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/ 18 February 2008
The chance of a free and fair election in Zimbabwe is ”good” if all the agreements reached as part of the political facilitation process are implemented, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Monday. Zimbabwe is due to hold joint parliamentary and presidential elections on March 29.
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/ 18 February 2008
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Kenya on Monday to push talks to end the post-election crisis but can expect a lukewarm welcome from the government, bristling at Western pressure for a quick deal. Rice, who was sent by President George Bush, is the highest-ranking US official to visit the country since a December 27 vote triggered ethnic clashes.
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/ 18 February 2008
United States. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama slipped away for a private meeting with former rival John Edwards on Sunday to seek his endorsement as the Illinois senator and Hillary Clinton battle for Wisconsin. After Tuesday’s voting, Democrats have an eye on March 4, when the big states of Texas and Ohio hold primaries.
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/ 17 February 2008
Al Gore, who lost to George Bush in the 2000 presidential election, is becoming a key potential power broker in the increasingly bitter battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to win the Democrat nomination. Gore emerged on Saturday as a possible mediator who could negotiate a resolution if the primary campaign ends in a stalemate.
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/ 16 February 2008
President George Bush began a five-nation tour of Africa on Saturday that will highlight United States health, education and pro-democracy projects there and also seek to advance efforts to end Kenya’s post-election crisis. Bush, accompanied by his wife Laura, arrived in the small West African state of Benin.
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/ 16 February 2008
President George Bush set off on Friday on a five-nation tour of Africa, touting American compassion for the poor on a continent where he already basks in high approval ratings. Bush aims to use the week-long Africa voyage, likely his last as US president, to bolster his legacy and highlight efforts to resolve regional disputes.
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/ 15 February 2008
Former United Nations chief Kofi Annan said on Friday that a deal to end Kenya’s post-election turmoil was ”very close” and voiced hope that the ”last difficult and frightening step” would be taken next week. Annan has been leading talks between negotiators for President Mwai Kibaki and the opposition to end weeks of violence since a disputed December 27 election.
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/ 15 February 2008
President George Bush, ahead of a trip to Africa, said on Thursday he asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to go to Kenya with a message that there must be a full return to democracy. Kenya’s feuding political parties adjourned talks for the weekend, dashing chief mediator Kofi Annan’s hopes to have a final political settlement this week.
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/ 15 February 2008
United States President George Bush cited the London July 7 bombings in an interview broadcast on Thursday night to justify his support for waterboarding, an interrogation technique widely regarded as torture. In an interview with the BBC he said information obtained from alleged terrorists helped save lives
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/ 14 February 2008
A new, leaner Cabinet for Tanzania was sworn in Wednesday, its predecessor having fallen apart last week amid a corruption scandal. President Jakaya Kikwete dissolved his last Cabinet on February 7 after Edward Lowassa stepped down as prime minister. He and other lawmakers were implicated in a $179-million corruption scandal.
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/ 14 February 2008
The United Nations climate chief on Thursday called for rich and developing nations to reach a compromise as they held talks in Japan in their bid to forge a new deal on fighting global warming by the end of next year. Officials from the United Nations and 21 countries opened two days of closed-door talks in Tokyo to help find common ground.
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/ 14 February 2008
United States President George Bush travels this week to Africa, one of the few regions where he can claim globally recognised successes for efforts on Aids and development in a foreign-policy legacy dominated by the Iraq war. But conflicts in Kenya and Darfur will intrude on a trip intended to show the positive impact from US investment.
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/ 12 February 2008
Israeli leaders vowed on Monday to step up their war against Hamas and predicted the Islamists’ grip on the Gaza Strip would end within months. Two days after a rocket wounded an Israeli child in a country grown used to barrages that do little damage, Defence Minister Ehud Barak pledged to step up the military campaign.
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/ 12 February 2008
International troops stepped up patrols in East Timor’s capital, Dili, on Tuesday as President Jose Ramos-Horta recuperated in Australia after an assassination bid doctors said he was lucky to survive. Residents packed markets as usual, seemingly oblivious to a state of emergency.
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/ 11 February 2008
Hillary Clinton shook up her campaign as Democratic rival Barack Obama overtook in the race for delegates to win the party nomination for the White House. Obama is expected to extend his lead in the so-called Potomac Primary on Tuesday after defeating Clinton on the weekend.
