Fight For Superdelegates Heats Up

With the Democratic presidential race tied to a complex delegate system, the Clinton and Obama camps went after each other Sunday over "superdelegates."

Superdelegates -- delegates to the National Democratic Convention --are not selected based on the party primaries and caucuses in each U.S. state, but rather based solely on their status as current or former elected officeholders and party officials. They are free to choose the candidate they like.

"'Superdelegates' doesn't mean that they should leap over the will of the people in a single bound," joked Sen. Barack Obama's chief political strategist David Axelrod on CBS' "Face the Nation."

But Sen. Hillary Clinton's communications director Howard Wolfson told CBS that those approximately 800 delegates "are supposed to vote their conscience."

And Lanny Davis, a former White House special counsel supporting Clinton, told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer" that Obama "very ironically wants to change the rules of the game in the middle of the game."

Obama leads in the overall delegate count and among pledged delegates, who are assigned based on primaries and caucuses. Clinton has more superdelegates supporting her, and the overall count is close. Neither is expected to have enough pledged delegates to win the nomination before the party's convention in August.

Making things even more complicated, the pledged delegate count does not directly reflect the popular vote. For example, in the Nevada caucuses, Clinton won by six points, but Obama ended up with one more delegate because of the way that state awards its delegates.

Upcoming contests this week in Wisconsin, Washington state and Hawaii are expected to favor Obama, but the campaigns are looking to March 4, when delegate-rich Texas and Ohio hold their contests.

Clinton is aiming for those critical victories that could help her recover in both the delegate count and the fight for political momentum.

Clinton is also hoping for a win in Pennsylvania in April.

The Clinton camp is also working to shore up its support among superdelegates. News reports in recent days have indicated that some African-American superdelegates are rethinking their support for her, given the strong support for Obama among their constituents.

But Wolfson wrote off those concerns Sunday, telling reporters, "I think that all Democrats have a difficult choice in this election. We have two strong candidates with broad appeal. We feel very good about our support in the African-American community and we are quite confident that our superdelegate support is holding firm."

While divided over which candidate to support, Democrats are largely agreed that the battle over delegates needs to be resolved without a sense that superdelegates -- which include Democratic lawmakers, governors, and other VIPs -- are making a decision that opposes what voters want.

"There has to be some agreement between the Clinton and Obama campaigns as to how to handle it," New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, a prominent supporter of her campaign, said Sunday. "We need to win in November and if one side tries to shove down the throats of the other side any rule, so that that camp today or all of her or his supporters walk away upset, we will lose."

And that's not the only potential looming battle. There's also the matter of seating delegates from Michigan and Florida. The Democratic Party penalized those two states for moving their primaries early, and determined their delegates would not be seated at the convention, where the nominee is decided.

Both states voted overwhelmingly for Clinton -- though in Michigan, her name was the only one on the ballot. In Florida, voters turned out in record numbers despite the party's decision.

If the party sticks to its plan, Democratic voters in those two key swing states may be turned off and be less likely to turn out in November.

Pakistanis Vote In Tense Election

People in Pakistan are voting in a crucial election overshadowed by political violence and fears of fraud.

The parliamentary poll was delayed after the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, and is intended to complete a transition to civilian rule.

The two major opposition parties say President Pervez Musharraf's allies are planning massive fraud. They have vowed to protest if they suspect foul play.

One of the worst acts of violence saw 47 killed at a rally on Saturday.

Voting was slow in major cities on Monday morning.

The BBC's Chris Morris, in Islamabad, says 80 million people are eligible to vote, but many are expected to stay at home, largely because of fears about security.

He adds the slow start may also be due to people taking advantage of the public holiday and enjoying a lie-in.

He says that while voters are mindful of the broader significance of the election, concerns about the price of food and fuel are also affecting their choices.

Polls close at 1700 (1200 GMT).

