Officials: New mass graves found in Ivory Coast

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AP) — Up to 10 new mass graves have been discovered near the site of a July attack on a camp for displaced people, officials said Tuesday, amid allegations that initial casualty totals were downplayed to mask killings carried out by the national army.

Rights groups claim summary executions were carried out by the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast, known by its French acronym of FRCI. Last month, officials found six bodies in a well close to the former campsite in the western town of Duekoue.

Government, army and U.N. officials toured 10 more graves in the same area on Saturday, said Paul Mondouho, vice-mayor of Duekoue. He said the graves had first been identified by civilians, and that officials did not know the number of bodies they contained because they had not yet been properly exhumed.

“People were suspecting the presence of bodies in these graves because of the smell coming out of them and because of the shoes we saw nearby,” Mondouho said.

Prosecutor Noel Dje Enrike Yahau, who is based in the commercial capital of Abidjan, confirmed that multiple new graves had been discovered but could not provide details. U.N. officials and the local prosecutor in charge of investigating the suspected killings could not be reached Tuesday.

U.N. spokeswoman Sylvie van den Wildenberg confirmed that U.N. forces helped Ivorian authorities secure a perimeter around 10 wells “similar to the one in which six bodies were found,” and that “some of those wells are suspected mass graves.”

She stressed that Ivorian authorities were leading the investigation but that the U.N. was able to provide assistance.

Army spokesmen could not be reached Tuesday. The Justice Ministry has previously vowed to investigate the discovery of the initial grave.

On the morning of July 20, a mob descended on the U.N.-guarded Nahibly camp, which housed 4,500 people displaced by violence in Ivory Coast, burning most of the camp to the ground. Officials said at the time that six people were killed.

The attack was prompted by the shooting deaths of four men and one woman on the night of July 19, according to local officials and residents. In response a mob of some 300 people overran the camp on the morning of July 20 after the perpetrators of the shootings reportedly fled there.

The victims in the July 19 attack lived in a district dominated by the Malinke ethnic group, which largely supported President Alassane Ouattara in the disputed November 2010 election. The camp primarily housed members of the Guere ethnic group, which largely supported former President Laurent Gbagbo.

Gbagbo’s refusal to cede office despite losing the election to Ouattara sparked months of violence that claimed at least 3,000 lives.

Albert Koenders, the top U.N. envoy to Ivory Coast, said one week after the attack that U.N. security forces had been inside and outside the camp at the time but that no Ivorian security forces were present. He said the U.N. forces decided not to fire at a large group of people that were attacking the camp in order to avoid “a massacre.”

Several witnesses have said soldiers and traditional hunters, known as dozos, participated in the attack on the camp. Both military and dozo leaders have denied the claims, saying they had tried to protect the camp.

In a statement released Friday, the International Federation for Human Rights, known by its French acronym of FIDH, said it had information — including the preliminary results of autopsies — confirming that the six bodies found in October were men who had been summarily executed by the army.

“The disappearance of dozens of displaced persons after the attack, as well as confirmation of cases of summary and extra-judicial executions, suggest a much higher victim rate than the official figures report,” said the organization, which counts Ivorian civil society groups among its members.

Duekoue was one of the hardest-hit towns during the post-election violence. The U.N. has established that at least 505 people were killed in and around the town, including during a notorious March 2011 massacre that claimed hundreds of lives and was allegedly carried out by fighters loyal to Ouattara.

Duekoue residents belonging to ethnic groups that supported Gbagbo have long complained about abuses carried out by the FRCI, with some pointing to the direct involvement of the local commander, Kone Daouda. FIDH said in its statement that Daouda had been transferred following the discovery of the grave in October, and called for him to be interrogated over the matter.

The group also said two FRCI members were being “actively sought” after failing to return to their barracks on Oct. 16, noting that they are believed to have fled to neighboring Burkina Faso.

Africa News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Exclusive - Amazon to win EU e-book pricing tussle with Apple

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union regulators are to end an antitrust probe into e-book prices by accepting an offer by Apple and four publishers to ease price restrictions on Amazon, two sources said on Tuesday.

That decision would hand online retailer Amazon a victory in its attempt to sell e-books cheaper than rivals in the fast-growing market publishers hope will boost revenue and increase customer numbers.

