Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign received a prominent shot in the arm on Wednesday as one-time rival John Edwards endorsed him at an event in Michigan.

“The reason I'm here tonight is because the Democratic voters have made their choice, and so have I,” Edwards told enthusiastic supporters. Edwards had been wooed assiduously by both Obama and his rival, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, after he dropped out on January 30 after poor showings in the early contests.

The timing of Edwards' endorsement is significant because it comes one day after Clinton trounced Obama by a 41-point margin in the Democratic primary in West Virginia.

“There is one man who knows and understands that this is a time for bold leadership. There is one man that knows how to create the change, the lasting

change, that you have to build from the ground up,” Edwards said. “There is one man who knows in his heart there is time to create one America, not two ... and that man is Barack Obama.”

Edwards also praised Clinton saying she had shown “strength and character.” “She is a woman who, in my judgment, is made of steel, and she's a leader in this country not because of her husband but because of what she has done,” he said. The former North Carolina senator said that when the nomination battle ends, Democrats must come together. Many analysts agree there has been a bitter and decisive contest that could hurt the Democratic Party.

Clinton too sounded an inclusive note in an interview with CNN. “I'm going to work my heart out for whoever our nominee is," Clinton told the network. "Obviously, I'm still hoping to be that nominee, but I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that anyone who supported me... understands what a grave error it would be not to vote for Senator Obama."

Obama said he was “grateful” for Edwards' endorsement. Clinton campaign Chairman Terry McAuliffe said on Wednesday that "we respect John Edwards, but as the voters of West Virginia showed last night, this thing is far from over."

Obama has 1,884 total delegates (pledged: 1,600; superdelegates: 284). Clinton has 1,718 total delegates (pledged: 1,445; superdelegates: 273). Edwards has 19 total pledged delegates who may or may not pledge their support for Obama at the Democratic National Committee's August convention in Denver, Colorado. Edwards is not a superdelegate.

Edwards' endorsement could help Obama win some support from blue-collar white workers, a demographic he has struggled with so far in the contest. On ABC News, Clinton said some voters might be discriminating against Obama because he is black but that there are probably an equal number voting against her because she's a woman.

“There are people... who have reluctance about a woman, have reluctance about an African American. But thankfully, those are a relatively small minority,” she said. “And I'm not sure that those people would ever vote for one of us.”

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is all set for his first encounter with US President George W. Bush in Egypt where the two leaders plan to arrive this weekend to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting on the Middle East. According to official sources here, the two leaders will hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Middle East WEF to be held from May 18-20 at the famed Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheikh, sources said. Notably, this will be the first top-level political contact between Pakistan and the US after the formation of the new government in Islamabad.

Awami National Party (ANP) president Asfandyar Wali Khan, who through consensus within the elected government has emerged as Pakistan’s point man for implementation of the post-election anti-terror strategy, would also be travelling with the PM. Wali had gone to the US earlier this month on an unannounced visit to discuss the new government’s anti-terror policy with the top Bush officials.

According to sources, the date and time of the Gilani-Bush meeting was currently being firmed up through diplomatic channels. A number of other important bilateral meetings with the world leaders, including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, are also on the cards, sources in the foreign office told this correspondent. A ‘chance meeting’ with Israeli President, Shimon Peres, who has confirmed his participation, cannot be ruled out given the nature of the occasion. At the opening session of the WEF meeting, the host Egyptian president would be joined by President Bush, who will fly to Egypt after important visits to Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Prime Minister Gilani is scheduled to leave for Egypt on Saturday on what will be his first foreign visit after assuming office in March. Foreign minister Shah Mehmud Qureshi and foreign secretary Salman Bashir will not be able to accompany the PM.

President Musharraf on Thursday named Salman Taseer, a business and media tycoon, as governor of Punjab, a decision that was immediately denounced by the Nawaz Sharif faction of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N). The PML-N called it a conspiracy to destabilise their government in the province.

