W O R L D

Romney fails to deliver knockout blow
Steubenville, March 7 
Mitt Romney eked out a close victory in Ohio but failed to deliver a knockout punch to rival Rick Santorum on the Republican presidential nominating contest's biggest night, raising the chances of a drawn-out battle between the party's establishment and its grassroots conservatives.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his wife Ann Romney thank supporters in Boston

Sikh family gets threats in US 
New York, March 7 
A Sikh family in America has received an anonymous letter that threatens to kill its members for being “associates of the Taliban”, prompting authorities to launch a probe into it.

UN sends aid chief to Syria as Obama rejects military force
Damascus, March 7 
UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos headed for Syria today to urge the regime to allow aid into battered protest cities, as US President Barack Obama insisted military intervention would be a “mistake”.

A Syrian demonstrator holds a portrait of President Bashar Al-Assad during a pro-regime rally in Damascus. — AFP

Romney fails to deliver knockout blow
Wins six ‘Super Tuesday’ contests; Rick Santorum captures three states

Steubenville, March 7
Mitt Romney eked out a close victory in Ohio but failed to deliver a knockout punch to rival Rick Santorum on the Republican presidential nominating contest's biggest night, raising the chances of a drawn-out battle between the party's establishment and its grassroots conservatives.

Romney won six of the 10 state contests on Tuesday but his margin of victory was uncomfortably slim in Ohio, the night's biggest prize. Unlike previous contests, this year's "Super Tuesday" results failed to anoint a nominee.

Romney methodically moved closer to the 1,144 delegates needed to win the party's nomination, but a strong showing by Santorum underscored the front-runner's continued inability to win over large swathes of the Republican base, who view his past as a moderate Massachusetts governor with suspicion.

Romney's troubles with evangelicals and working-class voters are likely to persist in upcoming contests in the conservative states of Kansas, Alabama and Mississippi. As the candidates spend millions of dollars attacking each other, polls show the lengthy nominating contest may be alienating voters.

Still, Romney's strong organisation and robust fundraising operation make him the favorite to face Democratic President Barack Obama in November. Super Tuesday may not have delivered a decisive verdict, but it did move Romney closer to the Republican nomination.

"Tonight we are counting up the delegates for the convention and counting down the days until November," Romney told supporters in his home state of Massachusetts.

Romney won in Massachusetts, as well as liberal-leaning Vermont and Idaho, where his fellow Mormons make up a substantial slice of the electorate. He also won in Alaska and Virginia, where Santorum failed to qualify for the ballot.

Santorum said his victories in Tennessee, Oklahoma and North Dakota proved he was the best candidate to represent the party's conservative philosophy. "In every state we overcame the odds," Santorum told supporters, noting that he had been consistently outspent by his rivals throughout the campaign.

Newt Gingrich won his home state of Georgia and said he would stay in the race.

With most of the votes counted in Ohio, Romney led Santorum by 38 per cent to 37 per cent and TV networks projected he would take the state. Romney ran strongest in and around the state's largest cities, while Santorum carried the rural areas.

Exit polls showed that Ohio voters viewed Romney as more likely to defeat Obama, but thought Santorum was more sympathetic to average US concerns. — Reuters

Republican race to white house

* Unlike previous years, this year’s ‘Super Tuesday’ results failed to anoint a nominee. The split verdict ensured another round of intense infighting on the road to the Republican presidential nomination

* Mitt Romney won his home state of Massachusetts as well as Ohio, Idaho, Vermont, Virginia and Alaska

* Rick Santorum took North Dakota, Oklahoma and Tennessee while Newt Gingrich triumphed in his home state of Georgia

Sikh family gets threats in US 

New York, March 7
A Sikh family in America has received an anonymous letter that threatens to kill its members for being “associates of the Taliban”, prompting authorities to launch a probe into it.

The letter, addressed to the ‘Turban Family’, said the family is being closely watched and it should leave the US immediately.

“Our people in the neighborhood have been closely watching your activities and figured out you are a close associate of a secret Taliban movement on the US Soil. We ask you to leave the country as soon as possible otherwise one of our people is going to shoot you dead. Don’t attempt to relocate somewhere else in America as people are closely monitoring your day to day activities,” the letter said.

The identity of the family has not been released. Local authorities are working with the FBI to investigate the threats in the letter sent to the family last week. The Sikh American Legal Defence and Education Fund said the Sikh family had previously been the target of similar hate crimes.

In 2003, the family’s home was vandalised with graffiti and it received two threatening letters. In 2005, they received two more death threats through mail.

Inter-faith groups have spoken in support of the family, calling on the authorities to investigate the threats as a hate crime.

“Incidents like these are constant reminders of the challenges that Sikh Americans face as a result of our unique identity. In the absence of awareness about who we are and what we stand for, Sikh Americans continue to endure harassment, discrimination and threats which run counter to the American ideals,” the SALDEF said in a statement. — PTI 

FBI puts up $1 mn reward for agent missing in Iran 

Washington, March 7
Years after the agent went missing in an area between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the FBI has put up whopping $1 million reward for information leading to the safe return of Bob Levinson. Levinson was working as a private investigator when he flew to Krish Island in Iran March 2007 and went missing.

FBI Director Robert Mueller with Christine Levinson (R), wife of former FBI agent Robert Levinson in Washington. — AP/PTI

Three years later, his family received a short video in which the former agent appeared thin but unharmed and pleaded for help, NBC news reported.

US officials believe that Levinson is being held by a militant group operating in the triangular region bordering the three countries.

Five years later over 100 current and former agents stood on the front steps of the FBI building to show solidarity and the US law enforcement agency’s chief Robert Mueller launched a publicity campaign using billboards, radio messages and flyers to publicise the reward. — PTI 

6 UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan 

Lashkar Gah, March 7
Six British soldiers were killed when their armoured vehicle was hit by an explosion in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, a British military official said on Wednesday, taking the British toll to 404 since the 2001 US-led invasion to oust the Taliban.

The soldiers, five from the 3rd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment and one from the 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, were on a mounted patrol on Tuesday when their Warrior Armoured Fighting Vehicle was struck, the British Ministry of Defence said.

Mohammad Ismail Hotak, a senior Afghan police official in Helmand, said the explosion was caused by a roadside bomb, the deadliest weapon used by insurgents. It marked the biggest single loss of life for British troops in Afghanistan since 2006.

“It is a reminder of the huge price that we are paying for the work we are doing in Afghanistan and the sacrifice that our troops have made and continue to make,” British Prime Minister David Cameron told the BBC. — Reuters

UN sends aid chief to Syria as Obama rejects military force

Damascus, March 7
UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos headed for Syria today to urge the regime to allow aid into battered protest cities, as US President Barack Obama insisted military intervention would be a “mistake”.

A Chinese envoy sent to discuss ways to end the bloodshed in Syria, meanwhile, was to discuss a six-point peace plan with Foreign Minister Walid Muallem and opposition figures, a newspaper reported.

Diplomats in New York said there would be no moves at the United Nations until UN-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan and UN humanitarian chief Amos had also wound up separate missions to Syria this week.

The five major UN powers discussed yesterday new efforts to press for a halt to the violence in Syria, which Obama called heartbreaking, as regime forces pounded rebel towns and the death toll rose. However, Obama cautioned against unilateral military action. — AFP