Awaz Apni

Awaz Apni Washington: Barack Obama’s holiday is over, the countdown to his inauguration has begun and the smoothest presidential transition in recent history is hitting some bumps in the road. Yesterday, hours before the President-elect arrived in Washington for a final fortnight of preparations before taking office, his choice as commerce secretary announced abruptly that he was withdrawing before facing tough questions about business dealings in Senate confirmation hearings. Bill Richardson, the New Mexico Governor, said that a pending investigation into a company that had contracts with his state “would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process”, — even though he insisted that had done nothing wrong. Mr Obama accepted the decision by Mr Richardson, a former rival for the Democratic nomination and the most prominent Hispanic politician in America, with “deep regret”. Last month a federal grand jury was reported to be investigating how a company that had already threa...

Awaz Apni WASHINGTON: A spokeswoman for president-elect Barack Obama declined to comment Saturday on Israel's ground offensive into Gaza, saying only the next US president was closely following events. "The president-elect is closely monitoring global events, including the situation in Gaza," his national security spokeswoman Brooke Anderson said in a statement. But she offered no comment on the violence in Gaza and, using a phrase repeated often by Obama and his aides, said: "There is one president at a time and we intend to respect that." Obama is due to take office on January 20. Israeli troops entered Gaza under cover of darkness on Saturday, escalating the war on Hamas after artillery pounded the Palestinian territory and warplanes staged dozens of air strikes.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a se...

CNews CHICAGO: U.S. President-elect Barack Obama promised Tuesday, "Change is coming to America" as he gave a victory speech after becoming the first African-American to be elected to the White House. "It's been a long time coming. But tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change is coming to America," he said in front of a crowd of 65,000 people. Obama called on Americans to back a spirit of unity to attack the country's pressing challenges. Obama cong...

US elections: four key questions Nasim Zehra The writer is an Islamabad-based security analyst The 56th US elections are being held against the backdrop of an unprecedented global upheaval. Deteriorating global security, a decades-old free-market economic system in an acute crisis and the multiple threats to the human race from rapid environmental degradation have together triggered this global upheaval. This poses the unprecedented threat of global anarchy and perhaps even the beginning of the end of human civilisation. This anarchy can only be averted by a responsible consensus-based global management. Given this there are two scores US becomes a key player in such an effort. One, because Washington has the institutional, diplomatic and financial outreach capacity to play the lead role in crafting such a global consensus. Two, because Washington's security, economic and environmental policies combined with a ...