Romney steps up campaign

Republican challenger Mitt Romney, slipping in the polls in critical battleground states, opened an intense campaign focus in three of them yesterday with a rally in Colorado, before he headed to Ohio for a three-day tour and ending with a stop in Virginia.

President Barack Obama, won all three of those states in the 2008 election.

With about six weeks to go to the Nov 6 election, the handful of so-called swing states appear likely to determine the outcome of what has been an extremely close contest between Obama and Romney.