Race gets rough as storm approaches

U.S. President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney are running about dead even in Ohio, the state that could decide presidential race. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.

STILL neck-and-neck in their battle for the White House, President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney face a stormy few days ahead.

Voices hoarse from shouting, hands calloused from shaking other hands, the life of a presidential candidate is hard work.

As if all that campaigning wasn't enough, there's now a bloody big storm wreaking havoc across the east coast of the United States. 

President Barack Obama attends a briefing with Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate, right, at the National Response Coordination Centre at the FEMA headquarters in Washington.

Hurricane Sandy is causing wild surf and wind-driven rains and is making a significant impact in North Carolina - which is more than either candidate can say they've done at this point.

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney gestures during a campaign speech on Saturday in Florida.

Move over political forecasters and bring on the weather forecasters, who have predicted a 100 per cent chance of rain in the capital on Monday and Tuesday as "Frankenstorm" rears its ugly head.

Both Mr Obama and Mr Romney have been forced to cancel campaign events in lieu of the storm. Mr Obama moved up a campaign trip to Florida yesterday so he could be back in Washington when the storm hits on early Tuesday - in order to assure the American people their safety is his main concern.

Also causing unease among Obama's campaign party is the possibility that "Frankenstorm" could keep voters from the polls.

"Obviously we want unfettered access to the polls because we believe that the more people come out, the better we're going to do," Mr Obama's campaign advisor David Axelrod told CNN's State of the Union yesterday.

"And so the best thing we can do is focus on how we can help people during this storm and hope that it all clears out and that by the next weekend we'll be free of it and people can focus on the election."

Oh yes, the election. To break it down thus far: winning the White House requires 270 electoral votes. Mr Obama is ahead in states and the District of Columbia representing 237 electoral votes; Mr Romney has a comfortable lead in states with 191 electoral votes. The rest lie in nine contested states that remain too close to call.

An Associated Press analysis shows Mr Obama probably would win with at least 271 electoral votes from 21 states, including Ohio, Wisconsin and Iowa, and the District of Columbia.

Mr Romney seems on track for 206 from 23 states, including North Carolina - which Mr Obama won in 2008 but has said this year will be difficult for him to win as enthusiasm is low and unemployment is high. 

As more Republicans than Democrats typically vote, Mr Obama has been counting on early voters. About 35 per cent of voters are expected to cast their ballots before November 6, either in person or by mail.

More than 5 million people have already voted and while no votes will be counted until November 6, some states report the party affiliation of people who have voted. Democrats have the edge in Iowa, Nevada and North Carolina, according to state figures and data collected by the United States Elections Project at George Mason University. Republicans have the early edge in Colorado and Mr Romney is also banking on the support of fellow Mormons in Nevada.

But back to the storm. Mr Obama brought a little 'Fire and Rain' of his own to New Hampshire on Saturday, when singer James Taylor performed that hit and several others in front of supporters. Taylor said storms like the one expected to hit the Northeast early next week make it clear that "we need someone there to help us."

Musician James Taylor performs during a campaign rally for US President Barack Obama at Elm Street Middle School in New Hampshire. Source: AFP

Meanwhile another singer, Madonna, also tried to show her support for the president, urging concert goers to vote for Mr Obama. "I don't care who you vote for as long as you vote for Obama," she said in New Orleans, but her comments triggered boos and some people even walked out.

singer Madonna performs during her MDNA concert at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, Spain Source: The Daily Telegraph

Mr Obama has also caused a stew and upset health food factions by saying that as its an election year he will be giving out candy for Halloween next week instead of healthy fruit and nuts - which he normally does. "It's an election year, so candy for everybody," and giant chocolate bars for "anybody [that] comes from Ohio to the White House" to trick-or-treat, the President joked, much to the chagrin of fruit bowls all over the country.

But you certainly can't please all of the people all of the time, as one southern Californian man recently discovered when he hung a hanged President Obama in his yard for Halloween. The "decoration" alerted the Secret Service to his door - and they were not trick-or-treating.

Agents told the man his actions "could have been construed as a threat to the president," to which he replied: "If I had it to do all over again, I absolutely wouldn't have done it. It was not meant to offend anybody. It was just supposed to be a decoration."

At least Mr Obama can rest assured that a new "poll" indicates he is well ahead of Mr Romney by 20 per cent - based on the nationwide sales of Halloween masks. 

23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

Savile investigators arrest Glitter

British former pop star Gary Glitter is arrested as police investigate a child sex abuse scandal involving late BBC presenter Jimmy Savile.

BRITISH celebrities are expecting their hedonistic lives in London in the 1960s and '70s could now catch up with them after the arrest of Gary Glitter over alleged child sex offences.

Police yesterday held the former glam pop star for 10 hours before releasing him on bail to reappear in mid December "pending further inquiries".

