New York City: Power Being Switched Back On

Energy companies have been working day and night to restore power to parts of New York devastated by the powerful Sandy storm.

In the last 24 hours, engineers in Manhattan have managed to repair 11 power grids damaged by the high winds and storm surge.

Around 5,800 homes were still without electricity in Manhattan as of Saturday morning.

The worst-hit area of New York remains Queens - with 81,000 people still without power. Brooklyn and Staten Island both have 31,000 and the Bronx has 25,000 without electricity.

Runners make their way through Queens during the 2011 race

A statement from energy firm Con Edison said it had now restored power to 70% of customers - around 645,000 homes.

It said: "The hurricane is the worst natural disaster to strike Con Edison's customers in the company's history.

"Crews are facing thousands of downed wires in New York City and Westchester County.

"Some cannot be re-energised since they are in flood zones with damage that bars the safe re-introduction of electricity."

A man shovels away sand swept in by the storm surge generated by Sandy

Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, has also said that 80% of the city's subway system has now been restored.

He also urged local people not to panic about a fuel shortage, and said petrol supplies were on the way.

"Do not panic. I know there is anxiety about fuel," he said. "The situation has been remedied. Gas stations will be getting fuel."

A lot of repair and clean-up work remains on the US East Coast, with parts of New Jersey also badly hit by the storm on Monday night and facing being cut off from electricity until the middle of November.

A woman looks through the wreckage of her home in Staten Island

Motorists in 12 New Jersey counties will only be allowed to buy petrol every other day under order of governor Chris Christie.

Petrol stations have seen long queues and angry scenes as people attempt to fill up after the storm.

President Barack Obama said: "We still have a long way to go to make sure the people of New Jersey, Connecticut, New York and some of the other surrounding areas get their basic needs taken care of and we start moving back to normalcy.

"It is critical for us to get power back on as quickly as possible. It is a painstaking process but we are making progress.

A fallen tree on top of a parked car in the borough of Queens in New York

"As we start seeing the weather get a little bit colder people can't be without power for long periods of time."

In his weekly radio address he added: "We're Americans, when times are tough, we're tougher. We put others first. We go that extra mile.

"We open our hearts and our homes to one another, as one American family. We recover, we rebuild, we come back stronger -- and together we will do that once more."

The official death toll for those in the US now stands at 109 people, on top of at least 69 people killed when Sandy tore through the Caribbean.

Estimates put the total damage up to $50bn (£30bn), according to forecasting firm Eqecat - making it the second costliest after Hurricane Katrina.

It comes after mayor Michael Bloomberg finally agreed to cancel the New York Marathon after outrage from residents left homeless or beset by power cuts.

The U-turn came just three hours after he defended the decision to hold it.

Concerns were raised that the city's already stretched police force would be redeployed to patrol the race from carrying out relief work and storm victims could be evicted from hotels to make room for people taking part.

There had been growing anger too at the thought of big generators being brought in to power equipment at the finish-line tents in Central Park, while vast swathes of the city's population were still struggling without electricity.

Mr Bloomberg said: "It is clear that it has become the source of controversy and division.

"The marathon has always brought our city together and inspired us with stories of courage and determination.

"We would not want a cloud to hang over the race or its participants, and so we have decided to cancel it.

"We cannot allow a controversy over an athletic event - even one as meaningful as this - to distract attention away from all the critically important work that is being done to recover from the storm and get our city back on track."

An estimated 40,000 runners from around the world had been expected to take part in the 26.2-mile event.

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Expenses: MacShane Letters Protected By Rules

Letters in which a former Labour minister admitted expenses abuses cannot be used to prosecute him because they are protected by parliamentary privilege, an official has said.

Denis MacShane stepped down as an MP after a damning report from the Commons expenses watchdog found he had wrongly claimed thousands of pounds.

The report said he submitted 19 false invoices "plainly intended to deceive" Parliament's expenses authority - which said the case was the "gravest" it had dealt with.

There are now calls for a police investigation into Mr MacShane's expense claims, which was dropped in July, to be reopened.

The Metropolitan Police said: "We are aware of the report and will be assessing its content in due course."

The letters, which were never shown to the original inquiry because of parliamentary privilege, are likely to be examined by the police, but are still protected from being used in court.

Clerk of the Journals Liam Laurence Smyth, who is responsible for parliamentary privilege issues, admitted that many people would find the situation "surprising", but said privilege was necessary for Parliament to function effectively.

Even if Mr MacShane had openly admitted criminal behaviour in his evidence, the police would not be able to rely on the comments in court, he said.

However, he suggested the police might now be able to use the letters as a "map" to further their own enquiries.

Conservative MP Philip Davies, who urged the Met to reopen its investigation, said it was a "sad state of affairs" that Mr MacShane was protected by parliamentary privilege.

"All it will do is further undermine the reputation of Parliament," he said.

"There will be millions of people out there who think that MPs are above the law and that is what the perception will be."

Parliamentary Standards Commissioner John Lyon found the MP had entered 19 "misleading" expenses claims for research and translation services from a body called the European Policy Institute (EPI), signed by its supposed general manager.

However, the institute did not exist "in this form" by the time in question and the general manager's signature was provided by Mr MacShane himself or someone else "under his authority".

One letter from the MP to Mr Lyon in October 2009 described how he drew funds from the EPI so he could serve on a book-judging panel in Paris.

"I appreciate the committee's ruling that I made no personal gain and I regret my foolishness in the manner I chose to be reimbursed for work including working as the Prime Minister's personal envoy in Europe," he said.

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Obama And Romney Trade Economy Blows

US President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney have each seized on new employment figures to bolster their campaigns with just days to go before Tuesday's election.

Jobs and the economy were the dominant issue in the presidential race as both candidates arrived in the key swing state of Ohio to address voters.

The latest employment snapshot showed the US economy added 171,000 net new jobs in October. It also showed hiring was stronger in August and September than first thought.

Mr Obama, who faces voters with the highest unemployment rate of any incumbent since Franklin Roosevelt during the Great Depression of the 1930s, told supporters in Hilliard that another month of job growth was "real progress".

But he went on to declare: "We've got more work to do."

At the same time, the unemployment rate rose to 7.9% in October, from 7.8% in September, mainly because more people began looking for work.

Mr Obama waves to supporters during a rally at Lima Senior High School

That news was seized upon by the Republicans as proof the economy is still stagnating, and would be safer in the hands of businessman Mr Romney, who said the jobs report was a "sad reminder that the economy is at a virtual standstill".

In September, the jobless rate had fallen from 8.1% to 7.8% and the drop was used by Mr Obama's campaign as evidence that the fragile US economy was finally on the mend.

Back on the campaign trail after two days lost due to superstorm Sandy on the US East Coast, both men reflected on the past few days' events.

Mr Obama described the disaster as "one of the worst storms in our history", adding: "As a nation, we mourn those who were lost."

Mr Romney said: "We are a nation of generous hearts - and those hearts are called upon in a time of crisis like this."

Both insisted they were the better man to lead the country and were the true agent of change.

Mr Romney said Mr Obama had "fallen short of what he promised" when he was elected four years ago.

"Candidate Obama promised change, but he could not deliver it. I promise change, and I have a record of achieving it," he said.

"The question of this election comes down to this: do you want more of the same or do you want real change? And we bring real change," Mr Romney told a rally in West Allis, Wisconsin.

Mr Romney speaks to supporters in West Allis, Wisconsin

Mr Obama took aim at Mr Romney, accusing him of running dishonest adverts on the automotive industry to scare voters in Ohio, saying: "This isn't a game. These are people's jobs."

The adverts, which have been airing in Toledo, suggest carmakers General Motors and Chrysler are adding jobs in China at the expense of workers in Ohio.

Responding to the ads, Mr Obama said: "Everybody knows it's not true."

Mr Obama accused Mr Romney of trying to alarm Ohioans "just to scare up some votes".

Chrysler and GM officials said the ads were inaccurate.

"After four years as president, you know me," Mr Obama said.

"You may not agree with every decision I've made. You may be frustrated sometimes at the pace of change, but you know what I believe. You know where I stand.

