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County dispatcher: 45-year-old suspect in fatal Wisconsin spa shooting found dead
BROOKFIELD, Wis. (AP) -- A county dispatcher in Wisconsin says the suspect in a mass shooting at a spa outside Milwaukee has been found dead.
Christine Bannister is a dispatch supervisor for Waukesha County communications center. She says 45-year-old Radcliffe Franklin Haughton, of Brown Deer, has been found dead. She could not provide more details.
Police say three people were killed and four wounded in the Sunday morning shooting at the Azana Day Spa. Authorities spent much of Sunday afternoon looking for the gunman.
They say they believe the shooting was related to a domestic dispute.
The spa is a two-story, 9,000-square-foot building across from a major shopping mall in Brookfield, a middle-to-upper class community west of Milwaukee.
Obama, Romney allies square off on foreign policy, setting prickly tone for final debate
WASHINGTON (AP) -- On the eve of their final presidential debate, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama -- through their allies -- squared off Sunday over which candidate would best protect the nation’s interests and security abroad with just two weeks left in a race that polls show is increasingly tight.
Both candidates stayed largely out of view, preparing vigorously for their Monday face-off focused on foreign policy.
Republicans accused Obama of leaking word of possible
The haggling played out on Sunday news shows at a critical time for Romney and Obama, whose marathon race has become exceedingly close as it lurches toward its November conclusion. Early and absentee voting are already under way in many of the most competitive states, upping the pressure on both candidates to lock in supporters.
Two weeks out, the race appears to be tied, with both candidates taking 47 percent among likely voters in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Sunday that reflected a boost of support for Romney following his lauded performance in the first debate in early October.
Lebanese protesters try to storm palace after funeral for slain anti-Syria official
BEIRUT (AP) -- The funeral for Lebanon’s slain intelligence chief descended into chaos Sunday as soldiers fired tear gas at protesters who tried to storm the government palace, directing their rage at a leadership they consider puppets of a murderous Syrian regime.
The assassination of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hassan in a massive car bomb Friday threatens to shatter the fragile political balance in Lebanon, a country plagued by decades of strife -- much of it linked to political and military domination by Damascus.
"The Sunni blood is boiling!" the crowd chanted as hundreds of people clashed with security forces. More than 100 protesters broke through a police cordon of concertina wire and metal gates, putting them within 50 yards of the entrance to the palace.
Authorities responded with tear gas and several officers fired machine guns and rifles in the air. One plain clothes guard pulled a pistol from his belt and fired over protesters’ heads. Then a roar of automatic gunfire erupted, sending the protesters scattering for cover.
It was unclear if the guards fired live bullets or blanks, but no protesters were reported injured by gunfire. Several were overcome by tear gas, and the government’s media office said 15 guards were injured.
A smaller pool of voters may decide election; just 106 counties in 9 states
LEESBURG, Va. (AP) -- How Virginia goes in the presidential election may come down to voters who live amid the small wineries, affluent subdivisions and Civil War battlegrounds of Loudoun County.
Voters in the tony Hamilton County suburbs around the humming riverside economic engine of Cincinnati may tip the balance in Ohio.
To win Florida, either President Barack Obama or Mitt Romney probably will have carried Hillsborough County, where the urban seaport town of Tampa bleeds into communities of Spanish-speaking voters and retired Midwesterners.
Those areas are vastly different, yet each is full of fickle voters and bound by a proclivity to swing between Republican and Democrat every four years. All are main targets as the president and his Republican challenger look for enough victories in enough states to reach the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the White House.
The race may come down to an even narrower slice of the electorate than the nine most contested states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. The outcome probably will depend on what happens in the 106 counties that Republican George W. Bush won in 2004 and that voted Democrat Obama in 2008, according to an Associated Press analysis.
Taxes going up for 163 million workers, regardless of election
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama isn’t talking about it and neither is Mitt Romney. But come January, 163 million workers can expect to feel the pinch of a big tax increase regardless of who wins the election.
A temporary reduction in Social Security payroll taxes is due to expire at the end of the year and hardly anyone in Washington is pushing to extend it. Neither Obama nor Romney has proposed an extension, and it probably wouldn’t get through Congress anyway, with lawmakers in both parties down on the idea.
Even Republicans who have sworn off tax increases have little appetite to prevent one that will cost a typical worker about $1,000 a year, and two-earner family with six-figure incomes as much as $4,500.
Why are so many politicians sour on continuing the payroll tax break?
Republicans question whether reducing the tax two years ago has done much to stimulate the sluggish economy. Politicians from both parties say they are concerned that it threatens the independent revenue stream that funds Social Security.
Ex Venezuelan VP confirms meeting
with Fidel Castro
HAVANA (AP) -- Former Venezuelan Vice President Elias Jaua said Sunday that he met with aging revolutionary icon Fidel Castro for five hours and showed The Associated Press photos of the encounter, quashing persistent rumors that the former Cuban leader was on his deathbed or had suffered a massive stroke.
Jaua also confirmed that the 86-year-old retired Cuban president personally accompanied him to the Hotel Nacional after their meeting Saturday, in which they talked about politics, history, culture and tourism.
"He had the courtesy of bringing me to the hotel," Jaua said Sunday, adding that Castro looked "very well."
Jaua showed a photograph of himself seated in a minibus along with the former Cuban leader, Castro’s wife, Dalia Soto del Valle, a hotel executive and several other people. The photo shows Jaua and Castro smiling broadly, and the former Cuban leader is wearing a checked shirt and cowboy hat.
