The New Nation - Internet Edition

Barack Obama now seen as most electable: Poll

AP, Austin, Texas

The sense that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is more electable than Hillary Rodham Clinton has trumped concerns about whether he has the experience necessary to be a good president, a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds.

The air of inevitability that once surrounded Clinton has shifted to the Illinois senator, now seen by seven in 10 Americans as the likely Democratic nominee.

POLL: Full results: Views of Republicans, Democrats and undecideds

In a poll taken Thursday through Sunday, Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents say by 2-1 that Obama has the better chance of beating the Republican in November. Republicans agree: By more than 3-1, they say likely GOP nominee John McCain has a better chance of beating Clinton than Obama.

That's true even though Americans are split, 46%-46%, over whether Obama, a first-term senator, has the experience to be president. In contrast, Clinton is seen as having enough experience by 2-1, McCain by 3-1.

Still, 29% of those who say Obama doesn't have enough experience support him against McCain. Other priorities determine their votes. Those surveyed rank "leadership and vision" and positions on issues as more important than experience.

"Obama has transitioned from a movement leader to a presidential leader," says Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, saying he has "crossed the threshold" to being judged able to handle the job.

However, Clinton could rebound by winning the Texas and Ohio primaries next week, Lake says. And Obama's lead could make Clinton the underdog, perhaps prompting some voters, particularly baby boomer women, to "give her a second look."

Obama and Clinton face off at 9 ET tonight at Cleveland State University for a debate televised on MSNBC.

In a general-election matchup among registered voters, Obama leads McCain by 4 percentage points, 49%-45%; McCain leads Clinton 49%-47%.

McCain does better among likely voters, edging Clinton by 4 points, Obama by 1.

The Arizona senator seems to have the Republican nomination in hand, crushing former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee 61%-23% among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.

Among Democrats, Obama has surged to a double-digit lead, thumping Clinton 51%-39%. It is the first time Obama has topped 50% and the first time he has led Clinton outside the survey's margin of error.

However, the 12-point lead is at odds with a separate Gallup tracking poll, taken Friday through Sunday, that gave Obama a 47%-45% edge.

Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll, attributed the disparity to sampling error and the contest's volatility. "There's just a lot of movement," he says. "Democrats are not yet totally honed in on exactly who they're going to vote for."

Clinton strategist Mark Penn concurs. Obama's wide lead "is reflective of momentum from the last series of primaries," he says. "We expect the polls to snap back to Hillary if we are successful in Ohio and Texas."

The telephone poll of 2,021 adults has a margin of error of +/-2 percentage points. The margin of error for the subsample of 1,009 Democrats is +/-3 points; for the Republican sample of 829, it is +/-4 points.

Missile strike kills 12 in Pakistan tribal belt

AFP, Peshawar

A missile strike early Thursday killed at least 12 people, most of them Arabs, in a Pakistani tribal area known as a safe haven for Al-Qaeda militants, officials and residents said.

Residents in Azam Warsak village in South Waziristan told AFP that a house was destroyed by a missile fired from a pilotless drone and the loud blast was heard miles (kilometres) away in the rugged valley.

US drones have launched several previous strikes on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region targeting militants from Osama bin Laden's network, although there was no immediate confirmation from Pakistani forces.

A spokesman for the US-led coalition force based in Afghanistan said neither it nor the separate NATO-headed force were involved in the strike.

"We have no reports that any of our forces are involved," coalition spokesman Major Chris Belcher told AFP.

Security officials said they had received a report that a "guided missile" fired from neighbouring Afghanistan had hit a house belonging to a local tribesman at about 2:00 am Thursday (2100 GMT Wednesday).

eath toll is now 12 to 13 people -- three of the dead appear to be from Punjab (central Pakistani province where several militant groups are based) while the rest are Arabs," a security official told AFP.

At least five people were also injured in the attack, officials added.

South Waziristan is the base of Baitullah Mehsud, an Islamist warlord accused by Pakistani and US officials of links to Al-Qaeda and of masterminding the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto.

The security officials said they had no information on who could have been targeted in the attack. The area is remote, and Pakistani troops have limited control in the lawless ethnic Pashtun tribal belt.

11 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks

AFP, Gaza City

Eleven Palestinians, including a six-month-old baby, were killed in Israeli attacks on Wednesday while Palestinian rockets killed an Israeli in a sharp escalation of violence.

Following a day of unrest, Israeli helicopters launched a night raid on the Hamas interior ministry in Gaza, firing three missiles and seriously damaging the five-story building, witnesses said. According to a hospital source, the baby was killed in the attack, with witnesses reporting damage to houses surrounding the ministry and at least 20 other casualties. The deadliest attack occurred earlier in the day in the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis where five Hamas fighters were killed in an Israeli army raid which also wounded one person, medical sources told AFP.

A second raid on the same site moments later injured another three people. Hamas then claimed responsibility for what was the first killing of an Israeli by Gaza rocket fire since May 2007 -- before the movement seized power in Gaza in June -- saying it had been to avenge the death of its militants.

