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September 16, 2012 | | UNPREDICTABLE America cheered the topple of Hosni Mubarak during the Arab Spring. But former State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley says the Libya attacks show that Egypt’s new leader may be even more unpredictable. MIDDLE EAST ANGER In Tahrir Square in Egypt, one of the birthplaces of the Arab Spring, hundreds were arrested by riot police amid demonstrations to have the American ambassador tossed from the country. Meanwhile, police have beefed up security around the American Embassy in Paris after protests Saturday during which 150 people were detained. Both plainclothes officers and uniformed police will help increase security around the embassy, police officer Pierre Coric told The Associated Press. Relatively small-scale protests in Paris and Australia reflected continuing unrest in the Muslim world Saturday, as American embassy officials withdrew from the capitals of Tunisia and Sudan. He's Back The government was mum when China's heir apparent Xi Jinping went missing, and political jitters persist now that he's reappeared. How many scandals can the leadership take? By Melinda Liu. ELECTION 2012 The electoral map is looking good for President Obama as November draws nearer. In new polls of likely voters in battleground states, the incumbent shapes up to be the candidate with the clearest path to winning the presidency come Election Day. The polls conducted one week after the close of the Democratic National Convention show Obama with as much as a 5-point advantage in the key states of Florida and Virginia. In a poll of likely voters in Ohio, Obama led 50 percent to 43 percent. Romney pollster Neil Newhouse, however, said that it is an “extremely tight race,” but “Mitt is extremely well-positioned to win.” GREEN ON BLUE Four more American soldiers were killed Sunday in a spate of weekend attacks that have left six NATO peacekeepers dead in “insider” attacks by Afghans who turned on them. Two more troops were found wounded and an Afghan police officer was found dead at the post the Americans were manning when attacked. The five other Afghans assigned to the post had slipped away. Fifty-one members of the international coalition in Afghanistan have died in similar attacks over the past year, and the recruiting of new Afghan security personnel was suspended pending new screening measures. | | 
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