If the Fox News poll of likely voters in swing states is accurate, the Republicans are in trouble, and the scorched-earth campaign tactics of the candidates and their super packs are likely major contributors.

FORBES: Obama team smiles as Republicans brawl

The earth around it is scorched.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Greg Smith, the disillusioned Goldman Sachs employee who left the firm in March with a scorched-earth op-ed in The New York Times, is back in the news as his tell-all book hit shelves last week.

FORBES: Is There a Future for the Brand Who Bashes? (Or, What's Next for Greg Smith?)

The vast areas involved -- and some of the most inhospitable and scorched terrain on Earth -- make outside intervention risky.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Ohio is another key state where the facts contradict Romney's scorched-earth message.

CNN: Romney's amazing hypocrisy

Because you guys didn't go scorched-earth with Microsoft and with the Xbox, so there is less incentive for people to upgrade in some respects.

ENGADGET: & Joystiq interview: Kaz Hirai and Jack Tretton, Presidents, Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc., and America

But Communities and Local Government Minister Grant Shapps rejected the opposition's charges and accused Labour of leaving the coalition a "toxic legacy of debt" under their "scorched earth policy".

BBC: Local government cuts will 'hammer' poorer areas

In April, Otellini set in motion the most extensive restructuring in two decades for Intel (See "Scorched Earth").

FORBES: Otellini To Cash Some Of Intel's Chips?

"Julian Assange certainly took a pretty scorched earth view initially, " says Ian Katz, deputy editor of the Guardian.

BBC: D for discretion: Can the modern media keep a secret?

The war, said Asem, resulted in "a lot of aggression against the environment" -- most infamously, the destruction of Kuwait's oil fields as part of Hussein's "scorched earth" policy on retreat.

CNN: November 12, 2012 -- Updated 1223 GMT (2023 HKT)