Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton won the Democratic primary election in Kentucky on Tuesday night, but it was her rival, Senator Barack Obama, who claimed victory, telling supporters he had reached a "major milestone" in his campaign for the White House. Obama won the primary contest in Oregon.

The former first lady won big in Kentucky and with 100 per cent of the votes counted had 65 per cent to 30 per cent of the vote for Obama.

Obama claimed he had won a majority of pledged delegates. "The polls are closed in Kentucky and votes are being counted in Oregon, and it's clear that tonight we have reached a major milestone on this journey," the Illinois Democrat said in a message sent to his supporters.

"We have won an absolute majority of all the delegates chosen by the people in this Democratic primary process," he said.

Clinton's supporters are watching anxiously as their candidate comes under increasing pressure to quit the race. The big question that looms is whether they will support Obama should he become the Democratic Party's nominee.

New York hotelier and Clinton fundraiser Sant Singh Chatwal told The Tribune he was "100 per cent behind Hillary." He said his support for Obama would depend on what Clinton advises her supporters to do should she quit the race. "I will wait to hear from her. If she says support Obama, I will; if she doesn't, I will not," Chatwal said.

However, Clinton is showing no signs of ending her campaign.

"It's not just Kentucky bluegrass that's music to my ears. It's the sound of your overwhelming vote of confidence even in the face of some pretty tough odds," she told raucous supporters in Louisville, Kentucky, on Tuesday night.

"This is one of the closest races for a party's nomination in recent history. We're winning the popular vote and I'm more determined than ever to see that every vote is cast and every ballot is counted," Clinton said.

"I'm going to keep making our case until we have a nominee, whoever she may be," she said to cheers. Both Clinton and Obama are historic candidates. She could become the first female president and he the first black president of the United States.

Clinton's campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe told the crowd, "Everyone had been declaring it over and she keeps winning."

"The superdelegates have to look at all of this," McAuliffe added. Obama leads Clinton in the number of superdelegates.

In an email to her supporters, Clinton said, "We showed America that the voters know what the 'experts' will never understand - that in our great democracy, elections are about more than candidates running, pundits commenting, or ads blaring."

London, May 21
Indians are the largest number of foreigners settling in Britain, according to official figures.

A record number of the immigrants — 1,64,635 — pledged their future to this country last year, and the largest grant of citizenship -— 14,490 — was given to Indians, which was 9 per cent of the total.

The Home Office figures bolstered the belief that Indians were generally regarded as law-abiding and enterprising. They were least in jails here among all ethnic groups, and figured prominently in the list of entrepreneurs who did well. 
The figures also underlined the rapidly changing face of Britain in the 21st century. Nearly 60 per cent of the new citizens, “Who earned the entitlement to travel on British passports”, came from Africa or Asia.

After the largest number of citizenship grants to Indians, Filipinos (10,840), Afghans (10,555), South Africans (8,150) and Pakistanis (8,140) were admitted.

A quarter of citizenships, about 41,000, were given to children, while about 29,000 became citizens through marriage.

The greater influx of foreigners was criticised by the Tories and anti-immigration groups, which blamed it on Labour’s poor management of the immigration system. David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said, “Given the government’s proven record at granting passports to people like Mukhtar Said Ibrahim — ring leader of the aborted July 21 bomb plot — the public will be alarmed that passports are being handed out at such a rate.
“How can they (government) guarantee they are suitable people,” he added.
However, immigration minister Liam Byrne insisted that the government had made it harder to become a citizen of the country. —UNI 

A panel of four leading constitutional experts set up by the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) has termed as extra-constitutional President Musharraf’s actions of November 3, 2007, including purge in the judiciary, and recommended to the party to support the move for the restoration of deposed judges.

The committee, however, opined that a constitutional amendment is needed for judges’ reinstatement. It asked the PML-Q to support such an amendment, which provides for the restoration, and it should not disturb the present judges who must be retained.

The committee comprised senators Wasim Sajjad, S.M. Zafar, Mohammad Anwar Bhinder and Dr Khalid Ranjha.

The party's president, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, has said the PML-Q will move its own resolution if the ruling coalition failed to do so. The committee said it would meet again after the PPP submitted its constitutional package in Parliament.

Former senate chairman Wasim Sajjad said tabling a resolution was "not a bad idea", but the resolution should also contain guidelines for the judges' reinstatement.

Washington, May 21
India's angry reaction to President George Bush's suggestion that its middle class was pushing food prices by demanding better food is bringing home the realisation that the blame lies at America's own door.
"We Americans are gluttons for energy, as well as for food," noted Dallas Morning News in an editorial on Tuesday drawing attention not only to the Americans' huge intake, but also to enormous amounts of food that they waste.

