In a frame from a video provided by IntelCenter, posted on the Internet on Thursday, April 13, 2006, al Qaeda’s deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, praises insurgents in Iraq. Al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri insulted Barack Obama in the terror group’s first reaction to his election, calling him a demeaning racial term implying that the president-elect is a black American who does the bidding of... 

A special U.N. human rights investigator will visit the United States this month to probe racism, an issue that has forced its way into the race to secure the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. The United Nations said Doudou Diene would meet federal and local officials, as well as lawmakers and judicial authorities during the May 19-June 6 visit. “The special rapporteur will…gather... 

The Democratic presidential hopeful shared his admiration for the two authors yesterday at a meeting with Philadelphia-area Jewish leaders, addressing the crowd from the bima as his campaign passed out buttons with the candidate’s name spelled in Hebrew letters, according to a pool report released by the campaign. One rabbi in the room for the talk, Leonard Gordon, from the German town Jewish Center,... 

Presidential hopeful Barack Obama belongs to the United Church of Christ, which was the first to ordain an openly gay minister and to call for equal marriage rights for all people, regardless of gender.The UCC prides itself as being “out front” on social justice issues, battling civil rights, women’s rights and gay rights ahead of the mainstream. One Sunday hymnal equally celebrates... 

U.S. Senator Barack Obama’s Kenyan grandmother said her grandson is “full of surprises” and will come back from defeat in New Hampshire’s primary to become the first black U.S. president. In Obama’s ancestral village of Kogelo on western Kenya, 85-year-old Sara Hussein on Wednesday expressed the general feelings among locals intently focused on the U.S. presidential race amid the violent...