Barack Obama addresses supporters following victory in the South Carolina primary in Columbia, South Carolina, USA, Jan. 26.

COLUMBIA, USA,
Jan. 27--Senator Barack Obama routed Hillary Clinton in South Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary, riding massive African-American support to a critical win in his bid to become the first black US president.
The vote marked a second key victory for Obama and evened the score with Clinton, who has also won two key state primaries ahead of a blitz of nearly two dozen nationwide contests on February 5, reported AFP.
The charismatic Illinois senator, who led the former first lady 55 to 27 percent, lashed out at Clinton in his victory speech, painting himself as an agent of change and her as a divisive voice of the status quo.
“There are real differences between the candidates. We are looking for more than just a change of party in the White House. We are looking to fundamentally change the status quo in Washington,“ Obama said as supporters chanted “We want change,“ and “Yes, we can!“
“It’s a status quo that extends beyond a particular party, and that status quo is fighting back with everything its got, with the same old tactics that divide and distract us from solving the problems people face.“
Even though his win came largely from black voters, 81 percent of whom picked Obama while 17 percent chose Clinton, Obama sought to downplay the racial divide.
“It is not about black versus white. This election is about the past versus the future,“ he said.
Clinton had grabbed the momentum with successive victories in New Hampshire and Nevada. The New York senator acknowledged her defeat in South Carolina and vowed to take her fight to become the first woman US president nationwide.
“I have called Senator Obama to congratulate him and wish him well,“ said a statement issued by the former first lady’s campaign.
“We now turn our attention to the millions of Americans who will make their voices heard in Florida and the 22 states as well as American
Samoa who will vote on February 5.“
The state primaries serve to nominate a sole candidate in both the Democratic and Republican parties in the campaign to replace President George W. Bush, whose White House term ends in 2009.
Former senator John Edwards came in a disappointing third with 18 percent of the vote in his native state, but promised he would stay in the race.
“If you are one of the millions of Americans who is have yet to cast your vote in this Democratic process, beginning on February 5th and moving beyond, your voice will be heard and we will be there with you every single step of the way,“ he said.

Mohammad Suharto

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Jan. 27--Former dictator Mohammad Suharto, an army general who crushed Indonesia’s communist movement and pushed aside the country’s founding father to usher in 32 years of tough rule that saw up to a million political opponents killed, died Sunday. He was 86.
“He has died,“ Dr. Christian Johannes, a member of his medical team, told The Associated Press, adding that Suharto died at 1:10 p.m.
Dozens of doctors had been rushed to the Pertamina Hospital in the capital, Jakarta, after Suharto’s blood pressure fell suddenly Saturday night.
Suharto had slipped out of consciousness for the first time in more than three weeks of treatment, doctors said.
Suharto had been in intensive care with lung, heart and kidney failure since he was admitted to the hospital on Jan. 4. Over the past week his physicians had spoken of a recovery, but by Sunday that had changed dramatically.
Suharto, who led a regime widely regarded as one of the 20th century’s most brutal and corrupt, has lived a reclusive life in a comfortable villa in downtown Jakarta for the past decade.
He had been in and out of the hospital several times since being toppled by a pro-democracy uprising during the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis for heart problems and internal bleeding.
Historians say up to 800,000 alleged communist sympathizers were killed during Suharto’s rise to power from 1965 to 1968. His troops killed another 300,000 in military operations against independence movements in Papua, Aceh and East Timor.

BRUSSELS, Belgium, Jan. 27--The European Union will on Monday launch the biggest military operation in its history, a peacekeeping force for Chad and the Central African Republic, according to officials.
The 3,700-strong UN-mandated force, with France providing the lion’s share of troops, will help protect hundreds of thousands of refugees from the strife-torn Darfur region of neighboring Sudan, AFP said.
“All the conditions are now fulfilled,“ so that the EU foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels Monday, can “confirm the rapid launch of the operation,“ a European diplomat said, following a final meeting by representatives of the 27 EU member states on Friday at the end of five months of sometimes fractious preparations.
“The departure of the first elements should follow fairly quickly and the deployment begin in the first week of February,“ he added.
Some Chadian rebels have expressed fears that the European force will help prop up Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno, an ally of Paris.
However speaking during a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the EU mission was solely to protect displaced refugees.
“This operation is very straightforward and not to back President Deby. I want to see the displaced people in Chad, who number 400,000, able to rebuild their villages destroyed by the militias coming from Sudan. And to do that, we must secure the zone,“ Kouchner said.
The foreign ministers “should authorize the EU operation commander to activate the deployment of the forces and start the execution of the mission,“ the European Union said in a statement.
A draft agreement on the force, to be endorsed by the EU foreign ministers on Monday, emphasizes that it will operate in a “neutral, impartial and independent manner“.
On Thursday the Austrian defense ministry announced that it would dispatch an advance team to Chad this week, ahead of its 160-strong contingent expected in February as part of the EU’s force there.
The mission has a UN Security Council mandate to help back up some 300 UN police officers sent to monitor camps for Darfur refugees and displaced Chadians and Central Africans.

TOKYO, Jan. 27--Japan is planning to beef up its defense against cruise missiles in response to China’s growing air strike capabilities, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Sunday.
The measure will be part of the government’s review of the mid-term defense plan, which will begin in the fiscal year starting in April, Reuters reported.
Japan has been lagging in efforts to counter cruise missile attacks while focusing on a ballistic missile defense system due to threats from North Korea, it said.
Japan tested its first ship-based anti-ballistic missile interceptor off Hawaii in a join exercise with the United States last month.
However, the defense Ministry is now set to increase the number of aircraft equipped with airborne warning and control systems and develop advanced long-range surface-to-air missiles to boost its ability to counter cruise missile attacks, the Yomiuri said.
“We haven’t recognized them as a major threat,“ a senior Japanese defense official was quoted as saying in the newspaper.
But cruise missiles are more likely to be used than ballistic missiles, the defense official told the daily, citing their ability to strike specific targets with pinpoint accuracy.
Japan’s plan to boost its air defense came at a time when China has equipped its fighter jets and submarines with domestically produced cruise missiles, which have a range of more than 1,000 kilometers, the Yomiuri reported.
The report also said Beijing has started developing advanced precision-guided missiles with a range of about 3,000 kilometers--a range similar to the US military’s Tomahawk missiles.