"You know I tell the truth. You know I fight for you and your families every single day as hard as I know how," he added, before heading to another rally in Lima, a city in Allen County.

No Republican candidate for the White House has ever won the election without capturing Ohio.

Mr Obama is thought to be slightly ahead in the state, which delivers 18 electoral college votes.

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Wiggins Withdraws From Tax Avoidance Scheme

Olympic and Tour de France cycling hero Bradley Wiggins has withdrawn from a controversial tax avoidance scheme.

The 32-year-old was criticised last week for investing in a scheme named Twofold First Services, reportedly owned by a company based in the Cayman Islands.

He told The Guardian: "I had a small investment in Twofold, following guidance from my professional advisers.

"I had, however, claimed no tax relief of any amount in regard to this investment. Given the concerns raised about it, I have now instructed my advisers to withdraw me from the scheme with immediate effect."

The tax partnership reportedly took advantage of farming tax credits to create tax relief described as "abusive" and "artificial" by the Treasury.

In an interview with the newspaper, Wiggins went on to describe his frustration over accusations that his performance was fuelled by drug use – in light of the Lance Armstrong doping scandal.

He said: "The anger is more: I've got to pick up the pieces. He's still a multimillionaire, and he's not here to answer the questions. I can't not answer them because I've got to go and race next year, and I hate talking about it."

The cyclist, who is the strong favourite to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, said there were a number of drawbacks to his success.

He said: "I wouldn't say I wish I hadn't won the Tour, but sometimes, especially with recent events, the Lance Armstrong stuff, I find it hard being the winner of the Tour and everything that goes with it.

"I wanted to be the winner for the challenge of what the sporting event is about and how hard you can train to do that, and I never wanted all the stuff that went with it."

Wiggins also revealed he finds it difficult to cope with being recognised by fans when he is out with his family.

He said: "They ask your wife to take the photo, which is a bit rude. And after a while that becomes tiresome, especially when you're having a pizza with your children, or you have to have a photo with somebody else's kids while yours stand to the side."

He added: "There comes a point when I've got to start getting on with my life. It would be hard to live my life as it is forever."

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Syrian Rebels 'Execute' Government Soldiers

By By Sam Kiley, Middle East Correspondent, in Jerusalem

Syrian rebels are suspected of murdering a group of captured government soldiers undermining a strategic victory which gave them control of the main highway between Aleppo and Damascus.

An unverified video of the killings, believed to have been in Saraqib, shows a group of about 20 armed men wearing rebel head bands standing over at least eight captured soldiers.

One of the soldiers pleads with the militia insisting that he did not shoot anyway.

A rebel can be overheard saying "gather them together for me".

Young men, many of them already wounded, are flung into a pile and then riddled with bullets.

Fighting in Aleppo

The executions are a reminder of a similar atrocity in Aleppo in August when a group of rebels murdered local people they accused of being members of Assad's Shabiha (ghosts) militia.

The capture of Saraqib is a significant strategic gain for the rebels. It controls the road to Damascus, and cuts the government forces main supply route to its Aleppo line.

It also severs the regime's links to Latakia, the main coastal city in the heartland of Assad's brethren in the Alawite community.

Rebel successes in the past have come from the valuable contribution of former regime soldiers who have changed sides, bringing their tactical skills with them.

Syrian refugees near the Turkish border

But recently deserters have been reluctant to contact revolutionary fighters for fear of summary execution. Last week a group of about 20 government soldiers gave themselves up in Turkey claiming asylum and saying they would not have surrendered to rebel forces for fear of retribution.

Amnesty International's Ann Harrison, the deputy Middle East and North Africa director, said that the footage appeared to show "a potential war crime in progress".

She said that the human rights group would continue to investigate the alleged atrocity.

The government is accused of widespread war crimes including the murder of civilians who have been found with their hands tied close to the government held air force headquarters in Aleppo.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

The rebel gains, which are reported to include a 25km radius around Saraqib, have come at a time when the exiled Syrian national Council and other groups are facing international criticism for their apparent failure to unite.

Two days ahead of key talks among the opposition in Qatar, the Syrian National Council lashed out at US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's recent statement that it was not fully representative of the country's diverse dissident forces.

"Any discussions aimed at passing over the Syrian National Council or at creating new bodies to replace it are an attempt to undermine the Syrian revolution by sowing the seeds of division," the SNC said in a statement.

Clinton said the SNC was not representative of on-the-ground opposition forces and that it "can no longer be viewed as the visible leader of the opposition".

It is likely that Washington will be pushing for an overhaul of the opposition at a meeting in Qatar this weekend. But US influence will depend on Qatari support.

Washington contributes a pittance, and only in the form of non-lethal aid, to rebels who receive hundreds of millions of pounds in support from Qatar and Saudi Arabia, much of it donated by individuals.

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Farrow Jailed For Life Over Double Murder

By Isabel Webster, Bristol Crown Court

An "extremely dangerous" psychopath has been jailed for life for the murders of a vicar and a retired teacher.

Stephen Farrow was told he would die behind bars by a judge at Bristol Crown Court.

He killed the Reverend John Suddards at his vicarage in Thornbury, South Gloucestershire, between February 12 and 15 this year.

The 48-year-old, of no fixed address, admitted showing no mercy as the vicar cried "I'm dying", to which he replied "F****** die then, hurry up".

Judge Mr Justice Field told Farrow: "I am satisfied that in your case a whole life sentence is an appropriate sentence in each of these dreadful, horrific killings. In my judgement, you acted sadistically.

"To put a knife deep into the body of Betty Yates as she lay helpless on the floor, having arranged her head on the pillow, was an act of absolute sadism.

"You did that because you wanted to. She wasn't threatening you. You put that knife in her to have the pleasure of doing it.

"As for Rev Suddards, you killed him - having kicked him down, having told him to 'f****** hurry up and die' - with seven deep knife wounds.

"He was helpless. That conduct was clearly sadistic. Accordingly, there is no question in your case of the imposition of a minimum term."

Farrow had pleaded guilty to the clergyman's manslaughter, but denied it was murder on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

He also denied the murder of grandmother Betty Yates at her home in Bewdley, Worcestershire, between January 1 and 5.

In between murders, Farrow burgled a house and left this note

A jury made up of four women and eight men spent almost two days considering the evidence before returning a guilty verdict for both murders.

The court heard that Rev Suddards, 59, was found in a pool of blood, carefully laid out in his hallway, with pornography, condoms and streamers on and around his body.

The jury were told these items were designed to "humiliate" the clergyman as Farrow had a grudge against the Church.

After the murder, Farrow spent the night at the vicarage, just metres from the body of his victim, watching DVDs and drinking beer.

It was not disputed by the drifter's defence team that he "passed the threshold of psychopathy".

His barrister, Peter Gower QC, argued that although Farrow was not mentally ill at the time of the killing, he was suffering an "abnormality of the mind" which diminished his responsibility for his actions.

But prosecutor Michael Fitton QC told the jury "we do not accept his mental disorder diminishes his responsibility for what he did to entitle him to that defence".

Mr Fitton also rejected Farrow's denial of Mrs Yates' murder, saying: "Our case is that he was there and that he killed her and that he intended to kill her."

Her body was found two days after she was attacked, at the bottom of her stairs, with her head on her pillow and a knife still in her neck.

The 77-year-old widow had been stabbed four times in the head and beaten with an ornate walking stick.

A swab taken from the back of her left hand represented a "one-in-a-billion match" as a mixture of DNA belonging to her and Farrow.

The defendant admitted a separate charge of burgling a cottage in Thornbury, between December 21 last year and January 3 this year.

A note was also found inside the house he burgled, pinned to the kitchen table with knives, that read: "Be thankful you did not come back or I would have killed you, you Christian scum. I f*****g hate God."

Farrow, wearing a blue sweatshirt and blue tracksuit bottoms, showed no emotion as the jury foreman returned the verdicts after eight-and-a-half hours' deliberation.

Hillary Bosworth, the sister of Rev Suddards, praised police involved in the investigation and said Farrow's sentence was "deserved".

"The deaths of John and Betty raise many questions," she said.

"What could have been done to avert these tragedies. Do we as a country do enough to ensure that psychopaths with a known history of violence and criminal offences are not left roaming around ... ready to attack someone?"

