Mr Chavez won 54% of the vote, the country's electoral council announced.
Noisy celebrations among Chavez supporters erupted across the capital Caracas following the result.
Turnout was high in the hotly contested election and voting was extended beyond the official closing time at some polling stations with long queues.
And the capital Nairobi is where many Kenyans come looking for opportunities. It's the commercial heart of east Africa, and despite chronic poverty for many, there's a palpable sense of energy in the hustle and bustle of daily life.
Working Lives Kenya meets six people in very different social circumstances, but with a common desire to improve their lives.
For Wambui Gitonga, her decision to give up work and be a full time mum introduced her to a new career. The daily school run became a profitable business.
Gachao Kiuna is one of a new generation of Kenyan business entrepreneurs. He's responsible for investing millions of dollars in Kenya's infrastructure, with a vision to help boost Kenya's economic development.
Roseline Awino is one of hundreds of thousands living in Nairobi's slums. She's a cleaner, a cook and a shopkeeper, with several jobs needed just to get by.
Steve Okiri has to leave Nairobi during the week, travelling hours from home to work in a desolate place. It's where he found the best fit for his training as an industrial chemist.
A civil servant, Dr Edward Kariuki is no pen-pushing bureaucrat. His job as a vet with the Kenya Wildlife Service is unpredictable and rewarding, including operating on orphaned lions.
And for Fundi Frank, a fashion designer for pop stars with a phone in each hand, networking and socialising is a crucial part of promoting his brand.
CARACAS, Venezuela — Voters across this country turned out in large numbers on Sunday, standing in lines that snaked around city blocks to cast ballots in a landmark presidential election that could give the fiery socialist Hugo Chávez a new term or replace him with a youthful, more moderate challenger, Henrique Capriles Radonski.
Voting, and then the counting, appeared likely to continue well into the night. Though the balloting mostly went smoothly around the country, there were a few reports of hitches — mainly technical problems with electronic voting machines — that caused long delays at some locations, and polling places were instructed to keep working until everyone on line at closing time had the chance to vote. Results were not expected until after the voting was complete at every polling station.
The day began as early as 3 a.m. in poor neighborhoods where Mr. Chávez enjoys strong support, as activists drove around on motorcycles and trucks, blowing bugles and air horns and blaring his campaign music to rouse people to go out to vote. In some neighborhoods, residents turned out before the polls opened at 6 a.m. By early morning, the lines at some locations in the capital were around the block.
“I’ve been voting here my whole life and it’s the first time I’ve seen such a long line,” said Elsi Fernandes, 33, who waited with her 6-year-old daughter for more than two hours before casting her vote for Mr. Capriles at a school in Catia, a poor area of central Caracas. Television reports showed long lines in other parts of the country as well.
“There’s enthusiasm, but it’s also very quiet,” Ms. Fernandes, a teacher, said of those waiting outside. “That’s not very much like us Venezuelans.”
Ms. Fernandes said she sensed a nervous expectation among voters in line. Soldiers in green fatigues were stationed at the polling places, as is customary in Venezuelan elections.
Mr. Chávez has won each of his previous elections by margins of 22 percent or more, but expectations rose on Sunday that the outcome this time would be much closer.
During the campaign, Mr. Chávez vowed that he would give the opposition an epic beating. But speaking to reporters after he cast his vote in Caracas, the president dismissed any suggestion that he would refuse to acknowledge an opposition victory if the vote count ran against him.
“You should not have any doubt that we will recognize the results, whatever they are,” Mr. Chávez told reporters at his polling place. “Whether it is a one-vote difference or three million votes, responsible political participants have to recognize the results.”
Venezuela is a major oil supplier to the United States and was a longtime American ally, but during his tenure Mr. Chávez has steered his country away from Washington. He is close to countries like Cuba and Iran, and has been a thorn in the side of the United States in Latin America, leading a bloc critical of American policies.
At home, Mr. Chávez has championed social programs that provide education, housing and subsidized food to the poor, and he has sought to create a socialist economy, nationalizing many businesses. He has governed with autocratic reach, undercutting the independence of the country’s legislature and courts.
The president started the race with a large lead in opinion polls. But Mr. Capriles ran a strong campaign, making inroads in poor areas that were fiercely loyal to Mr. Chávez, and in recent weeks his support appeared to surge.
Mr. Capriles jabbed away at widespread corruption, government mismanagement and out-of-control violent crime. He called for Venezuelans to work together, a contrast to Mr. Chávez, who delights in demeaning and insulting his opponents.
And Mr. Capriles promised to keep and improve Mr. Chávez’s signature social programs. Mr. Capriles has crisscrossed the country, keeping up a manic pace for months. Mr. Chávez, who has been battling cancer, sometimes went two or three days without a campaign appearance.
In Cumaná, a city in the northeast, broken voting machines delayed voting for hours at a polling place at the National Open University. Finally, at around 1 p.m., the authorities began allowing voters to use paper ballots instead.
“I’d rather wait six hours in line than endure six years more of this Chávez government,” said Antonio de la Rosa, 63, who had been at the polling station since 6:30 a.m.
In the Catia neighborhood of the capital, María Elena Severine, 59, a cleaning woman for a bank, said that Mr. Chávez was still as fresh a candidate as when he first ran in 1998. “I like my president,” she said. “He is the revolution. He is change.”
Chinese telecom firms Huawei and ZTE pose a security threat to the US, a congressional panel has warned after its probe into the two companies.
The two firms should be barred from any mergers and acquisitions in the US, the panel has recommended in its report set to be released later on Monday.
It said the firms had failed to allay fears about their association with the Chinese government and military.
The two are among the world's biggest makers of telecom networking equipment.
"China has the means, opportunity and motive to use telecommunications companies for malicious purposes," the committee said in its report.
"Based on available classified and unclassified information, Huawei and ZTE cannot be trusted to be free of foreign state influence and thus pose a security threat to the United States and to our systems."
Both Huawei and ZTE have previously denied the charges.
They are all painted in a rosy pink, the colour of China's 100 yuan bill as a symbol of corruption, and hang on the wall of a small studio in Beijing.
The artist, Zhang Bingjian, says he began the project three years ago after watching a report on Chinese state TV about officials taking bribes.
He said he was angered about the level of corruption.
"Without money in China, you are going to have a problem," he said. "People have lost faith. They don't believe in anything but money. Money talks here."
