Obama, Romney launch final blitz

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President Barack Obama is greeted by former President Bill Clinton during a campaign rally in Concord, New Hampshire, on Sunday, November 4. Obama and his Republican rival, Mitt Romney, are darting from swing state to swing state, trying to fire up enthusiasm among supporters and win over any last wavering voters before election day.

(CNN) -- President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney barnstormed their way across more than a half-dozen battleground states on Sunday, making closing arguments to a closely divided American electorate before Tuesday's vote.

Obama stumped in New Hampshire in the morning, flew to Florida and Ohio, and was headed west to Colorado in the evening. Romney spent Sunday heading east from Iowa to Virginia, with a stop in Ohio and a foray into Pennsylvania in between.

Along the way, Obama painted Tuesday's vote as a choice between policies that had moved the country out of the depths of recession and ones that got it into one in the first place.

"On the one hand, you can choose to return to the top-down policies that crashed our economy," Obama told supporters in Hollywood, Florida, north of Miami. "Or you can join me in building a future that focuses on a strong and growing middle class."

Stumping with former President Bill Clinton in Concord, New Hampshire, he said Romney is trying "to repackage the same old ideas and pretend they're new."

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"We know what change looks like, and what he's selling ain't it. It ain't it," Obama said.

In Cincinnati, the president vowed to win Ohio and the nation's highest office, "one more time."

Campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the president was "reflective" and "nostalgic" working the crowds.

"He's enjoying himself," Psaki said, adding, "He's taking in every moment."

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In Des Moines, Iowa, and Cleveland, Romney told voters that Obama's record, particularly on the economy, didn't warrant returning him to Washington.

"Throughout this campaign, using everything he can think of, President Obama has tried to convince you his last four years have been a success," Romney told a rally in Cleveland. "So his plan for the next four years is to take all the ideas from his first term -- the borrowing, Obamacare and all the rest -- and do them all over again. He calls his plan 'forward'. I call it forewarned."

In Des Moines, Romney said that would mean "continued, crippling unemployment. It means stagnant take-home pay. It means depressed home values and a devastated military.

"Unless we change course, we may be looking at another recession," he said. "We're only two days away from a very different path, from a fresh start."

While tn Newport News, Virginia, Romney urged supporters to look beyond rhetoric, to the candidates' records.

"You see, talk is cheap, but a record it's earned," he said. "Change can't be measured in speeches; change is measured in achievements."

National polls show the race locked in a virtual dead heat, or tied.

A new CNN poll showed 49% support for Obama, and 49% for Romney.

A Politico/George Washington University survey has it tied at 48%; an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll indicates Obama at 48% and Romney at 47%; and the latest ABC News/Washington Post tracking poll puts Obama at 49% and Romney at 48%.

In response to the numbers, a senior official with the Obama campaign said his team is confident in its "ground game."

"Would rather be us than them," the official said.

Romney's next stop was in Pennsylvania -- a state most published polls show leaning Democratic. But Romney's running mate, Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan, made a stop there Saturday, and Romney was headed for the Philadelphia suburbs Sunday evening.

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Romney adviser Kevin Madden told reporters on the campaign plane Sunday that Obama is "under-performing" in Pennsylvania, "and it's presented us an opportunity."

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"We have a really strong volunteer infrastructure that we think could make a difference," Madden added. "And that's why we're traveling there with two days to go, and we have spent a lot of time in the last few weeks concentrating on expanding the map."

The Obama campaign discounted Romney's chances of reclaiming Pennsylvania, which hasn't gone for a Republican presidential candidate since 1988. Psaki compared the GOP effort to "climbing Mount Everest without a guide, without a map and without support staff."

But she added, "We're not taking a single vote for granted," and Clinton will be campaigning all over the state on Obama's behalf.

Obama's running mate, Vice President Joe Biden, visited Cleveland on Sunday. He told a crowd at a high school that Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, are "running away from what they've stood for the last decade faster than you can imagine."

"But like a little kid, they can't run away from their shadow until the sun goes down," Biden said. "It's going down Tuesday."

Ryan started his day with a brief appearance at Lambeau Field, where he tailgated with fellow Green Bay Packers fans ahead of the team's 31-17 win over the Arizona Cardinals. He left before kickoff for Mansfield, Ohio, where he focused on shuttered auto plants and defense cuts in a state where Romney's opposition to the 2008 federal auto bailout of the U.S. auto industry has hurt the GOP. Mansfield was home to plant that made body parts for General Motors before the company's restructuring, when it was shut down.

"It's not going the right way in some places in America, and you know what it doesn't have to be like this. We don't have to settle for this," Ryan said. "This may be the best that President Obama can do, but it is not the best that America can do."

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The polling numbers are slightly different in the battlegrounds, where Obama holds a small edge in more states than Romney. But most of those leads are well within the polls' sampling errors.

Obama ends his blitz Monday with three rallies with rocker Bruce Springsteen in Madison, Wisconsin; Columbus, Ohio, where he'll be joined by rapper Jay-Z; and Des Moines, Iowa. First lady Michelle Obama will introduce the president to a crowd in Iowa, where Obama's 2008 Democratic campaign took off with a surprise win in the caucuses there. The couple then will head to Chicago, where they'll spend Election Day.

Romney's other stops include Sanford, Florida; Lynchburg and Fairfax, Virginia; Columbus, Ohio; and a finish in Manchester, New Hampshire, before making the short trip to Boston, where he'll spend Election Day.