"Given that two-thirds of Americans are overweight, we should have the good manners not to complain about high food prices with our mouths full," it said in an edit piece on Monday titled "US a food wasteland".
"Growing appetites from the rising middle classes of China and India are helping drive demand past what the world food market can supply," said the daily noting. "This wasn't such a problem for American consumers when the Chinese and Indians were too poor to eat like us. But that's changing. Frankly, the Indians are tired of hearing us complain," it added.

"Irritated economists and officials in India can point to United Nations data showing that the average American consumes or discards 3,770 calories of food energy per day - roughly 50 per cent more than the average Indian," the Dallas Morning News noted.

US Department of Agriculture figures show that the average American eats 57 times more corn annually than the average Indian does and about seven times more corn than the average Chinese. — IANS

Locals in the capital city took to streets today against the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist protesting against the murder of a businessman by the Maoist combatants inside the UN-monitored cantonment a few weeks ago.

Normal life was hit when hundreds of human rights and civil society activists, including members of the student unions of major ruling parties, the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and the Nepal Workers’ and Peasants’ Party, expressed solidarity by holding bandh.

On April 27, Shrestha, a local resident and sympathiser of Maoists, was abducted by a group of People's Liberation Army (PLA) and tortured for about a week and subsequently killed by the Maoist combatants inside the UN-monitored cantonment site in Shaktikhor, Chitwan, 145 km south-west from Kathmandu.

During the day, the protesters demonstrated at major thoroughfares in the capital, closed academic institutions and marketplaces of all three districts in Kathamndu valley, Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur.

The protesters chanted anti-Maoist slogans, burnt effigy of Maoist chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, and demanded the body of deceased Shrestha, immediate formation of a high-level commission, action against guilty and public apology from Prachanda.

In the course of protest, clashes ensued at few places between the protesters, cadres of the Young Communist League, youth wing of the Maoists, and police personnel where at least 24 persons sustained injuries. Meanwhile, Prachanda had refuted the allegation of his party organisation's involvement.

BRIEFLY

Nobel laureate Willis Lamb dies at 94
Tuscon (Arizona): Willis E Lamb Jr, a Nobel prize-winning physicist whose work on the electron structure of the hydrogen atom revolutionised the quantum theory of matter, has died. He was 94. He died from complications of a gallstone disorder on May 15. He designed and built a device in 1947 with R C Retherford to study the effect of microwave radiation on the hydrogen atom. It led to measurements that showed a change in the amount of energy emitted from the hydrogen atom in different states known as the “Lamb shift”. — AP

Thousands risk life for valuable herb
Kathmandu: Around 50,000 people, including many schoolteachers and students, are currently trekking the high-altitude mountains of North-West Nepal in search of yarchagumba herb, believed to treat sexual impotency among other diseases. Locals trek Saipal and Api mountains in Chautari village every summer to lay hands on the herb. It can fetch up to Rs 6 lakh per kg in Kathmandu's markets. Two yarchagumba-pickers died of high-altitude sickness in Jumla district near the Tibetan border.— PTI

Man found with explosives at Swedish N-plant
Stockholm: The Swedish police on Wednesday said it was interrogating a man who had entered a nuclear plant on Sweden’s southeast coast carrying highly explosive material. Sven-Erik Karlsson, spokesman for the Kalmar County police, said the police received a call from the Oskarshamn plant at 7.58 am. “They told us that a welder, who was going to perform a job there, had been stopped in a random security check. He had been carrying small amounts of the highly explosive material TATP,” Karlsson said. — Reuters

Drop box gets 17 babies in a year
Tokyo: A baby "drop box" in Kumamoto city received 17 babies from around the country in the first year. It had opened last May. The hospital created the "Stork's Cradle" following a series of high-profile cases in which newborns were abandoned in parks and at supermarkets. People can leave babies in an incubator and are cared for by the hospital. Later they are put up for adoption or sent to a home for infants. — AP

3 Indians killed in mishap
Dubai: Three Indians and a Pakistani were killed in an accident after a trailer laden with sand landed on their vehicle after a collision in Sharjah. The police said that the pick-up van, in which the occupants were travelling, was waiting to get back on the main road and the accident occurred as the van's driver entered the road without making sure if there was a clear exit. — UNI

Indian, Russian varsities ink pact
Moscow: The English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad, has entered into an agreement with a university in Russia on cooperation in the field of teaching of Russian language. The agreement was signed here on Tuesday by the Vice Chancellor of EFLU Abhai Maurya and his counterpart V M Filippov. A similar deal was signed between EFLU and Moscow Automobile and Road Construction Institute. Later this week, EFLU is also going to ink contracts with St Petersburg and Vladimir State Universities of Russia. — PTI