Another correspondent said apprehensive voters might be waiting in front of their televisions to see if there were any attacks on polling stations. Since there were no reports of major incidents by midday, that might encourage them to get out and vote.

'Nation at stake'

Both Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which is leading in opinion polls, and the party of her former rival Nawaz Sharif reiterated concerns that the vote would be rigged on Sunday.

President Musharraf says the vote will be free and fair

Ms Bhutto's widower and successor as party leader, Asif Ali Zardari, has threatened street protests in the event of vote-rigging.

"I think we have reached the breaking point where if we don't band together, we will lose this great nation which we call Pakistan," he said on Sunday.

There are many local election observers on the ground. But apart from a contingent from the EU, not many international observers are present - some have not been invited, while others have stayed away due to concerns about gaining access to the vote.

Security tight

The authorities have stressed repeatedly that the vote will be free and fair.

However, one polling station in Lahore was shut down on Monday due to suspected irregularities, while an election officer in another constituency was arrested over hundreds of missing ballot papers.

President Musharraf has warned against street protests.

Close to half a million security personnel, including about 80,000 soldiers, have been deployed for the voting.

The BBC's Barbara Plett, outside a polling station in Lahore, described a barrier designed to prevent car bombs and a heavy police presence.

She said men and women were in separate queues for voting.

There were reports that some people had struggled to find their names on the register and were going away angry, suspecting rigging - though it may just have been poor organisation.

In one tribal area near Peshawar, she said, elders had banned women from voting. The area is a PPP stronghold and the ban may affect the outcome, since the party is well supported by women.

On Sunday, four soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit an explosive device in Balochistan province, police said.

In two separate incidents in Lahore, gunmen opened fire on supporters of Mr Sharif's PML-N party, with at least three people killed, including a candidate in the provincial election.

Two bombs went off in a volatile north-western province, but no injuries were reported.

Prospects

Analysts say polls suggest a fair vote is likely to result in a hung parliament, with none of the three biggest parties winning a majority.

Barbara Plett says that if the PPP then joins forces with pro-Musharraf parties, there may be a backlash within its rank and file, which blames the president for Ms Bhutto's murder.

But, she says, if it forms an alliance with Mr Sharif's party there could be confrontation with the presidency.

Mr Sharif has refused to work with the president unless he reinstates judges sacked when he imposed emergency rule late last year, in what was widely seen as an attempt to head off a challenge to his re-election as president.

It the two opposition parties jointly gain two-thirds of the seats, they may try to impeach President Musharraf.


Mr Musharraf stepped down as army chief late last year. He has ruled the country since seizing power in a coup in 1999.

The nuclear-armed country is a key ally in the so-called US "war on terror", with President Musharraf's government facing a growing pro-Taleban insurgency.

Kosovo Gains Independence

Kosovo's parliament has unanimously endorsed a declaration of independence from Serbia, in an historic session.

The declaration, read by Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, said Kosovo would be a democratic country that respected the rights of all ethnic communities.

The US and a number of EU countries are expected to recognise Kosovo on Monday.

Serbia's PM denounced the US for helping create a "false state". Serbia's ally, Russia, called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting.

Correspondents say the potential for trouble between Kosovo's Serbs and ethnic Albanians is enormous.

Serbia's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica blamed the US which he said was "ready to violate the international order for its own military interests".

"Today, this policy of force thinks that it has triumphed by establishing a false state," Mr Kostunica said.

"Kosovo is Serbia," Mr Kostunica said, repeating a well-known nationalist Serb saying.

Search for equality

The declaration was approved with a show of hands. No-one opposed it.

"We have waited for this day for a very long time," Mr Thaci told parliament before reading the text, paying tribute to those who had died on the road to independence.

"The independence of Kosovo marks the end of the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia," the prime minister said - Kosovo was a unique case that should not set a precedent.

He said it would be built in accordance with the UN plan drawn by former Finnish President, Martti Ahtisaari - at the end of negotiations which did not produce a deal.

