& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Obama wins Colin Powell endorsement

AFP, Fayetteville
Democrat Barack Obama won the coveted endorsement of former secretary of state Colin Powell Sunday as he entered the final fortnight before election day flush with cash to unleash against Republican John McCain.
The Illinois senator, who is riding high in the polls ahead of the November 4 election, more than doubled his fundraising record with a mammoth September haul of more than 150 million dollars, aides said.
SEE PAGE 15 COL 7 FROM PAGE 16
The extravaganza of giving enabled Obama to demolish his previous one-month record of 66 million dollars in August, which had already set him fair to hit McCain hard with a nationwide advertising blitz in tlie closing stages.
The Republican Powell, on NBC program "Meet the Press," said Obama had "met the standard" to be commander-in-chief "becauseofhis ability to inspire" Americans of all agesand ethnic an^i political stripes.
"I think he would be a transformational president. For that reason I will be voting for Senator Barack Obama," said Powell, who was the first African-American to serve as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.
Should the mixed-race Obama win in just over two weeks, "all Americans should be proud, not just African-Americans," he added.
"It would not just electrify our country, it would electrify the world."
It was a stinging rebuff to McCain, the former Vietnam War prisoner and national security veteran whose White House hopes have dimmed as economic crisis has stalked the United States.
Speaking on Fox television, McCain said he had "always admired and respected General Powell."
"We're long-time friends. This doesn't come as a surprise," the Arizona senator said, while touting his endorsement by other former secretaries of state including Henry Kissinger, James Baker and Lawrence Eagleburger.
Powell had harsh words about the rightward lurch the Republican Party has taken in recent years and extended under McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin -- who he said was not ready to be president.
McCain's shifting positions on the crisis did not reflect well on his calm under fire, and his choice of the Alaska governor as vice presidential nominee "raised in my mind some question as to the judgment that Senator McCain made."
Powell said that Obama, in contrast, had come out of recent weeks lookingpresidential.
"He displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge and an approach to
looking at (economic) problems like this, and picking a vice president (Joseph Biden) that I think is ready to be president on day one."
There was no immediate comment from the Obama campaign to the endorsement from Powell, who was tarnished by his role in promoting the US invasion of Iraq but remains a respected figure among moderates in both parties.
The Democrat's campaign was crowing over its September fundraising record, after added 632,000 new donors for a total of more than 3.1 million, as Obama pursued an audacious hunt for votes in Republican states like North Carolina.
"Because of your great generosity we had a record-breaking September," Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe said as he prepared to file the month's fund-raising figures with the Federal Election Commission.
"We are going to report tomorrow to the FEC that we raised over 150 million dollars in September, which has allowed us to run such a strong campaign in all of these battleground states," ne said in a video message to supporters.