Presidential Candidate Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is Alive!
On the phone with his associates this afternoon he said, "I wish to thank all my supporters for their well wishes, and want to assure them I'm quite fine and will be back on the campaign trail shortly."

Senator Barack Obama plans to formally announce his candidacy for president Saturday.

Turkmenistan holds its first presidential election in nearly 15 years on, and its first since independence with more than one candidate. None of the candidates was particularly well known under the late President Saparmurat Niyazov's administration, but a front-runner appears to have emerged.

Hillary Clinton campaign has signed up more than 140,000 supporters through the site in the five days since her announcement Saturday morning.

One of the presidential candidates in Turkmenistan is cited as promising voters that if he is elected he will legalize private land ownership, RFE/RL's Turkmen Service reported.

Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, the Democratic Party's 2004 candidate for vice president, has announced he is running for the Oval Office itself. He joins two other announced candidates and a number of others who are reported considering a run for the White House in 2008. As VOA's Peter Fedynsky reports, two of those prospects are already attracting considerable attention.

An opposition group in Turkmenistan says its candidate for next year's presidential elections is missing.

Ghana's main opposition national Democratic Congress (NDC) will tomorrow Thursday hold its delegate congress to elect a presidential candidate for next year's general elections. About three hundred and fifty international and local observers have been invited to monitor the elections at the congress. The party said the presence of the observers would give credence to its promise to adhere to international democratic values.