Colin Powell Endorses Obama for President
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Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell says Obama 'has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president'
Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell says he is backing Democrat Barack Obama for president. VOA's Paula Wolfson reports Powell made the announcement during a nationally broadcast television interview.Colin Powell (2008 file photo)Powell says Barack Obama has the ability to transform America and American politics."He has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president. I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming onto the world stage, onto the American stage. And for that reason, I will be voting for Senator Barack Obama," he said.It was an important high-profile endorsement for Obama from a fellow African-American who served first as the nation's top military officer and later as its chief diplomat.Powell, a retired general, was the secretary of state during President George W. Bush's first term. And while he has never held a prominent political post, he has served in several Republican administrations.Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, Powell said both Barack Obama and his opponent, Republican John McCain, could handle the job of commander-in-chief. But he indicated he believes Obama would be better able to tackle the nation's economic problems and improve its standing abroad."I think the number one issue the [new] president is going to have to deal with is the economy - that is what the American people are worried about," added Powell. "And frankly, it is not just an American problem, it is an international problem."Powell said he has been friends with John McCain for many years. But he said he is disappointed in the tone of the McCain campaign, and the choice of Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential nominee. He was asked if race played a role in his decision to back Senator Obama."If I had only that in mind, I could have done this six, eight, 10 months ago. I really have been going back and forth between somebody I have the highest respect regard for - John McCain - and somebody I was getting to know, Barack Obama," Powell said. "And it was only in the last couple of months that I settled on this."Senator McCain downplayed the Powell announcement when asked about it on the Fox News Sunday television program."I have always admired and respected General Powell. We are long-time friends. This does not come as a surprise. And I am also very pleased to have the endorsement of four former secretaries of state - Secretaries Baker, Kissinger, Eagleburger and Haig," he said.With just over two weeks left until Election Day, nationwide polls put Obama in the lead. But the race is tightening, and John McCain says he is still confident of victory.
"I have been on enough campaigns, my friend, to sense enthusiasm and momentum and we have got it," said McCain.
For his part, Senator Obama is warning his supporters against being overconfident. He is spending his weekend campaigning in states that are usually strong for Republicans - such as North Carolina and Missouri.
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Pakistani Forces Kill Insurgents as US Diplomat Visits Islamabad
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The operations took place during a visit to Islamabad by US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher
A Pakistani military official says fighter jets killed 25 Islamist fighters Sunday in the northwestern Swat Valley.In the Bajaur district, near the Afghan border, authorities say 10 more militants were killed in combined land and air assaults.Richard Boucher (File) The operations took place during a visit to Islamabad by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher. The top U.S.diplomat for the region was in Islamabad for talks with government officials.The U.S. Embassy gave no details about Boucher's trip, but said it had been planned for a while. Boucher met Pakistan's Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik Saturday and is also expected to meet Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. The United States has been pushing Pakistan to take stronger action against Taliban and al-Qaida militants hiding near the Afghan border. Authorities suspect the militants use the bases to attack soldiers in neighboring Afghanistan.In southwest Pakistan Sunday, police said a roadside bomb killed at least one person and wounded others. They said the bomb was intended for a Pakistani lawmaker. The exact location of the attack is unclear.Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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Taliban Hijack Bus in Afghanistan, 30 People Killed
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Defense Ministry spokesman General Zahir Azimi says the militants hijacked the bus and its 50 passengers Thursday in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province, a Taliban stronghold
Afghan officials say Taliban militants have killed at least 30 people who were traveling on a bus in southern Afghanistan. [ Defense Ministry spokesman General Zahir Azimi says the militants hijacked the bus and its 50 passengers Thursday in the Maiwand district of Kandahar province, a Taliban stronghold. The spokesman says about 30 dead bodies have been found, six of them beheaded. He says the other passengers were released.A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack and said 27 Afghan soldiers had been killed. The Defense Ministry spokesman denied that claim.The death toll has not been independently verified, because of poor access to the region. Aid agencies say at least three-thousand people have died in insurgency-related violence this year. The United Nations says more than 14-hundred of those people were civilians.International and Afghan forces have been fighting militants sympathetic to the Taliban and al-Qaida for the past seven years.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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Iraqi Coalition Calls for Changes to US Military Plan
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Statement by the United Iraqi Alliance, which includes the Dawa party of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, says parts of the proposed agreement need more discussion and amendments before the deal can be approved