The international military and civilian presence - also envisaged by the Ahtisaari plan - was welcome, he added.

There should be no fear of discrimination in new Kosovo, he said, vowing to eradicate any such practices - and conveying a similar message in Serbian. President Fatmir Sejdiu had a similar pledge - also addressed in Serbian.

The declaration was then signed by all the MPs present.

Kosovo's top leaders are due to go to a sports hall later where the Kosovo Philharmonic Orchestra is expected to play Beethoven's Ode to Joy.

They are also due to sign their names on giant iron letters spelling out the word "newborn" which was to be displayed in Pristina.

Fireworks and street celebrations will follow. Thousands of people have poured onto the streets.

Some ethnic Albanians, who make up the majority of Kosovo's population, earlier laid flowers on the graves of family members killed by Serbian security forces during years of conflict and division.

The BBC's Nick Thorpe in the flashpoint town of Mitrovica says local and UN police, as well as the Nato troops, are maintaining a high profile to reassure all the citizens of Kosovo that they have nothing to fear.

Limitations

The declaration approved by Kosovo's parliament contains limitations on Kosovan independence as outlined in Mr Ahtisaari's plan.

Kosovo, or part of it, cannot join any other country. It will be supervised by an international presence. Its armed forces will be limited and it will make strong provisions for Serb minority protection.

Recognition by a number of EU states, including the UK and other major countries, will come on Monday after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, says the BBC's Paul Reynolds.

The US is also expected to announce its recognition on Monday.

Three EU states - Cyprus, Romania and Slovakia - have told other EU governments that they will not recognise Kosovo, says our correspondent.

Russia's foreign ministry has indicated that Western recognition of an independent Kosovo could have implications for the Georgian breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The UN has administered Kosovo since a Nato bombing campaign in 1999 drove out Serb forces.

Obama knocks Clinton

Sen. Barack Obama Friday knocked Sen. Hillary Clinton for taking lobbyists' money and said she was too much a part of "business-as-usual in Washington" to bring about reform.

The Illinois Democrat's comments come after Clinton Thursday questioned his record of standing up to special interests.

"The problem we have is not a lack of good ideas," Obama said in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Friday. "It's that Washington today is a place where good ideas go to die."

"In this campaign, [Clinton has] taken nearly double the amount of money from lobbyists than any Democrat or Republican running for president," he said. "That's not being a part of the solutions business. That's being a part of business-as-usual in Washington."

Clinton has sharpened her attacks on Obama in recent days, possibly in response to the do-or-die situation she is facing over the next couple of weeks.

"I am in the solutions business. My opponent is in the promises business," Clinton has said many times on the campaign trail this week.

Clinton has also questioned her rival's ability to deliver on his rhetoric.

"There's a big difference between us -- speeches versus solutions, talk versus action. ... Speeches don't put food on the table. Speeches don't fill up your tank or fill your prescription or do anything about that stack of bills that keeps you up at night," she said during a campaign stop Thursday in Youngstown, Ohio.

The New York senator Thursday also questioned Obama's willingness to stand up to the nuclear and oil industries. In particular, she pointed to a 2006 bill that originally would have required the nuclear power plants to report any release of radiation into groundwater. Clinton suggested subsequent drafts were watered down after the nuclear industry objected to the new requirements.

On Friday Obama defended the nuclear bill, noting that Clinton supported the bill at the time, and said he could not move a stronger bill because the Republicans controlled the Senate at the time.

"It turns out that Sen. Clinton, who voted for this bill that I introduced and touted it on her Web site, thought it was pretty good then," he said. "Only in Washington can you vote for a bill, take credit for it, and then criticize the sponsor of the bill."

Obama also defended his vote for energy legislation -- a bill that Clinton dubbed "the Dick Cheney energy bill" and said gave "billions of dollars of breaks for the oil industry" -- in 2005, saying, "it was the best that we could do right now, given the makeup of Congress."

