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Prez Obama to run for second term
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Sons offer plan to push dictator Gaddafi out
Japan dumps radioactive water into sea
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Prez Obama to run for second term
Washington, April 4 In a message to his supporters through email, text and video, titled ‘It Begins with Us’, Obama said he would be filing his papers to launch his campaign for a
second term. “We’re opening up offices, unpacking boxes, and starting a conversation with supporters like you to help shape our path to victory. 2012 begins now, and this is where you say you’re in,” Obama said. He is expected to go on a major fund raising effort beginning this month. “We’re doing this now because the politics we believe in does not start with expensive TV ads or extravaganzas, but with you-with people organising block-by-block, talking to neighbours, co-workers, and friends. And that kind of campaign takes time to build,” he said. “So even though I’m focused on the job you elected me to do, and the race may not reach full speed for a year or more, the work of laying the foundation for our campaign must start today,” the President said. The President’s online campaign was widely seen as a key strategy to galvanise his supporters in 2008. The announcement comes so that Obama can file papers with the Federal Election Commission and begin accepting campaign contributions. He is expected to go on a major fund raising effort beginning this month. In 2008, Obama secured a staggering $750 million in his bid for the White House. ABC News said some believe he “may cross the threshold and could become the first $1 billion Presidential candidate” next year. “We’ve always known that lasting change wouldn’t come quickly or easily. It never does. But as my administration and folks across the country fight to protect the progress we’ve made, and make more, we also need to begin mobilising for 2012, long before the time comes for me to begin campaigning in earnest,” the President said. Obama said in coming days his re-election team will start by coordinating millions of one-on-one conversations between supporters across every single state, reconnecting old friends, inspiring new ones to join the cause, and readying them for next year’s fight. “This will be my final campaign, at least as a candidate. But the cause of making a lasting difference for our families, our communities, and our country has never been about one person. And it will succeed only if we work together,” Obama said. — PTI
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US pushes for Saleh’s removal
Saana, April 4 Troops loyal to General Ali Mohsin, who have sided with the anti-regime protesters, barred the police from storming demonstrators camping at a square in central Saana. In the tense face-off, Al Jazeera quoting youth activists said the police backed off. The troops and police near confrontation came amidst rising tempers in the strategically located Red Sea Arab state as US media reports quoting high US and Yemeni officials said that embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh is likely to be eased out and offered a safe passage out of the country. Violence escalated in the country, torn apart by Houthi Shia rebellion in the south, rising Al-Qaida terrorism in parts of north and widespread anti-government protests, as thousands of demonstrators attempted to rush and occupy the governorate at Taiz. As violence continued to inflame the strategically located country on the Red Sea, a US media report said the American government had dropped its backing to the beleaguered President and was helping to negotiate his exile in another country with members of his family. New York Times quoting the US and Yemeni officials said Washington had almost finalised a deal to replace Saleh by his deputy Abd al-Rab Mansur al-Hadi.
— PTI
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Sons offer plan to push dictator Gaddafi out
Tripoli/Washington, April 4 Abdel Ati al-Obeidi, a trusted aide of 68-year-old Gaddafi, met the Greek foreign minister Dimitris Droutsas in Athens with the message that the Libyan leader wants the hostilities to stop. “It seems that the Libyan authorities are seeking a solution,” Al Jazeera quoted Droutsas as saying after the talks. According to New York Times, two of Gaddafi’s seven sons are proposing a resolution to the Libyan conflict that would entail pushing their father aside to make way for a transition to a constitutional democracy under one son, Saif al-Islam el-Gaddafi. But this was rejected by the rebels. NYT quoted rebel representative Ali al-Essavi as saying it was unacceptable to replace Gaddafi with one of his sons. “Any political initiative which does not include the departure of Gaddafi is not acceptable,” he said. Shamseddin Abdulmelah, spokesman of the transitional set up, asserted that Gaddafi and his sons have to leave the country before any diplomatic negotiations can take place. After facing major reverses, Libyan rebels today advanced towards the oil town of Brega amid fierce fighting with Gaddafi’s forces. Brega, about 800 km east of Triploi, has seen heavy exchanges between the rebels and Gaddafi’s forces. With the backing of coalition air strikes, the rebels first captured Brega. But within days, the government forces retook it. In Misurata, 215 km east of Tripoli, Gaddafi’s forces were on the verge of overrunning the key city of after routing all opposition attacks on the eastern front. Turkish aid ships bought hundreds of wounded including rebel fighters from Misurata to the rebel held port of Benghazi and the sailors were quoted by ‘Al Jazeera’ as saying that the rescue ships were attacked by Gaddafi’s snipers. “The city appears to be in a lockdown. It is surrounded on all sides by tanks and forces of Gaddafi and mortar fire and rockets are raining down on city centre”, the pan Arab Channel quoted the sailors as saying. Gaddafi’s forces have encircled the city for almost three weeks now and though they have been targeted by air strikes launched by US, British, and French jets, the siege has not been broken. — PTI
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Japan dumps radioactive water into sea
Tokyo, April 4 Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), which operates the nuclear plant northeast of the capital, began disposing of 10,000 tonnes of water containing low-level radioactive substances in the Pacific Ocean from the nuclear power plant. The dumping of the water that was about 100 times more radioactive than legal limits will help make room to store more highly polluted water filling the No. 2 reactor turbine building as it was hampering the plant’s restoration work, TEPCO said. “There is a need to release already stored water in order to accept the additional waste water,” officials said. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said it was the only available option. “So as to prioritise to stop the leakage of this water into the sea... we will release the water stored in the exterior building of the unit, which also unfortunately contains radioactivity but far lower than the highly contaminated water,” he said. The government said it poses no risk to human health. Separately, the company also said it plans to release 1,500 tonnes of groundwater, also containing radioactive materials, near the No. 5 and No. 6 reactors. The plant operator poured 13 kg of milky white dye into an underground trench to find the source from where radioactive water is leaking into the Pacific Ocean, according to Kyodo news agency.
— PTI
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