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Poul Elton's Blog
MIAMI (AFP) - Republican presidential hopefuls John McCain and Mitt Romney dug in for a fierce battle in Florida Tuesday, as ex-New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani faced high stakes in his bid for the state's primary.
With Giuliani and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee sidelined in opinion polls, McCain and Romney hit out at each other on the economy and the Iraq war, two major issues for voters, in the hours leading up to balloting.
Senator Hillary Clinton was the clear favorite here ahead of a Democratic primary that could give her a symbolic boost but little else since the national party stripped Florida of delegates after the state violated the rules by changing the date of its vote.
But she suffered a stinging blow on Monday as her rival Barack Obama won the endorsement of influential Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, the last surviving brother of assassinated president John F. Kennedy.
Under an agreement with their party, the Democratic candidates stayed away from Florida, but the Republican contenders were out in force there.
Florida will provide 57 delegates -- the highest number to date -- to the September convention that will pick the party's presidential candidate. It will also give the winner strong momentum ahead of next week's "Super Tuesday" when voting will be held in 22 states.
A Zogby poll on Monday put McCain's support at 33 percent and Romney's at 30 percent. Giuliani, who largely ignored voting in other states to stake his campaign on Florida, had 13 percent, just two points ahead of Huckabee.
Romney, a venture capitalist with a reputation for turning around ailing companies, touted his economic credentials and pointed to what he called McCain's "lack of understanding of our economy."
"I frankly can't imagine how you can have a president of the United States who doesn't understand the economy," Romney told reporters.
McCain's camp promptly shot back, accusing the former governor of flip-flopping on just about every major issue.
He also reiterated the claim his rival had sought a timetable for a withdrawal from Iraq, something Romney denies.
"If we had done what Governor Romney suggested, Al-Qaeda would be celebrating a great victory today," McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, told the Fox News network.
He said he was confident of support from conservative Republicans due to his tough stance on fighting extremists, despite Romney branding him as too liberal on social issues such as immigration.
"I'm confident that we are going to do well tomorrow. Although I think it will be close," he told CNN news.
McCain got a big lift over the past days with endorsements from Florida's highly popular Governor Charlie Crist and Senator Mel Martinez, who has strong clout among the predominantly Republican Cuban-American community.
Nearly one million Florida voters had already cast early and absentee ballots by late Sunday.
On the Democratic side, a Florida victory would give Clinton a badly needed boost after Obama, a senator from Illinois, trounced her by a two-to-one margin in South Carolina on Saturday.
The former first lady insisted on Sunday the Democratic vote will not be ignored -- even though the national party said it won't count in Florida.
The New York senator has said she wanted the delegations from Florida and Michigan -- which was punished in a similar way -- to be seated at the convention that will nominate the Democratic candidate. She also made it clear she would make a public appearance in Florida once the results are out.
Last year, the Florida legislature passed a bill moving the primary from March to January, in a move aimed at giving more clout to the southeastern state that decided the 2000 election after five weeks of chaos, recounts and legal battles.
The move clashed with national party rules in both camps. The Republicans also punished Florida, stripping the state of half its 114 delegates to the national convention. |
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January 29th, 2008 @ 12:45AM |
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ISTANBUL, Turkey - Turkey's ruling party agreed with an opposition party Monday to lift a decades-old ban on Islamic head scarves in universities of the mainly Muslim but secular nation.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party and the Nationalist Action Party said in a joint statement that the two parties agreed to make changes in the constitution and the Higher Education Law to allow female students wearing head scarves into universities.
A constitutional change would need a two-thirds majority in the 550-seat assembly. The two parties have more than enough legislators.
Wearing of head scarves in universities was first banned shortly after a military coup in 1980 but implementation of the ban has varied over the years.
Erdogan, who is a devout Muslim, vowed to end the ban during his election campaign last summer. He scored a resounding victory against the secularist opposition.
The staunchly secularist Republican People's Party has repeatedly said lifting the ban would harm the nation's secular traditions.
The Republican's deputy chair, Onur Oymen, citing an earlier decision by the Constitutional Court on the ban, said the constitutional amendments planned by the ruling and nationalist parties would not be enough to allow scarf-clad students into universities.
When Erdogan first proposed Abdullah Gul, an observant Muslim, for president in April, the military issued a statement that hinted at intervention.
The ensuing crisis forced Erdogan to call an early general election. The ruling party's landslide victory resurrected Gul's presidential bid and Parliament voted him into the post in August.
