Microsoft sought on Friday to enlist support for its opposition to a new advertising collaboration deal between Google and Yahoo!
A widespread power failure and subway fire left Washington, DC dark and snarled traffic during the morning rush hour on Friday, officials said.
Controversy surrounding the United States military’s new Africa Command has forced the Pentagon to put plans for establishing a headquarters in the continent on a slow track.
After making history by capturing the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama turns on Wednesday to the task of unifying a fractured party for a five-month battle for the White House with Republican John McCain. The Illinois senator on Tuesday locked up the 2 118 delegates he needs for victory at the August convention.
Wall Street is putting its money behind Democrat Barack Obama for president, despite worries that his administration would raise taxes and take a tougher line on trade and regulation. The signs Wall Street reads point to Democrats prevailing in the November presidential and general election as voters punish the incumbent Republican party.
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton end their historic Democratic presidential battle on Tuesday with two nominating contests that could help Obama clinch the nomination and push Clinton from the race. Obama is within about 40 delegates of the 2 118 he needs to capture the nomination.
Democrat Barack Obama stood on the brink of history on Tuesday, within reach of becoming America’s first black presidential nominee after a twisting, emotional and divisive battle with Hillary Clinton. As voters in the last two states, Montana and South Dakota, wrapped up the gruelling nominating marathon, Clinton faced the demise of her own quest.
Nasa’s Phoenix Mars Lander has scooped up a little dirt, scientists said on Sunday, a first step towards sampling the Martian soil for ice — and the potential for life. The lander then took a picture of the footprint-shaped impression its robotic arm scoop left on its trial run, Nasa said.
Democrat Barack Obama said on Saturday he had quit his long-time Chicago church after months of controversy over racially laced pulpit rhetoric that still threatens to tarnish his White House hopes. The Illinois senator said he and his wife, Michelle, were withdrawing from the 8 000-strong congregation of the Trinity United Church of Christ.
Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan says in a new book that United States President George Bush ”veered terribly off course” and was not ”open and forthright on Iraq,” a media report said on Tuesday. In the memoir due out next week, McClellan also says Bush relied on ”propaganda” to sell the war.
Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, the brother of assassinated president John F Kennedy and the elder statesman of American liberal politics, has a malignant brain tumour, his doctors said on Tuesday. Kennedy (76) who has been hospitalised in Boston since he had a seizure on Saturday, will likely need chemotherapy and radiation therapy to treat the glioma.
Barack Obama passed a milestone to move within reach of the United States Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday, but rival Hillary Clinton refused to surrender. A split of two nominating contests — Obama handily won Oregon and Clinton crushed the front-runner in Kentucky — gave Obama a majority of pledged delegates won during their lengthy nominating fight.
With Yahoo! facing pressure from a corporate raider, the internet giant has reopened discussions on a tie-up with Microsoft, but for a new deal that would probably not be an outright takeover. The two firms said over the weekend that they were exploring new options two weeks after Microsoft withdrew its offer to acquire the struggling internet pioneer.
John McCain is 71 years old, and his age has provided late-night TV comedians with some easy punch lines. On Saturday Night Live, he joined in. ”I ask you, what should we be looking for in our next president?” McCain said. ”Certainly, someone who is very, very, very old.”
Swedish golfer Annika Sorenstam (37) announced her retirement from golf on Tuesday, two days after winning her 72nd LPGA title on Sunday at the Michelob Ultra Open in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Sorenstam, who said she will retire at the end of the 2008 season, has won three tournaments this year.
Hillary Clinton appeared headed to a big West Virginia victory over frontrunner Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential race on Tuesday, although it could be too late to turn around her faltering White House bid. Clinton has an advantage of at least 20 points in most opinion polls in West Virginia.
The United States Supreme Court said on Monday that it cannot intervene in an important dispute over the rights of apartheid victims to sue US corporations in US courts because four of the nine justices had to sit out the case over apparent conflicts. The result is that a lawsuit accusing some prominent companies of violating international law will go forward.
United States authorities rushed aid to disaster areas on Monday after a series of tornadoes tore across the US, killing at least 22 people, shattering homes and businesses, and leaving tens of thousands without power. US President George Bush called it a ”sad day” for devastated communities in the states of Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia.
As the Democratic primary contest heads to its climax, the Republicans are firing the opening shots of an election barrage to come against their probable White House opponent, Barack Obama. Republican John McCain and his colleagues already see Hillary Clinton’s campaign as mortally wounded.
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.
Mildred Jeter Loving was a shy, unassuming black woman who never expected to make history when her landmark 1967 Supreme Court case ended the ban on interracial marriages in the United States. Loving (68) died on May 2 of pneumonia at her home in the town of Milford, Virginia.
The international community pleaded with Burma’s military rulers on Wednesday to let foreign aid workers and desperately needed relief supplies into the cyclone-crushed country. The United Nations, the United States and France stepped up pressure on the junta to open their doors to foreign aid.
Climate change is harder on women in poor countries, where mothers stay in areas hit by drought, deforestation or crop failure as men move to literally greener pastures, a Nobel Peace laureate said on Tuesday. ”Women are very immediately affected, and usually women and children can’t run away,” said Wangari Maathai.
Lawmakers on Tuesday debated legislation to remove former South African president Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) from an apartheid-era United States terrorist blacklist. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat, recalled that ANC members could travel to United Nations headquarters in New York but not to Washington DC or other parts of the United States.
Many Africans are getting substandard malaria drugs, with more than a third of the pills tested failing quality tests. Tests of 195 different packs of malaria drugs sold in six African cities showed 35% of them either did not contain high enough levels of active ingredient or did not dissolve properly.
The head of South Africa’s Scorpions crime-fighting unit, Leonard McCarthy, was appointed on Monday to head the World Bank’s anti-corruption unit. World Bank president Robert Zoellick, in a statement, said South African President Thabo Mbeki had agreed to release McCarthy from service to take up the position on June 30.
African Development Bank pledged -billion more for food aid on Friday as soaring commodity prices raise fears of famine, and it urged grain-exporting countries not to restrict shipments. The bank said that its agriculture portfolio will grow to ,8-billion, and it was restructuring a portion of that to free up -million to be used more quickly.
United States employers cut 20 000 jobs in April in a relatively stable showing for the US labour market as the jobless rate fell a tenth of a percentage point to 5%, the Labour Department said Friday. Despite the negative figure on payrolls, the report was better than expected by private economists, who on average had called a loss of 75 000 jobs.
The United States on Thursday urged Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to "call off his dogs" who are allegedly attacking opposition supporters and to release the presidential election results. State Department deputy spokesperson Tom Casey questioned how credible the results of the March 29 election could be when they have yet to be released.
Hillary Clinton appeared on Wednesday to be gaining on Barack Obama in two key primary states, after her Democratic foe tried to quell another damaging uproar sparked by his fiery former pastor. The White House rivals fought another day of fierce turf battles in mid-western Indiana and North Carolina, which hold Democratic primaries on Tuesday.
Barack Obama’s fiery former minister thrust his way back into the United States presidential campaign on Monday, again placing the divisive issue of race at the heart of the Democratic White House tussle. An unapologetic Reverend Jeremiah Wright hit back at weeks of criticism over his incendiary comments.
The United States on Thursday released photographs of what it said was a Syrian nuclear reactor built with North Korean help, in an effort to pressure Pyongyang to fully disclose its nuclear activities. Israel destroyed the reactor in a September 6 air strike that was initially shrouded in secrecy.