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/ 11 February 2008
Israel threatened to topple the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers on Monday following a surge of cross-border rocket attacks by the Palestinian Islamist group. ”I believe a combination of steps against Hamas in Gaza will bring an end to the Hamas regime in Gaza,” Israel’s Vice-Premier, Haim Ramon, told reporters. ”They will not last. It will take a few months.”
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/ 10 February 2008
Democrat Barack Obama is riding a burst of momentum into Tuesday’s United States presidential nominating contests with a string of weekend wins, while Republican John McCain received praise from onetime rival President George Bush as he tries to woo conservatives.
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/ 9 February 2008
Hillary Clinton’s campaign team is bracing for Barack Obama to take the lead later this month for the first time in the battle for the all-important delegates who will decide the Democratic nomination. The race looks poised to swing his way after a series of votes, beginning on Saturday with caucuses in Washington state, Nebraska and the Virgin Islands.
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/ 8 February 2008
John McCain effectively secured the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday when his main rival, Mitt Romney, near to tears, dropped out of the race. Only one person now stands between McCain and the United States presidency: the Democratic choice for the November election.
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/ 7 February 2008
Republican frontrunner John McCain on Thursday offered an olive branch to his conservative enemies, as Democrat Hillary Clinton struggled to match Barack Obama’s multimillion-dollar money machine. Clinton faced reports she is stuck in a cash crunch after loaning her campaign -million.
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/ 7 February 2008
John McCain, the irrepressible Senator from Arizona, stood on the brink of winning the Republican party’s nomination for United States president this week with almost half of the magic number of 1Â 191 delegates needed to win the race in the bag. McCain emerged as the clear front-runner from Super Tuesday.
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/ 7 February 2008
The death toll from a series of tornadoes that swept the southern United States was rising on Wednesday night while rescuers continued to sift the rubble of flattened buildings. At least 54 people were killed and hundreds more injured, many critically, as the deadliest twisters for more than 20 years struck before dawn.
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/ 6 February 2008
Funny, isn’t it, how we have come this far in the United States election campaign, reaching the milestone of results from 24 states in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and still a mystery remains. What, exactly, do these warring candidates stand for?
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/ 6 February 2008
Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton battled to a draw on Super Tuesday and John McCain took charge of the Republican race in coast-to-coast presidential nominating battles in 24 US states. In their Democratic duel, Obama won 13 states and Clinton took eight, ensuring a protracted battle for the nomination.
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/ 4 February 2008
President George Bush will acknowledge on Monday that a slowing United States economy will lead to a higher budget deficit this year and next, as he unveils a -trillion fiscal 2009 spending plan that would boost military funding but nearly freeze many domestic programmes.
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/ 2 February 2008
White House hopefuls have launched a frantic blitz with the stakes enormous heading into ”Super Tuesday” and the home stretch of the costliest and longest United States election campaign in history. Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were criss-crossing the country over the weekend.
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/ 1 February 2008
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) left unchanged its oil-production ceiling on Friday, snubbing United States demands for an increase as the cartel focuses on supporting prices that have fallen 10% since the start of the year. Explaining its decision, Opec said that stockpiles of crude were likely to increase in the first half of 2008.
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/ 1 February 2008
Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton shared a debate stage alone for the first time on Thursday, striking a cordial tone and highlighting their opportunity to make history as the next United States president. ”Just by looking at us, you can tell we aren’t more of the same,” said Clinton, a New York senator who would be the first woman US president.
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/ 31 January 2008
Republican Rudy Giuliani and Democrat John Edwards abandoned their failing United States presidential bids on Wednesday, narrowing the race to two main candidates on each side before next week’s nomination voting in more than 20 states.
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/ 30 January 2008
Democratic candidate John Edwards abandoned his United States presidential bid on Wednesday, while among Republicans challenger Mitt Romney vowed to keep up his struggle to overtake newly crowned front-runner John McCain. Edwards’s decision effectively narrows both the Democratic and Republican field to two realistic candidates apiece.
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/ 29 January 2008
Egypt boosted security around the border town of Rafah on Tuesday and resealed parts of the barrier blasted open a week ago as it tried to control the flow of people in and out of the Gaza Strip. Egyptian forces strung barbed wire along some of the gaps between two gates leading into the Palestinian territory, while riot police were deployed.
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/ 29 January 2008
George Bush used his final State of the Union address on Monday night to try to reassert his primacy in American political life and demonstrate his commitment to Republican principles. The night was one of the few remaining moments in the national spotlight for the man overshadowed by the race to choose his successor.