Addressing an election rally in New Orleans, Louisiana, shortly before 46-year-old Obama declared victory, the presumptive Republican nominee also sought to distance himself from President George W Bush on energy, military and economic policies. The Vietnam war veteran told a cheering crowd that they would listen a lot during the coming months that he represents third term of Bush, but that is because the Democratic candidate has nothing to offer.
As voting opened in the primaries of South Dakota and Montana on Tuesday, scores of Democratic super delegates were apparently still undecided whether to back Barack Obama, who is on the verge of scripting history by becoming the first African-American Presidential nominee, or Hillary Clinton.Obama is currently 45 delegates short of the magic figure of 2,118. According to the Obama campaign, he would require only about 25 super delegates after results.
Democratic party leaders have agreed to seat the delegates from the renegade states of Florida and Michigan with halved voting rights, bringing Barack Obama within a striking distance of the Democratic presidential nomination.
Accusing a "handful" of "advanced developing countries" of "masking" their "narrow interests" behind claims for speaking for the rest of the developing world, the US said it is concerned the way trade negotiations are moving ahead of crucial talks for concluding Doha round.
Strongly backing the stalled civilian nuclear deal with India, Republican presidential candidate John McCain has said it would strengthen the US ties with the world's largest democracy and further involve New Delhi in non-proliferation efforts. McCain, 71, who has sealed the Republican nomination for the November Presidential elections, said the US should engage actively with both India and Pakistan to improve the security of nuclear stockpiles and weapons materials.
Iran is also defying UN demands to suspend uranium enrichment and is producing more powerful centrifuges, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a strongly worded report, which is bound to renew demands from the US and its western allies for tougher sanctions against Tehran. The report is yet to be released officially, but is said to accuse Iran of not providing all information, especially relating to 'high explosives testing' relating to nuclear programme.
On a hunger strike for the last 11 days, Indian dock workers, who are demanding that they be allowed to stay in the United States till an inquiry against a company that allegedly exploited them is completed, have vowed to continue their stir even after four of them were hospitalised.
Firmly rejecting the contention that rising consumption in developing nations was responsible for the soaring food and fuel prices, India has blamed the policies of World Bank and IMF and 'excessive and unsustainable' demand in developed countries for the crisis.
Intervening in a Security Council debate on post-conflict peace-building, Indian Ambassador Nirupam Sen roundly criticised Bretton Woods institutions, including the International Monetary Fund, for non-involvement of such nations in the planning for development.
United States presidential hopeful and Democratic front runner Barack Obama is expected to further shore up his position by capturing a majority of the pledged delegates after primaries in Oregon and Kentucky on Tuesday. However, rival Hillary Clinton has refused to quit the White house race. Opinion polls show Obama leading in Oregon and Clinton way ahead in Kentucky. As many as 103 pledged delegates are up for grabs in the two states.
The former tax representative's stepping down comes in the wake of Democratic front-runner for presidential nomination Barack Obama vowing to work for ending the influence of lobbyists in Washington. Obama, analysts note, has not accepted money from the lobbyists, but the top corporate bosses have contributed to his campaign and his opponents point out that the bosses employ lobbyists.
The project also aims to promote equity by enabling hard-to-reach children to attend school, create better learning conditions for all children and provide capacity building and academic support to state and sub-state education structures. In the area of oversight, the project will help monitor learning outcomes and support research and evaluation of quality initiatives.
Warning that the world economy is now "teetering on the brink of a severe global downturn," the United Nations said it expects growth this year to be sharply lower at 1.8 per cent - nearly half of the 3.4 per cent growth estimated only three months ago.
In the US, for instance, as much as 30 per cent of food, worth $48.3 billion approximately, is thrown away each year, the report prepared by the Stockholm International Water Institute, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Water Management Institute estimates. And while it elaborates on the food wastage, the report goes on to stress that wasted food implies wasted water, another major concern.
Tagged with hefty sums, the paintings of a host of Indian artists would be auctioned in Hong Kong on May 24-25. Among others, top-tier works by Subodh Gupta, Jitish Kallat, Anju Dodiya, and Atul Dodiya will be up for grabs on the opening day. The auction would also feature a selection of significant works by many Pakistani artists besides the ones drawn by their counterparts from China, Japan and Korea.
More than a million people were left homeless and many more in need of humanitarian assistance, with the deadly cyclone devastating large areas of Myanmar and killing at least 22,000, the United Nations said on Thursday. Another 41,000 are still missing. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged the Myanmar government to respond to the outpouring of international support and solidarity, by facilitating the arrival of aid workers and the clearance for the relief supplies.
Internet's second most popular search engine Yahoo! has said it was open to selling itself to Microsoft, but the software giant's chief executive Steven A Ballmer and his deal makers were not keen to negotiate and ultimately withdrew their proposal. Microsoft had offered to buy Yahoo, second only to Google, for $31 a share, or $44.6 billion, in February, but the search engine felt it was worth more.
The UN secretary-general appealed to the member states to attend the Rome summit scheduled for early June at the highest level to work out the strategies to address and overcome the crisis caused by the fast rising prices of food. Ban Ki-moon, who is sending personal invitation to all heads of state and government, called on the world leaders to come with fresh ideas, stressing that it is time for "real commitment and real action."
United Nations and private aid agencies went into high gear to provide humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands victims of a devastating cyclone in Myanmar as the military government there gave green signal to the world body to send emergency aid. It was yet unclear how the aid would be sent and whether UN will also distribute assistance sent by Non Governmental Organisations in the country where large areas are without electricity, fuel, food and drinking water.
Software giant Microsoft has abandoned its three-month old bid to buy Yahoo after the two failed to agree on acceptable price and it concluded a hostile bid was "not sensible." Microsoft had earlier offered $47.5 billion which translated into $33 per share but Yahoo wanted $57 billion or $37 a share. Originally, the software giant had offered $44.6 billion or $31 a share but raised the offer as the negotiations progressed.
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