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FIH Climbs on Reports of IPhone-Led Profit: Hong Kong Mover

Rose by a record in Hong Kong after HSBC Holdings Plc. and Citigroup Inc. raised ratings, citing a return to profit on orders for Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone and Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN)'s new device. FIH added 34 percent to HK$3.67 as of the midday break in Hong Kong, headed for the biggest gain since it began trading in February 2005. Over 156 million shares traded, more than 13- times the three-month moving average, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The benchmark Hang Seng Index fell 0.4 percent.

Employees of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. work along a production line in the Longhua Science and Technology Park, also known as Foxconn City, in Shenzhen, China. Photographer: Thomas Lee/Bloomberg

A transfer of orders for iPhones from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (2317), as well as a smartphone for Amazon.com will help Foxconn International boost factory utilization and return the company to profit, the two brokerages wrote in reports. Amazon is working with FIH to develop its first smartphone, Bloomberg News reported in July.
“These new customers (Apple and Amazon) should help lift utilization,” Taipei-based HSBC analysts Yolanda Wang and Joyce Chen wrote in a report today, raising their recommendation to overweight from underweight. Revenue will rise 41 percent in fiscal 2013 while operating margin will improve to 2.5 percent from -5.5 percent, they wrote.
Foxconn International, whose major clients include Nokia Oyj (NOK1V), Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and Sony Ericsson, will start producing iPhones late this year or early next year, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Taipei-based analyst Birdy Lu wrote in an Oct. 10 report.
`Golden Opportunity'
Hon Hai Precision, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics and the Taipei-based flagship of the Foxconn Technology Group, owns 69.5 percent of Foxconn International through its Foxconn Far East Ltd. unit. Its stock lost 1.4 percent in Taipei trading.
The company is unaware of any reason for today’s share price movement, it said in a Hong Kong exchange filing today. Spokesman Vincent Tong wasn’t available at his office and didn’t immediately reply to an e-mail from Bloomberg News.
“FIH has been the poster child for the decline of traditional handset brands - Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson, which together accounted for 90 percent of FIH’s sales back in 2007,” Citigroup Taipei-based analysts Kevin Chang and Jonathan Gu wrote in a report dated Nov. 2. Hon Hai transferred some iPhone orders to FIH from last month, they wrote.
“With internet/software companies getting into the smartphone space, FIH now has a golden opportunity to resume growth,” wrote Chang and Gu, who changed their rating to buy from neutral and raised their price target by 45 percent to HK$5.80. “We note that Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Xiaomi, Baidu, Tencent are all trying to launch smartphones and none has in-house manufacturing.”
Today’s climb stems FIH’s decline this year to 27 percent following a 7.7 percent drop last year and 40 percent in 2010. Its six-month loss widened 12-fold to $226 million for the period ending June 30, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. more info

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Syria conflict: Rebels 'attack key airbase at Taftanaz'

The attack follows recent shelling by government forces of Taftanaz village

Rebels in Syria say they have launched a major offensive to capture a key airbase in the north of the country.

Video posted on the internet showed fighters attacking the Taftanaz base in an attempt to control a strategic zone between Syria's two biggest cities, Aleppo and Damascus.
The attack comes a day before a crucial opposition meeting in Doha, Qatar.
It also follows the apparent murder of a number of Syrian troops by rebels, which drew international condemnation.
New leadership The attack on Taftanaz took place as dawn broke, with five different units of rebel fighters opening fire with multiple rocket launchers, mortars and other weaponry, according to the video.
The BBC's Jim Muir, in neighbouring Beirut, says this appears to be a major operation aimed not just at striking the airport, but at occupying it.

In recent months, the government forces have been making increasing use of air power to strike areas held by the rebels, who lack anti-aircraft weapons to deter the attacks.
Rebel forces are reported to have taken control of the main roads in much of the area south-west of Aleppo.
The video said the rebel groups involved included several brigades of the Free Syrian Army, but also the radical Islamist al-Nusra Front.
Our correspondent says that although nothing certain has been established, al-Nusra has been named in connection with the killing of captured army soldiers two days ago at Saraqeb, just 15km (10 miles) from where this latest attack is taking place.
The UN has said the video that appears to show the murder of the soldiers or pro-government militiamen could be evidence of a war crime.

Video allegedly showing the shooting of Syrian troops drew international condemnation

The footage shows gunmen beating and shooting a group of prisoners who were cowering on the floor.
On Friday, the US said it "condemned human rights violations by any party in Syria".
State department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said: "There is no justification for that kind of behaviour ever. Anyone committing atrocities should be held to account."
The question of apparent brutality by some rebel units has become a serious concern ahead of the major opposition meeting being held in Qatar this weekend.

“Start Quote

At the most basic level, Western governments who oppose the Assad regime need a single address for their diplomatic contacts”

Jonathan Marcus BBC diplomatic correspondent

The US is hoping a new leadership will help unify the disparate opposition elements and bring a successful conclusion to an uprising that has killed more than 36,000 people since protests against President Bashar al-Assad erupted in March 2011.

Divisions have arisen not just between Islamist and secularist groups, but also between those operating inside Syria and opposition figures working abroad.
Ms Nuland said there was a need for cohesion of rebel forces within Syria and a strong organisation outside the country that could work with the international community.
A previous opposition meeting in Cairo in July accepted that the Assad government must fall but failed to appoint a committee to act for the opposition internationally.
The US this week signalled the opposition needed to be expanded from the main overseas grouping, the Syrian National Council, to take in more of those operating inside Syria.
Representatives at Doha will include various other religious and secular groupings, plus Kurdish figures and dissident members of Mr Assad's Alawite sect.

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