The New Nation - Internet Edition

Indian astrologers predict sweeping Obama win

AFP, Mumbai

Indian astrologers are predicting Barack Obama will win the US presidential election by a comfortable margin, but one warned of potentially life-threatening times ahead for the Democratic candidate.

"Obama is 100 percent in Leo and Leos are not only born leaders but they have a special charm all of their own," well-known Indian astrologer Bejan Daruwalla told AFP.

"(Republican candidate) John McCain has good points but he's nowhere in the picture. He's miles away. He has been outshadowed by the Leo. He might have been very good in his time but this is not the right time."

Fellow Mumbai astrologer Raj Kumar Sharma also forecast a clear Obama victory in the November 4 vote-mirroring the latest opinion poll data that suggests the 47-year-old Illinois senator is out in front.

"The circumstances and conjunction of stars are very clearly indicating that John McCain is going to lose this election and Barack Obama is going to win, at least by 10 percent," he said.

But he said he was worried about the weak sun moving into Obama's chart from April 2010 to January 2011.

"The month from April 5, 2010 to May 16, 2010 is very dangerous for him. I really pray that everything should be all right," he said.

Asked to elaborate, he added: "I see danger for his life from April 5, 2010. I see the chances of 25 percent of survival. So he should be very careful about his security, about the people working for him." To counteract the weak sun, Obama should wear a ruby, he said.

Indian Obama fans sent him a small statue of the revered Hindu monkey god Hanuman earlier this year, after hearing he carries a good luck monkey charm with him at all times. Hanuman is said to protect from evil spirits and curses. Daruwalla, who writes a column in the Times of India newspaper, said the United States was in transition after being ruled by comfort-loving Cancer-sign of the outgoing President George W. Bush-and Gemini the communicator.

Reuters adds: Democrat Barack Obama has opened a 7-point lead over Republican rival John McCain with five days left in the race for the White House, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Thursday.

Obama leads McCain by 50 percent to 43 percent among likely voters in the three-day national tracking poll, building on his 5-point advantage on Wednesday. The telephone poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.

It was the second consecutive day Obama's lead has grown as the two-year presidential battle draws to a close. McCain is struggling to overtake Obama's lead in every national opinion poll and in many battleground states.

"This is not good news for McCain. The race was tightening for a few days but now it is going back the other way," pollster John Zogby said.

Support for Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, hit or exceeded the 50 percent mark for the seventh time in the last 10 days. McCain's support has not reached 46 percent in more than three weeks of polling.

Obama held steady or expanded his edge among several crucial blocs of swing voters, leading by 19 points among independents, 10 points among women, 9 points among Catholics and 7 points among voters above the age 65.

Obama also moved ahead of McCain, an Arizona senator, by 5 points among men. McCain still leads by 8 points among white voters but only earns the support of about 30 percent of Hispanics, a fast-growing group that gave President George W. Bush more than 40 percent of their vote in 2004.

The poll also found Obama was doing a better job of reaching across ideological lines, earning the support of nearly 20 percent of self-described conservatives. McCain wins about 10 percent of liberals.

Taliban storm Afghan ministry, kill 5

AP, Kabul

Taliban militants stormed a government building in the center of the Afghan capital on Thursday and one of them blew himself up inside, killing five people, officials and witnesses said.

The assailants first opened fire on police guards outside the Ministry of Information and Culture before entering its cavernous hall where the explosion occurred, said Amir Mohammad, a police guard who was wounded in the blast.

"There were three people. They were running. They opened fire on our guard first and then they entered (the building)," Mohammad told The Associated Press from his hospital bed in Kabul.

Five people were killed in the attack, according to a statement from President Hamid Karzai's office. Another 21 were wounded in the explosion, said Abdul Fahim, the spokesman for the Health Ministry, which supervises the hospitals where the injured were taken.

The ministry is in the center of the city, at a busy intersection lined with shops.

One of the walls of the building collapsed, while glass littered the roads nearby and office equipment was scattered over the area.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and gave a similar account of what happened.

Pakistan calls for end to US missile strikes

AFP, Islamabad

Pakistan on Wednesday registered "a strong protest" with Washington's ambassador to Islamabad over a number of missile attacks by US drones inside its territory, the foreign ministry said.

"The US ambassador was called to the Foreign Office today and a strong protest was lodged on the continued missile attacks by US drones inside Pakistani territory," the ministry said in a statement. There have been a total of 16 US missile strikes against suspected extremist hideouts in the Pakistani tribal regions since August 13 this year, according to an AFP tally. The attacks have sharply raised tensions between Washington and its key ally in its "war on terror" against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

"It was underscored to the ambassador (Anne Patterson) that the government of Pakistan strongly condemns the missile attacks which resulted in the loss of precious lives and property," the foreign ministry statement added.

"It was emphasised that such attacks were a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and should be stopped immediately. The attacks also undermine public support for the government's counter-terrorism efforts."

The most recent strike took place on Sunday evening, killing a top Taliban commander and at least 15 other people in the South Waziristan region, Pakistani officials said.

Haji Omar Khan was a lieutenant of the veteran Afghan Taliban chieftain and former anti-Soviet fighter Jalaluddin Haqqani, who was close to Mullah Omar, the leader of the 1996-2001 Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Cold and hungry, Pakistan quake children start to sicken

AFP, Kan Bangla

Veiled mothers huddled with feverish babies in ruined Pakistani villages Thursday, as sickness started to bite among earthquake survivors who spent a freezing night beneath open skies.

In crumbled settlements that no aid workers had reached more than a day after the powerful quake that killed at least 215 people, shivering residents begged for shelter, food, medicine-or just any help at all.

"We had so few blankets to cover ourselves during the night that we only had one between six children," farmer Shahnawaz Khan told an AFP reporter who reached the remote southwestern village of Kan Bangla.

"The cold was so severe that some of our children have fallen ill," he said, pointing to some wailing infants as their mothers tried to provide them with warmth and comfort.

Khan said some 20 people died when their mud-brick, straw-roofed homes collapsed in the 6.4-magnitude quake, but said they had not had any contact from Pakistani authorities or aid groups.

The village, which lies about 35 kilometres (25 miles) from the historic hill town of Ziarat, is one of a cluster in impoverished Baluchistan province that were worst affected by the quake.

Jaan Baba, an injured elderly man, showed makeshift tents that villagers had constructed with whatever they could scavenge from the shells of their houses. His own house was reduced to a pile of rubble.

Explosion in Bangkok wounds 10 at protest site

AP, Bangkok

A blast wounded 10 people in Thailand's capital Thursday when assailants hurled an explosive device at anti-government protesters who have camped out for the past two months to block access to the prime minister's office. The pre-dawn attack occurred a few hours before protesters rallied in central Bangkok outside the British Embassy to demand the extradition of deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is now a fugitive and living in London. About 1,000 protesters sealed off the embassy's street, chanting "Send Thaksin back!"

The former prime minister was convicted in absentia earlier this month of violating a conflict of interest law and sentenced to two years in prison.

Protesters then marched through a main Bangkok shopping district, disrupting traffic as they distributed anti-government leaflets to cars and pedestrians.

The U.S. Embassy issued a warden message urging citizens to avoid the area if possible, and to exercise caution if anywhere near the demonstrations.

There was no claim of responsibility for the pre-dawn attack in northwestern Bangkok nor any immediate indication of who was behind it.

All of the wounded were guards for the anti-government protest movement, the People's Alliance for Democracy, police Capt. Pompet Chotelang said. The group has occupied the grounds of Government House as well as the Makawan bridge leading to the office complex since April.