Mr Zhang employs several assistants, who scour the internet looking for cases when officials have been jailed for corruption.
Since the project began, Mr Zhang says he has commissioned over 1,600 portraits, and there appears to be no end in sight.
China's next generation of leaders will start assuming power at the 18th Party Congress next month.
Growing public anger over official corruption will pose one of their greatest challenges during the next decade.
The scale of the problem is stunning.
Last year, the People's Bank of China mistakenly released a report on its website which was then quickly taken down.
The report said that between 16,000 and 18,000 government officials and employees of state-owned enterprises had smuggled more than $120bn (£75bn) overseas between the mid-1990s and 2008.
That works out to more than $6m per official.
Earlier this year, Premier Wen Jiabao warned that corruption was the greatest threat to the rule of the Communist Party.
The Chinese public read headlines about anti-corruption campaigns almost every day.
Last month Bo Xilai, the politician at the heart of China's biggest political scandal in years, was expelled from the Communist Party.
Among the charges he faces are that he took "huge" bribes.
But many Chinese see these types of cases as more to do with political infighting than actually about corruption.
Increasingly however Chinese internet users are playing an active role.
In August, an official was photographed smiling at the scene of a fatal bus accident. Bloggers were infuriated by what they saw as his callousness and started investigating.
Pictures of him were posted at various functions and meetings wearing expensive watches - too expensive to be bought on an official salary.
The authorities later announced that he had been sacked.
While low-level and mid-level officials are often fair game, the finances of top leaders and their families are strictly off-limits to the Chinese media, apart from in a few high-profile cases.
In a system where officials are only accountable to the party and not to the public, it is very hard to see how corruption can be rooted out.
"It's impossible to tackle corruption within the system without having independent bodies," said Hong-Kong-based China analyst, Willy Lam.
"Top officials have stopped investigations and refuse calls for other senior officials to publish the assets of their families."
Many of the thousands of incidents of unrest in China every month have their roots in corruption - such as land deals by local officials.
Mr Lam believes that unless China's leaders make meaningful political reforms, they will face "rising social unrest".
In a society where corruption is rife, many Chinese have come to accept it as part of daily life. They know they will often have to pay bribes to get good medical treatment or win lawsuits in the courts.
Chen Wei wants her five-year-old son, Lu Siyuan, to go to a good state school in Beijing.
But in order to ensure a place for him, she says that she would have to pay more than $10,000 in bribes to education officials.
"This is the cost we face," she said. "We have no choice."
Like many here, Ms Chen wants China's new generation of leaders to tackle corruption.
If they do not, they will be storing up trouble for the future.
Russia fought two devastating wars in Chechnya. To those who witnessed them, this place was hell on earth. But in this hell, there were heroes.
In the town of Alkhan-Kala, near Grozny, Khassan Baiev takes me down into his cellar.
Baiev is a surgeon. When war broke out in 1994, his local hospital was shelled. So Baiev turned his cellar at home into an operating theatre. He spent the next two years saving lives.
The basement is tiny, just 3m by 4m. But Baiev had up to 30 patients packed in at a time.
"I had a very small operating table in the middle," he says. "I worked without electricity, without heat and water. Every day my mother assisted me. Over two years, I performed 4,600 surgeries.
"Most of my patients were civilians. Children, women, old people, young people. Chechen fighters were also brought to my hospital. Also, Russian soldiers."
In a corner of the cellar, he empties a plastic bag containing shrapnel he collected and saved. During the fighting, his house was hit twice by rockets. But he refused to leave.
"I stayed in Chechnya because I am a Chechen. Also my father always told me: 'You are a Muslim, you are a doctor. You need to stay here, you need to help people.' This was a terrible tragedy for the Chechen people and my country. This is why I stayed."
By the time the second war broke out in 1999, the clinic had been patched up. Baiev was able to move out of the cellar and operate at the hospital. Renewed fighting meant he was busier than ever. His nephew videoed all of the operations on a small camera.
"Conditions were very difficult," Baiev recalls.
"I operated during bombing and shelling. I worked without supplies, without general anaesthesia for brain surgery, abdomen wounds and amputations. I worked without doors or windows. It was very cold. Outside it was so noisy during the bombing, tank attacks, helicopter attacks. My hospital was always shaking."
The surgeon treated patients from both sides of the conflict. That brought him problems.
"One day Chechen fighters and Russian soldiers were brought into my hospital. Of course the situation was very difficult. I always told the fighters: 'This place is a peace place. This hospital is open for everybody who needs help, not just for Chechens.' Some said, 'Why are you treating Russians soldiers? It's the enemy!'
"I said that for me, it doesn't matter, Chechen or Russian. I take to my operation room first who is seriously wounded. I am a doctor, I take Hippocratic oath. That's why I treat everybody."
Baiev remembers his worst day in February 2000 - 300 wounded Chechen fighters were brought into the hospital. "They had walked into a minefield. In 48 hours I performed 76 amputations and seven brain surgeries."
Among the injured on his operating table that day was the most wanted man in Russia - Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev. Baiev amputated part of his right leg. By saving Basayev's life, he was risking his own.
"During the amputation of his leg, I was thinking that after I help him I have a big problem. I know he is for Russia like Bin Laden was for America. After, I escape Chechnya, because the Russian secret police were looking for me. Also some Chechen extremists were looking for me. I had no choice. That's why I escaped Chechnya."
Two months after operating on Basayev, Baiev fled Chechnya. Human rights groups helped him leave the country and move to the United States, where he was granted political asylum. His family began a new life in Massachusetts. That autumn in Alkhan-Kala, Baiev's nephew Adam who had filmed the operations was shot dead.
Today, Baiev is back in Chechnya. He is a US citizen now, but he spends half the year operating at a children's clinic in Grozny.
"Many things have changed," says Baiev. "The political situation has changed. In the North Caucasus, this is a very quiet place today. The biggest problem is that we need good doctors here. Many doctors escaped Chechnya to go and live in Europe. That's why we need help. We need good specialists."
Although his priority is children, Baiev has also made a name for himself as the plastic surgeon of choice for the rich and famous, turning Grozny into an unlikely centre for cosmetic surgery.
"Russian famous people visit Chechnya because I have good experience. My first patient who visited Chechnya three years ago, she is a famous actress in Russia. A TV star."
