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Bomb kills U.S.-led coalition member in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A roadside bomb killed a soldier from the U.S.-led coalition in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, and a suicide bomber on a motorcycle attacked a border police patrol in the south, killing a policeman, officials said.

Clashes and another roadside bomb left nine people dead elsewhere.

In the eastern blast, two other U.S.-led coalition soldiers were wounded when the roadside bomb hit their vehicle in Kot district of Nangarhar province, the coalition said in a statement.

The troops were responding to a call from the local police who had discovered another explosive device nearby, when the second bomb exploded, the statement said.

The nationality of the dead and the wounded soldiers were not released. The majority of the troops in that area are American.

A suicide attacker in the south, meanwhile, attacked a border police patrol also Monday, leaving a policeman dead and four other officers wounded in Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province, said Gen. Abdul Raziq, the border security police commander.

In neighboring Helmand province, police discovered and tried to defuse a remote-controlled bomb in Nad Ali district, but it exploded, killing two policemen and two civilians, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hussain Andiwal. Four other civilians were wounded.

In the Zhari district of Kandahar, three Taliban militants were killed in a battle between police and NATO troops on Sunday, the Interior Ministry said. Another militant was detained in the operation, it said.

In neighboring Uruzgan province, a clash between NATO troops and Taliban insurgents near Tirin Kot, the provincial capital, left two civilians dead and five others wounded on Friday, the alliance said in a statement.

The violence followed a roadside bomb attack on NATO’s International Security Assistance Force soldiers, the statement said.

One child was among the dead, while three were among the wounded, the statement said.

No soldiers were hurt, the statement said.

Civilians are often caught in the line of fire during fighting between the Taliban and international forces or during airstrikes by foreign troops because insurgents hide among civilian homes.

President Hamid Karzai last year pleaded repeatedly with NATO and the coalition to coordinate more closely with their Afghan counterparts to prevent civilian casualties.

Last year, insurgency-related violence left more than 6,500 people dead — a record number — including nearly 900 civilians, according to an Associated Press tally of figures from Western and Afghan officials.
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Possible links to other cases in missing hiker mystery

BLAIRSVILLE, Georgia (CNN) — The body of Meredith Emerson, the 24-year-old who disappeared New Year’s Day while hiking in the north Georgia mountains, has been found, her former roommate told CNN.

The discovery comes a few hours after the man accused in Emerson’s disappearance appeared in court in shackles Monday to hear the charge against him.

Gary Michael Hilton, 61, is charged with intent to cause bodily injury to Emerson, who vanished after venturing into the north Georgia mountains with her dog.

She was last seen on New Year’s Day, and her dog was found days later in a grocery story parking lot 50 miles away.

Investigators are looking into whether evidence links Hilton to other crimes.

Hilton sat silently in his orange jumpsuit, showing no emotion and keeping his head virtually still during the hearing at Union County Magistrate Court.

After reading the charge against Hilton, Judge Johnie Garmon asked whether the defendant had any questions.

Neil Smith, the public defender representing him, answered not at this time.

When Garmon asked whether Hilton understands his rights as Garmon had explained them, the attorney gave no direct answer, saying they will be dealt with.

Police, meanwhile, are trying to determine whether Emerson’s disappearance may be linked to the presumed killings of an elderly North Carolina couple.

Vernon Keenan, director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, said law-enforcement officers and trained search crews would conduct a target-specific search of locations that investigators identified after examining hundreds of pieces of evidence.

Investigators are targeting places they know Hilton visited, as well as a five-mile radius around Vogel State Park and the 25,000-acre Dawson Forest wildlife management area in Dawson County, Georgia, about 30 miles south of Blairsville.

They are also composing a timeline of events.

We have very many significant leads and factual evidence based on citizen reports, said Keenan. It’s a very difficult case.

Georgia authorities were comparing notes with their North Carolina counterparts looking into the case of John and Irene Bryant, an elderly couple who died after going for a hike in the North Carolina mountains last October 21, he said.

Georgia and North Carolina law enforcement officials planned to meet Monday in Cleveland, Georgia, to discuss the case, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said.

