Michigan biggest head-to-head fight for Romney, Santorum

DETROIT (Reuters) - After weeks of skirmishes, the two leading Republican U.S. presidential candidates are locked in their biggest head-to-head battle in Michigan - one that tests Mitt Romney's status as the favorite in the race and Rick Santorum's ability to go beyond an insurgent campaign.

Romney and Santorum have launched negative ads against each other in the big Midwestern state, home to the nation's auto industry, which holds its primary on February 28.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and private equity executive, needs to win the primary to dispel doubts about the viability of his White House bid.

Romney's opposition to the U.S. government bailout of Michigan automakers in 2009 may come back to haunt him as Santorum rises in polls following his sweep of the February 7 contests in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri.

Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, has taken a risk by choosing Michigan as a battleground to take on Romney, who has family ties to Michigan and a strong organization in the economically distressed state.

But a poll of 450 likely Michigan Republican primary voters released on Tuesday found Santorum leading Romney 34 percent to 25 percent in the state. According to the Mitchell/Rosetta Stone Poll, Santorum is outpacing Romney in Michigan among voters who identify themselves as members of the conservative Tea Party movement, evangelical Christians and the "very conservative."

Nationwide, the former underdog Santorum now leads Romney in polls of Republican voters by several percentage points.

The Republican candidates are waging a state-by-state battle to win the party's nomination to challenge President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in the November 6 U.S. general election.

Santorum is braced to come under a heavy barrage of attacks from Romney, whose negative ads helped destroy opponent Newt Gingrich's efforts earlier in the campaign in Iowa and Florida.

'ROMBO' COMMERCIAL

Trying to preempt Romney's assault, Santorum on Wednesday released his own negative ad, which accuses his rival of slinging mud at fellow Republicans.

"Mitt Romney's negative attack machine is back. On full throttle. This time Romney's firing his mud at Rick Santorum," says the ad, entitled "Rombo" and running in Michigan as well as online. The ad shows a man who looks like Romney firing mud from a gun in a disused factory at a moving target of Santorum.

It is an attempt to lessen the harm from a pro-Romney group, Restore Our Future, that has bought $640,000 in airtime in Michigan so far to paint Santorum as a Washington insider who favored big federal spending during his time in the Senate.

"Santorum voted to raise the debt limit five times and for billions in wasteful projects," the pro-Romney ad says.

The Romney campaign also accused Santorum of being "big labor's favorite senator."

Romney spoke on Wednesday in Grand Rapids in a part of the state that is likely to favor Santorum, a social conservative.

Romney explained his opposition to President Barack Obama's $81 billion auto rescue plan - a bailout plan that was popular in Michigan. "Here in Michigan, the president finally came around to my own view that Detroit needed to go through managed bankruptcy, the auto companies needed to go through managed bankruptcy to shed their excess costs," he said.

A new survey by the Democratic-affiliated Public Policy Polling organization showed Obama with a double-digit percentage lead nationally over any of the Republican candidates, with the president leading Romney by 16 percentage points and Santorum by 11 percentage points.

Conversely, Santorum on Thursday will address the Detroit Economic Club, a bastion of the kind of pro-business Republicans who back Romney, the former Bain Capital executive.

Santorum also opposed Obama's $81 billion auto bailout but was less vocal than Romney, who described the car company rescue as "crony capitalism" in an op-ed piece in The Detroit News this week.

TARGETING SANTORUM

Addding to the sense that Santorum's rise is no mere fad, senior Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod targeted Santorum during an appearance on the CBS program "This Morning."

"I don't think the average working person in this country is going to look at his policies and say, 'Yeah, that's the ticket for me,'" Axelrod said.

In the past week, Santorum's views on the role of women in the workplace and in the military have landed him in hot water.

Romney was born in Michigan. His father, George Romney, was governor from 1963 to 1969. Although Romney now has homes in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and California, he will claim Michigan as home, at least for the next two weeks.

Santorum has stressed his Pennsylvania background and strong religious faith as the right fit for many of Michigan's working-class voters. Around one-third of Michigan voters are Roman Catholic like him.

As the insurgent candidate, Santorum lacks the money and organization that Romney possesses.