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Freddie Starr Questioned By Police Again

Freddie Starr has returned to a police station to answer further questions about alleged sexual offences.

The Metropolitan Police said a man in his 60s from Warwickshire, arrested on Thursday on suspicion of sexual offences in connection with the Jimmy Savile investigation, was being interviewed again today.

Starr, 69, strongly denies any wrongdoing. Last month he branded the Jim'll Fix It presenter "despicable" and "disgusting", and urged police to interview him so he could clear his name.

He appeared with Savile on an episode of BBC show Clunk Click in 1974 alongside Karin Ward, who has since accused him of molesting her.

Ms Ward, who was 14 at the time, was the main interviewee in the ITV documentary which exposed the Savile sex abuse scandal.

Starr denied touching her inappropriately and said he had not appeared on the show.

His lawyer later issued a statement claiming he had been mistaken and that he was in fact on the show.

Publicist Max Clifford, who represented Starr in the 1980s, told Sky News he had received calls from several celebrities who appeared on TV shows with Savile who were concerned they could be embroiled in the inquiry.

He said: "In the 1960s and 1970s just about every major pop star appeared on Top Of The Pops, many of them met Jimmy Savile even if it was just to say hello to.

Savile is believed to have been a prolific abuser

"Many times Jimmy would come up to different stars often with young girls saying 'will you have a picture taken'.

"Now they're asking 'am I suddenly going to be named because there's a picture of me with Jimmy Savile'.

"The problem is if you're a star, just by having your name mentioned in connection with Jimmy Savile or Gary Glitter, you could be damaged."

Starr's arrest followed that of Gary Glitter, who was questioned at a central London police station on Sunday after being detained at his home in the capital.

The former pop star was later released on bail.

Scotland Yard is leading a national investigation into Savile, who died last year at the age of 84.

He is now believed to have been one of the UK's most prolific abusers, with about 300 possible victims.

The BBC has launched an inquiry into the culture and practices at the corporation in the era of Savile's alleged sexual abuse.

It is also looking at the decision-making process which saw a Newsnight investigation into Savile's activities shelved.

The review, led by Nick Pollard, former head of Sky News, will report back on its findings later this month, it was announced earlier.

On Thursday NatWest Bank, which is acting as Savile's executor and trustee, revealed his £4.3m estate had been frozen in anticipation of legal action by his alleged victims.

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Man Guilty Of Murdering Rio Smedley, Aged 2

A man has been found guilty of murdering his girlfriend's two-year-old son, who bled to death after his liver was split in two.

More follows...

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Human Remains Found In Missing Vet Search

Human remains have has been recovered by search teams involved in the hunt for missing Irish vet Catherine Gowing.

Ms Gowing, 37, was last seen on the evening of Friday October 12 at a supermarket near her home in New Brighton, Flintshire, north Wales.

Clive Sharp, a 46-year old man from Gwynedd, north Wales, has since been charged with her murder.

A spokesman for North Wales Police said: "Following information received by members of the public, recent searches have focused on fields in Manor Road, Sealand.

"On Wednesday, search team officers discovered human remains in a shallow pool within the field known locally as the Lum.

Ms Gowing was last seen in Queensferry; the remains were found in Sealand

"At this time, those remains have yet to be formally identified as this will require medical as well as forensic examination. A post-mortem is planned for later today."

The spokesman went on: "At this time we are not able to comment further. However, Catherine Gowing's family have been informed of this distressing development and clearly our thoughts are with them at this very difficult time.

"I would ask that they be allowed privacy to come to terms with this news."

Ms Gowing, who is originally from Clonlee, County Offaly, in the Irish Republic, had worked at Evans Veterinary Practice in Mold for the last 18 months.

She was described by her sister Emma as a "beautiful person".

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Pierce renewed his appeal for witnesses to come forward.

He said: "This development came about as the result of information from the local community, for which I am very grateful.

"However, I am once again asking for their assistance. The search for evidence relating to Catherine's disappearance continues and I am very eager to hear of any sightings of her Irish-registered Renault Clio 00D 99970 and Sharp's black Volvo S40 AG58 JHE since Friday October 12 and particularly in the Sealand area.

"In fact, I would like to hear from anyone who saw any suspicious activity in fields in Manor Road, Sealand, to contact police on 101."

Murder suspect Sharp, 46, of no fixed address, was remanded in custody until January 7 when he is due to enter a plea.

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Prison Officer Shot Dead On Motorway In NI

A long-serving prison officer has been murdered in a motorway ambush believed to have been carried out by dissident republicans in Northern Ireland.

David Black, from Cookstown, County Tyrone, had spent more than 30 years in the Prison Service and was approaching retirement.

He was ambushed by a gunman on Northern Ireland's M1 motorway early in the morning as he drove to the top security Maghaberry jail near Lisburn, County Antrim.

Politicians on all sides condemned the murder and, even though no organisation has admitted responsibility, security chiefs believe republicans opposed to the peace process were involved.

The extremists have been involved in long-running protests against jail conditions inside Maghaberry.

The attack happened at the M1/M12 turnoff in County Armagh

Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable Matt Baggott said: "It was a completely senseless attack. It demonstrated the recklessness and ruthlessness and sheer dangerousness of those who oppose peace and are dedicated to taking us back to those dark days of the past.

"This has all the hallmarks of dissident republicans. This was just a brutal attack and we need the public's support to be able to solve it as quickly as possible."

Police said the gunman was in a Toyota Camry with a Dublin registration which drew alongside Mr Black's black Audi. Shots were apparently fired at Mr Black from the vehicle, causing his car to veer off the road and into a drainage ditch.

He sustained "very serious and probably fatal gunshot wounds," police said.

Police attending the scene

It is 18 months since renegade republicans claimed the life of police officer Ronan Kerr in Omagh, County Tyrone.

Mr Black had expressed interest in early retirement but no date had been set, Prison Service director general Sue McAllister said.

"We will not allow this to derail the efforts that we are making to reform the service but we will do everything we can to support all of our staff in the very difficult days ahead," she added.

A car used in the attack was later found burnt-out in Lurgan, Co Armagh, where supporters of dissidents have backed the jail protest campaign.

Mr Black, who was married with a family, was the 30th prison officer killed in Northern Ireland since 1974.

The motorway was closed following the shooting

It is understood his service stretched back as far as the 1981 IRA hunger strike inside the Maze prison, when 10 republicans starved themselves to death.

Finlay Spratt, the head of the Prison Officers' Association, who knew Mr Black and described him as "a very nice fellow to work with", criticised the security provisions offered to prison officers since the Troubles ended.

"They have stripped away all the security around prison officers," he said.

Stormont First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness both condemned the murder.

"At this time, our thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved family and we condemn this murder in the strongest possible terms," they said in a joint statement.

Theresa Villiers said the murder was "cowardly and evil"

The shooting happened at around 7.30am, at the same time as a major security alert further along the motorway at a shopping centre at Sprucefield, near Lisburn, where bomb disposal experts were called in to check a car.

It is believed this vehicle might have been linked to the shooting,

Only a day ago, Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers warned that the threat from dissident republicans in Northern Ireland remained severe. She described the latest attack as "cowardly and evil".

The Republic of Ireland's foreign minister Eamon Gilmore also expressed his condolences.

"I know that I speak for every decent man, woman and child on this island, North and South, in expressing revulsion at this act," he said.

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US Election: Superstorm Boost For Obama

Neighbours Clash On Election Race

Updated: 6:01am UK, Wednesday 31 October 2012

By Gary Mitchell, in Ohio

They live on the same sleepy street in a small American town, but the Daegers and the Bates are a million miles apart when it comes to who should be leading their country.

Kenny and Amy Daeger, from the appropriately named Defiance, Ohio, describe themselves as committed conservatives.

They want to vote for Mitt Romney because they are opposed to abortion and gay marriage, fearful for the spread of what they call  "European socialism" to America and hate the idea of their taxes being used to help "people who refuse to help themselves".

The couple along with Kameron, 13, and 11-year-old Courtney - the youngest of their four children - were among 12,000 people who cheered for Mr Romney when the White House hopeful turned up last week in the town, which is surrounded by a large expanse of farmland and small townships in the northeast of the state.