Chechnya may be more peaceful today. But Baiev is still haunted by his memories of war.
"If I see some bad news on TV, I can't watch this. For example, about the situation in Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan. I feel this so painfully. Always I remember my situation, because I saw thousands of wounded, dead bodies, children who lost arms, legs. Before the war I was a completely different person. Now I know I've changed completely."
Steve Rosenberg interviewed Khassan Baiev for BBC Radio 4's Broadcasting House. Listen via the programme website, or download the podcast.
Sunday, 7 October is the 60th anniversary of the barcode patent, filed in the US in 1952.
However the distinctive black-and-white stripes did not make their first appearance in an American shop until 1974 - because the laser technology used to read them did not exist.
GS1 said the QR code was not a threat to the traditional linear barcode.
A QR (Quick Response) code is an image made up of dots, which can contain more data than a barcode.
"They have different purposes - the barcode on the side of a tin of beans is for point-of-sale scanning. It ensures the consumer is charged the right amount and updates stock records," said Gary Lynch, chief executive of GS1 UK.
"The QR code's main purpose is to take the person that scans it to an extended multi media environment. Technically you can combine the two but nobody's asking for that right now."
The first item to be scanned by a barcode was a packet of chewing gum in an Ohio supermarket in 1974.
But the black-and-white stripes did not get a universal welcome, with some wine manufacturers refusing to incorporate barcodes onto their labels for aesthetic reasons.
Now it occasionally doubles as body art, with US singer Pink among those who sport a barcode tattoo.
"Barcodes are an icon and rightly so - we're quite pleased about it," said Mr Lynch.
"But if one of my daughters had one in homage to her father I'd be rather upset."
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The deal follows long negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to end a 40-year conflict that has cost more than 120,000 lives.
It provides for a new autonomous region in the south, where Muslims are a majority in a mainly Catholic country.
The MILF is "very happy" with the deal, a spokesman was quoted as saying.
The agreement was reached after talks in Malaysia and is expected to be signed formally on 15 October in the Philippine capital, Manila.
Both sides in these long-running negotiations knew there needed to be serious compromises.
The government has had to concede that many Muslims living in the southern Philippines believe the existing autonomous region is too small and its leaders do not have enough real power. The rebels have had to back down too - their initial demand had been for an entirely separate state.
Both sides also know there's huge pressure to get this agreement right. In 2008, a deal was about to be signed when local Christian groups complained they had not been fully consulted, and the Supreme Court blocked the agreement. Within weeks conflict had resumed, and hundreds of thousands of civilians were forced to flee their homes.
This time, widespread consultations and a public vote have been built into the process, in the hope that finally a lasting peace can be reached.
A copy of the framework deal says the parties commit to reaching a "comprehensive deal" by the end of the year.
"This framework agreement paves the way for a final and enduring peace in Mindanao," President Aquino said in a speech to announce the deal, referring to the main southern region.
But he added: "The work does not end here. There are still details that both sides must hammer out."
Correspondents say the agreement marks a major breakthrough, though previous peace efforts have broken down and negotiations with the MILF over the last 15 years were interrupted by violence.
The Philippine government's chief negotiator Marvic Leonen told the BBC that the new peace deal has more political support than previous agreements, after the negotiation panel held more than 100 consultations with Muslims, Christians, and local and regional governments.
The MILF's vice chairman for political affairs Ghazali Jaafar told AFP news agency: "We are very happy. We thank the president for this."
It is hoped that the agreement could be implemented on the ground by the end of President Aquino's term in 2016.
'Casting aside distrust'
President Aquino said the new autonomous region would be named Bangsamoro, after the Moros living there.
"This framework agreement is about rising above our prejudices," the president said.
"It is about casting aside the distrust and myopia that has the plagued efforts of the past."
Sunday's agreement provides for the creation of a "transition commission" tasked with drafting a law to implement the framework deal.
The draft agreement would give the leaders of the Bangsamoro more political and economic powers, promises the people a "just and equitable share" of the region's abundant natural resources, and pledges to address the needs of poverty-stricken communities.
It also provides for the MILF to "undertake a graduated program for decommissioning of its forces" and says both sides would work for "reduction and control of firearms and the disbandment of private armies and other armed groups".
Law enforcement would be transferred from the army to the Bangsamoro police in a "phased and gradual manner".
The MILF, created after a split with another rebel group in 1977, had earlier dropped its demand for an independent Muslim state.
President Aquino acknowledged on Sunday that the current autonomous region in the same area, created in 1989, had been a "failed experiment".
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, whose country has brokered peace talks since 2001, said he was "delighted" at the "historic deal".
"The rights, dignity and future prosperity of the Bangsamoro people will be protected, while at the same time the sovereignty and constitution of the Philippines will be preserved," he said.
The Philippines is made up of more than 7,000 islands, with a population of about 95 million. It has faced separatist movements in Mindanao, where the MILF is based, and in Jolo, home to the radical Islamist Abu Sayyaf group, which is reputedly linked to al-Qaeda.
Communist rebels have also waged a guerrilla over much of the country from 1969.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fresh off his strongest fundraising month this year, President Barack Obama is looking to raise millions of dollars from celebrities and wealthy donors in California with just one month left in a tightening race.
The two-day swing through the solidly Democratic state highlights the critical role that fundraising will play in the campaign's final weeks as Obama and his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, escalate their barrage of television ads in competitive states like Ohio. The president is to return there Tuesday.
Romney, campaigning in up-for-grabs Florida, sought to build on the momentum from a debate performance last week that even Democrats conceded was "masterful." The Republican told a crowd of about 12,000 in Port St. Lucie that he had enjoyed himself, ticking off a list of Obama shortcomings he said he had exposed during the first debate.
"Now of course, days later, we're hearing his excuses," Romney said. "And next January we'll be watching him leave the White House for the last time."
As Romney finished speaking, someone in the crowd of supporters behind him held up a giant Israeli flag alongside smaller American flags, underscoring the amplified role that foreign affairs and the Middle East is playing as the presidential race draws to a close. Romney on Monday plans a major foreign policy address at the Virginia Military Institute, intended to throw Obama back on his heels over his handling of unrest in Libya and elsewhere.
Obama campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki, dismissing what she called Romney's fourth or fifth attempt to explain his global intentions, said the bar is high for Romney to convince voters he's prepared to be commander in chief.
