TOP STORIES
-----------
NEW YORK- Hurricane Sandy, a mammoth storm menacing the East Coast, took aim at the most densely populated U.S. region on Monday, forcing hundreds of thousands to seek higher ground, halting public transport and closing schools, businesses and government departments.
- - - -
AMMAN - Syrian warplanes bombarded a rebel stronghold in a Damascus suburb on Monday, the final day of a truce broken by air attacks and fighting between the two sides across the country, opposition activists said.
- - - -
WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama faced the delicate task on Sunday of balancing his response to a potentially huge natural disaster with his own tough re-election effort as Hurricane Sandy bore down on the U.S. East Coast nine days before Election Day.
- - - -
WASHINGTON - With one week left in the tight battle for the White House, it's all about the vital swing state of Ohio. Unless it's about Colorado - or Iowa, or tiny New Hampshire.
- - - -
TOKYO - Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda made clear on Monday he was in no rush to go to the polls, speaking of the risk of a ``political vacuum'' in a speech likely to anger an opposition that has urged him to keep a promise to call an election soon.
- - - -
NEW DELHI - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave his cabinet an overdue facelift on Sunday, bringing in younger ministers in a bid to breathe new life into his aged, scandal-tainted government ahead of state and federal elections.
- - - -
BEIJING - The roots of Toyota Motor Corp's China troubles run far deeper than the anti-Japan protests that have swept the country, stretching back to the 2008 launch of the Yaris subcompact - a spectacular flop with price-conscious Chinese buyers.
- - - -
AHMEDABAD/ALINA, India - For many Indians, Narendra Modi is the man of the moment, a possible prime minister. Others see the chief minister of western Gujarat state as a Hindu zealot who did not stop the massacre of Muslims in religious riots a decade ago.
- - - -
ATHENS - Greek police arrested the editor of a weekly magazine for publishing a list of more than 2,000 names of wealthy Greeks who have placed money in Swiss bank accounts, police said on Sunday.
- - - -
KIEV - Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovich's party was on Monday on course to secure a parliamentary majority after an election, but will face an opposition boosted by resurgent nationalists and a liberal party led by boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko.
- - - -
SITTWE, Myanmar - Muslim survivors of six days of sectarian violence in western Myanmar spoke on Sunday of fleeing bullets and burning homes to escape on fishing boats after an attack by once-peaceable Rakhine neighbours.