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DENVER - Democrat John Edwards is exiting the presidential race Wednesday, ending a scrappy underdog bid in which he steered his rivals toward progressive ideals while grappling with family hardship that roused voters' sympathies, The Associated Press has learned.
MIAMI - Sen. John McCain won a breakthrough triumph in the Florida primary Tuesday night, seizing the upper hand in the Republican presidential race ahead of next week's coast-to-coast contests and lining up a quick endorsement from soon-to-be dropout Rudy Giuliani.
MIAMI - John McCain edged ahead of Mitt Romney in the Florida primary Tuesday night, a battle for the biggest delegate prize to date as well as precious campaign momentum heading into next week's competition across more than 20 states.
Researchers Wolfgang Jank and Galit Shmueli studied eBay The two associate professors at the university's Robert H. Smith School of Business worked with the Indian School of Business' Ravi Bapna, who maintained a sniper Web The difference is called "consumer surplus" and the Maryland researchers found it averaged at least $4 per auction. "This is the first time consumer surplus has been quantified in online auctions," said Shmueli in a statement. "You just can't quantify this for traditional retailers." Jank said all three major parties involved in eBay's auctions -- buyers, sellers, and the company itself -- benefit from eBay auctions. "All three parties on eBay win," he said. "Obviously the consumers win because they accrue a very large surplus... which is either money they can put in the bank or spend." Noting that it's difficult to quantify the value for sellers, Jank said they win in the sense that eBay attracts a "large critical mass of potential buyers" for the sellers. The value to eBay is "obvious," he said, because of the funds generated for the company by the auctions. More than 4,500 U.S. and European eBay auctions in 2003 were examined in the professors' research. Their complete study, titled "Consumer Surplus in Online Auctions," will be published in the Journal of Information Systems Research. If you think you would save money by bidding on eBay (NSDQ: EBAY) auctions, you would likely be right, according to a study released Monday by researchers at the University of Maryland. In fact, the researchers maintain eBay bidders saved $19 billion in 2007 at the popular auction site.
Bill Gates, the world's richest man, is to donate nearly 20 million dollars for research into helping rice farmers deal with global warming, the International Rice Research Institute said Monday.
(AFP/Louisa Gouliamaki )The Philippines-based institute said it would use the donation from the Microsoft founder to harness scientific advances and address major unsolved problems in agriculture.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would release the 19.9-million-dollar grant over three years, the institute said.
The money initially would help give improved rice strains and linked technology to 400,000 small farmers in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, it added.
"Farmers are expected to achieve a 50 percent increase in their yields within the next 10 years," the institute said in a statement.
"The new funding comes at a vital time for rice farmers, who are now facing major production pressure and rising prices that threaten Asia's continued economic growth," the body said.
The donation would help farmers struggling with little or no irrigation by helping to develop and distribute rice strains capable of withstanding stresses such as drought and flooding, the institute said.
Robert S. Zeigler, the institute's director general, emphasised that climate change threatened to worsen the frequency and severity of such problems, making the need for hardy crops urgent.
"If we are serious about ending extreme hunger and poverty around the world, we must be serious about transforming agriculture for small farmers -- most of whom are women," said Gates in the statement.
He is to step down as head of Microsoft in July to devote his time to running his foundation, which works to reduce global economic inequalities.
The grant from Gates is part of 306-million-dollar package that nearly doubles the foundation's investments in agriculture, the institute said.
Rice is a staple food for 2.4 billion people. Annual rice output must increase by nearly 70 percent to nearly 880 million tonnes in 2025 to meet projected global demand, according to the institute's estimates.
Princess Diana, pictured in 1997, believed Mohamed Al Fayed was spying on her as she cruised the Mediterranean with his son Dodi, her sister said Monday at the inquest into her death.
(AFP/File/Jamal A. Wilson )"Yes, she thought the boat was being bugged by Mr Al Fayed senior," Lady Sarah McCorquodale replied during questioning from Ian Burnett QC, for the coroner.