Michigan officials and party activists said they doubt Santorum's rise in the state will last until primary day.

"I don't see the infrastructure in place. I don't see them doing what they need to do to win," said Bill Nowling, a former communications director for the Michigan Republican Party.

A victory for either man could prove a crucial launching pad for their campaigns heading into "Super Tuesday," March 6, when 10 states hold nominating contests.

Both Santorum and Romney will hit Obama hard for the weakness of Michigan's economy. But many in the state see signs of growth, including a dropping unemployment rate and an unexpected $457 million surplus for the state's budget.

Even a decent second-place finish could be work for Santorum, who long lingered near the bottom of the Republican pack for much of the campaign. On Tuesday, he said in Idaho he hopes to "finish a good, strong second" in Michigan.

(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell and Todd Eastham)

Peaceful start to Maharashtra civic corporation polls

Mumbai, Feb 16 (IANS) Polling started on a peaceful note here and nine other municipal corporations around the state Thursday.

Over 25,000 security personnel have been deployed in Mumbai, the biggest corporation going to polls, where around 1.30 crore people can exercise their franchise Thursday.

A total of 3.5 crore people will elect 1,244 municipal councillors, including 624 women, in Mumbai, Thane, Ulhasnagar, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Solapur, Nashik, Akola, Amravati and Nagpur municipal corporations.

Of the total, Mumbai has nearly one-third of the voters, underlining the importance of the country's commercial capital.

Around 8,326 voting centres are being set up across the city, with 41,000 municipal officers on duty.

Police have also stepped up security measures, deploying around 2,375 officers, 20,982 constables, and five additional companies of the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) along with the existing three companies.

Three companies of the Rapid Action Force (RAF) and 2,000 Home Guards will be deployed in the city on the poll day, Mumbai Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik said.

According to Patnaik, of the 211 sensitive polling stations, comprising 883 booths, four have been declared hyper-sensitive. There will be maximum deployment of security personnel at the hyper-sensitive spots, where CCTVs have been installed.

Sale of liquor has been prohibited for three days from Wednesday. Two control rooms have also been set up for poll-related complaints. Emergency numbers (022-22623054 and 022-22621983) have been dedicated for it.

India asks Norway to facilitate return of children in fostercare in Norway

New Delhi, Feb 15 (ANI): Norwegian Ambassador Ann Ollestad was called in by Secretary (West) M.Ganapathi on Wednesday to convey the Government's continued serious concerns regarding the two young children currently placed in foster care by the Norwegian childcare services.

The Secretary (West) drew the envoy's attention to the conversation that had taken place between External Affair Minister S M Krishna and the Foreign Minister of Norway on January 23 during which Krishna had urged the minister to find an amicable and urgent solution to ensure that the children are united with their extended family in India.

Ganapathi told Ollestad that the issue must be resolved the soonest possible due to its humanitarian dimension. Pointing out that cultural alienation could result from keeping such young children away from their own familial milieu, he strongly urged the Norwegian Government to do its utmost to expedite the process under way.

He reiterated that it would be in the children's best interest to return to India as early as feasible so that they can grow up under the loving care of their grandparents and other family members.

Ollestad promised to convey the various points made by Ganapathi to her government and emphasize the priority attached to the earliest possible resolution of this matter.

The matter is also being pursued actively in by the Indian Embassy in Oslo with all concerned authorities.

Three-year-old Abhigyan and one-year-old Aishwarya have been placed under the care of two different foster families in Norway. The Norway authorities had said that the children were taken away as their parents, Sagarika and Anurup, were not taking proper care of them.

The parents, however, said the authorities took exception to cultural differences such as sleeping with the children and breastfeeding the daughter at scheduled times as opposed to when she cried. (ANI)

Future 2G telecom licences to be de-linked from spectrum: Sibal

New Delhi, Feb.15 (ANI): Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday announced new rules for the telecom sector in which he said that the government has decided to de-link granting of future telecom licences from spectrum allocation.

Addressing a news conference here, Sibal said all license henceforth will be unified and added that there will be a cap on spectrum capacity in case of mergers and acquisitions which in turn requires surrendering excess capacity.