"Faced with years of court battles and uncertainty I can understand why some of these guys decided to fold their cards and take the whipping," said Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, an ebook publisher and distributor that works with Apple.

"It's certainly another win for Amazon," he added. "I have not seen the terms of the final settlement, but my initial reaction is that it places restrictions on what publishers can do, slowing them down just when they need to be more nimble."

A spokesman at the EU Commission said its investigation was not yet finished. Amazon and Apple declined to comment.

In September, Apple and the publishers offered to let retailers set prices or discounts for a period of two years, and also to suspend "most-favored nation" contracts for five years.

Such clauses bar Simon & Schuster, News Corp. unit HarperCollins, Lagardere SCA's Hachette Livre and Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, the owner of German company Macmillan, from making deals with rival retailers to sell e-books more cheaply than Apple.

The agreements, which critics say prevent Amazon and other retailers from undercutting Apple's charges, sparked an investigation by the European Commission in December last year.

Pearson Plc's Penguin group, which is also under investigation, did not take part in the offer.

The EU antitrust authority, which in September asked for feedback from rivals and consumers about the proposal, has not asked for more concessions, said one of sources.

"The Commission is likely to accept the offer and announce its decision next month," the source said on Tuesday.

Antoine Colombani, spokesman for competition policy at the European Commission, said: "We have launched a market test in September and our investigation is still ongoing."

Amazon declined to comment, while Apple did not respond to an email seeking comment.

Companies found guilty of breaching EU rules could be fined up to 10 percent of their global sales, which in Apple's case could reach $15.6 billion, based on its 2012 fiscal year.

AGGREGATE PRICING

UBS analysts estimate that e-books account for about 30 percent of the U.S. book market and 20 percent of sales in Britain but are minuscule elsewhere. When Amazon launched its Kindle e-reader, it charged $9.99 per book.

Apple's agency model let publishers set prices in return for a 30 percent cut to the maker of iPhone and iPad.

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating e-book prices. HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Hachette have settled, but Apple, Pengin Group and Macmillan have not.

The DOJ settlement required that retailers must at least break even selling all ebooks from a publisher's available list, according to Coker and Joe Wikert, general manager and publisher at O'Reilly Media Inc.

It was not clear if EU regulators will include a similar requirement, which would prohibit Amazon from pricing all ebooks at a loss, said Wikert, a former publishing executive.

In the United States, Amazon will likely price popular titles at a loss and try to make up the difference on a publisher's other ebooks, he said.

Coker said any such rule could be dangerous in Europe, which still has distinct markets.

"It could allow a single retailer to charge full price in a large market like the U.K., and then sell below cost or for free in multiple smaller markets as a strategy to kill regional ebook retailing upstarts before they take root," Coker said.

FROWNING ON ONLINE TRADE CURBS

Antitrust regulators tend to frown on restrictions on online trade and the case is a good example, said Mark Tricker, a partner at Brussels-based law firm Norton Rose.

"This case shows the online world continues to be a major focus for the Commission," he said.

"These markets change very quickly and if you don't stamp down on potential infringements of competition rules, you can have significant consequences."

(Additional reporting by Alistair Barr in San Francisco; Editing by Rex Merrifield, David Goodman and David Gregorio)

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Rihanna unveils Chris Brown duet “Nobodies Business”

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – R&B star Rihanna unveiled a duet entitled “Nobodies Business” with ex-boyfriend Chris Brown on Tuesday, three years after Brown was charged with assaulting her.

The song was part of an official track list that Barbadian singer Rihanna tweeted to her followers for her upcoming album “Unapologetic,” and comes after weeks of speculation in the media that the couple have rekindled their romance being spotted together at numerous events.

While Rihanna, 24, has stayed mum on her relationship status with Brown, the “Turn Up The Music” singer attended Rihanna‘s Halloween party last week and tweeted a photograph of himself dressed in Arab robes and a rifle.

Brown, 23, is currently halfway through his five-year probation after pleading guilty to assaulting Rihanna on the eve of the Grammy awards in 2009. He was ordered to complete community service and a domestic violence program.

Brown was given permission by a Los Angeles judge to embark on his European tour at a recent hearing overseeing his progress on his probation.

The former couple have had a tumultuous relationship in the last three years, including a restraining order against Brown following the assault.

But recently the two singers have made peace, coming together on a remix of Rihanna‘s raunchy song “Birthday Cake” earlier this year.

