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Historic primary season comes to an end

(CNN) — Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama face off Tuesday in the last contests of the Democratic primary season, bringing an end to a historic race that has produced months of excitement, but still no nominee.

The road to the nomination has been fierce. The campaigns have endured preacher-gate, Bosnia-gate and a bitter battle over the race card.

From a crowded field of Democratic candidates taking the stage for a debate nearly a year ago to the final two nominating contests that few thought would be contested, Obama and Clinton have battled it out to the end.

Clinton has become the favored candidate among working-class voters and the elderly, while Obama has emerged as the choice for well-educated, affluent voters, African-Americans and the younger crowd.

The contests come to an end Tuesday, exactly six months after a much wider field faced off in Iowa’s first-in-the nation caucuses.

There was Obama, the junior senator from Illinois, campaigning on his message of change. There was Clinton, the New York senator and former first lady, who had been a prominent pubic figure for years and was favored to win it all.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards was also considered a top-tier contender. Edwards, running on his populist message, was the vice presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket four years earlier.

Repeat runners Sen. Joe Biden and Rep. Dennis Kucinich were back for more. Biden went after his party’s nomination in 1988, and Kucinich sought the top spot in 2004.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. Chris Dodd also threw their hats in the ring, and former Sen. Mike Gravel embarked on a long-shot run.

Obama scored the opening win, forging his way to the top of the Democratic pack. Biden and Dodd called it quits.

Despite all the hype surrounding Obama’s victory and his inspirational speech that followed, the momentum quickly switched to Clinton.

Clinton, who finished third in Iowa, made a surprise win in New Hampshire even though polls going into the contest showed Obama with a double-digit lead.

New Hampshire, which brought an end to Richardson’s campaign, crowned Clinton the comeback kid, and she took the next two contests in Michigan and Nevada.

Obama then scored a huge win in South Carolina, forcing Edwards, a South Carolina native, to reassess his campaign.

The Democrats next faced off in Florida. The state fell into Clinton’s column and quickly became the center of a months-long delegate controversy.

The Democratic National Committee stripped Florida and Michigan of their delegates for scheduling their primaries too early. Clinton won both states, but the candidates had agreed not to campaign in either state, and Clinton was the only top-tier candidate on the Michigan ballot. Watch what led to the DNC’s decision

Clinton pushed hard to get the states’ delegates seated, and on the last day of May, the DNC decided to reinstate the delegations, with each delegate getting a half a vote at the convention.

The move did little to change the state of the race — one that has been a Clinton-Obama battle since Edwards dropped out shortly before Super Tuesday. Watch how the race could end

Most thought Super Tuesday would decide the outcome, but the two front-runners split the 23 Democratic contests that fell on February 5.

The presidential hopefuls each argued their wins made them the stronger candidate: Clinton was winning the bigger states, but Obama was winning more states.

The candidates soldiered down the campaign trail, with stops to explain, denounce and detach themselves from some of their surrogates along the way.

After Super Tuesday, Obama went on a monthlong sweep, taking Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington, Maine, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and Wisconsin.

He established a comfortable lead in pledged delegates, but Clinton maintained her lead among superdelegates.

Superdelegates are party leaders and officials who vote at the convention for the candidate of their choice. Because neither candidate will get enough delegates from the primaries and caucuses to clinch the nomination, the final decision will rest in the hands of the superdelegates.

Obama’s winning streak left pundits questioning Clinton’s viability, and even Bill Clinton said his wife had to win Ohio and Texas in order to keep her campaign alive.

Once again, she bounced back.

Clinton picked up important wins in the Ohio, Texas and Rhode Island primaries March 4. Obama won Vermont and the Texas caucuses. The next week, Obama won Mississippi and Wyoming.

The Democratic race was in limbo, and there was a six-week hiatus until the next contest.

Questions arose as to whether the party could unify once there was a nominee, but both candidates insisted the Democrats would rally behind whoever came out on top.

Some said the protracted battle was good for the party — each candidate was mobilizing different parts of the electorate, and that could provide a boost in turnout in the fall.