On Friday, Clinton didn't make any direct comments about Obama during a campaign stop at a Lockheed Martin plant in Akron, Ohio.

She said she was "deeply saddened" by the shootings at Northern Illinois University Thursday and "we just have to figure out how we're going to get smart about protecting our kids."

"I am bullish on America. I think our best days are ahead. It takes more than hoping for it to get it done," she added.

Obama received significant boost to his campaign Friday when he received the backing of the 1.9 million-member Service Employees International Union.

"We have an enormous amount of respect for Sen. Clinton, but it's now become clear members and leaders want to become part of an effort to elect Barack Obama the next president," union president Andy Stern said during a conference call announcing the union's endorsement.

Three sources told CNN that union leaders had deliberated on the endorsement via a conference call Thursday. Obama was the overwhelming choice of the union's state and national leadership, they said.

Obama also received the endorsement of the 1.3-million member United Food and Commercial Workers Union Thursday afternoon.

A union's endorsement can give a candidate much needed support because union members often act as "ground troops" that can canvas neighborhoods and staff phone banks for a campaign.

The two union endorsements could also help Obama in his increasingly heated struggle with Clinton for blue-collar voters in the delegate-rich states of Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania.

Clinton's own supporters suggest the New York senator must do well in Texas and Ohio primaries on March 4 if she is to stop the momentum Obama has built by winning eight states in a row. The Clinton campaign has also said it is looking for a strong showing in the Pennsylvania primary April 22.

Obama now leads Clinton in the overall delegate count -- 1,253 to 1,211, according to CNN calculations.

News of the union endorsements comes as a superdelegate -- one of the Democratic Party officials or elected officials who could decide the nomination at the party's convention in Denver, Colorado, this summer -- said he would vote for Obama instead of Clinton, as he had previously pledged to do.

Rep. David Scott, an African-American from Georgia, told The Associated Press he would vote for Obama because he did not want to go against the will of the voters. Obama won the Georgia primary on Super Tuesday, February 5, and 80 percent of Scott's district voted for him, the AP reported.

"You've got to represent the wishes of your constituency," Scott told the AP on Wednesday. "My proper position would be to vote the wishes of my constituents."

The New York Times reported Friday that another black lawmaker from Georgia, Rep. John Lewis, was also going to shift his support to Obama from Clinton. Lewis is one of the most senior African-American members of Congress and a respected voice on civil rights.

Lewis' office, however, told CNN that The Times misrepresented his intentions and said Lewis had not decided to switch his support to Obama. But the AP reported many sources close to the Georgia lawmaker said he was torn over his earlier endorsement of

Who was Illinois school shooter?

Northern Illinois University on Friday identified the man who fatally shot five people in a classroom as Steven P. Kazmierczak, whom police described as an award-winning student "revered" by colleagues and faculty.

Kazmierczak, 27, who police said shot 21 people before shooting and killing himself, was an award-winning sociology student and a leader of a campus criminal justice group, according to school Web sites.

Concealing a shotgun in a guitar case, and tucking three other guns under his coat, Kazmierczak walked into a geology class in an NIU lecture hall Thursday afternoon and began firing, police said. The graduate student stopped to reload his shotgun before he took his own life, police said.

Kazmierczak was a student about 175 miles away at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, police said, and there "were no red flags" warning of any violent behavior.

One of Kazmierczak's advisers said that she enjoyed having him as a student and that he was "a nice person; he was a nice kid."

"I found Steven to be a very committed student, extremely respectful of me as an instructor and adviser," said Jan Carter-Black, an assistant professor in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's School of Social Work

Carter-Black was assigned to be Kazmierczak's faculty adviser when he enrolled in the school in the summer of 2007, and he was a student in her human behavior and social environment class last fall, she said


Carter-Black and Chris Larrison -- another School of Social Work associate professor who knew Kazmierczak -- described the gunman as pleasant, considerate and flexible.