Taseer who would take oath in Lahore on Friday, owns the Daily Times and a TV channel besides running some other business houses. He was member of the caretaker government formed prior to elections last November and has been associated with the PPP in early 1990s. He replaces Khalid Maqbool who served as the longest governor in the history of Punjab.

The appointment came amid speculations that Musharraf was contemplating imposing of governor’s rule in the province while anticipating the election of Shahbaz Sharif in the by-polls as a prospective chief minister.

PML-N parliamentary leader and former senior minister in the Gilani Cabinet, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, addressing a hastily called news conference described Taseer as a “controversial” figure and said he had been assigned to disrupt the current political system in Punjab.

He said he had reason to believe that Prime Minister Gilani was consulted before the appointment though the President has the final say in this matter. “This is a disturbing factor for us because we continue to be part of the PPP-led coalition despite having resigned from the cabinet because of our principled stand on restoration of deposed judges,” he said.

Khan, however, said the PML-N would not like to blame the PPP as partner in Musharraf’s intrigues against the PML-N but it was for the PPP leadership to explain why they accepted Taseer’s nomination.

Political observers said Musharraf was trying another postponement of the by-polls, due on June 26, by imposing governor’s rule in the province and suspending the provincial government and the Assembly.

PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari, in the meanwhile held a lengthy session with Punjab lawmakers belonging to his party who made serious allegations against the PML-N for denying an effective role in the coalition government.

United Nations, May 15
The United Nations has warned that Myanmar could face a "second catastrophe" unless its military junta allows more access to foreign aid agencies to help the victims of Cyclone Nargis.

"Unless more access to Myanmar is granted to allow aid to flow more quickly, a second catastrophe could result," warned Elizabeth Byrs, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The hardest-hit areas of Yangon and Irrawaddy delta are experiencing heavy rain, further impeding aid efforts.The junta must open at least an air or sea corridor to channel aid in large quantities as quickly as possible, he said.

The Myanmar government has granted only 34 new visas to UN personnel, Byrs said, adding "this is not enough to respond to a disaster of this magnitude".

Meanwhile, the UN refugee agency announced that more than 40 tons of its shelter supplies, including plastic sheets, blankets, kitchen sets and tents have reached Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, in the past 24 hours.

Half of these items were airlifted in from Dubai. "Our staff are at the Yangon airport to claim the items for immediate dispatch to areas affected by the cyclone," said Jennifer Pagonis, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

The other half of the supplies were driven overland from the Thai-Myanmar border in two trucks, carrying items from UNHCR's stockpiles for refugee camps along the Thai border, in a two-day journey through heavy rain. — PTI

Yangon, May 15
Western powers kept up the pressure on Myanmar’s generals today to allow a massive aid effort as relief workers struggled to help an estimated 2.5 million people left destitute by cyclone Nargis.

The European Union’s top aid official has warned that the military government’s restrictions on foreign aid workers and equipment were increasing the risk of starvation and disease in the country formerly known as Burma.

Yangon, May 15
Myanmar’s army-drafted constitution was overwhelmingly approved in the first phase of a two-stage referendum after a devastating cyclone, state radio said today.

More than 92 per cent of the ballots cast in last Saturday’s first-round vote were in favour of the charter, a key step in the military government’s seven-stage roadmap to democracy, which critics say will only entrench army rule.

Voting in areas hardest hit by cyclone Nargis, which has killed up to 128,000 people and left another 2.5 million destitute, will be held on May 24, the junta said.

The process is meant to culminate in multi-party elections in 2010 and bring to an end nearly five decades of military rule in the Southeast Asian country. The new charter gives the military an automatic 25 per cent of seats in Parliament, control of key ministries and the right to suspend the constitution at will.

The referendum, the first national vote since the 1990 election, which the generals lost by a landslide to Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, has been widely derided by western governments and the opposition. “This referendum was full of cheating and fraud across the country,” NLD spokesman Nyan Win said.