The 68-year-old, real name Paul Gadd, was arrested as part of the probe into British celebrity Jimmy Savile who died last year but for the last month has been making daily headlines as more than 300 people have come forward to say he abused them as children.

Scotland Yard has now described Savile as possibly the worst paedophile in British history with evidence he preyed on young boys and girls at his office at BBC studios, a children's home and hospital for mentally and physically disabled children.

Savile's victims were both male and female with the youngest being just nine-years-old at the time she was abused. Many instances of the alleged assaults and molestations occurred at the BBC studio where he hosted the top rating Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It TV shows as well as a caravan on the BBC lot in west London.

Former British rock star Gary Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, returns home in central London after he was arrested earlier in the day by British police as they probe the mountain of sexual abuse allegations against the late TV star Jimmy Savile. AFP/Leon Neal

Glitter, who is already on a child sex offender registry following charges in Vietnam in 2006, has not commented about his arrest which police would only say was related to "suspicion of sexual offences".

"The individual falls under the strand of the investigation we have termed 'Savile and others'," a police spokesman said.

Police moved on Glitter at his London home early in the morning. The BBC and Sky News showed footage of Glitter, who wore a hat, a dark coat and sunglasses, being taken from his home by officers and driven away. Glitter was later photographed leaving Charing Cross police station on Sunday afternoon.

Operation Yewtree into Savile is reportedly investigating up to a dozen celebrities and personalities implicated for allegedly abusing children in the 1960s through to the 1980s or procuring them for the likes of Savile. Police have said further arrests were likely.

UK police say 300 potential sexual abuse victims of late TV star Jimmy Savile have been identified. Picture: Getty Images

PR guru to many British stars Max Clifford said dozens of big name stars from the 1960s and '70s have contacted him because they are "frightened" they will become implicated in the widening child abuse scandal.

He said the stars were worried because at their peak they had lived a hedonistic lifestyle where young girls threw themselves at them but they "never asked for anybody's birth certificate".

"All kinds of things went on and I do mean young girls throwing themselves at them in their dressing rooms at concert halls, at gigs, whatever," he said.

"They never asked for anybody's birth certificate and they were young lads ... suddenly everyone's dream was a reality."

Convicted paedophile Gary Glitter is alleged to have a raped a girl, 13, in Jimmy Saville's dressing room at the BBC.

At least one victim of Savile is an Australian man from NSW.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said today an immediate inquiry was required but not one so big it took years to probe.

"There is always a danger if you set up a very substantial inquiry process of that kind that it takes much longer to get to the truth," he said.

"What should be happening right now first and foremost - and clearly is happening with the police - is we should be looking to see who is still around who was involved, and criminal proceedings should follow if people were guilty of participating in these offences alongside Jimmy Savile. That is of paramount importance."

Footage has emerged of Jimmy Savile grouping a girl during a TV show

Glitter rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of UK hits, including the crowd-pleasing hit

Rock & Roll (Part 2)

, a mostly instrumental anthem that has been a staple at sporting events thanks to its catchy "hey" chorus, but his music has often been shunned since his abuse convictions.

It is now alleged the disgraced 68-year-old had sex with a schoolgirl in Savile's BBC dressing room in the 1970s. Glitter has denied the allegations.

There is evidence BBC management chose to ignore multiple complaints of Savile's abuse and those of other personalities and even killed off a documentary by its own staff that last year was set to expose him as a serial paedophile.

On Sunday, the chairman of the BBC Trust said he was committed to finding out the true scale of the scandal to save the broadcaster's reputation. "Can it really be the case that no one knew what he was doing? Did some turn a blind eye to criminality? Did some prefer not to follow up their suspicions because of this criminal's popularity and place in the schedules?" Chris Patten wrote in The Mail on Sunday.

The BBC has set up an independent inquiry into the corporation's culture and practices in the years Savile worked there. It also launched a separate inquiry into whether its journalists dropped an investigation into the allegations.

The Savile matter has shocked the British public not least of all because of the other personalities linked to the abuse.

-with AP
 

23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

Female teacher jailed for sex with student

A teacher has been jailed for having sex with a 15-year-old student. Source: The Advertiser

A 32-YEAR-OLD female Singaporean teacher has been sentenced to a year in jail for having sex with a 15-year-old boy in her school, local media reported.

The teacher, who was married with two children, started a relationship with the student last year after she started counselling him, the Straits Times daily reported on its website.

Their names were withheld to protect the minor's identity.

The court was told that she wooed the boy with gifts including a copy of the bestselling book Eat, Pray, Love, which dealt with a divorced American woman's adventures and was made into a film starring Julia Roberts in 2010.

The two continued their relationship for more than a month, during which they had consensual sex at the teacher's flat before the student's parents found out about the affair and reported her to the school.

