US media hailed Barack Obama’s victory over Hillary Clinton in their White House battle as historic Wednesday but warned Democratic splits and racial politics pointed to a rocky road ahead.
   Obama claimed victory late Tuesday, after the last two primaries of the nominating contest, saying that he had won an absolute majority of delegates and would represent the Democratic party against Republican John McCain in November’s election.
   But Hillary refused to bow out, prompting newspapers to remark that despite Obama’s wide appeal, he had an uphill task to convince both her supporters – and those concerned about having a black president – to back him.
   ‘Obama’s success marked a major milestone for the nation – a sign of the racial progress that has taken place during the span of the senator’s lifetime,’ the Washington Post said.
   ‘But the nomination battle also revealed a racial schism within the Democratic Party, and potential resistance to a black candidate in some parts of the country that will play out in the general-election campaign.’
   It added: ‘Obama still faces a sizable job of uniting his party, and his uneven performance during the final months of the nomination battle could make Hillary’s supporters more difficult to win over quickly.’
   The New York Times was similarly enthusiastic about Obama’s victory, saying it ‘broke racial barriers and represented a remarkable rise for a man who just four years ago served in the Illinois state Senate.’
   But it warned he cannot proceed without dealing with Hillary, including deciding whether or not to pick her as his vice-presidential running mate.
   ‘Until he deals with the Hillary question, it could be hard for Obama to move on to what he would like to achieve next: presenting himself to the entire electorate and not just Democrats, laying out his political ideology before McCain does it on his terms and trying to rectify some of the weaknesses highlighted by the combative primary process,’ it said.
   The Chicago Tribune, in Obama’s home state of Illinois, said his victory marked a moment ‘bearing history’s weight and the future’s promise’ but also presented him with a ‘momentous task.’
   ‘If Obama has a knack for dealing with difficulty, he’ll need it now.
   Setting out as the new presumptive nominee, Obama must win over an enormous
   swath of the Democratic electorate that has been devoted to Hillary,’ it said.
   It added that race, which was an issue during the Democratic contest notably in the row over Obama’s fiery Chicago pastor, Jeremiah Wright, was likely to play an even larger role in the general election campaign.
   ‘The country simply has too much racial tension in its past for this divisiveness to be absent from the first presidential campaign involving an African-American nominee,’ the Tribune said.

Four US Navy ships which had been stationed off cyclone-hit Myanmar with relief supplies and aircraft will return to normal duties after the junta rejected their help, US officials said Wednesday.
   The USS Essex group has been idling off the coast of the country once known as Burma since May 13, but the regime – notoriously mistrustful of the West – repeatedly refused any relief supplies from foreign militaries.
   ‘Over the past three weeks we have made at least 15 attempts to convince the Burmese government to allow our ships, helicopters and landing craft to provide additional disaster relief for the people of Burma,’ Admiral Timothy Keating, commander of US Pacific Command, said in a statement.
   ‘But they have refused us each and every time. It is time for the USS Essex group to move on to its next mission.’
   Several aircraft with heavy-lifting capabilities will be left in Thailand in case they are needed by aid agencies to help with the relief effort, he added in the statement issued by the US embassy in Bangkok.
   The ships were carrying aid supplies including 15,000 water containers and purifying kits, as well as 14 helicopters and 1,000 Marines.
   The four Navy vessels will leave on Thursday, but Keating said they could return if the Myanmar junta had a change of heart.
   ‘I am both saddened and frustrated to know that we have been in a position to help ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people and help mitigate further loss of life, but have been unable to do so because of the unrelenting position of the Burma military junta,’ Keating said.
   Myanmar’s ruling generals angered the international community by severely restricting foreign relief supplies after Cyclone Nargis hit one month ago, leaving 133,000 people dead or missing and 2.4 million people in need of food, shelter and medicine.
   After a UN-led diplomatic effort, the junta agreed May 23 to allow foreign aid workers access to the delta, but progress has been slow, with a lack of transportation and lifting equipment further hampering operations.

