVO is claiming ?1.8 billion ($2.3 billion) in compensation from nuclear supplier Areva-Siemens for a five-year delay in the construction of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant.

Teollisuuden Voima Oyj says Monday it submitted the claim to the International Chamber of Commerce for arbitration proceedings with an "updated quantification estimate of TVO's costs and losses" of some ?1.8 billion, but added that the amount might change.

The 1,600-megawatt European Pressurized Reactor ? one of the first of its kind ? has been plagued with delays caused by faulty materials and planning problems since construction began in 2005.

TVO says the supplier was constructing the ?3 billion reactor ? to have been online by 2009 ? with a fixed-price turnkey contract and is responsible for the delay.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-10-01-EU-Finland-Nuclear-Areva/id-59641a32f043492eb2be552220002aa2

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Monday Blues

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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2012/10/monday-blues-23/

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Sam Lutfi: Britney Spears Was a Crystal Meth-Head!

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Splits among rebels an obstacle in Syria conflict

Rada Hallabi, 4, who is sick with diabetes, lies on a blanket in a refugee camp on the border with Turkey, near Azaz village, Syria, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. (AP Photo / Manu Brabo)

Rada Hallabi, 4, who is sick with diabetes, lies on a blanket in a refugee camp on the border with Turkey, near Azaz village, Syria, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. (AP Photo / Manu Brabo)

Syrian boys play near a refugee camp on the border with Turkey, near Azaz village, Syria, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/ Manu Brabo)

A displaced Syrian woman and her grandson in a refugee camp In the border with Turkey, near Azaz village, Syria, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/ Manu Brabo)

Two Syrian women take a rest within a refugee camp in the border with Turkey, near Azaz village, Syria, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012. (AP Photo/ Manu Brabo)

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? The large number of deeply divided rebel groups is one of the main obstacles to a U.N. mission's efforts to broker an end to Syria's 18-month crisis, the Damascus representative of the new international envoy said Monday. Activists reported an air raid on a northern town killed at least 21 people.

Mokhtar Lamani, who represents special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi in the Syrian capital, told The Associated Press in an interview that a solution to the country's crisis remains very difficult because of the "high level of mistrust between all parties." Most opposition groups say they will accept nothing less than President Bashar Assad's departure from power, while the regime says its opponents are working as part of a foreign conspiracy.

With every diplomatic effort so far failing to halt the violence, Syria's civil war has descended into a deadly daily grind as the regime and the rebels trying to overthrow Assad both try to gain the upper hand.

Some of the heaviest fighting Monday took place in the northern city of Aleppo, where rebels recently launched a new offensive to capture the country's commercial capital. A tourism official based in Aleppo said more than 500 historic shops have been burnt since Saturday in the city's centuries-old covered market, adding that the giant doors of the nearby citadel were damaged although the structure is intact.

Aleppo-based activist Mohammed Saeed said 12 people were killed when troops shelled a mosque in the city early Monday. A video posted online showed wounded worshippers being rushed away. Another video showed the Osman bin Madoun Mosque later in the day with its green carpets stained with blood.

The Observatory said 40 people were either killed or wounded in Aleppo on Monday, while the LCC put the death toll nationwide at as many as 95 by Monday afternoon.

Northwest of Aleppo, government warplanes bombed the town of Salqin, killing at least 21 people including five children, activists said. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, put the death toll at 30.

Salqin is located some 6 kilometers (4 miles) from the border with Turkey in Idlib province, which has seen intense clashes between government troops and rebels in recent months.

Footage posted online by activists showed several mutilated bodies in the back of a pickup truck as a man shouts that his son was killed. A second video showed three dead children on the floor of what appeared to be a hospital.

The government severely restricts access to the country, and the authenticity of the videos could not be independently verified.

Brahimi, a veteran Algerian diplomat who previously served as a U.N. envoy to Afghanistan and Iraq, waded into Syria's complicated diplomatic landscape last month when he replaced Kofi Annan, the former U.N. chief whose peace plan for Syria failed to end the violence that activists say has so far killed more than 30,000 people.

Lamani said Brahimi, who visited Damascus last month, will pay a second visit to Syria soon and will tour the country. Asked whether he still sees hope of a political solution in Syria despite the bloodshed, Lamani said: "I think maybe the time will be too long, but I hope (so) ... and this is what I am here for because I hope that in the end there would be some light."

The uprising against Assad that erupted in March last year began with anti-government protests but has gradually morphed into a civil war that has spread across the country. Since then, rebels have taken over patches of territory, mostly near the northern border with Turkey.

Lamani noted that he had recently visited the central province of Homs and the southern province of Daraa, where he with met representatives of armed groups in the town of Rastan, a rebel stronghold in Homs that was among the first areas to take up arms against Assad's regime. He did not provide any details of his meetings.

He said that some of the main obstacles to brokering a resolution to the conflict are divisions among rebels and opposition groups. There is a vast array of such groups inside and outside the country, and relations among them have been dogged by infighting and mutual accusations of treachery. The rebels include army defectors and gunmen who work under the rag-tag Free Syrian Army.

Despite months spent trying to cobble together a common front, attempts to unite the opposition have so far failed.

"There are so many opposition parties inside and outside Syria in addition to the armed groups," Lamani said in Damascus. "This is a little bit very dangerous and complicating our mission because of this kind of fragmentation."

Rami Martini, chief of Aleppo's Chamber of Tourism, said three historic markets which he identified as Niswan, Darb and Istanbul "were totally burnt and they consist of more than 500 shops."

Martini, the tourism official, blamed anti-government gunmen for the fires in the market, saying opposition forces "hate history." He said the government as well as Arab and international funders spent $300 million to renovate the Aleppo market between 1993 and 2010.

The Aleppo bazaar, a major tourist attraction with its narrow stone alleys and stores selling perfume, fabrics and spices, had been the site of occasional gun battles and shelling for weeks. But amateur video posted Saturday showed wall-to-wall flames engulfing wooden doors as burning debris fell away from the storefronts. Activists said hundreds of shops were affected, in the worst blow yet to the city's historic center.

Aleppo's walled old city with a medieval covered market, or souk, was recognized by the U.N. cultural agency as a World Heritage site, one of six in Syria.

"The historical losses in the market are invaluable and the hope is that the market be renovated in the future," Martini told The Associated Press by telephone from Aleppo.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-10-01-Syria/id-34703e291ced4d23a865d31b5292dc51

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