In passing sentence, district judge Eugene Teo warned those who viewed schools "as acceptable venues for such illicit pursuits, and our students as acceptable partners in lust" will be punished, the Straits Times reported.

Another news portal, channelnewsasia.com, said the judge noted that psychiatrists found "no predatory paedophilic tendencies" in the teacher, which led to the comparatively light sentence.

Under Singapore law, an adult found guilty of engaging sexual intercourse with anyone under the age of 16 - even if it's consensual - faces up to 10 years' imprisonment, a fine or both.
 

23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

Zookeepers hunt fugitive flamingo

Zookeepers in Japan would like to get their hands on a flamingo that continues to evade capture. Picture: Sue Ogrocki Source: AP

ZOOKEEPERS in northern Japan are racing against nature to catch a fugitive flamingo before it freezes or migrates south for the winter.

Bird experts have tried to net the escapee on the lake it has made home using captive flamingos as bait, and have even donned diving gear to sneak up on the pink-feathered bird from underwater.

But every time they get anywhere near it takes to the skies, said Akihisa Kato from Asahiyama Zoo, on the northernmost island of Hokkaido.

"We want to capture it ourselves if possible. But if we don't, it can survive the winter if it flies south to warmer places with migratory birds such as swans and geese," he said.

"But if it goes to the main island of Honshu, it will be difficult to continue our hunt because of the costs involved."

The bird, a member of the greater flamingo species, usually found in northern Africa and Mediterranean Europe, is currently surviving on a diet of plankton and seaweed.

But with the mercury falling in Hokkaido, where winter temperatures regularly reach minus 10 degrees Celsius, the bird's options are narrowing.

"We guess the flamingo will make some kind of move before the lake freezes," Mr Kato said.

The hunt began in July - an altogether more pleasant time of the year to be out and about in Hokkaido - when the metre-high bird, hopped a fence at its enclosure.

After initially flying south, the creature - which was never given a name by keepers - made its home on a brackish-water lake by the Sea of Okhotsk, some 130 kilometres east of the zoo, among a flock of less colourful herons.

One attempt to recapture the bird saw the zoo's director put on a wetsuit and snorkel in a bid to approach without being seen, said Mr Kato, adding that his boss had only managed to get within 100 metres before the entire flock took fright.

Earlier this year the escape of a penguin from a zoo in Tokyo captured worldwide attention.

Humboldt penguin No.337 spent 82 days at large in and around Tokyo Bay after bolting his enclosure and evading aquarium staff, an army of public onlookers and even Japan's well-equipped coastguard.
 

23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cruise 'prowler' was drunk neighbour

A prowler scare at Tom Cruise's home is believed to have been caused by a drunken neighbour who wandered onto the actor's property. Picture: AFP Source: AFP

POLICE say a security guard at actor Tom Cruise's house used a stun gun on a would-be prowler, but the man turned out to be an intoxicated neighbour who may have mistakenly entered the property.

Lieutenant Lincoln Hoshino says the confrontation occurred at Cruise's Beverly Hills residence about 9.30pm local time on Sunday when the actor and his family weren't home.

The guard saw a man "climbing a fence to gain access to the property" and he used the stun gun to detain him for police.

The officer says the man was identified as a 41-year-old neighbour who lives in an adjacent property, and was intoxicated at the time.

The man was taken into custody for trespassing and treated at a hospital for any problems stemming from the stun gun.
 

23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

Indo bomb plot driven by anti-Islam film

An Indonesian security officer of the Australian embassy stands guard near a building that houses the office of American mining giant Freeport Mc-Moran in Jakarta. Picture: Adek Berry Source: AFP

A PLOT to bomb the US embassy and other American targets in Indonesia was driven in part by anger at an anti-Islam film that has sparked protests across the Muslim world, police have said.

Police at the weekend arrested 11 members of an Islamic group planning attacks on the embassy in Jakarta, a US consulate and a building that houses the office of American mining giant Freeport-McMoRan.

The men, who were arrested in four cities across the main island of Java, were found with explosives and a bomb-making manual.

National police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said documents seized from the alleged militants referred to the US-made film Innocence of Muslims, which sparked deadly protests across the Muslim world last month.

"This film, which is viewed as insulting to Islam, seems to be one of this group's reasons" for plotting the attacks, he said.

Police have said those arrested were from a group called HASMI, the Sunni Movement for Indonesian Society, which had not previously been linked to terror plots.

Indonesian anti-terror chief Ansyaad Mbai said the group's leader Abu Hanifah, who was detained in the city of Solo in Central Java, likely had ties to al-Qaida-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

"I believe that the background of HASMI members will be found in Jemaah Islamiyah and JAT (Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid)," a radical group that was declared a terrorist organisation by the US in February, Mr Mbai said

Indonesia has waged a long battle against terrorism since the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. The resort island held commemorations this month to mark 10 years since the attack.