The Barbadian singer told Oprah Winfrey in an emotional interview in August that she and Brown now had a “very close friendship,” and that she still loved him.

Other collaborations on Rihanna‘s upcoming “Unapologetic” album include rapper Eminem, newcomer singer-songwriter Mikky Ekko and rapper Future.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy, editing by Jill Serjeant)

Celebrity News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Novartis heart failure drug cuts death by 37 percent: study

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – An experimental Novartis AG drug to treat hospitalized acute heart failure patients reduced deaths by 37 percent compared with a placebo and appeared to be safe, according to data from a late stage clinical trial presented on Tuesday.

The drug, serelaxin, which is a form of a human hormone that relaxes blood vessels and eases stress on the heart and other organs, is considered one of the most important medicines in the Swiss drugmaker’s developmental pipeline.

“With a meaningful mortality benefit, we believe Serelaxin could represent a $ 2.5 billion (annual) sales opportunity,” Deutsche Bank analysts said in a research note prior to release of the final data at the American Heart Association scientific meeting in Los Angeles.

Novartis said it now planned to seek approval for serelaxin. In the study of 1,161 patients, the drug cut deaths from any cause at six months by 37 percent and led to a marked reduction in worsening of heart failure during hospitalization, researchers said.

Patients who received 48 hours of continuously infused serelaxin experienced more than 45 percent fewer episodes of worsening heart failure symptoms than those who got a placebo.

Novartis had previously disclosed that serelaxin met one of the study’s two primary goals measuring relief of dyspnea, or extreme shortness of breath – a common symptom of acute heart failure – and that it reduced deaths. But the company did not say by how much. By one measure, serelaxin led to a 19 percent improvement in dyspnea, researchers said.

The drug failed to hit a secondary goal of the study that combined cardiovascular death with need for reshospitalizations, but researchers felt the life saving benefit was more important.

“We did have a startling death benefit. One of the reasons there may have been an inability to show a decrease in hospitalizations is more patients were alive to be rehospitalized,” said Dr John Teerlink, one of the trial’s co-lead researchers.

The data showed that only 29 acute heart failure patients would have to be treated with serelaxin to prevent one cardiovascular death, said Teerlink, a cardiologist and heart failure specialist at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

Doctors say there is an enormous need for a treatment for acute heart failure, with few available options for the condition in which the heart is unable to pump enough blood.

“If it was approved we would not only use it, there would be a mandate to use it because we don’t have anything for acute decompensated heart failure,” said Dr. Milton Packer, a prominent cardiologist from the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center in Dallas, who was not involved in the study.

“If that mortality finding is real, boy are we going to get excited,” said Packer, who has been a member of FDA advisory panels for heart drugs.

There are more than one million hospitalizations in the United States each year for acute heart failure and another million in Europe. About half of all patients die within five years of diagnosis, often as a result of acute episodes that require urgent hospital care.

TREATMENT BENEFITS

The study showed the Novartis drug also reduced the duration of time spent in intensive care units by almost half a day and cut the length of hospital stay by almost a full day.

There was no difference in serious side effects between the two groups, but there was a significant increase in kidney impairment in the placebo group, as the Novartis drug appears to prevent worsening of kidney function, researchers said.

Despite missing some of the pre-set end points, or goals, of the study, Novartis said it is likely to seek approval of the drug based on the trial results.

“We believe this is a strong set of data and have started discussions with the main regulatory agencies. Our filing strategy will be determined by the outcome of these discussions,” said Ameet Nathwani, Novartis’ global business franchise head for critical care.

Dr John McMurry of the University of Glasgow, who was on a panel to critique the study, said that if there were a second serelaxin trial that also showed a mortality benefit it would be hard for health regulators to ignore.

“I think the agent was beneficial. This drug is doing something good in terms of relief,” he said.

(Reporting by Bill Berkrot and Deena Beasley. Editing by Andre Grenon and Richard Pullin)

Medications/Drugs News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Race for the White House: Join us live

By Lylah M. Alphonse An unexpected glitch almost caused one central Pennsylvania voter to cast his ballot for the wrong candidate, highlighting concerns about voter fraud in a number of states on an already tense Election Day. [Related: Election Results from Yahoo! News] Among the issues are ballot-scanning problems, which have been reported in Ohio [...]Read More

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Methane warnings ignored before NZ mine disaster

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A New Zealand coal mining company ignored 21 warnings that methane gas had accumulated to explosive levels before an underground explosion killed 29 workers two years ago, an investigation concluded.

