Rio elects its Carnival's queen and king

RIO de Janeiro has new royalty.

Evelyn Bastos, a 19-year-old student and member of the famed Mangueira Samba school, has been crowned queen of the 2013 Rio Carnival while Milton Junior was re-elected as iconic King Momo.

An emotional Bastos, who joined Mangueira - Rio's oldest Samba school - at the age of four, beat her more muscular rivals and thanked her many supporters upon receiving the sought-after title.

"I am not alone in wearing this crown as many people helped me," she said as she choked back tears.

"I am 100 per cent natural," she added in an apparent dig at her rivals, many of whom appear to have silicon-injected breasts and buttocks.

"I entered the contest as representative of Mangueira Samba school and now I am representing all the Cariocas (Rio residents) who will take part in the carnival. It is very rewarding," Bastos said at the ceremony held in Rio's northern Samba City.

Bastos, whose mother served as Mangueira percussion queen three years in a row and was her major inspiration, said she underwent five months of gruelling training for the job. She walked away with a prize of $US10,000 ($A9650).

Junior, who weighs in at 160 kilograms and stands 184 centimetres tall, was again picked to serve as King Momo, the Rio Carnival's symbol of overweight excess.

King Momo is traditionally given the key to the city and leads the crowds in wild partying and frantic samba dancing.

Rio's world famous carnival takes place February 9-12.

Junior will play carnival king for the fifth year in a row and his selection was greeted with some boos.

He also earned a prize of $US10,000, in addition to a ceremonial crown, sash and mace.

"King Momo transmits to the entire world, throughout the city, the joy and Samba, surrounded with beautiful women, the queen and the princesses," the 33-year-old said.

"Our marvellous city is rich with its values and culture and Samba is our foundation," he added.

Leticia Guimaraes and Clara Paixao were picked as carnival princesses and received $US7500 each.

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Four killed when Kyrgyz toilet floor caves

FOUR people have been killed when the floor of a public toilet in southern Kyrgyzstan caved in, the ministry for emergency situations says.

Authorities had earlier reported that 15 people were injured in the accident on Saturday at a public toilet located in a market.

But four bodies were found in the rubble early Sunday.

The ministry said Deputy Prime Minister Taiyrbek Sarpashev and the Minister for Emergency Situations Kubatbek Boronov have "ordered checks to be carried out on all public toilets" after visiting the accident site.

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South Sudan expels UN rights official

SOUTH Sudan says it has expelled a UN official who was carrying out an investigation on the human rights situation in the fledgling state, accusing her of producing "unjustified" reports.

"It's the first person on human rights to be (declared) persona non grata," government spokesman Barnaba Marial Benjamin said on Sunday.

The UN official has been "reporting on human rights issues that she could not verify and has been publishing without justifications. This is unethical," said the spokesman.

The UN's peacekeeping mission in South Sudan confirmed the expulsion.

"The order is in breach of the legal obligations of the government of the Republic of South Sudan under the Charter of the United Nations", said Hilde Johnson, special representative of the UN to the country, which gained independence in July 2011.

She said she has sought explanations from Juba.

"Human rights monitoring, investigation and reporting, and building capacity, is a core element of the mandate of UNMISS, which must be protected," Johnson said.

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France church in new gay marriage swipe

THE Catholic Church in France has taken a fresh swing at the Socialist government's plan to authorise gay marriage and adoption, which is to be presented as a draft law this week.

Paris Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, who has led opposition to the project, told mass-goers in the pilgrimage town of Lourdes on Sunday that children needed both a father and a mother to build their identity.

"When we defend the right of children to build their personality with reference to the man and the woman who gave them life, we are not defending a particular position," he said.

"We are recognising what is expressed by the practices and the wisdom of all the peoples since the beginning of time and which modern specialists confirm," said Vingt-Trois at the mass during an annual meeting of France's Catholic bishops.

The gay marriage plan is to be presented as a draft bill to President Francois Hollande's cabinet on Wednesday.

Hollande has promised the legislation will be on the statute books by mid-2013 and there is sufficient cross-party support to ensure the government will be able to push it through on schedule.

Polls suggest up to two-thirds of French voters back the right of homosexuals to marry, but they are split on allowing them to adopt.

Some conservative and far-right politicians have called for mass street protests to try to force the government to back down.

Hundreds of French mayors or deputy mayors have signed a petition opposing the government's plans, and Jewish leaders have joined Catholic bishops and the right-wing opposition to denounce the project.

Many of these mayors - the officials who carry out most marriages - have warned they will not preside over same-sex ceremonies.

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has insisted there will be no backtracking on the pledge made by Hollande when he was campaigning for the presidency this year.

The text to be presented to Hollande's cabinet will redefine marriage to stipulate that it is "contracted between two persons of different sex or of the same sex", Ayrault told AFP last month.

The draft legislation will include provision for married gay couples to adopt children but the right will not be immediately extended to unmarried homosexuals, the prime minister added.

That question and the issue of gay couples' access to medically assisted conception will be addressed in secondary legislation at a later date.

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Tens of thousands lose housing in US storm

TENS of thousands of New Yorkers need housing after superstorm Sandy, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg estimated that 30,000 to 40,000 people in the city alone would need housing after Monday's storm, which left more than 100 dead in 15 US states and Canada and inflicted tens of billions of dollars of damage.

"It is starting to get cold, people are in homes that are uninhabitable," Cuomo told a news conference on Sunday.

"We are going to have tens of thousands of people who need housing solutions right away."

About 730,000 people in New York state still do not have electricity, nearly one week after Sandy hit, including more than 130,000 in New York City, the governor said.

With drivers waiting several hours in queues at service stations to get fuel, Cuomo and Bloomberg appealed for patience and insisted that deliveries are improving.