"I was so surprised to see this today," Larrison said. Kazmierczak worked on a research project concerning mental health clinics under him, he said.

"It doesn't fit with the Steven" he knew, Larrison said.

The 27-year-old participated fully in the class -- which met for three hours once a week -- until he formally withdrew from it sometime before late September and became a part-time student, Carter-Black said.

He was lightening his course load so he could take on a position in the prison system, she said.

She didn't know if the position was in the federal or state system, but said he had discussed the decision with several faculty members. He later left the position at the prison, she said, but she didn't know under what circumstances.

"He was very committed to pursuing a career with prisoners," Larrison said. He said it was likely that the career interest corresponded with Kazmierczak's concentration in mental health.

Carter-Black and Larrison said Kazmierczak resumed full-time status this semester.

In 2006, Kazmierczak was a student at Northern Illinois, police said, where he worked on a graduate paper that described his interest in "corrections, political violence, and peace and social justice."

The paper said Kazmierczak was "co-authoring a manuscript on the role of religion in the formation of early prisons in the United States."

University police Chief Donald Grady said Kazmierczak "was an awarded student. He was someone that was revered by the faculty and staff and students alike."

Fellow students and faculty described Kazmierczak as "a fairly normal, unstressed person," Grady said.

People close to Kazmierczak said he was taking medication but had recently stopped, "and he had become somewhat erratic in the last couple of weeks," Grady said.

Police have found no notes that would explain the attack, and authorities have no known motive in the case, Grady said.

Kazmierczak's former landlord, Jim Gordon, said Kazmierczak moved out of DeKalb in June 2007 and left a forwarding address in Champaign.

Gordon said he didn't recognize the picture of his yearlong former tenant "at all," but his records indicated that Kazmierczak "always paid on time, never a noise problem, left the place spotless."

The university sociology department's Web site said he was the recipient of a dean's award for his graduate work in sociology in 2006. He had been accepted for the graduate program that fall, the Web site said.

Kazmierczak also was vice president of the university's Academic Criminal Justice Association, according to the group's Web site, and worked on a paper on self-injury in prisons with the group's current president.

Kazmierczak's paper, titled "Self Injury in Correctional Settings: 'Pathology' of Prisons or Prisoners?" was published in 2006, according to the university's sociology Web site.

The Academic Criminal Justice Association provides "NIU students and members of the DeKalb community with an opportunity to learn about and promote knowledge and understanding of all areas of the criminal justice system, especially corrections and juvenile justice," the Web site says.

DeKalb police asked the Polk County, Florida, Sheriff's Department to make "next of kin" death notification to Kazmierczak's father, Robert Kazmierczak, sheriff's spokeswoman Carrie Rodgers said Friday.

"Please leave me alone. I have no statement to make," Robert Kazmierczak told CNN affiliate WESH from the porch of his Lakeland, Florida, home.

"It's a very hard time. I'm a diabetic," he said before breaking down in tears.

School President John Peters said Friday, without giving a name, that the shooter had graduated in 2006 with an undergraduate degree in sociology and then went on to do some graduate work through 2007.

He "had a very good academic record" and "was a very good student," Peters said, adding that there was "no indication" of any trouble involving him.

Kazmierczak had no arrest record and no known history of mental illness, and he had a valid state-required firearm ID card, so he had no problem buying the guns, one law enforcement source said.

Police said the only record of him in DeKalb County Circuit Court was a speeding ticket issued in December 2006. A police officer cited him amid snowy conditions for "failure to reduce speed -- resulting in an -- accident," in a white 2001 Honda. Kazmierczak was 6-foot-4 and 165 pounds, according to the record.

Kazmierczak pleaded guilty and paid a $75 fine. No one was injured in the accident, the record showed

Pakistan AG 'predicts vote-rigging'

Pakistan's attorney general said that Monday's parliamentary election will be "massively rigged," according to what Human Rights Watch says is an audio recording it obtained.