Iraq's ruling Shi'ite coalition Sunday unexpectedly called for changes in a draft document that would allow U.S. troops to stay in Iraq until 2011.Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-MalikiThe statement by the United Iraqi Alliance, which includes the Dawa party of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said parts of the proposed agreement need more discussion and amendments before the deal can be approved.In addition to setting a three-year deadline for U.S. troops to leave the country, the document gives the Iraqi government limited authority to prosecute U.S. soldiers who commit crimes off-duty and away from their posts.Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Saturday that it would be difficult to reopen negotiations on the draft at this point.Prime Minister Maliki met with British Defense Secretary John Hutton today to work on a similar agreement for British troops. The proposals are meant to take effect after a U.N. mandate for foreign forces in the country expires at the end of the year.Saturday, tens of thousands of followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr rallied in Baghdad, chanting anti-U.S. slogans, to protest the plans. Sadr said the deal will not end the U.S. military presence in Iraq and will not give sovereignty to the Iraqi people.In other developments Sunday, police say two people were killed and 10 wounded, including two traffic policemen, when a roadside bomb exploded near a line of cars at a gas station in Baghdad's Zafaraniya neighborhood.Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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S. Korea Announces Emergency Measures To Stem Effects Of US Financial Crisis
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The plan includes a massive guarantee of the country's foreign debt, and an injection of dollars into the banking system
South Korea has announced emergency measures to stem the effects of the U.S.-originated financial crisis. The plan includes a massive guarantee of the country's foreign debt, and an injection of dollars into the banking system. VOA's Kurt Achin has more from Seoul.
Exchange rates are reflected on a window at the Korea Exchange Bank in Seoul, South Korea, 17 Oct 2008
The centerpiece of the South Korean emergency response plan is a $100 billion guarantee of the country's foreign debts.Top officials from South Korea's three main government financial agencies-- the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the Bank of Korea, and the Financial Services Commission-- announced the plan Sunday. Minister of Strategy and Finance Kang Man-soo says Seoul will provide the bank guarantees as soon as possible after approval from the National Assembly, the country's parliament. In the interim, he says, South Korea's main state-run banks will guarantee the loans.South Korea will also provide $30 billion to banks and exporters from its supply of foreign currency reserves.South Korea's economy is the fourth largest in Asia, and is heavily dependent on international business transacted mainly in dollars. However, a global crisis of confidence resulting from U.S. bank failures has led to a dollar shortage-- as many institutions hoard U.S. currency and refuse to lend to each other.South Korea's currency, the won, has dropped in value nearly 30 percent this year against the dollar. South Korea's main stock index has fallen 38 percent this year, mirroring the stock plunge on Wall Street. Finance Minister Kang says quick action will be required in the days ahead. He says if we take our time in the global financial market, South Korean banks could be discriminated against or could find themselves in a difficult situation.South Korean officials say the country's economy is fundamentally sound, and that its more than a quarter trillion dollars in foreign reserves puts it in a good position to deal with the crisis.
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NASA Probe to Observe Edge of Solar System
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US space agency will monitor the violence and turbulence at the edge of the solar system
The U.S. space agency launches a probe Sunday to monitor the violence and turbulence at the very edge of the solar system. This artist rendering released by NASA shows the Interstellar Boundary Explorer or IBEX spacecraft in space, 19 Oct 2008NASA's Intersteller Boundary Explorer is scheduled to begin its two-year mission at Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.NASA says the explorer will orbit high above the Earth to take pictures of what scientists call the interstellar boundary - an area billions of kilometers away where hot solar winds crash into the cold gasses of outer space.Scientists call the boundary regions vital to safe human space flight, saying they shield the Earth's orbit from dangerous cosmic rays.NASA says the IBEX images will allow scientists to understand the interaction between the sun and the galaxy for the first time.Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
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UN Refugee Agency Says Thousands of Georgians Return Home
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UN refugee agency spokesman Ron Redmond says more than 78,000 people have returned to their homes across Georgia
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says a large number of people displaced by violence in Georgia have returned to their villages in the buffer zone around the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from UNHCR headquarters in Geneva. People receive bread in a refugee camp in Gori, Georgia, 14 Sep 2008UN refugee agency spokesman Ron Redmond says monitoring teams report more than 20,000 people have headed home since Russia withdrew its troops from the buffer zone on October eighth. This is the area that lies on the border between Georgia and its breakaway region of South Ossetia. "Most of these people are returning to their homes and villages in the buffer zone or at least checking to see if conditions are safe to do so," said Redmond. "We are warning all those going back to watch out for mines and unexploded ordnance because some casualties have already been reported."