Mr Daeger, who works on the production line at GM's Defiance plant, said he wants to be able to drive his large 4x4, a GMC Acadia, without getting grief from environmental campaigners or regulators.

"I'm not anti-gay," he insists. "But do I think it's normal? No, I can't say it's normal. Marriage is for Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.

"We're being taken down the path of your European socialism.

"Our freedoms are being taken away by the government. Our moral fibre is being torn apart."

While the Daegers were waving and cheering in Defiance's high school football arena at the man they hope will be the next US commander-in-chief, and savouring his promises of "big change", Charles Bates was watching baseball on TV.

The 51-year-old lawyer is in a barbershop chorus that had been asked to sing the American national anthem at the rally. He said he turned down the offer "for obvious reasons".

He has always voted Democrat when it comes to presidential elections. And he fears Mr Romney will oversee a return to a "Bush-style" heavy-handed foreign policy if he wins power.

The Daegers - who have lived in Defiance all their lives - are mostly concerned about issues closer to home. They spoke to Sky News around the kitchen table in their attractive, modest home in a leafy estate called Sherwood Forest.

Mr Daeger, who insisted the two families get along apart from their political differences, said: "This election is about choosing democracy by choosing Romney. Otherwise we get bigger taxes, higher gas prices.

"What we want is limits on government's control over us nationally and locally. Obama doesn't believe in that. He's got it all wrong."

Mrs Daeger, 37, a banker, said she feels strongly about abortion and the protection of her religious beliefs.

"We're Catholic, and I don't believe the government should have any say in who lives and who dies," she said.

"People talk about Romney and say he doesn't help women, that he's not the choice for women. I like Romney because he's not giving me the choice to kill my baby. And that's important to me.

"I feel an obligation to help people, but I don't want my sacrifices to be for people who refuse to help themselves."

Mr Bates, whose wife Jennifer, 37, also votes Democrat but prefers to let her husband be interviewed, has a big problem with conservative views on abortion.

He is baffled by Republicans who claim they are "pro-life" but in the same breath pledge their support for the military.

"Pro-lifers will fight to protect an unborn foetus, but they'll have no problem bombing a town in which many children are killed.

"All I'm asking for some is consistency."

He says he sympathises with the Daegers' beliefs that Mr Obama has mismanaged the economy to the point where the country is now $16trn in debt.

"When the economy is sour, it's always the incumbent President who gets the blame," said Mr Bates.

"But anyone with a rational mind can see that he inherited an economy that was already in a tailspin under George W Bush.

"The guy had no business being in the White House."

Mr Bates believes there could be "some validity" to Mr Daeger's claim that America is becoming a "handout society", but doubts whether Mr Romney could manage welfare any better.

Mr Daeger said: "I understand that taxes are necessary. We need a safety net. When I go to pick up my kids, and I see a kid who gets free lunches at school because of their parents' low income, I want to feed that child.

"But when I see their mom's got all the tattoos and $80 piercings and she's talking on her cellphone ... they have the money for all that, but none to feed their kids?"

While Mr Daeger wants more funding for the military and sees the US as a "liberator", America's presence in Afghanistan and its invasion of Iraq are bugbears for Mr Bates.

"There are despots all over the world," said Mr Bates. "But you don't see America going to places like Sudan to remove despots.

"There's no oil there, that's why. There's no oil in Afghanistan either. I don't even know what they do have, so why are we there?"

Mr Bates and his wife, who have three children between them, would appear to be outnumbered by Republican supporters in Defiance, where religion plays a major part in politics and where some will vote against Mr Obama purely because they disagree with his stance on abortion.

In the last election, John McCain won Defiance County by 54.2% to 43.8% - breaking the county's strong history of swinging in the direction of the eventual winner.

But in Mr Obama's increasingly frequent recent rallies in Ohio, a key swing state that both candidates are pushing hard to win, he has been reminding voters about the multi-billion-dollar car industry bailout he supported in 2009, which was designed to prevent the collapse of GM and Chrysler.

His campaign team is hoping that will help him win some new voters in Defiance, where GM's iron foundry makes engine blocks and is one of the town's main employers, with 1,200 staff and hiring.

Mr Daeger, who has worked at GM for 16 years, believes the rescue has done Mr Obama a favour by maintaining loyalty among his Democrat-voting colleagues. But he resents the fact that it was bailed out with taxpayer money, rather than being allowed to go through its own structured bankruptcy.

"I don't think I owe Obama a vote," he said. "For me, social issues in this country are bigger than me or my job. I could always get another job if I lost my job. The other stuff is too important to me."

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Superstorm Sandy: Fuel Shortages Hit Recovery

Long queues have formed at some US petrol stations due to fuel shortages following superstorm Sandy as emergency teams struggle to reach the worst hit areas and restore power to millions.

Tens of thousands of people are stranded in their properties due to flooding three days after the storm battered the East Coast and killed at least 72 people.

In New York, a limited service returned on some train and subway lines, but more than half of the petrol stations in the city and neighbouring New Jersey remained shut due to power outages and depleted fuel supplies.

Even before dawn, long lines formed at petrol stations that were expected to open.

Nearly 20,000 people have been trapped at home in the New Jersey city of Hoboken, just across the Hudson River from New York City, amid accusations that officials were slow to deliver food and water.

Residents in the flooded city of Hoboken

One man blew up an air mattress and floated to City Hall, demanding to know why supplies had not reached residents - at least a quarter of homes there are flooded and 90% do not have power.

National Guard troops have arrived in Hoboken to help evacuate stranded people.

In total, about five million homes and businesses remain without power, mostly in New York and New Jersey - while miles of coastline, including Atlantic City, was ripped apart by the storm.

As the region struggles to recover, a clean-up operation in that state has begun while New York City has taken the first tentative steps to getting back to some form of normality as it re-opens some unaffected parts of the subway system - which suffered the worst damage in its 108-year history.

Parts of Manhattan remained without power after the superstorm

Three of the region's main airports, John F Kennedy, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia, have also opened and are running limited schedules.

Broadway shows have resumed and people packed on to buses that returned for the first time to city streets since the storm.

Electricity outages continue as far west as Wisconsin in the Midwest and as far south as the Carolinas.

The superstorm, which also hit parts of Canada, came ashore over a thousand miles of coastline to engulf 20 states. It is now winding down and its remnants have been felt in the Appalachian mountains.

Sandy brought up to 3ft (1m) of snow to parts of West Virginia and Maryland and several more inches are possible before it dies out for good later this week.

Restoring the usually vibrant New York City to its ordinarily frenetic pace could take days, while rebuilding the hardest-hit communities and the transportation networks could take considerably longer.

Flood-damaged food is removed from New York shops

Power company Consolidated Edison says it could be the weekend before power is restored to Manhattan and Brooklyn, perhaps longer for other New York boroughs and the New York suburbs.

There are still only hints of the economic impact of the storm.

Forecasting firm IHS Global Insight predicted it would cause $20bn (£12.4bn) in damage and $10bn (£6.2bn) to $30bn (£18.5bn) in lost business. Another firm, AIR Worldwide, estimated losses up to $15bn (£9.3bn).

Part of a home rests upside-down in Seaside Heights, New Jersey

Amtrak said the amount of water in train tunnels under the Hudson and East rivers was unprecedented, but it said it planned to restore some service on Friday to and from New York City.

Speaking at a shelter, US President Barack Obama told New Jersey residents that the government will support them "for the long haul".

The region took the brunt of its impact and is among the worst affected areas on the East Coast.

The bill for Sandy could top $20bn

Joined by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Mr Obama -  who described the disaster as "heartbreaking for the nation" - inspected the impact from Sandy, flying high over flooded neighbourhoods and sand-strewn streets.

He told those affected by the storm: "Our hearts go out to the families who have lost loved ones. Their world has been torn apart ... they are in our thoughts and prayers.

"For those like the people I have had a chance to meet on this block, throughout New Jersey and throughout the region whose lives have been upended, my second message is: We are here for you, and we will not forget, we will follow up to make sure that you get all the help that you need until you've rebuilt."

