Obama clinches Democratic nomination

04/06/08

By jeff zeleny

Senator Barack Obama has claimed the Democratic presidential nomination, prevailing through an epic battle with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in a primary campaign that inspired millions of voters from every corner of the United States to demand change in Washington.

A last-minute rush of Democratic superdelegates, as well as split results from the final primaries in Montana and South Dakota on Tuesday, pushed Obama over the threshold of 2,118 delegates needed to be nominated at the party’s convention in Denver in August.

The victory for Obama, the son of a black Kenyan father and white Kansan mother, broke racial barriers and represented a remarkable rise for a man who just four years ago served in the state Senate of Illinois.

“Tonight, we mark the end of one historic journey with the beginning of another – a journey that will bring a new and better day to America,” Obama told supporters at a rally in St. Paul, Minnesota.

“Because of you, tonight I can stand here and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States of America.”

Addressing supporters in New York, Clinton paid tribute to Obama but did not say that she was leaving the race. In a speech more defiant than conciliatory, she again argued that she was the stronger Democratic candidate and said that she had won the popular vote, a notion disputed by the Obama campaign.

“I want the 18 million Americans who voted for me to be respected,” Clinton told her supporters. But she also paid homage to Obama’s accomplishments, saying, “It has been an honor to contest the primaries with him, just as it has been an honor to call him my friend.”

Obama’s victory moved the presidential campaign to a new phase as he tangled with Senator John McCain of Arizona in televised addresses Tuesday over Obama’s assertion that McCain would continue the policies of President George W. Bush.

McCain vigorously rebuffed that criticism in a speech in Kenner, Louisiana, in which he distanced himself from the departing president while contrasting his own breadth of experience with that of Obama.

“The American people didn’t get to know me yesterday, as they are just getting to know Senator Obama,” McCain told his supporters.

Obama’s victory closed a 16-month primary campaign that broke records on several fronts: the number of voters who participated, the amount of money raised and spent, and the sheer length of the grueling fight. Infused by tensions over race and gender, the campaign provided unexpected twists to the bitter end, with Obama ultimately prevailing over Clinton, who just a year ago appeared set to become the first woman to be nominated by a major U.S. political party.

The last two state contests Tuesday reflected continuing divisions in the party, as Clinton won the South Dakota primary, while Obama won in Montana.

The race drew to its final hours with a burst of announcements – delegate by delegate – of Democrats stepping forward to declare their support for Obama. The Democratic establishment, from former President Jimmy Carter to rank-and-file local officials among the party’s superdelegates, rallied behind Obama as the day advanced.

On Tuesday morning, Obama needed 41 delegates to effectively claim the Democratic nomination. Just as polls began to close in Montana and South Dakota, Obama secured the delegates he needed to end the duel with Clinton, which wound through every state and territory in an unprecedented 57 contests over five months.

Every time a new endorsement was announced at Obama’s headquarters in Chicago, campaign workers broke into a round of applause, followed by the popping of Champagne bottles later in the evening. The aides in Obama’s team – a political startup – are responsible for defeating one of the most tried and tested operations in Democratic politics.

While the race for the Democratic nomination may have ended, a new chapter has begun in the complicated tensions that have defined the relationship between Obama and Clinton.

In his speech on Tuesday evening, Obama complimented his rival. “Our party and our country are better off because of her,” he said, “and I am a better candidate for having had the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton.”

“You can rest assured that when we finally win the battle for universal health care in this country, she will be central to that victory,” Obama said. “When we transform our energy policy and lift our children out of poverty, it will be because she worked to help make it happen.”

Before she arrived at a rally in New York City on Tuesday, Clinton and a few close advisers huddled at her home in Chappaqua to discuss the timing of her departure from the race. In an afternoon conference call with her fellow New York lawmakers, she asked that they be patient while she decided her next move.

One kidnapped Indian oil worker freed in Sudan

The economic times

04/06/08

KHARTOUM: An Indian oil technician held hostage in Sudan for more than three weeks was released safe and well on Wednesday although three of his compatriots remain captive, the Indian ambassador said.

