Berlin - Berlin's fabled Tempelhof Airport ceased 85 years of operations on Thursday, with its last scheduled flight taking to the skies after the city's mayor declared time was up for the site.

The airport, which is surrounded by multi-storey apartment blocks, was once the entry point for 2.3 million tons of airborne relief during the 1948-49 Berlin Airlift. Future use of the historic site has not been decided.

Washington - Republican presidential candidate John McCain and Democratic rival Barack Obama continued their last-ditch attempts to appeal to wavering voters in swing states on Thursday as the US economy took another step toward recession.

Obama planned stops in Florida, Virginia and Missouri and jumped on new government figures that showed the economy contracted 0.3 per cent in the third quarter as proof that a change in approach was needed.

Los Angeles - On the bucolic campus of Occidental College on the outskirts of Los Angeles, students this week were busy with their usual important activities: studying, hanging out and spending hour after hour working the phones in support of Barack Obama.

Their mission: to call fellow students around the country and urge them to go to the polls.

It's no surprise that students at Obama's alma mater are pulling out all the stops in support their most famous alumnus.

Beirut - Regardless of whether Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama becomes president of the United States, the change in US policy toward Lebanon will be minimal, according to analysts in Beirut.

Differences on other Middle Eastern issues aside, it is expected that the two US senators will follow the same policies on Lebanon. Under either, Washington will continue to back Lebanese state sovereignty, call for the country's independence from former power broker Syria and push for Hezbollah's disarmament, analysts say.

Indian IT hub, Bangalore is also facing the heat of the global recession. The IT industry of state of Karnataka has suffered 5 percent decline in manpower utilization.