"We are not going to be lectured by someone who's been an unmitigated disaster on foreign policy every time he sticks his toe in the foreign policy waters," Psaki said aboard Air Force One as Obama made his way to California.
Even as Romney sought to reap further rewards from his debate performance, a string of good news for the president threatened to steal the former Massachusetts governor's spotlight.
A jobs report Friday showing unemployment at the lowest levels of Obama's presidency was quickly followed Saturday by a fundraising report showing Obama and Democrats had raised $181 million in September. It was their best fundraising month of the campaign, but fell short of their record $190 million raised in September 2008 as the president campaigned for his first term.
Romney's campaign has not released its report for the month, and Republicans sought to downplay Obama's financial advantage. The party's national chairman, Reince Priebus, said he had been counting all along on being outraised by Obama and Democrats.
"This isn't going to come down to money. This is going to come down to heart," Priebus said. "We'll beat them on the ground, and we'll have all the money we need to be competitive."
After trailing Romney in the money race for most of the summer, Obama is back on top and pulling out all the stops to keep it that way. In what will be his final fundraising trip out West this election, Obama is enlisting his celebrity pals — from actors to singers to chefs — to donate to his campaign and encourage their fans to do the same.
In one event alone, a late-night soiree high above the Los Angeles skyline, Obama expected to rake in $3.75 million. Wolfgang Puck's WP24 in the Ritz-Carlton hotel will host the $25,000-per-person event for about 150 supporters.
Former President Bill Clinton was to join Obama earlier Sunday for a more intimate gathering with elite, longtime donors at the home of entertainment mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg. Then on to the main event: A star-studded concert at the Nokia Theatre with entertainment by actor George Clooney and musical guests Stevie Wonder, Jon Bon Jovi and Katy Perry.
As Obama played for California cash, his surrogates took to the talk shows to pound the theme that Romney's success in last week's debate was propped up entirely by dishonesty.
The president "was a little taken aback at the brazenness with which Gov. Romney walked away from so many of the positions on which he's run, walked away from his record," said David Axelrod, a top Obama strategist. "That's something we're going to have to make an adjustment for in these subsequent debates."
At the same time, Ann Romney was working to soften her husband's image, a frequent refrain as Romney's campaign seeks to broaden his support among centrist voters in the race's final weeks. Introducing her husband on Sunday, Mrs. Romney called him "a good and decent person" who had helped others throughout his life.
"Now we're going to get a chance for him to really care for others, because we're going to have the chance to see him get people back to work again," she said.
Both campaigns were prepping their running mates for Thursday's vice presidential debate — and working to keep expectations low lest their candidate underperform.
On Sunday Priebus called Vice President Joe Biden "a gifted orator," while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., who challenged Romney in the GOP primary, suggested Paul Ryan would hold back on any hostility out of respect for Biden's status as a senior statesman.
While in California, the only official presidential business for Obama comes Monday in Keene, Calif., where he will designate as a national monument the home of Latino leader Cesar Chavez, the founder of the United Farmworkers Union who died in 1993.
Yet even that move has political overtones, resonating with some Hispanic voters — a crucial bloc in Obama's 2008 coalition and a critical component of his 2012 plan to keep Romney at bay.
Priebus spoke on CNN's "State of the Union." Axelrod spoke on CBS' "Face the Nation" and Gingrich on NBC's "Meet the Press."
___
Peoples reported from Port St. Lucie, Fla. AP White House Correspondent Ben Feller contributed to this report.
A safety trial, published in the Lancet Neurology medical journal, suggested the chemical NA-1 was safe to use.
The study on 185 people also hinted that patients given the drug developed fewer regions of damaged brain tissue.
The Stroke Association said that it was promising, but needed more research.
Tests in primates had suggested NA-1 prevented brain cells dying when a stroke starved them of oxygen.
A small trial was set up at 14 hospitals in the US and Canada.
Patients who took part were having an operation to repair a brain aneurysm, a weakened blood vessel which could rupture, are at increased risk of a stroke.
Ninety-two people had the drug injected into a vein, while another 93 were injected with salty water.
The doctors concluded that NA-1 was safe, with only two patients having mild side effects.
However, brain scans also showed that fewer brain lesions, damaged areas of tissue, formed in patients given the drug.
The doctors involved said the study provided evidence that "neuroprotection is achievable" but said that "a larger trial is necessary to investigate the robustness of the effect".
Prof Markku Kaste, from Helsinki University Central Hospital, said: "Age is the greatest risk factor for stroke. Because of the global population ageing, the number and burden of strokes will increase."
He said previous trials to use drugs to protect the brain had resulted in failure. His said this drug still need to be assessed in much larger clinical trials before its effectiveness was known.
Dr Peter Coleman, from the Stroke Association charity said: "We welcome any treatment that could protect brain cells after a stroke and limit the amount of brain damage. This potential treatment appears promising, but a lot more research is needed."
The trial was funded by the biopharmaceutical companies NoNO and Arbor Vita.
A Falcon rocket carrying a Dragon cargo capsule lifted clear of Cape Canaveral in Florida at 20:35 (00:35 GMT).
The robotic Dragon ship will deliver 400kg of food, clothing, experiments and spares to the orbiting platform's six astronauts.
It is the maiden flight in a sequence of 12 missions that California's SpaceX company is performing for Nasa.
The US space agency is looking to the private sector to assume routine transport duties to and from low-Earth orbit.
It has given SpaceX a $1.6bn contract to keep the ISS stocked up with essentials, restoring a re-supply capability that the US lost when it retired the shuttles last year.
The terms of the contract kicked in following a successful test of Dragon's systems in May.
That demonstration saw the capsule berth with the ISS - the first commercially designed and built vehicle to do so - and then return safely to Earth.
Nasa has a second company it hopes also can soon begin operational cargo deliveries to the station.
The Orbital Sciences Corporation (OSC) will shortly test its new Antares rocket before undertaking its own ISS demonstration with a robotic vessel called Cygnus.
If that mission - tipped to take place next year - goes well then it will trigger a $1.9bn contract for Orbital.
Nasa wants eventually to put astronaut transport in the hands of the private sector, too.
SpaceX's is eyeing that business as well, and is developing the critical life-support and safety systems that would turn Dragon into a human-rated vehicle. The company says it is just a few years away from being able to provide an astronaut "taxi" service.