JI has been blamed for the Bali bombings and other deadly attacks over the past decade but has been severely weakened by the government crackdown.

Indonesia has not seen a major attack since 2009, when suicide bombers killed nine people at two five-star hotels in the capital.
 

23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

Facebook used to kidnap, traffic girls

Indonesian youths browse at an internet cafe in Jakarta, Indonesia. Picture: Tatan Syuflana Source: AP

WHEN a 14-year-old girl received a Facebook friend request from an older man she didn't know, she accepted it out of curiosity.

It's a click she will forever regret, leading to a brutal story that has repeated itself as sexual predators find new ways to exploit Indonesia's growing obsession with social media.

The junior high student was quickly smitten by the man's smooth online flattery. They exchanged phone numbers, and his attention increased with rapid-fire texts. He convinced her to meet in a mall, and she found him just as charming in person.

They agreed to meet again. After telling her mom she was going to visit a sick girlfriend on her way to church choir practice, she climbed into the man's minivan near her home in Depok, on the outskirts of Jakarta.

The man, a 24-year-old who called himself Yogi, drove her an hour to the town of Bogor, West Java, she told The Associated Press in an interview.

There, he locked her in a small room inside a house with at least five other girls aged 14 to 17. She was drugged and raped repeatedly - losing her virginity in the first attack.

After one week of torture, her captor told her she was being sold and shipped to the faraway island of Batam, known for its seedy brothels and child sex tourism that caters to men coming by boat from nearby Singapore.

She sobbed hysterically and begged to go home. She was beaten and told to shut up or die.

So far this year, 27 of the 129 children reported missing to Indonesia's National Commission for Child Protection are believed to have been abducted after meeting their captors on Facebook, said the group's chairman, Arist Merdeka Sirait. One of those befriended on the social media site has been found dead.

In the month since the Depok girl was found near a bus terminal September 30, there have been at least seven reports of young girls in Indonesia being abducted by people they met on Facebook. Although no solid data exists, police and aid groups that work on trafficking issues say it seems to be a particularly big problem in the Southeast Asian archipelago.

"Maybe Indonesia is kind of a unique country so far. Once the reports start coming in, you will know that maybe it's not one of the countries, maybe it's one of a hundred countries," said Anjan Bose, a program officer who works on child online protection issues at ECPAT International, a non-profit global network that helps children in 70 countries. "The internet is such a global medium. It doesn't differentiate between poor and rich. It doesn't differentiate between the economy of the country or the culture."

Websites that track social media say Indonesia has nearly 50 million people signed up for Facebook, making it one of the world's top users after the US. The capital, Jakarta, was recently named the most active Twitter city by Paris-based social media monitoring company Semiocast. In addition, networking groups such as BlackBerry and Yahoo Messenger are wildly popular on mobile phones.

Many young Indonesians, and their parents, are unaware of the dangers of allowing strangers to see their personal information online. Teenagers frequently post photos and personal details such as their home address, phone number, school and hangouts without using any privacy settings - allowing anyone trolling the net to find them and learn everything about them.

"We are racing against time, and the technology frenzy over Facebook is a trend among teenagers here," Mr Sirait said. "Police should move faster, or many more girls will become victims."

The 27 Facebook-related abductions reported to the commission this year in Indonesia have already exceeded 18 similar cases it received in all of 2011. Overall, the National Task Force Against Human Trafficking said 435 children were trafficked last year, mostly for sexual exploitation.

Many who fight child sex crimes in Indonesia believe the real numbers are much higher. Missing children are often not reported to authorities. Stigma and shame surround sexual abuse in the world's largest Muslim-majority country, and there's a widespread belief that police will do nothing to help.

An ECPAT International report estimates that each year, 40,000 to 70,000 children are involved in trafficking, pornography or prostitution in Indonesia, a nation of 240 million where many families remain impoverished.

The US State Department has also warned that more Indonesian girls are being recruited using social media networks. In a report last year, it said traffickers have "resorted to outright kidnapping of girls and young women for sex trafficking within the country and abroad".

Online child sexual abuse and exploitation are common in much of Asia. In the Philippines, kids are being forced to strip or perform sex acts on live webcams - often by their parents, who are using them as a source of income. Western men typically pay to use the sites.

"In the Philippines, this is the tip of the iceberg. It's not only Facebook and social media, but it's also through text messages ... especially young, vulnerable people are being targeted," said Leonarda Kling, regional representative for Terre des Hommes Netherlands, a non-profit working on trafficking issues. "It's all about promises. Better jobs or maybe even a nice telephone or whatever. Young people now, you see all the glamour and glitter around you and they want to have the latest BlackBerry, the latest fashion, and it's also a way to get these things."