The humanitarian watchdog, which is one of many voices to raise questions about the fairness of the electoral process in Pakistan, released a report and an audiotape that it says contains the voice of Attorney General Malik Qayyum.

The attorney general's office swiftly issued a stiff denial, saying the conversation "had been clearly fabricated and cannot be denounced and renounced in stronger words."

Human Rights Watch said Qayyum was "advising an unidentified person on what political party the person should approach to become a candidate in the upcoming parliamentary election" when he made the remark in November more than a month before opposition candidate Benazir Bhutto was assassinated.

The recording -- translated into English from Punjabi -- makes reference to opposition politicians Nawaz Sharif, the former prime minister, and Bhutto, the late former prime minister who was assassinated in Rawalpindi on December 27. The election was to be held in early January but was postponed to Monday after Bhutto was killed.

The recording says:

"Leave Nawaz Sharif (pause)....I think Nawaz Sharif will not take part in the election (pause).... If he does take part, he will be in trouble. If Benazir takes part she too will be in trouble (pause)... They will massively rig to get their own people to win. If you can get a ticket from these guys, take it (pause).... If Nawaz Sharif does not return himself, then Nawaz Sharif has some advantage. If he comes himself, even if after the elections rather than before, ..yes."

CNN's translation of the recording basically matches the one posted by Human Rights Watch, which said the recording was made on November 21 during a phone interview "with a member of the media."

"Qayyum, while still on the phone interview, took a call on another telephone and his side of that conversation was recorded," the group said.

In reaction to Human Rights Watch, the attorney general's office said Qayyum has "no nexus with the holding of elections nor would he be privy to any special election-related information." It says the attorney general's office doesn't partake in politics and doesn't ask people to switch affiliations. It also wonders why the "so-called journalist who had these manufactured tapes in November" didn't release them right away.

"The news item and the so-called fabricated conversation is just simply part of a malicious campaign to malign the government," Qayyum's office said.

Human Rights Watch said Qayyum is a close associate of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and headed a two-judge panel that convicted Bhutto and her husband in a corruption case, and the Supreme Court eventually said that the convictions were "politically motivated."

HRW told CNN the recording wasn't released earlier because it was being authenticated.

Bush, First Lady Begin Tour Of Africa

U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Benin on Saturday, kicking off a six-day trip to a continent where he enjoys high approval ratings.

Bush and first lady Laura Bush will visit five nations during their Africa tour. In addition to Benin, the Bushes also will visit Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia.

According to a recent Pew poll of 47 nations, America's popularity remains exceptionally high across Africa.

Their trip -- Bush's second to the continent and his wife's fifth -- will largely focus on the United States' aid programs, which include initiatives to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and poverty.

Ahead of the visit, Bush on Thursday called Africa a "continent of potential," and said the United States is committed to helping it develop.

"It's a place where democracy is advancing, where economies are growing, and leaders are meeting challenges with purpose and determination," Bush said at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, where he and his wife, Laura, addressed the audience.

"Across Africa, people have begun to speak of the Lazarus effect -- where communities once given up for dead are coming back to life," he said, noting that the continent has "also witnessed some of mankind's most shameful chapters -- from the evils of the slave trade to the condescension of colonialism."

He added, "Even the joy of independence, which arrived with such promise, was undermined by corruption, conflict, and disease."

The United States also announced last February its plans to establish an African military command, called Africom, which it says would help prevent war. However, on Wednesday, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said there are not expected to be any announcements concerning that program during Bush's trip.

The president also announced his intention to send U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Kenya to support efforts to reach political conciliation there.

The country erupted in ethnic violence after its December 27 presidential vote, in which incumbent President Mwai Kibaki keep his post. His opponent, Orange Democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga, blasted the results, saying the election was rigged, and he and his supporters declined to recognize the election as valid.

Violence has dropped as former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan mediates talks between the two groups.