In some villages, authorities and polling station officials ticked the ballots themselves and did not let the voters do anything,” he added. The government had vowed to go ahead with the vote in parts of the country not affected by Nargis, but postponed it by two weeks in the devastated Irrawaddy delta and the storm-ravaged former capital of Yangon. — Reuters

Beijing, May 15
More than 50,000 people were feared dead in the devastating earthquake in southwest China as hopes of finding survivors faded today with thousands still buried under the debris, three days after the worst temblor in three decades hit the country.

The hand of a dead student is buried among the ruins of a destroyed primary school in the old city district, near a mountain at the earthquake-hit Beichuan county, Sichuan province, on Thursday

Quoting the rescue headquarters of the State Council or the Cabinet, official Xinhua news agency said that over 50,000 were feared killed in the 7.8 magnitude quake that pulverised areas near the epicentre in southwest Sichuan province. It said that in Sichuan alone, the death toll was 19,509.

China stepped up relief and rescue operations to cope with the disaster, pouring in more troops, rescuers, food and medical supplies to tens of thousands affected in areas, several reduced to rubble.

Nearly 1,30,000 troops raced against time to extricate victims from the debris in towns flattened by the quake. Military transporters and helicopters made 300 flights to transport or airdrop rescuers and relief supplies. But hopes of finding more survivors slimmed down.

With blocked and damaged roads leading to areas near the epicentre being speedily cleared, rescuers were moving equipment needed for disaster relief.

In the front-line of rescue and relief efforts ever since the quake unleashed massive destruction, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao moved from one affected area to another, speaking comforting and assuring words to people desperate for relief.

"See a large number of soldiers are coming. Food, water and tents will also come soon," he told children at Qingshan County, while encouraging local residents to "rise from sorrow, help each other and rebuild home." "Within 72 hours after the disaster is the critical period. Generally, the sooner the rescue of the buried, the better," the chief engineer of Shijiazhuang Bureau of Seismology, Liang Guiping, told the state TV, as the time was running out.

Amidst slimming hopes of pulling out survivors, there were also moments of relief as a 22-year old woman said, "thank you, thank you" to rescuers after she was taken out of the rubble of a hospital in Dujiangyan.

There were no reports of diseases among refugees who were being immunised, Gao Qiang, Deputy Health Minister said on the state-run CCTV. "We will try to achieve the goal of 'no big epidemic' after a great disaster." In a rare appeal, the Chinese government asked the public to lend rescue equipment ranging from hammers, shovels and demolition tools to cranes and rubber boats and life detectors to help in rescue operations. Having to tackle a large scale devastation, many armed police and rescue workers had to remove cement slabs with bare hands to save the victims, news footage showed. — PTI 

Yekaterinburg, May 15
India, Russia and China today kicked off a trilateral meeting here to discuss a wide range of regional and global issues, including counter-terrorism, food and energy security and the rapidly unfolding economic scenario on the backdrop of US sub-prime crisis.

Warmly welcoming external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and Chinese colleague Yang Jiechi, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov invited them for informal discussions on the issues touched upon in their earlier Vladivostok, New Delhi and Harbin meetings.

At the end of the ministerial meeting, a joint communiqué stating the common stand of India, Russia and China will be issued. — PTI

Cannes (France), May 15
The tragedies of the real world - the quake that rocked China and the cyclone that devastated Myanmar - invaded the fantasy world of movies as the Cannes film festival moved into top gear here today.

The red-carpet gala opening was as star-studded as ever but the party got off to a sombre start with a nightmarish parable of the apocalypse. ‘Blindness’, a Brazilian movie, in which the government of an unnamed country locks up and then abandons its citizens afflicted by a blinding plague, opened the 12-day bonanza. This film is “a metaphor that applies to any official neglect,” said its scriptwriter Don McKellar.

