The death of two Comrades Marathon runners last year could be a message from God that he was displeased with running the race on a Sunday, a Christian runner has suggested. Hansie Louw said in a statement at the weekend that he was asking all Christians to withdraw from the race.
We all saw it. Indeed, that was the whole point. In the United States, the networks stopped regular programming so we had little choice. The White House wanted to make sure we caught the full dramatic impact of the US president landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln in a navy jet.
Democratic party officials disclosed on Thursday that Barack Obama has sanctioned a hunt for a vice-presidential candidate, a further sign that he regards the battle with Hillary Clinton as being over. Time magazine, in a report in its next issue, quotes a friend of Bill Clinton saying he wants his wife to be the vice-presidential candidate.
Barack Obama sounded like the Democratic presidential nominee on a visit to the November election battleground of Florida on Wednesday, praising rival Hillary Clinton and targeting Republican foe John McCain. Clinton also visited Florida, where she pressed ahead with her uphill Democratic race.
A Democratic win in the solidly conservative Mississippi capped a week in which Senator Barack Obama finally turned his eyes to the coming November election and his opponent, John McCain. Now many Democrats believe the signs are good that the tide of American public opinion is firmly swinging their way.
United States President George Bush used a visit to Israel on Thursday to denounce Democratic party offers to negotiate with America's enemies in the Middle East as comparable to appeasement of Hitler. Although Bush did not name any Democratic politician, the party's presidential contender Barack Obama has offered to open negotiations with the Iranian leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Questions about Barack Obama's inability to win over white, working-class voters were raised again tonight when Hillary Clinton won a landslide victory in West Virginia, one of the last contests of a prolonged primary season. Exit polls indicated she had won the state easily, by a margin of two to one.
Barack Obama moved closer to sewing up the Democratic presidential nomination on Friday with more superdelegates rallying to his side, as rival Hillary Clinton fought on despite mounting odds against her. Clinton has vowed no surrender and plunged straight back into campaigning before the May 13 primary in West Virginia.
Hillary Clinton's hopes of winning the race for the Democratic nomination for president are dwindling after she failed on Wednesday to close the gap on Barack Obama in two key primaries. She won the Indiana primary but saw that outweighed by his win in North Carolina.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton faced their latest day of destiny on Tuesday as Democrats in Indiana and North Carolina geared up to vote in the party's electrifying presidential race. Opinion polls pointed to another messy draw on the biggest single day of voting left in the Democrats' nominating epic.
Rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton stepped up their battle on Monday on the eve of the next primary showdown, as the Democratic Party head urged unity in the race to rout Republicans from the White House. "It's not about Hillary Clinton, it's not about Barack Obama. It is about our country," Democratic national committee chairperson Howard Dean said.
It looked like yet another jubilant Barack Obama rally. The cavernous Indiana University sports hall in Bloomington jammed with thousands of supporters who stood in their seats and cheered deafeningly loudly. Ever since Obama launched his bid to become America's first ever black President 15 months ago, hundreds of cities and towns have seen the same huge rallies.
With polls showing softening support for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton on Friday pursued her relentless quest for a comeback ahead of next week's crunch White House nominating showdowns. Obama, reeling from days of uproar over his fiery former pastor, finally got a boost, as a high-profile former Democratic party chief ditched Clinton.
At least three people were wounded in a shooting in an ethnic Albanian area of the Macedonian capital, Skopje, during the country's parliamentary election on Sunday, police and party officials said. "We were attacked," said Izet Mexhiti, a senior official of the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration party.
Serbs began voting on Sunday in an election that will show whether the lure of European Union membership outweighs their anger over the Western-backed secession of Kosovo. The country is divided and the two frontrunners, the nationalist Radical Party and the pro-Western Democratic Party, will have to woo smaller parties to form a coalition.
The African Christian Democratic Party, Democratic Alliance, Independent Democrats and United Democratic Movement have filed a joint submission in the Pretoria High Court as a friend of the court in support of Hugh Glenister's bid to stop the disbanding of the Scorpions, the parties said on Thursday.
Debate on the future of the Scorpions gained new steam on Monday as the government released a report from an inquiry it had commissioned into the elite detective unit. The Scorpions still have a role to play in the country's crime-fighting efforts, states the report that was submitted to President Thabo Mbeki two years ago.
Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri expressed "great concern" on Wednesday about the suspension of South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) CEO Dali Mpofu and head of news Snuki Zikalala. "All will be done on [the minister's] part to ensure the ability of the SABC to carry out its mandate," she said.
The xenophobic attacks in Gauteng appeared to have subsided, a provincial spokesperson said on Wednesday. However, KwaZulu-Natal police are monitoring a possible outbreak of attacks there. "There are no new reports of attacks," said Thabo Masebe, deputy director of communications for the provincial government.
Johannesburg businessman Hugh Glenister will likely hear next week whether his court bid to stop the government from disbanding the Scorpions has succeeded. The Pretoria High Court on Wednesday reserved judgement in his case, with Judge Willie van der Merwe indicating it was likely he would deliver judgement sometime next week.