“I can confirm that one of them returned to his base camp this morning, about six hours ago. He is safe and well. He is unharmed,” Deepak Vohra told AFP by telephone in Khartoum.

The ambassador expressed hope that the other three oil workers, who were abducted with their Sudanese driver on May 13 in an area adjoining Sudan’s disputed oil district of Abyei, would be released soon.

“I would say that it should be fairly soon,” said Vohra. Local tribesmen are understood to have been behind the abduction of the four oil workers, which marked the first time that Indians have been kidnapped in the oil-rich African country.

In the past, Darfur rebels have kidnapped foreign oil workers from Sudanese oilfields, often targeting Chinese companies because of their strong ties with Khartoum, although all of those abducted eventually emerged unscathed.

The Indians, all men in their 30s, work for Petro Energy Contracting Services, which provides technical services to the oil industry. The company employs 75 Indians in Sudan.

The technicians were travelling in a single vehicle when they were surrounded by kidnappers while returning from Neem oil field to Heglig.

Two days after their abduction, the United Nations evacuated its entire civilian staff of 259 people from Abyei following clashes between Sudanese government troops and southern forces.

Abyei and surrounding areas are prey to sporadic violence between tribes aligned either with the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum or with the administration in the south despite a 2005 peace deal that ended the civil war.

US charges Ethiopian national British resident at Gitmo

By MICHAEL MELIA

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP)

04/06/08

 U.S. military prosecutors at Guantanamo Bay have filed war-crimes charges against a former British resident accused of plotting with al-Qaida to bomb apartment buildings in the United States, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Ethiopian national Binyam Mohamed, 30, was charged despite a request from the British government last year to release him from the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba.

Mohamed is the 20th detainee selected to face the military tribunals at Guantanamo, and the fifth in the last week. A Pentagon official who oversees the tribunal system, Susan Crawford, must approve the charges before an arraignment is scheduled.

Lawyers for Mohamed have argued that the U.S. case against him rests on evidence obtained in Morocco, where they allege his genitals were slashed with a scalpel and he was repeatedly beaten during two years of confinement following his capture in 2002.

All the evidence against him appears to have been “derived from coercive interrogation and torture,” civilian attorney Clive Stafford Smith and military counsel Air Force Lt. Col. Yvonne Bradley said in a letter urging Crawford to dismiss the charges.

His lawyers filed a lawsuit in London last month seeking to force the British government to hand over documents they claim prove the prisoner was tortured before being sent to Guantanamo in 2004.

Mohamed, who was born in Ethiopia and moved to Britain when he was 15, traveled to Afghanistan in May 2001 and trained at an al-Qaida camp, according to the U.S. charge sheet released Tuesday.

The U.S. alleges he later accepted instructions from al-Qaida kingpin Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to conduct terror operations inside the United States. At a meeting in Pakistan, the Ethiopian allegedly agreed to rent apartments inside large buildings in the U.S., fill them with natural gas and blow them up with timing devices.

Mohamed faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on charges of conspiracy and supporting terrorism.

In August, Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband formally asked the Bush administration to release Mohamed along with four other British residents at Guantanamo.

Three of the men were sent to Britain but the U.S. refused to release Mohamed and Saudi-born Shaker Aamer, citing particular security concerns in those cases.

Five British citizens were freed from Guantanamo in March 2004 and four in January 2005, according to Britain’s Foreign Office.

History as tool in Somaliland bid

04/06/08

The Somali region argues that its history as a separate entity and peaceful existence make it a prime candidate for independence.

By Abdurrahman Warsameh in Mogadishu for ISN Security Watch )

The row over presidential and parliamentary elections in the as-yet unrecognized republic of Somaliland, in the northwest region of Somalia, was resolved Sunday after the three national parties held marathon talks in the presidential residence in Hargeysa, the capital.

But the dispute, which was triggered by the decision of the upper house of the parliament to extend President Dahir Riyale Kahin’s term for a year, did not mar the independence anniversary celebrated by “Somalilanders” on 18 May.

