The New Nation - Internet Edition

Democrats name Obama first black major US party nominee

AFP, Denver

Democrat Barack Obama Wednesday made history as Democrats formally nominated him by acclamation as the first black presidential nominee of a major political party.

Obama's defeated rival Hillary Clinton dramatically halted a roll-call vote at the Democratic National Convention and proposed the Illinois senator be nominated by acclamation in a gesture of unity after a bruising primary race.

"I move Senator Obama of Illinois be selected by this convention by acclamation as the nominee of the Democratic Party for president of the United States," Clinton said from the convention floor, surrounded by her New York delegation. Several Clinton supporters wiped tears from their eyes, as she made the announcement, and some African-American supporters of Obama also appeared to be crying, witnessing a moment many of them thought they would never see.

Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives made the formal announcement of the historic nomination.

"It is with great pride that I announce Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee for president of the United States by acclamation," House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the convention.

"I have been asked to inform you that Senator Obama accepts the nomination," she said, adding he will deliver his acceptance address Thursday.

Clinton's move was the latest step in a carefully choreographed show of unity and reconciliation following their primary dust-up after she had earlier released her delegates to support Obama.

"I am here today to release you," Clinton said, drawing cries of "No" in a meeting of her delegates in downtown Denver, a day after she ordered her millions of primary voters to unite behind the party White House hopeful.

"You want to vote according to what is in your heart. I am not going to tell you what to do. You have come from different places and made a long journey," she said, adding she had already pledged her vote to Obama.

The state-by-state roll-call vote, based on the delegate hauls apportioned during the marathon coast-to-coast Democratic primary contest got underway Wednesday with Alabama casting 48 votes for Obama, and five for Clinton.

The run-down is a time-honored feature of the convention, which in days gone by was often fraught with tension and horse-trading, but is now merely a ceremonial affair.

Intense negotiations between the Clinton and Obama camps took place to ensure that the former first lady won her due, and had her 18 million primary votes honored, while stressing an image of unity.

Clinton's primary voters are vital to Obama, as his White House race with Republican John McCain has tightened to a dead heat. Later, former president Bill Clinton will grab the spotlight, under pressure to cast aside months of hard feelings to back Obama.

Obama's vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden meanwhile is set to deliver his keynote speech, likely to hammer the convention's Wednesday theme of national security, and to highlight his tragedy-scarred life story. Act two of the Clinton melodrama at the convention comes a day after Hillary Clinton stirred a rapturous reception and ordered her army of supporters to back the party ticket.

Bill Clinton has been waging an ill-tempered feud with the Obama campaign for months, and has yet to offer a robust endorsement of the new party standard bearer.

Clinton, who accused the Obama camp of playing the "race card" on him, seems to have taken his wife's loss hard, and appears to believe his legacy as the only Democrat to win two terms since World War II is getting insufficient respect.

"President Clinton will lay out the choices that we face on foreign policy," said Obama foreign policy advisor Susan Rice.

"He will talk about how Barack Obama has what it takes to be a strong commander-in-chief."

Reports quoting unnamed Clinton aides have said the former president will not attend Obama's acceptance speech, due to be delivered before more than 70,000 supporters in an open-air football stadium here on Thursday night.

US voters support military action against Iran

AP, Washington

A poll released Wednesday found 63 percent of voters support U.S. or Israeli military action against Iran if diplomacy fails.

The poll commissioned by the Israel Project, a group based in Washington, D.C., with an office in Jerusalem, found Americans across the political spectrum see Iran's government as a threat to the United States - 85 per cent among Democrats and 97 per cent among Republicans. At the same time, 62 percent of those polled said they believe an opportunity exists to pursue a diplomatic solution with Iran. Those polled favored direct negotiations with Iran (28 percent), increased economic sanctions on Iran (27 per cent), and increased diplomatic pressure (19 percent) among non-military options for handling conflicts with Iran.

The poll was done by Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican firm, and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, a Democratic pollster. It was based on surveys and focus groups conducted during July in the United States, Germany and Britain.

"All countries want diplomacy over military action" in addressing Iran, poll architect Stan Greenberg said.

"Yet the Americans are more open to military action, especially if a diplomatic solution fails to become a reality."

Results were released during the Democratic National Convention in Denver at a strategy session for pro-Israel political advocates.

Some 55 percent of Americans, the poll found, would approve of the United States or allies launching targeted military strikes against Iran's nuclear weapons facilities, and nearly a third of Americans indicated they strongly would approve of such strikes.

Support for Israel has reached 69 percent among the U.S. public, up from 23 percent in 2003, the poll found. European support for Israel appeared significantly lower - 27 percent in Germany and 14 percent in Britain. In Europe, the poll found support for Palestinian people was much higher than in the United States.

Among various factors cited for negative views of Iran were Iran's president threatening to wipe Israel off the map, Iranian funding for anti-Israel groups Hezbollah and Hamas, Iranian talk of sharing nuclear technology with islamists, and Iranian refusal to allow international inspections of its nuclear program.

According to the poll, 57 percent of U.S. voters reckon the reason why Iran seeks nuclear weapons is to enhance its regional and world power.

10 killed in bomb blast in northwestern Pakistan

AP, Peshawar

Suspected militants bombed a bus carrying prisoners in northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least ten people as fighting between security forces and extremists flared across the country's tribal belt.

The powerful blast left a massive crater in the middle of a bridge in Bannu and left the burnt-out vehicle completely mangled.

The fresh violence came just over a week after longtime U.S. ally Pervez Musharraf resigned as president, triggering a scramble for power that collapsed Pakistan's governing coalition.

