Ohio election officials brace for early voting

Singer John Legend greets fans after a rally Monday, Sept. 29, 2008, on the campus of Ohio State University, in Columbus, Ohio. Legend, a Springfield, Ohio native, encouraged Barack Obama supporters to cast their ballots early and take advantage of the month-long early voting window leading up to Election Day. (AP Photo/Terry Gilliam)

CLEVELAND—Voters in this crucial swing state began casting absentee ballots Tuesday, a day after state and federal courts upheld a disputed early voting law.

Five people were waiting at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections when doors opened at 8:30 a.m. Two in line said they were voting for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, including John Fuller, 73, a retired hospital orderly from Cleveland.

Fuller said voting early would allow him to work on Election Day helping others get out and vote.

Election officials around Ohio were preparing for a rush of early voting Tuesday, the first day absentee ballots are accepted in advance of the Nov. 4 presidential election.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, is also allowing new voters to register and cast an absentee ballot on the same day during a weeklong period that ends Oct. 6.

For weeks, the Ohio Republican Party accused Brunner of interpreting the early voting law to benefit her own party by allowing same-day registering and voting. Republicans argued that Ohio law requires voters to have been registered for 30 days before they cast an absentee ballot.

But the Republican-dominated Ohio Supreme Court decided Monday that Brunner was following the law. The decision was backed by a federal judge in Cleveland. Another federal judge in Columbus declined to rule, deferring to the state Supreme Court's decision.

In Cuyahoga County, the state's most populous county, election workers underwent two days of training last week to properly process voters who are registering and voting on the same day.

Fuller and others in line Tuesday morning were previously registered.

Julia Kramer, 19, a Case Western Reserve University freshman from New York City and an Obama volunteer, was second in line. She said she's been working on campus to register out-of-state students to change their registrations to Ohio because of its critical role in the election.

Nevertheless, "A lot of people are really attached to their hometowns," Kramer said. "It's hard to explain to people that your vote (in New York) won't count as much."

In Columbus, voters wanting to cast ballots as soon as possible on Tuesday morning had set up tents Monday night to wait in line outside the Franklin County Board of Elections.

The outcome of the court battles is likely to benefit Democrats in a state that narrowly awarded President Bush re-election in 2004.

Obama's campaign has organized car pools beginning Tuesday from college campuses to early voting sites. The Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless is ferrying voters from homeless shelters to polling sites in the Cleveland area. Other organizations that seek to increase poor and minority participation in elections are transporting voters from low-income neighborhoods.

The targeted voters have all traditionally had a harder time getting registered, and then getting to polling places on Election Day. Thanks to Monday's court decisions, these Democratic-leaning voters can do it all at once.

It's a reality that inspired the Ohio GOP to lash out at Brunner once again. "This is a win for Jennifer Brunner's partisan efforts to aide the Democrat turnout strategy," said Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Bennett in a statement.

Still, Republicans weren't ceding the early voting crowd just because they were engaged in a court challenge.

"You have a special opportunity to help elect John McCain, Sarah Palin and Republicans across the ballot," a page on the Republican National Committee's Web site said.

McCain's presidential campaign has not provided as many details as the Obama campaign on how it intends to take advantage of the window, but still plans to push it.

The window occurs because state law requires absentee voting to begin 35 days before Election Day, on Sept. 30, while the end of registration for this election is Oct. 6. The window was used by voters sparingly in previous elections, but never got any attention until the Republican-controlled Legislature passed a law in 2005 that enabled all Ohio voters to vote absentee.

Cadbury recalls Chinese-made products

British chocolate maker Cadbury said Monday tests have „cast doubt" on the safety of its Chinese-made products and ordered a recall, the latest foreign company affected by China's tainted milk scandal.

Foto: AP

British chocolate Cadbury said in a statement issued Monday by its Singapore office that tests had "cast doubt on the integrity of a range of our products manufactured in China." Hong Kong's government said Cadbury is recalling 11 types of Chinese-made chocolates as a precaution.

China stops tainted sweet sales

The sweets were found to contain a chemical used to make plastic

A Chinese sweet maker has stopped domestic sales of one of its best-known brands after it was found to contain the industrial chemical melamine.

The company, Guanshengyuan, has already halted exports of the popular White Rabbit candy, made from milk.

It is the latest development in a spreading food safety scandal involving milk contaminated with melamine.

Traces of the chemical have also been found in Hong Kong and Japan in products containing Chinese milk.

They are among a growing number of countries which have already banned or restricted imports of Chinese products containing milk.

Four babies have died and more than 53,000 children have so far been made ill by drinking contaminated powder milk in China.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has meanwhile urged five countries to immediately recall all milk powder imported from China.

Car Bomb Attack on Lebanese Army Bus Kills 5

Forensic experts search for evidence in the bus wreckage at the site of explosion in the northern...

Forensic experts search for evidence in the bus wreckage at the site of explosion in the northern city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Monday, Sept. 29, 2008. A car bomb exploded Monday near a military bus carrying troops on their way to work in northern Lebanon, killing five people and injuring 26, Lebanese security officials said.

(Ahmad Omar/AP Photo)

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (Reuters) - A car bomb tore through an army bus in northern Lebanon on Monday, killing four soldiers and a civilian passerby in the second attack on the army in less than two months, security sources said.

Thirty-five people were also wounded in the blast in the city of Tripoli, scene of an August 13 bombing that killed 10 soldiers and five civilians at a bus stop.

The car bomb exploded during the morning rush hour in the Buhsas area at the southern entrance to Lebanon's second largest city, hurling mangled metal through the bus, damaging other vehicles and shattering windows of nearby buildings.

"Once again the hand of treachery has reached the military institution in a clear targeting of security and stability," the army said in a statement, describing the bombing as a terrorist act. There were no immediate claims of responsibility.

Somali pirates remain at large on Ukrainian cargo ship

Somali pirates in small boats are seen alongside the hijacked cargo ship Faina in this picture released by U.S. Navy on Sunday. (U.S. Navy/Associated Press)Somali pirates who seized a Ukrainian ship laden with military hardware last week remained at large on Tuesday, even as they denied reports that three of their own were killed in a shootout aboard the ship.

Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program said there was an unconfirmed report that three Somali pirates were killed Monday night in a dispute over whether to surrender to U.S. warships that have surrounded the ship.

Pentagon officials later verified the report.

But a spokesman for the pirates insisted there was no truth to the account.

"We didn't dispute over a single thing, let alone have a shootout," pirate spokesman Sugule Ali told the Associated Press by satellite phone.

The 21-person crew aboard the ship includes 17 Ukrainians, three Russians and a Latvian. One of the crewmembers died on Sunday of an apparent heart attack, reported the Associated Press.

The pirates have demanded a $20-million US ransom for the cargo ship Faina and its cargo of 33 Soviet-designed tanks and weapons, which they hijacked on Sept. 25 as it was passing the Gulf of Aden off the Indian Ocean en route to the Kenyan port of Mombasa. The gulf is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

The San Diego-based USS guided missile destroyer Howard has been watching the pirate ship for several days and has spoken to the pirates and crew by radio.

On Monday, U.S. naval officials said several other U.S. ships and helicopters had joined the watch, but declined to give details. Russia has also dispatched a warship to the area, but it will take about a week to get there.