Free Republic

PARIS (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told a French magazine in an interview that if he wins office, he will hold a summit with Muslim countries to better the United States' image in the world. "Once I'm elected, I want to organize a summit in the Muslim world, with all the heads of state, to have an honest discussion about ways to bridge the gap that grows every day between Muslims and the West," Thursday's edition of Paris Match quoted Obama as saying,

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Democratic Sen. Barack Obama has raised $7.2 million for his presidential campaign since the first polls closed on Super Tuesday night, his campaign said Thursday, a remarkable figure that is causing concern among supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Meanwhile Thursday, the Clinton campaign asked Obama to debate once a week, but he demurred. Obama, riding a wave of fundraising from large donors and small Internet contributors, also raised $32 million in January. Clinton acknowledged Wednesday that she loaned her campaign $5 million late last month as Obama was outraising and outspending her heading into Feb....

JAKARTA (Reuters) - The 2008 U.S. presidential election is being watched closely by millions around the world but few are more fired up than Indonesians, who can lay claim to Democratic hopeful Barack Obama as nearly one of their own. In the capital Jakarta where Obama, 46, spent part of his childhood, U.S. expatriates and Indonesians crowded around television sets on Wednesday to watch the results of nominating contests across 24 states thousands of miles away pouring in. At the end of the biggest day of U.S. presidential voting before the November election, Obama won 12 states to Clinton's eight...