The Dragon launched on Sunday is scheduled to arrive at the space station on Wednesday.
It will follow the routine established in May of parking itself just below the platform so that it can be grabbed by a robotic arm and pulled into a berthing port.
The vessel is expected to return to Earth at the end of the month.
Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter: @BBCAmos
LONDON (AP) — A letter in which Albert Einstein dismissed the idea of God as a product of human weakness is being sold on eBay for a starting price of $3 million.
The letter, handwritten in 1954, a year before Einstein's death, was addressed to philosopher Eric Gutkind. In it, Einstein discussed his views on religion, including calling "the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish."
An anonymous collector who bought the letter in 2008 is putting it on sale on online auction site eBay from Monday. The auction closes Oct. 18.
Eric Gazin, a spokesman for the sale, said Sunday: "With the interest in Einstein, along with the questions this (letter) touches on, we feel it is well worth the price."
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (AP) — Ann Romney says she's glad people watching the first presidential debate have finally been able to see her husband, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, as she does: "A good and decent person."
Speaking Sunday before she introduced her husband, Mrs. Romney says people got to see the former Massachusetts governor as someone who cares for others — and that Americans will be able to see him display that quality again when he gets people back to work.
The campaign wants to soften Romney's image in the final weeks of the campaign and maintain his focus on the middle class.
At the same event, Romney promised he would "not raise taxes on middle class families!"
Romney's campaign said that 12,000 people attended the event, including 3,000 in an overflow area.
From Hurricane Katrina to the Japanese tsunami - satellite images are increasingly playing an important role during rescue efforts after natural or man-made disasters. The images, often taken minutes after devastation has occurred, help pinpoint people and places at risk.
A formal system of sharing information by space agencies was agreed in 1999, with the creation of the Disasters Charter. Since then, the charter has helped provide data for more than 300 disasters, in more than 100 countries.
Here - to mark World Space Week 2012 - Dr Alice Bunn from the UK Space Agency looks at how the images, taken many hundreds of miles above the planet, are being used to save lives.
All images copyright DCMii Ltd and Envisat/ESA. Click bottom right for image information.
Music by KPM Music. Slideshow by Paul Kerley. Publication date 5 October 2012.
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Cosmic rays - 100 years of discovery
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The last time Dutch director George Sluizer saw River Phoenix was about four hours before the actor's death in Los Angeles, on the evening of 30 October 1993.
"I was in fact staying in the same hotel - in the next room. I was driving into the hotel and he was driving out with friends. He said 'see you tomorrow' and that was it," Sluizer says.
For six weeks, the pair had been working on what history will record as Phoenix's last film, Dark Blood.
It follows the story of a loner (Phoenix) who lives in the American desert awaiting the end of the world. His existence is turned upside down after rescuing a couple whose car breaks down during a road-trip.
Primary filming in the state of Utah was complete and the cast and crew had relocated to Hollywood to shoot the interior scenes.
"We had shot 80% - but it is not continuous, it is so many little pieces here and there", Sluizer says.
Two weeks of shooting were scheduled to take place in LA, but only one day was completed when the film's lead actor collapsed outside a nightclub and died.
The director, now 80, was woken from his sleep to hear the news.
He says: "We were quite close. My son sometimes said 'you seem closer to River than to me'. He didn't say that as a sign of jealousy."
Almost all of Dark Blood's interior scenes were missing, so the project was shelved.
"After it was decided by all the people involved that the film would stop... there was a problem between the insurance [company] and the bank who did the cash flow for the film," Sluizer says.
"They didn't agree on one bill, and they did not agree about who might own the negatives. That went on for nearly seven years. And in the mean time, the film was in storage in a locked area."
But in 1999, everything changed.
"The two companies decided 'We're fed up with fighting each other'. The insurance were anxious not to pay more storage costs. So finally it was decided they would burn the material."
By this time, the director had moved back to the Netherlands. When he heard of plans to incinerate the 700kg of 35mm film, he hatched a plan to have it smuggled out of the locked facility.
"I got some friends and someone who can open locks to open the storage house and get the stuff out. I did not do it myself, but I'm responsible for... getting it on a truck and getting it away during the night and having it go to New York and then later shipped to Europe."
Despite taking the negatives, Sluizer says he is not expecting to be prosecuted.
"They were not stupid, they knew damn well who 'saved' the material. I know one of the people who was involved in the insurance and they said 'We can't do anything with film, we're insurance people. It's better that it's somewhere else.'"
For years the project went unfinished, until a health scare spurred the director into action.
"A few years ago, I had an aneurysm and was told I was going to die quite quickly," he says. "I said, well I want to finish the film and to leave not a garbage bag of film, but something decent. And that's what I did in 2011, and the post production until today."
Because the absent scenes are spread throughout the film, Sluizer bridges the gaps with still photographs and moving images from the cutting room floor, in addition to his own narration, which spells out what is missing.
While admitting the film will always feel incomplete, he is happy with the result.
"I did my best - with the material I had - to make it an understandable and plausible story. Apparently people say it works."
In September, Dark Blood received its world premiere at the Netherlands Film Festival in Utrecht. But Sluizer is now sufficiently satisfied with the results for it to be seen more widely.
"When it will have a bigger release, I cannot tell you. But I certainly think it will quite soon."
Sluizer describes Phoenix, who was tipped for a bright future, as "a slightly fragile person" because of his troubled youth and his drug use.
"But he was not in my view self destructive," he says. "From my feeling, it was absolutely an accident that night, mixing things that don't mix."
The difficult childhood refers to Phoenix's formative years in the religious cult The Children of God.
The director says the 23-year-old discussed widespread allegations of child abuse within the group. "He talked about the abuses," he says.
"Before shooting I asked him to come to Utah for four or five days with me alone, so that we would get more in touch. So obviously while walking and climbing in the mountains in Utah on our own before any crew or other people are there, he did at moments tell me something about that period.
"I'm not going into details - disclosing some things he told me privately - but obviously it's was clear that it was not always very easy and he had tough time as a kid.
"I never talked about drugs with River," he adds. "Although I knew he used drugs before and maybe even during [filming]... I don't know."
Nineteen years on, the director hopes to see the fruits of their combined labour appreciated by fans across the globe.
The festival's Twitter feed apologised to the "thousands" who missed out, adding that there had been some problems with getting through "due to the sheer volume of people".