Facebook says its investigators regularly review content on the site and work with authorities, including Interpol, to combat illegal activity. It also has employees around the world tasked with cracking down on people who attempt to use the site for human trafficking .

"We take human trafficking very seriously and, while this behaviour is not common on Facebook, a number of measures are in place to counter this activity," spokesman Andrew Noyes said in an email.

He declined to give any details on Facebook's involvement in trafficking cases reported in Indonesia or elsewhere .

The Depok girl, wearing a mask to hide her face as she was interviewed, said she is still shocked that the man she knew for nearly a month turned on her.

"He wanted to buy new clothes for me, and help with school payments. He was different ... that's all," she said. "I have a lot of contacts through Facebook, and I've also exchanged phone numbers. But everything has always gone fine. We were just friends."

She said that after being kidnapped, she was given sleeping pills and was "mostly unconscious" for her ordeal. She said she could not escape because a man and another girl stood guard over her.

The girl said the man did not have the money for a plane ticket to Batam, and also became aware that her parents and others were relentlessly searching for her. He ended up dumping her at a bus station, where she found help.

"I am angry and cannot accept what he did to me. ... I was raped and beaten!" said the lanky girl with shoulder-length black hair. The AP generally does not publish the names of sexual abuse victims.

The girl's case made headlines this month when she was expelled after she tried to return to school. Officials at the school reportedly claimed she had tarnished its image. She has since been reinstated, but she no longer wishes to attend due to the stigma she faces.

Education Minister Mohammad Nuh also came under fire after making remarks that not all girls who report such crimes are victims: "They do it for fun, and then the girl alleges that it's rape," he said. His response to the criticism was that it's difficult to prove whether sexual assault allegations are "real rapes".

The publicity surrounding the story encouraged the parents of five other missing girls to come forward this month, saying their daughters also were victimized by people they met on Facebook. Two more girls were freed from their captors in October and are now seeking counselling.

A man who posed as a photographer on Facebook was recently arrested and accused of kidnapping and raping three teenage girls. Authorities say he lured them into meeting him with him by promising to make them models, and then locked them in a house. Police found dozens of photos of naked girls on his camera and laptop.

Another case involved a 15-year-old girl from Bogor. She was recently rescued by police after being kidnapped by her Facebook "friend" and held at a restaurant, waiting for someone to move her to another town where she would be forced into prostitution.

In some incidents, the victims themselves ended up recruiting other young girls after being promised money or luxuries such as mobile phones or new clothes.

Police are trying to get a step ahead of the criminals. Detective Lt. Ruth Yeni Qomariah from the Children and Women's Protection unit in Surabaya said she posed as a teenager online and busted three men who used Facebook to kidnap and rape underage girls. She's searching for a fourth suspect.

"It has been getting worse as trafficking rings become more sophisticated and underage children are more easily targeted," she said.

The man who abducted the Depok girl has not been found, and it's unclear what happened to the five other girls held at the house where she was raped.

"I saw they were offered by my kidnapper to many guys," she said. "I don't know what happened. I don't want to remember it."
 

23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More

LIVE: 'The time for preparing is over'

Flooding has begun as Sandy mounts its attack on the US east coast. Picture: AP Source: AP

• "Superstorm" Hurricane Sandy threatening 50 million people
• Heart of storm tracking for New York City
• High winds expected, fears of widespread flooding
• Qantas flights cancelled | Sandy's massive size
• ALL TIMES AEDT | REFRESH THIS PAGE FOR UPDATES

HURRICANE Sandy is threatening 50 million people on the heavily populated East Coast of the United States as forecasters warn that New York could bear the brunt of the one-of-a-kind superstorm.

Live updates, photos, news and alerts will be posted here as they come to hand.

3.36am: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is curtailing his campaign schedule as Hurricane Sandy bears down on the Eastern seaboard, canceling planned appearances Monday night and all day Tuesday.

Campaign officials say vice presidential running mate Paul Ryan will also scrap campaign rallies during the same time frame.

The decision was announced a short while after President Barack Obama canceled a planned rally in Florida to fly back to Washington, where aides said he would oversee the government's response to the threat posed by the storm.

Romney intends to go ahead with speeches today in Ohio and Iowa before he begins observing his self-imposed storm-related moratorium on campaigning.

The former Massachusetts governor and Obama are locked in a close race, eight days before Election Day.

3.18am: Mayor Bloomberg says it is becoming "too late" to get away from floods from Hurricane Sandy as winds and sea levels rose.

Bloomberg issued a mandatory evacuation order for 375,000 people in zones at risk of floods but few have left their homes in the mainly sea-front districts.

"Conditions are deteriorating very rapidly and the window for getting out safely is closing," Bloomberg told a press conference. "It's getting too late to leave," he added.

Bloomberg said there were 16,000 beds in emergency shelters set up in 76 schools across New York but only 3,000 people and 73 pets had spent Sunday night there.