The brief war that erupted over South Ossetia in early August uprooted tens of thousands of people from their homes. Many of them fled to the Georgian town of Gori.The town quickly ran out of places to shelter the displaced. So the UNHCR built a tent camp there to accommodate thousands of people who left their homes in the buffer zone. Ron Redmond says the UNHCR closed the tent camp in Gori several days ago. This was done, he says, after the last of the displaced left for their homes in the buffer zone or were relocated to other collective centers."Out of the 133,000 internally displaced people registered by the Georgians in August, we estimate that more than 78,000 have returned to their homes across Georgia," he added. "And, we are carrying out a winterization program for those people who are unable to go home and who are living in various collective centers around the country, getting those buildings into shape for winter." Redmond says it is likely more people will be seeking shelter in the collective centers as host families with whom they are currently staying run out of resources. He says many internally displaced people who currently are renting flats also are expected to go to the centers as they run out of money.Redmond says the UN refugee agency also plans to convert unused public buildings into apartments for some five thousand people who cannot return to their homes in the long term. All of these plans take money. So the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees is renewing its appeal to donors to respond to its revised flash appeal for nearly $45 million for the next six months.
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UN Official: Recent Violence in Darfur Displaces 40,000
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Head of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in northern Darfur, says many of the newly displaced living in the desert with no shelter
A United Nations official say recent violence in Sudan's troubled Darfur region has left at least 40,000 civilians displaced. The head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in northern Darfur, Gregory Alex, says many of these newly displaced are living in the desert with no shelter. Last month, rebels in Darfur said government forces and allied militias launched a series of heavy ground and air assaults on their positions in northern Darfur. Government officials said troops in the area were only guarding roads to protect humanitarian convoys from rebel attacks. Darfur rebels began an uprising against the Sudanese government in 2003. U.N. experts estimate the five-year conflict has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million others. Sudan accuses Western governments and the media of exaggerating the size and scope of the conflict and says no more than 10,000 people have died.
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Zimbabwe's Rival Parties Take Power Sharing Dispute to Southern African Summit
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Calls for special meeting follows failure of reaching an agreement between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and two opposition parties on new cabinet
Zimbabwe's rival political parties are taking their dispute to Swaziland in hopes of forging a deal on a new government. The parties signed a power-sharing agreement more than a month ago, but have been unable to agree on which party should occupy several key ministries. VOA's Scott Bobb reports from our Southern Africa Bureau in Johannesburg.Leaders of the Southern African Development Community called a special meeting of its political commission for Monday after a week of intense negotiations between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and two opposition parties failed to agree on a new cabinet.Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, arrives for power-sharing talks with Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe in Harare, Zimbabwe, 17 Oct 2008Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai told reporters after the talks broke up late Friday that negotiations were stalemated."We have failed to agree on the first key issue, which is the allocation of key ministerial portfolios and therefore a deadlock has been declared," he said.Mr. Mugabe's ZANU-PF and two opposition parties signed a power-sharing agreement last month in which the opposition would receive 16 cabinet portfolios and ZANU-PF would received 15. Sources say the two sides could not agree on who would control key ministries such as Finance, Defense and the Interior.But former South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been mediating the crisis as mandated by SADC, remained upbeat."The negotiations are continuing. And on Monday we will all of us be meeting with the troika of the SADC organ on politics in Mbabane, in Swaziland, because they are meeting and they want to hear a report about how far the negotiations have gone," said Mr. Mbeki.He said leaders of the three members of the Community's special committee on politics, Angola, Mozambique and Swaziland, would discuss how to proceed.SADC said in a statement that the leaders would also discuss the renewed fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the political stalemate in Lesotho. Tsvangiari, who earlier said the matter should be referred to the African Union or the United Nations, told a rally Sunday that he hoped the issue would be finalized Monday.Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, center, arrives for power-sharing talks in Harare, Zimbabwe, 17 Oct 2008But the chief negotiator for ZANU-PF was quoted by the government-owned Sunday Herald newspapers as saying that the SADC leaders could offer guidance, but could not impose a solution.Despite the gloomy mood, Mr. Mugabe indicated the talks would continue."Enough is enough? No, we can never say enough is enough about this problem that affects us. No, it would be a poor attitude," he said.Southern African leaders have been trying to mediate the Zimbabwean crisis since controversial elections in March gave the opposition a majority of seats in parliament for the first time since independence.But Mr. Mugabe was re-elected unopposed after Mr. Tsvangirai pulled out of the presidential run-off election citing a campaign of intimidation in which more than 100 of his supporters were killed.
