Washington, Oct. 11 : A professor of history and director of American Studies at Temple University, Bryant Simon, has said that there are some obvious similarities and differences between today’s crisis and the Great Depression of the 1920s and early 1930s.

But the one key difference, said Simon, is that society in the 1930s was better organized, and social groups -- such as labor and even small business groups -- were better able to push back against Congress.

“First, both were triggered by speculation, unregulated financial markets, and a failure of confidence. FDR closed the banks to restore credit,” said Simon.

Washington, Oct. 11 : Republicans can expect a Democratic `tsunami’ in presidential polls similar to one that occurred in 1994 when Republicans rode a tidal wave of voter discontent and swept Democrats out of power in Congress.

According to CBS, the signs, from top to bottom, are hard to ignore. At the presidential level, Barack Obama has established a solid, if slight, lead in the national polls. More importantly, the battleground states at the moment are almost exclusively traditional Republican must-haves like Florida and Ohio in addition to states that have been traditional locks for the GOP, such as Indiana, Virginia and even North Carolina.

Washington, Oct. 11 : Voter perceptions regarding character issues are often cited as a key factor in the outcome of presidential elections, but according to a new FOX News poll, results are mixed as to whether Barack Obama or John McCain is better suited to pass this year''s "character" test with voters.

With Election Day less than a month away, major questions still linger on a range of measures dealing with the personal make-up of the presidential contenders.

On the one hand, voters see Obama (by a 41 percent to 26 percent margin) as being more likely than McCain to hide the truth about his background and past associations.

Washington, Oct. 11 : In the latest FOX News poll, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama leads his Republican rival John McCain by 46 percent to 39 percent as on October 10. Two weeks ago Obama led by 45 percent to 39 percent.

Obama''s advantage comes mainly from doing better among women, blacks, young voters, those with a college degree, and unmarried voters. He has increased his edge over McCain among women to 16 percentage points, up from a 4-point edge last month (Sept. 8-9).

Washington , Oct 11 : A new FOX News poll has claimed that a majority of Americans are not supportive or enthused about the Bush Administration’s 700 billion dollar bail out package to stop the meltdown on Wall Street.

A 53 percent majority thinks government involvement is not part of the solution at all, but part of the problem. This view is more intense among Republicans (69 percent) and independents (59 percent)—though a large minority of Democrats (40 percent) also views government involvement in a negative light.

Washington, October 11 : American researchers are using a brand new instrument to probe iron-arsenic compounds, with a view to better understanding and developing superconductors.

The collaborative team behind the project includes experts from the U. S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory.

The instrument they are using for their research is situated at the DOE’s sprawling new 1.4 billion-dollar complex, the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), which is operated by Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the rolling green hills of eastern Tennessee.