Unlike southern Somalia, Somaliland has been stable since it unilaterally declared independence shortly after rebels overthrew then-ruler Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991, arguing that “the union did not work according to the aspirations of the people.” Since then, the country has been seeking diplomatic recognition from the rest of the world.

Saeed Adaani, the Somaliland presidential spokesman, told ISN Security Watch that Somaliland’s quest for recognition from the international community has both legal and moral bases “since the issue is not one part of a sovereign country seceding but the demand for separation from an unholy union.”

“Many people are unaware that south Somalia, which was an Italian colony, and Somaliland, [which] was a British protectorate, voluntarily united in 1960 after being two separate countries for centuries.”

According to Adaani, historically, the two “countries” have never been one, but it was the decision of the people of Somaliland to join with the south that was the catalyst for the union, which, he argues, has not worked in their interests.

“We have every right to reclaim our independence and revoke the unworkable unity between the two countries, [both of] which can have good neighborly relations between them just like with other countries,” Adaani told ISN Security Watch.

International case falling on deaf ears

The leaders of the pro-independence government – led by Riyale’s ruling United Peoples’ Democratic Party and strongly supported by the only other legally-mandated parties, the Kulmiye and the Justice and Welfare Party – has forcefully pushed its case for independence on the international stage, focusing particularly on the UK, the US, the EU and the African Union (AU).

Somali government spokesman Abdi Hajji Goobdoon told ISN Security Watch that the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia “does not recognize the existence of a breakaway part of the sovereign state of Somalia.”

“In its latest resolution on Somalia, the UN said it respects the unity, sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Somalia and urged world countries to do so,” Goobdoon said.

“So we and the world do not recognize two Somalias, but one single unified country called Somalia that is indivisible and whose unity is sacred and nonnegotiable,” he added.

Despite recent signs that the international community is interested in the stability of, and democratic political process in Somaliland, no country has come forward to extend the much sought after recognition. According to Omar Ali, a Somali commentator in Mogadishu, this is because, since the unification agreement was signed in Mogadishu, a separation agreement should also come from Mogadishu.

“Whoever they are, southern leaders, whether [they are] feudal warlords, the Islamists, or the current transitional government, have all unanimously opposed the secession of the northwestern regions,” Ali told ISN Security Watch in Mogadishu. “And the leaders in Somaliland have been openly hostile toward the south, which they accuse of three decades of repression and persecution.”

He says that Somaliland’s case cannot be compared to that of Eritrea, which has received near-automatic recognition from the world following independence from Ethiopia. The latter’s co-operation was instrumental in the separation of the two countries.

“Somaliland did not get or seek the cooperation of southern Somalia political leaders and distanced itself from what has been going on in the south by saying it will only speak with southern leaders after they recognize Somaliland. And southern leaders do not want northern regions to go. A real catch-22,” says Ali.

According to Somaliland, the circular argument revolves in the other direction. “There is no way for us to speak with people who do not acknowledge our existence,” Adaani said.

“To those who insist that we talk to south Somalia leaders about our independence, we say Somaliland is, has always been and will forever be an independent state whether we are recognized or not,” he said.

Somaliland: The Horn’s best kept secret?

Whatever the status of Somaliland as a political entity, its supporters say the self-declared country has taken long strides toward reconstruction, stability and democratization while the rest of the country has suffered total chaos and lawlessness.

Somaliland has established its own government institutions, three political parties, a parliament and a police force. It also has a flag and currency of its own. The country has been stable since declaring independence nearly two decades ago while south Somalia has been the scene of recurrent violent confrontations between competing forces.

The entity’s first elections in 2003 were commended by US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer during her visit to Somaliland earlier this year.

The visit has been seen as a signal of the US government’s interest in development in Somaliland. The US and the EU have conditioned their acceptance of Somaliland independence on recognition by the AU. Frazer confirmed this view, stating during her visit that she believed “the issue of recognition should be left with the AU.

“We will work with the AU and will respect whatever decision it takes on Somaliland’s status” Frazer told local reporters.

Delegations from the AU, the EU and various UN organizations have visited the entity, praising its stability, security and political progress.