The contests resumed April 22 in Pennsylvania. Clinton landed a big win, re-igniting her campaign. Her campaign boasted $10 million in donations in the 24 hours after her win.

But two weeks later, her momentum all but disappeared.

Obama cruised to a double-digit lead in North Carolina, and Clinton barely squeaked by in Indiana.

On the eve of what was expected to be a resounding win for Clinton in West Virginia, Obama took the lead in the superdelegate count.

At the beginning of the year, he had trailed Clinton by more than 100 superdelegates.

Clinton scored blowout wins in West Virginia and Kentucky, largely due to the state’s blue-collar voters. Her wins brought attention to Obama’s potential problem with that segment of the electorate, but did little to breathe life back into her campaign.

Clinton kept chugging along, as Obama appeared to be staggering toward the finish line.

Clinton landed another win in Puerto Rico on June 1, picking up the larger share of the state’s 55 delegates.

The final two contests in Montana and South Dakota offer 31 delegates — not enough to put Obama over the edge.

Still, his campaign predicted Sunday he would clinch the nomination this week, if not by Tuesday.

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O’Neal in 2004: Drugs were always around me

(CNN) — Academy Award-winning actress Tatum O’Neal was arrested Sunday allegedly after buying crack cocaine in New York, police said.

The 44-year-old actress, who penned a 2004 memoir about her long road to sobriety, was arrested after being seen making a purchase from a drug dealer, police said.

Investigators charged her with criminal possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor.

In 2004, O’Neal appeared on CNN’s Larry King Live to talk about her book, A Paper Life. O’Neal, who won the best supporting actress Oscar for Paper Moon at age 10, is the daughter of actor Ryan O’Neal and the late Joanna Moore. She’s the ex-wife of John McEnroe, with whom she shares three children.

Larry King: How did the drug thing start?

Tatum O’Neal: I think it probably started back sometime in the ’70s.

King: When you were how old?

O’Neal: I just don’t remember exactly. It was just always around.

King: Your father was a part of that, too?

found here.

Patrick Snell’s Football Mailbag

(CNN) — CNN World Sport’s Patrick Snell answers your football questions.

Q: Patrick — why would Cristiano Ronaldo even consider leaving Manchester United at this point in his career? Gregory, Paris

A: Hi Gregory — This is a hot topic right now. I would personally be very surprised if he ends up at Real Madrid or indeed anywhere but Old Trafford next season. Not with Alex Ferguson in typically determined mood. The fact is Ronaldo recently signed a long-term contract with the newly crowned European champions and won’t be allowed to leave Old Trafford unless it suits Ferguson and the club.

As the veteran Scottish coach and David Gill (United’s CEO) both recently said United isn’t a selling club and won’t be bullied by Madrid. At the time of writing, there’s even talk of United reporting the Spanish giants to FIFA over their conduct and the perception at Old Trafford is that they’ve been trying to unsettle the player.

found here.

Fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent dead at 71

PARIS, France (CNN) — International fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent died Sunday night at his home in Paris, longtime friend and business associate Pierre Berge said. He was 71.

Saint Laurent was the last of an era of fashion designers that included Coco Chanel and Christian Dior, for whom Saint Laurent worked until Dior’s death in 1957. Berge, chief executive of the fashion house, told France Info Radio that Saint Laurent died at 11 p.m. (5 p.m. ET).

There are not that many people in the pantheon of fashion, Berge told the station. There will be two who will undeniably remain — one who symbolized the first part of the 20th century, and that’s Chanel, and the other one who will symbolize the second part of the 20th century, and that’s Yves Saint Laurent.

Saint Laurent’s became synonymous with the glamour of the Paris catwalk and the elegance of haute couture.

He took Paris by storm in the 1960s and 1970s with his masculine, yet elegant, trouser suits for women. He also popularized tight pants, the trapeze dress, smocks, thigh-high boots and tuxedo jackets. Saint Laurent often used ethnic themes in his designs, as well as bright colors contrasted with black.

His jackets, le Smoking in French, featured for the first time on the catwalk see-through shirts that shocked and delighted the public. Watch how St. Laurent was considered a French national hero

In a 2002 interview with CNN, London-based fashion designer Ben de Lisi called Saint Laurent an inspiration for a whole new generation of designers.

