Long queues are likely at polling stations on 4 November, Pew
researchers say, and both parties are hiring lawyers in anticipation of
challenges.
Voters have already had long waits in some states where early voting is under way, like North Carolina and Florida.
The 2008 election "has the potential to combine a
record turnout with an insufficient number of poll workers and a voting
system still in flux," the report by the non-partisan Pew group says.
The biggest hurdle facing election workers may be the new
voters registering in record numbers in almost every state, the report
says.
For example, officials in Virginia recently ordered 200,000 extra voter registration forms.
And although many states are encouraging people to cast their
ballot early or send it in by post, there is still a danger of big
queues on election day and insufficient numbers of poll workers to
handle the influx, the report warns.
Election officials in Virginia have said they will step up
polling station security amid concerns that arguments over long queues,
voter registration and identity issues could become heated.
Analysts suggest that early voting in a number of key states is favouring Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.
In North Carolina, some 214,000 people cast their ballot on the
first two days of early voting, with registered Democrats making up 62%
of the number compared with 22% registered Republicans.
Meanwhile, a new opinion poll by the Pew Research Center
suggests Mr Obama has increased his national lead over rival John
McCain in the past month to 14 points, with 52% to his 38%.
MANILA, Philippines -
A looming armed “tug-of-war" may steal the thunder from the arrival of
former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc" Bolante at the
Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) before midnight Tuesday.
Law professor Harry Roque Jr. said Saturday this scenario will likely
erupt between the National Bureau of Investigation and the Senate’s
Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms (OSAA).
"Baka mag-agawan ang NBI
at OSAA
sa airport
sa pagkuha kay Bolante
(There may be a tug-of-war between the NBI and OSAA for custody of
Bolante at the airport)," Roque said in an interview on dzRH radio.
On the other hand, a "third force" involving so-called civil society may be on hand to wait for Bolante, he said.
Roque said he is now meeting with civil society groups to determine how
to "welcome" Bolante, pointing out that they were barred entry from the
airport when they tried to "welcome" ZTE witness Rodolfo Noel Lozada
Jr. last February.
On Friday, Roque cited information reaching him, indicating Bolante is
due to take a Northwest Airlines flight on Sunday and expected in
Manila at 11 p.m. Tuesday.
Roque noted the Senate agriculture committee in the 13th Congress had
ordered Bolante arrested for snubbing its investigation into a
P728-million fertilizer fund scam.
But he also noted that Justice secretary Raul Gonzalez ordered the
National Bureau of Investigation to take Bolante in for "debriefing."
"Mas safe si Bolante
sa OSAA.
Sa Senado
patetestiguhin lang siya (Bolante would be safer with the Senate sergeant-at-arms, because he'll be detained only so he will testify)," Roque said.
- GMANews.TV <http://www.gmanews.tv/story/129345/Tug-of-war-looms-at-airport-over-Bolante-custody>
Should UK immigration go Dutch?
Ethnic Moroccans form a large minority in the Netherlands
|
Are the Dutch handling immigration more efficiently than the
British? UK Immigration Minister Phil Woolas thinks so - he has
condemned the UK's migration limits and asylum policy and praised Dutch
measures.
Here BBC News reporters Dominic Casciani and Laurence Peter look at the UK and Dutch systems, respectively. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7682858.stm>
Jefferson's hidden slave legacy
|
By Allan Little
BBC News, Monticello, Virginia
|
Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and third US President
|
Thomas Jefferson's home at Monticello is a place of pilgrimage for Americans of every political stripe.
Thousands come every day.
They stand on the terrace and look down on the forested green plains of Virginia.
They gaze in awe at Jefferson's little chess set, where he sat,
two hundred years ago, with his friend and apostle James Madison.
Between them, these two men in effect dreamed a new nation into existence.
Jefferson designed Monticello himself.
 |
JEFFERSON AND HIS SLAVES
|
It is true to the man - the elegant proportions, the white domed
roof above pillared porticoes, the bricks so brown they are almost
ebony - the colour of the Virginia soil from which they were hewn and
baked.
Huge sash windows bring light flooding in. This is the
aesthetic of the rational eighteenth century mind - the Enlightenment
in architectural form.
But slave hands baked those bricks and stacked them, and
throughout his life time more than two hundred slaves - Jefferson's
personal property - worked the fields of his estate.
Slavery and equality
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal".
The words of the American Declaration of Independence are Jefferson's own.
All men, he goes on, "are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights" and among these are "life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness".
How did the author of that ringing declaration of universal human rights reconcile himself to the ownership of slaves?
It is one of the great contradictions of Jefferson's life, of
his age, and of the America that he and the founding generations
conjured into being.
Jefferson's wife, Martha, died in the tenth year of their marriage.
Games firms 'catching' non-gamers
The Murdochs were accused of sharing a racing game
Games firms are accusing innocent people of file-sharing as they crack
down on pirates, a Which? Computing investigation has claimed.
