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But Mr Obama limped across the finish line after being defeated by Mrs Clinton in South Dakota, a state where he had been heavily favoured. The young Illinois senator took Montana, bringing the five-month primary campaign to an end.
In his victory speech in St Paul, Mr Obama paid fulsome tribute to his vanquished opponent: “Our party and our country are better off because of her, and I am a better candidate for having had the honour to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“We’ve certainly had our differences over the last sixteen months. But… what gets Hillary Clinton up in the morning is an unyielding desire to improve the lives of ordinary Americans.”
In New York, Mrs Clinton, 60, was defiant. “Now the question is where do we go from here,” she said, to cries of “Denver, Denver” – site of the Democratic convention in August when Mr Obama, 46, will be formally crowned as the nominee.
“It’s a question I don’t take lightly,” she added. “This has been a long campaign, and I will be making no decisions tonight.”
The vice-presidential suggestion by Mrs Clinton, which was likely to be treated as presumptuous by the victorious Mr Obama, came in a conference call with congressional supporters from New York as she prepared to pull out of the White House race.
“I am open to it,” Mrs Clinton replied when Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez told her that Mr Obama would not win the November general election against John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, because only she could gain the support of Hispanics.
In the hours before the polls closed in South Dakota and Montana, Mr Obama and staff in his Chicago headquarters made telephone calls to urge the remaining uncommitted “super-delegates” – party officials not tied to election votes – to back him over Mrs Clinton.

telegraph.co.uk

How they came
A history of South Asian migration to Canada:
• Mid-1800s: Indentured labourers from India go to Fiji, Mauritius, South Africa and the Caribbean to work in agriculture. Many South Asians in Canada can trace their lineage to these indentured workers.
• Between 1905 and 1908: Some 5,000 South Asians, mostly Punjabi Sikhs, arrive in B.C. to work on the railroad and in logging.
• 1960s and 1970s: After decades of prohibiting Asian and Indian immigration, Canada adopts a point selection system to assess prospective migrants based on employment skills, education and language ability.
• 1981: Census counts 223,000 South Asian Canadians.
• 2001: South Asian Canadian population jumps to 917,000, 47 per cent from India, followed by Sri Lanka (13 per cent) and Pakistan (12 per cent). Seventy per cent of South Asians settle in Toronto and Vancouver.
• 2006: South Asian population surpasses 1.26 million, topping Chinese for the first time as Canada’s largest visible minority group. More than half of them live in Greater Toronto.
When Jagdev Hansra and his wife Preetinder moved to Brampton from Punjab last July, they were unsure of what to expect. They had heard how difficult life was in Canada, about the cold weather and about the pitfalls of being so far from home.
Except that in Brampton, it looked a lot like home.
Instead of being part of a minority, they are part of what is a growing visible "majority" in some GTA suburbs. In the past five years, Brampton has seen the greatest change, with the percentage of visible minorities increasing from 40 to 57 – most being South Asians.
"It made it easier for us to settle," said Preetinder, who works in an auto-parts factory that employs mostly Punjabis.

thestar.com

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Fitch Ratings has affirmed the foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of LAN Airlines S.A. (LAN) at ‘BBB’, Fitch has also affirmed the rating on LAN’s US$40 million Ticket Receivables Series 2002 due 2009 at ‘BBB’. The Outlook on all ratings is Stable.
The ratings reflect LAN Airlines S.A. (LAN) strong business position, low cost structure, fleet flexibility and adequate financial profile. LAN’s competitive advantages are underpinned by the integration of passenger and cargo operations, which provides revenue diversification and reduces the break-even load factor. The company operates the largest passenger and cargo route networks in the region, which optimizes the rotation of its long-haul and short-haul aircraft. These advantages allow LAN to maintain a cost structure that is among the lowest in the industry. The fleet is modern, fuel-efficient and has staggered delivery and lease expiration dates, which provides flexibility in capacity management. LAN faces industry-related risks, including revenue volatility, high operating leverage, fuel price volatility and growing competitive threats.
In recent years, revenues have grown robustly, supported by strong regional economic growth, international trade and domestic currencies. International passenger traffic has thrived on the back of customer demand and capacity additions to support increased frequencies and new routes, consolidating the company’s strong market position as the leading Latin American carrier. LAN generated $3.5 billion in revenues in 2007, a 16% growth from the prior year. Cash generation, as measured by EBITDAR, also experienced strong growth at $726 million versus $583 million during the prior year. Consequently, that resulted in improved credit metrics as total adjusted debt/EBITDAR improved to 4.0 (x) versus 4.5 (x) in 2006 and total adjusted net debt/EBITDAR improved to 3.4 (x) versus 4.2 (x) in 2006. Meanwhile, EBITDA/interest coverage improved 0.4 (x) to 7.4 (x) compared to the previous period. EBITDAR/interest coverage + rental expense was 3.1(x) versus 2.7(x) in 2006.