Lady Sarah said Diana telephoned her from the yacht, the Jonikal, days before the fatal Paris car crash in 1997 which killed the princess, Dodi Fayed and their driver, Henri Paul.
Diana's elder sister, Lady Sarah also said she thought the relationship with Dodi was already doomed.
"There had been an article in a French newspaper, Le Monde, about landmines," she added.
"(Diana) was very upset because she felt she had been misquoted and as a result had appeared to look like she was criticising the government. She was distraught."
Lady Sarah suggested that Diana speak to Dodi about the article only for the princess to reply "that would be a waste of time".
"From that, I just did not think that the relationship had much longer to go," Lady Sarah added.
Al Fayed claims that the couple were killed in a British establishment conspiracy to prevent Diana -- the former wife of Prince Charles, and mother of Princes William and Harry -- from marrying a Muslim.
In this Jan. 23, 2007, file photo, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., left, and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. watch President Bush's State of the Union address on Capitol Hill in Washington. Kennedy will endorse Obama for president, party officials confirmed on Sunday, Jan. 27, 2008.
(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama (D-IL) greets a kitchen worker during his visit to Harper's Restaurant in Columbia, South Carolina, January 26, 2008, the day of South Carolina's Presidential Primary.
(Jason Reed/Reuters)By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer
MACON, Ga. - Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts will endorse Senate colleague Barack Obama for president, party officials confirmed Sunday.
The endorsement will be announced Monday in Washington, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the record. An official close to the senator said the announcement will be made during an Obama campaign rally at American University, where he will be joined by Sen. Kennedy and his niece, Caroline Kennedy, who also has endorsed Obama.In a television interview Sunday, Obama would not answer questions about an endorsement from Kennedy.
Supporters for Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., celebrate his win in the South Carolina primary in Columbia, S.C., Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008.
(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Supporter Evelyn Golden of Atlanta, Georgia waits for Democratic presidential candidate US Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) at his South Carolina primary night rally in Columbia, South Carolina, January 26, 2008. REUTERS/Joshua Lott (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008
(USA)
Supporters of Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., celebrate his South Carolina primary victory over Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. and former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C. during a rally in Columbia, S.C., Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008.
(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
By DAVID ESPO and CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writers
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Barack Obama routed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the racially charged South Carolina primary Saturday night, regaining campaign momentum in the prelude to a Feb. 5 coast-to-coast competition for more than 1,600 Democratic National Convention delegates.
"The choice in this election is not about regions or religions or genders," Obama said at a boisterous victory rally. "It's not about rich versus poor, young versus old and it's not about black versus white. It's about the past versus the future."The audience chanted "Race doesn't matter" as it awaited Obama to make his appearance after rolling up 55 percent of the vote in a three-way race.
But it did, in a primary that shattered turnout records.
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Scarlett Johansson returned from the Persian Gulf with a whole lot of soldiers' trinkets and a delusion of her own engagement ƒƒ‚‚ to Barack Obama.
"I am engaged ... to Barack Obama," Johansson joked in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday. "My heart belongs to Barack, and that is who I am currently, finally, engaged to. Yes."
Johansson, who showed her support for the Democratic presidential candidate at the Iowa caucus earlier this month, was really just deflecting a question about rumors she might be engaged (to actor-beau Ryan Reynolds).
The 23-year-old actress talked about the warm welcome she received while visiting troops stationed in the Persian Gulf last week. Johansson dropped by U.S. bases in Kuwait on Jan. 17 and Jan. 18 as part of a USO tour in which she met about 3,500 men and women in uniform.
"Everybody that I met there was so incredibly friendly and polite and genuine and generous," she said. "They were so, so sweet. I mean, I was just amazed."
Johansson said some people ripped patches off their jackets as gifts and handed her challenge coins from their military units. One Marine offered up his St. Christopher medal. Another starstruck guy gushed: "You made my whole deployment!"
Johansson has a full plate for 2008, with the release of films including "The Other Boleyn Girl" and "He's Just Not That Into You," as well as the arrival of her debut album on May 20.