North Carolina’s Transylvania County investigator Bryan Kreigsman said Irene Bryant’s body was found a stone’s throw from the couple’s car in the Mount Pisgah National Forest.

John Bryant’s body has not been found, he said. But, he said, investigators have a bank video of a man wearing a yellow jacket — believed to have belonged to John Bryant — while using the Bryants’ ATM card.

Witnesses who saw Hilton on the trail with Emerson on the day she disappeared said he was wearing a yellow jacket at the time.

We don’t know if there is a link at this point, said Keenan. It’s too preliminary to make a connection as foundation.

Keenan said investigators are also looking at possible similarities in a Florida case but did not provide any specifics except to say it involved a female hiker that has been murdered.

There is a homicide case in Florida, and we will be meeting with Florida authorities and making a presentation of evidence of Emerson case, he said. They will make determination whether we have anything of interest or value to them.

Authorities arrested Hilton after finding bloodstained clothes, and they said Sunday that the chances are slim that Emerson is alive.

Authorities searched for any signs of Emerson on Sunday in Forsyth County, Georgia, where the woman’s dog was found in a grocery store parking lot three days after her disappearance.

They made a point to look behind churches as a result of a 2004 case in which someone apparently kidnapped a hairdresser in Forsyth County. Her remains were later found behind a church, said Capt. Frank Huggins of the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office.

There is no evidence to link the disappearance of Patrice Endres, the hairdresser, to Emerson’s case, but investigators looked behind churches out of an abundance of caution, Huggins told CNN.

All day Monday, Emerson’s relatives clung to hope despite the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s insistence that search-and-rescue efforts have given way to trying to find Emerson’s body.

Please have everyone search their minds to recall any evidence that could help bring our daughter home, the woman’s father, Dave Emerson, said at a news conference Monday, the AP reported.

Emerson’s mother is focused on waiting and hoping that word comes soon and on sharing good memories of Meredith, a family friend, Peggy Bailey, said at a Sunday press conference.

Emerson’s roommate, Julia Karrenbauer, said you have to … keep going and that there’s always the possibility of a miracle, especially with Meredith. Watch as Emerson’s roommate discusses ordeal

Investigators found Emerson’s black leather wallet containing her identification cards in a convenience store trash bin in the Forsyth County city of Cumming. They also found bloodstained clothing consistent with what she had been wearing, according to a criminal warrant filed Saturday.

The QuikTrip Dumpster is next to a grocery store parking lot where Emerson’s Labrador mix was found wandering Friday, the warrant said.

The warrant alleges that Hilton made a phone call Friday from a pay phone at the QuikTrip.

The animal was positively identified through an implanted microchip.

Hilton was taken into custody Friday at a convenience store in suburban Atlanta.

When Hilton’s 2001 minivan was searched, agents determined that the rear seat belt had been cut out, the warrant said. Hilton was attempting to vacuum the vehicle and wash portions of it with a bleach and water solution.
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Poll: 9-point lead for Obama on eve of N.H. primary

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (CNN) — On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Sen. Barack Obama has a nine-point lead over Sen. Hillary Clinton in the state, according to a CNN-WMUR poll out Monday.

Obama, the first-term senator from Illinois who won last week’s Iowa caucuses, led the New York senator and former first lady 39 percent to 30 percent in a poll conducted Saturday through Sunday evening — a sharp change from a poll out Saturday that showed the Democratic front-runners tied at 33 percent.

Preliminary results from the poll released Sunday night showed Obama with a lead of 10 percentage points.

Support for former Sen. John Edwards, who edged out Clinton for second place in Iowa, dropped from 20 percent in Saturday’s poll to 16 percent.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson ranked fourth among the Democratic contenders with 7 percent, while Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich trailed at 1 percent. Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel had less than one half of 1 percent support.

The Iowa caucus results have convinced growing numbers of Granite State voters that Obama can really go all the way, CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. In December, 45 percent thought Clinton had the best chance of beating the GOP nominee. But in Saturday’s poll, Clinton and Obama were tied on that measure, and now Obama has a 42 percent to 31 percent edge over Clinton on electability.