The mayor said there could be a storm surge of 11-12 feet (3.3-3.6 meters) in southern Manhattan late Monday. The evening high tide could bring waves of 15 to 20 feet (4.5-6.0 meters).

All public transport has been suspended in New York because of the major storm, some major roads in Manhattan had already been closed and two of the three Manhattan island road tunnels were to close at 1800 GMT.

Meanwhile, the New York MTA has posted some amazing pictures of the deserted subway system here.

2.53am: Hurricane Sandy is now the largest tropical storm ever recorded on the northeast coast of North America, Bloomberg News reports. It quotes Rob Carolan, a meteorologist at Hometown Forecast Services Inc. in Nashua, New Hampshire, saying: "The storm is the largest tropical storm in the Atlantic."

Mr Carolan adds: "So many bad things had to come together all at once. It is going to make the 'Perfect Storm' look small. It's remarkable what an impact this is going to have."

2.46am: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced schools will be closed for a second day on Tuesday.

With mass transit expected to remain shut through Tuesday morning, city public schools will remain closed on Tuesday, Mayor Bloomberg said.

"There's no chance that mass transit will be back in time to serve people," he added.

Watch his full update here:

2.35am: The US National Weather Service is reporting 24-foot seas off New Jersey.

2.26am: US President Barack Obama will make televised statement on Hurricane Sandy at 3.45am AEDT.

2.24am: Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley has said fatalities are inevitable as Hurricane Sandy bears down on the Mid-Atlantic state with all its force.

"Hurricane Sandy is going to come over Maryland, she's going to sit on top of Maryland and beat down on Maryland for a good 24 to 36 hours," he told reporters at the Maryland emergency coordination headquarters.

"This is going to be a long haul," he said. "The days ahead are going to be difficult. There will be people who die and are killed in this storm."

Mr O'Malley warned of "very high winds" by early Monday afternoon, lengthy power outages in the afternoon and evening, and severe flooding in the countless rivers and streams that feed into the Chesapeake Bay.

Ocean City, on Maryland's easternmost Atlantic coast, is already being lashed by a combination of wind, rain and "very heavy surf," with the resort town's pier sustaining heavy damage, the governor said.

The mandatory evacuation of downtown Ocean City has been completed, he said, and "there are few if any residents left in the town."

2.18am: Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia said on Monday morning that about 150 people had checked into the city's three emergency shelters. Occupants include adults, children, dogs, cats, a turtle and a spider, he said. Read the New York Times' report here.

2.16am: Forecasters say Hurricane Sandy has picked up a little strength and is making a turn toward a projected landfall on or near the southern coast of New Jersey.

The National Hurricane Centre said the storm's top sustained winds had risen to near 150km/h, with higher gusts. The storm's centre is about 415km south-southeast of New York City and expected to make landfall Monday evening or night along or just south of the southern New Jersey coast.

Reminder - you can see the action live from webcams at Times Square,  Wall St and Brooklyn Bridge

1.52am: New York state authorities have ordered the closure of two of three key Manhattan road tunnels because of the risk of floods from Hurricane Sandy.

Governor Andrew Cuomo said the Holland and Battery tunnels would close from 2pm (5am AEDT). He told a press conference the predicted flood levels from the looming hurricane were "really extraordinary".

Norfolk resident Jack Devnew looks at the water covering a dock as he checks on his boat at a marina near downtown Norfolk, Virginia. Picture: AP Source: AP

1.39am: US President Barack Obama has landed at Andrews Air Force base outside Washington after cancelling campaign events to steer the response to Hurricane Sandy.

Mr Obama touched down after a flight from Florida, an AFP photographer aboard Air Force One said, after the president ditched plans to hold a campaign event with former president Bill Clinton, eight days before election day.

1.29am: Almost 9000 flights have been cancelled so far as a result of Hurricane Sandy, according to the information service flightaware.com.

1.20am: The US Coast Guard has rescued 14 members of a crew forced to abandon the tall ship HMS Bounty caught in Hurricane Sandy off the North Carolina Outer Banks and continued the search for two other crew members.

Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Brandyn Hill said the crew members were rescued by two Coast Guard helicopters around 6.30 am local time Monday. The survivors were being taken to Air Station Elizabeth City on the North Carolina coast. He had no immediate word on their conditions.

The director of the HMS Bounty Organisation, Tracie Simonin, said the tall ship had left Connecticut last week en route for St Petersburg, Florida.

"They were staying in constant contact with the National Hurricane Centre," she said. "They were trying to make it around the storm."

Petty Officer Hill said an MH60 Jayhawk helicopter from Elizabeth City, North Carolina, arrived at 6.30am and rescued nine crew members who had donned survival suits and boarded 25-foot life boats. They abandoned ship after the HMS Bounty began taking on water and lost propulsion in the storm. A second helicopter arrived a short time later and rescued five other members of the crew.

