Alexandria (US), Oct 21: After former US secretary of state endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in the Nov 4 elections, the White House said last evening that US President George W. Bush has “greatly respects” for Colin Powell.

White House spokesperson Dana Perino said that every American had the right to decide whom to support in an election.

Jakarta - Indonesian police detained one man believed to be linked to terrorist activities Tuesday and seized bomb-making materials at a house in suburban Jakarta, the country's police chief said.

General Bambang Hendarso Danuri said counterterrorism police conducted the raid at a rented house in the northern suburb of Plumpang, the state-run Antara news agency reported.

The officers seized dozens of bullets, 3 kilograms of explosive material believed to be TNT, bomb-making manuals, pipes and cables.

Paris - Ministers and representatives from 18 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) began meeting in Paris on Tuesday to tackle international tax havens.

Convened by France and Germany, the participants will attempt to force tax havens to open their accounts to investigators looking for depositors who avoid paying taxes on their incomes.

The issue has been made more pressing because of the global finance crisis.

Pascal Saint-Amans, the OECD official in charge of the fight against tax havens, told the daily Le Figaro, "How can we pretend to rebuild a healthy financial system if we do not put an end to these dark pockets?"

Belton (US), Oct 21 : US Republican presidential candidate John McCain has reportedly launched a fresh attack on his Democratic rival Barack Obama, warning the voters that the latter was “shifty, job-killing socialist” who wasn’t ready to take on the challenges facing the next US President.

Announcing his policies, he said if he won the election, he won’t raise taxes on anyone, particularly the small business owners.

The ‘Vote Early for Change’ rally in Fort Lauderdale on Monday saw Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton join forces, insisting on Floridians to use their swing state influence to bring back a Democrat in the White House.

With fists pumping and arms clasped around each other’s back, the two Senators looked like old friends. As thousands in the crowd cheered their appearance together, Obama vowed to tap Clinton’s passion for health-care reform in case he becomes the President.

New York, Oct. 21: A New York Times analysis of donors who have handed over cheques of 25,000 dollars or more to the fund-raising committees of the Obama and McCain campaigns, has found that most of it came from the securities and investments industry.

According to the paper, the contributions have come from various firms embroiled in the recent financial crisis like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and AIG, and it adds that the joint fund-raising committees have been utilized far more heavily in this presidential election than in the past.