Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for presidency at a Denver football stadium packed with adoring supporters on Thursday night. Amid raucous cheering Obama declared: “With profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for presidency of the US.”

Obama reminded the crowd of how he came to stand before them as the first black presidential nominee of a major U.S. political party: “the brief union between a young man from Kenya and a young woman from Kansas who weren't well off or well-known, but shared a belief that in America, their son could achieve whatever he put his mind to.”

Obama made history 40 years to the day when Dr Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.
“Change happens because the American people demand it -- because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time. America, this is one of those moments,” he told supporters at the Democratic national convention. “I believe that as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming.”
Obama picked Invesco Field to deliver the address as it could seat more people than the venue used the previous three nights of the convention. Eighty thousand people packed into the stadium on Thursday night to watch Obama speak on a set that featured imposing Greek columns and which critics promptly mocked as “Barackopolis.” 

It was the first time a Democratic presidential nominee has accepted the presidential nomination in a stadium since John F. Kennedy chose Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles in 1960.

Listing the problems that face the US, Obama said these challenges were not all of the government’s making. “But the failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed policies of George W. Bush.” Obama told his supporters: “the same party that brought you two terms of George Bush and Dick Cheney will ask this country for a third... On November 4, we must stand up and say: ‘Eight years is enough.’”

Obama’s acceptance of the nomination marked the end of the four-day long Democratic extravaganza in the Mile High City and the start of a presidential campaign with his newly appointed running mate, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, leading up to the election day on November 4. In a sign of the war of words that lies ahead, Obama on Thursday linked McCain to President Bush’s failed policies, noting that the Republican senator had voted with Bush 90 per cent of the time. 

Recalling his less-than-privileged upbringing and the challenges his mother endured as a single parent, Obama retorted: “Now, I don't know what kind of lives John McCain thinks that celebrities lead, but this has been mine.These are my heroes... And it’s on behalf of them that I intend to win this election and keep our promise alive as President of the US.” In a policy that could deal a blow to outsourcing of jobs to countries such as India, Obama promised to stop giving tax breaks to corporations that shipped jobs overseas, and instead give these to companies that created good jobs in America.

He also promised to end America’s dependence on oil from the Middle East in 10 years and said that as President he would invest in clean coal technology and find ways to safely harness nuclear power. Reiterating his call to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq within a fixed timeframe, Obama said: “You don't defeat a terrorist network that operates in 80 countries by occupying Iraq.” He also said he would end the war in Iraq “responsibly, and finish the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.”

In a statement, the McCain campaign called Obama’s speech “misleading” and said it was “fundamentally at odds with the meagre record of Barack Obama.”

London, August 29 
Hours after publicly announcing that he would be suing Scotland Yard for racism, Britain's most senior Asian police officer has been asked by superiors to "shut up" and "get on" with his job.

Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur went public yesterday with a highly damaging legal action against Sir Ian Blair, accusing the Metropolitan Police chief of repeated acts of racial, religious and age discrimination.

wever, Blair's deputy Sir Paul Stephenson rebuked Ghaffur, saying: "I think it is long past time that we all shut up, stop making public statements about private disputes and get on with the job we are paid to do. That is a matter for him to reconcile with what he considers to be his proper responsibilities as one of this country's most senior police officers. We do not accept the charges of discrimination against us." 

Questions are also being asked by his colleagues about whether Ghaffur can continue to sit with them on Met's senior management board, which is in charge of directing the police strategy in the British capital, the media reported.

Ghaffur (53), a police officer since 1974, opened hostilities by confirming speculation that he was taking the Met to an employment tribunal. He blames the Commissioner for sidelining him in his role leading to security for London's 2012 Olympic Games.

"My current case is essentially to do with my treatment at the highest levels of the Met, in particular the discrimination I have been subject to over a long period of time by the present Commissioner Sir Ian Blair.

"It is to do with the continuation of that treatment into the very important job I was doing as the co-ordinator of the security and safety of the 2012 Olympics," Ghaffur had said. — PTI

The PPP chief, husband of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, is facing threats in the wake of the government banning the Taliban on Monday. With the five-month-old government intensifying military action against Taliban and al-Qaeda militants security agencies apprehend retaliatory strikes. “Zardari has been advised to stay in a safe place and under the cover of official security,” said a member of the federal cabinet. — PTI

Zardari talked to Sharif on telephone on Thursday seeking his support in the election. 

BRIEFLY

United Nations
UN to assist flood victims : The UN on Friday said it had rushed its agencies to aid the government and independent bodies working to provide relief to victims of floods in the Kosi river on both Indian and Nepalese sides, where over one million people have been displaced from their homes. The floods resulting from a breach in eastern embankment on the Kosi river, have engulfed hundreds of villages and destroyed more than 2,00,000 homes, the world body said, adding, the displaced will not be able to return until the embankment is repaired. — PTI

Melbourne
Probe against Haneef dropped: In a major relief for Indian doctor Mohammad Haneef, who was wrongly accused on terror charges in Australia, the country's police on Friday dropped its probe into the case. "As ofg now, there is insufficient evidence to institute proceedings against Dr Haneef for any criminal offence," said Australian Federal Police (AFP) in a statement. — PTI