Fans could reserve up to eight tickets - each costing £205 plus booking fee.
Any returned tickets will be put on sale in April 2013.
Thousands of people tried to log onto the ticket website when it opened at 09:00 BST, but many were unable to get onto the page because of the volume of hopeful music fans.
Festival organiser Emily Eavis tweeted: "Sorry to everyone who missed out and for any problems you had with the booking site."
Every ticket purchaser had to have registered on the site before the end of September. Those who managed to secure a ticket paid a £50 deposit immediately, with the remaining money due when the booking site reopens on 2 April 2013.
When tickets sold out at 10:40 BST, Michael and Emily Eavis posted a joint statement on Twitter saying: "We're genuinely humbled by the sheer number of people who would like to come to the festival and we dearly wish we could have you all along.
"Sadly, that just isn't possible, which means a significant number of people have missed out. Demand simply outstripped supply."
Tickets for next June's festival at Worthy Farm in Somerset, which will draw about 135,000 people, cost £10 more than last year.
There was no event this year as the site in Somerset took a break.
As has been traditional in recent years, the headline acts for the 2013 festival were not announced before the tickets went on sale - although Mr Eavis told the BBC earlier this year that they had already been chosen.
After spending more than $5 billion to build and operate a giant laser installation the size of a football stadium, the Energy Department has not achieved its goal of igniting a fusion reaction that could produce energy to generate power or simulate what happens in a nuclear weapon.
The latest deadline for achieving ignition was last Sunday, Sept. 30, the end of fiscal year 2012, but it passed amid mounting concerns that the technical challenges were too great to be mastered on a tight time schedule.
Congress will need to look hard at whether the project should be continued, or scrapped or slowed to help reduce federal spending.
The idea of using lasers to trigger fusion reactions to produce energy dates back many decades, but the idea of using laser fusion for weapons research became more important when underground nuclear testing was curtailed by treaty in the 1990s.
The new laser facility, built between 1997 and 2009 and known as the National Ignition Facility, uses 192 lasers to fire light beams at tiny targets, smaller than peppercorns, filled with hydrogen atoms. The resulting compression and heat are supposed to fuse the atoms into helium, releasing bursts of thermonuclear energy. But technical reviews this year of the experiments conducted so far have made it clear that the scientists in charge do not fully understand how the process is working and may not be able to achieve ignition quickly.
Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in Livermore, Calif., which operates the facility, cite numerous technical advances gained in more than 1,000 experiments, including firing the world’s most powerful laser bursts and developing unsurpassed diagnostic instruments to measure what happens under intense heat and pressure. The review panels cite scientific and technological progress but also say that progress has been slower than anticipated.
As William Broad reported in The Times last Sunday, there is a sharp split among experts on whether the project — one of the most expensive federally financed projects ever — is worth the money. Just operating it costs roughly $290 million a year.
The laboratory’s supporters say the facility deserves continued funding because it conducts advanced research and will play an important role in assessing whether fusion will someday become a feasible energy source. They also say that it keeps highly talented weapons designers at work on important national security issues.
If the main goal is to achieve a power source that could replace fossil fuels, we suspect the money would be better spent on renewable sources of energy that are likely to be cheaper and quicker to put into wide use.
Even if ignition is achieved in the laboratory in the next several years, scaling up to a demonstration plant will cost billions and may ultimately show that fusion is not a practical source of power.
The fallback argument — that laser fusion allows scientists to simulate conditions at the core of a nuclear explosion and verify the reliability of the nation’s nuclear stockpile without having to test a weapon — is disputed by some experts who think the stockpile will be reliable for decades.
Congress will need to look hard at whether these “stockpile stewardship” and long-term energy goals can be pursued on a smaller budget.
Mark Bridger, 46, was arrested on Tuesday - a day after the schoolgirl, who has not been found, disappeared.
He has also been charged with child abduction and attempting to pervert the course of justice. He will appear before magistrates in Aberystwyth.
A total of 100 police officers remain involved in the search for April.
On Sunday, around 1,000 people took part in a special church service.
Prior to the service around 600 people took part in a silent procession from near April's home through the town to the packed church.
Supt Ian John from Dyfed-Powys Police said the operation to find April had moved to a new phase and mountain rescue earch efforts had been scaled back in favour of 18 specialist police search teams involving 100 officers.
"Among defilements, none is so great as castration. Any man who continues to live having suffered such a punishment is accounted as a nothing."
The man who wrote those words is by no means a nothing today. In a nation obsessed by its history, Sima Qian was the first and some say the greatest historian.
Wind back two millennia. It is 99 BC. On China's northern frontier, imperial forces have surrendered to barbarians. At court, the news is greeted with shock. The emperor is raging.
But an upstart official defies court etiquette by speaking up for the defeated general.
"He is a man with many famous victories to his credit, a man far above the ordinary, while these courtiers - whose sole concern has been preserving themselves and their families - seize on one mistake. I felt sick at heart to see it," writes Sima Qian in a letter to a friend afterwards.
The general had committed treason by surrendering. And Sima Qian had committed treason by defending him.
"None of my friends came to my aid, none of my colleagues spoke a word on my behalf," he writes.
There is an interrogation. Sima Qian tells his friend his body is not made of wood or stone. "I was alone with my inquisitors, shut in the darkness of my cell…"
At the end he is offered an unenviable choice - death or castration. To his contemporaries, death was the only honourable option but Sima Qian had a bigger audience in mind than the Chinese court of the 1st Century BC. He was writing a history of humanity for posterity.
Sima Qian's father had been court historian before him and had started the project. On his sickbed, with both of them in tears, the father extracted from the son a promise to complete the epic work.
So he chose castration.
"If I had followed custom and submitted to execution, how would it have made a difference greater than the loss of a strand of hair from a herd of oxen or the life of a solitary ant?" he wrote.
"A man has only one death. That death may be as weighty as Mount Tai or it may be as light as a goose feather. It all depends on the way he uses it."
But neither in the letter nor in his autobiography can Sima Qian bring himself to describe the horror of castration. He talks instead of going down to the "silkworm chamber".
It was already well known that a castrated man could easily die from blood loss or infection so after mutilation the victims were kept like silkworms in a warm, draught-free room.
Sima Qian never recovered from the humiliation.