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Sandy: Dramatic Footage Of Air Rescue

Dramatic footage has been released of people being plucked from their flood-hit homes by helicopter.

Video shows New York Police Department rescue teams loading people onto a helicopter winch to safety, as flood waters rose.

But many people were not as fortunate, and details are emerging of the circumstances surrounding some of those who were killed.

An off-duty police officer drowned in his basement while rescuing his family from superstorm Sandy, police have confirmed.

The unnamed man is reported to have helped his father, girlfriend and baby into the attic of their home on the southern end of Staten Island, New York.

Falling trees have proved particularly deadly

He then went downstairs and never returned. Fellow officers found him in the basement at about 5am on Tuesday.

"Somehow he got trapped in his basement and he drowned in the basement," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

At least 55 people died across the US and Canada, and many are still missing, including two boys aged two and four.

New York was the worst-hit city in the US. In Queens, a 23-year-old woman was electrocuted after stepping on a live wire while taking photographs of a power line that had caught fire.

"She couldn't move. She didn't have a chance," said neighbour Renny Bhagretta, 44.

In Brooklyn, a teacher and student were crushed in the street by giant trees that came crashing down during the height of the storm.

Their bodies were discovered the next morning.

A 75-year-old Manhattan woman was reported to have died after her oxygen machine lost power.

Her grandson ran to nearby Bellevue Hospital for a manually operated tank, but the woman had already gone into cardiac arrest by the time paramedics arrived.

A 13-year-old girl was found dead under a pile of debris in the Tottenville area of Staten Island where four beach front homes were washed away.

Her mother, a church worker, was critically injured and her father, a plumber, was missing, neighbours said.

"They wanted to stay. We tried to convince them to leave. They said they didn't think it would be that bad," said neighbour John Alleva, 47.

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Sandy Uncovers Bomb At Guantanamo Bay

The US military has had to close down a ferry landing at Guantanamo Bay after Hurricane Sandy uncovered an old bomb.

The 500lb (227kg) object was discovered several days after the hurricane – later downgraded to a superstorm – hit the Cuban island.

Officals at the US naval base evacuated the area around the bomb and flew in a disposal crew.

It was later discovered that the device was "inert" and not a threat.

The island was once used as the US Navy's Atlantic fleet training centre.

Sandy was classed as a hurricane when it hit the Cuban island

Workers are still cleaning up the damage from last week's hurricane, which blew the roof off the base.

It is unclear if the state-of-the-art courtroom that beams proceedings to special viewing sites on US soil was damaged.

The site holds 167 detainees who the US believes are linked to conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The death toll in the Caribbean stands at 69, with thousands of people left homeless.

Sandy took the lives of 52 people in Haiti, 11 in Cuba, two in the Bahamas, two in the Dominican Republic, one in Jamaica and one in Puerto Rico.

Haiti is still recovering from the 2010 earthquake that killed 316,000 people.

The UN said the latest disaster has pushed back the country's progress.

"Haiti is trying to get its house in order, but each time disaster strikes, the progress is interrupted," said Johan Peleman from the UN.

"This country is exposed to devastating consequences by each storm. With every burst of rain, entire mountains are washed away."

The regions most affected were the south and west, where many communities remain cut off due to the destruction of roads and bridges, authorities said.

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GM Slashes Jobs Amid Europe Car Downturn

General Motors has announced European job cuts amid the sales downturn in the foreign car market.

The US parent firm of Britain's Vauxhall said it would aim to make $500m (£310m) in fixed-cost savings between 2013 and 2015.

It added the company was planning further job cuts in Europe as it seeks to break-even on the continent by the middle of the decade.

GM said it will cut the shifts at its Opel plant in Eisenach, Germany, from three to two next year, according to a presentation made after the firm revealed its third quarter earnings.

The Detroit-based car maker, which needed a US bailout after the global financial crisis, posted a surprisingly strong Q3 profit.

However, it said the target to break even in Europe comes as it plans to lose as much as $1.8bn (£1.11bn) there this year.

The cuts come just days after a major competitor announced major job cuts as it sought to reduce vehicle production.

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Sandy: President Obama Visits Emergency HQ

President Barack Obama is visiting rescue workers ahead of his trip to New Jersey to see the damage done by superstorm Sandy.

At least 55 people have been killed across the US and Canada. The worst of the damage is focused on New York and New Jersey, where Mr Obama will head later.

He described the disaster as "heartbreaking for the nation".

It was Mr Obama's second visit to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) in four days. On Sunday, he met with officials and told reporters the government would "respond big and respond fast" after the massive storm made landfall.

The superstorm wreaked havoc across the east coast of America

The President is fighting a close race with Republican rival Mitt Romney and the White House has been keen to portray him as a strong leader ahead of election day on November 6.

Mr Romney is currently campaigning in Florida, where he said people had "come together" to help each other following the storm.

More than eight million homes have been left without electricity by the biggest storm to hit the country in generations, which swamped parts of New York's subways system and Lower Manhattan's financial district.

It is feared it could be days before electricity is restored to some of those cut off.

Floodwaters surround a car parked on a street in Hoboken, New Jersey

Forecasters predict the storm could end up causing around $20bn (£12bn) worth of damages in the US.

While the storm has now passed the worst-hit area, Sky News weather presenter Nazaneen Ghaffar said the bad weather will continue.

"The storm is still reacting with cold air from the west, so there will be further heavy snowfall as well as inland flooding," she said.

"Rainfall totals could reach around 6-8 inches, and winds will remain gale force in strength.

The Empire State Building seen through the flooded Erie-Lackawanna Park

"The forecast suggests that the centre of the low will move northwards from western Pennsylvania into the west of New York and then into Quebec by Thursday."

More than 80 homes in New York City's borough of Queens were destroyed in a fire caused by the storm.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who toured the area, said: "To describe it as looking like pictures we've seen of the end of World War Two is not overstating it. The area was completely levelled."

Neighbour John Frawley, 57, said: "I stayed up all night. The screams. The fire. It was horrifying."

Falling trees proved to be particularly deadly during the storms

Subways were flooded, public transport suspended, and flights disrupted.

However as the rain and wind eased, JFK and Newark airports were reopened. Laguardia airport remains closed.

In New Jersey, businesses and homes along the shore were wrecked and communities were submerged under floodwater.

But talk in the state quickly turned to rebuilding and recovery.

"It's heartbreaking after being here 37 years," Barry Prezioso of Point Pleasant, New Jersey, said as he returned to his house in the coastal community to survey the damage.

"You see your home demolished like this, it's tough. But nobody got hurt and the upstairs is still livable, so we can still live upstairs and clean this out. I'm sure there's people that had worse. I feel kind of lucky."

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HMS Bounty Sinks: Rescued Crew Member Dies

A woman rescued from the Atlantic Ocean hours after the HMS Bounty was caught by Hurricane Sandy has died.

Claudene Christian, 42, was pulled from the water on Monday - hours after the historic ship went down in the storm off the coast of North Carolina - but was unresponsive.

Coast Guard Petty Officer 3rd Class David Weydert said Ms Christian, who lived and sailed on the ship, was taken to hospital in a critical condition but was later pronounced dead.

The Coast Guard is still searching for the ship's captain, Robin Walbridge, 63.

The famous HMS Bounty was hit by 18ft waves

Ms Christian, a keen sailor, said on Twitter that she joined the ship's crew in May and a series of posts described how much she was enjoying her life on the sea.

On June 7, she wrote: "So I had a tough day, lost in the sails. But it was sunny warm and I am on a TALL SHIP AT SEA. It's a "Bountyful" life."

Fourteen other crew members were rescued from the stricken vessel, which was about 160 miles from the hurricane's centre.

The captain ordered his crew to abandon ship at about 5am on Monday after the vessel lost power and started to take on water.

Sixteen people were on board the ship when it sank

Coast guards said the crew had put on cold water survival suits and life-jackets before launching in two 25-man lifeboats with canopies.

The suits are designed to protect people from the cold waters for up to 15 hours.

Rescuers faced 40mph winds and 18ft waves at the scene, which is 90 miles southeast of Hatteras in North Carolina.

The rescued crew were flown to Air Station Elizabeth City for treatment.

