McCain trying to distance self from Bush
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Republican John McCain, trying to boost his numbers in the tight presidential race, has been attempting to put air between him and U.S. President George Bush.
The Arizona senator has stepped up his criticism of the Bush administration, denouncing its financial policies as he tries to position himself as a departure from, not a continuation of, the current administration, The Washington Post reported.
McCain's new stump speech focuses on the administration's handling of the financial crisis, suggesting that the Treasury Department was more interested in "bailing out the banks" rather than helping homeowners avoid foreclosure.
"I am so disturbed that this administration has not done what we have to do, and that is to go out and buy up these bad mortgages," McCain said during a weekend campaign event.
The new focus represents recognition that McCain has not distanced himself sufficiently from the Bush administration to which Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama has linked him.
"The majority of the swing voters don't believe it, but some do, and we have to convince them that we are different from Bush," a senior McCain campaign adviser told the Post.
Among independents, a Washington Post-ABC News poll indicates 54 percent see McCain as moving in a different direction from Bush, up from 44 percent before the third presidential debate.
Poll: Obama leading in 2 key counties
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama gained support in two key counties that could spell wins in Nevada and North Carolina, a Politico poll indicates.
Voters Nevada's Washoe County around Reno indicated they favor Obama over Republican presidential candidate John McCain by a double-digit margin, 50 percent to 40 percent, results of the Politico-InsiderAdvantage survey released Tuesday indicates.
In Wake County, N.C., which includes Raleigh, Obama holds a 53 percent-to-43 percent lead over McCain.
As the second-most populous counties in their respective states, Wake and Washoe are critical to McCain's campaigns in North Carolina and Nevada, the Washington publication said. President George Bush won both counties in 2000 and 2004.
Despite Obama's appeal in the two counties, both Nevada and North Carolina are considered competitive at the statewide level, the Politico/InsiderAdvantage poll indicates. McCain and Obama are tied at 47 percent in Nevada, while Obama holds a statistically insignificant 49 percent-to-48 percent advantage over McCain in North Carolina.
The Washoe County poll had 476 respondents and the Wake County poll surveyed 414. Both surveys were conducted Sunday and both have a margin of error of 5 percentage points.
NATO's Afghanistan will said wavering
LONDON, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- The West's will to continue fighting in Afghanistan is wavering and reluctance to send troops into tough war zones is rising, a NATO military chief says.
U.S. Army Gen. John Craddock, NATO's supreme allied commander for Europe, says the growing reluctance by unnamed countries is hindering efforts to fight Islamic extremists, battle Afghanistan's opium trade and counter corruption, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported Tuesday.
"We are demonstrating a political will that is in my judgment sometimes wavering," Craddock said Monday in a speech to London's Royal United Services Institute, a military think tank. "A brief look at the will of our allies in the mission in Afghanistan demonstrates some real shortcomings."
Although Craddock didn't mention any countries by name, Germany is one of the NATO members that has restricted its soldiers to the relatively safe northern part of the country and doesn't allow for combat missions, Deutsche Welle said. And while NATO commanders have called for more troops, member countries have been slow to commit.
In the speech, Craddock reportedly endorsed the view that Taliban insurgents will have to be engaged in negotiations at some point, saying, "The conflict in Afghanistan cannot be won by military means alone."
Ex-Chicago cop held for lying about abuse
CHICAGO, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Federal prosecutors say a former Chicago police commander was arrested Tuesday on charges stemming from the alleged brutalizing of suspects.
The FBI picked up Jon Burge at his home near Tampa, Fla., on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying about the alleged physical abuse and torture of suspects dating to the 1980s.
The U.S. attorney's office in Chicago said in a written statement that Burge would appear in a Tampa federal courtroom Tuesday to answer the charges.
The statement said Burge was a supervisor in the Chicago Police Department's Area Two and allegedly was aware of officers working over suspects, including one who later sued the department.
Burge gave written statements in the civil case in which he said that he was unaware of any instances of physical abuse or threats in the interrogation of suspects. Prosecutors said Tuesday that Burge not only knew of the practices but had taken part in such incidents.
Riot erupts at Mexican prison
MEXICO CITY, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Nearly two dozen inmates were killed and at least eight others injured during a fight in a Mexican prison just across the border from Texas.
A fight broke out between rival gangs at the facility just over the border from McAllen, Texas, El Universal reported Tuesday.
Monday's brawl was ended when soldiers surrounded the facility.
Prison officials and guards at the Tamaulipas state facility were suspended pending an investigation, El Universal said.
Last month, a riot at another prison in Tijuana left 23 people dead.
Survey: More U.S. homeless families
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (UPI) -- The number of families with children becoming homeless is growing as mortgage foreclosures add to mounting economic pressures, a survey indicates.
USA Today's poll of local officials around the country found more homeless families in Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle and Washington, the newspaper reported Tuesday.
"Everywhere I go, I hear there is an increase" in the need for help to homeless families, Philip Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, told USA Today, adding that the main causes are job losses and mortgage foreclosures.
The newspaper found that in New York City, 2,747 families applied for shelter in September, up from 2,087 in September 2007. Meanwhile in Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, 880 families were listed as being in shelters from January through August 2008, up from 698 in that period in 2007.
Cathy ten Broeke, a Hennepin County official in charge of efforts to end homelessness, told USA Today that at least 10 percent of this year's homeless families came from foreclosed properties where most had been renters.