Migrants who fled the deadly xenophobic attacks in South Africa last month will return to their communities or be repatriated within two months, a government official said on Wednesday.
   An estimated 30,000 Zimbabweans, Mozambicans and other African migrants have been living in refugee camps and shelters since mobs went on the rampage, killing at least 62 people in impoverished shantytowns around Johannesburg and other cities.
   Facing criticism from relief agencies and the United Nations over poor conditions in the shelters, president Thabo Mbeki’s government has started relocating the refugees to tented camps in Gauteng province and elsewhere around the country.
   Gauteng encompasses Johannesburg, which was the flashpoint for more than two weeks of murder, rape and looting.
   ‘By end of July we shouldn’t have tents in Gauteng,’ Dorothy Mahlangu, a minister in the Gauteng government, said during a briefing in Cape Town by members of a task force investigating the xenophobic outbreak.
   Mahlangu said those who did not want to be reintegrated into the community would be sent home to their respective countries and that the government was working with its African neighbours on arrangements to smooth repatriation.
   Zimbabwe is arranging for about 2,500 of its citizens to be repatriated, its state media said on Wednesday.
   About 50,000 migrants have left South Africa, with the bulk crossing into neighbouring Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Some refused to go back to their communities in South Africa out of fear, they told officials, that the armed mobs would return.
   Safety and the security minister, Charles Nqakula, said there had been no fresh attacks since shortly after soldiers were sent into the townships, though he added that Mbeki might extend the army’s deployment when it expires this weekend.

Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and several of his top lieutenants were detained by police on Wednesday in the approach to a key run-off presidential election on June 27, his party said.
   ‘He has been taken into a charge office in Lupane,’ southwestern Zimbabwe, chief Movement for Democratic Change spokesman Nelson Chamisa said.
   ‘It’s the whole entourage of the president, including his security personnel and other senior party officials.’
   Others arrested included the party’s deputy leader Thokozani Khupe and MDC chairman Lovemore Moyo. ‘They have not given us any reason for the arrest,’ added Chamisa. ‘The police just said our bosses want to see you.’
   The MDC said in a statement that Tsvangirai had initially been stopped by police on a slip road while driving in the Lupane area and held for some two hours before being transferred to the police station.
   Four MDC lawmakers have been arrested in the lead-up to the election at the end of the month when Tsvangirai is looking to topple president Robert Mugabe who has steered the southern African nation for 28 years.
   A leader of a breakaway MDC faction, Arthur Mutambara, was arrested on Sunday over an opinion piece which was heavily critical of 84-year-old Mugabe’s rule of the former British colony.

Thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes due to food and water shortages in northern Afghanistan, the government said on Wednesday.
   Many parts of Afghanistan did not receive enough rain and snow this year, increasing concern the country may face drought again, amid global soaring food prices that have already hit the mountainous and war-torn country.
   The exodus of nearly 2,000 families this week from Chemtal district of Balkh province comes despite the government sending 37 tons of food and some water for distribution for the people under a food for work project days earlier, the government said.
   ‘The reasons for the displacement of these families are lack of drinking water and food commodities,’ it said in a statement.
   An average Afghan family usually has at least four members.
   The families have ended up in Sholgara district which also lies in Balkh, regarded as part of Afghanistan’s food basket.
   The government was looking into how to help them there, the statement added.
   Water and food shortages have forced several families to eat grass, resulting in some deaths in recent weeks in different parts of northern Afghanistan, according to press reports.
   In some areas water-fed crops have died due to lack of rain and in some others an unprecedented infestation of locusts has destroyed cultivated fields in recent weeks, according to officials.

Foreign ambassadors urged Kenya on Wednesday to prevent more violence in forthcoming elections for five parliamentary seats that many fear could be a new flashpoint after this year’s post-election crisis.
   The June 11 by-elections are intended to fill seats where two legislators were shot dead and another two constituencies rema-ined undeclared during the chaotic aftermath of the east African nation’s disputed December election. The fifth seat is in the constituency of Kenya’s newly-elected parliamentary speaker.
   Already, campaigning ahead of next week’s vote has been marred by scuffles, fraud accusations and bitter rivalry between candidates for the two parties of the president, Mwai Kibaki, and the prime minister, Raila Odinga.
   Some fear there will be open fighting again among grassroots supporters of the various candidates, even though Kibaki and Odinga now form a coalition government.
   ‘We would like to take this opportunity to urge political leaders to publicly denounce all forms of violence, ethnic incitement and electoral malpractice,’ 12 ambassadors to Kenya said in a statement issued on Wednesday.

A massive quake-induced lake was approaching hazardous levels in China Wednesday, as a ranking official said the situation there was ‘extremely dangerous,’ state media reported.
   Multiple threats loomed at the Tangjiashan ‘quake lake,’ the China News Service reported, even though soldiers had been working for days to
   control the lake, now with a volume of more than 80,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
   Liu Ning, chief engineer at the ministry of water resources, warned at a briefing late Tuesday that one of the risks was aftershocks, which could breach the lake any time, inundating lower-lying areas.
   ‘The area still receives constant aftershocks, and especially aftershocks of a strength over six on the Richter scale could have an impact,’ said Liu, according to the news service.
   ‘After several measures und-ertaken at the lake, the situation remains extremely dangerous,’ the news service said, citing Liu.