Coast Guard Sector North Carolina received a call from the owner of the 180ft, three-mast ship, saying she had lost communication with the vessel's crew late on Sunday evening.

The rescued crew were flown to Air Station Elizabeth City for treatment

It regained contact with the ship after receiving a signal from the emergency position indicating beacon registered to the Bounty.

HMS Bounty was built for the 1962 movie Mutiny On The Bounty with Marlon Brando and also appeared in Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

The original Bounty was known for the mutiny that took place in Tahiti in 1789.

People could apply to work on the ship, which was built in 1960 and restored in 2001.

The HMS Bounty Organisation said on its website that it was "dedicated to keeping the ship sailing and using her as a vehicle for teaching the nearly lost arts of square rigged sailing and seamanship."

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Sandy Could Mean Costly Delays For Travellers

Airline passengers delayed by Sandy may have to pay out thousands and wait days to reach their destinations, following the grounding of thousands of flights.

Flight-tracking service FlightAware posted details of 13,500 cancelled national and international flights for Monday and Tuesday, almost all related to the stormy conditions.

By early Tuesday, more than 500 flights scheduled for Wednesday were on hold, with more delays expected to be announced later.

More than a hundred UK departures and arrivals from New York and other East Coast cities were cancelled on Tuesday alone. The majority were due to operate via Heathrow. 

A British Airways spokesman said: "We are doing all we can to help customers whose flights have been cancelled and will look to use larger aircraft on some routes when the full flying schedule resumes to help get customers to their correct destination as quickly as we can."

BA's other US flights are operating normally and the company is also flying as usual to Toronto and Montreal in Canada.

Virgin Atlantic had to scrap most of its US East Coast services on Monday and Tuesday. 

"Our flights to America had been very busy at the beginning of this week due to the half-term school holiday. It's very unfortunate that this major storm has come when it has," a Virgin spokesperson said.

Some airports like this one in Washington DC virtually closed down

UK airports were advising passengers due to travel to the US to contact their airline before travelling.

All airlines flying out of the European Union are obliged under the EU Denied Boarding Regulations to provide or pay for later flights, accommodation and refreshments if travellers are delayed.

But there is no such obligation for US carriers. Passengers on these flights should contact their insurers for compensation. 

Under ABTA regulations anyone who booked their flight as part of a package deal can change or cancel their trip with a refund on the package price.

Businessman Alan Shrem was due to return home to Florida from Hong Kong via New York on Monday.

He is now on a waiting list with the next confirmed seat not until November 4.

"They just say: Yeah, it's a pretty big waiting list," said Mr Shrem, throwing up his hands.

In the meantime, he will have to fork out $400 a night to continue staying at a nearby hotel.

The impact on the airline's finances is less clear. Many of the customers on flights currently being cancelled will reschedule later on, so the airlines will still collect the fares.

But the cost of parking planes for days, along with potential damage, will undoubtedly cost airlines millions.

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Two British Gurkha Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan

Two soldiers serving with 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles have been killed in Afghanistan.

The soldiers were shot and killed by a man wearing an Afghan police uniform at a checkpoint in the Nahr-e-Saraj district of Helmand Province.

Major Laurence Roche, the spokesman for Task Force Helmand, said: "The loss of these soldiers is a huge blow to The Royal Gurkha Rifles and everyone serving in Task Force Helmand. 

"Our thoughts are with their families, friends and fellow Gurkhas at this time."

Next of kin have been informed.

The Ministry of Defence say there have been a total of nine UK deaths attributed to so-called "green on blue" or "insider attacks this year."

The latest two deaths are now under investigation.

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US East Coast Devastated By Superstorm Sandy

Superstorm Sandy is heading inland after battering parts of the United States and Canada, killing at least 17.

The storm, which lashed the east coast overnight, led President Barack Obama to declare a "major disaster" in New York and Long Island.

Forecasters say the storm is set to move westwards towards the Great Lakes, and on to northeastern states and parts of Canada.

While it is gradually weakening, gusts of up 50mph are expected, and heavy rainfall will bring flooding to inland areas.

An explosion rocks a flooded New York power plant

The "post-tropical" storm made landfall at 8pm local time on Monday, bringing gusts of more than 85mph (135kph) and a record-breaking 13ft surge of seawater in Manhattan.

The water submerged subway tunnels and roads, while many bridges and tunnels were closed as a precaution.

At Breezy Point in the borough of Queens, 190 firefighters tackled a huge fire that destroyed more than 50 homes. They used a boat to navigate the flood water and rescue 25 people.

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg said: "These storms brought something like 23 serious fires to parts of (New York City). The terrible fire on Breezy Point is now under control but we believe we lost more than 80 houses.

CCTV captures the PATH station in Hoboken, N.J., as it is flooded.

"The search and recovery operations there are ongoing. If any of you saw the pictures on television it looked like a forest out in the Midwest."

New York University hospital was forced to move patients to other hospitals after it lost power and its back-up generator broke down. Among them were 20 babies from neonatal intensive care - some on respirators operating on battery power.

Firefighters said one man had been killed by a falling tree, while two people were also killed when a tree fell onto a vehicle in New Jersey.

Elsewhere in New Jersey a levee broke, flooding the towns of Moonachie, Little Ferry and Carlstadt with up to five feet of water. Rescue workers are at the scene assisting those who are trapped.

Sea water floods the Ground Zero construction site.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie said the level of devastation on the Jersey Shore is "unthinkable".

"It's beyond anything I thought I'd ever see, terrible."

Juan Allen, who lives in a mobile home park in the state, said: "I saw trees not just knocked down but ripped right out of the ground. I watched a tree crush a guy's house like a wet sponge."

Some 670,000 New York homes have been left without power by the storm, with electricity knocked out to more than eight million people.

The collapsed front wall of an apartment building in New York

A total of 16 people have been reported dead by local officials in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, West Virginia and North Carolina, while in Toronto, Canadian police said a woman died after being hit by flying debris.

Some 84 flights have been cancelled between London Heathrow and the US east coast. Flights from Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham have also been cancelled.

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was closed on Monday and the Nasdaq suspended. Both will reopen on Wednesday.

It had been feared the surge of seawater could damage the underground electrical and communications lines in lower Manhattan that are vital to the nation's financial centre.

Haiti was devastated by Hurricane Sandy as it swept across the Caribbean

Journalist Bucky Turco, who was out on his pedal bike during the height of the storm, criticised how city officials dealt with the crisis.

He said: "What I find absurd is that the city went through all these preparations and in the end it was rainwater that brought down one of the most important cities in the world. It's kind of shocking."

Sandy had already killed 69 people in the Caribbean, where many islands were left devastated by the extreme weather conditions.

Haiti was worst-hit, with 52 confirmed dead and many more still missing. Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe described the storm as a "disaster of major proportions".

Residents of Cuba's second-largest city of Santiago were left without power and running water for four days.

After battering the Caribbean, Sandy then made its way up the Atlantic. As it made its way toward land, it converged with a cold-weather system that turned into a hybrid consisting not only of rain, high wind and snow.

Earlier, a US sailor on board a replica of the HMS Bounty was recovered from the sea in an "unresponsive" condition and later died. The captain was missing, feared dead after the tall ship went down off the Carolinas.

President Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney have suspended their campaigning with just over a week to go before election day.

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Savile 'Was Barred' From Children In Need

Jimmy Savile was barred from any involvement with the Children In Need charity, former BBC governor Sir Roger Jones has claimed.

Despite the late presenter's fundraising efforts, which resulted in millions going to good causes, Sir Roger - a former chairman of the charity - said he had been uncomfortable about allowing Savile to have any association with the charity.

Although he had "no evidence" that Savile was up to anything, he said he found the Jim'll Fix It star's behaviour to be strange.

In an interview with the BBC, he said: "I think we all recognised he was a pretty creepy sort of character.

"When I was with Children In Need, we took the decision that we didn't want him anywhere near to the charity and we just stepped up our child protection policies, which again would have put him at great risk if he tried anything.

Savile's Highland cottage has been vandalised

"So the way that we dealt with it was by beefing up child protection policies."

He said it would have been impossible to make any claims about Savile without hard evidence but, as the charity was trying to protect itself, it did not need evidence.