"I look at myself now, mutilated in body and living in vile disgrace… Every time I think of this shame I find myself drenched in sweat."
But he also wrote that if, as a result of his sacrifice, his work ended up being handed down to men who would appreciate it, reaching villages and great cities, then he would have no regrets even after suffering 1,000 mutilations.
If only he could have seen the future as well as he saw the past.
In today's China, Sima Qian's book, The Records of the Grand Historian, is regarded as the grandest history of them all. What Herodotus is to Europeans, so Sima Qian is to Chinese.
What is special about Sima Qian's history is that, even when he wrote about the court, it was not just flattery. Here is his verdict on an emperor from the Shang dynasty 1,000 years earlier:
"Emperor Zhou's disposition was sharp, his discernment was keen, and his physical strength excelled that of other people. He fought ferocious animals with his bare hands. He considered everyone beneath him. He was fond of wine, licentious in pleasure and doted on women…
"He then ordered his Music Master to compose new licentious music and depraved songs. By a pool filled with wine, through meat hanging like a forest, he made naked men and women chase one another and engage in drinking long into the night."
The emperor had critics turned into mincemeat, and nobles who were not up for the party roasted alive.
Zhou was a good illustration of a theory Sima Qian had about dynastic change, as Frances Wood, curator of the Chinese collection at the British Museum, explains.
"He introduced the idea… that dynasties begin with the very virtuous and noble founder, and then they continue through a series of rulers until they come to a bad last ruler, and he is so morally depraved that he is overthrown."
No suprises - Zhou was the last of the Shang dynasty.
Sima Qian thought the purpose of history was to teach rulers how to govern well.
By contrast, China's current government - like every other Chinese government I can think of - sees it as a means of legitimising its rule.
"History is totally political in China, and I think it always has been," says Frances Wood.
Just look, she says, at the fate of historians in 20th Century China.
"Somebody who actually became deputy mayor of Peking, Wu Han, was a very important historian who had written about the first Ming emperor.
"The first Ming emperor… in 1368, he's often been compared with Mao Tse-Tung, because he was a charismatic bandit leader who, in his last years, went pretty crazy and paranoid. So you have Wu Han writing that history in the 1950s, which was a very dangerous thing to do, because Mao was already beginning to totter into paranoia."
"Probing into events, connecting their narrative flow, finding patterns governing victory and defeat, prosperity and decay, I have composed 10 historical tables, 12 royal annals, eight monographs, 30 genealogies of noble houses, 70 biographical accounts - 130 chapters in all.
"I have sought, through examination of the interface of heaven and man, and comprehension of change from past through present, to found a new tradition of philosophy."
For criticising the present by writing about the past, Wu Han was arrested. He died in prison in 1969.
Last year China re-opened it's national museum, lauded as the world's biggest museum under one roof. It is hugely popular, but it illustrates just how much history is a pick-and-mix for China's rulers. They leave out the bits that do not do them credit and - masters of selective memory - they big up the moments they are proud of.
So instead of the tens of millions who died in Mao's Great Leap forward and the Cultural Revolution, you get China's first nuclear test in 1964, or a celebration of the reform era after Mao's death.
A panel as you exit the museum spells out the key message: "Since the founding of the Communist Party of China 90 years ago, under the strong leadership of the Party, our great nation has successively achieved many historic changes… Socialism is the only way to save China, and reform and opening up is the only way to develop China."
I am sure Sima Qian would hope someone like him is sitting unnoticed in a quiet corner writing a more nuanced history of this period, even if it can only be published when the powerful have passed on.
This, in fact, is how The Records of the Grand Historian saw the light of day.
After his death, his daughter risked her own safety to hide his secret history. And two emperors later, his grandson took another risk in revealing the book's existence. The rest, as they say, is history.
Army spokesman Lt Eli Lazarus said the battle in Damaturu lasted several hours and 10 arrests were also made.
He said the militants killed included a senior commander known as one-eyed Bakaka.
Boko Haram is fighting to overthrow the government and impose Sharia law across Nigeria.
Attacks in central and northern Nigeria attributed to the group have killed an estimated 1,400 people since 2010.
In a statement, Lt Lazarus described "the notorious one-eyed Bakaka" as Boko Haram's field commander in Damaturu and a close associate of the sect's leader Abubakar Shekau.
However, the BBC's Will Ross in Nigeria says it is not possible to verify the information.
Earlier, police reports said four suspected militants had been killed rather than 30.
Nigeria's military has recently reported major success in its campaign against Islamist militants and Damaturu, in Yobe state, is one of the areas worst affected by the violence.
However, human rights groups say army operations in northern Nigeria have also left many civilians dead and they complain that arrests are often indiscriminate.
In September the military said it had killed 35 suspected Boko Haram members in fierce gun battles in Damaturu. Scores of people were also arrested there in a door-to-door sweep of several neighbourhoods.
Israel said the attack targeted a small militant group thought to be involved in a cross border attack from Egypt in June in which an Israeli was killed.
Palestinian sources told the AFP news agency the strike was in the Rafah area of Gaza.
A number of bystanders were hurt, the report said.
Two of the wounded were said to be children.
A Gaza medical official said the motorcycle had been travelling in a busy neighbourhood of Rafah, which borders the Sinai peninsula.
In a statement, Israel's Defence Forces (IDF) said they had targeted two members of the group Global Jihad, including Talat Halil Jarbi who they said was a "senior operative" in the 18 June attack close to Israel's security fence.
Gunmen who appeared to have crossed from Egypt's Sinai peninsula attacked a convoy of construction workers, killing one and wounding another.
Palestinian medical sources told the AFP agency that Talat Halil Jarbi had lost both legs in Sunday's air strike.
The Israeli statement identified the second militant as Abdullah Muhammad Hassan Maqawai.
A child welfare check led authorities to discover the remains of an infant whose death two years ago went unreported by his family, New York State Police said today.
Acting on a search warrant, authorities worked overnight to dig up the back yard of the Farmingdale, N.Y. home where the boy's family resides.
"It is absolutely a suspicious death and it is being investigated as such," State Police Major Patrick Regan told The Associated Press. "We don't have a cause of death, and to our knowledge, there was never a report made of the child being missing."
The remains of an infant were unearthed and sent to the medical examiner's office to confirm the identity of the child and cause of death.
The corpse is believed to be of Justin Kowalczik. The 17-month-old died in the summer of 2010 and his death went unreported until an investigation was launched last week, police said.