The official report released Monday after 11 weeks of hearings on the disaster found broad safety problems in New Zealand workplaces and said the Pike River Coal company was exposing miners to unacceptable risks as it strove to meet financial targets.

“The company completely and utterly failed to protect its workers,” New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said Monday.

The country’s labor minister, Kate Wilkinson, resigned from her labor portfolio after the report’s release, saying she felt it was the honorable thing to do after the tragedy occurred on her watch. She plans to retain her remaining government responsibilities.

The Royal Commission report said New Zealand has a poor workplace safety record and its regulators failed to provide adequate oversight before the explosion.

At the time of the disaster, New Zealand had just two mine inspectors who were unable to keep up with their workload, the report said. Pike River was able to obtain a permit with no scrutiny of its initial health and safety plans and little ongoing scrutiny.

Key said he agrees with the report’s conclusion that there needs to be a philosophical shift in New Zealand from believing that companies are acting in the best interests of workers to a more proscriptive set of regulations that forces companies to do the right thing.

The commission’s report recommended a new agency be formed to focus solely on workplace health and safety problems. It also recommended a raft of measures to strengthen mine oversight.

Key said his government would consider the recommendations and hoped to implement most of them. He would not commit on forming a new agency. Workplace safety issues are currently one of the responsibilities of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

In the seven weeks before the explosion, the Pike River company received 21 warnings from mine workers that methane gas had built up to explosive levels below ground and another 27 warnings of dangerous levels, the report said. The warnings continued right up until the morning of the deadly explosion.

The company used unconventional methods to get rid of methane, the report said. Some workers even rigged their machines to bypass the methane sensors after the machines kept automatically shutting down — something they were designed to do when methane levels got too high.

The company made a “major error” by placing a ventilation fan underground instead of on the surface, the report found. The fan failed after the first of several explosions, effectively shutting down the entire ventilation system. The company was also using water jets to cut the coal face, a highly specialized technique than can release large amounts of methane.

The report did not definitively conclude what sparked the explosion itself, although it noted that a pump was switched on immediately before the explosion, raising the possibility it was triggered by an electrical arc.

The now-bankrupt Pike River Coal company is not defending itself against charges it committed nine labor violations related to the disaster. Former chief executive Peter Whittall has pleaded not guilty to 12 violations and his lawyers say he is being scapegoated.

An Australian contractor was fined last month for three safety violations after its methane detector was found to be faulty at the time of the explosion.

Australia / Antarctica News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Apple sells three million iPads over first weekend

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Rare John Lennon letter to Eric Clapton up for auction

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – John Lennon held out the promise he could bring out more musical greatness in legendary guitarist Eric Clapton in a letter that could fetch as much as $ 30,000 when it is sold at auction next month, the organizers of the sale said on Monday.

The signed, hand-written letter by the Beatle, who died in 1980 at the age of 40, is one of a selection from some of the world’s great musicians that will go under the hammer in Los Angeles at the Profiles in History auction on December 18.

In a draft letter dated September 29, 1971, Lennon expressed his respect and admiration for British guitarist Clapton and suggested that they form a band together.

“Eric, I know I can bring out something great, in fact greater in you that had been so far evident in your music. I hope to bring out the same kind of greatness in all of us, which I know will happen if/when we get together,” Lennon wrote in the letter.

The letter will hold special significance for Beatles fans as auctioneer Joe Maddalena said it was widely known that there were problems in the Fab Four’s relationships with each other, and that Clapton had almost become a Beatle.

Clapton played in the Plastic Ono Band, formed by Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1969 before the breakup of the Beatles in 1970. He also played on the George Harrison song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, which was on the Beatles’ White Album.

“There was a point in time when George Harrison thought about leaving the band and his replacement was Clapton, so this letter is a link of what could have been,” Maddalena said.

The letter is one of 300 manuscripts and letters from literary, musical and political greats, that will be auctioned from the holdings of an American collector.

“What we know of history is from the written word, without these letters, it would all be verbal. It’s a really unique area of collecting as you’re getting a glimpse into people’s minds,” Maddalena said.