A not entirely peaceful peace

For residents of the self-declared country, the prospects for recognition may seem remote, but they say the peace they have enjoyed is more important than confirmations of suzerainty from the international community.

“At least we are proud that our part of this violent sub-region is peaceful enough to live [in] and there will come a day when recognition for our state and what we have achieved will come,” Mohamed Hajji, a resident of Hargeysa who calls himself a “Somalilander” rather than Somali told ISN Security Watch.

But the accolades about its peaceful existence do not ring entirely true: The territory is not under full control of Somaliland as Sool and Sanaag, two border provinces of the region, have been under the administration of the semi-autonomous Puntland. This contest has led to a number of deadly confrontations between the two sides.

Somaliland’s army retook Las Anod, the administrative capital of Sool region, late last year after bloody clashes, making parts of Sanaag the only remaining territory not under Somaliland control and further aggravating the already explosive relations between Somalia and Somaliland according to Yusuf Jama, a political scientist in Garowe, the capital of Puntland.

“The thinking was that the recognition of Somaliland’s independence should first come from Somalia after a “yes” vote from a free and fair referendum carried out from the local people. But now Somaliland leaders are further alienating themselves from Somalia,” Jama told ISN Security Watch.

“I see federation or confederation or another form of coexistence, apart from outright independence, [as being the most likely] viable solution for the both Somalis and Somalilanders.”

 

Killer stalker free for weeks

Justin Davenport, Evening Standard
04.06.08

Police faced serious questions today over why they failed to protect stabbed London schoolgirl Arsema Dawit.

The 15-year-old was knifed 10 times one month after she first complained to police about death threats from a stalker who had beaten her. Scotland Yard is investigating a series of allegations over the way the case was handled.

Senior officers will want to know:

• Why the 21-year-old who allegedly stabbed Arsema was not identified and spoken to by police in the month after her family-complained that he was harassing her.

• Why it took officers 12 days to interview Arsema in detail about the allegations after she and her mother first went to police.

• Exactly how many times Arsema’s family complained to police about the harassment.

• What actions were taken to protect her from the stalker.

Scotland Yard has admitted it was investigating an allegation of assault from the schoolgirl at the time of her death.

The former choirgirl was stabbed in a frenzied attack in the lift of the block of flats where she lived with her mother, brother and sister in Lambeth.

Her family told police on 30 April that Arsema had been assaulted by an obsessive man who had also threatened to kill her.

Officers took 12 days to question Arsema in detail about her allegations including an assault at a McDonald’s restaurant in Elephant and Castle.

But by the time officers interviewed her at school, she denied going to police and that an assault had taken place.

Senior sources emphasised that the inquiry was still ongoing at the time of her death and Southwark CID had spoken to the family on several occasions.

A senior Yard source said: “Initial inquiries suggest that the original complaint was handled properly and that no one could have forecast such a dreadful chain of events. However the review will be robust and examine whether the complaint could have been deal with differently.”

The family say police told them there was nothing they could do about the stalker.

Scotland Yard confirmed that officers received a complaint on 30 April that a man aged 29 or 30 had assaulted Arsema by slapping her in the face in a McDonald’s restaurant on 16 April and made threats to kill her.

A Safer Schools officer spoke to the girl at the Harris Academy in Bermondsey on 12 May but then she claimed to have “no knowledge” of the incident. It is now claimed she may have been reluctant to talk to police in the school.

Police contacted Arsema’s mother a week later and the investigation was still ongoing when she was murdered on Monday. Detectives are investigating whether Arsema was involved in a relationship with the man before he began harassing her.

One source close to the inquiry said officers were not aware of a wider campaign of harassment against the girl and there had been difficulties in establishing the identity of the stalker.

The case has disturbing echoes of the honour killing of Banaz Mahmod, 20, who asked for help from the police six times before she was murdered by her family.

A 21-year-old man remained in custody after he was arrested on a footbridge over the River Thames as he threatened to kill himself.

Arsema was the 16th teenager to be killed in the capital this year and the first female victim. The attack came days after Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Ian Blair vowed to do everything in his power to combat knife crime.

Arsema’s mother, Tsehay Dawit, is said to have “lost her mind” through grief.

