Barack Obama leads Hillary Clinton in Iowa by seven points among Democrats, a new poll said just two days of campaigning before the state opens the White House nominating race.
The Des Moines Register poll of people likely to attend caucuses tomorrow, put Obama on 32 percent, with the former first lady on 25 percent, a point ahead of former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards.
The poll is highly respected in Iowa, which is notoriously difficult to survey and where voters traditionally make up their minds late.
Among Republicans, the paper had former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee holding his lead on 32 percent over former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney on 26 percent.
Arizona Representative John McCain, expected to make his first major stand of the race in the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 8, was third in the Republican field with 13 percent.
The poll came out as candidates made last-ditch forays across the state, ahead of the caucuses, which open a month-long blizzard of nominating contests which could produce presidential nominees by early next month.
Clinton appeared at a late night New Year's Eve rally in Des Moines with Democratic champion and former president Bill Clinton and her daughter Chelsea.
"We have got two full days until Thursday comes and then Iowans are going to pick the next president," the former first lady told cheering supporters.
"I, with your help, am going to run a winning campaign in 2008 and take back the White House," she said.
Edwards, who earlier polls suggested may be putting on a spurt just three days from the caucuses, told voters they could choose to give the US a new future starting this year.
"Let's resolve, tonight, to make this the year that we stood up, took on the corporate greed that has taken over our government, and fought for the better America our children deserve," the former representative said.
Clinton mocked Edwards' rising anger on the stump. Taking on corporate domination of politics was not "something you have to do by yelling and screaming. Save your energy. Get the job done," she said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not