Other highlights include a handwritten letter from George Washington, with a pre-sale estimate of up to $ 300,000, and a Charles Dickens manuscript with an obituary of novelist William Thackeray, expected to fetch between $ 40,000 and $ 60,000.

Also on the auction block is a signed, handwritten letter from German composer Ludwig van Beethoven to Tobias Haslinger, a friend of his publisher, in which the musician discussed the second performance of his Ninth Symphony and the Missa Solemnis, two of his most revered works.

The letter, written in German, is undated, but both the Ninth Symphony and Missa Solemnis debuted in performances in 1824. Because of the rarity of the letter, it is estimated it will sell for between $ 40,000 and $ 60,000.

Other items going under the hammer include a signed letter in Russian by composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, which has a pre-sale estimate of $ 10,000 to $ 15,000, and a letter by composer George Gershwin dated March 24, 1932, in which he compares his compositions “Rhapsody in Blue” and “An American in Paris”.

The Gershwin letter is expected to sell for as much as $ 3,000, according to the auction house.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; editing by Patricia Reaney; and Peter Galloway)

Music News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Appeals court questions Arizona’s late-term abortion ban

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A federal appeals court panel on Monday sharply questioned lawyers defending an Arizona law that bans late-term abortions starting at 20 weeks of pregnancy except in medical emergencies, which opponents say is the toughest in the United States.

In San Francisco, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard the case after it blocked the Republican-backed Arizona law from going into effect earlier this year. Three abortion providers challenged the law in court.

The Arizona law bars doctors from performing abortions starting at 20 weeks of pregnancy, except in medical emergencies, and could send doctors who perform them to jail.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is suing to stop the law, said it was more extreme than similar laws elsewhere, because the way Arizona measures gestation means it would bar abortions two weeks earlier than in other states.

Those states also set the limit at 20 weeks but have different ways to calculate gestation time. Arizona already bans abortions at the point of viability, when a fetus might survive outside the womb, generally at 23 to 24 weeks.

Judge Andrew Kleinfeld, a panel member appointed by former President George H.W. Bush, repeatedly expressed concern that the law might not afford women the opportunity to abort a fetus with birth defects in cases where the defects are not apparent until just before 20 weeks.

He also questioned the need to prohibit abortions at that stage of the pregnancy, especially for fetuses bound to develop “horrible birth defects.”

“They’re basically born into hell and then die,” Kleinfeld said. “I don’t see how the courts could act before viability” of the fetus.

“With due respect, that’s the woman’s problem,” responded David Cole, Arizona’s solicitor general. “She should have made that decision earlier.”

William Montgomery, the attorney for Maricopa County in Arizona who also defended the law before the appeals panel, said new medical evidence showed a fetus has the capacity to feel pain during an abortion at 20 weeks of development.

But Judge Marsha Siegel Berzon called that a “red herring” in terms of the constitutional questions the law raises.

The three-judge panel did not say when it could make a final ruling in the case. The U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide in 1973, but has allowed states to place restrictions on the procedure from the time of viability unless the woman’s health was at risk.

In July, days before the 9th Circuit panel blocked the law until it could fully consider the case, U.S. District Judge James Teilborg ruled that the Arizona measure was consistent with limits federal courts have allowed.

Talcott Camp, deputy director of the ACLU reproductive freedom project, said the Arizona law’s exception to allow late-term abortion applies only in immediate emergencies if delay can jeopardize a woman’s life or seriously harm her health.

“The medical emergency exception is truly, horrifically narrow,” she said in a phone interview. “This is a law that allows her to get an abortion only when she is in emergency crisis.”

Aside from Arizona, seven U.S. states have put laws into effect in the past two years banning late-term abortions, based on hotly debated medical research suggesting a fetus feels pain starting at 20 weeks of gestation, according to the ACLU.

(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Cynthia Johnston. Desking by Christopher Wilson)

Health News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Small margin splits dramatically different candidates

WASHINGTON (AP) — Suspense over the too-close-to-call presidential race has partly obscured the fact that Americans on Tuesday will choose between two dramatically different visions of government's proper role in our lives. The philosophical gulf between the two nominees is wide, even if the vote totals may be razor-thin.