The party long led by slain former Prime Minister Bena zir Bhutto is now in a position to dominate the government and it is toughening its stance against Islamist extremists.

The Pakistani Taliban, meanwhile, are becoming increasingly bold, claiming responsibility for a wave of suicide bombings and gun attacks.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack Thursday, though police said militants were the likely culprit. It happened as a bus carrying prisoners crossed a bridge in Bannu, a town in the North West Frontier Province, said Waqas Ahmad, an area police chief.

The dead included police officers and prisoners, said Jalil Khan, another police official. But he could not provide an exact breakdown.

Hours earlier, security forces drove off a Taliban attack on a fort and pounded another band of militants holed up in a health center, officials said Wednesday as fighting spread to new areas in the tribal belt along the Afghan border.

As many as 49 insurgents were reported killed in separate attacks.

Pakistan's 5-month-old government initially sought to calm militant violence by holding peace talks.

But the initiatives have borne little fruit, and U.S. officials have been pressing for tougher action against insurgent groups blamed for rising violence across the border in Afghanistan and in cities further inland.

Russia turns to Asia amid Western fury over Georgia

AFP, Moscow

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev turned to Asian allies Thursday for support in the Georgia crisis as the Group of Seven condemned Moscow in a standoff that is stoking fears of a new Cold War.

Medvedev joined Chinese President Hu Jintao and leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, set up in 2001 to counter NATO influence in Central Asia.

The summit opened after the Group of Seven industrialised powers strongly condemned Russia's recognition of Georgia's rebel regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.

"We deplore Russia's excessive use of military force in Georgia and its continued occupation of parts of Georgia," said the statement from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

Russia lashed out at the West for ratcheting up tensions in the Black Sea and warned that attempts to isolate Moscow would have harmful economic effects.

A new protest came from Georgian ex-president Eduard Shevardnadze, who said Russia would regret its recognition of the regions.

"They will live to regret it," Shevardnadze said in an interview with Japan's Asahi Shimbun newspaper, adding that the move would "encourage separatist movements within ethnically diverse Russia."

Shevardnadze called for a boycott of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi.

On a visit to Ukraine, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband warned Russia not to start a new Cold War.

2 Chinese cops killed in violence

AP, Beijing

The first outbreak of violence in China's western region of Xinjiang since a pair of high-profile attacks during the Olympics has left two Chinese policemen dead and seven more wounded, authorities and an activist said Thursday.

The conflict in the predominantly Muslim region ignited Wednesday in a village in Jiashi County, but it was not immediately clear what caused it or if any Uighurs were injured.

Activist Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uighur Congress, said witnesses heard "fierce gunfire" but did not give any details. A woman at the emergency center of the No. 1 People's Hospital in Kashgar, about 60 miles west of Jiashi, said six police officers were being treated at the facility, including one for stab wounds.

"Two police officers died," said Mu'erbiya, an official from Jiashi County's Communist Party propaganda office, who like some Uighurs uses only one name. "Our investigation is under way." A public security official said eight Uighurs - seven men and one woman - were involved. One man had been captured but the others were still at large, said the official who refused to give his name.

The region saw three deadly attacks in the run-up and during the Beijing Olympics. Videos also appeared online threatening the games.

Four days before the Aug. 8 start of the competition, two attackers in Kashgar rammed a truck into a group of police who they then attacked with homemade bombs and knives, killing 16.

On Aug. 10, bombers hit 17 sites - including a police station, government building, bank and shops - in the ancient Silk Road city of Kuqa.

Sonia Gandhi 21st most powerful woman: Forbes

Reuters, New York

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is the world's most powerful woman for the third straight year, topping Forbes magazine's 2008 list of the top 100 women, while India's Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi is ranked No. 21.

The magazine's ranking is based on their career, economic impact and media coverage.

Sheila Bair, who chairs the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp that insures bank deposits, debuts at No. 2 due to her increased prominence amid a stumbling U.S. economy. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is the only other government official in the top 10, although she dropped three spots from last year to No. 7 as the Bush administration prepares to leave office in January after the U.S. election in November.The rest of the top 10 is made up of the chief executives of PepsiCo, WellPoint, Anglo American, Kraft Foods, Temasek Holdings, Areva and Xerox.

"It's inspiring to look at what some of these women have done and to listen to some of their life stories," Chana Schoenberger, Forbes' associate editor, said in an interview.

There are 54 business executives and 23 politicians on the list, with media personalities and heads of non-profit organizations rounding out the top 100. Forbes said 45 percent of the women are based outside the United States.

Anwar rejoins parliament, heads opposition

Reuters, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim took another step towards his goal of bringing down the government and implementing ambitious reforms when he rejoined parliament on Thursday after a decade's absence.

Anwar, once the protege of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, was forced from office in 1998 on corruption and sodomy charges that he denounced as part of a conspiracy to ruin his political ambitions.

Ten years on, he is being backed by the biggest number of opposition MPs in Malaysia's history in his quest to oust the Barisan Nasional coalition that has ruled the country for the past 50 years. To do this he must win the backing of 30 legislators from the ruling coalition to get a majority in the 222-member parliament.

At the same time, he must hold together his sometimes fractious coalition of 82 MPs comprising reformers, Islamists and an ethnic Chinese party. Anwar must also fight another charge of sodomy in a court case due to start on September 10. All homosexual sex is illegal in this mainly Muslim nation of 27 million people.

He denies the new charge and said on Thursday he was confident he could achieve his aim of taking power by September 16.

"I feel vindicated. I feel great that I am back," Anwar told reporters after he was sworn in a day before the government unveils the 2009 budget widely expected to contain populist spending measures.