The CNN/WMUR polls is consistent with six other non-partisan polls taken since the Iowa caucuses. All seven polls show Obama leading Clinton by margins ranging from 1 to 13 points — with the average Obama lead at 7 points. All the polls show Edwards in third place.

The CNN/WMUR polls strongly suggests an Obama surge in New Hampshire, CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider said.

So is it all over? Not necessarily, according to Schneider. The CNN poll shows Obama and Clinton nearly tied among registered Democrats. Obama’s lead is coming from independents, he said.

Obama’s success depends on whether independents turn out in large numbers on Tuesday and vote in the Democratic rather than Republican primary, according to Schneider.

On the Republican side, Sen. John McCain leads former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by a narrower margin — 31 percent to 26 percent, the survey found. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee — whose upset win in Iowa came after being outspent by millions of dollars by Romney — passed former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to gain third place. Watch Candy Crowley explain the high stakes in New Hampshire

In Saturday’s poll, Giuliani had 14 percent and Huckabee had 11 percent. In Monday’s poll, Huckabee had the support of 13 percent, while Giuliani had 10 percent.

The results suggest that Huckabee’s win in Iowa, which saw him win strong support among evangelical Christian voters, is giving him momentum in more secular, libertarian-oriented New Hampshire, CNN Political Analyst Bill Schneider said.

Among other Republicans, anti-war Texas congressman and onetime Libertarian Party presidential nominee Ron Paul was in fifth place at 10 percent in the poll, with Rep. Duncan Hunter of California and former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee both at 1 percent.

The poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire, surveyed 599 likely Democrats and 492 Republicans likely to vote in Tuesday’s primary. It had a sampling error of 4 percentage points.

Crucial to the outcome in New Hampshire are the state’s independent voters, who make up around 40 percent of the electorate, and who can vote in either party’s primary.

With time running out, 6 percent of likely Democratic primary voters and 5 percent of those likely to vote in the GOP primary remain undecided.

The poll indicates that a growing number of registered independents say they will vote in the GOP contest, which is a switch from just a month ago.

Whether independents decide to vote in the Democratic or Republican primaries could affect the outcome of both races, Schneider said, noting that McCain ties Romney among registered Republicans but has an 11-point lead when independent voters are included.

So McCain is not just running against Romney. He’s also running against Obama for independent support.

Obama appears to be pulling even with Clinton among women, a voting bloc that she once dominated in the polls. And when asked which candidate has the best chance of beating the Republican presidential nominee, likely Democratic primary voters now choose Obama over Clinton 42 percent to 31 percent.

That’s a dramatic reversal from the last CNN/WMUR New Hampshire poll taken after Christmas and just before the Iowa caucuses, when Clinton beat Obama in electability by a two to one margin. E-mail to a friend

CNN’s Bill Schneider and Keating Holland contributed to this report

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Commentary: Obama changes the game

Watch Roland Martin Sound Off, Tuesday on CNN.com Live at 11:10 a.m. ET.

(CNN) — You may find a bunch of political operatives who will suggest that they always believed a black man named Barack Obama would blow away his competitors in Iowa and would destroy the inevitability of a former first lady who is a member of the U.S. Senate.

If that’s the case, just walk away because they are lying.

I was there on that frigid February day in Springfield, Illinois, when Obama, standing in the shadows of the old Capitol where Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous House Divided speech, announced his candidacy for president. While the senator’s soaring rhetoric was warmly received, it was assumed that, if he could just survive the first two states, maybe he wouldn’t embarrass himself.

But the game has changed, and all of a sudden, there is a sense that Obama could win this thing.

Yet even after getting dusted by nine points in Iowa and watching Obama walk away with more female voters than herself, Hillary Clinton continues to assert that it will be impossible for Obama to get elected in November against a Republican challenger.

When I asked Obama about that in an interview for my radio show on WVON in Chicago and for CNN, he couldn’t help but laugh.