India missile test to start arms race: Pakistan

Reuters, Karachi

India's successful test-firing of a nuclear-capable, submarine-launched missile will trigger a new arms race in the region, Pakistan's navy chief said on Wednesday.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan and India have fought three wars since their partition and independence in 1947, and nearly went to war a fourth time in 2002, but relations have improved since they launched a peace process in 2004.

India, already capable of launches from land and air, tested the new missile on Tuesday from a surfaced submarine -- a step closer to firing from under the sea and matching countries such as the United States, Russia, France and China. "These developmentstput nuclear weapons at sea and it is a very, very serious issue," navy chief Admiral Muhammad Afzal Tahir told reporters in Karachi.

"This is going to start a new arms race in the region," he was quoted as saying by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan.

Indian officials say the K-15, a two-stage missile with a top range of 700 km (450 miles), will be eventually deployed with a domestically built nuclear submarine, after further tests.

The two South Asian countries routinely test missiles in spite of their peace process.

Baby survives fall down Indian train toilet

Reuters, Ahmedabad

A newborn baby girl survived an ignoble birth after slipping down the toilet bowl of a moving Indian train onto the tracks when a pregnant woman unexpectedly gave birth while relieving herself on Tuesday.

"My delivery was so sudden," said the Bhuri Kalbi, the mother of the infant, born two months prematurely. "I did not even realise that my child had slipped from the hole in the toilet."

Kalbi, a 33-year-old woman from a village in Rajasthan, fainted on the toilet seat after the birth for a few minutes before waking up and alerting her family. "They stopped the train and ran on the tracks to find the baby," she said, speaking from her hospital bed in the western city of Ahmedabad.

Railway staff at a nearby station were alerted and soon found the newborn girl lying uninjured on pebbles by the track. She is now in intensive care because of her premature birth, doctors said.

Most toilets on Indian trains are filthy chutes emptying directly onto the tracks.

African Union chief pushes ahead with Kenya talks

AFP, Nairobi

African Union chief and Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete pushed ahead Thursday with talks to end the Kenyan political crisis.

Kikwete chaired talks between President Mwai Kibaki, opposition chief Raila Odinga and former UN secretary general and chief mediator Kofi Annan in a fresh bid to resolve the two month crisis.

Odinga accuses Kibaki of rigging the December 27 presidential election whose contested outcome sparked violence across the country that claimed more than 1,500 lives.

Hundreds of thousands of people have also been uprooted, mainly in the capital's slums and Kenya's fertile western region, which are regarded as the country's breadbasket.

Kenya's opposition had planned protests for Thursday aimed at pushing the government into a power-sharing agreement, but Odinga called them off at Annan's request.

Annan on Tuesday suspended negotiations between government and opposition representatives, citing lack of progress on the details of a prime minister's post as part of political settlement.

Kibaki has said the post of prime minister and two deputies will be created under the current constitution pending a comprehensive constitutional review in 12 months.

Pak opposition vows to banish army from politics

Reuters, Islamabad

Pakistani opposition parties which inflicted a crushing defeat on President Pervez Musharraf's allies in last week's election vowed on Wednesday to banish the military from politics. At a show of strength gathering attended by 171 National Assembly members-elect, they also called on President Pervez Musharraf to immediately summon parliament so they can show they have the majority needed to choose the next prime minister. U.S. ally Musharraf seized power as a general in 1999 but stepped down as chief of the powerful army in November before becoming a civilian ruler of a country which the military has ruled for more than half of its 60 years of existence. While Musharraf did not take part in the Feb. 18 parliamentary elections, the main party that backs him suffered heavy losses, largely because of the president's unpopularity and anger over rising prices and food shortages. The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto won the most seats but not enough to form a government on its own. The Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) of another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, came second and the two parties are in talks, along with a smaller third group, on a coalition government that could force Musharraf from power. Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower who now leads the PPP, said the opposition should work together to end the supremacy of the military-led establishment.

China’s Communist Party approves leadership, reform plans

AFP, Beijing

China's ruling Communist Party approved top leadership jobs and government reform plans Wednesday, ahead of the annual session of its parliament next week, state media said. The high-level meeting, chaired by President Hu Jintao, was attended by the party's top 270 leaders, a party communique carried by Xinhua news agency said. China's parliament, the National People's Congress, is expected to formally pass the personnel changes and reform and restructuring plans when it meets for its annual 10-day session starting Wednesday next week. Although no specifics were released, Hu is widely expected to be re-elected as president by the congress to a second five-year term, while Wen Jiabao will remain prime minister. The party also Wednesday approved of an administrative reform plan to be gradually completed by 2020 which will bring the nation's political reform in line with its huge economic advances over the last two decades, the communique said. "As we enter a new phase of our nation's economic and social development and face the new demands to safeguard people's democratic rights and uphold social fairness and justice, there are still some areas in our nation's political system that lag behind and need further improvement," it said. The party also approved a reform of the State Council, China's Cabinet, it said. The reform is likely to cut the number of government ministries to 21, state media reports said. Meanwhile a series of lower-level appointments is expected to be approved by the parliament, which may hint at China's future leaders.