Pakistan confirms Swat ceasefire
February 24, 2009
Taliban fighters and the Pakistani government have agreed to a “permanent ceasefire” in the Swat valley following a year of intense fighting in the troubled north-western area, a senior government official said.
The ceasefire follows a controversial peace agreement, announced last Monday, in which the government accepted the introduction of sharia law in the valley. At least 1,200 people have been killed and 250,000 people have fled Swat in the past year.
The Taleban have also destroyed nearly 200 schools, most of them for girls, during a sustained campaign against secular education in Swat.
An earlier peace agreement broke down in mid-2008.
Zardari to be Pakistan President candidate
August 23, 2008
Islamabad: Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of assassinated former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto will be a candidate for president, an official of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said on Saturday.
The Pakistan People’s Party wanted Zardari to run for presidential election which will be held on September 6 to choose a successor for Pervez Musharraf, who resigned on Monday.
“Mr Asif Zardari has accepted to contest the election for the office of president of Pakistan after the party unanimously drafted him to do so,” PPP deputy secretary general Raza Rabbani told reporters.
Rabbani said Zardari had been chosen in part in tribute to the sacrifices of his wife, who was killed in a suicide attack at an election rally in December.
The party official said the PPP, which is the main party in a fragile coalition government, had consulted its partners before announcing that Zardari was their choice to lead the nation.
“The coalition partners were informed about this decision and we are optimistic that the coalition will remain intact,” he said.
The PPP and the party of former premier Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in a 1999 coup, have been at odds over how to reinstate dozens of judges sacked by Musharraf last year.
Sharif has said he would back Zardari for president if he were to do away with the presidential power created by Musharraf to dissolve parliament.
On the issue of the judges, Rabbani said the “judges will be restored” but said a timeframe would be announced at a later unspecified date.
Barack Obama meets Hillary after clinching nomination
June 6, 2008
Democratic party presidential nominee Barack Obama has had an unannounced meeting with his defeated rival Hillary Clinton. The meeting held two days after Mr Obama effectively clinched the nomination for November’s US presidential election.
A spokesman for Mr Obama said the two former opponents met to talk about bringing their campaigns together and uniting the party.
Mrs Clinton has distanced herself from reports that she was hoping to stand as a vice-presidential running mate.
The last-minute meeting in Washington came after Mr Obama spent the day campaigning in the Republican stronghold of Virginia - a signal that he is now targeting voters who might be drawn to Republican presumptive nominee John McCain.
Mr Obama held large rallies in the state.
Intense pressure
The Illinois senator, under intense pressure from Clinton backers to choose her as his running mate, has announced a team to help him make his selection and said he will not be rushed.
Campaign aides said little about the meeting, which a Democratic source told ABC News was held at the Washington home of senior Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein.
But reports say the two have put teams in place to handle communications between their respective camps in the coming days.
Senator Feinstein has said that a joint-ticket for the presidency would be a route to pulling together the pair’s diverse constituencies.
On Tuesday Mrs Clinton said she would be “open” to the idea of being Mr Obama’s running mate.
But a statement from the Clinton campaign on Thursday said: “While Senator Clinton has made clear throughout this process that she will do whatever she can to elect a Democrat to the White House, she is not seeking the vice presidency.”
It adds: “The choice here is Senator Obama’s and his alone.”
Hillary Clinton vows to continue campaign
May 7, 2008
Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton has vowed to continue her campaign despite losing ground in the latest primary contests and her financial problems.
Hillary Clinton beat rival Barack Obama by just two points in Indiana’s primary, while he won by 14 in North Carolina.
The votes were the final major Democratic primaries which help decide the party’s White House candidate.
Mrs Clinton is also facing a funding crisis - she was forced to loan her campaign $6.4m (£3.3m) last month.
Speaking to reporters, she pledged to remain in the race “until the nominee is chosen”, although she did not reveal whether this meant she would stay in until the party’s nominating convention in August. She also appealed to supporters for more funds to carry on the fight.
PRIMARY RESULTS
North Carolina
Senator Obama 56%
Senator Clinton 42%
Indiana
Senator Clinton 51%
Senator Obama 49%
(Figures from AP)
The two candidates are locked in a drawn-out battle to stand for the Democratic Party against Republican John McCain in November’s presidential election.
With neither likely to win enough pledged delegates to the party conference in August to clinch the nomination, the outcome hangs on the decision of nearly 800 so-called super-delegates - senior party members - who can choose which candidate to back.
The Clinton campaign is hoping that it can still persuade a majority of the remaining undecided super-delegates to back the New York senator.
Mrs Clinton met some of them on the day after her North Carolina defeat in an effort to shore up her support.
So far she has received endorsements from 271 superdelegates, to Mr Obama’s 256, with 270 still undecided, according to the Associated Press.
Many super-delegates say they will vote for the candidate chosen in the primary of their home state.
But the campaign suffered a setback when former senator and 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern announced that he was switching his support from Mrs Clinton to Mr Obama.
Mr McGovern, who is not a super-delegate and will therefore not have a vote at the party’s nominating convention, also called on Mrs Clinton to withdraw from the race.
Her team are also still arguing that the delegates from Michigan and Florida - barred by party chiefs from attending the convention after the states broke party rules by holding their contests early - should be allowed to take their seats at the convention after all.
Mrs Clinton did well in the disputed contests, and would benefit if the party opted to overturn its earlier ruling.
Mr Obama is leading the race in delegates who will choose the presidential nominee by 1,840 to 1,684, according to the Associated Press news agency.
Race split
Speaking to a raucous rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Tuesday night, Mr Obama said: “Tonight we stand less than 200 delegates away from securing the Democratic nomination for president of the United States.”
Analysts said Mr Obama’s win was vital after a recent difficult campaign stretch.
He has been dogged by controversy over his gaffe that small-town residents were “bitter”, and racially charged comments by his former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
A win in Indiana was seen as critical for Mrs Clinton to stay in the race to stand against Republican John McCain in November’s presidential vote.
At her election gathering in the Indiana state capital, Indianapolis, she told cheering supporters it was “full speed on to the White House”.
But despite her defiant words, Mrs Clinton seems to have lost some of her trademark fighting spirit, says BBC Washington correspondent Jonathan Beale.
The rivals, courting voters suffering from an ailing economy, spent recent days sparring over Mrs Clinton’s proposal to suspend the federal petrol tax for the summer.
Mid-western Indiana is home to large numbers of blue-collar workers, a bloc which has backed Mrs Clinton in previous contests.
According to exit polls conducted for AP, about two-thirds of white voters in both states who had not completed a college education supported Mrs Clinton.
In North Carolina, Mr Obama won the backing of 90% of the state’s African-American voters, who make up more than a third of the state’s electorate.
Mrs Clinton won 58% of non-black voters in the state, according to the polls.
There are just six primary contests left: West Virginia, Oregon, Kentucky, Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota.
The Republicans also held primaries in Indiana and North Carolina on Tuesday, but the votes were largely symbolic as Senator John McCain has effectively secured the nomination. (Source: BBC News)