The disc, called "Anywhere I Lay My Head," features Tom Waits cover songs and one original track. "It was a really, really sort of inspired process to make this CD, and it was something I'd never done before," said Johansson, who said the album has a dreamy, ethereal quality.
On a far more serious note: Johansson was still speechless Thursday over the death of fellow actor Heath Ledger, who was found dead Tuesday in his Manhattan apartment.
"I'm really just so very shocked," she said. "He was an incredibly sweet, kindhearted and enthusiastic person. And, you know, he loved his daughter ƒƒ‚‚ I mean, that was like the light of his life. It's just a terrible loss."
US presidential hopeful John McCain greets people during a campaign visit to Miami. Republicans were campaigning full-bore in Florida, which on January 29 will stage a four-way fight between new front-runner McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Rudolph Giuliani
(AFP/Getty Images/Joe Raedle)By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent
BOCA RATON, Fla. - For Republican presidential contenders John McCain and Mitt Romney, Thursday's debate presented a chance to step out smartly in the struggle for victory in next week's Florida primary.
For Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee, it represented perhaps a last, best hope to shake up a statewide — and national — campaign that appears to be slowly leaving them behind.
Rep. Ron Paul, a libertarian-leaning Texan with a vocal following, also had a spot on the stage for the prime-time debate, broadcast on MSNBC, five days before the primary.
The Florida primary offers 57 Republican National Convention delegates to the winner. It is the first big state to vote in the nominating campaign, the first winner-take-all contest in terms of delegates, and the final election before a virtual national primary on Feb. 5.
The five contenders shared a stage as polls suggested Romney and McCain were co-frontrunners in the state. Both the former Massachusetts governor and the Arizona senator are campaigning aggressively and have sparred periodically over the economy and tax cuts.
Giuliani and Huckabee were well behind in the same surveys, and struggling.
Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, has little money and has campaigned sporadically so far. He has not yet begun to advertise on television in the state.
Giuliani, the former New York mayor broke off campaigning earlier this week to fly to his homestate briefly for fundraising. After abandoning a string of earlier states, he has spent two weeks campaigning in Florida, a state that amounts to a virtual must-win territory for him.
By The Associated Press
THE RACE: The presidential race for Democrats and Republicans in New York.
THE NUMBERS - DEMOCRATS
Hillary Rodham Clinton, 51 percent
Barack Obama, 25 percent
John Edwards, 11 percent
___
THE NUMBERS - REPUBLICANS
John McCain, 30 percent
Rudy Giuliani, 30 percent
Mitt Romney, 9 percent
Mike Huckabee, 8 percent
Fred Thompson, 8 percent
___
OF INTEREST:
The third poll released in two days finds McCain has pulled even with Giuliani in the former New York mayor's home state. Two polls on Monday had McCain leading by as much as 12 percent. Seventy-one percent of Giuliani's backers say they are "not too likely" or "not likely at all" to change their minds before the Feb. 5 primary. McCain gets that kind of loyalty from 46 percent.
Obama was the pick of 45 percent of the likely primary voters who are black, compared to 37 percent for Clinton. The senator from New York captured 54 percent of the women's vote, compared to 20 percent for Obama. Clinton's lead among men narrows somewhat, 47 percent to 32 percent for Obama, an Illinois senator.
___
The Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll was conducted by phone from Jan. 14 to Jan 21. On the Republican side, it involved interviews with 331 likely primary voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.4 percent. It also polled 544 likely Democratic primary voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.2 percent.
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Democratic presidential rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama accused each other of repeatedly and deliberately distorting the truth for political gain Monday night in a highly personal, finger-wagging debate that ranged from the war in Iraq to Bill Clinton's role in the campaign.
Moments later, Clinton said that she was fighting against misguided Republican policies "when you were practicing law and representing your contributor ... in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago."
Obama seemed particularly irritated at the former president, whom he accused in absentia of uttering a series of distortions to aid his wife's presidential effort.
"I'm here. He's not," she snapped.
"Well, I can't tell who I'm running against sometimes," Obama countered.
The two rivals, joined by former Sen. John Edwards, debated at close quarters five days before the South Carolina primary — and 15 days before the equivalent of a nationwide primary across 20 states that will go a long way toward settling the battle for the party's nomination.