The magazine was contacted by Gill and Ken Murdoch, from Scotland, who
had been accused of sharing the game Race07 by makers Atari.
The couple told Which they had never played a computer game in their lives.
The case was dropped, but Which estimates that hundreds of others are in a similar situation.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7697898.stm>
The last soldiers to die in World War I
|
By John Hayes-Fisher
Producer, Timewatch
|
In the closing minutes of World War I, the ceasefire within touching
distance, a handful of troops died. As the 90th anniversary of the
Armistice approaches, who were these men?
Just after 5 o'clock on the morning of 11 November, 1918,
British, French and German officials gathered in a railway carriage to
the north of Paris and signed a document which would in effect bring to
an end World War I.
Within minutes, news of the Armistice - the cease fire - had
been flashed around the world that the war, which was meant to "end all
wars", was finally over.
And yet it wasn't, because the cease-fire would not come into
effect for a further six hours - at 11am - so troops on the frontline
would be sure of getting the news that the fighting had stopped.
That day many hundreds died, and thousands more injured.
|
FIND OUT MORE...
Timewatch: The Last Day of World War I, is on BBC Two at 2015 GMT on Saturday 1 November
Or catch up later with the BBC iPlayer |
The respected American author Joseph E Persico has calculated a
shocking figure that the final day of WWI would produce nearly 11,000
casualties, more than those killed, wounded or missing on D-Day, when
Allied forces landed en masse on the shores of occupied France almost
27 years later.
What is worse is that hundreds of these soldiers would lose
their lives thrown into action by generals who knew that the Armistice
had already been signed. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7696021.stm>
Fury sweeps Syria after US raid
|
By Paul Wood
BBC News, Sukkiraya
|
Souad Khousaim said she was wounded by US soldiers
|
Souad Khousaim lay very still on her hospital bed and in a quiet
voice wracked with pain told me she was one of the innocent victims of
Sunday's raid by US special forces.
"I went outside to get my son and the Americans shot me," she
says. "They were very close, five metres away. I was screaming,
terrified."
Her husband was among the seven Syrian men who died, but hospital officials have not told her this yet.
The US military sent troops 8km (five miles) into Syria, to the
village of Sukkiraya, to take action which they hope will help shut
down al-Qaeda's secret pipeline into Iraq for men, weapons and money.
Fighting for Muslim women's rights
Some
of the world's leading Islamic feminists have been gathered in
Barcelona for the third International Congress on Islamic Feminism, to
discuss the issues women face in the Muslim world.
Battling for religious freedom
|
By Christopher Landau
BBC religious affairs correspondent
|
Catholic and Muslim leaders meet at the Vatican this week,
hoping to improve ties. Christians' right to practise in Muslim
countries has been a sore point in relations - illustrated by the case
of one particular church.
St Paul's church in Tarsus is controlled by the government
|
From the outside, it looks just like any other church.
But St Paul's church in Tarsus, south-eastern Turkey, is actually a museum controlled by the government.
Christian campaigners want it to be handed over for religious use.
But the Turkish government has told the BBC that is "out of the question".
The church is so significant because it stands in Tarsus, the
birthplace of St Paul. His status as a towering figure in the history
of Christianity means the town is a growing centre for Christian
pilgrimage.
But at the moment, access to what was once the town's church is tightly controlled by the Turkish tourism ministry.
Local Catholics living in Tarsus have to travel almost 30km (20 miles) to the next town to worship on Sundays.
Although religious freedom is guaranteed by the Turkish
constitution, Catholics point to restrictions on owning property as
just one example of the obstacles they face. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7703011.stm>
Japan struggles with WWII legacy
Remembering the war dead can be a controversial act in Japan
After Japan's air force chief was sacked over an essay in which
he appeared to question his country's accepted role as an aggressor in
World War II, the BBC's Andre Vornic reports from Tokyo on Japanese
attitudes to the war.
Japan expressed remorse for its wartime actions in 1995, and followed with another apology a decade later.
But the entry that won General Toshio Tamogami an essay competition described Japan as a victim.
Gen Tamogami's comments suggest revisionist readings of history persist
|
The essay said Japan had only occupied China to secure rights it had
obtained under various treaties. It also portrayed Korea under Japanese
rule as prosperous and safe.
Disputes over wartime history often stir tensions between Tokyo
and Beijing, but his swift dismissal should ensure no lasting damage is
done to relations between Japan and its neighbours.
Announcing the dismissal on Friday, Defence Minister Yasukazu
Hamada said it was improper for the general to publicly state a view
clearly different from that of the government. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7704729.stm>
Parade casts long dark shadow
|
Mark Simpson
BBC Ireland correspondent
|
Memories of the troubles are still strong in republican minds
|
The past still casts a long, dark, inescapable shadow over the peace process in Northern Ireland.
Scratch the surface of the new era in Belfast, and the old divisions are laid bare.
Those differences were on full display at the homecoming parade for the armed services in Belfast city centre.
At the flashpoint area, where loyalist and republicans came within shouting distance of each other, the tensions ran deep.
