International Top Stories from Associated Press (AP)

CAIRO (AP) , It's early in the morning, and 13-year-old Ezzat is hard at work in one of Cairo's pottery workshops in an ancient part of the Egyptian capital. He sorts through the day's production. In the same area of workshops, three barefoot boys under the age of 12 carry clay pieces from inside the factory out into the sun to dry.

SENDAI, Japan (AP) , About a quarter of the $148 billion budget for reconstruction after Japan's March 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster has been spent on unrelated projects, including subsidies for a contact lens factory and research whaling.

KETTERING, Ohio , Walking a political tightrope, Mitt Romney made a stop here Tuesday and tried to strike a delicate balance between showing sympathy for those suffering in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and fulfilling the duties of his current job: Republican Party presidential nominee.

A late surge of support and months of restrained spending have left the Republican National Committee flush with cash with little time to spend it , $68 million as of Oct. 17, which was nearly seven times the amount the Democratic National Committee had in the bank.

The Islamist militant group Boko Haram has conducted terrorist attacks in Nigeria that bring it closer to al Qaeda in northern Mali, making linkages between the groups more likely and more dangerous, according to a paper published by the Combating Terrorism Center.

Both presidential campaigns and their super PAC allies are now running television ads in Pennsylvania, with Republicans making a late push to try to swing the state their way, and Democrats moving to block them.

Mitt Romney is making a late-campaign play to win over Rust Belt voters by trying to dent President Obama's credentials on his federal auto bailout , but the claims he is making about Chrysler creating jobs in China are drawing return fire from Democrats and the auto workers union.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) , The sleek, white superyacht glistens under a gray autumnal sky, a posthumous testament to the design aesthetic of Steve Jobs. Just over a year after the Apple founder died, the luxury motor yacht he commissioned and helped French product designer Philippe Starck make has finally slipped into an anonymous Dutch backwater.

DETROIT , Marco Scutaro singled home the tiebreaking run in the 10th inning, and the San Francisco Giants beat the Detroit Tigers 4-3 on Sunday night to complete a four-game sweep and win their secondWorld Series title in three years. Ryan Theriot, who went hitless for St. Louis in Game 7 of last year's Series, singled softly into right field off Phil Coke opening the 10th.

NINGBO, China (AP) , After three days of protests by thousands of citizens over pollution fears, a local Chinese government relented and agreed that a petrochemical factory would not be expanded, only to see the protests persist.

The arrival of Hurricane Sandy one week before Election Day has forced both presidential campaigns to shuffle schedules, but the massive "Frankenstorm" has particularly complicated the final push by Team Obama, cutting into the president's campaign time and raising concerns among his advisers over voter turnout, especially in deadlocked Virginia.

Sen. John McCain said Sunday that the Obama administration's handling of the Sept. 11 consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya, has been a "debacle," and that the White House has engaged in a cover-up worse than the Watergate scandal that forced President Nixon to resign.

SITTWE, Myanmar (AP) , Victims of Myanmar's latest explosion of Muslim-Buddhist violence fled to already packed displacement camps along the country's western coast, with a top U.N. official saying the unrest has forced more than 22,000 people from their homes.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) , A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the west coast of Canada, but there were no reports of major damage. Residents in parts of British Columbia were evacuated, but the province appeared to escape the biggest quake in Canada since 1949 largely unscathed.

National Weather Service officials are predicting savage weather conditions for the next 72 hours, warning residents to stay home to avoid blistering winds and heavy rainfall. But Capt. William Bennett of the Falls Church Volunteer Fire Department is putting on another pot of coffee.