He went on: "I found his behaviour very strange. I couldn't tell if he was a paedophile. But I didn't have to."

Sir Roger said he did not remember suspicions about Savile being discussed at any meeting of the BBC governors.

Today marks one year since Savile's death. At the time he was saluted for his charity work and long TV career. Now, he has been described a predatory paedophile and one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders.

Gary Glitter was arrested on Sunday

On Sunday, former pop star Gary Glitter became the first high-profile arrest under Scotland Yard's Operation Yewtree, which is looking at child sex abuse allegations against Savile and others.

Police have drawn up a detailed arrest strategy for other suspects, as 30 officers work through 300 claims of abuse.

Met Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe said police and other organisations missed the pattern of Savile's alleged sex offending while he was alive.

Meanwhile, Savile's own great niece told Sky News that too many people turned a blind eye for too long.

"The rewards they got from Jimmy Savile's name and everything else kept them in a lifestyle that they became accustomed to," said Caroline Robinson.

Status Quo's Rick Parfitt (L) has spoken out about Savile

Rick Parfitt, from rock band Status Quo, said he too was unsurprised by the Savile allegations.

"A lot of us, like everybody else, we all kind of knew. We were all kind of suspicious of Jimmy Savile. We all felt 'there's something not right there'," he told The Daily Telegraph.

"But we didn't know what, and it was kind of in the back of our minds. But you could never quite suss him out. We did so many Top of the Pops, so many Jim'll Fix Its."

Parfitt added it was common for young women of 17 or 18 to be found in dressing rooms with famous acts.

"If you watch those early editions of Top of the Pops, all the girls there have got skirts up to their chins. There were a lot of girls knocking around downstairs and people would invite them down to the dressing room."

Monday marks a year since Savile died

Over the weekend, Savile's Highland cottage was been targeted by vandals, with graffiti spray-painted across the outside.

"Jimmy the beast" was written on the wall of the remote holiday home outside the village of Glencoe, and the door was badly damaged.

Former Court of Appeal judge Dame Janet Smith has started the first of two independent inquiries.

It will focus on whether the culture and practises at the BBC allowed Savile to carry out his abuse.

A further review will examine current sexual harassment policies at the corporation.

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April Jones: Prayers Held One Month On

Private prayers are being held in Machynlleth in mid Wales to mark a month since the disappearance of schoolgirl April Jones.

The five-year-old, who has cerebral palsy, was abducted on October 1.  Police are continuing to look for her, with 150 experts taking part in the hunt.

So far more than 40,000 man-hours have been spent in trying to find April.

More than 300 areas have been searched including mountains, caves, derelict mines and lakes around the town.

April went missing while playing on her bike on a nearby estate.

Dyfed Powys Police say they will continue to look for April into the New Year if need be.

The child had been playing on her bike with friends on the evening of her disappearance.  She was last seen getting into a car on the estate.

Mark Bridger, 46, was arrested a day later and charged with abduction and murder.

The local community had undertaken symbolic gestures of solidarity to mark previous occasions of April's disappearance, including tying pink ribbons around the town and a procession to the church from the family home.

Mark Bridger has been charged with abduction and murder.

Last week Machynlleth's historic town clock was lit up in pink to mark the tragic disappearance.

In nearby Carmarthen, the county hall building will be lit up in a similar way:

"(We) feel quite helpless but want to demonstrate openly that our thoughts and prayers are with April's family and the community of Machynlleth", said council leader Kevin Madge.

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Fourteen Crew Members Saved, Two Missing

Fourteen crew members of HMS Bounty have been rescued near the eye of Hurricane Sandy - but two are still missing.

The captain ordered his crew to abandon the ship, which is located 160 miles from the hurricane's centre, after it lost power and the pumps were unable to keep up with the dewatering.

The US Coast Guard said the Bounty's crew had donned cold water survival suits and lifejackets before launching in two 25-man lifeboats with canopies.

"The first Jayhawk crew hoisted five people into the aircraft and a second helicopter arrived and rescued nine people," the coast guard said.

They were flown to Air Station Elizabeth City for medical treatment while aircraft remained on the scene to search for the missing two.

Rescuers faced 40mph winds and 18ft waves at the scene, which is 90 miles southeast of Hatteras in North Carolina.

Coast Guard Sector North Carolina received a call from the owner of the 180ft, three mast ship, saying she had lost communication with the vessel's crew late on Sunday evening.

It regained contact with the ship after receiving a signal from the emergency position indicating beacon registered to the Bounty.

The current Bounty was built for the 1962 movie Mutiny on the Bounty with Marlon Brando and has since appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

The original Bounty is known for the mutiny that took place in Tahiti in 1789.

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Hurricane Sandy: 'Frankenstorm' Heads For New York

New York has called up 1,000 extra troops from the National Guard as "superstorm" Hurricane Sandy bears down on the city.

Heavy rain and strong winds have started lashing the northeast of the US, as forecasters warn New York could bear the brunt of the one-of-a-kind storm - dubbed a "Frankenstorm".

Sandy is on a collision course with two other weather systems leading to fears it could develop into one of the worst storms on record in the US.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave advice to citizens unable to leave New York

The storm is threatening up to 50 million people on the heavily populated East Coast, and forecasters say it could wreak havoc over 800 miles (1,280km) from the Atlantic coast to the Great Lakes.

Authorities are warning New York could get hit with an 11ft (3.3-metre) wall of water that could swamp parts of lower Manhattan, flood subway tunnels and cripple the network of electrical and communications lines that are vital to the nation's financial centre.

As the hurricane approaches the coast, rescuers have saved 14 crew members of HMS Bounty stranded on lifeboats near the eye of storm - but two remain missing.

Floodwater has inundated the Atlantic City boardwalk (Twitter.com/hoeboma)

:: Live Updates on Hurricane Sandy

Sandy, a Category 1 hurricane, is currently about 380 miles (615km) southeast of New York City, with winds of about 85mph (140kph).

The US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said it strengthened as it turned toward the coast on a predicted path toward New York, Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia. It is moving at 15 mph (24 kph).

The centre of the storm was positioned to come ashore Monday night in New Jersey, meaning the worst of the storm surge could be in the northern part of that state and in New York City and on Long Island.

Flooding in Norfolk, Virginia

The massive storm, which is hundreds of miles across, is set to stay until at least mid-week, bringing hurricane winds, flooding rains and snow in the Appalachian mountains.

Hundreds of thousands of people have already evacuated coastal areas, but much focus remains on New York.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo urged residents to use common sense and stay indoors.

"The worst is still coming," he said.

New York and other cities shut down schools and suspended all train, bus and subway services on Sunday night because of the risk of flooding.

Nearly the entire coastline of Staten Island has been evacuated. Parts of lower Manhattan, like Battery Park and Ground Zero, have also been evacuated amid the threat of flooding.

People have been ordered to leave low-lying coastal areas

All US stock markets will be closed on Monday and possibly Tuesday, the operator of the New York Stock Exchange said, reversing an earlier plan that would have kept electronic trading going on Monday.

A state of emergency has already been declared in nine states - including New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.

US President Barack Obama has cancelled a planned campaign appearance in Florida and returned to Washington to oversee the federal government's response to the ever-threatening hurricane.

Mr Obama promised the government would "respond big and respond fast" after the storm hits.

The Belle Harbor section of the Queens borough of New York

"My message to the governors as well as to the mayors is anything they need, we will be there, and we will cut through red tape. We are not going to get bogged down with a lot of rules," he said.

Federal Emergency management administrator Craig Fugate warned the "time for preparing and talking is about over".

"People need to be acting now," he said.

Airlines have cancelled more than 7,600 flights, with British Airways, Virgin and American Airlines have halted some departures to the eastern coat of the US.

At Heathrow, 47 departures and 12 arrivals have been cancelled.

Sandy was blamed for 66 deaths in the Caribbean before it began travelling northward parallel to the eastern seaboard.

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Jimmy Savile: Thompson's Office 'Was Warned'

The Jimmy Savile child abuse allegations were flagged up to the office of former BBC boss Mark Thompson at least twice, according to new claims.