One friend, who asked not to be named, said her husband was still living in their native Eritrea, and was unaware of what had happened.

She said: “He does not know. He is still in Eritrea but he has not been told. I don’t think he will come over here. He would not be able to afford to.”

Mrs Dawit is understood to have moved to the UK four years ago. Arsema, her 14-year-old brother Robel and 12-year-old sister Feruz joined her two years later. The family moved at least three times before settling in Matheson Lang Gardens, near Waterloo Station.

It emerged today that Mrs Dawit had had been Arsema away from St Michael’s Eritrean Orthodox Church in Camberwell, where she is said to have met her alleged killer. The man, named locally as Thomas, is understood to have played the piano in the church, and met Arsema when she sang in the choir.

Sarah Medhin, who goes to St Michael’s, said: ” I saw the man (attacker) at our church. He is called Thomas but has an Eritrean surname.”

Simon Tesfagohiorgish, a friend of the family, added: “Arsema stopped going to church because he was hassling her. He could not do anything at church as there were so many people, that’s why he waited for her inside the flat.”

Police were issued with special guidance on understanding harassment cases almost three years ago amid fears that stalkers were going unpunished.

The key aim was to ensure police collected enough evidence to “facilitate effective action against the offender” and keep the victim safe.

Arsema quiz police given more time

The pres association

04/06/08

Detectives have been granted more time to question a man over the death of schoolgirl Arsema Dawit

A post-mortem examination confirmed the 15-year-old died from multiple stab wounds, a police spokesman added. Officers now have until Thursday morning to quiz the 21-year-old suspect at a south London police station.

Arsema’s family have demanded to know why police failed to protect her from a stalker who threatened to kill her.

The teenager was stabbed up to 10 times in a frenzied attack in the lift of the block of flats where she lived with her family in south London.

Her family told police just weeks ago that Arsema had been assaulted by an obsessive man. But they said officers told them there was nothing they could do about the man, who met Arsema at an Eritrean church where she was a member of the choir.

Scotland Yard confirmed police received a complaint on April 30 that a man aged 29 or 30 had assaulted Arsema in a McDonald’s restaurant in south London on April 16 and made threats to kill her.

An officer spoke to the girl at her school on May 12 but she claimed to have “no knowledge” of the incident. Police contacted Arsema’s mother a week later and the investigation was still ongoing when she was murdered on Monday.

One source close to the inquiry said officers were not aware of a wider campaign of harassment against the schoolgirl.

The 21-year-old suspect was arrested on a footbridge over the River Thames as he threatened to kill himself shortly after Arsema was attacked, police said.

Arsema was the 16th teenager to be killed in the capital this year and the first female victim. The attack came days after Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Ian Blair vowed to do everything in his power to combat knife crime.

Eriteria : Arsema, 15 was murdered by Man who met her through a church group

Posted on June 3, 2008 by adalvoice | Edit

source sun news paper / uk /
03/06/08

Arsema, 15, whose body was discovered in a lift in a block of flats near London’s Waterloo station yesterday, had been attacked before, pal Simon Tesfaghiorgish told reporters.
A much older man is thought to have become smitten with the 15-year-old after meeting her through a church group

The nut tailed Arsema home from school. And he launched a frenzied attack in a lift at the block of flats where she lived with her family.

Mr Tesfaghiorgish said: “I didn’t know him but he had been harassing her. The mother told the police a number of times.

“The police said they couldn’t take any action. What they want is, after things happen, they want to know.”

“We are going to complain about this. He beat her and threatened to kill her,” he said.

Arsema’s body – still clothed in her school uniform – was found slumped in the lift in Matheson Lang Gardens at around 4.30pm yesterday. She had been stabbed repeatedly.

Scotland Yard said later: “It has been established that Arsema and the suspect knew each other but the exact nature of their relationship is unclear at this stage.

“Police did receive an allegation of assault made by Arsema and her family in April this year, an ongoing investigation was set up and contact was made with the victim with a view to further progressing that investigation.”

