N.Y., N.J. officials hopeful election won’t be disrupted by Sandy’s aftermath N.Y., N.J. officials hopeful election won’t be disrupted by Sandy’s aftermath ADVERTISING NEW YORK — Power generators are being marshaled, polling locations moved and voting machines hurriedly put into
N.Y., N.J. officials hopeful election won’t be disrupted by Sandy’s aftermath
NEW YORK — Power generators are being marshaled, polling locations moved and voting machines hurriedly put into place as officials prepare to hold an national election in storm-ravaged sections of New York and New Jersey barely a week after Superstorm Sandy.
Organizers expressed guarded confidence Sunday that the presidential vote will proceed with no major disruptions in most areas hit by the storm, though it was unclear whether the preparations would be enough to avoid depressed turnout in communities where people still lack power or have been driven from their damaged homes.
Some voters will be casting ballots in places different from their usual polls.
In Long Beach, N.Y., a barrier-island city that was inundated with water during the storm, the number of polling places will be cut to four, down from the usual 11. Residents of the devastated borough of Sea Bright, on the New Jersey shore, will have to drive two towns over to vote.
But with two days to go until Election Day, officials in both states said Sunday that they were overcoming many of their biggest challenges.
Rebels capture oil
field in eastern Syria
BEIRUT — Syrian rebels firing mortars and rocket-propelled grenades captured an oilfield in the country’s east on Sunday after three days of fierce fighting with government troops protecting the facility, activists said.
The head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said rebels overran the Al-Ward oilfield in the province of Deir el-Zour near the border with Iraq early Sunday. About 40 soldiers were guarding the facility that the rebels had been pounding for the past three days, he said, adding that opposition fighters also captured several regime troops.
Oil was a major source of revenue for the cash-strapped regime of President Bashar Assad before the European Union and the United States imposed an embargo on Syria’s crude exports last year to punish the government for its brutal crackdown on protesters early on in the uprising.
“This field used to supply the regime with fuel for its tanks and our aim was to stop these supplies,” Omar Abu Leila, an activist in Deir el-Zour, told The Associated Press by telephone. He said there was heavy fighting recently near the oil facility that is located just east of the city of Mayadin.
Both activists said the rebels shot down a fighter jet near the oil field Sunday. It was not clear if the warplane was taking part in fighting in the area.
Boy, 2, dies after falling into wild dog exhibit at Pittsburgh Zoo
PITTSBURGH — A 2-year-old boy visiting the Pittsburgh zoo was killed Sunday morning when he fell off a railing that his mother had put him on top of to view a pack of African painted dogs, who pounced on the child and mauled him, police said.
It was not clear whether the boy died from the fall into the wild dog exhibit area or from the attack, said Barbara Baker, president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium.
“It was very horrific,” said Lt. Kevin Kraus of the Pittsburgh police, who added that the dogs attacked “immediately” after the boy fell at about 11:45 a.m. Zoo officials at first estimated the boy fell 14 feet, but police said it was 11. It was not clear which is correct.
When the boy fell, other visitors immediately told staff members, who responded along with Pittsburgh police. Zookeepers called off some of the dogs, and seven of them immediately went to a back building. Three more eventually were drawn away from the child, but the last dog was aggressive and police had to shoot the animal, officials say.
The zoo was immediately closed; it was not clear when it would be reopened, authorities said.
By wire sources
