M A I N   N E W S

Recount ordered
US Presidential election

WASHINGTON, Nov 7 (DPA) — The result of the US Presidential election was up in the air again today when Florida election officials ordered a ballot recount in the key state.

George W. Bush was earlier declared the winner in the race for the White House by the major television networks after he appeared to have won the crucial  25 electoral college votes there.

But Gore campaign chairman William Daley said the state was too close to call, and a recount would take place. Bush's margin was only about 1,200 votes, while 5,000 votes remained uncounted.

Hillary creates history 

NEW YORK, Nov 8 (Agencies) — Hillary Rodham Clinton tonight became the first President’s wife to win the elected office, defeating Republican Rep. Rick               Lazio in the most expensive, highest-profile  Senate race in American history.

Shortly after 11 p.m. ET, Mrs. Clinton took to the stage in the packed ballroom of the Grand Hyatt in Manhattan to address a cheering crowd of 2,000               supporters.

After decades of fighting political wars for her husband, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton chased her own dream as a Senate candidate from the New York state — amid a lingering mystery about who she is.

Hailed by some, demonised by others and second-guessed by many for her loyalty to President Bill Clinton despite the sex scandal that nearly cost him the White House, Mrs Clinton has been one of the most polarising figures in American politics.

Aggrieved wife. Overbearing feminist. Outstanding lawyer. Financial manipulator. Independent thinker. Inflexible bureaucrat. And now, with her projected victory over the Republican representative Rick Lazio, US Senator.

Love her or hate her, most Americans have an opinion of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Although her decision to test the political waters by running for the Senate from the New York state initially surprised many of her closest friends, they acknowledged that her decision to break with tradition came as no surprise.

Hillary Rodham was born on October 26, 1947, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist in Park Ridge, Illinois, near Chicago, and during her years at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, she evolved politically.

After graduation, she went on to Yale Law School, where she was on the law review and met a student from Arkansas named Bill Clinton. They married in 1975.

After her marriage, she was a highly successful lawyer at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas, becoming family breadwinner for her husband and her daughter, Chelsea, while Bill Clinton focussed on winning at the polls.

In January, when she and the President leave the White House, it will be a short trip to her new office in the Senate.