There are also at least one million people in the state of New Jersey without electricity. Much of the state is under fuel rationing.

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NASA to text space station alerts

GALACTIC tourism may still be a daydream for most of us, but for anyone interested in a glimpse of the International Space Station sooner, NASA is ready to help.

The US space agency, celebrating the 12th anniversary of astronauts living and working on the orbiting lab, launched a new service Friday that alerts people when the space station is visible from their backyard.

Those who sign up will get an email or a text message with a few hours warning.

Then, when the moment is right, NASA said, you just go outside and look up - no fancy equipment required.

"It's really remarkable to see the space station fly overhead and to realize humans built an orbital complex that can be spotted from Earth by almost anyone looking up at just the right moment," William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said in a statement.

The space station is typically visible right at dawn or dusk, when the moon is the only brighter object visible in the night sky, NASA said.

It looks like a fast moving point of light, similar to Venus.

"Spot the Station" service is available worldwide, the agency said, adding the station's trajectory carries it over more than 90 per cent of the Earth's population.

To sign up, visit spotthestation.nasa.gov.

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Romney, Obama fight for an edge

REACHING for the finish line, Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama embarked on the final 72-hour haul of their long, grinding quest for victory, swatting at one another over what should motivate Americans to vote and making closing arguments that offer dueling pictures of what the next four years can and should bring.

The candidates began the day swatting at one another over what should motivate Americans to vote and making closing arguments that offer dueling pictures of what the next four years can and should bring.

Mr Romney opened a three-state campaign day in New Hampshire by faulting Mr Obama for telling supporters a day earlier that voting would be their "best revenge"

"Vote for revenge?" Mr Romney asked, oozing incredulity.

"I'd like to tell him what I'd tell you: Vote for love of country. It's time to lead America to a better place."

The Republican candidate released a TV ad carrying the same message

Mr Obama tended to presidential business before politics as he led a briefing at the government's disaster relief agency on the federal response to Superstorm Sandy.

The recovery effort still has a long way to go but pledging a "120 per cent effort" by all those involved, Mr Obama said. Then he began his own three-state campaign day in Ohio, the biggest battleground of Campaign 2012.

After holding mostly small and midsize rallies for much of the campaign, Mr Obama's team is planning a series of larger events this weekend aimed at drawing big crowds in battleground states.

Still, the campaign isn't expecting to draw the massive audiences Mr Obama had in the closing days of the 2008 race, when his rallies drew more than 50,000.

Mr Obama's closing weekend also includes two joint events with former President Bill Clinton: a rally at night in Virginia and an event Sunday in New Hampshire.

The two presidents had planned to campaign together across three states earlier this week, but that trip was called off because of Sandy. And, of course, there is always Ohio.

In a whiff of 2008 nostalgia, some of Mr Obama's traveling companions from his campaign four years ago were planning to join him on the road for the final days of his last campaign. Among them are Robert Gibbs, who served as Mr Obama's first White House press secretary, and Reggie Love, Mr Obama's former personal aide who left the White House earlier this year.

Likewise, virtually Mr Romney's entire senior team has left the campaign's Boston headquarters to travel with Mr Romney for the contest's final three days. Most will connect with Mr Romney at his morning New Hampshire event.

Their presence for the campaign's waning hours is an admission that the strategy and planning is largely complete. His schedule has been set, the ads have been placed, and Mr Romney's message has been decided.

The tight inner circle that has worked with him for several years in most cases plan to enjoy the final moments on the campaign trail as Mr Romney's side.

"It's been a long road," Ann Romney told reporters aboard the campaign plane, offering breakfast pastries to Secret Service agents and reporters alike. After campaigning on her own for the past month, she hooked up with her husband for the final swing.

Mr Romney hosted a massive rally Friday night in West Chester, Ohio, drawing more than 10,000 people to the Cincinnati area for an event that featured rock stars, sports celebrities and dozens of Republican officials. It was a high-energy event on a cold night designed to kick off his own sprint to the finish.

Mr Romney arrived in New Hampshire close to midnight after an 18-hour day on the campaign trail that took him from Virginia to Wisconsin to Ohio.

After his morning rally on the New Hampshire seacoast, he was making an afternoon appearance in Iowa, and two more in Colorado. He shifted an original plan to campaign in Nevada in favour of a schedule likely to bring him back to Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

On Saturday, Mr Obama's first stop was in Mentor, Ohio, then he was campaigning in Milwaukee and Dubuque, Iowa, and ending the day in Bristow, Va. On Sunday, he was taking his campaign to New Hampshire, Florida, Colorado and, yes, Ohio.

Polling shows the race remains a toss-up heading into the final days. But Mr Romney still has the tougher path; he must win more of the nine most-contested states to reach 270 electoral votes: Ohio, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado, Nevada, Wisconsin, Iowa and New Hampshire.

Mr Romney has added Pennsylvania to the mix, hoping to end a streak of five presidential contests where the Democratic candidate prevailed in the state.

Mr Obama won Pennsylvania by more than 10 per centage points in 2008; the latest polls in the state give him a 4- to 5-point margin. Mr Romney will campaign in the Philadelphia suburbs on Sunday.

Mr Obama aides scoff at the Romney incursion, but they are carefully adding television spending in the state and are sending Clinton to campaign there Monday.

In crucial early voting, Mr Obama holds an apparent lead over Mr Romney in key states. But Mr Obama's advantage isn't as big as the one he had over John McCain four years ago, giving Mr Romney hope that he could make up that gap in Tuesday's election.

About 25 million people already have voted in 34 states and the District of Columbia.

No votes will be counted until Election Day, but several battleground states are releasing the party affiliation of people who have voted early. So far, Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina and Ohio. Republicans have the edge in Colorado.

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