Detective Chief Inspector Caroline Goode of the Homicide and Serious Crime Command said: “At this stage I am trying to establish the true nature of the relationship between Arsema and the man in custody.

“We are speaking to her family and friends to help build a picture of events leading up to the murder and to help piece together the relationship between them.

“I am also appealing to anyone who was in the area at the time of the murder and who may have seen or heard anything suspicious to come forward.”

A woman with a small child found her at 3.45pm as the lift doors opened, with her pink and blue school uniform covered in blood and the murder weapon still in her body.

Paramedics tried desperately to revive Arsema but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Soon afterwards a skinny man in his 30s was seized by plain-clothed cops as he threatened to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge over the River Thames.

Today a family friend who did not wished to be named spoke of his shock.

?She was a good girl – very honest and a good student,? he said. ?The family are very, very upset.?

Love

Last night a detective said the girl — the 16th teenager murdered in the capital this year — had been “the subject of unwarranted attention from a man who developed an obsession with her”.

The cop added: “There is a suggestion she met him through a church group. But it was unrequited love and she didn’t want to know.

“We think her killer may have followed her into the flats as she made her way back from school and struck while she was alone.”

Arsema’s family is thought to have come to Britain from the war-torn African state of Eritrea in the 1990s.

She lived on the fourth floor of ten-storey Matheson Lang House with her mother and 13-year-old brother, named locally as Ribel.

They were at home at the time of the murder and were in shock last night.

Cathy Loxton, the principal at Arsema’s school, the Harris Academy in Bermondsey, today described her as a popular pupil.

She said: ?We are all shocked by the loss of one of our students and the tragic ending of a life that showed so much promise.

?Arsema was a popular, friendly and well-behaved girl who had much to contribute to our school community.

?Our thoughts and prayers are with Arsema’s family and friends.?

Arsema’s schoolmates were told of the teenager’s murder during special assemblies this morning.

A spokeswoman for the school said many youngsters were extremely upset and some had been sent home.

She said: ?This is being broken to them in year groups. It is very sad. It is very hard at the moment?.

Tragic Arsema, described by a neighbour as “bubbly and always smiling”, had a 15th birthday party at home with pals on Saturday.

The arrested man, believed to be known to Arsema’s family, was spotted soon after he struck, in public toilets next to the riverside Hotel County Hall.

He was hunched over a sink washing blood from his hands and arms.

An onlooker who thought he had harmed himself alerted police. But by the time they arrived he was gone.

The man — about 5ft 8in tall and of African appearance — walked 400 yards along the South Bank of the Thames before climbing the steps of Hungerford Bridge.

Clinging
A police launch and a lifeboat were called in to hunt for him, but he was still thought to be a disturbed “self-harmer”.

Cops on the launch spotted a bag and sheets of paper he threw into the river. And as they fished the paper from the water, they saw him.

Wearing a white T-shirt and blue baseball cap, he was clinging to a white strut that acts as a bridge support and jabbering into his mobile phone.

Police kept watch for several minutes, still not knowing he had any connection with the murder

A witness said: “He was clearly agitated and acting as though he was plucking up the courage to jump into the Thames.

“He was looking up and down the river and constantly talking into his mobile. The bridge was packed with commuters who had just left their offices.

“Two plain-clothed policemen walked from the south side of the bridge towards him. If you looked closely you could see they had stab vests on.

“As they approached him they drew batons and wrestled him to the floor. Then they were joined by several uniformed police. It was over in seconds.”

Murdered Arsema, who had blonde highlights in her black hair, was a pupil at Harris Academy in Bermondsey, South London. Her body was moved from the crime scene at 9.50 last night.

A post-mortem examination is expected to be carried out later today.

Her murder sent shockwaves through the block of flats.

Resident Sharon Moore said the woman who found the body was with her eight-year-old daughter, who cried at the sight.

And she added: “You think you are fine once you are in the building, this is the last thing you expect.

“I’m extremely shocked because once I’m in the door and I get in I think I am safe.”

Ms Moore said residents in the flats were given security fobs on Friday as part of measures to tighten up security.

“I feel very insecure and afraid for my children and for the other children in the block,” she added.