The military parade through Belfast provided a political - and security - test for the new Northern Ireland. Overall, it passed.
But the tensions on view served as a stark reminder of the underlying problems.
In crude terms, unionists see the British Army as heroes,
republicans see them as villains. Peace process or no peace process,
those views do not change.
|
How
they would react if the Belfast Brigade of the IRA announced they
intended to march their volunteers through the centre of Belfast?
|
And even though Sinn Fein are now helping to govern Northern
Ireland, they still decided to stage a protest against part of the
fabric of the state.
But could they not have just ignored the military parade? Turn a blind eye, rather than feed the controversy?
It's a question asked not just by unionists, but some nationalists too.
Sinn Fein's answer was found in detail in the pages of the Irish
News newspaper, in an article by senior republican Jim Gibney. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7705008.stm>
Three bloody summers in Afghanistan
|
By Alastair Leithead
BBC News, Kabul
|
Three summers ago, Britain's war in Afghanistan began in earnest
when 3,300 troops set up camp on a small, remote patch of desert in a
little-known place called Helmand.
|
Some of the fiercest fighting has been in Helmand province
|
It's now a name most associate with war - a place where more than
100 British troops have died - and where efforts to bring stability and
defeat a fierce insurgency have so far failed.
Some say there aren't enough troops, others say there are too
many, and even commanders now admit this war won't be won by military
force alone.
Based in Kabul, I have followed British troops over the last
three years, and before leaving my posting in Afghanistan, went on one
final trip to Helmand to try and answer the question of whether this
mission is worthwhile.
In April 2006 it was sold, politically, as a peace-building mission.
"We'd be perfectly happy to leave in three years' time without
firing one shot," the then Defence Secretary, John Reid, announced in
Kabul.
But the following day the commander of British forces in
Afghanistan, Brigadier Ed Butler gave another insight: "The greatest
danger is we know very little about Helmand province, so it is a lack
of information that will be the greatest challenge."
Just a few months later, troops were fighting for their lives,
defending small isolated bases from wave after wave of attacks,
dropping bombs on their doorsteps to keep insurgents at bay.
Since then, the nature of the fighting has changed, but the violence has continued.
2008 has been the bloodiest year yet for coalition troops
|
We experienced first hand the violence again this year - a third
bloody summer for British forces in Helmand and at a forward base on
the fringes of the town of Sangin.
We were met by incoming fire, as rockets crashed down close to the camp and British forces scrambled to return fire.
The next day, out on patrol, troops were dropping mortar bombs
just ahead of their own positions as the Taleban moved forward into
battle.
One mortar fell short through some technical fault and a
soldier was injured, and the troops scrambled back to base with the
insurgents in hot pursuit.
The next day they did it all over again, and on that occasion a 24-year-old dog handler was killed.
Since 2001 more than 120 British servicemen and women have died in Afghanistan. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7702970.stm>
Referendum battles in US election
|
By Max Deveson
BBC News, Washington
|
When American voters go to the polls on 4 November, they will not just be choosing a president.
The issue of same-sex marriage has divided opinion in California
|
In many states, they will also be faced with a number of referendum
questions, known as propositions or ballot initiatives. If passed, they
will change state laws.
And many of them deal with issues on the frontline of American politics, from gay marriage to abortion.
The most high-profile ballot initiative in this election cycle
is probably California's Proposition Eight, or Prop Eight, as it is
known for short.
If passed, it would amend California's constitution to say:
"Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognised in
California."
The proposition has been put forward by opponents of gay
marriage in the state, in response to the California Supreme Court's
decision in May 2008 to overturn a law introduced by a 2000
proposition, which had defined marriage in state law as being between a
man and a woman only.
Opponents of same-sex marriage want to place their definition
of marriage in the state's constitution, thus preventing the state's
Supreme Court from overturning it.
California's Proposition Two would outlaw battery farming
|
Although Californian voters opted in 2000 to outlaw same-sex marriage, the battle this year is very tight.
Polls suggest that voters now oppose attempts to amend the constitution, albeit by a very small margin.
Opponents of the measure say they may be helped by the popularity of Barack Obama at the top of the ballot - but also harmed.
Mr Obama will bring out liberal voters who support same-sex
marriage, but he will also increase turnout among African-Americans,
many of whom oppose it.
Voters in two other states - Florida and Arizona - will also consider constitutional amendments to ban same-sex marriage.<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/us_elections_2008/7696178.stm>
Who will win the electoral college?
|
CHANGING POLITICAL MAP
|
The winner of the US presidential election is not always the
candidate who wins the popular vote - the path to victory is to win a
majority in the electoral college.
Each state has a certain number of electors who elect the
president - the number depends on the state's population - and the
trick is to win enough states to stack up 270 electors' votes.
The map to the right shows how the states have voted since 1948.
Below we reprint five expert projections, based partly on the
latest opinion polls, which indicate how the race could end in 2008.
Enlarge Image