1.02am: Reporters aboard Air Force One say US President Barack Obama has cancelled a campaign event scheduled for Tuesday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, to focus on Hurricane Sandy.

12.58am: Google has produced a live map which shows the storm's path, the location of evacuation centres and even local traffic conditions.

12:56am: "This is the worst-case scenario," Louis Uccellini, environmental prediction chief for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told the Associated Press.

12.41am: Forecasters say Hurricane Sandy is about 505 kilometres south-southeast of New York City, and the centre of the storm is expected to be near the mid-Atlantic coast on Monday night.

The US National Hurricane Centre said early Monday local time that the storm has top sustained winds of 140km/h, with higher gusts. It is moving toward the north-northwest at 32km/h. Hurricane-force winds extend up to 280 km from the storm's centre.

Sandy is on track to collide with a wintry storm moving in from the west and cold air streaming down from the Arctic.

Major metropolitan areas from Washington to Boston are bracing for what is expected to be a superstorm that could menace some 50 million people in the most heavily populated corridor in the US.

12.23am: Reuters reports that at least 14 of the 17 sailors aboard the abandoned HMS bounty have been rescued off the coast of North Carolina. The crew were rescued using helicopters, the director of the vessel told the news agency.

12.17am: Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy says his state is bracing for a sea surge of up to 11 feet higher than a normal high tide. "This is the most catastrophic event that we have faced and been able to plan for in any of our lifetimes. And we continue to do anything in our power to be ready," he said.

President Barack Obama has cancelled all engagements and flown home to Washington to monitor the storrm's progress. Picture: AP Source: AP

12.13am: Water has breached the seawall at Battery Park City in lower Manhattan, pictures on CNN have shown. A reporter at the scene said he was standing in five inches of water on the boardwalk at the mouth of the Hudson River.

11.35pm: Global markets started the week on a downbeat note as investors fretted over the cost of a mammoth storm that was heading towards the eastern US and prompted the closure of Wall Street, the Associated Press reports.

"The economic impact cannot be underestimated," said Elsa Lignos, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets.

Insurers such as Munich Re, Aviva PLC and Zurich Insurance underperformed other stocks as investors worried about the potential cost of the storm's damage.

They weighed on indexes across Europe. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 0.6 per cent at 5768 while Germany's DAX fell 0.8 per cent to 7178. The CAC-40 in France was 1 per cent lower at 3400.

The New York Stock Exchange has been closed, effectivley stalling all world financial markets. Source: AP

10.55pm: The crew of the HMS Bounty, a tall ship that has been used in several films including the mutiny movie starring Mel Gibson, was forced to abandon the distressed vessel off North Carolina's Outer Banks as Hurricane Sandy bore down on it, the Coast Guard said.

All 17 people aboard got into two lifeboats, wearing survival suits and life jackets, as the ship lost power and began taking on water.

The Coast Guard is trying to determine whether to use cutters or helicopters to rescue the crew.

The ship was about 135km southeast of Hatteras when the ship's owner called saying she'd lost contact with the crew.

The 180-foot, three-masted ship also appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean II.

The "HMS Bounty" during a visit to Chicago. Picture: AFP /JEFF HAYNES Source: AFP

9.45pm: CBS reports that Sandy's wind speeds have risen as it approaches New York .

With winds now topping 130km/h, the Category 1 hurricane is moving north at more than 20km/h after earlier tracking to the northeast. Quoting America's National Hurricane Centre, CBS says hurricane-force winds extend up to 250km from the storm's centre. Gale force winds were reported over coastal North Carolina, southeastern Virginia, the Delmarva Peninsula and coastal New Jersey.

Sandbags have been brought in to protect Lower Manhattan businesses, including the stock exchange. Picture: AP Source: AP

Web cams - Times Square ,  Wall St, Brooklyn Bridge

8.41pm: The state branches of America's National Weather Service have issued a series of extremely strongly worded warnings.

"If you are reluctant to evacuate, think about your loved ones, think about the emergency responders who will be unable to reach you when you make the panicked phone call to be rescued."

Read more here.

8.32pm: What makes Hurricane Sandy so special? There are five things that make it a "superstorm". Read about them here.

Hurricane Sandy is being labelled a 'Frankenstorm' by forecasters, an unusual nasty mix of a hurricane and a winter storm. Source: AFP

8.17pm:

"Frankenstorm", "Hell-oween", "Perfect Storm II". Call it what you want, but New Yorkers hav ebene turned on their head before Hurricane Sandy has even hit.

The Statue of Liberty re-opened after a year of renovation - and closed again straight away. Nervous shoppers have stripped supermarket shelves of water, bread and batteries.

Read more here.

