Obama, McCain enters second leg of Presidential debate

Washington: US Presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain took part in the second of three presidential debates in Nashville, Tennessee on Tuesday night. Economy took centre stage.

Obama blamed McCain and US president George W Bush for the present financial crisis.

McCain called for a $300 bn program to help financially troubled homeowners, going beyond the $700 bn bailout plan.

Meanwhile, Obama said he would go for a targeted tax cut for the middle class and focus on the poor state of the American economy and his possible reform measures if he is elected.

With particular interest to India, both presidential hopefuls debated the issue of Pakistan and terror. While Obama said Pakistan is the central front of terrorism and that US policy should change, McCain said relations with Pakistan was 'critical' and they need to work together.

“I don’t call for the invasion of Pakistan, but if they are not willing to hunt down Osama, we should,” Obama said.

McCain says, “Our relations with Pakistan are critical because the border areas are being used as a safe haven by the Taliban and al Qaeda. We have to get their support. We need to help the Pakistan government go into Waziristan and get support of the people to turn against the cruel Taliban by working and coordinating not threatening to attack them, and use force where necessary but talk softly and carry a big stick.”

George Bush, Hillary Clinton hail victory to Obama

Washington : US President George W Bush called up Barack Obama Tuesday night to congratulate him on being elected as the first African-American president of the country, the White House said.

Obama will be inaugurated January 20, 2009 in Washington.

US Senator Hillary Clinton called the election of Democratic nominee Barack Obama as US president "an historic victory for the American people."

The wife of former president Bill Clinton, Senator Clinton narrowly lost the centre-left Democratic Party's presidential nomination to Obama before endorsing the Illinois senator.

"This was a long and hard fought campaign but the result was well worth the wait," Clinton said.

"Together, under the leadership of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and a Democratic Congress, we will chart a better course to build a new economy and rebuild our leadership in the world."

Obama kin arrested for possession of marijuana

Nairobi: George Obama, the half brother of US President Barack Obama, has been arrested by Kenyan police on a charge of possession of marijuana, police said on Saturday.

George Obama was arrested in Kenya on a charge for possession of marijuana, according to police.

Inspector Augustine Mutembei, the officer in charge, said Obama was arrested on charges of possession of cannabis, known in Kenya as Bhang, and resisting arrest. He is scheduled to appear in court Monday, Mutembei said.

He is being held at Huruma police post in the capital of Nairobi.

CNN Correspondent David McKenzie talked with George Obama at the jail where he is being held. Speaking from behind bars, Obama denied the allegations.

"They took me from my home," he said, "I don't know why they are charging me."

George Obama and the president barely know each other, though they have met before. George Obama was one of the president's few close relatives who did not go to the inauguration in Washington last week.

In his memoir, "Dreams from My Father," Barack Obama describes meeting George as a "painful affair." Barack Obama's trip to Kenya meant meeting family he had never known.

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McKenzie tracked down George Obama in August 2008 and found him at a small house in Huruma, a Nairobi slum, where he lives with his mother's extended family. His birth certificate shows he is Barack Obama's half brother.

The two men share the same Kenyan father. In the memoir, Barack Obama struggles to reconcile with his father after he left him and his mother when he was just a child.

Barack Obama Sr. died in a car accident when George was just 6 months old. Like his half brother, George hardly knew his father.

George was his father's last child and had not been aware of his famous half brother until he rose to prominence in the Democratic primaries last year.

Unlike his grandmother in Kogela, in western Kenya, George Obama had received little attention from the media until reports about him surfaced in August 2008.

The reports sprung from an Italian Vanity Fair article saying George Obama lived in a shack and was "earning less than a dollar a day." Those reports left George Obama angry.

"I was brought up well. I live well even now," he said. "The magazines, they have exaggerated everything.

"I think I kind of like it here. There are some challenges, but maybe it is just like where you come from, there are the same challenges," Obama said.

Obama, who is in his mid-20s, said at the time that he was learning to become a mechanic and was active in youth groups in Huruma.

He said he tried to help the community as much as he can.