Way back in the ’60s, he was doing, for couture, crocodile biker jackets based on Marlon Brando. He was doing alligator trousers. And that was just unheard of, De Lisi said.

Saint Laurent introduced his Ligne Trapeze after Dior’s death, when he became chief designer at Dior. He left Dior in 1961 and opened his own couture house, financed by Berge, in 1962.

In 1969, Saint Laurent pioneered designer men’s wear, with media stars such as Mick Jagger, David Bowie and Andy Warhol in mind. Out went the pinstripes — in came fashion modern men wanted to wear. See some of Yves Saint Laurent’s work

Vogue magazine editor Diana Vreeland mounted a retrospective of Saint Laurent’s work in 1983 at the Museum of Metropolitan Art in New York, the first time a living fashion designer had been so honored.

But after 40 years in the business, Saint Laurent, increasingly dogged by ill health, was slowing down. He retired in 2002. Some critics said his work was becoming repetitious.

In 1999, he sold the rights to the YSL brand to Gucci for $70 million, retaining control of Sanofi Beaute.

Saint Laurent was born August 1, 1936, in Oran, Algeria. After winning first prize in the International Wool Secretariat contest for his asymetrical cocktail dress in 1954, he went to work for Dior.

Berge said the designer was intensely shy.

found here.

Australia ends combat operations in Iraq

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Australia, a staunch U.S. ally and one of the first countries to commit troops to the war in Iraq five years ago, ended combat operations there Sunday.

Soldiers lowered the Australian flag that had flown over Camp Terendak in the southern Iraqi city of Talil. The combat troops were expected to return to Australia over the next few weeks, with the first of them arriving home Sunday.

The move fulfills a campaign promise by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who was swept into office in November largely on the promise that he would bring home the country’s 550 combat troops by the middle of 2008. Rudd has said the Iraq deployment made Australia more of a target for terrorism.

Rudd’s predecessor, former Prime Minister John Howard, said he was baffled by the decision to withdraw the troops.

If I had been returned at the last election we would not have been bringing (troops) home, we would have been looking at transitioning them from their soon-to-be terminated role to a training role, Howard told the Sydney Morning Herald in an interview published Monday.

Howard, who led the country for 11 years and celebrated his friendship with President Bush, told the newspaper that the decision to send Australian troops to Iraq in 2003 was very, very, very hard. But he stood by his choice, which he said helped further deepen Australia’s alliance with the United States.

Australian troops helped train 33,000 Iraqi army soldiers following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. They helped train the Iraqis in logistics management, combat service support and counterinsurgency operations.

Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon declared the mission a success, saying it had allowed Iraq’s own security forces to successfully take control.

Our soldiers have worked tirelessly to ensure that local people in southern Iraq have the best possible chance to move on from their suffering under Saddam’s regime and, as a government we are extremely proud of their service, Fitzgibbon said in a statement Sunday.

The Australian contribution to the Iraqi army’s Counter Insurgency Academy is one of the lasting legacies of our commitment, he said.

About 300 troops will remain inside Iraq for logistical and air surveillance duties, as well as guarding Australian diplomats and others in Baghdad.

A further 500 soldiers will remain in the region, including 200 sailors aboard the frigate HMAS Stuart in the Persian Gulf. Australia also will leave behind two maritime surveillance aircraft.

Opposition leader Brendan Nelson, of the Liberal party, backed the withdrawal of troops but said he would prefer that some trainers stay behind, to continuing helping the Iraqis to look after their own security.

But another Liberal party politician said the job is not yet done in Iraq.

I mean, you have a war that is essentially being won and we’re being seen to move out of there, Dennis Jensen told reporters. We really should have stayed the entire course.

The soldiers, as well as 65 army trainers, were stationed at Talil, about 185 miles south of Baghdad, and were responsible for providing security training for Iraqi forces, as well as reconstruction and aid work.

They have been on standby to offer backup to Iraqi forces in the south for the past two years. They were never officially called out to act in that role but maintained a policy of active patrolling.

Six Australian soldiers were wounded in Iraq.

found here.