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Thousands Mourn Austrian Far Rightist Joerg Haider
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Tens of thousands gather in Klagenfurt Saturday to mourn provincial governor, whose views as a Nazi sympathizer in the 1990s sparked international outrage
Tens of thousands of people gathered in Austria's southern city Klagenfurt Saturday to mourn far right politician and provincial governor Joerg Haider, whose views as a Nazi sympathizer in the 1990s sparked international outrage. Saturday's funeral came a week after Haider was killed in a high-speed crash, apparently while drunk at the wheel. Stefan Bos reports for VOA from Budapest. Widow Claudia Haider, center, and her daughters Cornelia and Ulrike, walk in a procession towards the cathedral for funeral Joerg Haider in Klagenfurt, Austria, 18 Oct. 2008Mourners, many dressed in traditional green and brown dresses and lederhosen, lined the streets of the provincial capital Klagenfurt where Joerg Haider's wooden coffin, decked in red flowers and ribbon, was taken from government headquarters to the town square, accompanied by solemn brass band music. Tens of thousands of Austrians attended an open air memorial service for Haider, who governed Austria's province of Carinthia since 1999. The far-right leader remained popular here, despite sparking Western outrage over perceived anti-Semitic rhetoric, including his praise for labor policies of German wartime leader Adolf Hitler. Haider later called the remarks a mistake and publicly denounced Nazism, but he continued to make headlines by visiting veterans of the Waffen S.S., Hitler's elite soldiers, in which he praised their character. He was also seen bringing anti-immigration policies into European politics. Yet, speaking at Saturday's memorial service, Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer said Haider also took on the political establishment in Vienna. He said Haider had "an excellent feeling" for what had to change in politics. Mr. Gusenbauer added that Haider "was a man who could leave no one cold, whether in a positive or a negative sense." But he also indirectly mentioned the controversy surrounding Haider's right-wing views. Mr. Gusenbauer said Haider's suggestions for change " were not everywhere recognized." After his speech and the public memorial, Haider's body was taken to Klagenfurt's 16th century cathedral, where Requiem funeral music was performed. Among those attending was the son of Libyan leader Muammar Ghaddafi, Saif al-Islam, who befriended Haider during his Vienna student days. His attendance underscored Haider's international connections. Haider came to prominence in 1986, when he became head of the Freedom Party while still in his 30s. He later spearheaded the rise of the right into a coalition government from 2000 to 2006, before participating in a new party. Despite controversies, analysts say that Haider, who projected youth and style, appealed to many working-class Austrians, promising to cut their taxes and give money to those with children. Some older Austrians responded to his demands for strict law and order. Former vice chancellor Susanne Riess-Passer, who knew him well, told Austria's national broadcaster ORF on Saturday that Haider died before he could prove himself as en elder statesman. "The shock of his sudden death is for me the realization that the most interesting Joerg Haider would have been the Joerg Haider in his later years," she said. "During the recent elections he showed a new style, he was more calm but very clear. And I think he could have reached more than previously in politics." An urn with Haider's ashes was to be buried at his family estate outside Klagenfurt, in a private ceremony, late Saturday. The circumstances surrounding Haider's death as controversial as the man himself. Police investigators have said the 58-year-old Haider was killed when his luxury car crashed at more than 140 kilometers per hour, twice the speed limit. His blood alcohol level was said to have been four times the legal limit, after he allegedly visited a gay nightclub. Haider leaves behind a wife, two daughters and his mother, whose 90th birthday he wanted to celebrate, last week.
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