The then director-general's office was formally alerted by journalist Miles Goslett in May and by an ITV email in September, The Sunday Times reports.

According to the paper, his aides were told on both occasions that the allegations concerned Savile's alleged abuse of minors on BBC premises.

Mr Thompson, who has since left the BBC and is about to start a job as chief executive of The New York Times, denies he was ever personally informed.

Mr Goslett is said to have spoken to Jessica Cecil, the head of Mr Thompson's office and asked to speak to him about allegations that Savile had molested underage girls on BBC premises.

Ms Cecil told Mr Goslett to speak to the press office and said she did not tell Mr Thompson of the allegations.

A BBC spokesman said: "Jessica Cecil's firm recollection of this brief call is she advised the journalist to put their points to the BBC press office. She then informed the BBC's director of communications about the call."

A spokesman for Mr Thompson said: "Mark was not aware of the conversation between Miles Goslett and Jessica Cecil on May 18, 2012. He was on holiday at the time and this brief conversation was not relayed to him, either then or subsequently.

Hundreds have come forward claiming to be Jimmy Savile's victims

On September 7, ITV is reported to have contacted Mr Thompson's office with detailed questions about its findings based on interviews with 10 victims.

A spokesman said: "Mark does not recall being briefed and took no part in the response to the email in early September from ITV relating to its Jimmy Savile documentary. This response was handled by colleagues in BBC Journalism.

"As Mark has made it clear, he had no involvement in the decision not to proceed with the Newsnight investigation into Jimmy Savile."

The former BBC chief has previously said he was neither "notified nor briefed" about details of Newsnight's investigation into the Jim'll Fix It star which was later controversially dropped.

He later told reporters he had "formed the impression it [the Newsnight investigation] was about sex abuse" after a conversation at a party but when he called the news department he was told it had been axed for editorial reasons.

Police have now described Savile, who died in 2011, as a sexual predator who could be one of the worst paedophiles the UK has ever seen.

Hundreds of people have come forward claiming to be his victims. Around 130 have so far been questioned. A further 114 assault claims have been made.

Amid major questions about the culture at the BBC and its decision not to proceed with the Newsnight programme on Savile, the corporation has ordered three inquiries.

The chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten, has said he is dedicated to getting to the bottom of the scandal, vowing there would be "no covering our backs".

He wrote in the Mail on Sunday that the broadcaster "must tell the truth and face up to the truth about itself, however terrible".

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles told Sky News that the BBC should take it as a wake-up call to become more open.

"I think it's in all our interests for the BBC to be held in the highest esteem that it deserves and I think the problem at the heart of the BBC is that the organisation is too secretive," he told Sky's Dermot Murnaghan.

"I think it should think now that it should open itself up to Freedom of Information requests. I think it should look towards publishing a lot of its expenditure online... I don't think it can see itself away from the real world."

Childline founder and ex-BBC TV presenter Esther Rantzen told Sky News: "There are so many questions that need to be answered.

"What happened when people witnessed bad things happening when Jimmy Savile was at his height?

"How is it that this pain-staking piece of journalism (Savile investigation) was not transmitted on one of the flagship programmes (Newsnight)?"

She added: "What happened in the last four weeks is too late. I want the right judgements to have been made far earlier."

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Gary Glitter Arrested By Savile Police

Former pop star Gary Glitter has been arrested as part of a police investigation sparked by sexual abuse claims against the late Jimmy Savile.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was taken from his central London home by officers early on Sunday morning and then questioned at a police station in the capital.

The ex-glam rock star, who had a string of hit singles in the 1970s, is being held on suspicion of sexual offences.

Gadd, 68, was detained by officers working on Operation Yewtree, which is investigating allegations of child sex abuse against Savile and others.

A police spokesman said: "Officers working on Operation Yewtree have arrested a man in his 60s in connection with the investigation.

"The man, from London, was arrested at approximately 0715 on suspicion of sexual offences, and has been taken into custody at a London police station.

"The individual falls under the strand of the investigation we have termed 'Savile and others'."

Gadd served almost three years in jail in Vietnam after being convicted in March 2006 for child abuse offences.

He had moved to Vietnam to avoid media attention into his private life.

Gadd was deported back to the UK in 2008.

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Syria: Rebel Fighters Are Becoming Radicalised

By Alex Crawford, Sky News Special Correspondent

Sky has seen new evidence that the Syrian uprising is becoming more and more radicalised and being fought by Islamic fundamentalists and extremists.

The Syrian rebels have all but given up on military intervention by the West but after 18 months of grinding battle and a feeling they have been abandoned by the international community, they are making their own bombs and weapons and becoming much more self-sufficient.

There are some weapons and arms being smuggled across the borders from sympathetic Muslim neighbours.

We saw brand new rocket propelled grenade launchers with their rockets still in their plastic wrappers which had been smuggled across the Turkish border and an anti-aircraft gun which the rebels told us had come from Iraq.

But although that means that the rebels have many more weapons than they have had before, it is still small fry in comparison to the heavy weaponry, tanks and artillery employed by the regime.

What is increasingly obvious is the number of Jihad (holy war) flags and Jihad paraphernalia worn and used by the rebel fighters. The black headbands worn by many of the fighters are a symbol of Islamic fundamentalism - used by extremist groups and usually anti-Western.

The common refrain from many of the rebel fighters is that they have been forgotten by the outside world.

A cache of weapons seized by rebel fighters

A number of commanders told us they were disappointed, angry and frustrated by the lack of help from the international community.

One said: "All we get is words, not actions."

I asked him how many fighters were from outside Syria. He replied: "Most of the fighters are Syrians. I would say 90% of the fighters are Syrian. Only a few hundred in the whole of Syria are from outside the country and most of them are from sympathetic countries."

We met a Libyan medic and former rebel in his own country who said he had come to help the rebels in Syria as a fellow Muslim.

He said: "We know what it is like to suffer. I have come to help in the hospital but if I had to pick up a gun and shoot Assad soldiers, of course I would.

"The real problem here is not foreign fighters, not Al Qaeda or any other group but the regime which has done far more damage than any other group."

The rebels have been making significant gains in the north, crushing regime bases and the Assad army has been losing men as well as arms.

But the frustration by the rebels and the inaction by the international community is driving the rebels towards religious extremism.

If Assad falls, the West's lack of help may have lost them a potential ally in the Middle East and even worse, may have created an angry and resentful new enemy.

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Hurricane Sandy: 375,000 Evacuated From New York

The mayor of New York has ordered the mandatory evacuation of 375,000 people ahead of Hurricane Sandy.

Michael Bloomberg said 72 evacuation centres had been set up around the city in schools and community centres.

Subway, bus and train services will be suspended from 7pm local time and hundreds of flights into the city's airports have been rerouted or cancelled.

"This is a serious and dangerous storm," Bloomberg said.  The hurricane is expected to start hitting the area on Monday.

Hurricane Sandy is continuing to head north from the Caribbean - where it has killed 65 people - to threaten the eastern US with sheets of rain, high winds and heavy snow.

The majority of the deaths have happened in Haiti and the area around Port-au-Prince, which holds most of the 370,000 Haitians who are still living in flimsy shelters as a result of the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Officials said 51 people have died there, though the number is expected to rise, after three days of constant rains that ended on Friday.

"This is a disaster of major proportions," Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe said.

The hurricane is expected to affect up to 60 million people in the US when it meets a winter storm and a cold front, plus high tides from a full moon, and experts said the rare hybrid storm that results will cause havoc over 800 miles (1,300km) from the East Coast to the Great Lakes.

Sandy was at Category one strength, packing 75 mph (120kph) winds, about 260 miles (418km) southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and moving northeast at 10 mph (16kph) as of 8am (1200 GMT) on Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Centre in Miami. It was about 395 miles (635km) south of New York City.

The storm has also forced the presidential campaign to juggle schedules. Romney scrapped plans to campaign in Virginia on Sunday and switched his schedule for the day to Ohio.

First lady Michelle Obama cancelled an appearance in New Hampshire for Tuesday, and Obama moved a planned departure for Florida to Sunday night from Monday to beat the storm. He also cancelled appearances in Northern Virginia on Monday and Colorado on Tuesday.

More follows...

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