I'm The Winner.... From left Democratic presidential hopefuls, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., stand on the stage prior to a Democratic debate sponsored by CNN and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Monday, Jan. 21, 2008.
(AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)
I'll Win... US Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) (left) welcomes US Democratic presidential candidates Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) (center) and Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) to the CNN/Congressional Black Caucus Institute Democratic Party presidential debate at the Palace Theatre in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina January 21, 2008.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008
We'll See Who'll get the Hot Seat in United States... From left, Democratic presidential hopefuls Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., participate in a Democratic presidential debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Monday, Jan. 21, 2008. At right is CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
(AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., center, links arms with Rev. Raphael Warnock, left, and associate pastor Shanan Jones as they sing 'We Shall Overcome' during a church service at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Sunday, Jan. 20, 2008, in Atlanta.
(AP Photo/John Bazemore)
US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) speaks at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, January 20, 2008. REUTERS/Tami Chappell (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008
(USA)
US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), (R), speaks at Ebenezer Baptist Church as senior pastor Reverend Raphael Warnock listens in Atlanta, Georgia, January 20, 2008. REUTERS/Tami Chappell (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008
(USA)
By Adam Tanner Sat Jan 19, 5:21 PM ET
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Amid plenty of shouting and confusion, Nevada voters expressed a preference on Saturday for Republican Mitt Romney and Democrat Hillary Clinton in an U.S. election process as quirky as Las Vegas itself.
Clinton, her husband former President Bill Clinton, and her rival Sen. Barack Obama made morning visits to casino workers in a final push for votes in the gambling capital, one of the world's best-known tourist destinations.
Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, headed to Florida, which holds the next Republican nominating contest on January 29.
Democrats and Republicans in Nevada, a state famous for gambling, easy divorce and America's only legalized prostitution, voted in nominating contests to choose candidates for the November presidential election.
For the Democratic contest, nine of Las Vegas's best-known casino hotels hosted balloting. At the upscale Wynn Hotel, several hundred workers divided themselves into groups supporting either Clinton or Obama, with many shouting out their support or booing rivals.
"It's a little crazy," said Sidrit Mulaj, an Albanian-born Clinton supporter.
Some nightclub employees stayed up all night; others were confused about the process and arrived too late.
One worker fretted as she had to stay longer than her hour-long lunch break. "They can't really fire me for this can they?" asked Tracy Ferguson, 44, a Clinton supporter who raced out of the room after the vote.
UNION IMPACT UNCERTAIN
The casino voting had been expected to boost Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, because casino workers are largely represented by a union that endorsed him.
But at the Wynn Hotel, Clinton edged out Obama by 185 to 181 after the first count, in what was clearly a split union.
Among Republicans, Romney and longshot candidate Rep. Ron Paul of Texas made the biggest effort in Nevada, where their party's voting drew less attention because of a Republican primary contest in South Carolina on the same day.
"We're going to make it loud and clear here in Nevada, hopefully across the country, that we want change in Washington," Romney said. Nearly 7 percent of Nevadans share Romney's Mormon faith.
As in Iowa earlier this month, the Nevada decisions were reached by dividing into small groups backing particular candidates, rather than the direct voting used in most other states. Republicans did not vote on the famed Las Vegas Strip, but only at schools and more traditional sites.
Supporters of Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) encourage supporters of former Senator John Edwards to come to their side at the Democratic caucus at Luxor hotel and casino in Las Vegas January 19, 2008.
(Rick Wilking/Reuters)
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., visits employees at the Mirage Casino Hotel before the start of the Nevada caucus in Las Vegas, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2008.
(AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) meets with Culinary Workers Union members in the kitchen area of the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas January 19, 2008. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008
(USA)
By Jason Szep
JACKSONVILLE, Florida (Reuters) - Republican Mitt Romney is touting his revival of the Massachusetts' economy in a pitch to voters in Florida, a state that could make or break his White House bid, but some experts dispute that record.