“There are obvious parallels between the story of the movie, and the reaction to disasters such as the cyclone in Myanmar, where the junta is blocking foreign aid offered to help survivors of the cyclone that killed tens of thousands,” said director Fernando Meirelles.

The earthquake that struck this week in China was also felt in Cannes. ‘24 City’ a movie by China’s Jia Zhangke set in Chengdu city in the quake-hit province, is among the 22 films in the running for the coveted Palme d’Or top prize.

Sean Penn, the US actor and director heading the jury on the prize, said that natural disasters like these showed the inefficiency of government responses to such disasters. — AFP

Islamabad, May 15
In a significant twist to national political landscape, the returning officer in Rawalpindi on Thursday accepted the nomination papers of Nawaz Sharif, chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, for National Assembly seat NA 52 in suburban Rawalpindi.

The papers of Supreme Court Bar Association president Aitzaz Ahsan were also declared in order in the adjacent NA 54. PML-N Javed Hashmi vacated this seat and Nawaz offered it to Ahsan. But Ahsan is waiting for a decision on his application for ticket from his Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) before making his mind if he would contest election as an Independent candidate if the PPP rejects his request.

In another related development, nomination papers of Shahbaz Sharif were also accepted from a provincial seat in the same constituency where Nawaz is contesting for the National Assembly. Nawaz and Shahbaz are also candidates from another provincial seat in Lahore where too their papers have been accepted.

The Sharif brothers were not allowed to contest in the February 18 polls after their papers were rejected. Though they made several attempts to seek a review from the Chief Election Commissioner against the rejection, the CEC turned it down asking them to move election tribunals. The Sharifs preferred to stay out of the fray instead of moving the courts.

BRIEFLY

Greenhouse gases highest in 8,00,000 yrs
OSLO: Greenhouse gases are at higher levels in the atmosphere than at any time in at least 8,00,000 years, according to a study of Antarctic ice that extends evidence that mankind is disrupting the climate. The UN Climate Panel last year blamed human activities, led by burning of fossil fuels that release heat-trapping gases, for modern global warming that may disrupt water and food supplies with ever more droughts, floods and heatwaves. — Reuters

Music-based therapy for special children
LOS ANGELES: Music-based therapy may hold the key to understanding how the brain processes emotion in children with special needs related to autism, a study has suggested. Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have trouble recognising emotions, particularly social emotions conveyed through facial expressions - a frown, a smirk or a smile. This inability can rob a child of the chance to communicate and socialise and often leads to social isolation. — PTI

Indonesia to share info on bird flu
JAKARTA: Indonesia’s health minister said today she would start sharing all genetic information about her country’s bird flu virus with a new global database to monitor whether the disease is mutating into a dangerous pandemic strain. China, Russia and other nations, that have long withheld influenza virus samples and DNA sequencing data from international databases, are also taking part in the initiative. — AP

Vietnam seizes biggest drug haul
HANOI: The Vietnamese police found tonnes of hashish covered by jeans in cartons shipped from Pakistan en route to China in what they described as Vietnam’s largest drug haul, newspapers reported on Thursday. The 8.8 tonnes of cannabis resin, which had a street value of nearly $90 million, was seized on Monday in a warehouse in Mong Cai town on the border with China. — Reuters

Bacon’s work sets record at Sotheby’s
NEW YORK: A new record was set for post-war art at auction when Francis Bacon’s “Triptych, 1976” sold for $86 million at Sotheby’s. The auction house had estimated the monumental three-canvas painting at about $70 million, but two determined telephone bidders drove up the price to $86,281,000, including Sotheby’s commission. — Reuters

Nigeria pipeline blast kills 100
IJEGUN (NIGERIA): At least 100 persons were killed and scores injured when fuel from a pipeline ruptured by an earthmover caught fire and exploded in a Nigerian village near the city of Lagos, the Red Cross said on Thursday. The fireball engulfed homes and schools at Ijegun village in the Lagos district of Alimosho. — Reuters