The US presidential election campaign was to reopen yesterday after a weeklong ceasefire during observances of the death of ex-president Ronald Reagan.
Democratic contender John Kerry is to give a major speech on the economy in New Jersey, hoping the campaign hiatus will not hurt his lead over President George W. Bush in the polls.
The Massachusetts senator held a seven-point lead over Bush in a Los Angeles Times poll published Thursday. Kerry led Bush 51 to 44 percent.
But a poll released Sunday by Time magazine showed how fragmented US public opinion is ahead of the November 2 election. The magazine found that among Americans who consider themselves "very religious," 59 percent supported Bush while 35 percent favor Kerry.
Those who describe themselves as "not religious" favor Kerry by 69 percent to 22 percent.
US Catholics split down the middle, with 45 percent supporting Kerry, a Catholic and former altar boy, and 43 percent favoring Bush, a born-again Methodist.
Asked if a president should be guided by his faith in policymaking, 70 percent of Republicans said yes while 63 percent of Democrats said no.
Kerry was to launch a broad appeal to middle-class voters this week, decrying rising health-care, fuel and college tuition costs on campaign stops in Midwestern states.
Bush will also hit the campaign trail again to try to convince Americans that the US economy is getting better.
"The economy is growing at its fastest rate in 20 years. The manufacturing sector is growing at its fastest rate in 20 years," said Bush spokesman Steve Schmidt.
"Yet John Kerry travels around America preaching a sermon of doom and gloom."
Bush was due to travel yesterday to Missouri, where he will participate in a forum on prescription drug discount cards. He is also due to speak at two military bases, in Florida and Washington state, later in the week in a bid to rally morale.
Bush already has benefitted from Reagan's death, which dislodged from the headlines a steady drumbeat of bad news about Iraq, including the prisoner abuse scandals and the spiraling cost in dollars and lives of the US-led military occupation.
Doubts remain as to whether Bush would get a boost in the polls after the death of the man he has claimed as his ideological role model, or whether he would lose favor among voters viewing him as a poor imitation of Reagan.
Bush, who seemed to take the view that any association with the 40th US president would be beneficial, made his case again Saturday during his weekly radio address.
"Ronald Reagan always told us that for America, our best was yet to come," he said one day after Reagan's funeral in Washington, where he also delivered remarks.
For his part, Kerry, who delivered Saturday's Democratic radio address, noted Bush's opposition to stem-cell research, which Reagan's widow, Nancy, said might have saved the late president from the Alzheimer's disease that killed him.
"Today, more than 100 million Americans have illnesses that one day could be cured or treated with stem cell therapy," Kerry said.
Services to honor Reagan put Kerry's campaign on hold and kept candidate out of the public eye, which pundits say is a considerable setback for a presidential challenger in a hard-fought election.
Reagan's death also hurt the Kerry campaign's bank account: the Massachusetts senator was forced to rescheduled two star-studded fundraising concerts, with performances planned by pop singers Neil Diamond, Willie Nelson and Barbra Streisand.
A Los Angeles concert has been rescheduled for later this month, while a New York concert has been delayed until next month.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not