UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The U.N.-Arab League mediator in Syria’s civil war, Lakhdar Brahimi, has urged Russia to be more “pro-active” in resolving the 19-month-old conflict, diplomats said on Tuesday, citing the U.N. political affairs chief.

Jeffrey Feltman, the U.N. undersecretary general for political affairs, made the remarks at a closed-door session of the 15-nation Security Council on Syria, diplomats inside the council chamber told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

NEW YORK, Nov 4 (Reuters) – Victims of superstorm Sandy on
the East Coast struggled against the cold on Sunday amid fuel
shortages and power outages, two days ahead of an election that
polls suggest is a dead heat between President Barack Obama and
his Republican rival.

Fuel supplies were rumbling toward disaster zones and a
million customers regained electricity as near-freezing
temperatures descended on the U.S. Northeast overnight. But New
York Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned the city that it would be
days before power was fully restored and fuel shortages ended.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New Jersey is allowing voters displaced by superstorm Sandy to vote by email, while some voters in New York could be casting their ballots in tents in an 11th-hour scramble to ensure voting in Tuesday’s elections.

With power still out for more than a million homes and businesses and scores of polling stations rendered useless by a record surge of seawater in New York and New Jersey, authorities face unprecedented challenges in pulling off Election Day.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Victims of superstorm Sandy on the East Coast struggled against the cold on Sunday amid fuel shortages and power outages, two days ahead of an election that polls suggest is a dead heat between President Barack Obama and his Republican rival.

Fuel supplies were rumbling toward disaster zones and a million customers regained electricity as near-freezing temperatures descended on the U.S. Northeast overnight. But New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned the city that it would be days before power was fully restored and fuel shortages ended.

NEW YORK, Nov 3 (Reuters) – The lower Manhattan skyline lit
up early Saturday morning for the first time since superstorm
Sandy slammed into the U.S. Northeast while thousands of storm
victims in New Jersey and elsewhere remained in the dark and
awaiting disaster relief.

The power restoration came as gasoline supplies headed to
coastal zones devastated by the record storm surge and to
motorists whose patience has been tested by gasoline rationing
during the painstaking effort to rebuild.

NEW YORK, Nov 3 (Reuters) – While power returned to much of
Manhattan and fuel supplies were headed for the disaster zone,
residents of some of the hardest-hit areas faced a long wait for
electricity and help after superstorm Sandy’s devastating strike
on the U.S. Northeast.

With the U.S. presidential election just three days away, at
least 3.5 million homes and businesses remained without power in
a region choked with storm debris and long gas lines reminiscent
of the 1970s-era U.S. fuel shortage. Angry residents wondered
when their lives would return to normal.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Frustration grew on Friday for residents of Northeast states hit by superstorm Sandy as the death toll reached 102, millions were still without power and tempers frayed at a lack of fuel and guidance on when life might return to normal.

New York City canceled its annual marathon in the face of rising criticism of a previous decision to go ahead with the race on Sunday as the search for bodies continued in devastated communities from New York’s Staten Island to New Jersey seaside towns.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – A frustrated U.N. investigator on Palestinian human rights urged a boycott of companies tied to Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian Territories on Thursday, but the United States criticized the call as “irresponsible and unacceptable.”

Richard Falk, the independent special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian Territories, said the companies – which include Hewlett Packard, Motorola, Volvo and Caterpillar – should be boycotted until they adhered to international rights standards and practices.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Russia slammed leaks to the media from a closed-door Security Council briefing on Syria on Wednesday, saying diplomats and journalists involved should be stripped of U.N. accreditation for the release of confidential information.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin was angry that some diplomats conveyed to Reuters that the U.N.-Arab League mediator for the Syrian conflict, Lakhdar Brahimi, told the 15-member council that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had accepted Brahimi’s plan for an Eid holiday ceasefire.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has indicated to Russia that it will accept U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi’s proposal for a Muslim holiday ceasefire in Syria, Moscow’s U.N. envoy said on Wednesday.

“We have had indications that they (Syria’s government) are accepting the proposal of Mr. Brahimi,” Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters after a closed-door meeting of the 15-nation Security Council during which Brahimi briefed council members via video link from Egypt.