Secularists unsuccessfully opposed Gul's candidacy partly because his wife wears a head scarf. She challenged Turkey's head scarf ban at the European Court of Human Rights — after being barred from university in 1998 — only to withdraw her complaint when her husband became foreign minister. |
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January 29th, 2008 @ 12:43AM |
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ALTAGRACIA DE ORITUCO, Venezuela (Reuters) - Armed robbers held more than 30 hostages at a bank in central Venezuela in a standoff with hundreds of police that stretched into a second day on Tuesday with little sign of a breakthrough, officials said.
The handful of hostage-takers seized employees and customers, including a pregnant woman and several young children, early on Monday after a botched robbery, regional officials and local media said.
Hundreds of heavily armed troops deployed across the road facing the bank, helicopters occasionally flew overhead and anxious relatives gathered nearby, pleading for a peaceful end to the standoff.
Placards were placed at the windows of the branch of Banco Provincial, which is owned by Spain's BBVA.
"We are in real danger. They can kill us. Please help," one read.
Authorities said the hostage-takers generally were reluctant to negotiate although they had demanded an ambulance to drive away from the scene with a few captives.
"They appear to be new at this," Manuel Granadillo, a regional security official told Union Radio. "They could do something crazy and then anything could happen."
The robbers freed a few captives during the standoff and at least two employees escaped, including a security guard who said the assailants threatened to kill him.
Several hostages could be seen through the windows talking and gesticulating.
Some hostages sent telephone text messages to loved ones saying they and their captors were tired, according to local media.
Food, water and baby diapers were delivered to those inside the bank during the standoff, local media reported.
Crime is a major political issue in a country with one of the world's worst rates for gun-related deaths. Opinion polls show crime is the Venezuelans' biggest worry.
President Hugo Chavez has vowed to tackle the problem, warning his political allies that voters could back the opposition in elections this year if the government fails to make headway. |
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January 29th, 2008 @ 12:40AM |
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WASHINGTON - A Democratic Congress is poised to heed President Bush's call to help save the economy, but may not give him much else after a State of the Union speech that recycled many of the administration's past initiatives.
A lame duck president called again for immigration reform, an end to lawmakers' pet projects, control of Social Security spending and making tax cuts permanent. Democrats have rejected those Bush initiatives before.
And, in a sign that the dominant political battles will not be in Congress, many in the House chamber kept an eye during the speech on Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton — bitter rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination. They sat close to each other, but managed not to shake hands.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who hours earlier had endorsed Obama over Clinton, reached out to shake Sen. Clinton's hand when she came near.
Bush is plunging into politics himself this week, raising money for Republicans from Wednesday through Friday at events in California, Nevada, Colorado and Missouri. Other appearances will promote the themes from his speech.
Delivering the televised Democratic response, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius urged Bush to work with a Congress controlled by her party.
"The last five years have cost us dearly — in lives lost, in thousands of wounded warriors whose futures may never be the same, in challenges not met here at home because our resources were committed elsewhere," she said. "America's foreign policy has left us with fewer allies and more enemies."
The president pushed hard for "a robust growth package" to jump-start the economy, asking Democrats to avoid the temptation "to load up the bill."
As he spoke, Senate Democrats already were planning to expand the package negotiated by Bush and House leaders from both parties, to include tax rebates for senior citizens and an extension of unemployment benefits.
Bush said allowing previous tax cuts to lapse would raise bills for 116 million Americans, but Democrats have cited the rising deficits as the war in Iraq has dragged on.
The president warned, as he has repeatedly, that pulling Americans out of Iraq too soon would aid al-Qaida and undermine Iraq's government.
"Members of Congress: Having come so far and achieved so much, we must not allow this to happen," the president said.
Bush is likely to keep winning that one. Democrats have tried again and again to set a timetable for withdrawal, but lacked the votes.
Congress has ignored Bush's proposals to deal with millions of illegal immigrants and to control Social Security spending.
"I ask members of Congress to offer your proposals and come up with a bipartisan solution to save these vital programs for our children and grandchildren," Bush said.
There's no reason to think that Congress will touch Social Security in an election year, and any immigration agreement would not involve comprehensive reform on an issue that has deeply divided the nation.
Illegal immigration "must be resolved in a way that upholds both our laws and our highest ideals," Bush said. That line, which didn't propose a solution, was applauded on both sides of the aisle.
The president, speaking about one of his signature programs, urged Congress to continue the No Child Left Behind Act, saying, "no one can deny its results."
Republicans enthusiastically applauded. Several Democrats, who disagree, could be heard laughing at Bush's conclusion. |
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January 29th, 2008 @ 12:37AM |
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January 29th, 2008 @ 12:28AM |
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