A shopper finds the bread shelves empty at a Supermarket in Manhattan Sunday. Picture: AP Source: AP

8.14pm: AP has released this photo of waves crashing on New Jersey. Hurricane Sandy is coming.

Waves crash onto the sea wall protecting homes in Longport, New Jersey. Picture: AP Source: AP

8.06pm: Hurricane Sandy has grounded thousands of flights in the US northeast and upended travel plans across the globe, stranding passengers from Hong Kong to Europe.

The massive storm threatens to bring a near halt to air travel for at least two days in a key region for both domestic and international flights.

Major carriers such as American Airlines, JetBlue and Delta planned to cancel all flights into and out of three area airports in New York, the nation's busiest airspace.

According to the flight-tracking service FlightAware, nearly 7500 flights had been cancelled for Sunday and Monday. Philadelphia International Airport and Newark International Airport, a hub for United Airlines, each had more than 1200 cancellations for the two days.

Delays rippled across the US, affecting travellers in cities from San Francisco to Chicago, and disruptions spread to Europe and Asia, where airlines cancelled or delayed flights to New York and Washington from cities that are major travel hubs including Berlin, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Emergency services stand ready to respond to disaster. Picture: AP Source: AP

Earlier today, Qantas announced flights between Los Angeles and New York were suspended.

7.55pm: Major U.S. financial markets, including the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and CME Group in Chicago, planned a rare shutdown Monday.

The last time the stock exchange shut down for weather was on September 27, 1985, for Hurricane Gloria.

The United Nations also shut down and canceled all meetings at its New York headquarters.

7.40pm: Earlier today, New Jersey resident MArk Palazzolo boarded up his bait-and-tackle shop with the same wood he used during Huricannes Isaac and Irene. 

"I think this one is going to do us in," he said.

Read more about the preparations.

Mark Palazzolo, owner of a bait and tackle shop on the Manasquan Inlet in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, sits next to wood he has used to board up his business in previous major storms. He said, "I think this is going to do us in." Picture: Wayne Parry Source: AP

7.30pm: President Barack Obama has declared emergencies in several states including Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, authorizing federal relief work to begin well ahead of time.

He promised the government would "respond big and respond fast'' to states and cities after the storm hits.

"My message to the governors as well as to the mayors is anything they need, we will be there, and we will cut through red tape,'' Obama said.

"We are not going to get bogged down with a lot of rules.''

Authorities warned that New York could get hit with a surge of seawater that could swamp parts of lower Manhattan, flood subway tunnels and cripple the network of electrical and communications lines that are vital to the nation's financial center.

President Barack Obama speaks during a briefing at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters. Picture: AP Source: AP

7.18pm:  What we can expect from Sandy over the coming hours.

7.08pm: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned people in low-lying areas of lower Manhattan and Queens to get out.

"If you don't evacuate, you are not only endangering your life, you are also endangering the lives of the first responders who are going in to rescue you,'' he said.

"This is a serious and dangerous storm.''

New Jersey's famously blunt Gov. Chris Christie was less polite: "Don't be stupid. Get out."

New York called off school Monday for the city's 1.1 million students and announced it would suspend all train, bus and subway service Sunday night because of the risk of flooding, shutting down a system on which more than 5 million riders a day depend.

There's always one... a surfer out to make the best of the violent sea. Picture: AP Source: AP

6.58pm: Forecasters warned the megastorm could wreak havoc over 1,300 kilometers from the East Coast to the Great Lakes. States of emergency were declared from North Carolina to Connecticut.

Airlines canceled more than 7,600 flights and Amtrak began suspending passenger train service across the Northeast. New York and Philadelphia moved to shut down their subways, buses and commuter trains Sunday night and announced that schools would be closed on Monday. Boston, Washington and Baltimore also called off school.

As rain from the leading edges of the monster hurricane began to fall over the Northeast, tens of thousands of people in coastal areas from Maryland to Connecticut were under orders to clear out Sunday.

That included 50,000 in Delaware alone and 30,000 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where the city's 12 casinos were forced to shut down for only the fourth time in the 34-year history of legalized gambling there.

6.55pm: To put Hurricane Sandy into context, this is the five day tracking forecast over the US:

This is the storm over Australia:

See the comparisons here.

6.52pm: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released this image of the oncoming storm.

This NOAA satellite image shows Hurricane Sandy off the Mid Atlantic coastline moving toward the north. Picture: AP Source: AP

6.45pm: Federal Emergency Management Administrator Craig Fugate warned that the "time for preparing and talking is about over,'' as Sandy made its way up the Atlantic on a collision course with two other weather systems that could turn it into one of the most fearsome storms on record in the U.S.

"People need to be acting now,'' he said.

As America's biggest city braces for the storm, so do ordinary homeowners out to protect their own properties with sandbags. Picture: AP Source: AP

23.45 | 0 komentar | Read More