W O R L D

‘No way. No McCain… Obama is my candidate’
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday night dispelled speculation in the media that she is still smarting over her loss in the Democratic Party’s presidential primaries by telling her legions of fans that she is a “proud supporter of Barack Obama.”

US Senator Hillary Clinton addresses the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, on Tuesday. — Reuters photo

We are not afraid of Cold War: Medvedev
Russia violating ceasefire, says Merkel
Berlin/Moscow, August 27
The presence of Russian troops in parts of Georgia is a grave violation of the ceasefire deal between the countries, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev today.

Zardari denies taking ‘help’ from US envoy
Zardari’s office spokeswoman Farahnaz Ispahani has rejected the New York Times story that PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari has been receiving “advice and help” from Zalmay Khalilzad, Afghanistan-born American ambassador to the United Nations.

Body of kidnapped Japanese aid worker found
Jalalabad, August 27
The police today found the bullet-riddled body of the Japanese aid worker kidnapped a day before in eastern Afghanistan, a district governor said. "He has been shot several times," Kuz Kunar district governor Malim Mashouq told AFP.

Indian trainee pilot dies in mid-air collision
Melbourne, August 27
A trainee pilot from India, who was on his first solo flight, died today after his plane collided mid-air with another light aircraft here, just metres away from a primary school and residential area.

‘No way. No McCain… Obama is my candidate’
Ashish Kumar Sen writes from Washington

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday night dispelled speculation in the media that she is still smarting over her loss in the Democratic Party’s presidential primaries by telling her legions of fans that she is a “proud supporter of Barack Obama.”

In a passionate keynote address to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, the former first lady urged her base to throw its support behind Obama.

Clinton, who won 18 million votes in the primaries, told her supporters: “Whether you voted for me or voted for Barack, the time now is to unite as a single party with a single purpose.”

“We are on the same team, and none of us can afford to sit on the sidelines,” she said, adding: “This is a fight for the future. And it's a fight we must win together.”

She told her supporters that they had not “worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership. No way. No McCain…Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our President.”

Clinton’s speech, delivered under the watchful gaze of her husband Bill, received enthusiastic applause from Obama’s wife Michelle and vice-presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden, and was watched on TV by the candidate himself, who was campaigning at a different location.

Obama will accept his party’s nomination on Thursday and by doing so will make history as the first black presidential nominee of a major U.S. party. Clinton was grateful to those who brought her within a whisker of making history as the first female presidential nominee. “To my supporters, my champions - to my sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits - from the bottom of my heart, thank you,” she said to a thunderous ovation.

She praised Michelle Obama saying she would make “a great First Lady for America.” And called Sen. John McCain a “colleague” and “friend.”

We are not afraid of Cold War: Medvedev
Russia violating ceasefire, says Merkel

Berlin/Moscow, August 27
The presence of Russian troops in parts of Georgia is a grave violation of the ceasefire deal between the countries, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev today. Berlin and Moscow issued separate statements after the two leaders spoke by telephone at Merkel’s initiative, the first contact between the Kremlin and a western leader since Medvedev recognised two Georgian breakaway regions as independent states.

That move, called an ‘’annexation’’ of Georgian territory by Tbilisi, was condemned by Merkel and other western leaders. ‘’The chancellor renewed her call for the immediate enforcement of the six-point (ceasefire) plan,’’ Merkel’s spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said, describing the phone call.

Earlier in the day, Medvedev said Russia neither feared nor sought a new Cold War, “but it depends on the West whether such a war will break out again”. “We are not afraid of anything, including the prospect of a new Cold War, but we don’t want one, and in this situation everything depends on the position of our partners,” Medvedev told the Russia Today television. They (Western countries) have to understand Moscow’s position on Abkhazia and South Ossetia (Georgia’s breakaway provinces), if they want to maintain a good relationship with Russia, he said.

Medvedev said the US presidential candidates may make use of the current situation in their election campaigns, but “voters are indifferent to events abroad”.

The president said recognising the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia was in line with the international law. “Each case of recognising independence is a special case,” Medvedev said, noting Kosovo was a special case (West supported it as a special case) during its independence debate. Medvedev Tuesday signed the decrees recognising the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The move has been criticised by some Western countries, saying it will further strain its ties with Russia, already deteriorated due to the recent clashes over South Ossetia. — Reuters/IANS

Zardari denies taking ‘help’ from US envoy
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad

Zardari’s office spokeswoman Farahnaz Ispahani has rejected the New York Times story that PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari has been receiving “advice and help” from Zalmay Khalilzad, Afghanistan-born American ambassador to the United Nations.

“While we engage global leaders for Pakistan’s benefit, it is incorrect to attribute any domestic political function to Zardari’s personal friendship with eminent diplomats such as Khalilzad,” Spahani, wife of Pakistani envoy to Washington Hussain Haqqani, said.

Zalmay is under fire in US media for “unauthorised contacts with Asif Ali Zardari”. A report in the New York Times alleges that Khalilzad spoke to Zardari several times a week for the past month until he was confronted by the State Department about the unauthorised contacts.

Khalilzad had planned to meet Zardari privately next Tuesday while on vacation in Dubai, a meeting that was cancelled only after Richard Boucher, assistant secretary of state for South Asia, learned from Zardari himself that the ambassador was providing him with “advice and help”.

“Can I ask what sort of ‘advice and help’ you are providing?” Boucher wrote in an “angry” e-mail message to Khalilzad. “What sort of channel is this? governmental, private, personnel?”

Diplomatic observers here said the fact that such a damaging story was leaked to the Press, duly authorised it appears, showed that there were highly placed people in the Bush administration who were out to get Khalilzad, whose name had been mentioned as a possible contender for the Afghan presidency.

Officially, the New York Times story claims the US has remained neutral in the contest to succeed Pervez Musharraf, and there is concern within the State Department that the discussions between Khalilzad and Zardari can leave the impression that the US is taking sides in Pakistan’s chaotic internal politics.

Body of kidnapped Japanese aid worker found

Jalalabad, August 27
The police today found the bullet-riddled body of the Japanese aid worker kidnapped a day before in eastern Afghanistan, a district governor said.

"He has been shot several times," Kuz Kunar district governor Malim Mashouq told AFP.

Kazuya Ito, 31, was kidnapped yesterday as he headed to carry out his daily inspection of an irrigation project being built by his employer.

The Japanese embassy in Kabul said the Afghan authorities had informed them that he had been killed by abductors and that his body had been found.

An official of the aid group confirmed the killing.

The Afghan interior ministry had announced late yesterday that Ito was freed in a massive operation involving the police and 500 villagers. — AFP

Indian trainee pilot dies in mid-air collision

Melbourne, August 27
A trainee pilot from India, who was on his first solo flight, died today after his plane collided mid-air with another light aircraft here, just metres away from a primary school and residential area.

24-year-old Akash Ananth, an aviation student, crashed his Cessna 150 into a garage at the Cheltenham area here at 12.40 pm local time, barely missing several homes and a school, the Australian media reported.

Witnesses said one of the planes clipped the other’s tail.

“It’s a residential area and main road for a local school. Despite the tragic outcome of one person deceased, we’re very lucky no other person was affected,” Ambulance Victoria group manager Peter Swan was quoted as saying.

Investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau have begun inspecting the wreckage of the crashed plane. — PTI