Look at what happened in Iowa, the senator said. We had Republicans who crossed over to vote for me. We had more independents caucusing for me than anybody. That’s the reason why the polls show I’m the only Democrat that beats every Republican.

What I think they are suggesting is that being engaged in this brutal brawl with the Republicans, that that’s somehow the recipe for Democrats to win. I disagree. The strategy is to pick off Republicans and independents by having a positive agenda for change.

He added, You can’t say someone’s not electable when they keep on winning elections.

But there is something else going on here. Obama is the first candidate of his generation truly to be an agent of change who inspires, motivates and ignites the passion in a large segment of Americans who had ignored politics because it was unseemly and didn’t move people to action.

My e-mail inbox and my talk show lines filled up with people who say that listening to Obama empowers them to get involved, that he is able to connect with them on an emotional and spiritual level that is reminiscent of John and Robert Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Sure, for a significant segment, Ronald Reagan represented that kind of hope in 1980.

Gary Hart had the potential to do that, until his personal issues derailed his campaign for the 1988 election. And Bill Clinton touched the hearts and minds of the baby boomers in 1992.

But this appears to be something different. Obama seeks to serve as a bridge between the divisions in America that exist between young and old, haves and have-nots, liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats.

It’s reminiscent of Lincoln’s speech and King’s book, Why We Can’t Wait, a compilation of his letters from the Birmingham jail.

At the end of the day, Obama is trying to speak to the core of America that says we can overcome all the barriers that exist between us if we simply are willing to trust in one another.

Now he takes his campaign to New Hampshire, another predominantly white state, where there are a ton of independents who could vault him to the top of the field. Will these New Englanders buy the hope of Obama and send him to South Carolina with another victory? Will African-Americans who fear whites won’t vote for Obama now see his Iowa win as validation that those fears are unfounded?

Simply put, will America be willing to walk away from what some say is a sure thing of a Clinton in the White House and embrace a man who says we can do all things if we just believe enough in ourselves?

It all might sound like New Age mumbo jumbo. But the more Obama speaks and the more goose bumps that are raised, the more he makes the eight years Bill Clinton spent in the White House seem like ancient history and an Obama White House as the dawn of a new day for America.

Roland S. Martin is a nationally award-winning journalist and CNN contributor. Martin is studying to receive his master’s degree in Christian communications at Louisiana Baptist University, and he is the author of Listening to the Spirit Within: 50 Perspectives on Faith. You can read more of his columns at http://www.rolandsmartin.com/.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.
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‘Sarkozy wants to marry ex-model’

PARIS, France (CNN) — New opinion polls show the French public is tired of speculation surrounding President Nicolas Sarkozy’s private life after a newspaper claimed he is about to marry ex-supermodel Carla Bruni.

The French weekly paper Le Journal Du Dimanche reported Sunday the French leader is planning to wed Bruni on February 8 or 9 and has already given her an heart-shaped diamond engagement ring.

A spokesman for the presidential palace told CNN they were offering no comment on the reports, which quoted unnamed sources.

The spokesman also refused to comment on media reports that Sarkozy would answer questions on his private life during his first presidential press conference of the New Year set for Tuesday.

Speculation about the French leader and Bruni has been rife ever since the two were photographed together during a day trip to Disneyland Paris last month.

However, opinion polls suggest the French public is growing weary of the intense media focus on the private life of Sarkozy — who only divorced his previous wife, Cecilia, in October.

French media published photos of Sarkozy with Bruni, a former supermodel turned singer whose previous boyfriends include Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton, in Petra, Jordan over the weekend.

A survey conducted for the French daily newspaper Liberation found 63 percent of those questioned believed Sarkozy was too ready to put his private life on public display.

The same poll showed 54 percent approval ratings, a two point drop in support for the French leader since December. A separate poll for Le Parisien newspaper showed a seven point drop in support since last month, with only 48 percent of voters backing him.

Sarkozy’s 11-year marriage to Cecilia ended in October by mutual consent. The couple was dogged by persistent rumors of infidelities following a highly public separation in 2005.
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