WE’RE well into the blackberry season and the warm weather has helped the growth and ripening of this popular fruit all around the country — one of the best years in recent times.

Barack Obama worked to hang on to his slim lead in the crucial battleground state of Ohio and bounce back from a disappointing debate performance that re-energised the campaign of Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

US President Barack Obama has used the first official rally of his re-election bid to brand Republican rival Mitt Romney as a willing rubber-stamp for failed policies championed by extreme House Republicans.

Barack Obama told top politicians they must hammer out a deal within the next 10 days to avoid an unprecedented default on US debt.

EMBOLDENED by a commanding House majority and Senate gains, Republican leaders vowed yesterday to deliver on their “golden opportunity” to roll back the size of government and President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law.

Tiger Woods confirmed today he will defend his title in next week’s Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio.

US regulators shut down Ohio’s AmTrust Bank, the fourth-largest American bank to fail this year.

Ohio voters have started casting ballots in the state that may again determine the US presidency, as Barack Obama struggles to thwart a John McCain victory there four years after it tipped the election to George Bush.

Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic primary elections in Ohio and Texas, it was projected today.

OHIO executed a religious cult leader yesterday for murdering a family of five of his followers who he thought were not enthusiastic enough about his teachings.

Ohio has executed Jeffrey Lundgren, a cult leader who was convicted of shooting and killing a family of five outside Cleveland in 1989.

Republican Congressman Bob Ney abruptly abandoned his bid for re-election yesterday, becoming the latest Capitol Hill figure to fall victim to the congressional corruption scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

OHIO, home state of seven US presidents and the state that denied John Kerry the White House, is used to being in the centre of presidential elections.

JOHN KERRY’S concession of the US presidential race to Republican incumbent George Bush yesterday eased concerns that Ohio would emerge as a bitter battleground and delay the election’s outcome for weeks, in a replay of 2000.

For weeks Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell has generated controversy while deciding how voters in this crucial swing state can go about choosing a president.

Ohio has emerged as the most likely setting for any court fight that would put the close US presidential election into overtime, while armies of lawyers sent to other battleground states found themselves with little to do.

IT’S like a vast, frenetic game of Monopoly in its closing stages.