On Wednesday, authorities from the Suffolk County Child Protective Services visited the home of Robert Rodriguez and Heather Kowalczik to conduct a welfare check on their 6-year-old child, police said.
During that time, authorities say they became aware that Justin, who is one of Kowalczik's three children, was not accounted for.
The New York State Police interviewed Heather Kowalczik, who told police Justin died shortly after the family moved from Orange County, N.Y.
During the interview, authorities said they were also able to pinpoint a location in the family's backyard where the boy had allegedly been buried.
Rodriguez, who is the father of the couple's two older children, was identified as a person of interest and sought by police.
Authorities became alarmed when the couple's 9-year-old son did not show up for school on Friday.
An Amber Alert was issued and the child was located, police said.
The couple's two children have been placed in protective custody, police said.
Neither Rodriguez nor Kowalczik have been charged.
And Sunday marked Round II of the expectations game, as campaign advisers and surrogates sought to set the stage for Thursday's showdown.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus argued that while Ryan is known as a "smart" guy and will do a "great job," the vice president is no stranger to the debate spotlight, given his 36 years as a senator and two presidential runs.
"Joe Biden is a gifted orator. He is very good at rhetoric, and I think is he very relatable," Priebus said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."
"They are very two different people. And I think it's going to be a great night."
The two opposing running mates face off for their first and only debate at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky.
With Mitt Romney widely recognized as the winner of last week's debate -- the first of three match-ups for the presidential candidates -- some speculated Sunday whether the pressure was on Biden to blunt Romney's momentum and steal the mantle for the Democratic ticket.
"A lot of people will be tuning in to see how Vice President Biden tries to make up for the president's belly flop last week," CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jessica Yellin said on CNN's "State of the Union."
Ryan himself said in an interview there's "more pressure" this week, and he expects Biden to launch at him like a "cannon ball."
"Because of the president's terrible performance, because Mitt Romney did such a good job of giving the country a choice, they don't have a choice but to have Joe Biden come at me," Ryan said in an interview that aired Sunday on Milwaukee radio station WTMJ.
Others argued Biden could be facing orders from within his own team to unleash his inner attack dog, a role Biden knows all too well from the campaign trail.
"I am sure that Vice President Biden got a phone call from the White House, and said, you know, 'Look, we didn't go after Governor Romney as much and so you have to turn up the heat,'" Brett O'Donnell, a former debate coach for Mitt Romney, said on Fox News.
Democrats disappointed with President Barack Obama's performance last week roundly criticized him for playing defense rather than offense. In the following days, Obama's campaign argued Romney was dishonest on stage and pledged that the president would be ready to pounce during the next debate on October 16.
"I think he was a little taken aback at the brazenness with which Gov. Romney walked away from so many of the positions on which he's run, walked away from his record," Obama campaign senior adviser David Axelrod said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
An up-and-down week for the president
He said the positions Romney took during Wednesdays debate were "uprooted" from the Republican candidate's previous positions.
"That's something we're going to have to make an adjustment for in these subsequent debates," Axelrod added.
Until then, however, it's up to Biden to gain control of the debate reins, another Obama adviser said.
"Vice President Biden is used to this. He's been in public life a long time and he's used to debates. Look, I think he just has to go out there and prosecute the same case the president was prosecuting," Obama campaign senior adviser Robert Gibbs told CNN.
While the vice president is known for making gaffes, Republicans -- trying to set the bar high -- say Biden will likely be more focused on the debate stage. The then-senator was widely applauded for his debate performances during the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries.
"He's a very disciplined person when he speaks in these kinds of situations. He doesn't produce gaffes in these moments," Ryan told Fox News last week, adding that he's not "counting on" Biden's making a mistake.
Asked Sunday on Air Force One if the stakes are higher for Biden than Ryan this week, an Obama campaign spokeswoman said "no" and turned the spotlight on Romney's running mate.
"The question for Congressman Ryan is, will he go to the debate and stand for the policies that he and Mitt Romney have been advocating for," Jen Psaki said. "Or will he, as Mitt Romney did last week, hide from his policies and be dishonest about what he represents. So we don't know the answer to that, and we'll see later this week."
Political observers note the House Budget Committee chairman will likely be targeted for his controversial budget plan, which among other things calls for major changes to Medicare.
Latinos race against registration deadline
Gibbs, in fact, said the vice president and president plan to be "vigorous" in their attack on the Romney-Ryan plan in the coming weeks, a plan Gibbs said consists of "the very same economic ideas that got us into this mess four years ago."
Analysts argue Ryan, a statistics junkie, will likely be well prepared on the policy side. When it comes to style, however, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a former presidential candidate known for his debate skills, told CNN that the Wisconsin congressman should play up his roots as a way to relate to the audience watching the debate on TV.
"I think he has to be more Wisconsin than wonk, he can be both," Gingrich told CNN on Sunday, adding that Ryan comes across as "somebody who really understands the Midwest."
Another dynamic to watch for Thursday could be the two candidates' shared religious values. For the first time in U.S. history, both tickets include a Catholic. While both Ryan and Biden proudly talk about their background on the campaign trail, observers note that the nearly 30-year age gap between the two will perhaps be a more visible element on the stage Thursday.
Earlier on NBC's "Meet the Press," Gingrich said he anticipates Ryan to acknowledge the "generational difference" with his opponent.
"I suspect he is going to be respectful of Biden," the former speaker said. "There is a generational difference here that I think will lead Ryan to not give an inch, but to not be very hostile."
Millennial voters try to sort out their issues
A recent CNN/ORC International poll found that 55% of likely voters thought Ryan will fare better in the debate, while 39% said Biden will win.
The two have stepped up their attacks against each other on the campaign trail in recent weeks. Biden has taken aim at Ryan's budget plan, saying it could hit seniors with more taxes to their Social Security benefits. In Ohio last week, Ryan hit back, saying Obama and Biden were the real threats to health and retirement programs
"In fact, Joe Biden himself voted to raise taxes on Social Security benefits, and as a senator, President Obama voted to keep those tax increases in place three times," Ryan said at a campaign event, defending his plan that would offer a subsidized version of Social Security.
Obama-Romney debate didn't help undecideds much
Can Obama recover from tepid debate performance?
Romney's middle-of-the-road makeover