businesswire.com

Taiwan, Australia head for do-or-die Olympic qualifier
By Michael Kearney
Wednesday, Mar 12, 2008, Page 20
Taiwan and Australia face a do-or-die game at 6:30pm in Douliou on day five of the IBAF Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament today. The winner will be on track for a berth in the Olympics, while the loser will be left hoping for a miracle.
Taiwan will probably send Yang Chien-fu to the mound. Yang, who plays for the Sinon Bulls, pitched well against Mexico on Saturday, giving up one run and five hits over five innings for the win. He only threw 69 pitches, so three days’ rest should be enough.
Australia will most likely call on 18-year-old phenomenon Steve Kent, a pitcher in the Atlanta Braves farm system.
Taiwan and Australia are both vying for a top-three finish, which would give them a place in the Beijing Olympics. Taiwan are tied with Canada for second place with three wins and one loss, but must still face powerhouse South Korea. Australia are tied with Germany for fourth place with two wins and two losses. Taiwan are their last remaining opponent among the tournament’s “big five.”
If Taiwan does lose today, their best hope of advancing would be to win their remaining matches against South Africa and South Korea and for Canada to beat South Korea. Then, barring major upsets, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia would all be tied for second at five wins and three losses. In that case Australia would be eliminated, because after head-to-head matches, the second tiebreaker is runs allowed, and the Aussies are still hurting from their 16-2 drubbing at the hands of the Koreans on Saturday.
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The Liberty Lady Flames (25-3, 10-1 Big South) will bring the 2007-08 regular season to a close Friday evening, when in-state rival Radford (21-9, 8-3 Big South) visits the Vines Center. Lady Flame seniors Allyson Fasnacht, Egle Smigelskaite and Courtney Watkins will be honored before the game, which will pit the top two seeds for the Advance Auto Parts Big South Women’s Basketball Championship. Liberty will look to close out an unbeaten season at the Vines Center.
The Last Time Out
Liberty took the lead for good with a 10-0 run, spanning the first and second half, last Saturday at UNC Asheville. The Lady Flames went on to hold off the Bulldogs for a 60-46 decision. Megan Frazee notched 19 points and matched a career high with 18 rebounds, helping Liberty wrap up its 10th Big South regular-season title in 11 years.
Lady Flames On The Air
All Lady Flames basketball games can be heard LIVE on WWMC 90.9 FM "The Light." Jamie Hall, who is celebrating his 14th year of broadcasting Lady Flames basketball, will once again be handling the courtside play-by-play duties for most road games. Due to Hall’s television responsibilities, Jerod Brooks will serve as the primary commentator for home games.

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The lottery systems in most states were set up for additional money to be poured into the school systems in the state. When lottery numbers drop, however, it causes big problems for individual school districts.
The state of South Carolina has always funneled money from their lottery sales into the school system in the state. The lottery sales, however, have not been strong as of late, causing concern among local school districts.
The sales numbers from July through January were down $5.5 million from the same time period last year. Because of that, public schools will receive no money from the lottery next month.
Since local school districts have teachers that are paid directly from the lottery fund, it will be up to them to find a way to have those teachers paid.
College scholarships are the priority in the state. they must first be paid before any money can go to any high, middle or elementary schools.
While the problem is perceived as only temporary, it does put local districts in a predicament at the current time. The state is hoping the sales will return back to where money can once again be distributed.
Posted By Terry Goodwin

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The Imaginationland three parter was an amazing achievement for South Park. Calling it a feature length movie may be a bit of a stretch, as it’s only 65 minutes long, but then those Disney straight to video sequels always got away with it, and they weren’t half as intelligent, hilarious or profound.
The three parts actually do play together as a whole story, not like the Family Guy: Stewie Griffin movie which was clearly just three loosely associated episodes. This Director’s Cut version claims to have new footage, but even with Trey and Matt pointing out a few extended conversations, I couldn’t tell. The main thing is that they unbleeped the F words, which they should be doing on all the seasonal collections anyway.
For some reason, this version is presented in widescreen. That kind of makes it more cinematic, but since it was produced for standard television, all that means is they’re cutting off the top and bottom. Anyway, it’s a great mini-movie and unbleeping it is cool.
It also features the longest commentary Trey Parker and Matt Stone have done since the first season. They make it about 47 minutes through before they peter out, which is a major improvement over their five minute mini-commentaries on most episodes. They’re down on themselves, but it’s so fun to hear them talk, whether relevant or not, it’s great they were pushed into doing this.

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