Sibal said additional spectrum can be acquired through an auction.

He also said that all licences would have to be renewed after 10 years.

For the efficient management of spectrum, he said that the Telecom Regulatoru Authority of India (TRAI) would take regular audits and also review the usage of spectrum. (ANI)

US dismisses Iran's nuke achievements

Washington, Feb 16 (IANS) The US has dismissed the nuclear achievements demonstrated by Iran as something not terribly new and impressive.

Washington expected to learn more from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)inspectors currently on the ground in Iran about what the country demonstrated earlier in the day, Xinhua quoted US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland as saying Wednesday.

Iran's move laid bare the pressure of its international and diplomatic isolation, as the "unprecedented" sanctions are still growing, she said.

"Well, I can't speculate any further as to Iran's motives behind its various actions. But our view on this is it's not terribly new, and it's not terribly impressive," she said, adding "This strikes us as calibrated mostly for a domestic audience."

At a ceremony held in Tehran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled nuclear fuel rods, new generation of centrifuges and a number of radioactive medicines for the treatment of cancer.

He also fed a homemade fuel rod made out of 20-percent enriched uranium into the core of the Tehran Research Reactor.

Nuland also confirmed that EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton had got a response from Saeed Jalili, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, to the letter she sent in October last year, a move the West had been demanding as a precondition for the resumption of talks with Iran over its controversial nuclear programme.

"Our interest is in Iran abiding by its international obligations, renouncing its interest in nuclear weapons and returning to the international community," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

"And that path remains open to Iran as long as it is interested in talks that they would approach in a constructive manner," he told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Wisconsin state.

The West suspects that Iran is developing nuclear bombs under the cover of its nuclear programme. But the Islamic republic insists the programme is only for power generation and medical purpose.

Israel embassy bomber was very well trained: Chidambaram

New Delhi: Home Minister P. Chidambaram said Tuesday that the lone motorcyclist who tried to assassinate an Israeli diplomat's wife here was "a very well trained person".

"It is very clear that a very well trained person has committed this attack," Chidambaram said, referring to Monday's bomb attack in the heart of the city that badly injured the wife of the defence attache.

"There is also reason to believe that the target was the Israeli diplomat's wife. Therefore, one has to proceed on the basis that it was a terrorist attack," the minister told reporters.

The victim, Tal Yehoshua Koren, was still in hospital but in stable condition, he added.

"The condition of the lady is stable. She has suffered splinter injuries and some other injuries. She is out of danger."

Three other Indians, including her driver, were also injured in the attack. They were discharged after medical attention was given to them.

Giving the first official sequence of the audacious attack for which Israel has blamed Iran, Chidambaram said the motorcycle rider came from behind Koren's car when it halted at a traffic junction on Safdarjung Road, not far from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence.

"The person attached a device to the rear door of the car, on the right hand side, crossed the diving verge, swung past the car (and sped away)," he said.

He quoted an eyewitness as telling police that a powerful explosion, heard in a range of one kilometre, happened "within seconds".

"We believe," he said, "the explosion happened within four to five seconds of the device being attached (to the car)."

The minister said investigations were on and CCTV cameras were being screened. But there was "no clear image of the motorcycle rider or the number plate".

"We condemn this incident. At the moment I am not pointing any finger at any particular group or organisation. Whoever did it, we condemn it in the strongest terms.

"We have friendly relations with Israel, just as we have very friendly relations with other countries," he said, adding that attacking any member of the diplomatic community on Indian soil was unacceptable.

He said India had assured Israel that "the investigation will proceed until we find the perpetrator of the attack".

Chidambaram said Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon had spoken to the Israeli ambassador, Alon Ushpiz.

The attack here Monday happened on the same day when an attempted attack on the Israeli embassy in Tbilisi was filed when an employee discovered a car fitted with an explosive device near the diplomatic mission.

Speaking in Jerusalem, Netanyahu blamed recent attempts on Israeli officials abroad on "Iran and its client Hezbollah". He called Iran "the world's greatest exporter of terror".

Iran has denied any involvement in the terror attack Monday.

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