The former Massachusetts governor issued a statement on Sunday titled "creating jobs" that focuses on 57,600 jobs added to the Massachusetts economy during his single term as governor from 2003 to 2007.
But Northeastern University economist Andrew Sum, who has researched Romney's record, said the state lagged the U.S. average during that period in job creation, economic growth and wage increases.
"As a strict labor market economist looking at the record, Massachusetts did very poorly during the Romney years, he said. "On every measure you've got, the state was a substantial under-performer."
At a campaign rally here on Saturday, Romney's supporters handed out flyers promoting the candidate's economic credentials, a central theme in his campaign, saying he had "closed a nearly $3 billion budget deficit without raising taxes" during his term in Massachusetts.
But the $3 billion deficit projected by Romney and state legislators in January 2003 at the start of his administration never rose that high because a surge in capital gains taxes more than halved the shortfall to $1.3 billion.
While Romney and the state legislature cut $1.6 billion from the 2004 budget, analysts noted he also generated more than $500 million by raising fees and by closing corporate tax loopholes -- actions considered tax rises by some businesses.
"There's never been under his watch an economic turnaround to speak of," Michael Widmer, president of the independent Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, told Reuters.
"We added a few jobs over the last three years of his tenure but very few. He also raised corporate taxes and fees and the (deficit) gap turned out to be less than $3 billion."
MIXED RECORD
Romney is in a close four-way race in Florida where the primary on January 29 is the next test in the state-by-state battles to determine the Republican and Democratic candidates who will square off in November's presidential election.
The multimillionaire former venture capitalist has retooled his campaign to emphasize his nearly 25 years of business experience that includes founding Bain Capital LLC, a successful Boston-based private-equity firm, in 1984.
At rallies, Romney presents himself as a candidate whose real-world business experience can help shake up Washington.
But he faces stiff competition in Florida's Republican race from John McCain, the senator from Arizona who won Saturday's South Carolina primary, along with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Romney's resume includes a number of prominent successes such as rescuing the debt-ridden Salt Lake City Olympics and helping to set up office supply retail-store chain Staples Inc., which employs about 70,000 people.
Massachusetts also won a credit-rating upgrade during Romney's term as governor for the first time since 2000, his campaign's statement said.
His supporters contend the state's job market was soft long before Romney's term, which ended in January last year, blaming a Democratic-controlled Legislature for the weakness. His spokesman, Kevin Madden, has asserted that Romney brought Massachusetts "back from the brink of financial disaster."
But Northeastern's Sum said that while jobs were created under Romney, the rate was the third-lowest in the nation after Hurricane Katrina-hit Louisiana and Michigan. At the same time, wages in the New England state stagnated during Romney's term.
The average weekly wage of Massachusetts workers, Sum said, rose by just a $1 between 2001 and 2006 after adjusting for inflation, while the state had the third-highest rate of population loss in the nation between July 2002 and July 2006.
Real output of goods and services -- a broad measure of economic performance -- grew 9 percent, below the 13 percent rate for the United States, he added.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney fires up the crowd as he speaks about Washington being broken at the start of his Florida swing in Jacksonville January 19, 2008, after winning the Nevada primary today and the Michigan primary earlier in the week.
(Mark Wallhesier/Reuters)
Republican presidential candidate and Senator John McCain (R-AZ) greets supporters during a campaign stop in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, January 18, 2008. REUTERS/Joshua Lott
Republican presidential candidate and US Senator John McCain (R-AZ) greets a supporter outside a polling station during a campaign in Charleston, South Carolina January 19, 2008.
(Joshua Lott/Reuters)
Ann Romney (R), wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, joins supporters in applause as he starts his Florida swing in Jacksonville January 19, 2008, hours after winning the Nevada primary. REUTERS/Mark Wallhesier (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008
(USA)
US Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is introduced by her husband former US president Bill Clinton at a rally in Las Vegas January 18, 2008. The Nevada caucuses are January 19th.
(Rick Wilking/Reuters)
A supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama holds up a sign during a campaign appearance by Obama at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas January 18, 2008.
(Robert Galbraith/Reuters)