With record numbers of people on food stamps and other assistance, President Barack Obama emphasizes "we're all in this together" — code for sweeping government involvement. His campaign theme song is "We Take Care of Our Own." Romney wants smaller government, including fewer regulations — rejecting Obama's contention that they're needed after the meltdowns in financial and mortgage markets and a major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. His theme song is the individualist anthem, "(I Was) Born Free."

For all their philosophical differences, neither man has hit Americans between the eyes with the painful truth of what it will take to tame deficit spending, driven by the public's demand for low taxes and high services.

This year's voters are unlikely to make big changes in Congress. After dramatic swings in the past three congressional elections, and ongoing assessments of the tea party's influence, power may not end up shifting on Capitol Hill for a while. The fiercely divided Congress may continue to block major presidential initiatives, regardless of who's in the White House, unless there's the type of bipartisan breakthrough that has proven elusive.

An Obama win presumably would keep the government roughly on its current course. Congressional Republicans would be unable to rescind his biggest domestic achievement, "Obamacare," which eventually will require everyone to have health insurance.

Writ large, Obama's approach to governing is a new generation of the New Deal and the Great Society. The federal government tries to balance interests such as energy exploration and the environment, private enterprise and consumer protection.

Romney's approach echoes Ronald Reagan's declaration that government is the problem, not the solution.

In a January GOP debate, Romney said: "Government has become too large. We're headed in a very dangerous direction. I believe to get America back on track, we're going to have to have dramatic, fundamental, extraordinary change in Washington to be able to allow our private sector to once again re-emerge competitively, to scale back the size of government."

Romney later said, "I was a severely conservative governor" of Massachusetts (a label at odds with his actual record there).

It's unlikely that a Romney presidency would reshape the federal government to the extent such rhetoric suggests. Like many politicians, Romney is more expansive with his promises than with details for achieving them.

He vows to slash spending and put the nation on a path to balanced budgets, for instance. Pressed for details, Romney offers few beyond ending the tiny federal subsidy to public television and "Big Bird."

Obama has gone a bit further in specifying how he would reduce the deficit. Unlike Romney, he would raise taxes on the wealthiest.

In a 50-50 nation, however, no politician wants to be the first to forcefully tell voters why it's impossible to achieve their three-pronged desire of keeping taxes low, keeping government services level and balancing the budget.

No matter who is president, the huge domestic challenge of 2013 will be to persuade Congress to compromise on tax and spending issues.

Many GOP lawmakers are adamant about keeping tax rates lower for everyone — including the richest households — than they were in Bill Clinton's presidency, which produced the last balanced budget. Congressional Democrats insist that any deficit-reduction plan include increased revenues, from the wealthiest taxpayers if no one else, along with spending cuts.

The package of major tax hikes and spending cuts scheduled to hit on Jan. 1 — the "fiscal cliff," which could start a new recession -- will pose a huge challenge to whoever wins Tuesday.

Because of congressional gridlock, a Romney presidency might produce more dramatic changes through the other branches of government. Romney repeatedly has said he'd like to see a reversal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion. He might be able to appoint conservative justices to the Supreme Court to fulfill that wish.

It's hard to know how U.S. society, so accustomed to the abortion status quo of four decades, would react to states suddenly outlawing the procedure.

Hurricane Sandy is a reminder of how different political philosophies can affect people at more mundane, day-to-day levels. Romney has suggested shifting much of the responsibility for emergency management from the federal government to the states. That approach might have severely tested New Jersey this fall. But conservatives grow weary of looking to Washington to solve problem after problem.

In unguarded moments, politicians sometimes show their clearest philosophical leanings. Romney's much discussed remarks at a private fundraiser — criticizing the 47 percent of Americans who don't pay income taxes — suggested he sees a world of givers and takers. Such societies, he says, are in danger of having the government-dependent takers overwhelm the job-creating givers.

Republicans, on the other hand, pounced on Obama's non-scripted "you didn't build that" comment, his contention that people who built businesses had help, from teachers, family and other supporters — and sometimes the government. Obama said he was noting that successful businesses rely on government roads, schools, water, police protection and other tax-paid amenities.

The "you didn't build that" controversy underscored philosophical differences that voters will choose between Tuesday. Obama and Romney look at the same set of facts — in this case, successful businesses — and seize on different aspects.

The election winner may have a hard time pushing his agenda through a divided Congress. But voters have a vivid choice about what that agenda should look like.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — Charles Babington covers national politics for The Associated Press.

An AP News Analysis

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